lala2012

I'm 8 weeks post op, 43 lbs lost, and I have definitely noticed a difference. The mound feels less cushiony and outer lips slightly deflated. I was talking to my fiancé about it and he said he liked it better before the weight loss. What?!? Then he followed up with "I do like that I can go deeper now." He's also been losing weight and I told him that between my weight loss and his, it's like he gained a full inch. So I'm not complaining. Lol

Stats Height 5'1" HW 232 (03/06/13) BMI 43.8 SW 216 (05/06/13) BMI 40.8 8 WK 190 (07/01/13) BMI 35.9 GW 125 (Jan 2014) BMI 23.6 Excess weight lost 39% (42/107)

5 weeks post op update. Surgery on 05/06/13 I was in a stall day 11-23 at 205 lbs. since then I've been losing slowly but steady. So those of you in a stall right now, just keep going, you have to start losing eventually. I've been eating 300-500 calories a day and 30-50 oz Water per day. About 50-60g Protein, half the protein is from shakes. I am stuffed from eating about 1 oz of meat and it takes 30 mins to get it down. I know I need to eat and drink more, but I'm never hungry and sometimes the smell of food makes me nauseous. Every once in a while I will crave something, but after a bite I'm satisfied. I've started going to the gym and I'm doing the couch to 5k training and the 30 day squat challenge. I can already see loose skin on my thighs and arms so I'm focusing on working those muscles in particular. Stats Height 5'1" HW 232 (03/06/13) BMI 43.8 SW 216 (05/06/13) BMI 40.8 5 WK 198 (06/10/13) BMI 37.4 GW 125 (Jan 2014) BMI 23.6 Excess weight lost 32% (34 lbs lost divided by 107 lbs overweight) Inches lost since 2 week pre op diet: Waist 3" Hips 3" Thighs 2" each.

Sorry.... Was awesome, but with the amount patients that get seen by my doctor, we all had the same experience. Our entire trip was planned and we had an itinerary of what we would do each day. So it's no surprise that everyone's "journey" is exactly alike when you share the same doctor. For me, that was what helped me make my decision, knowing my doctor does the same thing everyday all day, means he doesn't get a lot of surprises. I couldn't get these same types of reviews for many surgeons here In the US.

Not one person affiliated with my coordinator or doctor ever mentioned giving them referrals, posting reviews or this forum at all. I will say that my experience in Mexico was

I went with Dr Lopez and a lighter me in May also. I had the exact same experience. The hospital staff was great. My BP was also a little high so right before surgery they gave me a little cup of Meds for anxiety, then before I knew it I was awake in recovery. Our driver was Abraham and he was wonderful. My husband traveled with me and Abraham drove him to restaurants to get something to eat and also took him to the winery in TJ before we left. I didn't have any complications and my recovery has been very easy. My coordinator was Janese and she is very easy to work with. The day of surgery I had a problem with my payment going thru and I was freaked out because I had just arrived in San Diego. I just kept thinking that after all my waiting I was going to have to fly home without the surgery, but Janese just reassured me that there were no worries. Of course I would still have my surgery and we would make sure the payment was fine once I was at the hotel. I have doctors here in the states that will not see me until I've paid my 100 copay first. I wanted to cry because of the kindness I received from Janese and everyone else. I definitely recommend them to anyone I talk to about WLS. This was just such a better experience than I've had with any doctor in the states. The care was phenomenal.

Surgery May 6th. I've lost 29 lbs since the beginning of March this year. I've lost 23% of my excess weight in 3 months! Since surgery I had a 2 week stall that just broke, day 11 post op thru day 25, I was stuck at 205. It was extremely frustrating, but my goal is to lose 12 lbs a month and I'm still on track so it's not so bad. I'm eating 300-500 calories each day. I'm only eating about 3 oz of actual food everyday and not enough Water, about 32-40 oz. Height. 5'1" Highest wt 232 PreOp diet wt. 227 Surgery wt. 216 Current wt. 203 Goal wt 125 Thanks everyone for posting your updates. It's exciting to see how well you're all doing. Good luck to everyone on their journey.

Surgery on may 6th, so 8 days post op. Down 7.7 lbs so far. The worst pain I had was from the drain, that was removed on the 9th. I was given 8 pain pills post op and I just took the last one last night, they helped at night since I toss and turn a lot. I'm on 2 weeks full liquids, getting about 50g protein a day. I was making very thin potato soup the other day and it went down fine, but then I forgot about my limitations and had a slice of the soft potato. I thought I was going to die, it hurt so much to get it down. So for now I'm happy sticking with liquids. My incisions seem to be healing fine, they just itch a little bit from the scabbing process. The only other issue I had was starting my period early even though I'm on birth control, the first day was horrible cramps, but it feels like normal now.

I had surgery on the 6th, getting ready to leave the hospital now. My surgery was 8pm so I wasn't awake until 11pm Monday night. I had a lot of gas pain in my upper abdomen so I spent the majority of the night walking. I didn't ask for a lot of pain Meds because it burned when it went into my IV and the pain wasn't too bad. I was really dehydrated by the time they were getting the IV set up so it took a few tries, not too many bruises though. Tuesday morning I had a bit of nausea and was dry heaving so the nurse gave me Meds for it. I've had a slight cough, but its not so bad. The drain site hurts the most, it's pretty constant, but not bad enough that I would take Meds. My abs are really sore and hurts the most when I get up and lay down. I've been slacking on liquids so I'm working on that, just sticking to water for now. They gave me Gatorade, but after a sip or two I get instant diarrhea, not fun. When I get to the hotel I'll try some chicken broth. Im glad I came to Mexico, is way I ha 2 nights stay at the hospital and I'll see the surgeon again on Thursday night before flying home. My US surgeon was going to release me same day, I can't imagine having to go thru the first 2 days on my own. Good luck to everyone having their surgery soon, and I hope everyone else is having a smooth recovery.

My survey's tomorrow afternoon. I feel like I'm going crazy, I hate waiting. I'm only halfway packed, I'll be in Mexico until Friday. I can't wait to eat something, today is day 3 of clear liquids. Best of luck to all the 6ers!! We're almost there.

I am interested in any info people might have to share about Dr Lopez. Good or bad, it would be great to read other's stories. Whether you like the coordinator or not doesn't matter much, since that person isn't going to be providing any medical care. I understand some of you are very defensive of Dr Kelly, but this post was for Dr Lopez. If anyone has stats and success/failure rates, it would be great if you could share where you got the info. Thanks for everyone's input.

I'm with Dr Lopez on May 6th. Starting preop, 2-3 protein shakes and a salad, on the Monday the 22nd then 3 days clear liquids on May 3rd. I've been using MFP to monitor what I need and slowly getting prepared for the new diet, 2.5 weeks and I lost 2.7 lbs. I'm taking at least 2 weeks off work. I had surgery on my nose last year and could barely eat for a week, I lived on protein shakes. It was 10 days before I had enough energy to be up and about for 6 hours. So the pain wasn't an issue, it was more the toll that surgery had on me and my energy from lack of eating. You might be able to handle school if you just have to sit there and not do much. Good luck!

Best wishes for a smooth recovery from here. I'm preop and I greatly appreciate you sharing your story. This will help me and others fully understand how serious surgery is. Thank you so much. Was it the leak that was the beginning of all your troubles and then just not treated properly or caught in time? I'm having surgery in Mexico and will have 3 leak tests done before leaving, but I still fear having complications later. Again, thank you very much for your insight. Stay strong for you and your husband. And take care.

Lalaesco

Arghh! This is so frustrating! It feels like you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Too much protein = kidney problems, not enough proteins and the weight loss will slow. I'll have to talk to my doc about the cranberry pills after sleeve, I love juice also but it is a lot of sugar. I guess in the end the weight loss will have to be more important for better overall health. Both my parents have diabetes and I don't want to go down that road, so I'm trying to take control while I can. I hope that the long term benefits of weight loss help your diabetes, more than the pain from the kidney infections you're dealing with right now. Drink lots of fluid to help keep the infections at bay.

I have been using Nuva Ring for 7 years. I didn't notice any weight gain when I started and over the years I don't think it's contributed much to my weight gain, mostly that's been caused by eating too much. You're most likely going to have to try a few different kinds to see what works best for you, we all have a different reaction. This works best for me since I can't seem to remember to take a pill everyday. I also tried the patch before the ring but it was always ripping off the top layer of skin every month when I changed it out. Another benefit of the ring is very minimal bleeding, sometimes I don't even get my period before I start the next ring.

I'm sorry to hear about your kidney infection, I've been getting them since I was 4, it can be very painful. I've gotten kidney stones before from a high protein diet and that was the worst week of my life. The kidney problems have been my biggest fear about the surgery, I'm scheduled for May 6th. Has your doctor said anything about taking cranberry pills, that's what I take now if I start to feel any pain and lots of water. After sleeve I'm worried I won't be able to get enough water in. The antibiotics will clear it up in a few days, but I hope you're able to find a solution to prevent the infection before hand. Best wishes!

Great job on your weight loss so far. I've been drinking Premier Protein shakes from Costco, 30g protein in 11 oz. they're not bad. I hate the bitter taste other drinks have. I've just been getting bored of chocolate, I can't stand the vanilla ones. I've lost 10 lbs since December but I lost focus early February when my insurance denied me. I decided to just self pay cuz it wasn't worth it to wait another year to try for approval again. I'll have to see if I can get Unjury sample packs, I know someone who owns a vitamin shop and he's always giving me samples of the different brands and favors, I just can't stomach them. Guess I'll just have to suck it up. What's a little gagging for a smooth surgery!

I'm scheduled for May 6th with Dr Lopez. Janese is my coordinator. She just sent me the pre op diet today, I am not looking forward to 2 weeks of protein shakes and salad. But I guess it could be worse. 40 days to go, I'm super excited! I would also love to hear feedback from his other patients.

I work for a large company and had surgery once before. The first week is sick pay then anytime after that is short term disability with full pay. The amount of pay depended on how long I had worked there, different percentage at 1yr, 3yr, and over 5 yrs. we have a separate company that handles all leave requests so your info remains private and your employer/coworkers don't get any details about what you're having done. They handle making sure youre approved for the time off so you're not fired for attendance reasons. My HR department had no idea how I would get paid, I had to call our Group Time Reporter, they handle any pay code issues for each region of the country. It was a lot of work to figure everything out, but its worth it to make sure you get paid correctly. Now I'm just worried about how much time to take off. I work 10 hour shifts standing all day and I don't want to push myself too much. But I also get stir crazy sitting at home and not being productive. What to do, what to do?

I'm so sorry to hear about this bad experience. I have a BMI of 45 and my surgeon said I could go with lap band or sleeve. I saw that you said you had to use this surgeon because your insurance only covers surgeons at the hospital where you work. I don't want to say they're being unethical, but is there a possibility that they're discouraging the surgery because they don't want to pay or interfere with your job? Ive read about some Bariatric centers that don't really try to get your surgery approved with insurance. They just go through the motions so they get paid from insurance for your visits. Please contact your insurance and ask them directly what their qualifications are for WLS and which providers are covered. If you meet/complete their qualifications then a NUT's opinion means nothing. Also, is the surgeon board certified for bariatrics? You can check online. In my experiences I've learned you have to fight sometimes for what's best for you. We have an eating problem. Over the years I e spent lots of time at the gym, but it didnt do any good because I still couldn't control my eating. I eat too much and that's what I need help with. And no body should be judged for needing help and asking for it. Your doctors and specialists should be proud of you and want to help. That's why they went into their professions. Please don't give up. And don't wait, you're risking psyching yourself out. You deserve to be happy and healthy.

I'm 11/21, YAY!! I'm still waiting for approval also, I can barely stop myself from calling every hour for an update. I just had surgery for he first time this month. It was nose surgery to fix a deviated septum. Some things I learned after the fact that I wish I had known before: While under anesthesia your muscles twitch which causes muscle aches for a couple days (seriously felt like I spent 8 hrs at the gym torturing myself); The breathing tube causes a severely sore throat. I thought I was going to lose my voice. 15 days post op and I'm still hoarse; You're soo tired. I took 10 days off work, mostly because I would run out of energy after a few hours running errands. On top of this it sounds like there will also be a bit of abdominal pain from getting the sleeve. LOL. But knowing all this I'm still super excited. Even if I have to spend a month in bed it will be worth it knowing I'm changing my life for the long haul. Best of Luck!! And Congratulations!!

I work for a national retail store as a manager. I told my next 2 managers up that I was having an abdominal surgery 11/21/12 and would need 2 weeks. There both guys and I'm a woman so they didn't ask for details. But my second manager up tried getting me to postpone cuz of the holiday season. I told him sorry but my deductible resets and copy goes up 01/01/13 so it would cost an extra $2k. He stopped asking. We submit leave requests to a 3rd party so that no one in our company is informed of our medical details. I would love to tell a couple coworkers that I'm close to but I know how everyone talks, not in a mean way, but still everyone in town would know by the time I'm back. And I just don't want the extra pressure. In a perfect world your manager wouldn't share the info because it violates federal law, but sometimes people just care and let things slip. Before you tell anyone at work you should think about how comfortable you are with all your coworkers knowing. Best of Luck!!

My date is Nov 21, preop appt is the 13th. I'm still waiting for approval thru UHC so I'm kinda nervous. My doc hasn't told me to start a preop diet yet so I've just been drinking protein shakes for 2 meals a day just t get used to them. Can't wait for the surgery! Only a little sad about missing thanksgiving dinner.

UHC took less than 10 days to call my docs office with an update. But they had originally asked for 2 yrs weight history and now want 5 years. I lived 500 miles away in 2007 and my doctor is no longer practicing in our state so I can't track down my 2007 records. UHC used to keep a copy of my visits viewable online, but now that info is gone. I'm waiting for a call back from my case manager to see what we can do. It's driving me crazy cuz UHC has been my insurance company since 2001 so they've gotten my annual checkups records every year and now that I need the info their system doesn't seem to go back that far.