pcindy

This is terrific- thanks for posting it! Very comprehensive.:thumbup:

Some of you might remember that I was scheduled for my VSG in late June. I had a pre-op endoscopy that showed a tiny area of erosion in my stomach, so, less than 18hrs before my surgery, they cancelled it. It was an exhausting deflating experience for both me and my huz (did I mention I had been on a modified pre-op liquid diet for 3 WEEKS???).:biggrin0: Well, after 4+ weeks on Prilosec, my endoscopy was perfect, and I'm schedule for August 17th. I'm 2 (cheating!) days into a 2 week liquid pre-op diet. The first time around was such an emotional rollercoaster, that now I'm practically apathetic. I've been working out with a trainer 3 days/week, mostly weight-training, and that's been great. Anyway, I haven't checked in with this site in a while, and thought I'd update you guys. You were extremely helpful in my first go-around. Hopefully, the surgery will finally go through! :thumbup1: That's all for now. Wish me luck. I wish you the same.

This is weird. I'm an ICU RN, and we replace potassium left and right. 3.3 isn't very low (3.5 - 5 is normal). If you were my patient, we'd correct it in about 2 hours with an IV infusion. By mouth, we'd give you 40-60 mEq (and yes, as the previous poster said, the liquid is NASTY! Potassium is a salt, afterall. The pills are getting smaller, thank god). We run labs every morning and oral replacement works just fine and corrects it quickly. They're right, it should be corrected before surgery (low potassium can make the cardiac muscle irritable), but it should be very easy to correct. The question is: why is it low? Also, what is your health history that makes it such a concern (rhetorically; I'm not asing you to state your medical history in a forum)? Anyway, take the pills, prescription or OTC. You should be fine. Hang in there. PS- take them AS PRESCRIBED. Do NOT overdo it. Too high of a potassium level can make your heart irritable as well. You don't have anything to worry about if you take them as recommended. Ask your bariatric practice to repeat your potassium level in one week to see how it's coming along. Tell them you have NO intention of waiting until the DAY of your surgery to find out if it's happening or not. That is unreasonable. You have a life, plans etc, as does your significant other who will be driving you, caring for you, etc... It is the easiest (and cheapest) lab to send out. You need to know that you're on the right track and not have to drive yourself insane with the uncertainty for 2 weeks. I'm indignant on your behalf. You should be too. This is GROSSLY insensitive of them. Your time is valuable, as is your emotional health. Be firm with them. Good luck. PPS- My surgery was cancelled at the last second, so I KNOW where you're coming from! My new surgery date? August 17th! I hope we both have simultaneous successful surgeries. Go get 'em!

I'm sorry.

I look just like your "before" pics! Very inspiring. I'm doing the exact same thing (front/side/back views) every 15lbs, to remind myself of my progress should I become discouraged. What I see in the mirror can be so distorted. Thanks for sharing!

LOL! I'm a stomach-sleeper AND a flopper as well! According to my huz, I also strike some interesting poses...:thumbup: I didn't even think about that issue... sh*t... :scared0:I guess I'll be riding the couch for a while (helps prop me on my side). Thanks for representing the men-folk, Pete! An underrepresented minority, but so important to remember! What would we women-folk do without you guys??? :ohmy:

For what my 2 cents are worth: Do skim for a couple of weeks no matter how icky you find it. Then go back to 1%. I have been drinking skim for so long that 1% tastes like 2%, 2% tastes like whole milk, and whole milk tastes like heavy cream. After suffering with skim (i happen to like it) for a while, that 1% will taste great. You mentioned that you feel like you need something more. You know your body (and probably know when you are or aren't deluding yourself). Your doc isn't your confessor or a police officer; don't elevate him to the rank of God. Be honest with him so he can be fully informed and thus treat you more effectively. If drinking skim is a better choice than 1% or 2%, fine, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's strictly verboten either. Your body may very well be telling you what it needs right now. Higher milk fat isn't going to strain your suture line any more than skim. If you have high cholesterol though, that might be a reason to cut back. We as women and as patients need to stop being SO self-critical and SO contrite all the time. We are adults. Let's stand up straight and trust ourselves and our ability to reason and assess our own situation. In the long run, skim vs 1% vs 2%... post VSG, how much milk per day are we really talking about? More than a cup or 2 a day? If not, life is short. If it rocks your world to drink a small percentage more milk fat and lose a lb or 2 less per month, in the long run, who gives a damn? If you're making healthy food choices in general and the weight is coming off, enjoy your goddamn milk, girl! :thumbup:

OMG, get AWAY from this doctor! He is not God, and who is going to live the rest of their life with this surgery? Not him, YOU. Find a doc with whom you can have a good rapport, strap on those weights (GREAT idea, Tiff! -no reason to risk your health by actually gaining weight) and get sleeved. I'm a nurse and have seen the horrors of diversionary surgeries first hand. DON'T DO IT. You want a sleeve? Get a sleeve.

Thanks for opening up this thread. I have several collegues (other nurses) who have been banded, and when I ask why not the sleeve, they all talk about fear of it being more invasive. I wonder if their real fear isn't that it's more permanant- and if they don't secretly hope they will one day be able to have it removed with no muss, no fuss and somehow be able to eat however they want without regaining the weight... It's just my supposition, but I don't know. I rethought the sleeve based on their positive experiences with the band, but I just can't stand the thought of a foreign object indwelling, like a potential ticking time bomb for complications. I appreciate all of the posts; it helps to cement my decision to have the VSG.

Hi all! I'm an ICU nurse in California. I remember well, LapGirl, the 'fun' of my tight (and ever-growing tighter) clinical uniforms, the unforgiving polyester straining... and being SO goddamned uncomfortable. (In fact, I remember a bunch of us wanting to burn our student uniforms at the end of the last clinical, but telling my classmates that they would probably just melt and send off toxic fumes!) As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome on this thread! Being a nurse is incredibly physically demanding (as we all know) with all of the reaching, bending, squatting, lifting, standing, crouching (is there a single hospital architect who has EVER become aquainted with the word, "ergonomics???"). Having to do all of this for 12-13hrs is getting increasingly debilitating. Everything hurts! My angel of a huz stretches me and gives me a massage just so I can sleep after a work day (I swear I come home 2 inches shorter!). I just don't know how many more years I have left at the bedside before my body just can't take it orthopedically. I'm 40 now, and my body just cannot handle this much weight. It never liked being this heavy, but now it's starting to go on red alert with high cholesterol, high A1C, my feet, knees and hips in agony, and a nice episode of going in and out of ventricular trigeminy (now controlled with a beta blocker). Short of having an actual MI, CVA or official diagnosis of diabetes, my body is screaming at me to get this weight off (oh, and thanks also to my pre-op testing, I now know I have an ulcer and GERD!). To further underscore the urgency of my situation, we want to start a family, and my husband REFUSES to knock me up while I'm this overweight. He's done his research, and he's absolutely right. Frankly, I doubt my own ablility to conceive at this weight. He doesn't want to risk either my health or that of the baby. Frankly, I can barely haul myself around as it is, much less a pregnancy and all of that physical stress on top of it. As I mentioned, I'm 40. The time on my biological clock is about 11:50PM. So, my sleeve is re-scheduled (first date was cancelled due to a small area of erosion discovered in my EGD- now on Prilosec) for the 3rd week of August. I started at 257lbs, and am now 248. I'm working out intensly with a trainer 3 days a week to get myself in optimal shape before surgery. My goal is 145-150. I can't wait to get the VSG, but also to recover and get back to the gym and lift weights again. I'm sure I'll sag, but I'm going to have crazy muscles underneath! Good luck to all!

Yes, OMG, Holy Sh*t, It WAS really happening... until yesterday afternoon, the DAY before my scheduled surgery, when I was told that my EGD (endoscopy-done last Friday) showed some ulceration. After a back-and-forth of phone calls, emails, and faxes between the EGD doc, my surgeon (in NYC at the time), his scheduler, and the nurse practitioner, it was decided that my surgery is cancelled. Did I mention that all of this craziness was LESS THAN 24hrs BEFORE my actuall surgery? Did I mention that I have been on a THREE-WEEK liquid DIET???? By the time the RNP called me back for the final confirmation of what we then already knew, my husband and I were knee-deep in sushi trying to consol ourselves. I hadn't even eaten that day because all of this happened as we were on our way into the practice for my final weigh-in. The stress and sense of depression were overwhelming for both of us. Neither of us could even sleep well last night (I, not working today, slept until 1pm; he just got back from work and is napping like the dead). The liquid diet, the emotional rollercoaster, the moodiness, irritability, stress, indecision, elation of finally making the decision and feeling good about it and ready to do it, the sobering and emotional task of making wills and advanced directives, the scheduling and rescheduling of both of our work.... and the bubble pops 20hrs before surgery. So, here I am. I have a roof over my head, a hot handsome husband who loves and supports me, a good job that supports me, family, living in a beautiful part of the country, and now aware of health issues that never would have been detected and addressed this early had I not gone through all of this. I'm 11 lbs lighter with a new commitment to the gym, thanks to this hellish pre-op journey, and, after 1 month on Prilosec and a clean EGD, I can be cleared again for the VSG, a healthier surgical candidate than I was before. So, as I sit here, feeling dazed and like I've been through a war, I'll try to remember all of those positives. I'm a lucky woman with a very luxurious disease given the predicament of 90% of the world's population, and I have the luxurious means to healthcare, also given the predicament of 90% of the world's population (including many right here in the USA). My plan is to suck it up, and stick to a healthy low fat diet, and get back to lifting weights (was too lethargic on the liquid diet), with the goal of being down 8 more lbs by the time of my next EGD. I'll keep coming to this forum, and I thank you all for listening and supporting and being a positive and extremely helpful part of this journey. I wish all of you the best in your journeys.

Hi Folks, I just posted a new thread in the Story section about the fact that I'm having my VSG tomorrow. I wanted to post on the subject of advanced directives, as I haven't seen it addressed yet. I am an ICU nurse, and cannot BEGIN to tell you all of the heinous, awful situations I have witnessed and participated in, because a patient failed to tell his/her relatives/friends what he/she wanted in the event of being incapacitated with a life-threatening illness. I have seen patients put through painful, wasteful, and pointless procedures for WEEKS, that served not to prolong their life, but their death. I have seen families ripped apart because they didn't know what mom wanted. I have seen brothers and sisters accusing each other of making dad suffer vs. killing dad. Agonized discussions about organ donorship. We nurses and doctors are human; we HATE prolonging suffering and death. We want to give our patients dignity and comfort. Surgery is not without risk. No one thinks that they will be the 0.4% mortality. No one thinks that they will be the one to throw a clot, have a debilitating stroke, be consigned to a ventilator for life, etc... I am going through with this surgery tomorrow. I am rolling the dice that I will not be the 0.4%. If I am, however, I want my husband to be as supported as possible by knowing he is carrying out MY wishes. My sister and her family will be on board too. They will be able to have one less agonizing decision to make and be spared a lifetime of guilt wondering if they should or shouldn't have done this or that. Your families deserve the same. Take care of yourselves, take care of your family. Make out a will and an advanced directive prior to surgery. Your hospital will provide you with one upon request for free. Fill it out, sign it, notarize it, bring it with you. Please. Thanks.

Good going, guys! Sadly, when I look at the number of "views" to this post, I see that it is still a subject that people shy away from.

Awful. What a d*ck. I wouldn't go back to him in a million years. I don't care if he's a brilliant surgeon. There are other brilliant surgeons out there who will give you the respectful care you deserve. Tell him why you're leaving his practice, and write a letter to the CEO of the hospital. Also, out his name on this website and others (and tell him that you are doing that). Bad word of mouth is very effective and may do double duty of hurting his bottom line while saving others the unprofessional and demeaning behavior that you suffered. At least he'll think twice before opening his big insensitive mouth next time. Hang in there!

I'm sure your husband has one or 2 physical flaws that make him feel self-conscious; every time he mentions your hair, just casually ask him when he's going to address that unibrow, nose hair, love handles, grey pubes- whatever! Stare at his gut (or whatever) for a moment with one eyebrow lifted, silently shake your head before going back to your book... Be consistant- he'll get the message! :thumbup1: Another suggestion is just laying down the law. Tell him that you don't want to hear ONE MORE WORD about your hair- that you consider his hounding comments to be unsupportive, disloyal, and destructive. Tell him that for EACH and EVERY single future comment from this point on, you will go to the hair salon and have one inch cut off. Make sure that you follow through immediately. Go and DO IT. It should only take one trim for him to get the message that you are serious, and that you've had it with his unsupportive immature bullsh*t. He's supposed to be in your corner- not making you feel worse about something you already feel bad about and cannot control. Good luck!

Hi everyone! I see a lot of questions on this site about pre-op diets. I thought I'd post the one I was given, just as a guide for those who aren't prescribed one, but think they might need or want one. Good luck to everyone. PS- I am going into week 3 and losing my mind on it. Doesn't mean I don't think it works. Anyway, for what it's worth: Pre-op liquid Diet It is recommended by your surgeon and dietitian to follow a low calorie, low fat, low sugar and high Protein liquid diet for ___ days prior to undergoing bariatric surgery. The purpose of the liquid diet is to reduce the size of the liver, reduce the risk of bleeding during the surgery and to show commitment to the program. Below are the nutritional guidelines for the pre-op liquid diet. You will need to measure your intake and keep a food journal. Depending on which items you choose to consume throughout the day, your intake should be approximately 1000 calories and 60-80 grams of protein. You will be expected to lose 5 lbs per week on this plan. The nutritional guidelines are as follows: UNLIMITED SECTION: These liquids can be taken in any amount since they do not contain sugar. 1. sugar free or diet beverages such as Crystal Light (Great Value @ Walmart), Sugar Free Kool-Aid, Sugar Free Tang, Diet Snapple, FUZE, Powerade Zero, Diet V8 Splash, Propel, Fruit 2 O, coffee, Tea and Water. 2. Low Sodium broth Soups (chicken, vegetable, beef- tomato Soup is not a broth soup). It needs to be a clear liquid and can NOT contain bit and pieces of meats, tofu, noodles or vegetables. Each 8 oz serving shouldn?t be more than 140 mg of sodium. Bullion cubes are not acceptable as they are too high in sodium. 3. Sugar Free Jell-O and Sugar Free Popsicles LIMITED SECTION: Please do NOT consume more than the maximum # of servings listed in each category for each day you are on the diet: 1. Juice: Limit intake to 2 cups or 16 oz per day. Fruit Juice(apple, orange, cranberry, grape, and grapefruit),Gatorade, G2, Vitamin Water, Life Water, Snapple, Powerade, Low Sodium V-8 juice and V-8 fusion ? limit intake to 2 cups or 16 oz per day. 2. Limit to 3 servings per day: ? cup of Regular Jell-O, Popsicles or NO ADDED SUGAR Fudgesicles. 3. Limit to 3 servings per day: 1 cup (8 oz) of milk (skim, 1%, Lactaid, Almond, or Soy), 6 oz of LIGHT or Greek Yogurt (no more than 110 calories and 12 grams of sugar/serving), ? cup of SUGAR FREE Jell-O pudding, ? cup of FAT FREE or LOW FAT Cottage cheese 4. Protein Shakes: Limit to 2 servings per day: The following are approved protein shakes: Muscle Milk LIGHT (costco, Target, GNC and major grocery chains), Pure Protein shakes (Trader Joe?s), Premier Protein Shakes (Costco), NO ADDED SUGAR Carnation Instant Breakfast (Target), EAS 100% whey Protein (Walmart), Isopure (GNC or The Vitamin Shoppe), Zero Carb Isopure (GNC or The Vitamin Shoppe), Body Fortress Protein Shots (Walmart), Body Choice Liquid Protein Shots (Costco). *** DO NOT BUY SLIM FAST, ENSURE OR BOOST ? these drinks are high in calories and sugars. If you chose a brand that?s not listed above please check the nutrition label first and make sure it meets the following criteria: less than or equal to 160 calories, less than or equal to 6 grams of fat, 15+ grams of protein and less than or equal to 6 grams of sugar. ***For those that are lactose intolerant please choose the following: Isopure, Zero Carb Isopure, Body Fortress Protein Shots or Body Choice Protein Shots. ***For those patients with diabetes, we recommend that you consume 15 grams of carbohydrates every 1-2 hrs. Be sure to monitor your blood sugars and contact your doctor if necessary. If your blood sugar is >150 mg, spread out your sugar sweetened liquids over a 3 hr period. __________________

Try some Bacitracin ointment. It will lubricate the scabs/incisions while fighting off infection. Cover lightly with some gauze or bandaid if you want to prevent them getting linty from your clothes, or getting ointment on your clothes.

I ADORE Coronado! Lucky sis! I'd love to meet you! :smile1:

If I could just afford to live soley on sushi, I wouldn't NEED the sleeve...

I agree with 3636Millie and Katt. Once in a VERY blue moon, surgical patients suffer from anesthetic awareness- basically, being physically paralyzed yet awake and aware during the procedure, hearing and feeling everything. A living nightmare, as one could imagine. They are unable to convey their awareness and powerless to do anything about it. These patients almost always require intensive treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). Although, thank God, your procedure was aborted and the event corrected quickly, I agree with those who recommend that you find a therapist who specializes in PTSD. Should you choose down the line, to retry a VSG (with a well-researched, well-renouned bariatric surgeon in a well-renouned bariatric practice, here in the US), be upfront about your past experience, so they can give you the psychological care and preparation that you will need.

I stand by my theory that you weren't given midazolam. We give it in ICU extremely frequently, almost excusivly IV, and in all my years, I have NEVER even heard of a reaction such as you described. The paralytics given before intubation produce EXACTLY the results you describe. They intended to give you midazolam, they TOLD you that they gave you midazolam. They were trying to cover their asses by asserting that YOU had a bad reaction. You didn't. They gave you the wrong drug. Find an anesthesiologist or CRNA and show them your post and my response. They will shake their head and agree with me. Another bit of proof that I'm right: midazolam/Versed has a strong amnesia quality. Having one's diaphragm paralized is a horrible sensation (as you know). That is why Versed is used- to sedate (make it bearable), and to ensure that the patient doesn't remember the incident to be haunted by it later. If you'd been given it, you would NEVER remember this incident.

ROTFL! In the words of Bart Simpson "it both sucks, AND blows!"