KellyL

If they don't have insurance and have to self-pay, the cost of surgery in MX is half or less than the US cost of getting the Sleeve. That is what first peaked my interest, but the training, skill, and experience was what helped seal the deal for me.

I'm sorry you're having problems. That doesn't sound normal at all. Is this happening with anything you try to eat, or just certain things? I would call my Dr to be on the safe side. I hope you feel better soon and find out what's going on.

You are doing extremely well with your weight loss, congrats!! I don't see a problem with the protein bar as breakfast if it's not causing you to stall, and clearly it's not harming your weight loss efforts. Your calories look ok too. How many grams of Protein are you getting in per day? The protein bars usually have 20 or so. Also are you on a multi-vitamin with Iron? I don't see why you'd need the red meat except for the Iron content, if you prefer other meats and protein sources. Do you like chicken and does your sleeve tolerate it? What else are you eating through the day, please give me samples of your meals. I need tips from you with your weight loss! And then we can see if you're getting enough protein too.

It happens to a lot of people, I think it's because of the anxiety of thinking we aren't going to get to have these foods ever, or at least for a very long time. Sometimes it's referenced as "Food Funeral". Try to do your best, but don't think it means you aren't ready for or deserving of the surgery. It's not a sign of the surgery not being for you at all.

Yes, the sleeve was initially the first part of the Duodenal Switch. Patients with a high BMI were given the first part of the DS, in essence the Sleeve, in order to lose a portion of their weight. This made it safer for them to be able to perform the second part of the DS later on, which is the rearranging of the intestines for the malabsorption. They found that a high # of people lost a significant amount of weight, not needing the second part of the DS surgery. That's when the Sleeve became a stand alone procedure. The RNY (Gastris Bypass) is different, in that they don't have a sleeve at all, they have a pouch that is made from their intestines, which is much stretchier than our sleeves, that are actually our own natural stomachs with the greater curvature removed. The portion we're left with of our stomach is the least stretchiest part. I would much prefer to not have to revise to any other surgery, but if I did it would definitely be the DS over the RNY.

In regards to the size and restriction of your sleeve, yes asking the size of the bougie, what capacity that would leave you with, etc is important. Also what is the success rate of the surgeons other patients with the size he states that he uses.

Strange, I haven't seen this as a side effect of the surgery before. You may want to try Magnesium supplements, I take them for muscle cramps and twitches and it helps in the bathroom dept too. Congrats on being sleeved.

I am so happy to see you post girl! Been thinking about you and asking Trish about you. So glad things went well. Message me when you feel up to it.

Bougie is a tool the surgeon uses to help guide the tool as he's sizing your sleeve. DS is Duodenal Switch and is a weight loss surgery that has the sleeve that we have plus the malabsorption similar to the Gastric Bypass. There's some differences between those two surgeries, but that's the simple answer to your question.

I've heard that we can have what dr's consider "normal" thryroid, but it's still actually sluggish and can affect our weight loss. I have been looking into this myself due to my slow weight loss and long stalls. I was a slow loser before surgery and had long stalls too, so it may be just the way I lose. I am trying to do things like eating 30 grams of protein within 30 mins of waking, eating every 3 hrs, protein, to keep my metabolism burning, and exercising more to speed the metabolism up. Also something else I am looking into is food allergies. I have heard/read that if we have allergies, it can prevent weight loss. Since I can't afford to go have a bunch of tests done, I am attempting the elimination diet. Starting with wheat/gluten. It's difficult because even when you think you are keeping these things low and to a minimum, you find that if you read labels, they put wheat in everything! Even things like cream of mushroom/chicken soups. If it's not the wheat/gluten, then I am going to see if it's dairy. I have always said, I can do without bread, pasta, etc, as long as I can have cheese! So Dear God pleaseeeee don't let me be allergic to Dairy!!

Since you're still early out you may want to double up on your prevacid, but please get the ok from your Dr. I think it will go away on its own too, but I have no idea when. It does sound a lot like the slimey's I've seen others mention. I know it has to be annoying and embarrassing, do like the country boys here in Alabama do with their dip (chewing tobacco) Keep an empty 20 oz bottle just for spitting in. Just be careful not to accidently "drink" it. ewww I totally just grossed myself out with that visual!!! Good luck!!

At this point you may want to look into a DS. Sometimes due to metabolic reasons, a person has to have the malabsorption part. There's a lot of things I would consider before having it though, and you have to be careful with your vitamin regimen and regular blood work. But the most important thing about any of the weight loss surgeries is what we choose to eat. Any of the surgeries can fail if we don't follow the rules of protein first, lower carbs and then only good carbs, no junk. Have you had lab work done, thyroid tests, and allergy tests? Certain food allergies can prevent us from losing weight, and if our hormones are out of balance or if we have a sluggish thyroid. Good luck to you!

Congrats on being sleeved and joining the losers club! Happy to hear things went great and you are recovering at home now.

Congrats on being sleeved and recovering comfortably. I'm glad you had a great experience with your surgeon and everything went well.

I get the Pure Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter, and they're ok. I want to try the Quest ones soon, so many yummy sounding flavors.

That sounds awful and not normal. I'm glad you're giving your doc a call, please let us know how things go! I hope you feel better soon.

Congrats on being sleeved on 1/31 and Happy Belated 45th birthday!! Sounds like things are going really good for you and I totally agree with the feeling good comment. It's kinda like feeling alive again. I'm very happy for you.

I am not hungry at all most of the time, and yes you will be satisfied on so little food, it's mind blowing! It's hard to wrap your head around the possibilities of this pre-op, especially during the pre-op liquid diet. That was the worst part of this whole journey to me. Hang tough, you can do this!!

:cheer2: Awesome!!

Awww that's great that she supported you and now you get to support her. Tell her congrats, I hope her recovery is going well!

:welcome: Hello, wow, you are kicking butt in the weight loss girl, congrats!!! I hope the appt goes good, let us know!

Yeah, I don't blame you for checking with your Doctor, just to be on the safe side. Oh and congrats on the marathons, that's awesome!! OMG! you lost 201 lbs?? Amazing, you rocked your sleeve! You are such an inspiration. Let us know what you find out.

Are you taking a multi-vitamin? How about Calcium and Magnesium and Vit D3 and B12? Also have you had any bloodwork done lately? I'm not sure, but it sounds like maybe vitamin related.

Right, smKeller HAS cut down every MX surgeon, except for the one he went to, who has also had a death in his past. And if ALM has cut their ties with Dr Kelly, why is he still on all their websites? That's because they WANT people to think he's affiliated with these other surgeons who weren't even bariatric surgeons a yr ago. They are using Dr Kelly on their websites to get interest and draw people to them and then getting patients on the phone to schedule their surgeries, and then pulling the old switcheroo. We can't in good conscious book you with Dr Kelly because he had a questionable death a half a yr ago, but we've been booking for him with good conscious all these months, but we suddenly have a conscious. They are stealing Dr Kelly's patients and giving them to other inexperienced surgeons by using lies and scare tactics, because they know people will trust them over the surgeons, because they're patient coordinators/advocates. It's pathetic, unprofessional, and unethical. Here's the website I just went to a few sec's ago. There's Dr Kelly right under Dr Garcia! http://www.alighterme.com/doctors.html And here's an article in May of 2011 where ALM is adding 3 new new surgeons. The article is dated May 2011 and Dr Garcia was still studying to be a bariatric surgeon!!! This is from that article....... http://www.prlog.org/11475485-alighterme-add-three-new-bariatric-surgeons-and-operates-in-guadalajara-mexico.html Dr. Fernando Garcia started his academic career earning a physicians degree in 1999. In 2003 he progressed to medical school, after completing a one-year postgraduate internship (1999-2000) and a one-year social service clinical (2000-2001). In 2007 Dr. Garcia graduated as a general surgeon. Dr. Garcia is committed to his field with continual education in numerous bariatric surgery courses. Here's Dr Kelly standing beside Sandy and Linda when he was initiated and recently became a member of the prestigious American College of Surgeons, this was just a few months ago: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8910330.htm Do you're research people, all I did was take 5 mins on google and found the above info. Now that I posted this, I expect Dr Kelly to be removed from the site, but as of today, he's there. As a surgeon, how would you feel if you found out that your patient coordinators were stabbing you in the back, telling potential patients they weren't booking for you any more and using your good reputation and giving your potential patients away?

Did you click on the save button afterwards? I'm sorry if that didn't help, I think there's a tutorial on here somewhere, you might could search up at the top or maybe someone could point you in the right direction.