cookies

I haven't had my surgery yet, but according to our nutritionist "full liquids" consist of things like milk, Protein shakes (the non-clear varieties), watered down cream of chicken Soup with all solids removed, etc. Yogurt and cream of wheat show up in the following stage for me. Every doctor is different, though.

I'm interested. How do we join? ETA: Oh I see the instructions above. Never mind.

Yeah, I'd tell them ASAP. No idea why you would wait until the last minute. I would imagine you wouldn't like that if you were the one hearing that an employee was leaving for an extended period with virtually zero notice. I am taking the day off before my surgery, but that's because I have my Mom coming in from out of town and I have to get my dog to the kennel, etc. I think I'll be taking two to three weeks off.

I was self-pay. I had my initial visit with the surgeon in March and I will be sleeved on May 22nd. It was about a month until I could get in for my psych eval (who knew psychologists were so busy...lol). A week after that I was able to pay and get my surgery date. Then I had all my other pre-op tests, etc. in this last month. Now I'm a week out.

It depends on your surgeon and what medical problems you have. I had a DVT ultrasound on my legs about a month before my procedure, then just bloodwork, chest X Ray and an EKG on the day of my pre op. I had already had a bunch of heart tests, including an EKG and a stress test about a year before, so they didn't need to do any additional heart tests on me, fortunately. The day of my surgery I know I will have a urine pregnancy test, because one of those has to be done within 24 hours of being put under. That should be it.

Best of luck! It won't be long before you're on the loser's bench.

Honestly, I don't think there's anything you can do. Muscle building helps fill areas "out", but if your skin has lost it's elasticity or if it's been stretched beyond a "bounce back" area, it will sag. Such is life. Pray for good genes.

Best of luck with your surgery. My revision is May 22nd and I'm getting excited/nervous. I hope you have a quick recovery.

Of course you're weak and fatigued; you just had major surgery! Take care of yourself, drink as much as you can, and rest and recuperate.

I would definitely stay out of a public pool or ocean until all your incisions are completely healed, and I doubt that would be the case at 2 weeks out.

I don't know what I'm going to tolerate after surgery, so I have a variety of stuff. I have... nectar chocolate (tub) (using this now) Nectar sample packs (14) Premier Protein shakes (two cases...I'm drinking these now as well) Protein Jello Protein pudding Protein hot chocolate (sugar-free) broth (low-sodium chicken) some protein shots Crystal light (a variety) sugar-free popcicles sugar-free jello babyfood applesauce (I can't swallow a pill, so this is to mix with my pill powder) gatorade (sugar free) propel (sugar free) decaf tea bags canned soups (for the second phase) and... Gas-X strips liquid Tylenol anti-bacterial shower gel

A 30% complication rate on procedures done together? Yikes. Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear the recovery was no big deal. I guess I'll take what comes and be happy my surgeon will do what's best for me.

We are expected to and advised to by our surgeon, but it's only mandatory for the RNY patients. I was told the same as the rest...we eat such a small amount of food that it's hard to get all the vitamins we need. The vitamins are insurance.

My surgeon doesn't normally do a leak test for his VSG patients. He did say, however, that if a person experienced lots of nausea and vomiting after the surgery, he would do one prior to the okay to have Water by mouth. He does test for leaks during the surgery by pumping the stomach full of a blue dye and they check our drain as well. It didn't concern me, his explanations made sense.

Remember that the pre-op diet's purpose is to shrink your liver, so although you may not be losing pounds, hopefully your liver is shrinking down, and that's the important part.

I think if you're seeing 8-plus grams of sugar and "no sugar added", you're probably looking at fruit juice popsicles. The regular no-sugar popsicles generally have like 2 grams of sugars or less (from sugar alcohols) and contain no fruit or fruit juice whatsoever. I don't know if fruit juice (especially the more acidic juices) would could as "clear" on the clear diet portion of our diets after surgery, so I plan to buy the non-fruit juice types.

Time Magazine did a similar article. They also noted that people using lower weights/higher reps were more likely to use proper form as they are not overstraining to try to lift a very high weight.

For me, personally, it's the smell that I hate. I"ve found if I refuse to breathe while sipping, I don't mind it so much. Might help you...I don't know.

Apparently, it's an urban legend and all skin graft skin comes from cadavers: http://plasticsurgery101.blogspot.com/2007/09/urban-legend-debunked-can-you-donate.html

Yeah, no data on that, but then again I don't think there's data like that on the lap band or RNY, either, as neither has been around for the 40-50+ years that would be necessary for that kind of data. I would imagine, since there's no malabsorption with the sleeve, that the longevity stats would be great. Certainly they would be better than the lifespan of a morbidly obese person.

That list of fears could have been written by me. I'm so happy you're journey has been so seamless so far. I'm hoping for the same.

Mine was in the $400 range. Around $450, as I recall. I'm self-pay.

Muscle does weigh more than fat. Of course, a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weight the same (ha!), but a CUP of muscle would weigh more than a cup of fat, or any such measurement you choose. And I agree on the "gained three pounds" of muscle thing overnight doesn't make sense. However, hard workouts that tax muscles do result in weight gain for some people because they retain Water while the muscle is healing, and then the water is released, usually within 24 hours.

I'm too scared to cheat. LOL. I want my liver to shrink, because I'm sure it's fatty. Every little thing that I can do to help ensure they don't have to stop my surgery for a bit to work on my liver because it was brittle and began to bleed I will do.