Coykoi

9 days and counting! I'm excited and nervous and scared and impatient and.... No pre-op diet for me, just a general urging to eat less and practice how I'll eat after surgery. Where are you having your surgery done? I'll be in Torrance, CA

I found out today while I was pre-regestering that I've got an enlarged heart. The registration person kept tiptoeing around it to find out if the doctor had seen the echo, I said that she had, mentioned that something was off, but did not seem concerned. I asked what it was that was off and that's when "enlarged heart" was mentioned. Has anyone else had this and did it cause any problems? Does weight loss and the resulting loss of comorbidities help? Does the heart return to a normal size? I'm not worried but concerned. Thanks for any info.

My story starts many years ago. I originally wanted the lap band. I went to a well known doctor in Southern California (who I won't name). After months of visits, money paid, labs done, more money paid, and a surgery date set. I got a call from the doctor's office that there was a problem with my heart test and the surgery would be cancelled. This particular doctor's office was very proud to report that they have had no fatalities. After that, I got a call from my insurance company that I was not approved, even though the doctor's office said that I had been. The doctor's office wanted nothing to do with my case, since I could have damaged their record. It took a lot of argument to get my money refunded, as I had been told that my surgery was approved, but was untrue.What was even worse was that my heart condition was never disclosed. I went away upset and angry that this doctor's office could not care less about me unless it would help their reputation. Now, eight years later, I've spent many years researching and waiting to be employed again with insurance. The gastric sleeve has now been approved in the U.S. and I began my research again. I looked at my insurance requirements, noted that the surgery needed to be performed in a Center of Surgical Excellence. I found out which hospitals in my area that have that designation and decided that Torrance Memorial was the best for me. Besides the required designation, I liked the education available through the hospital. Once I selected the hospital, now I looked for the doctors associated with the hospital. I found the Association of South Bay Surgeons. The head of the practice is Dr. Aileen Takahashi. I liked that she was the head and that she was a woman. Once I met her, I was sure that she was the right fit. She's compassionate, but always talks to me like an intelligent person. Now, testing, education, labs, and more education began, and continued for approximately six months. I never had to come out of pocket for anything but co-pays and the fees to the nutritionist and the psychiatrist. There was no big program fee to be paid to the doctor or the hospital. When it came to my heart condition, the doctor said that it was slightly unusual but nothing to worry about. In further explanation, I have right ventricular diastolic syndrome. It's an "enlarging" of the right ventricle, the chamber of the heart that pumps the blood to the lungs to re-oxygenate it. Because the walls of the ventricle is thickened, it doesn't relax fully between "pumps". Less blood is sent to the lungs, the person afflicted gets tired easier, and has trouble tolerating exercise. Main causes that apply to me are high blood pressure and obesity and lack of aerobic exercise. Since I tired so easily, exercise became so difficult. So for eight years, I had continued to be fat, continued to have out of control blood pressure, and knew nothing about it. It's a condition that is difficult to discover, except with a cardiac ultrasound. Any EKG that was done during doctor's visits found nothing except minor electrical changes. I never pressed to find it, because I frankly did not believe that the original doctor was telling the truth. Maybe I was hiding my head in the sand, but the original doctor also did nothing to inform me of the nature of the condition. Now I'm on the way back to health. My surgery was on Dec 6, 2012. It's unknown if my heart will repair itself as the blood pressure and weight reduces. I certainly understand my exercise limitations now, and I know that best for me is small, frequent bouts of exercise are better than long exercise periods. I feel that I'm in good medical hands now, and important to me is my own knowledge.

[quote name=Lisa ' timestamp='1355885245' post='600403] What a long journey!! But I believe EVERYTHING happens for a reason!! You are in great hands with Dr. Takahashi!!! She did my surgery Nov 9th, 2011. She is a perfectionist and, I believe, the best surgeon at ASBS!!! Congrats on finally getting your surgery!!! The next few months will be challenging but so worth it!!! That's great that you had her too. My friend saw her while in the hospital for another matter, and she was not thrilled. I think my friend was expecting someone to agree with her insisting on smoking, so she would have disliked anyone. I judged her on her own merit and I was happy with the whole experience.

I told a few close friends before, the ones that were less close were told that the upcoming surgery was personal. One of my friends was very supportive and expressed interest (more curiosity than anything else). She needs to fit in so she has been telling me how she's been sick and cant eat anything and how much weight she's lost. OK, I get that she needs to join in, it's who she's always been. I asked her if she's ever been on My Fitness Pal as a way to track what she eats. She went off on how she hates those sites because they don't understand that people are different, she doesn't need protein and resents any site telling her that she does. Whoa! That's what I run into, is people that know more than doctors and no one can convince them otherwise. I'll tell anyone that I trust, but I don't plan on being an evangelist. One person at work knows because she has a lap band. If she tells others I wont be mad but if people ask me how I did it, the answer will be diet and exercise, because in reality that's what is really doing it. The sleeve is a tool to keep us from eating too much, it's our determination to stick to the plan that takes off and keeps off the weight.

Someone posting a confession is either looking for someone to tell them that they'll be OK (absolution) or looking to be given some tough love. Its impossible for strangers to tell, nor should it be their responsibility, to know what the confessor needs, on a public forum. People wanting absolution should go to friends, family, their priest, etc. Asking a bunch of people that don't know you if they were wrong to eat that french fry or whole pizza need to realize that this is a bunch of people that have worked very hard to learn some difficult new skills and realizing that they can never eat certain trigger or slider foods again. It's threatening to them to think about eating those foods, so why wouldn't they react badly to hear someone else doing the same. I'm not defending bad behavior, and we should all be courteous to one another, but the person that remarked about "blood on his hands" makes the point of how imperative it is to most here to follow the plan. I hope to give the newer people help some day, I'm still new myself since I've just been sleeved Dec 6, but I'm not anyone's mom. I don't love them like she could, and if I say something harsh, its because it's the best way that I know how.

I'm also 11 days post op and feel the same way. I'm going to follow the once per week weigh-in plan for a while. It was exciting to see the scale change daily, but now that it doesn't (and sometimes goes backward), it's time to get away from that evil toy.

I was barely a 35 BMI, which with my comorbidities, was enough to get insurance to cover. The doctor's office wanted me to "maintain" that weight until approved by insurance. I took that time to have a "wake" for all those foods that I would not be indulging in later. Once insurance approved me, I started eating sensibly, I'd already gotten tired of many of those foods. I wanted to shrink my liver before surgery, especially since my doctor doesn't require a pre-op diet, other that Clear liquids the day before. I went into surgery on Dec 6, at 227.8. I'm now hovering around 215. I hope to be in onederland soon. One advantage we have is that we can do more exercise sooner. If 600 lbs and confined to a wheelchair, you cant get up and run, we can at least walk. We wont lose as fast because we're not carrying around as much weight, but again, if a person weighs so much that they cant be ambulatory yet, we can burn more calories than them.

Thanks, I expect that those "new" clothes will also be in the Goodwill pile someday. I wonder what else is in the closet that got shoved to the back. I know that there's a size 8 leather miniskirt in there, but I doubt that this old lady will be modeling that any time soon

I'm 10 days post-op. I was going out on some errands and realized that my jeans were in the laundry basket. I looked around to find a stack of clothes that I was going to take to Goodwill because they were too small. For whatever reason I had forgotten to take them months ago. Well, I tried on a pair of jeans and they fit! I can see the numbers on the scale, but it's nice to see something tangible like this. Now that stack will be for clothes that are too big and I'll reclaim the "too small" stack (for now )

Same here, I couldn't abide anything cold, but I was amazed at how much warm soup I could get down. I kept making the Isopure that I was required to get down colder, thinking that I was gagging at the taste, rather than listening to my sleeve that it was cramping from the cold. Good news is that my sleeve is over it now, I'm 10 days post-op and can take any temp that I want.

One thing that I think a lot of us forget is not everyone has the same amount of information (knowledge). I was in a very good surgical program that explained every step of the process, but the fact that freshly cut flesh swells was never discussed, nor that a few days later the swelling would subside. So a freshly sleeved stomach goes from being almost swollen shut to starting to relax within a week or so. I learned this on this site. I was also amazed in a group meeting which was one of the steps before submitting to surgery, that many in this "good program" did not know as much about what to expect as my coach, who's only knowledge about the surgery is the book that I was required to read and take a test on. People have different learning styles and reading a book wasn't for some of them. Before my surgery I scoured this website, mostly as a lurker, to gain information. I like to be as prepared as possible and for me, part of that is knowledge. Not everyone is inclined, or has the time, or found this site, or (fill in the blank). I suggest that anyone joining ANY forum, lurk for a while before posting, but for some folks are worried enough to post right away. That's OK too, but it might be that the same question was just asked and answered. We need to keep in mind that there are going to be questions that make us think, "why didn't they know that?" and posts that are asked so frequently that it's obvious that the medical community does not do a good job of covering that topic. People come on here worried or scared, but anyone posting should understand that we're not trained councilors, we're your peers. We may not have the "professional" way of saying things, we are going to say it like it is. We should, on the other hand, remember that we were all newbies too, and at one time we did not know what a gastric sleeve was, let alone all the challenges that we would face once sleeved.

You're doing better than me. I didn't get my full 80 grams of protein until yesterday, day 5. I have been creeping up on both the protein and water a little more each day, so I think it's ok. I did notice on day 5 that I was able to take bigger swallows than I ever had before, so I think the swelling is going down. I found that fluids went down better when room temp, the icy cold protein made my stomach cramp.

Ditto to everything that Doxieville said. Remember that everybody and every body is different. It's exciting to see the big weight changes in a short period of time, but that's just a flashy headline. Don't get discouraged, this is a journey that may take some side trips along the way.

I was at 227.8 surgery day, went up to 233, which I expected. No change until today, 5 days post op, then I dropped to 218. It takes a while for the IV fluids to work their way out. No BM's yet, but at least there was a change on the scale. More walking, more water and I expect that the bowels will wake up.

I'm so ready to be able to move to cream soups. My sleeve does not like cold drinks, it cramps to the point of nausea. I hold the drink in my mouth for a few seconds to warm it, but apparently not long enough. I do ok with broth, but that gets old after a while.

I was sleeved Dec 6. I was fortunate to not have the gas pains, but once my intestines woke up they've been having a little party! I am having a hard time getting my Isopure down, but I'm going to try proteins that can be warm. My sleeve seems to like them better.

I'm having big problems with drinking cold drinks. I'm only 2 days out but having trouble getting my protein in because of the cramping. I'm going to switch over to the Unjury chicken soup for a few days & hopefully it'll be better in a few days..

Just home from the hospital today. I found I could drink a lot of the high-protein soup, but I still have problems with the cold drinks. 1 or 2 ounces and my guts start cramping. They've got to be very cold to be able to get them down, but I think but my stomach doesn't like it. Today it took 14 hours to get 1.5 bottles down. Tomorrow I'll start with what my stomach wants.

I'm at day 3 and feeling better too. I haven't had the dreaded gas but lots of nausea. Not doing very well with my protein, but working on it today.

My insurance covers 80% of the surgery. I'm scratching my head as to how to come up with the rest. Does the hospital bill you for the rest or does the doctor expect it before the surgery? This has not been discussed during any of my visits to the doctor's office, and an up-front fee was not charged. What has been your experience?

I'm at the hospital now, waiting to be called in. Therapy dog came by & calmed my nerves a little.

Sometimes they hear a murmur, and I found out this week that I have an enlarged heart. My doctor is not concerned. It depends on the condition and the doctor.

I had the same dilemma but went with the sleeve. I saw the effects of my friend who had the bypass and didn't keep up with her vitamins and the other complications that she's had, it made me steer clear of that. Its a personal decision that each of us have to make, do your research and the way that you need to go should become clear.

I had the same dilemma but went with the sleeve. I saw the effects of my friend who had the bypass and didn't keep up with her vitamins and the other complications that she's had, it made me steer clear of that. Its a personal decision that each of us have to make, do your research and the way that you need to go should become clear.