julielle

Would it help them/you if you spoke to someone who had been there/done that? If it makes them/you feel better you can call me, I can give you my number, or I can even skype and show you/them my scars on camera to prove I've had it, I know I didn't go with your surgeon but I went to Mexico too and I think it's normal that people who haven't done the research freak out about it.

If I had issues with my heart I probably would have made the exact same decision Amanda! As it stands though, I think the price difference was over 3000$, so I just put that straight into the BOOB fund, I'm going to need some boobs after all this weight loss! I was so embarassed at the gym yesterday, my trainer had me doing these superman things in front of a mirror and I was on all fours, and I could see down my shirt and my breasts were dangling like 6 inches even with a bra. Obviously I need a better bra But they're really not pretty

Basically it's just no caffeine one week before surgery, and yogurt only for the 3 days before surgery. Not much more to it than that. No laxatives, no 2 week shakes or anything. I guess Dr Ponce figures 3 days is enough to empty the glycogen reserves in the liver, it works for him. If it makes you feel better you can do low carb now until your 3 day yogurt phase.

I asked about vitamins and he told me basically if I eat whole foods I shouldn't need vitamins. I thought that was strange as well so I researched what other doctors recommend and I'm taking a multi, sublingual B12 and 1200-1500mg of Calcium citrate. I take extra iron during my period since I have a heavy flow (TMI). There is a food list, it's a 2 month or so eating plan that he gives.

Post op instructions are given after the surgery. No vitamin instructions were given.

I have the Fitbit Aria. It doesn't track hydration but does body fat %, it's accurate and automatically syncs to MyFitnessPal or the Fitbit site. I love the scale since I also use the Fitbit so it was a no brainer. I also have a plain EatSmart scale, it doesn't measure anything but weight though, but it's also super accurate.

With my surgeon it was an extra 500$ if your BMI was over 50. If your BMI is right at 50 I would get it down to 49 before surgery and then you won't have to pay the extra.

I bought it from their site: http://www.unjury.com/store/protein/reg/chicken_soup_flavored_protein.shtml

Mine is like 4 inches higher than the belly button and to the right a bit. It's about an inch long incision and all the other incisions are smaller. So probably just whatever one is the bigger incision, mine also had some bruising around it from the doctor tugging the stomach out.

That's what they do here in Canada (or Quebec, not sure if it's just our province). Supposedly it's quite disgusting, I'm glad I didn't have to do that

It may also be because the lab tech told me "Just try not to vomit for 5 seconds or we'll have to start over" before I drank it, so I went in with very negative thoughts

Ugh the barium... makes me want to vomit just to think about it.

Did he say a MINIMUM of 2 adult drinks (as in he wanted you to get drunk?) or a maximum? Hah

The surgeon will not refuse to operate on you because you got down to 29.5 BMI due to a pre-op diet, you don't need to worry about that I have a friend whose pre-op diet was just to eat low carb for a week before the surgery, every surgeon is different and you may as well take the pre-op diet into consideration as just another factor, if you have two surgeons that you trust equally and one has a better pre-op diet, why not? I just wouldn't put too much weight on that factor compared to other things such as patient outcomes and how long they've been doing the surgery, how the hospital is etc. But I do understand your thoughts, I was only flying from Montreal, I can't imagine flying all the way from New Zealand, long flight with no food!

Jello counts as a clear liquid, my first few weeks were mostly broth, I bought some of the Unjury chicken soup broth and the taste isn't bad, you just can't have it really hot. I bought a ton of samples of different protein powders and found most of them way too sweet post surgery, so they sit unused. The only one I take now is the Premier Protein one.

Everyone's diet is different. Mine was only yogurt for 3 days. Who is your surgeon Rollargirl? You can do anything for 3 days, you're stronger than you think You will be hungry and it will suck but take it 5 minutes at a time, the hunger isn't constant and it WILL pass. It'll come and go in waves, you just have to tough it out. Here in Quebec doctors make the patients do several weeks of liquid diets pre surgery, I can't imagine. Not just that but they have to drink Optifast which as I understand it is fairly disgusting. If you truly can't do the yogurt or whatever your diet is, then Protein shakes would be better than nothing.

Ew I only had to drink like half of a styrofoam cup of the nasty blue ****. I hope those are shooter sizes and not full sized cups in the photo!

This post is over a year old so she may not visit anymore

I'm jealous you guys actually get FOOD?

Woah I didn't see that you had switched to Dr Aceves, was that a last minute switch? Good luck!

I didn't get a shirt

3 days yogurt pre surgery, we all did that. Post op they give you the food plan. Honestly I didn't follow it very well. I don't drink tea so I didn't force myself to. I followed it basically like "x weeks liquid, x weeks soft" but not the actual foods they put on there. The other thing that I wasn't a fan of is that they don't mention vitamins, they say that if you cook everything yourself (and they mean even making your own chicken stock by boiling a chicken carcass!) then you shouldn't need vitamins. I'm not so sure I agree with that, but anyways, I have no time to make everything from scratch. Looking through other surgeons plans, I supplement with double the regular adult dose of a multi, plus 1500mg of calcium citrate, plus sublingual B12. (Plus a stool softener!). During my period I'll add iron to the mix, and from time to time I take folic acid too, I'm not sure if it's needed but I read that Dr Cirangle recommends 1000mcg a day. Anyways, that's what I do. I also do protein shakes which aren't anywhere on Dr Ponce's post op plan.

I think you mostly don't hear as much about him as other surgeons because he's a bit more expensive, but there are plenty of people who have been with him, my experience was great.

Sometimes I have binge dreams, but less and less often now.

Wow Chel, that's quite a loss! I was sleeved on Nov 8th (after my October surgery was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy) and I'm down from 303 to 237, so 66 pounds.