SerendipityHappens

Hospital gown all the way.. just bring a little something for underneath just in case.. I loved my hospital gown, it went to mid calf and wrapped all the way around and then tied on the side so it wasn't uh, "drafty" in the back. Of course it was MADE for bariatric patients so all 290 pounds of me fit in there comfortably! Also it had all the slits and holes necessary for them checking vitals/putting the drain through, etc.. Also incisions/drainsite can ooze a bit even through the bandages so why get your own stuff oozed on when you can just ooze on the hospital gown!

I kind of hold being a "slow loser" as proof that this surgery was really necessary for me. I'm eating 850-1050 ultra low carb (less than 20 net carbs) calories a day, with an active job on my feet 7 days a week plus extra exercise and losing 1-2 pounds a week right now. I am just over two months out and down 24 pounds from surgery day and 94 pounds from my highest weight. In the past I would have grown so frustrated and given up by now.. But now, I can be more patient because I'm not STARVING AND MISERABLE.

Yes, I had a drain. I was a bit nervous about having one, but the more I researched it, the more I WANTED the drain anyway....They removed it before I left the hospital so I only had it in for two days. It didn't hurt and I didn't even feel it when they removed it. Everyone on my floor, no matter which doctor they had, had a drain. oh, and I did NOT have a foley during surgery. That was my biggest concern.. I didn't want a catheter. Dr Valenzuela told me she never uses them for the VSG surgery because the surgery is so short.

I had contractions in my stomach for about a week after surgery.... The first few days were at times quite intense, but after that they were only mild uncomfortable until they disappeared completely at around the one week point.

Starting in the third week I stalled for a month. Sucked but stalls are normal. Now I'm back to losing again! YAY!

I was about that far out when I went through the "OMG, WHAT did I just DO????" phase. It didn't last long but it sure took me by surprise... I mean after months and months of preparation and planning, I didn't expect to feel that way post op. All I kept thinking was, "OMG, what have I done? This can't be undone now.. and the vast majority of my perfectly healthy stomach is now rotting away in some Mexican biodump" I'm now exactly two months post op and extremely happy with my surgery. Portion sizes are finally starting to feel normal and I'm used to the vsg eating habits now (like not eating/drinking at the same time, chewing food well, etc)

If you are allowed coffee, you can add half a scoop of Protein powder into an 8 ounce cup of coffee. It's DELISH! Also one of my favorite things is cottage cheese/jello mousse puree a cup of cottage cheese in a blender to get out the bumps. Make sugar free Jello (I use 1/2 cup boiling Water and 1.5 cups cold water it works just fine) pour liquid jello in blender with the cottage cheese.. blend on high.. A bit of unflavored Protein Powder can be added as well for an extra boost.. It's a nice dessert.

Here's the link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/diet-soda-health_b_2698494.html It's a rather sensationalized blog post making claims based on a study when the study actually only shows association and nothing causational. It's really an article against artificial sweeteners. It demonizes soda in particular, but there's nothing special about the artificial sweetener in soda that makes it any different than when the artificial sweetener is used anywhere else... including crystal light, most of our protein shakes, or sugar free jell-o.... Actually I use JayRobb protein powder because I don't WANT artificial sweeteners every day and the Jay Robb uses Stevia.. I usually will choose just a plain cottage cheese when what I really want to do is mix it with SF Jello and make a mousse with it... I pick and choose when I'm going to consume artificial sweeteners because I personally believe they SHOULD be limited. I just don't single out ONE source of artificial sweetener as being any worse than any other.

I'm two days shy of my two month mark and I have lost 23 pounds since surgery day I was 290 on surgery day and today I am 267. During the three months leading up to surgery I lost 45 pounds so I wasn't expecting super dramatic results since my body was already used to eating at a large calorie deficit.. and I was able to eat well after surgery so I was back up to 800-1000 calories a day pretty quickly.

I was in the hospital for two days post op and I walked for about 5 minutes every 90 minutes or so while I was awake. For the next week after that, I watched a LOT of TV and walked for 5 minutes in between each show. I also did point and flex exercises with my legs..The threat of DVT petrified me.

Yeah, can't see too much of the legs yet, but... OMG your tummy looks fantastic!

I definitely agree here.. anything that is a trigger, we should try to stay away from. I didn't have a problem with soda pre-sleeve and mostly just drank water so having an occasional soda doesn't trigger anything in MY brain. Don't get me wrong.. I have PLENTY of trigger foods that I try to avoid, soda just happens to not be one of them so I see no reason to give it up! There are a lot of people here, not YOU Mrs.G, but there are others, who can't understand that Soda is NOT a big bad trigger food for everyone. Also, there are people here who go on and on about all the chemicals in soda, but yet drink crystal light or eat sf jello!?! If people don't want it for WHATEVER reason that's great, but I do believe that it it's overly demonized.

I was SPECIFICALLY TOLD that diet soda was fine.

That's FANTASTIC! How wonderful that they're all doing this together. Who is their doctor?

What makes you think she's "on the couch"? Even at 360 pounds for ME exercise was NOT the problem.. the problem was in the kitchen! When someone would give me advice like "oh just walk around the neighborhood for half an hour" or my personal favorite "park in the furthest parking spot" I'd just look at them with a really confused look.... and say...."so you mean if I just park in the furthest parking spot, that will help me more than my 15 mile weekly hiking/walking schedule?"

I hear you.. I KNEW it was normal, I KNEW it was going to happen but it was still hard to accept! I stalled for about a month. The thing that kept me going was that I had a fancy bodycomposition scale and it confirmed that I was indeed increasing my bodywater % and decreasing my fat% so that helped me Also the fact that my pants started falling off of me during this time helped too... but yeah, even with this, I still felt like I NEEDED that validation from a drop in pounds.

Reading all these posts it occurred to me... Are you guys thinking of regular sugared soda??? I mean drinking a soda with sugar in it didn't even occur to me. It didn't even cross my mind that the OP could have meant a sugar/HFCS soda.. I mean, I don't think I've consumed a sugared soda since gas was 94 cents a gallon. I assumed she meant a diet soda... which I see as no more "bad" than consuming a crystal light or a sugar free jello.. Not the healthiest choice, but probably OK in moderation... Are all of you "slippery slope" folks assuming that she's talking about sugared version of soda?

I believe the OH board (obesityhelp.com) has a section for DS and a lot of them have had sleeve to DS conversion. They may be able to help you.

I haven't been told I was carb sensitive but I know I am. I have committed to doing a very low carb, high protein, high fat diet for the entire month of May after losing only 3 pounds in april. I'm doing 20 net carbs (carbs minus fiber) 70-90 grams of protein and the remainder of my calories from fat. There are a lot of folks who say "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie" but I don't feel like it is the case in my body. Give it a try, see how you lose, see how you feel.

well the reason I didn't get the band is because although initially it seems like lower complication, the complications from the band just keep increasing with time.. errosion, slippage, never getting the fill amount right. NO THANKS. The thing that appealed to me about the band is that you could loosen it if you needed to if you were sick or pregnant... but then I realized that honestly it wouldn't be a big deal with the sleeve if you needed more nutrition due to pregnancy or illness... just DRINK some extra nutrition.. so that was no longer an advantage for the band in my eyes.

I purposely make sure my multi does not have Iron.. that way I can take it with my calcium citrate without it interfering with absorption.. I take an iron pill by itself just before bed. I take calcium citrate miniatures with d3 pills from Puritain's pride. www.puritan.com Item # 33195 Right now they're doing buy one get 2 free. A bottle of 100, 200 mg pills is 13.99 so with the two free bottles it works out to $4.66 a bottle.. Each bottle last just over a month (I take six of these pills a day spread out over the entire course of the day. This is ABSOLUTELY the best deal on calcium citrate I have found anywhere... a single bottle of citrical petites which is the EXACT same thing is 14.50!!! I have done a "dissolve test" where I checked how long it takes these pills to dissolve in plain Water and they dissolved in under 6minutes so you don't have to worry about the sitting around in your sleeve.... Now these pills are in tablet form and I was not cleared to take them until two weeks after surgery. Talk to your doctor and see how long before you can take tablets some say two weeks and some want you to wait longer. For my multivitamin, I chose Bariatric Advantage capsules. Really almost any multi-Vitamin will do. Some people like Centrum, others just take flintsones chewable. I like having my muli in capsule form and I like that the bariatric advantage dose is 6 small capsules for a RNY patient. Because I don't have malabsorption of RNY, I only take four capsules a day... I like that I can just spread my dose out throughout the day for maximum absorption. A bottle of 540 capsules lasts 4.5 months if you take four capsules a day and the cost is just over forty dollars for the bottle.. so that's only $10.00 a month which isn't really that bad for a good quality multivitamin. I get mine at Amazon.com Iron, I take an iron pill at bed time.. Several hours after my last multivitamin or calcium pill. I use ferrochel which is a chelated iron product. I use this because it is supposedly more gentle and non-constipating. I buy it from Puritain's pride and it's quite cheap there (it's not eligible for their buy one get one prices though) I also take a sublingual b-12...again I get it from puritain's pride because it's the cheapest, but riteaid and walmart also have it and it's not an expensive supplement.

I would not because of the threat of blood clots.. I was afraid if I had any blood clots developing that massaging them could release them into my bloodstream. I was definitely hyperparanoid about bloodclots for some reason!

I'm thrilled that you had such a wonderful experience. There are MANY competent and caring doctors, top notch coordinators, and clean facilities in Mexico but we don't hear a lot about Dr. Illan or Baja Bariatrics so thanks for the review.

uh... I'm 8 weeks today and my weightloss has finally started picking up again.. My weight loss for the ENTIRE month of April??? THREE POUNDS. Stalls happen.. you won't lose weight every day.. or even every week.

Many people experience success with the band. It was DEFINITELY not the option I wanted, but some people have a great experience with it. Maybe he knows someone who had a great experience and recommended it to him.