Sydney Susan

No op is a picnic but almost all are easier than childbirth! Are you frightened of the op or unsure of your decision? I am always anxious re ops but sailed through this one with few problems. Bit of pain on first night and twinges and aches to follow, but nothing major for most of us. Felt better every day and a month later I can hardly believe I had it done. If you're nervous about how you'll cope after, most drs seem to let patients have a day or 2 extra if you ask - it's good to go home confident. Don't rush yourself. I feel good and have progressed to casseroles and the like now. I thought it was 'mental' to have a perfectly healthy stomach removed... But now it feels quite natural. I can eat what I need to, and expanding choices are great! What I needed that whacking to great fundus for I don't know.

Dulcolax or Actimax liquids are good, combined with an enema (attack things from both ends) product such as Fleet or Microlax. Movicol is good too. Lower back pain could be a sign of impaction, so important to get things moving. No laxatives though! Apparently peristalsis they cause is to be avoided for the first 6 weeks. Good luck.

While I don't doubt this is true we should always be wary of 'damned statistics'. If the usual risk of get a primary liver cancer is 0.005% (and it's something like that in developed countries in Europe, America and Australia/NZ), then this article is saying that having hypothyroidism increases your risk to about 0.0135%. You could have other risk factors too, such as obesity AND hypothyroidism, so you'd need to adjust for those. But don't think hypothyroidism is fast lane ticket to liver cancer.... the odds are well and truly that you won't get it.

I can't argue with the cost issue - I think it is usual here for insurance to include lapband and VSG, but not everyone is insured, and then public hospital waiting times are long for things like this. A great many things in life are a trade off between cost and safety or cost and comfort, sadly. I have previously asked my surgeon why he keeps his patients in hospital so long (although i was personally v pleased to have it done that way) and his reply was (in part) that Gastrectomy is done for lots of reasons, not just weight loss - cancer/tumours and ulcers on the fundus can lead to an op that is a lot like VSG. It is standard to keep patients for those ops in hospital for 3-10 days... And I have seen those same times quoted on US websites too. He went on to say that many VSG patients have higher blood pressure, sleep apnea or other issues that put them in a higher risk category than the average person and he prefers more conservative treatment. And finally that it reduces the risk of complications and increases patient comfort. All very sound reasons to me. Someone said earlier in this post that the OP should discuss with her dr and be sure she is comfortable with his reasons for discharging her on day 1... Specifically why he thinks this is right for her, not just "right"... And then the OP can decide what she needs to feel comfortable undergoing the op. I think that's good advice. It's worth shopping around too, as longer days in hospital don't always mean greater cost - well where I live they don't. Every clinic I spoke to charged the same "out of pocket " cost - Insurance companies in Australia can only insure up to 85% of of a govt determined cost for a particular service - the doctor can charge more (and most do) and the "gap" between the insurance payout and the cost gets bigger... and the patient has to pay. Bariatric surgery is very competitive these days, and you too may find doctors are charging similar end costs to ensure their share of the market If you pay the same and get less care and follow up the doctor is pocketing the difference as profit. More care and follow up and he's investing in your health. It's always worth asking around.

I'm an atheist too, but it seems to me that when religious people say that they mean "I want it to turn out well for you". I like the "I'll think for you" response, but it would be really offensive to some and obscure for others, so perhaps best said silently?? I often annoy my religious sister with "It'll be fine, or quick. Both outcomes are acceptable." But other than from your siblings you probably wouldn't want to have someone say "I hope it goes great or the ending is quick and painless", would you...??

Sueocco and the other Sydney siders - I was sleeved 4 weeks ago and would love to catch up. I live at North Ryde but could make it into the city with notice and a bit of reorganising. I'm doing well, though weight loss is slow - studying lots which doesn't help! Could do better - with exercise mostly. It will be great to hear how others are doing. Can I join you?

We rarely buy from a health food store and find heaps of stuff in supermarkets these days. Perhaps we're luckier in Sydney than most... don't know. Even so it is dearer for anything labelled GF. If you can tolerate being GF by ingredient (rather than only having stuff labelled as GF) - and in my experience most coeliacs can - then reading the ingredients list will be well worth the effort. While there's wheat, oats or barley in an astonishing number of things (including many vanilla ice creams!), there are lots of products that don't include these things either. We've come across some great cook-in sauces and gravy mixes this way, at a fraction of the labelled GF product costs. "May contain gluten" means a product hasn't been made in an environment that is kept stringently free of gluten and regularly tested as such. It doesn't mean the product has been in contact with gluten, only that it can't be proved not to have been. Like any food that enters the house of any coeliac sufferer who lives with non coeliacs who occasionally eat wheat, oats, rye or barley. Of course some coeliacs can't tolerate even the teensiest bit of gluten, so you will have to see how you go.

Honestly, I'd change surgeons. This is a big op not a small one. I would change surgeons with even an overnight stay only. There will be others who'll tell you they came through just fine, but I really question why a doctor would be pushing you out the door so quickly. My doctor was no dearer than anyone else in my area and his standard is 4 nights in hospital. I felt so well cared for, and he tells me he's never (yet) had a significant complication. With a surgery like this you have a great risk of experiencing significant pain, becoming dehydrated and vomiting due to nausea. A drip for at least a couple of days will help with all of these, and allow you to take meds intravenously for nausea. You also need to have your "vital signs" and pain level monitored closely for a while and i don't think those will happen with early discharge. It's also important to avoid vomiting with a newly sutured stomach... if you do it isn't necessarily a disaster, but it's a risk you don't want to take if you don't need to. Pain or exhaustion that really reduces your mobility also poses the risk of blood clots forming, and heparin (anti clotting) injections are pretty standard for ops of this size, to protect you from this. Unless a medic visits you daily at home you won't get that. I am not wanting to upset you but I'd rather that than stay silent and hear after how awful it was, or worse that something happened to you. I've read of no and one night stays on this forum before and it seems to me that many people really suffered for it. Why? It's just not necessary. It's of no benefit to you, so who is benefiting from such short, sharp treatment? I am 100% sure I would not allow it for anyone I loved. You deserve better.

I have had hypothyroidism all my adult life (am 52) and take Oroxine or Thyroxine. I only gain weight if I'm not getting enough of it. From what others have said here Synthoid is the same ( I don't think it's a brand we have DownUnder). It's the condition that causes weight gain, not the medication. Re thyroid cancer, Hashimoto's followed later by thyroid cancer certainly runs in my family... so I've grown up believing managing your thyroid function diligently was important. So many doctors just read the numbers off your blood test results without applying any other thought processes - how they think they can call themselves specialists and do that is beyond me. I could a child to diagnose me if that is all that is required - the "normal range" is always right alongside if your own result. But that's not just all there is to it, so if you don't feel well don't let your specialist get away with doing that to you! The "normal range" applies to the population, not to individuals - your personal TSH, T3 and T4 ideal levels don't travel up and down within the "normal range" (although they do change a bit with stress, weather, weight and activity levels). If you are inside the normal range but have symptoms of thyroid dysfunction then you are probably not at your correct level. I don't function well at either the high or low end of the supposed normal range, and need to be smack bang in the middle. Others do better at one end or the other. Join your country's Thyroid Association and you'll get great access to sensible information and articles - the Australian Thyroid Association is brilliant at empowering patients, and I've often printed off articles to share with my doctor. It always allows us to have a very sensible discussion about how well I feel and what contribution - if any - my thyroid function might be making to that. Good luck.

You need to combine something for the "top end" (Movicol, lactulose, stool softeners etc) with something for the "bottom end" (rectum) of your clogged up intestine. You can get a hard stool low down that acts very effectively as a plug... And all the stuff you pour in the top end (stool softeners, laxatives etc) will make you feel ill until it can break through that hard stool - not fun! Fibre doesn't always help when it gets this bad but Water always does. Go off extra fibre for a few days until you feel this is sorted out. But make sure you go back to it!

My son was diagnosed coeliac at age 6, 8 years ago. It's as big a deal as you want it to be - don't worry too much. Takes a little while to get used to it, but you will. In Australia GF foods are increasingly available in supermarkets and GF bread an option in cafes - hope its the same where you are. We eat GF "by ingredient", rather than just foods labelled GF. Reading the ingredients list and avoiding foods with wheat, oats, rye or barley opens up many more choices. A tip though - "glucose syrup from wheat" is GF as it is so heavily processed all gluten is removed. This is an ingredient in an awful lot of things, so v helpful to know this. Join your local Coeliac Society and get an "ingredients list" book. Bread is the toughest thing to find a fast GF version of, but explore and you'll find something you can live with. Good luck.

In Australia we have something called a "burkini", favoured by devout Muslim girls. Literally head to toe covering! Personally I recommend you just enjoy the beach!

600 is awfully low calories. I was sleeved 2 weeks after you and have no trouble getting in some lovely Soups. I add fish or lean mince and purée, always add Benefiber too. Low fat natural yoghurt with puréed fruit is good too. BTW, I aim for 800 calories but often eat a little more than this. Try to keep it all really healthy, but making choc mousse with the children last night did involve too much taste testing.. Ive really got to watch that. It's easy to increase calories, but the quality of those calories is everything. Good luck.

Wow. You look great and you even hold yourself like you have more energy. I someone said earlier, 10 years younger... easily 10 years. Huge congrats.

I have one large/long time release pill that couldn't be stopped suddenly and I was able to take from second day with a minimum of water. No problems for me. Good luck!

20lbs in the first week sounds enormous and may have been partly due to dehydration. As your fluid balance has improved but your weight hasn't increased you've probably lost weight in subsequent weeks. I was sleeved 3 weeks ago and have lost less than 20 lbs since - 7.7kg (I live in a metric world... Have to think about the conversion) - and I think that's great.... For me.

I'm over 3 weeks out and my dr has me on liquids and purées still and for another week. No problems so far, but I wouldn't really expect it on a diet like this. What are you eating? If you've progressed to solid foods (or even soft foods) maybe you should take a step back for a while. My dr also says healing takes months, and some of us need to be very gentle on our sore tums.

I found I could get chicken soup in quite early on and am now putting fish in Asian soup bases, lean mince in tomato soup bases, eating yoghurts with (unflavoured) protein powder and some puréed fruit and now making a slightly runny scrambled egg - all much nicer than those awful choc, strawberry and vanilla protein shakes. I can tolerate the coffee shakes, but all the other flavours make me feel nauseous. Just add a little extra water or skim milk, use your blender/stick to purée well and (if necessary) strain out any lumps/bits. I was sleeved 29 April and started this at the end of my second week but could have managed a few days earlier I'm sure... My dr is very conservative and I like it that way! Good luck.

Folds in the suture line? Although I assume your dr would recognise that. Most drs have access to some sort of mentor/senior group and can refer cases for review. Ask your dr if he/she plans to do that ? Or what other steps can be taken.

I don't have any experience per se, though am post menopausal, went into menopause surgically at 46 and used patch then oral HRT from 47 to 51... And now have liver adenomas (benign tumours) "probably" due to HRT use. I wanted to say though that the low carb, low calorie diet most of us are on has an effect on the liver AND, as my Adenoma experience has shown me, so does HRT. Perhaps unrelated but worth exploring just in case??? Good luck.

Can someone please tell me what a "NUT" is - I read the term all the time but it means nothing to me.

Wow. I'm on nil by mouth for 4 days, 'runny' liquids for 10 days, purées/blendered (thick) liquids for 2 weeks then 'mashed' foods for 2 weeks. I think mashed foods might be equivalent to your 'soft' foods. At day 11 post op I'm keen for something 'thicker' now, but I've only just started feeling this way. As you said, you don't have to move as fast as your doctors program says is possible -- it may work for some and not others. Good luck.

Cindy, so sorry to hear about your miscarriage. That will be playing with your hormones no end, so don't worry about the 12lbs. Just let your body recover from the double whammy you've just had and I'm sure weight loss will take care of itself very nicely. My Dr has me on "runny" liquids for another 2 days and then can go on purées for a couple of weeks. I think soft foods "mashed" is ok after that. So it seems he's more cautious than many. But I've been able to have some nice Soups, diet jelly and have sneaked in quite a lot of low fat natural yoghurt too. All without problems, as long as I go slow and sit up straight. I've had a bit of pain around some incisions, firstly around the one my stomach was pulled through (low right) and more recently low left. I'm thinking the latter pain is constipation, despite sticking Benefiber in everything and drinking a V8 vegie juice a day. Took Movicol today but not sure how effective it is when sipped over the course of an hour... Have lost just over 10kg from start of pre-op diet, which I think is around 22 lb. Perhaps 12-14lb since the actual op. Already can see and feel a real difference. Yahoo! Not doing a lot of exercise except gentle walking... Hopefully things will really kick off when I get back to exercising. Fingers crossed xxx

Wow, you folk "up top" really have to go through some hoops with your insurance companies! DownUnder your health insurance policy either covers the "item number" (for VSG, in this instance) or not... and by far most cover "everything", though rarely the full cost of anything except your actual hospital stay. If it's included as a policy option and your doctor refers you to a specialist (in this case a bariatric surgeon or clinic), you can have the surgery/treatment.... The insurance company has NO say in it. I think most people (here) would feel insurance companies were really overstepping the mark if they tried to come between medical decisions made by patient and doctor. Having said that, I can see there's a lot of value in some of the hoops/steps, which we aren't exposed to and perhaps should be. I feel for people on lower BMIs though with 6 months diet required... I can lose on a strict Optifast diet, and do so each and every year. I'd then end up below the qualifying BMI and get bumped for that reason, but every year I also regain the weight I've lost and then some...30kg gained over the past 6 years. I think a lot of people have the "can lose it but can't keep it off" problem. I'd have to get a lot bigger to stay compliant under your system, and I'm relieved I didn't have to be here. I was about 36 BMI but with v significant health issues. Was operated on 2 weeks and one day after seeing the bariatric surgeon for the first time... A bit too fast to be honest.

I'd thump any doctor that suggested I be discharged on the same day as this surgery - and hard too. It's not just about how you "feel" - you should be on a drip for a day or two so you don't get dehydrated, monitored for fever or blood pressure problems, and be receiving anti-nausea and anti clotting meds under medical supervision. These are all very real medical issues that apply to any significant operation. The sleeve is NOT a small op. I wasn't even allowed to sip water for 4 days, so you are doing well to get anything in. It's great you're feeling well and have support - you'll be amazed at how much better you'll feel with each passing day. Monitor yourself closely for dehydration as it can make you feel nauseous and so even less likely to take in Fluid. See a doc if it your inability to drink much goes on much longer. No doubt you'll sail through this as the vast majority of us do - I'm cranky because I think your doctor has taken a foolish risk with your health, not because I think you - as an individual - are in great danger. Good luck with it all.