chasingpolaris321

Sorry, I just saw that you don't have Barrett's and that you have GERD. My advice is still the same. GERD caused my Barrett's and I didn't even have signs of GERD to begin with.

I had no GERD prior to having the sleeve and now have both GERD and Barrett's. I'm only a year out of surgery and am in the process of revising to bypass. If I knew I had Barrett's there's no way I would do the sleeve. Bypass might sound more intense than the sleeve, but having two weight loss surgeries is certainly more risky than going the safe route to begin with. Everyone's decision is very personal, this is just my experience. Good luck!

I stayed three nights because I couldn't drink Water and they had a hard time controlling my pain level. I didn't have any actual complications, and I am glad they held me. I needed IV pain meds and going home too soon would have been doable but very uncomfortable. I think the majority of people stay 1-2 nights.

I like them if they are mixed with ground turkey and tomato sauce! I would never eat them plain though. And you do have to rinse them really well.

Me either!

I'm hoping that will be the case for me. I have to fly back in September to do testing and meet with the surgeon so I won't know more until then. I am crossing my fingers that things go smoothly! I don't think the coordinators are used to this type of revision and so it is frustrating to try to get ahold of them through email and Skype and get nonsensical answers. Good luck to everyone!

I have Cigna Open Access Plus. It covers bariatric surgery and revision, I'm just worried there will be some weird requirement that I haven't thought of. I live outside of the US right now and I have a limited window when I'm going to be home to have the revision. What's your insurance? Have you started the process yet?

I heard back from them and the 6 month thing was a mistake, but she still gave me kind of a confusing list of requirements. I think she lumped the "revision due to weight regain" in with the "revision due to complications." One of them though, was evidence that I had adhered to nutritional guidelines. Isn't that just being a normal BMI? I don't have recent documentation of meeting with a nutritionist so I hope it's okay. They make everything so complicated!

Insurance question!!! I'm really confused at the moment because I was just told by my surgeon's office that a 6 month nutrition plan is required by my insurance company "to see if I can lose weight on my own before surgery." I'm having the surgery because of severe GERD and I have lost 100 pounds in this past year since I had my sleeve and have been completely program compliant. I am at a normal BMI. This sounds like a mistake, right? Did anyone experience something similar?

I use 1% milk in sugar free pudding. Whole milk seems like a less nutritious choice, and would make me feel sick because it's so rich. That's just my two cents

I had my gallbladder out a month after my sleeve surgery (not fun) and it had no impact on my weight loss other than delaying my return to normal activity levels. You should be fine 8 months out as long as you stick with your program :-)

Has she tried doing something like a weight loss camp? I went to one when I was about her age and lost a sizable amount of weight and kept it off into my mid twenties. I completely understand the regain factor and know personally that girls I went to camp with did regain to some degree, but some have remained successful to this day and the big jumpstart in weight loss combined with a better understanding of nutrition made all the difference. Even if she loses and regains, by then she might be more mature and able to use this strong of a tool more effectively. I just know that if I had surgery at that age and then a short time later had to deal with the social pressures of eating and drinking in college and then navigating life as an adult I wouldn't have been as successful as I have been now with weight loss. That age group is the most change filled period of any in a persons life, and there are pretty serious consequences if you can't stick with the pretty rigid plan. If you are interested in programs, there's Wellspring Camps and Camp Penbrook during summers that I know of. I spent time at Structure House in North Carolina and they have a program that includes therapy, personal training and nutrition and operates year-round. I don't mean to imply that your daughter can't handle surgery, I'm mostly thinking about how much of an added responsibility something like this is during a period where a lot of us made mistakes learning who we are. Good luck to you both- I truly empathize and know what it's like to be an overweight teen. You both seem proactive and I'm sure she will find her way no matter what path she chooses!

I suck at making myself go to the gym, so part of what I have been doing is forcing myself to do small, non-stressful activities that don't require me to spend a lot of time getting somewhere or getting prepared. So, I've just been waking up in the morning, rolling out of bed in my pajamas, and doing a ton of sit ups, planks, push ups, lunges, and squats. The idea is that if I can't commit to doing free easy exercises, then I can't commit to spending money on fancy equipment. See if you can commit yourself to a home routine without the equipment before investing. Sometimes the idea of improving yourself is exciting and justifies an expense that is more about the purchase than the life change. I've learned this the hard way time and time again. Commit to yourself before committing your wallet. Once you've shown yourself that you can maintain a regular schedule, spend away!

Maybe this is just me but if I take a sip of anything liquid during or after eating I get stabbing pains in my chest/esophagus and I'm a year out. It also makes really loud, embarrassing gurgling noises. I'm realizing from reading everyone's responses that maybe this is related to my GERD, but I've definitely never worried that I would drink at the same time as eating because of the pain. The few times I have been forced to (you can't turn down a rural Kyrgyz woman's bread and tea), I have hated it and felt like death was imminent. You probably don't have this issue but I thought I'd share my experience.

Even though I think everyone here has some very valid points about long term consequences and potentially setting yourself up for trouble by drinking, I must say that I really empathize with your predicament and know that there is a different kind of stress and shame socially when you don't partake in your usual eating and drinking routines while out with friends at our age (I'm in my mid 20's so slightly older) I was still finishing grad school when I had my surgery, and even though my social group is less intense party wise than yours is, people in their 20's are under much greater pressure and scrutiny than when you get older and your friends start to settle down and the pack mentality lessens. I've been put on the spot in front of large groups of friends (not maliciously) and it is hard to explain a sudden huge shift in behavior to people who you aren't close enough with to tell, especially since partying at our age is a frequent occurrence and we don't have careers (I do now, but not until recently) and families to lessen our social activities. I'm a year out now and started having a glass or two of wine from time to time. I now find drinking to be somewhat physically uncomfortable so it's easy for me to self limit, but I'm sure that will eventually change. It sounds like you will be out of the college atmosphere soon, so consider the first several months to be a time to set better habits without feeling like you can never drink again. The way I think about it is I have a choice between being the biggest party pooper in the room or the biggest girl in the room. It's hard to practice in reality but my guess is that you'd rather forgo the partying for the weight loss when you look back five years from now. I also want to say that I respect everyone who is older and who has been through this' opinions, but to remember that you can't save people from making your mistakes. If I could go back in time I would tell middle school me to have more confidence, more compassion towards my peers, and more respect for my parents. But that's not how life works. Hindsight is 20/20, and we learn from our mistakes as we mature. Weight loss surgery is hard for people in their 20's just like it would be hard for someone in their 40's getting divorced and dealing with teenage kids. Wherever we are in life weight loss surgery is a deeply personal decision with individual challenges, and I have compassion for all of us who want better, healthier lives for ourselves.

Maybe this is just me, but I think having an ideal dress size is a little silly (it's totally fine if you do, this is just my opinion for myself). We make dress size into an identity, when in reality sizes vary widely across brands. I could probably pull on a size 6 pair of pants laying down and sucking in, but that doesn't make me a "size 6" and it doesn't mean that a pair of pants in a size 6 in another brand wouldn't fit great. We talk about ourselves like we a "are" a dress size, but we are the same size no matter what size pants we end up wearing. That being said, I know how painful it was wearing plus size clothes and I feel the same joy that everyone else does when our weight loss comes along with smaller clothes. So my ideal dress size is looking good in whatever size clothes I wear.

When you're just out of surgery it is really challenging to get enough protein in, especially if things are bothering your stomach. I know that I had to resort to oatmeal and beans and watered down juice just to get by, and I lost almost 100 pounds just fine. Don't freak out and be too hard on yourself. It's super important to follow your NUT guidelines, but eating some carbs in the beginning isn't going to kill you and might be a necessary evil to getting by. I also don't love meat and supplement with tofu, beans, and yogurt. Hang in there!

You can do it! I had a few months of making really poor food choices and stalled, and then I woke of one morning and basically gave myself a kick and am now back on track. I know for me I panicked that things were going back to how they were pre-op, but then I remembered that 85% of my stomach was missing and there was no reason that I couldn't continue to use that as a tool. We are way ahead of people without surgeries when it comes to sticking to the basics that we have learned. I also have found it helpful to read newbie posts because they are so compliant and motivated. For me, it helps get me back in that mindset.

This might just be me but I was barely hobbling around three days after my surgery. I went on these fun little walks with my mobile IV and would try to get to the nurses station and back before falling to my knees. I think I had a rougher recovery than many here as I was in the hospital for a few days, but I wouldn't count on being able to move your leg enough to hit the brake pedal. You probably don't want to be the first one among us to simultaneously recover from bariatric surgery AND crashing into a pole.

Right, sorry, just to clarify I did take the extended form of one of my pills and my doctor switched it to the non extended version twice a day. FOR SURE run everything by your surgeon and psychiatrist, they are the only ones who can help you figure out what's right. Quartering my pills was cleared by my doctor, but it is completely dependent on the medication whether or not that works. Good luck!

Did anyone have the sleeve to RYN at a normal BMI? I developed Barrett's and severe acid and bile reflux and am revising sometime in December. I'm only a year out of sleeve surgery and will probably be around 140lbs (currently 150) at surgery and am 5"5'. I just remember how hard it was to eat anything for so long and I'm having a hard time figuring out what having bypass is going to be like at a normal weight.

There are several reasons why I don't post pictures. First, BariatricPal is an open site that anyone can navigate to. I know plenty of people who've had their photos end up on Buzzfeed or Twitter without their permission, and it's my preference not to risk that personal information about myself be shared with the general public. I also don't think that there needs to be photographic proof that you are successful. Most people come to this site for advice, and I don't need to be judged about how credible my experience is based on an opinion about my photos. Someone who is two weeks into the process might have an insight that someone a year out doesn't, and someone three years out might not have been "successful" but might have valuable lessons to share. There's no need for photos in any of these situations. That being said, I have been repeatedly inspired and awed by the members of this site and their before and after pictures. It's a personal choice to share, and I know that I felt so motivated and appreciative of their willingness to put themselves out there. My point is, thank you for sharing if you want to, and your contribution to these forums is immensely important regardless of whether or not we know what you look like.

I am bipolar as well and did struggle a bit with my medications after having the sleeve surgery. Liquid lithium is perhaps the grossest thing on the planet, and some medications are really bitter when crushed. I got through it, but was told not to swallow whole pills for a month. I ended up quartering most of them instead of crushing and that made it manageable. I take four medications and so most of my struggle was the dozens of tiny pill pieces I had to take the time to slowly swallow.

I know a lot of people on this thread had procedures done last year, but if anyone's around did you have a hard time finding a surgeon who has done a sleeve to bypass revision? I live in a different place than my original surgery and it seems like a lot of the surgeons I've contacted aren't very familiar with this kind of revision.

Hi all, Sorry to anyone who has seen this cross-posted. I haven't gotten much response on the sleeve forum. Long story short my surgeon has asked me to consider revising my sleeve (that I had a year ago) to bypass because of severe bile/acid reflux and newly developed Barrett's Esophagus. Has anyone on here gone through this? I'm feeling overwhelmed with a lot of decisions surrounding this. Thanks in advance!