JamieLogical

Huge congratulations! You must be so nervous and excited and anxious! Hopefully your pre-op diet won't be too torturous.

Hormone are stored in fat for both men and women. As you rapidly lose weight and that fat breaks down, the hormones are released back into your blood stream. So it is very common to experience intense emotions and mood swings post-op. Not to mention you are basically starving in those first few weeks and working through any emotional issues you had with food, so you'd likely be moody anyway!

I agree that the protein first thing is probably the most important rule for success.Even when I do eat some crap once in a while, I still ALWAYS make sure I will meet my protein goal for the day as well. I never have junk at my meal time or my scheduled Snacks. If I'm going to eat it, I have to fit it in between my scheduled eating. That may be a form of grazing, essentially, but since I don't do it every day or even every week, I'm not to concerned. I'm fully aware that it is a way of eating around my restriction, so I think as long as I stay conscious of that, I'll be okay. Back on topic though, the OP has a verified, actual, physically stretched sleeve and we are all very curious to know how that possibly could have happened. It's sounding more and more to me like perhaps the sleeve wasn't formed properly in the first place?

Well, I am definitely going with Dra. Cardenas again, just because I had such a great experience and results with her the first time around. My tummy tuck is a work of art. Stomach is sooo tight and flat still, 5 years out, and plus 80 pounds, then minus 100. Plus I love how low my scar is. Even the skimpiest pair of panties covers it. I also think my belly button looks great and natural. I have seen some after pics of some very weird belly buttons from other surgeons.

Small price to pay for staying healthy. If you are having trouble keeping track, there are apps that will track meds/vitamins for you and let you set alarms. They even do handy things like remind you when you need to buy/order more.

@@Daisee68 No worries about speaking Spanish. I've been to Mexico for surgery twice and don't speak a word! Dra. Cardenas speaks perfect English. Her husband's American! And you're right, I can show you all the ropes. I'm an old pro at Mexican surgery by this point! When are we gonna do this? I can't do it before April 24th, because that's my half marathon. Something tells me I won't have any half marathons in my near future after a thigh lift....

Sipping was a big ordeal for me the first two weeks. Every tiny sip caused gurgling in the back of my throat, then constriction/spasms in my esophagus, then burping. Every single time. It was incredibly unpleasant. Marching in place while sipping seemed to help a little. And it did get MUCH better around 2 weeks post-op, once the swelling went down.

I'm in! I want my thighs done now. When I regained my weight post-TT, it all went into my thighs and now that I've relost post-sleeve, I have lots of saggy skin in my upper thighs.

Mine are Allergan, which is a brand commonly used in the US.

Glad to hear it! Don't worry. Your doctor's Wil take care of you and keep you on IV fluids if you can't keep liquids down.

The pre-OP liquid diet.

How have you been doing with protein and water? Are you tracking your food? Are you exercising? Are you deviating from any of the guidelines like eating and drinking at the same time, drinking your calories, etc.?

Not everyone gets staples in their incisions. I had sub-dermal sutures and glue. It's important to ask your surgeon about ahead of time if you are worried about it. Glad you seem to be doing well overall. Welcome to the losers' bench!

I have a hard time believing you could get minerals through a patch. Does it include calcium, magnesium, iron, etc? How far out from surgery are you?

My PCP handled everything for me once I was back in the US. There really wasn't much to do at that point since my drains and few stitches (had actual stitches in my belly button and at all of the places the lipo wand had been inserted) had already been removed. My PCP just checked my incisions, made sure everything looked to be healing well and monitored the lipoma in my lower back (though there was nothing really to be done for that treatment-wise). Oh, she also did my FMLA paper-work since I was only able to go back to work half time for those first few months.

Yes to everything @@OutsideMatchInside said. Smaller boogies are associated with higher risk of stricture, but not shown to lead to more weight loss long term.

I was able to do my full consultations by submitting photos and email/phone calls. She was very specific about the photos, having me take specific angles and positions, which my husband helped me with. If you have all that work done at once, I think she would really advise you stay the full two weeks (I was VERY glad I did). Travel too soon post-op would be hard and you'd have to make sure you had someone in the states to pull your drains for you if you left any sooner than that. Being in the recovery house for the two full weeks was a huge blessing to me. I didn't have to worry about anything other than recovery, I had all the resources and care I needed, and my surgeon came to check on me every single day. My surgeon was Dra. Laura Carmina Cardenas and I stayed at the Beauty Care Recovery House.

Minimizing sagging skin on the face is the same as loose skin everywhere else. A lot depends on genetics, age, and other things outside of your control. The steps you can take are to stay well hydrated, moisturize daily, and take your vitamins (possibly some extra vitamin C and beef gelatin).

Usually it's not so much about how much was removed, but how much WASN'T. My surgeon used a size 32 French Boogie. But it seems like typical estimates for how much of the stomach is removed in VSG range from 75% to 85%.

Mine was around $8500 with all over lipo and fat grafting in addition to what you are getting done. Two weeks in the recovery house was another $1500 or so. So in total I was right at $10,000 plus air fair to San Diego. Let me know if you want my surgeon's info.

Oh, for sure, people can manage without special equipment and do every day. Everyone finds their own path through recovery. It was a real shock to me how much I HATED being helpless and relying on other people. I never knew that about myself until I was in that situation. I thought it would be a nice little vacation and I would feel spoiled having people wait on me hand-and-foot. It was a true revelation to me. And yeah, my husband and I have worked to keep up some of the "mystery" in our relationship (or at least had up to that point, this was 5 years ago mind you, we weren't even married then, just engaged!). We still, to this day, will not use the bathroom in front of one another. It is always door closed! One time when we only had one bathroom in our old house, I think I peed while he was in the shower with the shower curtain closed, but that is as close as I've ever come to using the toilet in front of him. Of course, there was no sparing him from the incisions and the dressings and the compression garments and whatnot post-op and he handled it pretty well.

You should be. How often were you eating?

Yeah, I don't think it's any big deal to do one time. I was once choking on something caught in my throat and I didn't hesitate to take a swig of Water to was it down. I don't think you are doing any long term damage or anything. And it certainly beats passing out or throwing up!

That is exactly why I am so grateful I had my plastics in Mexico and stayed at a recovery house for two full weeks with 24/7 nursing care. They had all the special equipment (motorized hospital beds, raised toilet seats with handles, walkers....) and the nurses helped me with getting to the bathroom, showering, getting in and out of my compression garments, changing my dressings, etc. I can't imagine having to rely on my husband or friends/family to do all of that! It was bad enough having paid professionals do it, I felt so guilty. My low point was when one of the nurses had to put in a suppository because the constipation from my pain meds got so bad. I would have DIED before asking my husband to help with that! By the time I went home two weeks post-op I was mostly able to fend for myself. Just needed a wedge pillow for sleeping, but no other special equipment. My mom came and stayed with me for a week, but she had just had a hernia repair herself, so she wasn't exactly tending to me or anything. We did have a funny episode where we tried to go to the grocery store together and realized we couldn't buy a gallon of milk, because neither of us was allowed to lift 8 pounds.

Have him read through this thread and other posts on these forums. There are HUNDREDS upon hundreds of personal accounts of positive experiences with surgery in Mexico. As previously stated in this post, I have been to Mexico for surgery twice and both times I had great experiences and received excellent care.