JamieLogical

My nutritionist has been great! She checked in on me a lot in the early weeks/months and has followed up with me at least every three months. She gave me very thorough information about my pre and post-op diets. She answered all of my questions very promptly. Just about a month ago (so 10 months out), I emailed her because the formula of my Multivitamin had changed somewhat and asked if there was anything I needed to do differently because of that and she got back to me within a couple of hours... this was on a Sunday night! I would say of everyone involved in my surgery, she is the one that has been the most helpful and useful through this whole process. I only met and talked with my surgeon the day of my surgery, but I have had a LOT of correspondence with my nutritionist. If I had one complaint, it would be that she never gave me calorie goals, only Protein goals.

Hope all goes well!

@@travel_lightly Glad to hear you are doing better. It's a huge period of adjustment post-op and the early months are a lot of trial and error. It sounds like you are finding your path and learning how to live your new life. Keep on truckin'! You are going to have ups and downs. Even months out from surgery when you have really found your groove, things are going to happen in life that throw you a curve ball and you may not deal with them in the best way possible. The key is to look at the big picture and move on from any mistakes. Don't let poor choices one day serve as an excuse to make poor choices the next. Don't let yourself fall into destructive patterns. But, do forgive yourself and move on.

That is 100% up to YOUR surgeon/nutritionist. Every program has a different plan, so no one here can give you an answer.

Glad to hear all went well! Hang tough these next few days/weeks. There will be some pretty low lows, but it will be worth it in the end!

Most surgeons will take the time to talk to you directly if you so desire. I personally didn't talk to my surgeon directly until the day of my surgery. I mostly spoke to my nutritionist and the cardiologist (who I was directed to talk to with any questions about medications pre and post-op). Size of the bougie is actually pretty irrelevant when it comes to the success of the patient, but if that is something that is important to you, you have EVERY right to as and receive an answer before proceeding. You should definitely ask any questions that will help put your mind at ease and make you more confident in your decision!

Glad to hear it! Self-pay can be daunting, but there are affordable options if you keep an open mind and it is definitely worth the long-term investment in your health and happiness!

Something that's pretty disturbing to me now that I'm so thin is that I can visibly SEE when I am bloated. Like I can see my lower abdomen protruding. This always happens when I'm backed up and haven't had a BM in a couple of days. And I agree with you, it always seems to correlate with a stall on the scale.

I didn't qualify through my insurance, because I didn't have a five year documented history of a BMI over 35. However, my situation was different from yours. I didn't have a gap in my documentation, I had lost 90 pounds "on my own" in 2010/2011 and gained 80 of it back by July of last year. So even though I was back over a BMI of 40, my BMI had been well below 35 for a big chunk of the previous 5 years. I really felt like my insurance company was punishing me for at LEAST trying to lose the weight on my own before resorting to surgery! My options were to stay fat for 3-4 more years so I had the 5-year documented history or self-pay. I chose to self-pay and spend those 3-4 years as the fit and healthy person I am now!

I'd suggest posting this in the Mexico & Self-Pay Gastric Sleeve Surgery forum here. BariatricPal is actually affiliated with several surgeons in Mexico, so I am sure you will get a response from their coordinator, at the very least. I had my sleeve in Mexico, but I was not a revision, so I am not sure if the process would be any different for you than it was for me. One thing you will need, if you don't have it already, is a passport or passport card for crossing the border.

I paid with a cashier's check. I'd be surprised if any surgeon wouldn't take that as a payment option, since it's as good as cash. I was required to scan and email a copy of the check in advance of my surgery though, so they would actually pick me up from the airport and transfer me to the hotel and clinic. I guess that's understandable. They want to be sure you are legit going to show up and pay before sending someone across the border to fetch you.

There are actually some studies and schools of thought about performing VSG on teenagers as a preventative measure. It's been a while since I read up on it, but there does at least seem to be some medical rationale for it. But, like with most research and studies, people have varying opinions. Edit: a quick Google search on "sleeve gastrectomy on teenagers" turned up quite a few links to studies and articles about the debate.

My suspicion would be that if you haven't been to a PCP in that long, there might be some extra steps for you that will prolong the process. Most insurers seem to require documentation of weight history and weight loss attempts in the past. Otherwise you might be required to jump through more hoops and complete some supervised diet program before proceeding.

You are only a month and a half out. The pounds drop FAST in the early months. Eventually it will slow down and as long as he keeps working, he can catch up to you. I don't think he can truly believe that you took the easy way out after seeing what you've been through during this process. And when you get to the point where you are killing yourself to lose half a pound a week the same way he is, he will see that it is no "easier" for you than it is for him.

I had a really rough time getting over my food addiction. I had turned to food for comfort for so long and I found it very frustrating that was no longer an option for me post-op. I had to eventually find other ways of coping with my emotions, but it was a real struggle. Even now, 11 months post-op, I still get a little sad/frustrated sometimes that I can't binge on a pizza to deal with a problem, but those instances are VERY few and far between now. I will honestly tell you, though, that I probably struggled with this until I was a good 4 months post-op, so you have a bit of a slog ahead of you. Just take it one day/week at a time.

I wanted to mention that the BBC show, Fat Doctors, has shown the gastric balloon as a safer option for people with very high BMI or high risk factors for surgery. They use the balloon as a temporary treatment to help get a patient's weight down to a safer level, then remove the balloon and perform actual weight loss surgery on them (usually RNY) once their risk factors for undergoing anesthesia have been reduced.

My nutritionist asked me about 80 questions before my surgery and set my goal at 165. My personal goal was 155, because that would put me right in the upper end of the "healthy" BMI range. I've been stuck at 171 for going on a month now and I was stuck at 175 for going on a month before that. So 165 is seeming pretty optimistic at this point. I now have NO desire to get to my original goal of 155, because I would be a freakin' toothpick! As it is, I already have bones sticking out all over the place and I'm wearing smaller clothes than I ever have in my adult life. Just losing the 6 more pounds to get to 165 has me worried I'll be too skinny. NO WAY do I want to be 16 pounds thinner than I am right now!

You need to fuel your body. Make sure you are getting good carbs before a workout and protein after a workout. If you increase the intensity of your exercise, you need to increase your food intake as well. When I really upped my exercise intensity a couple months post-op, I added a morning snack (between breakfast and lunch) because I found I was STARVING by lunch time. So, I added a reduced fat cheese stick as a morning snack and that really helped. I also added some granola or kashi cereal to my afternoon yogurt for some carbs before my workout (I work out as soon as I get home from work, before dinner).

For anyone who has missed me on these forums the past month or so, I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and well. Real life has been very hectic for me, thus my not being around as much. I had a major deadline at work that had me working feverishly for several weeks, with no real time to keep up with forums and email. Plus, my sister and her four children moved in with us. The room that used to be my home office is now a bedroom for three boys, so I don't have much opportunity to get on my computer at home anymore either. However, things are getting settled down at work now, so I should have a little more time to check in at least once a day and see how everyone is doing. Plus, my sister is in the process of buying a house, so she and the kids will be moving out in mid-September. Hope all are well!

I definitely have new respect for parents of young children who are trying to lose weight/exercise or really just do anything to better themselves. How you find the time and energy is beyond me!

Everyone keeps saying this to me, but the REAL saint in all of this has been my husband. I mean, she's MY sister and I obviously wasn't going to let her and her kids be homeless, but Dan has less obligation than I do. Our whole life is pretty much turned upside down by all of this. No privacy, no space, no time, all of our expensive items and furniture being subjected to two and three-year-olds! It's been a real challenge. You never realize all the little things about your life that you take for granted... like being able to just sit in peace and watch a TV show with adult content! My DVR is overflowing, because hardly any of the shows we watch are child-appropriate, plus even if they were, good luck getting to sit and watch an entire TV show with four kids demanding constant attention! I've cut back to about three workouts a week, because it's almost impossible to work out with the kids in the house. They want to "work out" with me, which means either nearly killing themselves or climbing on my treadmill and exercise bike as if they are jungle gyms. It's pretty nuts. I'm just trying to hang in there, squeeze in workouts when the kids aren't around, and keep my sanity. My house was not intended for small children, so there's also been a lot of child-proofing, figuring out where to put/hide things so they don't get damaged but we still have access to them.... it's complete craziness. I loved my $3600 couches when I bought them, but now they are just a constant source of stress and anxiety every time one of the little ones is climbing on them with a gogurt tube hanging out of their mouth with one of the older kid's big cup of grape koolaid sitting nearby. Between all the stress of my deadline at work and all the stress of every waking (and some sleeping) moment at home, it's definitely taken a toll on my weight loss efforts. I'm not gaining, but I'm not losing either. At this point I'm hoping I can just hang in there and then redouble my weight loss efforts once they've moved out.

I haven't lost my boobs post-WLS, because they are now fake! However, I lost 90 pounds "on my own" back in 2010/2011 and at the end of that, my boobs were sad, droopy, little sacks. That's when I had my breast implants done. I then went on to regain 80 pounds, thus ultimately getting sleeved, but the cool thing this time around is my boobs have stayed the same size, while the rest of me got smaller, so if anything, they are actually BIGGER looking now than they were before my WLS.

hair loss is definitely one of those things that's very individual as well. It seems like some people do everything "right" and still experience a great deal of ongoing hair loss, while others don't do anything special and have minimal loss. My personal experience is that I lost hair pretty heavily for about two months from months 3 through 5. It's been steadily growing back since (almost 11 months post-op), but I would still say it's a lot thinner than it was before. Right now all my baby hairs are about 2 inches long and they stick up all over the place and drive me crazy (especially since it's been a very wet/humid summer here). I should be happy they are coming back at all, but I wish they didn't looks like split ends and fly-aways. Hard to keep my hair under control without excessive amounts of hair product. Anyway, I get all of my Protein and have done so since I was back on solid foods at 40 days post-op. I also have Biotin in my Multivitamin. I try not to brush my hair at all and only use a wide-toothed comb a couple of times a day. I do wash it daily, which some people say to try to avoid, but I can't imagine not washing it when I work out and sweat so much! I don't work-out excessively. At the most I was working out for about an hour 6 days a week. Now I am down to 3-4 days a week as I consider myself to be more in "maintenance" mode with just a few pounds left to lose and no real rush to lose them.

I had wheelchair assistance from the airport/airlines when I came home after my plastics, but it was unnecessary for me after my sleeve. I really felt physically okay after my sleeve, just tired. However, I was wiser about the way I packed when I went for my sleeve as well (having learned from my plastics experience). I packed everything in a wheeled laptop bag that was small enough to fit under my seat, so I didn't have to deal with overhead bins or carrying luggage at all.

Happy for you that you finally have a date you can stick to! You will be joining us on the losers' bench in no time!