JamieLogical

My advice is to be kind to yourself. It's really tough to do the pre-op diet when you still have a full sized stomach. At least if you are on one of the more strict ones. You won't be getting many calories and the process of switching into ketosis is pretty taxing on the body, so take it kind of easy if you can. Don't try to do too much physical activity. My other advice is to stick to it, because the transition into ketosis is no joke. It can take 2-3 days, during which you are likely to experience headaches and general misery. If you "cheat" by having any carbs at any point during the diet, you will kick your body out of ketosis and have to go through the transition all over again. Don't put yourself through that! So not worth it to temporarily satisfy a carb craving. If you have to "cheat" at all, which I don't recommend, then make sure you are doing so with high protein/low carb foods.

Definitely questions better suited for your surgeon, but I think with the Plan B at least, you probably should't wait for an answer if you don't hear back early this morning. I can't imagine why laser hair removal would be an issue as all.

I stuck to my pre-op diet, so it wasn't a problem for me, but I have definitely heard of/seen people on these forums who had surgery canceled or postponed due to not sticking to the pre-op diet. While the diet is about shrinking your liver, not losing weight, some surgeons do use weight loss an an indicator of whether or not a patient has stuck to the diet.

Running/exercise. I am not going to lie... figuring out how to cope with emotions post-op was probably the hardest part for me once I was healed up and used to my restriction. I would say it took me a good 4 to 4.5 months for my brain to catch on that bingeing was no longer an option. Up to that point, if I was miserable, I wanted to eat. And the fact I couldn't eat just made me more miserable! But I did eventually get there.

I've traveled to Mexico for surgery twice by myself. There is no need for a travel companion. In fact, I feel like it's better to go alone because then you can focus 100% on yourself and not worry about keeping someone else entertained the whole time. You will be well taken care of by the surgical staff and by the time you are sent back to your hotel, you will be perfectly capable of fending for yourself. You can wallow in your misery and discomfort without having to worry about anyone else. As for the ibuprofen, that is definitely something to discuss with your surgeon. Maybe you can find some other way of managing your pain. Finally, I don't know about short term disability, but I know that I was qualified for FMLA when I had my surgeries (VSG and plastics) in Mexico.

Don't be worried about going alone. I have traveled to Mexico twice for surgery and went alone both times. It's actually nice to go alone, because then you don't have to worry about anyone but yourself. You don't have to worry about keeping your companion entertained. And you don't have to worry about whining and moaning and driving someone else crazy when you are uncomfortable.

@@lucille6624 It definitely will depend on your insurance company and policy. My policy explicitly states it won't cover skin removal surgery due to weight loss from WLS. But some providers will cover it if it is deemed "medically necessary", meaning the loose skin causes chronic rashes or interferes with movement.

Welcome! I was self-pay in Mexico, so I did not have a local support group either. I found this site to be invaluable throughout the whole process. I hope it serves you well too! Definitely don't hesitate to chime in on threads or post questions.

Goes to show, once again, how different everyone's plans are!

I was allowed to take small pills the day after surgery and return to normal sized pills at 7 days post-op. Since my multi-vitamin is a normal sized capsule and my calcium was a pretty big pill, I started those at 7 days. IIRC I was taking my prescribed meds, my sublingual B12, my D3 and my birth control the day after surgery.

If you've already started your pre-op diet, I would HIGHLY advise against deviating from the plan at this point. The point of the pre-op diet is to shrink your liver by depleting it of glycogen stores. They way you deplete your body's glycogen stores is by sending your body into a state of ketosis. Reaching a state of ketosis requires abstaining from carbs for 2-4 days. If you eat carbs while on the pre-op diet, you are essentially hitting the "reset" button and will have to go through the transition into ketosis all over again. If you absolutely MUST cheat (which I sincerely doubt), make sure you stick to protein-only foods and don't have carbs or sugars. Otherwise you'll be undoing your hard work of getting your body into ketosis in the first place.

Take your PPI religiously and eat on a schedule. If you wait until you are "hungry" to eat, you may eat too often or not enough. Like you said, it's tough to distinguish "hunger" from other things like reflux or heartburn or just a rumbly tummy. So if you take your PPI, you can diminish the occurrences of those other symptoms. And if you eat on a schedule, you can be sure you are eating enough and meeting your daily nutrition goals.

Yeah, hi. I had ONE m&m and when I am literally puking up almost every really healthy food I try and a fricken taco salad actually goes down, I am going to eat it rather than feel sick and nauseous all the time. Thanks for your really judgmental input though. I get that you are desperate to find foods you can keep down, but for you to learn that you can't keep down M&Ms and Oreos, you have to have at least tried them and at 4 weeks out, that seems ill advised. I actually had 3 Oreos for Breakfast this morning! But I am also over two years out. At 4 weeks, I wasn't even on solid foods yet! I was instructed not to have fibrous vegetables (ie: lettuce) or any crunchy foods (ie: taco shells) for three full months post-op. Have you spoken to your surgeon about the difficulties you are having keeping appropriate foods down? Has he/she ok-ed you to try some of these less advisable options? I'm really not trying to be judgy. I am concerned for your healing and also concerned that the message you are sending to newly sleeved people is that taco salad and M&Ms are okay at 4 weeks post-op. Most people aren't in the desperate situation you are, but may see this and take it as a "green light" to eat things they really shouldn't be eating so soon post-op.

I'm a little curious why you wouldn't go back to Dr. Ortiz for your revision. Do you think he is in some way responsible for your current GERD situation or is he just too expensive? I know he's on the pricey side.

Taco salad, M&Ms, and oreos at 4 weeks out... I am just going to slowly back away from this thread....

If you managed to watch a video of a TT being performed and not throw up, then your drains should be no problem!

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly that it's better than no protein at all! I'm not arguing that at all. I am just saying that I would be cautious when counting it as "30 grams" of protein towards my daily protein goals. I would err on the side of counting it as 15 grams and getting more than I need rather than counting it as 30 and only getting half what I need.

@@PorkChopExpress Don't be frightened. There are risks associated with any surgery, but botched plastics can mostly be avoided if you do your research, and look at photos and talk to real live past patients. Not that I am blaming the victim in this case at all! I am appalled by her results and very glad she was able to successfully sue. No one should have to go through something like that. I can't even really figure out what the surgeon in that case was TRYING to do to get results that bad! Anyway, like @@AvaFern said, the worst "disfiguring" you could expect with a reputable surgeon is scarring from infection or necrosis, which a surgeon has little control over. It's usually minor and can be surgically revised once you are healed up.

Sure feel free to private message me anytime! You can do that by clicking on my portrait to go to my profile, then clicking "send me a message".

Anyone can make any claim they want on the internet. Until there are independent studies confirming their "science" I don't know that I'd want to run the risk of only getting half the protein I think I'm getting.

lol, I remember reading that I believe... didn't it make national news? I knew my kids would beat me, so had no issue with it. I was happy to finish it strong and run for the entire duration... those were my two main goals. On the positive side, with it being my first 5k, I set a personal record! Yeah, it was in the national news. My parents called me up and asked me about it and they live in PA, so they had seen it on the national news. I remember her passing me at the very end and feeling discouraged enough about getting passed by a kid. It wasn't until the next day that I found out she was only supposed to have been running the 5K! I think you did really awesome with your 5K time. Better than I've ever done and I've run lots of 5Ks.

I had a donut lift, so just scarring around the nipple, no line down the bottom. My scars are still pretty noticeable when i actually LOOK at them, but i am so used to them that they don't bother me in the slightest. My husband was used to them too, so I was worried when we separated and I started dating new people. But honestly, no one cared. I'm now in a new steady relationship and my BF couldn't care less about them.

You mean which surgery to have done or which surgeon to use?

I didn't have my surgery with Dr. Garcia, but I have undergone surgery twice, both times in Mexico. It's normal to be nervous and afraid, but you have to remember that VSG is one of the safest surgeries you can have. The mortality rate is lower than having a knee replacement. Would you hesitate to get a knee replacement if you needed one?

@@goblue9280 That's an awesome way to celebrate your surgiversary! Don't let the kids' times discourage you. When I ran my first half marathon back in April, there was a 5k that same day that started a half hour later. Well, this 12 year old girl accidentally got into the crowd that started the half marathon and didn't realize her mistake until well into the race. She ended up finishing the entire half marathon with zero training. Not only that, but she passed me with maybe 400 yards to go at the end of the race. She beat me by 43 seconds. I had trained for that race for almost 4 months....