catwoman7

I wouldn't be too concerned with blood vomiting the first couple of days after surgery, but that far out? I agree with the others - press the doctor for some answers. That doesn't sound right *at all*.

yes to IV. I don't remember if I had any other needles - maybe heparin afterward??

I got used to that pretty quickly. These people deal with naked bodies a million times a week, so they probably don't realize that some people might take their comments as insensitive. I was at a teaching hospital, so in addition, i usually had half a dozen medical students in the exam room with me, staring at my naked body while the surgeon poked and prodded (although the first few times, the nurse asked me beforehand if i was ok with them being there. If I'd have said no, they wouldn't be..)

you are correct - very unhealthy. Your body is probably eating your muscles for energy.

Mayo Clinic, too. Seriously? Mayo is one of the best hospitals in the world...

it does weird stuff to your liver values, too (ALT and AST). I had mine tested for some other reason, and they were really high. My doctor said rapid weight loss is really hard on your liver, thus, you get some crazy readings. Mine were back to normal once I was about 18 months out.

IOQ must be some new designation (??). This is the first time I've ever heard of it. Back when I had it, a lot of policies required you to go to a Center of Excellence. This new IOQ thing must be stricter (??) UPDATE: I just googled it (which I should have done in the first place!). Sounds like it might be something specific to Aetna, since every hit I've seen so far mentions Aetna in conjunction with IOQ.

raw vegetables can be pretty rough on some people's stomachs. I think I was about six months out before I ate salad. I eat them a lot now - but some raw veggies (like carrots) still irritate my stomach at times.

I've heard it was due to ketosis, too

yes - I've heard of that happening to some people.

I was a bit concerned about that - esp going out of the country - in case local MD's refused to treat complications (I'm guessing most will probably treat them, but with my luck...). So I did go out of state (Illinois), but Chicago is only two hours from here, so it was do-able if I had any complications. Plus I've been able to go to all my follow-up appts, too (if I'd have gone to one of the coasts - or to Mexico - I probably would have only stayed two weeks so would only get a couple of follow-ups) the other thing that I was a bit worried about - infections. If I had gone to a surgeon in the US - even if he/she was 1000 miles way - they could call a prescription for antibiotics into Walgreens or CVS, and I could pick it up here in town, since they're chains and on the same computer system. I don't think a doctor outside of the US could call in prescription to a US pharmacy, though - but I'm not sure about that. anyway, I decided to just not take the risk. I wanted to go to someone who was within two or three hours from here, so I could get there easily if I needed to.

yes - I've heard wonderful things about both Dr. Cardenas and Dr. Sauceda (both in Mexico, so prices are lower as well)

tailbone pain is really common. Mine has gotten better (I think I've learned how to sit in a way that doesn't aggravate it as much), but I still use my coccyx pillows when I'm going to be sitting somewhere for a long time - like on a road trip (I'm retired now, but I used to have one on my office chair as well, since I sat at my desk most of the day)

a lot of us had to go through all that. In retrospect, I'm glad I did - it gave me a lot of time to research this thing to death and to be super prepared when going into it.

I didn't go up over 1000 until I was about a year out. A lot of people are in the 600-800 range that you mentioned. as far as not tracking, that's a recipe for disaster for a lot of us. I'm over four years out, and I still track. I know if I quit doing it for more than a few days, my weight would start to creep up. It happened a billion times when I was pre-surgery - I'd quit monitoring, and I'd eventually gain all the weight back. No thanks. my dietitian wants me to quit counting calories and try "intuitive eating". I just smile and nod. "Intuitive eating" is what got me up over 300 lbs. Sorry - not doin' it.

I tend to be honest with other obese people. As far as normal weight or skinny people, unless I'm pretty close to them (in which case, they knew about the surgery from the get-go), I just give them the lifestyle answer ("I'm on a low carb diet, exercise a lot, and am working with a dietitian"). All true - I just omit the surgery part.

One of the reasons Dr. Zachary was my most expensive consult (other than he's very well-known in the subspecialty) is that he'll only do his surgeries in a hospital, and he has you spend the night at the hospital, too. Both of those things add to the cost, but to me, it was worth it. Especially spending the night. I live two hours away from Chicago, so we had a hotel room for the weekend ( I had my two surgeries on Friday mornings), but there was pretty much no way I would be in any shape to go back to the hotel right after the surgery. I felt about 100 times better 24 hours later, so I was OK going back, even though it was kind of a rough weekend. But I can't imagine going back right after surgery - i really needed that first night in the hospital. My first consult did his surgeries in a surgical center and has the patients spend one night there - with a nurse on duty - which would have been acceptable (I'd prefer a hospital, but I would have been OK with staying at a surgical center). But consult #2, who also used a surgical center, sent you back to your hotel a couple hours after surgery. No way could I have done that. Especially after the LBL.

yea that's pretty high - but it might be what they're charging in California now - plus nationally-known surgeons are always on the high side. I actually did an email consult (so I did four consults, not three as I stated earlier - but three in person) with Dr. Francesco Sauceda in Mexico. He's also very well-known for working with massive weight loss patients and worked at Parkland Hospital in Dallas at one time. Anyway, it's been a couple of years, but I think he was about half of what US surgeons were charging - and that included air fare (which he was going to reimburse me $600 for) plus a few day's stay at a hotel (or maybe it was a recovery house - I can't remember). I was just a little leery about going abroad for surgery, but evidently people do it all the time.

yep - Chicago surgeons - or at least the really well-known ones - featured "big city prices" 😥

I think this was directed at sillykitty, but I figured I'd respond as well. if I'm understanding this correctly, those quotes are really low. I was told by other people who've gone through this (i.e., other massive weight loss patients) to expect about $8K-10K per procedure, with the lower bodylift counting as two procedures because they do so much there (extended tummy tuck, butt lift, mons lift). So in other words, around $16K-20K for a lower body lift, and another $8K-10K for a breast lift, and another $8K-$10K for an arm lift, etc. I had three consults, and I found this pretty much rang true. Prices can vary depending on location, experience of surgeon, whether or not they do their surgeries in a hospital or in an ambulatory surgical center, whether or not they have you spend the night, etc - but that range was a pretty good ballpark.

he's retiring? Wow! A lot of people are going to really bummed about that!! He is super well known in the bariatric community! And yes - Joseph Michaels. A lot of people on another forum I'm on have gone to him. I went to Lawrence Zachary in Chicago. Actually, I think I first heard about him right here on BP.... btw - Dr. Zachary works out of two hospitals in Chicago. He's on the faculty of the Univ of Chicago, so he works at that hospital of course - but I think it's mostly insurance-covered patients who go there. He also works out of Weiss Hospital, a small community hospital on the north side of the city. He does the self-pays there, because the facility fee there is lower there than it is at U of C. I was self-pay, so my surgery was at Weiss.

unfortunately, no 😥

I didn't look on the west coast at all, so I don't know who's all out there. Peter Fisher in San Antonio is supposed to be reasonably priced and is nationally known. My guy in Chicago is also well known, but he's pretty expensive. There are some on the east coast - like Dr. Capella in New Jersey and Dr. Michaels in the DC area. As I recall, they were pretty reasonable price-wise, too - or were a few years ago, anyway. Both very respected in the subspecialty (i.e., body contouring for massive weight loss patients).

you're supposed to chew your food slowly because your stomach won't churn nearly as much as it does now - so you have to "help" it. That said, I don't chew for 10-15 minutes anymore - but I do still chew more slowly and thoroughly than I did pre-surgery.

I've never heard that one (i.e., to avoid black pepper). I suppose he thinks it'll irritate a healing stomach, although again, I was never told that and have never heard of anyone else being told to avoid it, either.