Wheetsin

First - congratulations! Second - I'm reminded of Napoleon Dynamite: I like your sleeves. They're real big.

Tell us a little about where you work. You don't need to give any identifying information, but how many employees are there? Are you offered, or have you elected, STD coverage? WHy does your supervisor consider your procedure an "elective" surgery? Has he or she been told what the procedure is? Is your workplace large enough that you have an HR department? Is 4 weeks the average time off? That seems like a lot, but you do need to work within your own comfort levels, and I dont' know -- I haven't had it yet.

Let me ask you guys this - does the PPI you are taking STOP the reflux, or just make it less harmful/gross? I ge the difference between PPI & antiacids, but I have a slipped band and when anything happens to increase the restriction, I get pretty severe reflux. If I take an antiacid, I still reflux, but it's a neutralized liquid instead of the burning acid. Still gross. I've tried taking a PPI in hopes that it would stop the reflux, and it doesn't. Again, I still reflux, but what I'm refluxing doesn't hurt/burn. In both cases it's like refluxing Water, but a little more gross... Since the PPIs are shutting down the pumps, I'm thinking you still reflux - sine reflux isn't specific to a state or degree of acid in your stomach.

Fat faces hang. It's gravity. Faces are one of the first places most people lose, so it's pretty normal to appear younger. UNLESS you lose weight at a really old age, and the fat is what was keeping your skin from just hanging. That happened to my grandma... ugh... not pretty. I was always amazed at how youthful she looked for her age, until she lost weight and her face started to hang. (I don't mean that in a cruel way, but it's just how it is) The one thing I noticed right away when I first started looking at before/after pics was that everyone, even people pretty far from their goal, had very prominent collar bones. Having now gotten (at least once) close to my goal, I think it's two things. I do, and it seems most do, lose weight from the upper half of my body first. So it makes sense that even only halfway (or less!) collar bones might be unusually prominent. I also find myself sometimes trying to look skinnier in pics, and the "turtle neck" (you know - extending your neck a bit to get rid of any excess chins, and to emphasize the bones/tendons/etc around the neck to appear slimmer) is a great way to do this, but also tends to deepen the indentations around collar bones. Soeither it's real progress, or faux progress, but either way it's great.

I would hope you do not need to worry about a "riot act" for expressing your feelings.I will read a riot act to anyone who does that to you. (j/k) So much to say here. Honestly, there's no way to "be" then. You just are. And since it will cone gradually, you will adjust gradually. Your concern over this makes me wonder about the genesis of your weight problem. I'd guess your an emotional eater - since your fears of losing weight are very emotionally based - what are your eating triggers? What do you get from food? What does your fat give you? (I know not everyione agrees with this idea, and that's an entirely different post, but I believe 100% that we do things because we get something out of them... and that includes being fat even though we all physically have an ability to not be fat... we are... so I believe that we are for a reason. Usually that reason is control. Sometimes it's security, or protection, or distance. Sometimes its etc etc. Do you know what you get? If you do, adjustment will be 10000 times easier.

As long as your Vitamin is not "time release," "enteric coated" or otherwise specifying that you must swallow the whole pill, you should be able to chew it. It will not taste nice! (THe chewable ones don't either, but they taste better). Centrum complete makes a chewable, if you're having a hard time finding one. If you're taking additional supplements, they may or may not be advisable to chew. It depends on how they will interact with things like your tooth enamel.

PhatGUrl, if you don't plan on returning to MX for aftercare, you might want to start finding a local surgeon who take care of you now. A lot of people wait until they need it, and them find that no one around them will handle their care, or the costs are more than they anticipated, etc. Knowing who you'll see down the road, when you have your surgery, will save you the stress later on. And on that note, what aftercare is really needed? Staple removal, drain removal -- is there a standard follow-up schedule after that or are you just kind of set loose? (I know it will vary by surgeon, but it's an interesting consideration for out-of-country procedures).

That's a good suggestion. I had not thought too much about the nausea, but knowing the plan up front is great. Especially since I hate surprises and pretty much NEED to know what to expect. Did you have nausea with your other procedures (i.e. is it your reaction to anesthesia, pain...) or is it just with your VSG?

Is it a matter of how the bill needs to be submitted (I ran into this when I had my lap-band because a nurse anesthetist was used and not billed separately, but needed to be -- took me about 6 months to resolve), or that the person's involvement is not covered? Can you paste the exact verbiage in your plan? I'm not completely understanding the problem as you've stated it in your post, but the contract language should help clarify. (I used to work for an insurance company and may be of some help, or if nothing else know some "insiders" I can ask.)

Hi Nohemi - I don't have a sleeve yet but I have a lap-band. Our chewing requirements are similar, and in fact lap-band requirements may be a bit more strict. This is a difficult behavior to change -- it was never apparent how little I chewed, and how much I swallowed at a time, until I had my band and had to pay attention. Until you get the hang of things, I would suggest eating with a baby spoon. SInce you have a 2 y/o, you probably have some of these laying around. The amount of food that a baby spoon holds when it has some room to spare is a good size bite to start with. Also until you get a feel for things, wait 3 - 5 minutes between bites. When we're learning our new feelings & sensations, sometimes we can misinterpret the message and eat a little too much, or a little too quickly. Regardless of your WLS, that's no good to do so soon after surgery. I did OK in the drinking front when learning how to drink more slowly (I was ALWAYS a chugger). It worked for me to take a normal mouthful, but then swallow it over 6 - 7 swallows. I know people who once again turned to their children's tools & used sippy cups with the "slow" restrictor in place. This didn't work for me as well because I had to suck which meant pulling in air, but it worked for them. When you get to a head hunger stage, serve your meals on side plates or saucers. It helps, mentally, to see a "plate full" -- regardless of plate size. HTH!

This recipe reminds me of my Atkins days. "Breading" was either crushed pork rinds or parmesan cheese. I even had a recipe for pork rind pancakes and pork rind french toast. They weren't as horrible as you might think.

Socialized medicine has a lot of pros. The wait lists are not one of them! (Nor are the taxes) I'm a but different since I'll be a revision. Getting my band, I submitted my paperwork around December and had my surgery March 1st. My insurance company at the time did not require a supervised diet for WLS. So the two months was the time it took to get all the pre-op stuff done, and to get a spot on my surgeon's waiting list. This time around, my slip was diagnosed in early June. Last week I had the EGD my current insurance company requires for removal/revision. I don't yet know next steps. My current insurance company DOES require a supervissed diet (6 months) but I have been told that since I am currently living with WLS, and seeking a revision, I will be excluded from that requirement. My surgeon's current wait list is about 3 weeks. He requires 2 months between procedures. I'm hoping removal approval comes through and I can get the band out Aug, and have a sleeve done in Oct. We'll see........

I know one person who went through a "too skinny" stage, but has since been able to get to a healthy weight. A lot of people exceed their target weight, but we tend to set high target weights anyway.

You have a really high starting weight (as did I when I had my AGB). It's hard to understand why high losses don't result in size changes. Part of it is math. Think of it not so much as pounds lost, but percentage of excess weight lost. When you weigh 400# and you lose 40#, you've lost 10% of your weight. When you weight 200# and you lose 40#, you've lost 20%. Another part of it is your body, and from where you're losing the fat. I dropped top sizes long before I dropped bottom sizes. Another prt of it is the flab factor, and the nature of your clothes. I'm currenlty down 4 top sizes and 5 bottom sizes from my highest weight. I can still wear the underwear I wore on the day I had surgery, and they aren't loose, but the pants I wore I can fit two of me in. I was banded at about 380 - 385 on 3/1/2006. I could wear a tight 30/32, but even some 30/32 were starting to not fit me. It was easily 50+ lbs before I lost my first size. A lot of anything you lose in youir first month is Fluid. At my lowest pre-op weight I was about 225 (when I got pregnant). At 225 I was a 14/16 top and comfortable 18 bottoms, some 16s. That was two years post-op, but I sat at 250 for seriously about 8 mos - 12 mos. Major stall. Given your slightly higher starting weight than mine, and my best recollection of starting to notice a difference in clothes about 50 lbs in, I'd guess you're right at the brink of really seeing a difference. I noticed that for me, after that initial milestone of the first size, it seemed that a size drop happened about every 30 lbs, and then around every 20 lbs once I had dropped 2 or 3 sizes.

Most restrictive WLS operations come with an ultimate "food as tolerated" guideline. I know some people have a hard time with skins (I know some people with lap-bands for whom this is also true) -- tomato skins, cucumber skins, grape skins, etc. I have heard that extremely fibrous foods, while not outlawed, may be difficult.

Average married sex really doesn't burn that many calories. It might be more related to you feeling better about yourself, and your husbnad picking up on that. "ONederland" is hitting 199.9 on the scale -- weighing in the ONE hundreds. There's also "Twoterville" and I'm forgetting the one people use for 300s.

Not having your surgeries together will be the best thing from a practical standpoint. My parents, a few years after I had it, both decided to get the lap-band surgery. They ("they" meaning my mother) wanted to do their surgeries together, to the point of trying to get them scheduled on the same day. I talked them out of it. It worked out much better for one to be healed/fully mobile/etc. while the other was down. Especially since they have a jumpy dog that can be a little crazy, and have to walk up/down stairs no matter where they enter their house. My mom had a bit of a hard time after her surgery (she went first) and my dad would not have been able to take on the extra care of he was newly post-op too, because it involved more lifting and activity than he would have been allowed.

Your facial hair growth is probably here to stay. Sorry. The hairloss from surgery is not permanent, so even if it did affect your facial hair, it would probably jsut give you enough break that you would hate it even more when it came back. Hehe. If you notice hairloss, it will be from your head (scalp). I think... I was about 200 lbs overweight for a long time, and my mom's side of the family is Greek and my dad's side is Native American. 'nough side, right? I dropped about 175 lbs, and have maintained a loss of about 120 lbs, and have not seen ANY difference in unwanted facial hair. I wax/pluck. I'm seriously considering something called "No! No!" I don't tend to buy things I see on TV, but I have read some really good reviews about that one. A girlfriend of mine had the beard growth. She had RNY, lost all her weightplus about 18 lbs, then gained back about 25 lbs. She shaves in the morning, in the shower. She's single, and we went shopping one day and she was buying a man's razor and facial shaving cream. I was like... wtf??

Why the strong fear? As someone already asked, do you have above average risk factors, or has it happened to someone you know, or...?

Signs of the times, I think. I'd heard that hospitals were really clamping down on payment arrangements. They can't really repossess a missing stomach. Just my 2 cents... experience matters, to a point. I'd take someone who has done 300 sleeves over 12 sleeves any day. But to me, it's not going to make much difference if someone has done 300 vs 500, or 1500 vs 8000. At some point, there's enough experience there, and any more isn't making a huge difference. Perhaps a bad analogy, but -- I don't want to be on the interstate with a first time driver, or even a 1 year driver. But it doesn't matter if I go with someonw ho has 15 years of driving experience or 50. So while I agree that experience is important, can you find a surgeon who has enough experience? If I was right and your "budget" for this is around $10,500 you should be able to find an experienced surgeon in the states in that range. You may even be able to find one near you. What would scare you about going on your own? FOr the part that matters, you'll be unconscious anyway.

WIth the lap-band, the rule serves three purposes. Surgeons tend to tell you about two of them. 1. Keep from flusing food through the band 2. Avoid the discomfort that can come from drinking too soon (on a full pouch) 3. Allow solids enough time to activate the "full" sensation, and keep them in the pouch longer (related to #1). I don't know if these are the same reasons given for the sleeve or not, other than the pouch obviously wouldn't be. Of those above I found that #2 was the biggest. There was never a difference in how much I ate when I didn't drink vs. when I did. But there was a world of pain if I drank too soon! (I'm not a rule follower, but I did find that over time, drinking with meals become easy to avoid. Stick with it, and make them unavailable during meals if it helps.) I'm also assuming that if your "meal" takes you, say, 4 hours to finish, taking a drink during those 4 hours doesn't count. Our guidelines averaged about 30 mins before to an hour after. If I grazed on something, I tended to wait a few mins.

CT Fats - I kinda see two different conversations going on. I'm assuming your question is about body/physical attraction and not about emotional connection. Is that right? You're not talking about emotional fidelity, or whether or not women love their husbands & would still love them if they gained weight... but purely whether or not that instinctual level of raw physical attraction would be there if they were obese...?

Do you by any chance wear 36x36 - 42x36 pants or 2XL shirts? I have boxes of them that I need to get rid of (hubby's). I haven't lost any sizes in the last 2 years... haven't gone up either though. I did the "new qwardrobe per size" thing. It was costly, but a good investment for affirmation. A few strategies you can use, 'cuz we're all going to need smaller sizes at some point before we're completely done. - Focus on basics. A pair of black slacks, and a brown-toned pair - solid or print. Completely interchangeable with any career wear. WHen rapidly changing sizes, I became completely hooked on the camisole (LB style stretchy tank) and cardigan sweaters. I now wear their canisoles layered with something else almost every day. They go on sale for about $9 -- the cheapest way to completely change the look of a shirt. - For casual, a single pair of jeans can also be cuffed up for island capris. - Shop clearance for upcoming sizes. I just got back from buying some summer clearance. I don't expect to lose any sizes this summer so I just got my current size, but since empire waist cross dresses were on sale for $9 I'd have bought the next size down if I did. If I had any clue what size I'd be wearing next summer I would have bought it too. - I can find really fun and unique things at Marshall's and TJ Maxx (saw someone else mentioned them too). - Have a local support group? Me and about 6 other ladies from mine all had surgery a few months apart, and all started around the same size. Usually when one of us was getting out of a size, another was going into it. This worked really well, except for pants (I'm about 4" taller than the next tallest) - Pants can be reasonably taken down about 2 sizes before they start too look really weird (IME, anyway). Most dresses can be worked for about three sizes if you tuck the waist - same with skirts. (I know the dress & skirt tips probably don't help OP too much, but most subsequent responses were from females)

I never needed a stress test (the treadmill thing). My appointment was just an EKG. Done in the hospital, in a side room with a recliner, while I went over a pre-op questionnaire with a nurse. Did it in my regular clothes (pulled shirt up) and all.

When I ifrst started looking into VSG (about 3 years ago, but in a really serious sense - for about a year now) one of my larger concerns was the idea of permanance. I kept thinking, "But they'll be taking out 85% of my stomach, and it can't ever be put back." That's actually not a major concern of mine any longer. I've come to realize -- so what? It's not like I'm at super high risk for some terrible medical complication 40 years from now, where -- darnit -- if I just had that other 85% of my stomach still, I'd be ok.