theantichick

While I agree with the other posters to not be the one to broach WLS with a kiddo, if your son snores loudly and falls asleep during the day then he very likely has sleep apnea and it can kill him. If you've heard him stop breathing while sleeping, then he almost certainly has it. I think it would be appropriate to prod him to get into a sleep study. Perhaps dealing with health issues will help him realize that he needs to take action one way or another.

I give some variation of this each time I'm asked. http://www.theantichick.com/2016/08/05/the-easy-way-out/ My parents stopped by this evening to check on me, and I had to repeat it for them for the 2nd or 3rd time. They'll get it eventually.

my problem is that until today I had to take such tiny sips to avoid the discomfort with swallowing that it seemed I was sipping constantly for an hour and my cup would only go down an inch. I've been able to increase the size of my sips each day, and get more Fluid in each day along with it.

Doing good. Sore, but nothing too bad. I don't like heavy opiates, dilaudid just gave me headaches, so tramadol is taking care of most of the pain for me. No nausea, tolerating liquids and Protein shakes beautifully, if really slowly. It'll be midnight before I hit my Fluid goal, and I doubt I'll hit my protein goal today, maybe not tomorrow. But in the short term, I know the hydration is most important. Nice to hear you're doing well! I missed your surgery day! How were you going into this - did you have any panicky feelings of backing out?? I'm feeling that way now and working on it I had some fleeting thoughts about backing out, after having some success losing weight on the pre-op diet. But frankly, if diets worked for me, I wouldn't be 120 lbs overweight. I have health reasons for having the surgery that are strong motivators. I've been doing well post-op. By day 3 my arthritis hurt much worse than the surgery sites. I'm sore, but it's not bad at all. I have not had any nausea. My fluid/protein intake is slow, and I'm getting in the minimum needed to stay hydrated, but haven't hit goal yet. Coming closer each day, though. Right now, I don't really regret the surgery. I wish I could rush through to some real food, even just puree' and soft foods, but my cravings are for protein type foods like cheese and refried Beans right now instead of the sticky carby treats I used to love. I hope that change is permanent. But it's not worth the risk to my healing to rush the progress. So I'm trying to get some variety in the pudding, Jello, and protein options on my list. I need to update my weight ticker, I've lost about 13 lbs since the surgery on the 17th.

Doing good. Sore, but nothing too bad. I don't like heavy opiates, dilaudid just gave me headaches, so tramadol is taking care of most of the pain for me. No nausea, tolerating liquids and Protein shakes beautifully, if really slowly. It'll be midnight before I hit my Fluid goal, and I doubt I'll hit my protein goal today, maybe not tomorrow. But in the short term, I know the hydration is most important.

my surgeon is fine with small pills from day 1, we can cut them if needed. She says some of her patients have problems with nausea with crushing.

I have to be able to take NSAIDs and steroids for my auto-immune arthritis. My rheumatologist and my WLS surgeon both said that the sleeve was the only option for me because of that. RNY and Lap-band have complete bans on both drug classes. There is still an increased risk of ulcers so some surgeons will still say no NSAIDs with the sleeve. If you personally are already at a higher risk of ulcers for some reason, they may need to you never take them. Best thing is to discuss it with your surgeon and medical team.

You see this in other specialties as well. Doctors are proud of their autonomy, and each develops their own sense or what's best for their patients based on their training, their experiences, and the research they've kept up with. I had an extensive knee reconstruction years ago that was not widely done at the time, but there were several different rehab protocols, which one you got depended entirely on your surgeon. Also, some surgeons are "by the book" sorts, and some will take the patient's lifestyle and concerns into account and adapt the plan for them.

Even with bypass, the coffee ban, if the doc has it at all, is only for a short period of time. One of my BFFs couldn't do without coffee, she had bypass. She did develop intolerance to full fat milk, but can still get skinny starbucks with fat free milk. It's her indulgence now, and she's been successful for over 10 years. Every starbucks within 10 miles of her home knows her and her drink, and it starts with "quenti venti". LOL

I would wait until after the surgery, but then I would get a new PCP ASAP. Ditto to what someone else suggested about asking for referrals from people in your support group. Having a doc that's a butt about weight issues just adds to the shame and struggle, and there's no excuse for it. Good luck!!

I just have to rant a little. I had my pre-op testing done this morning. The nurse was very nice and competent. Until it came time for the blood draw. I was a Paramedic. I used to start IV's bouncing down the road in the back of an ambulance with poor lighting. I was an ICU and ER nurse. I have worked with patients who are VERY difficult sticks with teen-einey little fragile veins. I wasn't a vein whisperer like some of the people I've worked with, but I was pretty darned good. Co-workers would ask me to take a look if they'd already tried a couple of times and hadn't come up with anything. It's a skill, yes. But it is not rocket science. I hadn't started an IV in 20+ years when I went back to nursing school, and didn't get much opportunity to practice in school. But it wasn't very long on the new job before I got my groove back. Like riding a bike so to speak. Basically, I have a lot of experience to back up this rant. I have good veins. I was the one everyone wanted to practice on in Paramedic school (by the time I went to Nursing school, they'd stopped allowing practice on fellow students). They aren't all that visible, which is a little surprising considering my skin is incredibly light. But they palpate (finding by feel) VERY easily. Drawing blood isn't nearly as difficult as IV sticks, for a bunch of technical reasons I'll spare you. If anyone misses my veins, either I'm dehydrated, or they need more practice. Blowing the vein, or going through it, that happens a lot. So I know exactly what the bruise pattern looks like for each. Blowing it can't always be predicted. Going through (transecting) it, that is usually sloppy technique with normal sized veins. Lady COMPLETELY missed the vein in the bend of my elbow. That vein is a HUGE pipe, it's the go-to spot for most emergency medicine providers because it's a gimme. Mine is not overly large, but it's a good solid vein. She had the tourniquet on my arm a good 3 minutes trying to FIND the vein. She even admitted that she wasn't any good at feeling veins, that she needed to see them. (Gotta say, more times than not for whatever reason - skin color, scars, tattoos, hair, etc, you CAN'T see the vein. Anyone worth their salt doing IV's or blood draws needs to learn to feel them.) THEN she managed to get the blood draw on the second stick in my forearm, but she went through the vein. I knew watching her she'd done it, but I wanted the draw over so I didn't say anything. The bruise tells the story though. And it'll still be there next week when I go in for surgery, since I bruise like fruit. She's been a nurse for a long while, so it's not a newbie error. She just hasn't had the opportunity (or taken the time) to get trained in good technique and practice. But she does this many many times a day as a pre-op intake nurse. There are videos on YouTube teaching how to have better draw/IV technique, and tips and tricks all over the internet. I even have a half dozen on my Pinterest board. Sticks, especially with the little needles for blood draws, don't hurt me very much at all. I didn't care that she took two sticks on me, it's an eh kinda thing for me. But the whole drive back to the office, I thought about all the patients who don't have good veins that she's sticking over and over. She did say she won't stick anyone more than twice (most hospitals have a policy of two or three sticks, then find someone else), so that's good. But some people find needles traumatizing and incredibly painful. There is even technology that illuminates the veins for more accurate sticks, but it hasn't become widespread. Heck, I can go on Amazon and by a cheap-o vein illuminator for $30... won't be as good as some of the ones made for hospitals, but if I were as bad at it as she is, I'd do anything to get an edge. I don't know what the purpose of this rant is... people who want to get better at blood draw/IV sticks generally can. She apparently doesn't. Which saddens me as a nurse and as a patient.

My surgeon likes to do her own EGDs. That way she gets a good look at the inside of the stomach and can check for any issues, along with an h. pylori test.

I'm going in tomorrow morning, I live in Arlington and work in Irving. I'm also on the FB group.

that would be inconvenient if you er, need him during the hormone dump. Oh, I'm sure he'd visit the house for that.

Why it matters to me is that I worry about the people who are just reading the forums, and see someone saying "yeah, sure, there's no problem with eating tacos a week out from surgery" and they think that's coming from a place of knowledge and/or experience. It's flat out dangerous, is what it is. While I'm not responsible for anyone else, as a nurse I feel compelled to correct information that's flat out wrong because wrong information about something like this can actually be life threatening. Or at the very least cause complications that the patient doesn't need. And I'm not even a vet here. Sure, someone who says "my doctor says no alcohol forever, so that must be the truth for everyone" is wrong. But most of what I'm seeing people complain about here is when someone comes on wanting to do something very close to surgery - before or after - that has the potential to be very bad, and then gets upset when people say "hey, that's not really a good idea".

No. It's a rare infection that people sometimes get. You can be more susceptible to it due to antibiotics, your immune system being depressed, or a number of other factors. Unfortunately, it can be very hard to get rid of in an environment, so there have been a few situations where people pick it up in hospitals. It can be very hard to get rid of.

Donuts are my kryptonite, and I work in IT. ::headdesk:: So far for my pre-op diet I've managed to stay away. After, I'm hoping my desire for them goes down significantly.

I've started following Egg Face http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/ and she often posts how she makes something like chicken breast and then uses it different ways.

For a couple of reasons. Mainly, the stomach tissue that is removed generates a number of "hunger hormones" and with it gone, those hormones aren't there to tell your brain that you're hungry. The stomach is smaller and gives signals that it's full faster as well. Also, for reasons we don't know yet, the surgery seems to re-set the set point. When you gain weight, your body decides that the new weight is the one it should keep, and it will flood your system with hormones and other things to make you crave high fat, high calorie, high sugar foods in order to maintain that weight. That's referred to as set point. When you lose weight normally you are fighting against this, and it gets worse and worse the more you lose. Theoretically, through just diet and exercise it will eventually reset, but it's an uphill battle. Surgery seems to short circuit this somehow.

Since developing the auto-immune arthritis, my feet have been incredibly finicky. I have had the best luck with Footsmart (online, once you know your size in different brands) and the Walking Company. They both carry brands that are comfy, and most don't have high heels at all. Though I did have to find a heel for my wedding last year, my hubby is 6'6" and even though I'm tall, he specifically requested me to wear heels for the wedding. I found a great pair of Naturalizers with a 3-1/4" heel that were comfy all day. Danskos are the friendliest to my feet, and they have some nice styles that don't look like orthopedic shoes. The best thing about the Walking Company is their employees are trained to get you the best fit, and will take an hour with different shoes and inserts if needed. Hubby started having trouble with his feet and I made him go to TWC and he won't go back to cheap shoes anywhere else again!!