MacMadame

I just looked into that other group and they sound like they exist solely to scare people away from getting WLS. Most of what you list is really just not an issue for 99.9% of the people or is easily combated by proper nutrition. Protein and fat deficiencies? Protein I could see for a certain small minority but fat? I don't see how that's even possible. We have less intrinsic factor because our stomachs are smaller and that gives a small minority a problem (they have to take b12 supplements), but there is no reason why we can't process fat normally. Calcium deficiency? That is a known problem with partial gastrectomies that is easily remedied by taking calcium supplements. (And it's a problem for many women in the US who haven't even had WLS.) Leaky gut syndrome? You'd have to develop a leak. Less than 1% of patients do that and even less of them have issues once the leak heals. Partial gastrectomies have been performed for decades, first as a cure for ulcers and stomach cancer, and then as part of the DS, and have been shown to be relatively safe with few side-effects.

Um, those are about the RnY pouch. We have a sleeve.

argh... so hard to keep up.... Poker: Played with dh and his friends for a while. They were transparent. Often overplayed their hands. It was easy for me to beat them. Mostly I just played the cards I had and once in a while I'd bluff. Missing posts go to the same places as missing socks. And all the matching earrings I've lost over the years.

I'm not bashing men. I'm bashing Mr. Mac. :biggrin:

You could cut them up and take the pieces with water. But not taking vitamins for a few weeks isn't going to hurt too much. Our program has you do liquid or chewable vitamins during this time. That works too.

He's also wrong about the weight loss.... sleeve and RnY have similar weight loss stats. He's also wrong that bypass patients will "very likely" experience dumping. This is a BIG pet peeve of mine. Only about half of bypass patients dump. For some, the threat is enough. But, for others, they try something with sugar and don't dump and they freak out because they were *counting* on dumping to keep them honest. These people end up very upset and unhappy and often don't lose much weight or have regain issues. It also doesn't cover the DS. But I completely agree with this: Here is a chart that compares all the surgery types: Weight-Loss Surgeries Compared

I have a kg to lb conversion calculate bookmarked. There are a lot of formulas I use that want the weight in kg.

I finished all my bugs at work! Now I get to go sit at the DMV for hours to get my license renewed.

I can do it but I've already eaten for today. :biggrin0: I'll try to remember tomorrow.

You really need to be on a PPI and not Zantac. So something like prilosec or Nexium or Prevacid. Most surgeons put you on them for at least a month up to six months. It takes a while for your brain to get the idea that it doesn't need to produce so much acid and you'll be miserable during that time if you aren't on a PPI. Things like Zantac and Pepcid AC work differently and therefore usually aren't enough.

I say it's Water weight. If you watch The Biggest Loser, they always bitch about how, after the big loses in week 1, week 2 is a bitch and people even GAIN. The thing is, when you first go on a diet, your body depletes your muscles of glycogen to get its energy. But, after a while, it figures out this is a long-term deal and it starts burning fat instead. It takes 4 lb. of water to store a lb. of glycogen. So the first week or two, you lose 4 lb. of water for every lb. of glycogen you lose (usually 1 or 2) and then the next week or two, you put all that water back on. In the meantime, you are losing fat just fine, but the amount of water you put back on may mask that.

You left out the part where you came here telling people we didn't need WLS at al, that you'd found "the answer" and had lost 90 pounds listening to Tony Robbins/Tony Roberts/some motivational guy.... You are definitely re-writing history here. You told us your band was never installed properly. That's a mechanical issue even if the erosion happpened later. :ohmy: You know that's not what everyone is saying.... Not necessarily. For example, the sleeve and bypass have simliar weight loss stats. One is restrictive-only and one also has malabsorption. It's not as simple as malabsorption vs. restriction. That was what I was trying to say. They all work to some extent, much better than any diet program, but you want the one that is going to work the best for you and that involves personal preferences/values/choices that a surgeon can't really decide for you. The surgeon can't decide if you are one who will be lax about coming in for fills/unfills or if you are one who will come to hate having a hunk of plastic inside you or will go nuts eating sweets when it turns out that you are one of the many people who gets a bypass but doesn't dump. They can't know how you evaluate the risks of malnutrition with bypass vs. the risks of not succeeding with the band. There are people who think they must have a DS because it has the best EWL stats and that's the most important thing to them. There are people who think it's crazy to get a bypass because after 12-18 months, you start to absorb most of your calories, but still malabsorb Vitamins and minerals and you have a stomach that can't be scoped floating around inside you. Others think the long-range complication rates for the band are unacceptable. Some people think the sleeve is the greatest thing since sliced bread and others can't get over having part of their stomach permanent removed. Everyone evaluates these benefits and risks differently. That's why it's a personal choice.

He should be doing that now!! DO you want us to come over there and kick him in the butt until he does? :ohmy:

What drive me crazy is that my husband knows I research everything out the whazoo. But if I suggest he do something, like take Omega-3 capsules to help with his cholesterol issues, he acts like I'm trying to poison him and says (in a snotty tone of voice), "I'll ask my doctor about that." This drives me crazy both because I hate his doctor and because he should know by now that I know what I'm talking about. Of course, his doctor tells him it's a great idea so now he's willing to do it. The other thing he does is ignore suggestions I make and then later on he'll say "my doctor/this article I read says X, Y or Z. Don't you think that's a good idea?" and of course it's the same thing I've been telling him for months that he's ignored.

Well that's what my surgeon says. It came up in a seminar/support group meeting. But the whole liver-shrinking thing is controversial IMO. For one thing, if Patient A weighs 400 pounds and is told to lose 40 before they have surgery which gets them down to 360 and now surgery is "safe" for them, then how can you tell Patient B who weights 250 pounds that they have to lose 25 lb. or surgery isn't safe for them? That is why many surgeons don't require a pre-op diet for their patients who weigh under a certain amount and other surgeons only recommend weight loss -- because it does lower your risks -- but don't absolutely require it or only require it for their highest BMI patients. Then we have the ones who, if they tell you to lose 10 lb. and you show up for surgery and have "only" lost 9.5, they will cancel your surgery! Personally, I think that's RIDICULOUS!

Have you tried protein coffee? You make a protein powder sludge and mix it in instead of cream. You can use unflavored or a flavor that goes well with coffee. A bunch of my friends do that and it sets them up nicely for the rest of the day. Me? I don't like coffee... :tt2:

I would ask him why.... RnYers can't take NSAIDs because it increases the risk of ulcers and they have a blind stomach that can't be scoped so getting an ulcer in it would be bad. Plus the new connections between the pouch and the intestine are prone to ulcers. That is not the case for us. Our chance of getting ulcers actually goes down because there is less stomach tissue. As for crushing your pills for 3 months.... if you can eat a chicken breast or handful of nuts, why can't you swallow a pill? Once your staple line has healed, there is no reason not to take pills. And so forth and so on.... :ohmy:

My understanding is that your band eroded. That isn't a case of picking a procedure that didn't address your eating issues. It was a case of mechanical failure. Now, if you want to say that the band isn't "less invasive" like it's marketed to be due to your experience, I can see that, but saying it didn't address your issues smacks to me of re-writing history and IMO is misleading. Please leave the moderation to the moderators. It is not against the rules to quote a post that you are directly responding to and there is nothing inherently rude about disagreeing with another poster. As for the topic of this thread, here is my opinoin: The job of health professions is to provide their medical expertise so that you make an informed choice and don't make a decision based on fear or misinformation. But medicine is a partnership and your job is to provide the expertise on you. No one else knows you like you do and that's an important part of the equation. And HH, I completely disagree that it's the job of our surgeons to influence us to pick one surgery over another. Unless you have medical concerns that preclude one surgery or another, they all work. So it comes down to personal preference and which one you think will work the best for you. There are some surgeons out there who are married to one procedure or another and, gee, everyone who comes to their office is a great candidate for it. Imagine that! :tongue2: When these health professionals recommend a bypass or a band, it's a completely meaningless recommendation because it really has nothing to do with YOU and everything to do with THEM. But there are other health care professionals who are more balanced and their recommendations mean something. The trick is to know which you are dealing with and that's where your self-knowledge comes into play. If your NUT and counselor were spot-on in their understanding of your issues, it is well worth it to listen to them. If they are just giving the generic "if you like sweets, you should get a bypass" advice -- which is overly simplistic and not necessarily true for everyone -- then their advice is meaningless.

I can't believe how behind I've gotten! Beth - skipping meals can impede your weight loss.

Yes, it hurts because there isn't room. It hurts the same way that eating too much food hurts. It doesn't really "push through" the food. That's a RnY thing because they have no pylorus valve. However, the pylorus valve is designed to open up when liquid and mush hits it. Adding Water to your food turns it to mush faster so the pylorus valve opens up faster. This was true pre-op as well. My son, who is underweight, constantly gives his dad a hard time about drinking with dinner. He says the only reason to do that is to fit in more food. Smart boy. :001_smile:

That's great! I was just reading your thread about being denied yesterday and wondering what had happened.

That's what I was going to say!

I use water. The whole drinking with your meals thing is a guideline, not a law. There are really good reasons not to drink with your meal, but there are good reasons to take vitamins with food (they work better). So I use as little water as possible and I take them right before I eat. That's my compromise between the "don't drink with your meals" principle and the "take your vitamins with food" principle.

If you are having trouble with mushies, you definitely shouldn't advance to the next phase. In my program, there are timeframes but it also says that you need to be doing well on the phase you are in and that some people take as long as 3 months to get to regular food.

But the reason your liver shrinks is because you lose weight. If you don't lose weight, your liver won't shrink.