Navigating the Wilderness

I would avoid Phentermine. It has a dismal success rate and is not a long-term solution. Not sure about Contrave, but my wife uses Victoza for diabetes and I believe it works much the same as Contrave. The results have been amazing.

It's not really a pain issue. I think you will find it to be much more of a stamina issue. What the hell do you have to be embarrassed about? You are making a choice that will allow you to be part of those things you care about much longer than you ever would without surgery. No need to feel embarrassed, though anger is allowed!

8 days post-op would have been a no-go for me. I was way too tired for much those first couple weeks. Having said that, everyone is different and heals at a different pace. I wish you the best!!

Thank you, this is soooooo true. Look, if you want to try new food, by all means go for it, but forcing yourself to eat things you do not like isn't a recipe for long-term success.

Eh, they are bariatric surgeons. They perform this surgery on people who can't lose weight by themselves, you can't lose the weight by yourself. So I don't see any reason to worry at all.

Sweet! Go forth and kick ass!!

I bet! Good luck and enjoy the transformation!!

That is so typical in hospitals. I have had 6 previous surgeries and one of them left me in the same state as you. This time around when I got to my room I felt I might be able to pee a bit and got up. The nurses tried to restrain me from urinating until they had a bed pan because it was a liability to have me walking so soon after surgery. I gently moved them aside and went for a glorious piss. I did not want to wait for the bedpan because I was afraid I might have a shy bladder and moving my mass to urinate in a jug would have been complicated.

Hmm, I have never heard about bypass precluding you from Tylenol. Certainly you should not use NSAIDs, but I'm not so sure about Tylenol. I would double-check that with your Surgeon. I did find this answer from a MD when asked about Tylenol: Motrin is categorized as an Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) and these type of drugs are known to cause ulcers. Other NSAIDs include Aspirin, Advil, Aleve, Celebrex, Naproxen, Ibuprofen, just to mention a few. I would highly advise against them after GBP. In most cases Tylenol should be fine, but consult with your doctor about it. I had both Diabetes and High Blood Pressure before my VSG, but the sleeve seems to have fixed that.

Hahaha, that must have felt A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!!

I don't see what surgery you are having, and even with that info, different surgeons take different amounts of time. So let me answer you based on my experience: For a sleeve my surgeon said a half hour, for a bypass it was an hour and a half. Of course these times are for the actual surgery once on the table and do not include pre and post-op times. I was in severe pain when I woke up and made sure the nurses knew about it. They took care of the issue quickly. From there it was 24 hours of being woken up every 2 hours for tests etc. I stayed the night of my surgery and went home around 6PM the next day.

Yes, very very normal 3 days out. They pump you full of steroids while in the hospital, so it will take a small amount of time to work those out of your system.

I seriously doubt you will still be in pain, but you may still have some fatigue. I'd go ahead and buy a ticket. Give you something to look forward to after the surgery.

It will definitely depend on your insurance. In my case since it was a revision I only had to do 3 months, but yet again they requires a psych eval.

Hmm, this is very interesting. So a Blind Stomach is the part of the stomach in a RnY procedure that is stapled off from the pouch and stays connected to the intestine. It is 'Blind' because an endoscope can't be used to see the inside of it since it is no longer connected to the esophagus. Now, there is very little information regarding this with a VSG, but since you say it is located at the sleeve stricture line I am wondering if there was some sort of hernia-like pouch created over time where food was pushing into it, but it is too small to investigate, and will not empty out because it has nowhere to go? This would definitely be causing the symptoms you report, but I am by no means a MD. I would be very interested to see what your doctor says in the future regarding this, and thank you very, very much for sharing!

Everybody feels this way at some point before their surgery. It is totally normal.

I don't get it. They can give you medication to lower it on the day of surgery if needed.

Its all a personal choice, and I bet people in here would be split pretty evenly between tell or don't tell. I personally would tell them. You are going to have the surgery and eventually that person will probably put 2 and 2 together, so you might as well test the waters.

Wait. So you are saying the FDA and the food pyramid in specific might be just a little influenced by large farming special interests which push an 11/1 ratio of carbs to protein? Never. Nope. They wouldn't do that.

Well, either way, I am sending you positive thoughts that you can get rid of the whole thing!

I've had obstructive sleep apnea for 16 years, and used nasal pillows the whole time. I am not sure why they forced you to wear an full face mask.

Oh, and I also looked at my wife's breasts the other day and noticed something sticking out below my gut which I have not seen for over 15 years!

I have noticed that when I drive or sit for extended periods I end up hunched over almost like I am crouching. The fat that used to hold me up is gone.

Yeah, I don't get it. I was not more than 160 pounds through my early 20's. It was after I left home I started packing on the weight due to my own poor choices. I can't see a parent letting their child do that. Generally speaking, I would guess that it is due to the parents laziness at preparing real food for their kids, or their income level where they simply can't afford real food.

I did not, but would highly recommend doing so.