PatientEleventyBillion

Initially I was 100% for RNY. But after talking to my surgeon, and two second opinions, I fully understood the reasoning why VSG was better for me. Bearing in mind many factors should be in play for you individually as to why you might need one over another. Each person's body is different. In my case, if I don't like the way the VSG went after a year I can talk to surgeon and revise to RNY.

Nah, not dumb. But would have likely been tearing through the stuff having that much a day, dramatically reducing the amount of servings per container. If it's anything like Beneprotein it's not cheap. That's what I'm thinking, but had to ask the silly questions rather than learn the hard way (I seem to have a thing for the latter method). Reminds me of my old dust-up with NAIR that my wife laughs at every time she hears.

I'm thinking poops like a baseball bat with that much fiber.

Do you guys add anything to a few of those? Like mild sauce for beans? Sugar/Brown Sugar/Stevia for Cream of Wheat?

I'm just the type to make deliberately loud noises to make others feel my pain. Maybe waft the air towards people. Sharing is caring.

Especially if you get up too fast. I've started getting it since being on this liquid diet but besides the diet my weight has dumped significantly and I've been feeling better thus jumping out of bed when I get up. Also lying down a lot more because of low cals causing more tiredness. It doesn't happen when I slow it down. As long as it goes away in a few seconds I'm sure it's fine. If that dizziness sticks around it might be worth a doctor visit to ensure it isn't something else.

I regret allowing myself to get that fat in the first place. Shame.

No calories, no energy..

Unfortunately psychology is a fickle profession and even with an educational background one can easily misunderstand something another tells them. So be clear and concise and don't muse/talk too much or give them anything else to think about. For me being honest is good enough but with severe ADHD I'm very prone to rambling which has got me in trouble when it comes to professions like this where perception can override facts. Example: I was openly musing about the difference in satiety the VSG and RNY had. To a psychologist who was overly zealous because I didn't use the scientific terminology (I said "hunger drive" instead of satiety) they presumed I meant I want to do nothing but drink chocolate milkshakes post op. I kid you not. This caused me to have to have more psychologist and RD appointments to convince them I wasn't intending to eff off the surgery with some eating disorder. So I learned the hard way to be short and concise yet still honest.

What I was trying to point out is that your tax money (and mine, I still have to answer to the tax man even though I moved to Canada) already pay for the Healthcare of upwards of 100m+ on various levels of government. This and all the insurance industry mandates and regulations effectively make it government run already. This current system is already un-American and stands to be a welfare-for-the-rich system. The only way to lower costs of Healthcare in the American sense (because universal isn't gonna happen) is to gut the insurance industry and have people directly negotiate with those providing them care. But that would make a lot of rich people overly dependent on government angry and they have too much clout. So rather than in futility try to change a system that obviously won't change any time soon I chose to live elsewhere. That's what I'd advise too for anyone else. The Canadian system has drawbacks, first and foremost, would clearly piss off the OP because to get to surgery you need to appease gatekeepers the same way as the US insurance industry. I've been in Alberta's Weight Management program since Sept 2015 and only now getting the surgery done. However, with all the common questions people ask regarding diet and such its clear the overall level of lifestyle support is greater in Canada. Going through all the nutritional classes, meetings and follow-ups with psychologists, RDs (Dietitians with min 4-6 year degrees), and case managers to steer things in the right direction, its invaluable at assisting with making those changes. And it requires time. After being through this with so many other people I'm very skeptical those who just want instant surgery are in the right mindset to make far more important underlying changes. We do see a few who can but I also see on forums like this so many others who completely mess things up because they believe the surgery absolves them from the much more important lifestyle changes. Would be no different in universal if people were just tossed into surgery so that's why I vehemently disagree with the OP.

congrats!

Well, for one, the US healthcare system is already severely government run. You've got federal healthcare (VA, Medicare, etc.), state healthcare (i.e. Medi-Cal and exchanges), local healthcare (i.e. CMSP), that covers what, 50-100+ million people already? The insurance industry mandates and regulations also effectively make the rest of it government run. Insurance industry spikes prices because they have profit margins to maintain, people providing care that get those profits from spiked insurance force government insuring people to pay those exorbitant costs or lose coverage, nothing really ever addresses the price. The cost for care, in say, Canada, is dramatically lowered because the government has set what the costs are for certain care can be as high as, effectively creating a price ceiling. In Canada one can verify this by ordering payment history from their province showing an itemized list of types of care and how much it was billed for. For example, my ENT back in Ontario billed the province some $600'ish for my tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. That's roughly 1/6th to 1/12th the price that it is in the US. As a fiscal conservative not only does that quantify the "real" costs of healthcare (something that can't be done in the US, only vaguely "estimated" since it encompasses so many various levels of uncooperative governments, but rest assured significantly higher), but makes it very easy to budget for. Generally, if one can't even truly quantify the costs of something, chances are there's a lot of ripping off being done. Make no mistake, just because I criticize or identify the bureaucratic nature of Canadian healthcare doesn't make it bad or a negative connotation. And as an American myself I certainly don't trust the US government either. Other countries have different relationships with their government, that's why I decided to move rather than, in futility, think I or anyone else can (or morally should) just push such a system on unwilling people.

Because I said it's bureaucratic? That's a pretty terrible assumption, especially since I just pointed out that wait was a blessing in disguise.

That would be a good theory except this is the way it works in universal healthcare too. The logic is the same. Let's take OP's example of people with breast cancer. That's sort of a medical emergency is it not? Being fat isn't. There are comorbidities that associate with being fat. And those clearly affect when/if/how the surgery is done. However, for the vast majority of people this is self-induced. They need time to reflect and learn more about what got them to where they are, and it needs to be seen if they can lose weight on their own first instead of just throwing them into surgery because they demand it. People tend to think they're the doctors or triage nurses and can diagnose themselves and decide what surgery they want and when. In the real world of course, it doesn't work that way. An insurance or government will lose 100% of the money on a surgery if you just fly into WLS and do absolutely nothing to treat the underlying causes of it, which very well may be physiological or psychological or both. The idea in mind is to ensure healthy choices so taxpayers, insurers, etc. don't go broke trying to fix health problems, in most cases, someone brought upon themselves. And I won't take issue with the OP getting mad, but it changes absolutely nothing. As someone who had to deal with the bureaucratic nature of universal healthcare, being in a Weight Management program since September 2015, everything I learned, about what I did wrong, where I'm going right, etc. would not have happened if I was simply tossed into surgery "cuz I said so". It would have appeased me to be thrown in ASAP but I'd not have learned anything.

I'm thinking that might be the same with me regarding acid and trigger foods. Will find out soon. But for T2 diabetes, I think it's better for people who have much more severe diabetes/comorbidities.. for most others with lower diabetic HBA1c it likely negligible in difference.

I'm no relationship doctor but I certainly would not go through a relationship where I couldn't tell my spouse something like this. However, that's just me. Regardless of that, I hope you do what's best for your health and understand the surgery is not a magic fix, that psychological and nutritional issues (if any) should be resolved before you get the surgery done. You will most certainly benefit from having help post-op for several weeks, especially if you have kids and they're young. Your energy will likely go kaput. If you have any family you can lean on it would be a good time to possibly dial them up too.

String Cheese Unsalted Regular Peanuts Natural Peanut Butter Also there are good tasteless powders like Beneprotein

I dunno, can I trust a public bathroom destroyer? I kid.. I'll give it a try, I actually saw it in a certain area of the store with a number of other substitutes. I think it was the baking aisle of all things.

Am I the only one who absolutely can't stand the taste of that fake sugar? Have tried it again and again and just can't make myself like it or any products I taste with that stuff in it.

Ahh.. this is the gastric sleeve forums. I think that's why people might have been confused. I've never heard of dumping with sleeve but given one of the posts above I might give it a look.

For me Universal Healthcare is covering 100% of everything. Surgery here is the end result of the weight management program. To get to this point in Alberta you need to satisfy the gatekeepers (dietitian, psychologist, case manager, etc.) you've made adequate lifestyle changes to justify covering you for this surgery. It's also why I've seen so many successful post-op patients here. They set you up and ensure you're in the right mindset to be successful and that this isn't a meaningless surgery. Since September 2015 when I've started the WM program as far as appointments, I'm estimating I've seen: - Case Manager: 8 times - Dietitian: 3 times (seeing her again this month) - Psychologist: 3 times - Generalist: 4 times (seeing him again this month) - Hepatologist: 3 times (seeing her again Monday) - Surgeon: 4 times (seeing him again early April) - Spine doctor (dunno what they're called): 6 times (2 appts this month for facet injections) - GP: 15-20 times - Sleep doctor: 3 times plus 2 more times for a nurse regarding apnea and CPAP trials

My wife was in a similar situation, though no diabetes.. she has PCOS and weight gain isn't stopping. She was denied into the weight management program because her situation isn't dire enough. I don't know much about PCOS though so I can't comment on that. But I do know Notley and co have begun cutting funding to weight management so they're only accepting those in extreme cases for now. It's very unfortunate, but also might explain why things tend to do fairly quick here.

Should have been put on a plan by a dietitian, GP, or someone.

Do you have any other health issues right now besides being overweight? Diabetes? Heart trouble? Liver disease?

The weight management program in Alberta seems to be a lot faster if you can get it done here. I started weight management in September 2015 and am having surgery April 20th so for me 19 months.. quite a number of people I was in the initial WM classes with had it done sooner than me. I don't know how they deal with people out of province though.