Dave In Houston

I just got back from my one-week post-op visit. I don't have to crush my pills any more, which is a great relief. Nothing can ruin a spoonful of yogurt like a small pile of powdered medicine. I can also go from the full-liquid diet to the puree diet. When I told him I didn't feel that excited about puréed meat, he said I could try some light, soft fish that I don't have to chew much. Or tuna. Forgot to ask when I should start the vitamins, but I think it's pretty soon. I sent a message on their web portal.

The pre-surgery diet they gave me was called "semi-liquid." It was about 1000 calories, 90g protein and 90g carbs. I was supposed to do it for 14 days, but I started it 12 days ahead instead. I did it pretty well, but I did sneak in a chicken sausage on a Greek pita the last day. My surgery went ahead as planned, so I wouldn't worry about them cancelling.

I'm home after surgery and running a slight fever. The doc said to call him if I get to 100.3. I'm now at 99.7. Also, crushing pills and mixing them with yogurt really ruins the yogurt.

One day post-surgery, my pain is very well controlled using just Tylenol. That’s a bit of a surprise, since my neck surgery took all kinds of narcotics. I’ve been up walking a couple times. The only hitch is slightly elevated white blood cell count. The doc says elevated WBC is normal. They will check it again, and if it’s not trending up, I can go home today. heme = Yay!

Surgery went fine, according to the doc. I am in a room for one or two nights. I’m typing on my iPad, which I hate. Much to my dismay, they seem to have developed an aversion to narcotics since my last surgery. Their first try for pain due to having your guts rearranged was two Lidocaine patches.

She was probably right. I often have a hard time sleeping, though, especially before a tense day. When I had my cataracts done, I took an Ambien the night before, and ended up sleep-eating. When I went down to the kitchen the next morning, I found residues of several favorite foods, and I later noticed that a half gallon of ice cream went from half full to nearly empty. Maybe tonight I'll take a Lunesta, which doesn't seem to induce sleep-eating.

My surgery is tomorrow. They had originally told me to be there at noon. I was planning to stay up until 3 AM, then sleep until 10 so I wouldn't have so long to wait until I went to the hospital. But today they called and said to be there at 8:30. Maybe I'll just stay up all night, since I'll be getting plenty of sleep tomorrow.

I'm actually in Sugar Land. People around the country don't generally know where that is, though.

My voice coach told me to ask them to use the smallest tube possible. She said the probably won't agree to a 5, but might agree to a 6. And to tell them I'm a singer, and ask them to be VERY careful putting the tube in and taking it out. If I was having a voice procedure (I need a minor one every ten years or so) my voice doc would be watching out for me.

MY wife says, "No way!" So if I do it, I will have to sneak out for lunch on Wednesday. That could work, since I have my pre-op testing at 10 AM.

I'll be having my surgery this Friday 5/28. I wasn't planning on telling most people. Then my wife told me, "If you are losing 20 pounds or more per month and you don't tell people, they will guess that you have cancer." After hearing that, I decided to tell the people that I see often. Besides family, I've told 10 friends so far. All were people I sing with, and I was telling them why I won't be able to sing for a month or so. All were very supportive, at least to my face. They congratulated me for taking control of my life. For people I only see a couple times a year, I won't volunteer the information, but I will tell them if they ask.

My surgery is this Friday, 5/28. I decided to post with the June crew, since I will probably have more of a shared experience with you folks. (And I'll be the first in the group to have surgery.) I was originally planning surgery last June, but stuff happened. My pre-surgery diet has been both shakes and solid foods, 1000 calories a day, 90 grams of carbs and 90 grams of protein. Five days before the surgery, they had me start an immuno-nutrition drink made by Nestle three times a day. It's made my otherwise tasty shakes taste like medicine. Too bad. Does anyone think they will notice if I have one last Whataburger the night before the surgery? I have pre-admission testing Wednesday, the dietitian consult Thursday afternoon, and I have to be at the hospital noon Friday. BTW, I am a singer, amateur but pretty serious about it. I sing in two men's quartets. They both rehearsed last week for the first time in over a year. It felt SO good! My voice coach tells me I should plan not to sing until the surgeon clears me for lifting. I'm hoping I can push that up a bit, but they will be messing around in the neighborhood of some muscles that are crucial for good singing. In one of my quartets, they asked what kind of surgery I was having. When I told them "gastric bypass," one of the guys said, "I had that." He's even bigger than I am. Turns out that before the surgery, he weighed 525, and now he's 280. It was a life-changing event for him. Now he can sit on the floor and play with his grandkids. I'll post in here when I get the chance, possibly from the hospital. They tell me I will be in for one to two nights.

Groovy, When my wife had a frozen should, she got great results from a steroid shot. They did it right in the doctor's office, and she was better almost immediately. Might be something to consider. Dave

To clarify, I'm not on hold because of problems in the Medical Center or anything like that. I'm having terrible problems with an arthritic hip. I was supposed to get a steroid injection yesterday. Last week, though, I began having some very minor upper respiratory symptoms, so out of an abundance of caution, I went and got a Covid test. Results are supposed to be back today. Tums out if you ever have a Covid test, you have to have two consecutive tests that are OK before they will let you in the hospital where they do the steroid injections. I worked with the pain doc to reschedule the steroid injection two weeks later, assuming the tests come back negative. I'm hoping for substantial relief from the steroid shot, because I just can't imagine going through the pain and lifestyle change of the gastric bypass while my hip is hurting so badly. I'm trying to remain philosophical. My problems are small compared to those who lost a job, for example.

No kidding? I'm in Sugar Land, too. Planning to have the surgery in the Med Center, though. Patrick Reardon was recommended as the surgeon. My schedule is on hold, unfortunately. It's a long story. LOL.

So glad to hear you are home and doing better. I always get bad nausea from anesthesia. The worst in my life, though, was motion sickness on the ferry back to the mainland from Cozumel. The waves were so high and I was bent over the rail constantly. The thought went through my mind, "If I just jump, it will all be over." Six months later, that ferry crashed in a similar storm and 100+ people were killed.

I shave my head. My hair loss was already a done deal years ago. Edit: I'm sure this is not amusing to most of you.

Here's my comment on spouses: my wife is very supportive, but she is wondering what is going to happen to her since I do ALL the cooking. She is used to getting three meals and two snacks delivered to her. (I'm a prince, BTW.) I'm thinking of sending her out of town for the puree phase. Her mom is older and not in great health, so a visit to Florida is good for everybody. And I imagine a stock of TV dinners will be laid up. In the long run, she will probably lose weight too, since I will eat 1/4 of a meal and she will eat 3/4.

I use the Wonder Slim brand of shakes from Diet Direct. I like the dark cocoa cream flavor prepared as a hot cocoa. Maybe hot would gross you out a bit less than cold. I'm still pre-surgery, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt, though.

I could never tolerate the device. I have had two, a CPAP and a Bi-pap. I'm hoping that after I drop 50 pounds or so, I won't need a sleep apnea machine. We'll see.

I like the Wonderslim brand of shakes from Diet Direct.com. They have many flavors. My wife likes the chocolate cream flavor. I like the dark cocoa cream, which I usually prepare as a hot protein cocoa. The same place also sells bariatric vitamins, by the way. Dave

I am age 66, male. At 5' 10", I weighed 271 on January 1 and 253 this morning. I just got an email from my surgeon's assistant saying I need to make my final appointment. Apparently I can meet with the surgeon and then go over to the anesthesia center for blood work and an EKG. I believe we'll also schedule the surgery at that time. I called him back immediately, but he's already gone for the day. But it looks like very shortly I'll also have to figure out how to entire my statistics for this site. Before I'm all new, though, I may need a hip replacement. This getting old is not for the faint of heart, I'm telling you! Dave

Hi, Meow, I'm just a few weeks behind you. On my first visit to the surgeon on May 5, he told me I would need a psych consult and a nutritionist consult, then a visit with the anesthesia doc and a final visit with him prior to surgery. His assistant said if everything lined up right I could be having the surgery in early June. I had the psych consult yesterday and the nutritionist today. Early June still seems optimistic, though. I have cataract surgery scheduled for Monday and Wednesday next week, and a routine follow-up with my pain management doc on June 10. I will ask the pain doc about squeezing in another steroid shot before the gastric bypass, but I'm still hoping for late June or July. Just like you, I feel that things are moving quickly for me. I'm sure it will be an adventure. Dave

Hi, everybody... I found this site and decided to start a thread to introduce myself. I'm Dave. Age 66. Five feet, eleven inches and about 250 pounds. I'm in the Houston area. I'm an amateur singer, and I have an ENT doc who treats my voice. He has treated my reflux with proton pump meds for over 20 years. The last time I saw him, I mentioned that I would like to get off those meds. He told me that there is a surgery for reflux (Nissen fundoplication), but that at my weight (about 270 at that time), the surgeon would also want to do weight loss surgery. Then he asked me if I had ever considered weight loss surgery. To be honest, I had never considered it, because when I set my mind to it, I can always lose weight. But I decided to talk to a weight loss surgeon anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? My voice coach recommended a surgeon by the name of Patrick Reardon, who practices in the Houston Medical Center. When I called his office just before Christmas, they were closed, so I went to their web site to request an appointment. A couple days later, I got an email from them suggesting an appointment on the first of April. That seemed good to me. I could get past the annual season of gluttony and try to kick my weight loss program back into action. Due to the global pandemic, though, I didn't get in to see Dr. Reardon until last week. I was pretty satisfied that I had lost 20 pounds, and I honestly thought he would tell me to keep it up for another 6 or 8 months before we talk again. Well, Dr. Reardon wasn't impressed. He said, "How many times has your weight gone up and down, and how many more times do you want to do that?" He also said that the Roux-En-Y bypass, by its very nature, treats reflux, so no Nissen would be necessary. "So let's go," basically. Then he sent in his assistant, Carl, to talk about the logistics, which I'm sure you folks all know: psych consult, dietitian consult, meet with the anesthesia doc, etc. etc. Carl gave me his business card, a printout of the referral for the psych and dietitian appointments, and a 50 page booklet describing what they were going to do to me, and sent me on my way, telling me that if I hurried, we could be doing the surgery by the first week of June. The first half of the book was pretty interesting. I'm an engineer, so I enjoyed all the pretty pictures saying they would snip this way and staple that way, and in the end my innards would look like such and such. Then I got to page 22, where I saw the words "NO SWEETS!" Bold and in all caps, just the way I typed them here. I swear, if they had said "NO SWEETS" on page 2, they wouldn't be selling a lot of surgeries. I think pecan pie is my favorite thing to eat in the whole world, followed by ice cream. And especially pecan pie with ice cream. The brochure also said I would be eating three meals a day with NO SNACKS, and that a meal would fit in the palm of my hand. And, as I'm sure you all recall, it included some graphic details about how my body would rebel against me if I broke the new rules. In spite of all that, I'm seriously considering it. It would be nice not to feel so self-conscious, and to meet long-lost relatives and not have them say, "My... what a big boy you've become." One of my big concerns, though, is whether I would be able to drink enough water to stay properly hydrated for singing. These days, I drink a quart of water with every meal, and more in between. On a long singing day, I drink two gallons of water. I know I wouldn't be able to do that any more. The brochure tells me that 60 ounces per day is recommended, but sometimes people find that much very difficult. Sorry for running on so long, but I like words. Anyway, where I'm at right now is that I'm kind of assuming I will decide to proceed, but the psych folks haven't called me yet and I haven't made the effort to call them either. Any words of wisdom or encouragement would be most welcome. Best regards, Dave

I read about the dumping. The way describe it in their brochure makes it seem very unpleasant. So I probably will eat a few slices of pecan pie with Texas' own Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla on top. I did make some progress today. I got the dietitian and psych consults scheduled for 5/27 and 5/28. I also verified that Medicare, along with my Plan G supplement, will pay for 100% of the cost. I think it's going to be a very positive life change.