Elisabethsew

Congratulations, Susan! You'll be at goal very soon!

I do feel great. I was worried about not losing well but I was severely dehydrated post-op and that continued for several days after I got home. Now that I'm back in balance, I hope to see regular losses. As far as the soreness goes, I was out planting flowers one week after surgery. I felt some twinges where the port was removed at the 2 week post-op point but it was nothing. All the incisions are healed nicely and I'm back to exercising.

I had my surgery one month ago today and have lost 18 pounds. Tomorrow, I advance to a regular diet. I'm not hungry, I feel restriction, and I feel great.

Excellent! We need a place to call home. LOL.

I had the shoulder pain but not until the day I left. Try to walk and bend and not take a lot of pain medication so you keep things moving along.

I forgot to ask and he didn't mention it. LOL.

Two years? I give it less than a month.

I'm glad to hear all went well and that your healing, walking, and drinking. Yes, today is day 1 of the 10 days of fluids. After your drain comes out, they add chicken broth to the tang, apple juice, and tea. In the folder that you got is a list of TV shows in English. Some have commercials in Spanish but the shows are in English.

I have nothing to good to say about the band. I went for 11 fills over 3 years and never got restriction. What I did get was heart burn, acid reflux, esophageal inflammation, and no sleep. Go for the sleeve!

That toddler was not healthy to begin with. I'm an RN and this whole Swine flu thing is being sensationalized by the media. If you're healthy and use handwashing and stay away from sick people, you'll be fine.

Get that band out of you ASAP. I suffered with the acid reflux and a poor quality of life for too long. The day after surgery the reflux was gone and I could sleep flat on my back in bed. I'm 4 weeks post-op and feel great.

After truly believing that I HAD to be doing something wrong as far as the band was concerned, I now realize the band was wrong for me. The more I read about people finding a "sweet spot" and not being able to eat more than "x" amount, the more I wondered what I was doing wrong. The minute I was allowed to drink after the VSG revision, I KNEW I finally had the surgery I should have had.

You did the right thing and it was VERY smart to look for another surgeon. The MD feeling threatened by you is a good thing. Maybe he will learn from this and treat patients the way he swore to in the oath he took. MDs really are a dime a dozen and WE employ THEM. You FIRED him for failure to do what you hired him for and THAT was the best action.

I did walk out of the hospital but not too far. It was gorgeous weather and I wanted to be in it so I ventured outside everyday and only got caught once. LOL. As for work, I waited a week to go back but I definitely WAS tired after the first 2 thirteen shifts back.

The reflux began about 10 months after I was banded and I was started in Nexium 20 mg once a day. That got increased to 2 times a day after I landed in the ER with what I thought was chest pain. It turned out to be GI related and the CT scan showed increased scarring at the band site. The last year of being banded (I had it for 3 years and 1 day) I had nothing but increasing problems. I work nights and would bring my AM pills and vitamins to work with me and take them at 3 AM. After that, I took no food or drink and went to bed at noon or 1 PM. An hour into sleep (if I was lucky to get the hour) I woke up gagging and in pain with the horrible burning in my esophagus. I then bought one of those wedge pillows and added OTC tagamet and tums to the nexium twice a day. That failed. I added pillows to the wedge and that sometimes worked but often did not. I retreated and ended up sleeping in a chair. For me, the acid reflux and inability to sleep was really having a negative effect on my life. The band was like a parasite in my body and I'm very happy that I am revised to a sleeve. Prior to the band, I ate healthy... just too much. I ate out of boredom and ate too much because I could. Now, I crave healthy foods, sleep in bed on my back with one pillow, have no reflux, and can eat anything on the soft diet menu in small quantities. It seems like the sleeve IS doing what the band was SUPPOSED to do but never did.

The day of surgery was mostly a blur and all I wanted to do was sleep. At 6 AM the following morning, I was showered and walking the halls feeling much better than I did after getting the band.

I am 4 weeks post-op and never experienced restriction with the band. With VSG, I experienced restriction from day one. I literally get full on a small amount of food and stay full. With the hunger hormone gone, I honestly have never felt hungry once. This evening, I had one small meatball (2' diameter) and 4 individual penne pasta. That's it. I was stuffed and could not eat anything else. For me, this is all new with a lot of firsts. I was a fat kid and a fat adult and it always took a LOT of food to fill me up. I never stayed full long. Now that I get full with a little food and stay full, the emotional aspects of eating have not been an issue. I hope this never goes away.

Mac is correct. I did not have a slip or an erosion so I had to start a paper trail of MD visits, failed medications, band related acid reflux leading to inabilty to sleep in bed, etc.

I am the opposite of you here. I'm allergic to milk and have to get soy based shakes. However, we have several experienced VSG members on this forum who I'm sure will weigh in and help.

Congratulations on your success! I'm enjoying the fact that I am never hungry.

Check with your insurance people to find out if they will revise to VSG with a BMI < 40. Many consider it the first step in DS surgery which usually requires a BMI of 50 or >. I consulted 2 surgeons. One wanted to try a new band or reposition the one I had. The second wanted to do RNY gastric bypass despite me telling him from the start that I did not want a malabsorptive procedure. When both told me I would need to start an insurance "paper trail" for 6-9 months to get the surgery paid for, I decided I could not live the way I had been for another 9 months and opted for self pay with Dr. Aceves... no regrets!

Call your insurance company and ask to speak with your case worker. If you don't ask for this person, you get one of those know nothing people who give scripted responses. You need to kill them with paperwork. Get all the lab resultss, test reports, notes from the MD, etc. to support your position and keep checking with the case worker (who is usually an RN) to find out "what else" you need.

Your day has arrived! Good Luck on your sleeve birthday.

Congratulations! You're in good hands and the time will be here before you know it!

Dr. Aceves charges $9,000 for a virgin sleeve and $12,500 for a revision to a sleeve. This includes the hotel stay the night before surgery, pre-op testing, surgery, hospitalization (3 nights), and medications. My surgeon in the U.S. quoted @ $25,000 for same day surgery.