Tiffykins

Glad you are on the mend Tracy, have a safe flight, and let us know when you arrive home ! ! !

I had a chest x-ray with my band surgery, and with my sleeve revision. It was part of my insurance pre-op lab work requirements.

Anyone wanna chat, I'll leave the chat window open.

Some people spruce up their protein drinks by adding flavored extract like banana or coconut flavors. They also make sugar-free syrups to add some flavor. Here's a link to Vitalady.com selection of sugar free syrups. I'm sure you can find them elsewhere, but she has a great rep, and I've ordered protein samples from her. Vitalady.com - Syrups & sauces EDIT TO ADD: I just read on vitalady's website they aren't shipping syrups due to the winter months. Here's another link for Davinci sugar free syrups http://www.netrition.com/davinci_syrups_page.html Well crap, it looks like they've all stopped shipping for the winter months. Maybe try to find some at a local health food store.

Excellent news ! ! ! I'm glad you had a great day. There's many more to come, just wait until you have something crunchy, it was better than sex ! ! ! Okay, maybe not better, but close to it.

YAY for getting your date ! ! !

A bit of back story. When John and I met, I was at my heaviest between 265-270. That meant I weighed more than 100 pounds more than he did, and he didn't care. He loved me regardless of my pant size, or what the scale read. I was never one to hide my weight from him even when we were just dating. I wasn't happy at that weight, but I was happy that he loved me for me. Today, I now weigh about 30lbs less than he does. When he deployed mid-March, I still weighed 100lbs more than he did. He worked out, strength training mainly, and bulked up a bit. I dropped a bunch of weight, and it's like a new found adventure for us. For the first time in my entire life, my husband can carry me. He can hoist my "tiny hiney" (his words) up in his arms, and carry me around the house. I'll admit, I was still scared of 'hurting' him. But, not anymore ! ! !

Hey Libby, thanks for sharing your story, and experience. I hope you recover fully, and are very successful with the sleeve. We're having a D/FW area meet-up later this month and would like to invite you to come out with us. I'm originally from TX, and we'll be making a trip "home" for the holidays, and would love to meet you ! ! ! We're trying to work out the details on specific date, times, and venue.

I am soooooooooooooooo very excited for you, and I hope you are able to text or email me an update. I'll be at our squadron Christmas party on Saturday night, but I'll have my phone with me. Please be safe in your travels, and enjoy your trip.

I've been researching TX surgeons since my husband may get orders to San Antonio. My top choices are: Dallas area : Dr. Nick Lap Band, Gastric Bypass, Bariatric Surgery Dallas, Obesity & Laparoscopic Weight Loss Surgery Dallas, Plano Texas TX San Antonio : I have not found any surgeons that accept our insurance so I am going to have to travel to Houston or Dallas. Houston: Dr. Audencio Alanis About Dr. Audencio Alanis M.D.

YAY for an update. I'm glad to hear the upchucking has subsided. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you and baby continues to thrive ! ! !

Glad to see you posting your progress ! ! ! Congrats on your results thus far.

Congrats on getting your date, keep us posted on your progress.

That incision is what caused most of my discomfort as well. I slept in my recliner for a month because getting up and down off the couch or out of the bed was not possible. I had a lot of scar tissue/adhesions around the port incision (which is the one they used again as the largest incision. I had extra sutures, and requested that the surgeon remove all of the scar tissue because it was so bumpy and gross. I still 6 months out have a bit of discomfort in that general area if I push on it, or bump into something. Take it super easy, they stitched up layers and layers of skin and muscle. I also took children's advil with my surgeon's permission to help with swelling. I hope you feel better soon.

That's excellent Josephine ! ! !

Gin, I want to personally thank you for taking a stand on this issue. We all know complications happen, and unfortunately, when a facility has had issues in the past people automatically go on the defensive. I truly applaud you for being able to be honest, and upfront with your experience. I wish more patients who had complications would have the courage to post their experiences. I am not going to defend njsleever, but I'm not going to attempt to debunk someone's experience either. It's quite odd that any time someone posts an issue it always turns into "ohhh this is just a paid poster for another Mexico surgeon, I have information/proof". Well, anything can be composed on the internet, anything can be fabricated, what makes someone else's piece of information more valid? NOTHING. It's the internet, and if you choose this surgeon/facility, and have a great experience, congrats, but why is it necessary to constantly berate the patients who had issues/complications? It just gets old, and in my opinion is a simple way to discredit not only yourself, but the entire program/facility/surgeon that is in question.

You're doing great Shontel. I could only tolerate Optimum whey protein for taste, texture and smell. The GNC wheybolic was horrific to me. As for the eggs, I hope you enjoy them, even 6 months out, I can't tolerate them. We order the Optimum whey from bodybuilding.com and we prefer the extreme milk chocolate. They do offer a 16 pack flavor sample for $18.99, but we stuck with the milk chocolate. They carry it at GNC as well, but we found it was cheaper online. I take 2 GNC solotron chewables, not gritty, and they have bioavailable iron. They taste yummy as well. I'm a band to sleeve revision as well.

That is super exciting, not only for your pocketbook, but for your overall health as well ! ! ! Cheers to you.

Smoking (anything) slows healing, destroys capillaries and veins which helps transfer blood between organs, and flesh. Therefore, the blood flow to damaged/traumatized areas is slower.

I'm 6 months out with a 32f boughie size which is considerably smaller than your sleeve, but surgical technique can also contribute to final sleeve size. If any part of the fundus was left, your hunger may return sooner, and there maybe some stretching due to your sleeve being bigger, but a barium swallow around a year out would be the best indicator as to the size of your sleeve, and if it's stretching. As for what I can eat, last night we went for Mexican. I ate 6 tortilla chips with guacamole and cheese dip. Myself and my son ordered chicken/steak fajitas for one. I ate about 5 small strips of fajita meat (with sour cream, guac, cheese dip) with a bunch of sauteed onions. I had 2 small bites of mexican rice, and was done. http://pugetsoundsurgicalcenter.com/sleeve_statement.pdf In the above article, it states that there is no concensus on "bougie" size. Above article is dated June 2007, but it's the only one I can find at this time. I'm trying to find some other articles with definitive information on sleeve/bougie size. If I find them, I'll come back and add to the thread. ASMBS POSITION STATEMENT ON SLEEVE GASTRECTOMY AS A BARIATRIC PROCEDURE The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Clinical Issues Committee Approved by the ASMBS Executive Council June 2007 At 5 months out with 100lbs lost, I think you are doing fabulous. You're averaging 4-5lbs loss per week which is fantastic. It sounds like you are rocking your sleeve, and keep doing what you are doing.

The staples cause zero issue with an MRI, I've had one since my revision, and I also have 2 titanium steel screws in my left and have had more MRIs and Cat scans than I care to even count. With the NG tube, since our stomach is still full functioning, no actualy change in the anatomy other than size, I really don't seen an NG being an issue. Once that scope gets down there, they would realize quite quickly that you have had a partial gastrectomy. They may not know the "why" (WLS instead of cancer or ulcerative condition) you had it, but any decent ER doctor would realize you are missing 75% of your stomach. It wouldn't be a bad idea if it makes you more comfortable to get one.

Biotin only helps with regrowth. My multi-Vitamin has biotin in, but I take about 15,000mcgs of Biotin a day which is 3 capsules per day. Some days I skip them all together, other days I remember them. Here's an article that was posted on OH. Major surgery, acute trauma, and other reasons are listed as the reasons why we lose hair while losing weight. Telogen Effluvium: eMedicine Dermatology It does not matter the surgery type, it can potentially happen to all of us. I have new growth coming. I have those baby hairs popping up along my part, and at the hairline around my face.

Call your surgeon. If you can't get help from them, go to your Primary doctor, if they can't help you go to the E.R.

I could see if I had RNY and it was recommended with my band surgery, but I never did it. With the band, I carried a little card in my wallet right behind my DL. The staples are there so maybe that is a concern? I've had an MRI, numerous cat scans and multiple ultrasounds since having my revision so I'm not sure what the concern would be. If they (ER docs) stuck a scope down me, they'd figure it out pretty quickly that I have just a tiny tummy. Even an x-ray will reveal the staples with no evidence of a "blind stomach" like the RNY leaves a patient with, right?

I've had some sort of chest cold the last couple of days, and went to bed early the last 2 nights. I'll try to be in tonight sometime.