BlackBerryJuice

Wow, they can reject you for a visa because of weight? What's the reasoning?

Have fun! I'd like to go to Australia some day, but it will probably be after I finish school. There seems to be a demand for Canadian doctors there and in NZ, lots of good contracts, it'd be fun to work there for a year.

I'd call and ask if they can give you a discount. Also, if your deposit was less than the difference, it might be worthwhile to cancel and rebook.

I'd just do it....what's the worst that could happen? I guarantee you you'll be full after a few bites.

I actually don't think you need to go on a diet. Your BMI is already smack in the middle of the healthy range. I would just focus on reshaping your body with resistance exercise and cardio.

I found sugar to be hard to tolerate the first few months after the surgery. If I tried to eat an entire candybar now, I'd probably get the same symptoms, although at this point I can have 2-3 pieces of chocolate.

Sometimes I get really bad reflux around bedtime - maybe 2-3 times a month? I don't take my Nexium anymore. I'll just pop an antacid and it goes away in a few minutes. Some ways to minimize your odds of getting reflux at night: 1) avoid eating right before bed, especially fattening or spicy foods 2) avoid coffee and alcohol in the evening 3) prop yourself up on pillows - or, alternatively, put some books under your bed legs at the head end so your bed is propped up. I've heard this also helps with puffy eyes in the am!

I'm in medical school, so I always come across research study flyers begging for participants - some of them compensate their participants quite handsomely! I never qualify. I consider myself to be a pretty healthy person, but as soon as I mention having been on antidepresants once, I'm always rejected. I don't know why it's such a big deal, considering I haven't been on them for like 5 years. There was a food consumption survey advertised (they wanted to watch your eating patterns for 2 weeks), but I figured with my sleeve, I'd probably skew their results. Be careful, though, they've long used med students as paid guinea pigs and some of these experiments did NOT end well. I had a lecturer say that when she went to med school about 20 years ago and they were given an opportunity to be guinea pigs for this immunosuppressive drug that was to be used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. They were offered something like 3 grand, which was an obscene amount of money back then. Unfortunately, 2 of these completely healthy med students died after taking the drug! I definitely wouldn't mess with any pharma trials, you never know what might happen.

Yeah, I think I know who you are talking about! I don't remember the username, but she had her VSG somewhere in the South in the States and then she noticed complete lack of restriction in less than a year. She had her stomach imaged and was told that her pouch completely stretched out! I think she said the Dr. told her she had hyperelastic stomach tissue or something. I remember her asking for input on whether she should repeat the surgery....talk about bad luck!

My greatgrandmother had 90% of her stomach removed about 20 years ago. She's having some digestive issues - not terribly familiar with them as I don't see her every often because she lives abroad, but I know she gets diarrhea, particularly steatorrhea. However, she's 91, and who doesn't have at least SOME digestive issues at that age? So it's hard to tell if it's from the gastrectomy or just old age. It doesn't make sense for steatorrhea to happen because of a gastrectomy, it's usually due to a pancreatic or biliary cause. She was plump, but not obese before her cancer dx and surgery. She lost weight after; she is now thin, but not emaciated or anything. She eats normal meals - my mom mentioned that she came by for dinner recently and had a small bowl of Soup, 3-4 oz ground beef, and maybe a cup of mashed potatoes, and then some tea.

I had a lot of nausea right around 2-3 weeks post-op despite feeling great the first 2 weeks, and I've seen other people on the forum with the same issue. I went to the emerg, they said nothing was wrong with me - mind you, they did 0 tests besides a basic abdo exam for peritonitis. The emerg Dr. suggested I double my Nexium. I called Dr. Aceves 2 days later, as it happened on the weekend, and he said the same thing. I used it 2x a day for a few days but it didn't seem to make a difference, and since the pills were pricy, I stepped down back to 1 pill/day. Then the nausea just went away as randomly as it had started. Moral of the story - probably nothing bad if it's just nausea, but if you feel any pain and feel extreme discomfort/pain when someone presses on your belly, then go to the ER.

I say, if you don't need to, why torture yourself? Chances are, knowing that you don't really need to be on a diet, you probably won't have the motivation to stick to it - I'm sure there's a bunch of posts about how horrible the pre-op diet is on the very front page of this subforum! You can still be active and try to eat lots of fruits and veggies, but nothing's wrong with having some treats. I ate whatever I wanted before the surgery - in fact, Dr. Aceves tells his patients to go have a "last supper" the night before - and I didn't have any problems with my recovery in the first few days post-op.

Yeah, you're gonna be intubated. The intubation tube goes in the trachea, so having something in the esophagus doesn't interfere with it.

Bfast: leftover sushi from yesterday (terrible idea, but I do it at least once a month) Snack: Protein bar, 3 chocolates Lunch: tandoori chicken, palak paneer (spinach stew with Indian cheese) Before workout: Chinese fried rice Dinner: a bit of Chinese vegetables with shrimp, multigrain cookie, 3 strawberries I live off of leftovers....

I really like bodybuilding, as you may gather from my avatar. Right now, I'm taking a lot of dance classes, but I make sure to hit the weights at least once a week so I don't lose muscle mass. I was worried about losing muscle after the sleeve, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. Depending on what my skin looks like in a couple of months, I might even do an amateur competition this summer. I haven't had major loose skin issues - tiny bit on my inner thighs and butt, but both areas are still carrying some fat, so it's too early to tell. To give you an idea, I just get wrinkles on the underside of my butt when I flex my glutes, so this isn't something that would prevent me from, say, wearing shorts. I definitely don't have loose folds or anything major along those lines. I've heard it can take up to a year for your skin to fully tighten up. I don't think I'll ever have so much that I'd have surgery, but maybe I'll look into a laser or some other non-surgical option, if I can find something effective.

I started at 34-something. I actually hit my goal weight today. I think I'll try to lose another 5 lbs, as I have some inner thigh flab I'd still like to get rid of, but overall I'm a size 6-8 and pretty happy with my results. Overall, I've lost 63 lbs in just under 6 months, which is exactly what I expected based on the stats of other people before me who started in the 30-35 range (e.g. MINI-Me!). It seems that you can expect about 10 lbs a month on average if you have <100 to lose, but of course, there's personal variation.

Probably anemia; likely due to iron or B12 deficiency.

I don't think that would have any effect. The reason you get gout is because you either consume too much uric acid or don't excrete it well enough (90% of people with gout have the latter problem). It is linked to diet - back in the days, this was one of the rich people's diseases, because only the very rich could afford to eat so much meat and seafood in their diets that they'd actually accumulate such high levels of uric acid. If your post-sleeve diet resulted in a drastically limited intake of foods high in uric acid, your gout might improve, but weightloss alone probably won't do anything for it. Your doctor should've given you a list of foods to stay away from. Still, it doesn't solve the problem entirely, as flare-ups are not always linked to your serum uric acid levels - some people have flare-ups when their serum uric acid levels are within normal.

I definitely look younger now. I'm 26 and before, people would assume I was in my late 20s or early 30s and I got called "M'am" by strangers. Now it's "Miss" and no one ever thinks I'm older than I actually am.

Haha, now you know I didn't watch all of them (final exam tomorrow). On a related note, I lived in Asia for a while and I noticed that their sweets are nowhere near as sugar-laden as the ones here. If you are used to the super-sweet stuff here, their Desserts seem very bland. But post-sleeve, I'd much rather go for the mild sweetness of green tea ice cream than for Haagen Dazs loaded with sugar, caramel, and chocolate. Also, I heard somewhere that there are different amounts of sugar in Coke in different countries - and the US tops the list for the amount. I only drink Zero or Diet, so I don't have any personal experience from my travels, but I wonder if it's true.

I agree, sounds like you've got some depression issues going on. Nothing wrong with seeing a counselor and/or doctor about it. Plus you've got all the extra stress on top - once these things are sorted out, you'll feel much better. As far as the weight issue, I recall you saying they couldn't do all the medical tests you wanted back there, so at least you can get that done when you return to the US; and you'll be in control of your food rather than limited to 5 deep-fried choices from the cafeteria, so you can jump-start your weightloss with healthy foods. Things will turn around soon! A year from now, you'll look back on this time and the stress will seem insignificant.