Helen the Cat

Missmarbee Welcome!!! We are so glad you choose to join us. A lot of us had our surgeries outside the United States, so don't have a support group to attend. This site takes the place of a support group for many of us (me included!) Also this site has to have the most loyal, enthusiatic group of encouragers anywhere on the planet! It is full of terriffic people who offer help, encouragement, advice, prayers, whatever is needed. It is a place to ask questions, address concerns and just vent frustrations. We are so glad you are here! So did you pick a date for the surgery? How soon? Be sure and keep us posted so we can follow your progress! Looking forward to hearing more from you! Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

It is funny how your tastes change after the surgery. Even from day to day after surgery. I mentioned, quite casually to my husband how much I like the additive "Mio" that you put in water to flavor it, and he went out and bought like ten containers of it. A couple days later, I couldn't stand the taste of it anymore, and haven't used it since! Tastes WAY to sweet for me. Best tip I can give you is to experiment..... try drinking your water iced, if that doesn't sit well, try room temp water, maybe flavored water, maybe some kind of fruit juice. Or iced tea, there are so many flavors of tea now. Just keep trying different things and you are bound to hit on one that your sleeve will tolerate and you will like soon. I ended up drinking Sugar Free Lipton Citrus flavored Green Tea. It still tastes good to me 8 months after my surgery! But it took me a couple of weeks trying different things to get there. And remember, it is a journey. We don't get there the first day or even the first week. It is a whole new life style, one that I struggle with some days, but still an exciting journey! Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

Laney, Surgery affects us all differently. Hang in there, it will get better. I had such a complication free post op course. Hope you will also. The aches and pains from the procedure and the gas they use to inflate your abdomen will soon be gone, and you will feel SO much better. Concentrate on the end result, when you are at your goal! God Bless, I'm praying for you! Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

Carbgirl, Lots of us out here praying for you. Please keep us posted on how you are doing! The swelling WILL go down, so hang in there, it will get better. Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

Believe me Teatime, it is a life long struggle! I too was on the road called "Eating Myself to Death". I love to cook and bake, and of course, I love to eat! That is how I got to where I was. I had my procedure almost 8 months ago, and the weight just seemed to melt away after my surgery. Now the weight loss is slowing down, and I am (trying) to come to terms with eating in a correct fashion. I still love to cook and bake, and it is SO hard not to EAT! I fixed desssert last night (at my husbnad's requst) and ate it myself (he didn't even eat it after I fixed it for him!) and when I got on the scale this morning, I had gained 4, Yep that's right FOUR fricking pounds!!!!! I know that one desset didn't do that, it was a combination of the food choices I made yesterday. So today I have made a decision to get serious about my weight loss. I HAD lost 100 pounds, now I am only down 96 pounds. The last 15 pounds have been SO slow. I have really struggled. And now I am gaining, so I HAVE to get serious! (I think my 100 pound weight loss lasted all of twenty minutes. I was lucky that I happened to get on the scale during one of those 20 minutes!!!) I used to drink alcohol on a fairly regular basis. (I don't mean go out and get drunk drink, just a cocktail before dinner, or a glass of wine with or after diner.) But, I have found that alcohol doesn't sit that well with my sleeve. So I have pretty much given up on drinking. ~Good bye margarites that I love, ~ Goodbye chocolate martinis that I crave.~ Goodbye Peach Bellinis that were so much fun at Lunch occasionally!~~~ Goodbye. And now I am saying goodbye to desserts that I love. Oh how I love to read those receipes for Red Velvet cupcakes with frosting an inch deep! How I love to read a new Beef Stroganoff recipe that is loaded with sour cream and calories. How I love to read (Oh Hell you get the idea!!!) Instead, I am choosing to be healthy and fit! So, Excuse me, now I have to get up off my butt and go get busy, my treadmill is just around the corner!!! By the way, Congrats on your weight loss, and thanks for letting me vent! Best of luck on your journey!!! I mean that, good luck. It is a journey, and it can be a life long struggle, But as my Dad used to say, nothing good comes easy!

What specific codes do you need? Procedure codes or diagnostic codes? There are literally THOUSANDS of codes out there, procedural codes, medical condition codes, etc. Wikipedia has a list of the ICD-9codes for different medical conditions. They also have a current listing of the currently used CPT (Common Procedural Terminology) codes. But to ramdomly pick your codes would be a crap shoot. Have you considered speaking with the billing office of your physician/surgeon? They could tell you which codes they used in billing your procedure. It is very complicated. I am a nurse and worked for a surgeon for 8 years. I used to do some of his billing so I used the codes, and belive me, it is very complicated!

Here is a link to a tutorial LilMissDiva wrote that tells you how to put the weight loss. Hope this helps! Go to your internet browser and type in www.tickerfactory.com 2. Scroll down the page to halfway and click on Weight Loss, in the Weight Loss/Fitness section. **See above screen** 3. Choose your ticker ruler, there are many to choose from. Check all the pages! Once you have chosen one you like, click next. Do the same for your ticker Slider, and click next again. 4. Fill in your personal information on this page. Once completed, click next. 5. This page will show your finish product and will leave a code for you that you will need later. Do not shut down this page, you will need to go back once you complete a few more steps. The correct code to use has been circled. 6. Go back to VST/LBT. There is a drop down menu at the top left of your screen. (Circled) Next, click on My Settings. ***Please Note*** VST and LBT both function exactly the same. For demonstration purposes I’m using my VST account. 7. On your options page, you will need to navigate to your Options tab (circled). 8. On your options tab, you will need to click on the Change Signature option (circled). 9. This is what your page will look like. Have the cursor in your Edit Signature text box. 10. Go back to your completed Diet ticker web page. Highlight and copy the entire code, circled in the photo above in step 5. 11. Once again go back to your VST/LBT page that you just left. In the text box, paste the code you copied from the ticker factory website. Click Save Changes. 12. Once you have done this, it should reset the page to show you what your new signature looks like. Congratulations!! You now have your ticker set to show others your progress.

I think it was around 5 to 6 months post op that the weight loss started to slow down. Up until then, it just seemed to drop off without any effort from me. Now it is more slow, and I have to work at it. I HAD lost 100 pounds (the last five pounds taking almost two months!) but I ate dessert last night and when I got on the scale this morning, EEEK!!! I had gained four, Yes FOUR FREEKING pounds!!! I almost dropped dead right there and then, naked and cold on the bathroom floor!!! BUT I know they will come off again. Dessert is not something I usually allow myself, but my hubbie specially requested it, and then I couldn't resist. (In the end he didn't even eat it himself!) Anyway, Congrats on your weight loss. And keep up the good work!

I can feel your pain! I wasn't going to tell anyone either, except really close family. I did tell my sister, as we are really close. I asked her not to tell anyone though. Low and behold, when I got home from my surgery, I had an email from a college classmate who said she had seen Caroline (sister) and Caroline told her all about my WLS! I was stunned. I wrote back to the friend and said "Well I wonder what part of "Please don't tell anyone about my surgery! my sister didn't understand?" But Melinda (friend) had already told about 8-10 of our other classmates, so the news was OUT big time. Since then, when anyone askes me about my weight loss, I just tell them, "I had a bariatric procedure." If they ask questions, I figure, I guess I will be the one to educate them on WLS surgery. That's what nurses do anyway, teach their patients about their conditions, how to handle it, what their meds are for, etc. A big part of being a nurse is educating your patients, so I just consider anyone who asks me questions about my weight loss as a sort of "quasi patient" of mine, and tell them what they want to know. I guess it has turned out to be easier that way. And nobody is off in the corner speculating about how I lost weight, and talking about me behind my back, they just come right up to me and ask. Which I guess I would rather they did anyway. I felt the same as you when I went back to work. I work 12 hour shifts, and went back when I was 10 days post op. My surgeon told me I could go back to work in one week, but I had the ten days off, so I took them all. I was SO tired, this deep bone weary tired that just wouldn't go away. It took me like two months for the fatigue to wear off or go away or whatever. But I finally did start to feel better again. And now I feel pretty good. I have lots more energy than I used to have. And I don't need nearly as much sleep as I used to need (before loosing 100 pounds!). Anyway, Congratulations! I think you are doing wonderful. Keep it up! Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

Yeah, one of my ports popped open too. It was gross! I didn't even butterfly it. It was the one in my navel, and was such a hard area to butterfly. So just kept it covered with some gauze. Showed one of my daughters who almost threw up! Obviously, she isn't a nurse. but it healed OK, just left a bigger scar, but it's in my navel, and trust me, NOBODY gets to look at my navel! So who cares! Anyway, hope you are doing OK, and have no further complications!!! Kathy D (alias Helen the Cat)

It is SOOOO hard to learn to eat slow!!! FOr 42 years I have eaten as fast as I can! I am a nurse in Labor and Delivery, and if you have a labor patient and you get a lunch break you are lucky!!! You learn to eat fast, cause your patient might get to the point of being ready to delivery, and if you don't eat fast, you might not get to eat at all! So for 42 years (that's how long I have been a L&D nurse) I have eaten fast. And that habit has carried over to my meals at home and when we go out. It is SOOO hard to break! I TRY to remember to count my bites, and count how many times I chew to slow myself down. But I usually forget and when I have shoveled everything in as fast as I can, I think "Oh NO! I did it AGAIN!" So no my hubbie tries to remember to tell me to EAT SLOW! But like I said, HARD HABIT TO BREAK!!!

Oh....E-girl, I am SO sorry that you had that much discomfort when they pulled the drainage tube! It is usually a very minor ouch. It must have adhered to something internally. I am SO sorry. Hopefuly that pain is gone and you won't have anything like that in the future! But at least it is over, and you are home! I have to say, I really never had any horrible pain when I had my procedure. I was sore, and used a pillow up against my tummy when I laid on my side, to support my little incisions (ports actually). Getting in and out of bed was touchy for a day or two, but never had any pain that was as bad as you described! Have to say, you were lucky! A pain pump!?! Wow!!! My doctor didn't even give me any narcotic medication post op. His assistant met with each of us prior to surgery and told us what to expect. One of the things she mentioned was that Dr. Rod didn't use ANY narcotics post operatively, only a powerful anti-inflammatory. Being a nurse, and being a NOSEY nurse ast that, I asked WHAT it was that he used. She told me it was Toredol, which is an injectable anti-inflammatory medication similar to Mortrin (Ibuprofen) but in injectable form. We use it all the time on post-op C-sections, and it does make them more comfortable. She further told me if the pain got "really bad" to ask the nurse, and the nurse would call and get an order for "something extra". So the one time I was pretty uncomfortable, I put my call light on (more about that in a minute) and the nurse called somebody and got an OK to give me my Toredol an hour early. (It is usually given IV push every 6 hours, It had only been five hours since my last dose, but they went ahead and gave it to me an hour early. BIG DEAL!) But again, I have to say, I was never in really excruiating pain. Just thought if I could be more comfortable, why not. About the call light. It is funny, now that I am looking bad on the incident. I was uncomfortable and remembered that the assistant told us to tell the nurse, and she would get us "something extra" for the pain. So since I felt a little more uncomfortable than I had, I put my call light on to ask. My nurse came "stomping" into my room, grabbed the call light out of my hand and put it on the bedside table as far away from me as possible and yelled "WHAT?" at me. She seemed to be REALLY mad at me for putting my call light on. I told her what I wanted and she didn;t say a word, whirled around, stomped out of my room, and I never saw her again that day! (Someone else came and gave me the early dose of Toredol.) My husband who witnessed the whole incident said "If I were you, I don't think I would use the call light again!" and laughed. Looking back it really is funny now. At the time, I was appalled! And I have to say, I KNOW if I treated a patient like that, I should just pack up my stuff and head for the front door immediately, cause my little rear end would be SO fired! Anyway, it is funny now. I said all this to say, I hope you are feeling better today, and to welcome you on the start of your journey in a "new life" after WLS. Hope you are feeling ever so much better, and the pain and discomfort will soon be a distant memory. (And hope you NEVER have a nurse like mine!) Best of luck, AND Welcome to the Loser's Bench! Kathy D (aliad Helen the Cat)

Jewels, Before I made the decision to have my surgery, I did a LOT of research. My first cousin IS a bariatric surgeon. He didn't do my surgery (insurance wouldn't cover my surgery so went to Mexico). He said that he has done Lap Band, Roux N Y s and Vertical Gastric Sleeves. In his experience, he says he has had almost NO complications with his VGS patients. No leaks, almost no problems at all. His recommendation for me was the sleeve. His feeling is that most surgeons have found that the complication rate for sleeves is far below any other type of procedure. He trained at Mayo Clinic and continues to do his continueing education at Mayo in Rochster, MN. which is a center of excellence.

Mater, You are a couple of days post op now, Am just writing to inquire how you are feeling? Is the soreness getting better? Are you up and around, walking to get rid of all that nasty gas? Three procedures in one surgery, you REALLY got your moneys worth!!! I am sure it is such a relief to be on the other side; I remember how good I felt just knowing that it was over! Take it easy, sip that Water, walk, walk, walk! And keep us posted. We all want to know how you are doing! Kathy D

Bedhead, You had a pain pump? I am SO jealous!!! I didn't have any narcotic type of pain medication at all when I had my sleeve done. The surgeon's assistant spoke with each of us pre-operatively and made it very clear that our surgeon did not believe in giving narcotic medication for laprascopic surgery. He told us we would get a powerful anti-inflammatory (Toradol) every 6 hours IV, which was OK. But the one time I was really hurting, there wasn't much they could do. The Toradol can only be given every 6 hours IV. When I was hurting bad, it was another two and a half hours till I could have some more Toredal. So I got up and walked for the 2 1/2 hours, to try and pass the time and hopefully help me feel better. I am 8 months out now, and of course, have no pain. but thinking back on it, wish I could have had some "real" pain meds! SMH!!! It is really funny how different our experiences are! Am so glad you are home from the hospital and feeling pretty good! You have made a wonderful positive change in your life. And the journey that you are starting to walk will take you to wonderful places. (including Macy's, Bloomie's, Nordstroms, Dillard's and some other wonderful places. I am so happy to leave Lane Bryant, Catherine's, Dress Barn and Fashion Bug behind!)

How goes it today Jasleeve? Feeling any better? What are you doing to occupy your time? I know it isn't any fun feeling so crappy, but staying busy might help take your mind off of how you feel. Are you up and around most days? When do you see the doctor next? Hope it is soon. Talk to him about a Zofran pump if you are still having such nausea problems! It might help significantly. Still praying for you. You are on my heart and in my mind everyday! Take care. Love and Hugs and Prayers!!! Kathy D

Kkimm22, I think LindaS has a point. How is your Water intake? I know that for a long time I tried to hold down my Fluid intake, thinking that part of what I was weighing was water weight. But yesterday someone posted a post telling how their surgeon said you can't butn fat without adequate water intake. So I am making a conscious effort to increase my liquid intake to see if that helps. Give it a try! Best of luck. And congratulations on your sleeve. Hope you find it works well for you! I am thrilled with mine. Have lost 100 pounds so far in 8 months.

LindaS, Can you get DVDs of Zumba? Or do you have to go to some facility to do it? I worked with a couple of gals in California who did Zumba ona regular basis, but my problem is getting out and going. I loved going to the work out facility in the next town, but my problem is getting back out after dinner in the evening. On the nights when I don't work, I like to spend the evening with Bill (hubbie). If I have to get myself dressed and drive 6 miles to the next town to work out, well, it just isn't going to happen. Now I could see myself doing a DVD here at home, I think.....

Congratulations! and welcome to The Losers Bench! It is a great feeling. Glad to hear that you aren't having a lot of pain. If the Iso Pure is bothering you, try a diffferent kind. I like Unjury in the chocolate flavor. It tastes just like chocolate milk to me (I mix it with milk!). Take care of yourself. Get lots of rest. And don't be discouraged by the weight gain. The fluid will be gone soon and you will start to notice the weight loss! Again. Congratulations! Kathy D

Alana, I am 8 months post op, and down 100 pounds. Everyday I struggle with the thought that I might gain it back. I am scared to death that I might gain. And somehow, my old friend--- food--- always pops up to comfort me. I struggle not to eat junk food when I am worried about weight gain. Doesn't make sense does it? I am trying so hard to break the habit of turning to food when I am stressed. It is a life long habit, and SO hard to break!!! I was 258 pounds at my highest. I am now 158 or 159 depending on the day. But some days I actually go up to 160 or 161. Those are the days it is hardest to stay away from the foods that have always comforted me. I tell myself over and over that I shouldn't eat ___________ (you fill in the blanks, it might be Twinkies, HO-HOs, mashed potatoes, ice cream, etc. But for sure it is a comfort food.) But somedays I just can't stop myself. It makes me worry about my long term success. Every one says how well I have done, but they don't know I am scared spitless that I might wreck it and eat my way back up to 250+ pounds. The main reason I continue to frequent this forum is that it helps me keep my determination to stay where I am and continue to lose. I am so thankful for the wonderful people here who encourage me to keep on this path I started in June. Best of luck on yur journey!

When I was sleeved, last June, I was living in California, and the pool was 1/2 block from my from door. My room mate and I swam laps for an hour every morning when we got home from work (we worked night shift). Since I moved home (to Iowa) in December, I obviously had to quit swimming. And my exercise regime has suffered since then. I joined the local work out facility, but haven't been faithful about going to exercise on a regular basis. It is to cold now in Iowa to get out and walk. I NEED to start to work out somehow. I am thinking that I need to get on that exercise bike that is sitting unused in my basement. How lazy is that? It is in my own basement, and I haven't availaed myself of it. I too have been stalled for a long time. I lose a pound, then gain it back, lose it again, gain it back, etc. But I am down 100 pounds, so am trying to motivate myself to lose the last 8-18 pounds. I have never heard that decreased Fluid intake cuts down on weight loss. In addition to trying to jump start my exercise regime, I am going to try to up my Water intake and see if that helps. Thanks for the tip!!!

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Jasleeve, Today was your appointment with the therapist wasn't it? How did it go? Was thinking about you all day and wondering how it went with the therapist. Kathy D

Jasleeve, Has anybody suggested or discussed a Zofran pump with you? It is similar to an insulin pump, in that it pumps a small continuous amount of Zofran (anti-nausea medication) into your system. I have seen several pregnant women with severe nausea/vomiting who had to have a Zofran pump implanted. It seemed to help them. That might be something that you could benefit from. Anyway, just a suggestion. Prayers continue!!!! Love and Hugs and Prayers, Kathy D