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According to the internet: Nausea and vomiting are the most common complaints after bariatric surgery, and they are typically associated with inappropriate diet and noncompliance with a gastroplasty diet (ie, eat undisturbed, chew meticulously, never drink with meals, and wait 2 hours before drinking after solid food is consumed). If these symptoms are associated with epigastric pain, significant dehydration, or not explained by dietary indiscretions, an alternative diagnosis must be explored. One of the most common complications causing nausea and vomiting in gastric bypass patients is anastomotic ulcers, with and without stomal stenosis. Ulceration or stenosis at the gastrojejunostomy of the gastric bypass has a reported incidence of 3% to 20%. Although no unifying explanation for the etiology of anastomotic ulcers exists, most experts agree that the pathogenesis is likely multifactorial. These ulcers are thought to be due to a combination of preserved acid secretion in the pouch, tension from the Roux limb, ischemia from the operation, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use, and perhaps Helicobacter pylori infection. Evidence suggests that little acid is secreted in the gastric bypass pouch; however, staple line dehiscence may lead to excessive acid bathing of the anastomosis. Treatment for both marginal ulcers and stomal ulcers should include avoidance of NSAIDs, antisecretory therapy with proton-pump inhibitors, and/or sucralfate. In addition, H pylori infection should be identified and treated, if present. After my surgery, my surgeon put me on Omeprazole [Prilosec OTC) which is a proton pump inhibitor for the first year to help my stomach heal properly. I did not experience recurring bouts of nausea. After the first year, I discontinues and all was well. So if you are not taking any NSAIDs such as aspirin and if you do not have an H pylori infection, then perhaps you have an ulcer.

Hi Nicci, You are still quite young (30) so compared to me, your "impending time" for health stressors may be less than mine (I'm 43). And, of course, I don't know if your family has a history of serious health problems such as cardiac issues, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, etc. Any one of those is life threatening and many of them seem to come as a "package" to those of us who are morbidly obese. Our weight really does "drag us down', if not sooner, than later. My starting weight was nearly identical to your current weight, and I'm very close to your same height. I WISH I had had the option to have the VSG done at age 30! I could have had a much different last 13 years indeed! We have a family history of cancer (breast, bladder and brain), hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, strokes, etc. I am healthy now, but if I don't get "hold" of things NOW, I am in for a world of hurt in the next decade. And it only gets worse from there.... So I had the VSG done in May, 2012. And I am now close to 80 lbs down (in less than 5 months) with another 100 or so to go! I feel great! I'm off my asthma meds (4 of them!) since surgery. I can exercise without shortness of breath. I'm down from a size 26/28 (or 4X/5X) to a 18/20 (or XL) now, and really looking forward to maybe being a size 10 or 8 (and maybe smaller!) when I hit goal. Yes, there are risks. But the % of people who develop surgical complications or post-op complications with the VSG is VERY VERY small. The % of morbidly obese people who develop serious, significant and often life-threatening health complications is VERY HIGH. So you're not "playing it safe". You're just putting off the time when the health problems will come. Now, you have a small risk. Later, you have a HUGE chance for life-long debilitating illness(es). I made sure I was very well informed about the possible complications. I prepared my Will, put my affairs in order and made sure that things were going to be taken care of (as best as possible) should anything go wrong. Then I got on a plane (by myself), flew to Mexico and completed the best decision of my life. Give yourself the chance to spend the next 50 years of your life having an active, full and healthy lifestyle with your children and future grandchildren. Don't let your body hold your spirit and your heart back. And while you definitely need to be completely informed and knowledgeable before you make this decision......don't let a few bad outcomes scare you away from the opportunity to change you life for the better. You will see that the number of AMAZING outcomes far far outweighs the poor ones. Do you research, get comfortable with your surgeon's experience, training, background and work environment. Get yourself tested "six ways to Sunday" to make sure you are a good healthy candidate for surgery and if there are any issues, starting working on the ones you have control over NOW, so you can come through the procedure as one of the success stories (like me!). I know you can do this, and you will be so grateful the opportunity exists. But above all, inform yourself and give everything you read a fair assessment. Then make your decision based on ALL the information. Not just the good and not just the bad. Good luck!

I felt great after surgery I have low bp to begin with and for a while it was really low. have had no complications was sleeved on 4/4 and down 42lbs just started working out with a trainer I need the motivation can only do it for awhile too expensive but with it. Sent from my SPH-D700 using VST

I'm in the same boat... my surgery is exactly a week from today on the 8th and I had a dream last night that really scared me... brought my anxiety up really bad. My husband just reminded me that its what I have been talking about non stop since March and that yeah its scary, any surgery is, but the benefits out weight those fears. He is right but I still find myself freaking out about complications and even death because I'm an over thinker like that lol. I'm sure once I'm out of surgery and everything I will laugh at how silly I'm being but until then I will probably continue freaking out because that's how I am.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I didn't stick with them after all. They know with the first call to the insurance company whether there are exclusions for WLS in your plan. unfortunately a lot of these WLS centers are just into it for the money. Had I stuck with them I may have had a lap band by now BUT it would not have lasted. Four years ago I had surgery to repair a hiatal hernia; I had heard that it could cause problems,so to dig out the truth I went to a gastro doctor that had no affiliation with lap band to make sure I was a candidate. It can be done, BUT I was at much more risk for failure, and more importantly complications. Lap Band Solutions had said " sure your a candidate, the previous surgery is no problem" I believe Lap Band Solutions would have let me continue to have appointments or may have even done the surgery knowing I would later have complications that could lead to additional surgery or to have a revision. In any case they did not have the chance. I decided to get away from the cattle call clinics and search out a private Dr. that does WLS. I am very happy with my choice and will soon be reaping the success of a gastric sleeve. Out of all the WLS out there, I choose the sleeve, and all three of my doctors (primary, gastric, & WL surgeon) agree it is the best surgery for me. As for Lap Band Solutions.... I believe their practices to be deceptive, and maybe even risky. I have directed a letter to the AMA an the TX medical board telling them of my experience. I hope others like yourself will do the same.

I had my band unfilled do to complications of food getting stuck. Then I had an endoscopy done and found out I have ulcers from my esophagus down to my small intestine. I've gained 30 pounds over the past 4 months!! I still have a month or two to go before they will start adding fluid. Ugh [emoji27]

Oh Wow! Thanks so much for the advice! Congratulations on you being 5 weeks out. How are you feeling? I am so scared about having complications after the surgery. I have one friend who had the Bypass and had numerous issues the first couple of months, but is super skinny now and is a little over a year out. My other friend was sleeved and had no pain, no nausea, no nothing! I was like, "Really?!?!?" I want and am hoping for the same thing. My doc only put me on a 4 day liquid pre-op diet. How come I am seeing people posting different lengths of time for them? Does it depend on how heavy you are? Some say 7 days, some 2 weeks, etc.

I wanted to share some of my fears with revision surgery. I am only two weeeks away from my operation and I am starting to get nervous about my life afterwards. I figured I could share my fears along with others and hopefully get some support as well. So here goes. These are my top fears about revision surgery: I wont lose any weight or hardly any. I wont be able to follow doctor orders and may cause myself complications. I will come out of surgery only to find they couldn't do it after all. I will not feel as much restriction as I did with the band. I will only lose weight for a short time like with the band, and then start gaining it all back I have more fears but these are the most prominent. I guess this whole journey with the band has just scarred me in some ways and made me doubt the power of surgery, even though I know from seeing my friends and family who have done it that it works. I guess I worry since I chose the band first, things wont be the same for me and it wont work as well. Share your fears with me.

A lot of people think the sleeve or even the bypass will prevent them from eating certain things. The thing is even with surgery. food addictions will make people eat things they shouldn't ignoring pain and discomfort. Nothing but not wanting to is going to stop people from eating things. I purposely chose the sleeve over the band and the bypass because it offered the most normal life post op. I knew I would be able to eat basically anything if I didn't have complications. That was the appeal of the sleeve. After months of eating healthy and getting results from it. I never want to go back to eating how I did before. Not even a little bit. The benefits of losing weight and being small far out weigh the taste of any food. Yet, I don't feel deprived at all because the sleeve helped me change my attitude about food. I hope that more people can make the life changing mental changes with food that are really the key to success. Surgery, the physical part is such a small fleeting thing.

I was in the same boat with being apprehensive. I think that's natural. I debated for years about the surgery before I was just too fed up with being overweight. My insurance required 6 months of classes, specialist appointments, nutritionist appts, weight loss, support group meetings, and crazy amounts of blood work before I could even submit to insurance. Luckily I got cleared but the whole process ended up taking 8 months from start to surgery day. So far, the worst part of the entire process was the classes because the instructor seemed to talk about the worst case scenarios as if they will most definitely happen to ever person in the room. Most of it was to scare away the people who weren't serious about the life change. So I didn't really pay much attention to it other than the important stuff. I'm 9 days out of sleeve surgery and since the starting day of the process I'm down nearly 20lbs If you've made it as far as you have- stick with it. It'll be worth it. The statistics of complications are super low if you're going to a credible surgeon. Most people won't have any complications.

I was going to get the lapband too. . .I finally convinced hubbie to come to a seminar with me after 1 1/2 years . . and when the seminar was over we were walking to the car and I asked him what he thought? he said "I won't support you with the band" I was so crushed and wanted to yell at him and tell him i didn't care i was going to get it anyhow. . .but i asked him why . . his answer nearly knocked me to the ground. . . "I won't support you with the band, but I will support you with the sleeve 100%" . . . wow, i asked why he said it was going to be cheaper in the end. . .with all the fills and complications that could happen, the sleeve was permanent and after it was done it was done. . . no fills no nothing and the seminar doctor said that if you don't get a leak after 2 weeks you won't get a leak and it sounded safer to hubbie. . . I was so happy. . . then i asked about going to Mexico cause it was cheaper. . . he just said NO! You're staying here and that's it. . . ok, ok, I'm not arguing. . . he said we could go on vacation another time. . . . eek

So I have been really quiet on here because I was just trying to get rid of the last of the health issues I had going on. Polyps are gone and uterine fibroids are gone. I had an appt with my bariatric surgeon today and we discussed getting the revision now that I have a clean bill of health. Looks like it'll be mid July sometime. BUT...my revision is a little more complicated. Here's what I was told: Normally they leave the bottom part of the stomach when they do the bypass because there might be a need for a feeding tube at some point, or something like that. HOWEVER, with my situation, the part they would normally leave is where all the polyps were. So the surgeon is going to completely remove the bottom part of the stomach (making my stomach about 2oz instead of the 4-5oz it is now) during the bypass surgery. He said that's not ideal, but given my situation, it's the best course of treatment for the GERD, esophagitis, gastritis, and getting me back to being able to work out and live a normal life again (which is really all I want). He said it does present a problem later on if I need a feeding tube or whatever, but that's a big "if", and considering all of my issues right now, it's worth the risk, if I agree. I agreed with him and I'm waiting for the coordinator to call me to schedule the surgery officially. I'm so close to this being over. I can see the finish line FINALLY!!!!!

My bags were packed. I was ready to go. I was at my lowest weight and psyched. Got to the hospital at 9 am this morning and sent to Pre-Op to ready for the 11 am surgery. Stripped down to the hospital gown with an IV in my arm and waiting the green light. At 11:15 am I was notified it was delayed 2 hours due to complications with the patient before me who was in surgery at that moment. At 1:30 pm I was notified it was delayed at least another hour. At 3:00 pm I asked if I stayed could the surgery still be performed and more importantly was the surgeon in any condition to do it ? They passed that question along and to my surprise the surgeon showed up. He asked me to cancel. He said his regular team was going off duty and this was major surgery. For my safety he recommended it be rescheduled. I was bummed but what could I do. I'll get my new date in the morning.

You are 2 weeks post-op. You said, "I get this awful tightness in my chest and then pain." According to my hospital discharge directions I was told to report such a condition to my surgeon's office. One of the primary concern is a blood clot in the lungs. Do you have shortness of breath? Review this link. Pulmonary Embolism Or it could be something else. Anyways let your surgeon's office know of the complication this close after surgery.

And some days I sing along IS THAT ALL THERE IS? but bye and bye it either gets better or you resign yourself and try to make the best of it all. Do I wish I could go back? Well occasionally, but then I remember I requested THIS be done, there is truly no going back, I will be internally un- normal, if I could request Dr Needleman rejoibg the 2 segments of my stomach, would I want that? 2. It is technically more difficult, might take a whole morning to micro- surgery me back, would he be willing to invest that much,of his working day just because my bravery no longer is working? 3. How Do I know the complications wouldn't outweigh any benefits? 4. I trusted in the Magic Of Diets to save me, at 365+ pounds, Magic was failing ME! And 5th and probably most important, what assurance at 73 that I would even survive the surgery? Yeah, it most certainly would have to be "Open", he would need to see exactly WHAT he was doing, can't trust robots and OR monitors to do it all. I had a first cousin die 3 years ago in May on the OR table at the Cleveland Clinic. Turned out she had previously undiagnosed Esophageal Cancer but we still miss her so much, have had difficulty understanding as a family why we had to give up our June- Ellen to the monster Cancer is. Granted many of my kinfolk folk I wouldn't go out of my way to see, but doit have enough self- centered b***s to do this to them? So I keep on keeping on, they do say I am making strides toward final healing, I want it NOW, like average Americans my patience is not strong but I have to hope for a brighter, more sunny day at the end! And I am healthier, thinner, perhaps less ugly to look at. Is Joy, Happiness and satisfaction Over-rated? I'm 73, I have more thinking and psychological reasoning time than most people , some days it seems like all I still have.👈😪👉😧

I reached my A1C goal of being below 7%. The actual number is 6.7%. I wanted to have a safe margin when it comes time for surgery. They will not perform the surgery with blood sugars that are out of control and the threshold is 8%. Cause for celebration. If I can even push it a little bit lower by the time I am ready to go, so much the better. My endocrinologist was quite pleased but really wants me to be at 6.4% just to give my body the best chance to heal without complications. I can drop .3%. I got this!

I had my surgery Feb of 2013. At first all was going well, I never felt any restriction, I didn't have any complications. My progress went great at first, until I started back on solid foods. I didn't have problems adjusting to a solid food diet afterwards, and little by little I started eating a bit more, and a bit more. I guess I've pretty much just hit a wall as far as the surgery is concerned. I didn't follow through like I should have, so instead of the usual "surgery failed me" posts, this is my "I failed my surgery" plea for any assistance. I had surgery with Dr. Kim in Colleyville, and after recent contacts from his staff as well as their "awesome" support group leaders, it appears unless I have a revision surgery I'm on my own with getting back on track. I've put on about 30 pounds back, I started at over 400 and I'm sitting around 330 right now, so there was some success, I'd just like to get back on track and get to my overall goal weight of 260. Anyone been in this position before, and what did you do to start things back up? I'm working out, I hike about 10-15 miles a week, and I mountain bike 20-25 miles a week (just started back up). I carry a pretty good amount of muscle mass from my powerlifting days, but have recently retired from competitive lifting so I'm not lifting as heavy weights, or as often.

I’m still taking my Bariatric vitamins, but plan to go on the YLEO ones when my supply has depleted. I also have used NingXia after I knew my stomach was completely healed. I knew it would not do damage, just didn’t want to have a complication and have that blamed. I also used Digize for digestive issues a month out. I love my YLEO!

OK since surgery, a few complications and hospital stays after.... I'm 6 weeks out and starting to feel great! I'm down 30 lbs! My HOT husband, who I am very attracted to keeps wanting to get to gettin, bit I just have no frigging libido whatsoever! WTF????!!!! Anyone else go thru this? Is it a hormone issue? I'm 37, in my prime!!!! Grrrr! Please help!

I do it again in a heartbeat. You cannot cannot cannot judge from the first few weeks alone. Barring any complications, once you're healed up you will be very happy that you got sleeved!

Hi my name is Kathy, I am 43 and was banded on 3-21-09. I found out on 10-10-10 that my band had slipped. I am very upset, because it has helped my to lose 68 lbs. Dr. Treen in Louisiana, has told me I can have it repositioned, removed, or changed to sleevectomy. Well before this I heard nothing of sleevectomy. I don't know what way to go, and I am scared because it is PERMANANT. Also the complications don't sound so nice either. If anyone out there would like to comment on anything I would greatly appreiciate it. Thanks so much. Have a HEALTHY and HAPPY weekend.

I know, it's frustrating to have the surgery and then have to wait so long for your band to really start doing its job. Sometimes the careful, incremental fill process seems endless, but it's safer to do it that way because overly aggressive fills can cause very unpleasant complications. I started feeling a little bit of restriction after my 1st fill, a little more after the 2nd, and the 3rd fill really did the trick. Looking back, I'm glad it was gradual because if they gave me that much fill (2.5 cc in a 4 cc band) all in the 1st visit, my eating problems would have been unmanageable. The way it worked out made it possible for me to practice good band eating skills and slowly adjust to the fills. Hang in there! Edited to Add: don't assume your surgeon gives fills only once a month just because they automatically schedule appointments for you once a month. My surgeon will do fills at 2-week intervals if you ask.

Hello Everyone, This is the first time I have ever joined a support group online. I hope to have my surgery in 4-5 months. I have a lot of questions and I'm hoping you all can help me. 1. How long were you in the hospital? 2. How long did it take you to get back to work? 3. How long did it take for you to eat bread? 4. Most people talk about getting the rouenY (spelling?) procedure over the sleeve. Are all of you happy with the sleeve surgery? 5. What are the most common side affects or complications? Thanks to you all for your advise and answers to my questions llipps

Girl, I feel ya! I HATE IV's. HOWEVER- I got a shot of somthin somthin- I cannot for the life of me remember what it was- but it took all the stress out. And then she numbed the area where she was going to do the IV, and it was super easy. Really, and I've had 3 c-sections and a severe ankle break that I had surgery and then complications with that where I had to actually give myself shots of blood thinners- the anticipation is way worse than the actuality. Practice deep breathing, ask for the happy shot , and all will be well. It will be worth it!

I quit smoking 2 years ago so I know how hard it is. And yes, it can effect you huge if you smoke. In fact, many surgeons will test you for nicotine and won't perform the surgery if you've been smoking. They don't want the increased liabilities and risks of operating on a smoker. Smokers are much more prone to problems going under anesthesia, more likely to develop post op pneumonia more likely to develop infections, and overall heal a lot slower than non-smokers. Simply put, smoking puts you at much higher risks for complications. It's not easy to quit but it's worth it. Best wishes