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I had surgery on a Monday recovered for 3 or 4 days. Rested the weekend and was back at work the next monday morning. Ive been at work since and its been a month since i was sleeved. I also havent had any complications. Good Luck

Here are somethings that I was glad I packed-toothbrush and tooth paste, deodorant, phone and charger, I did pack my kindle fire for reading and I am glad I did because I ended up being there four days due to complications. I forgot to bring a pillow so hubby bought me a medium size sea lion stuffed animal to lay over my stomach for the ride home. that really helped with the bumping on the ride home. I wish I would have brought chap stick..ohh the dry lips after surgery was awful and I wish I would have brought a sleeping mask to block out the hospital lights from the hallway.. as usual it is hard to sleep in the hospital..but I think that would have helped. The nurse case manager told me to bring slippers to walk in and I never used them because they give you those non slip socks that are just fine for walking and when I left I wore the same clothes that I came in with. wishing you the best of luck=God bless. you will do fine!!!

unless there's something mechanically wrong with your bypass, it's sort of pointless to revise it. Other than the DS, it's the strongest surgery out there at the moment. If the problem is behavioral, revising it to something else isn't going to help you long term - you have to tackle whatever the problem is, or you're eventually going to have the same issue with the next surgery. revising from RNY to DS is a complicated and supposedly risky surgery that only a handful of surgeons are qualified to do. There are no other surgeries I know of that you can revise to from RNY other than DS.

I had lap band surgery Oct. 24th 07 and was fine no issues. Then on December 3rd right before I was to receive my first fill I developed a very bad infection in the port area. My port area and incision area were swollen, red, hot to the touch, and it hurt like heck! I had chills and fevers. After two ER visits, antibiotics by mouth, a CT Scan and high fevers I was hospitalized for a week and received very strong IV antibiotics. 24 hours after being discharged with antibiotics by mouth from the hospital my fever spiked again to 103.3, and I was back in the hospital. Since the infection did not go away after IV antibiotics my surgeon told me the port would have to come out. They did not want to remove the port, however, they did everything they could to treat the infection first. My infection was a general infection that happened to be in the port area, not a port infection. Lab tests indicated the port itself was not infected. Infection is one of the risk associated with any surgery. Two days later on December 18th I had port removal surgery. Due to the infection they could not suture the incision closed so I had an open wound. (yuck kind of gross looking). I found port removal surgery more painful then the lap band surgery! I was out from work again for two and half weeks, however, the infection cleared up. At that point I did not care whether I had a port or not I was just relieved to not feel sick. My surgeon plans to replace the port in early March and we will try this again! :welldoneclap: So yes infection is a small complication rate, however, it happens and it is part of the risk we take. It sounds like y our surgeon is doing a good job in taking care of you. Good luck and keep us posted!

Hey everyone I will start with my story- Banded aug 2010, my doc is really conservative with fills and crazy busy so i didn't start feeling a bit of restriction or real weight loss until march 2011.... now i am 80 lbs down. Start 300, currently 220. As soon as i started getting fills i realized i have what is called first bite syndrome. It sucks. As soon as i eat anything my throat starts contracting, i develop a rediculous amount of thickkkk mucussy saliva and i feel pretty intense pain. Usually lasts 10 minutes, and then i can eat pretty normally. Smaller bites and pre-drinking hot Water hasn't helped. My doc says that i am just one of the unlucky few that has this problem. I have dealt with it over the time and became use to it. The problem is that i have trouble defferentiating between feeling full and the pain from the FBS. There are some meals where i just stop on the third bite just because the pain isn't worth it, but i usually just wait the 10 minutes and eat. Well, currently i keep having feelings of heartburn/FBS problems when i am not eating. Sometimes i feel like my body goes crazy on the anticipation of a meal... like driving home from work. I hear everyone say that if you are having heartburn you are probably too tight.... my problem with this is that i don't feel like i am. After i get over the FBS and 10 minutes i can eat pretty large portions before i feel full. Most food goes down easily (bread is main exception, that stuff is bad) meats like chicken, beef, pork i can consume decent sized portions before feeling a full feeling. So i feel stuck, here i am with heartburn... probably needing to unfill, but reluctant to because my portions are pretty large still and i want more fill. I know my situation is unique with FBS and maybe i am not really having heartburn, but just more complications with my body reacting poorly due to FBS. Does anyone have any comments, suggestions, advice? I am making an appointment with my doc as it has been like 5 months and 30 lbs since my last fill. Thanks everyone

Well, maybe my point was lost. Or maybe you really have tried it all. But I really wasn't talking about diet. Or losing weight. Or whether you eat a cookie instead of an apple. I was talking about how you think about it all. Breaking the habit of eating immediately. Breaking the habit of eating things you really don't like but it's in front of you. Breaking the habit of taking food because someone else is eating. I know I am different. I've said here before that in 2001-2002 I lost 165 pounds "on my own". Over 2005-2006ish I started gaining it back. I honestly will never know if I had had the insights I've learned over these past 18 months in this program and 2 weeks on this fast if I would have. If I had occasionally taken a window of a week to fast and remind myself of how/why/what I am doing with food, I don't know. I do know that I have gained less than half of my loss back so I do think I did one heck of a job, especially compared to some folks I know who have even had surgery. But I was in a very bad car accident years ago and will now be needing knee replacement so surgery is now important for me. I can't have knee replacement and be almost 80 pounds overweight. If you have honestly worked on the habits surrounding food, NOT THE FOOD ITSELF, if you have honestly faced why you eat, then you've done it all and should self pay. But I will also say this and I think it's the most important thing I can tell you and please understand that this speaks only to a portion of the people have WLS. Nothing is a universal rule...at least I don't think so. Not doing these things, not having these experiences, may very well be why people who have weight loss surgery end up gaining the weight back. Because it's really not about the food specifically. People who have had all of the WLS's can gain weight back and many do. Heck, there's even a term for it. I'm only suggesting that everyone needs to think of this as a bigger issue than being restricted from eating because, from what I understand, if you don't consider the other factors, you will find a way to work around the restriction and be right back in the same boat in 4 or 5 years. You are very wise to consider the complications but with a good surgeon and a good patient who follows the rules, it is pretty safe for someone who is not morbidly obese. (Actually pretty safe for all, but safer for you.) I'm guessing you will be able to get up and walk easily (my knee is the issue) and that in itself reduces risk. I'm not saying surgery isn't the right choice for you. In fact, in time they may learn doing it earlier is the smarter way to do. But I think everyone needs to be ready to think deeply about how they will need to change in their way of dealing with food. And from here on out, I will always eat only quality and send those bad foods back!

Good luck with the sleeve !! Really do you think that people that have "just" 60 pounds haven't tried all the diets that you have tried. I have tried most everything out there and I can lose 20 pounds and I can gain back 30. When I was researching the lapband I would see comments like this and wanted to ask, so when you only have 60 pounds left to lose will you have the band removed and do it on your own. Same goes with the sleeve, it isn't easy to lose 60 pounds and keep it off. I'm still not sure if I will get sleeved; I am a self pay, which is ok, but my doctor doesn't offer blis insurance for complications. He has had zero leaks but I'm so scared to put my family in a financial bind is complications arise.

Hi again! I hope that others can gain from what I share with you next. I have had my band 3 years this comming November. I have lost l20lbs, so in January of this year I started with night coughing, and a little reflux. It seemed that in the middle of the night at times I would suddenly spit up and wake up with quite a start. I would go back to mushies for a couple of days and drink water like crazy as being hydrated keeps me from feeling to tight in the A.M. Things returned to normal. In mid January I had heart burn at work, and after lunch it turned to pressure, I began sweating and dizziness. I had a heart attack in 2003 and was well versed in heart health, (the reason behind getting the band in the first place) so I left for the ER. My EKG was great so the took a chest x-ray to find out why I had such pain in my chest. I showed a mass the size of my fist in my right lung. It seems that they believed it was stage 2 lung cancer, because pneumonia that advanced would have had high fever and a lot of phlem etc. The needle biopsy and cat scan were inconclusive. I visited my band Dr. the following week when I was released from the hosp. His swallowing x-ray showed that I was a little tight so he removed 1/2 of my previous fill, that fill was over 4 mo prior and seemed to be fine. I was put on antibiotics in the hosp and remained on them as per the plurologist and within a few weeks (6) the mass in the lung was reduced to nothing! It was determined that I has aspiration pneumonia. The bottom line is that any sypmtom no matter how small, can lead to bigger ones later...We must never forget the rules, hydrate, eat small portions and never go to bed with food in the stoma, and keep your fills as small as possible. I shudder to think if I were to loose my band altogether. I have not lost anymore weight and even gained a few pounds, (That darn cruise with all that great food!!). I am exercising again I know I need to build muscle and boost my metabolism. I am glad you are doing better, I am trying to stop the nexium I have been on and I do think the reflux is partly because of this. I am also convicted that the sweet tooth is fueling the reflux because when I behave, the reflux calms down. I was interested in what you originally posted, I was never dehydrated, but the night reflux is what caused me to aspirate and get an infection in the lung. This could have been much worse for both of us and I believe that our visits to the Dr. short circuted further band complications. I wish you more success. (and while Im at it, I wish me a lot more sucess too!)

MsMaui : I am TRULY Sorry your going through such Pain with your lap Band, I have to agree about postings made to be informational, BUT instead ,are attacked as "bashing" If you presented here and said Don't get a Band!! you will have These complications..to me that is bashing..but again this is a public forum and you have that right, either way. I also find it amusing that support only comes in Cliques. If these "support groups" were truly for support/information then one would think that the "powers that be" would also post ALL new and relevant information regarding the WLS' on this site,not just the things that have a positive spin..But Why bite the hand that feeds you! Only TIME will give us the answers...I PRAY you find positive ones soon!!! ~~~~~~~~~REMEMBER KARMA IS A GOOD THING~~~~~~~

So sorry about all your complications with the pain and the surgery....it's really awful when this stuff effects every part of your life so much. I'm a nurse who works with back pain patients ( epidurals, radio frequency ablation, and other chronic pain treatments). The radio frequency ablation procedure is indeed amazing, but only appropriate for the medial branches of the nerves. Nerves that enervate your legs can't be ablated (burned) safely or you might not be able to walk at all. Epidurals can also be helpful, but sometimes the disc/nerve damage is severe that just an anti-inflammatory injection (as with the epidural steroid injection) is just not enough. The shot, not matter what med is used, cannot fix anatomy. You say you live in a small town, but is there any way to get a second opinion? This doesn't need to mean you switch doctors at this point, but maybe someone to review your scans and surgery to see if what you have had done has been the most appropriate interventions, and if there is any other possible treatments that can help. You could see another spine surgeon or a physiatrist (medical spine specialist, they do procedures sometimes but not surgery). The money and time spent to do this can really be worth it. One of the hardest things to handle as a patient (I think), is when you've lost confidence in your doctor. You feel alone and abandoned. You worry that what was done was the wrong thing, that maybe there have been mistakes that you aren't aware of, or that they are lying to you in general. This kind of mental anguish can really effect your recovery and your health overall. In order to pick yourself up and move forward, you need some real knowledge SPECIFIC to you, and a plan for recovery. Did you get physical therapy after surgery? Maybe time for some for some so your gait can improve. Sometimes the swelling and inflammation caused by surgery can be weeks and months improving. Hard to know what advice to give you specifically because every case is so different. BUT, do not lose hope! Find yourself someone who is on your team that you can have confidence in and will help you find the right treatment if there is any, or at least a good plan to remain positive and moving forward! Hang in there, and best wishes!!

I hung out on lapband and bypass forums, reading what kinds of problems and victories people were having. And I choose the band. There were too many serious stories of bypass problems, including deaths. Too many things I just didn't want to risk living with. And too many bypass patients re-gaining their weight and not knowing what to do. Yes, there can be complications with the band. And for many, the weightloss is slower at first, but studies are showing that 5 years out, it's about equal. And I think the banders are much healthier.

I had a lap band too and it was horrible! I kept throwing up the food since it got stuck and I still didn't lose wieght. I got polyps in my esophagus and had to have them cut out. With the MGB I'm now losing! Yea! No complications and I felt no pain. Again it may be different for you. For me I wished that's what I did in the beginning.

I stayed one night, but my surgery went super smooth with no complications.

So sorry you experienced this. Though extremely low, there is always a chance of a complication like you said. Though, I’m surprised by such severe leakage & bleeding from your surgery. My surgeon sewed & stapled so double sealed my tummy. I wonder if your surgeon did this? I’m very glad you were in the hospital when this happened & they are able to operate again to help you so quickly. All the best with your recovery.

Hi, Please could anyone help or explain something regarding my weight loss. I had the band fitted July 07 and had had two fills by Jan 08 this year. I had only lost about 8 lbs in total and was obviously a bit disappointed. In Jan I had my gall bladder out and was told that some fill had to be removed from the band. I then had serious complications with Gall bladder operation and after being rushed back in to hospital for surgery and I am now just getting over the operation but did lose some weight in hospital going from going from 92.5 kilo to 88 kilo, but this went back up to 91 while waiting for my fill. My consultant recently said its OK to go ahead with my third fill which I have just had on May 6th. I have had very good restriction and am still on liquids like Slimfasts and mushy food. I had a little Shreddies and salad and yoghurt's yesterday but nothing much else and am trying to eat regularly. My problem as always, is that I got weighed this morning and have put some weight on and am 92.9 kilo. Could someone please explain a reason for putting weight on when I am literally eating next to nothing. I am still working as normal. Is it my body shutting down because of lack of food, because I could understand staying the same for a short time , but... NOT PUTTING WEIGHT ON. How long before the reserves start to be used up and the weight starts to go. If you don't eat, do you put weight on or what??? Sorry for going on a bit but I am very frustrated Any advice or explanation would be grateful Jeannie....:confused2: :tt1: :Dancing_wub: :Dancing_wub:

I am 1 week out. I started at 196. I am waiting to weight myself until my doctor's appointment at my 2 week check up. I am craving food. Ugh! I remind myself I am on the path to the new me and a healthier life. Even though the lapband failed and complications from that I am looking that this surgery wll be the tool that I need!

Nope, nothing to do with age regarding hospital stay in the case of my doc. My doc is a Mexican doc and verrrry conservative. Almost to the point of annoying at times but in all fairness, that's one reason I chose him. His is standard, everyone is two nights and three days inpatient. However, if you are driving and not flying, can eat (drink) two full meals, have the barium swallow, feel well, and have no complications he will discharge you a day early.

I've been on a liquid diet once before. It takes 4 to 5 days before you feel less crappy. But, one day you will wake up with hunger gone and actually feeling energetic. To keep staying on task, tell yourself that this is ultimately to make you safer for surgery. This is the reason that you're doing it. Tell yourself that if you cheat, you risk surgery complications or even having your surgery cancelled altogether. You worked way too hard to get this far. Just look at things hour to hour. Don't look beyond the next hour. This is a time tested technique and it's what allows Navy SEALs and Army Rangers to get through some of the most physically and mentally brutal training imaginable. It's about wanting it and keeping your mind in the present.

Accidentally posted this under the wrong forum earlier...woops, i'll try it again. I remember many years ago going through these forums reading about the success of everyone post op. I'm sure if anyone will understand my post its people here. I liked reading stories that i could relate to, it gave me hope. Here is my story pre-op to present and what ive encountered as good and bad effects of the process: I grew up a big kid, the biggest in my class of course, bigger than grown men by the time i was in 7th grade. i was 6 foot tall and I tipped the scales at over 300 at the age of 12, and graduated high school around 318. After high school i ballooned up to 330, yoyo dieted for a few years, losing some weight then gaining it back plus some extra every single time, finally hitting my all time max of 388 by the time i was 27. I don't think i need to go into description of what that feels like but its a horrible life living that way. I was blessed enough to get a job that had insurance that covered the procedure and in late May of 2010 at the age 29 of i started my path to weight loss. The weight loss came slow as i would drop pounds here and there, never gaining but hitting many many plateaus along the way. By 2011 I was steady at 330, which while a huge improvement, was not exactly where i wanted to be. I read on here about how people dropped massive amounts of weight over 6 months and i wished i could do the same but i guess i just wasn't built that way. Working out was still hard because of my size and eating right was like pulling teeth but like all of you i pressed on. By the time 2012 hit i was back at my high school size of 315 and while i noticed the difference people started to judge me. See to your friends and some family they think this is a miracle procedure that will take you from morbidly obese to Brad Pitt over the span of a year max....wrong.....its a daily struggle and only your true loved ones and real friends will be there for you throughout this, some of us learn this the hard way. See once you start doubting yourself and think everyone is silently judging you it gets twice as hard and because I elected to let everyone know i was getting the lapband i couldn't make excuses - i had nothing to hide. To me it actually gave me motivation to keep with it to feel better that i would accomplish this and to make the doubters in my life see anything was possible. 2012 was probably the hardest year in my life, i had many outside complications in my personal life that changed me and my family. It was the most devastating 12 months I hope I ever have to go through. That being said it drastically slowed down my weight loss progress, I never gained a pound but stayed steady at 315 all the way until November/December where i finally hit a milestone of 298. I was under 300 for the first time since my preteen years. In February of 2013 I went in for a adjustment, this was probably my 5th or 6th once since surgery and i had around 6.5cc in my band (large "vega" band). When I went to lapband meetings and read older posts people always talked about the "green zone" which is like your magic spot where it all starts to fall in place, well, I had FINALLY reached mine. Finally under 300 i started doing kettle bell workouts and choosing more active assignments at work. I started eating healthy, salads, high Protein meals, no cokes, no more sweets. I still indulged but in moderation. I lost 45 pounds by anniversary date in May and now sat at 249. I felt great, my clothes didn't fit, and finally...FINALLY...people asked if i had lost weight. I thought that was the strangest part so far. I had lost 88 pounds t get to 300..and it was like no one noticed, hell I barely noticed, most of my clothes still fit at that point and i was so discouraged....i mean really 88 pounds and i barely notice a difference, then i lose 50 and its like I'm a new person. You see yourself everyday so you'll never notice the changes, small or big. Take pictures, it will help to show your progress, that's a big regret i have. I was so disappointed with the amount of time it was taking I lost interest in a diary/journal, i wish i would have kept with it. I kept losing weight throughout 2013 until i hit my goal weight of 235 and continued a past it down to 225 by September 2013. Here i have stayed bouncing from 220 (my low was 213, didnt feel right at all) to 230. I did it and i've kept it strong for 16 months straight. It can be done, and you can live happily. I know this was long winded for a first post but i'm working graveyards and i wanted to give a snippet of what its been like for me. I willing to answer any questions you have, there is of course more to parts of this story than i feel like writing so feel free to contact me if you'd like. I tried to attach a picture of different times in my life from pre op and post op but i'm new to this site so i hope i did it right. The Good: buying clothes you never could get before playing with my daughter without having to sit every 5 minutes no more knee pain not sweating ALL THE TIME Better sleep Feeling more active and not wanting to be locked in my house 24/7 from embarrassment The Bad: My wife's reaction once I hit my goal weight. She wasn't used to me looking like i did, and she was concerned with me leaving. Her thought was if i finally feel good and have lost weight i was going to sew some wild oats from my youth. This still causes problems today. This one will sound arrogant, and i don't mean it to be, just simple truth that I'm sure a lot of us have noticed after successful surgery. People look at you different, you will garner some unwanted attention at times. This causes jealousy in your home life with you significant other. It happens a surprising amount, and while its a ego boost it can really hurt a relationship, even if its out of your hands. Learning your body, and when to say enough is enough can and will cause you to became sick at the most inopportune time (out to eat with family or friends). I have had at least 5 incidents where i had to quickly excuse myself to go to the restroom because i still struggle with eating slow and proportions. I'll probably always have to deal with it and it can be very aggravating. Take the good with the bad though. Not having anyone to go through the struggle with. If you can find a weight loss buddy do it. I was basically alone my entire time, its not easy.

Well then amen! I know it sucks to wait but think about all the wonderful healing that will be done to your tummy in that time. It will be stronger and better for the procedure down the road and it will significantly reduce the complications that you COULD have had if your surgeon wasn't as conservatively attentive.

I was sleeved on the 17th too. I have one week of clear liquid diet then ten days of high protein full liquid diet. At this point I am not going to give up because I don't want any complications. Yes, it's hard to drink broth when my family is eating pizza and whatnot, but I keep telling myself I've been given this opportunity and I'll only hurt myself if I cheat. If you're able to do blended soups, Pacific Organic makes some that are delicious. I plan on adding protein powder for an extra oomph and keep dreaming of my first day of soft foods! You can totally do this!! Check out theworldaccordingtoegghead for recipe variations!! So much great info!!

It's totally normal to be scared and worried! I totally was when I had my revision on December 10--and I'm 63 years old, so I was afraid that would complicate things as well. Thankfully, everything went well--a little damage to my stomach from the band so my pouch is a bit larger than the surgeon wanted it to be, but, other than that, everything went well. I'm six weeks out and still figuring our how to eat correctly and how to get in 60 grams of Protein and 64 oz. of Water every day. Believe me, it's a huge challenge. It definitely is a learning process! Good luck to you. If you are like me, after the surgery you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Many of my close friends and family know that I have had a battle all my life. A struggle that has been at the forefront of each and every day that I can remember of my life. Something that I know many of you can relate to and also struggle with. Weight. For all of my teenage years and into my adult life I fought every pound my body so readily gained. I was active, I rode horses every day, I played sports, I camped, and I hiked. I grew up on a farm, so throwing hay and carting buckets of water and grain was any every day normal for me, however, as active as I was I gained weight at what seemed to be astronomical speeds. I was always the heaviest of my friends, even though I ate far less and much healthier foods than they, growing up on the farm, we ate home grown everything. I didn't chow down on the cookies, cakes and fast foods my thin friends ate and yet, there I was 50-75 pounds bigger than all of them. I can remember in 8th grade I weighted 185 pounds at 5 foot 3 inches tall at that time. Every minute of my life all I thought about was how I worked so hard and stayed so active and yet I was heavy. When I was 19 I became pregnant and my weight went from 190's to 240 plus. I was able to lose a bit of the "baby weight" and got back down to around 210 pounds. Three years later, and after every diet known to mankind, from weight watchers to metabolife, I was pregnant again, this time ballooning up to 270 pounds. I was on depression medications afterwards. I was sick, very sick from the depression and literal pain of morbid obesity. Many years passed, and many more diets came and went, Atkins, The Zone, Jenny Craig, South Beach, slim fast, fasting, dexatrim, low carb, low fat, high protein, phen phen and hgc diet, I tried them all. In that time I was never able to maintain anything under 200 pounds. At 32 years old, I went through a terrible divorce, and I don't know about any one else but divorce was like a living death for me, I gave up on myself at that point. In 2010 and weighing 256 pounds I finally found some hope to all the endlessness. I was able blessed to have family and friends and insurance see me through a life saving lapband surgery in April of 2010. I finally had the extra push and the help I needed. Though I did not lose weight fast, 5 pounds a month or so, I was healthier. My blood pressure returned to normal, my pre-diabetic blood sugars returned to normal, I did not have to have a cpac machine, my joints ached less and I felt pretty great all around. (My photo is after my surgery, after I had lost some weight and felt almost normal) So than why, you might wonder am I here today? Two months ago my lapband "slipped." It is not in the right place in order to help create the pocket of my stomach as it once had. Basically there is no restriction. Not only has this caused me to gain almost 40 pounds in 2 months, I am no longer able to feel a feeling of fullness. I still eat healthy, as anyone who has had weight loss surgery knows, you have to go through nutrition courses and relearn how and what to eat, my issue is is that even after I have eaten my salad, I feel as though I have eaten nothing at all, there is no satisfaction, no full feeling and so one salad becomes two, becomes three, and so on until I am in literal pain and a whole head of lettuce is gone in one sitting, not to mention the tomatoes, cheese, diced chicken, onion, zucchini and what ever other topping I can find to eat with it. I have gained weight back so fast that my bones, muscles, joints and ligament scream in pain in a constant. In just the past two months I have went from 177 pounds to 227 pounds. My blood pressure is on the rise, and as we all know all the other health risks associated with morbid obesity are close at hand. Another complication my lapband has caused because of the slippage is sever heartburn, acid, re-flux and gurd. Those in themselves have life threatening side effects, esophageal cancer at the top of the list. Though I have insurance, it does not cover the full cost of the surgery I need to have the band removed and replaced with a gastric surgery. I know this is a lot to ask of anyone, and to some it may even seem selfish, but I am a 40 plus year old, married, mom and I am not asking this in order to win any beauty contests. This is not cosmetic, in fact I never had the excess skin removed from my last surgery (which is now filled in again) because this is not about appearances. It's about a person, many of you may know in one form or another that just wants to spend the second half of her life healthy. A life not waking up to the fears of diabetes, heart attacks, uterine cysts and cancers that are so often coupled with being morbidly obese. And to not have to carry that tag ("morbidly obese") of death every day of what could be a shortened life. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, thank you for reading this far, thank you for your understanding, and compassion, you are a rare gift, and I mean this sincerely as there are some even in my own home that persecute me for even writing this. You are my hope and my salvation. Sincerely, Liv. https://www.gofundme.com/livs-surgery

Everyone is different. There is not even an average really from what I've read on the boards for over 2 years. For me, I was stuck at 2oz of dense Protein until I was over 4 months out. I stuck to mushy/soft protein such as deli meat with cream cheese, chili, ground meats with some sort of sauce, chicken/tuna/egg salad well into my 3rd month post-op because I could get in the calories and protein goals without having to use shakes which made me puke so I stuck with what worked. I was moved to "regular" food on week 4 of my post-op diet, but I really had a tough time getting in a decent amount of food until 3.5-4 months out. I could eat puree meats, or chili, or meats with some sort of condiment, so those are little tricks I used to get in more protein from food sources. Some don't really struggle after the first 6 weeks, or they just supplement with shakes. I didn't have that as an option so I stuck with what worked for me. A lot of it was also the fact that I did have a leak and lost additional stomach tissue with my revision from the band so I had more trauma than most, but then there are others that report the same thing and they had zero issues with their sleeve nor had any complications.

In clothing terms, it's called a french seam. It's not that uncommon but his naming it and claiming it might be. My surgeon (Jeffrey Landers) does that with all of his Group Health sleeve gastrectomies too. I was glad to hear it! BTW, no complications or problems at all, and I'm now 3 months out.