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Who are you telling I had a drain that was left in for 8 days that was so uncomfortable 10 mgs of Percocet wouldn't help. I got pneumonia was hospitalized for 4 days no other complications other than that.. When the drain came out I started feeling 100% better no nausea I've been drinking well. Hope you're feeling better

First, are you type 1 or 2? Type 1 .. well, I have no experience. Have to defer that to more knowledgeable peeps. As for type 2.. I live with an insulin dependent type 2 diabetic. We do notice that his eating can vary widely on a day to day basis at home. When that is the case, he invariably needs more and more insulin. When he is in the hospital or rehab (unfortunately a frequent occurrence), the regular, consistent, counted meals result in his needing less insulin and weight loss. He is a hopeless case, and there is no fixing his home habits, so don't worry about him. But we can learn from him. In order to get control of things, you need to set up an eating schedule with counted carbs, and stick to it. Be extra conscientious about taking your blood sugar levels and adjust your insulin accordingly (if it's a system you can make modifications yourself). At first, don't change your eating habits, just keep track of them for at least a week. Once you know what you are eating, you can make tweaks. Drastic changes will likely result in low blood sugar levels, so make changes slowly. Meal management does become a full time job, but with your condition, that's part of the deal. The alternative, as you have discovered, is more insulin, weight gain, and possibly all the other diabetic complications.

I'm 5 foot 2 inches, & just turned 50. My starting weight at my first doctor's appointment was 213 so I know where you're coming from! I have been waffling since the beginning. I'm worried something will go wrong and I will be one of those low percentages they talk about that have complications. Ugh!

Just to be clear, I did NOT have my surgery with any of these Dr's, however, I know of people who did seek out all 3 of these Dr's and proceeded on to a normal healthy life and had no complications. No, since that has not bee written, I would like to bring to the table that there is a handful of people who do end up with complications for various reasons. Some maybe due to preexisting conditions, while others maybe due to not following a Dr's protocol exactly, and some maybe due to downright bad luck. Remember, it is highly likely that there are MORE successful surgeries coming from these 3 Dr's than unsuccessful ones, and many of those very successful cases may not be advertising their success on these boards. Usually half of the people who will post have questions or complications and the other half are diligent members. We do NOT know the circumstance surrounding those who had infections, nor do we know if each of us fits that's person's medical profile to a "T", either.... we may never fully know. The bottom line is, Don't get too worked up on stuff like this. There are so many factors that contributed to those cases. If you do exactly what your Dr. says you will be fine.

I had my surgery on 5/4. I had a bit of a complication with the band afterwards, and the doc took saline out. I am able to eat. Not quite like before but def feel like it's too much food. I won't get a fill for a month. I am scared that I am going to screw this whole thing up. Will it get better?

This is a picture of my dad and me when I was about 16 years old. My dad weighed over 400 pounds. This is the only picture I have where you can see his stomach because he was very good at making sure his shirt was long enough to cover it up. He died in 2006. I was 35, and I was so MAD at him because he died from complications of his weight. For the last 10 years of his life, the quality of his life was horrible. For the last 5 years, he spent most of it in and out of hospitals. His highest weight was almost 500 pounds. When I married in 1989, he was at the lowest he had weighed in many years at about 350 pounds. I loved/love my dad. I never saw him as fat. But when he left me (died), I was so angry at him. At the time of his death, I wasn't that overweight. I weighed about 180. I gained weight after he died. And when I finally realized what the weight was preventing me to do, I tried losing it. This is why I finally decided to have WLS. When I was about 10, my dad was going to have WLS. It was scheduled. He made it into the surgery room and something the anesthesiologist told him scared him. The guy said my dad had a 50/50 chance of not making it through the surgery. There was some concerns about his weight pressing down on his lungs. I wonder now that if he had gone through it, what would my memories of him have been like? I remember him sitting or laying down on things. He would tell me to get this or do that for him. He had a bell he would ring to get my attention. I was his legs. He didn't go to my concerts or games or talk to my teachers. If he had weighed less, he would have been more a part of my life. He would have been a full participant in my life instead of someone watching from the car or hearing about it later. My kids would know him. As an adult, I remember thinking how great wheelchairs were because it allowed my dad to go with us places he couldn't walk to. I loved my dad. I love my kids. I chose this surgery to give my kids something that they don't even know they would have missed. In grad school, I wrote a memoir titled "Fat Man's Daughter," where I dealt with many of my issues about my dad and myself. Here's a link to the first chapter: http://lindasherwood.com/wp/category/fat-mans-daughter/chapter-one/ This Suethsayings blog talks about the "conspiracy of silence" surrounding weight loss surgery. I want people to know about the impact not doing something has on lives. If my dad had WLS, I think he might still be here.

How was your experience with Dr.Almanza? I'm thinking about using him, but I've heard mixed reviews and am trying to build knowledge. He is definetly the most cost effective surgeon out there..and for some reason that scares me. Some are saying he's like an assembly line and it's not a personal experience. What was your experience like? Were you treated like a number? Did you feel like two days was enough to stay in Mexico? Some places have a four-day stay. That's why I'm curious. What did you do for post-op care in America if you had complications? DId you have any complications? Please share your experience. Thanks soooo much!!

I had Monday 9am surgery and was released Thursday 4pm with no complications.

I had surgery on Tuesday at 9AM and went home Thursday around 9AM as expected. If no complications I was told 2 nights and that's what it was.

You are not alone- I thought I had ruined my life for the first 2-3 weeks after surgery. I had an unpleasant reaction to the anesthesia, so not only was I pukes-McGee for awhile, but I also had tingling in my arms and legs for almost a month afterward which really concerned me. I am now a year and 8 months out and I have a stomach that hates food. It likes to puke something up about once a day and while it universally hates butter, oil, anything fried, and almost everything sweet, periodically it also likes to barf vegetables, random meats, and food that it has never barfed before. When I eat sugar I get hot flashes, where my heart beats fast, my skin gets red, and I breathe fast. Every once in awhile I will eat something I shouldn't, like ceviche a few months ago, and spend a few hours on the floor barfing my brains out, but usually I eat, my stomach decides it is going to cooperate, and then I either go about my day or go barf, and then I feel fine. My sleeve is a total little B. I don't know anyone else, outside of those with leak complications, who has as picky of a stomach as I do, and I can say with 100% certainly that I have no regrets about sleeve surgery. Even with a sleeve that is downright evil some days, on the worst day I would still choose to have surgery. I love my little sleeve monster, and I feel comfortable saying that I think once you are past these first few weeks you will also begin to love your new stomach.

Hi, Thank You You're probably right. I recommend Starting Strength for a couple reasons. 1: During dieting phases, lean body mass loss is big issue for those getting lean, and resistance training is the best way to deal with the maintenance of it and/or in addition with complicated diet setup with maconutrient cycling with regards to nitrogen sparring. 2: Muscles are cells containing their own genes for coding their own little Proteins, and proper gene expression occurs when a stress(exercise) induces a adaption(transcription, translation, and coding of these proteins to their proper products) and that is based upon specificity. I figured Marks program, essentially a progressive overloading programming setup, could apply the proper stress to induce adaption people here are looking for which is more muscle and strength without boring them with exercise physiology and theory. It already has the proper lifts to setup them for advance training later too. I mentioned the above with specificity in mind. Either way newbie adaptions occur regardless even with the worst training setup, and it can come quick or it can come slow but it has to come first before a more advance setup can be used.

I was banded on a Friday and back in the office the following Tuesday. Pain was not an issue but it was a little difficult. I found that I was tired and grumpy. I could have taken naps at the desk I was so tired. I am a business analyst so my job is complicated intellectually but not demanding physically. By the next week I felt normal again. By the way, I was really low on Protein with the Clear liquids the first couple of days and I had no energy. I picked up some Isopure ready mixed Protein drinks and I was feeling a lot better afterwards. However, I can not be sure that the Isopure helped or if it was just the additional day or two of healing that made the difference.

I was self-pay as well and I am extremely risk-averse. By the time surgery day rolled around I still wasn't completely assured but here are some steps/considerations I took: There is a program called BLIS specifically targeted to self-pay WLS patients to insure against complications, you can google search the company easily. The wrinkle is that you have to purchase through the surgeon directly (and obviously they only offer the insurance to surgeons with low complication rates). If you are still flexible on who to do the surgery with, then you might want to look for a BLIS-enrolled one. In my case, my surgeon tried really hard to come to an agreement with BLIS but he couldn't cut through the red tape. My surgeon told me that the only kind of complication that could bankrupt me were blood clots, which could lead to strokes, etc if they went untreated. Anti-clot medications (and compression sleeves) are a standard part of your post-op dosages but I nagged the doctors to give me the maximum dosage possible. After discharge, I fought through the pain and nausea to move around as much as possible to clear any clots. Again, this is a standard recommendation but the possibility of having to pay for complications out of pocket gave me an extra source of motivation. After my amateur legal sleuthing through my insurance policy documents and other legal documents, I came to the conclusion that your regular insurance has to pay for emergency care even if it's a WLS complication. For example, if you had a leak or blood clot, the cost of stabilizing you in the ER should be picked up by your regular insurance. If the surgeon needed to go back and stitch up a leak or if you had severe GERD that required conversion to bypass, then the costs would be self-pay. However, I figured that, unless the problem was extreme, there should be an usually a less expensive way to address the complication which required more self discipline. The caveat here is that I'm not a lawyer, so please don't interpret this as formal legal advice. In my case, I did have a very minor post-op complication with swelling and water retention. I decided to go to the urgent care clinic instead of the surgeon. I made a judgement call between the surgeon's expertise and the potential costs I would incur for something I didn't think was life-threatening. I predicted that the over worked urgent care clinic is not going to spend the time to formally make a determination on whether my complication was a result of WLS and they have very little incentive to specifically contact the insurance company to connect the dots between the two. Again, I have no inside information on how insurance companies flag charges for complications from non-covered procedures (I wish I did), this was purely conjecture. In the end, my urgent care visit and treatment was paid by insurance just like any other urgent care visit/treatment. Hope this helps and good luck with your surgery.

Hi all! I was sleeved on 2/24. Will be 3 weeks post-op on Friday. It sounds like we've had similar experiences. Knock on wood, I've had very little pain and pretty much no complications. I'm thankful that I did not have to do a liquid pre-op diet because the post-op liquid diet was hard. I despise protein shakes! I've tried every incarnation and have come to the conclusion that they SUCK! I've lost 36 pounds total since my initial consult, 21 of those post-op. I'm seeing se more impressive numbers on this board and feeling a little worried that I'm not loosing as fast as I should be. My aversion to protein shakes makes it tough to get enough protein. I'm still on a soft food diet through next week, so I'm eating a lot of Greek yogurt, soft flaky fish, cottage cheese, etc. I'm wondering if I'm eating too few calories. I have an appointment with my dr next week and hope to get a better understanding. How are you all doing at this stage? Are you on soft foods as well? Any favorites?

Interesting article, but I think it barely scratches the surface on the minor complications. Soooo glad for my band to be gone!!! You know I rolled onto my side in bed this morning and it didn't hurt. For the first time in almost 4 years. Sweet!

Punkin I am in Utah, what about you? I agree about the success stories, but I do get nervous about possible complications.

Hi Shirley! I can certainly empathise with you about making the right choice! I too take ALOT of medication for pain & nerve pain in particular. I was fully able to swallow all (8) of my tablets after the initial 'leak test' post-op day 1. For me the sleeve was a safer option, less complications & because my husband & I wan't another baby, I didn't want to become severely malnourished. It also 'guides' your weight loss' where you do have to eat healthy & exercise for it to work for you. You still are quite restricted with a sleeve, as 80% of your stomach is removed. I can only have half a mouthful of Water per gulp & have to sip everything. I really don't feel hungry at all too, which is great! But if you aren't happy with the surgery option, change it. It's important to go into surgery with a positive mind & wake up with a fresh new attitude. I can only say how I feel about it (which I do feel superbly about)' only you can know what is right for you Hope that helps x

Many people over this last year have asked me what I did to prepare for my weight loss surgery. There were many things that I did and not one was more important than another. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your preparation heading into surgery and especially the liquid diet the week or two prior will be the hardest and most important thing you do as a part of your journey. You will work hard to prepare your mind, your body, and to some degree your spirit to go though the surgery. Once you do have the surgery the hardest part is over. If you can survive the months before taking the plunge then everything you do after will be a piece of cake in comparison. I am here to tell you that anyone who says having a weight loss surgery is taking the easy way out is someone who will never understand what it truly takes to go through this process. To some degree I feel sorry for those who don't get it. They will never understand the joy and excitement that comes with going through this transformation. To be honest, even though my wife loves me and has been an amazing support through this whole process, she will never full know or understand what it is like to make this decision and prepare for the surgery like I do. This is part one, in a series of three posts, detailing my preparation for surgery. The first aspect of this preparation I will cover is how I prepared my body. This was pretty simple for me really. I was in bad shape and was huffing after just sitting up from a chair; as my transformation video in an earlier post has shown. I was miserable! I would practically crawl through my front door after just my first night back to work. I work as a pharmacy technician at a hospital and walk 8 to 12 miles a night. I was living off of Tylenol and Bengay. Honestly I smelled like I was probably 90 years old. Looking back I find myself completely disgusted that I ever let things get that bad. Since I could not really do much working out because of the toll work was taking on my body, what could I do? The answer came from my brother. He is a nurse and knows a ton about medicine. I honestly think he should have became a doctor, but he didn't want the added responsibility. Before I had fully decided on having the bypass surgery and long before anyone knew I was even contemplating that option my brother came to me, as serious as I had ever seen him. Those that know my brother know he's a bit of a joker and very lighthearted. His demeanor kind of scared me, but in this conversation would be the answer that would help me prepare my body for surgery. He explained to me that he wanted to see me healthy, that he wanted me to be able to be the cool uncle when he had kids, and how he wanted his brother back. He was scared that I wouldn't be around much longer and didn't want to see me die. Looking back I really think he was right. Then he did something that floored me and provided and amazing answer to how I would physically prepare for the journey I was about to take. He explained to me that he wanted me healthy so badly he would pay for my gym membership if I promised to go three times a week and swim. On a side note; He religiously checked up on my progress with the gym manager to make sure I was going and even went so far as to meet me at the gym and swim with me. I swam on a team in junior high and he explained to me the benefits of working out in the Water. Water has the ability to take all of the pressure off of your knees and other joints. It can keep you cool if you are prone to overheating and provides an amazing about of resistance if you find ways to take advantage of it. He set up a plan and told me just to come three times a week to swim and do what I could. So that is what I did. I did not want to let me brother down and I would hope he would agree it was the best investment he ever made. So that is what I did; I swam. I swam freestyle, I swam breast stroke, I saw backstroke, and when I was feeling particularly squirrely, I swam butterfly. Butterfly was my specialty when I was on swim team but man it is a butt kicker. I started out with 10 laps, which was a lot better than I had thought. I found I could move more freely and with less pain in the water. From there I just simply added one or two laps each time I went. Before I knew it, I was approaching my surgery date and I was swimming close to an hour non-stop! Why should I work out prior to surgery? There is a very simple answer. To prepare your body. You need to prepare your body for what you are about to put it through. This is major surgery and not something to take lightly. You also want to work out to build up your cardiovascular and pulmonary endurance. Strengthening the heart will make you strong for surgery because your body will be stressed, because of this your blood pressure will spike for a short time after surgery and it is a lot to put on yourself. Strengthening your lungs will help keep you from a common post surgical complication which is pneumonia. My goal in preparing my body was simply to be able to survive the surgery, keep my complications down, and my hospital stay short as should be your goal as well. I want to tell you right now that preparing my body worked out well. I had no major complications and I left the hospital three days later, which was the minimum hospital stay my doctor required for his full bypass patients. What if I can't swim? The key here is to simply get moving. If you can walk, then walk. If you have access to a pool, then you can water walk or water jog. If you love biking and can do that, then do that. You just need to move. Your goals with this are simple. First, you want to make sure you are panting a little from being out of breath when you are done. This will show you that your lungs have been pushed a little and if that is true then your heart will have been pushed also. Second, each time you work out, just add a little to it. If your taking laps on a track, add a lap or a half a lap each time. If you are walking your neighborhood then walk for another 30 seconds or a minute. If you do this early, as soon as you begin contemplating surgery the further along and better prepared you will be, come surgery day. As always, if you have any questions, or if there is anything unclear, please post your questions and comments below and I will work to answer them all as soon as I can. Also check again soon for part 2 of the series about dealing with the psychological aspects of preparing for the amazing journey you are taking.

I'll be having my surgery at a surgical center. As soon as I can swallow drink and pee that's pretty much it providing there's no complications.

I went into surgery with no blood disorder. Still I had those ow up leg balloons while in hospital and was on blood thinning shots for 2 weeks. I would ask PS their experience in operating with patients with your condition as well as how many complications they experienced in the subset of Stoney's. Stella

Change in behaviour with eating will only come through healthy eating habits....and even filled the band dont really allow that. And we still think that this is the long term selution to our problem with food? My cousin had an obscure duodenal bypass operation 6 months ago...before that this lady couldnt stick to a diet for 10 minutes.She ate huge amounts and always loaded her food with extra fat..(I often wonder how we could weight the same because I thought her habits were insane) One of the side effects of the operation is diaree when consuming to much fat sugar or carbs....it took her about 4 months to change all of her habits...the first 4 months she tried to fool the op...spent most of her time on the loo...mourned the loss of food,rebelled cried and what not.....now she eats differently....vegetables 5 serves a day...3 fruit...3 Proteins...3 healthy carbs.Low fat,no added sugar......and the behaviour modification is working because the pay off is good health and normal time on the toilet........ And I still struggle to have restriction so that I can lose more weight....and I have an ulcer and I know 100 percent sure they will have to remove this band at some point....so what will make us modify our behaviour and what will be the long term payoff to keep it like that? Why do we still cheer this operation?I'm just asking because here they are all of a sudden doing more of this operation than ever before and other dr's now specialize in complicated removals....all at the same hospitals,all making a killing financially off fat people's misery. Now again,dont get mad...I am battling seriously with these issues and sometimes asking relevant questions can change things for others,somewhere in the future.....

It really is unfortunate. I was talking to the surgeon and he rarely performs bands anymore and his partner refuses to do them completely. They try to persuade their patients not to get them strictly because of the complications. Every person I know who has had the band has had to have it taken out. There are tons of pluses to getting the band such as teaching portion control and making you aware of when you are full, but there are tons of successful people who are starting to go downhill fast with all the complications. I don't know. It's a good surgery if you know the risks. But you gotta be able to handle any complications.

I am just over two months out. I have no pain at all now, and had little after the first few days. I have lost about 45 - 50 pounds - I only weigh myself about once a week, and look tons better - to myself anyway. The riskiest part of getting the sleeve is the surgery itself. It is absolutely crucial to get an experienced, quality doctor - working in a hospital - with a very low rate of complications. Don't, don't, don't go to Tijuana for your sleeve, and research thoroughly ANY (US, too) doctor that you are thinking of using. As you work in a hospital, you KNOW that there are the good and the bad doctors. Make sure that yours is a good one with 500 or more sleeves under his/her belt. It is very sensible that you have provided time for your self after surgery. Most people rush to it, through it, and back to their normal lives. You probably won't need twenty days or even ten, but it is good to prepare. Good luck.

I'm on day 4 of my 3 week pre-op diet. Day 3 was the hardest so far. Length of pre-ops seem to differ between dr's. I'm def following it to ensure my body is in the best condition it can be which in turn should lessen complications... Well that's my thinking anyway! Secondly 3 weeks is a tiny part of the rest of my life! Don't put yourself in situations if you think you will be tempted! Stay strong!

Really sorry that happened to you.:-( I'd recommend that you try to stick with your new eating and exercise habits and see how that goes.I would not recommend another surgery at this point.just as you have seen and read Many successful band stories and u got all the complications.Your mother was successful with the sleeve but that doesn't mean u will be.and from what I have researched sleeve complications are more common and more detrimental than band.I think you are 19 you have a fresh start by being 120 lbs lighter.make the best of it try stay active and eat healthy !! I know it's easier said than done but your body has already been through a lot surgically.I think you can do it ! Goodluck !!