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Hi everyone! I was sleeved on 19/6 (Australian date format lol). My experience was no smooth sailing and I developed severe complications despite seeing the best surgeon at the best hospital. I’ve felt really scared, alone and isolated so I am delighted to find this forum. my weight was only 92 pre op and I guess I was considered a healthy young woman. 5 days post op I developed a severe burning pain deep inside my stomach. After numerous emergency visits and tests, it was determine I did not have a gastric leak. I had to be re admitted to hospital to manage the most severe pain of my life, for another 5 days and they still didn’t know what was wrong. Long story short, I had to self refer myself to a gastroenterologist who immediately knew what was wrong. I had developed bile reflux from my bowel into my freshly cut stomach which was causing the searing pain, severe inflammatory gastritis of my stomach lining, which then caused pancreatitis and severe spasms of my actual stomach. Because of all of this I could not even get water down and my throat was burning and mouth dried up from bile damage. He put me on a bunch of new intense meds and nearly 6 weeks post op now I am starting to feel normal. It’s been a really scary rough ride and emotional and I haven’t known if I’ve made the right decision. I can eat about 1/4 cup soft foods now which I am grateful for. Anyway I wanted to share my story in case you ever come across someone with these symptoms and doctors don’t believe them / don’t know what is wrong. Great to meet you all! Thanks for sharing your journeys!

Hi, July Buddies! I'm sorry I haven't been posting or replying for a few weeks; I'm bad at keeping up with social media. But I have been thinking about you all and praying for your surgeries to go well! My July 12 surgery went well with no complications. I'm still finding it hard to get enough liquids in throughout the day. I've been averaging like 30 ounces a day. Even though my mouth is constantly thirsty, my stomach feels uncomfortably full all the time. Fighting thoughts of feeling like a failure. I want to get up and do more, but my one attempt at a short grocery trip made me break out in a sweat, and I'm worried about dehydration. I'm finally on the last day of 2 weeks of twice-daily Lovenox self-injections and I want to throw a party. Anyone else have to do this? I bruise more easily than fruit so these have been more painful than my incisions. But of course bruises are far less deadly than blood clots, so I'm trying to be thankful for the medicine that hurts me.

Praying for you, @Midwest Grateful! Praying for no complications and a speedy recovery!

I am very happy to hear you are looking forward to your vacation. I am the same as you. I have zero regrets about the surgery. I have settled in around 195. My goal was 185. I am aware that I could try harder to hit the goal weight but I am perfectly happy with 195 and eating and drinking what I want. I do not think the 10 pounds is worth giving up wine and pasta. Granted much smaller amounts of wine and pasta these days but I still feel human when I go out to dinner with my friends and family. At this point, no one even believes me when I said I had surgery. People don’t notice that I eat smaller portions because I am eating the same foods as them. I have way more energy and way more confidence. I am thankful I did not have complications. I have rarely even gotten sick. So for me I am living my best life after a successful surgery. (It should be noted I followed the MDs instructions to the letter for the first year.)

Timewise I was under for 4 hours instead of 2. Doc told me before surgery that the Endoscope didn't tell him how big the hernia was and wouldn't know till he was in there. As far as complications there were none. Week one was a bit of a blur since I was prescribed Hydrocodone for pain. But I think a week is pretty common for most WLS patients to get past the worst of it. Surgery was a big game changer for me. No more reflux and I can breathe again. Good luck going forward @GrannyMaggie !!

Babyspoons, did the hiatal hernia repair add to surgery time or complicate recovery? I too have a 10% hernia, still waiting for a follow up endoscopy before talking with the surgeon again.

Hi All - My name is Kay. I am scheduled for my gastric sleeve surgery on 8/2. If I am not mistaken, I started the process in the first week of June. I never considered WLS because I never considered myself obese. I guess I was fooling myself. No one in my family is overweight; however, most have diabetes and HBP. I have HBP and am pre-diabetic. I went to see the gastro doctor out of curiosity. The appointment was an hour long. I met with a dietician, an insurance navigator, and a nurse practitioner. This was the first time I heard my weight out loud. I usually turn away from the numbers on the scale and instruct the person taking my weight not to tell me. I just usually guessed my weight. I was off about 40 pounds. BMI of 40. The insurance navigator told me that I would get approved and that my insurance did not have any pre-surgery requirements. I met with the nurse practitioner, she gave me a list of to-do items, and I was off to the races. I am excited. I look forward to having more energy, being more active, getting rid of my HBP medication, and eating to live instead of living to eat. I was a bit apprehensive about joining a WL forum because I did not want to see negative reviews and complications. I am glad I came to this site. It is full of information and people like me. Congrats to those who have had their surgery, and good luck to those who are scheduled.

So happy for you STB!!!! I know you've had a super complicated and difficult journey - hope it's plain sailing from here on x

You got this, you'll be back home before you know it. I had surgery on 7/6/23, no complications to date. Positive thoughts for you.

Happy belated 64th birthday! I sure hope you are stressing less and less as you inch through the home stretch to retirement! Congrats on your weight loss achievement and continued success. Thanks for sharing your journey! Yes, there are still surgeons who perform Lapband. I just had a consult last week. I've spoken with a few doctors how are against the other radical, irreversible procedures. There is more money in these than lapband and many of them have abandoned their lapband patients altogether. Even if I were a candidate (My BMI not high enough) I would NEVER consider removing stomach after watching my sister slowly waste away to nothing and die over a course of 5 years because of a botched procedure. Countless doctors and nurses at her bedside ICU would tell me they wished they would stop doing these surgeries because there is nothing that can be done to fix complications once they arrive. I have to do self pay for the procedure and they can schedule it pretty much anytime. My only real concern is additional out of pocket $ for complications such as rejection, slippage, dilation, etc. You're success and happiness is great to know as I contemplate taking the lapband leap! Thanks and best wishes!

Thank you all so much Having so many complications, having 6 surgeries in 6 months, getting a revision.... I wasn't sure if I would actually get my life back or not. So happy that I finally am. It's slow going, but it's happening

I have recently received alarming reports from patients who have sent deposits or paid in full for surgeries in Tijuana to a patient coordinator named Bill Yanez. He is now working once again as a coordinator for Dr. Jalil Illan in Tijuana. Please exercise extreme caution when dealing with Dr. Jalil Illan at BC Hospital and coordinators Bill Yanez. They have a history of financial misconduct, having embezzled significant sums of money from me during their tenure as coordinators at BariatricPal Hospital/BC Hospital. Furthermore, I have personally experienced severe surgical complications under the care of Dr. Illan, who botched my surgery not once but twice. There are many reputable and trustworthy options for bariatric surgery in Mexico. Please do not risk your health and finances by entrusting them to a surgeon and coordinators with a track record of dishonesty and malpractice. If these individuals have victimized you, I urge you to report them to your local authorities and the FBI. Their actions are unethical and illegal, and they will face the consequences of their actions in due course. Stay safe, everyone. Let's look out for each other and ensure we all have access to safe, reliable, and ethical medical care.

I was four square opposed to WLS because I told myself that if I got serious I could do it with diet and exercise. The problem I kept running into was I could go a week and be completely compliant with my plan, but it only took one moment of lost focus and the resultant binge undid the whole week of perfection. Eventually an article about weight loss turned out to be an article on WLS and my interest was piqued. I then began my research. Back when I had surgery VSG was not a thing. My choices were Lap-Band, RNY, or DS. I researched each thoroughly, to the extent that when my surgeon asked my preference and why I was able to go into detail about each procedure and why I chose what I chose. Initially I wanted the Band because it was 'less invasive' and it could be easily reversed. I decided 'less invasive' was not a reason to have one surgery and not another, what was important is which surgery would give me the best results. In relation to the Band specifically, after some soul searching I knew that if things got hard I would sabotage myself until the Band just had to be taken out and I would be worse off than when I started. While the other surgeries can technically be reversed, it is much more difficult and only done in extreme circumstances. Basically, no matter what happened I would have to make the best of it, which really is my default outlook. I needed a surgery that was forever. So I was down to RNY and DS. The DS generally had better long term results. Back then their was no restrictive aspect to the DS it was totally malabsorption. There were also many reports of some patients losing too much weight and having issues getting up to a healthy weight. Even then surgeons were getting better at preventing that, so this was probably not going to be an issue for me. But, DS folks often talked about being able to eat anything in just about any volume and still losing weight. This was a problem for me, because I was a binge eater and I wanted to change my habits and I didn't feel the DS would push me in that direction. Here I am at the RNY. I wanted the malabsorption to give me that slight edge to get my digestive system on board with my goals. Of course the restriction was what I wanted to teach me to limit my portions and prevent my binging. I also wanted the 'complication' of dumping as this would keep me away from sweets. Binging and sweets are a bad combination and I felt the RNY would address both. So I chose RNY. As it turned out I do dump on both sugar and fats. It took an amazingly few dumping episodes to learn to stay away from sugars and fats, so that problem was addressed quickly. It also took amazingly few episodes of one bite to many to learn not to, so my binging was addressed. I got everything out of my RNY that I hoped I would. Here I am 20 years later, and my restriction is still in full force. Eating to plan is so natural and normal I don't even think about it. Good luck, Tek

I chose the sleeve due to the recovery and complication rate being lower, and having more options for revisions, if needed, later down the road. I knew I would probably take longer to hit my goal weight, but I was ok with that.

Apologies in advance for the long post!! Hello everyone! I had my surgery July 12th! I am a little over a week post op! Here’s a little bit of insight for those interested! Before surgery I was given a whole bunch of stuff as well as some antibiotics in which I had an allergic reaction to and made me break out in hives. It was super uncomfortable considering I was then wheeled to the operating room shortly after. I couldn’t do anything about the itching as I had to lay in a particular way and kept thinking “I hope they put me to sleep under soon” because it was soooo uncomfortable. After waking up I could barely open my eyes, and at some point I stopped trying but I was still aware of my surroundings for a bit. I just remember shivering and feeling extremely cold. My entire body was aching and I kept getting these chills of pain run through my body. I was in and out so I didn’t even remember leaving the operating room and into the post op room. If I am being completely honest the pain was at its highest the day of the surgery and thankfully the medications they gave me were strong or else I didn’t think I would be able to bear it. I pushed myself to walk about 3-4 hours after surgery even though I wasn’t pushed to, I felt like I needed to?? (Idk my brain was all over the place). I just couldn’t stand laying down for all this hours so if it meant walking to use the bathroom to get out of bed then so be it. I kept trying to push through it and walk walk walk. They were not kidding about the walking and how it helps with gas pains. The gas pains were so bad for me, it felt like bloating(?) just everywhere..the gas pains wow.. My entire stay everyone was super nice and attentive! My surgeon was also kind enough to fulfill my request in taking a picture of my stomach after he took it out! (I personally found it very fascinating!!) I was finally discharged the next day after being able to handle water and soup about 4oz for 5 hours consecutively. And I was very homesick and really missed my bed (and pets). By day 5 though I felt pretty good and a bit back to my normal self for the most part. Until day 5 I could NOT stomach regular water. For some reason I could not stand the taste of it?? It tasted disgusting and I had to keep drinking Gatorade or mixing my water with daily hydration flavored packets. After day 5, I was able to stomach protein shakes (mixed with collagen) and was super happy about the progress. There hasn’t been any complications and for that I am thankful, I didn’t check in sooner as I was busy trying to consume fluids every 15 minutes (I got tired of the timers soooo quick). An app that has been a staple for me personally is Baritastic, love the easy platform and the visualization of the water goal for the day as well as being able to log in my weight. It breaks down my goal into little milestones and basically an all in one app as I can also log in food and tracks weightloss from before and after surgery as well! I also lets me keep count of the days after surgery and my BMI! Highly recommend this app, especially because it’s free Apologies for the long post! I wanted to be thorough and detailed especially for those that are still waiting to have surgery! I cannot think about anything else to write but if anyone has any questions, please let me know! I’ll be happy to respond and as open as possible! I cannot wait to start puréed food though!! 😩

I had my surgery on JUly 3rd. No complications at all. I've lost 15 lbs so far and have been stuck for a few days at that loss. I am so afraid I am not going to lose anymore. Prayers to all who are beginning this journey.

Just wanted to check in with the July People. I had my Gastric Sleeve on July 6th. No Complications, as of today I am 14 lbs lights so thats 2 weeks after surgery. I had very mild pain, returned to work after 6 days. Check up with the doctor today and he says Im recovering well and quickly. I been stuck at 14 lbs lost for 3 days now, so I hope to break that this week. My goal for the Month is at least 20 lbs. I wish everyone else the speediest recovery and prayers as well. Kinda got to say...don't really like my Chewable vitamins that much....may need to look at other option/brands.

Happy Tuesday Everyone!! So since I was three weeks out yesterday I decided that it's time to exercise before surgery. I have moderate osteoarthritis and when triggered there is hell to pay. I decided to go on a thirty minute walk around the neighborhood and I couldn't even do that without causing a flare-up after and being in extreme pain to the point of crying. I have been on tylenol codeine #3 for arthiritis flare ups 3x daily and yesterday I decided to cut it out completely because I want to get rid of as many pills as possible in my system before surgery. Normally I would just take those and be fine but that wasn't an option yesterday and it was really bad. My point is I can't even walk continuously for long without being in extreme pain. I'm not bed ridden or anything just can't do it continuously and briskly like I hoped. My point is how important is exercise before surgery? I have a tread mill and I'm going to try that today. Maybe straight walking on my joints was too much. Do you think not exercising much before will hinder my recovery or increase my chance of complications? This arthiritis, aside from my family and quality of life of course, is a main reason I decided enough is enough I'm doing this!

this article does say that she'd complained about abdominal pain for months, and that the opioids they found in her system may have masked some of the pain. Other articles I've read also said she'd had pain for months - although babyspoons said she'd read that LMP didn't have pain. So...not sure what the real story is here, It does say, though, that bowel obstruction is a rare complication (and that I knew....) https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/lisa-marie-presley-death-rare-risk-bariatric-surgery-rcna94373

I have sleep apnea, arthiritis, fatty liver and high cholesterol and am scared as well but I'm also scared of all of these conditions I have and developing more later in life if I don't take control of my obesity. So I have made the decision to go through with the surgery for reals this time and not cancel like twice before. All I can do now is do everything I can to help this surgery go smoothly. I'm three weeks out and am following a semi liquid diet (even though my doctors office told me it wasn't necessary because I know shrinking my liver and more weight loss before surgery is safer and better) I take all my supplements and more (with Dr approval) I make sure to get my protein in to promote faster healing and I've begun therapy/support groups. I'm going to try to take as little pain medication as possible after surgery because too many opiods and surgery dont mix. It seems like all these "celebrity deaths" (Kanye west mother, Lisa marie presleu) after surgery had opiods as a factor. I currently had been taken tylenol codeine #3 (a mild opiod) three times a day for arthiritis and that stopped today. I'm not taking any chances even with this mild one. When I have pain I will use creams or tens therapy or hell even book a massage but I am doing everything In my power to prevent complications. I've read books and gained a lot of knowledge about the surgery and have asked patients here how they've done it. That's all we can do and then leave the rest up to God/the powers that be.

bowel obstruction is a potential complication, but it's a rare one. On top of that, she had abdominal pain for MONTHS, and didn't see a doctor about it. Who goes for months with unexplained abdominal pain and doesn't see someone about it? If she had, she'd still be alive. My mother-in-law had two bowel obstructions (she's NOT a WLS patient). In one case, they cleared it out (since it was possible to do that), in the other, they had to do a small resection of the affected part (because it couldn't be cleared out). Lisa Marie should have seen a doctor about it. It's sad that she never did, because she didn't have to die.

I had raging GERD pre-surgery, and while the GERD has pretty much gone post-op, I'm so prone to developing ulcers that I'm still on 40mg of Pantoprazole almost two years out. The plan was for me to wean off Pantoprazole, but when I do, I get a fresh ulcer. I have a pooling of bile in the bottom of what's left of my stomach, which I suspect is at least contributing to it (and I still get "gallstone attacks" despite no longer having a gallbladder). Unfortunately, it's not a sure thing that a bypass will cure GERD, which sucks. 100% feel for you. It's just relentless complications. Hope your surgeon has some idea.

I had raging GERD pre-surgery, and while the GERD has pretty much gone post-op, I'm so prone to developing ulcers that I'm still on 40mg of Pantoprazole almost two years out. The plan was for me to wean off Pantoprazole, but when I do, I get a fresh ulcer. I have a pooling of bile in the bottom of what's left of my stomach, which I suspect is at least contributing to it (and I still get "gallstone attacks" despite no longer having a gallbladder). Unfortunately, it's not a sure thing that a bypass will cure GERD, which sucks. 100% feel for you. It's just relentless complications. Hope your surgeon has some idea.

We all know that our surgeries have the possibility of complications. But we also hopefully realized they are statistically small. As far as Lisa Marie, a lot of the news coming out shows the stigma of WLS. She also had opioids in her system (at therapeutic levels) . Anyone who’s taken them knows how they can cause incredibly bad constipation. There are studies that link opioid use the SBO. Additionally, reportedly she had suffered from extreme pain for days and didn’t seek medical treatment

In the last few days, news revealed that the cause of death for Lisa Marie Presley was complications from bariatric surgery. No info on which procedure she had or when, but seems she developed a small bowel blockage caused from scar tissue developing and adhesions many years later. I did a search here for this particular problem and know it is a rare occurrence, but I can't help but think she probably had the best of doctors and well... how does one recognize if they have a blockage or adhesion before it's too late? Doctors reveal how bowel obstruction behind Lisa Marie Presley's death can occur (msn.com)