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Might be a blow to your ego to resort to insulin, but don't you really want what is best for Junior or Little Princess that you are carrying, read somewhere that post-Bariatric babies are usually 6.5 to 7.5 pounds instead of 9 or 10 pounds, Don't know know what magazine or website I saw it on!

And I , at 7 months and having the OTHER variety of common bariatric surgery, have learned Rice even the stuff cooked by Chinese, who certainly should know proper ways of cooking the grain, will not be accepted in my dietary system. Last feeble attempt went so badly I have sworn off the stuff. At least it returns back up instead of congeling into a viscous ball in my gut and sitting there or precipitating a Dumping Crisis. Too doggone bad, I USED to ❤Chinese food, even the Americanlized imitation you can readily get around here. Really truly enjoyed the True Stuff one can get in Columbus, 50 miles away, my favorite thing? Hot/Sour soups followed. by Egg Drop and WonTon ones. My local China Buffet makes a coconut dish, lunch time it's chicken, dinner hour it contains tender mid- size shrimp instead. Might trample someone who blocks my path to it! But haven't been back since surgery, waiting until my pouch would accept 1/2 to 3/4 cup without repulsing it out and It hadn't happened yet. Begin to wonder if it ever will?

Hilarious but also pretty cute too. After years of looking like someone forgot to stop pouring when pouring me into them, with being down from 28-30W to a definite 20, I can find them to FIT, of course I still am a little hesident to wear them out in public ( look at that foolish fat old lady in those. bright leggings!) old habits do die harden to the world I probably,look noticied. And FAT but I KNOW how much of my Fat Shell has cracked away, and it is Enough that I still feel hope for the future! Even when my doctors weigh me in kg as they do, the numbers look hopeful. Semi- miserable this AM, I had shoulder surgery the 4th of April, original plan was to go in, remove the hardware left from my proximal humerus fracture 9 years ago. It was a plate and 12 screws, not quite sure if it was the fat loss, the length of time it was present, but it had started being a detriment to my life quality, fluid had to be drained from the shoulder joint nearby et cetera et cetera. Well when my ortho surgeon got in there since it was an open area, he decided to assess what other bits of the shoulder anatomy looked like, well my rotator cuff was nothing b to write home about, so he went ahead and repaired it too to save me another surgery. And I March around in a shoulder sling daily for a while. If I leave things bandaged and suspended , I can only sleep in the recliner, if I want to sleep in bed, I have to remove it from sling and put affected arm up on pillows. That works pretty fine unless I move too much in my sleep or try to turn over. If I do, I wake up in misery, slept successfully maybe 3-4 hours and here I am , back alone and up in the recliner, and waiting for a Pain Med to "kick in". I am far from an abuser, let alone opioid and that family of bad little drugs. My late Mama was addicted to Fiorinal, boy I stay as far as I can from that stuff don't even take Acetaminophen/ Panadol if I can avoid it. Try to " tough" it out , because I had Mama's bad example, she would even talk to her meds- Hi there little pill, if I take you, what will you do for ME today! And I would slowly simmer, tried as young adult to try to convince her to cut back on the varieties, O My, just like an obese person who wants the last slice if Christmas or even Chocolate frosted Cake, you nearly get trampled for your intervention. So here I am, arguing with my PCP about meds "I AM NOT taking THAT unless my body really requires THAT!" And looking as my daughter bounces gleefully down the same path as her Grandmother, you don't call her home after 8pm, she and her husband have taken on so many meds by that point, they and their voices are unintelligible. She is 50, her husband 53, a little late for a family intervention, isn't it? Anyway she looks older than me, speaks to me usually only when SHE wants something or looking for sympathy. The other day I had tripped going to take papers into an office- back parking area was in a state of disrepair, and I just mis-stepped, fell onto repaired arm because I didn't see the fall coming, would have rolled to healthy side instead. My son called his sister, he wanted her to know, me-pfft, didn't matter if she knew or not. Sad to say, I do still love her down- deep but I do not approve of many of her actions- so I don't LIKE her too much, hurt me and her brother emotionally too doggone much! She comes into the ED area where I was undergoing testing, for a minute I didn't recognize her. She And I both look in our late 50s, I'm really 73 but she is grayer and more haggard- looking. Truly as I lose weight, I have started looking younger. Sad this time when you look like sisters and I am 23 years older. Didn't mean to get off on a rant but it is a source of sorrow for me and her little(39 years old) brother! At any rate, I was lucky, did not crack or break my arm further but now I have bruising on the inner surface, elbow to shoulder, bad enough when I had my endoscopy Friday, I have these frequently as I developed ulcerations,in my pouch and jejunem( second section of small intestine) and this checks on their status of healing. Anyway I had a special wristband on that arm because of the traumas it has gone through. Started IV for my sedation in left arm, had Blood pressure cuff on the calf of my leg. And that is not a comfortable location, hurts when it inflates every 15 minutes, but better than having them do a "cut down" put a Central. line pressure item like a Swan-Gantz in my basilac or even subclavian vein, that would take a 45 minute easy- peasy procedure into a major surgical undertaking. But I guess my endoscopic/ bariatric surgeon Dr Noria, who is also my surgeon's younger partner, is satisfied things are starting to heal. My recovery has not been textbook- pretty but it still is my journey toward my goals, lost from surgery weight of 319 to 232 pounds in 7 months, and that Seems to please my surgeons so by extension I suppose Me Also. Every pound lost is a Gain for me and my future😝❤😝.

Wow, it seems so hard for you to deal with all this bureaucracy! Unfortunately, in my country (Romania) there is no cover from the insurance for Bariatric surgeries... even if you have additional health problems. So I made a credit for 3 years and payed myself for everything. Also, the process to reach the surgery is very simple, there’s a 1 st appointment with the surgeon to decide is you qualify for such surgery, then 1 week of investigations and if all goes well and you keep a week of diet on liquids you can be scheduled for surgery 2-3 weeks after your first appointment. I have to mention that this does not apply with the national health care system but with the private one. Anyway, in a Romania the state system and the state hospitals are so horrible that I would not trust them even for the most basic treatments. Hang in there and good luck!🍀🍀🍀

When I reach 110 kg and I could not shed it whith dieting I’ve decided that I I need all the help I can get. I started looking In bariatric surgeries and I fed all I could find for two weeks. Then I decided to have the bariatric surgery so I went to the doctor and he told me that I qualify for a gastric sleeve. Next week I had all the investigations done and was scheduled for surgery very quickly, after just another week. I had the surgery on 3rd of April and I stayed in the hospital for three days. The first day in ATI was pure hell not because I felt any pain but because I was very very nauseous from the naso-gastric tube they inserted. The second day I was moved in a normal room and got rid of all the tubes except the perfusions. I started walking and I felt just normal, no pain except for when I drank too quickly. Now I am home, 11 days post op, and finished the first week of liquid diet. I’m now in the cream soup phase for another two weeks. Then for another week I have to eat all the food in purée form. My main challenge is that I crave other foods, like yesterday I felt I would kill for a bite of burger. It’s true, the hunger sensation disappeared, but the cravings did not. At some point I felt so so frustrated that I could almost cry. I know for sure that if I do not respect this post op diet and I eat something wrong, too solid, it just comes up and I regurgitate it... I also find it hard to drink all the necessary water but I keep a bottle with me and try to do it. I take all the Bariatric vitamins and minerals prescribed, take protein supplements and do my heparin shots. I lost 13 pounds in the first week and I hope that I will keep the trend even if it’s slower in the future. My question to you is how quickly you started to eat solid foods after the surgery? How did it feel? Do you also have cravings? How do you deal with them? Thanks and good luck to you all!

As noted above, programs vary all over the place. Quite commonly, "full" liquids frequently include a lot of sloppy mushy foods that don't necessarily fit through a strainer - puddings, yogurt, jello, etc. Go by how your program defines things rather than someone else's (my program just put all the liquids, mushes, purees and other soft things into one phase and we could move around between all of them as our tolerances allowed, so I never got into distinguishing between "full liquids'', purees, soft proteins, etc.) Things like oatmeal, cream of wheat, apple sauce, etc. are classics in the bariatric world and have been a part of early diets for many years, so that is nothing that is going to adversely affect your overall weight loss results; they may not be something that one wants to continue later on, but they do serve a purpose early on when the menu is fairly limited and one is just working to find something that goes down easily, The carbohydrate aspect of some of these foods does have some benefit despite their being contrary to many of the currently popular diets in the mainstream dieting world. They do provide useful energy at a time when we are often sapped for energy in the early post-op days (indeed, I have seen references to some surgeons who specifically want their patients to do some "carb loading" early after surgery for the same reason that marathoners often "carb load" before an event - there's good energy in there. It is not unusual to hear of people reporting that they were dragging and fatigued for weeks after surgery and just chalked it up to it being major surgery - but they were usually the ones who were diligently avoiding "carbs" because that is what one is supposed to do to lose weight (right?) That's not to say that one should be loading up on chips and Twinkies, but have a bit of faith in your program - they have likely been doing this a while and know how things work. Of course, with your diabetic concerns, one needs to be careful, but your RD should be able to work through the appropriate compromises for you.

You are going to eat real healthy foods and great recipes in "real food stage" (protein shakes are only first stages) You will learn how to order at restaurants, how to navigate the grocery stores and stay on plan. Here is a link to my dieticians’ site to get ideas of what food can look like after surgery. (follow your own dieticians plan) https://karenmangum.com/recipes/bariatric-friendly-recipes/ https://karenmangum.com/category/bariatric-friendly-main-dishes/ https://karenmangum.com/category/bariatric-friendly-desserts/ https://karenmangum.com/category/bariatric-friendly-snacks/

You can get them at the bariatric pal store. I get them from the built bar website, for the different varieties.

I'm researching him. I'm thinking of the gastric plication vs the sleeve. He sounds very experienced with that procedure. A toss up between OCC, Dr Corvala at Angeles hospital, or Dr Garcia at Tijuana bariatric center. Sent from my SM-J727V using BariatricPal mobile app

And at 232 it actually looks possible. Sorry this is in several pieces, my phone decided to send. Got new higher level android, would discontinue this one totally but fighting with Google to take my Gmail to new phones they seem t9 have a mental block, so I continue to operate this one off of WiFi so I can have Bariatric Pal . Everything else I do with new Pi- level Samsung. The phone # transferred there, but the Gmail didn't? Thought they were always linked- well I must be living in Electronic Stupidity because I don't get it.

So... I've been reading a Bariatric book and this is a quote from the book: "This means that even after bariatric surgery, your BMI is still likely to be in the overweight range and at least 25% over BMI 25. This is considered a successful outcome after bariatric surgery, although it sometimes differs from what individuals hope or expect to lose." I'm amazed that they have written such a defeating comment! I don't want to accept it and it feels wrong for the author or the bariatric surgeons to assume that we can't get to a 'normal' weight! It feels discriminatory... But perhaps I'm over sensitive... When i first had my consult with the surgeon he asked me how much i wanted to lose. Because of the shame i have about my eating i found those types of questions too difficult to answer truthfully so I just told him i wanted to lose enough to feel comfortable and happy with the way i looked. Not sure I know where I'm going with this but it does feel like there's a discriminatory mindset - even among the bariatric medical community... There are so many people on this forum and all the others who prove that statement wrong every single day. "huff"

I’m sorry you are having this issue. I wish I could advise you of what to do but I have similar issues w my dr. His office would go days without returning my calls. I complained to the office manager and things got better. I used to work there when I lived in Auburn. But the dept I was isn’t related to bariatrics.

Hello all, l'm having gastric sleeve surgery and I need help with reviewing the doctor that I'm go with he's Dr Green at Renew Bariatric in Tijuana Mexico...Thank you..

You can Google loose skin after bariatric to get an idea of what best and worst case senerios can look like. Loose skin is an unkown factor of your weight loss. Age, how long you have been obese and amount of weight lost will be factors. Plastics are an option. Self pay. Some insurance companies cover if the skin csuses mobility issues or rashes. Sent from my SM-G920T using BariatricPal mobile app

Hello, my surgery date is on April 22nd and i have been waiting for this day since last summer. I live in NJ but my surgery is at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. I am currently on a two week liquid and raw veggie diet. The days are speeding by fast. I have no idea what I am getting myself into. I have done my research and have read the forums and prayed from time to time but reading is different from actually having the surgery and experiencing post op and beyond. This is going to be a new journey for real. I pray that I stick with what I need to do to succeed. I am very thankful to the"Bariatric Pal" app. Is there any other person having the surgery on the same day and/ or at the same hospital?

Hello, my surgery date is on April 22nd and i have been waiting for this day since last summer. I live in NJ but my surgery is at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. I am currently on a two week liquid and raw veggie diet. The days are speeding by fast. I have no idea what I am getting myself into. I have done my research and have read the forums and prayed from time to time but reading is different from actually having the surgery and experiencing post op and beyond. This is going to be a new journey for real. I pray that I stick with what I need to do to succeed. I am very thankful to the"Bariatric Pal" app. Is there any other person having the surgery on the same day and/ or at the same hospital?

I smoked 20-30 per day from age 17. Quit for pregnancy, quit for 48 hours once later. Quit in forever attempt for 2 years after doing the Alan Carr course before my Mum got pancreatic cancer and life personally and professionally exploded. Then finally quit cold turkey in Jan last year. Built up to it for 6 months after first bariatric consultation. Slipped once after. Got drunk with a good friend and had two ciggies. I liked smoking, but at this stage, having gone the whole 12+ month cycle of ‘first withouts’ (birthday, holiday, Christmas, pub, meal, flaming row, house move) I can look back and see how my brain chemistry controlled me and the habits I formed. Huge force of will for the time it takes for initially chemical detox, then repeated small efforts of resistance while your head tries to tell you you are hungry for nicotine. Patch/pill/other help probably makes sense. I deserve no creds for cold turkey, it was probably irresponsible. However you manage to catch your wave I wish you huge luck. Xx Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had great weight loss with the VSG I hit goal in roughly 7-8months and kept it off for almost 3 yrs but the complications started causomg lots of issues. My sleeve was stretched by a non bariatric hi doc because it and my distal esophagus were very narrowed with inflammation. I loat that restriction at that point. I couldnt live with that.

You should be ecstatic. Pretty amazing when you hit goal, Right? Goal weight is a personal choice. Find whatever weight you feel comfortable and healthy at. How I have managed to maintain? I think it has been the members that came before me. I’ve learned from the successes and mistakes. I am realistic that anyone of us can gain weight back. I had a gain my third year. I came back to the site for support. I’m back to maintaining in the 130s How is my sleeve surgery restriction? My restriction has become less over time. ***It’s nothing like pre surgery*** My maintenance plan is adding more calories and low glycemic carbs to slow/stop weight loss. I eat dense protein and as much veggies as I like to fill the extra room in my pouch, stay satisfied, and not go over my maintaining calories/carbs. When or if you experience less restriction with the sleeve. Watch for grazing/eating around your surgery. You will not feel surgery restriction if you eat small portions all day long (healthy and unhealthy choices) that total over your weight loss calories and macros. The sensation is as if you never had surgery. It’s a major cause of weight gain with any type of surgery. Some things you may already know or to prepare for in maintenance phase: It may be hard to transition out of the ingrained six months of “bariatric weight loss rules” Maintenance is a different mindset. Fear of weight gain can be an issue. Choose a weight bounce range to maintain. (I maintain ten pounds up and down the scale.) It may take some time to learn trust yourself and relax. Find your balance. Know that you can work the bounce range and keep your weigh off. We get to indulge within reason and not feel guilty about it. If the scale moves up, get back in weight loss mode to bring it down. If you have a gain or need motivation to maintain, you always know we are here.

I am also someone who has had nothing but issues with this band (Slimband), which I paid over $25,000 for (I was financed thru them) the band which I had placed at a private clinic in Toronto in 2013. I didn’t/do not live in Toronto, so I had to fly up there & back, stay at a hotel. Factoring in the medications I was instructed to take post-op, along with the necessary OTC medications (stool softeners, gravel, etc), I am probably out around $30,000. Most important to me though, is not the money (that pisses me off) but it’s the day-to-day impact this goddamn thing is having. My quality of life has be adversely affected. Most recently, I have a distended upper abdominal area; chronic constipation (I drink over 64 ounces of water daily); nausea, vomiting and have looked into filing a lawsuit without success (firms I contacted weren’t interested). I am unable to be spontaneous in eating, because I never know/can’t predict when I will get what my husband has come to refer to as “backed up”. When I get “backed up”, I typically have been constipated, and then have a painful bowel movement, quickly followed by a swollen & tender upper abdominal area, nausea, dry heaves, then vomiting (bike usually as I’ve not eaten in the 12 hours prior to these attacks). The doctor who preformed my surgery was reprimanded by the College of Physicians & Surgeons in Ontario, & lost his license for 3 whole months (big deal) & has since relocated to practice in another area of Ontario the last I heard. During my surgery, he also did something that I wasn’t aware he would do/would ‘need’ to be done. He did something so I wouldn’t experience any heartburn or GERD...when I woke from surgery to find that out, I started to feel like I had made a mistake. See, I never, NEVER had any issue with acid reflux/heartburn...ever. I also woke from surgery with a pain in my shoulder & bruises on my body that I am unsure how they would have gotten there (upper arm, outer thigh). Other than the 1-week follow-up phone call, the clinic never did follow through on their promise of aftercare service & check-ins. I had called because I was concerned when I had my first ‘attack’ approximately 2 years after the band was installed, only to get a voicemail to leave a message, which never was returned & the symptoms abated. Then to make matters worse, if that is even possible, the clinic closed its doors a few years back, meaning I have been & am unable to have my band adjusted, which were always defills for me. These were another area of problematic treatment. Each time I went (only twice because there was a large period of time that Halifax didn’t have anyone doing this), I had requested a defill because I was vomiting after drinking water. When the ‘nurse’ wasn’t able to access my port...well, she said she wasn’t sure if she accessed it or not, my doubts and regrets were reinforced. I remember telling her the last time I was in, that I wanted it removed. She encouraged me to give it time, especially since we had just ‘defilled’. I remember that last time I went, it hurt when she inserted the strings & it felt as if it ‘hit’ something hard in my body (hard to explain, but a very weird sensation & it felt substantially different than the first time I had a defill). I seen that when she removed the syringe, it looked as if it were filled with blood, watered down blood, but not clear fluid. She reassured me that it was ‘probably just some scar tissue’ that had developed around the port site and that was why it looked like blood was in the syringe. A few weeks after this interaction, when I attempted to book another defill, and to look into removal, I found out the clinic was closed. No advanced notice to its customers - I was still paying them via the financing they provided - paying for a service I was no longer able to receive. So here I am, 6 years later. I have lost weight, not as much as they said I would, but I attribute that to the fact that I can’t eat so many things, and when I do eat (rarely ever hungry), I am terrified of having an attack. It has negatively affected my work life, my personal life and, since I am waiting on a long list for bariatric surgery to remove this goddamn thing, my life for the foreseeable future. I really wish there were a class action lawsuit happening. My sister had the same procedure, and has had a similar journey, minus the ‘attacks’. I had done research prior to having Slimband installed and didn’t find much long term information. After having the procedure, and joining their on-line community, I realized that any negative comments/stories were removed/deleted/erased, as the clinic had control over the site. If anyone hears about a class action lawsuit, please contact me because I would be interested. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. My e-mail is kemaclean@ yahoo.ca As a almost 54 year old woman, I can honestly say there are very, very few things in my life that I regret - and my life has not been an easy one - Slimband is the only regret I have...and it is a huge one.

awwwwww, thank you so much @FluffyChix, Sandra Nuelken & Bariatric Legend. Sandra - check out Mitchell in Minnesota on YouTube and let him know I sent you. He's one of my new BFF's on there and he's about 8 months post-op and succeeding with lapband revision to RNY. He's honest about the whole process.

Someone correct me if im wrong but some type of imaging testing could confirm if more are loose. Maybe your primary could order it so its covered. If so , then perhaps contact the Bariatric doctor anyway and let them know. They may take care of it without charging you in a perfect world or bill it under something covered like exploratory surgery to remove foreign objects. *Try* ( I know its hard believe me) to not let insurance issues prevent to from seeking assistance or at least asking the questions necessary. But let's hope its a singular event. Totally possible. Good luck! 💜

I sincerely appreciate all of the replies to my frustrated self, and I humbly apologize for sounding absolutist, and for coming across as being on the attack. I am honestly happy that it works so well for some. It is a choice that I would not make again for myself, and I will always advise caution with regards to the band, but I will have to add and stress that it can be quite / very successful for the right people. For myself, I finally found a bariatric surgeon that listened to everything that I had been going through. He said that the problem was band intolerance, there are some (very few, thankfully) that can feel the device. That, in addition to several other health concerns (to include a weak esophagus) led to him recommending removal. Amazingly, my insurance covered that surgery, and I have been band free for 7 weeks now. My weight is going down, and not only are my muscles no longer in painful atrophy, but they are coming back! I teared up when I realized that my biceps had a bump again at 6 weeks out (without any exercises during post op recovery), vs being flat and flaccid despite curls etc pre removal. For me, it was not a good thing, however, I am not the norm. I have had to have all implanted devices removed because I can feel them, and they hurt a lot. With the band specifically, it was also causing a malnutrition effect due to my increasing list of food intolerances -- most of which have been resolved since removal. It is so nice to be able to eat fresh produce, lean meats, eggs, etc without ongoing pain. *shrugs* I have come to understand that my experience is so far out of the norm as to be unhelpful. I did not realize how abnormal my experience was until I met a surgeon that did not dismiss me out of hand, actually listened to all I had to say, did testing, validated my issues, recommended simple removal, went to bat with my insurance company, then actually removed it. Life is much better without, for me. But my case is very much not the norm.

so...I need to have more patience and trust the process. Something weird happens with my water retention and its linked to my heart arrhythmias... I had a heart episode last night and as a result have lost 1.5lbs this morning. I must talk to my cardiologist about it as he might have some thoughts... Today I am not using Stevia drops... I'm adding some spinach and a bit of asparagus as its the season... I have really missed veg so hoping these additions won't spike my insulin or water retention. I'm having these veg with some grilled chicken using my brand new Forman Grill! A new alien thought for me to process... 6 months ago, I would be eating an extra burger of 700cals if I was hungry ... and my brain hasn't caught up with how in the new bariatric world, the differences could be as minuscule as 50 to 100 extra cals. I've pretty much disregarded differences of that small amount. It was what Fluffy said yesterday - to up my cals to 750. I first thought that that difference wasn't going to make any difference as it was too small... but, obviously I'm still using my fat-brain and haven't converted it to being more normal ... Jeez... this is such a learning curve... re-educating an ancient old biddy like me is taking some time and I'm not a natural maths or science person which I'm learning is quite an important skill to have when adjusting macros or mixing things up in the food lab... Thank you all for your tolerance - I've also realised I'm a bit of a moaner xx

I have a horrible heel spur that’s killing me but they still will not budge. Some doctors say Meloxicam is ok for bariatric patients but my team said too much risk. So I use CBD and suck it up till I can have foot surgery in August