Search the Community

I am still in the approval process so Im a long way off from being pre-op, but I am trying to find out as much information as I can so Im prepared. I know that in the first few months after getting the sleeve you have the liquid then soft food phases, but does it ever go back to really average things, just in small sizes? What about drinking alcohol?

You must always be cognizant of the population over which statistics were gathered. One counter-example does not invalidate statistics. Nor even a forum full of examples. From what I can tell, many people go into WLS with expectations that it's magic, and that they can go willy-nilly at the Krispy Kreme and have perfect figures every time. Many of those same people don't have any sort of support or accountability structure. The folks here do. We know we have to change, and that it really isn't some magic wand, and I haven't even had my surgery yet. There's a strong selection bias if you try to poll any focussed group: people here are more concerned with being knowledgable about the procedure and how to succeed with it. Are more apt to confess their weight loss sins, and are more apt to repent and get back together. Those that fall off the wagon tend to fall off the forums. I finally had my orientation class yesterday (required by my bariatric program, as is the year-long nutritional counselling). We had a former bariatric patient as guest speaker, who declared that she didn't go to support group meetings anymore. Reason: sheer frustration at the number of people gloating that they ate an entire cheeseburger, and the equally large number of people whining that they had an adverse reacting attempting to do so. She, on the other hand, was eating healthily, and had lost 160#. She had the same good attitude you can associate with other successful patients here and elsewhere. With the dramatic increase in surgeries, how many patients getting the procedure are *not* following the rules? That's where the statistics are getting pulled toward. But back to the OP's question: Based on my surgeon's experience, lap band produces the least complications in the short term, but about the same rate of re-operations as bypass. It produces somewhat less weight loss, and is somewhat easier to cheat although, as he points out, the bypass can also be cheated (insert anecdote about the bypass patient feeling so proud she had worked up piece-by-piece to an entire chocolate bar). If you get the bypass, you will probably become a cheap drunk -- the alcohol goes right to the intestine, since the pylorus is no longer in the way. For this reason, if you have any alcohol issues, you *MUST* have a long, meaningful conversation with your surgeon. I would probably opt for the band in that case. Dumping, as described by the guest speaker, nurse, and surgeon, is different for everybody -- sometimes they vomit, sometimes they get diahrrea, sometimes they just have to lie down and be miserable for half an hour. The guest speaker cannot have milk for this reason. Banding has similar vomit-producing issues, but for different reasons. If you were diabetic, my surgeon would recommend a bypass. Of that I'm certain: the statistics he's gathered show a dramatically higher incidence of remission from diabetes than with the band. Still less than duodenal switch, but he doesn't perform those. (Nor will he convert a band surgery from laporascopic to open -- he doesn't feel comfortable compounding the risk of band infection with the risk of an open procedure. He will simply back out in that case unless instructions to convert to a bypass were filed.) Overall, my surgeon, is more *comfortable* with the bypass, but he's also performed about 10x as many bypasses as bands over the past 15 years. However, he doesn't exhibit any strong, long-term preference between the two for the non-diabetic case.

Hi: In my experience, any addiction, no matter what type, alcohol. drugs, or food is a bummer to try and control. Unfortuantely for me, I seem to have the addiction to salt and fats. My GP insists I weigh in every Saturday and when I visit him he records it. His interest is what keeps me going knowing I have to account to not only myself but him. Have fun at the gym and high energy is my wish to you.

I was sleeved in Mexico in 2009, and two years later I lost my gall bladder because all I did was focus on protein and nothing else. I wish I had known that we CAN overdo protein. I wish I'd known that too much protein will kill your gall bladder, your kidneys, and your liver. I wish I'd exercised from the get-go instead of waiting 3 years to finally start getting on that elliptical. It would have given me more muscle tone and less hanging skin. I wish I'd stuck to my exercise instead of letting myself get overwhelmed with all the tragedies I experienced from 2014-2020. I wish I'd gotten therapy instead of looking to Xanax, Ambien, and alcohol to distract me. I'm 23 days out of a revision from a sleeve to a bypass due to weight gain. This journey is going to be much harder than my sleeve. Treasure your sleeve, work with it, respect it. *Edit: You're goal right now should be to hydrate and keep walking. Even just the shuffling around the house is good. It helps prevent blood clots and helps flush out the anesthesia and water retention from the IV fluids. Shuffle around the house 3 or 4 times a day. Count 500 or 600 steps each time. It gets easier. Don't be bending over to grab stuff from the floor. Ask someone to help or get a $10 extended arm grabber thingy. That helped me a lot when I would drop my sock or my vitamin on the floor. 😊

It is strange how I struggled for years with losing weight and keeping it off yet I have been able to maintain my weight for the last 5 months. Yes I have a balloon in my stomach but it doesnt so much for me as I can drink and eat whatever I want ( sometimes too much like alcohol ooops ). I am actually surprised I didnt gain any weight as the last few months have been easy. These last 20 lbs will be hard though for sure. But trust me it is possible :bored:

Is that sugar free gatorade you are drinking? Because even sugar free can contain sugar alcohols or xylitol which are harsh on your new tum. Isopure is a trustworthy source.

My BOSS sat there 3 months before I had the surgery, and before I even told them I was having surgery and was talking about WLS to another co-worker. His words were "I have heard that people that do that WLS take up other addictions, like sex, alcohol, etc." So a week before my surgery I told him that I was having the surgery. Then proceeded to tell him my husband will be a very happy man because of my addiction... Point is, everyone has their own idea about WLS. Some will say it's the easy way. Some will make fun. Some will act jealous..ect. It is my experience as a mother of a 21 year old son born with Down Syndrome that the reason people make fun of you is because they are 1> Afraid to ask questions. <2 Have no clue about what the procedure (or in my case disability is> so it's easier to pick it apart. So what I do with people who do that stuff to me, and insist on eating infront of me and staying stuff. Even if it DOES bother me, I tell them, "Nope it doesn't bother me at all. I have no desire for sweets or stuff anymore. I want to be one of those statistical people that live a long and healthy life. So if you want to continue to be silly like you are, then go right ahead." 9 X out of 10, they stop because they see that it's not bothering you. Those people are called food bullies. When bullies see that you aren't going to let them bother you anymore, they usually stop. You will have all types of Food Bullies along the way. Whether it be the ones that tell you, you are losing TO MUCH weight. Or the ones like your co-workers. It's hard but stand strong and don't let them get to you. Since your surgery was on 9-18-2009, I'm assuming that your co-workers have taken on a different light now that they see you have been losing weight???

Hi my husband and I have been married and hpjust celebrated 25 years of marriage , this surgery only enhance my love life my husband loved me unconditionally regardless of my weight but he went to every appointment and seminar with me regarding my weight loss procedure as well as he went to every appointment I had for my tummy tuck and I am now 9 days post opt from having my tummy tuck . He has been awsume and our love life and marriage is stronger . I agree with the above statement that your marriage does not end as a direct result of wright lost or gain there are other underlined factors there . It is so nice to be healthy and have energy to engaged in activities that I once use to partake in as well as activities I never would have tried rather physically or sexually because for one I was not physically able to or had the self esteem to try . Now I do because I am comfortable in my own skin . My confidence is unstoppable and it shows I smile more I am now taking pictures which I never did . Remember communications is everything and reassurance is everything . You will get attention that you are not use to as well as you might even loose friends because they are intimidated by the new you , but remember you are worthy of being healthy and happy and you don't have to apologize to anyone for that . Also the addiction you were referring to is caused by people who use to use food got everything from stress, comfort , or love and they have replace said addiction with alcohol, shopping, and sex this cross addiction needs to be monitored and discuss with your significant other as well as a professional if needed . Good luck .

When I was a baby, my father remarked to my mother: 'She's going to have problems with her weight in the future.' Apparently I was physically very similar to his mother. It turned out he was right but not for the reasons he believed. Ironically, it was his life choices that set me on the road to super morbid obesity. Whenever I want to imagine myself as slim and fit I have to go way back through the photo albums to the age of twelve or so. My thighs were so muscular, tanned and slim then! I ate normally, felt normally, behaved normally. I had friends at school, worked hard, and as the daughter of a vicar, was expected to behave impeccably. At the age of twelve my father abruptly left his children, his job and his wife for another woman and we had to vacate the vicarage quickly. We moved to a small, moldering terraced house in a rough part of Manchester. Our diet changed to extremely poor quality food as my mother struggled to care for her three children without the assistance of Child Support (I don't think it had been invented then). I ate to comfort myself, to choke down my feelings of abandonment and sadness. I stole change from my mother to buy sweets, I sneaked out of school at lunchtimes to go home and eat chips and cry on my own. My weight gain and my obvious differences in life experiences from my new classmates meant I was bullied, not only by the 'in crowd' of girls in their smart clothes, but also by my sadistic PE teacher, who on one occasion brought a tape measure into the girls' changing rooms and measured everyone's vital statistics. The closer to the fabled 36-24-36 they were, the more they were congratulated upon for being 'nearly right'. My home life didn't improve. My mother met a man who was an alcoholic and he moved in after their second date. Years of drink, violence, abuse and other horrors took its toll on my mental health and I began self-harming in secret. How is a fourteen year old schoolgirl, already reeling from changes in her life supposed to react when she comes home from school to find her stepfather passed out in the garden, his trousers to his knees, fully exposed and wet from urinating on himself? Worse still was later on when he had come round, expected to sit around the dinner table as if nothing had happened. My weight climbed and my self-esteem plummeted. At fifteen I went on my first ever diet. A quarter of a glass of grapefruit juice for breakfast, half a slice of dry toast for lunch and a quarter of a tin of mushroom soup for dinner. I lost weight, I obsessed about food constantly and my yo-yo had begun its lifelong twirling. I dieted several times in my life - sure to lose many stones then just as surely putting them back on and some. One does not simply wake up at 27 stone, it is the peak of years of food use, abuse and denial. My last big loss was in 2008 when I lost almost eight stone through strict diet and increased exercise. Four years later ... every stone is back and they, as always, brought a couple of friends back with them. I know this would have been the pattern for my almost certainly truncated life had I not had the incredible good fortune to have a mother about to receive a hefty inheritance along with a deep sense of guilt and regret for some of her life choices. I asked her several months ago if she would consider releasing some of the funds that she intended leaving to her children in the future early, enabling me to have private WLS. She said yes. It has happened very, very quickly. A medical screen by a bariatric nurse yesterday, followed by a consultation with a surgeon booked for next Tuesday. As soon as the funds come through (early December) I will have a date for a sleeve gastrectomy booked. The WLS is only ever going to be an aid, not a cure for my weight. I know I have years of poor eating habits and psychological difficulties to work on. But I have never been in a happier place personally than I am now. A husband (blimey!), a sense of direction (future children and employment) and a maturity of self set me in good stead for this undertaking. Bring it on.

I was just surprised at even in my pre-op testing, or in getting my clearances, or even when I had my surgery was there ever a concern and even in reading all of my test results the numbers seems normal. I did look at my labs after my surgery and see that there is a difference though as the absorption rates change and though I've changed my diet/lifestyle for the past 9 months it will get better. I did talk to a specialist that mentioned this is normal for a short period after surgery which is why they say to avoid alcohol and all of the fatty foods we shouldn't be eating in anyway. The liver has to work in overtime a bit due to the change in diet and until we are "normalized" per se, that will remain the case with the liver. Thank you for the information and i'm glad I am not alone in this.... everything else has been good, I was just surprised by this but I suppose it is a learning process for me just as much as it is for me PCP as well as he doesn't have many patients who've had WLS surgery. I did start Biotin and Vitamin D3 though. So hopefully that will help some as well.

Hi there... just wondered if anyone had responded to your request? I was banded in Sept 2010 and went on to your thread to get encouraged and saw your post. Were you given a food guide to follow when you were banded? Are you eating the right proportions (1 cup per meal), have you given up the liquid high calorie food eg icecream, chocolates, alcohol etc? Do you drink and eat? Hope some of these questions help you to evaluate where you are. If you email me I can send you something I came across about evaluating whether you have balance in you banding life. You can contact me at desmitchell@afrihost.co.za. Do hope you haven't given up - I'll try and help you find your way through. :thumbup: Example of my eating/drinking day: Wake up: coffee (small mug) Breakfast: small banana and yoghurt (fills half a cup) Midmorning: tea, coffee, juice, Water Lunch: tuna fish 1/2 tin & salad with low fat dressing Midafternoon: fruit (small & soft eg papaya) Dinner: 1 chicken thigh and mixed veges with gravy - might have a little mashed potato (saucer size portion)

It's been 10 weeks. I'm down 28lbs since surgery and 38 total. I'm loosing slow and steady. Should it be more by now? I can eat almost anything but not a lot. Milk upsets my stomach still and I stay away from sweets. I started exercising 3 weeks ago to kick start my metabolism. I'm looking and feeling better. Yet I feel impatient about my weight loss. Also alcohol is easy to get down so I'm staying away from that too since it's empty calories. What's going on with you?

This is very true. Normal is only relative after all. But I have a new normal now and my eating habits are very "normal" relative to other people, only I have had a few occasions lately to realise I eat very little. So much so that I was prompted to go and have a slight unfill. I eat everythign. I eat bread, I drink alcohol, I might occasionally have a carbonated drink (but I dont like them much, never have), I eat carbs. I eat 3 meals a day, I enjoy myself when I go out to eat, I'll have a piece of someone's birthday cake. In fact I pretty much did all that whilst I was losing weight too, just very much in moderation, and now that I'm at goal, my habits have not changed one bit. If I've had a glass of wine and a piece of cake in one day, I probably will stay up to midnight if I have to to get my run in for the day. I think exercise is key to be honest, its a very powerful tool for weight maintenance. If you exercise hard and regularly you will be able to eat "normally" again one day - although lots of carbonation is bad for your band! But bread/carbs, well I have no trouble with those foods, they dont make me crave and they dont particularly make me fat, so I eat them.

I was told no alcoholic beverages for at least a year by my doc. They emphasize the fact that your liver is like the housekeeper and needs to filter so much junk out of your blood as you lose, that asking it to metabolize alcohol on top of that could cause serious damage. I've also heard through some other groups that I belong to that people have gotten seriously ill and died just from a couple of drinks after WLS because of the way their new system works. Totally not worth the risk to me. I love a glass of wine (or a mojito, or margarita...) as much as the next person, but I'm not going to chance it for at least a year.

I was sleeved January 30th. No alcohol for me yet. Doc said I could have it 4 months out. I believe VSG patients are supposed to feel the effects because the stomach is so small that the alcohol does not stay in the stomach as long as when it was full sized so it kind of flushes through the stomach and gets absorbed right away.

The only harm alcohol causes us is empty calorie weight gain. Most likely people get drunk more quickly due to the fact you have abstained from alcohol for a good bit of time. Your tolerance is different. I used to enjoy a couple glasses of wine every night, but 2 now is way different. I don't do it simple because I'm still trying to make goal and wine is way off my course. It's a mind set

What will happen if u take a shot of vodka 2 months after surgery??

I had a relatively low BMI (36-38) and it took me 30 years to gain the extra 60 pounds that were killing me. Quite frankly, every time I researched WLS, I either didn't qualify or I couldn't justify all the internal organ rearrangement. I live 6 months a year on one coast and 6 in the the other, so the band was a logistical no-go. I heard about the sleeve from Howie Carr, a Boston talk show host. He was my age, 44 inch waist, etc. He had a sleeve in January and was down 85 pounds by June. That was enough to get me to an orientation. I went to the same hospital and got the same surgeon Howie had. They don't do bands, but they do the other three. The sleeve was my first choice and the more I learned, the more it seemed right FOR ME. They said no NSAID'S after RNY. I have pretty bad arthritis and I need my Advil. They also said no alcohol for life with RNY because the pouch isn't as tough as the remaining stomach sleevers have. I have learned to be a disciplined social drinker over the years and given the choice between giving up drinking or not losing weight, I'd pick not losing weight. My social life is an important part of who I am, but without some social drinking, it would collapse. Finally, the sleeve seemed to be the least invasive surgery. I already have a titanium hip and to me the sleeve is less of an anatomical change. Although the RNY leaves the dead stomach, virtually no one has ever reattached it. I also like keeping all my intestines intact. Maybe if I had a BMI over 45 and no social life, RNY or DS would have been a better choice. I think all of this is in God's hands!

Would I have tuned in if the show were about people w/healthy habits no? Addictions, yes. A healthy habit and addiction are too different things. My going on the internet is a healthy habit. I don't wake up thinking I have to jump on the internet or forget to feed my kid b/c I have to jump on the internet. People that have addictions have serious problems and need help. You can be an alcoholic or enjoy wine tasting. Aren't these too completely different things? Who would have tuned into the show if people turned from food to knitting? No one would care, that's good..

Yeah I think some ppl just have addictive personalities. My cousin always has something she's addicted to, and takes the the EXTREME. For the last few years its been running, and she runs multiple hundred mile marathons. Previously it was Mary Kay, previous to that it was religion, previous to that it was alcohol, previous to that it was ...etc. Her knees are totally falling apart at this point but she keeps running, and her heart is having a hard time keeping up becasue the human body is not meant to run THAT much. My aunt is scared she will have a heart attack, her other daughter hopes one of her sister's knees will just totally blow out so that she can't run anymore. But then my aunt says she's scared what will her next addiction be?? I don't think im really a food addict. I don't have an addictive personality. Hmm maybe baby clothes though, I love buying clothes for my baby! Gymboree, Gap, Old Navy, Children's Place, lol you name it im there! HA.

Me too! I was starting to get worried, thinking it was only me. I can't think of anything I enjoy eating now, trouble is my mind thinks I will and then when I taste it nothing happens! Lol. I am pleased really as my enjoyment of food and eating out got me needing help! I just miss the socialising...at the moment meeting up with friends etc is often challenging and overwhelming as it often consists of food and alcohol and they don't know I've had the bypass [emoji33]

Bourbon Congratulations! You're 123 proof, with specific scores in beer (60) , wine (50), and liquor (104). Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the bottle and a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild Turkey or 99 Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know how to handle your alcohol, and yourself at parties.

I agree with all that has been said, and would like to add.... like someone said, the sleeve will not "fix" the depression, anxiety, and the many other things that might had started the whole rollercoaster of unhealthy eating, so is super important that whatever that might had been for you, you figure it out and find other healthier ways to deal with it. After talking to many doctors and nutritionists, I have heard many times that if we do not work on that, we will just find a different unhealthy way of coping (such as alcohol). So keep in mind that the worst thing that can happen is not gaining the weight back (I know none of us want that). This is a journey in which we need to do more than just eat healthy and exercise, we need to find ways of dealing with our emotions and other things which do not include food. The sleeve allows us to concentrate in those things since we don't have to worry about all the bad food we are eating and the stress of being fat and doing the many unsuccessful diets we have all done. I go to keep reminding myself of this. Good luck!

I used it for 3 weeks after surgery. I also used it for 7 months twice a day during pregnancy. Some tips that I learned the hard way.....wait until the alcohol is completely dry.....insert needle quickly (less pain)......push plunger in very very very very slowly (decreases bruising), and do not rub the site at all. It was really no big deal for me, but if takes a little bit to get used to injecting yourself. Good luck!

My surgery went well on November 12th it has been a little challenging due to throwing up after surgery but they say that’s normal. Wright is coming off It is difficult to drink the water daily but I have down now. Still not really hungry eating the same thing my appetite is not that good. But I’m staying the course exercise is your friend and I am unable to use aloe vero gel because it has alcohol in it. So bio oil is Great to use. Good luck to u all !