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My date is April 24th, for RNY. It still doesn't feel quite real. I didn't have to lose any weight during the 6 months of monitored, since I needed to keep my BMI where it was (at 40, I've gained since). I think I have just about everything I'll need. I'm going to try egg white protein powder, and I have regular vitamins and a pill crusher (It seems like the bariatrics and chewables in general always have loads of gunk in them, fillers and artificial sweeteners). Good luck to everyone with dates coming up.

I should have been a good little girl and given up Bariatric Pal for Lent but I'm too addicted. Palm Sunday is this week, Easter is next week and I'm still hanging with you all. [emoji549] Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

I am 3 years post sleeve. I am in the process of revision, maybe May?.While I have nasty reflux the reason is 1 only lost 30 pounds in about 8 months, and then over the next 2.5 years I put on 40. My original clinic called me the 1%. At that time I posted on a different forum and was treated nasty. I stopped reading and watching anything bariatric. I now know that I was the 1st of 15 patients surgeon did a sleeve on. That surgeon is no longer practicing medicine. We dont yet know if his method is responsible for my lack of success. Probably never will. Now I try to find the emotional box for what is my own responsibility and what is somebody's elses fault. And keep moving forward

If your hernia requires mesh surgeons don't like to do bariatric surgery with it because of risk of contamination. However if you have stones in your gallbladder... That's pretty common and could work. The hernia thing is a possibility thoguh

i am in the process of getting my stuff ready now & have chapstick,hand lotion,toiletries,baby wipes,swab sticks,favorite pillow,incentive spirometer,comfy clothes,slip on shoes,pajama pants,air freshener,medications,gas x strips,& phone charger for overnight stay.im sure im forgetting something on here,lol.at home i .have my protein water,protein shakes,bone broth,soups,sf jello,sf popsicles,sf fudgecicles,sf pudding,crm of wheat,oatmeal,sf lf yogurt,sf lf cottage chs,lf ricotta,pb2,crystal lite,sf koolaid,gatorade2,powerade zero,ls v-8 jce,diet snapple,&unflavored whey isolate protein powder.i bought sippy cup,baby spoons,small bowl,small containers,ice trays,popsicle mold,pill cutter/crusher,liq adult tylenol,metamucil smooth,miralax,tums,chewy vitamins(debating between bariatric advantage or celebrate),protein shaker w ball,& magic bullet so far.sorry for the long list but i know it was so helpful for me.im sure im still forgetting stuff.

Sampling products or recepies is one thing, but in general I think everyone—not just Bariatric patients—needs to get away from the idea of associating all social activities with food, whether it is offered or pushed. From movies to business meetings to dates to celebrations, we always feel the need to involve food and personally I think that’s a good habit to break, and I think a WLS support group is a good place to do that. Heck I remember scout meetings of an hour or hour and a half and we all needed to take turns as snack parent. Even now at my kids HS drama performances we do the same for intermission fund raising. One of the shows is only 95 mins long. We can all go without food for that long.

Salem here! My insurance excludes bariatric surgery so I am headed to Mexico for surgery on May 2! Super excited

And. The Bariatric [emoji365]Godmother wants her RnY[emoji70] Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

Episode 2: As I was saying, they put me in a medically induced coma on the respirator. The first night they told my wife not to expect me to make it throught the night. I did and a 3 weeks they decided that I was strong enough to bring me out of it. I was still in ICU at Holy Family in Spokane, WA. When they brought me out the first thing I remember is seeing my wife and her telling me I had been out for 3 weeks. I didn't believe her, but during that time I had dreams that things were happening to me, some very strange things that seemed totally real to me. I told my wife not to sell the house but if she did open up a rehab center in out new one. She looked at me like I was crazy, none of the things I had dreamed were real. I accused her of all sorts of stuff which hurt her a lot. It's really strange what all those drugs and other things that were going on affect you. I wasn't myself at all. She would come to see me everyday and a couple days after I woke up she noticed some bruises on my feet, she asked them jokingly, have you been beating up on him or what. They hadn't noticed these and when she mentioned it to them, they took a look. Well all hell broke loose in ICU. We had no idea what was going on but they were trying all kinds of things to get the blood circulating in my legs to no avail. During this time a doctor had visited me on his rounds and he was a bariatric surgeon. He took over my care, at what point I'm not sure but he more or less brought me around after others had given up. This was Dr. Lee Trotter. He told me at about 3 days awake that they were going to have to amputate both legs below the knee. During my out time my heart had gone down to a 15% ejection fraction, which basically means it wasn't working. It was pumping blood to my legs but not back out. As the days went by my feet started getting blackish purple and developed big sores that the skin and meat just dissolved and big holes appeared. They were dead and were rotting away. He told me they were going to take the right one first then the left. That weekend a nurse got her wires crossed and thought I was supposed to be taken off all IV fluids and morphine pump, going to oral pain meds. I didn't get it and my wife got hold of the doctor and he came in on a Sunday and he was pissed. He read them up one side and down the other. The put me back on fluids and morphine and surgery was scheduled for the next morning. 7am I was on my way to the OR, they decided that it needed to be done immediately, I was able to get a hold of my wife and she barely got there before I went to surgery. I came out legless both at exactly the same point about 8 or 9" below the knee. I was stable and was in the hospital about 3 more days and the insurance company was putting the pressure on to get me out of the hospital and in a nursing facility. That happened about 4 days later. Nursing homes are not where you want to be. My wife would come in and they hadn't emptied my urine bottle, they would bring my food and if I was asleep would push it to one side of the room where I couldn't reach it. When I would push the button if you were lucky someone would come in at about 30 minutes. After a week of this my wife decided I would be better off at home and during this time had gone thru insurance and set me up with a ramp to get me up the stairs a hospital bed all the stuff needed for transfers and bathroom needs, a power chair and manual wheelchair. During this time my weight had dropped to 114 and looked like a skeleton with skin. As my grandaughter described it a holocaust survivor. As soon as I got home I started gaining weight. I was being seen by Dr.Trotter once a week and a visiting nurse 3 times a week. My weight kept increasing and I started to feel better. After a few appointments with Hanger Prosthetics they were ready to fit me with my first prosthetics. These were very basic but did the job. To their surprise I was, after practicing for what seemed like months I was able to walk on them with my walker. This was shortly after Christmas 2007. They decide to get me into a better set of prosthetics, which were much better and low and behold I was able to walk, first with the walker then crutches, then canes. I kept getting better and better and my weight went up. At about 6 months after I started using prosthetics I was feeling pretty good, weight had increased to around 155 and I started to pursue going back to work with the railroad. They were going to try to get me back as the first bilateral amputee train engineer. I thought this was great. I took all their tests and passed, then someone in the upper echelon decided I would be too much of a risk on that job. They offered me a job teaching about the operation of air brakes but it really didn't sound to me like what I wanted to do, plus the exempt position didn't have as good of benefits after retirement as a different scheduled position. So they offered me a job called Lead Driver, which was basically a desk job with some driving involved which at this time I could do pretty well, as long as it was an automatic transmission. So in the fall of 2008 I took that job, I had retained an attorney to sue the hospital for not stopping the infusion after the first episode. He thought based on what I had told him I had a great case. Well it took him 3 weeks to get my hospital records and by the time he did they had gone thru them all and put them in a computer format. There was no mention of the first episode and they blamed it all on my condition at the time. He said there was no way I could sue them for malpractice based on what the records now showed. The whole thing was my fault. According to them they did everything possible. He said that because this was such a big corporation Providence Medical, and they had 20 attorneys working on this and had covered things up, I didn't stand a chance. I took the job as lead driver and did it well. People were expecting me to be a cripple and I could get around as well as any of the others that also worked the same job on different shifts. During the next almost 2 years I worked my job and when I reached 60 years old I was eligible for normal retirement, the requirments were 60 years old with at least 30 years service, I had 36. Since retirement paid about the same as the ob which was considerably less then what I was making as an engineer, I decided to do it. I still felt great my weight was stable at 175, which was the perfect weight for me. We decided we would get a motorhome and spend the winters in AZ and summers here. We got a motorhome in 2010. I went to see my doctor for a routine physical and everything looked good. They had been doing yearly echos on me because I had a heart murmur since birth. That summer after the physical my doc told me the cardiologist wanted to see me after the echo, I figured to big deal. So I went in and he told me I needed to have my aortic valve replaced which scared the hell out of me. I himmed and hawed about it and decided I would have it done in August of 2012. It was supposed to be a surgery that many had had that was routine for them, but it was open heart surgery, I figured I would feel better after recovery and we could continue with our plans. WRONG. After the surgery the doctor told me I had the most calcified heart structure he had ever seen. The only part that was supposed to be calcified was the valve. He said that he was able to get 13 sutures in but it hadn't made a good seat and had a paravalvular leak. I did recover but didn't feel really good. I have no idea if the BPD-DS had anything to do with the calcification but he said It was not a common condition. I definately had a substantial leak and my BP hovered around 140/50. Post surgery I began to lose some weight but it wasn't bad. I was down to about 155, I didn't feel great. That winter I had gotten back to somewhat normal and was able to get around pretty good. I went to get the mail one day and stepped on some ice and slipped and fell hard, broke my femur and shoulder both on the right side. As I was laying there in the driveway I was thinking great this is just what I need. It took me about 6 months in the chair again till I was able to start walking again. It was slow going, I was no longer allowed on the snow and ice per wife. Well I will stop this episode here for now will continue later. Pat

Welcome welcome. We hope you'll hang around and get to know us better. There are people at all levels of the weight loss journey, newbies like yourself, pre surg like me who have or are in the process of finishing up requirements, ones whose surgery dates are shortly coming up, people who have just had their surgeries and are in the process of recovering and many seasoned veterans who are still active. We[emoji173] them especially as they mentor the rest of us. We treasure their advice for they have walked the walk ahead of us. Ask any questions you like,if I don't have an answer somebody else on Bariatric Pal will. We all may be having different approaches and viewpoints but we are unified in wishing you well and hope we can ease things for you. Welcome again, we think you'll find yourself at home here. [emoji14] Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

Good point. I said that in jest. In my opinion, food is probably ok as long as it's only because the guest speaker of the night is a bariatric chef, as @jenn1mentioned. Everyone should be responsible enough to either try a sample, take one home, or not take one. I'd have a problem with it if the group is always serving ou d'oeuvres or asks someone to bring "snacks to share" every evening. Yikes!

So question for y’all who have had the hernia repaired at the same time... was it billed differently than expected for just the sleeve alone? My insurance is going to cover the sleeve 80%, and bariatric surgery doesn’t count towards my out of pocket max. So I’ll be paying 20% with no maximum. Just wondering if the hernia repair (which counts towards my maximum) makes a difference in the amount you end up paying? I hope that makes sense lol!

Episode 2: As I was saying, they put me in a medically induced coma on the respirator. The first night they told my wife not to expect me to make it throught the night. I did and a 3 weeks they decided that I was strong enough to bring me out of it. I was still in ICU at Holy Family in Spokane, WA. When they brought me out the first thing I remember is seeing my wife and her telling me I had been out for 3 weeks. I didn't believe her, but during that time I had dreams that things were happening to me, some very strange things that seemed totally real to me. I told my wife not to sell the house but if she did open up a rehab center in out new one. She looked at me like I was crazy, none of the things I had dreamed were real. I accused her of all sorts of stuff which hurt her a lot. It's really strange what all those drugs and other things that were going on affect you. I wasn't myself at all. She would come to see me everyday and a couple days after I woke up she noticed some bruises on my feet, she asked them jokingly, have you been beating up on him or what. They hadn't noticed these and when she mentioned it to them, they took a look. Well all hell broke loose in ICU. We had no idea what was going on but they were trying all kinds of things to get the blood circulating in my legs to no avail. During this time a doctor had visited me on his rounds and he was a bariatric surgeon. He took over my care, at what point I'm not sure but he more or less brought me around after others had given up. This was Dr. Lee Trotter. He told me at about 3 days awake that they were going to have to amputate both legs below the knee. During my out time my heart had gone down to a 15% ejection fraction, which basically means it wasn't working. It was pumping blood to my legs but not back out. As the days went by my feet started getting blackish purple and developed big sores that the skin and meat just dissolved and big holes appeared. They were dead and were rotting away. He told me they were going to take the right one first then the left. That weekend a nurse got her wires crossed and thought I was supposed to be taken off all IV fluids and morphine pump, going to oral pain meds. I didn't get it and my wife got hold of the doctor and he came in on a Sunday and he was pissed. He read them up one side and down the other. The put me back on fluids and morphine and surgery was scheduled for the next morning. 7am I was on my way to the OR, they decided that it needed to be done immediately, I was able to get a hold of my wife and she barely got there before I went to surgery. I came out legless both at exactly the same point about 8 or 9" below the knee. I was stable and was in the hospital about 3 more days and the insurance company was putting the pressure on to get me out of the hospital and in a nursing facility. That happened about 4 days later. Nursing homes are not where you want to be. My wife would come in and they hadn't emptied my urine bottle, they would bring my food and if I was asleep would push it to one side of the room where I couldn't reach it. When I would push the button if you were lucky someone would come in at about 30 minutes. After a week of this my wife decided I would be better off at home and during this time had gone thru insurance and set me up with a ramp to get me up the stairs a hospital bed all the stuff needed for transfers and bathroom needs, a power chair and manual wheelchair. During this time my weight had dropped to 114 and looked like a skeleton with skin. As my grandaughter described it a holocaust survivor. As soon as I got home I started gaining weight. I was being seen by Dr.Trotter once a week and a visiting nurse 3 times a week. My weight kept increasing and I started to feel better. After a few appointments with Hanger Prosthetics they were ready to fit me with my first prosthetics. These were very basic but did the job. To their surprise I was, after practicing for what seemed like months I was able to walk on them with my walker. This was shortly after Christmas 2007. They decide to get me into a better set of prosthetics, which were much better and low and behold I was able to walk, first with the walker then crutches, then canes. I kept getting better and better and my weight went up. At about 6 months after I started using prosthetics I was feeling pretty good, weight had increased to around 155 and I started to pursue going back to work with the railroad. They were going to try to get me back as the first bilateral amputee train engineer. I thought this was great. I took all their tests and passed, then someone in the upper echelon decided I would be too much of a risk on that job. They offered me a job teaching about the operation of air brakes but it really didn't sound to me like what I wanted to do, plus the exempt position didn't have as good of benefits after retirement as a different scheduled position. So they offered me a job called Lead Driver, which was basically a desk job with some driving involved which at this time I could do pretty well, as long as it was an automatic transmission. So in the fall of 2008 I took that job, I had retained an attorney to sue the hospital for not stopping the infusion after the first episode. He thought based on what I had told him I had a great case. Well it took him 3 weeks to get my hospital records and by the time he did they had gone thru them all and put them in a computer format. There was no mention of the first episode and they blamed it all on my condition at the time. He said there was no way I could sue them for malpractice based on what the records now showed. The whole thing was my fault. According to them they did everything possible. He said that because this was such a big corporation Providence Medical, and they had 20 attorneys working on this and had covered things up, I didn't stand a chance. I took the job as lead driver and did it well. People were expecting me to be a cripple and I could get around as well as any of the others that also worked the same job on different shifts. During the next almost 2 years I worked my job and when I reached 60 years old I was eligible for normal retirement, the requirments were 60 years old with at least 30 years service, I had 36. Since retirement paid about the same as the ob which was considerably less then what I was making as an engineer, I decided to do it. I still felt great my weight was stable at 175, which was the perfect weight for me. We decided we would get a motorhome and spend the winters in AZ and summers here. We got a motorhome in 2010. I went to see my doctor for a routine physical and everything looked good. They had been doing yearly echos on me because I had a heart murmur since birth. That summer after the physical my doc told me the cardiologist wanted to see me after the echo, I figured to big deal. So I went in and he told me I needed to have my aortic valve replaced which scared the hell out of me. I himmed and hawed about it and decided I would have it done in August of 2012. It was supposed to be a surgery that many had had that was routine for them, but it was open heart surgery, I figured I would feel better after recovery and we could continue with our plans. WRONG. After the surgery the doctor told me I had the most calcified heart structure he had ever seen. The only part that was supposed to be calcified was the valve. He said that he was able to get 13 sutures in but it hadn't made a good seat and had a paravalvular leak. I did recover but didn't feel really good. I have no idea if the BPD-DS had anything to do with the calcification but he said It was not a common condition. I definately had a substantial leak and my BP hovered around 140/50. Post surgery I began to lose some weight but it wasn't bad. I was down to about 155, I didn't feel great. That winter I had gotten back to somewhat normal and was able to get around pretty good. I went to get the mail one day and stepped on some ice and slipped and fell hard, broke my femur and shoulder both on the right side. As I was laying there in the driveway I was thinking great this is just what I need. It took me about 6 months in the chair again till I was able to start walking again. It was slow going, I was no longer allowed on the snow and ice per wife. Well I will stop this episode here for now will continue later. Pat

Update: 1 Month Post Op Check-up - 209lbs (-13.4lbs from SW of 222.4lbs) The highs and lows of post-bariatric life are ginormous. I had a great check-up yesterday and was released back into the wild for another 2 months. Next check-up will be in 2 more months. I can dig that. She said I looked great, could start working out with resistance training and could start adding foods -- slowly. LOL. So I am! She did say that it is very possible to stretch your pouch--especially early after surgery as it's healing. Healing might take weeks or months even. So she said eating to a precise volume right now is very important. And eating consistent amounts is important. She said the pouch will dictate how much I eat on any given day, but if I can find a set amount, relatively, I'd do better. So then I went to the RD. And she was so pleased at my progress. I've lost 20lbs since I last saw her and she told me she could really tell. And that I needed to buy new pants that actually fit me. G'bye magic pants. I'm thrift store bound tomorrow. So although my RD didn't have an issue with me eating 2oz protein + 1oz veg at each meal, she did think I'm eating ahead of the curve for volume right now. And she also reinforced the need to try to establish communication with my pouch. She did NOT want me to add more food in at this point or for the next month. She said to stay around 1/2 cup to 5/8 cup of volume. But, she did say that now I can start adding in more dense, chewy, solid foods as I resume my regular diet. So basically, kill the canned meats and go to real cooked meats. That solid muscle will provide more satiety than ground or canned. And to go back to under cooking my veg to al dente rather than cooking the crap outta them! She said that probably texture and fiber were the things that would help the food stay in my pouch longer. So I started yesterday! And went to lunch with Mr. F. and Sis at a Chinese Food place. I had lightly steamed chicken and broccoli with a tiny bit of hot oil. And had about 4 spoons of wonton broth only, and a couple bites of the guts of a potsticker (no pasta). I had maybe 1/4c to 3/8c food and I was done. Just done. Not stuffed. Not still hungry and jonesing for food, just ok, no more. This made me VERY happy. Such a simple elegant solution for the volume blues--add texture and fiber to the same quantities. Last night, the same thing! I made stir fry turkey Italian sausage with broccoli, mushrooms and onions. And the veg were quite al dente. Instead of 2 oz of turkey, I only had about 1.5oz. And I had about 1.25oz veg all total. It fit at about 1/2c of food by volume. Score!!! This morning, I made lightly sauteed spinach and tomato with my new "Egg Sandwich" made on my low carb tortilla "cracker" to replace the toast I'm allowed. So for 2 net carbs, I get an "egg mccracker." Oh happy happy joy joy! Real live food with texture and crunchability! I'm satisfied taking longer to eat. Feeling the fullness. And am happy! Oh and I "think" my stall broke yesterday! Yeeehaw!!! I'm down to 209 lbs this morning!!! Yippee! So it's great news all around! Here's piccys of my breakfast sandwich--the egg mccracker. Serves 1 8g low carb tortilla cut out with a cookie cutter shape 1 slice Hillshire Farms Naturals Black Forest Ham 1 large egg 1/2 tbsp water 1oz baby spinach 1 grape tomato Nutrition: 120 cals; 11g protein; 6g fat; 6g carbs; 4g fiber (yay me!); 2g net carbs; <1g sugars

The conference schedule for SouthEast VSG 2018 in Orlando, Florida is out. Please see below: Friday 9-9:30 Welcome and Introduction of Vendors 9:30-10:15 Connie Stapleton, Ph.D-The Psychological Effects of Weight Loss Surgery 10:30-11:15 Laura Preston-Celebrate Vitamins 11:30-12:15 Bill Streetman-Simple But Not Easy 12:15--1:45-Lunch 1:45-2:30 Alejandro Galvez, M.D.-Post Bariatric Body Contouring 2:45-3:45 “Small Bites” Inda Spearman-Lattimore- My Emotional Health Transformation Cathy Yarbrough -A View From the Other Side John Ross -Weight Loss Surgery Gave Me Back My Life 4-4:30 For Men Only Saturday Welcome Back 9:00-9:30 Michelle Williams, Zumba Gold Instructor- Fitness is Fun……Try Zumba 9:45-10:30 Guillermo Alvarez, M.D.-Using Your Surgery As a Tool 10:45-11:30 Anisa Grantham, LPC,MAC- The Struggle Is Real - The Pain Of Regain & Getting Back On Track" 11:30-1:00 Lunch 1-1:45 Kristin Lloyd MS. LPC/LMHC- Dating and Sex After Weight Loss Surgery 2-2:45 Patricia Hill-Cooking Demonstration 3-3:45 Laura Van Tuyl- Support Group Not Meeting Your Needs? Start Your Own! 4-4:30 Mike Yarbrough-I Believe The announcement of the 2019 Conference.

I just purchased the GENEPRO Medical Grade Unflavored 30g Protein Powder - 2nd Generation! - 30 Servings from the Bariatric Store. They say you can mix it in anything. I am hoping that is the case because I can stand the taste of Whey neither. Have you tried Premier Protein? Most people tend to be able to drink them without a problem and they come in multiple flavors.

Sounds like I'd better join Amazon Prime. I'd been postponing applying but Bariatric Time siunds like a good time. Thank you![emoji13] Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

I'm in Idaho. Are you working with the St Luke's Bariatric program?

I just emailed the hospital bariatric support group coordinator and suggested one of the programs should be this very topic - have a dentist or hygienist as a presenter.

My surgeon recommends Bariatric Advantage, Celebrate or NutraMetrix Isotonix. I chose the NutraMetrix line, which I drink first thing in the morning. The drink consists of 8 ounces of water, one capful of a multivitamin and 3 capfuls of calcium. I also take a generic B1 vitamin 3 days a week. https://www.isotonix.com/product/isotonix-calcium-plus/?skuName=Isotonix® Calcium Plus - Single Bottle (90 Servings)&id=13020&idType=sku https://www.isotonix.com/product/isotonix-multivitamin-with-iron/?id=2243&idType=product I did ask about Tespo, but it wasn't approved simple because they didn't have enough personal evidence to support a recommendation. It is worth noting that my surgeon is extremely conservative (e.g., clear liquids for a week after surgery, etc).

I hated it! Could tolerate it in the bariatric Pal soups but nothing else. But - oh my, the pea protein was way worse!! So, I decided to experiment until I hit upon a success. And finally I found it. Recipe (my daily breakfast - possibly forever) 1 shot of coffee - I use Nespresso machine pod, but any - even teaspoon of 8nstant in hot water. Refrigerate overnight. In the morning add 50ml milk, 6 ice cubes and 30g vanilla protein powder (I prefer one that isn’t too sweet). Blend in NutriBullet or similar. Makes 8oz of iced coffee slushy - with no whey taste!

Hi all! I was banded in mexico in 2002. I started at 285lbs and over the years (I was a slow loser) I had lost just over 130lbs by 2009. I had stay steady at same weight from 2009-2014. Was filled to where I wanted and THOUGHT I was ok. I decided to just get checked out at Kaiser just because it had been so many years since I had ANY type of checkup on it. They did a flouroscopy and found my esophogus had doubled in size. My band had been overfilled all those years..my doctor in Mexico ALWAYS does fills under flouro, but eventually had started getting "blind" fills by a local doctor. This is what caused the overfill. But I lived with it over the years figured just the band quirks..my weight stayed off so it worked. So when they found the expanded esophagus they completely unfilled my band and had me weight about 3 months for improvement. My esophagus returned to normal, so they agreed to refill me slowly. I got a few fills at Kaiser, but then moved to central california from northern..and went back to surgeon I had been getting blnd fills before at his northern cali location. I was now closer to his central ca location. So in Feb 2016, his NP filled me and most likely introduced an infection when she filled me. She may have stabbed me twice. So not knowing I had an infection, I was starting to have pain shortly after. I felt a hard lump in my stomach that felt like my port but the lump was now higher than the port was always stitched. So I thought my port had become unstitched and moved up to my waistline. SO I contacted my surgeon in Mexico and he advised I head down there to get checked out, so I did. He did a flouroscopy and everything looked normal..but he decided to go in and open me up to see what was going on. He found a massive infection brewing in there. He did an endoscopy to make sure my band had not eroded. It was fine.So he cleaned me out, stitched me up and sent me home with a few heavy duty antiobiotics. After almost the full course of antibiotics, my incision wasn't healing and was still oozing. So he figured my body was attacking the port and tubing, so he had me come back to Mexico to remove the port and tubing..let me body heal and said to come back in 4-5 months to put port and tubing back in. This was May of 16. My band was filled again..and I know I need to have the port/tube in but for almost 2 years, did not go back due to time and money. I had NO issues. I had gained 50lbs quickly after that initial unfill, but have not had luck really losing this 50lbs. Admittedly had not been trying extra hard..but figured my body was adjusting to all the fill, unfill, fill activity. I was glad I had not gained ALL my weight. So fast forward to today. About a week ago in the midst of being sick with bad flu for over 2+ weeks, developing a yeast infection and ear infection, I started having pain in my abdomen at the site of the incision from 2 years ago. I feel a lump now underneath and was feeling like it did when I had the infection before. Not sure why now..so I went to ER and they did a CT Scan. They sent to a local bariatric surgeon to review..he said he didn’t really see anything unusual..he didn’t know I didn’t have a port so I think whatever lump I have he thought was my port. Before I could get my story out, he basically said he advises to remove the band now, wait 4-5 months and revise to sleeve! I was floored. I was not expecting that AT ALL! I never really thought about the sleeve, know anything about it and know if would be successful at this point. I am more worried about gaining back all my weight and keeping it off long term. Like I said I have 50lbs of it I still want to lose, but given it is a revision and not a brand new out of the box patient..will I still have a hard time losing it with a sleeve revision or will having a new surgery help? I am still deciding if I want to have the surgeries local or go back to Mexico. I would have to pay out of pocket in Mexico or get it covered 100% here in town. BUT I trust my Mexican surgeon more..more experienced with bands and surgery in general. I need to decide quickly because of the infection going on. What has been your experience if you revised from band to sleeve after a long time. Were you able to lose weight again or basically did the sleeve just help you keep off what you have lost? I am nervous about the non reversable cutting of my stomach for the sleeve. Any advice would help at this point!!

My doctor(bariatric surgeon) draws my blood every 3 months to check my vitamin levels. It is a requirement not a choice. He instructs us on making sure we understand how important taking our bariatric strength vitamins everyday if not he will know when it shows up low levels in our bloodwork. Also, we have to see our primary care doctor and get our magnesium levels checked. Thats a requirement also. So basically he monitors our levels for a whole year then after the year every year we have to get our vitamin levels checked and also continue to follow up with the primary doctor. We go to monthly support classes and so its a all around great program. I was dealing with enamel erosion before my gastric bypass surgery and my doctor at that time told me to increase my calcium. I later learned that calcium citrate is highly absorbable and was told to take that form im still taking it but at bariatric strength. Its must to know your vitamin levels and regular bloodwork is tool to help guide you and the doctor when deficiencies occur.

It sounds as if the nurse at the bariatric clinic subscribes to the dogma from the American Diabetes Association...you know, the same guidelines that have partially contributed to increasing numbers of sicker diabetics over the past few decades in America. http://www.diabetes.org/mfa-recipes/about-our-meal-plans.html The ADA recommends a low-fat, moderate carbohydrate, low sodium diet. Per the ADA, carbs should be spread out throughout the day and be 45% of a diabetic's diet. Of course, more progressive clinicians such as Dr. Jason Fung have put type 2 diabetes into remission by advising formerly diabetic patients to greatly curtail carb intake while increasing dietary fat. https://idmprogram.com/treatments-that-cure-type-2-diabetes-t2d5/ You see, fat does not precipitate an insulin response within the body, while carbs do. Insulin drives fat storage. The less carbs you eat, the lower your insulin levels.

I use two bariatric recipe books: Fresh Start Bariatric Cookbook and Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery. The recipes are great, and I like that the protein, carbs, etc. are listed.