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HW: 330 SW: 288 CW: 274 I had surgery on March 19, 2019. I am doing okay. I'm not in pain, and I'm recovering well. I do have concerns about the protein intake, I was doing okay with the protein shakes up until a few days ago, and now I gag everytime I go to drink one. I'm still getting 1 down, but not getting my protein in that I need. I am drinking plenty of water. I also get my multivitamin down, but cant chew the calcium tablets. I have my 2 week post-op appointment on April 3, 2019. I'm excited to move on to the puree diet and see how things progress.

I took omeprazole 40mg twice daily plus Tums as needed. But after 8 months, I was still hoarse most days by 10 am. Plus, they've started warnings about taking omeprazole longer than 6 months. I was showing no improvement. So, we decided on a revision.

Sept ‘17 2.5 months in hospital after my sleeve due to leak - 5 further ops to fix it. Sleeve failed and I put on 29 lbs of the 80 I lost. Feb ‘19 - possible structure though I’m trying really hard to deal with it. Lost the 29 lbs I gained and a little more. There are days I feel good and days I feel like crap. We’ll have to see how this all turns out but I can say for sure that our family (especially my girl who has autism and was without me for 2.5 months) has been through it. I’m hoping this is it now - with the new surgery, the thousands invested and more importantly my effort.

CajunSam!! You are not alone! I am here with you... (Sorry, I had to get that out) My surgery is 11 April 2019.

Maybe wait until the controversy clears up to make a decision but honestly the Mayo Clinic sounds like holistic care. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/national/health-science/they-went-to-mexico-for-surgery-they-came-back-with-a-deadly-superbug/2019/01/23/ac0ca280-1dcb-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html&ved=0ahUKEwjE-LDl7qrhAhWbHDQIHRxdDxcQyM8BCCYwAA&usg=AOvVaw2fCSaHNw_1EHV9eyz11jJo&ampcf=1 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/01/26/after-going-mexico/&ved=0ahUKEwjE-LDl7qrhAhWbHDQIHRxdDxcQxfQBCDUwAw&usg=AOvVaw1p5ap_dRvSuOfJ9yHXGm2y

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔 Wow! This challenge is almost complete. Is there interest in an APRIL 2019 MOTIVATION CHALLENGE? Anyone interested in hosting it? 🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚 💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I was sleeved March 12, 2019. As of now no regrets. It definitely has been hard but for me the potential health benefits outweighed the risks.

So my surgeon said you have a greater risk of hernia form sneezing or coughing initially after surgery. He said there was a 10# lifting limit the first 2 weeks and after that said to take it slow and stop if it feels like I am straining. So here I am at almost 6 weeks post surgery and I have done cardio and very low weight higher reps at the gym on machines, not free weights. I am starting to do house things like easy gardening and vacuuming without pain. I am scared to push it and would like to know when you felt you could push yourself. Thanks,

One thing to consider is that if you go thru insurance and hit your max out of pocket fees then other medical and dental expenses you may have for the rest of 2019 may be covered at 100%. Also you airfare to Mexico increases the cost. Insurance may cover after care you need like the nutritionist, follow up etc. and if you go to Mexico they may not.

But this is the crazy part! I've seen 2 nutritionists - one employed by the hospital and the other affiliated with my surgeon. The one who works with my surgeon is comfortable with where I am and my long term goals, which do NOT include getting to my absolute skinniest weight and maybe wreaking havoc with my metabolism in the meantime. I'm almost 5'7" and my goal weight is 150. I included in that calculation the fact that I carry extra fluids from edema in my legs and probably 10 pounds of excess skin that I likely won't have removed. So, taking that into account my "adjusted" weight is around 135, as I see it. I think I'm quite thin right now and don't want to lose more. The NUT at the hospital, however, thinks wls patients should follow the strict, low-cal diet until they naturally "bottom-out" and then adjust from there. I don't want my body establishing 900 calories/day as my new normal. It seems like that would make every day from that point on a constant battle. I know this isn't the reality for everyone, and honestly, I probably (with this attitude) wouldn't be the weight I am now except for all my side-trips into complication-land. But, without the side-trips, if I had stalled out/hit maintenance at 160-170 lbs., I would have been perfectly happy. Just my 2 cents worth.

I had my sleeve surgery on 3/27/19 and my doctor also corrected a hernia. I have pain when I drink water, I have been followed the post-op diet/timeline to a T and still I get this pain as the fluid reaches the opening of my stomach, my questions are: 1) has anyone else experienced this? 2) how long does it last? In terms of the sleeve surgery, other than being a little sore near one of the incisions I have no issues. Thanks in advance for your response and the sharing of your experience. Warm regards. ~E.

Hi guys, I was curious if anyone is from or around St. Louis? I am set to have my surgery in 2.5 weeks. I did my research before joining the program back in August and thought I was happy. Recently, I found a review on my sugeon that freaked me out a bit. First, let me say she has great reviews for the most part. But there is a review by a lady claiming that my doctor only removed 20% of her stomach during her sleeve surgery. I don't know the situation. Maybe there was a reason for this. She said that she had to have revision surgery 2 years later in 2016 and her new surgeon claims that my surgeon has a reputation for being conservative in the sense of how much she removes during VSG. I DON'T WANT TO HAVE A REVISION! So, do you guys think she is bitter and her new surgeon is just shady in stating this, basically saying she doesn't do good work? Or should I be worried and use a different surgeon? I don't know how to feel. I do understand that a lot of reviewers are the upset ones and are more likely to do said review. And there are probably 10 more that never took to the internet and claimed their success. Maybe I'm overthinking this. Sent from my SM-N950U using BariatricPal mobile app

I had the sleeve . If I drink too quickly after eating it flat out hurts. I’ve forgotten a few times and took a few sips of something too quickly and the discomfort lasted about 30 mins and was immediate. My surgeon says there just isn’t enough room for both. I usually drink and wait 10 mins to eat. I usually wait 45 mins after I eat to drink something . So when I go out to eat I’ll drink something until we place the food order and then stop because food usually hits the table in about 10 mins . Hope this helps !

Would you like an April 2019 motivational challenge? Would you like to create and/or host it as well? Let me know! 🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔

Hi everyone... I will be 5 months' post op VSG tomorrow. I'm finally getting into a groove - where my head is sort of ok about the slow weight loss, and the ups and downs of my weight loss... I've recently had a catheter ablation for heart arrhythmias and for the last 4 weeks I've had a prolapsed disc which has been so painful... It's still a real pain but more intermittent now which gives me some relief for part of the day... the ablation may or may not have worked! I'm still experiencing fast heart rate - over 160bpm for up to about 9 or 10 hour every few days... making me feel breathless and tired and everything becomes a struggle... not great when I've got a painful leg as a result of the disc herniating or slipping or whatever... Anyway, there's no hope of exercise until I get all of this fixed... I've been watching lots of YouTube VSG'ers during this 'down time'... my favourites so far are: survive.sleeve.slay's real life VSG short sleeved T Grace Gets Gastric Emily AM Foodie Turned Sleevie I'm also logging everything on MFP - obsessively!!... please 'friend' me as I need as much support and help and advice as I can get while going through this extra trauma. I'm alpaca55 on MFP. I just saw a great blog from survive.sleeve.slay's channel on binge eating... it ticks all my boxes and was so enlightening to hear her very honest account of what she has been through. BED is such a secretive and shameful disorder that I don't have the courage to talk about it right now - but I do have it and keep myself on a very tight leash at the moment. I am obsessive about keeping all 'evil' foods out of my house and I'm very lucky that my family have moved out so I just have myself to cook for... I don't think I could manage this if my cupboards were stuffed with the foods you need when the kids are small!! I take my hat off to everyone who has to deal with that! I weigh every day - I have to in order to keep me accountable... I know I can so easily lie to myself about what I've eaten so the logging is critical to me! If I didn't I know I'd have an extra spoonful of something or a lick and think that is too small to log!! I see a head witch about twice a month and she said that she's amazed at my focus - particularly because I'm very carb sensitive and hold onto water like a camel because of my heart arrythmias. But, it could all end in the blink of an eye if I go into self-destruct mode! On the days that I need to have that 'full feeling' to the point of feeling over full, I just choose to have more dense protein or some salad veg like celery, cucumber, radishes or something to satisfy my mouth that needs to chew and my stomach that needs to feel stuffed... thank the lord that i haven't reached for something 'evil'... my head witch is working on that part with me and we are trying to identify the triggers that take me to that 'zone'. This is a struggle and no one should underestimate the amount of human effort it takes on a daily basis to survive and get through it - step by step... Happy Sunny Saturday - the weather is lovely in London at the moment... xxx

Paperwork submitted to insurance on March 7, 2019 approved on March 10, 2019 and surgery scheduled for May 13, 2019. Hope this helps....

Mine was 3 visits with surgeon office and a host of other testing, so I had my initial consult on 1/10/2019 and surgery scheduled for 5/13/2019.

Hey everyone! I’m new here, found this community and joined last night. I’m so happy that I found people who have been through the same or similar to what I have, it makes me feel secure and comfortable in some way. I had a mini gastric sleeve since I was not approved for the full gastric sleeve, my op was on February 15, 2019. I’ve lost 22 lbs so far, been struggling with losing weight for the past week and half but I’m trying to stay optimistic. How did you go through this phase of not seeing any changes on the scale, and when did it change?

I'm 10 years post-op. It's totally normal to gain weight after this kind of surgery. About 2 weeks or so and you'll start to see a difference. Good luck!

I'm 10 years post gastric bypass. Two reasons: 1) you'll fill up your pouch with water instead of food that can give you the nutrients you so desperately need. AND 2) I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH: Your pouch WILL and TRUST ME IT WILL stretch faster if you drink water with your meals. Do whatever you can to avoid it. You will read some comments of people being 1, 2, 3 or even 5 years post-op that they haven't gained any weight back by drinking water with food. But time goes by and the pouch DOES stretch. Water with food makes it stretch faster so do whatever you can to avoid getting used to it. And avoid carbonated drinks at all costs. I haven't touched any in 10 years. Good luck!

Connie, I had my gastric bypass done 10 years ago and 3 years ago I started having pain in my gallbladder. It's stones, but they weren't a problem then, pain would be just on and off. Lately, the pain has been constant so my primary care doctor sent me to a vascular surgeon. I have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday morning. Most likely, I'll have my gallbladder removed quite soon. Not looking forward to it, but I don't believe this will get any better with time, but worse. In fact, I joined this forum today to read what others that have GBP surgery have gone through will gallbladder removal. (Hello everyone!) You might want to call the doctor who performed your GBP surgery or otherwise your primary care physician. Get things checked out. Good luck!

I'm so sorry you are not feeling well. The first advice that I can give you is call your doctor and go see him/her. Let them know how you are feeling. I had gastric bypass done 10 years ago and I remember that the first days were fine, but around 2 months after I couldn't even drink water. Your symptoms could be do to several possible causes. Some people just experience this normally a few months after surgery. Or it could be that the bile that was stores before in your gallbladder is working differently to help with digestion. Some people develop scar tissue around the incision from the gastric bypass surgery. It could be different things or just the body attempting to recover after two surgeries. I remember I could only drink Crystal Light for about 4 months after the surgery, as water would make me gag. I'd make an appointment with your doctor to make sure everything's working well. It's always good to check. Good luck on your road to recovery! Life will be normal again. It takes a while, but it gets better!

Ah Mrs Gamgee there are good and portions to My story. Lets see if I can summarize. Received my RnY on September 5th 2018, wonderful pain free surgery with a great surgeon, what more could I want? And for the first 2 weeks things were wonderful. At the end of the First Fortnight of my joy, I sensed I wasn't healing quite as expected. And being as I can be a "squeaky wheel" I started my "squeak" campaign. I called so frequently they grew to recognize my voice. And the nurses I talked to had varied answers- I was just swollen inside- I was expecting too much too soon. One even stated " I have degrees, I know what I am talking about, you're just worryIng too much!" Finally, I suspect to shut me up they scheduled an endoscopy for October 12, so I was about 6 weeks out, and who was right? ME ME ME! I had developed a stricture in my pouch , it was barely draining anything coming in, this partially explained why I was frequently puking up everything but thin liquids, and I had ulcerations in both my pouch and the section of small intestine, the jejunem, that my pouch was trying to empty into. MS Nurse might have all the degrees,but,i have lived in this body a good many years, I knew it wasn't doing right. My doctor's partner does the endoscopies, at first it was every other week, now I have moved out to monthlybut I still am not quite fixed. The 28th of November I was hospitalized for protein anemia and malnourishment. I simply could not ingest enough protein on such a liquid diet, the ulcers not only were not healing, I was developing more in my small intestine, pretty sick little puppy, I was. So the afternoon of November 29th a PICC line was inserted in my upper left arm and I started TPN supplemental feedings, at first 24 hours, as I began to respond , 12 hours on, 12 hours off daily. And the line remained in place until February 26th 2019. I had been released after a week so,learned how to do my feedings with my son's assistance in the,home. And I really got used to having it,named it Catherine the catheter, and I learned to bypass all the liabilities, wore my pump and feeding bag in. a black backpack. Sure my weight loss almost screeched to a halt because I was on 1400 calories daily, I didn't care because I did feel better with. the 12 feedings, and I only had to attempt either one protein. shake meal or brothes once daily. Actually cried when it was removed. And I have started losing in earnest again, lost 30 pounds from February into late March, my weight is now 234.6, down from mid 260s when line removed. And I have been going through testings quite often this early part of 2019. Saw my cardiologist in January, she asked if I would mind having a MRI,just make sure everything okay. Sure I'm a pretty compliant person, no problem. Well in due time, a MRI was scheduled at her main hospital, she is in a different health system than my surgeon, most all mine now are either local or at Ohio State. she is affiliated with Trinity Health that,owes Mount Carmel so I had to go to Mount Carmel East, they sent me a pile of paper work to fill out and bring to the hospital. And there in Black and White is the reason this is being done. I have a thoracic aorta aneurysm and they are making sure it hasn't enlarged to a critical point where it will rupture or need surgery. It is especially upsetting since my son died at 31 from a ruptured aortic aneurysm, his was closer to the heart, but it means what we felt was a freak occurance, may have had a genetic component, another thing to know my genes may have killed my baby. Well it is stable, but they discovered I also have a renal cyst, didn't say which of my 3 kidneys it is on, would suspect one of the left ones. Called my urologist office, they aren't too worried. Then , as result of having weekly blood draws , which I had all the time I had the PICC. line, I am seriously deficient in iron. Enough that I had to have an iron INFUSION. Then I had an episode where I could not turn my head, barely could move my neck, so we had to rule out meningitis. And the Cat Scan showed only severe cervical arthritis, But it also showed I had a thyroid nodule big enough for concern, so more testing there. Turns out I have multiple ones in both lobes, but the one that caught their attention is 1.8 cm, they would like to wait until it gets 2 to 2.5 cm. before we do more. Then you throw in pneumonia which hospitalized me for 26 hours until they could find the causative agent, an shoulder joint with inflammation and irritation, and had to have fluid drained. Orthopaedic says it is time to remove the titanium plate and 12 screws he put in right arm 9 years ago when I fractured the humerus. 9 years ago, should be outpatient surgery, that was 3 weeks ago, when I see him April 1st I am going to tell him schedule ASAP because I have not been pain-free , not even one day since then. It is impacting my quality of life severely, can't sleep without pain meds and That's Not Good! And on April 12 I have another endoscopy, an EGJ, can't be EGD because my duodenum was bypassed and then last day of April is my bariatric surgeon appointment. And these are the HEALTHY- EST. Times of my life? Not too sure of that! Maybe thinking about your future surgery will take my mind off of me? Sure worth a shot!

I had daily vomiting for about 10 years with a vertical silastic ring gastroplasty. I had a revision to bypass 5 weeks ago and I can already tell a significant difference. I wish I had not waited so long.

I'm 4/22/19 too woohoo! Sent from my SM-G930V using BariatricPal mobile app