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After 200lbs Before 397lbs 1 year Anniversary June 21, 2019

I am diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. My CPAP setting is 10. However, I am now down 45 pounds and am finding that it is forcing air into my esophagus and pouch, causing a lot of burping. I have an appt with my sleep doctor to see if the setting can be lowered, As long as the machine shows less than 3 apneic episodes/per hour, I hope we can keep reducing the pressure until I don't need it anymore,

My Mom was overweight, and most of her family were/are overweight. My Father was overweight but not too much and most of his family were/are on the thinner side. Of my 4 siblings only 1 is not overweight but that is because their addiction is not food. It's hit and miss with heavier cousins, I would say there are more on my Mother's side though. My hubby can eat pretty much anything but as he's getting older his metabolism is slowing down, but he has lost about 10 pounds on this journey with me so far and that's all he needs to lose.

The following article was just posted in the San Diego Tribune. "With several patients in local hospitals struggling to recover, public health officials are warning San Diego doctors to be on the lookout for signs of a deadly infection linked to weight-loss surgeries performed in Tijuana The county Health and Human Services Agency this week alerted the medical community that four patients have popped up in local hospitals with drug-resistant superbug infections of the same type that prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a travel advisory in early January. The CDC has continued to caution those who travel to Tijuana for surgery, as the number of cases have more than doubled. Most are connected to patients operated on at Grand View Hospital near the U.S.-Mexico border. To date, CDC officials said, a total of 25 cases of drug-resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa have been detected among U.S. citizens who crossed the border, usually for “gastric sleeve” surgery that significantly reduces the size of the stomach, accelerating the pace of weight loss. Pseudomonas is listed among the CDC’s top threats among microbes that can resist antibiotics. According to a 2013 report, the bug kills about 440 people per year in the United States and infects about 6,700. In January, CDC officials said that the subspecies detected among Tijuana weight-loss patients is particularly nasty due to its ability to destroy carbapenems, one of the most effective and broadly-acting classes of antibiotics available to modern medicine. Maroya Walters, a CDC epidemiologist with a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology, said Tuesday that while the world’s foremost public health agency saw its last Grand View case in late January, additional infections have continued to surface among patients who were operated on at other as-yet-unnamed Tijuana hospitals. The most recent case was detected on Feb. 12. The current rate of new cases, she said, has not reduced enough for the CDC to remove or change the travel advisory it issued in January. “Right now, we don’t have any assurance that the infection control issues have been addressed,” Walters said. In San Diego, Dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the county public health department’s epidemiology and immunization services branch, said that his office became aware of two local cases, one in October and one in January, after his office issued a preliminary notice to doctors on Jan. 16. Neither of those cases, he said, is a San Diego County resident, with one residing elsewhere in California and another living out of state. He said two more patients, both who live in San Diego County but had surgeries in Tijuana not related to weight-loss at hospitals other than Grand View, were admitted to area hospitals with pseudomonas infections in late February. Three of the four cases, he added, remain hospitalized today and are being treated under special protocols designed to keep infectious diseases from spreading. “At this time, we have no evidence of secondary infections associated with these hospitalized cases,” McDonald said Monday. He said that having four cases pop up in San Diego hospitals made it important for his office to let all local doctors know that they need to be proactive, asking about surgery in Mexico and responding with extra precaution, including patient isolation, where appropriate. “We just wanted to reiterate that you shouldn’t wait until after you know that a person has this organism to begin taking contact precautions,” McDonald said. “If you know someone is coming in with an infection, and you know they’ve had surgery in Mexico, then you should take these precautions right away.” Eighteen of the 25 cases — 20 have been confirmed and five are suspected — occurred in patients who were operated on at Grand View Hospital, according to CDC epidemic intelligence officer Ian Kracalik. He said Mexican health officials told the agency they detected lapses in the procedures used to sterilize medical devices used in weight-loss surgeries. Kracalik said additional information on exactly which devices were improperly handled was not made available by the Mexican health agency that conducted the Grand View investigation. Initially, he added, Mexico’s La Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios or federal commission for the protection against sanitary risks, told the CDC that it had shut down the surgical areas of Grand View on Dec. 19. But there were strong indications that the surgical center near the U.S. border remained open, with several new infections appearing after patients underwent surgeries at Grand View after Dec. 19. “It is clear there was an ongoing risk during that period when the hospital’s surgical area was not supposed to be operational,” Kracalik said. Health authorities in Mexico said they were not available to discuss the developments Tuesday. Kracalik added that the CDC received word that Grand View shut down “sometime after Jan. 31,” which was the last date on which the CDC received a report of an infection case linked to the hospital. Most of the cases, the CDC representatives added, are associated with Dr. Mario Almanza, a surgeon whose website declares that he is the “leading bariatric weight-loss surgeon in the world.” Almanza received significant media attention in 2018 when he was named in a class-action lawsuit by former patients, including a lead plaintiff who said her procedure left her with complications including internal bleeding, according to coverage by Channel 10 News and others. Almanza, contacted through weightlossagents.com, the stateside travel agency whose phone number the doctor lists on his website, did not return a request for comment Tuesday. With Grand View apparently shut down, CDC officials said they noticed that Weight Loss Agents had begun referring weight-loss surgeries to another Tijuana hospital called the “Obesity Goodbye Center.” Reached through their promotional Facebook page Tuesday, the company said that while Almanza “performed procedures for a couple of days at our facility always following our sanitation protocols,” he is not affiliated with the hospital in any way. The center said its own sanitation practices “exceed international standards.” An attorney for Weight Loss Agents, Glenn Krinsky, said the company has done everything it can to cooperate with the CDC, including providing information on 700 patients it had referred to Grand View since August. The CDC’s Walters said the agency is following up with those patients to better gauge the spread of pseudomonas or other surgical infections."

4/1/19 here! Congratulations to you!

19. My PhD. Took me long enough (the better part of eight years) but now I can answer when the airline pilot asks if there's a doctor on board. 🤣 20. My bamboo sheets. Oh my gosh, if you've never slept in bamboo sheets they are INCREDIBLE Sent from my SM-G930F using BariatricPal mobile app

The last time I saw my cousin, who lives out of town, who I hadn't seen in 10 years, the first words out of her mouth were, "So I see you finally got fat like the rest of us." It really hurt my feelings! My brother is obese and my mother was obese and my cousin who said the hurtful thing is obese, so yeah, it runs in my family but I'm working hard at overcoming the issues and breaking the cycle.

Congrats and all the best on your journey. I'm schedule for April 19. Sent from my SM-G925T using BariatricPal mobile app

Yes after 2 weeks I was cleared of 10 and after a month I was cleared to start lifting. Starting a slow is gonna be tough but definitely don’t want something to go wrong

Has your medical team cleared you to lift more than 10 pounds? (That was my initial restriction after surgery.) I was cleared to lift as tolerated at my 2 week post op visit. Start slow and go with lower weights than you were lifting pre-surgery to give your body some time to adjust.

if you can lay on your back and elevate your legs, like up a wall off the bed or somewhere really helps. took mine about 10 days to dissipate completely

My mother in law is getting ready to have surgery and mentioned not being able to throw up, ever again, even if she gets sick. I’m 10 months post op, and went through months of pre-op education with Kaiser and I have never heard this?! I’ve also thrown up twice since surgery.... so, is this a thing for people?

I am almost 3 weeks post op and did not have any issues with constipation. My husband also had his surgery done almost 10 months ago and had some of the same issues with constipation that you speak of. He tried several things at first. He definitely did the baby prunes and miralax for a while. Now that he is a bit further out from surgery, he tends to make sure that he gets a good amount of fiber with the foods that he eats on a daily basis. Hopefully you will find some relief soon!

Wondering if any CPAP users have had difficulty using their machines after surgery? So I was advised by my surgeon to bring my CPAP machine to have after surgery. I brought it with me but they never hooked me up to it. After being discharged, I admit I got lazy and didn't bother setting it back up and now I am almost 3 weeks post op and attempted to use it the other night. I ended up taking off my mask in the middle of the night because I found that my stomach was cramping in almost the same ways when I accidentally eat and drink my protein shake too close together. I only ended up wearing it for about 3 hours before I had to take it off. My sleep apnea prior to surgery was considered mild to start. My doc had told me that it could be that the number of events a night could drop significantly with my weight loss and may not need to use my machine anymore. Since my surgery date, I've already dropped 10 lbs. and am wondering if that might have been enough to help me not have to use it?? Since coming home, I've not had stomach cramps in the middle of the night. The only thing that was different that night was the CPAP but thought that would be odd for it to cause me to cramp.

Hello all...so I was sleeved March 11. I will be going to England on May 28th for 10 days. Can anyone give me some ideas of how am going to travel so far and still eat what I need? Btw I live in Idaho. So like a 12 hour flight from start to finish. Sent from my SM-N950U using BariatricPal mobile app

19. I'm proud that I've taken a commitment to take care of myself not just physically but mentally and emotionally to. I found a therapist I love and see her once a week. I also go to the post-surgery group at my surgeon's office. Also, update on my goal for the month. Now that I have the full fitness clearance I'm back on track with three workouts a week. Eventually, I'd like to work myself up to more.

So, my sleeve surgery went great! Little to no anxiety which is great... however, the pains from bloating and the ‘gas’ hurt so bad!!! Fever of 100.7 F so very low grade. Fluids are hard to get down bc of the extra full feeling I have from gas bubbles. I’ve walked, doing deep breaths, patted myself on the chest as if I was burping a baby... any other tricks and tips for getting rid of the gas stuff???

I’ve had mine resized three times. Went from a 15 to a 12.5 to a 11 to a 10. I’ll probably have to get it resized one more time. Go ahead and get it resized. I almost lost mine once... far worse feeling than going a few days without it.

I had sleeve to bypass done 3/4 I was 17 months out ( sleeve 10/2017) I had a rare case of severe acid reflux due to the sleeve. I had an EGD done in feb by my GI ordered by my surgeon, showed severe inflammation to the esophagus and a restriction at the stomach and esophagus which was causing me to not able able to eat as well.

Hello. I just had my gastric sleeve surgery on 3-11-19. I am finding it (as of the last couple of days) easy to get my protein and fluids. I’d like to suggest the Premier Protein Water. It has saved me many times. I am recovering in a hotel, in TX. My home is in AK. It’s been extraordinarily hard to fight my food cravings (with all the amazing food places here in TX), make changes, & use will power! Good luck with your surgery. Keep your eye on the prize, through it all. ❤️

I was doing cardio in the gym 2 weeks post-surgery, but my doctor said to wait 6 weeks before doing any lifting greater than 10 pounds and to be careful and increase weight gradually.

It’s official! Surgery date 04/15/19!

March 14, 2019 for me

Well my appointment with the Psychiatrist went well. I spent most of my time answering a 370 questionnaire and listening to the Dr speak to a group of 10. After that we each had a one on one visit that lasted about 30 minutes. I also meet with the dietician and say the surgeon assistant to go over my labs. Next month will be my last weigh in and the last step is my sleep study. I did gain 3lbs. so hopefully that want cause any issues with the insurance approval. My goal is to loose 10lbs by my next visit and hopefully I will be approved for May.