Search the Community

MMM.. Are you ready? I do not have to do liquids diets but I'm pushing the liquid Protein shakes. I went to a Bariatric protein tasting on Saturday and got so many samples. Some I never would have thought to buy without tasting first and they are good! Anything you think you will miss the most? I did measurements and before pictures already. I am hoping to be down 50by October.. What do you think?

Under the right care, with the right education and with an ethical doctor I could see this being beneficial. But some quack could open a clinic in LA and advertise this device to hungry women with a little pudge promising a thin, taut body while being able to eat as much cake and ice cream as they'd like. I guess you could argue the same thing for bariatric surgery, but there's just something that seems off about this type of procedure. To me, it's the moral wrongness of consuming more food than you need to purge it later. Certainly, I'm guilty myself of eating more food than I need which is why I got fat in the first place. But I had the sense to feel terrible about it later just because I felt like I was feeding my hedonistic pleasure centers rather than nourishing my body (partially why I sought a restrictive procedure in the first place). I still don't understand how this would effect long-term change as well. If I had to take my lap band out I'd do a revision at the same time because I know if I don't have my band I will go back to my old ways. This seems similar to the balloon in that sense (though the balloon doesn't cause food waste). I'm not sold on it but I could see its applications being beneficial in certain cases. I just worry about abuse because even though there are safeguards in place, I'm sure someone out there could tamper with it and turn it into an efficient bulimia device, market it to people who shouldn't have it, and make a bunch of money.

Congrats!! Being able to go to the gym does not mean kill yourself exercising. You need to take it slowly. I went to the gym the third week post op. I started two days with cardio 2 hrs and the third day I started with weights. My routine is 3 hrs 5-6 days per week with 30 mins cardio and the rest weights. The Vitamins I like are Bariatric Choice . They are cheap and they are awesome. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

When my husband and i got married and he did all the paperwork on base, i automatically was put on Tricare Standard. I swtiched myself fom standard to prime when i started researching bariatric surgery. I just had my first appointment to get a referral to a surgeon. So I guess I will find out just how smooth Tricare Prime is.

I think she works out of Kim Bariatric too, as she did my endoscopy recently, and I'm with Dr. Holden. Dr. Hien Le?

Protein? What’s that??? Lol i don’t focus on any macro or micro nutrients, just good wholesome foods. I’ve also read the book by bariatric surgeon Dr Garth Davis, called Proteinaholic. He’s got loads of sources and science behind the western diet craze of protein, specifically animal proteins. It’s a great read if you’re interested.

Killeen/Ft.Hood but with Texas Bariatric specialists. Will be having surgery in SA. Hello. Pre op diet right now. Holler from dwindling diva

So I decided to go with celebrate bariatric vitamins. One month's supply (including vitamin d,iron and b12 will run me about $54 . Not bad!

Carbonation, like straws and other such bariatric urban legends fall into the category that they might cause some discomfort, particularly early on. If they do, skip it and maybe try it again in a few weeks. If it doesn't cause any discomfort, it isn't going to hurt anything. No, it isn't going to cause your stomach to stretch, particularly with an RNY which is an open system (no pyloric valve), but the gas pressure may cause some discomfort as it passes up or down on its way out. The main thing that it could possibly do, with either procedure, is to stress the lower esophageal sphincter which is supposed to keep everything down in the stomach and not flow back up into the esophagus (reflux) making GERD a greater possibility (even with a bypass.)

Almost every patient benefits from having the port repositioned. The "pulling" of the skin may interfere with the function of the port if it is not moved. Also, even if the port will still work, usually the "pulling" makes the port shift to a location that is not good cosmetically. Many PS who do a lot of this are comfortable repostioning the port themselves. I routinely do this myself during the surgery. Because I operate ina hospital with many great bariatric surgeons, I know that if a particular port is difficult to move, or if there are any "issues", I can simply call someone and they will be in the operating room to help in just a few minutes. This is a huge advantage in operating at a major hospital. I also think that exchanging to a low profile port is of great benefit - now that the weight is gone, there is no ned to have a "lump" where the port is. It is nice to be able to do all of this at the same time, but exchanging the port to a low profile can be done by many bariatric surgeons in the office under local anesthesia. They can do this several months after the plastic surgery.

This is getting into personal territory. Probably really what planted the seeds for weight loss surgery and made me say, "Enough". I can remember going to visit family in California in 2012, and I think a truckload of guys leaned out of their car and yelled at me that I was fat. I didn't really catch it, but I remember my friends looking at me apologetically. I had also posted a comment on a friends Facebook page, and everyone was giving it a lot of likes. Some street thug gangster guy who had no connection with the discussion joined in and told me how he would normally "holla at b*****s", but he wouldn't bother with someone who looked like me. I tried reporting the post, but it was never removed, so in spite of the popularity of my thread, I took it down out of embarrassment. I went on vacation to Florida in 2011 to see my mom, and she wanted to take me to get a pedicure. The lady who was doing my kept trying to talk to me even though I was trying to relax. It's like she'd insult me a little bit, and then back off. She just wouldn't STFU. She said something about how I looked tired and "Windy" (whatever that means), and when I snapped at her she said never mind and went back to doing her job. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the pedicure. My mom spent the latter part of the appointment arguing with them about the tip/no tip because they'd given crappy service. Oh and, when I went out to the car with my mom she had a heart to heart with me, offering me monetary incentives if I would just lose weight. I know she was trying to help, and I would have done the same thing with my daughter, but it really drove home the fact that I couldn't run away from myself and really even relax on vacation. Thinking about these rude people still pisses me off, honestly. Just because someone carries extra weight doesn't make them less of a person. And, this type of thing makes me really not want to leave the house and just go get the bariatric surgery tomorrow so I can get past this s***.

I went with Dr.Kelly. He is a really sweet man. I did not go through the Mexico bariatric centre though as they do surgery out of a clinic. I contacted Dr.Kelly directly and had surgery at Florence Hospital. It's a little more money but I would rather be at a hospital. I paid $5500. You can contact his assistant Lora at info@wlsclinic.com

Day 3 of the pre-op diet. It's...going. Some things are better than others. I miss the pleasure of food, healthy and unhealthy. I miss the variety of "what will I have today?". So far the biggest choices I get to make are chicken broth vs. beef broth and vanilla shake vs. chocolate. My energy level has been swinging pretty wildly--sometimes I feel fine or even a bit "up", other times I'm like a zombie. I've been adding garlic, broccoli, and frozen pepper & onion blend to my broth at night. That makes a big difference. It feels like real food and it helps me feel satisfied, which is wonderful. The Bariatric Advantage shakes turned out to be revolting, at least in the strawberry flavor. I'm honestly still queasy just thinking about the two I choked down. Fortunately the Premier Protein shakes from Costco are fine, so I'm just going to return the Bariatric Advantage and stick to the other ones exclusively. Weight-wise, things are a bit odd. Last week I accompanied DH on a business trip. I did a fair amount of "last-hurrah"-ing while I was out there, and it was toward my TOM, but I was flabbergasted to see the scale up 10 full pounds in the one week since I left. I knew I hadn't eaten THAT much! Fortunately, after two days on the pre-op diet that 10 pounds is already gone. It must have been mostly retained water, especially from all the salty junk I had eaten. I'll be curious to see how things progress since I've got another 2 weeks+ on the liquid diet. Sending good wishes to everyone, wherever you are on your journey!

Hello there, Longtime lurker, first time poster here!🖐️ I had my stomach stapled (vbg) in 2003. Went from 320 lbs to 189, I don't remember in how long. But I was never comfortable eating, threw up most of the time(due to in part no education pre-op whatsoever back then, but also as it turns out a stricture). could not tolerate meats of any kind and soon after realizing how easy it was for me to tolerate "sliders", I started gaining weight. So over 15 years I gained back up to 276 lbs. I started being ok with myself, started buying cute clothes( well as much as I could) and stopped dieting. Over the years I developed fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis and a few other choice chronic conditions, so I decided it's time for me to get serious about my health(without dieting) and my biggest concern at the time was the ridiculous acid reflux, that would sometimes wake me up by rushing into my nose!! And I had started developing more severe symptoms that resembled gastritis . Anyways, a year ago I started seeing a gastroenterologist, who after further exploration discovered the stricture and budding gastritis. He told me right then that the position of my stricture is not going to be helped by dilatation, and my only way is a revision. Of course, 1- I did not think insurance would pay for it, so out of the question. 2- I did not want to have any more "elective" surgeries. 3- I had just started being ok with myself and advocating for big people, remember? So, I chose to do a dilatation and my doctor was willing to try. Did NOT work! Big surprise! My doctor made an appointment with a revision bariatric surgeon, without consulting me. Gotta love how things work out! Anyways, long story short...er😉, here I am jumping through insurance hoops to get approved for a revision to rny bypass. My question is, in people's experience, did the fibro pain get any better after weight loss? Thanks for bearing with me through the long post and thank you, all for the vast wealth of information on this website!

Hi there, If anyone is interested, tonight is the WLS support group for Northern Colorado Surgical Associates. Information from their website: The Light for Life Bariatric Support Group meets on the last Monday of every month at Poudre Valley Hospital in Café F, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. (Café F is located on basement level in back of cafeteria) This group is designed for patients and their families who have either had the surgery or are considering it. Becki Mudgett, RN facilitates the meetings and one of the surgeons is always in attendance to answer medical questions. We often times will have a guest speaker that will address certain topics of interest to the group. The support group is a wonderful resource for you and we hope you will take advantage of it. Cherlita

First of all, welcome back to Colorado and congrats on your lap band success! I just got banded on 3/19/08, so I'm a newbie, but my doctor ROCKS. He's in Denver. Associated Surgeons/Red Rocks Bariatrics is the name of the practice. His name is Dr. Melniczek. He has a great sense of humor and has been very supportive. Having worked in a medical office, I'd recommend that you find a doctor BEFORE you move, so that you can go to your current doc in Virginia now and get copies of your charts, history, insurance, etc. If you wait until you've moved back, you'll have difficulty doing some of that over the phone. Here is the phone info for Dr. Mel's office! I'll be curious to find out who you choose for your continued care! 303-480-3565

Can I just say something without the risk of people jumping down my throat? People post over and over about the dangers of Mexico, but until you've gone to one of these border cities you really have no idea what you're talking about. I just returned from my surgery in TJ 3 days ago. NOT ONCE did I feel afraid or threatened in any manner, and myself and some of the other bariatric patients took a walk 5 blocks down the road to the shopping mall and spent a few hours there shopping without a guide...and surprise! I felt just as safe there as I do walking around my suburban neighborhood in the midwest. In any larger city there's going to be crime, that's just a fact of life. But that's because ALL cities have good and bad areas. It isn't like you're going down there to score drugs or get involved in a life of crime, so the odds of people coming after you are incredibly low. In fact, did anyone ever stop to think about the fact that only the bad stuff is put onto the news? I found the people of Tijuana to be wonderful and extremely helpful. If I had to make the choice again whether or not to go to Mexico, I would do it in a heartbeat. I feel like threads like this one scare people who are pre-op and make them unnecessarily nervous prior to having a rather invasive surgery. So please, if you're just basing your opinions on what "you've heard," try to put yourselves in the position of people heading across the border to get the surgery that will likely save their lives. I know I was terrified prior to crossing the border, primarily from things I heard on this forum from people who had in fact, NEVER crossed into Mexico via car, or visited a border city period. Just my two cents.

Hi Bikini, I couldn't tell you how I felt about Dr.s Brown or Metz because they didn't even come to their seminars. That put me off a lot. When I went to Dr. Johnell's he comes out and meets you and answers questions and talks a bit, Dr. Snyder gave his whole presentation (2 hours) and these guys can't even poke their heads in and say hi? The other thing that put me off was getting to the seminar in the first place. When I called to register, they said no need, just be there at 11am at '3PPW' conference room. They said it would be above the parking garage. So in I pull into the first parking garage unbeknownst to me there are like 3 garages. There was no offices over it, so I was immediately lost. I asked a hospital employee, they were clueless but said to take the walkway over to the connecting building and there would be a directory. As I was walking over I noticed a sign that said "Physicians Pavillion East" so a light bulb clicked, I bet PPW is "Physcians Pavillions West" but where the heck was it? On the directory however I saw "Colorado Bariatrics" in suite 404. I knew they'd know so I went there. I walked in and the receptionist was chomping on her gum on a personal phone call. She looked up and said into the phone, 'just a second there's a patient here' in a real bothered tone. I asked where I was to go for the seminar and she gave me directions. I had to cross the street/driveway and go to the 3rd floor where there would be a sign to the conference room on the 3rd floor. Off I go, get to the 3rd floor, no sign about the seminar at all. Did find the conference room however, and there was another gal waiting. I asked her if she was there for it and she was. There was nothing in the room indicating we were in the right place. THe board that was in the room had some scribbling on it about 'placenta delivery'. LOL About 5 min. AFTER 11 a young gal walks in, apologizes for being late and proceeds to set up at that point. In the meantime more folks showed up all as confused about if they were in the right place. Now the gal presenting the presentation was pretty knowledgeable and very nice. She however, had no idea as to cost, how many lap bands either dr. had done, 2 questions I was concerned with. Afterwards she offered to walk everyone over to the office (where I had been to get directions) to get our insurance, cost questions etc. answered. However, we still would not get to meet the dr.'s until we actually set up appts. We arrive and no one was at the desk, she had to go into like 2 or 3 offices to find someone to come out and address us. Finally the office manager came out and all she was interested in was getting our insurance cards to verify if we had coverage. I explained I was self pay and then she did give the costs. This place was much cheaper than Dr. Snyder where I decided to go but I just didn't feel good about it. Price might be more of a consideration if it wasn't my body, life, and surgery we were talking. But considering this was surgery, I wanted to feel more at ease and just didn't. I don't mean to bash this place too much and may just have hit it on an off day, but after the previous 2 seminars I had been to, they were much more impressive, I met the dr.'s and got all my questions answered. I figured if they weren't good at giving info and answering questions before surgery, what would they be like after. Dr. Johnell's office took 3 days to return a phone call. So that essentially crossed them off my list. Dr. Snyder's office has been awesome to deal with. Now I can't wait to get the surgery over with. Good luck in your decision. If you do go to Dr. Brown/Metz try and get Dr. Brown, did find out Dr. Metz is new and has only done about 40 lap bands. Editing to add: I have United Healthcare but my husbands employer excludes Bariatric procedures so not covered. I will be doing self pay.

Where is everybody????????????? Speed Racer here. Saw my bariatric surgeon last Tuesday she was very upset felt like she has let me down. I told her to stop that or she's was going to make me cry. She said she would be more then happy to switch me over to the bypass but the insurance companies have stopped paying.??????????? She said they are cracking down on patients that want to switch. She said I would have to gain weight to be considered go figure. I don't want to gain weight for any reason at all. Anyways, she wanted to try something with me and see what would happen. What she did was took all of my fluid out. If I was pain free after then it would mean it's the band and she would go back in and put another one in a better one with softer edges (I need to get more information about it). If still in pain then she would just go in and take it out. Well, guess what people??????????????? Speed Racer is pain free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I see her tomorrow and will go from there I will keep you all posted.:thumbup::confused::thumbup::wink2:

The motility test is needed before you can decide on what procedure you'll have. Many bariatric surgeons are requiring on before banding and gastric sleeve since both are high pressure systems, band more so than sleeve. I'm recovering from band removal due to gerd, motility problems that occurred within the last few months. I wish I'd had the test before surgery. I had a lot of scar tissue around the esophagus and under the band. Surgery was almost 3 hours...recovery difficult, but I'm feeling better. I have to wait a few weeks to eat salads, raw foods cuz my tissues are pretty thin where the scar tissue was removed. Get the test and if it comes back with any issues you'll need to rethink your wls options. Best of luck.

Now that you are logging your intake, can you post a sample of what you eat in a day? Between all of the folks here, there are decades of experience with post-bariatric weight loss. Maybe someone will be able to spot something that could be derailing your progress.

I just did a search on this site for you. There are literally 17,501 posts on this early stall. Pretty much everyone has it. I really think bariatric clinics ought to warn people about this because it happens to almost everyone, and people really freak out about it. Just stick to your plan and your weight loss will start up again. Stay off the scale if you have to. It usually lasts 1-2 weeks. Here are all the posts on it. Really - over 17,000 of them. https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three-week stall

Hola friends from Isla Mujeres! I am sitting in the check-in area @ the hotel for a quick "HI' to you all before we head out to dinner. We are having a wonderfully relaxing time here... I have read 2 books (Half-Broke Horses, by the gal who wrote The Glass Castle, recommend it but not as good as GC, and Her Fearful Symmetry, by the gal who wrote the Time Traveller's Wife... a mystery/ghost story, good, too!) We rented a golf cart yesterday & drove all over the island -- ds even drove for a bit, he loved it! -- and the kids swam w/the dolphins, so cool! We spent one day lazing by the pool in the gorgeous, lush, tropical courtyard, and today we were @ the beach all day... clear, turqouis water that you can walk out for ages into... I've had at least 1 margarita &/or strawberry dacquiri for each of you so far! lol! One night we were @ dinner & I ordered a bottle of water & they were out! So... I got the 2 for 1 'ritas, instead! What else was I to do? he he he. Gotta dash... time to walk into town in search of dinner... dd says she's tired of Mexican food -- ha ha -- so we'll try something else... Miss you all! I feel refreshed, renewed, recharged... ready to tackle 2010!

Thank you!! And to think my next appt with my Bariatric surgeon in CT is on October 16th....well I'll be 8 days post-op by the time that appt would roll around!! Gotta love the health insurance industry in the good old USA. Just happy that this battle will soon be over. Best of luck with your surgery! Maybe I'll see you in passing down there :-)

Jenn 298 at the bariatric center at Christus. Sent from my iPhone using VST