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My experience may not be the same but I have the same waking up choking on Fluid that burns terribly. I have been taking an antacid once daily for a week or so and it hasn't happened since. I will follow this post. Its definitely a nasty way to wake up! Also I never had acid coming up before my surgery. If anyone knows if there is a connection maybe to our new small pouch? Sent from my SCH-S968C using the BariatricPal App

I experienced air pain for about two weeks post-op. It was the WORST under my right shoulder blade. Walking helps. Gas-X too. I found that a heating pad on my back would give pretty good relief.

I did not want to post. I lost about 3 lbs total in the last two weeks. The scale was playing with my emotions...DEARLY. I know stalls happen. I was prepared for it. More at the 3-week mark, but from week 6 to 7 and A HALF. Come on! My TOM came and I realized I was also retaining water. It ended today and the scale went down. I still feel like those old habits creep up when PMS sets in. I wanted everything I hadn't thought about in weeks. I gave in a few times too. Aside from that...I need to learn to pack my meals daily and not allow myself to just "grab something" . The days of doing that are long gone. Although I can still do it, I don't think everything I chose will or is in my best interest. I'm still learning.:cursing:

I agree with DeeDee. I learn something new every week, if not every day. I don't make the best choices, but it's not hard to get back on track. You're doing great, and I know how you feel right before TOM. I go on a junk food rampage, and I feel like crap because of it. Stay positive, and remember you're doing great.

At Disney on a trip with my job, and I've been able I find things to eat and I've been coming in on the high end of my daily caloric intake (which is ok because my pedometer has been logging between 15,000-20,000 steps). What's frustrating me is I have no way to measure my food and no way to weight it. I've found that I'm eating until I am satiated but have definitely gotten to full a few times, but never uncomfortable or pain like the ONLY time I overate. I generally get the feeling that I'm eating more than I should (full) but I am (AGAIN!) worries that I'm stretching my pouch. Are three full meals for a week going to irreversibly stretch my pouch. A stretched pouch is a big fear of mine. Advice?

Gwenn did you get your fill? I got my 1st today 2cc now I have 5 total my next is 4 weeks. He also told me I can start solids tomorrow..yeah!!!!!I hope your doctor took care of your glue problem.

I have headaches and migraines regularly. The migraines are absoluetly debilitating. I have been on the preop diet now one week with one week to go and noe the headaches have come. this is my second migraine and it is a doozy, dizzyness, nausea, extreme pain. I was doing well before the diet which consists of 4 directions products ( like optifast) approx 800 calories per day. I am concerned about not only the calorie restriction now but after surgery when my intake is extremely low. Will my headaches continue to be exacerbated like this? One or two a monthI can handle but two o week not so much!

Last week I had my pre-op testing, which included a chest xray. The results came back that I had a "nodule" in my lung. (What the sam heck is a nodule?!) My doctor said it had to be tested further before she could sign off on my surgery. So, for SEVEN DAYS I've been waiting to get in for a CT scan and get the results back - sweating out a cancer scare, on TOP of all the emotions of this surgery. :smile2: I was out of my mind, worried not only would I not get a "second chance" at life with this surgery, but I'd be facing a serious illness that would have made the last 6 months useless - that I'd be getting chemo instead of fills ... On the eve of starting my pre-op diet, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY I got the call from my doctor tonight the tests came back COMPLETELY NEGATIVE - no sign of cancer whatsoever - just an old scar from a childhood respiratory illness. :tt2: I swear, Bandster Hell will be a cake walk after this harrowing experience. Whew!

I have one week to go. I am very excited and also nervous. I work in the operating room so I know what to expect, but am still nervous. I have chosen my team (an advantage to working in the department) and I fill I am prepared. I have been trying various protein drinks. I have tried a few that I got at GNC and some from the doctor's office. I would love to take a month off so I can go back to work on solid foods, but will probablly go back in 2 weeks. Debbie

My daughter was staring at me yesterday and said, "Hey mom, You are crossing your legs, I have never seen you do that before." Suddenly I realized that I was and that I have been doing it for a week or so now. Maybe it is a small thing but I am so excited that yes, I can cross my legs now without pain and can keep them crossed for a long time!!!! YEA! Thought I would share my WOW moment.:crying:

thank you for sharing as this will be helpful to those that will be going into surgery. I was thankfully approved this past week! WOO HOO I'm very excited. Rest up and as you are able update.

GPS is a very hot topic in the bariatric surgery community and growing every day. I am now starting to train other surgeons on the procedure and the demand for this is increasing as patients request GPS and surgeons want to learn how to do it. I have visited several U.S. surgeons that also do GPS for the benefit of sharing information and maximizing our collective knowledge about a new procedure. We share information on a regular basis for the benefit of our patients. Last week I visited a prestigious academic center that has started offering plication as well. When we first started, our patients were having a hard time pronouncing and remembering terms like imbrication and plication so I asked my wife what we should call it and she suggested GPS for Gastric Plication Surgery because it was easy to remember. This term seems to have caught on and now I see even international surgeons use the term. There does not seem to be agreement about the bougie size (bougie being a soft rubber tube used to size the new stomach sleeve). I have a strong opinion that the sutures (stitches) should be interrupted (individual stitches with a knot tied at each location) as opposed to a running stitch (knot tied at each end of a long stitch taking many "bites" along the way much like sewing. With interrupted stitches, the tension is controlled at each knot. With a running stitch, the tension is not controlled and can get too tight and lead to stomach tissue necrosis and/or perforation which we have all read about on this board. Another part of this is not to place the suture too deeply. In surgeonspeak, the suture should be seromuscular, not full-thickness. I also have a strong opinion that the ideal stitch is 2-O Ethibond. This is a third generation silk that actually causes a bit of scar tissue (favorable) which makes the bond stronger than just the stitch itself. Ethibond has been around for many years plicating the stomach for other reasons and it holds really well. I have seen Prolene used which is a monofilament suture and causes no reaction and actually doesn't hold its knots as well (poor suture memory as we call it) which means the knots can come undone. I think Prolene is at too high of a risk for prolapse where the whole thing resorts back to the normal stomach size or even worse where only one section is herniated out and could cause problems. I also feel strongly that the sutures should be no more than 2-3 centimeters apart from one another. I've seen surgeons place their stitches much further apart and I think this again increases the risk for prolapse or the stomach herniated back out between the stitches. We've learned from doing thousands of band surgeries for the last 9 years the importance of a two week liquid Protein diet prior to surgery to reduce the size of the liver and improve the ease of the operation. The first weight you lose comes out of the liver. I also think it is important to eradicate the known stomach bacteria, Helicobacter pylori because it is ubiquitous, most of us have it in our stomach lining and it can cause ulceration, inflammation or swelling when surgery is done on the stomach. This is easily eradicated with a two week antibiotic regimen pre-op. I think it's important to stay on a liquid diet (pureed Soups, applesauce, Jello, pudding, yogurt) for the first week and soft mushy foods for weeks two and three. Carbonation is a bad idea in any stomach surgery for weight loss because it dilates our work. (Have you ever opened a dropped can of Coke?) The best weight loss is acheived when you avoid drinking liquids for an hour after a meal. This allows you to be fuller sooner and longer and really makes the tool of GPS more effective. We have found that Levsin (hycosamine) 0.125mg SL (sublingual - under the tongue) given pre-op and continued three times daily post-op dramatically reduces the crampy abdominal pain after GPS. This has really improved the patient experience with this surgery. I also use lots of numbing medicine (local anesthetic) during the surgery which dramatically decreases pain after surgery. I always scope the stomach during the operation to make sure we're not missing an ulcer or polyp or any other important pathology. I do this in the operating room because it saves doing it as a separate procedure and also the scope is the ideal bougie size so I leave it in for the sizing catheter and this allows me to look at the perfect sleeve I just created when we're done with the procedure. Many surgeons don't do a stomach scope and I worry about doing this with no knowledge of the stomach lining. There is a lot of debate about stapled sleeve gastrectomy vs GPS. One item of consideration I think is important is that stapled sleeve patients have a 9% incidence of Vitamin B12 deficiency. The stomach makes something called intrinsic factor that aids in the absorption of Vitamin B12. A distinct advantage to GPS is that no stomach is removed and the intrinsic factor levels are not disturbed so you would expect that GPS patients would not have such a high incidence of vitamin deficiency. Stapled sleeve patients are also deficient in several other Vitamins such as Iron, folate and Vitamin D. (Ref: Obesity Surgery 2011, Feb 21(2):207-11.) I think there are many advantages to leaving the stomach in the body - just making it smaller as a powerful weight loss tool. Ghrelin gets a lot of press but it is important to realize that you reduce ghrelin with pressure (food in a smaller stomach). Ghrelin is a feedback hormone so physically removing stomach doesn't eliminate ghrelin. You guys have seen me rant about hiatal hernias on this board and I continue to feel strongly about repairing this during the surgery. What I've learned is that if you are overweight, there is nearly a 100% chance that you have a hiatal hernia and even if this is small it should be repaired at the time of surgery. Otherwise, you will have terrible heartburn when your stomach is made smaller. I get calls from patients that had GPS elsewhere and they have terrible heartburn and their hiatal hernia was not addressed at the time of surgery and they are pretty miserable. This is avoidable. Hiatal hernias are really easy to fix at the time of surgery so my opinion is that there is little excuse for ignoring this principle. The latter part of this month, I have a major annual surgical conference and plication is now on the agenda of this meeting. All this to say, I think that GPS is here to stay and gaining in popularity. One of my GPS patients came in the office last week having lost over 70 pounds in less than six months and he is quite thrilled as am I. That is all the good stuff. To me, the main downside is that the procedure is still new and we don't have long-term data. Two year data out of Europe looks good but we don't have two year U.S. data yet. There is some interesting data from Germany showing dilations ten years after stapled sleeve gastrectomy and I think the GPS can do this as well. We know from other operations that the key to preventing dilation is to avoid carbonation and avoid eating to the point of regurgitation after the stomach is smaller. Whenever something new comes up with GPS I will post it on this board. I also thank you for teaching me. Your experiences that you post here educate all of us. Keep up the great work. I wish you all the very best of success in your weight loss journey. Don't forget to buy yourself a substantial present when you reach your goal. Brad Watkins MD

I am being followed by my surgeon. He believes I have a kink that caused a stricture from folding and unfolding. I also have severe GERD. I have had Botox to my pylorus, and am doing my 3rd weekly balloon dilation today. The dilations have not done much. I believe the next step will be a stent placement for 60 days and my guess is this will happen next week. I am also being followed by a thoracic specialist i am hoping for a trial placement for a device called LINX to help the GERD. I have 2 complications going on. Thank you!

Well you sound like you're putting in 110% there, phew, what a schedule. I think it just helps to do lots of different stuff. I try to use a different piece of cardio equipment every time I go to the gym, some I like, some I hate. I loooooove the treadmill, I love to jog but cant do it often or I'll aggravate my ankle. That's my treat I use to lure myself when I cant be bothered going. I like the elliptical, hate the bike and loathe the rower. At the moment I'm doing 2 Body Pump and 2 Circuit classes a week, so light weights high reps really and I thought in eight weeks or so I might drop the body Pump and start lifting some heavy weights. Who knows? You'd think you'd be burning more than that on that level of activity wouldnt you?

Jack, I did a resting metabolic rate test (not sure of the technical name) - the university I work for will do it for $20. I had to fast for 24 hours and then laid down on a mat while they put this plastic hood over my head for about a half hour. I have no idea how it works. The idea, however, is for them to test your resting metabolic rate. I'm sorry I can't tell you more than what I learned immediately after: My Basal Metabolic Rate (resting rate) was about 1,200 calories/day. I'll find out more when I meet with him again next week. I'll keep you posted after that. Jacqui, I think you may be right about shaking up my routine. I do pretty much the same routine each week: I alternate upper and lower body workouts every other day. At first I was sore every time I worked out and now I hardly ever get sore. Maybe that's what I need to do. I work as hard as I possibly can, but perhaps I need to do something different. As far as cardio goes, I've heard the same about doing interval training. I do 30 minutes every other day (not on the days of weight training and maybe that's part of the problem) of interval training - and my heart rate is usually around 160-165. I work my butt off! But maybe it's time to go a bit longer or to do something other than the eliptical machine.

Everyone has given you really good advice. Weight training is great because only muscle is metabolically active, fat just sits there and does nothing. If the weights aren't working, the next best thing is eating 6 times a day: within an hour of waking, and every 2.5 hrs after that, and not within 2 hours of bedtime. Ex: wake-up at 6, eat by 7, then at 9:30, 12, 2:30, 5, and 7:30PM. It makes your metabolism higher because you are constantly stoking the fire, so to speak. Also, if you are eating 1200 calories a day, at least once a week you need to shake it up a little. Your body becomes really efficient about running on the same caloric level at all times. Eat 1600 calories one day a week, and maybe only eat 1000 calories on another day. The combo will keep your body guessing and prevent it from getting in a rut. Last but not least: fiber! The whole point is to keep everything moving. Every day you should get 20-30g. On that 1600 day, increase your fiber to 30-40g. If you can't do it with veggies, Benefiber is great if you need to supplement. Just do not take it all at one time...a little bit over the course of the day will keep your metabolism going.

Oh, I do know how you feel. I went for my consultation last October, already been approved, by the VA and thought I would have my surgery by December, boy was I wrong. The surgeon would not take my evaluation from my VA psych doc who actually knows me because I go see him every three months, I had to go to their Psych doctor. Went for my sleep study, my Sleep Doctor said I was ok to have the surgery without being on the cpap machine sent documentation to my surgeon, and the surgeon insisted that I had to be on the cpap for 4 weeks. With the VA it takes forever sometimes to get things done, and finally in April I received my CPAP machine. THen I told my nutritionist I get up and eat at night, so then my surgeon said I had to be evaluated, and treated for nite eating syndrome, which of course I don't have it is just habit. So I totally understand how you feel. But stay strong, and don't give up it will be worth it.

Hi and congrats on taking the steps to a healthier and better you. The sleeve is a wonderful and I absolutely love life post-op. As for your questions, I'll answer honestly and openly as I can. 1) I am a smoker. Smoking inhibits healing, and can cause ulcers. Not only that, it increases your risk of a leak due to hindering healing of the staple line. My surgeon knew my smoking status, but I didn't quit pre-op. Could it have contributed to the fact that I did have a leak, yes, but the biggest issue in my recovery and leak issues was because I had a band first that destroyed my stomach tissue. Smoking also complicates anesthesia recovery. Your abdomen is sore, causes more coughing and I had to use a spirometer to help prevent pneumonia. That really sucked because coughing caused major discomfort. I have quit twice since surgery, and am now trying to quit again. I actually went on Wellbutrin to help with the withdraws of nicotine as the patch, gum and cold turkey make life with me pure hell. 2) I had a huge panel of labs, a chest xray, psych eval, and consult with a nutritionist. Some surgeons require an upper gi and sleep study. 3) I didn't have a drain initially. A lot of surgeons use drains to make sure there is no leak, and some pull it before discharge, some require it stay in for about a week. I only had drains due to the leak repair surgery, and they stayed in for over 2 weeks. 4) I was not catheterized for my revision. I urinated before surgery, and was dry when I came out. 5) hair loss can happen to anyone that goes through surgery. It's a pretty normal occurrence. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. It's a combination of anesthesia, surgical stress, and rapid weight loss. I lost hair for about 3 months, and I lost half of my hair. Luckily, I had super thick, coarse hair and no one that didn't know me before never guessed that I had lost all of my hair. The only thing you can do pre-op and during your recovery is to take hair/nail/skin supplements to help with regrowth. Biotin is usually the one most people choose. I didn't do anything to help with regrowth until I started losing. I used Folicure extra care shampoo. I started having new growth pop in while I was still losing. Currently, I look like a chia pet, and have chopped my hair off, layered it and bleached the top to help hide some of the new growth. I kept the back and underneath dark to help give the illusion of depth and volume. Unfortunately, hair loss seems pretty inevitable. There's several patients on this board that got in there Protein and extra protein, and they lost more hair and lost it for a longer period of time than I did, and I didn't get in my protein until I was on soft solids when I could eat chicken and other meat. My main advice is make sure you can handle the mental and emotional aspect of this surgery. It's a huge change, and no matter how much you read or talk to people will you really grasp it all until you go through it. I truly believe going in positive, and upbeat helps. Find strength within yourself, and know that you are doing something absolutely fabulous for yourself and your family. Know that recovery can be difficult, you'll be tested, you'll be exhausted, you might be mad at yourself especially during the post-op diet, but all of that is just temporary. Questions to ask your surgeon: What size bougie do you use to make the sleeve? What are your leak/complication stats? What are your expectations of my weight loss? Do you provide follow up care, labs, access to a nutritionist and psych if needed post-op (especially since you'll be self-pay find out what all is included in that cost)? Do you prescribe an acid reducer such as Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium to protect the sleeve, how long should I be on it? Post-op diet instructions? Pre-op diet instructions? How many sleeves have you performed? How many bariatric procedures have you performed? How long is the hospital stay? Leak tests, how many and when are they performed? That's all I can think of right now. Best wishes on your consult, and if you need anything ask away. We'll all be here for you through this journey.

I can definitely vouch for don't buy too many of one size. I bought a pair of size 20 jeans that are already too loose on me and, even with hot Water washing, are loose coming out of the dryer now. I'm going to skip the 18s, since the ones I tried on yesterday are barely tight and buy a pair of 16s in a week or so. But, I can now find jeans at Goodwill rather than needing to buy at regular retail! I'm really ticked off about one thing, though. I've been really working hard on the bike and walking, so now I have no clue what size undies to buy! It's not like I can go in and try them on!

It wasn't bad for me during the pre-op and first 1-2 weeks post op but now I'm starting to crave it big time.

I had my gastric bypass surgery in September 2012 and weighed 285-got as low as 145 at one point until I had my gallbladder out in 2014. I was 165 when I got pregnant. Went into labor 7 weeks early for reasons still unknown and weighed around 180. Before he was discharged from the nicu 11days, I was back to my pre pregnancy weight from stress and hiking up and down a parking garage 8 x a day. 3 months post baby, I was creeping back up to the mid 170s I just thought it was hormones bc I nursed for 6 months. I also struggled with ptsd for the struggles I had w the guilt of him coming early, struggles w nursing, balancing work, etc. He just turned 13 months and I feel like my metabolism has just shut down still at 178. I am also getting depressed and discouraged. I live in a rural area, and do not even have a gym that's reasonable within 45 min. My job is literally drivingfor 8-9 hrs a day so exercise is difficult to give time to when I don't see my little man. I feel like eating enough to nurse mayhave reprogrammed my pouch. I dk what to do

Everyone a little different, I was drinking pretty good after getting out of hospital, more than sipping. This is not like bypass surgery, you still have a stomach the size of a medium to large banana. Just don't drink more than 30 minutes before eating, so you can eat, during meals so you don't fill up on liquids, and not to soon after to prevent washing the food through the system before minerals and vitamins absorbed since you are taking in so little after surgery and for next 4 to 6 weeks.

You can do it. I t takes time and first off, you have to break your old eating habbits. that can be tuff try one or two first week then work from there. weight loss is not easy if it was every body would be thin. the key is Exercising keep that up! GIRL!!!!! and drink more water! next time you feel that loss of control coming on slam a large glass of Water then eat some thing healthy take it slow.... you will get there it takes time.JOHNQ:clap2:

My birthday is coming up and I also found out my hubby will be coming home for his R&R leave mid May instead of later in the summer. So I would like to be in onederland by then. That gives me 6 weeks. I'm going to be super diligent about my eating and get back on the exercise wagon. I CAN do it! Only 14 pounds to go.

I was cleared for all foods by my doc and NUT at 8 weeks. I tried corn on the cob at 9 weeks, and did fine. It was so delicious. I have had it three times in the last month. I can eat 1 very small ear, but then chose to have just a half ear the other times to be sure to have room to get my protein in. One half ear was very satisfying. Remember, it is a starch, so count the carbs in your daily totals. This is something you will have to be careful about. Half ear. Not often. Self-discipline.