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Hi there, If not, I did find that the French give less information. There is a lot of good information on here and I have gone with some of it. I have now lost 16 kilos and feeling great. Chiche is an amazing doctor, I chose the French private clinique to not have to deal with a long delay on repayment for the AHP surgery. I just saw him for my post op. He encouraged me to do the mini bypass or even the bypass, but I chose the sleeve. I would rather get my Vitamins from my food. Many people have success with this. He said was I sure because he feels there are less success rates with this. I just think the sleeve patients lose slower. I didnt want to risk dehyrdation and the bypass there are more risks. He really watches your pain management and the anesthesiologist at least at the private hospital were always there too. Who is yours? I have a hard time finding the shake Protein I want and I need to find another one. Isopure protein is not easy to find, but maybe at a fitness store in Paris. I need to drink these and more Water. The French encourage you to learn to eat real food rather than too many supplemental forms of food. Please feel free to ask me any questions you have. I'm an American here in Paris too and married to a French national. I work at a university in Paris. Cheers, Jodi

Don't have a clue! I'm new at this too, but good luck in April. I got mine in November and am very glad I did.

Hello, I'm sorry to hear about the complications you've had following your bypass surgery. Now my curiosity is up concerning the hot flashes after surgery. I am getting hot flashes like crazy, but mostly at night when I'm sleeping. They are so annoying and uncomfortable. I am hot, so I kick the covers off, then I get cold... and it can just continue like that for hours, which is really tough because I'm losing sleep. Makes me feel like poop the next day. Anyway, I had my bypass revision around May 1st of this year. I guess the hot flashes started about 2 months ago. I am starting to wonder if I am perimenopausal, although I don't have any of the usual "symptoms" other than the hot flashes. I am 47 and had a hysterectomy 8 years ago, but my surgeon left my ovaries. Not much help to ya, but wanted to jump in on this topic since I'm experiencing something similar. I might dig around and find some of the posts/conversation on this topic. Wish you the best, get well soon and congratulations on your bypass surgery.

Got my band in 2009. It never really worked kept getting unfilled because of issues finally it was discovered the band had dilated my esophagus so I was revised to the sleeve. The sleeve was great in the beginning then in month 3 bad reflux throwing up at night on three different meds for it. Got dilated four times had the bravo test and other so now I have to do bypass. I didn't choose bypass in the beginning because of the rearranging I am nervous and scared but I can't live like this with the reflux I also don't want to lose too much more weight. I went from a size 18 to a 10. I lost nearly 60 pounds and I work out so I've lost more inches. Anyone else in my boat any stories. To share. My surgery is in two weeks it's being done as medically necessary. I have blue cross federal basic

Oh my gosh.. Sorry for all of the spelling errors in my response! I'm on my iPhone and can't see! Just to make a few corrections.... I meant to say gastric bypass seat and ca t be a frond we hang out with anymore!

I just found this site. My Band was filled in November 2007 and I have lost about 50 lbs. However, I now find that I am at a plateau. Any help successful banders can give me as to how to "jump-start" my losing again would be very much appreciated. Hope to "talk" to you soon.

Hi, I've been banded for one year now. I am fighting the band. I can still eat more than my surgeon says I should BUT I have a hard time getting down meat no matter how much I chew. I am TIRED of getting stuck and throwing up. Also, because of the stress from all of this, I've fallen off the diet wagon. What do I do? I'm considering having a revision to gastric bypass, but I don't know if that will help. I'm feeling like I'm a failure.

I also had gastric bypass surgery on March 6th. The pain will go away, its just gas. Move around.

Hello from Chicago, 38 year old mother of 3. I feel like I am the biggest person after reading all the post, which they are very helpful and now I don't feel like I am alone. I started this journey in April, but through my insurance United Healthcare. I have to be on a 6 month weight loss program. I started at 444lbs (prob the only place I will be totally honest on that) since then I am currently 379lbs as of this morning. I have done really well on my own. I haven't told people other then my husband and sister, I don't want people's opinions either way. I picked November 23rd cuz I am not a fan of thanksgiving and I don't have to go my mother n laws house this year, woohoo on that. But I truly am concerned of the preop prep, the liquid diet wondering if I actually can do that. I am not worried about the surgery, I have had 4 c-sections. Looking for maybe a buddy, friend who is getting ready too for the pre-op liquid diet. Any advice. Any before and after pics. Thx for reading all this. Sent from my VS990 using the BariatricPal App

Holla people of the banding! It is Day 4 post-op for me. In my previous entries, I used hours-no more, I shall use days from now on because 1. Adding 24 to everything gets on my nerves 2. I'm just not that good at math Today was a fabulous day for me, I took it easy yesterday after overdoing it on Day 2, so Day 3 I mainly rested, read, watched TV and thought how long is my stomach going to look so bloated? Isn't that an odd thing to ponder? I'm fat, but I don't want to look unnecessarily bloated! Pretty ridiculous, anyway that's how I felt. I have only taken 2 pain pills today, which is good because I was starting to fondly imagine them being M&M's. I continue to fall in love with my Crystal Light Lemonade and drink about 20-30 oz of protein today. I have yet to feel a hunger pain, or think about food in an unhealthy way, does no good so I will not waste my brain cells on disgusting greasy food that I no longer like, and Lord knows it doesn't like anybody! Today I woke up feeling 99% better. My pain is minimal and seems to be concentrated to lower left and lower right side of my abdomen. There are no sutures or bandages there, that's just where it hurts for me, again, this may be from the hernia repair I just don't know. The important part is that it is getting better and better every day. I went shopping at Old Navy today, we have an outlet close to my city. I purchased 4 or 5 pair of terry cloth shorts that have a drawstring and they are the shiznet, especially in this heat. I looked upon some bathing suits and told them I would definitely be seeing them next year, maybe every style! I came home and walked 1 mile and took a shower, I feel great! I still havent tried to put solid food in my mouth, I'm uncertain if my Dr put any restriction or not when he placed it, but the way I feel now, I don't need it yet. I want to thank everyone on this site, you guys are truly the only one's who understand, I thank you and am grateful for you everyday. Tomorrow is Day 5 and I'm excited about each and everyday that I'm alive. I'm also thankful I chose the band and not the bypass, it was the better decision for me. So here I am on Saturday night feeling anxious and happy about my future. I wonder when I can enjoy a glass of wine? I know they're empty calories but I still want a glass. I'm sure beer is out of the question, I don't like beer anyway. I will have Crystal Light Strawberry Kiwi and pretend, I'll put it in a wine glass! Lo & Behold!!!

Hi Mandy, welcome! 1. Is this surgery risky in any way? Every surgery has risks. Not sure what bariatric surgery you are contemplating (gastric sleeve, gastric bypass etc.) , but bariatric surgery in general is very safe and you will be put through a battery of tests to make sure you are healthy enough to undergo surgery. You have to also weigh the risks of surgery with all the health risks that come with morbid obesity (diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, sleep apnea, etc, etc.). It was an easy decision for me. 2. How do you guys feel about the recovery and success rates? Recovery was easy, for me, everyone is different, but generally you feel pretty crappy at first but then there is marked improvement each day and people are often back at work in 2-3 weeks. Success can vary, the surgery is a tool to help you shed the weight, you have to put in the work to help create healthier habits for long term success. Often this requires work with a mental health professional to help uncover why we are abusing food. 3. If i already have some mental health and self esteem issues is this a good idea? Only a mental health professional can tell you for sure and you will have to be cleared by one to proceed to surgery. Many obese people suffer from low self esteem and depression, there isn't much joy in being overweight. 4. My doctor told me my stomach is the last to go when loosing weight. How do i go about looosing all the access fat is my stomach area? Everyone loses weight differently, that's really impossible to say. 5. How long does this process usually take? Im trying to go from 316 to 125. I don't want to kill your joy, but it's important to have realistic expectations, depending on the surgery the average bariatric patient loses between 60-70% of excess body weight. You have roughly 175 lb of excess body weight ( given a normal BMI of a 5'5" woman is ~150lb)... the average patient your size would lose 122 lb..that would put you around 200lb. This is the AVERAGE, so many people exceed this and many don't even lose this much... I have seen several people on this site shed 100lb in year.. the weight comes off faster at first and then slows down considerably. As others have said this is a big decision and not a magic bullet, you will have to be mentally prepared to make some life changes. There is a lot of great information on this site, i spent hours and hours reading through posts prior to my surgery. Make a list of questions to ask your dr and surgeon. Overall, you will find very few people here who regret having their surgery. Good luck to you!

Hello fellow sleevers, I am excited and nervous at the same time. I have my pre opt appt today with my surgeon and I'm not sure exactly what to expect. Honestly this whole process has been going by so quick that I can't even believe my surgery is less than 3 weeks away on february 6th. I have already started my short term disability process with my employer so i'm ready to go!! Naturally, i keep going back and forth with myself fearing that I am not making the right decision. Reading your posts about the progress some of you are making gives me hope, and lets me know that I am making the right decision for me as well as my family. Like l've said in previous posts, I have 2 children, a 5 year old little girl (who will be turning 6 feb 3rd) and a 18 month old little boy. I want to be able to live a much healthier life for them. As far as the insurance approval goes, my surgeons office hasn't really mentioned anything about it. I asked one question about it during my first visit (back in November) and he said a lady from his office would take care of that. I called on my own and talked to a customer service rep( I have United Healthcare Choice Plus) who stated that my policy did cover the sleeve with a bmi of 40+, or 35+ with comorbities (i have high blood pressure). There was nothing in my policy about a supervised weight loss time period. My doctors office seems to feel like the insurance approval portion of the process is "easy". I guess I'm a little nervous about being denied for some reason. I really want this surgery. My doctor gave me my surgery date at my 2nd appt with him in December. Has anyone elso gone through an easy insurance approval process like this?? Oh and can someone tell me what I should expect to happen at my pre-op visit today. I know I should just wait since its only 8 hours away but as you can see I am very impatient!

I may not understand completely exactly what your dealing with but 5 weeks out was tough for me including soup I was getting about 15-20oz total a day for everything. Food never stayed in me I puked all food up pretty much so I just went back to soups and even then I started puking that up too. In fluid today I do like 25-30oz a day now this includes ice poles I am 3 and half months out and eat total in the whole day about 5oz of food if I am lucky. It got to the point I did get mad and kicked off at them that’s when they told me to go back a couple of stages and cut down how much I tried to eat the standard 40z thing half a cup was too much for me, its still too much for me now I only eat 1oz portions and drinking 4 or 5 mouthfuls and I have to wait about 20mins mins or up it comes again. They were gonna check me for scare tissue but when I cut back on portion size and stopped trying to drink so much I puke way less not completely never again half a teaspoon more than I should and blugh up it all comes but its easier not trying to be the standard this is what you do at this stage cookie cutter info and tailor it to my own personal needs. I do what I can manage if I can’t increase my intake in 3 months to 4oz at a sitting they will check for scare tissue. I just personally don’t see how moving your intestines will fix the issues with your stomach they can’t reopen your stomach put it back then do the bypass you don’t have the rest of your stomach to do that with. Going bypass to sleeve is easy because you keep the rest of your stomach in bypass its just closed off so they can convert. I’m not a medical doctor just going by what I know of the 2 ops and my own personal experience of having a hard time drinking and eating, so I am wondering how this is meant to help you eat and drink when all it will do is make you absorb even less of what you can barely take in right now. Like are they thinking if they do the intestine move you will loose more weight so that’s the end result they are happy with? Or do they honestly think it will make you eat and drink more?

I don’t; get why you would have bypass the only thing they can do from the bypass is move your intestines that doesn’t solve your stomach issue. Btw you can take the full 8 weeks or more to heal that’s why they say 6-8 weeks for internal healing some people heal slower so if you’re a 8 weeks or longer person your going to be sore and swollen for more than 8 weeks. To me its jumping the gun I was swollen still past 8 weeks, even the small amount fo food I eat in one sitting I can see my stomach stick out like I binge ate and stuffed myself with buckets of chicken and pizzas its kinda funny considering its just 1oz of food nothing at all crazy but it sticks out when its full! I think we also worry and over stress about everything in the early stages so the tight full feeling from being swollen turns into oh my god it went wrong its too small I have a leak I will never be able to eat/drink more I did such a bad thing to myself fix me fix me!!! Your doctor should have told you to maybe cut back n portion size and wait a few more weeks for the swelling to go down. I had to backtrack to the soft stages and work my way forward again because when I hit solids it was ridicules and I just puked all the time.

I think that is a normal fear, fear of the unknown... I guess your new tummy will be the judge of what you can and can not eat, but I will say I don't eat perfect everyday some days more than I should or not what I should... don't know if I'm cursed or lucky but my tiny tummy has no issues for the most part.. everyday I still have to work at it just like before surgery but I have lost 100 lbs and I feel great. Do you have any support groups thru your doctor or in your area? Also there are support groups on Facebook and using apps like My Fitness Pal with fellow bypass friends before hand will let you see what eating after is like.

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery and the weight fell off fairly rapidly. I transitioned from the Weight Loss phase into the Maintenance phase at around 7 months. Sleeve patients lose weight at a slower pace but they lose weight over a longer period of time, sometimes 2 years, and can achieve almost the same weight loss as RNY patients. Even though I lost weight rapidly, it was not a shock. Some people no longer recognized me. It is good to take a good before photograph so that you have something to compare it with after surgery. Many people do not see how obese they really are. I never appeared in photographs because I was the photographer in the family. When I looked in a mirror, it was alway straight on. The problem is that many people do not see how obese they really are and after surgery do not see how much weight they really lost. So in my case I took a before photo and a 6 month after photo. I tried to strike the same pose so it was a good one to one comparison. Here is the photo.

Hi anyone, anywhere, up for being a buddy, fairly low BMI, but diabetic, have mixed feelings heading up to the op this week , but due to diabetes , asthma, and joint pain am determined to go forwards as for me 50 is definitely NOT the new 30 ( yet ! ) looking for buddies to navigate the hazards of 'cheating' , slider foods, emotional v physical hunger , basically getting your head around the journey after NEXT weekend (eek!) Thank you ! Oh yes, new to forums, how do I upload a photo to my profile ?

Wish you all the best! If you ever want to chat I'll be around. (9 weeks post-op-gastric bypass.)

ShrinkyDinkMe22 it is hard waiting. absorb all the information dr. talks to you about with Barrett's at your appt. Thursday i remember someone last week said they had barratts, yet they had successful WLS if your dr insists on no WLS with barretts, definitely go for a 2nd opinion don't give up on the sleeve, hopefully you can find a dr. to perform WLS - if it really is ok to have the sleeve with barretts anxious to hear what happened at the dr good luck PS****edit here responding to your post above- wanting the sleeve over RNY,gastric bypass - I totally agree about your reasons for the sleeve, hope things can work out so you can be sleeved

Hi Everyone, I'm faily new to this group and I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a married 30 yr old mother of two and have taken this step to have the sleeve done. My starting weight is 265lbs and i'm excited and a little bit nervous. I'm more nervous about being here for my two girls and waking up from anesthesia to be here for my girls. When i weigh the risks of staying overweight with this high blood pressure vs the risks of surgery, i think I'm better off having surgery. I look forward to talking with you all!! Stephanie

I don't think your protein snack is a problem. There are two phases to gastric bypass surgery. These are the weight loss phase and the maintenance phase. The approach is different between these two phase. I am 4 years post op RNY gastric bypass. This describes the approach that I am using in the Maintenance phase. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

or should I just depart from the lapband community and go with one of the gastrix bypass community and if so does anyone know of a forum were to get good support for the gastrix bypass :smile:

Hey everyone longtime no chat lol !!! The reason I have not been on for a while is because my Doctor told me I needed the gastrix bypass insted of the lapband :smile: cause my liver function level was hi and he felt that bypass would be best for me cause the weight would come down quicker and my liver function level would drop back to normal. Plus I looked for a gastix bypass forum and didn't find one worth a dang. So I decided to go with the doctors reconmendation and get the gastrix bypass. How ever those who remember me knows how long it's been since I was supposed to get banded now I finially got my surgery date :thumbup: Nov. 20th surgery is at 9:30 :cool2: Pre opt. Nov. 7th 3:00pm:thumbup: Nov. 5th I got to start atkinson diet :w00t: well guys I hope you all don't mind if I keep you guy's as a support group how ever I do got some questions about the after math of the surgery far as what in the world to eat and what not to eat I'm sure it is no different than the bypass I wouldn't think but if anyone knows fill me in on it thanks Jason

If you go to the LapBand website you can find info on dr's in your area or you can call LapBand directly and they can tell you certified dr's. I see Dr. Benbrahiem out of Midstate. He also does to go Wallingford. He is a good dr but he doesnt take any crap. It's his way or no way. His rules or none. You have to be in his program for a MIN of 6 months, most of the time thats with any of the dr's because that is for insurance reasons. My surgery was scheduled in November and was canceled because insurance denied it and the appeal days before surgery. Talk about being depressed and gaining weight! My insurance changed and it was approved and I had surgery in December, 2 days before Xmas. I was miserable for Xmas but it is a life long changing event. Just remember to KEEP YOUR HEAD UP! I went into Dr. Ben's program last June (June 08) and expected to have surgery right away but that is not the case. There are requrements that must be met to make sure you are ready and serious. As Dr. Ben says, you didnt become obese overnight so dont expect the weight to come off overnight either. If you want, you can PM me. I'd be glad to talk. Remember, try and stay positve. It's easier said then done, thats for sure, but trust me, it pays off in the long run.

I'm having my surgery in November. I wish you luck. Congrats on starting a healthy rest of your life!