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I had my surgery with Bariatric Pal and their plans worked wonderfully. As Henry said two night in the surgical center and two more in their recovery house. I did arrive late the night before surgery as was put up at the recovery house for that night and then taken for surgery the next day. I traveled to the east coast with one plane change (overnight) on day 5 with no problem. Good luck with your surgery.

There's a new product at the BP store, BP's Multivitamins....for 6.99. No reviews on it...seems to have all the vitamins needed, etc. Has anyone seen this or tried these yet? For 6.99, wow...that's a great price! https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/multivitamins/diet-type_aspartame-free

Perhaps consider creating an advertisement for this and pass it along through the Bariatric center you went through Good Luck ♥️

Wow, sounds like we have a similar exciting day planned! 8:20 with my bariatric center internist, followed by a dietitian appointment followed by my PCP for my annual physical at 11:30. I was released by my endocrinologist about a year ago along with my sleep disorders specialist, lucky me! I don't expect too much in the way of changes needed, just need a little boost to get past the last pounds needed to move me to my initial goal weight. Hoping for a good workout today too. I have been sick for the last five days and have missed my routine, but am hoping for the energy to get a little exercise in! Good luck on the appointments!

Thank you! I see that we have about the same numbers. I can't believe you already had plastic surgery. How did that go? If I might say (and you already know this) but be patient, you will break the stall. I finally did. I went to my bariatric surgeon today and I'm down again. He said even if I don't loose in the next year, my body will still change, muscle tone, skin, etc. He doesn't want to see me again for another year. woohoo So I think I will wait a few more months before I see a plastic surgeon. Keep up the good work, the worse is over, IMO. We are AWESOME!!!!

A gastric sleeve is different from a Divided RNY. A gastric sleeve still maintains the body's normal functions with a different stomach. I've talked to several bariatric specialist and everything I Am doing is all normal. Sometimes you can't feel the fullness in your pouch and you throw up because 2 tablespoons of something over filled it. Trust me I am a researching health nut. I had other complicated issues that had nothing to do with food addictions the reason I was overweight .

I take the Bariatric Fusion also. My surgeon suggested 2 in the am and 2 in the pm. I like the berry flavor. They are so much better than the Celebrate ones I was taking before.

From caloric/ bariatric perspective honey and agave are not good options. I have no idea about sorghum.

@@Alicia Richards You will be just fine. I had surgery at 8 am and the next morning at 8 am they weighed me. When I saw that I'd gained 9 lbs. I was furious. I had just spent 2 weeks losing 15 lbs. on a liquid diet and now had to lose this same 9 lbs. all over again ... what?! I heard, "Oh it's just the fluids we've been filling you with post surgery. You'll lose it." Well of course I will as I have no choice, but I still had to lose it! I find it funny (not laughing funny) they neglect to tell you this when going through all those months pre-surgery. Anyways at almost 6 months post-op and 81 lbs. down, I can laugh at it now. The surgery will do its job so long as you follow your plan. Here's some very sound advice to take to heart: Follow Your Plan Too many people treat bariatric surgery as if it is simply a diet and turn their head to the intensity of the operation. A smart friend quipped that if we woke up with a giant bolt going through our leg we would get it, but since there are Band-Aids on our belly, we think it’s nothing. Your internal surgical wounds must heal – this is no time to go to the mall, out to dinner, visiting friends and on vacation. Sew what? In terms of food, you must stick to your surgeons program for post op food stages. You need time to allow the tiny pouch cut and sewn from the fabric of your giant floppy stomach to heal itself closed. We have all glued something only to have the seams pop open. The liquid and soft food stages are to avoid stressing pouch seams and give your stomach a break from the process of digestion. Is ice cream a puree? Sirloin steak is not a soft food. Ice cream is NOT a puree. You can’t eat popcorn, raw carrots or celery ten days after surgery. People ask if we think they could have a pork chop, we say ‘no’, they eat it anyhow, then tell us ‘they didn’t have a problem’. No alcohol for a year… non negotiable… but people push back saying their surgeon said five weeks was okay. Folks… we know better and we are trying to help you. General Tso? NOT your friend The post op dietary stages are not a suggestion, they are a requirement for you own safety. You cannot eat Chinese food the week after surgery because you ‘chew it well’. A ‘craving’ for Orange chicken landed one support group member in the hospital! It’s a very bad idea to push. Being ‘released’ to ‘regular food’ does not mean what you think it does, but you already know that. How long until you can have pizza again? “Pizza is not a food for someone having obesity surgery.” (that’s a quote from Dr. N on My 600 lb Life) Every single week in our support group, these actions land new post ops in the hospital. Sip sip sip sip sip… If you had a back injury, you would not tile your kitchen floor the same week. Yet, people think nothing of making a trip to a theme park when they should be at home resting and taking in fluids. People ask us ‘Do you think I would be able to go on a cruise two weeks after my sleeve?’ (Nooooo!) As high as 30% of post ops are dehydrated enough to land back in the hospital with a Fluid IV. Not drinking enough Water after surgery can cause heart damage. Dehydration is the most common bariatric complication, yet it’s largely avoidable. Stay home and heal… drink hot water, cold water, broth, Diet Snapple, herbal tea, eat sf ice pops and Jello. (We have a free bariatric water app called HY, click for GetHyApp.com) What’s eating you? If eating is a compulsion that you cannot control, ask your surgeon to suggest someone for you to talk to. A therapist can help you come to conclusions about your life – you talk, they listen and even after one chat you’ll often have a clearer truth of why you use eating as comfort. Knowing what drives you can help you deal with your eating issues to better work with your surgery. Vitamins are critical It is impossible for you to have your stomach surgically removed or reconfigured and take in the nutrients needed to run your body. While your surgeons group has mentioned Flintstones, that is so you will possibly take something instead of being one of the 67% of post ops who take nothing. They are not optimal and won’t prevent long term problems like broken bones from simple falls and losing teeth, but may keep you from dying in the short term. The idea behind supplements is to prevent issues from grabbing you in twenty years when it’s too late to change the path. Take them! Protein from food? What a novel idea! Yes, yes, yes, we’d all like to get our protein from food and that’s what you want to hear. However, if you are unable to take in 70 grams of protein per day, you can either weaken and lose your hair or you can figure out another way until you are able to learn and eat the right foods. Protein drinks make up the difference between what you can eat and what you need. They are not simply a tasty beverage for your enjoyment for you to be all picky and ridiculous over. They are the antidote for your disease of morbid obesity. Morbid means death and obesity surgery only slows and reverses the disease IF you follow your plan.

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'm scheduled for March 8, 2011 now and would love to hear experiences with the Scottsdale Bariatric Hospital and Dr. Blackstone. I read somewhere that Dr. Blackstone offers a massage on the 2nd day post-op. Does she still do this?

I'm not sure what you mean by "Full" liquids, however, my bariatric team recommended sugar-free beverages such as Crystal Light, Propel, Fruit20, Powerade Zero, Sugar-Free Kool-Aid, etc. Personally, I relied upon, Propel and Crystal Light. Hope this helps.

HI All, I'm so pissed. i have my bariatric eval with the Psych on Tuesday, she was more focused on my panic attacks then why I want the surgery. AND she told me that she's not going to recommend me for surgery until my panic attacks are under control. I've had these since 2008 and I see my own therapist and psychologist so I'm hoping this doesn't affect with the Dr will do. I was wondering if I should call the office and speak with him or the bariatric coordinator. What do you think!! Kim :mad0:

i found my own psych that works with bariatric patients. they gave me a list, and they wanted different amounts other than my copay. so I found my own through my ins company, and just paid my copay

Hi All, Being nearly 40 and fed up of being a fat bloke I’ve decided to get myself some WLS. Thinking sleeve as don’t like the re-plumbing idea! My GP has referred me to the NHS bariatric service but I can’t face the wait so am looking at private options. Curently thinking of traveling to Belgium using either Prof Dillemans or Chris De Bruyne. Does anyone have any experiences of these guys and of getting aftercare back home in the UK?

For those VGSers who have had little or no hair loss and are at least 6 months post-op....... 1. How was your protein intake and hydration during your 1-month post-op period? Did you reach or surpass protein and water intake goals? 2. Did you take bariatric vitamins and supplements? Which supplements? Thanks!

I couldn't handle chewable vitamins after surgery. They usually contain sugar alcohols (chemicals ending in -itol like xylitol or malitol), which are artificial sweeteners. They give me gas and make me nauseous now. This is not an uncommon reaction after bariatric surgery.

Vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements are important for staying healthy when you’re a bariatric surgery patient. Not every patient receives the same advice and some patients don’t know the best options. This forum is a great place to let everyone know which bariatric supplements YOU take. Can you please take a few minutes to share which dietary supplements you take? Thanks for spreading the word! 1. Do you take a bariatric daily multivitamin/mineral supplement? Which brand and formulation specifically? For example, you might take Centrum for Women or One a Day Women’s Active Metabolism. 2. Which bariatric vitamins and minerals do you take each day? What is the brand and formulation of each? For example, you might take Puritan’s Pride Calcium Magnesium Vitamin D or Nature Made Iron 65 mg (ferrous sulfate). 3. Which other supplements (including herbals) do you take, and what brands are they? For example, you might take Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omegas fish oil.

Congrats to you!! What an accomplishment!! I'm scheduled for surgery on the 22nd, but thinking ahead I have some of the same questions as you do. I've had 4 friends have the surgery...none of them have had plastic surgery yet. They have all maintained their weight at this point. My one friend says when she starts to put a few pounds on she starts focusing better on Protein and cuts back her wine for a week or so. She says its about balance. I recently read a great book by a woman who had the surgery and is a trainer and she talks about how to not regain the weight. It's an eBook and only 5$ 'Piratical Advice for Lifetime Maintenance after Bariatric surgery' by Pamela Harrelson Wishing you well!!

I was doing WW online preop but not post-op. It may have changed, but my major issue (other than cost) was that it wasn't possible to track my Protein with the WW point system. I still had to track my protein so I started using MyFitnessPal which is free. Post-op, protein and fluids are the priority. For me, it is a fairly simple program. If you can track your protein and can follow a bariatric post-op nutrition plan in conjunction with WW, find the meetings helpful, and can afford it then I don't think they are necessarily incompatible. On a side note, I personally hated the focus on the scale that WW relies on and the consequent assumption that I did something wrong if I hit a stall. This is the first time in my life I have learned about how normal, natural, and necessary stalls are to the process of losing weight. (Embrace the Stall http://BariatricPal.com/index.php?/topic/351046-Embrace-the-Stall) I personally have had much more success and have gained many more skills and resources with OA. If WW is helpful for you and meets your needs, then by all means keep going.

I found a website that sells samples of protein at a decent price. I hate that protein taste, but at least this way I can try a bunch of flavors without wasting a lot of money and product. It's called my Bariatric pantry. They have lots of other protein supplements as well. Just an option :-)

So, my doctor is a great surgeon, but not great on the nutrition part and I'm a little lost. I'm 4 weeks PO and trying to get ready for the months ahead. Looking for a nutritionist with experience in bariatric surgery that I can consult with if anyone has any recommendations. Sent from my SM-G950U using BariatricPal mobile app

i take bariatric pal multi vitamin 1.. once a day it has all i need including 45 of iron plus 1000 mg vitamin b 12...

i got a year supply from bariatric pal i think for 100 bucks

I was told by my psych doc that most ins. will cover part of the consult but not all, meaning they will cover the consult itself but not the report that the psych has to type up to be submitted by your bariatric surgeon to ins. He said the key to getting them to cover the small part of the consult is when you call for precert you HAVE TO SAY that you need a consult for "weight related issues" ie. depression, not a consult in preparation for bariatric surgery. He told me that this would get the precert but I would have to pay out of pocket for the report, which was $150 plus my copay for the small part that they would bill ins for. so I basically would just be paying for the whole thing anyways. Hope this helps, you know it is all in how you word it with ins.