Sleeve Size & Other Pre-Op Questions

[ellie123 374]

I’m going for my pre-op this afternoon. Surgery in a week!!! In a moment of semi-serious weakness, at my last appointment, I asked my surgeon if I could have my sleeve slightly bigger than a banana (due to the fear of never being able to eat much of anything). To my surprise, he answered “Yes! I can give you the French something something (don’t recall the name), don’t worry, you’ll still loose weight”. Woa? I did not realize there were different sizes. Can anyone shed light on this an the pros and cons. Also, my mind is racing, I’ve tried to put together a list of things to ask the surgeon. Any ideas of what I need to ask?? Your thoughts will be very much appreciated!

[IncredibleShrinkingMan 437]

The instrument he uses to measure the size of your sleeve is called a bougie, and it's size is measured in FR. The typical bougie size is 36 fr, but they generally fall between 32-40 fr. Personally, I had a 38. My surgeon said that he has seen the best results with a 38, despite the fact that that is not the smallest available. There are very good reasons to want a bigger sleeve, as long it is small enough to eliminate most of your ghrelin cells and to create the satiety benefit after a small meal. After that, the differences are negligible, and indigestion is more likely than additional weight loss. Anything higher than 40, however, runs the risk of not getting the full benefit of ghrelin elimination, which is the key benefit of this surgery (restriction can be had at similar levels by all the other surgeries).

Be sure to ask him how your diet progression will go afterwards, as I have seen some variation. I only had to do Clear liquids for 3 days, but some need to do it for 3-4 weeks before moving onto purees. I am now seven weeks out and I am able to eat everything (with nutritionists' approval).

[ellie123 374]

Awesome and insightful response Sleevie! Thank you so much! Your results are impressive indeed! I hope you are feeling awesome on your journey