BMI of 21 getting gastric sleeve... thoughts?

[LipstickLady 25,682]

Okay, I'm back after being "banned" just to clarify some things.

I have never done foruming before. This is the first few weeks that I have been on here because I really wanted some input from others.

I didn't even know what a troll was until ppl started to call me that here. I had to look it up on google to find out what that meant.

The thing that really confuses me though is that are you all calling me a troll because you think I'm lying about this whole situation or because you are all just offended that a normal weight person would ever even contemplate about getting a vsg? Please explain to me because I am confused.

It is your choice whether you believe it or not but I am NOT joking about this.

So thank you to those who actually put in their time to give me their kind thoughts about this.

I do want to apologize to all though, because I saw that many ppl were offended because of my post.

I realized that for an overweight person, having someone who is at a healthy weight that is thinking about getting the vsg may sound absolutely insane and crazy. I realized that it might even sound like I'm mocking to some. I didn't get to see it from your guys' perspective. So sorry about that.

I was driving today and I thought about how I would react if someone was suffering from body dysmorphia and so felt the desire to cut off their leg cuz it didnt feel like their own. I realized that I would similarly think that the person was crazy and would completely be against the surgery regardless of their explanation. Why cut off a perfectly normal leg?

But that would be just my perspective. The person himself might be under severe, life crippling, emotional and psychological distress because their leg didn't seem to be a part of their own body. (and we may NEVER understand what that must feel like!!) We just never know whats going on on the inside, other than the person themselves.

So their always are two sides of a story. I'm not saying that every other person who has an eating disorder should consider getting a sleeve. I'm just trying my best(considering MY personal life circumstances) to find the most helpful way to find some control in my crazy eating habits.

Anyways, just wanted to say sorry if any of ya'll were offended or thought that I was joking (cuz i really wasn't!!)

I'm sorry that I may have offended you, but I also got hurt as well. I didn't know people could be so mean and hateful to someone who was really honestly seeking advice.

Sad to think I wasted my time on someone who was just trolling...I had my suspicions, but replied anyway. People who troll usually have some psychological need for attention, either positive or negative, but usually negative. The more I read, the more ridiculous it all sounded. Anyway, moving on.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using the BariatricPal App

Every post you make, you post at another WLS board, too. And vice versa. Clearly you are just copy/pasting from one site to another. Sigh...

And no, I don't think anyone was OFFENDED (although I can only really speak for me). I do think that you either have some serious mental/emotional issues that WLS won't cure or that you truly are trolling for attention whether it be positive or negative and while it's not offensive, it's definitely making a mockery out of what was a life changing decision for those of us who truly needed surgery.

I see that you never answered @@Alex Brecher when he asked who your lap band surgeon was and who your sleeve surgeon will be. Lend some credibility to your "story" and give up some of those details.

No surgeon in his/her right mind would give you EITHER procedure at your weight and with your "history". Your plan at "bulking up" pre-surgery is really what gave you away.

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

YES you are correct!!

Because everyone's reaction seems to be that I am "trolling"

and I take time to make my post as sensitive and polite as I can!

if I did a custom post for every response that told me that I was a troll I wouldn't have the time to go about my daily life.

So yes, people, I welcome you. You can see my post at gastricsleeve.com, because I wanted responses/advices from a wide range of people. I didn't even think that I would be getting this many responses from both of these sites.

If you are all offended because you guys think that this is a joke, I am relieved.

I was scared that you guys were being hateful because I actually was considering a vsg for some help for my eating disorder.

I can see why everyones so upset if they really were thinking that I'm just writing these posts out of entertainment.

Anyways, yes, its true, I posted the exact same post on another site because I was too lazy to ask the same question and type it up in a whole other way on a different site. thanks.

Okay, I'm back after being "banned" just to clarify some things.

I have never done foruming before. This is the first few weeks that I have been on here because I really wanted some input from others.

I didn't even know what a troll was until ppl started to call me that here. I had to look it up on google to find out what that meant.

The thing that really confuses me though is that are you all calling me a troll because you think I'm lying about this whole situation or because you are all just offended that a normal weight person would ever even contemplate about getting a vsg? Please explain to me because I am confused.

It is your choice whether you believe it or not but I am NOT joking about this.

So thank you to those who actually put in their time to give me their kind thoughts about this.

I do want to apologize to all though, because I saw that many ppl were offended because of my post.

I realized that for an overweight person, having someone who is at a healthy weight that is thinking about getting the vsg may sound absolutely insane and crazy. I realized that it might even sound like I'm mocking to some. I didn't get to see it from your guys' perspective. So sorry about that.

I was driving today and I thought about how I would react if someone was suffering from body dysmorphia and so felt the desire to cut off their leg cuz it didnt feel like their own. I realized that I would similarly think that the person was crazy and would completely be against the surgery regardless of their explanation. Why cut off a perfectly normal leg?

But that would be just my perspective. The person himself might be under severe, life crippling, emotional and psychological distress because their leg didn't seem to be a part of their own body. (and we may NEVER understand what that must feel like!!) We just never know whats going on on the inside, other than the person themselves.

So their always are two sides of a story. I'm not saying that every other person who has an eating disorder should consider getting a sleeve. I'm just trying my best(considering MY personal life circumstances) to find the most helpful way to find some control in my crazy eating habits.

Anyways, just wanted to say sorry if any of ya'll were offended or thought that I was joking (cuz i really wasn't!!)

I'm sorry that I may have offended you, but I also got hurt as well. I didn't know people could be so mean and hateful to someone who was really honestly seeking advice.

Sad to think I wasted my time on someone who was just trolling...I had my suspicions, but replied anyway. People who troll usually have some psychological need for attention, either positive or negative, but usually negative. The more I read, the more ridiculous it all sounded. Anyway, moving on.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using the BariatricPal App

Every post you make, you post at another WLS board, too. And vice versa. Clearly you are just copy/pasting from one site to another. Sigh..

[LipstickLady 25,682]

Again. I highly doubt anyone is OFFENDED by you, but certainly your "story" has gaping holes.

Who is/was your surgeon? How old were you when you had lap band? What hospital did you use? Insurance or self pay? Did you have a psych eval? How did you meet the dietary requirements?

Why am I wasting my time when I am positive you will answer none of the above relevant questions?

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

You know that I could very much easily lie about everything you just asked me about. Right?

Cuz answering those questions doesn’t prove anything really.

But if I told you the truth,

I got my lap band surgery in March 2015 in South Korea. Korea has different cultural views regarding weight so I was accepted as a lap band patient. I was in Korea because I was taking a semester off from college because my eating disorder was really causing me a lot of stress. I started out as 139. Believe it or not there are many patients much lighter than me who have gotten the bad.

My surgeon takes extra care in making sure lighter patients lose weight extra slowly to not cause any harm to our health. I lost steadily at a rate of two pounds a month until I got to my lowest of 108 pounds.

I came back to the states to finish my last semester of school. Because I don’t have a doctor in the states where I can get a fill, I got a slightly tighter fill than I would have gotten normally because I probably wasn’t gunna get another fill until next summer.

Everything was smooth sailing after my surgery. Quality of life improved IMMENSELY. I was soooo happy with life, just feeling normal and in control of my life again. However, during labor day weekend I was in Michigan back home ( my school is in Chicago) and I was out having adrink with my friends. Some of my previous meal was still in my pouch so the alcohol that I drank wouldn’t go through. I started to salivate, get red in the face, tear up etc. so I had to go throw up. When I threw up, for the first time ever, I felt an extremely sharp pain in my stomach and I started to get rolling waves of intense pain all through that night. Now listen, I was back home just with my dad ( cuz my mom and brother were still in korea) and my dad DOES NOT know that I have gotten the lap band ( he would think that I am CRAZY). So I didn’t’ tell anyone and thought that the pain would subside the next day.

I had to drive back to Chicago the next day for school. As I was driving back, the sharp pain intensified to a point where it was excruciating for me. I didn’t know what to do. I was 2 hours away from Chicago so I called a bariatric surgeon in Chicago (from google) and told him my situation. He told me to drive to the west suburban hospital near Chicago. So I drove two long hours where I was finally able to get my band completely drained. I still had pain so I had to spend the night at the hospital. The total of the bill that night was roughly 13000 dollars.

The reason why I’m saying this is because I then realized that maintaining my band in the states was gunna be extremely difficult. What am I gunna do if this happened again? Get another 13000 dollar bill?!?? And fills in America are SOOO expensive. In korea a lap band fill is about 30 dollars with a free upper GI with every adjustment. You know that x ray thing where you drink barium and costs a fortune in America? Well that comes complimentary with your fill in korea.

Because I travel back and forth from the states and korea at months and years at a time, I realized that the lap band will be not effective for me. And mostly I was scared that the pain would return from the band if I got it filled.

Out of fear and desperation that my life would return to that out of control, binge-eating state, I have thought about getting the vsg.

I talked with my surgeon back in Korea and surprisingly found out that a very small number of low bmi patients have gotten the vsg out of their own personal reasons as well. My surgeon explained to me that although we are very rare cases, that vsg has been successful and have also improved the quality of life for those who have gotten it.

Anyways. I’m flying off to korea during thanksgiving break to have my band removed. After coming back to finish my finals for school, I’ll be flying off again in December and getting my sleeve on the 26^th.

The reason I posted this post was to hear some thoughts that experienced sleevers had because you can never do enough research about such an important decision like this one.

The reason why I chose not to reveal the name of my surgeon is because I was afraid that ya’ll would look him up on google and write him terrible reviews and send him hate letters, because he REALLY doesn’t deserve that. He has been so compassionate and understanding about my situation that he realllyy doesn’t deserve any of the negativity.

He is board certified. In fact he is considered one of the top bariatric surgeons in Korea, even a professor in the field of bariatrics at a prestigious university in South Korea. He is like a celebrity surgeon, appearing on TV often and such (I’m not saying that just because a doctor comes on tv they are good docters… all im trying to say that he is not in the least sketchy at all lol)

NOW as you wanted to know the pricing of everything.

I paid $8500 for my lap band

I’ll be paying $4000 for the removal of the band and $8500 for the sleeve. Everything was self pay.

Anyways that’s everything, bare and naked. You can take it or leave. I’m not here to prove anything. I just didn’t want ppl who honestly gave me frank and good advice thinking that I was some liar writing this post of my own entertainment. Anyways thanks for reading

[Babbs 14,681]

What is your deal? Between this forum and the other one you posted on, you got dozens of answers. If you were legit, that would have been sufficient. But noooooo. You just gotta come back for more? Are you lonely or something?

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

Because everyone seems to think that I am lying when I am not. And trust me, i got enough answers. I learned how socially ostracized ill b if i ever told anyone the truth about myself! Lesson learned. Never gunna tell a soul that i got a vsg lol

[OzRoo 1,492]

@@iloveorganicmilk1

I travelled the world, and spent lot of time in South Korea, as well as other Asian countries. Yes, I agree re cultural differences. I don't remember seeing overweight people, let alone obese. Everyone is slim to super slim.

I just wonder, with you being a student and not getting help from your family, how can you afford such huge monetary outlays for the procedures you had? Plus the hospital stay.

Has your surgeon explained to you, that once the stomach heals, appetite comes back and you can eat larger amounts of food? Are you seeing a bariatric psychologist? What support structure/people do you have?

[higher 966]

Having spent time in Korea myself I will say that it doesn't surprise me one bit that surgeons are willing to perform the sleeve on very low BMI patients.

The most appearance obsessed place I have ever been.

Not an unexciting thread at all by the way, carry on.

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

@OzRoo

The only person that knows is my mom. My dad doesn't know, my brother doesn't know, not any of my friends know. My mom has some inheritance from my grandparents so she has paid for everything. She knows my situation and she understands the reason why i'm choosing the vsg. I don't like telling people that my mom knows because then i'm worried that ya'll might talk about horrible parenting, etc.

my 13000$ hospital bill is going through insurance (my dads insurance). I hope most will get covered because the ppl at the hospital told me that mine was a good one. I am hoping that I will b able to pay off the remaining amount by myself but I am thinking about spilling the Beans to my dad about this one because hey, i used our family's insurance lol and he might b able to find out about everything.

but if i got the vsg, no one would be able to know cuz everything will be self pay.

[Ebony Rose 133]

I feel like you are now pushing you're story a bit to far. Reading your posts you seem desperate to get people to reply and to pay attention to you.

God luck on whatever journey your on.

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

"I feel like you are now pushing you're story a bit to far. Reading your posts you seem desperate to get people to reply and to pay attention to you."

Okay folks. If you guys are tired of this whole post, because I also didn't know that this would become sooooo long winded, you guys can just stop commenting, etc.

If i sound like a drama queen to ya'll looking for attention. then don't give it to me. Just stop responding, stop commenting.

I really do appreciate those who have given me really good advice that I had no clue about before. I am sincerely truly thankful for that.

but for those who just want to frame me as a liar, drama queen, etc. you don't have to read my post. just move along your day please. I don't need your attention.

Edited October 7, 2016 by iloveorganicmilk1

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

@@iloveorganicmilk1

I travelled the world, and spent lot of time in South Korea, as well as other Asian countries. Yes, I agree re cultural differences. I don't remember seeing overweight people, let alone obese. Everyone is slim to super slim.

I just wonder, with you being a student and not getting help from your family, how can you afford such huge monetary outlays for the procedures you had? Plus the hospital stay.

Has your surgeon explained to you, that once the stomach heals, appetite comes back and you can eat larger amounts of food? Are you seeing a bariatric psychologist? What support structure/people do you have?

Yes he has explained to me. I really learned a lot from reading the posts on this site as well as almost all of the youtube videos lol. Right now the only person who knows my situation is my mom. My school offers free counseling so I'm planning on stopping in for some counseling since so many of you guys recommended that I get some therapy of some sort. I realize that there IS a problem in my life. Thats the reason why I would ever write up a post like this.

[Babbs 14,681]

No insurance would cover a VSG with 21 BMI. They have VERY specific requirements. And you don't meet them. Why are you doing this?

I'm done here. Although entertaining, not worth my time. I'll just wait for Alex to bring down the ban hammer on your again.

[Dairymary 533]

Wow, you might be the most misinformed, psychologically disturbed individual I have ever met in the WLS world. (Probably from drinking all that nasty organic milk). But unfortunately it Sounds like your mind is made up and you will learn the hard way just how wrong you are about VSG surgery curing your eating disorder. Too bad your unethical surgeon and your mother is enabling you. If she really cared she'd get you the help you really need. but still, As long shes throwing money away, can I have some? I'll even tell you all the warm fuzzy lies about bariatric surgery you want.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Dairymary

[iloveorganicmilk1 10]

"Wow, you might be the most misinformed, psychologically disturbed individual I have ever met in the WLS world. (Probably from drinking all that nasty organic milk). But unfortunately it Sounds like your mind is made up and you will learn the hard way just how wrong you are about VSG surgery curing your eating disorder. Too bad your unethical surgeon and your mother is enabling you. If she really cared she'd get you the help you really need. but still, As long shes throwing money away, can I have some? I'll even tell you all the warm fuzzy lies about bariatric surgery you want."

no. you can't have any of my money. stop being lazy and go out and make some for yourself. stop being lazy and begging others for their hard earned money

Edited October 7, 2016 by iloveorganicmilk1