Lots-o-Sleeve Q's

I've been wondering a lot about this new stomach lately and have a few questions:

1.  When does a sleeve fully heal?

2.  I've read that the stomach is basically paralyzed after surgery.  When do the nerves make new connections and when does the stomach start to function like it did prior to surgery?

3.  What happens to the staples?  Would they show up on an x-ray?

Good questions!  Looking forward to the answers...

Fully healed is up to interpretation, I think. Some people say 3 months. Others six months and still others say a year. My opinion is that a sleeve continues to "Mature" during the first year to 18 months. I'm at 15 months out now and really haven't noticed much change in capacity or restriction since I was about 11-12 months out.

I don't know about paralyzed, but your nerves have been severed during the VSG. It takes several months for the feelings to come back. That is one of the reasons it is so important to measure out portions early on. Many people don't feel any restriction until they are on solids - I didn't really feel it until I ate meat - then whoa!

Scar tissue forms around the staples and they become "incorporated" into your healed stomach. Yes, they can be seen on x-ray.

1. I have heard 3 months and 6 months for the staple line to scar over. But do not know the official answer.

2. My stomach started acting normal about 5 months so I would guess it is around that amount of time.

3. Nothing, they are in there forever. And Yes they would show up on an x-ray. I have always wondered what happens in an MRI, if they are stainless steel would they get ripped out by the giant magnet?

The staples are surgical titanium, won't set off the alarm and won't be ripped out by a magnet... although that might make for a great horror flick! LOL

(I know you were kidding, but I can totally see someone freaking out)

I was only half kidding. it was a concern of mine.

This is a lil off topic....but I have had four spine reconstruction surgeries that have all involved implanting titanium in my spine. When I go get an MRI, the tech is VERY careful that I have ZERO metals on me. No jewelry, remove bra with underwire etc.  It TORTURES me knowing I have titanium in my spine when I get MRIs and he says not to worry about it LOL.

This was actually my biggest concern throughout the entire pre-op process, so I specifically asked my surgeon about MRI's and made him promise me they wouldn't shoot out my abdomen during an MRI!

Amanda, I am literally neck to butt with titanium in my spine and I have survived the MRI Abyss, so no need for you to worry about those itty bitty staples. I promise:)

The staple line actually heals in about 2-3 weeks. That's why most programs have you on liquids for the first 2-3 weeks.

The rest of the changes in the stomach after that are about swelling going down and being less sensitive and the tissues relaxing.

I don't know about when the nerves come back. I'm not convinced it's 100% accurate that our stomach is paralyzed and there are some other things people say about the nerves being cut that don't jive with what I've read either.

The staples get healed over. Scar tissue covers them. So that part of the stomach actually ends up stronger than before. You can see them on an X-ray (I had a prior surgery and I could see the surgical clips on my upper GI that I had before the sleeve).