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A year before I had surgery, I knew I would never have it. Then I met one person with an RNY. She got me thinking about it, though I was headed toward lapband.

Then my father died and my kids took it really badly, and I realized I need to do everything possible to be here for them as long as possible. So, I thought about it more, but didn't do anything about it.

Then I found out my neighbor had RNY. I was very close to deciding.

Mentioned it to a friend (who was also MO). That was my breakthrough--made it much more real.

Found a place to start the process. They recommended OH. I started researching and switched to VSG. Researched and surgeon-shopped a lot. Watched my friend get a botched band-job, called Mexico from her hospital room and had surgery 11 days later.

It is horribly scary! I had never had surgery and the only surgeries I had seen close-up were my father's and those were major life-and-death ones on a very sick man.

Now, I know that surgery can be much less serious and scary, but it's hard to believe before you go through it yourself.

And know, that, if you do have surgery, the day after you will be sure that you made the wrong decision--that goes away by day 2 or 3. (this info was very helpful for me pre-op or I think I would really have panicked!!)

Although the band is reversible, there are many potential complications. When I was surgeon-shopping, 4 surgeons told me that they don't even like doing the band anymore because they know that sooner or later they always have to go back in because of complications. They all said they definitely thought the VSG was a much better surgery and they believed it would become the standard in the future.

There is also no dumping and the weight loss seems to be a bit better.

What amazes me about the sleeve, is that I have never found anyone who wished they hadn't had this surgery. When people ask about regrets, the only things they post are that they didn't do it sooner.

On the other hand, there are quite a few people who are revising from a band to the sleeve. Also, my friend who had band surgery 2 weeks before I had my sleeve said that she has been hungry since the beginning. I have some mild hunger when I haven't eaten, but she said she is always hungry. I feel so bad for her, because she is struggling with that, and while I am a slow loser, it's never been a struggle.

Hope this helps (and sorry if I got too preachy)!!

Well, as some of you know, I periodically get depressed that my weight loss hasn't been as fast as a lot of yours have been. But 68 lbs. is more than I could have lost in 6 years let alone 6 months!

Also, I measured today--here are the losses:

waist -7.5
hips -9.5
left thigh -3
left calf -1.25
left upper arm -2
left wrist - .5
neck -2.5
breasts -8.75

for a grand total of 35 inches

I am grateful for the VSG and just have to work on mind's negativity!

Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive and helpful. I am absolutely grateful for all of you, too--thanks for being my angels!

That was me with the IV post. I immediately went to my PCP after all of the posts I got. He thought is was a superficial phlebitis--I told him that people had told me it could be an infection or a blood clot. He responded like that was insane, but had me got to a vascular specialist anyway.

I finally saw him yesterday. I felt silly because the swelling and heat was gone after 2-3 days, so now it was pretty minor. The vascular doc did take it seriously. He definitely thought it could have been a clot. He checked for swelling further up the arm, compared the two arms, asked if I had swelling, pain, heat, redness further up the arm at any point, and asked if I had a pattern of veins show up on my chest. All of those could be signs of a clot.

He also said that it could take months to clear.

I was planning on telling very few people, but I'm not so good at keeping secrets. Anyway, as I slowly told people, I was amazed at how positive EVERYONE was. I remember sort of cringing as I told them, and people would hug me and say how great it was. It was a very reassuring and loving surprise for me.

I had been researching the docs in NY and visited many of them--I just didn't like the idea of going to Mexico--not speaking the language, having to fly soon after surgery, etc.

Then I stayed with my friend who went to a ASBS Center of Excellence for a band with a very experienced doctor and in a very ritzy suburb. Her care was HORRIBLE. She could not get her surgeon to come see her even though she was throwing up non-stop from the operation (NOT from the anesthesia) and it turned out she had a complete obstruction. I literally called Mexico to make my appointment while I was in her hospital room. I had read about how much better the care was in Mexico and it was sooooo true.

Dr. A. visited me frequently--I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and threw up tons--he kept coming back to see me, to try different meds, etc. He even came back at midnight the 1st night to see how I was. The next nigh he came back at 10:30 PM to check on me. This was after having come in 3-4 times during the day.

I was worried about pain--I've never had surgery before and I have a condition wthat sends out incorrect messages about pain making it worse than it is. Any time I complained about pain (and there wasn't much at all-I was just scared it would get worse), he immediately get me more meds. When I mentioned I felt acid reflux, he said that he had already given me something for it, but, again, immediately got me something stronger.

Someone else who was a surgical nurse posted that he was the gentlest surgeon she had met and that that was important because he wasn't rough during the surgery, allowing for better healing.

Dr. A. has done over 300 VSG's (mmore than most doctors in the US) and has a 0% leakage rate-something most US doctors cannot say. He is less invasive in terms of follow-up testing (swallow and leakage tests), does not use a drain as some other surgeons use, and is very comforting. Susan told me that He no longer uses Heparin and I was a bit concerned about clots, but had been equally concerned about internal bleeding (happened to my mother--they couldn't get the right balance), so I asked him about that---he uses something similar to Heparin that has a lower molecular weight (nope, have no idea what that means) that allows the blood to thin enough to prevent clots, but not so thin that bleeding might occur. He even showed a website that explained it.

Also, no US doctor has someone like Susan (his assistant/liaison/facilitator/don't know what to call her) that you can call at ANY time (she carries the phone with her even on weekends!) with questions. In addition, she called me the day before I left for Mexico, which was a Saturday, to see if I had any last-minute concerns or jitters.

The day I left the hospital I went to the bathroom and dried blood came out in the stool--I was nervous about and I asked my DDP to call Susan who within seconds told us that it was normal and what might happen over the next few days. If this was a US doctor, I would leave a message and I would be lucky to get an answer that day.

She also called, again on a Saturday, after the surgery because she had not heard from me to make sure everything was okay. Sadly, that just doesn't happen here in the US.

Another bonus of going to Mexico is that you get a private room and whoever goes with you can sleep in your room. This was not only a great comfort to me (not being alone in the hospital), but also a great help considering how many times I was throwing up-the nurses come quickly, but there's not much lead time for that.

As for pre-op testing, though he doesn't require it, I chose to get them done just to be more safe and to see if there was anything I should know. I had cardio clearance, sleep test (though I wish I had skipped that), panendoscopy, abdominal sonogram (that's how I found out I had a fatty liver), and pulmonary function tests just to know that there weren't any hidden surprises. I also brought the results of these tests in case they were useful and he went over each one with me and brought the PFT results to the anesthesiologist so he could also be aware.

He is so very thorough, and as everyone has used will say--you will love him.

As for the pre-op diet--he only does it with people whose BMI's are greater than 50 or who have a fatty liver. I had a BMI of 47 and a fatty liver so they told me I could do either a liquid diet or a high protein/low carb and calorie diet for a week or two if I wanted. So for one week I drank mostly liquids, but also had 2-3 slices of turkey a day. Susan said that was fine. I have to say it was much easier than I expected and Dr. A. had not even expected me to do the diet because I as borderline on the need.

Well, I'm back from Mexico and the experience of surgery with Dr. Alvarez was fantastic. He, as everyone says, is so caring and so is Susan, his liaison/facilitator/don't know what to call her.

Susan actually called me on Saturday before I left to make sure I was okay and to check whether I had any questions. (Wouldn't happen in the U.S!)

Although it wasn't required, I brought down some test results for him to see (panendoscopy, abdominal sonogram, and pulmonary function tests). He reviewed them with me, explained some things, and brought the PFT to the anesthesiologist.

After the surgery, I threw up for hours. Dr. A. kept coming back to check on me and kept changing and adding meds to try to help me--he said he even gave me something used with chemo patients and even that barely helped.

He even came back around 11:30-midnight to see how I was doing.

The next day I started worrying that this had been a big mistake having the surgery--what had I been thinking? My body always reacts badly to standard things--I must have made a huge mistake. But, thankfully, and thanks to OH, I remembered other people posting that they had similar feelings at first that passed, and sure enough, by the 2nd or 3rd day, that never came to mind again.

1. The surgery is very simple compared to the RnY. Very little can go wrong during surgery or after.

2. There is barely any change to our anatomy, so things stay pretty much the same, except we can't physically eat nearly as much as we did before.

3. While it is said that there is no long-term data, there is some: many people have been having this surgery for ulcers for over 20-30 years. They all lost weigh and kept it off, and stayed healthy afterward.

4. If you decide that this surgery wasn't enough for you, you can have it changed to an RnY or DS (duodenal switch later), though I don't think I have heard of anyone who chose that for them selves after getting the VSG (some doctors of very big people (400+ lbs.)
move to the DS after since this is the first step of it.

Hope this helps! Good luck on your decision!