I want to hear your story

I love my Sleeve, but I was in the 4 - 6% of people with complications from the Sleeve - a stricture, severe gastritis, severe heartburn and non-stop nausea and vomiting from undiagnosed H. Pylori.  The H. Pylori was tricky -- I was tested twice for it, and had an endoscopy biopsy that showed negative.  Finally, on the next endoscopy, they found it.  My first 5 months were Hellish.  You really need to know what could happen.  A leak is the worst of the complications, and I Thank God I never had a leak.  I think a better question to ask is, "What Complications Have You Had?".  Truly be aware of what could potentially happen.  Don't go into this blindly!!!  Your odds are great that you will be fine, but get your mind wrapped around the "What If" 4 - 6% scenario. Thank God I am better now, but, again, I was in pure, unadulterated misery for 5 months. I agree with Elina - truly research your surgeon.  It is a major decision, they are removing 85% of a major organ....make sure he or she is absolutely the BEST.  I personally chose a doctor who did a "tight Sleeve" - a smaller Bougie and pulled tight.  I am very glad I have a tight Sleeve and it really helps with restriction, and has helped with my weight loss immensely.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your feedback, Sara~

    I am happy you are doing better after all you have been through with your VSG Surgery. I am going into this with an open mind. No matter which surgery I revise to, there are always risks. I trust my surgeon wholeheartedly and I know that he will do my WLS to the best of his ability. Still... there is always that small chance that there could be complications. I am willing to take that chance. It's worth it to me to go through with this so that I don't go back to the co-morbitites I had pre-WLS.  Thanks for sharing your "not so pleasant" experience with me and any others who will read this post! 

 

Jen~

P.S. How are you feeling now? Have you had a total recovery?

Hi Jen,

I wish you all the best as you research different options. For me the VSG has been a godsend.

About 3 years ago I had really reached rock bottom. My weight was becoming a major obstacle to living my life. I have a lot of other health issues and being obese was making everything worse. 4 different medications could barely control my blood pressure. Just getting dressed seemed like an aerobic activity. Somehow I made it to work every day but wondered how long it would be before I had to quit.  I saw no longterm future outside a nursing home. 

I went to 2 different seminars about weight loss surgery and started to get really excited about a more positive future.  The seminars focused on RNY and the band; only 1 doctor mentioned the sleeve, and I had no idea what it was. Even though I was scared of rerouting my intestines, the RNY seemed like the way to go.

Long story short I did not pass clearances and was turned down for RNY. Ultimately I was able to get the VSG in December 2011. I was in the hospital 3 nights which is longer than normal for VSG but there were no real complications just everyone being cautious.

As far as post surgery life and weight loss, my surgeon did not even want to discuss a goal weight since he thought my results could be so different from other patients. It has been challenging to exercise regularly from a wheelchair, but by eating carefully and being very vigilant about protein, water and vitamins I have gone from a BMI of 44 to 26 with my health improving all the time.

I am very slowly chipping away at the final 15-20 pounds I would like to lose. At this point 20 months after surgery I could eat quite a lot if I needed to, but the beauty of the sleeve is it reminds me I do not need to overeat. I avoid processed food especially carbs, but otherwise if I get hungry I eat. It does not feel like a diet or deprivation though it is a new way of thinking and eating. I know that weight loss is never as fast or easy as in the very beginning. Maintenance will certainly have its own issues, but I have been given the chance to have a whole new lease on life.

Please keep reading and asking questions to find the right options for you.

All the best, Katy

I had a couple of friends who'd had the Bypass, been successful but would continue to eat with no regard to the rules, stomachs made loud, crazy noises & they began to regain. I work in retail, fitting women for bras, etc and have recently met several women who needed new things due to weight loss. After celebrating with them, Id always ask their secret: VSG. I believe it was divine intervention that so many shared their story (including one that Id recently hired). I began researching, read these boards every single day, consulted with 2 docs here in town. I had a hard insurance exclusion, but after meeting 3 self - pays who said it was the best thing they'd ever done - either a new car or a new body is what one said- I decided to proceed.
My surgery itself was not bad - the worst was the liquid Lortab! Who can take that on an empty stomach & not throw up? I stayed 1 night in hospital, walked several times that night. Came home & had the bad experience with the Lortab. Took liquid Tylenol for 2 days, very little pain from the incisions or even gas pain from surgery. I walked several times a day to alleviate the tightness from the gas but seriously, a very easy recovery. Incisions healed nicely, dropped 14 lbs in 2 weeks. Since im anemic again, Im on chewable Iron as well as the bariatric multivitamin & that has given me enough energy to get back to full days on the feet instead of half says. I'm almost 5 weeks out & have lost around 24 lbs, can feel it in the clothes now . Still on puréed, which I hate & looking forward to eating soft real food! Have a ton of new protein centric recipes to try

I am only 7 weeks out from VSG. I wanted the band initially but my research lead me to the VSG. I only want to share that it took a lot for me to accept having a large portion of my stomach removed~~can't fathom having the re routing required for the RNY. Good luck with your journey.

I am almost 2 months post op and like most people here when I decided to have surgery I felt I had no other choice to save my life. I have had weight issues most of my life and at 64 I did not want them anymore. I wanted to live the rest of my life as healthy as I could make it and be able to do actiivities and not be limited by my exhaustion and weight.

I feel incredibly better. I am happy for the restriction and can eat whatever I feel like. By that I mean , I have had no issues with food. I watch carefully and eat my protien first always. I keep a careful journal of my food intake to make sure those needs are met. I eat some good carbs but not alot since there is not much room after the protein. I use an UP band to help me track my activity and intake.

I had no pain after surgery. I had a transabdominal block prior to the procedure and never needed a pain pill after. I was fearful like anyone else and would have done this sooner if I had known the course for me. I was back to work in 6 days. I have a desk job and was only alittle tired at the end of the first day back.

Again, this is a personal journey- research your doctor and the facilities where the procedure is done. No one wants a post op infection. Best wishes with your decsion.

The choice for the sleeve was a no-brainer for me.  But only after learning about the other options to make an informed decision for the best fit for my needs.  Several years ago I attended a seminar for Rny, and I was pretty miserable from the weight and ready to take the plunge.  Took the hubby with me, he got reaaaally scared, and talked me out of it.  Thank goodness.  At that time the sleeve was not common at all nor reimbursed by insurance.  Fast forward 2 years I heard about the sleeve, attended that seminar with the hubby, and started scheduling the appointments that night.  3 months later I had the procedure completed. 

You can run a search on the search bar about choosing the sleever versus the rny or other way around to get different perspectives on this.  I do personally believe that the Rny is a better fit for some and be warned on this board there is a strong opinion that the sleeve is the way to go since it has worked so well for us.  

For the numbers- no difficulty AT ALL getting to a normal bmi and maintaining.  I followed the program outlined by the bariatric center and couldn't be happier.  I hit goal at the beginning of the 8 month mark and lost a bit over 150 pounds, whi*****ludes the 26+ lost pre op.  

Now about sleeve and surgery technique.  Please understand that this board is sponsored by Cirangle so there is a higher percentage of his patients here and consequently his plan and surgery technique is often cited as the gold standard.  I give him props as he certainly seems to have happy successful sleevers here.  The size sleeve and technique by my surgeon does not match the small tightly sewn option used by Cirangle.  And for a reason.  There is research supporting that the smaller sleeve has a higher incidence of leaks.  Now for Cirangle- it appears he has done enough that he does not have a higher leak rate (at least according to the posters here- I have never tried to confirm) so in his case no problem with the smaller sleeve.  On the other hand, if you try to talk a surgeon into performing a smaller sleeve than what he or she is comfortable with you are putting yourself at risk.

  I have a large sleeve, up in the 40's and it is loosely sewn.  I am also very tall so I have a longer stomach which also adds capacity.  My restriction is excellent and I am 21 months out so confident I am at my new lifetime "normal".  You will notice with any size sleeve that restriction is much tighter newly post op compared to the 2 month mark, and the 2 month mark is tighter than the 6 month mark... et****il your sleeve "matures".  You then level out.  There are several advantages to my size sleeve.  There is less risk of leak, much lower risk of foamies or vomiting after eating, less reflux, etc.  I absolutely feel perfectly normal as compared to how my stomach functioned before surgery- I just eat a lot less due to the restriction.  (Actually I feel a hell of a lot better because my surgeon fixed a hiatel hernia during the procedure so I went from constantly being flooded with acid to none at all.)   An important benefit for me (athough for most they could care less) is that when I go out to eat with colleagues I can usually eat a normal small adult portion instead of the toddler portion that I had newly sleeved.  I did not tell work and they all noticed the toddler syndrome and my meals were constantly watched.  Now, typically it is a more normal situation although sometimes I cannot pull off even a small adult portion.  I can never eat a typical adult portion no matter how much I want to or how long it has been since the last meal.  

I don't buy that in two years my capacity will  be larger and that it will be harder to maintain because of the size of my sleeve.  I was told very early out on the boards that because I ate carbs and had a large sleeve that I would not make it to goal.  When I was 2 months out I was warned my loss would stop at 4 months.  At 4 months warned it would stop at five.  At five warned  nothing past six month.  Then after that and making goal now supposedly because of my sleeve size and balanced eating plan that I follow I will not maintain.  Whatever.  If I end up not maintaining I can assure you it is not because of my sleeve size, but rather a deterioration in my eating habits.  I am a highly skilled overeater and can just as easily eat around a smaller sleeve as a large one.  

So the moral of the story is figure out what is important to you.  Do you think the threat of dumping will help you break the sugar addiction? (A real problem for me- )  What do you want your life to look like long term?  Are toddler size portions Ok, or are you shooting for as close to being a "normie" as you can?  There is a spectrum.  I would never blatantly say that the larger sleeve is the best fit for every single person- because it is not.  Just like the smaller sleeve is not the best choice for every person.  Or for that matter even the sleeve compared to Rny or Ds.   Really do some soul searching on what your specific needs are and match surgery and surgeon and bariatric program to that (and confirm you have a great experienced surgeon and program).  

Oh- and if you are scared the sleeve won't be "enough" to lose the weight because your eating is so out of control and you have experienced a ton of failed attempts, and maybe you even completely lack the faith that any surgery will truly work.  Fear not.  It is a common mind set prior to surgery. It is hard to wrap your head around how much easier it is to lose the weight and keep it off if you follow the guidelines.  I know I know... you probably followed the guidelines in diets like weigh****chers and all, but it is totally different and so so much more effective.  

Here's to your health, HT

I just love your approach - you are the voice of equilibrium! Thank you for staying around. 

I will be a year out on the 24th of this month and have lost 152 pounds. I have about 5 more pounds that I want to lose. My recovery from VSG was not bad at all. The gas was the worst part. I just made sure that I got up and walked as much as possible after surgery. That really helps. The modified diet for the month after surgery was a little annoying. I just wanted to eat solid food and chew something, but so worth it. Each week I moved up to the next texture in my diet until I was eating my new normal. I do exercise 3 times a week. I actually miss it if I don't do it. Never thought I would say that. My life has changed so much, I can't even begin to tell you. I am actually livi g life and doing things that I thought I would never do again. My surgeon was very skilled and did his part well, but you just need to remember to do yours too. Stay focused and it will work for you. My husband loves me a whatever weight, but is truly enjoying me more now that I am more active. My son is also proud of. E and enjoys a more active mom. I didn't have any problems with my VSG. The only thing I can't tolerate is pork chops, because of the dense ess. I'm fine with that. I love my new life.
I felt that gastric bypass wasn't for me was because of the malabsorption issues. I didn't want to trade one problem for another. Ultimately, you have to do what you feel is. Est for you and believe in yourself. Good luck!