Category: Gastric Sleeve Recovery

Around 45 million Americans diet every year, according to research from the Boston Medical Center. Still, some people struggle to shed the pounds. As a result, more drastic weight loss procedures, such as gastric sleeve surgery, have become attractive. This surgery reduces part of your stomach, so you feel fuller after consuming food. The result? You eat less and lose more weight.

What Is Gastric Sleeve Surgery?

Gastric sleeve surgery removes around 80 percent of your stomach and leaves behind a vertical tube — called a “sleeve” — that is around the size of a banana. After this operation, you will notice that you feel much fuller than you normally would after consuming food. Therefore, you will need to select small portion sizes at meal times.

Gastric sleeve surgery produces rapid weight loss, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. One study suggests that people can lose more than 50 percent of their total body weight in a three- to five-year period. Moreover, weight loss is comparable to that of a gastric bypass — another bariatric surgical procedure.

Here’s the science behind gastric sleeve surgery: this procedure causes positive changes in your body’s gut hormones. Consequently, it reduces appetite, increases satiety and suppresses hunger. The surgery itself is relatively simple — it takes between 60 and 90 minutes.

What Are the Other Benefits of Gastric Sleeve Surgery?

Research shows that gastric sleeve surgery is beneficial for specific health conditions, including type 2 diabetes. Diabetes remission rates post-surgery are more than 60 percent and, as shown in some studies, are similar to the results experienced after gastric bypass procedures. Other research suggests that gastric sleeve surgery reduces the risk of certain types of cancer, overcomes depression and improves sleep apnea.

Gastric sleeve surgery is an option for adults who struggle to lose weight using conventional methods. This procedure might also benefit people who have type 2 diabetes and other health conditions.

Birmingham Minimally Invasive Surgery (BMI) specializes in gastric sleeve surgery. Do you qualify for this procedure? Contact us here to find out more.

Gastric sleeve surgery, or sleeve gastrectomy, is a medical weight-loss procedure to treat obesity when your body-mass index, or “BMI,” is between 35 and 40, helping to relieve serious, secondary health problems such as diabetes, cardiac disease, high blood pressure or sleep apnea. If you have had little to no success with other weight-loss methods, then gastric-sleeve surgery may be an option.

How Gastric-Sleeve Surgery Works

Sleeve gastrectomy is a minimally invasive procedure that permanently reduces the size of your stomach by 80 to 90 percent, limiting your dietary and caloric intake. The procedure takes less than an hour, performed laparoscopically through several small incisions. Using a small surgical laparoscope affixed with a small camera and light, laparoscopic surgery generally has fewer side effects than traditional open surgery and improves the surgeon’s field of vision and overall accuracy.

What to Do After Gastric-Sleeve Surgery

As with any surgical procedure, the pre-operative process will include detailed instructions from your surgeon about recovery and what you can expect in the few days, weeks and months after your sleeve-gastrectomy surgery is complete. There will be a number of dietary and lifestyle adjustments that you will have to make in order to maintain lasting, healthy weight loss.

1. Have a Plan
   Even after the procedure, you will have to practice good nutrition and exercise. Working with your medical team to design the diet, nutrition and exercise plan that is best for your lifestyle and medical needs before surgery will make for a smoother and more successful transition.

2. Follow Doctor’s Orders
   You may feel better sooner than expected, but it is still important to take all of your medication according to the doctor’s prescription and follow the guidelines designed specifically for your recovery.

3. Prepare Yourself Both Mentally and Emotionally
   Even with all of the research and planning in the world, the surgery will require a major lifestyle overhaul and adjustment. Ask for help when you need it.

4. Establish a Support System
   From the gym to grocery-shopping buddies, recovery is easier with friends. Don’t go it alone.

5. Keep Up With the Follow Up
   Ongoing check-ups are essential for keeping your recovery on track and to make any necessary adjustments to your recovery plan to ensure that you look and feel your best in the long run.

Sleeve Gastrectomy in Birmingham, AL

After you’ve tried everything else, minimally invasive gastric-sleeve weight-loss surgery may be the right option for you. For more information — and to take advantage of our deeply discounted pricing from $11,999 down to just $9,999 — contact our office by calling (205) 833-6907 to schedule a consultation today.

Choosing weight loss surgery is never an easy decision. If you’ve struggled with your weight and can’t ever seem to get the scale to move in your favor, weight loss surgery may be for you. Gastric sleeve surgery has become a popular choice for those who choose bariatric surgery. Here are several things you should consider when considering whether gastric sleeve surgery is right for you.

Why Choose Gastric Sleeve Surgery?

Are you the clinical definition of morbidly obese? Do you have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 40 or higher? Or do you have a lower BMI between 35 to 39.9 but have one or more chronic health conditions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, and have consistently tried and failed to lose weight and keep it off, then you may be an excellent candidate for gastric sleeve surgery.

Benefits of Gastric Sleeve Surgery

Outside of saving your life, gastric sleeve surgery can also significantly improve your quality of life. Weight loss surgery can help relieve chronic joint and back pain that occurs because of all the extra weight you’ve been carrying around. It can help alleviate sleep apnea, allowing you to sleep through the night without a CPAP machine. You’ll also see a reversal of chronic health issues such as diabetes, depression, high-blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Eating After Gastric Sleeve Surgery

After bariatric surgery, your entire relationship with food has to change. Not only will you have to eat considerably less after surgery, how you eat will change as well. For example, you will no longer be able to eat and drink at the same time. According to bariatric surgery nurse Karen Schulz, “Patients should drink their fluids at least 30 minutes before or 30 minutes after eating, but it doesn’t take long for most people to adjust.”

Other changes include mainly eating protein, eliminating sweets and learning how to handle your emotions without turning to food. After surgery, you will also need vitamins and supplements to make up for nutritional deficiencies in your new diet.

Dangers of Ignoring Gastric Sleeve Diet

It is crucial that you follow the strict diet given to you by your doctor after having gastric sleeve surgery. If you stray from the diet, you may experience some serious and life-threatening complications. Complications can include vomiting, plugging, a sensation that feels like food is stuck in the upper digestive tract and minimum to no weight-loss. More severe complications include a perforated stomach, which is a leak in your gut, and septic shock, which, if not caught early, can kill you.