Dr. Siamak Agha: the good, the bad and the ugly?

Shari,

Can you imagine having all that IV fluid pumped into you two weeks after your recent work?  I was still in drains at two weeks PostOp from my LBL - my abs would have burst along with my drains!.

I'm hoping that the pain of the LBL can be combined with the pain of the facelift, and the recovery can be simultaneous -- same drugs will treat both, right?  I'm probably being unrealistic, but I will have only a limited time to do this, given my work situation, and if I'm job hunting, I want the face done right away.  At 56, I'm already at a disadvantage, and as a woman with unnecessarily prominant neck saggage, it makes me look older, in my opinion.

Bah, don't tell me what I don't want to hear!!  (Just kidding of course -- I need to know EVERYTHING, and that's what I asked for!)

My job was my issue as well-- which is why I had a crapload done simultaneously this June-- also, my surgeon has a microsurgery background, so 12 hours on the table's nothing to him. But at almost 10 weeks out I can tell you, I'm still not 100% ready for work-- and like it or not I am back in ten days.

I did my facelift on Christmas Eve (g-d bless Jewish surgeons!) and still had to take a few extra days after the holiday break-- think it was 14 days in all, and I still went back to work in sunglasses.

It's not so much about that post surgical pain as things like mobility and being able to care for yourself. I was lucky-- my mom's a retrired nurse and a damn good one so I had bedside care for three weeks, and needed it. I do believe it can be done, but as much space as you can get in there -- for comfort and healing-- sure would go a long way towards  safer, easier recovery IMHO.

Can it be done? Yes, but accept in advance it's gonna be hard as hell-- it's the only way I survived the simultaneous breast/arm/abdomioplasty-fest this June.

OFF TOPIC........

Diana,
I noticed in your signature you said you eat 3,000 cals.......is that a day?  OMG, how do you do that?  How much do you work out? Are you still losing or did you reach your goal?

Please share the secrets to being able to eat so many cals and lose weight.!!
Thanks
Ruth

I am not Diana, but had the same surgery she did and we can eat a lot of calories due to our malabsorption. If we focus on protein and fats, it's all good. We only absorb 20% of fat we ingest and 50% of the protein.

I average 2500 calories a day and often get into the 3000 range. All this while losing weight and maintaining it.

Hope this answers your question!

Jillian

WOW, that's amazing.
I did not have WLS so I'm not real familiar with the different surgeries and how everything works afterward.
Thanks for the information....very interesting!!

What Jillian said -- the duodenal switch is a fantastic surgery and allows me to eat MORE than I used to eat pre-op, with a focus on protein and fat, which are foods I prefer anyway, and which are foods I particularly prefer post-op, because my "cravings" match what I need.  I don't diet, because what I want and what I need are mostly the same.  I do watch my carbs to some extent, in particular in that I never eat white flour carbs during the day on workdays or when I have to be away from my home a few hours later (white flour gives me stinky gas, as do a few other foods like more than a few ounces of dairy, beans, broccoli -- the usual suspects).  The result of this "TiVoing" my carbs to later in the day is that I eat them pretty freely in the evening, but overall, eat fewer. 

I weigh around 171 most days for the last couple of months.  I am still losing a pound or two here and there at 6 years out.  After reconstructive surgery, I will be at goal.

Diana,

Keep in mind that post-reconstruction your Dr may ask you to increase your caloric intake substantially to accommodate healing.  I've been told to get 2400 and I'm nowhere near that, which may explain why I'm not healing the way that I want to.  I mean, it's actually tiring and time consuming to eat that much when you're exhausted by surgery and recovery -- it becomes a recursive problem.  I'm weak from not eating and from healing, so I'm too tired to eat, which makes me weaker and less likely to eat .... you get the picture.  So you may want to discuss this specifically with Agha.  Going short on needed calories will extend your recovery time.  Find out what he recommernds under the cir****tances, and stock it abundantly at home (along with a huge supply of menus for local restaurants that deliver).

BTW, Agha IS in fact Aboolian's go-to guy while he's on vacation out of the country.  Aboolian is a compulsive perfectionist (which I consider to be a good thing in a plastics guy) so .... Agha must be okie dokie by him.

Agha has some kind of goo that he makes his patients drink before and after surgery (it's included in his prices).

ProCare M.D. (NutrEssential) is a comprehensive formula of protein, free amino acids, arginine, glutamine, and dietary nucleotides as well as vitamins A, C, B6, B12, folate, thiamine, iron, zinc, and selenium. Many studies have deemed arginine and glutamine essential to the healing of wounds and the optimization of the immune system. Surgical patients are started on ProCare M.D. three weeks prior to surgery and continue until healed at four to six weeks after surgery.

Yum, I can't wait.  I have never had a protein shake, since I had a DS and was able to get my protein from food since the very beginning -- and I guess I won't be able to say so after this.

Well, Diana -- if you haven't had a protein shake before, then let me be the very first to tell you what a treat you have in store. 


I looked it up, but I wasn't able to find out whether ProCare has soy protein, which it turns out is a problem for me.  This wasn't specified on the website, as far as I could see.  Do you know where that might be listed?