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Very happy but scared about my surgery coming up I dont know how to feel but I'm ready Sent from my SM-A102U using BariatricPal mobile app

I started this journey last spring. I did everything by the book but did not loose weight through the process. Part of it was I had to have a major surgery a couple months back before I was eligible for the sleeve. So going into the insurance submittal, I thought for sure that was what would hang me up. I got my first denial 3 days in. They said my surgeon wasn’t in network. However they sent me to his office and his partners in the same office were . That brought appeal 1. I was then denied again after 2 weeks. This time they said I didn’t qualify because I didn’t do all of the steps. Turns out some person at Cigna forgot to look at the whole packet of paperwork that held my nutrition visits, the extra steps, psych evaluation, etc etc etc. but because this was the 2nd denial, opening my case back up required a peer review appeal. I am happy to say as of this morning I am approved for surgery on Monday (18th)!! I have spent today going to appointment after appointment to last minute get things in. I am sitting in the room now for my ore admission counseling and all I can think is please God let there be no other hurdles! I am ready for this! I’ve prayed in this! Let’s do this!

Every surgeon is different. after 10 days my doctor told me there was no physical activity i could do that would damage what he did to my stomach, only being sore could hold me back. Well it didnt and i started crossfit on day 11 and havent stopped with zero issues. But thats just me. Everyone is different.

Best wishes, while in the hospital blow in that blow thing to get lungs cleared. The first 2 weeks just sip on protein drinks. They will all taste horrible as you will immediately go into Ketosis and that makes everything taste bad. I just put a lot of ice in my Ensure plus and managed 3 a day. That will take all day. I also loved my Outshine pop cycles, no sugar added. I didn't add "full liquids" until the second week, that was cream of chicken soup, but not much as I was still drinking 2 Ensure Max a day. Wasn't until week 3 on soft foods. I did a lot of tuna in pouches, some flavored. Add foods slowly. I also bought a set of stainless children utensils to eat with. They are small enough to make you eat slowly. I'm now 3 months out and I'm still eating with them and will probably continue to do so forever. Just be patient, recovery takes time and so does the weight loss. You will have a high periods and some lows, some great weight loss and some stalls. But you will be successful!

We had a "Family and Friends" forum for many many years but removed it a little while ago for non-usage 🤷‍♂️.

Thank you for the well-wishes and kind thoughts. We are a team unit here so I definitely have the support, but it is nice to have this Forum to lean on.

I'm a low loser myself but once I upped my calories and my fluid to 80 oz a day weight started coming off. I also started walking more..nothing crazy but getting the body moving.

See if you can download the Medicaid requirements. My insurance company had a lot of very specific stipulations and requirements. I read those papers so many times, and it was good to have a hard copy. Don't try to lose right now - not before you know the plan's requirements. Some people have to actually gain a little to meet BMI requirements for surgery. Once you have information from the insurance, see how your PCP feels about working with WLS patients. Even if there is not a prolonged PCP supervision program required, you are going to need your PCP support and most likely letter of recommendation for the surgery. You can also start researching surgeons and then checking to see if they are approved by insurance. The insurance company can certainly give you names, but you may find others that may also be approved, but the insurance list is not up to date (not unusual). You want someone who not only does a good job and has been doing these procedures for years, but also a program that will follow you for years afterward. For example, my program has 2, 4, 6, 8-9, 9-12, 18 month followups, with yearly followups for 5 years. You will need that support and supervision. Absolutely start going to free seminars that many programs offer. Even if not approved by your insurance, it will give you a lot of information and ideas of what will happen. It is a good place to start your education. Just remember that they are selling a product. Keep that in mind. Focus on facts and not the sales pitch. You can also start watching YouTube programs. Dr. Matthew Weiner has a ton of good information - all the way from choosing the right surgery and how surgery works, to long term maintenance. Bear in mind, his post op diet will probably be different from your own surgeon's (MW starts soft veggies very early on, while mine made me wait 8 weeks). But he does have a LOT of good information that is sound and will give you a good foundation. You want to go into this armed with all the information and education you can get. It's very sad when someone has surgery and then says, "I didn't know about such and such" or "why didn't they tell me this or that." You have to take responsibility for your own education on this - no excuse for ignorance with all the good info out there. So there are some ideas. It is a lifelong journey, not a sprint. It's great you are in a place where you are really ready to make the changes at such a young age - before you get all the degenerative breakdown and health issues that many of us have from decade upon decade of obesity. Keep us posted on your progress.

Surgery went well. I felt fairly good after. Came home two days ago and a bit sore, especially on my left side......I don’t think messing up my pre-op diet did anything although the dr wanted me to have lost more weight before.......still up in weight because of fluids. Home recovering......

Muscle does not weigh more than fat - a pound is still a pound. Muscle is more dense, so you may show fewer inches for the same weight if you are more muscular, but weight can still be the same. Few can actually gain muscle mass while losing total weight, but we can seek to lose as little as possible while losing the fat. Typically we will lose some muscle mass, particularly in the legs and core, as we don't need as much muscle to support and move our reduced weight around, and few can dedicate the time and effort required to build up a comparable amount elsewhere (and then keep up the extra work to maintain it so that it doesn't turn to fat over time.) For the OP, yes get a body composition scan to see where you are - Dexa is considered the best, but water or air displacement or even the scales give useful information if used properly. As a woman, mid 20's body fat percent is typical healthy range, but individually, you might be better as 22-23%, or 27%, so don't obsess over it.. I aimed for mid teens, which is mid to lean normal for men, and called it a day. Even Dexa isn't accurate enough to obsess over a point or two one way or the other. To get back on track, as you have acknowledged falling back into old habits, try just going back to basic lean meat and green vegetables for a while. What is typically needed is a few days of "detox" from the (typically sugary) junk that has crept back in to alleviate your cravings for them. These liquid "reset" diets don't do anything better and just reinforce whatever tendency you may have toward yo-yo dieting. They are premised on the observation that when we first had our WLS we were typically on a liquid diet for a while and we lost like gangbusters, so therefore if we go back to a liquid diet, we will lose like gangbusters again. Unfortunately, it was not the liquid diet that caused us to lose rapidly, as even those of us who never did a liquid diet lost like crazy those first couple of weeks. It was all about the heavy caloric deficit that we were in courtesy of our surgery, and the resulting water weight loss as our body adjusted to the new reality. In short, cut out the junk that has crept back in and replace it with high nutrition, low calorie real food that will satisfy you nutritionally and cut your cravings for sugar, and is something that you can stick to in the long term, rather than a quick fix yo yo diet. Good luck,,,