My weight loss surgery story actually started back in early 2019, but I chickened out before my first appointment because I was worried that I would have postop complications and the cost would go beyond the base rate. I gave up on the idea of weight loss surgery at that time, and decided that I would do it on my own. I think everybody here knows how well that went.
At the end of the year I found out my husband‘s job would be ending, and we took that as an opportunity to try to find a job where he would have insurance that I could go on that would cover weight loss surgery. He got a job that covered it, and I joined his insurance plan, and within the month I was set up with my first appointment.
my first appointment ended up being converted to telemedicine because of Covid, but that actually worked out great for me because my doctors office is two hours away. We had a six month waiting period, and for the first two months I will be honest I was working from home in quarantine, and I made absolutely no effort to lose weight and I did not make any progress. My third appointment was going to an in person appointment and the Bariatric class, and I was terrified that I would be up in weight and be disqualified. So for 2 weeks prior to that I went on a low carb low calorie diet. And I don’t know if it was me telling myself it was temporary or the realization that the surgery was coming helped, but I just kept extending and extending the date on my low carb diet. I ended up losing 48 lbs before the liquid diet which was greatly needed because I started at 339, and my surgery weight was 282. I’m 5’10 and my goal weight is 165.
The liquid diet was no big deal, maybe because my diet was already very low calorie. I think I ended up losing about 8 pounds or so on it. It was a full liquid diet, and I did not vary from the diet at all. I want this to be the part of my life where I’m not constantly having a “little extra” or “just this bite” and I figured it would be a good test of willpower.
surgery was a bit rough. I was in a fair amount of pain when I woke up, and I felt very nauseous. I could definitely feel my stomach, and it did not feel good. I wasn’t able to keep any water down, and the pain meds made me very sick. I ended up throwing up the small amount of water I’d drank snd the pain meds up all over myself the first night. But the next day was a tiny bit better, and it got better every day until day 4 I felt great. I ended up being able to drink water totally fine, no problem with protein or anything.
I think my surgeon is a bit old school because I have a 4 week post op liquid diet too. No mush or purée stage here. I’m currently finishing up week 2 of the post op liquid diet, and like the preop diet I’m not going to cheat or go off plan. It was a long road to get here and I am going to do everything in my power to make this work.
So far I am down about 10 lbs post surgery, so I don’t think I’m going to get the dramatic 30 lbs weight loss in the first month or anything but that’s fine. I’m down close to 70 lbs from my high weight, and it feels great. I’ll try to follow up every month or so with progress.
HW:339
SW: 282
CW:271
GW: 165