AtlantaRed

So exciting!! I have my final testing in early Nov too and it seemed so far away and now it's in 3 weeks! I'm having stomach issues and possible hiatal hernia so I'm ok with the EGD. Time is going to fly, I'm sure. I'm going to be so excited until it gets here, then I'll be scared to death! lol Glad you joined our December group!

Awesome!! I need my EGD too. Hoping to have mine in early November. So interesting how all of us are required so many different things. Good luck to you and I hope we all continue to follow each other through this journey!

Good luck to you! How long have you been working on this process? Sounds like you've been able to cross quite a few things off your list! What a busy holiday season we will have!

Come on December 2013 folks! To the ones already here, what do you still have left to do? What has everyone bought already? Mine is not yet cemented in stone so I have not bought a lot yet. Hopefully I'll be able to cement it in about 3 weeks.

chicken for chicken tacos/burritos/nachos or in a bowl with toppings Frozen breasts/tenders (unbreaded) 2 cans diced green chilies in Mexican food aisle (they are not hot) 1 onion sliced into rings 1 tsp of garlic 2 cans chicken broth I put these on for 6 hours. By then, the chicked would fall apart when I tried to stab them with a fork. I put the chicken in a bowl. I used a slotted spoon to scoop up the onions and chilies from the broth and dumped them in the bowl with the chicken. I then used 2 forks to shred the chicken and onions. Family had it in small flour tortillas with shredded cheddar and lettuce. The chicken was so soft, I was thinking this would be ideal for after surgery for them and me. I can put it in a bowl with a dap of sour cream and salsa even though it was very good by itself. I used a whole bag of frozen chicken breasts and it fed us for 3 days!

Love it! I love to see the face pictures because everyone's eyes and smiles are so much bigger. They are finally the standout features, not squished behind the cheeks! You look great!

My hubby will only be coming day of surgery. He did attend the mandatory support group with me because it was on a Saturday and he actually enjoyed it. He asked if I needed to go to more because he wanted to come, but I only needed to go to one and I'm not a big in-person support group kind of girl (I like this one just fine!) My mom came to my NUT appointment just because I thought she might like to be involved in some way but not because I needed her to.

I COULDN'T care less not I could care less. If you "could" care less, it means you still care! Weighed not "weight". I weighed more last week. My weight today is less.

I definitley could have had the surgery a month after my first appt. I'm waiting for my insurance to kick in from new job in order to get the upper GI. I paid out of pocket for the psych eval.

I'm self pay and I had to have blood work (which i already had from PCP), upper GI, EKG, psych eval, nutrition appt, a nutrition class and attend 1 support group.

Oh wow! You might be the first one in December! So exciting! Are you done with everything? Hoping to be right behind you.

I passed my first stone last year and it took a month! Mine was a calcium stone. I'm not sleeved yet. When I told my NUT that I had a calcium kidney stone and was told not to take calcium supplements, she said I would have to take the supplements and that my fluid intake would need to be on the higher end and I would need to shoot for 70-100 oz a day (fluids including any liquid without caffeine) to try to avoid future stones after the sleeve.

I know there are a lot more of us December Sleevers out there! Come on in!

My NUT explained that the portion of the stomach that is removed is the area with the "grinders" so when we don't chew correctly, it's either very painful for a while or your body expels it by throwing up.

I once lost 60 pounds and it was 50 pounds before I could change pants size! It was disheartening. However, you don't know where that 20+ pounds came from. It could have been spread out evenly or been more concentrated on top. If you haven't already, you can take all of your measurements and start keeping track. Then you'll know where the pounds came from.

I start with 2 pounds of lean ground beef and I have no idea how much it yields. It fills 3/4 of a 6 cup Rubbermaid bowl. I am presleeve and have only recently purchased a food scale, so have never measured. If it is just me and the pups (2 large german shepherds) snacking on them, it lasts 2 weeks.

I bought the Nesco dehydrator and the Nesco jerky gun. I make two pounds of jerky every 2 weeks for my pups (okay, me too!) It is soooo good. My stepson's friends all thought it tasted like store bought. If you use the jerky gun, it has attachments like a frosting tip. I use one tha thas 2 flat slits. I use 2 pounds of lean ground beef (it has to be very lean meat) and 2 packs of Nesco jerky flavoring in original. Using the flat tip, the ground beef comes out shaped like slices of steak and even has that texture. No one can believe it when I tell them it is ground beef! They also have a round tip that makes it come out like a slim jim. Those are less chewy but as tasty. The pups and I prefer the flat tip (that's what they said, really!) You can use the packets of cure (added salt for the jerky to keep longer) or use just the flavoring without the cure and keep it in the fridge. I have never made it without the cure so I don't know the exact flavoring of the packets without the added salt. It is really, really tasty and only takes about 3-1/2 hours to make!

I think it might mostly come down to how well pain meds work for you. Since you've had back pain, do pain meds help with that? My first surgery AND experience with pain meds was at 28 when I had my tonsils out. A coworker had his out right before I did and talked about how easy it was and he didn't feel a thing. That was NOT my experience! Then I saw a neurologist for migraine help and none of the usual pain meds did anything for me. I had my gallbladder out last year. My elderly mother had hers out the year before and she was loopy for 3 days on pain meds and doesn't even remember it. When I asked the surgeon about pain meds because none of the usuals worked on my headaches, he assured me that it's different pain and just because they didn't help my headaches didn't mean they wouldn't help my gallbladder surgery pain...he was wrong. However, MOST people have decent relief from pain meds and I hear a lot of people they don't like to take them because they feel loopy. I would LOVE to feel loopy and less pain! lol So, back to my first statement, if you have had success with pain meds in the past for other reasons, your pain after surgery should be controlled as well.

I agree about how disheartening not dropping sizes is! I lost weight over a year and a half omce and it was 50 pounds before I could drop ONE size! That was so painful! Hope the other Decembers find their way over! Congrats on your date! Can't wait for us to get this thing started!!

Hi Folks! I know we can write off our expenses after we surpass 10% of our income in medical expenses. I would like to hear specifically what you have written off on your taxes? Other than the surgery, doc visits and medications, I have seen Protein drinks/powders listed as ok to write off. What else? Anything I buy for the surgery? Heating pads? FitBit? I have never used a tax person before and I don't personally know one. I'd rather not spend the money on one. We always ending up owing taxes (however, no clue why). When I was single and rented, I always got back $600-800. After getting married and owning a house, we have owed every year even though we put single and 0 for dependents on our W-4 and have the max taken out of our paychecks. Thanks so much!

Ok, thanks! My surgery will be in December so I do not have much time left in the year after that. However, I will be way beyond the 10% just paying for the surgery. Just wanting to claim as much as I can since we've had to pay so much in the past. Wouldn't mind getting a break this year and don't want to miss anything!

Thank you. I had looked at that. There are confusing things to me, that's why I wanted to hear from those who had done this already. Such as: You cannot include the cost of diet food or beverages in medical expenses because the diet food and bever-ages substitute for what is normally consumed to satisfy nutritional needs. You can include the cost of special food in medical expenses only if: The food does not satisfy normal nutritional needs, The food alleviates or treats an illness, and The need for the food is substantiated by a physician. So are the Protein Drinks covered or not? The need for them is substantiated by a physician but "you cannot include the cost of food or beverages...."