educationrulz

Champ (and that you are!), I'm going to go a little off track here and go back to someone's earlier point that you might need to get a second opinion. You haven't given us any indication that this leak was caused by negligence on the part of the doctor, nor has the aftercare been lacking. (Is the doctor taking care of the leak the same doc who did the surgery?) But, I think at some point when there is not a clear pattern of improvement, you owe it to yourself and your wife to get another medical opinion. A second doctor may totally endorse what's being done and then you can somewhat put your mind at ease and continue caring for your wife. But I recall you saying that it seems like the doctors are just trying things hoping that it will fix the leak. Maybe you could do some research on bariatric docs who have experience with fixing leaks and see if you could arrange a consult. I'm sure there are some difficulties with this, like the possibility of out of state travel, but if nothing else you may find some info that could be useful to your wife's healing. To get back to the most important thoughts, best wishes for your wife's healing and your family's peace of mind. We are thinking of and praying for your family.

I had the same experience Carla. I've always said that I was 5'4". When I got my height taken at my first PCP supervised diet visit, I was 5'3". Now I could have sworn that someone had measured me at 5'4" sometime in the past so I must have some age shrinking going on.:thumbup1: I didn't need the extra inch for BMI purposes but it could definitely make a difference for some people.

Greenbaygirl, Thank god he made it home alive. You seem amazingly calm (not sure if that's the right word) for someone who has gone through this with a loved one. I imagine that alot of that has to do with being strong and maintaining your cool so you could take care of your husband. My mouth is still hanging open at the thought of you and your husband being left alone in the hospital with one staff member who couldn't (or wouldn't) provide proper care in an emergency. The language barrier aside, this was an unacceptable and unforgiveable level of patient care. A properly trained, professional nurse could have assessed and cared for your husband without speaking a word of English to either of you! I guess there must be some lingering doubts in your mind as to how his leak is going to heal and if there are any other issues that could come up from the surgery. Have you been able to make any plans for followup care? Please keep us up to date on his progress and thanks for sharing what happened.

God Bless. You are one strong lady. Best wishes for continued healing.

Congratulations! I can imagine how excited (and nervous) you must be. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Hey Jenny, It sounds like you've got alot going on. It's stressful enough thinking about starting a new job without trying to plan a surgery at the same time. You probably don't have any choice but to tell the new job about your upcoming surgery but I wouldn't say anything until you have worked out a plan with a surgeon and get a date. Based on the issues you've had with the band, there's no reason you couldn't present it as an urgent procedure that has to be done ASAP. From what others here have said, the initial recovery time seems to be about a week just to get back to basic activities. It's great that the surgeon's office is willing to work out some creative billing. That's what insurance is all about anyway - how they bill for a service. Good luck with everything and I hope you're able to get your revision soon.

Be sure to check with your insurance. I found out that some of the info given by the docs office as far as pre-surgery requirements didn't apply to my insurance. So it's best to get the info from insurance and then review it with the surgeon's office.

I'm not sure how old you are (graduating high school or college) but it sounds like your parents are going to be very involved in your WLS. Maybe you should have them come on here and read some of the posts from people who have already had surgery. That would help them get a better insight into how the surgery really works. I think you could be playing a dangerous game adding weight loss medications on top of a surgery as drastic as the sleeve. You will be loosing the majority of your stomach! Also, consider asking one of the VST forum members to act as a mentor for you after surgery, somebody that you can email or call when you need advice. Find someone whose posts you enjoy reading and whose spirit speaks to you. Reach out to that person for more individual support. I think you'll be hard pressed to find someone here who wouldn't be willing to mentor you. Have faith in yourself and expect the best!

Clearly I'm too lazy for this because it made my jaw hurt just reading your post. :001_tongue:

Britt, We certainly can't tell you what to do with your money, but I can see why you're at the point of just paying yourself. I'm at the end of my 6 months of insurance hoops and for the last month I have felt like running off and getting self-pay WLS. The waiting can be a bit much at times. I can't imagine how agonizing it is when you've seen alot of your weight creep back AND you still don't have any answer from insurance. Although I think I'm pretty good to go with my insurance approval, I told myself yesterday that if they denied me for some odd reason, I won't waste a minute on an appeal. I'm going to find some money and pay for it myself. They probably intended for you to just give up the fight if they made you wait long enough but you can't spend too much time thinking about stuff like that. It sounds like you've suffered long enough...

It's great to hear that you had such a good experience. It will definitely help future patients to know that they might want to brush up on some basic Spanish. This would be a good post to copy into the Almanza thread in the Doctor/Hospital section of the forum, if you haven't already done so. Congratulations on joining the loser's bench! I'm still :001_tongue:

Does it work as advertised with ice to make smoothies? Or is frozen fruit better? I would be willing to invest in one if it will really get the job done. I want something that I could use at work as well as at home and something that will travel well.

Calm down, Jillian. One bowl of oatmeal isn't going to kill you! :wink0:You're still doing great and you have a plan to get through the rest of the weekend. There are many people who are allowed to have a big meal the day before surgery and they do fine. So, that bowl of oatmeal will be long gone by the time your laxative is done with you. We're all excited for you and know that you'll do fine on Monday. Try reading or doing something that will help you feel at peace tonight (as much as that's possible before surgery).

Tiff and kbl, Is the Majic Bullet similar to the mini food processors in the $10 range? I want something quick and easy to assemble, use and clean. I also want to be able to quickly make smoothies and healthy shakes. I have a blender that's never been used because it seems like too much trouble. I like the Bullet but don't want to pay that much. http://www.buythebullet.com/

I've finally finished my 6 months of MD supervised diet and counseling visits. In some ways it seems like it took forever and in other ways it seems like it all went by really fast. I'm so excited to be past that part of things. I finished the visits last week and made sure that all of the records got to the surgeon's office. The counseling stuff was sent over immediately by the therapist I worked with. I had received the copy of my medical records from my primary doctor's office before my last MD visit. So, I sent the first 5 months of my 6 months MD visits to the surgeon's office by mail. Then, at my 6 month visit, all I had to do was get a copy of the last MD progress note. I faxed it to the surgeon's office from home that night. I called the next morning (Friday) and they had received the fax. I was told at that time that the counseling records were there and the psych eval was too. So, at that point, we had everything necessary to present to insurance. I paid the $250 insurance filing fee that my surgeon's office charges and was told that it would be submitted early the next week. I didn't want to be a nag with the surgeon's office, but I decided that for $250 to file the claim with UnitedHealth Care, they could probably stand to put up with a few extra calls from me at that point. So, I called back Tuesday afternoon to once again verify that everything was a go. I was told that they were working on my claim right then. When I checked with UHC by phone on Wednesday, nothing was in the system at that point. I decided to give it another day or so because the rep said it can take 24 to 48 hours to show up in the computer system. By this point, I was really trying not to stress. I knew that in the big scheme of things, I really had not been waiting a long time. My only reason for concern was that, like a lot of people, I had a verify specific time frame for when I wanted to have my surgery. I knew that I needed time after getting my insurance approval to get in all the pre-op tests before the tentative surgery date that I had been given, which was mid-June. On Friday morning, before I had a chance to call and nag anyone, my nurse case coordinator from UHC called to say that she had received the request from my surgeon's office but the last MD diet note was missing, as was the documentation to say that I completed the six months of counseling. WTH!!! Of course I wasn't happy to hear that. But, I assured her that I had completed everything in early May and had proof of it. I explained why the last MD probably was not with the other documents. She said that she could verify the counseling stuff through the UHC computer system, but would have to get that final MD note. She said that she would call the surgeons' office and get them to fax that final note and that would complete my request. I followed up later that day with the surgeon's office. They had found the final MD note that I faxed and sent it to the case coordinator. So now it's Sunday and I'm in waiting mode. From what I've heard, UHC turns their approvals around pretty quick. I'm hoping to know by tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest. I'm anxious to get my GI and cardiac clearances, and whatever else the surgeon requires. One month to go before my tentative surgery date....

Here are a couple arguments to counteract what seem to be perfectly normal concerns on your mom's part: Some stretching with the sleeve is probably normal and I'm actually hoping that it will occur to a small degree. There are some people who are having difficulty with maintaining after reaching goal - meaning they are continuing to lose weight. Maybe if the stomach stretches a little over time, you will be able to eat enough to STOP the weight loss. This is with the added benefit of NOT having a foreign body strapped around your stomach. Also, there is a new type of revision surgery that I think would fix excessive stretching of the sleeve. Nobody wants to go into this thinking they'd need a revision of their sleeve, but worst case scenario, the option is there. The surgery is called Stomaphyx and I'm pretty sure it works with the sleeve, but I haven't done a lot of research on this. You may not be able to convince your mom that this is the best option for you, but you can give her as much info as possible. Ultimately it's your decision so follow your heart.

Hey Susan. I'm glad that everything went well. I can't wait to hear more about your post-op diet since it seems that they vary quite a bit. I think my doctor's is one of the more conservative post-op diets so I'm a little worried about that. Where did you have your surgery? Do you think one day in the hospital was enough or could you have used another day? I'm worried about coming home too early and overdoing it. That's been my experience with prior surgeries.

Thanks Lis. I'm getting close and more excited and nervous by the minute. But, it's all good...

Hi everyone. I have been on the VST and OH forums since December, but I primarily post on VST. I don't participate much on OH, but I do enjoy the blogs there - I guess because they are continuous and not individual links for each blog. But, I feel more at home here on VST, so I've decided to post my first blog here. I'll probably go there at some point and post a blog also. My journey is still pretty much in the early stages, so I feel a little scattered at this point. I have struggled with my weight since late elementary school. Considering the fact that I have hit the big 4-0, that's a long time to be struggling with something. I've never been a really successful dieter, but have had a couple of points of good weight loss that never lasted more than a year. When I look back on those episodes, I can never pinpoint when and why I fell off the wagon, or how the weight seemed to creep back up on me. All I know with any certainty is that I'm tired - and tired of it. Something clicked in me after I turned 40 and I decided it was time to do something BIG for myself. Up until this time, I had never given WLS for myself more than a passing thought. I toyed with the idea of the lapband a couple of years ago, but let the thought slip away. Then, in December 2009, I just suddenly decided that I was going to do something definitive about my weight and stop the diet roller coaster. Initially, I went back to my earlier thoughts of doing the lapband because I couldn't get comfortable with the thought of the bypass. In the process of researching the lapband more intensively, I "discovered" the VSG. WOW!! I felt like the heavens had opened up for me. I knew immediately that this was the procedure for me and that I was about to make a positive change in my life that would have far reaching benefits. This time I didn't hesitate long and contacted the Bariatric Resource Center through my insurance (United Health Care). Once I got the ball rolling, it was pretty much steady and smooth. I was NOT happy at first about the 6 month song and dance they put us through to get approved for the surgery. I was especially irritated about the supervised diet since it was clear that if I lost too much weight and went under the BMI requirements I would be denied for surgery. What a bunch of BS! What's the point of making people diet for 6 months and then penalizing them for losing too much weight? No matter...I just decided to not put too much energy into the dieting aspect of things. But, after a little soul searching, I decided to embrace the idea of the required psych eval and 6 months of counseling. After reading some of the stories on the forums, especially here on VST, I soon realized that there was going to be WAAAYY more psychological impact from WLS than I could ever have imagined. So, I elected to do individual counseling instead of support groups. My personality tends toward excessive privacy and I would never have participated fully in a support group. But I have found that I am very engaged in the individual counseling process and actually look forward to my sessions. Since my sister is the only person I have told that I'm having surgery (and she's out of town), I really don't have anyone to process things with - especially the things I come across on the forums. Discussing these things with my counselor has been very beneficial because I'm developing concrete strategies for how I'll actually handle some of the difficulties of life post-op. Each month, we discuss what has been most pressing in my mind in relation to the surgery (among other things). At my most recent session, we talked about how I plan to deal with all of the attention my weight loss will generate. This may not be a big deal for some people, but for someone like me who does NOT enjoy being the center of attention - especially when it's related to my appearance- this is going to be a big issue for me. I'm sure this is mostly because of my weight and being self-conscious about it for most of my life. But knowing where the tendency comes from doesn't change the fact that it's there. Overall, we both agreed that I'm going to have to suck it up and deal with it because I'm going to get lots of attention with the amount of weight this surgery will allow me to lose. I'm also going to have to be more gracious about the positive attention that I get and learn to embrace it. I think this has been sorely lacking in my past weight loss efforts - the attention and my graciousness for the little that was there. I've come to the recent conclusion that this is a big part of why I've never been able to maintain previous weight loss. I think at some point, I felt like it wasn't really getting me anywhere, so why keep struggling with my body and cravings. I know this is kind of a wierd conclusion since I said I don't like attention... So, here I am in my 5th month of the 6 month program for WLS approval. It seems like just yesterday that I made that life altering decision. Like most others here, I wish I had made the decision a long time ago so I could have enjoyed more of my life at a normal size. But, I think it happened at this time for a reason. For one thing, I clearly wasn't ready before. Now, it seems like the logical next step. I also made this decision right after the VSG became an approved procedure with my insurance company. Although I would definitely self-pay if that wasn't the case, I can't ignore that the timing for me was perfect. As I sit here writing all of this, I can see why blogging is so popular. Although I've discussed all of this with my counselor, there's some added benefit to just getting it out in writing. I hope to continue adding to this blog as I go through the final stages of my insurance approval process and my pre-op diet and testing. Hopefully I'll be able to post some things in the future that are informative. My tip for this particular stage would be to stay in contact with your surgeon's office to make sure that all of the records they will need from other doctors have been received. Sometimes it takes several requests to get the records there. If you are on a very specific timeline, it could delay your insurance approval and surgery date if you don't ensure that your records have been sent as requested. I'm sure this is not really a problem if you use providers that work closely with your surgeon, but I didn't go that route so I'm having to stay on top of things a little more so that I can get the surgery approved and done when I want to get it done. Thanks for reading and I hope to be back soon.

I can't remember the last time I owned a scale and I don't plan to buy one any time soon after being sleeved - primarily because of stuff like this. I'm sure that's been a positive and negative for me in terms of my weight over the years but then I think of the times I was really working a diet and exercise program hard and got on the scale somewhere else and was crushed when the numbers hadn't changed as I had expected. This happened to me as recently as last week when I went in for the last of my 6 month md visits. I had switched to diet drinks, was exercising 4 or 5 days a week and was doing low/no carb meals. I just knew I had lost AT LEAST 5 pounds because my clothes had loosened up...but the scale moved down just 1 pound. This week, I'm feeling like what's the point. If I had had the choice, I would never have gotten on that scale, but I had to finish my pre-op requirements. So, my plan is to continue on through surgery enjoying the many non-scale victories that I will surely be treated to. I plan to buy a scale when I get close to goal so that I can monitor a maintenance weight and keep within a certain range of pounds. I do plan to take my measurements pre-op and thoughout my journey toward goal because I feel that measurements are a more accurate measure of progress.

I agree. Suck it up :lol0:(no pun intended) and ask your surgeon from a hypothetical perspective. If you insist on doing it, at least be sure you're not going to hurt yourself post-op.

Congrats on your upcoming surgery. It's always good to hear when someone is about to go into surgery so we can wish you well. I hope you get a little rest tonight and are able to update us soon.

Lillie, I'm worried about this too because I'm prone to tonsillitis and sinus infections as a result of allergies. I know how anesthesiologists are and they don't like to sedate people who are congested or having breathing issues. I plan to talk to my surgeon about this a couple of weeks before surgery and ask for a prescription for some antibiotics in case I start coming down with something right before surgery. That way I won't have to try to get a last minute appointment and it'll be something the surgeon thinks is safe to take - as opposed to having another doc prescribe something. He may say no, but it won't hurt to ask. I've taken preventative antibiotics before surgery in the past so I know it's done. Even though it won't necessarily keep you from catching a cold, it might give your body the boost it needs to make it to surgery symptom free.