former_vbg

Thanks for the reply Tiff, Penpen and Disney. I am not complaining about not having the appetite, I just don't want to be careful i guess that I don't cause my body to think its starving. Tiff- Good to know things change down the road in terms of the appetite. Penpen- Yes, it seems to take forever for things to go down for me too which is why it seems to be more of a pain to eat and becomes annoying. I'm only eating mushie things and I chew those things, but it seems like if I drink 30 minutes before I eat, then it takes at least another 30 minutes to eat, and wait awhile after that to drink that a person would have to set a minimum of 3plus hrs a day just to eat. I think that's where it seems like too much of a bother to try to eat as much as I should. I'll just have to work on it I guess.

I was watching the Nate show yesterday morning- not a huge fan of the show, but anyways he had a cooking section and actually had a great idea I am going to use when I go back to work. Use a muffin pan for making self-contained scrambled eggs. You can add whatever you want, cheese, onion, salsa, etc. But, when they are done, they come out like mini muffins. That makes them easy to take to work for lunch. I am going to try and be sure they don't get overdone- but I'm excited to try this.

Thanks for your response. Yeah, not complaining- just worried that my body will think its in constant starvation mode and slow up my weight loss. I also don't feel like I have quite the energy level I should have. I can't stand the protein drinks, so that is out.

Can you describe what a typical day is that you are eating? Are you monitoring carb/ calorie or sodium contents? What about TOM? Just throwing out some things to think about.

My Dr. said NSAIDS are ok in moderation, including Ibuprofen. I don't want to tell you not to follow your docs orders, but one of the MANY reasons I chose this WLS was because all the research I found was that NSAIDS were ok.

My suggestion to you is to move forward with your sleep study and the GI process, those things if found to be abnormal can only help your approval process. In fact, I wouldn't have your request sent to your ins. company until after those things are done. You want AS MUCH documentation as possible to support your request.

I'm pretty early to have a NSV, but I had to share. Even though I'm single and don't have to "hide" food from anyone at home, my lifestyle is so hectic that I am always on the go and consequently it seemed like I was always eating in my car. Not really a fan of fast food, with a couple of exceptions- but it wasn't a big deal to have other food I bought at the store to "eat and run". Consequently, my car always had food crumbs on the floor or cup holder. I just went and got my car cleaned today (1st time since surgery 3 wks ago) and realized I might be able to keep my car clean now because eating in the car is going to be a thing of the past now or at the very least very minimal. I don't thing string cheese leaves too many crumbs.

SN........................Starting Wt........Current.......Goal.......Lbs to Goal former_vbg................271.................238.............190............48 I know this is pretty aggressive, but I've been working the sleeve hard since surgery 3 wks ago and want to continue like I have been. I also have a competition I hope to go to this Fall- so its a HUGE motivator for me.

I know your question was to the OP, but thought I would chime in my 2 cents for what it might be worth as a "girl". I've lost 33# since my surgery 6/22/11. I'm still on the mushie food stage, but I am being ULTRA CONSERVATIVE on the carbs. I sometimes forget to eat which I know isn't good, but I am keeping my carbs to less than 15, mostly 10 per day. Eating cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, SF Jello, green Beans, yellow summer squash, lots of Water and crystal lite- you get the idea. I have stayed away from Soups because most of them are high in carbs at least for my liking, and also really high in sodium which retains water. I also walk at least an hr a day at a brisk pace. As soon as my weight lifting restriction is up I will probably try to do more exercising. I still have a little pain in my left abdomen area. That's my 2 cents.

Congratulations!! That is fantastic progress! At that rate, you will be done in another 2 months or less!

That's great! Well Water bottles clean up a lot easier than crumbs at least. :-)))

I developed a sharp pain on the bottom and to the left of my belly button. It didn't start until about 2 wks post op. When I spoke to my Dr.'s office they said that the way the tools move things around during the laproscopic surgery that it is most likely nerves that are re-generating their pathways and it might take another 2 wks to go away. I'm not sure if it is your actual side or if it the bottom left of your stomach. I also had pain on my left side shortly after surgery and it was gas pain. I would say give it another 3 to 5 days and it should be gone. At least that was my experience.

Ain't that the truth.

LOL, so true!

Tiff summed up everything perfectly! I highly recommend taking some time and really read through what she posted. The failure rates for the RNY's is VERY high. The lap band isn't much better, but for different reasons. All of this is in Tiff's post. Do yourself a favor and contact the insurance company yourself, ask where the policy bulletins are posted so you can read it yourself. Don't settle for what other people tell you. Again, to reiterate Tiff, fight for what YOU want- it's your body.

I just put a reply to someone else with basically the same question. I had my approval, 2 wks from surgery and switched. Here is my post. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/21253-already-approved-and-thinking-of-getting-a-different-surgeon/

I can certainly offer you my experience on this type of issue. I also had my approval with a surgeon, and their office was beyond incompetent- but because I am a unique revision patient I felt like I didn't have many surgeon options and tried to bear with it. Their office staff took THREE MONTHS to get my approval processed. Then, 2 wks before surgery was to happen, I find out they were trying to pull a fast one that involved insurance fraud. Needless to say, I didn't have to think very long about changing surgeons. Fortunately I found another one quickly and was able to get the re-approval (formality mostly) through Aetna PPO, and had surgery within a month's time. The surgeon I ended up going with also has a pretty MESSED UP office staff, but didn't realize how much until after I had the surgery. I guess because I didn't have to deal with them to get the original approval, I wasn't seeing it as much. No insurance fraud stuff, but half the time they never answer their phone (DURING BUSINESS HRS), they WAY overbook their office visits making you wait an hr beyond your appt time because they are behind, most of the time you can never get an answer on anything important because the person you need to talk to isn't there.... the list goes on. Thank goodness the surgeon seems to be good at cutting anyways, and although that ranks higher on my list, I do expect competency from the office staff. They can actually screw A LOT of things up making your life miserable with missing paperwork, wrong information, etc.... Their office messed up my paperwork for disability from work and had I not caught it, it would have caused problems at work- or at the very least a great deal of frustration getting fixed after the fact. My surgery was out of state I will NOT be going back to them for follow ups. My local PCP cares more about my post-op than they do- and seeing him doesn't require going out of town. So, just some things to consider. Getting the re-approval is not that big of a deal. If you have concerns about the staff, I would SERIOUSLY consider finding another surgeon.

I have the same stuff. I only have a small amount at a time, but it tastes sooooo good I really have to be careful. I easily gravitate to foods that have a real taste appeal much like I did before surgery. I could easily eat wayyyyy more PB than I should and then I know it would have negative impacts. I made a packet of sugar free banana cream pudding and same thing- I couldn't resist the urge to eat it up in 2 days- maybe it was a day and a half. I'm not making anymore of that either. Maybe when I'm able to get more physical exercise in (only 3 wks out), I can use those as treats so I can better counter balance the calories.

It happened to me to. I went up 3# on week #2 when I was allowed to start eating mushies. I'm eating what I'm supposed to and probably not even enough because my tummy just gets too full. I'm probably not getting enough protein in just yet- but I lost those 3# and down another 3#. Just try to be patient and stick to your plan.

I just tried yellow squash for the first time ever in my life. A lady gave me some from her garden. I didn't really even know how to cook it, but I was willing to try it after I looked up the nutrient content. I sliced it like a cucumber and then when the when some of the slices got big I cut them in half or quarters, then sauteed them in butter. I'm still in the mushy stage and they went down super easy!!! 4 oz raw summer squash (¼ lb.): 2 grams effective (net) carbohydrate plus 1 gram Fiber and 18 calories http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/carbcounts/a/summersquash.htm

Just looked at her blog- that is awesome- thank you for sharing!!!

I love this picture! The horse looks like he/she really knows their job! I don't have a horse to do timed events with right now, but I may change that for next summer. I really enjoy showing western pleasure, but am growing tired of the politics.

That sounds great too! Thanks!

Ahhh, finally got it. The one of me riding is from last October when I competed at U.S. Nationals (won a Top Ten award). The grey is a rescue from awhile back. The two chestnuts (the one on the left is 25 this year and the one on the right had a tragic accident over a year ago and had to be put down). The big bay is a 1,350 14 year old trail horse- big teddy bear. They are my children- they just have 4 legs and fur.

But, it won't let me pull a picture from my laptop. It will only let me pull from a web link. Did you pull it from your computer?