kkandrod

Hey Carrie! I'm not sleeved, YET I'm just starting the process and next week have checkups with my Primary Care doc and my OB/GYN since I have PCOS and hope to have both of them write whatever kind of letters have to be written when submitting all the paperwork for approval. Then, I guess it's on to meeting with surgeons. I'm having FAITH that all the doors will be opened for me when it gets down to the nitty gritty of getting insurance approval. I don't want any other kind of surgery so I know that my docs are going to have to make a killer case for why VSG is the only kind I should have and then God's going to smile on that killer case and soften the hearts of the "approvers" at the insurance company, lol. Anyway, I saw you were from Louisiana so I wanted to say hey since I'm a LA girl too :-) All my stuff will be going on in Shreveport unless I find out there's just a world renowned VSG surgeon somewhere else in the state, lol. Somebody speak up if there is!! Best wishes on everything!! Can't wait to see all your updates and I bet you'll be in surgery before you know it with you being self pay and not having to jump through the insurance hoops!! Be blessed!! Krystal

Hi Stacy!! LOL I totally agree with you on Him blessing us with our intelligence. I think that's why I found VSG in the first place. So, now I've made the decision of my own free will, but I want His blessing on it before going through with it. Trust me, me and my intelligence have made alot of decisions that were NOT in His plans for me and they have always blown up in my face because I did not let Him have control of the situations. He didn't cause these things to go wrong, I did because I didn't invite Him to be in control of them. So, we are just making sure that my decision is in accordance with His will cuz I sure don't want this one blowing up in my face, lol

Praise God LAN2k for what He did for you with the surgery!! It's so good to see others who know who is in control, but we have to ask Him to be first! I'm thinking I need to not only see my PCP, who I know will be on board (he's who mentioned WLS to me to begin with about 2 years ago, but also my OB/GYN because of the PCOS and he has a longer weight history on me, including losses and gains. I never thought about an Orthopedic doc. I know my Chiropractor has done scans on my feet and I need orthotic in soles in a major way. You think I should include something from him too if he thinks it's weight related? I work for him now, lol, so I don't think that would be a problem. I also saw a cardiologist a couple years back who ran all kinds of tests on me but didn't find anything major wrong. Just that I have a little bit of backflow in one of my valves but he didn't say anything needed to be done about it. So, I don't know if I need to contact him or not to include anything when everything is sent in. The surgery scares me, actually the getting over the surgery and past the risk of complications scares me but then I remember that if God is in control He will protect me and heal me. Plus, it's gonna take God giving me favor with the Insurance company to even get approved. But, I know He will if this is His will!! As far as my sweetheart, I know he is researching as much as he can while at work and he has even talked to one of his best buds out there. Of course, his friend is skinny and his wife is too, lol, so he said he doesn't know how he'd feel if it were his wife, he said he thinks he'd have a hard time. But, my hubby knows he can't base his decision off of someone who isn't anywhere near the situation we are in. So, prayer and research and waiting is what we can do for now. I'm SO ready to go next week to my PCP! Then it's wait again for an appt with whoever he refers me to. I'm gonna call today and see if I can get an appt with my OB/GYN for the same day or the next week so I can get that out of the way, it's past my yearly checkup time with him so that'll be the chance I need to talk to him about it all. Thank you so much for your reply! I love talking to others who rest their cares on Him and believe in His power to make things happen for us. I've seen it over and over and over in my life and I know He's not going to stop answering our prayers. Looking forward to continuing this journey!! Be blessed! Krystal

I've been obsessed with this site and OH for the last week or so. And, I know that leaks are uncommon but I've also read about a few who have had them and one or two who are dealing with MAJOR stuff because of them not healing. My question is, how many of you who had leaks after surgery know the leaks were caused from being revised from another surgery? Ok, so there's more than one question, LOL. Second one is, those of you who had leaks that were not caused by damage done from the band or from whatever it was that you were revised from, were they the surgeons fault or was it something that just happened without a known cause? I am a smoker, and if I get approved for surgery I do plan on quitting beforehand. But, because of being a smoker for 17 years now, I have to cough from time to time and sometimes even have coughing fits if I have or am getting over a cold. I have a 6 year old so I'm constantly getting exposed to his little colds he brings home from school and usually end up sneezing and coughing alot and I'm freaking out over that happening right after surgery and winding up in a horrible situation. Basically, if someone who's never had any other WLS surgery does the VSG and follows the diet to a tee, they have pretty good odds that a leak won't happen right? I know alot depends on the surgeon. But, leaving the surgeon out of the equation. The one I'm looking at hasn't done a ton of VSG's but has been doing bypasses for several years and has been a general surgeon for many years and has had to do removal of parts of the stomach due to cancers and things. So, I'm hoping that if he's who my pcp refers me to, he's got an awesome handle on the whole thing. Anyway, just looking for leak experiences with the whole back story, no matter what they may be. And, I just want to say that I'm so glad you are on the other side of that experience!!! And if you are still going through it, I pray for your healing!! Thanks in advance and God Bless!! Krystal

Girl, I'll be saying a prayer for everything to be ok with that low BP and for your quitting. I'm proud of you for being brave enough to do it!! Up til now, as stupid as it is, I never took the thought of quitting seriously. Now I'm like "whatever, if it means I can have surgery to finally lose this weight, I'll quit" LOL How selfish am I? Sheesh, LOL Wow, me putting that into words just now is kind of an eye opener on the whole subject. Just goes to prove how addicted I am. All the risks to myself and my family were not enough for me to take quitting seriously. But this surgery is making me want to do it. Kinda sad isn't it. Hmmm.....well, I'm off to do some soul searching now, lol. Talk to y'all soon. Tiffykins, keep us updated on the low BP girly. Krystal

Oh Melly! I'm so sorry I scared you with my post!! I have only seen a few people out of the many, many, many who post here and at OH that have had leaks or complications period. I'm just so obsessed with this whole thing that I want every single detail about every single thing that could possibly, or not so possibly, go wrong, lol. Tiffykins, I tell you what, you amaze me girl!! You have been through it!! And come out so well on the other side. You are blessed and you are a blessing to others!! Yeah, after reading from you and some of the others about the whole smoking thing, I'm scared to death to keep smoking and have the surgery. When I finally meet whatever surgeon my PCP sends me to, I'll find out if he requires it to do the surgery but will more than likely quit beforehand regardless of if it's a requirement or not. I know you said that you smoked so had you quit when you had the sleeve surgery done? I haven't seen many people post about smoking on here so I don't know if most of the ones that smoke were smoking pre-op or if they quit and then picked it back up awhile after surgery or if they stayed quit. I know one thing, I pray I quit well before hand because I'd hate to go right up to surgery and quit and go through withdrawals from that and food at the same time. Could you imagine? OH MY, my poor family!! LOL I'd have to be in prayer constantly for sure cuz He's the ONLY thing that could get me through those things! Well, He is anyway but ya know what I mean Thanks for the responses!!!! Krystal

Thanks y'all for the responses!!! So, I was talking to him tonight and he seems to be coming around, maybe, lol. He said, "I don't know baby, part of me wants to tell you to go for it because I know it's what you really want to do but the other part of me is still thinking about how crazy having 85% of your stomach cut out seems." It's an improvement y'all! LOL Bless his heart. As far as not wanting someone else to make this decision for me, I understand those sentiments. But, I also know that when I really want to do something, even though I seek the Lord's guidance for everything, I sometimes mistake my fleshly desires and reasons as His answer. In our marriage, when it comes to things that will affect not just the one person but the whole family, we both make sure and pray for God's answer, not ours. So, when I said that if my husband felt like he was led by the Lord to not be for this, I would have to really take that seriously. I know this may not make much sense to some, lol. But, I just wanted y'all to know I'm not married to some control freak or anything, lol. He's an amazing man who I trust with my life and who I know seeks the Lord's guidance in everything too and if he felt to his core that God was not giving him peace about this, I would have to listen because I trust him and know him well enough to know that he wouldn't just say that to keep me from doing something, it would be, literally, the God's honest truth. Trust me, I'm spoiled ROTTEN and he would bend heaven and earth to give me anything I ask for and has, 'til now:wink0: And will with this too if we are both given the green light from Above. :thumbup: Ok, so obviously, y'all know more about me now. Hope ya didn't mind that little marriage bio there, lol. Thanks again for all the replies! I really hope to get to know y'all alot better! You ladies are some amazing and strong women!! I spent an hour or so reading over the NSV's thread. SO inspiring, heartwarming and funny!!! Oh I PRAY that I get to be posting on there soon with my little ticker in my signature!! Hey, maybe my hubby's quote up there at the top of this post could be considered my first little NSV huh? LOL Have an awesome night ladies and fellas!! God Bless y'all! Krystal

Ok, so I haven't gotten a for sure doctor yet. I want to go to my PCP first and have him refer me to one. BUT, I am going to ask him about this one doctor who did the lap band on a friend of mine and he came highly recommended. I called this doctor's office and spoke for a long while with the desk and she answered a ton of questions for me with no problem at all. And I felt ok with him being the one that I might be referred to. After reading about making sure your doc has done 300 or more VSG's I'm second guessing myself. This doc has only done 10 to 15 VSG's for weight loss. BUT he is also a general surgeon and has been doing similar surgeries to the VSG for stomach cancer and other reasons for many, many years. She said he loves the VSG surgery and would love to be doing them more than any other WLS but hasn't because there are only a couple insurance companies that cover and around here, most are not going to have the money to self pay, so that makes sense. Cuz I'm not going to be able to self pay if my insurance declines me because my BMI isn't 40. Anyway, he has had zero complications from the VSG's he has done. So do I take comfort in that and the fact that he is also a very, very experienced general surgeon who has done a ton of surgeries involving the stomach and even removal of part of the stomach? Or do I write him off completely as a choice because he's only done 10 to 15 VSG's? Thanks in advance and God bless! Krystal