Sleevie WonderLand

I had the same issue, my bmi stayed just under 39. I was tested for sleep apnea which helped me to become a credible candidate for the surgery. I think it's awful that the insurance companies can deny someone who is obese this surgery because they are a few points short of the required BMI of 40. You have to put yourself at more risk just to qualify, which sounds absolutely ridiculous. I say do what you gotta do to get those ten pounds in. *wink*

I'm curious about bariatric fusion too...are the flavors true to their name? I am not a coffee drinker at all, so I wont be ordering the cappucino. And is there an after taste? Some times these Protein shakes and Vitamin thingys can go down easy at first, but then that after taste kills the deal.

OMG!!! REB is sleeved! I'm so happy for ya lady!

Hey Lovely! We have a lot of Bronxites in this group! Boogie down in the house! Thanks for joining the group, and much success to you on your journey. Your date is coming up soon, huh? We're excited for you! Please be sure to give us loads of details!

Hi Laury! Welcome to the group! Hope Irene didnt interfere with your surgery. Let us know how you're doing!

Met with my surgeon last week. Forgot to bring my list of questions, but I did manage to ask him about bougie size. He said he uses a 40, finds that his patients fare better with the 40 versus anything smaller, especially in terms of acid reflux. His success rate is pretty good (I asked him and of course I expected him to say that), hasnt had any sleeve patients die on him and hasnt had any leaks, but he assured me that if there were any complications he and the hospital staff will do their best to accommodate me and make sure i'm well before I walk off their premises. He also told me that i'll need to bring my cpap machine with me to the hospital. I havent gotten it yet, the medical equipment company is supposed to come to my house on Friday to give it to me and show me how to use it. I'm also struggling with these damn vitamins. The gummy ones are no problem, but the vitamin D pills sit on my chest all day no matter how much I drink to wash them down. The worst though is the chewable calcium tablets that I purchased. It's like chewing on sweet sand and baby powder. so gross. I cant believe I have to take this crap. I've been a naughty nellie, though. I have iron pills and I havent taken one yet. I know I need them, but I just hate being constipated and having that metallic taste in my mouth. I know, I know, I gotta man up and do what I gotta do. I'm scheduled to visit the psych dude tomorrow, and once he sends the letter to my doctor's office my paperwork will be submitted to the insurance company. I cant believe I've actually jumped through all these hoops! I guess I shouldnt rejoice just yet, still need to hear what the verdict from the insurance company will be, so I'm trying to play it real cool. I've been having wonderful dreams lately. Cant remember them all in detail, but I do remember that I seem to be pretty slim and sexy. I guess since I've been visualizin my self losing weight (if I can see it, I can be it!) it's carrying over to my dreams. I still havent told anyone other than hubby, but I am thinking of doing a video blog as suggested by my sleeve sister. I think it will be nice to see the transformation for me, and for anyone else out there on this journey. I'm cuttin out right here. until next time sleevers... :tounge_smile:

Keep pushing through. You're almost at the finish line, dont get discouraged and lose focus now! You CAN do this, just keep remembering all that you went through just to get to this point! Take a breather and remember how important this surgery is to you! Your entire VST family is rooting for you! Next stop....Loser's Bench! Good luck tomorrow with your surgery!

I asked my surgeon and he says he uses a size 40 and I asked why he doesnt use a smaller size and he said that his size 40 patients have less reflux and complaints than the ones who used smaller bougies. He's the surgeon, I'm gonna trust what he says and stick with the 40.

Continued bliss in your marriage! You looked stunning, and the video definitely captured your happiness and made me want to get married to my boo all over again! Thanks for sharing!

So, it’s been a while since I’ve visited VST. I felt like I was overdoing it. I needed to rest my brain a bit from all the sleeve business. I guess as I get closer I’m getting a little overwhelmed and nervous about the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still 100% ready to do the daggone thing, I just felt like I was letting it consume me, and I needed a bit of a breather. So since I’ve been here last I had an echocardiogram done. I gotta admit, I had no idea what an echocardiogram was, just thought it was a more high tech EKG. In a way it was. The best way I can describe it is to call it a sonogram for your heart. It was painless and very interesting to see the chambers of my heart and also to see it beating. I got nervous cause the tech would take snapshots of my heart from different angles, but she said “hmm” a lot during the process. I asked her if something was wrong and she said “no, I just moan sometimes”. I know that she’s not allowed to give me medical info or diagnoses, so I worried and worried until I heard from the doctor that things looked good. I also did a stress test – had to run on a treadmill that inclined and sped up every three minutes. I did pretty good, lasted about 10 minutes on the stupid thing. I was ready to give up after 5 minutes, but I wanted to prove to my doc that my heart was strong so I pushed through that ten minutes like a champ. It felt like an eternity, but I made it! LOL The nurse who tended to me during the stress test (they strapped a heart and BP monitor to my mid section while I was on the treadmill) asked me why I was doing the tests. I explained that I was trying to get clearance for bariatric surgery. She smiled, and didn’t say anything. I could tell she wanted to say something, and I was ready for her if she was gonna give me the “you don’t have to do surgery to lose weight” speech. Instead she told me that she recently had to have her lapband removed because of the complications it caused. She tried to live with it for 11 months. She lost about 16 pounds total, and dealt with incessant vomiting and acid reflux. It finally slipped, and she decided to have it removed. She said she’s maintained the 16 pounds she’s lost since she removed it, but she would never do any type of WLS again. She wasn’t bitter, she just chalked it up to it not being for her. I told her that I was having the sleeve and she didn’t even know what it was. She said she wished that the sleeve was available when she was pursuing WLS, but wonders if she wouldn’t have had the same problems. She doesn’t regret doing it, but is pissed that she’ll be taking prilosec for the rest of her life. It was a nice conversation. AND she didn’t judge me or try to make me reconsider my own decision. I wished her luck and went on my way. I am finally going to meet with my surgeon today *biting nails*. I’m hoping for a date in early September which is right around the corner so I have to hustle and get this psych eval done. I’ve been taking off from work so much for these appointments that I have to be really careful because my boss is definitely taking notice. The psych eval is the last test I’ll need to submit to my insurance. Gotta hurry up an git er done! I also found a “sleeve sister”! We’ve only known each other for about a month, but this VSG journey is bonding us and is making the process so much easier to go through. We’re working with the same doctors and are able to compare notes. We have many things in common, and had a really heartfelt talk over dinner last week that I appreciated more than she’ll probably ever know.

Inspiring! I too am looking forward to reconnecting with my hubby by doing things I wouldnt have done before being sleeved. Continued success on your journey and with your gall bladder surgery!

I'm finding that I'm having to fight off lots of people to get to her. It must be that darned sleeve making her so attractive to all of us!

I just happened to bump up on this thread cause I was stalkin Seattle Sue! *lookin around to see if she sees me* I will be 41 in December and have been proud to shout to the world for the past 8 months that I am 40 years old! I have four children; my oldest who are girls, 18 and 15. My younger children are boys, and they are 6 and 4. I call the boys Terror and Mayhem. The girls are Mastercard & Visa. I'm married to THE MOST caring and supportive person on this planet. Our 9th anniversary will be on September 1st. (for those of you doing the math, my older children were from a previous relationship, lol). I woke up on my 40th birthday feeling brand new. It's funny because I was dreading the big Four Oh for quite some time. I woke up with the word FORTITUDE on my mind. I made it to forty and I decided that I was gonna have a great attitude about it. I had visions of making up t-shirts that read "Forty Tude" on them, but that project fell to the wayside. (I'm famous for that!) Anywhoo, that's me in a nutshell. Trying to get sleeved so I can make it to live in my Fiftytude, Sixtytude, etc...

This slider topic opened my eyes a bit. I thought that once i got sleeved I would only be able to eat a small portion of anything. So approximately how many ounces of food will one be able to eat once sleeved? I would even think that an entire bag of popcorn (even the 100 calorie bag) would be alot of food for a sleever. This is definitely giving me new insight and worries me a bit because I'm definitely the greedy type.

Loved it!