Bakomom

YAY! I am having my surgery on October the 10th also!!! It will be so exciting to watch everyone's journey.

Hi Everyone! All of my paperwork has finally been submitted and now I am a nervous wreck waiting for insurance approval. I decided to help pass the time and keep me occupied, I will buy a few things that I need post op. I already have the things that I will need in the hospital, however I have a list of things that I want to purchase for later. One thing I want to get is an accurate bathroom scale. I have a scale that is probably 15+ years old and never weighs me the same. What brand do you guys recommend and where did you get yours? Also, the food scale that I currently have is very old and I would like to purchase a digital one. Which one would you recommend and where did you get yours? Oh...one more question in regards to what you drank out of right out of surgery. I have heard of people using dixie cups, etc. What would you recommend?

Thanks Wishes!

Congratulations on your insurance approval! My paper work was finally faxed today. I am super nervous, I think the waiting is the worst part. I would love to watch your vlogs. I am on YouTube and my channel name is ilovemygoldens1.

You probably got your pre op blood work drawn by Emily. She's a sweet girl and loves her patients so much! Dr. Irani is the oldest of the three doctors in the group. Dr. Naik might be the one you are thinking of that is so darn cute! Dr. Naik is very relaxed and he'll throw a little wink out there every once in a while. He is pretty adorable! I hear that Dr. Garcia's patients have very minimal scarring though and he was the one that did my lapband seminar. I'm very proud of our hospital and so very happy that you had a positive experience! If you do write a letter and mention your caretakers by name, they will get rewarded and some kuddos for their "Sacred Work" as we call it. I'm so happy you are doing well and I will be watching your journey! Take care, Becky

You probably got your pre op blood work drawn by Emily. She's a sweet girl and loves her patients so much! Dr. Irani is the oldest of the three doctors in the group. Dr. Naik might be the one you are thinking of that is so darn cute! Dr. Naik is very relaxed and he'll throw a little wink out there every once in a while. He is pretty adorable! I hear that Dr. Garcia's patients have very minimal scarring though and he was the one that did my lapband seminar. I'm very proud of our hospital and so very happy that you had a positive experience! If you do write a letter and mention your caretakers by name, they will get rewarded and some kuddos for their "Sacred Work" as we call it. I'm so happy you are doing well and I will be watching your journey! Take care, Becky

Hi there! I am so glad to hear you are doing well after your surgery. What a small world, I work at San Joaquin Community Hospital! Since I am an employee, I will also be having my surgery there in a couple of months. Which surgeon performed your surgery? I have Dr. Irani and when I asked his PA at my surgical consult, she said he usually uses a 34 bougie, It may depend on your size/frame etc. Both of the other surgeons in the group are awesome too. Anyway, big prayers going out that you have a restful night. If you have to get your blood drawn, tell them Becky said to do a good job! Lol, I am the phlebotomy trainer there. Take care!

I had to have a six month physician supervised weight loss. It was also required that I have my insurance for 3 years prior to even being able to submit a request for surgery. I work at a hospital and several people were coming to work for us just so that they could have WLS and then leaving shortly thereafter. It stinks for me since I have worked there for over 20 years but had just always used my husbands health insurance plan. Good luck with all of your testing! I can't wait to hear when you get a date!

Congratulations to you! I am sure that is a huge sigh of relief for you. I am still pre op and can't submit my request to my insurance until September 7th and I know I am terrified that they will find one reason or another to deny my surgery. Good luck with all of your pre op stuff. Did they give you a date yet?

I agree with you Rosalind. My doctor has a ton of experience, however all three surgeons in his office require a pre op diet. They have to use a tool to actually hold your liver up so that they can actually get to your stomach. A fatty liver will bleed super easy. Just touching it with the tool to hold it up can sometimes make them bleed. Also, a fatty liver is much more rigid which can cause bleeding. By doing the pre op diet and losing a decent amount quickly, it helps the liver to become more pliable and therefore less likely to bleed. I haven't gotten to that point yet and when I do I am sure it won't be easy, but I am glad my doctor wants the pre op diet. I think for me personally (and everyone is different) it will help get my mind in the right place for post surgery. I think it will be a huge challenge, but it is one I am ready to tackle!

Hey guys, I have a question regarding how much exercise insurances typically deem as acceptable when they require a six month exercise log. How many days per week are they expecting you to have exercised and for how long? Also, I was originally only told that I needed to log exercise and was just recently told I should do a food log and to ""try to remember back." Yeah right, like I can remember what I ate every day for the four months prior to hearing this! Do anyone have an example of what their logs looked like and an idea of what the insurance company is looking for? I am so scared that they are going to find some tiny little thing and deny me the surgery. Any input is greatly appreciated!

You're going to be so happy you did this. Try not to worry too much, you'll be just fine. I can't wait to hear about all of the success you have.

Hello everyone! I have been dragging my feet for a while and decided it was time to just in here and introduce myself. I have been so inspired by so many of you ~you guys are amazing. OK, well a little about me. I am 41 years old and have been married to the love of my life for 20 years. I have a 19 year old daughter and 17 year old son. I was diagnosed about 10-12 years ago with lupus and fibromyalgia. My PA at the time tried many different medications to try to relieve some of my pain without much success and I spent a lot of time either in bed or on the couch. I was over weight before this, but a combination of the meds and lack of exercise I gained over 100 pounds. I have since found a new rheumatologist and feel like a new woman! OK, so fast forward three years ago. I work for a hospital and have worked there for 20 years. For our entire married life, our family has been covered under my husbands insurance. My husbands insurance was horrible and we were paying high premiums, so I decided to check in to obtaining health insurance through the hospital. Well, as it turns out, we now have amazing insurance and I don't pay a dime in insurance premiums. The other nice thing is that any procedure or test that is done at our hospital is completely covered-no out of pocket expense for us at all. I quickly decided to check in to our bariatric program at work. I went to my first seminar almost three years ago and found out that my insurance had just changed the policy for covering WLS. You have to have our insurance for three years before they will cover it...great just my luck. At the time I was planning on having the lapband done. In addition to my aches and pains, I had high blood pressure. So I have been waiting for the last three years to have my surgery. Meanwhile, earlier this year, I was diagnosed with both sleep apnea (I wear a CPAP at night) and most recently diabetes. My three years will be up on September 15th. I started my 6 month supervised weight loss in April and will finish that in September. I finally was given the ok to have my surgical consult, so I am ecstatic about that. It finally feels like this just might happen. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. On my first appt. with my primary care, I told him that I was there for my 6 month supervised weight loss for lapband and that I was afraid of the bypass. He said well why don't you do the sleeve? That is when I found out about the sleeve! I had never even heard of it before that! It turns out that my insurance just began covering the sleeve on the 13th of this month! I really think it was meant to be. I feel much more confident regarding the success of the sleeve compared to the lapband. I was worried to put about my body rejecting the lapband because of the lupus. Honestly, I am just so ready for this. I think the 3 year wait turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me! Anyway, this week I have my surgery consult and I will take it from there. I am super excited to get to know everyone and learn everything I can about how I can have the most success when I finally have my surgery. Take care, Becky

Thank you so much for all of your help! My physician really likes Dr. Irani and I had a great outcome with my gallbladder surgery when Dr. Irani removed it. I was really afraid of the gas pains because I had horrible gas pains after an abdominal surgery done 18 years before. He assured me that they use a different gas now and that I would do well and he was right. I didn't have any problems at at. From what most people say, the gas pains for the sleeve surgery tends to be the worst part also. I work at San Joaquin, so I will have my surgery there. I have never met Dr. Irani's PA. I am relieved to hear she is good too. Bummer that all of the testing have to be in the last 30 days since I just had a PFT and sleep study a few months ago. Oh well, no biggie. Yes, it does sound like we live pretty close. I would love a walking buddy! I have been doing Water aerobics at home and I am loving it. I definitely want to be in the best shape possible for my surgery.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I am learning so much here. I really appreciate everyone's honesty about everything.

SmokyMtnGal2011, That is awesome that we will be finishing our 6 months at around the same time! Have they let you do anything yet other than the monthly visits? Thanks for the welcome, I can't wait to go through this amazing journey together!