julielle

Alvarez is a great doctor, not sure where you've read that he's not.

Good to know. The Unjury ones I ordered all have a ton of the RDA, they're optimized for gastric bypass so they have even more than we need, and it's all the good kinds. It's just that their calcium chews is lacking a bit since it would only give me 1250 and the recommendation is 1500-2000. I suppose I could also just eat an extra chew, but they're pretty expensive vitamins, it's about 20$ a month for the calcium alone.

I booked my tickets 3 weeks out. I decided to have surgery and I wanted it NOW, so 3 weeks out was the soonest that had affordable tickets. I wish I could have booked it for last week because it would all be over and behind me now but the price was about 3 times more Normally I book about 2 months out for regular tickets. And I try to travel on tuesdays and wednesdays because those seem to be the cheapest days, sundays too.

I ordered the unjury ones and their calcium chews but I think I'll switch to Centrum when I'm done. Plus I think the Unjury ones don't have enough calcium, the guidelines I'm going by are: The multi must contain 100 of the RDA. At least 18mg of Iron Not too much calcium in the multi or it inhibites absorption of the iron calcium citrate, 1500-2000mg a day taken separate from iron/multi, in 3-4 doses. (not more than 500-600mg at a time) Take with Vitamin D (D3) to increase absorption

Mine are 400$ round trip Burlington (Vermont) to San Diego. That's booked directly with United, and booking Economy Plus on the flight home. I checked the prices on Farecompare.com first and then usually book directly with the airlines. My parents had some really bad experience when they booked through Expedia once, one of their flights got cancelled and they got stuck at Newark airport, and Expedia would not help them, and the airline would not either because they hadn't booked directly through the airline. Anyways, for my flights I connect in Newark on the way there, and Chicago on the way home. If I had the choice I'd book Virgin America because they're just a lovely airline, but they're not convenient for a San Diego flight.

I understand the wisdom of having a pillow to press to your incisions when you cough or need to get up or do something like that, it was a real lifesaver when I had my c-section. I guess I just figured that hospitals would let us have an extra pillow for this use if we asked them, I guess that's not the case? I'm only packing a carry on and a pillow would take up half of it.

I don't actually own any bras without underwires, do you think I should invest in one or can I make do with the underwire bras? They're so expensive, I'd hate to spend 50$ on something that I'll wear a week and then never again. I work from home so I don't even really need to wear a bra when I'm at home. I was thinking of bringing some saline nasal spray, I'm afraid that without Water it'll get dry, dry mouth, dry nose! Hopefully they let me rinse my mouth out a lot, I think the dryness will be the worst part for me. I'm bringing my iPad and I'll make sure it has a lot of tv shows and movies on it, and I also have Netflix so if the wi-fi is fast enough then I can watch that too.

i'm so sorry Lil' LO.

You know, it's strange because I live in Quebec and medical care is covered by our provincial health insurance, and yet I'm going self pay (because the waiting list for bariatric surgery in Quebec is at least 3 years long and I'd rather pay now than wait that long!), AND I don't have a PCP to do my follow ups because there's a doctor shortage in Quebec and I'm one of the unfortunately 30-35% of the population without a family doctor. What I do though is every year I get a complete blood panel done by a private lab (get that reimbursed through my husband's work insurance), and at the same time I get a yearly physical done by a doctor, but he ONLY does my yearly physical, he would not follow me post surgery unless it was at that one yearly check up. So on the positive side, I know I have no health issues or Vitamin issues right now. I have no comorbidities, no diabetes, no hypertension (though it's getting borderline). What I could do is pay 500$ to open a file at the private clinic in Montreal, and then pay several hundred out of pocket every time I needed to go do a follow up appointment. That's an option if I need it. I'll wait to see how I feel post surgery. (If there was ever an emergency though I'd just head to the ER and that would be covered by our provincial insurance).

You know, I'm agnostic, but I've never understood why people have to join a conversation between followers of God and criticize them for talking about it. I may not be a believer but I understand and respect that the belief is very important to so many people. OP I'm sorry I know you said you didn't want any non believers posting, but I can see that your friendship with your friend is important, as is your relationship with God and I can totally respect that.

Are you guys using the gas-x strips right after surgery? Like even when you can't drink water yet? I'm a super wimp with a super low pain threshold, but my biggest fear for the surgery is NOT that it will hurt (I kind of expect that), my biggest fear is that I'll have a huge panic attack. I've only been hospitalized twice, both times giving birth, both times = panic attack. And both panic attacks were because I'm extremely claustrophobic and being confined to bed makes me freak out, and then with my son having a dry mouth also sent me off into a panic attack because I felt like my throat was closing in on itself and that I would suffocate to death. SOOOOO I'm kind of dreading that whole "no water for a whole day" thing. Really really dreading it. My friend thinks I'm a bit crazy I think because she thinks it's no big deal, but phobias and the things that set you off aren't rational! Anyways, other than this little issue, I'm fairly calm about this whole thing. My c-section went very well and I was up and walking within hours of my surgery so if the pain level is anywhere under the c-section pain level I think that won't be too horrible, hopefully!

I can say that I did buy his book, but there was no more information in the book than what you can find online for free from other bariatric hospitals. It wasn't a bad book, but it was short and I didn't really learn anything new from reading it.

Ugh I feel for you, I had a cough after my c-section and that was no fun. What helped me was to hold a pillow tight to my stomach before coughing, not sure if that would help in your case but good luck!

Hah, I'm thinking it more likely that your 24$ meal will become a 50$ meal

Oh and if money was not an issue I probably would have picked Michel Gagner here in Montreal and saved myself the travel.

I considered him, but in the end he's not the only surgeon in Mexico with a ton of experience, good outcomes, good reviews, and who uses a hospital. The posts here make it sound like all other surgeons in Mexico do it in a strip mall. I chose Dr Ponce de Leon after reading many positive reviews on him too. I was not looking for a bargain bin doctor, I take my health every bit as seriously as someone else, but I just didn't feel that Dr Aceves was worth 3000$ more. I would gladly pay the extra money if I felt it was warranted, but I'd also gladly save the money and put it aside towards a panniculectomy or something else that I'll need in the future

I was in Vegas last week and thinking about this while filling my plate at the Bellagio buffet (Mmm it was GOOD!). Post op would I eat there again? I think so, because even though I'd only be having tiny portions, variety is nice and being able to eat a bite of this and a bite of that is great too.

I believe we stay at the Lucerna

I've just booked for October 28th with Dr Ponce de Leon

My coordinator is Trish, I have never spoken to her on the phone only by email though.

How long did it take you to get approved once you set in your medical questionnaire? Curious as I sent it in a few days ago and haven't heard anything back, and the flight prices are going up so I'm getting antsy, was hoping to have it done at the end of October! I'm trying to schedule it so that umm, I don't get my period while I'm there, sucks to have to worry about stuff like that!

I used the GNC women's multi without iron (since I was getting a lot of iron from meat on low carb). If I was doing low fat or something else I'd get the one with the iron.

I'll be getting a loan. I could save up for it for a year and then pay outright, but I'd rather get the surgery now rather than let another year go by. I'll be making extra payments on the loan to get it over with faster though.

I've always had good success with the Atkins diet, unfortunately I never managed to keep it going for life so invariably the weight comes back on (hence I've been researching a more permanent solution like WLS), but low carb gives me consistent results. Menus are basically: Meat and veggies. Veggies and meat. Full fat dairy. No potatoes, no carrots, no corn, no bread, no pasta, no sugar (obviously). I ate lots of eggs, steaks, chicken, broccoli and green beans, salads with full fat dressing, cut up raw veggies and ranch dressing, sugar free jello, brie, other cheese, strawberries (or other berries), nuts, jerky... that's about all I can think of right off the top of my head I didn't really count calories (I only counted carbs) but I'd say I probably averaged about 1800 calories a day and lost about 2 pounds a week consistently.