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No I haven't. I didn't buy any of the Vitamins yet, I'm still trying to decide which one is best and closest to all natural.

What was the reason for denying you?

I was looking into getting this liquid vitaimin but then I read reviews that said it tasted horrible. What exactly does it taste like? I was also looking into getting Organic life but then I noticed it didn't have Vitamin K so that was a bummer. Another one I'm considering is liquid gold but it is expensive!

Since they want me to start taking the multivitamin and calcium now, i think i'll start with the gummy and if I'm not allowed to take them then I'll just switch it up after the surgery. As for the multivitamin I saw a liquid Vitamin that looked really good. We can take a multivitamin in liquid form, right? So Vitamin K has to be in my multivitamin, right? I saw a multi that I really wanted to get until I realized the only vitamin missing was K.

Yes the video I was walking to was by Leslie Sansone. I actually found a full video on youtube. It was a 2 mile video and even though I felt like quitting 5 minutes into the video I kept going, but after 15 minutes into the video I had to stop because I started to get really bad dizzy spells. I rested for a few minutes and then just did some leg stretches on the floor. So 15 mins I suppose is a mile on that video. I would like to try and do the 15 minutes 2x a week and maybe sometime after the surgery I'll be able to do the full 30 minute video 2x a week. Is that a reasonable goal or do people usually exercise more than that? Also, when I'm following the walking video I mute the volume on it and I listen to some music that I really like. It keeps me motivated to keep moving.

I think this is going to be one of my biggest challenges (*i think*). I'm not able to easily get to a gym because I don't currently drive. I have a big gut and I'm short (5ft tall), so when I pull the seat up to reach the pedals my stomach is pressed up against the steering wheel and it makes it difficult to steer. Today I found a good walking video to follow however after 5 minutes and I was ready to quit because I just found it too difficult. A walking video! Not even a quick moving exercise video. So do you exercise at all? and if so, what does your exercise routine look like each week? I'm looking for ideas on what I can possibly do. oh and I usually avoid outdoor walks because for some reason the outdoors cause me more problems with breathing than walking indoors (ex: the mall).

I went to the NUT seminar on Friday and I left there a little bit confused. We were told we needed to keep a food diary, which I have been. But are we expected to go on a diet right now as well? I mean they went over all the healthy eating choices and yes it's not anything I haven't heard before but if our food diary doesn't show the food choices they went over with us at the seminar does that mean we won't be able to get the surgery? or do they just want to see what (and how much) we eat on a regular basis? (fyi: we were told they don't require a pre-op diet. Only a 6 month weight loss program if you haven't been through one in the last 5 years). I want the surgery for portion control, not to be restricted for the rest of my life on 'you can eat this, but not that'. Also, are we suppose to be practicing eating without fluids right now? This is very new to me and I've always been told to drink drink drink (Water that is!) and I usually drink lots of water with all my meals, it's the only time I can make sure I'm getting enough water intake. Plus it fills me, making me full faster. Now I'm being told not to drink a half hr before eating, when eating and a half hr after eating. I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.

Thanks Selena. I haven't had the surgery yet. I've only had the NUT seminar and on June 6th I have my physical and history. I'm just worried that after the surgery I'll have a hard time staying commited to doing some physical activity on a regular basis.

Ya, hard to believe but I believe it. Congratulations on your weight loss so far.

On a scale 1 to 10 where 1 is not at all and 10 is loads of it. How much willpower do you think you have? and how has it effected your journey through the weightloss surgery? Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough will power and that scares me going into this surgery. I want to be successful obviously but I don't know how to push myself out of my comfort zone, or maybe i'm just afraid too (in regards to exercising). I avoid it because it does bring me outside my comfort zone. Next week I have my first NUT appointment.

Ya right.... I mean congrats! Thats amazing. What are you doing for exercise?

When I looked more into detail of what my insurance will cover it looked like for the sleeve you needed to have a BMI of 50 or over because they consider it a part 1 of a 2 part surgery. Meaning your bmi is too high and you are consider high risk for the gastric bypass. It also went on to say that you don't necessarily need to have the gastric bypass after the sleeve. But my point is that they might not cover the sleeve unless your bmi is over 50. Well....My BMI is 51.4, but if I am required to do a 6 month weight loss program prior to surgery then I'll easily fall below a bmi of 50. What do I do in this type of situation? I don't want to put myself at risk of not being able to get this surgery just because I followed the rules and lost weight prior to surgery.

Let me start off by saying I'm a horrible lier so I avoid doing it. But now I'm in a situation where I don't know if I should (or even could) lie about my weight loss and how many months i've been on a program. 6 months is a minimum requirement otherwise I'll have to go through their 6 month program which will be setting me back even more for the surgery. So the only "supervised" or documented weight loss attempts that I have is when i saw a registered dietician last year. The problem though is that she never weighed me and only had me come in one time for a follow up (a week after the initial meeting with her). Can I put that down as having following the dietician weight loss program for 6 months and losing weight? The other problem with that is I've been to other doctor offices who have weighed me and probably have those weigh ins in my chart and they probably show no weight loss or maybe a pound or two weight loss difference. Those appointments were towards the end of the year (Nov, and Dec). I saw the dietician in June of last year. (fyi: No I really didn't follow the program for 6 months. I gave it a real effort for a couple of months but got discourged soon after.)

Wait, so you weren't able to get the surgery afterall? all because you did the 6 month program and lost weight? thats a scary thought too!

I'm worried about it because I've already met my deductible for this year and if I have to wait till January or later to get the surgery then I have to meet my deductible all over again before the insurance company will pay anything for the surgery. Then after I meet the deductible it is a 20% co insurance which isn't a big deal. I just wanted to get the surgery before Dec 31st of this year since my deductible is already met. I don't meet with the NUT or get my physical exam until June so if they do say I need to go on a 6 month program I'd be cutting it VERY close.

I don't think I'm going to tell anyone about the surgery except my husband. I just don't want to be judged because of my decision. Plus I can't tell my mom, she would literally lose her mind. This is the same person who yelled at the doctor and told him not to take my fallopian tube when it had already ruptured and was killing me from the internal bleeding (ectopic pregnancy). My husband kept trying to tell her that the fallopian tube is no good anymore, it ruptured. So if she found out I was getting a large portion of my stomach removed she would seriously lose her shi t over it. Therefore I can't risk telling other people in fear that it will get back to her. Is this the right thing to do, to keep this a secret? what has been your experience? and did you tell others about the surgery or keep it to yourself? Oh and another thing I fear is that if I have a complication from the surgery and she ends up finding out about the surgery she'll be really upset at me for never telling her about the surgery to begin with. I do feel bad about not telling her because she usually does know whats best for me but when it comes to something like this I doubt she'll understand where I'm coming from. She is very much about everything that is natural and organic and healing the body with food. She comes off as someone who is very anti-surgery.

I hope to see more responses in this thread because I too am interested in what people have lost at 4, 8 and 12 weeks post op. I haven't gotten the surgery yet but its still nice to know what to look forward to. I wonder if this thread would have gotten more responses if it were in the general forum? has the majority of the people in this message board community already gotten sleeved?

While I do worry about weight gain years later, possible leaks right after surgery, the pain you experience right after surgery and the struggles post op. My biggest concern actually has to do with the staple line. What happens 25-30 years from now? Is there is a leak risk many many years later? I know that the sleeve hasn't been around that long and so there isn't any way to know for sure, but that is my biggest fear, that something many years later could go wrong. With that said though, I don't think that fear will keep me from going forward and getting the gastric sleeve. I'm pretty sure I could lose the weight without the sleeve but my biggest problem that I've always had has been keeping the weight off and actually I've always gained more weight than I have started with each time I do lose weight. I want/need to stop that cycle.

I also can't decide if I should tell my MIL and FIL or not. I know if I do that MIL (mother in law) would come and stay for a few days to help us out (we live a couple hours away from both our families). But my MIL tends to have a big mouth, so I'm worried if I tell her, she will spill the news to someone else and the news will get back to others that I really don't want knowing. I just worry that my husband will have a very hard time taking care of our daughter on his own. Shes 2 years old.

See I did not know this but now you've spiked my interest. Was the surgery that was done for stomach ulcers the same thing or very similar to the sleeve?

Hi, I'm new to this forum but so far i've found it very informative. Today I went to the seminar and before going I already had my mind made up that I wanted the vertical sleeve, but now after going to the seminar I'm not sure if the vertical sleeve is the right surgery for me or not, or if I should get the gastric bypass. I am 5ft tall (well, 4' 11 and three quarters) and I weigh 270. So to get to my ideal weight (normal weight for my height) I would need to lose close to 150 pounds. Thats a lot of weight to have to lose and I'm just not sure the sleeve will be best or not. The surgeon at the seminar said people lose more weight with the gastric bypass surgery over the sleeve or the band. So what has been your experience with the sleeve? do you wish you had gotten the gastric bypass instead? and what ultimately made you decide to go with the sleeve over any of the other weight loss surgery options? Thanks!

Really? because right now I have horrible acid reflux. I thought it had everything to do with the kinds of food you ate. So if I get the sleeve and eat right will I still have the acid reflux problem? Also I'm currently on ompermerazole (sp?) for it.

Not lie to the insurance company because I don't know exactly what they are looking for. I called them today and gave them the procedure code for the sleeve and I was told it was covered and I asked what requirments are needed to be met before the surgery and I was told only a pre-certification. So I don't know if maybe the guy I was talking to over the phone didn't know what the insurance company requires (qualification) or not. On the patient intake questionnaire for the bariatrics office they ask the following question: " which diets have you tried in the past, indicate for how many months and how much weight you lost". So it was on that form I was going to say 6 months with a dietician. I could probably get away with saying that I lost maybe 15 pounds because towards the end of that year I did go off my medications for hypothyroidism and I did let my thyroid specialist know this. So I could probably say my thyroid ended up being sluggish again (which is actually true and I have the blood work to prove that) and my weight started to come back on even while still following the dietary guidelines set forth by my dietician. That would explain the little difference in weight gain/loss from June until December. But then I don't know if they'll look at that and say I didn't put in much effort because I allowed my thyroid levels to become out of control. For the record I did go back on my thyroid medications and my levels have since returned back to normal. I *think* at the seminar meeting they said they understand that people don't always have documented weight loss attempts with a physician, but that they wanted to see that you did try to lose weight sometime in the last 5 years, for atleast 6 months or longer.

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your reasons for doing the gastric sleeve instead of the gastric bypass. Now that i've read up on dumping and food restrictions I'm pretty sure I want to still go with the sleeve. I know this might all depend on what the surgeon has to say too but I still want to be able to eat whatever I want, even if it's just a small bite and thats it. I don't want to worry about the dumping. That sounds painful! I'm also concerned about malabsorption with gastric bypass so the sleeve sounds more of the right fit for me.