Miss Mac

Two years sleeved. From a medium sausage, onion and green pepper pizza from Little Ceasar's cut in eight pieces......I could eat four pre-op and 1.5 post op.

It doesn't bother me. I don't really concern myself with where a post pops up, but I will admit that punctuation and paragraphs would be helpful.

I was sleeved on 12/23/2013 and came home on Christmas Day. My family knew I was having the surgery so we just pushed it on to Saturday, January 5th. By then, all the main celebrating was done and I presented my gifts to my grandchildren and then came back home. Had I been in your shoes with the crowd not knowing, I would have begged off with the excuse that I was having tummy troubles and need to stay close to my own toilet. I really did not have any kind of energy until I started regular foods at one month.

Well, your dad is wrong, isn't he? This is one of those times that the less you mention it, the better. Once you have your surgery, no one can un-do for you. They can only watch as you get healthy and happy. Thank goodness that you are a grown woman in charge of her own healthcare. Give hubby a hug. A supportive companion makes this process so much more bearable.

That was me up until I had a stress and blood-pressure induced stroke that forced me into early retirement. Boy oh boy, I could not have cared less about that job after that. Hopefully you can get the advice you need to help you put your day into perspective. And you know what? Not a single person that I thought was my work friend or was trying to impress came to see me, call, send flowers or even an email. I would like to hear later on that you have found a way to allow your bariatric surgery to improve your quality of life as well as your health. If you learn to unplug after work so that you can enjoy family, friends, and a worry-free sleep, you will have found the gift of "peace of mind". It is priceless. A job can really suck the joy out of your life and make you one-dimensional. I wish you good luck and good health. Hugs from Chicago.

Soon you will have more good days than bad. Not everyone goes home on the second day. My insurance pre-approved five days, and I went home late on the third. I started full liquids the next day and purees at one week. Some folks are on liquids for a whole month. So even though you are uncomfortable, you appear to be ahead of the game. I was advised to drink 64 ounces of Water per day, but in reality it was about a month before I got to where I could. I started out at an ounce about every fifteen minutes, and now at two weeks short of two years I can drink 100-120 ounces of water a day with no trouble. Your tummy has a lot of healing to do, so just let it be the boss of you for a while. It was close to a month before I could reach my 60 grams a day of Protein. Hang in there. This process requires more patience than anything else you will ever do.

Your dilemma is an example of exactly why we have to have the pre-op testing done. It is certainly no fun but will expose any other issues you have that may cause unwelcome complications. Delay is not denial. You may need to correct some other health issue, but at least your head won't be in the sand. This is all about getting healthy enough to improve our quality of life. Please let us know how this comes out. We learn so much by sharing the bumps and blessings of our surgeries.

I would wait until after the surgery, then no one can talk you out of getting it done. They can only watch as you get healthier. Bariatric surgery has a way of exposing the raw nature of our relationships. Once you tell people, you will know by how they treat you how they really feel about you. It is a painful process, but very helpful. In a short time you will know who your true friends are.

I actually heard this from the pulpit once. "You don't have to lie, but you don't have to tell everything you know." In Poor Richard's Almanac, Ben Franklin said, "To whom thy secrets thou doest tell, to them thy freedom thou doest sell."

Me too.

I am guessing that is how you got your daughter.......walking around the house with your clothes off!

I had my surgery on 12/23/2013 and started medicare on 1/01/2014. So, there was no crossover for that. With the BCSC I think I only paid around $150 for some doctor expense. If I want to do the tummy tuck, Medicare will have to approve it, too. However, neither Medicare nor BCSC Federal will easily approve anything beyond a panniculectomy for the jiggly parts. It is very difficult to get the actual "tuck" paid for, where they do lipo and repair stretched out abdominals.

My sleeve was my 12th surgery. In my abdominal area, I had my appendix out in 1966, my gallbladder out in 1973 (that incision is about 15 inches long), and c-sections in 1976 and 1978, and an abdominal exploratory (bikini incision) for a female problem in 1969. My surgeon teaches bariatric and robotic surgery at Loyola University Medical Center, and did not even mention adhesions. My sleeve was uncomplicated with four laparoscopic incisions and a textbook recovery. I hope everything goes well for you. Hugs from Chicago.

I kept my BCBS Federal when I retired. Between Medicare as my primary and BCBS as my secondary, I pay very little for anything. BCBS Federal is the best insurance I have ever had, ever. When my surgeon sent my compliance packet in, BCBS approved it in two business days.

My trade-off for not losing hair was splitting and shredding nails. Since I was already taking 20,000 mg of Biotin, I added sugar-free Gelatin to my meal plan. It only took a week to get my nails back to their healthy condition. Another way to get collagen in your diet is to make your Soups with bone broth.

10,000 mg twice a day. No hair loss.

I feel ya. I am one of those people who can gain three pounds overnight and it takes a month to get it off.

It's good that you have found a new doctor that you are comfortable with. You remind me of a child who knows to not walk out in the street, but goes out there, anyway. I think almost everyone on the forum, including yourself, are nutrition experts by now. You know what to do. You just have to decide if you value yourself as being worth the effort. Per your medication reference. At one point I had to go back on Lyrica and immediately gained ten pounds in two weeks. I had to stop it and suffer with my neuropathies for another three weeks while waiting on an appointment with the pain clinic. It has taken me two months to get those ten pounds back down. I am rooting for you to regain control of your health. Hugs from Chicago.

Sometimes we just need to take a break from our health issues and daily aggravations and have a giggle. I came across this list today and it cracked me up. Stupid School Excuses (from parents)Misspellings have been left intact. My son is under a doctor's care and should not take PE today. Please execute him. Please exkuce Lisa for being absent she was sick and I had her shot Dear school: please ecsc's John being absent on Jan 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33. Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating. Please excuse Roland from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip. John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face. Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part. Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins. Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side. Please excuse Ray Friday from school he has very loose vowels. Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had (diahre, dyrea, direathe), the sh!ts. Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had (diahre, dyrea, direathe), the sh!ts. Please excuse Tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea, and his boots leak. Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust. Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father's fault. I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because don't know what size she wear. Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday we forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday we thought it was Sunday. My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the marines. Please excuse Jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well. Please excuse Mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps. Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover. Please excuse Brenda. She has been sick and under the doctor. Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat ; her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't the best either , sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night. from http://mistupid.com/people/page083.htmt. previous from:

I am blessed to have a family that is 100% supportive, but if the situation was opposite, I would dig my heels in and refuse to discuss my health with any of them and be around them as little as possible. If I had saboteurs in the house, I would just have to focus and walk away from their dietary mess. I feel for you - just don't give away your power. Hugs from Chicago.

My packet was sent to my insurance on the Thursday before Thanksgiving in 2013, and I was counting on getting approval for Christmas week since I would have help here at home for over a week. I called on the next Monday, and the surgeon's office said that their insurance coordinator would be on vacation until the first of the year and they would not having any approval released before she got back. Say Whaaaat? I called my insurance company and talked to the nurse who had been my case manager for a previous issue. She said that my surgery was already approved (in two days - who does that?). So, she emailed me a copy of the approval letter which also stated that I was approved for up to five days at the hospital. I faxed it to the surgeon's OR nurse, and she set my date right then and there. I got sleeved on December 23rd, 2013. As for the headache question, I did have one for about three days, then it went away.

I live in a tri-level and was all over the place as soon as I got home. The only difference was that I wasn't carry the laundry basket from upstairs to the lowest level. My hubby-man took care of that for a while.

I have a Health O Meter digital body fat scale that I bought at Walmart. It tracks several values for up to four people. I have had this one for two years, and it has stayed right on with the scale at my doctor's office.

Just wondering.......is this doctor unsupportive in general? Does he dismiss your concerns on a regular basis? If you get denied this time around based on his recommendations which you do not agree with, that is the time for a new PCP and a second opinion. You are not stuck with this doctor forever, and his has to cough up your medical records when you demand them. I wish you the best.

Any day that you wake up on this side of the dirt is a good day. Family sure is messy. I would suggest that since your grown son is working, he needs to be paying rent. If he says he needs to save up money for a place, open a joint account with him so that you have a right to look at it, and insist then that he starts putting a months rent into the account every month - and not just what he feels like. Find out what the going rate is for a two bedroom place in your area and figure that that is as much as he will probably have to pay someone else. Once he does that, he needs to be contributing for groceries at least as much as he would be paying in his own place. One place you need to drive him is to get his driver's license. To have two grown men not driving (except driving you crazy) is wrong. What's the matter with them? Does girlfriend have a license? Boy oh boy, it is time to take your life back. Get bold, my bariatric sister and get these people off their arses. If you were,not available they would have to be making their way. I wish you the best and some peace of mind.