Sreeves

@ That's great! I am supposed to be able to eat cream of wheat but I tried that this morning and it was definitely a no-go, lol. I did find this yogurt, Oikos Triple Zero (no fat, no added sugar, no artificial sweetener) that is pretty amazing, and it has 15 gm of protein! I got the coconut cream today but I might venture back to town tomorrow to grab some more. It is tasty and goes down wonderfully.

I am 4 days post op and actually came here for the same reasons, lol. I am feeling very hungry right now. I know it is too soon to eat anything ,and I actually got 60 gm of Protein in today (eating and drinking is a full time job, amirite?!?) but as sad as this sounds, I just knew I could not be the only one feeling icky right now. I might go get another 4 ounces of Fage yogurt 0% mixed with SF raspberry syrup to take the edge off. At least it will keep me occupied for the next 30 minutes! I am so glad you posted, @hello2brenda. It really is comforting to know there are others feeling the same things I am right now. Thank you to the others that posted here, too, and good luck to all on this new journey!

Auri you look fantastic! I am just postop day 3 and cannot imagine looking as good as you do in 6 months. I imagine you feel like a new person. What are you doing for exercise? Right now I am totally afraid to get moving but I know I will have to adopt some type of exercise into my daily routine.

Hi Maverick! Congratulations on taking the step into a non-reversible surgery! I was banded in 2007 in Mexico and had virtually no aftercare. I had fill nurses but all they did was fill me whenever I wanted. Long 7-year story short, I ended up right back at my band surgery weight plus 5 more pounds. I am having gastric bypass day after tomorrow and I have hope for the first time in a very long time. Thank you for the reminder that I did not fail; my band did. I need to remember that this time I am in control, along with my surgery team, and that I CAN do this. You have a wonderful attitude and I know you will succeed this time as well. Take care!

After 4 months of rest from Lap-Band removal I am finally staring bypass in the face! April 8, 2015, is my surgery date. I start the preop diet in just 2 days. I am almost afraid to breathe. What if something goes wrong again? I did not manage to keep my weight at exactly what it was before Lap-Band removal. I have gained 8 more pounds, now weighint 284 pounds, my highest weight ever. My job ends forever in 7 days. My department was outsourced. These past few months have been nothing but stress, but that too is coiming to an end, just in time for surgery! I will have 8 days to clean my house from top to bottom and read anything and everything I can get my hands on about head hunger. I will also start walking during that time so I am primed and ready to go post op. This surgery has to work this time. I am terrified it will be the Lap-Band dabaucle all over again and I just cannot let that happen. I need to make major changes in my life and they need to be forever. Considering I am 13+ years clean from a major meth addiction, this should be a piece of cake, right? Funny thing about that piece of cake. It is NOT the same thing. I am not confronted with my drug of choice day in and day out like I am with food. I know this is where I get hung up and I need to find out why and conquer it. I am grateful to have the support I have through this. I am going to need every bit of it.

Hi Boubette! I am so sorry I just now saw your question. I received my original surgery date just before my all day session. I was worried they weren't moving fast enough to get surgery done last year (and they weren't, lol!) so I hounded them incessantly until they told me when it would be. The actual gastric bypass surgery was scheduled at the beginning of March during a followup visit for my band removal. I know that every doctor is different, though. Are you doing a revision from band to bypass, too?

Wow, Auri, you are such an inspiration! I am also a revision patient but I was only able to get my band removed this month. I have to wait until April now to get the gastric bypass done but seeing your results makes the wait a little easier. Thank you for sharing!

Well, after 6 months of preparing myself for revision, I finally had a date: December 4, 2014. When I met with my surgeon, the very last step before the operation, he told me that things did not look good on the barium swallow. Now mind you, I had a barium swallow done in December of 2012 where the radiologist thought things looked pretty messed up in there. He said I had a hiatal hernia and my stomach was prolapsed up through my diaphragm and that my esophagus was not functioning normally. I went straight to a band specialist and he told me that the only problem was a slightly dilated pouch. He unfilled me completely (I knew I should have left right then and there) and 4 weeks later added back a small fill and then another a couple of weeks after that, both under fluoro. He told me I was good to go and that I needed to keep my calories at 1200 a day. Uh, If I could do that, why was I in this mess in the first place??? I was starving, even with the fill. My second barium swallow was in September of this year. The radiologist at that time said everything looked just hunkey dorey but this is the same swallow my surgeon didn't like. ! So out of 2 swallows with 4 people reading them, I got one surgeon and one radiologist disagreeing on each exam. so confused. Well turns out the very first radiologist and my surgeon were right. I had a 4-hour operation that was strictly to remove the band, which had slipped and repair the huge hiatal hernia. Now I get to wait for about 3 or 4 months to let things settle down before I can go back for bypass. This was 3 days ago and it has been hell since the day of surgery. I was in the hospital overnight but came home to a dying dog. Not even a little bit cool. I had (still have, actually) a ton of excess gas to release from surgery so I have been in pretty extreme pain from that despite walking it off, GasX, etc. I am, however, off narcotic pain meds, which is great. I just hate that crap. Makes me sick. Anyway, it all just kinda sucks right now. I definitely know that my surgeon is looking out for my best interest and I can tell by my pain that he did a ton of work on me so as soon as I am feeling a little better I will adjust my attitude to one of gratitude and wait out the next few months. I have completely forgotten what it feels like to eat normally, so maybe i will get to experience that before bypass. I did just get that amazing new Vitamix, though. I think it is more likely that I will be addicted to smoothies by the time I am ready for bypass. I can definitely think of worse things to do over the next few months than trying out new smoothie recipes!

I got my approval for my revision from band to bypass today, exactly 7 years and 1 day after getting the band. It has been a VERY long process and I am so relieved to know that I am finally at the end of my band problems. I started the process for revision 5 months ago, so it will be 6 months from when I started talking to doctors about revision until surgery, but now that i know it is actually happening I am SO relieved. December 4 is surgery day. I hope I am not super tired at Christmas, but I am prepared. I will have to start the liquid diet the third week of November! Other than worrying about being tired I am pumped. Woo hoo! I want to suceed this time. I have heard that there is no comparison between the band and bypass and I really hope that's true. I am tired of all of the problems I am having with the band. Time for a new start!!!

I get my revision on Dec. 4. I can't WAIT to be done with this band!!!! I just had an "incident" yesterday and man o man will I be happy to be done with that. Most of the time I don't even know it's there and then BAM! Out of the blue I am completely stuck. I am sure I will have issues, too, because my pouch is really stretched. I hope your recovery goes very smoothly and I am so happy to hear you have no hunger. I am hungry all the time at this point.

I got my approval letter today!!! December 4 for me.

It all depends on your provider and your insurance company. I started this journey at the beginning of June and just got my approval letter today!! I have BCBS and I had all of my appointments (except for meeting with my surgeon and a 4-hour nutrition class) done in early August. I was told I was penciled in for December 4 about a month ago and I was really sweating it. I had no idea it would take 6 months from start to finish, lol! I hope your process is much quicker. I know how hard the waiting is.

Hello everyone~ I am facing a very frustrating situation. I had timed my surgery for around the time I would not longer be employed. Or so I thought... What should have been a done deal unraveled and now we have no idea when our department will be reorganized. I am a medical transcriptionist and I work from home, so it isn't like I have to do a lot to get to work, lol. I have used up all my sick time getting ready for surgery so any time off I take will be unpaid, which can only go on for so long. Ugh, I am kinda freaking out now. I don't actually have my surgery date yet. I guess I am just freaking out about still being employed when I do have it. How weird is that?? So, anyway, how long were you off before you went back to work? Did you start slowly (like half days at first) or did you wait until you could put in a full day? How long until you were not completely worn out after a day of work?

I have short term disability, too, and I also have some sick leave but I am pretty sure it isn't going to be enough to cover the time off I need. My surgery date is tentatively scheduled for December 4 and once the insurance company gives the okay I guess I should contact my HR department and find out how that all works. I would really like to be over the worst of the fatigue post surgery before I try to work again, but at least I don't have to go anywhere if I am unable to take sufficient time off. Thank you, everyone, for all of your experiences and your thoughts on this topic!!

@@Whitar10 Wow that is so scary. Congratulations on your baby, too! Hopefully it will be all downhill from here.

@Whitar10 Wow, what an eventful week you had!! I am glad you came through all of that and that you are now on your way to a new, healthy you. Congratulations on your success so far and thank you for sharing your experience!

Denise that is so exciting!!! Wow, just one more day. I have no idea why different doctors have different diets, lol. it seems very strange to me that the preop diet is so varied! I have ONE MORE TEST (Barium swallow) and then it is off to the insurance company for preauthorization. i have already started getting ready (ordering Vitamins, cutting nicotine out of my e-cig, TRYING to reduce caffeine, and eating better) but I am definitely going to have problems with the preop diet. I get so tired, and I will also have to kick the rest of my caffiene habit while working full time and running around after a 5-year-old. Makes me exhausted just thinking about it. I just keep telling myself that soon I will not have to stress out over not having enough caffeine to stay awake at work because I will actually be healthy and have natural energy! Congratulations on jumping thrugh all the hoops and I will be thinking about you tomorrow and praying that all goes well with your surgery. Happy new you!!!

I feel so much better since I wrote this. I really did need to face my feelings. I spent so long acting like my obesity was no big deal when, in fact, I was dying inside and it was eating me up. I knew was putting on a front. I felt like I needed to because although my friends and family are supportive of me, not a single one of them actually gets it. They don't know all of the pain and misery that goes along with being morbidly obese, nor do they understand the psychological toll it takes on a person. I feel like here, on this forum, I can be me, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I am not judged. It feels so good to finally face my true feelings. I met with the nutritionist this week. She was very kind and helpful, and I will be taking a 4-hour class from her prior to surgery. I may even have my surgery date this coming week! Things are getting pretty real right about now! I am ready to become who I am meant to be, not who I have let myself become.

I am not sure exactly when it started. Some time into my re-ascent into morbid obesity, after the Lap-Band surgery failed, I stopped being a girl. First I grew out of all my jeans. Even my fat jeans, the one pair I had saved "just in case." I started wearing sweats all the time; at home, to the store, to the movies... Then it was my hair. I cut it short because I just couldn't be bothered to fix it. Why? I was always in jeans and tee shirts anyway, so what was the point? Then I stopped wearing makeup. I guess I just figured it didn't matter anyway, no one is looking at my face. I suppose it made me feel a little more invisible. I really wanted to be anonymous, nondescript. If I don't call attention to myself, maybe no one will notice how much weight I have gained... So here I am, refusing to buy clothing, even bras and undies, in "this" size. I need to punish myself for doing this to myself. Again. Or do I? Maybe I really don't want to be invisible. Maybe I do want to feel pretty again. Maybe I don't want to be uncomfortable all the time, everywhere I am. I want to cross my legs again. I want to be able to walk through the mall and not get winded while I am shopping for jeans. I want to walk up to the makeup counter at Macy's and say, "Make me pretty" because I want to FEEL pretty. I don't want to get rashes in my skin folds. I want to grow my hair. First thing I am going to buy when I am able to shop at a normal store is a pink Seahawks jersey. I tried to buy one last year, but I can only shop for shirts in mens' big and tall. They don't make pink Seahawks jerseys in mens' big and tall. Next football season I am going to dress like a girl.

I know what you mean. I think this is the lowest I have ever felt. Maybe it's because for the first time ever I am taking a long, hard look at what I am doing to myself. I used to pretend to embrace it, act like it didn't bother me. You know, the whole "jolly fat person" thing. Well I am not jolly. I am hurting, both emotionally and physically. I really want this to work. I know I need help, that left to my own devices I will die this way.. I am so hoping that the next phase is anger, lol. At least anger is an actual feeling. It definitely helps me to see all these people being successful after revision. I want that, too.

I will find out how long approval will take next Wednesday. I meet with the nutritionist and they will submit for approval after that appointment. Getting excited!!!

That is so good to heat, zanneg! I am sorry about the stall but it sounds like you are doing what needs to be done to push through it. I cannot wait until I am 5 weeks out and hopefully 30 pounds down, too! I really do miss having energy., lol.

I do think it will help that I can work from home. My granddaughter starts school full time this year so I will have a few hours of peace and quiet in which to work. I don't plan on going back to work right away after this job ends (back to school for me!) and I was really counting on living off my severance pay for a while so that I could start school not totally exhausted. Oh well. Stuff happens. I am really grateful I am getting this second last chance so I will take what I can get.

Hi everyone! I am not scheduled yet but have my final appointment (nutritionist) on Aug 13 before going to insurance for approval. I am assuming I will be a September surgery patient. Allielee it is very good to hear that you are finding life after bypass easier than with the band. I never found anything about the band to be neither easy nor intuitive. I am so looking forward to my second last chance to take control of my health. Sface if the August people don't wanna hang out I will hang out with you! Of course the more the merrier, though!

Wow, day 3! I took a week off after my Lap Band in 2007 and at that time I worked in an office. I remember feeling very fatigued for a long time after that surgery and that was was a breeze! I am hoping my work will let me work part time split shifts so I don't overdo it but I figure I will need at least a week before I can even do that. I am just praying it isn't going to be longer than that.