MSRezab

Im 32 yr old mom of 2 boys (4 and 7) and I live in Iowa. I totally understand not being able to relate to the sleevers who are quite a few years older! I do understand that they have more life experience, but it is nice to see others my own age who are going through this as well. My husband had his surgery on 1/22 and has lost 40 lbs and 4 pant sizes already! I can only hope to have his success!! My surgery date is 2/19 and im so ready to get this started. I just cant believe it is coming up so fast! Im on a 1200 calorie diet until tuesday and then im on full liquids until surgery day. I have lactose and fructose intolerance (symptoms very similar to IBS-D in case anyone cares) and one of my reasons for doing this surgery is to keep as much Fructose out of my body to limit my reactions. REALLY hoping this happens! Hope everyone is doing well!

My husband has named his Steve the Sleeve.

Be sure to watch any sugar alcohols like Xylitol, mannitol etc. Alot of those things are diarrhea inducing and they are in anything sugar free. Also, some people become lactose intolerant after surgery so you may want to cut out diary for a week or so to see if that is the culprit. On a personal question, did anyone who had frequent diarrhea before surgery now have constipation issues or at least have regular BMs?

Did you all have the Steri-Strips afterwards? Im allergic to adhesive and thats what Im dreading the most. (the hives and itching that come along with having adhesive on my skin)

@@Summer Rain So glad this is now in the past. Hope you are recovering well!

Got my insurance approval last week! Excited to get scheduled. Hoping for mid to late february as my husband is having the sleeve done on 1/22. Dont want to be too close to his date since we have 2 kids to take care of. @weasel mama - You will feel so much better without that gallbladder!

@@chip305 I hope that your surgery goes smoothly today!! Check in and let us know how you are doing!!!

Ive heard that some people become lactose intolerant after surgery. This is going to be disgusting but if the poop looks 'snotty' it is more than likely the lactose. If you switch to soy, almond or lactaid milk it may clear up the issue. However, I would still call your doctors office to be sure.

Is there anyone out there who had/has IBS or Fructose Intolerance before their surgery? Looking to find what you are able to tolerate after surgery and if this surgery has helped you with managing symptoms. ANY help or input would be greatly appreciated!

Anyone else working with Dr. LeMasters? Does anyone know about how long it takes to get on the schedule for surgery once insurance paperwork is sent in? Does anyone know how far out they are scheduling?

Sorry its taken so long to get back here! Its just been nuts all over lately. The kids just started t-ball (which was a bad idea for Dawson. He cannot stay focused long enough. He just wants to run around and kick the balls...) Parker loves it though so thats good. I did the initial meeting thing at the end of April and my first appt with the doc was last tuesday. I have to do the 6 month supervised diet and have not talked about it at all with my doctor so im starting from scratch. My first appt with my doc is June 3 so Im guessing Decemeber or January for my surgery. Then I can be much smaller at the beginning of next summer! I try to just do the pay at the pump for gas so I dont have to go in and be tempted by the goodies by the register. What always gets me is when I have to stop and get cash from the ATM for the sitter. (which I then have to break one of the $20s because its $55, not $60. Luckily the Hubs usually remembers to get money for me to give to her in the morning!) I cant wait to fully get this process started. I am also doing the Psych eval on June 3rd too. I really cant believe that May is almost half over already! The kids only have 11 days of school left!!! holy cow. That is insane. Then I will have a 1st grader!! GAH! I dont know how thats possible. I kind of figured he would be in kindergarten forever. oh man. The one good thing though is that he may be an almost 1st grader, but he still cuddles with me every chance he gets! Anyway, hope everything is going well for you!

Our wild child seems to be getting better and better. He can actually SIT in the same place for 20 minutes at a time now. We went to see Rio 2 last night and besides getting excited and standing up, he didnt get up to run away at ALL for an ENTIRE movie! My husband works for QT and when he worked nights and would get off work as I was going TO work, he would bring me food all the time. Especailly those chocolate cakes in the cooler. holy cow. Those cakes are good. But, he brought me one too many. I was pregnant with our 1st kiddo and ate one of those during a bout of morning sickness. After it came up, the cake never tasted the same again.. In fact, Its probably been 6+ yrs since Ive had one. My husband is overweight too but my BMI is higher than his. (im also a foot shorter than he is but only weigh 40lbs less) Just checked and our deductible is $500/family per calendar year and OOP Max is $1500 per family/yr. So thats good news! We have our initial meeting today at 1pm. Ive been fighting a killer headache all morning and am just NOW starting to feel like I can open my eyes without pain. Im now wondering if I could even do tihs surgery this fall now. Im think I might have to wait until like march or April to do my surgery. Working in a call center that handles calls about snow removal (among other things) our busy days coincide with snow. Would hate to leave the gals in the call center drowning in calls for an optional surgery. So, I would have to have it done either sept or october or in Feb/March/April. Who knows. For now Im just hoping Im approved!

The only way i would do this surgery is if my husband was on board. He is a big food enabler. Always buying sweets. (he works odd hours so he goes to the store at like 4am when he gets off work when there isnt anyone there) It will be nice to be having the same procedure at around the same time. Then once we are on regular foods, our meals will be about the same. Although, I have fructose intolerance/IBS so my meals will be a bit different than his. I think our OOP maximum is $2500. But I could be wrong. Ill ask when we talk with the doc. Ive been fat since i was like 15, and didnt meet my husband until i was 20 or 21. So he met me fat and we have both gained quite a bit of weight in the 10 years we have been together. I was unemployed for the 1st year we were together and i gained 40lbs! Gained all that weight right before our wedding. ugh. Im glad your son settle down some! Dawson is just NUTS all the time. He also has Childhood Apraxia of Speech and cant say much so im sure that has something to do with how crazy he gets. He just gets frustrated that he cant tell me what he wants or needs. (which is totally understandable! Id lose my mind if nobody understood me either!) Cant wait to get this 'party' started!

Holy cow! thats crazy!! I was 297 this morning. How many sons do you have and how old? I have 2 boys. One is 6 and one is 3. The 3 yr old is very 'spirited'. He runs all the time and everywhere. He makes me feel completely incompetent as a mom because he is just ALWAYS on the go and one step ahead of me. (he is part of my reason for getting surgery) I tried to tell my best friend that we were going to the initial meeting and she just sort of rolled her eyes like, oh ok. whatever. I havent really looked at out of pocket cost. Im hoping it isnt too much. (since hubby and i are both doing it) If they could do this surgery without the glue/steri strips Id be a happy camper! I got sick of changing 'dressings' on wounds that shouldnt have needed it. And I would not recommend taking benadryl everyday for a week unless you have to. I had the 'benadryl brain' for like, 2 weeks!

Gotcha! I would assume our plans are similar. Im going to Dr. LeMasters at Methodist. (or Unity Point. Whatever it changed to now) I had Dr Smolik a few years back when I had to get my gallbladder out. He seemed really nice and listened to my concerns regarding food intolerances. (he, however, did not listen to my request to have no glue/steri strips. Not sure that there was another option though. Im allergic to adhesive so i had these amazing red itchy welts around my incision sites for about 2 weeks.) Ive got 2 friends at work here who went to LeMasters in the last 5 years and really liked her. And this sounds totally superficial, but the reason I chose them was because I liked their website better. It was easier to navigate. My husband and I are both hoping to get sleeved this fall. I told him that I have to go first or I would probably chicken out. I havent told anyone besides the one coworker who was sleeved. (because i wanted to ask questions) And my husband knows too, obviously. I think that maybe Im waiting until after the meeting and pre-approval processes before I tell anyone. Im afraid Im going to get turned down because I have no co-morbidities besides asthma. I am 31, 5'4" and just under 300lbs though so my BMI is pretty high. Hoping it is enough that I am still somewhat young and have a high BMI.

Thanks for posting this! I had the same questions! Can I ask which surgeon youre going to? Were in the same town and Im assuming that if your husband works for the city of Des Moines, we have the same kind of insurance. (Im in public works) Hoping for a surgery date in fall/winter some time!

Shirlsbenn - My best friend has no problems losing weight. She lost 32lbs during a 10 wk weight loss challenge. When i told her my husband and i were looking into the gastric sleeve, she just looked at me sideways and said...oh... her and her mother are habitual dieters. They go in cycles and their weight yo-yos all the time. She has been as small as a size 10 and as big as a size 24. In that same time frame, I lost 10 lbs. And i worked my butt off for each and every one of those. She never followed the diet to a T (like I did) and missed about the same amount of classes that I did. So, what I gather from that is that my body wont shed the weight even when i do work my butt off. Ive been eating 1500-1800 calories with under 200 carbs/day for the last month and i lost .3 lbs. I just feel like this is the only way I can get healthier.

I have my first meeting April 18th. My husband and I are both hoping to have this done. (Probably a few weeks apart) just ready to get this process started! I'm most concerned about my IBS/fructose intolerance being an issue after surgery. However, nobody can really answer this question because the fructose intolerance isn't as diagnosed here in the states as opposed to Australia. (I'm from the us) it's not common knowledge to docs here like it is in AU. The only way to know if it will be better or worse, is to do the surgery.

I am hoping for Sept or October. Just begining the process right now. Good luck to you!

Hi! Im new here. Ive been considering the gastric sleeve for the past few years and the reason I havent gone through with it is because I am afraid that it will worsen my Fructose Intolerance. I have it mostly under control right now and havent had any issues for a few weeks. I cannot have any naturally occuring sugars (as in Fruits, honey etc), no sugar alcohols (xylitol, mannitol, Sucralose etc. Mostly found in sugar free products) and foods with long fructal chains cause issues as well. (veggies, and some foods like breads) I also have a hard time if there is something that is HIGH in sugar. (like frosting. It kills me every.single.time) I am also somewhat lactose intolerant. (meaning I can have hard cheeses but nothing else with dairy. A glass of milk would have me writhing in pain for hours) Other than Fructose and lactose intolerance, my only other health problems is my asthma. Not diabetic, no heart issues etc. Is there anyone else out there who has gone through the sleeving process with Fructose Intolerance? Ive talked to some dietitians and because it is not very common (or, not commonly diagnosed. Most people think they have IBS when its really Fructose Intolerance) nobody knows what I can and cant have and therefore, they are not able to tell me if this would be an option for me. What Im concerned about is not being able to eat some of the foods Im actually able to tolerate. These are the foods I can tolerate banana (up to 1/4) Corn (up to 1/2 cob) Butter (in moderation) Bacon Rice Cuties Lettuce (in moderation) Hard Cheeses Beef Tortilla (up to 2 per day) Grapes (3-5) Spinach (in moderation) Sour Cream (up to 2tbsp) chicken Orange (unknown) White Potato eggs Pineapple Green Beans Turkey (low sodium only) strawberry (up to 5) Celery Almond Milk Canteloupe Anyone have any thoughts on if I would be able to make a post-op diet work with these foods? (or some of these foods) Any help or insight would be GREATLY appreciated!!