Ginger Snaps

Congrats! I'm June 9th and I'm near Trenton Nj. I'll be at RWJ in Hamilton Best wishes!

@@Fiddleman I hear you on the variety... the gym I'm at has a LOT of classes and I enjoy trying different ones out. They used to have more "gentle" classes which I liked a lot -- many of them now are just too aggressive. But, I bought a package of personal training appointments and those have been very motivating. I meet with her once a week and she always varies up my workout, then I do some of those new things during the week before our next appointment. Helps break up the monotony of "just" weight lifting.

If I don't "get 'er done" first thing in the morning, it ain't happening. The only bad thing about that is that argument I have with myself every morning when the alarm goes off.... get up, no, get up, no... This morning it lasted 45 minutes until I got completely ticked at myself, got up and went to the gym. I was 30 minutes late to work but I can always blame that on the commute! Ginger

My biggest chafe at the fish pics is that the pics are usually poor quality or the focus is on the fish and you can hardly make out the guys face. I agree about the misrepresentation, though... every profile talks about wanting to meet a "best friend" or someone to share life with, yada, yada, yada and then you email or send a wink or whatever and they never even reply. When I message I try to point out things I have in common with them based on their profile and still never hear anything. We could sound like twins separated at birth and still... crickets... I've actually thought about creating an alter ego (steal some pics of somebody from somewhere) and put the exact same wording in my profile and see if I get different results. Of course, that's lying and all -- I'd consider it an experiment. And one more fun factoid -- it's hilarious to me when they put that they have a PhD in Journalism and their spelling is awful and their sentences are full of grammatical errors.... ummmm... probably not who they claim to be. G

Sounds like your experience was exactly like mine except for one thing -- they told me I was doing a "split study" which meant if I had apneas in the first part of the night, they would wake me up and put on a mask and do the rest of the night with that on so they could get what setting I needed for the machine. I did have apneas, they did wake me up and put a mask on me and I went back to sleep (and had no apneas for the rest of the night). That kept me from having to go back for a second night to do machine adjustments. Glad your experience was positive! Ginger

And THAT's why I'm having the bypass.

@@James Marusek My doctor has the same "rules"... no caffeine, no carbonation and no alcohol -- and he's said forever. They just don't contribute to health and have bad side effects. The hardest for me will be the caffeine and carbonation -- I'm a Diet Coke addict so I hope like many others on here, I lose the desire for it.

WTG!!! Glad all the work is paying off for you. Ginger

First -- I'm sorry you're already facing hair loss challenges and having a hard time making this decision. It really does come down to how much your weight is impacting you and how much you need to change. You didn't post stats, so we can't tell your BMI or how much you need to lose and you didn't say if you had other comorbidities (diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.). If it were me and I was a lower BMI with less complications, I might try another method of weight loss first (doctor supervised). But, like someone else posted, all weight loss can trigger hair loss. If I were having complications due to my weight, I would definitely consider the surgery and start making some plans and decisions about how to deal with the hair loss. There are some drugs for alopecia that might help and it sounds like you already have some coping strategies for how to deal with the hair issue. Overall -- you're the only one that knows you situation, how much your weight is impacting you and how much the hair loss affects you. So you're the only one that can make your decision. But, if you do decide to go ahead with the surgery, you'll find lots of support here. Best wishes!

I downloaded an app on my phone called Eat Slower -- it's a little timer that will vibrate your phone at intervals you set. So, I can set it to vibrate every 2 minutes. I'll take a bite when it vibrates then chew, chew, chew and swallow and wait until it vibrates before taking another bite. I'm going to up the time to 3 minutes between bites. Just an idea that might help.

@@Rovobay Wishing you the best as you move forward in the process. Just a note -- you might not have to wait for an information session. I went to a different weight loss class at the hospital (wasn't for surgery) and from that just decided I wanted to look into surgery. My insurance doesn't require a referral but even if yours does, you might be able to just go talk to a surgeon directly. I did and at the first appointment he went over my history with me, talked about the different procedures and sent me out the door to "think about it". There was no thinking about it -- I was ready as soon as he said that he thought surgery would be the only way I will drop this weight. I'm scheduled for surgery June 9th. Ginger

I posted on your other question, too about the meds -- my surgeon said we'd make a decision about that at the pre-op visit about 2 weeks before surgery. Only one of mine is extended release -- those can't be crushed or broken so I'm thinking I'll either have to swallow it or get a liquid version. I'll let you know what my surgeon says about meds when I meet with him on May 26th. Again -- feel free to PM if you'd like to talk. It's hard sometimes for people who don't have bipolar or depression to really understand sometimes what we go through even when we're stable on meds. There's always self-doubt eating at the back of your brain making you over-analyze every decision. I'm hoping after the surgery some of the depression subsides and maybe I can even get off some of these meds. But, if not, I'm ok with that decision. Just like any other disease, sometimes it just has to be treated with meds. Ginger

@@Tgarden Thanks for sharing your story. I'm preop and I have a big vacation scheduled about 8 weeks out after surgery, so I'm happy to hear a story from someone feeling so good at 5 weeks. Don't want to feel horrible on vacation! My son used to have severe migraines and the neurologist thought it might be from dehydration. He started drinking Water all the time and now, seldom is without a bottle and he never has the headaches anymore. I know you said you're trying to drink a lot but maybe you need some of the calorie free sports drinks like G2 -- maybe your electrolytes are out of balance. Best wishes as you go along...

Two things I've found as a busy mom -- 1) Nobody wants my time at 5:30 in the morning. If I can get my butt out of bed and go to the gym or hit the treadmill at home first thing in the morning, then I can get that time in. My 14 yo had to learn to wake up to an alarm but he's a big boy and needed that life lesson anyway. I get back home around the time he gets in the shower, so I'm there to see him off to school. Basically all he misses is me waking him up and he's fine with that. 2) As a sports mom, I spent a lot of time at practices when they were younger, standing on the sidelines watching games. During practices, I started walking circles around the baseball or lacrosse fields. That way, I was there in case of an injury or whatever but I wasn't just sitting on my butt watching THEM exercise. Try to find some times that you can add in some time for yourself. You can do this! Ginger

Employment law varies by state and even then some employers handle things their own way within those laws. Pennsylvania where I work is "at will" employment so it means you can be fired for any reason (other than protected discrimination stuff) at any time. So, technically, they could fire me for taking off for surgery. However, I don't think my company would ever do that (bigger companies are probably more careful about things like that than smaller ones). I told my employer early that I would be taking some time off but didn't know exactly when. Now that I have a date, I put in the official request but I'm only taking a week off as I have the option to work from home some before going back. I'd say you have to weigh your situation and figure out but I think it's usually better to give them as much advance notice as you can so they can arrange for coverage while you are gone and reassign projects, etc. Ginger

I asked my surgeon about this and he told me we would work out a plan about 2 weeks before surgery. Only 1 of my pills is extended release (can't be crushed). But, it's small so I may be able to just take it normally. I'm a little before you surgery wise, so I'll let you know what I find out from my doc.

We have a lot in common -- I am preop (June 9) and I'm diagnosed Bipolar and take mood stabilizing meds. Like you, the excitement and anticipation of surgery has kind of triggered a manic episode. Having trouble sleeping, racing mind, difficulty focusing, etc. Then I start feeling tired from all the build up, feel depressed and feel like it's hopeless -- that it's not going to happen at all, blah blah blah. I don't have any solutions other than the things we know help -- trying to keep a schedule, exercising to burn off some of that frantic energy and trying to just hold it together. Great to see your doctor and see if they can maybe adjust meds or something to get you through this period. I'm not feeling like I need to see my doctor yet but I'm "upping" my self-help activities. Hang in there and feel free to PM me if you need someone to talk to. Ginger

OK... an obvious one here.... Ginger (my name), B (first letter of last name) and Snaps because I got called Ginger snaps when I was a kid but GingerSnaps was already taken. My stripper name? Gigi Newson ..

His manager shared his opening line: "You know how they say in every fat person there's a skinny person waiting to come out? Well, mine came out, and mine was fat."

<p>I don't know if you are being covered by insurance or not, but I don't think mine (Anthem BCBS) will cover mini bypass.</p> <p> </p> <p>If you're interested, here's a page I found that describes the differences in the RNY and the mini-bypass. It looks as though the main difference is ease in performing the surgery. It seems like the only difference in outcomes is that the mini bypass may have some complications with reflux that the RNY doesn't because the stomach pouch is "wired" directly into the bypassed bowel instead of an anastamosis being created there. That can allow digestive juices to reflux back up into the stomach pouch.</p> <p> </p> <p><a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="http://www.healthierweight.co.uk/obesity-surgery/gastric-bypass-surgery/the-mini-gastric-bypass/">http://www.healthierweight.co.uk/obesity-surgery/gastric-bypass-surgery/the-mini-gastric-bypass/</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Definitely something to think about.</p>

What is required preop varies based on your medical history, your surgeon and your insurance requirements. My surgeon requires psych, cardio and pulmonary clearance. I'm not sure if my insurance requires all of those but they don't require anything beyond those. I already have sleep apnea and use a machine, so the pulmonologist that sees me for that just wrote up a clearance letter saying my apnea was well controlled. The cardiologist said everything on the EKG was fine but she wants to do a stress test just because I've never had one before and this will give us a baseline. UGH -- one more test. My psychiatrist interviewed me for about 20 minutes and wrote up his clearance letter. My doc doesn't require any GI testing but I had some done 2 years ago, so he's getting copies of those reports just to make sure we're doing the right procedure (have pretty bad reflux and a hiatal hernia that he will repair). I've had other surgeries too and been put to sleep for those but I think the big difference is that this WLS is still considered elective, no matter how bad you really need it. And, the surgeon just wants to cover all his bases and make sure you are as safe as you can be during and after the surgery.

I'd go with bouncing her head off the desk!

I don't have any advice but I'm wondering why she's refusing to do another fill?

Woot Woot! Can't wait to get MY success story going! Congrats on all the hard work paying off! Ginger

Try not to stress too bad... I haven't heard anyone on this site who got turned down from their psych eval. And being on meds shouldn't disqualify you -- just like any other meds, they help you manage a chronic condition and show that you're taking charge of your health. Meds aren't a sign of weakness. I'm on Wellbutrin and Lamictal (mood stabilizer) and my doctor didn't blink at approving me. You're likely making it much worse in your mind than it will actually turn out to be. I did the same thing with my psych and it turned out to be easy-peasy. Best wishes! Ginger