NikkiDoc

I will put in a call to my surgeon this morning. However the chances of me getting in to see him are slim to none as I leave on vacation Friday around lunch and my surgeon is 1.5 hours from home and about 2.5 hours from my work. That said I had surgery on 2/2/2015. My upper most incision site was a little red and had a little swelling right below the scar last night. This morning it was stll swollen and I got a spurt of thick pus out of next to the scar. The complication is I do still occasionally get cystic acne- yes at age 47. I get them mostly in the groin and along the bra line but it is not unheard of to have a weird stray one show up elsewhere. I cleaned it well this morning and put triple antibiotic on it with a bandaid. I had my last pre-op appointment on 4/30/2015 and the surgeon said the incisions looked good. So what are the realistic chances this is an infection of the incision at 3.5 months out? Or is it just a pimple that is inconventiently placed? I am thinking of going to my PCP. On the other hand I can keep an eye on it for a day or two and got to an urgent care on my trip if I need to. One of my other brief thoughts is we always have SMZ-TMPs at the barn for the horses. They are human drugs, the horses just get 10-12 of them at a time. It is a fairly broad spectum antibiotic. I could take that for 7 days. Probably not my brightest idea.

6 incisions. I also had hernia repair at the same time.

If I am at a restaurant I just put my Water on the far side of the table so I don't mindlessly drink during the meal. At home I put it away in the fridge. This way it isn't at the table and I have to go out of my way to get it out of the fridge. I am then more likely to check the time to make sure it has been a half hour since I ate. I would have done the same as you and eaten the carbs. I probably would have had G2 instead of gatorade. I also have low carb Pasta at home. I likely would have used that for the noodles. Dreamfields is a pretty good pasta. I like it better than Barilla. I still make it for my husband. He likes it. Getting back to healthy is more important than losing weight.

I started with a straw at about 4 weeks out. I would not get all my fluids in if I didn't. I drink a lot more with a straw. I also have an hour drive each way to work. If I could not use a straw or a sports bottle with one then that would be an additional 2 hours a day that I could not drink. I have never had any problems. I do NOT slurp the last bit from the bottom with a straw. I make sure the straw is fully in the liquid. I figure I get more air in my Protein shakes from the blender than I do drinking Water from a straw.

I used Hellman's light mayo, salt, pepper, canned chicken and an immersion blender. I was able to get canned chipotle chicken and buffalo chicken. I rinsed those a little the first time since I was afraid I would have an issue if it was too spicy. I would sometimes add a little hot sauce or a tiny bit of BBQ sauce to the mixture for a slightly different flavor. For egg salad I would add Guldens mustard to the light Mayo. It almost gives it a deviled egg flavor.

I would call your doctor since 3 weeks is getting pretty long. But I was close to that long without a BM right after surgery. I was never an every day kinda girl. Between having Clear liquids for a week and then full liquids for a week there really wasn't much solid to pass as a BM. I was just at the point of drinking a laxative tea- Smooth Moves I think, when I had one. There still wasn't much there and it was not an issue. (Trying to not get too TMI on everybody) Therefore, if your doctor is one that has you on clear liquids and then full liquids longer than other surgeons it may not be that bad. I think it can also depend on what was normal for you prior to surgery. I still am not an every day person more like every other or every 3 days. I would be more worried for somebody like my husband who is at least once if not twice a day. At this point I would be either looking through the literature your surgeon gave you to see if they addressed it there or call their office to see what you can take.

OP check with GNC. They told me I could return any of the protein shakes that I did not like within 30 days for a full refund. TIP: Tape your receipt to the tub/bag so you don't lose it. I would definately talk to your NUT for alternatives. It does sound like you may have developed a lactose intolerance. It is not uncommon after WLS. If that is the case even the whey protein can be an issue. Your NUT may recommend MoM or something along those lines. I know that pumpkin pack is the great equalizer for pets. If they are bound up or loose give them a tablespoon or two for a few meals and it makes things normal. Do not use the pumpkin pie pack, it has spices. For the dogs it is fed straight out of the can. I am not sure how that would work for people.

For many people the bread will swell in the stomach and will make you feel uncomfortable due to the pressure. My bariatric bible has indicated at around week 4 I could have thin whole grain toast. For me the simple carbs like bread, rice, Pasta, oatmeal make me stall or gain. Don't get me wrong I will have one or two small bites of hubby's food occasionally. But this is maybe once every 5 days or so. It is just enough for me to not feel deprived. It is also enough to check seasoning on sides I make for him.

Are you sure they did not give you any antibiotics? I had some during surgery while under anesthesia and a few shots added to my IV during my hospital stay but none on discharge.

I did not like baby food. I pureed: Soup, chicken salad, egg salad, Wendy's chili. I also had yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, hummus. I still drank 1 Protein shake a day to help make sure I got in my Protein.

My doctor has the no liquids 10 minutes before and 30 minutes after. I will sometime push the 10 minutes before to more like 5 minutes. I will occasionally take a very very small sip of liquid during if something was a bit dry or spicy. If I sip during the meal I tend to hold it in my mouth a second and swallow slowly. I seem to be able to cool the fire with less liquid that way. I am pretty good about the 30 minutes after.

Voltaren is not ibuprofen. It is diclofenac. It is available as a gel or oral. I am actually more familiar with it as a cream for horses and the name is Surpass. Same strength but different base. Oddly enough even when applied as a cream for the horses gastric ulcers can be an issue. I do not know if it has similar risks with humans. Just something to keep in mind.

Don't wait for the testing results. Schedule a consultation with another clinic. You need to find one that will be supportive pre-op. If they aren't supportive pre-op why would you think they are going to be better post-op? I know some doctors require some weight loss prior to the surgery but I have never seen one require 115 pounds. If you mentioned which WLS you were considering I missed it. The sleeve was orginally used as part of a two part surgery for those with really high BMI to get some initial weight off. Therefore needing to lose 115 pounds pre-op makes no sense to me. I would understand if the doctor required a supervised weight loss program of 3 or 6 months and a reasonable amount of loss during that time. 115 pounds does not seem reasonable to me. It almost sounds like he still is concerned about the Crohn's and put the 115 pound weight loss out there figuring either he would never see you again, or if by some miracle you lost 115 pounds on your own he might be willing to reconsider. My surgeon is about an hour and a half to 2 hours away depending on traffic. I am in PA so went to Barix Clinic there. For me it was well worth the trip. Yes, I have only been to one support group meeting pre-op. I don't have lots of time post-op since I go to the gym and ride my horse. I use this forum and a facebook group to answer questions. Many people on this board flew across the country to go to Mexico for their surgery. A few hour drive is nothing. I have seen mine post op at 2 weeks, 2 months, 3 months. I will see him at 6 months and 1 year. I only saw him pre-op twice. So making a bit of a drive 7 times in say 15 or 18 months is nothing. For what it is worth I love Barix Clinic in PA. I personally like the idea that WLS is what they do. There is less chance of infections since there are no sick people there that might be using the same xray machines and being seen by the same nurses, having food brought to me by the same orderlies, breathing the same air. These doctors and nurses really know WLS and what is normal and what they need to worry about. They can specialize in it not just in general abdominal surgery.

I eased into my pre-op diet. I cut out caffeine and carbonated beverages first. Then a week before my pre-op diet started I replaced 1 meal a day with a Protein shake, then 2 meals a day. I ate low-carb for the other meals. By the time my 10 day pre-op full liquid diet came around it was easy. I was not starving. In your case I would go to a good salon, get a nice haircut and color. A good stylist should be able to help you pick a style that is flattering and fits your lifestyle. Start retraining your thinking that you are worth it. You are allowed to look good. Maybe buy some new eyeliner. Buy some pretty nail polish for after surgery. My surgeon's rule was no make-up or polish, including toes for day of surgery. Go buy a new pair of good walking or running shoes. Take the time and spend the money to go to a running store or someplace like New Balance. I cannot stress how much of a difference well fitting shoes that are designed for your type of feet help. Replace them regularly as they will breakdown especially when we are heavy. You will need good sneakers to start walking while recovering and afterwards. If you are going to exercise at a gym post-op then go now to look at local ones. Many will offer a week or two trial. Gyms are very personal. Find one that you don't feel judged. Talk to the personal trainers and see if you think you might want to eventually use them. I good personal trainer can help you get going in the right direction, keep you motivated and keep you from hurting yourself. If you think you want to do classes see if you can watch a couple. Don't forget to check out yoga or pilates places. Buy a few nice Water bottles. They will become your new best friends. I have a water bottle for water plus I use another one every morning for my Protein Shake. If it is any consolation I was planning on having my surgery in late October. My husband needed to have spinal fusion and he was in pain so had it done on Oct 6th. I had to be able to help him and do more around the house while he healed. Then my only co-worker had total hip replacement at the beginning of November. Both of us could not be out at the same time. I had to wait until February 2nd for my surgery. A month will fly by. This will give you time to order some samples of Protein shakes, time to ease into your pre-op diet. I also cooked lasgne, sloppy joes, spag sauce, meatballs and froze them so hubby would have some meals he could heat and eat while I was on my post-op diet. Good luck. The wait is not fun but it will be worth it.

Most of the time "Thank you". Sometimes "Thank you, I had weight loss surgery at the beginning of February". I was pretty open with telling the world that I was having WLS. I happily answer questions about what I eat, don't eat, portion size, how often I eat, the procedure, exercise, how much I have lost, how much I plan to lose. I have had no negativity. One woman was really interested so I showed her a diagram of how much stomach they took/what was left and even a photo of what was taken out (from another patient). She is a vet tech so is facinated by medical stuff.

I have liked Syntrax. They have 2 lines, Matrix and Nectars. I used to think I liked the Premier Protein until I tried the Syntrax. Once I did there was no going back. I ordered samples from My Bariatric Pal. I mostly use the vanilla Matrix and then add flavoring. SF Hershey's chocolate syrup, SF DaVinci syrups in Caramel, Gingerbread, brown sugar/cinnamon, pumpkin pie, no sugar added frozen fruit such as mango, peaches and later strawberries. NUT told me you can add extract such as almond. I also have Matrix Peanut Butter Cookie. That is my husband's favorite. You can just add PB to the Vanilla. Many of thr fruit flavors are good. Not as sweet or thick as others. For Proteins from GNC I think if you don't like them you have up to 30 days to return them for a full refund, just check to make sure.

I think that unless you have infections or there is so much skin dangling between the thighs that it interferes with walking it is cosmetic. Sagging skin with no co-morbidities may not be attractive so it is a cosmetic problem. However, based on the CA statute I could see the argument to cover it since she did have a disease (obesity), she had treatment of that disease (WLS) and was left with sagging skin that she did not have prior to the obsesity. Skin removal would therefore restore her appearance. Most states don't have this statute. However if her plan is through an employer and ERISA based then that CA state statute would not apply. ERISA policies are generally exempt from state insurance laws. (Confusing isn't it?) I think it is a fine line on what is cosmetic and what isn't is some cases. For most insurance breast reduction would be covered if the patient shows that they have been treated for back pain/shoulder pain and/or have rashes under the breast. There is normally a minimum amount of grams per breast that need to be removed to be approved. Just having large breasts, having a tough time buying clothes, being teased or having men talk to your chest would not qualify for surgery. Mental distress is not normally a covered co-morbidity. So how about a tummy tuck after pregnancies? Should that be covered? It is restoring the body back to prior to the pregnancy. While I would love to have my insurance pay for a TT and panneculectomy I do consider it cosmetic unless I start to get rashes etc.... When I got my WLS approval letter it specifically indicated that the surgeries for skin removal was not covered.

For the migraines I would suggest talking to a neurologist. I used to get tension headaches which were pretty close to migraines and used Fioricet which is an acetaminophen based RX. My husband would get migraines really badly and he uses Relpax. There are a number of really good migraine medicines that are not NSAID based. For the cramps talk to your OB/GYN. After the sleeve most doctors recommend not getting pregnant for at least 1 year to 18 months. Maybe using a different birth control pill or depo provera shots would be an option. Many BC methods virtually eliminate your menstrual cycle and therefore the side effects. A friend of mine used to get migraines related to her period. She would get a depo shot every 3 months to prevent the period and thus the migraine. Even after she went through menopause she would continue to get the depo shot to make sure she did not get migraines. My surgeon does the no NSAIDs, however, he is allowing me to take a low dose of Celebrex as the COX2 inhibitors are much more gentle on the GI tract. I have SI and shoulder arthritis. Taking the Celebrex allows me to exercise.

If WLS on the exclusion list then unless the doctor fraudulently codes it I don't see how it would get covered. The computer would be coded to either automatically deny certain CPT codes (procedure codes) or flag them for review by an examiner. There would be certain supplies and procedures that are not normally covered but if you have a certain diagnosis would be covered. Example birth control pills for contraception are not covered but would be covered for heavy menstration, PCOS or endometriosis. (Obviously this is a pre-Obamacare example) If you had a hiatal hernia repair and sleeve done at the same time then the hernia repair would likely be covered. The sleeve portion would likely be denied. The anesthesia and hospital fees would then likely be pro-rated and anything directly related to the sleeve denied. Therefore the swallow test the day after may be denied as you would not normally have that with a hernia repair.

I pretty much told the world. All my relatives, co-workers, the clients I deal with regularly, my friend's, the people where I board my horse. Everybody has been supportive. The only person I dreaded telling was my mother. She lives most of the way across the country from me. She can be judgemental and of course is 5'2" and 115 pounds. She has occasionally ballooned up to 125 pounds so she thinks she can tell me all about how to lose weight. I actually had to tell her a few years ago that we will not discuss weight loss or my weight. She actually surprised me and was happy for me.

Syntrax Matrix or Syntrax Nectars. I currently use the Matrix Vanilla. I sometimes add SF DaVinci syrup such as caramel, brown sugar/cinnamon, pumpkin pie, gingerbread. They come as fruit flavored also. Once I went post-op I could add no sugar added frozen fruit such as mangos, strawberries, peaches, blueberries. I have SF Hershey's chocolate syrup. My NUT also suggested adding extract such as almond for a different flavor. My husband likes the Matrix Peanut Butter cookie shake. I tried a number of the Nectars and Matrix. I love fruit but normally do not like fruit flavored things. However I liked the strawberry mousee, orange cream, kiwi strawberry, strawberry cream, chocolate, Cookies and cream. I liked the Premier Vanilla and Chocolate- until I tried the Matrix products and just could not go back. Yes the pre-made Premier and EAS ore more convenient but I much prefer the Matrix and so does my husband. The Pre-made seem thicker and too sweet. My Bariatric Pal has sample packs of the Nectars and Matrix available.

I don't look at carbs. I was told to look at sugars per serving. If it is more than 2 grams of sugar per serving then I look at where the sugar comes from in the ingredient list. If it is certain types of sugar or more than the 5th item down I don't worry about it. Basically if the sugar comes from lactose or fructose I am good with some restrictions on fruit juice. My NUT said to also look at the sugars for my serving size so if a serving is 1 cup but I only eat half of that then I can halve the sugar listed. The sugars I avoid in the first 5 ingredients are things like: sugar, corn syrup, rice syrup, honey, glucose, dextrose, brown sugar. I am not doing a great job of explaining this. It isn't as complicated as it sounds. Mostly because I eat meat, cheese, vegetables and avoid most processed foods. Yogurt is my one exception. I just get the Chobani 100 greek yogurt. I also don't count calories.

Good for you!!!!!

My BC/BS required 6 months of supervised diet. I didn't need to actually lose any particular weight. I also needed a psych visit. I don't think that 6 months of a supervised diet and the psych visit is a bad thing. It gave me time to start changing eating habits, it gave me time for research. Once the surgeon's office submitted the paperwork to BC/BS on a Tues they had approval by Friday morning. I had additional testing that the doctor required before I could schedule the surgery- lab work, EKG, upper GI, endoscopy. I was not happy with his office staff since magically 4 different places I had to follow-up with to get the surgeon's office the results. Since the common denominator was the surgeon I think I know where the issue really was. That actually took longer for the surgeon approval of the pre-op testing versus the BCBS approval.

I had a couple of episodes very similar to yours. In each case I figured out I was dehydrated. If I were you I would ask to have the cholesterol re-run. I had a test come back for triglycerides that was like 3 times my previous numbers. When we re-ran it only a few days later it was back to normal. We don't know if it was a spike due to something I ate shortly before the blood draw or if it was a lab error. Since yours is such an anomaly I would verify the results. Everybody makes mistakes, including lab techs. If I remember correctly cholestrol is highly variable depending on what you ate in the last week or so before the blood draw. My husband had a co-worker that was vegan. He ate no animal products. None, nada, zip. He still had to be on cholesterol lowering medicine. He had a strong genetic disposition towards high cholesterol, his whole family had high cholestrol. It isn't always from what you eat, it can be you own body just produces too much.