rattlingwalls

Thank you all for your replies!! I hope I can cover all follow-up questions and replies below: Someone had mentioned waiting for insurance approval - that's a step I get to skip actually. Carle - the clinic and hospital foundation I go through for all doctor appointments and now surgery - has a 'charity case' program that I was automatically enrolled in which covers 100% of all costs that my insurance won't cover, as well as their community care program, which is pretty much the same thing. I'm also covered 100% by that as well, so basically as long as everything medical I do is done at a Carle facility, it is covered 100%. I got very lucky there and it is the only reason I'm able to do any of this. As for my mother, I would be doing this even if she hadn't mentioned it first. It's just that she had. I've looked into it before, but then I was underage and had a different doctor that would have made me go several hours away to a different hospital if I had been eligible at the time. It just happened that she decided to look into it and called to see if I'd like to try to go through it with her. I only hesitated because I had been planning to move out of state mid-summer as well as a few other things that would have made being off work and surgery more stressful/difficult. These plans have just been pushed back a few months to accomodate the time I'll need for surgery now. Also, she wasn't approved because of her BMI. Carle requires a BMI over 40 unless you have a morbid obesity and a health problem related to that. Her BMI is hovering around 35-36 and she doesn't have any of the related health problems, so she was denied surgery. Support groups are sadly not available where I live. There is one at the hospital where my pre-op appointments are, but it is impossible for me to get there (a little over an hour away) in time for the meetings and back in time for work because they currently meet at night, and in the middle of my work week. I'd LOVE to go - especially since I really could use the support from others I could talk face-to-face with - but it just won't work for me right now. If meeting times change or I happen to find a new one starting closer to home, I'll definitely be going. I do happen to know one person who has had WLS and have emailed her to ask about her experience (she had her's back in '09, before I met her), and am waiting for her reply. Thanks for all the info about everyone's diet/exercise pre-surgery. At my consult they didn't really discuss what I need to be doing right now (more about what I'd be doing post-surgery), but I had noticed in my visit summary information they give me at the end of every appointment it mentioned the diet/exercise notes in the instructions section, so thank you all for helping clear that up! I've been weaning myself off the carbonated drinks, and after that I'll be working on not drinking coffee (working nights is gonna be a blast! :/), as well as trying to eat better, so I think I'll be sticking to those goals, as well as starting to go on walks more often until my appointment with the dietitian. Especially since I'm supposed to be watching my Protein intake because of a different health problem anyway.

So a couple months ago my mother called me saying she wanted us to try getting accepted for weight loss surgery together. After a little hesitation I said okay, so we both made appointments with our doctors to see if we could get referrals for bariatrics at Carle. I was accepted, she wasn't. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and I had my consult with the surgeon and nurse. But because I had previously been doing a weight check-in each month with my regular doctor (and lost about 10 pounds over the past 6 months) they have decided to have me skip the 6 month weight loss portion of pre-surgery, saying that what I was doing with my regular doctor qualified. So I've skipped to the lab work/nutritionist/psych eval portion of their pre-surgery checklist. Right now I'm waiting for the first half of April for my appointment with the dietitian, only I have NO IDEA what I'm supposed to be doing in the meantime. I left the initial consult with instructions to eat 3 meals a day with 1-2 Snacks, eating Protein first and up my exercise, as well as creating one nutrition and one exercise goal for myself. But I'm clueless as to where to even start with any of it since I haven't been able to speak with the dietitian yet. Was/had this been normal for anyone else? I kind of feel like I've just been left hanging here until that April appointment, with no idea what to do in the meantime. Is there a specific diet I should go ahead and try to stick to? It kind of seems like there should be, but without being able to speak with the dietitian until April I've got no idea what I'm doing, even though I have sort of been given instructions, I feel like I don't have all the info I need to start on any specific diet on my own. Also my surgeon told me that I can pick between the lab band and the sleeve, without any indication which he thinks would be better for me. I assumed that the surgeon would tell me which surgery I would be best suited for and that would be that. Has anyone else been left with getting to choose their surgery? If so how should I go about choosing one? Thanks for any help given, A friend drowning in too-much/not-enough information.