Sajijoma

Good luck with your surgery. I fully understand how babies back to back do a number on our bodies. All 7 of my babies are back to backs. This is the first year in 15yrs that I have not been pregnant and/or nursing. Kinda scary! lol you will feel so much better after the surgery. I'm almost 3 months out and I would do it again in a heartbeat! I can do so much more stuff with my kids and stuff already and it's only going to get better! ????

I used a 2 oz measuring cup by oxo for liquid measures. You can get them at Walmart, bed bath and beyond, but I got it at Amazon for like $4 I think. I still use it to keep myself on track.

By my second day in the hospital, I was off pain meds and the morning of the 3rd day, they unhooked my IV's and stuff. I filled my pain med prescription when I went home, but I never used it.

I'm 3 months out on Feb. 9th. Was I scared? Heck yeah, there was a lot at stake for me. I have 7 kids who depend on me and that I couldn't bare to leave without a mom. I also had a very competent surgeon who saw me through the process. That made all the difference. I had no complications from the surgery itself. I had some complications from the pain killer dilaudid during post op and had to have oxygen support til I gave up the pain killer. The post op pain wasn't that bad by day 2, that I couldn't just deal without pain meds. I was 386lb on the day of surgery and right now, as of today, I'm 329. So not bad for 3 months out. The first month was a touch disappointing though, I won't lie. I lost only 15lbs which was far less than I had been losing on my own pre op, but it did pick up and the 3 wk long 3wk stall was horrendous to my morale, but when it did break, my weight started falling off faster.

My hair is falling out too. In droves. There's not much we can do, but just roll with the punches. It's all part of the process unfortunately. The good news is that eventually it will end and our hair "should" grow back.

I had RNY at 429lbs. My surgeon won't do DS because of the risks. He says the 5yr mortality rate from complications is unacceptable. He told me that RnY would be his first choice, but if I wanted the sleeve, he would do it because I have to live with my decision either way. I went with the RNY and do not regret that decision one bit. If your surgeon won't do rny and you are under 350, I'd question whether this is the right surgeon to go with. The right surgeon means the world when it comes to getting through surgery and life beyond.

Some employers especially large corps have insurance liaisons to help streamline the process for their employees and their families. When I had my surgery and even before, I was contacted by this person to make sure all my needs were met and I didn't have any concerns or fears. Even after the surgery, she called to check how the surgery went and if I fully understood my post op instructions and if I needed her help getting anything I needed. I wished I had known such a thing existed before.

Just be honest and don't hide anything, because they are there to make sure you are in a good place before surgery, because post op, it's easy to go the other way. You want to make sure your disorder is kept in check and doesn't rear it's ugly head post op...even if that means seeing a psych more than just the initial eval.

I have a few...I wore a XXL dress from the old navy regular women's section and it fit!!! That was awesome! Then thinking it was a fluke I tried on a pair of XXL old navy sweatpants and they fit in the waist but were baggy in the butt! ???? I just bought the dress for the future and thought I'd try it on to gauge how long until it would fit and it fit now! So then, I went to my closet and tried on every piece in there and found 4 black trash bags full of clothes that are now too big! ???? I've changed out my closet and found out I am now a 22/24 and not a 32/34 anymore Whoo hoo! It really has helped me to see my body is changing. I haven't completely conquered my body dysmorphia, but for a moment I saw myself as I actually am.

I had a 2oz measuring cup from oxo that I used to measure out my protein drink so I didn't take too much too fast. Also used it for my v8. It was a really great tool to have.

There is no physical or medical need to shave off pubic hair. It is actually there to protect your body from infection. It doesn't improve the ability to cath. anyone to be shaved. It's really just shocking that it would even be suggested! I'd question why the surgeon feels the need to shave off a woman's pubic hair when his part of the body to work with is all belly button and above! Sounds to me kind of creepy!

I wouldn't count on it. A lot of factors go into your weightloss. For me, I started at 429lbs and was 386lbs the day of surgery....at my first month checkup I was only down 15lbs. It was super disappointing. But, my body just needed more time to get with it, and by my 3 month spot coming up, I'll be close to 70lbs down since surgery. Weightloss is just that unpredictable.

if you find one let me know. I tried G Hughes sugar free BBQ sauce, but blech it was horrible. I also tried making paleo BBQ sauce, but again blech blech blech! I really want something that compares at least to sweet baby rays, but so far no dice. I've kind of given up. ????

So sounds to me that everyone isn't talking to each other. When you went to your first initial appt, your surgeon's office should have sent in something to the insurance stating that you plan to pursue surgical options for weightloss and then they'd gather from insurance a list of what they want you to do to qualify. After that, you should have started whichever program your insurance expects. For my insurance, and because I went to a Bariatric center of excellence, I did a 90 day program with 3 NUT visits and a psych eval to get approved. Had I had a different insurance plan, I would have been required to go on the 6 months supervised weightloss, psych eval plan and to know which one to put me on meant they contacted insurance to find out. So the fact you've been on a 6 month plan means someone somewhere had to contact your insurance to find out what your requirements would be and that would have been your pre authorization. Now that you've completed the program, your packet and all the notes about your weightloss are submitted for authorization to perform the surgery. So maybe it's just that they aren't understanding what you mean by pre authorization? I hope for your sake. The idea of waiting and having to be on supervised weightloss for a year to get surgery seems beyond cruel.

I don't think you have failed as long as you don't give up. You need to find a good NUT to work with who will encourage you and keep you accountable and you might need to see some kind of therapist to work through issues. We all come from a lot of baggage...maybe from our weight alone, maybe from childhood abuse, maybe from being in an abusive relationship and these things, if they aren't properly taken out and worked with will eat away at any success you make. I know you've gotten a lot of great advice up above about doing a pouch reset and just cleaning up your diet, but you also have to be committed to this for life. You can't get lax otherwise,, you will end up right back where you were. Obesity is a disease and while wls does put it into remission, it's up to us to keep it in remission.

Turkey bacon, sausage, cheese cubes, ham or turkey cubes, tuna salad with multigrain flax crackers, yogurt....nuts(if you can tolerate them). I don't usually have breakfast as such because my pouch can't tolerate food that early in the morning, so I grab a shake and then at lunch, I'll have something from the list above and at dinner, I try to eat what the rest of the family is having, but if it's something that won't work for me because of carbs, fat, grease, or texture, then I usually keep peanut butter or cheese on hand and have that instead.

You are about a month ahead of me, but I wonder if it could be partially at least acid. I know there are days I have skipped my pantoprazole and it almost feels like hunger! It's crazy! When I do take it though, that feeling goes right away. I also don't know how much water you are getting in the day, but try to hit at least 64oz and stick to a measured portion at meals with no snacking, because our pouches are still very new and things like eating a fiber bar with water at the same time can stretch the pouch over time. That's why fiber bars exist is to expand and make a stomach feel full. If you do that to your pouch, over time, it's going to take that new expanded shape and all this will be for naught! Also, eating with water or any drink can flush the food right out and make you feel hungry again sooner. My NUT says to choose the most solid foods you can tolerate to get full and stay full the longest. Avoid things like soup, soft foods, etc once you are in the final stage of diet because you need to think of your pouch like a funnel and the thinner the stuff the faster it flows through. Always eat the solid proteins and leave behind the ones that are more likely to run right through. You should never to mix the dense proteins with liquids like in soups because it can subtly expand the pouch over time or again, wash the whole lot right out leaving you hungry again sooner. I've followed her advice to the letter and at almost 3 months out, I still can only eat about 2oz at a meal, and even then sometimes I am just so not interested in food that it's a chore to have to eat.

my surgeon told me that he believes the pre op liquid diet will be phased out of most practices in the next year, because they've proven that they aren't that effective and it's really abusive to the patients. I didn't have a liquid diet at all or any restrictions whatsoever. He said the o my time where a liquid diet would be effective would be to drop the weight of someone who was like 600lbs to make the surgery safer mortality wise, but he sees it going away in the next few years. He's also an inspector and qualifies places for their center of excellence status, so I assume he knows what he's talking about as far as that. I know I was grateful because I had been sweating the idea of the liquid diet for a long time and when he said there wasn't going to be one I was absolutely estatic!

I asked my NUT at my first month visit about straws because if I don't drink out of my contigo autospout which has a straw in it, I drink significantly less water. She told me that it's not a big deal and straws are perfectly fine to use as long as it's not causing pain. People tend to take bigger drinks and swallow air which can make their new stomach hurt in the beginning, but if it doesn't to feel free to use it. I've been using straws ever since.

I've got quite the cow utter(thanks for the name btw it describes it perfectly) under my arms. The skin may retract if it is healthy, but it'll take time and doing exercises will help. For me though, I've been all he way up to 429lbs and I have stretched my skin completely out of shape. I went to a lecture by a skin surgeon for Bariatric patients and he said that generally the best indicator on if you will need surgery to repair the damage is to look for stretch marks. The more the stretch marks the more the skin is damaged and cannot bounce back. Mine is full of stretch marks and already hanging so low it hurts to put on certain shirts with sleeves. I imagine by the time I reach goal, I may just well be able to hang glide with these things! ????

They probably will approve it. The second eval shows that whether you were or not in the right mind frame the first time, that you are now.