Sajijoma

@@Elode I can laugh about it now! ???? back then I wondered what the heck was wrong with me that I only attracted guys like him and gay men who just wanted to make sure they were really gay. lol it only takes one good one though and when I found him I married him right away! ????

You look beautiful and I LOVE that dress!!!

I also found 4pks of premier at Walgreens for those who don't have or want a membership to a warehouse. I'm trying to save money and Costco was my Achilles heel because there's so much stuff I want there, so I've saving hundreds a month by dropping my $50/yr membership.(sounds odd) the ones at Safeway are a case of 12.

I have finished the last of my requirements and as long as the psych gets his head out of his @ss and quits holding my eval hostage because he "forgot" to send me a bill-only billed insurance-then we should be submitting our packet to the insurance company Monday morning! I can't believe it! We're almost to the date scheduling! It's about to get really real!

So far, no word. I'm not entirely sure it's been submitted since no one has said anything, but I'm not ready to call and bug them if it has or hasn't yet. It's only been a day and I know I am antsy with anticipation, but ugggghhh wish I knew! I tried looking through aetna's patient portal, but I have no idea where to look for approval. I looked under claims and all that is listed was the psych so I'm guessing it probably isn't under that since it's not really a claim exactly yet just a request for approval.

I hear ya! I'd like to pretend I'm going to wake up from surgery and just float across the room happy with no pain and no complications, but realistically I know better. I keep trying to plan for "worse case scenarios" so when they do hit, I'll go "and I saw this coming and my planned response is..." Because I think I'll flip out if I haven't planned what to do. Thankfully my NUT is awesome and I feel like no matter what happens, like if I had the slow sugar problem, that she could and would navigate me out of it pretty easy enough. She's kind of expensive to pay for out of pocket, but I'd be willing to give you her # if you'd like to try an appt with her and see if she can help.

@@CowgirlJane wow, I feel like I went on that bad date with you too! ???? This is really therapeutic and makes me so grateful that I am almost 17yrs married now and don't have to worry about dating anymore! ???? the trip down memory lane was pretty funny today! ????

Wow I've had A LOT of bad dates, but my worst of the worst was an online date back in the day(circa 1997 before I met my husband and got married). We were on our first date and this guy picked me up in a rust bucket car full of trash and I got my favorite skirt covered in car trash ooze of some sort. He had on a dirty looking shirt and jeans that look like they'd never been washed, but I thought maybe he planned to change so I decided to just roll with it. I had a old stale hamburger bun from some rotting meal on the floor board stuck in the high heels of my boots. He stopped for gas and bought himself a drink and didn't bother asking if I wanted anything. I just said "oh no thanks I'm not thirsty" when he got in and he tried to get me to share his and spilled it all down my new blouse and my fav already ruined by now skirt! I wanted to leave so bad, but he started telling me this hardship story and I felt bad so I kept trying to go with this even thought the sirens were going off "run! Run!!". He asked where I wanted to go and I guess it was not the right thing to say, because I said, "I could go just about anywhere. I'm pretty easy!" So he tried to take me to the pay by the hour motel on the highway where all the nasty people went to get it on. Right outside this God forsaken hellhole his car broke down. I was yelling at him because A) I didn't mean THAT easy and I'm from a small town and if anyone saw me, my reputation, and my life as I knew it were going to be over. Well, so the car is dead out in front of this place and he goes knocking on doors to hotel rooms trying to get a jump for the battery, but then tells me we need to move the car out of the street, but he couldn't push it because he had open heart surgery and he isn't suppose to even lift heavy things. He had already told me about this heart condition when we were talking online so ugh I knew if I didn't push it we weren't going anywhere. So here I am, high heeled boots covered in crap, a ruined skirt and blouse, way over dressed for how he showed up, pushing his piece of crap car into the motel de skank while he sat in the drivers seat steering. I was scared someone would see me out there as that was the only thing on that stretch of highway so if you were stopped there, they knew(or thought they knew)what you were doing! So eventually this guy got his piece of crap car started and I told him to take me home(not my home but thank god I didn't have him pick me up at my own house!). We got there and he actually had the audacity to ask for another date and I just looked blank at him and said "let's not" and walked away. It was one of the worst dates of my life and actually caused me to quit dating after that until I met my now husband(also online but because I forgot to take my profile down and his response to why I said I am no longer accepting dates online was adorable).

What a great victory! I've abstained from flying since 2003 for that very reason. If I can't drive there, I just don't go. Unfortunately, my kids have never seen our families because of this. It's a 3 day car ride to the nearest family and a cross country to see the majority of them.

@@sharkgirl how far out are you? I know for some the beginning is very difficult especially with the stalls. My NUT keeps saying that we have no idea how bad we are going to feel in the beginning because we have this whole relationship built up around food and we have no idea how actually hard it is when that crutch that has gotten us through so many bad times all the sudden is taken away from us and we have to cope without it. Sometimes I think we need to deal with our baggage to make the weight go otherwise it pops up from time to time to slow us down. For me, that's probably going to be my biggest hurdle...the revisits to the painful parts of my life to put them all where they belong.

@@sharkgirl That would be awesome! Do you go to the meetings at Skyridge? I'm going to try to go to this month's meeting(hopefully).

I will update when I hear back. I'm assuming it got submitted today-it was suppose to. So we'll see how long it takes to hear back.

So in our post op class our NUT told us that during puréed stage, mashed potatoes were ok. It's not something you should count on eating as part of your every day diet, but during the puréed stage when you are healing it is perfectly fine and you can spike it up with protein and not eat it with gravy or butter or anything like that mixed in it. Just potatoes and milk. As for life after hitting solids. It shouldn't be used because it is high in starches, but also because our pouches hold better and stay full longer with solid foods and mashed potatoes are thin enough that it will empty pretty quick leaving you hungry again sooner. You should aim for more solid things like chicken, beef, pork, etc then veggies and if after that, there's any room left you should aim for a good starch like brown rice or whole grain bread and not something like potatoes or white rice.

My nutrition after surgery book from our class states sugar alcohols are NOT ok if you've had bypass because it too can cause dumping. Anything ending in -itol should be avoided. So, I'd avoid those. You can find sugar free puddings that are sweetened with Splenda or aspartame(if you can handle it) that will not cause dumping or distress.

Well, to show everyone how funny life is. I'm apparently not the size I thought I was! lol I just went to try on to "see where I was" my 3x clothes and they are all too big or getting there so...looks like I'll definitely be hitting that XXL sweater sooner than later! Kind of a funny thing to worry about losing enough to fit it and now I'm wondering how long I'll get to keep it after surgery!

@Dar300 that is great! I really worried about the idea of you being home alone, but I understand wanting to be home too. I recover better in my own home with my own messes and my own critters around(cat, dog, kids) ???? I'm so glad you have both safety and comfort!

Azo makes an over the counter version of peridium.

they sort of recommended the psych but only because he rents space in their office. It's like a deal they have or something that he would do the evaluations for people in exchange for being allowed to rent the space, but I'm totally talking to the doctor about him when I see him next. The surgeon told me when I had my first appt that if I ever had a problem with ANYONE he wanted to know, so I'm definitely going to tell him about my experience. I told my NUT too because she and I have a great relationship and she gave me the name of another psych so if I need any aftercare I can see this other guy she recommended instead of dealing with the creepy jerk again.

You really need to make protein a priority. If you are not getting enough protein your body will start breaking down muscle and when it runs out of muscles, it'll go for your organs next in a last ditch to keep you alive. Protein is super super I cannot say it enough SUPER important!! As for the other crap, just don't do that to yourself. It's an addiction, I get that, I'm an addict to sugar too, but please don't do this to yourself. You deserve better.

I'm not post op but I have had a bad time with UTI's when I was pregnant with my last baby and I developed kidney stones from the infections so it's vital for me to catch and treat them ASAP. I reeeeaallllly severely dislike cranberry juice, but I found pills called Cran clearance at our local Whole Foods that has the therapeutic properties of cranberries without the nastiness and in a concentrated form. I had a UTI over a long weekend and double dosed on the Cran clearance and by the time Tuesday of that week rolled around, it had cleared up. I still went to the doctor to make sure it was absolutely gone, but the Cran clearance really helped. The pills are rather small too so, that might be doable for you. Research or no, it worked at clearing it up over the 4 day weekend we had. You can also get this stuff made by ago I think, that lessens the burning pain of a UTI and colors your pee bright orange til you can find relief either via a doctor or the Cran clearance.

I had to track down the psych first. He didn't bill me, but was holding my eval. hostage because I hadn't payed the bill he didn't send. What an @ss! The first time I called he hung up when I said my name. The second time it went to voicemail and he picked up the phone the moment said "I want to arrange your payment so we can move on". Like geez, hung up on me before but once he saw dollar signs he answered! Whatever! Bill paid and everything ready to go for Monday's insurance submission!

Thanks everyone! I'm really excited! I even told my mother-n-law. I'm actually glad I did, because she is being super supportive. I was surprised, but glad. I also found out another one of my friends is also having wls and she figured out my apparently not cryptic enough fun posts and asked me! So funny! We are all so afraid to tell people we are having wls and yet in my case at least, I would have had a lot more moral support if I had just told everyone.

I didn't have to have any of that for the submit to insurance. He requires an EKG, various labs, and tests based on situation after approval from insurance. So now, I just wait for the Gods of insurance to grant or deny my request.

If you already have gallstones you should ask for it to be taken out now if he doesn't offer because the surgery itself puts you at a higher risk for gallstones post op because of the high protein diet. If you don't get it out at the time of surgery, you're probably looking at a repeat op within the next few months to remove it.

A lot of surgeons who are lesser experienced tend to push the sleeve over bypass because it is a more complicated surgery to perform and it takes longer, so if they are all about the $$, of course they want you to do lap band or sleeve which take less time to do. My surgeon is one of the top in his field and is even an inspector in deciding if a place meets the requirements for a Bariatric Center of excellence, and he says that by far, roux en y is the gold standard. It has decades of strong data showing it works and long term it stays off. It's proven to give patients 70-90% off their excess weight lost when the diet and program are followed where as the sleeve was 60-80% and the lap band was generally around 50%. It's a "trickier" procedure and if you are looking for someone to perform one, you want someone who has done at least 4,000, because the first couple of thousand they are just getting their craft fine tuned. GERD is another consideration as people who have never experienced GERD prior to surgery often do post op with the sleeve. Then there's the fact the sleeve and lap are just purely restrictive so if you don't eat in large volumes, this might not help as much as rny which also has the mal absorption which contrary to popular belief doesn't mean bad things. One of the positives of mal absorption is less calories are made available to use for energy and less fat and sugar can be absorbed so those are really good positives if you are like me who loves sugary foods. The possibility of dumping syndrome will also keep you from testing that boundary because it is absolutely unpleasant. So all that together is what made me go from sure I was going to go for sleeve to full on definitely doing rny. The track record for sleevers who switch to rny after not achieving their goals is another. I only want to have to do surgery once and I want to do it right the first time so I never have to go through it again.