Kelsey Marie

So what I've always done is take Mirilax 1-2 times a day (it depends on how back up I'm feeling) and either take a warm bath once a day, or sit with the heating pad, kind of massaging my lower stomach while I did it. Even before surgery, my BMs haven't always been normal and my system has been extremely picky. A GI doctor I saw once recommend this and it's worked like a charm every time!

So tomorrow I go in to see my surgeon for all of my pre-op blood work and to go over all of the final things before surgery on Thursday. I was wondering if anyone had any questions that y'all think I should ask him when I go in. I feel like I'm forgetting things.

This is great!! I didn't even consider my anxiety going into it and I know on Thursday I'll be a mess!

@@Mayastone So these are a few things I know from discussing the options with my surgeon and from watching family members have WLS's. -Malabsorption is a huge part of the RNY. I think maybe what she meant by the first 6 months is that that's when people who have the RNY have the majority of their weight loss. But according to my surgeon, it's always about that, unless you stretch out your stomach enough, and then you have other issues. -People who choose to have the RNY loose weight for both reasons, not just one or the other; they work together to help the person lose their weight. -As for the safety, I'd say they're both equally as safe as long as you have a surgeon who knows what they're doing, and depending on the patients other health issues at the time of surgery. -I highly doubt the sleeve will be rarely be preformed in 5 years. According to my surgeon and my moms surgeon (who has since passed away) the Sleeve has been and will be a wonderful option for people. Unless they develop something new even better, which you never know. -My mom had Bypass 5 years ago in May, she lost 101 pounds, and has gained 15 back in the last 2 years. She doesn't have to work very hard to keep the weight off. My aunt had the Sleeve 3 years ago (not sure what month) and lost about 50 pounds, she doesn't work out, but she drinks shakes regularly, but has still gained back about 10 pounds in the last year. My brother had the Sleeve 3 years ago in November, he lost 60 pounds, gained back 25 because he got "sloppy" (his word) so he started working out and watching his food intake, and lost 20 of those pounds. -When I first met with my surgeon, he explained to me that with the Sleeve, you lose about 60-70% of your fat; with the RNY, you lose about 70-80%. He also explained that within 5 years, people who have the sleeve gain an average of 5-10% and people who have RNY gain 10-15% back. Honestly, I would see a different surgeon. You have quite a few other things to consider, like the oral chemo, and you need a surgeon who is 100% on your side and not just trying to make the most money off of you. I mean, from what I've read about you, I would do the Sleeve, and I'm a huge RNY person. You should never do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Let us know what you decide!

With my surgery being on Thursday, I decided I'd write out all of my measurements so that way I can track how far I come every month after the surgery. Current Weight: 254 lbs Waistline: 42.5" Bust: 48.5" Hips: 50.5" Neck: 16" Wrist: 7.25" Bicep: 16" Forearm: 12.75" Thigh: 31.5" Calf: 18.75" I am able to keep these measurements with me on my phone thanks to the app "BodyShot." I know it's available for iOS, I'm not sure about Android. But it's an app I've used in the past, and I love it! You get to select what measurements you want to keep, and you take a picture of yourself so you can see physical progress, and also the inches coming off (which you can't always see). Other than that, I'm killing this all liquid diet! But I'll be happy in 5 weeks when I can start introducing solid foods into my system again. Can't wait until Thursday!

Surgery scheduled for August 27th! One week!

@@Doubletruble#2 My advice would be once everything is submitted is call them daily! All of my stuff was submitted on the 4th, and people told me to call, but I was too scared. When I called today, she told me that it had been approved on the 6th, the paperwork just hasn't made it's way out yet. So call!

So next week I have my final appointment with the dietitian, and I'm excited about it. But I'm also worried that once it's all done and everything is submitted to insurance, they won't approve me. I've gained a pound or two since all of this started, and luckily I've finally lost a pound, and I'm hoping I can keep it off by the appointment next week. But is it true that Aetna doesn't accept someone because of weight gain during this time? I'm freaking out.

Called Aetna this morning and.....it's been approved! I e-mailed the coordinator and the office will be reaching out to me to schedule my pre-op and surgery dates! There were so many tears of joy!

Call Aetna?

All of my stuff was submitted on Tuesday, so I'm in my waiting period now!

Tonight at 6 I have my last appointment with my dietitian and then tomorrow morning, everything will be submitted to insurance. I'm not as worried as I was last week after speaking with some people here and the coordinator at the surgeons office. Now it's just feeling more surreal. After this, it's all out of my hands. Okay, so if I keep talking about that, I am going to freak out again. This appointment is supposed to be going over any questions I have for the dietitian, so all month I've been putting together my list. I've asked her questions throughout the process, but these are ones that you don't think of when you're on the phone with them, you think of them when your brushing your teeth or driving to work or doing something completely not related to it and it just pops into your head and you have to hope you can remember it until you get to where you can write it down. I have 17 questions for her. I think she'll be happy with that. Most should be easy answers too, I assume. She should also be proud of me, I've lost 10 pounds since our last conversation last month. Also, I've bought a few books from Amazon: The Emotional First Aid Kit: A Practical Guide to Life After Bariactric Surgery by Cynthia Alexander; Before & After: Living and Eating Well After Weight-Loss Surgery by Susan Maria Leach; Weight Loss Surgery Cookbook for Dummies; Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery: Over 140 Delicious Low-Fat High-Protein Recipes to Enjoy in the Weeks, Months, and Years After Surgery by Patt Levine; and The Bariatric Foodie Guide to the Perfect Protein Shakes Volume 1 by Nikki Massie. I've read the intro to Before & After and it was amazing; I loved it. I definitely plan on reading it once I finish my current book (I can't read more than one book at a time, I get so confused). I also looked through the Perfect Protein Shakes book and those drinks were to die for! With that one, she doesn't include any calories or protein info or anything like that because she says it all depends on what mixes you personally use. But it goes through how if you like a thinner drinker or a thicker drink or if your drink is too tart or too sweet how to fix it. I mean, this woman is a shake goddess!! I promise once I makes some shakes and recipes and read through the books more thoroughly, I'll let you know. But I'm hoping my dietitian loves all this info, because Lord knows this last month I have seriously been trying and I am just praying that the insurance approves it! Until next time!

You talking about what you posted on Facebook had me on the floor, but only because I've done it too! A few years ago, I had serious dental surgery. On the drive home, my ride had to go into a store to get something. It gave me enough time to call my cosmetology school and talk to some very confused students and to take a horrible picture of my jaw swollen and red and it had a crazy imprint of the gas mask across the nose and post it onto Instagram and Facebook. I always think of taking it down, but it makes me laugh too hard.

@@Eclectick I went through a very similar situation, only we never gave up sex during any of it, which I think made it worse. Shortly after I had my first consultation with my weight loss surgeon, I found a book called "Oola:Find Balance in an Unbalanced World." It's all about the 7 F's of Oola: Family, Faith, Friends, Field, Fitness, Finance, and Fun. When I was reading the part about Friends (and kind of Family since I considered him Family), it talks about what a real friend does, and how a real friend makes you feel. I can only speak for my case, but in my case, I let him go. For me, the thing that made me realize that it was a toxic relationship was when he said he was going to buy me the Princess Leia slave costume after my surgery. I had been thinking all these different things up until that point about him being a good friend vs. bad friend, and that comment released 3 years of emotions. It's not fair to you for him to not want to make anything official, no matter the weight. And if that's not the case, then what he's doing to you just isn't fair to you mentally. You deserve the best of the best, no matter what your weight is.

I'm thinking about doing a liquid diet these next few days up until the appointment, just to get off any Water weight and hope that helps with the final weigh in. I spoke with the insurance coordinator at the practice I'm using and he is concerned that the weight would cause them to not accept me, so I need to shape up.

So these are things that I can't wait to do after I've had surgery. Some things are things I've wanted to do all my life, other things are things that I've realized I can no longer do and want to do again. Become a runner, or at least a jogger, and complete a 5K. Go zip lining, sky diving, bungee jumping, white water rafting, and maybe even mountain climbing (that one kind of scares me). Ride every ride at every amusement park my little heart desires, and it desires a lot. Buy a wardrobe that would make Miranda Priestly jealous. Take a trip to Europe and making sure that it includes: Ireland, England, France, and Italy. Buy a sexy bathing suit. I don't care if it's one piece or two, but it's going to be sexy. Play with my nieces more. That's all I know I want now, I'm sure I'll realize other things along the way. I can't wait to submit everything to insurance so I can find out what if I'm approved or not so I can start making these dreams a reality.

@@Crosby did you lose those 12 pounds before your last meeting or after?

I clearly remember the first time I thought about my weight. I had spent all summer having slumber parties with one of my best friends the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. We would stay up late eating pizza and ice cream and soda and it never once dawned on me that maybe I shouldn't (and I was a kid, I'm glad it didn't). That year, her and I were on a new basketball team together, and unlike the year before where we ordered the same size, I had to get the size larger. A few years later, I remember my mom rewarding me with shopping trips if I could lose weight every week (although I think part of that was her pushing issues of her weight onto me). A few years later, I remember hating my friend for complaining that she had gone from a size 4 to a size 6 when I was a whooping size 12. By high school though, things leveled out for me, I only had a few more pounds on me than other girls (I was still a size 12, sometimes a 10) and I was totally okay with it. Once in college, I even lost weight instead of gaining that rumored "Freshmen 15." But by the time I was 20, things were beginning to go the wrong direction for me. This was the first time I looked into weight loss surgery (although at this time I doubt I would have been a candidate because I was only 30 overweight at this point). I never made an appointment, instead I did Weight Waters and lost 20 of the pounds. So began the True Battle of Weight Loss. You see, at this time, I was getting out of an emotionally, and towards the end physically, abusive relationship and my trust in everyone, including myself, was gone. This lead to me flunking out of college, befriending an equally emotionally unstable Marine with a sex addiction, going to cosmetology school and drinking my way through it, jumping from job to job, and eating my emotions because I was "totally okay with everything in my life." Four years later, I had gained 30 more pounds, dropped all of my toxic relationships, moved back in with my parents and decided that I needed real help because Weight Watchers and Adkins and working out and "just being happy" weren't cutting it anymore. I was done having to try on the next size up because I'd outgrown the size I'd worn for the last year. And I was done ordering clothes online because they have a better selection of "Plus Size" clothes. And I was tired of looking in the mirror and seeing that I had formed yet a new dimple in some unflattering location on my body. I couldn't take the looks I got when I went to an amusement park with my nieces and the ride operator telling me that I'm over the weight limit. I'm tired of not being able to run around the back yard with my nieces in general, I don't care where we are. In April, I saw my GP. I wanted him to run a blood panel to make sure that I had no thyroid issues, or any other health issues, that could be causing my weight gain. Nope! Aside from my weight, I'm a totally healthy 24 year old American girl. So he put in a referral to the same practice where my mom had her surgery. I swear it was only a week later when I got a call to make my appointment. It didn't seem possible. That Friday, I would be meeting my surgeon. When I went in, I took my mom. She's been there, she knows what questions to ask, she tell if the situation feels right, and she's great emotional support. Dr. Henke was great. He asked me routine questions, asked if I had any questions, and went over the different types of procedures. I told him that I need to lose maximum weight, and that I need the Bypass. So that's what's in my plan. I have done all of the insurance requirements (although I'm still waiting on my last dietitian appointment next week). And then it's waiting for their approval. That's what's killing me the most, waiting for them. I wish once I finished my appointment with the dietitian, I could just call the doctor and ask for the first surgery date available. Although, I'm sure that's all of us that go through insurance. My mom tells me not to worry about that, that it's out of my control, that they have no reason to say no, etc. But my brain goes into overdrive anytime I can't control the outcome. And this outcome is quite important for the rest of my life. Well, I guess I'll check in later, let you know how it goes with the dietitian next week.

So I'm new to BariatricPal, but I've been on this Bariatric train since April when I first saw my surgeon about it. Actually, even in April I saw my doctor and asked him if he thought I was a candidate. He said he thought I was since in the last few months my weight gain was severe and there was no medical cause for it according to him. So he put in a referral to the same practice my mom used when she had her surgery 5 year ago. I thought it would take ages to get a call from them, referrals to a specialist always do. Well, a week later, I got a call and they had an opening that Friday (this never happens, last time I saw a specialist, I had to wait a month). So I went in to that appointment with my mom because I'm 24 and I still need her to ask all the questions sometimes. My BMI was 30.4, which is what I needed since I don't have any other risk factors that the insurance requires. We went over the options, talked about everything, we all asked questions. And then at the end, he just says "I think you're a great candidate!" I wish it was solely up to him. But there's the insurance requirements. I did the scope of my upper GI: passed with flying colors; saw the psychologist: wonderful appointment, although some of the tests made me feel crazy; and I've had 3 of the 4 appointments with my dietitian (my 4th is next week). And then everything is up to the insurance company and I am so scared. I think that right now, that is what I am fearing the most. They are going to hold my future in their hands. I don't know what I'd do if they said no because God knows I can't keep living like this. My mom tells me not to worry about it, but the closer I get to the end of this, the worse it gets for me.