Hopefully A Butterfly

I hate to tell you, but they're pretty strict about their 9 month diet. I'm a revision from a sleeve to a DS so my surgeon's office thought they *might* approve me without the 9 month diet due to me following a diet all along but they turned me down for the diet. The surgeon's office did an appeal and sent them 6 months of a diet and told them my comorbidities and BMI (higher than yours) and they denied the appeal. Luckily for me I was able to switch to a different provider during open enrollment. ALL the other available plans had a 6 month diet. My surgeon's office sent through my application to the new insurance company on January 12th after only being on their plan for 12 days. We got back an approval by the end of the month. Good luck to you. Make sure you do every single month with them and be sure your doctor's office charts each one.

I apologize for the length of this, but I'm so lost and need suggestions, support, or whatever you have: Before I decided to have surgery I weighed 500 pounds. I say that, but it could have been more. I know that was the biggest weight I was aware of, but I'd spent years telling the doctors not to tell me my weight. I had the gastric sleeve done in July of 2014. My surgeon had me lose some weight before he did the surgery and my surgery went well with no complications. My weight was coming off slow but steady, and by October of 2015 I was down to 299 pounds. That's when one of the only friends I had in the world passed away, and I didn't handle it well. I stopped walking on my treadmill. I stopped measuring my food. I stopped caring about if I drank while I ate or if I ate slowly. Worst of all? I started eating fast food again. At first just a little, but then several times a week and amounts that I shouldn't have eaten. The result? As of a month ago I was back up to 360 pounds. I gained 61 pounds in about 7 months! Who does that? To make matters worse, I'm 45 years old. I'm WAY old enough to know better. I'm feeling so angry with myself and frustrated. I went to a support group meeting in June to try to get back on track and was told "You should have never had the sleeve. The sleeve isn't for heavyweights. You should have had the duodenal switch. You've most likely ruined and stretched your sleeve out." I was devastated. I spent $14,000 to have this done and I may have ruined it? I don't think any surgeons near me do the duodenal switch, so that's probably why I hadn't heard of it. Regardless, I've spent teary days since that support group meeting. So what now? A couple of weeks ago I decided that until I know for sure what to do, I'm going to go back to doing better. I have an appointment for Monday to meet with a therapist who specializes in food addictions/binge eating/chronic overeating. I started walking on the treadmill again. Only 10 minutes per day. I know it's not much but my stamina is very low and the loose skin from my stomach pulls on my back, but I hope to build my stamina and increase it. I haven't had fast food and I'm back to weighing my food. I'm down from 360 to 340. That's progress, but some of that might have been sodium bloat from the fast food. Anyone have any thoughts? Advice? Thank you SO much for reading this. As I gained weight over the years, I slowly pulled away from people and lost almost every friend I've ever had so I don't have people I can turn to. I'm hoping some of you here might have advice. Thanks.

@@songsmith thank you so much for your response. I'm sorry it took so long for me to come back. I've started my first semester of nursing school and it's been crazy! I went to a counselor a few times who was supposed to specialize in eating disorders, but I think I need a new one. She seems to be a behaviorlist, a therapist who focuses not on feelings or emotions, but observable aspects of behavior. Her advice for me was to keep a food journal and look at myself in the mirror each day and say "I will not eat anything today that I am not supposed to eat even if ISIS attacks my city." That may work for some people, but I weighted 500 pounds not long ago. Just telling myself "No" isn't going to work for me. I'm heading back to my insurance company's list of therapists and trying again. Thank you again. @@mi75 I am so sorry for the loss of your father. That's a horribile thing to go through, and I wish you healing. Thanks for the tip about the regain section. I'll be checking that out. @@mcplu28 thank you! Best of luck to you, too. We can do this. We just have to work each day at it. @@dccarite, I agree with you. Extreme weight gain is a mental disorder. Some weight can be just overeating, but I didn't get to 500 pounds by having a good mental health. I didn't find the therapist for me with my first try, but I'm heading back to the list of therapists for my insurance and trying again. Good luck with your surgery. Keep us informed, ok? @@miamomma YaY for breaking through that stall. That good attitude is going to keep you moving in the right direction. Thank you so much I'm trying daily to Celebrate all the weight I have already lost while moving to lose more! @@Lindairene I don't think there's a single surgery that does that for us! I'm still considering revising to a duodenal switch as I know a few people who've had success with it and it does have the least weight regain of any of the surgeries, but it sure isn't an eat-anything-you-want thing! @@Hollyhock Thank you so much! I really need to keep focusing on how much weight is gone (my sagging belly skin SHOULD serve as a good reminder lol) and just keep moving forward. Do a little better every day. thanks again

Hi there. I used to weigh 500 pounds and had a VSG in July of 2014 that I self-paid. I went down to 299 pounds last fall, but after a really hard time I went back up to about 360. I'm down to 340 after recommitting to eating better, but I'm just not seeing much movement on the scale. For 2 weeks I've eaten less than 800 calories most days, and I actually gained 1 pound this week. I've had several people tell me that at that large of a size I shouldn't have gotten the sleeve, but should have gotten a D/S. My current insurance does pay for weight loss surgery, but I'm not sure if they'd pay for a revision to a gastric bypass and I *think* I read that they don't cover the D/S at all. I'm going to call on Monday to see for sure, but I'm not hopeful. Now, I have read that there are places in Mexico that will do a revision for just under $10K. I could possibly get a home equity loan and have this done, but I'm really hoping that someone here has gotten surgery in Mexico and might share their experience? After paying $14K for the sleeve, I just can't afford the $25K that I've read it costs (minimally) to self pay in America. I have to say I'm embarrassed to even be considering ANOTHER WLS after just 2 years, but here I am. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. Hopefully I can get the D/S because I don't really feel the restriction that so many people talk about with the sleeve. I felt it for about 30 days after surgery, but then not again. So I basically have to rely on just weighing my food and stopping when I'm out. I eat between 700 and 900 calories a day and I'm not losing like I should be. Time for me to move past the sleeve.

Thank you for this information. I'm just getting started trying to work with them for a possible revision to a duodenal switch. I saw my primary care doctor today and told her I needed a 9 month physician documented diet and she asked me if she needed to fill out a form and what other info was needed. I told her I'd call Caresource to find out. I called and got a seriously unhelpful rep who said she can't tell me, that the doctor needs to call Provider Services. I told her that this makes me nervous. If I don't have the info myself, how am I to know what's being done is correct? My doc's office could get the wrong info and 9 months from now we submit it for approval only to be told "The 9 month diet wasn't done correctly." It will be ME who has to wait another 9 months. The rep was unmoved. She kept saying she couldn't help me. Frustrating!

@@catwoman7, thank you so much! I truly appreciate it. I'm going to look this over.

@@catwoman7, thank you.

I haven't done that. I assumed it would result in me paying thousands more for something. Maybe I should contact them just to see. Thanks for the reply!

Keep moving forward. I am 2 years post-op and did a big cheat for several months and paid a big price in weight gain. Don't be like me! One of the biggest things that kept me in that cycle of eating junk (and too much of it!) was the shame and feeling that "Oh well, I blew it. I might as well eat what I want now!" Just go right back to doing what you should! You'll get there.

@@Alex Brecher. Thank you! I've heard a few people say that sleeves don't stretch, and I hope that's true. You're certainly right that I just have to keep on moving forward and working each tool to the best of my ability. I sure didn't get to 500+ pounds in 2 years, so I'm going to just keep going forward and losing it piece by piece. I truly appreciate your comments. I'm going to keep coming back and reading everyone's posts whenever I need a pick-me-up. Thanks again! @@OutsideMatchInside I do need to look into some of that shapewear. Do you have any brands or styles that you like better than others? If you don't mind, do you have a link to some? Thanks for the comment!

Thank you so much. I admit to being a little afraid to come into this place and admit how much I screwed up, but I'm overwhelmed at the kindness people have shown.

I see we picked our names for the same reason, I love that! I'm so sorry for the loss of your brother. Grief is a terrible thing, and I hope that you're able to think of him with joy more than sorrow. I'm really hoping that the therapist can help me come up with strategies that can keep me out of Taco Bell's drive-thru line. I'm going to keep chipping away at this weight, 10 pounds at a time as a goal. Thank you, again.

I had a gym membership and used to swim right before my surgery, but I've let my gym membership go. The gym is kind of far from my home, so I'm not too sure about joining again at this point. I'm starting nursing school in 3 weeks so I'm going to probably have to stick to my treadmill here at home, but I appreciate the thought. Oh how I wish I had a pool in my backyard!

I look at your ticker and I'm amazed at your progress! That's fantastic. Thank you for the great suggestions. I haven't tried a shape wear garment, but I'll have to look into those. Do you have a type or brand you like best?

Thank you! There's so much good information and so many good suggestions in this response. I am definitely going to explore some of these options, I was foolish to think I didn't need some kind of therapy before. I mean, who gets to 500 pounds without having some issues to work through? Truly, I thank you for responding. I can't tell you how much this helps.

Thank you so much! I think I may need to just focus on 10 pounds at a time until I can get under 300 and then set up more goals. I'll have to see what the therapist comes up with tomorrow. I really appreciate your encouragement and positivity!

I never went back to that group, as you can imagine. I may look into another group, but I'm not sure. Someone else mentioned that it's hard to "ruin" a sleeve, so I'm hoping that's true. I self paid for this sleeve! Someone else mentioned revising to a gastric bypass, I didn't think of that but I'm going to see how I do on just recommitting first. My new insurance does pay for bypass, but not sure if a revision to one. Thanks for the encouragement. I really do appreciate it.

I'm so sorry that you lost your father. I can't imagine that pain. I've never tried an epsom salts bath, that sounds interesting. I definitely will be looking at other ways to self soothe. God knows I could stand to do some cleaning To add to the stress, I'm starting nursing school in a few weeks so I need to get myself pulled together and get on a schedule. Thanks for the reply

Thank you. I am really going to try focusing on the positive. I am also going to work on slowly increasing my exercise. For me, that was a real key to my losing before. Even though I was only eating about 800 calories a day, I wasn't losing weight much until I started walking on the treadmill. You'd think the lack of calories would have been enough, but it wasn't. Keep going forward. Thanks again!

Thank you for the link. I will look into that!

Honestly, once I was about a month post-op I rarely ever felt the full feeling that so many people have described. I just had to weigh my food and stop eating. I didn't feel ravenously hungry like I did before surgery, but I never had that feeling of fullness that would help me stop. I've joked with my friends before that maybe my surgeon just put me to sleep, poked a few instruments in laproscopic holes, and then woke me up. Thank you for responding, each reply helps.

Thank you, that's very kind. I'm sorry to hear about your loss as well, and the weight gain you experienced. I appreciate the offer of messaging you, I may just do that.

Thank you for the response. I have an appointment with a new primary doctor (just got new insurance and had to change everything) on Aug 18th and I'll definitely be talking about the extra skin. I read an article yesterday about a reality TV star who has lost 130 pounds and is down to l like 260 and she was told she needed to be under 200 to have the surgery so that dragged me down a little. My old primary care doctor estimated that I probably have 40 pounds of extra skin in my stomach alone. I'm going to try to keep positive. Thanks again.