Barbara1972

Thanks all. I'm just like you I drink a ton of crystal light, ice tea with Truvia, Powerade Zero etc but very little plain water. I try to switch to see if it helps. Fingers crossed !

Consider yourself lucky. I am honestly stalled at week 1 and 2 and I don't understand it myself. I truly feel like crying. I lost 20 lbs pre-op and have only lost 1 lb since my sleeve surgery 2 weeks ago. I follow the diet plan exactly and have been exercising/brisk walking 30-60 min everyday. It doesn't make sense to me and I'm about ready to give up. Good point Introversion - thank you.

Hi all, I am a newbie on here and this is my first post so thank you in advance to all that reply. I am hoping to get some advice or support on Gastric Bypass. I am 250 lbs and my goal weight is about 150. I have not had my surgery yet but depending on my decision, it will either be scheduled for July 24th or August 9th. I originally scheduled my consult because I was interested in getting the Sleeve with Hernia Repair, but my doctor is recommending that I get the Bypass since I have severe GERD with Barrett's Esophagus. He was especially concerned with the Barrett's diagnosis. So... I was mentally prepared for to move forward with Sleeve, and am now having worries about the Bypass. The bypass seems like a much bigger decision to me especially since I am only trying to loose less than 100 lbs. Its a lot for me, but not a lot compared to many. On top of all this, my insurance wont cover the surgery so I would be paying for this out of pocket. This doubles the cost compared to a Sleeve. Getting to the point, is bypass worth 100 lbs and are all the sacrifices really as bad as some make it seem to be? possible major life threatening complications, dumping syndrome, hair loss, no energy, dry skin,.. all this sounds so scary (especially without insurance). Yikes!

My bypass surgery is scheduled for July 26th and I am inches away from calling my doc and cancelling the whole thing. I am 100% self-pay and am terrified of all the complications that I see and hear about. It took a lot for me to save the 22k for the surgery. I worry that complications could send me to the poor house. I am 5'5 240 and wonder if it's worth it. Is anyone else out there getting a full bypass via self-pay?

Hi All, I am still in the process of deciding between Bypass and Sleeve. My doctor and nurse tell me that Dumping Syndrome is not as common as the internet makes it out to be. I'd love to hear everyone's experience with this. Has anyone eaten a slice of cake or a cookie and NOT experienced dumping?

Thanks again everyone. I decided on RNY and surgery is scheduled for Wednesday July 26th. I'll be starting my pre-op diet this Wednesday. I'm extremely nervous, but I think this is the best choice.

My employer specifically has it excluded on our health plan. My insurance company told me that I would need to talk my employer into re-negotiating their contract and removing the exclusion for future year coverage. I've seen some template letters online here and there that can be used to present to your employers HR department but this would be a long uphill battle. In these cases when your employer excludes it, it really not up to the insurance company. Good luck. I'm going RNY via self-pay and it's scary since insurance won't cover complications either, but I believe it's worth the risk.

That's great news. I have no problem not having sweets until I get to my goal weight and am happy to have the negative reinforcement for the first year or more. It was the word "forever" that was really stressing me. We all deserve a little reward when we hit out goals. I'm happy to hear it's possible.

Thank you so much. You both are so helpful. This site has been amazing. I tend to agree that we often hear about the bad more than the good and we certainly don't often hear "yippee I didn't dump!" LOL I also strongly believe that, if done right, we can train our intestines to accept food more. High hopes maybe but I need high hopes to move forward. I dont drink juices due to acid reflux and don't eat sweets that often, greasy foods already upset my stomach. My weakness is bread, but I think I can keep it to whole grain or whole wheat. So with all this ... I'm down to the line on making my decision and I can have the sleeve next Monday or the bypass next Wednesday (or maybe Aug 9th depending on if he needs a co-surgeon). Between this an my other posts, I decided I'm gonna be an RNY girl!

Yah I know that dumping doesn't really occur with the sleeve. I was hoping to hear that it's not as common as it seems for people with the bypass. I don't really eat sweets now but I would like to be able to have a small piece of cake at my wedding or my granddaughters birthday. I have a hard time accepting that I have to give up those things FOREVER.

Hi all My life has been a whirlwind lately. First I was thinking about the sleeve, then my doc told me because I was previously diagnosed with Barrett's, he would not do the Sleeve. I have very bad GERD. So then I started really thinking about the bypass which sounded ok but the complications and being self-pay terrified the heck out of me. I am terrified of the getting major complications and having to pay for those out of pocket too. Anyway, I just got done with my endoscopy/colonoscopy and it turns out that I don't have Barrett's and he said that I can now consider the sleeve and hernia repair. My head is spinning and I need to make a decision this weekend since I'm supposed to have me pre-op tests for the sleeve surgery on Monday. So here is wheee I am stuck.... 1. I've been on a 1200 calorie diet for the past 3 months and have not lost anything. What's the difference between 1200 calories with a normal stomach and 1200 calories in a sleeved stomach? Will it really make a difference and help me lose ? I understand with the bypass, I can eat 1200 but absorb 800 or so as that helps. 2. Has anyone had hernia repair and still experienced acid reflux?

Thank you all. That makes a lot of sense and helps a lot. That is one worry crossed out. :-) . I guess the big one is number 2. My doc seems to think that fixing my hernia will help my acid reflux so the sleeve is an ok option still but everything I read everywhere says to get the RNY and not the sleeve if you have reflux. The RNY scares me still but it may be the best choice.

Thanks. He seems to think that the hernia repair will help the GERD. A second opinion would probably require another endoscopy so that's hard to get but I'll see what I can do.

Thank you so much for everyone's comments. This forum is really wonderful and I am so glad that I found it. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one in this situation and I am pretty sure I'm going to move forward with getting the procedure. My GERD is so bad (I take prescription Nexium and about 8 Pepcid Complete chewables daily since the Nexium doesn't work) that I alone look forward to not having to deal with that anymore. Also, I am also worried about losing too much weight as I do not want to be super skinny. I have a broad frame so super skinny would not be a good look. My boyfriend told me to remember that it always seems easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight and binge watching my 600 life on TLC tells me that just eating the wrong foods even after bypass can halt weight loss. I figure that just like it taking a commitment to lose the weight, it will also take a commitment to eat enough to stop losing weight.