Apple203

Its a bad idea, from what I've read: wait 6 months with sleeve, 12 months with bypass. Ask your surgeon next time you see him, which should be soon?

I feel this way, too, I suspect its common. :-) @Frankette Love the analogy to having kids!!!

Is it wrong to post about food here? I hope I can still make my families' favorites post-surgery, even if i get only a bite? I had a cousin who was "plump", became a super-slim professional chef. @FluffyChix Maybe a rub, LOL, but for me, just an amply sprinkling of salt. Somewhere online, I found what works for me in all salting circumstances: 3.5g salt per pound of meat, from burgers to dry brining. I'm backing down now because my thin/fit (damn him -- he is behind me in my avatar but you cant see because I am so fat - sigh) husband's got high BP. @Kat410 I've seen some abysmal check behavior at group tables. Just request a separate check -- I do it now even tho I'm pre-surgery!

Tomorrow is pie day, 1 apple, 1 pumpkin. Damn kids (haha also known as the loves of my life) demand my pies. Today was for prepping the turkey with dry brine, cranberry sauce and broth.

@FluffyChix *waves buh bye to the elephant penis* *sigh* *smacks head emoji here* This cracked me up -- people who didn't read that thread are surely scratching their heads.

Another thing to consider is that excess weight doesn't wear well as you age -- co-morbidities start to add up (as does the weight). At least that's been my case, and I know for sure its not going to get better unless I permanently lose a boatload of weight.

Just out of curiosity, have you considered a sleeve instead of bypass? The thing that caught my eye when I started researching was when medical professionals getting WLS turned away from bypass -- made me more skeptical of bypass, I think. Of course, it is the gold standard with many years of documented success. If it was an option, I would consider one of the concierge ESGs.

Good luck!!! Post when you can o let us know how it goes.

Amen to that!

[mention=329219]rachelhackney[/mention] Congratulations for earning your RN -- it's a great, flexible career! I agree, your knees shouldn't hurt at the end of your shift. Sounds like you really lucked out in the pre reqs for surgery, lucky you!

[mention=329524]Thatblondechick[/mention], my son is graduating MSON in a few weeks, and he has his first job lined up at Shock Trauma. He started as a nursing student in his second year (critical care) and this last semester he's working there as part of his curriculum (intermediate care). THey start you in intermediate, then after a year you move to critical. Great experience if you want to be NP or NA (he's considering both).

HI there, call your insurance company and ask for a written copy of your policy for Bariatric Surgery. Your group has some bearing on this. And, ask your surgeon what s/he requires, too. MY insurance company required 6 months of supervised diet (and they mean a whole 180 days, not just 6 visits). My surgeon required a TON of pre-op testing.

Nice job -- 100 pounds!!!!

@Aijan There's a group of vegetarians on this board that manage their diet successfully without meat. Try searching "proteinaholic" and see if you can get some advice -- or consider checking out the book directly.

@FluffyChix Glad you found the link. My mother is also a breast cancer survivor, so I am always vigilant to the developments in this field. Mom did treatments during my first son's 9-month gestation -- so she's 25 years clear. :-)

I want to add: schedule an appointment with your surgeon's office manager to go over your paperwork--these people run the world :-)

It is a frustrating process. From what I have experienced, you need the full 180 days of care with your surgeon's office. I know you are frustrated because you weigh in with your PCP regularly and probably discuss weight loss at every visit, too, but the rules are pretty tight. Anther thing I've witnessed recently is that the monthly dietitian classes are PACKED, which I suppose means that word of mouth is growing enrollment, which means insurance companies and bariatric centers will get more attentive to pre-reqs.

Between surgeon appointments, I learned that I have a sliding hiatal hernia and GERD, and I fully expected my surgeon to switch me over to RNY, but he said I'll be fine with sleeve -- the the hernia, fix the GERD.

Here we go: A big player in the cause of acid reflux is overcaffeination. When your caffeine intake is too high, the muscle that connects the stomach to the esophagus is relaxed. When this happens, an opening is created for stomach acid to come up into your esophagus, which causes acid reflux.

I am going to sound like an idiot because I don't have supporting information, but the reflux & hb associated with caffeine is related to the eosinophil valve (?)opening to the stomach -- it is affected by caffeine. Credit to surgeon's dietitian.

@Subaru Your strategy made me laugh My surgeon's office manager scheduled all of my 2018 appointments, including surgery, at my last appt, when all of the pre-reqs were finished. For all of the working people out there, I got the 8:30 am appointments, lol.

@kelsen I see you surgery date is December 19th -- you must be pretty excited! I'm gonna want to hear all of the details since we have the same surgeon. I still dont even know what the pre-op diet is -- so if you want to dish, I'm dieing to hear!

and its a huge relief when all of the tests are done!!!

Sorry to hear this, Fluffy, hope you can work something out with insurance. Its such a let down down to have to wait, especially when you are straddling the weight cutoff line. On the positive side, you can sail through the holidays -- I remember that you were concerned with the impact of another surgery to your family.