diabladepaz

I ordered a six month supply of Barimelt vitamins, and they haven't worked out for me. I just don't like chewables. But I don't want these to go to waste! If you can't afford vitamins please send me a message and I'll send them to you. I live in Forest Grove, Oregon so if you live nearby we could meet up and i could get them to you. If I am going to send them to you I would appreciate $20 via venmo to cover shipping, but if you can't do that it's not a big deal. I mostly just don't want these to go to waste. I have multivitamin, iron, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B and calcium.

Hi there, I bought a big supply of BariMelts and don’t love them. I know a lot of other people do, so if you would like these I’ll sell them to you below retail value. I already sold the calcium to someone — they paid me over Venmo and I shipped them the pills. All remaining vitamins are unopened. Here’s what I have: 1 bottle of Biotin (retails for $14.99.) 5 bottles or iron + vitamin C (retails for $19.99.) 1 bottle of b12 plus (retails for $19.99.) 1 bottle of B1 (retails for $14.99.) 5 bottles of multivitamin (retails for $22.99.) Message me if interested and we can work out the logistics. Thanks!

I ordered a six month supply of Barimelt vitamins, and they haven't worked out for me. I just don't like chewables. But I don't want these to go to waste! If you can't afford vitamins please send me a message and I'll send them to you. I live in Forest Grove, Oregon so if you live nearby we could meet up and i could get them to you. If I am going to send them to you I would appreciate $20 via venmo to cover shipping, but if you can't do that it's not a big deal. I mostly just don't want these to go to waste. I have multivitamin, iron, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin B and calcium.

Me too! If no one here wants them, my doctor's office said they would take them and give them to a patient in need, so that's good!

Hi there, I purchased 6 months worth of Barimelt vitamins. They're fine...except for the calcium citrate. They make me feel nauseous. Does anyone else like/want these? I don't want them to go to waste. All 6 bottles are unopened except for one. Message me if you're interested in buying them from me. They're $22.99. I'll sell them to you for $10 a bottle if you want to Venmo me payment. Here's the vitamin I'm talking about: https://www.barimelts.com/products/calcium-citrate

I’m curious to know what a typical sushi/sashimi meal looks like for you post-sleeve. I had a cup of miso soup and 4 pieces of sashimi - 2 salmon and 2 tuna. I feel satisfied. Before surgery I would eat soup, half a tempura appetizer, and one to two sushi rolls. Just curious to know what your portions of this meal looks like!

I’m two weeks out and today was the first day I could have soft food. After consulting my BariatricPal nutritionist I knew what I was allowed to have from the Thanksgiving menu. I had turkey with gravy and sweet potatoes — about one to two bites of each. Later in the day I had a sliver of pumpkin pie with whipped cream, just the filling no crust. I logged it, loved it and am moving on. You should too! Doesn’t sound like a bad day at all...sounds like a small portion of holiday food on a day where almost everyone else pigs out!

At the hospital they gave me a caffeine pill pre-operation to help me with withdrawal symptoms. Try asking for one if you feel a caffeine headache coming on.

Dannon oikos Greek - 15 grams of protein per container!

I got sleeved 11/8 and am on a full liquid diet with soft foods to come next. Would love to know your favorites for this diet. Best protein shakes, yogurts, other liquids? Best soft foods? Also I’ve received mixed feedback on whether or not I can have cream in my coffee. Thoughts? Thank you!!

Yesterday morning I got sleeved. I was so scared and full of anxiety, but the doctors and team were incredibly kind and reassuring. I stayed overnight in the hospital and am home today. So far I’ve been able to keep down yogurt, cream of wheat, applesauce and butternut squash pear soup. I’m eating everything very slowly and in small quantities. The worst part of the experience so far was being on the liquid diet 24 hours before surgery. The lack of food triggered a migraine, which made me nauseous, which made the headache even worse. I dry heaved for hours, and at 12am my husband drove me to the hospital early so I could get fluids and zofran for the nausea. They couldn’t give me anything for the headache pain because I might not have been able to go under anesthesia a few hours later. Then we waited around at the hospital until my 5:30am check in time because we live an hour away from the hospital and it didn’t make sense to drive all the way home. So if you get migraines too, I recommend getting zofran from your doctor BEFORE you get sick like I did. Overall, my pain is being managed well and I feel optimistic and hopeful. It’s a great feeling after months of worrying what will happen. Now the surgery is over and it’s simply about following instructions and doing the next right thing. I am on the full liquid phase diet. My doc said I could even have a latte! If you have any advice for me at this stage, I’d appreciate any insights.

I’m getting my sleeve tomorrow!

I’m scheduled for Nov. 8 - three weeks exactly from today. I’m starting to feel very scared, especially when I reviewed my pre-surgical consult notes of all the potential risks. I worry what if something goes wrong, and then it’s like I did it to myself. But there’s that saying “everything you want is on the other side of fear.” I’m trying to live that and just have faith. Sometimes I get so excited thinking about how my life could be if I felt better about myself. If i could wear all the clothes in my closet. If I felt sexy. If I could kayak without worrying I’m over the weight limit. But then at night the fear and anxiety creep in. Just three more weeks...I hope I have made the right decision for myself, and for my family.

November 8 is the big day. I am nervous and excited, sometimes seemingly paralyzed by fears and other times bursting with hope for my future. I don't drink soda, but I drink a lot of bubbly water. I am giving that up as of today. I am also trying to get used to not eating and drinking at the same time. If you have any other tips for me to incorporate over these next 50 days before surgery, I appreciate your insights and encouragement. Thank you!

I would love to hear people’s experiences with how they stay hydrated. Is it really as hard as it sounds? How do you do it? Are you ok if you just sip water all day like my doctor says, or is it still a challenge? Getting sleeved in 2 months and appreciate any insights!

On social media, I see entire Instagram accounts dedicated to people's personal journeys of getting sleeved. I see so many that this *feels* like the norm. But I am curious to know...do any of you NOT tell a lot of people about your surgery? I am not ashamed to be getting sleeved, but for whatever reason I do feel very private about it. It feels like this deeply personal medical decision that I don't want to involve more people in than is necessary. I am not inclined to tell more people than I absolutely have to, at least until I have actually had the surgery. I am working through so many of my own fears and anxieties that I feel like I don't have emotional bandwidth to tell others about my surgery and deal with their questions, fears, and anxieties about it. I'd rather wait until it's done and then tell people as I feel comfortable. Would love to know your thoughts/experiences about how open you chose to be...

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for your helpful and thoughtful responses. You guys continue to give me strength and courage through sharing your experience. Second, and please take this with a grain of salt since I haven't actually been sleeved yet -- I'll just add that I am in AA and haven't had a drink in nearly 13 years. One of the most common insecurities felt by those new in recovery when going out is that people will see they're not drinking and ask them why and give them crap about it. This does happen sometimes, but usually people are just so happy with their own cocktail that they don't really care what the other person is or isn't drinking. So with food, I am hoping it is similar -- especially when I go out with my husband we we share entrees.

I totally relate to this. I don't have a surgery date yet but am scheduling it this week and will most likely get sleeved in November. During the day I peruse Instagram before and afters and find myself feeling excited and inspired. I look at items in my closet that don't fit now and feel hopeful about wearing them again. I fantasize about being more physically active next summer -- more hiking, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding. But then at night, I become so scared and anxious. I have had nightmares about things going wrong in surgery and in the dream I'm dying and apologizing to my husband for leaving him alone with a two year old who won't have a mother. The disconnect between what I feel during the day and my subconscious anxiety at night is surreal. I am trying to meditate and seek reassurance where I can. I wish I could just have the surgery already so that I could stop feeling afraid and move into action. I appreciate this forum and your experiences. Reading your stories reminds me I am not alone.

Thank you all so much for your insights. As always, I appreciate them.

On track to get sleeved in January. I have days where I’m super excited, and other days where I feel so scared. What did you do to push past your fear? How did you truly know you were ready? I’m told by my PCP and Bariatric office that I’m a great candidate. My husband is supportive. But I’m so scared of the “what ifs” with both surgery and life after. I’m so glad this forum exists so I can read your experiences and share mine.

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful responses. I read them and mulled them over and your words made me feel a lot better!

Weight Watchers is the only weight loss program I’ve had significant success with. I lost 76lbs in a year and have kept it off for over a year so far following the program. But my genetics are against me and I can’t seem to lose any more, hence my decision to do the sleeve. I have PCOS and take nearly the highest dose of Metformin, and it has just become obvious that I would benefit from the sleeve to help me reach my goals. I was wondering if anyone else who has had surgery follows the Weight Watchers program? I have found it to be a great framework for building a healthy lifestyle and would like to keep using it as such after surgery, if I can. Thoughts?

I am experiencing this now, and it’s hard! I’m getting sleeved in January and am toward the bottom of the allowable BMI range for surgery, so when the nurse told me not to lose anymore weight I think I went too far in the other direction. I have lost 76lbs on weight watchers and kept it off for over a year, but I haven’t been able to lose more since last Nov. so now I’m finding myself eating all this shit I taught myself to stop eating on weight watchers. Trying to get back into a healthy mindset before surgery but I hear you, it’s hard!

Well, today was weird. On the one hand, I am thrilled to be moving forward with pursuing gastric sleeve. I'm thrilled that apparently I don't have to wait six months before I can even schedule surgery. And why is that? I found out that my insurance company will not cover my surgery because my BMI is 37 and it needs to be 40, minimum, for them to cover it, unless I have other co-morbidity health issues, which I do not. I thought that having PCOS and asthma would be enough, but they aren't. It's weird to be pursing something for my health and told I am "unhealthy" enough to get the surgery and be a good candidate for it, but not "unhealthy" enough to have my insurance pay for it. So now we're looking at getting a home equity loan to cover the $16,000 cost, which is due up front. It's a weird feeling. I guess I could gain the 25 lbs needed to qualify, and then go through the 6 month prep period my insurance requires, but that all seems very counterintuitive to why I'm on this journey -- which is to be healthier. So I think I'm just going to go into a bit of debt and do it. Have you ever heard of this type of situation happening? It's totally weird, isn't it!

Hi there - I am on my six month pre-op journey, planning to get the gastric sleeve. I have a two-year old and sometimes feel so guilty about putting myself at risk through surgery. I'll think about how it's elective, what if something goes wrong, what if I die on the table, etc. etc....and then my daughter will be without a mother. My mom feeds into this guilt, telling me surgery is the wrong thing to do. I need to be strong and make the best decision for me. I understand that I will be healthier overall post-sleeve, but does/did anyone else struggle with this kind of pre-surgery guilt? As a parent, specifically? How do you push past this and not let guilt be a driving force behind your decision? My PCP and husband are supportive, but I just feel like I'm a bad mom sometimes for putting myself through surgery that "isn't necessary", so to speak.