notmyname

I had one a few years ago. It was interesting how much less I needed than anything I'd seen on the web or through calorie counting apps. It was a very, very first step in my thinking about maybe doing surgery. I really couldn't eat that little without some other tool. Once I'm in maintenance, I'd like to do one again, just to gauge how much I should be eating

You may also need to tell the doc about the FDA warning. Mine didn't know.

That's right - I remember you saying that before. Take me with you! One other hint - check the meal options (they won't have specific foods, but will have different types) - see if they have something that looks healthier (maybe a heart healthy, or something like that?) and select that. You can eat it or not, depending on how you feel on the day.

YOu can take powdered shakes, a shaker bottle, and ask for milk. Also, some flights will have a fruit/cheese plate. You can take things like cheese, parm chips, etc. Take a water bottle and fill it after security and before the flight. Continually fill it during the flight. Make sure you get up and walk a bt every hour or so. Find a place to stretch. And, most importnat - enjoy the trip. I am SO jealous

I take bariatric fusion chewable multi. My doc/nut says 4/day covers everything I need. So I don’t have to remember a bunch of different vitamins. They have various flavors and you can get a sample pack to see if any work for you.

I had a horrible constipation problem after surgery. Let's just say when I told my doctor about it, he said I should have gone to the ER rather than try to get it out for an hour and a half, bleeding much of the time and tearing things that shouldn't ever tear. So, he has me taking colase every day. And if it gets bad, take miralax. The colase is really, really helping. When I raised a concern about not wanting to get to where I couldn't go without meds, he told me that colase was fine, it was laxatives that would be concerning to take every day. I've been regular and easy every day since (although the first day on the colase it boomeranged the other way, but then it evened out.

I don't know what my final goal weight is. I set my first goal as losing 60% of my excess weight, which is average for the sleeve. Once I reach that, I'll see how I feel at each 10lbs or so. I know myself well enough to know that if I set it low and don't achieve it, I would feel like a failure. So, I set my mindset that if I lose 60% EWL, I'll be significantly more healthy than I am now and, while still fairly overweight, will be happy with that.

I had GERD before surgery. No esophagitis, but I did have a hernia. Before surgery I was on 40mg Nexium 2x/day. For a lot of the same reasons as you, I didn't want to do RNY. I went to three different surgeons to discuss. One refused to do the sleeve, the other two were fairly comfortable with the sleeve (one of which still said he'd prefer RNY). Ultimately, I did a sleeve with hernia repair last October. I started having break-through reflux even on my meds about 3 weeks ago. Doc put me on another PPI (so that's 3 reflux meds a day). He said we won't really know if this is permanent for a few more months. If I still have GERD at my next appt, I'll have to do another endoscopy. So far, it isn't bad enough to regret it, but I bet it hasn't been long enough for me to form a real opinion one way or another. So, I don't really have any advice for you, just wanted to let you know my experience. I did find it useful to talk to the three different doctors about it, and would advise a 2nd opinion, just to see what another doc would say. Also, I will say that one woman in my support group who had RNY ended up with reflux afterwards. Although I understand that is exceedingly uncommon.

My insurance (like many ) covers 90 days of post-op follow-ups after surgery. The only reason I know this is that I've had surgery before and my ortho doc's office told me. So, my sleeve surgeon's office has twice tried to charge me for visits because they're miscoding them. If I didn't know better, they'd just be making me pay extra. I also had to get on them about charging me more for my surgery than my insurance allows. So, it's important to know your coverage and keep your doc's office honest!

Update - amazingly, it only took one email to get the hospital to acknowledge the problem and say they'd issue a refund. I am SUPER surprised. A teeny bit irritated that I had to catch it, contact insurance and contact the hospital to get it done, but it could have been SO much harder.

It won't hurt you. I saw three doctors before I chose one. And they had me call the insurance to find out my coverage (which they also knew because they work with my insurance a lot) and they only contacted the insurance once I'd met the requirements.

I use very small utensils. I have some that are appetizer size. And some that are just smaller (link below). It really helps me slow down. Takes me about 20 mn to eat about 2 oz of protein and 50g of veg. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B1JRZYV/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Up until I broke my feet, I was doing Pilates reformer once a week, working with my trainer once a week, and doing either treadmill or bike 4x/week.

I use Sparkpeople for food/nutrients. For vitamins I have an app called good habits and have a check box there for every vitamin I need to take.

Yep. Have been getting all my protein, liquids, and vitamins since the day after I got home from the hospital. My doc said I’d be less likely to lose hair if I got protein/vitamins, but that there were no guarantees. Just hope it helps to limit the loss. I have a lot of hair, so I’m not too worried. Just weird to see whole curls come out.

Well, my hair loss started this week. I have curly hair and so far I’ve lost several of my nicest curls. This too shall pass.

I'd call and ask. Even if your roommate isn't a bariatric patient, vomiting happens. I was VERY sick after my 2nd hip surgery because I do not tolerate anesthesia very well. That will be true no matter what surgery I have - and could be true of your roommate.

Hi. I'm trying to do as much research before surgery as I can. I'm prepared for the hair loss/waiting for it to grow back. My question is what did your hair look like when it grew back? Was it the same type/texture as before? I have curly hair (different types of curls on different parts of my head) and am very slowly going grey. So, I really just have a little grey now, and every now and again I notice more (and some are coming in wildly curly - I have one grey hair that looks like a spring in a ball point pen!). No big deal, going grey doesn't bother me. Just wondering if I should expect my curl pattern to change or expect my new growth to be more grey. I think if its more grey, I'll need to do some research on how to take care of grey curls, because they're often a different texture. Again, I'm not worried about it - no matter what happens - just want to think about what I need to start researching. Thank you!

Yep. Blue Cross was really quick to issue me a correct EOB, but getting the hospital to fix it is proving harder. AT least at the doc's office for visits, I just tell them I'm still covered and I'm not paying the copay, so I dont have to try to get money back from them

It was really the hospital stay. My insurance is fairly clear that if its a center for excellence, its $X and $Y if not. When I got the bill, they had charged me $Y. Unfortunately, I didn't think about it when I paid it, so I paid the extra money and now have to figure out how to get a refund. Good stuff.

Sorry to hear about that. Do you have other doctors that have taken your weight? If so, can they send the records to your surgeon?

See, to me, I get the idea of "to me surgery feels like giving up". Because I felt like that before, and, frankly, I still feel that way. I did have to give up on the fact that I could do it "alone" (or, more correctly, without this additional tool). I had to give up on a lifetime of being told you can do anything if you really try with just a little elbow grease. I had to give up a lot of the way I used to think. It's not that I had to give up on myself - I just needed to let go of a lot of what my brain and my social conditioning had ingrained in me for many, many (many) years. And I'm OK with thinking of it that way.

Oh no! I'm one of the lucky ones. VERY glad to be at work and being paid. Hope it ends soon and you get paid retroactively!

PS - Just saw you're a fellow fed - hope your agency has funding and you're at work and getting paid!

I also recommend seeing if you can get the at-home test. I had moderate sleep apnea and didn't know it. Several years ago I had a different surgery and they had trouble getting me breathing on my own after the procedure - and only did after an emergency re-intubation. My WLS went much more smoothly because the anesthesiologist knew about my apnea and somehow compensated for it. No problems waking me up at all. So, it may ultimately help, even if you don't think it will.