SpartanMaker

Green tea still has caffeine, so might not be a good choice either. I drink herbal teas (both hot and iced), for this reason.

Here's a list of the ASMBS approved surgeries. https://asmbs.org/patients/bariatric-surgery-procedures If you're planning to have something done that's not on this list, I'd recommend asking your surgeon why they want to do this different surgery. Keep in mind too that insurance companies likely won't pay for it. They want proven techniques. FYI, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list of forums, there is one for "Mini Gastric Bypass".

I work from home, so at first I was thinking a week at max. I asked the United Healthcare Bariatric Program nurse this question (she works exclusively with bariatric surgery patients), and she recommended 2 week. She said it wasn't due to pain, but just because I'd be extra tired and likely would be suffering from brain fog if I tried to start back any sooner. Hopefully that works, but I won't know until next month!

@The Greater Fool, thanks for clarifying on the duct tape! I totally missed where you said put something over the staple line! I was envisioning the duct tape going right onto the staples and it hurt just to think about it! I hear you on the medical tape. Some of them won't even stick to a bandage, much less your skin. Personally, I've found the cloth ones stick the best (and can be used without scissors, a nice bonus), followed by the plastic varieties. I've never found the paper tapes to work very well at all.

Have you tried herbal tea instead?

I think only your health care team can advise you, but I doubt it will be worse post surgery? One of the most common reasons for acid reflux is overeating. Certain medications such as NSAIDS can also lead to reflux. Having reflux at night is very common. When laying down, it's a lot easier for the food/acid to overcome gravity. Many people that have this issue find they need to sleep propped up to get the problem under control. It's also possible that one of the contributing factors to your reflux is something called a hiatal hernia. Up to 40% of bariatric surgery patients have this issue pre-surgery. This is where part of the stomach actually pokes through the diaphragm. Heartburn is a common symptom of a hiatal hernia and is something your surgeon will fix during your procedure. Best of luck.

I'm like you, I'd much rather "play" for fitness. I created a list of sports I want to try. Now this is my list and some you may hate the idea of, but perhaps some of them might appeal to you: Archery Backpacking Boxing Disk Golf Fencing Golf Hang Gliding Kayaking Kitesurfing Martial arts Mountain biking Mud runs Orienteering Parkour Pilates Powerlifting Racquetball Repelling Rock climbing Rowing Sailing Scuba Diving Skiing – cross country Skiing – downhill Snorkeling Snowboarding Snowkiting Snowmobiling Squash Stand-up Paddle Boarding Swimming Tennis Trail Running Ultimate Frisbee Volleyball Windsurfing Yoga

It's pretty normal for it to take 6 months to a year to get through all the steps. I'm going on 2.5 years, but I know I'm an edge case. Keep in mind that this is life changing surgery. Not only do you have to jump through a lot of hoops, but I think it's good that it takes a while because you need to mentally prepare yourself for this change. If you go into this thinking bariatric surgery will "fix" you, it's won't. Surgery is a tool, but the hardest part is the mental changes needed to be successful.

I'm assuming your liver must be smaller than most of us? The reason they give for the preop diet is typically to shrink your liver to make the surgery safer for you and easier for the surgeon.

I use MyFitnessPal. It's not bariatric specific, but works for me. Just avoid the forums, they tend to be anti surgery. I like that I can scan anything with a barcode to add that food to my log. It also has a huge database, though sometimes that can be a negative because you may find 30 different entries for one thing. Recipes are pretty easy to enter, but I find that work better on a PC instead of the app. It has both a free and a paid version. The paid version has some extra feature, but I don't miss them personally.

I have not had my bariatric surgery yet, but have had almost 20 other surgeries of various sorts including open heart surgery in 2020. The running joke in the family is that I collect surgeries. I've had at least one surgery a year since 2014. One thing I'd say is critical is to keep up with your pain meds. keeping the pain under control is a lot easier if you are constantly taking something, vs. waiting till the pain is really bad. You should be able to take Tylenol in addition to the oxy (check with your surgeon first though!) Tylenol won't make the pain go away, but it may take the edge off enough to make it less intense. I'm going to take the opposite approach on movement than the previous poster. I know it hurts, but moving increases blood flow, which means you'll heal faster. I can almost guarantee your surgeon told you to walk a certain amount and you need to do that religiously. One of the main reasons is to prevent blood clots, which can be fatal. Don't mess around and skip the walking just because it hurts. I'm also not sold on duct tape. I'd be worried it would pull on the staples? My preference would be a nice cushioned, non-adherent pad over the staple line. These can be taped (and the tape is away from the staples), or if you don't want to use tape, look into something called "cohesive wrap". It sticks to itself and in this case you would wrap it around your whole body. The slight compression from the wrap might also help with healing. If nothing's helping, talk to your surgeon! They may have other options for you. Good luck!

Do you know when you'll start the liquid diet yet? I'm supposed to start on Sept 6th.

I struggle with the same thing right now. One thing I figured out is that I have to start taking MUCH smaller bites first. For now, that's all I'm working on. Once smaller bites become a habit, I'll work on more thorough chewing.

Sorry you're having trouble getting the info you need. It might be that all the plans require the same pre-op stuff? In my experience, it's the employer, not the insurance plan that ultimately determines coverage requirements. For example, I currently have United Healthcare Choice Plus-HSA and had the same thing with my previous employer. One wanted six months of dietitian visits and the other only three months.

We ended with me lying on the table in the cath lab being told that I am in danger of imminent death. Now before I go on, I should explain something else about me. I’m severely hearing impaired. This is important here, because you have to picture me on that table, feeling pretty good (I think they gave me a Valium), and then waking up to find everyone in the room desperately trying to get my attention. I finally come around from my stupor enough to explain to them that I’m hearing impaired, so I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m pretty good at lip reading, but we’re in basically an operating room and everyone is gowned up and has masks on! Finally I explain that I have partial hearing in my left ear, so if they come around there and speak slowly and close to me I will probably be able to understand. It took a few tries, but I finally gather I really am in imminent danger and they were recommending that they put a stent in me RIGHT NOW. Doing so might seem like a no-brainer, but like lot’s of important decisions, there are always trade-offs. I didn’t feel alert enough, nor did I feel like I understood the options I had, so I told them no. Bottom line, they patched me up and took me out to recovery. (I’m sure they were all thinking I was an idiot and that they’d never see me again.) While in recovery, I asked them if someone could explain my options better. Fortuitously one of the heart surgeons had just finished up a procedure and he came by to discuss my options with me (with my wife present as well). After some soul searching and after better understanding the tradeoffs, I actually opted for open heart surgery. The reason is that if they had done the valve replacement via catheter (something called TAVR), I likely would not have been able to have a second one that way in the future. That would have meant that in 10-12 years, I would have needed another valve replacement and they would have had no option but to do it via an open heart procedure. I figured it’s better to get the open heart procedure done while I’m younger and save TAVR for later when I’m likely less able to tolerate major surgery. Yea, we get it dude, but what does this have to do with WLS? It means that in less than 2 months, I went from being excited to be having weight loss surgery, to knowing I’m living on borrowed time. I’m also realizing at about that time that my dreams of weight loss surgery have been dashed, or so I thought. Instead (assuming I make it to my heart surgery date), I was facing the reality of having one of the most major surgical procedures one can have. Oh yea, and I'd get to do it during peak COVID. How fun! We’ll stop there today, but in case you’re still in suspense, I still survived!

Yea. pretty much this. Well, maybe add in Deadlifts (Esp. Sumo), the various Lunges, and Hip Thrusts. (But not all at the same time!)

I haven't really had any bone broth in a while, so can't recommend them at this point. If I try a few, I'll be sure to let folks know if some of the are particularly good (or bad!). My goals are probably a little unique to me, but the thing I've learned about being on the diet and exercise yo-yo too many times than I can count, is that I do better if I start SLOOOOOW. For example, right now, my goal this week for exercise is just to ride my recumbent bike at least 3 times a week for 8 minutes each time. Every week between now and my surgery, I plan to up the number of minutes by two. Thus next week, the goal will be 10 minutes, 3 times a week. It's possible that even going up by 2 minutes a week is too aggressive, so if it doesn't happen, I won't sweat it. The reason I picked that amount was that I was hoping to be around 20 minutes a day 3 times a week by the time I hit my surgery week. I think if I get there, I'll feel better and recover faster. I'm sure to some that seems pitiful, but it's what I think I can do. It would do me no good to be too aggressive and then hurt myself. For what it's worth, I don't plan to do any strength training until about 4 months post surgery. I know that probably seems like a long time to some, but I didn't get so badly out of shape overnight. I have to keep reminding myself to be careful and not overdo things. Diet-wise, I have 2 goals right now: Start talking smaller bites and replace 1 meal per day with a protein shake. That's really it. I'm lucky I suppose in that I don't eat a lot of junk food, so I don't have to overcome that issue too. Over time, I really need to start working on the whole complete chewing thing (which is a HUGE problem for me), but I realized I have to start with smaller bites. Until that's a habit, I won't add complete chewing to the regimen.

I agree with a lot of what's been said above. I think the way to think about is that weight loss is heavily dependent on what you eat, whereas how healthy you are is heavily dependent on regular exercise. Like any pithy statement, it's not an absolute, but it is a good guideline. My point is that you can lose weight without exercising, but if like me, your real goal is to improve your health, we can't rely on weight loss alone. In fact, also like you, I have several physical issues (I'm a disabled vet), but I'm also honest enough with myself to know that some of my physical challenges are due to my weight. One of my main motivators for having WLS is to make exercise less painful so that I can improve my overall cardiovascular health via exercise.

So far, I just ordered a bunch of new flavors of Premier Protein shakes since I have a hard time finding them locally. I also put Bone Broth, Sugar Free Jello & Gatorade Zero on my shopping list for this weekend. I'm a bit of a planner too, so I've also created a list of weekly diet, workout, and other goals between now and surgery, with a different set of goals post surgery.

You might want to discuss your plans with both providers? It's not uncommon for doctors to want 6 weeks or more between surgical procedures (yes, having your wisdom teeth removed is considered a surgical procedure). Better to know now, than to find out when you go in to have the work done! Your WLS may or may not be okay with this timing as well, so it's better to check.

I hear you. I sometimes play word games with myself to make it seem closer. For example, instead of saying it's 6 weeks away, I say it's "next month". It's silly, but that feels a lot closer to me!

I would first recommend talking to your insurance company to find out if they cover bariatric surgery, and if they do, what all is required/covered. One thing I learned is that even at the same insurance company, the coverage and the requirements to qualify can vary widely. This is because most larger employers actually are "self-insured". This means the insurance company just administers the health plan and your employer is the one paying the bill. As a result, the insurance companies let the employers have wide latitude in what they will and won't cover and what the qualification requirements will be. For example, I have United Healthcare. I was also on United Healthcare last year, but with a different employer. The bariatric programs are quite different in terms of what they required and what procedures they'll cover. Note that some insurance companies also have specific providers they recommend. Once you clarify all that, check with your bariatric program/physician. The bariatric program I chose required a psyc eval, an upper GI scan, and three months of meetings with their dietitian, even if the insurance didn't require those things.

I know how you feel! Right now it's about all I can think about since after 2.5 years of trying to get this done, I finally have a surgery date.

I'm new here as well. Scheduled for Sept 20th.