4Emma&Erick

I guess I was lucky in that I have lost weight so many times before that I have clothes in the closet from size 20 down to 12. I'm now in a 16 since my surgery on 9/24.

Good Luck on Monday...I will be thinking of you. I was lucky...my insurance (UHC) did not require any 6 month supervised diet. I had enough Jenny Craig/WW receipts. Here are a few things for Monday that I wished I knew. My insurance was approved as outpatient. Outpatient for this hospital means 23 hours from when you are brought up to your room. Dr. K will keep you the entire time, you will not go home same day. I got to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. They did the prep work and all of the surgical people came in and told me what to expect. I met the anesthesia doctor, the surgical nurse, Dr. Kemmerling's assistant. Doctor Kemmerling came and talked to me before surgery. The rooms are nice at the hospital and all are private. One thing that was the hardest is that I was not allowed anything to drink after surgery. Nothing...not even a swallow. I got to my room about 12:00 noon and was not allowed a drink until the flouroscopy session the next morning at 9:00. For me, this was awful...I had a terrible cotton mouth and literally did not get a drink from 11:00 pm the Tuesday night before surgery until 9:00 a.m. Thursday morning. I was so weak from this it literally made me cry. You will have 2 small horizontal incisions. One is about 3" wide above the belly botton on the left side and the other is about 2" wide to the right. I also have 3 very small laprosopic incisions which are about 1/2". You will be sore, but you will get a pain pump to be able to administer your own pain meds. If you get nauseus, just tell the nurse...they will give you some meds which really takes care of that. I think Dr. K is very thorough. You will get a shot pre-op of bloodthinner and will be on a round of antibiotics during your stay at the hospital. You will also where compression socks the entire stay. Dr. Kemerling was great. He came and saw me Thursday morning and was great. I saw him a week later and already dropped 11.1 lbs. My next visit with Dr. K is 11/1/08 which I will be back on the regular diet. I feel good. I had some gas pain after surgery, but not too bad. I took gas X thin strips for the pain and it was tolerable. I'm now 11 days post op and really tired of the liquids. I'm ready to go on to some food but Dr. K says I need a few more days of liquids and then 2 weeks of pureed followed by 2 weeks of soft foods. I'm in sales for my job and spend a lot of time on the road entertaining customers. This is hard, especially when there is nothing that you can eat. Best of luck! You are in good hands and will bounce back before you know it. It is so worth it once you see the numbers on the scale.

I too felt just like you. I woke up in recovery thinking to myself.."what did I just do?" I'm 6 days out and the gas has stopped...the worst part for me is the liquid phase. I feel tired, weak and dizzy. I feel like I'm not getting any nutrition. I see the doctor tomorrow and hope that he let's me get some mushies or something else besides water, juice, tea, broth, or protein drinks. I am a divorced mom of 2 awesome kids. They are very active in sports and after school activities. It's torture for me to have to prepare meals for them. I wish I could have a bite...but I have not.

Welcome! I just had surgery at Aurora BayCare in Green Bay last week 9/24. Tomorrow is my one week followup appointment. I'm looking forward to see how I am doing. Who's your Doc? You will love this site. I learned a lot of information and it's great to come here for support to keep your mind off eating after surgery. I'm in that post-op liquid phase and I'm overly bored by the choices. Best of Luck to you.

I'm on day 4 post op and I am on a liquid diet for 2 weeks. I'm afraid to try anything other than liquids for fear of hurting my band or pouch. I guess every doctor is different. I lost 11 lbs. on the pre-op diet and since surgery have not lost anything. I am retaining a lot of water and I'm really bloated. Does anyone have any advise on how to get some relief? Gas X is not working. Would water pills help?

Before my Doctor's office submitted the paperwork I had met with my employers UHC representative. She told me to have the paperwork submitted and then call her directly for updates. She was able to give me the approval information days before it was sent back to the Doctor's office.

I too was banded yesterday. I'm not having any issues with swelling or vomiting. I did start to feel nauseaus this morning but was given something in my IV and have been fine ever since. Just a little sore. Good luck and I hope you are feeling better soon.

Hi, I just had my sugery on Wed. 9/24. I was allowed to come home this afternoon. I'm in terrible pain and had a difficult experience at the hospital. First of all, I sat in recovery for 3 hours because they didn't have a room available. Recovery was very loud and uncomfortable. When I got to my room I asked for something for my cotton mouth, an ice chip, Water...and they said "no" I was not allowed to brush my teeth or nothing. I sat from 10:00 a.m. yesterday until 10:00 today post op. without so much as a sip of water. Is this something others have experienced. Then to top it all off I find out later that during surgery they found a hernia and had extra work to fix it. My doctor was nice, but very strict. The night nurse was rude and when I asked for help to get to the bathroom she would come and disconnect the compression socks and just leave me by myself. I have 2 incisions and 4 small cuts. They are very painful. I'm hoping all of this is worth it. I feel I have been though hell the last few days. I too have gas in my shoulder and it's rather painful. Any words of encouragement? I'm only allowed broth, water, diet snapple, crystal lite, etc for the next 2 weeks. My stomach is growling today.

Chinese food...lots of sodium, soy sauce the night before. Drink a ton of Water the day of the weigh in and eat a huge meal on your way to the clinic. Don't go to the bathroom before you weigh. I had to gain 7 lbs. to get to 40 BMI and I made it by .1 lb. For me it was the difference between $2000 or $18000. We pay for insurance and should be able to use it. For those that think it's mis-leading or dis-honest - it's not...you need to understand the frustrations of 15 years of being between 35-40 BMI and not being able to lose weight and keep it off. Why should we not have the opportunity to get the surgery paid for? My family doctor would agree 100%. He thinks the insurance game is a joke and that we low BMI people should be able to get the surgery paid for by insurance if the Dr. recommends it. Just venting.... Good luck to everyone.

Hi - I am from Wisconsin and am having surgery in Green Bay on 9/24. Only 5 more days! I'm hoping all goes well and am extremely excited.

I am having surgery on 9/24 in Green Bay Wisconsin. I'm excited and feel like this day will be my "new" birthday. The pre-op stuff is hard. I don't know how I'm going to go 4 more days without anything but liquids...but it is good practice for the weeks to come.

HI - Hang in there. I was approved by UHC with a 40.1 BMi/no co-morbidities in 3 days. I actually gained a few pounds before we submitted the insurance paperwork until I hit the 40/BMI since the bariatric coordinator thought it would be easier. Good Luck I hope all works out well.

Hi - Reading your note sounds similar to my story. I am being banded on 9/24. I do not start my liquid diet until 9/17 but am already worried about it since I struggle staying on track. I'm hoping your post will get many ideas for us to use. My BMI is similar to yours and it will be interesting to watch our progress and stay in touch over the upcoming months. Take Care and good luck.

HI - I am being banded on 9/24. Just curious how many days you are required to be on the liquidl diet before surgery? My doctor says I need to be on a liquid diet for 7 days. My friend just had gastric bypass and he only needed 1 day of the liquid diet. 7 days is going to be super hard. I travel for business and I have some company events to do during those 7 days. Any words of wisdom?

I've been overweight for 15 years and was frustrated that insurance wouldn't cover the procedure at a BMI of 38.7. The simple answer for me was to gain the weight. It literally only took me 10 days to get to 40 BMI. I ate foods with sodium and drank a lot of Water on weigh in day. The doctor said I was a great candidate for this surgery and the insurance part is sometimes a matter of numbers and calculations. If you are really close and want it bad enough...just go for it. Once the paperwork was submitted 40BMI I got approval in less than a week.

I agree that 4 months seems long. I just got my date and it will be 3 months and 3 days from the first phone call to the clinic to schedule an appointment until surgery. I think it just depends on the insurance plan, the availability of the doctors, psych, etc. and the hospital. I called a few different psych doctors to get the first available appointment and was able to shave several weeks off the waiting game. Also, if you are flexible with dates/times for appointments you can get things done quicker. Also - if you are using insurance to pay...ask for the medical review group and confirm what the requirements are for surgery. They will be able to give you the list so you don't have to wait for approval only to find out that something is missing in your paperwork. Best of luck...

This is my first post on this website. I just learned my date is 9/24. I started looking into this about 5 years ago. I went to a few seminars over the years and never did anything because insurance would not pay. Now I have a plan that covers this and I'm having surgery in less than 4 weeks. I'm so excited. Thanks to everyone on this site for supporting me through the roller coaster of emotions during the pre-approval process.