NickelChip

I called again this morning and the person who answered let slip that the entire weight management center at the hospital is closing. So, I am not the only person impacted by far. He said that a manager is supposed to call everyone to explain, but still nothing has happened. Maybe tomorrow? As for what happens next, I'm not sure. The hospital was recently acquired by another big Boston hospital, which has a bariatric department of its own. I assume they are trying to integrate all of the departments across the system to eliminate redundancies, but their communication so far has been appalling. Why they wouldn't have planned for this by shutting down the pipeline of patients months ago so that all surgeries were completed before the closure is a mystery. I attended my full day immersion class in August and completed all my requirements on October 6. At that point, they were booking 10+ weeks out and there was no indication anything was changing. This isn't an independent bariatric practice where I could see there being management or money issues, but a center that is part of a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. I find it shocking to say the least. I've spent most of the day wishing whichever faceless bureaucratic suit responsible for this trips and falls into a fiery pit. Clearly emotional intelligence was not a job requirement.

Happy to have you!!!
I have been overweight most of my life, my first diet was at 12 with Weight Watchers because mom kept telling me that If I lost 20lbs I would be so pretty (it was never about health). My dad would tell me that I would never have a boyfriend because I was fat or I would struggle with acceptance because of my weight.
I did not have my first relationship until I was 20 because of my self poor image ( I was about 240lbs at this point). Ended up marrying him and he was the most emotionally, verbally, sexually, physically and mentally abusive human being. We moved across the country and that's when the abuse got worse. He would degrade me and tell me no on would want me because I was disgusting and he had to imagine other women while we were intimate. We ended up having a daughter together and she was the best thing that's ever happened to me, but after 10 long years I left with my daughter when she was 18months! When I finally left I was 325lbs.
Since then It opened me to a whole new world opened up for me and my daughter. I was able to focus on just us and my health was something that I needed to control- I started working out, eating right and got down to 240lbs met the love of my life and now I have happy weight. He is the best thing that has every happened to my daughter and I. Her bio-dad is not in her life, and we ended up having a son together and I shot back up to 297lbs. After some health scares with my family I decided WLS is the way to go!!
I am set to have the Sleeve on the 24th!

**Trigger warning: domestic abuse**

My name is Georgia, I am 27, and I have been 'bigger' for my entire adult life, and a lot of my childhood too.
I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) insulin resistant type, and an Underactive Thyroid, both of which cause me to put on weight quickly, retain weight, and makes losing weight extremely difficult.
I can't even remember the countless amounts of fad diets I have been on, or the amount of times I have tried to lose weight, but failed again and again. When I was 18 I was going to the gym 5-6 times a week for over an hour, I was doing HIIT training and Tai Chi, and I was jogging, eating well etc, but I still only managed to lose 2 stone in a year - make it make sense! I didn't know back then that I had underlying conditions that made it hard for me to lose weight, so I internalised a lot of the guilt in not being able to get healthy, and it resulted in me putting on around 6 stone from then until now.
I was also a victim of domestic abuse/violence, and a lot of the verbal abuse that I suffered was centred around my weight - constantly being told by my ex-partner that I was fat, he would pinch my thighs, tummy, arms etc, telling me he was seeing how many inches I could lose. It completely broke me, and I started binge eating in secret. He ended up leaving me, telling me that he could no longer be with me due to my weight and how it made me sexually unattractive.
I think I am probably just over 20 stone now. My back hurts when I walk, I cannot look in any mirrors without feeling low, I don't feel comfortable going out in public, and I am exhausted all the time.
Every time I went to my GP about something, I was always told I needed to lose weight, as if it were a miracle cure and so simple to do just by trying hard enough. It was always blamed on me not putting in enough effort - and those in the UK will know that the NHS isn't a simple thing to navigate and the waiting lists for obesity support are long and often disheartening.
Around 2 years ago I was put on a waiting list for weight loss management with the NHS. I was finally accepted in September of 2023. This is a year long commitment to the weight loss management pathway (Tier 3), in which you have to lose 5% of your weight in order to then be put on to another waiting list for a referral for the actual WLS (Tier 4). I have been told that this can take a further 4-6 years.
I had a harrowing thought that by the time my WLS actually came around, I'd be well into my 30s, still desperately unhappy with myself, and I would have put on even more weight and probably be immobile. I can no longer do this to myself. I deserve better.
I made the decision to look into private weight loss surgery, and I had a free consultation with a recommended surgeon just before Christmas 2023. This was genuinely the first time that a medical professional sat me down and talked to me with some humanity about my weight. He told me that with my conditions (particularly the insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalance), that my metabolic rate needed an entire reset, and this was not possible to do without surgical intervention. He explained that the difficulties I have had in trying to lose weight and being unable to, are not my fault (though of course I accept responsibility that getting here in the first place is my fault), and that surgery is recommended as perhaps the only thing that will enable me to lose the weight. I have never felt so seen, and so heard.
I booked in my surgery for May 2024 there and then.
So, now I start my journey, and I was looking for support, and here I am. I look forward to posting on here and using this thread to update everyone once I have had my surgery!
I am quite an open and honest person, so if anyone wants to reach out to talk, my inbox is open

One thing about mental hunger or cravings is that they're almost never strong enough for me to actually get into a car and drive to a store to buy something. The first few weeks, I would end up digging until I found something else to eat, but the fewer options you make available, the more you have to admit to yourself that you're just bored or (as is often my case since I work from home) procrastinating. There have been times I would find myself staring into my pantry and I'd have to ask myself what exactly I thought I would find there. It's all canned Beans and Pasta Sauce now. Generally I just ask myself if I want a snack badly enough to drive to the store for it, and the answer is always no. Oh, and I do all my grocery shopping online for pickup now to minimize the chances of throwing impulse buys into my cart.

With about 5 months ahead of you, I suggest making some changes to your eating now to break yourself of bad habits and get into better ones. For example, I started this journey in July and spent the first month cleaning my cupboards. As I used up unhealthy snack foods, sweets, and processed foods, I opted not to buy more. I replaced the crackers and chips I would snack on with dry roasted, lightly salted nuts. I added a lot of veggies and fruit to my diet every day. The next month, I stopped drinking diet soda and artificial sweeteners and cut way back on sugar. The next month, I stopped buying bread and cut way back on dairy. I bought a few bariatric cookbooks and have been finding recipes to try. I might still have bread, diet soda, dairy, or sweets every so often when I'm out, but I don't keep it in the house, which means I'm avoiding it probably 90% of the time. I also started taking my Vitamins so I will be in the habit of taking them every day and not forgetting. Oh, and I got into a good routine with Water and trying to remember to take a water bottle with me wherever I go. Changes like that will hopefully go a long way in helping you feel mentally prepared for the changes you have to make post-surgery.

With about 5 months ahead of you, I suggest making some changes to your eating now to break yourself of bad habits and get into better ones. For example, I started this journey in July and spent the first month cleaning my cupboards. As I used up unhealthy snack foods, sweets, and processed foods, I opted not to buy more. I replaced the crackers and chips I would snack on with dry roasted, lightly salted nuts. I added a lot of veggies and fruit to my diet every day. The next month, I stopped drinking diet soda and artificial sweeteners and cut way back on sugar. The next month, I stopped buying bread and cut way back on dairy. I bought a few bariatric cookbooks and have been finding recipes to try. I might still have bread, diet soda, dairy, or sweets every so often when I'm out, but I don't keep it in the house, which means I'm avoiding it probably 90% of the time. I also started taking my Vitamins so I will be in the habit of taking them every day and not forgetting. Oh, and I got into a good routine with Water and trying to remember to take a water bottle with me wherever I go. Changes like that will hopefully go a long way in helping you feel mentally prepared for the changes you have to make post-surgery.

With about 5 months ahead of you, I suggest making some changes to your eating now to break yourself of bad habits and get into better ones. For example, I started this journey in July and spent the first month cleaning my cupboards. As I used up unhealthy snack foods, sweets, and processed foods, I opted not to buy more. I replaced the crackers and chips I would snack on with dry roasted, lightly salted nuts. I added a lot of veggies and fruit to my diet every day. The next month, I stopped drinking diet soda and artificial sweeteners and cut way back on sugar. The next month, I stopped buying bread and cut way back on dairy. I bought a few bariatric cookbooks and have been finding recipes to try. I might still have bread, diet soda, dairy, or sweets every so often when I'm out, but I don't keep it in the house, which means I'm avoiding it probably 90% of the time. I also started taking my Vitamins so I will be in the habit of taking them every day and not forgetting. Oh, and I got into a good routine with Water and trying to remember to take a water bottle with me wherever I go. Changes like that will hopefully go a long way in helping you feel mentally prepared for the changes you have to make post-surgery.

I just got home from my appointment and am happy to say that I'm now scheduled for surgery on February 21. I was able to meet with the dietician right after my appointment with the surgeon and she went over the differences between my old program and their protocols, which are similar with the exception that I will need to do the 2-week liquid diet (my old place only did 2 days). I head to the hospital tomorrow for pretests and then just have to wait the 7 weeks until surgery. Time to get back to my good eating habits after the holidays!
I thought everyone was very nice and I got a lot of sympathy for what I'd gone through with the center closing. I was told one patient who is now at the new practice actually arrived at the hospital the day of her surgery and only then found out it had been cancelled. No one even called her. I don't even know what I would have done had that happened.

I'm so happy to report that I have an appointment January 2 with the director of the new practice. When I spoke with the administrative person to make the appointment, she did make it sound likely that I would not have a lot of extra stuff to do since I was right at the end of the process before it got cancelled, just needing the routine pre-surgery tests and my insurance approval.
I'm so sorry your insurance is being a pain about your in-network coverage. The whole in or out of network coverage is total BS. If they're a licensed doctor, they should be covered. Period.
I have to say, the relief I felt when the HR person sent over the insurance benefit packet and I saw the logo of a very widely accepted insurance that is known to have good coverage is almost impossible to describe. This is sort of a long-term consulting gig for my husband, and I had nightmares that the consulting firm would be using crappy companies I'd never heard of to save some cash.
Financially, I may end up coming out of this a little bit ahead, maybe $1500 less out of pocket. But I swear I'll spend that on hair dye to cover all the gray hair this ordeal is giving me! And I'm self-employed, so I can't just request a few weeks of vacation when the time comes. I'll need to do some major reworking of my schedule to accommodate the new date. As you said, is the head of the old hospital losing sleep over this? No, he is not.
But it will work out, and this time next year I will be looking back on it and laughing. In that awkward way you laugh over things that are so not funny.

Just an update on my situation:
On Wednesday evening, I emailed my primary care physician and asked her if she could look into things because I still had heard nothing. Yesterday, I heard back from her, confirming she had reached out on my behalf and the center was indeed closing. She was shocked I had received no information. This morning, I got a call first from the office of the doctor I had seen at the weight management center up until July, when I moved from the medical to surgical side. She wants me to come in Monday so she can walk me through things, and I think just to see how I am doing with all this because she's really nice and had been my doctor for 6+ years.
A few hours later, I finally heard from the manager who was supposed to be contacting me. He told me the center is officially closing in February, so all remaining surgeries were cancelled, and he told me of three options for centers within the same hospital group (Beth Israel Lahey) that had agreed to help absorb the affected patients. He is supposed to be sending my information to the one I chose, Winchester Hospital, and I also left them a message this afternoon (their office closes early on Fridays so I just missed them).
Praying that I'll have a better idea on Monday how big a delay this will cause and how many new flaming hoops I will have to jump through. Bottom line, reaching out to my primary care doctor seemed to get the wheels turning, so never be afraid to be the squeaky wheel!
Also, I managed to keep my temper in check with the manager because I'm positive this is not his doing, but I would welcome the chance to express my displeasure to the hospital administration. A troop of poorly trained chimpanzees could have handled this with more compassion and competency, and I think that reflects directly on the upper management (upon whom I have been wishing many unpleasant afflictions this week).

I just got home from my appointment and am happy to say that I'm now scheduled for surgery on February 21. I was able to meet with the dietician right after my appointment with the surgeon and she went over the differences between my old program and their protocols, which are similar with the exception that I will need to do the 2-week liquid diet (my old place only did 2 days). I head to the hospital tomorrow for pretests and then just have to wait the 7 weeks until surgery. Time to get back to my good eating habits after the holidays!
I thought everyone was very nice and I got a lot of sympathy for what I'd gone through with the center closing. I was told one patient who is now at the new practice actually arrived at the hospital the day of her surgery and only then found out it had been cancelled. No one even called her. I don't even know what I would have done had that happened.

I just got home from my appointment and am happy to say that I'm now scheduled for surgery on February 21. I was able to meet with the dietician right after my appointment with the surgeon and she went over the differences between my old program and their protocols, which are similar with the exception that I will need to do the 2-week liquid diet (my old place only did 2 days). I head to the hospital tomorrow for pretests and then just have to wait the 7 weeks until surgery. Time to get back to my good eating habits after the holidays!
I thought everyone was very nice and I got a lot of sympathy for what I'd gone through with the center closing. I was told one patient who is now at the new practice actually arrived at the hospital the day of her surgery and only then found out it had been cancelled. No one even called her. I don't even know what I would have done had that happened.

I was 388 the day I went into my initial surgery. I had the sleeve and then revision to bypass due to complications. You can see all my stats in my signature. As of today, I've lost 160 pounds. My ideal weight (NOT my target weight, because my ideal weight makes me look sickly) is no higher than 155. The difference between that and what my surgery day weight was is 233 pounds. 65% of that 233 pounds would be 151 pounds, so I've already lost more than that. I have another 30 to go to hit my goal weight, and while it's slow going (I currently just started my 987964610 stall lol) I'll get there. Where there's a will, there's a way. You can do this.
I've had 8 surgeries in the last year and a half....7 of them this year....5 of them because of complications. I have 1 more surgery scheduled for next year and then that should be it. And even with all my starts and stops because of surgeries and recovery time, I still lost 160 pounds. Imagine if I was able to just keep going and not have all these health issues.... Anyway, don't get in your head about averages and statistics and all that. Everyone's journey is different.
Focus on your health, mobility, mood, and medication amounts drastically improving. Focus on how clothes look and fit on you, what sizes they drop to, and how you feel. These are called non scale victories, and they will absolutely SAVE YOU when you hit stalls. Focus on how you fit in a booth, or in "regular" seats in the movies or in doctor's offices. These things will tell you more than the scale ever will. Getting off meds, no longer having hypertension and diabetes, these were game changers for me.

I mean, I guess fear of prison is ultimately what keeps me from actually slapping stupid people... but the way the world is going, something's bound to make me break eventually. Honestly, why is it so hard for people to just be supportive and kind to other people?

I have been so good by not drinking alcohol, carbonated beverages and caffiene. I feel like deserve 1 cocktail but I needed reassurance LOL thank you ❤️

this is me before I had plastic surgery - with my tons of excess skin. See what I mean about it being easy to hide in clothes? No one knew it was there but me (well, besides my husband and doctor). (I tried to insert this into my above posting, but it kept wanting to drop it in the middle of my text. ARGGH! Must be something with Mac (I just switched from PC). Anyway, here I am - excess skin and all:

Hello and welcome in the forum. I started at a similar weight to you. I was told I could loose 65% of my excess weight through this surgery if I stuck at it. I did that and a few more percent. At my 2 year check in with my team, they were overjoyed with my progress. In private moments, I look in the mirror and say ' wow, you did this' The surgery has done everything I ever wished for and some other things that I never imagined. Enjoy the ride

As @summerseeker was told, 65% or so weight loss is about the average excess weight loss for Roux-en-Y (RNY). Personally, I find such averages to be next to useless. I'm not average. Heck, it's axiomatic that the average person is not average.
At any rate, what to expect.
My plan is forever. From day 1 post-op I was intent that I would never be on a weight loss diet ever again. My plan is foods I enjoy that fit my life goals. No crash diets. No counting calories, carbs, or whatever. No weighing myself at home.
Working out is one of those things everyone agrees needs to be done which I didn't do. Ever. There is nothing like exercising for it's own sake. No thanks. I did do a lot of walking, what my spouse and I call 'people watching.' When I got down to about 100 pounds overweight I challenged myself to run 5K. I did a plan similar to "Couch to 5K" (C25K). When I got to 5k I realized I enjoyed it, so I kept doing it. I started binge running. Running was a time just for me, that I could contemplate the coming day and listen to audiobooks. A great start or end to a day. Long story short, I ended up running 5 marathons. That is something I never thought I'd do. I got to run across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Extra skin for me was inevitable. My deflated stomach hung way down. To a lesser extent all the places one would expect extra skin I had it. I started with an Abdominoplasty, after which a bleeding disorder almost killed me. No more elective surgeries for me. So I've had to get used to things as they are. Not the end of the world.
What life is like now. I've been my current weight for about 17 years which is a weight loss of a bit over 500 pounds. I am still happily eating to plan. Some of the things I wanted to do after I lost weight I didn't end up doing. Other things I never thought about I thoroughly enjoy.
Mostly, things just got easier.
Good luck,
Tek

I've personally been on both Saxenda and Wegovy. With Saxenda, I lost 20 pounds and my blood sugar and cholesterol improved, but high blood pressure was unchanged. I stopped because the insurance price went from $50 a month to over $200, and my weight loss plateaued so $2400 a year to keep off 20 lbs seemed a bit steep. As soon as I stopped, the weight came back, the A1Cs went up, and the cholesterol went higher than before I started. With Wegovy, I was only ever able to get the first two months of doses before shortages made it impossible. After that, I switched insurance and lost coverage of Wegovy completely, meaning over $1k per month out of pocket if I wanted to continue. I wasn't on it long enough to see how my labs would have been. From everything I've seen, surgery is the only durable option. In my case, the copay is less than a single month of Wegovy, with the possibility of it lasting a lifetime, and the ability to add the GLP-1 drugs down the road if needed. Only you can decide what is right for you, but I think for most people who are at the point of qualifying for surgery, the drugs alone will not be enough, and if you lose access to them, you will most likely go back to square one with weight. Or in my case, square one plus 10 pounds.

The biggest thing that has helped me with being better (not perfect!) about foods was getting all of the temptations out of my house. I went through every cupboard. When crackers or chips were gone, I did not buy more. I've also started ordering my groceries for curbside pickup. I hadn't realized what a huge help this was until this morning when I had to run in for a few things last minute. It was all I could do to walk past the bakery without buying a loaf of fresh sourdough or to keep myself from throwing a bag of Christmas candy into the cart. Shopping online from a carefully curated list is so much less dangerous! At least for me, removing the opportunity to easily access Snacks makes a big difference.

If it helps, remember that this is a completely different surgery than years ago. The reason the risk used to be so much higher was they had to cut you open, exposing you to all sorts of infection risks along with making it really traumatic for your body. Nowadays, they make tiny incisions and even use robotic assistance in some cases. The death rate for bypass is less than 1 in a thousand, and the sleeve is even less than that. Any other statistics are ancient history. It would be like comparing outcomes for diseases today to a time before we had antibiotics, chemotherapy, or insulin.

January 4th for me. I am having some doubts at the moment though xx

I’m 17days post op and very glad to have a group.,

Thank you so much @NickelChip @Arabesque and @MandoGetsSleeved for your responses. I guess you all summed it up in one way or another. I stopped tracking as much, I went back to eating habits I had before the surgery and I was feeling sorry for myself instead of taking ownership.
I needed this - I can’t thank you enough. I will give myself grace and start small with incorporating back habits that helped me lose the weight in the first place. I am really grateful for this community. My family and friends do not know I had surgery so it has been a little lonely.
I am looking forward to getting back on track

I'm a sleeve to bypass revision, and it's honestly the best thing I've ever done. The only time I have dumping is if I eat too many carbs. I only did that twice (holidays both times) and I learned REALLY quick not to anymore. I stick to my diet religiously and have had no issues. If you look at my signature, you'll see I've lost weight with the revision, although nowhere near what I lost with the sleeve initially. I do think your doctor is exaggerating what you'll lose. If you exercise, stick to your diet (or get back on track with it), and get your relationship with food back to where it should be, you'll do fine. My recovery with the bypass was amazing. I've had absolutely no issues with the revision at all. My only regret is that I didn't just do the bypass to begin with. Oh, and I did the revision because of major complications from the sleeve (GERD - never had it before the sleeve - gastritis, esophagitis, polyps all through my stomach and duodenum due to excessively high PPI over a long period of time, etc..).