SorryNameTaken

I did take the poll! This sounds so great! Thank you for working so hard on it! If I can be of any help figuring things out, let me know!

I'd be interested in an online support group. My center only has meetings every other month and I feel like I'd prefer to have more accountability than that! I would also be super interested in a group that follows books and workbooks. I'm looking into the books posted above! 😃

It is actually for shrinking the liver. The liver lays over the stomach and has to be pulled back for surgery. In rare cases, if the liver is too big, they cannot reach the stomach to perform surgery and they have to cancel the surgery. The weight loss that comes with the liquid diet is also a plus, every pound lost is a less likely chance of complications!

Yeahhhh, lmao. My brain is fried from the holiday season and my husband refuses to wear anything of the sort, so sweatpants didn't even cross my mind. 😂 I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of office wear or things to wear out that don't look quite as casual. I have so many leggings that would pass as acceptable at the office, do men have an alternative like that? There probably is, if I'm being honest, I'm pretty clueless about fashion.

That is so smart! I knew there had to be some kind of a similar option for men!

They need to make leggings and jeggings for men because I am pretty sure that's what I'll be living in until I hit goal 🤣 I'm not even sure what pants size I wear right now because I've only bought leggings! I want to lose a little bit more before I go trying on jeans to size them! I did just buy two shirts that I really like, so I'm hoping they'll at least look good through the winter. I feel like my eyesight has gotten worse, so I am so jealous!! Congratulations on your successes! Keep up the hard work!

I have a very small family, so everyone in my family knows whether I told them or not. The only person who isn't very supportive is my aunt, she believes you should accept your size no matter what, which I guess I didn't realize! She seemed supportive before the surgery, but her tune has changed since then. I think who you tell is a very personal decision. If telling people is going to cause more stress than it is worth, I wouldn't bother, if people ask how I am losing weight, I'd just tell them I did a pouch reset and have gotten back on track with eating the right foods in the right portions. You don't owe it to anyone to tell them, so do what is very best for you to make sure you are successful with this! I am so glad your husband is supportive, I do think it is important to have at least one good cheerleader throughout this process, even if it is a support group online like us!

I have had the same thing, so I measure everything I put in my mouth. These days I can definitely tell if I have overeaten, so hopefully the full feeling is coming along. I have been told that the pain blockers they use during surgery can last for quite a surprisingly long time and they make it difficult to feel the full feeling until it is completely worn off. I don't know how much validity there is behind that theory, but at least it's something. Sometimes my nose runs when I have had enough to eat. Some people get stuffy noses or hiccups when they have eaten enough too, maybe you have had a sign you can look for?

Sounds like a wonderful vacation you have planned! I had my band to bypass on October 24 and I am already on normal foods as long as I feel like I can tolerate them well, so I think you will be okay on being able to eat what is served, just in the appropriate quantities. My program does not want us drinking any alcohol for at least a year. I think that is partly because of the unneeded calories, but they also are very serious about transfer addiction at my practice since it is a very real thing. And I'm sure you know it takes much less alcohol to feel the effects in a bypass patient, so you may not be able to do every tasting, but I would think you'll be okay to have some. I personally wouldn't have my first glass of wine in public just in case I get sillier than I might think. 🤣 In regards to visiting your mom, my bypass surgery was about the same pain level as my band. I did not use any narcotics and I was allowed to drive as long as I was not taking narcotics. Even if I wasn't allowed to drive, I think I would have felt well enough to sit with a family member the day I left the hospital. Your mileage will vary of course, but I am sending out lots of good thoughts to you and your family so you will be feel well enough to be with your mom as quickly as possible.

I am glad you guys came to a resolution! I hope you feel okay with that outcome. That's a long road for purees, but at least you will know your stomach is well-healed and ready to move on! I'm proud of you for advocating for yourself and I sure hope you did something fun with your day off!

Woohoo! Congratulations! Let us know how it goes!

I did not have to do a pre-op liquid diet because I lost a good chunk of weight before surgery and my BMI was on the lower end. If it went below a 35, which could have easily happened with a liquid diet, I would no longer qualify for surgery. I suspect that is why you aren't on one either! Don't stress too much, your doctors know what they're doing!

Oh, gosh, I'm glad to know to prepare myself for a 3 month stall. I hit the dreaded three week stall and stalled just over two weeks and then dropped a few pounds and I'm stalled again! I just rode it out the first time and it worked. I may just do that again since I was always told that if I'm sticking to my rules and I'm not losing, to just keep doing what I know I'm supposed to and it'll work itself out. I just got cleared for moving more, so I may try to get some decent exercise in and see if that helps!

I have used them in the past. I liked switching back and forth between hand weights and resistance bands, I felt that gave me the better results. I will warn you, if one decides it has had enough and it is going to rip, it can hurt pretty bad. 🤣

I am so sorry about them cancelling your appointment. I'd be pretty interested to know what the nutritionist will do in person that they can't do over the phone. Do you think you could call in and ask to speak directly to your nutritionist/e-mail your nutritionist rather than a scheduler? If you can, I'd make it clear you feel ready to move to soft foods and feel the emotional impacts of staying on pureed for another month could be detrimental to your progress/emotional health. I'd let them know you will do a phone conversation if they feel you absolutely must talk to them before advancing, but if they cannot accommodate that, you will be advancing as your stomach feels ready. Not as mean as I'm making it sound, but just in a I'm going to advocate for myself kind of way. And to be completely honest, if I weren't having any discomfort with foods, I'd just progress myself if that is the next step in their typical routine. I also had bypass on 10/24 and I'm already cleared for normal foods, so I can't imagine staying on pureed for another month or so. You've already lost more than me and I'm on my second stall where I'm just floating in between the same 1 pound difference, so I hope you don't get too down on your progress so far!

I thought mine was supposed to be a month out, but they didn't schedule one, so while I was at my one month visit, they said they don't schedule them unless you have questions. I probably would have asked to schedule one had they not told me at my visit that I'm doing really well and to keep up what I'm doing.

That is such a bummer. I am so sorry you have had to wait so long. It sounds strange to me as you'd think they'd know by the end if you were surgery ready, but I am sure they have a good reason for their process. I think I'd be inclined to speak with the office manager if it went too much longer, just to see if they could give you a more firm answer of when it's going to be sent to insurance. Good luck, I hope they finish your review soon and get it sent to insurance ASAP!

My doctor gave me a card stating that caution should be taken when prescribing medications or performing any gastric or abdominal procedures. It then specifically states "Avoid insertion of a nasogastric tube." Essentially from what I've been told is that we shouldn't get blind NG tubes since our stomach walls could be damaged from the NG tube and they should always be inserted with a camera.

I agree with the above poster. The surgery will go towards your deductible, so whether you pay $6,700 from the surgery or $6,700 doing some other medical type thing doesn't matter so much. Then you won't have to worry about your deductible for most of 2020, which is nice! However, since you only have $900 this year, I'd certainly ask to be placed on a cancellation list to see if you could get squeezed in this year for the cheaper option. That may be very difficult, but it's worth a try!

I used to use mine CONSTANTLY for frozen, bagged food or for making wings. I rarely use mine anymore. I personally find I like real foods prepared on the stove more than in the air fryer. Maybe if I had a bigger one, I'd be more inclined to use it, but mine is too small to feed my family.

My doctor's office has a very organized process regarding the final appointment and sending to insurance. I had my final appointment on a Friday, my office submitted it to insurance on Monday, I got my approval on Tuesday. Do you know what is involved in reviewing your chart or why they do it? The fact that they are reviewing it is confusing to me I suppose, since that's not something that happened at either of my offices for either of my surgeries. For my surgeries, once I met the requirements for my insurance, it was sent in for approval.

That sounds delicious! It's a nice cold day here, so I'm enjoying a cup of tea too! You are right! Thankfully, drains definitely aren't typical. I had a complication where as soon as I went under anesthesia, my heart rate shot up and wouldn't come back down. Sometimes an elevated heart rate during surgery means there is a leak, so despite the fact that my heart rate went up before they even started surgery, they put a drain in to make sure I wasn't leaking anything yucky. We're still trying to figure out why my heart has decided to go crazy, but I'm glad it wasn't a leak!

Oh, wow. It's amazing how two similar stories can be so drastically different. I am so sorry you had such a rough start at it, I do not envy you at all! I am crossing all fingers and toes that everything keeps looking up from here! I had to shake my head at the metro problems. It seems they have this convenient way of going wrong when it's the worst time for it.

I hope your surgery went well and you are healing well!! I think the main thing I found useful was chapstick. I barely brought anything to the hospital and I barely used anything that I brought. I did buy a pair of cute slippers and a pair of cute pajama bottoms, but I'm weird about hospital germs, so I didn't wear the slippers because I didn't want to germ them up. Then I had a drain and it constantly leaked, so I didn't want to ruin my new PJs lmao. I ended up wearing them my second night in the hospital since I brought them, but they just got covered in nastiness from the drain.

I had a complication from anesthesia, not from the bypass itself. Anesthesia caused my heart rate to shoot up and not come back down. Slowly over the past few weeks it is lowering on it's own. It is likely nothing to worry about, but it's being checked out anyway. I was a revision, so my risk of complications is higher and I still had a very successful surgery. My pain was minimal, my food tolerance has been incredible, and I feel more normal than I ever have!