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I have heard of doctors who will take it out during WLS but most will not. Not everyone develops gallbladder issues after weight loss. Some people even say they are given a medication to try to stop any gallbladder issues from happening after WLS. I am grateful I had my gallbladder out years ago after losing a measly 40 pounds on Weight Watchers

Good luck with your surgery and your weight loss journey!

Glad you enjoyed, she is very transparent and as you saw has no shame about her surgery, in one of her videos she says that she decided to tell everyone she had the surgery because it cut the gossip right away, people no longer had to come up with theories or speculations she flat out said: "Thanks for the compliment, I had weight loss surgery!"

You need to speak with your doctors' office to know for sure what they want. The 12 pounds loss may be expected before any liquid diet. My experience was that I was told to loose 30 pounds before the surgery. In general my doctor did not require me to do a presurgery diet. My surgery ended up being postponed for other healther reasons but in the end I lost about 54 pounds presurgery. I can tell you what I did. First, if you are not on an exercise program start one. A mistake that over weight people often do is thinking that they have to start an intense program suddenly. If you can do 10 minutes the first couple days that's fine. Personally I swim; it burns lots of calories and your joints are'nt getting a lot of stress all of a sudden. You can even buy waterproof MP3 players which makes swimming way more fun. The first 7 months presurgery I ate a conservative diet and exercized daily. The month prior to surgery I went to 2 Protein drinks a day (made with milk, about 200 calories each); and one lean protein based meal. Remember the surgery is not the end game. Start now rethinking your eating and shopping habits. I think if I were to run into my doctor at the grocery store and was embarressed to have something in my cart then I should'nt buy it.

Good evening everyone, I need to lose 12 lbs before my surgery can be done. Well, I've not been successful at losing weight in the past. I guess if I had been I wouldn't be getting the surgery!! LOL That said, I'm looking for any tips you may have for losing this 12 lbs so I will be able to proceed with the surgery. The other thing I was wondering is, I hear of people going on a liquid diet, before surgery, is that to lose the weight so the surgery can proceed, or is that because you need to clean out so to speak your insides? I guess in a nut shell what I'm curious about is, will I have to lose 12 lbs and then have a 2 week liquid diet as well?

Usually most insurance companies will accept wt loss histories from Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, etc. I know my plan accepts them. Just call and ask them. They'll tell you. Or sometimes you can access the actual policy online. I can w/Carefirst BC/BS. But again, if you call and ask them, they will tell you what the policy says. And I'm w/you regarding the weight gain from pregnancy. I can't wait to get my band back!! I wish you the best.

Best wishes to you on your journey! 2011 will be an amazing year for us! Drink lots of Water to help with the weight loss and that UTI...I get them often some times I don't even know I have them - I have learned to live with the pain so it's normal now.... Kim

My surgeon gave me a script to go get a sleep study, his office gave me the info for several clinics and hospitals that I could use. I just picked one at the nearest hospital and I called to schedule myself. I didn't need a referral from my PCP. I'd rather have my band surgery 10 more times and go through the gas pass over and over again than go through another sleep study. It was hell, the wires and gross jelly were making me so itchy, the position I had to lay in , voices in the hallway, my neighbor getting up to pee every hour (we shared a bathroom) my hair in my face, the thought of the creepy tech watching me in his little booth all night, all made me crazy! I didn't feel like I slept at all. In the morning the tech said he thought at one point I was gonna get up and leave because he saw how annoyed I was getting. NEVER AGAIN!

I had a horrible experience. Historically, the sleep study technician is to form some sort of rapport with the patient thus learn sleeping habits in order to offer the right cpap for one's comfort. For example, if one sleeps with mouth open or not, which in my case I don't. So she waltz over to my room with a seemingly darth vader Cpap device and proceeded to place it over my face (without explaining anything to me regarding the apparatus) while I was half asleep. It's funny to me now looking back at my frustration with this device and how I failed the second part of the test and had to do it over. Thanks to my best friend who is a Dr who gave me some great tips on how to overcome the claustrophobic anxiety, I passed the test. The key is to take a deep breath, hold it in, keep your mouth closed and try to breathe in ONLY from your nose once the device is properly placed. Why didn't this tech say this to me? Where do they find these people? lol. Anyway, the wires were an inconvenience, the freaking glue remained in my hair for days...I was only able to remove the glue with an oil treatment. So glad that part of the WLS/journey is over. As it turns out I suffer from sleep apnea - I would have never found out I had sleep apnea if it were not for bariatric clearance. Well, I hope your results come back OK.

If you are struggling with quitting smoking you might try e-cigs. They helped me quite. The 10th will be my 3 year anniversary of quitting smoking. As far as excess kin, it's going to happen. Almost everyone seems to think they will be forced to live with it for the rest of their lives. In reality, you can have plastic surgery to remove it. Just think of it like the weight loss surgery is only part 1 of a 2 or more part surgery you will need. You can actually go ahead and research it and save up for it since most insurance companies will not cover it.

Hey everyone! I'm Sierra. I'm fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school. I know there is a lot of controversey over teenagers doing weight loss surgeries but, hear me out? I am not completely oblivious to the struggles all people go through when they have a weight loss surgery. I have witnessed my mom have the gastric bypass surgery a few years ago. that made me aware about these types of surgeries and it showed me that, it was definitely not an easy thing to go through. my mom was 400 pounds, before the surgery, now, shes 234 pounds. and that's after she had a baby. i am very proud of my mom and all she has accomplished in her journey to get where she is today. two years ago, i was really looking into these weight loss surgeries, three to be exact. gastric bypass, gastric lap band and the gastric sleeve. i had come to the conclusion that, i think the gastric bypass is a bit extreme and i don't really want it. you have to be at least eighteen years old to have the lap band done and who wants to feel that thing inside of you. then i realized that since the gastric sleeve surgery was so new at the time, the doctors and professors were unaware of the death rate.. that scared me enough to the point where, i completely backed down, from all of them. but, here i am two years after the fact.. i have a ton of medical problems, some include; diabetes, bladder issues, fatty liver disease, PCOS (polycestic ovarian syndrom), depression, high cholesterol and high triglycerides. and a bunch more. i've had these medical problems for quite some time, but they have never been this out of control.. i take at least 14 pills a day to try to control these problems.. but it seems as if they're not working like they should.. my pedetrician asked me this very question the other day, "have we ever thought about gastric weight loss surgeries?" "i feel like, we should look into them again, since you have diseases that won't allow you to lose weight as hard as you try, maybe we can try to get rid of them altogether by having a weight loss surgery" she said. I'm not going to lie, i got pretty exciting, here i am, not only getting rid of my diagnosises, i'm also not going to be that, 198 pound 15 year old girl, nobody wants to hang out with. (: so, as of right now, i have an appointment with healthy weight and nutrition at childrens hospital in columbus on july 23rd. i'm excited, but i would like some advice from people who have actually had this gastric sleeve surgery before, message me on here or feel free to comment below. Thanks! -Sierra.

Jenny, they submit your initial weight to the insurance during the approval phase. The pre surgery weight loss is for your benefit during surgery. If you are on the liquid diet, your organs shrink a bit, making it easier to perform the surgery. Also, insurance required 6 month diet is to weed out the people that won't follow the program. I have not met anyone that lost their approval due to weight loss during the required phase. (But you could ask your insurance to verify.) Good luck and no worries

Hello everyone! Pre-Op done this morning. I thought I would be all day. But Didn't take long at all. Finished about 1:00. The longest part was the drive. Surgery on Monday. I'm so excited. Found out my surgeon will be using a 44 fr bougie. Anyone know exactly how BIG or SMALL that is. I have tried looking for that information. And the percentage of weight loss with each bougie size. I have yet to find it. I did question that with him, he did say that I would feel the restriction without a doubt. I even asked if he did over sew and he said yes. Don't know if that will have an impact on the restriction that is felt or not. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!!!! Deb

I haven't read that book, but the best thing I've read on weight loss surgery is actually "Weight Loss for Dummies" (you know the yellow book) It's very informative and even has suggested recipes. You can find it on amazon for super cheap!

I see the weight tracker at the bottom and was wondering how do I do that? I would like to show off my 18 pound pre-op loss so far lol I am flying on Delta and was wondering if drinks are allowed outside of the ones they give you? I was thinking more for when I head back home. I know the basics people took with them but is there anything that you took that most don't think about but was glad you had it? For those that had surgery in Mexico, did you use cash or credit if you shopped there? I don't know if I should take $100 cash, less, more, or just my cards. I mean I am going for surgery not a vacation but hear you sometimes go out shopping before or after surgery and also, not sure about how much or if the driver is tipped that takes me in Mexico. Any replies at all would be helpful!

Hello readers! I want to start off by saying I am writing you all my story in hopes that it will get rid of some of the emotions I am holding inside, and some of the things in my head that I've been wanting to say but didn't know who to tell. I was told by my doctor journaling is a good way to say the things that sometimes you are afraid to say, or dont know who to say them too. I figure by blogging maybe I can help someone else out with their weight loss journey along the way. So here goes nothing.. I guess I should introduce myself so you can better understand my journey. My name is Zoey and I am currently 24 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and when I started my journey I was at my heaviest(weighing in at 310 lbs on March 1st 2011.) I have been heavy all my life. Myself as well as the majority of my family have always struggled with our weight. My doctor for most my adult life had said I should look into having surgery, as I've had countless failed weight loss attempts. Prior to having surgery I had tried just about every diet on the market and taken many different kinds of weight loss pills. Yet I couldn't seem to lose much weight. Everytime it was the same thing, lose a few pounds, gain even more back. I had done all the research, weighed all the risks and talked to numerous family, friends and online support groups before making my decision to have surgery. I knew just about everything there was to know on all the different kinds of weight loss surgeries. I knew that if I didnt make a drastic change I would end up living a shorter more painful life. I dont remember the last time I loved or even liked my body. I couldn't remember the last time I could say I weighed less that 200+ pounds. March 1st was the day that changed everything, the day I attended the required informational meeting at Park Nicollet that would forever change my life. I should probably let you know I along with all my research had also looked at many options of where and who I wanted to perform my surgery. I chose Park Nicollet after finding out that all my doctors would be under one roof and there wouldnt be a ton of running around. All the doctors, nurses, and staff knew each other, worked with one another on a dialy basis, and a good majority themselves had made the decision to have weight loss surgery. My journery started March 1st with attending the meeting. Just a short time later, May 24th 2011, I under went surgery. I know many people have told me that is a short amount of time from beginning to end but let me tell you it was one of the worse, most stressful 2 1/2 months of my life. I decided in the beginning that I was only going to tell the people most important to me about my surgery. I knew that for some people deciding who you are going to tell about your decision is even more difficult than the surgery and recovery its self. Its very emotionally and mentally draining to decide who you are going to tell or if you'll just tell everyone. After telling my parents, brother and sister in law, I told a couple friends 3 to be exact. I thought that would be good enough, that was all the support and stress I needed. I soon realized for me however, there were a few more people I was going to want to tell. I had some mixed reactions in telling my family, in particular my brother. I got the same reaction from him as I knew I would get from the majority of people. He wanted me to try another diet, try working out more, try eating differently. Being that he is not over weight and never has been, I knew this would be a likely response. I initially decided I was not going to tell anyone I worked with about it and was just going to say I was having surgery and leave it at that. Yet curioscity kills that cat every time and people would ask me "what kind of surgery are you having?" I soon turned to the excuse of a car accident I had been in June 2010. Most everyone at work knew I had been in a pretty bad car accident. Most people would ask if it was because of that. My response was always "yes its surgery to help with my back pain." Although this was a cover up, it was also some what the truth. My being over weight and having injured my back the year before did not work too well together. At first this was fine and it was an easy way to avoid tellig people the truth. After time it started to bother me emotionally because I wasnt being 100% truthful with people. To date I have extended my initial list of people to include the people I talk to the most at work, the people I eat lunch with at work, and my manager. I dont regret my decision to tell the people I did the truth. I know for me over time I will most likely tell more people. For me not telling people the truth is hard. I dont lie well and under pressure I generally crack. Thought I've told more people about surgery there are a number of people, my extended family, that I have chosen not to tell and dont plan on ever telling. My extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, are not always the most understanding people in the world. Prior to surgery I lost right around 30 pounds. I am not quite at the one month mark yet from surgery but as of June 16th I weigh 255.5. Which means since March 1st I have lost 54.5 pounds. I don't know how this compares to everyone else's progress but I think it's pretty good. The biggest thing since surgery that has been a struggle is seeing how little I am eating and feeling mentally as though I am wasting away. It's hard to see yourself after so many years eat so little food. I have had a lot of nausea since surgery which hasn't helped one bit either. I am currently still on medication to get rid of the nausea but am finding each day that goes by it seems to get better and better. I have my one month mark check up this coming Thursday the 23rd. I am interested to see what the doctors have to say about my progress and am interested to see what I will weigh in at. I will try and update this when I can. I apologize if I rambled I just needed to put it all in writing and get it out of my head.

Hi Pedro, I think that many of us on this journey need to work on filtering out the noise of others. As previous comments have pointed out, people are just used to us looking as we always have. Our weight loss garners attention, which either draws focus away from those who are used to having it, or shines a light on those who also have unaddressed weight issues. Either scenario is uncomfortable for them, and thus likely to incite comments that may not always in our best interest. I've already heard a comment with my pre-op weight loss about how my cheeks are starting to look hollow and I'm still over 280 lbs for crying out loud! They're not hollow - I just have cheekbones like everyone else and we're actually starting to be able to see them! You are doing this for you. Listen to your medical team, not your peers. Consider how you feel in your own skin, not how the comments make you feel. Soon enough, people will become accustomed to your new appearance. If the comments start up for me after surgery, I plan to put "My doctor is happy with my weight loss, and I'm going to trust her" on loop.

That's interesting. Yes, it seems like most insurers and even some Bariatric programs require the six month nutrition thing first. The only one I've seen from reading through these forums that doesn't is Harvard pilgrim (which I happen to have). I'm grateful too because my BMI is 41 and if I lose any weight I could drop down easily to under 40. I know what you mean--everything I've ever tried usually yields about 20-30 lbs loss, but that's about it.

I am on month 3 of 6 I gained month 2 and have my 3rd weigh in next week I am hoping I show a loss

I am six weeks out how much should I have lost

Hello! I am new to this, and I don't really have anyone that I know who has had the surgery, or wanted to so I have so many questions and I'm hoping I can make some friends here who may be able to help! I started my diet on September 4th in preparation to see a see an obesity specialist --- I am in my pre-approval stage, I saw an obesity specialist on Oct. 2nd who took my weight and set me up with tons of testing, and information. She specializes in using methods other than surgery to help with extreme weight loss. I did not know that when ibsaw her, so I attended a bari-seminar and was assigned a patient advocate who told me the specialist I was working with does not recommend surgery for anyone - which is confusing bc she told me she thought it was a good option for me. Now she referred me to a family doctor and I am set to go see him this Friday Oct. 23 - My insurance calls for Three months of a medically supervised diet and I don't know what date to start from? Or even what the insurance calls for as far as a medically supervised diet? If I choose not to go with Jenny Craig or weight watchers, and just do the plan my Dr. and I agree on - does that count? Or do I have to see a nutritionist once a month too? I have an appointment with a nutritionist, but the dates will not line up exactly! I am so confused, and between the politics of the specialist, the patient advocate telling me that the diet starts the date the Dr puts in his notes and not to worry - I am worried and a little confused! Can anyone help?

Thanks Munchkinkan, Big Wave Dave. cookielover etc. . You guessed right. I was panicking this past weekend. It was odd. I suddenly felt like I was taking the easy way out and got quite down on myself about it. I started to tell myself I was weak and just needed to buckle down and diet properly. I think this was fueled by losing weight on the pre-op diet, seeing that loss actually gave me false hope that I could do it on my own..... then I cheated, and now I have gained a few pounds back, which reminds me of the yo-yo dieting I have done all my life and the fact that I don't want to do it anymore! I know I have to do this, but part of me still feels that I should be able to do it on my own, I guess that feeling is just culturally reinforced and will probably stay with me. But, it is Monday, and I am being banded on Thursday, and I will do it! And can't wait for the rest of my life to start! Thanks sooooo much for all of your support..... it is so helpful to hear from people who understand the emotions behind these issues! THANK YOU ALL!

I was misdiagnosed as having apnea before (I don't have it). What I understand is that even if you still are stuck with the machine you might be able to have a lower pressure after weight loss. You can ask your doc about an autopap- that will adjust the pressure based on how you breath and typically also results in lower pressure than traditional CPAP.

You are starting the preliminary phases to get insurance approval for the surgery. That includes doctor supervised weight loss.