Search the Community

Hi everyone! I’m already on my pre-op low carb, high protein diet but don’t yet have a date. I’ve done my bloodwork, met the surgeon, EKG, dietician consult, psych consult, financing (I have no comorbidities -yet- so insurance won’t budge) I’m 40 years old, 42 BMI and crazy ready. I’ve completed the sleep study and will get my results tomorrow so here’s hoping no apnea, but if I do have to get a cpap the doc said he thinks a few days with the cpap will suffice for him to write his recommendation for the go ahead for surgery! (He’s a bariatric surgery success story himself and I work in the medical field so he’s willing to clear me more quickly than the norm.) I’m getting the VSG along with hernia repair and a couple other tweaks my awesome surgeon is willing to do. I find this whole process is like that line from When Harry Met Sally, modified and paraphrased-when you find the thing you want to do with the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start right away! I’m hoping for a late October surgery date. I am instructed by the surgeon to take 4 weeks off and the only time I can do that is the month of Novemeber, so the sooner the surgery the better. I’ve started stockpiling bone broth (high in protein!) from sales and am studying my new instapot to figure out how to make supersoft soups and such. I got tiny bowls and utensils and have been doing a lot of reading and YouTube lurking. Im excited to find others who are just about to change their lives too! We will look much different in 6 months time!

Garden State Bariatric, Dr. Y, I am down the shore. The dr. Is in TR.

to all my bariatric pals thanx to all who are thinking of me and my family i feel all your arms hugging me in support thank you kathy

So I'm 5 days away from my 8 month anniversary of VSG surgery and finally admitting that my old habits and obsession with snacking have not miraculously disappeared because of WLS. On May 28th, I had lost 60 pounds and was so positive that I'd reach goal by my 8 month anniversary. But rather than stay focused, eat healthy and follow the plan, I got over confident and reverted back to snacking on all the high carb, high sugar, high salt comfort foods that had originally caused my weight gain. I stopped going to my monthly support group meetings, stopped my daily involvement in on-line bariatric and weight loss support groups and as a result, I've gained 8 pounds rather than losing the last 6 pounds that would have gotten me to goal. I know what I have to do to get back on track. Any suggestions on how to break my addition to carbs? I'm focused on Protein today with the hope that once I break the carb cycle, I can get back to making better food choices for my late night Snacks. Yes, the honeymoon is over!!

Looks yummy, like a nice bariatric buffet! My scars from my band aren't too bad anymore, but that was over 11 years ago. The only one that is still really visible is the one where they put the port in, it's about 2 to 2.5 inches long and still somewhat purple. You won't have to deal with that though! Other than that, there's one other scar still noticeable, but it's flesh-colored, it just looks like a different texture than the rest of my skin. I didn't use any scar fading cream, but a lot of people have great success with them if that's something you are worried about 😃 Thanks for sharing!

Congratulations @ mrs. bunch.... I was sleeved on dec 5. I'm feeling better and I thank god I purchased the variety packs of flavored Protein from bariatric pal prior to surgery. It's like I'm drinking juice and I love it. I also add Water flavor packs tinny water because regular water makes me gag. Did your surgeon prescribe you protonix or nexium post op? My surgeon prescribed me protonix to cost my stomach and to prevent GERD. I am to take it for two months only though.

Hello, I hope you are well. I have been a registered nurse for over 12 years and my Bariatric surgery will be in March. When I was in shape (all of my life except for 5 years ago), I used to think the same thing as your wife. 5 years ago I fell into a depression and gained over 100 pounds. I’ve been trying to get it off ever since. Now, I have high blood pressure, sleep apnea, acid reflux and pre-diabetes. People in my family say I should not do the surgery. They say I can do it on my own. But as I said, I have been trying to lose the weight for 5 years and my health is actively declining. Should I wait until I am fully diabetic so I can meet the approval of my family? No. Obesity is one of the most unhealthy modifiable conditions you can have. Despite how widely accepted it is, it’s worse than smoking, drinking, and quite a few illegal drugs (arguably combined). It damages every organ. Fat puts pressure on your organs, making them secrete hormones that alter your ability think and function properly. I know your wife is concerned about the risks of surgery. But what about living long enough to go to your child’s wedding? What about being able to play with your child in the park? What about setting a healthful example for your child so the cycle does not continue (I come from an obese family so I know how hard it is to break free from bad Family eating habits)? I hope my comment helps.

Hey there, I got sleeved for the same reason. My surgery was just Monday but my surgeon agreed WLS was the best option to cure my insulin resistance that came with my PCOS. My surgeon did recommend waiting 2 years to start trying however I changed to a GYNO that is on the bariatric board and she is very familiar with what I'm going through. She told me a year and I will have definitely be able to have a healthy normal pregnancy. The biggest reason to wait has to do with the shock your body goes through after the major weight loss. I recommend finding a GYNO that has had other patients with PCOS that have had WLS. It helped me drastically! Good luck to you!!

I am almost done all the requirements prior to gastric band surgery. Today I received a call that my nephrologist did not clear me because of the high Protein requirement. I guess I want to hear from others with kidney disease and how they worked around the high protein diet. My dietitian said she could work with 60 grams but the nurse is saying that even 50 (normal) is not okay. Is the very high protein requirements a new life long necessity or does it decrease after a year or two? Thanks for any help. Mary in PA (Chrias)

most pre workout supplements are made for weightlifting types who have not enough body mass to convert to energy or to muscle. that aint us surely. also they are LOADED with caffeine. Like very very very high levels of caffeine, not very safe for most bariatric patients.

I don’t think leaks are a common issue with people that have had multiple bariatric surgeries. Instead, it sounds like it may be an issue with your surgeon’s practice. You may want to investigate further. I had revision surgery in July 2018 and have had 5 abdominal surgeries in my lifetime. My surgeon, who is one of the preeminent bariatric/GI surgeons in the U.S., did not tell me I was at increased risk for leaks. I have suffered no complications post-op.

Hello all, I'm new here, I'm trying to get the process started to get surgery, I have Maryland priority partners , I've been looking around online to see if priority partners would even cover bariatric surgery , but I haven't had any luck, the way they have things worded, doesn't really give a yes or no answer, can anyone point me in the right direction, as to what steps I need to take & how do I go about doing them, also is there anyone here, who is from Maryland & has medical assistance / priority partners that has been through the process and gotten approved, any tips or helpful info would be greatly appreciated, I feel completely lost & I wanna be sure I do things right so I'll have a good outcome

Hey girlie, i live in maryland. I have cigna so my process was different. I honestly don't think any of the state insurance programs cover bariatric surgery. What i would suggest, is call your surgeon's office directly and ask to speak to their billing coordinator. They would be able to tell you if your insurance is accepted and how much you would owe out of pocket. Who was your surgeon btw?

Congrats on doing your pre-op weight loss goal! After entering the bariatric program where I was it took me 7 months to get into the mind set of 'wanting' to really drop the initial weight. Wishing you a speedy recovery from surgery, and of course, much success!

Thanks, mousecat88. And thanks to all who replied! I Do need to remember why I'm doing this. I'm frustrated by folks (psychiatrist and a friend from work) who insist I can just lose the weight through diet and exercise alone, and that I don't need the surgery. Everyone is worried that it's too drastic. I saw the surgeon today and feel a renewed motivation! Let's get rid of those comorbidities!!! Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

If you look on Cigna's website at the bariatric surgery info, it no longer says anything about having to have 2/5 years documentation. When I first started this process, it said 2 years. Several of the customer service reps that I spoke to said that I needed 5 years.. so my surgeon and I decided to get together 5 years of history just in case.

I've had a leak almost 9 months now. They have tried everything, sometimes more than once, I go to a large hospital in Seattle. I had a consult last week with a bariatric surgeon and after talking with him, I am really considering getting the "fix it surgery" or Bypass, because I am not healing and I have very little quality of life. But my gastro doc says "just be patient, i'm confident it will heal." As of now I have a PICC line (3rd one) for food. I haven't eaten in a month in a half and the month before that only a few bites of Beans a few times. I am so hungry!!! Of course, my family has to eat so I have to smell food every night and I want to cry. I have a drain tube (the 3rd one) coming out my back. Have lost 2 jobs and was recently given one back, but is now rocky because I can get sick at any given time and they know that. I have went to work a few days then been hospitalized several times and back out for approx. 2 months at a time. I am in pain almost always, have been on pain meds almost every single day. I have been hospitalized probably 10 times ( 5 hours away from my family so no one is ever able to be there with me). The longest stay almost a month. I have to go back (5 hours one way) every couple of weeks and sometimes we have to borrow money for gas just to get there. I has ruined us financially. I do have insurance but I have racked up at least 350,000 dollars in hospital bills. There were months we could not afford dinner for our kids. I can't sleep but a few hours at a time. I try to work 3 days a week just to keep the lights on and food in the fridge, but its obviously very uncomfortable as I am a nurse and on my feet all day. I have very little family support, just my husband who has taken about 6 weeks of time off work to take me back and forth to Seattle (he worries about his job) . In fact, it has ruined several relationships in my family. My parents only live 10 miles away, young and healthy (at least my mom, my dad does have med prob), and they have not showed up one time to ask if I need help while my husband is gone 50 hours a week working. That hurts the worst. I could probably go on and on as you can imagine, but I want people to see how bad it has been for me going through this as I am sure many of you can relate. I was told the bypass was an option from the beginning. But I did not want that, so I think I have been strong and held out for a long time before considering the fix it surgery, or Bypass. I just feel I cant do this much longer. And now my gastro doc wants me to go back to Seattle to have open surgery for a feeding tube in place of the picc line in a few weeks. So this is obviously far from over. This will be my second feeding tube. The bariatric surgeon and his partner act like this is a good idea at this point. Yes, of course they say my chances of complication increase because its a fix it or revision surgery, at about 5%. They seem confident I can have a successful surgery and heal and be back on my feet in about a month. I just need advice, comments, if you have done it and are you happy you did? I am afraid, and I have seen this story on this site where someone went through similar things and still had to have the bypass and of course, says don't go through this for too long because you may end up having to have it anyway. How is the bypass different in the way of eating and quality of life versus the sleeve. My gastro doc said it took one patient a year and a half to heal, but she did. Of course she was much older than me, but still I CANNOT IMAGINE LIVING LIKE THIS FOR 9 MORE MONTHS!!!! Thank you so much, I really need the support and information on this big decision.

My doc has recommended bypass, and I'm 90% sure that's what I'm going to do. Yet when I get on Bariatric Pals, it seems the majority of the people talk about the sleeve. They say it has fewer complications, doesn't cause nutritional probs or hair loss, is a more up to date procedure and that the weight loss is comparable. Yet, my doc says bypass is gold standard, better stats and better long term weight loss and maintenance. So those of you who have had bypass, what's your real life experience? What's the good, bad, miserable about bypass? Is there anything you wish you had known or wish you could change? Don't worry about "scaring" me. Knowledge is power for me. If I know exactly what to expect, even if it's hard, I tend to do better. Thanks in advance.

CC.... Blue Shield varies DRASTICALLY from state to state. I'm told that Alabama requires 6 months of doc supervised dieting, as does GA. But I have BS of CA and although I live in GA, they give me all the same benefits as a policy holder in CA. So, they approved me in 4 days without the 6 month dieting! It was crazy unbelievable. I got evaluations from the shrink, the dietician, and the surgeon gave the medical and surgical evaluation....after I'd only seen him once. I also happened to have a letter from my orthopedic surgeon in favor. They approved me with no questions asked. As for getting your Primary Care's approval. NOT necessary with a PPO. Just make sure you pick a bariatric surgeon that is in your PPO network. I have to drive 3 hours to get to mine. But BS is also saying they will reimburse travel expenses because of this.

Well.....my Doctor who is in the top 5% of bariatric surgeons in the U.S. didn't even have me do a pureed diet. I was drinking full liquids right after surgery for one week. Which included Jell-O, pudding and sugar free popsicles. I am now 12 days out eating a soft diet. Every Doctor is different and it doesn't mean something is going to go wrong. I trust mine completely. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using BariatricPal mobile app

Scorpion I understand your worry. It happened to me as well. I was totally in shock as I expected to ace the stress test. I was able to get in about 7days later. Went to the clinic and they started off with an IV placed. I am still in a daze at that point and did not question it. When I got back to the room with the tread mill I overheard them talking that I needed the nuclear version. I asked why and they said that the bariatric clinic had told them I was unble to do the physical test. That was baloney to I elected do the physical test. It did make for a long three minutes on the treadmill but I did fine. They did manage to sneak in a carotid artery test. Sometimes I think that they take advantage when one has insurance. Just my opinion on that. You will do fine. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes.

My surgeon required me to stop taking everything for the first two weeks. After that, everything has to be chewable for 60 days. I will be taking Flintstones Multivitamin with Iron, Bariatric Advantage chewable calcium citrate, B-12 that dissolves under the tongue and a chewable Biotin. P.S. I took chewable Gas-X after surgery for the gas pains. It was a life saver, so ask your surgeon about taking that.

I had my Banding done by Dr. Fernando Miranda at Twelve Oaks Hospital in Houston. I chose this doc and this hospital because they are both certified by Bariatric Centers of Excellence. Dr. Miranda is awesome. He told me ahead of time that he takes his time during surgery (mine was over an hour) and has a liberal fill philosophy. I did have to do a 10 day liquid pre-op diet to shrink liver, on which I easily lost mucho pounds. The only thing I did not like about Dr. Miranda's procedure is that immediately after surgery, they woke me up and wheeled me to an xray room where I had to swallow barium and then stand in front of the xray machine... with no meds. I was beggin for meds, but they told me that I needed to be awake enough to stand. So much pain, almost unbearable. I had to do TWO barrium swallos and TWO xrays before they gave me a shot of morphine and took me to recovery. For this reason, I cannot reccomend this surgeon. But maybe if you talk to him about this (I didn't know this would happen) you can work something out so that it is done a different way. No one else I have seen on this board had to do such a test immediately after surgery without any meds. As for Twelve Oaks Hospital. In no way can I reccomend it. They messed up on everything from pre-op to discharge. When I was there for pre-op testing, I had to wait for HOURS because they had no orders from my doctor, who was not in his office that day. Then, I overheard a nurse telling the addmissions people that for Bariatric patients, there are standing orders, so no individual orders necessary. I was furious! Getting all the testing done was a huge hassle- no one was ready for me in any department. The nurses during my overmnight stay for surgery were great. But when it came to discharge, I had to wait HOURS because they misunderstood the orders. This hospital is a dump. The rooms are dumpy, even the OR was dumpy. Again, just to clarify, the only problem I had with Miranda was the barium swallow. He is an excellent doctor and such a great bedside manor! This guy needs to get to a real hospital though! There are so many nice hospitals in Houston, I cannot understand why he goes for Twevle Oaks. Please PM me if you need more information about anything I have written here.

What Protein shakes have you tried? In those first few weeks I hated Protein Shakes, I could not find any that I liked. I ended up not getting enough protein in and in the long term that is a huge problem. You should get a minimum of 1 gram of protein for every inch you are tall as a minimum. I ended up trying Premier Protein ready made shakes. The chocolate flavor is the best. There are 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar and 160 calories. It is an excellent choice for a supplement. You can buy at Sam's or costco. Recently I had surgery on my neck where they went through my throat. It has caused me real issues and basically put me back on soft foods. From what my doctor said, this could go on for months. I went to my Bariatric team for help. They gave me a whole bag of Protein shake samples to try. Syntax nectar - fuzzy naval is excellent, I also loved the Caribbean cooler and vanilla bean torte. They don't have that horrid protein taste. I use Water for the fuzzy navel and milk for the other two. I ended up order a box of each of these flavors in the grab and go packets I purchased these on line via Amazon.. I have been eating a lot of cottage cheese which has great protein, pudding - I eat the real thing not sf, yogurt, cream of wheat, homemade Soups, cooked vegetables cooked very soft, I am struggling with most meats because of the swallow issue right now but most fish will work. I am surprised your doctor has you focus on calories vs. protein. I am able to get between 900 and 1100 calories a day and easily hitting my protein goals. If you cannot get your protein through food, which I still cannot you have to supplement or you will get sick. I wish you the best of luck!

I was talking to a new guy before having been sleeved Jun 3, 2013 and when he asked what I liked to eat, I mentioned a few types of food and followed it by saying that I didn't know what I'd be able to eat soon. His immediate reply was "Lap Band?" to which I said "No" and explained the sleeve. Turns out, he is an LPN that has a Lap Band! He has been very supportive so far and even offering suggestions (when I was having problems with the bariatric Vitamins.) Unlike you, I haven't kept my surgery a secret--I've told all of my close friends and a good portion of my co-workers. I have only encountered a few negative remarks---all of which were pre-op expressing that I should exhaust all other avenues before resorting to surgery. Also, after surgery some of the nay-sayers have joined the bandwagon that cheers me on!