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@@Kindle, I hope things work out and I love that your bariatric team all the way in MX still has a vested interest in your overall health and participate in your care. Totally cool.

My insurance policy specifically states that it won't pay for skin removal surgery after WLS. Here's the line from my policy: "An expected outcome of successful bariatric surgery is redundant/excessive skin. Surgery to remove this skin is generally not considered medically necessary and therefore not covered."

I woke up about 2am with a bit of pain in lower left ab area. I took some maalox and tried to get back to sleep. By 4 am I was vomiting and the pain was radiating around my back and across the whole abdominal area. I had it in my mind I was food poisoned because I took a chance on Chinese food that I normally won't eat. But I ate about 530pm and woke at 2 am so that seemed strange. By 5 am, in one of the lulls in the pain spasms I woke my son up to take me to the emergency room. I had another bad spasm and couldn't get dressed, so we left about 45 minutes later. By the time we get there, I can barely walk and continuously dry heaving. They get me in pretty fast - the pain med made me high, but didn't touch the pain. The zophram reduced the naseau. By the time I got back from the ct scan I was in screaming pain, dry heaving again and the shift had changed. New nurse guessed my diagnosis and switched me to a strong anti inflammatory pain med and treated the vomiting symptom.. I felt better within about 10 minutes! Thank God. My pain was like a 9 if unmedicated childbirth is like a 12 (on a scale of 1-10). Really I felt as though I might die, or worse yet that I wouldn't and have to suffer so. So anyhoo..you guessed it, really big kidney stone, way up high. Follow up with urologist since they don't think this baby will pass unassisted. Great. Current problem is that an NSAID is needed but not good for us. Called my lovely bariatric practice and have a plan of attack on how to protect my tummy for short term use of NSAID. My luck has not been 100 percent good in 2016 so far.... Sent from my KFJWI using the BariatricPal App

Yep, 2 shakes a day and then 1 meal from the list of acceptable meats/veggie in very small portions. I am using the Nectar chocolate protein powder in milk. I am continuing to see my bariatric therapist that my bariatric center had me go to for my evaluation. She's amazing. I'm so glad to hear that it normally gets better for most. This week has been tough. I don't know how people do it for longer than 2 weeks or even stricter diets pre-op.

Do the bariatric soups have enough protein and veggies in them for the first two weeks? Sent from my SM-S550TL using BariatricPal mobile app

I have Medicare, you have to jump thru hoops with them just like regular insurance. They require the 6 month diet, bariatric center of excellence and so on. My husband's insurance doesn't have any requirements, so I am not even going to use my Medicare.

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.

I had thought it was another doctor, like my situation. My family doctor insists I keep taking Triamterene daily for edema, and my bariatric surgeon says no. It's like a tug o war. Lol Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App

I'm about to get v sleeved and I got a medic alert card from my bariatric clinic stating that I'm not to have any aspirin or nsaids bc they can cause stomach damage to the small sleeve so definitely ask your surgical people

I'm a DS patient and I take two 500 mg of chewable calcium, two chewable multivitamins of ADEK (Bariatric Advantage), and one sublingual B12 (3000 mcg). That's it per my doctor's orders. Not too bad at all.

I originally wanted the RNY, but after my bariatric surgeon consulted with my other physicians it was decided that VSG would be best due to a chronic disease requiring anti-inflamatories and other medications. 10 months post op and I don't regret my decision to have VSG. My stomach is still here, just smaller. I love the restriction it provides. I am still alarmed daily by the amount of food I used to eat!

I had the gastric sleeve June 18, 2014. I was very nervous when I arrived at the hospital. The nurse talked to me and then the Bariatric team talked to me, while I was given the Iv i never felt a thing. They also gave me 2 Nerve pills to help with the anxiety. I am not gonna lie to you, but you will be in pain. I tolerated it fine. The day of my surgery I weighed in at 500 lbs and now I weigh 325 lbs nd still losing. It is a hard journey, but with support from family you can achieve your goals. Good luck and prayers being sent.. My name is Samantha...

Hello, Sorry this a a long post but I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's had similar experiences. Has anyone had a gastric bypass that didn't work? I knew something was wrong pretty soon after my surgery as I had no restriction. I'd known all of my surgical team since 2010 when I had a gastric band. After a year of filling and un-filling and coming to the end of my free fill period (they would have cost £100 after that), the bariatric nurse and I could never reach that sweet point between nothing going through the band and so being sick all the time and no restriction at all so I knew I had to give up on this. Then in 2012, I lost 9 stone (125lb) by following a very low calorie diet (VLCD). I did this for 9 months, eating just four sachets of food at just under 600 calories a day. I got down to just over 10 stone (140lb) on my 40th birthday at the end of 2012. But in 2013 when I was off the VLCD, I struggled to keep the weight off. By October 2013, I had tried everything and decided to go for further surgery. I was initially going to have a sleeve but the team's dietician had said that sometimes band to sleeve revisions weren't as successful and I'd read that the bypass is the recommended revision for those who've had bands. Add to this that it was sold to me as the 'gold service' of weight loss surgery and I'd read that it's the operation that has been done for many years and has lots of experience and evidence behind it, I went for the bypass. I knew something was wrong pretty soon after my surgery as I had no restriction. In early December 2013, the dietician agreed that I should not physically be able to eat or drink Fluid in the volumes I could (I felt and still feel like nothing had changed) so he sent me for x-rays which were inconclusive and the measurements/calibrations weren't noted at the time. However, one of the surgeons said in an email that he thought the stoma was around 20mm in diameter. Everything I read says this is too large as food goes straight through the stoma, meaning I never really feel full. The smaller stomach and stoma should mean that I feel feel on less food. It took months for me to push for a second set of xrays and I really felt that I was being ignored. Emails were replied to only after a few weeks when I chased them up and I have an email from the same surgeon saying they were deliberately slowing things down in the hope things would rectify themselves. But they didn't. They did agree to a second opinion and I chose a surgeon in London who not only runs a centre which is ICE accredited (International Centre of Excellence) but has performed over 2500 bypass surgeries and specialises in those that go wrong. He sent me to another hospital in London on that day for some more xrays and then delivered his report. He identified and the xray specialist agreed that the stoma was too large to have any effect i.e. 'no functional effect' at the site. He also discovered that I had a sort of extra bit of stomach or additional reservoir. They call this a hockey stick or a candy cane but the effect on the surgery is unknown. He recommended that my hospital carry out an endoscopy to rule out a stricture. My hospital received the report and said they didn't feel the stoma was too big and in fact it was a good thing as "one of the theories as to how the bypass works is getting food that is eaten into the small bowel quickly as this has hormonal feedback to tell the person to stop eating". I have never read anything like that before and that certainly wasn't how they explained the procedure to me. I've always understood a bypass to be the creation of a smaller stomach so you feel full on much less food (that's what makes you stop eating, I know nothing about hormonal feedback) plus the shortening of the bowel meant some calories weren't absorbed after bypass. My hospital also didn't think the endoscopy was worth doing either as I'd had no sign of a stricture. Throughout, I have been asking the surgeons whether an endoscopy would help them to see what's going on inside there but they thought not. One of the most disappointing things was how disinterested my hospital were from the beginning. I felt that they'd taken my money and I had to fight to make them believe there was a problem. Even then, they really didn't move to try and explore what had happened. I don't understand this as they are still doing this procedure on people. I thought they would have wanted to know what had gone wrong with me so that it didn't happen to anyone else. Also very disappointing was the fact that I woke up to a LEAD surgeon I'd never met and never even heard of. Like I say, I've know this team since 2010. They hadn't mentioned there was a new member, let alone that he would be involved in my operation and certainly not that he would be my LEAD surgeon. I trusted this team and I felt this was a breach of that trust. I also trusted them to look after me if anything went wrong. I'm in the process of taking on a lawyer plus, because of my tweets about my experience, a local journalist who's interested in the fact that many bands are being revised, how surgery is sold to patients and what happens when they fail, has contacted me. I feel I should raise awareness that there are things that can go wrong that you don't hear about, as in my case. Would I advise anyone not to have bariatric surgery? No, all I would say is don't use a hospital just because its local to you or you know them. It doesn't mean they'll look after you if things go wrong. Find an ICE, look at patient feedback like mine and get a cast Iron guarantee that they'll take care of you if there are problems. The hospital's final letter to me told me that they would not be refunding my money and advised that I pursue diet and counselling. I feel like they just put me on the 'it doesn't work for some people' pile when I didn't even know such a pile existed. Aren't diet, exercise and counselling things we do over and over again before considering the massive step of surgery? In fact, my hospital's own website begins ... "If you’ve exhausted all other weight loss options, you might be considering weight loss surgery”. I'm still paying off the loan for this and I'm left in the cold! David & Goliath. Please share your feedback with me. Thanks for reading.

Hi all, My name is Aliese and I just joined the VST site yesterday. I am about to embark on a new journey. An attempt at becoming a healthier me! I won't bore you with a bunch of details about my health issues but let me just say, that I think this is the right step for me. I am in the Pre-Op phase of getting the Gastric Sleeve. I'm on day 2 of my 5 day liquid diet. My surgery is scheduled for June 13, 2013 with Dr. Tiesenga, out of The Chicago Center for Bariatric Surgery. So far I am experiencing headaches and it's probably from the low caloric intake. I am diabetic, so my sugar normally runs high (around 120 fasting) but this morning it was 82. Now that may be in the normal range but my body has gotten use to running on the high end, so I suspect that is why I'm having the headaches. I hope it will subside soon. I now have to be more diligent about taking or not taking my medication and getting my sugar levels while I undergo this transformation. This will be a whole new world for me. I plan to utilize this website to the fullest and I hope to meet new and interesting people that can offer me some support and guidance. Well, that's all for now. I will check back in after I have my surgery! A New Me, Aliese

LowCarb is good, another place that is good is well.ca. It is in Guelph, fast service too. I used the sugar free flavoured syrups for my Optifast period. When I was on the protein shakes I really liked the Bariatric Foodie site. Never had a problem drinking them with her recipes. Started at 242 in February 2014 when I had surgery, and am now 100 pounds lighter. Can't believe I am back to me.

@@Norsemanlady I don't think I've been to the Bariatric food website. I'll have to check it out. Thanks! Awesome journey! Hats off to your continued success!

They didn't seem to know how transfer requests happen. In the new year I may contact the bariatric registry and see what they say. Thanks for the advice!

Not sure about the mercury aspects. I should look into this. Same with cholesterol from eggs and such. Keep in mind that once you have your sleeve you're not really eating high volumes of protein.....just high percentage of your intake is protein. In other words.......consider a normal meal from your former life. Imagine it. Think about what the plate looked like when it was loaded down at your normal meals. Got an image in mind ? Good. Now, remove the side items from the plate. Zero in on the entree. Got it? Good. Now zero in on that Entrees and then shrink it down to 1/4 cup in size.....or 1/2 cup or whatever size meal your phase has you eating at meals. Now....you'll see that you may actually be eating LESS protein than you were before....and none of the other stuff. No side dishes....no salads.....no Desserts. You'll only have room for some of the protein rich entree. With this in mind, you can still cook the same meals for your family....but you select from just part of it for your own needs. Supplement the gaps with bariatric Multivitamins, Calcium, Iron and B-12. Stay hydrated. Get lean. It's simple......as long as you let it be simple. Stay away from foods that don't fit your new goals.....and even their substitutes. Stick with the basics and work through the various phases.

At the time I first met with my surgeon he had done 12 sleeves. I don't know what number I am but let me tell you our numbers increase monthly at my support group! My Dr specializes in laproscopic surgeries in general and 2/3 of his practice is bariatric. He has been doing bariatric surgery for 10 years. Techniques are similar. That counts for me. I haven't lost 130 lbs but my goal is to lose 118 lbs and I am at 106 lbs. My nutritionist says I should lose 100% of my excess weight. I am 10 months out. A lady I work with had RNY a week after I had the sleeve. She has reached her goal before me, sure that makes me jealous, but I am getting there! I WILL get there! Something I have learned recently (I am part of a facebook group for all WLS types) is they have found that after 2 years the food malabsorption of RNY goes away. However they always malabsorb their Vitamins. So to me, the benefit of RNY ends at 2 years. The sleeve seems to be an ongoing tool, you can not stretch your tummy to its original capacity. hair loss? You'll have it either procedure - it is due to rapid weight loss and the impact on your body. Hope that helps!

Welcome to the boards! I also considered the band a few years ago when a colleague of mine lost a great deal of weight with a lapband. Since then, I've done a good amount of research and self-education. For me, having a piece of hardware installled just freaked me out. I can barely remember to get my car's oil and filters changed on time, and there are so many people whose bands slip, cause scarring, or flat-out fail that I sort of shied away from that idea. On top of which, my colleague gained back a lot of the weight she lost, so I had a real-life reference for bands not doing the job very well. When I went to my first informational seminar, the lead surgeon at my local Bariatric Center of Excellence was very up-front about lapbands. He told the audience that he discourages people from getting them, due to the issues that often come up. He did say that he would install one if his patient insisted, but he was pretty clear that his practice is trying to get away from them. One of his nurses told me that she expects the sleeve to become the new "gold standard" for weight loss surgery in the next few years. I'm really happy with my choice--and my surgery is just over a week away. I hope you find the choice that is best for you! Good luck on your weight loss journey, and welcome to the forums. (We're a wacky bunch, but it's never dull!)

I received approval from Aetna! (Aetna POS II). I did the 90 day Multi-disciplinary approach. Technically I started in December, but I had a little hiccup and missed one of my appointments with my Primary Care Doctor in January. All I did was tack on an extra appointment with him in April, and all was good. When I first started I was so confused about Aetna's requirements, so I wanted to share for those that are taking the same route. Here is what I did to get approved. December: I met with the Surgeon and bariatric coordinator. I was intimidated about the process because of the insurance requirements. I started a journal to help keep track of my appointments and for a place to relay my thoughts as I went through everything. I met with my Primary Care doc for appointment 1 of 3. I met with a physical Therapist office, the week before Christmas, inside of our local YMCA to meet the exercise requirement. I wasn't sure how often I was supposed to meet with them. I scheduled an appointment twice a week. I later found out that once a month would have sufficed. January: I met with nutritionist for appointment 1 of 3 I met with psychologist for appointment 1 of 3 I met with Primary Care doc for a reason not related to weight loss, so it did not count as appointment #2, and I had to start over in February with my PCP visits. I met with physical therapist twice per week. February: I met with nutritionist for appointment 2 of 3 (I lost10 pounds at this weigh in) I met with psychologist for appointment 2 of 3 . I met with Primary Care doc for appointment 1 of 3 (again...sigh) I learned that I only needed to meet with the exercise therapist once per month, so I only had one visit this month. March: I met with nutritionist for appointment 3 of 3 (I lost 9 more pounds at this weigh in) I met with psychologist for appointment 3 of 3, and took the evaluation test. I met with Primary Care doc for appointment 2 of 3. Since I had already had 3 months straight with the exercise therapist, I did not go anymore after my February appointment. But I did keep an exercise log and gave it to my bariatric coordinator to submit as well, just to help my case. April: 1 visit with Primary Care doc For some reason it took my PCP a while to get everything sent over to the bariatric coordinator so that she could submit it for approval, but it was finally submitted on 4/25, and approval was granted on 5/5. I am 5'9 and started out in December at 290 pounds. As of today I am 259 pounds and I'm proud that I did that on my own. I feel confident and have proven to myself that I can make the lifestyle and habit changes that are required in order to make this tool successful. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in December, which lit the fire under me to get serious about my health. I am waiting for a call back from the Bariatric coordinator so that I can get my pre-op appointment and surgery scheduled. This has been quite a journey so far. I'm excited to watch it all unfold.

Well, I’ve scheduled a consult for myself for March 8th. I imagine I’ll be at least a month or so behind my husband depending on my requirements. We have different insurance plans so we will see how it all plays out. We are using the same bariatric practice but as of now, we’ve been assigned different surgeons. Ideally, I would like our WLS to be only a week or so apart but I’ll have to see what they say at the practice.

"Does it really matter what a reality television show says in passing about weight loss surgery? I believe it does. For one thing, the country already has a culture that largely views bariatric surgery negatively. We don’t need to increase the negative feelings with these vague statements proclaiming that the show helps contestants lose weight the “right” way, and other methods of weight loss are “wrong.” Second, the show has millions of loyal viewers, including many who may be eligible for weight loss surgery. In my opinion, the show is doing them a disservice by stating unequivocally that bariatric surgery is a bad option. For some of these viewers, bariatric surgery may be the only option that would allow them to lose the weight that has plagued them their entire lives." PS: I wear boxer briefs

I am brand new to this forum. I have just sent in all my paperwork to the Bariatric Coordinator RN who will schedule all the pre-op Dr visits. I am 54 yrs old, will have surgery done by Dr. Sufficool in Rapid City, SD. At first I was so excited, now I'm terrified. I have had 8 other surgeries (not weight related) in my life & get more scared with each one. I keep thinking about how I will feel, all the things I'll be able to do, all the health problems I can kiss goodbye when I lose the weight. I'm just flat scared of the surgery (will it go right? will I throw up? will I be allergic to the band? will I be able to stick to the various diets?). What a worry wart I am! :thumbup:

What a week! I would like some feedback about my situation. Here it goes...When I first started this process the Bariatric Office said that they would be able to pull my records. Well, I find out yesterday they can't because doctor office is no longer a part of their affiliation. Needless to say I call my OB office to get weight records because I go there yearly. By the way, I requested these records in September and they only sent me results to HIV Test. I called them back then and they were suppose to mail my complete exams to Clinic. Needless to say they didn't. Well, I talk to the medical records lady today and tell her that I am coming to pick up the records because I need them ASAP. No Problem. Well, when I went to pick them up at 3 p.m. (I needed to pick up before 5 because she will be gone) and walked out of the office with the sealed envelope my natural instincts told me to open the envelope. Sure enough, this woman has put 1 record in for 2010 and has left for the day. Needless to say they knew I drove out of my way to get these records so the assistant on duty went to get my file and proceeded to copy everything from 2008. But wait, THERE IS NO RECORD FOR 2009! What the hockey sticks am I to do? So, I called my Family doctor's office to see about getting 2009 records. The lady told me it would take between 2-3 weeks. Mind you I only saw this doctor once in 2009 and was a new patient. Is it that hard to pull 1 record that should still be in my chart seeing as how I don't go but 1 time a year? Ughh, the lady in my OB office senses my frustration and copies records back from 2006. THE BIG QUESTION IS DO YOU THINK I SHOULD HAVE HER SUBMIT FOR INSURANCE AUTHORIZATION TOMORROW WITH HEALTH RECORDS FROM 2006-2008 AND 2010 AND 1 FROM THIS YEAR? I would still get 2009 records just in case we need them. For your information I have AETNA.