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Hi, Im so excited to see these forum! My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow and im totally nervous but ready! After trying so many diets in my young life and gaining right back made me grateful that we have these options today. On the pre opt diet i lost already 7 lbs and waiting to lose more with this amazing tool of the sleeve. This forum is so super helpful! looking forward to walk this journey together with so many people.

Hey!!! I got my sleeve done in 2018, and had severe GERD and weight regain. I lost 60 pounds with the sleeve and maintained for about a year and a half. I regained all that weight back and went back to the weight I was day of the surgery. During my pre-op endoscopy and barium test they found I did have acid reflux and found a twist in my stomach!! Which causes mild obstruction which explains the casual vomiting and GERD. I am so happy I went with a different Bariatric program. I am scheduled for my revision August 29th!

It is a not uncommon result of rapid weight loss (not just from surgery, but that is the most common means of accomplishing rapid weight loss,) maybe 10% have that problem, give or take? My surgeon routinely removes it when doing the DS as he doesn't want some other surgeon going in there and getting lost in the altered anatomy (which is weird for them, not so much for the bypass folks.) With the sleeve, he leaves it alone unless he feels stones in there when he is doing the surgery. So, I still have mine, but my wife, with her DS, doesn't, and we haven't noticed any great difference beyond what the WLS is already doing (there's always changes when you alter the body's default condition.)

I have CareFirst! Needed 6 months of medically supervised weight loss (I didn't lose weight, though) and I had to produce medical records from the last 5 years showing that I'd been very overweight for a while. Here's what I remember it looking like: October - initial consultation, determined I would not need a sleep study which I think is unusual November - dietician visit 1 December - dietician visit 2, endoscopy January - dietician visit 3, psychological evaluation February - dietician visit 4 March - dietician visit 5, mandatory life after surgery virtual classes Mid-April - dietician visit 6 -- submitted to insurance -- was approved in about 72 hours Late April - final check up before surgery to get sign off, got May 20 date Early May - pre-op appointment May 20 - surgery

Did anyone end up having a gallbladder taken out after they had weight-loss surgery and how did it affect their weight loss good or bad

Mine was pretty fast, shorter than I expected for insurance - from what I am hearing from my friends who went through this already. My insurance did not have any weight loss or education requirements. I met the criteria of BMI which was enough to move forward. My first class, informational & weigh-in was May 16th 2022. I was put on a 3 month program - since I didn't have insurance requirements, that is the shortest duration the program I am in does (mainly because of medical clearance testing & scheduling). In June I had 2 virtual zoom classes (they were spaced about every two weeks) My second one I was the only person on her schedule - so I got a private class with the nutritionist. It is normally a group class it just worked out that way. If I was in a 6 month program or longer - they would have covered the same information - they just would have been more classes of a shorter duration. During June I was able to schedule my psych evaluation, PT evaluation, upper endoscopy, labs and cardiac clearance. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication about wanting an echo done along with my cardiac appointment - so I had to go back for that on July 1st. My final weigh-in and class was July 7th. Unfortunately they had not reviewed and signed off on my cardiac echo yet, so I couldn't schedule my surgical consult appointment that day, as planned. A few days later they called and were able to get me in on July 21st. The surgeons do their own scheduling - so I was able to schedule directly with her, and her first available opening was August 16th I have an 8 day liquid fast starting the 8th... and a covid test on the 13th yet. So from first appointment to surgery day will be exactly 3 months to the day. I got very lucky with scheduling to get everything in as quickly as I did. I had the flexibility of taking what ever was available (I am not working) and I asked to be put on cancelation lists for anything that scheduled out further than June 30th and was lucky to have get called for availability. I was in a little of a time crunch because I have driving restrictions, my program and hospital are about an our away and my husband was trying to be at as many appointments as he could. He is a teacher so he is off for the summer - so we were trying to get the surgery done before he starts back to school. He actually starts back in-service on the 15th but thankfully school is willing to work with him and he shouldn't miss anything more than possibly the morning of the 16th (if I am scheduled first possibly not even that).

My insurance (Highmark Blue-shield, I am in Pennsylvania) has no program specific requirements for education/classes or pre-op weight-loss requirement. My program put me on a 3 month schedule - the shortest duration they offer… because of getting pre-op clearances. I had the intro meeting plus three classes where we went over their program material & requirements. My first intro class was May 16th. Classes were spaced about every two weeks. I had two in June and a final appointment and weigh in on July 7th (my program required I not gain weight after my initial weigh-in). I managed to get all my pre-op testing in fairly quickly, but it was not all reviewed and signed off on by the July 7th class, so I had to wait a few more days to schedule to meet the surgeon. First available appointment to meet the surgeon was July 21st. She scheduled me for her first available surgery for August 16th, 2022. So my whole program from first appointment to surgery will be exactly 3 months … that is not typical from what I understand. Most of the people in my intro class were on 6 month schedules or longer, which was dictated by their insurance.

So this question really depends if you have insurance. Typically with insurance most have to do like 6 months of supervised weight loss attempts and such. I had no insurance.. So i saw my surgeon for the first time on December 14th. This is where he ordered all the testing like EKG, Chest Xray, Bloodwork, psychological exam. I did the testing pretty quickly. The psychological exam took 2-3 months to book. There were no openings before that so that was on March 1st. One of my test came back abnormal which was the EKG. So i had to visit my cardiologist to get clearance for surgery. This is when they ordered a nuclear stress test. after that i was cleared for surgery. Once everything came back normal my surgery was scheduled for 3 weeks later. So if it wasnt for that stupid psyc exam i could have had the surgery months ago.

Can you tell me your timeline. From start to end. I have CareFirst insurance. I did some research but still no clear. What were the steps you took from the day you first make your appointment? How long it took you to get to your surgery date? I’m in Alexandria, Virginia and just started to look into weight loss clinics and signed up for one seminar.

The post op diet stages are pretty important. It’s not just about weight loss but about protecting your healing tummy. It sounds like you got lucky that nothing bad happened this time but depending on how that went down it could’ve cause some serious issues that landed you in the hospital. I wouldn’t beat yourself cause what’s done is done but definitely don’t do it again. It’s seriously NOT worth it.

I’m in so many bariatric weight loss surgery groups on FB, but haven’t heard about this at all. Which group are you in that talks about this, if you don’t mind sharing?

I was lower BMI and I had several stalls. They get more frequent the closer you get to a healthy weight.

The loss slows to an absolute crawl the closer you get to your bodies happy weight. I wouldn’t give up though just yet.

I was 5’8” 235 and no real medical issue. Knee pain was just starting with exercise. I could see how it was going to snowball though and wanted to nip it in the bud. I didn’t lose as much as I hoped (dr warned me though that people with bipolar do not always lose as much) but even still I am so glad I did the surgery. It’s Amazon how much difference over 50 pounds makes. The knee pain is gone and the most important thing is that I am no longer gaining which I was steadily doing every year.

I am pre-op and I will tell those I trust most (which is only a few people) and no one else. I have absolutely no desire to hear the judgmental people in my family, or acquaintances, belittle my choices or question every bit and tell me why I was wrong. I will tell those that I had some stomach/gall bladder/hernia surgery which with a dietitians help, am losing weight. I'm just personal with certain things and I like to keep certain things to myself.

One thing I did to keep my mind off eating was clearing out my wardrobe & drawers of clothing & underwear that were too big. So feel hungry? Clean out a drawer or a wardrobe. I reviewed my clothing several times as my weight dropped. Besides distracting me it also reinforced how I was progressing. Packed up clothing into things to toss, keep, donate or give away to friends. Also pulled out clothing I’d kept in case I lost weight in the past & sorted out what I could wear again.

My goal is to lose enough fat under my loose skin so that plastic surgery goes well. People say that the less fat under the skin, the more likely that it heals well because there is a better blood supply. I don’t even know what my ideal weight would be and my surgeon never mentioned a goal weight. I have lost 145lbs and am down to 185 and while I am happy with my size, I think I have more to lose. At some point I need to see a plastic surgeon to confirm.

I'm on day 16 of my stall and it's really bothering me. I hate stalls. But the worst thing is my daughter woke up really sick yesterday and now I'm sick today. Fever, achy, super tired, sick to my stomach, bad headache, runny/stuffy nose. I'm drinking the Fairlife protein shake (with caffeine) and eating fruit because honestly, that's all I can do. I normally get my protein from my food but I have a feeling that while I'm sick I'll be getting half or a little more from my shakes and protein drinks. Nothing is sitting right in my stomach besides fruit. Not sure how that's going to affect my weight, but I'll worry about it later. I hate being sick. Blah....

Hey guys! I hit a week from surgery Thursday. I think I may be the prodigal child and I feel bad about raving about how little pain I was in, how little the gas was a problem etc. But at the same time I want to let others know, it's not always negative! Also, consider about 3 years ago I had my gallbladder removed, so I am fresh to a lot of things these surgeries deal with. Incisions, pre op diet, gas, pneumonia potental, etc. Sorry in advance for the novel. My surgery was supposed to be at 1030am on the 14th, but I think I went under something after lunch. I think they were running a little bit behind lol. I remember coming to and going out many times that first day. I was able to drink from the small medicine cups of water they gave me. I expected there to be pain ... but there wasn't. Granted I had dilaudid at first and then just tramadol. I was up peeing (they keep track of that for kidney function) and walking around the nurses station. Later in the evening/night. I literally just wanted to sleep. But honestly, as annoying as they were waking me up every hour for vitals and asking if I felt up for walking, I really did feel better at least getting one trip around the station every so often. I was discharged around lunchtime the next day. I never touched the prescribed oxycodone nor tylenol for that matter. I never took anything other than my normal pills and the Prilosec except one zofran because the day after I got home (that saturday) the nausea took hold something fierce for some reason. After that though, I never had a problem. I didn't have to use the little spirometer they give you. I just took deep breaths and coughed. Very little phlegm came up overall, but I have no trace of pneumonia. Saturday I also decided to weigh, as I have read others did. I was also up about 3 lbs from day of surgery weight. They put like 3 or 4 bags of fluids in me while I was there, so I don't doubt that was 100% the reason. I decided then that I would just wait for the next appointment before weighing. Sunday, my first day on full liquids, was the worst. You would think that graduating to the next stage would be the last day that would be bad, but when you realize that doesn't really open you up to much more than tomato soup and protein shakes (which you are already sick of by now) - when I tell you mentally I was so done. I regretted the surgery, I regretted becoming fat enough to need it in the first place, I hated everyone and everything. I was hungry ALL THE TIME. I was not one of the lucky ones that lost the hunger hormone and have to "force" themselves to eat and drink. Monday rolled around. I just started taking things day by day. Hour by hour and slowly time started to pass. Thursday was my week post-op appointment. Incisions are healing well, bruising is starting to clear up. Also, the uvula (the dangly thingie in the back of your throat) was irritated and elongated from the breathing tube while I was under. IT WAS DRIVING ME F**KING BONKERS. I can't stand that thing hitting the back of my tongue and making me feel like I have something caught in my throat 24/7. It is just now starting to get back to normal. When I started this journey, beginning with the nutritionist visits in December I was 371.2. On the day of surgery, I was 345. Weight one week post-op was 336.8. Overall, since December down 34.4 and almost 10 since surgery. Granted I could be down less as it is now Saturday, but I refuse to weigh for a while. Maybe not until my 1mth appointment. Just stay the course and see what happens! I'm already seeing little NSVs. Tiny ones, but none-the-less they are there. They are just little reminders that this is a process and I can and will be successful. It's been a while since I've been around so I wanted to touch base. Also to provide info for those still waiting for surgery and those that are fresh out. It DOES get better! Even as soon as a week after. Best wishes to everyone no matter where they are in their journey!

Hello everyone! I am 6 weeks post sleeve - I got sleeved July 8th, and I'm thrilled to report that I have now joined the great 100s Club! I have lost 42 pounds so far - I did not lose any pre op, in fact, I gained! I can't say that all has been perfect because I do have my days when I miss and crave foods that I shouldn't be eating and I do sneak a little in here and there, but I keep it all down! No stomach issues! I can't wait to start eating salads - week 8, I think! Happy journey, all!

My surgeon never focused much on my final weight. I think he asked me at my first appt. What I hoped to get to, but I think it was more to see if I was realistic about the amount of weight I wanted to lose. Even though I'm not a "normal" weight, he considers me a great success and is very happy with my weight loss. Sent from my Pixel 5a using BariatricPal mobile app

My surgeon did not exactly set a “goal”, but before surgery he only said that based on my height/weight/age, i would highly likely get down to 175 within a year (translate to a 60lbs loss as I started at 235), and that anything beyond that was “bonus”. Ended up losing those “expected” 60 lbs before my 3 month mark, and racked up a few more “bonus lbs loss” after that. At my one year mark i was maintaining a 120 lbs loss +\- a couple lbs (and still am today) I saw my surgeon and nutritionist and nurse for many follow up visits the first 3 years and they didn’t bring up any talk about my target weights at all. My surgeon focused on recovery and possible medical issues (i had none); and my NUT was more concerned about how much i was eating (not enough in her opinion, but let me be mostly because my labs always came back satisfactorily).

I am not sure what ideal body weight is but I hoped to reach a “normal” bmi but wasn’t able to. I was warned that I may not be able to with bipolar disorder. Statistically, people with bipolar disorder tend to lose a little less. I am close though. I think normal bmi was 164 and I got to 169 then bounced back to 179.

Yea two weeks is a long time but just think about the weight you will lose that you don’t have to lose after.