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Need a laugh? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 I’m waiting to hear from the surgeon’s office regarding my appointment and surgery date. 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🎉All my testing is complete. 🎉 🎉🎉They know I want 4/11🎉🎉- 🎉🎉a week from tomorrow🎉🎉 😩The waiting’s unbearable😩 I say that I’ve jumped through 804 hoops, given up half days, whole days, mornings, afternoons and I just want to know ‘when.’ I’m always very good about this kind of stuff. Just not today. Can anyone relate! SO………… Dh and I are in the car. And he knows it’s eating at me, and he says: “It’s like Dante’s 9 levels of hell, isn’t it?” And I laughed! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

Congratulations! I got pregnant while still overweight and the goal was to maintain weight, so don’t worry about stalls. Also my midwife said babies are like parasites and get what they need from our bodies whatever else we are doing. Sounds like you’re getting excellent care. I’m a teacher too and caught Covid right after the masks came off. It was brutal with double pneumonia even though I had had Covid in 2020 and had all my shots and boosters. Just an observation in my son’s pediatrician’s office and from my elementary school, this version of Covid is causing a lot of secondary bacterial infections and creating Diabetes I, Crohn’s disease, and PANDAS. If you’re not getting better from Covid at week 2 keep asking questions and ask for antibiotics. I’m not a doctor! My school has 200 kids and 4 brand new cases of Diabetes I, 3 Crohn’s, and 1 Pandas is a lot. Something’s going on, ask questions.

I had the SAME fears especially since I was self pay as well. I have been on protonix for almost 20 years and I cancelled my surgery three times. I talked to the dr about my fears and we decided to do the sleeve AND at the same time he did fundoplication. I haven’t had any reflux since surgery.

At this point, I'm starting to think the pain in my side was not caused by what I ate or a stone. I was reminded by a family member that I did fall earlier this week, so maybe the position I slept in exacerbated the issue by Friday. I fall very often, so it never even crossed my mind as a possibility. Especially considering I wasn't in pain when the fall happened. Perhaps the timing just made me panic. I don't think it has artificial sweeteners, but here's a picture of the label in case I'm missing something. The diarrhea seemed like a direct reaction to how much I had drank, but it did appear to get the rest of that salsa out of my system so I guess drinking it helped in some way.

2 weeks of a liquid diet and Surgery on the 18th. need to stock up on a few more things that i have coming from bariatricpal, need to hit up a dispensary (high CBD to low THC stuff) and get some pain medication as well just incase.

I'm still sorting out the pattern, but I think my weight loss stalls out/slows way down during my period. Mine isn't every 30 days but when your husband notices the pattern it is probably happening. LOL!

Thanks Nikki & Summerseeker 🙂 I'm also not great at waiting, so have had to give myself a bit of a talking to! I'm staying off instagram as it was making me do exactly what you said summerseeker - I was thinking, oh if my surgery had gone ahead, this or that would have happened by now! I'm giving myself a couple of weeks to chill out, then will get back into some good eating patterns for a couple of weeks and then it will be LRD diet time (again!!). Trying to stay positive, and hope for third time lucky😂.

What surgery did you get? if you can update your sidebar with all your information. It helps when answering questions. you can do this in your profile section and click on surgery and you can add all the information. Good luck to you on that. I have surgery in 2 weeks.

Good morning everyone, Did anyone have an abcess drain and sleep on there tummy? Just curious it's been a week with this thing and I'm tired of laying on my back but afraid to risk anything as I've been paranoid due to the in and out of the hospital for the past month Update : last week of Feb - surgery First week of Mar - spasum 2nd week - found out i had a hematoma that would go away on its own ( admitted ) 3rd week - it turned to an abcess so they inserted a abdominal drain ( admitted ) 4th week - went to the clinic to remove it but the discharge was yellow and my wbc was high so back to being admitted we went God willing April is better. Anyone with experience please if possible share the details i would greatly appreciate it 😊

Surgery next week on the eighth just now starting clear liquid diet wondering if I should reschedule

Hi there.. I just my date too.. June 14th.. Doctor wants all patients to drink Optifast for 3 weeks before surgery.. its prescription only.. makes you lose fat around your liver and other organs fast.. safer surgery.. better recovery... From Toronto Canada

Scheduled for June 16th. I'm feeling nervous about the 2-week pre-op diet. I'm returning to the office and a little worried about being around others without caffeine and being hangry. 😅 Anything you'll are worried about? How much time do you'll plan to take off from work?

I am 5 months post op rny bypass and do not have a uterus anymore, but still have my ovaries. I noticed that from around the 20th till around the 1st of the next month my weightloss stalls. I am assuming I am on my cycle. Do those of you whom have ovaries and/or a cycle notice this also?

I also struggle with straight water. I have read tha alkaline water is easier... but I don't like to pay for it. When my costco has it, I buy a case of the Gatorade Zero with Protein and then dilute it 50/50 with water to stretch the pennies and also get more fluid in. 4 and 1/2 months out from surgery plus my 1 week prep ... I'm down 97 lbs. I'm at a point where I've been at this weight a couple times in my adult life. What will be interesting and probably weird... is how I will look and feel after another 5 or 6 months when I'm back to weights closer to high school and college.

I made some very bad decisions and I'm unsure what to do next. My surgery was a year ago and I haven't really experienced any dumping since then. That false sense of security made me get extremely irresponsible this week. On Thursday night, I had a plate of tortilla chips, salsa, nacho cheese, and about an hour later, a shot of vodka. To make matters worse, I hadn't had much water that day. Friday, morning, I felt mostly okay but I had a dull ache on the left side of my groin. I was afraid it could be a kidney stone, so I bought a gallon of diet green tea around 7 PM and drank the entire thing in about four hours. At about 10 PM, I started having diarrhea and (this next part is graphic and I apologize in advance) I could see whole tomato bits from the salsa I had Thursday in it. I started feeling very lightheaded after about the fourth time going to the bathroom. Around midnight I ate a granola bar trying to settle my stomach. At 12:30, I had a small serving of cream of chicken soup because I was still lightheaded and shaky. The diarrhea made me go to the bathroom about six times overall. At 2 AM this morning, I had also peed about 64 ounces after drinking that gallon of green tea. I was extremely afraid to go to sleep while I was lightheaded because I thought I wouldn't wake up. Around 3 AM, the symptoms didn't feel as severe so I finally went to sleep. This morning, I had a little more soup, half a granola bar about 3 hours after that, and I am now slowly sipping a Gatorade Zero. I still feel slightly lightheaded at times, but it's not persistent like yesterday. I know all of this is because of my extremely stupid choices and I regret everything I did. I feel a lot better than last night, but the lightheadedness coming back today did worry me a bit. Should I just wait it out at this point?

I've been on a 1000 calorie diet for a week now and I am amazed that I haven't felt all that deprived. Tomorrow, I start the all liquid diet, still at 1000 calories per day. I am thankful it is only for 3 days for me. Took my COVID test yesterday. Taco Bell commercials get me every time but I remind myself the food is never as good as it looks in their ads. Lol. Helps a little!

I hope that you are doing better. Congrats on your 100+ weight loss. You are at 11 months now. Almost at your 1 year mark in a few weeks. Are you planning to do anything to celebrate? I'm deciding how to acknowledge this huge success 😁 wondering what people are thinking about.

Fab to hear your update @DaisyAndSunshine 13lbs is so inspiring - to you and everyone here! I've lost 10 or 11lbs a month for the last 3 months now. Not expecting things to stay at that rate but it's pretty sweet while it lasts. We've lost a similar amount and have a similar way to go. Bring it on! My main issue remains getting enough fluids would you believe. I get hungry and eat without thinking that I will need an hour (more usually) afterwards to let that settle so I can drink. And then I get hungry again and have to eat RIGHT NOW. I have tried loads of different strategies but I think my work is to blame - it's so busy and immersive that my coffee goes cold and my water bottle just sits there. What I often end up doing is drinking two or three glasses of diet coke after my evening meal and before my supper - I seem to have no problem getting *that* in!

You have been busy @ms.sss. Never heard of this process at all but it’s great you’re so pleased with the result so far: you can really see a difference. Is it a permanent result like tattooing or do you have to have annual or similar touch ups like micro blading? It’s good to hear about treatments that actually work. So many end up being an expensive waste of money. Micro blading my thin & patchy brows 2 yrs ago was the best thing I ever did @XtinaDoesIt. It’s a bit grit your teeth painful too even with the numbing cream but unsure how it would compare to full tattooing. I also did brow laminating to tame my brows but that was a waste of money. It worked but my brows grow quickly & within a fortnight everything was crazy again & I’d trimmed off a lot of the laminated brows. Dying my brows is the same. By week three I’m using brow mascara to cover the grey hairs. I botoxed my chin before Christmas & was happy. Last month I decided to do my forehead as well. But it hasn’t lasted. It kicked in really quickly, like 3 days, & it was great. Between my brows is going strong but my forehead is much like it was. ☹️ Maybe I need the industrial strength stuff 😂. I’m way more conscious of how I look: general ageing & the loose skin on my face since my surgery. But not game enough to do facial plastic surgery yet either. Though last week when the young girl asked if the children’s pjs I was buying were for my grandchildren may be I should. Boy did she get an earful from me. Everything from gender stereotypes (not every woman has children), ageism, making generalisations, being presumptuous, etc. Also pointed out that I’m not that old that the children couldn’t be mine.

I remember this same topic you posted a week ago. I replied on it. But yea its not just your employer. Its all of Florida blue and any medical plan from the healthcare.gov website. Many states they dont have to cover it so they dont. Which really sucks. I have thought about moving to a state that does cover it but that would be more trouble than its worth in my opinion lol But yea either start saving, or you can try getting a loan maybe? My hospital suggested a company called Prosper but getting a loan of over 20 grand sucks without collateral.

Hello all, has anyone had any luck with getting their secondary insurance to pay for their surgery when the primary doesn't cover it? My employer provided healthcare insurance is Florida Blue & it sucks. There's an exclusion for everything related to bariatric surgery - no band, balloon, gastric bypass, sleeve, revision, or repair of previous surgeries. My secondary insurance, BCBS Michigan, covers everything. It's a great plan and I hardly had to pay for anything when I got the lapband 20 years ago. I've had trouble with the band & I want to get it removed. I would like to get a revision to a gastric bypass so I don't regain all the weight I lost. I've made some calls to surgeons & was told by one insurance coordinator that if my primary rejects paying for it then my secondary won't pay for it because that's "coordination of benefit". Arrrghh I'm going to see a surgeon in a couple weeks. I haven't seen a bariatric doctor in 10 years (my bad). [emoji44][emoji38] I had talked myself out of the fear of getting a revision to a bypass & now it seems that I can't get it. I'm so mad at my employer for providing minimal, crappy insurance & that having secondary insurance doesn't help at all. Background: I'm 5'5 & 240 now. I was 5'6 & 315 in 2002 when I got the band. I got down to 195 but had saline removed 10 years ago after having some problems. Now I have GERD & some other issues. Sent from my Pixel 4a using BariatricPal mobile app

11weeks post-op, and although I have nausea on and off all day, and am on 2 different nausea meds, I would not do any different. I am not losing as quickly as some, but (one) I have always had a hard time losing, and (two) if I feel like eating, it's better than the nausea. (Eating usually does not cause the nausea-when I do misbehave, I own up to it, lol) I've lost 30 pounds in those 11 weeks, and that's fine with me.. 25 years ago, it took me two YEARS to lose fifty. (Then a family member got sick, and the diet went out the window.) My doc says the nausea has to do with hormonal changes and most people are over it by now, but as long as he tells me it is not a lifetime thing, I can deal with it. Do it again? You betcha!

Ok, I fully admit, I've become an addict of sorts to "appearance-enhancing" procedures since my first foray into plastics 2+ years ago (i got a tummy tuck, arm lift and breast lift back in Dec 2019) I am pretty confident i'm done with plastics (though ask me again in 10 years, as i may be of a different opinion, lol), but have had a whole bunch of non-surgery stuff done in the last little while: lash extensions, micro-needling, teeth whitening, botox (forhead and jaw), fillers (cheeks and laugh lines), and lib blushing (a natural looking-lip colour tattoo basically). Anyhoo...I digress...I actually wanted to share the latest thing I succumbed to: Scalp Micro Pigmentation (SMP). For those that are not familiar, its basically a process whereby a technician tattoos hundreds (thousands?) of tiny little dots all over your scalp to look like hair follicles, and give the appearance of hair density. The majority of SMP clients are men with already bald heads, as the results can be quite dramatic. But more and more women are getting it now, including me! HOWEVER. It EFFING hurts. I have tattoos on my butt and my forearm, and SMP hurts waaaaaaay more than those did. And, the sessions are LONG. 5-6 hours each (though I was told sessions are shorter for bald heads...when you have hair on your head already, esp long hair, it takes more time to manoeuvre around it). I cried for about 4 hours the first time, 12 minutes the second time, and no crying at all the last time. I guess I got used to it. So check out the before after video below. The vid on the left is me in all my scalp-showing glory. The vid on the right is me immediately after my second session (note that there are still large pigment dots and a few scab formations here). I had my third and final one last week and should be fully healed/final results in about a month. I am very pleased. Especially now that its all over! P.S. I also wanted to mention that my thinning hair was already an issue before WLS. Any hair that I lost after WLS came back eventually, and I reverted to my regular state of thin hair from pregnancy/childbirth. It's was all the Kid's fault. P.P.S. Btw, I tried to imbed this video smaller but couldn't figure it out! Sorry! basmp.mp4

I opted for the LapBand 12 yrs ago, had many rough days, and only lost weight the first year. I regret that surgery because I ended up constantly sick and suffered over a year because of the pandemic. They removed it last year and I'm having all types of digestive problems - GI said I have Gastroparesis which they think the Gastric Sleeve is the best course of action. See the surgeon next week. They took me off vegetables and salads. I hope I can eat those again after my healing wait period. now I'm gaining weight like crazy and sugar levels are out of whack. I qualify for the WL surgery just from my BMI and comorbidities. I hope not creating a worse problem.

Hi All! Its been a while since I posted anything or been active. I found out in November that I was pregnant. I was 8 months out of surgery when I got pregnant. My fiance and I had just gotten engaged a few months before and were planning our wedding. So it was definitely a surprise! I was really nervous about proceeding with the pregnancy. I just knew I would be ready in just one more year (I've been saying that for the last 5 years!) BUT I was pregnant now, 33, in a great relationship, with a stable income, healthier then Ive been in a while and all out of excuses not to start my family. So my journey began... I am currently 23 weeks pregnant! This is my first pregnancy so I have nothing to compare it with but this has been my experience in case any of you find yourself in my situation. Its hard to find doctors who understand how VSG affects my pregnancy. They understand that I need to be monitored more but don't really get the nuances. One example; I was given this HUGE jug to collect my urine over 24 hours. When I returned it, I was told that they need AT LEAST 4X more urine than I had collected. They were convinced I didn't collect all my urine. I told them that was everything I had to give! They told me to drink more water. Now this community knows how hard that task is. I still can not eat and drink at the same time. I also cant just drink a gallon of water in one go. It feels like a herculean task. I have tried 3 times and have still not filled this jug! I've learned that drinking tea increases my urine output so I have hope for my next attempt. I was really sick throughout my first and second trimester. I already had bad acid reflux before and after surgery and was taking omeprazole to relieve it. Turns out you can't take anything stronger than Tums while pregnant. So on top of the normal nausea, I felt the need to throw up to relieve my indigestion and heartburn. I started really hating food when everyone else kept trying to feed me more! I've been feeling better now though. I was allowed to take pepcid and it actually helps. Now, I have the desire to eat more but still cant eat more than a few bites of anything in one sitting. My food also takes forever to digest so I have to be really picky about what I eat. Fruits are my best friend! I kept my surgery a secret. My fiance and sister are the only ones I told about my VSG. So no one really gets why Im having a hard time eating more. They also keep wanting to see my belly but Im not sure how to explain my incisions. It feels too late to say anything now... so its awkward and more isolating than it could have been. But my family can be SUPER judgy so I think they would just find a way to make me feel bad about it and I don't need the added stress. I get to do more sonograms than your average mom to be. Because of my VSG and previous hypertension, I'm monitored more and have more doctor visits. I really don't mind! I love getting to see whats going on in there! So far so good... mostly. I keep expecting the docs to say my baby isn't growing or Im malnourished but that doesn't seem to be the case. Everything is progressing normally and baby looks good. They did mention that one of babys kidneys is not eliminating waste as it should. The other kidney is fine but they want to keep an eye on it. Of course we are worried but its actually pretty common and generally resolves itself. If it doesn't, there is a small procedure to fix it after birth (if necessary) so we are trying not to sweat it. I got Covid. I'm a teacher and as soon as the mask mandate was removed, I got COVID. Never mind that Ive been vaccinated, boosted and was still wearing my mask! Im actually recovering now. (SIDE NOTE: We seem to be having a second surge at my school. I wonder if any other teachers (or parents) have noticed that?) I was EXTREMELY sick the first week. I was lightheaded, coughing, full of mucus, achy and just couldn't get out of bed. I also couldn't take any medicines because of the pregnancy. My mom kept sending me home remedies but when I looked them up, there was always a warning for pregnant people. I just had to ride it out. Baby seems ok but I'll know more at my appointment next week. As far as my VSG goals... I was 195-200 lbs when I found out I was pregnant (SW:267) and had been stalled there for almost 2 months. I was getting a bit discouraged because my whole weight loss process had been so slow and felt harder for me than it seemed like it was for some people here. I also had a friend who had her VSG after me and had lost almost twice as much weight as I had so I knew it wasn't in my head. I started drinking again and sneaking in more cheat snacks. When I found out I was pregnant, I cut out all alcohol and was really strict about making sure the little food I ate was good for baby. I dropped 20-25 more pounds. Im currently 175 lbs. I havent really gained any weight. Part of me is happy about that and still trying to get to my goal of 155 while pregnant. But I know I have to put on weight for baby. It's really a mind f**k. Doctors say the baby is growing normally so there isn't much to worry about... yet. Technically I'm still overweight and they don't recommend as much weight gain for overweight moms. Im entering my third trimester now and am supposed to put on 1-2 lbs a week. We'll see how that goes. Im still trending downwards... If you made it to the end, thanks for reading through this entire post. I hope it helps. I hope to update you with only good news in the weeks to come! Last note, I'm having a girl! So exciting!!! My VSG has definitely complicated things but I think we made the right decision and I am really excited about entering this next chapter of my life healthier than I have been in years!