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This journey really began about 3 years ago when my husband and I first looked into WLS. We were both super morbidly obese and despite our best efforts we were having a hard time doing it in our own. We picked our surgeon, went to the seminar, got all the info and started scheduling our tests. Then, about a month into the process my husband lost his job and with it our WLS coverage. My insurance excluded it. It sucked. I cried and got angry. Then I moved on with a renewed determination to do it on my own. It would take almost three years, but I did manage to lose around 60lbs on my own. It required a special diet, intense exercise and no cheating. Then I got pregnant, got morning sickness and the only foods that I could keep down were the ones that I had to avoid. The good news is that despite that I only gained back 15lbs. The bad news is after my daughter was born I gained another 15 on top of that. Despite my best efforts I need help doing this. I need to be able to not have to exercise 2 hours a day to get the weight to come off. I need a longer term solution that will help with me stuck to those healthy food choices because I won't have room for the other ones. Sweets aren't my problem, volume is. I need something that will help me get faster results so I can exercise and not be in constant pain. So when I started my new job and saw that my benefits included WLS coverage I started mentioning it to my husband. Then he got his job which also offered coverage. It felt like it was time. I contacted the surgeon we had originally picked because of his expertise and the fact that he performs the DS surgery. Waiting for them to verify my insurance coverage was the longest week ever but I finally got the email. On July 3rd, 2014, I'm hopefully taking the first step on a journey that's going to help change and extend my life. Fingers crossed that it all works out this time.

I have an old navy water bottle that holds 25 oz of liquid. I take this thing everywhere. It fits neatly in my backpack. Fits in all the water bottle slots on the equipment at the gym. It's convenient. My goal is to have 25 oz down by my lunch hour (12:30 - so by noon). That way I can drink the other 25 oz by the time I go to bed (10pm-ish). So that is 50 oz of water. Plus my two 11 oz protein shakes, that puts me at 72 oz of water a day. Sadly, I often fall short of this. I'm just not that thirsty. LOL. I'm going to have to have some kind of water challenge. Right now, at 11:49am CDT I have maybe 6 oz of water left in the bottle. I've already had one of my protein shakes. So I'm ahead of the game. I'm also re-introducing fiber to my diet. Initially, when I got out of the hospital I was doing fiber supplements in my water and metformin and well, lets just say that it was a gastrointestinal disaster. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. So on my surgeon's advise, he told me to stop taking the metformin (since my blood sugar was in the low 70s or 60s even when I was on it). I also stopped the fiber, since even off the metformin I was having the same explosive issues, as it were. But this week, I've opted to reintroduce the fiber slowly. Only one scoop in my water bottle for now. Next week, a little more, and the week after that, even more. Lastly, my in-laws are coming this weekend. I wonder if they will notice I've lost over 30 lbs? I hope so. My parent's did when I saw them last month. But then again I see my parents much more frequently than my in-laws (Don't get me wrong, they are lovely people, but they are in Iowa and my parents are much closer - only 60 miles away in NW Indiana) I also hope they don't drag me to Blues Fest. Chicago loves a summer festival. But festivals are full of people. I just want to go to the gym work out, and go on about my business without having my routine disorganized too much. But, it will be nice to see them, I just find socializing exhausting at times!

Best of luck to you! I think I lost about 14 lbs in the two weeks prior to my sleeve surgery - my surgeon has his patients do Atkins induction to shrink the liver and I guess it worked like a charm, they said my liver was a tiny little thing on surgery day. Do your best with the hunger - drink oceans of liquid. Powerade zero, crystal lite, water with lemon - it is the secret - that and drastically eliminating carbs (which make you hungry). If you can cross over into ketogenic state you are no longer hungry and this is where you start changing your body chemistry to turn into a fat burning machine

Hi there...I can't believe they didn't give you a liquid pain med. My doc game me that and thank God for it. It sounds like the trial and error is something we all may have to go through with the bite amounts. And I agree if it wasn't for the hair I would just drink my food too...lolol...My only craving right now is something other than a sweet protein shake...lolol....Thank you for your post I enjoyed reading someone elses trials and tribulations. Something to look forward to or not!!! kim