educationrulz

Another (strange?) idea might be to put something on top of your cup or Water bottle right before you start to eat - like a napkin or paper towel. When you go to pick up your drink, the "reminder" will let you know that it's not time to drink. Then, just take it off about 30 minutes after you finish eating. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do something like this for myself because I can't stand not having something to drink while I eat. I'll probably also need lots of timers all over the place because there's no way I'm going to remember to keep track of the 30 minutes after I finish eating.

I think you should be able to take most medications pretty quickly post-op, as long as it's not a big ol' horse pill. If it's small you should be ok, but of course your surgeon will have to make that call. As for the benadryl, I would definitely stop that until your surgeon gives you the go ahead. I vaguely remember being told not to take it before a previous surgery. But I was able to take Zyrtec right up until the day before surgery, so you may just need to switch to a medication with less chance of drowsiness.

It's sad that a doctor would even say or think something like this. It's not like you went to Mexico to have a new set of butt cheeks put in - something totally elective and pretty unnecessary. You went for a procedure that will improve your health and increase your life expectancy. Why would someone want to turn you down for treatment just because you had a procedure out of the county? There are plenty of incompetent doctors right here in the good ole US of A and I don't hear anybody refusing to treat the patients they've messed up. And besides, even if you did get some new butt cheeks in Mexico and needed follow up care, why should that matter? Doctors take an oath to treat people in need and if they don't want to do it they need to find a new profession instead of passing judgement. :cursing: (End of rant!)

That's good to hear. I talked someone at my doc's office yesterday and she indicated that all they will have to submit is the 6 MD notes from my PCP, the psych eval, the 6 counseling sessions, and the letter from the surgeon requesting approval. I've been driving myself crazy thinking I needed tons of documentation from every doctor I've ever seen. So, now I'm going to focus on tracking down the psychologist and getting the copy of my eval to the surgeon. Having no luck with that at all...:cursing: My advice to others on this issue would be to use a psychologist who works frequently with the surgeon you are going to use. It probably wouldn't be an issue then. But, I've got a month before it's time to submit my surgery request so I have no doubt that I'll get it done - even if I have to sit through another eval to expedite things.

I hope this works out for everyone scheduled for the next couple of weeks and that everyone there is safe. I can imagine how agonizing it would be to have your surgery on hold but it's probably a good thing to have missed out on the worst of it. Hopefully we'll get more updates from the people there during the earthquake and learn that all is well.

I can see this from both sides, but what would be the problem with waiting until you return from Mexico to tell the PCP about the surgery and providing them with the surgeon's reports? Then, if they're not supportive, you can start looking for a new doctor. If the thought of the stress you might suffer from dealing with negative, unsupportive comments from the doc is bothering you, why put yourself through that? Now, the issue of not telling AT ALL after surgery...that seems really risky, but I can see OreganDaisy's point about that also. I hate that some of us even have to be put in that position because of these BS insurance companies.

From the posts I've seen here, people haven't had any significant problems flying home from Mexico after surgery, especially since the doctors there seem to keep you in hospital longer than they do in the US. But, hopefully someone with personal experience will chime in soon to help you feel better about this. Personally, I wish I was going to Mexico too, but I'm going to wait for this stupid insurance to kick in...

I can understand you not wanting to share the WLS thing with him at this point. That may change in October, or soon after that. But, if you really are "pretty good friends" at this point, you should at least be able to tell him how uncomfortable you are with his vacation idea. If you're bold enough to tell him, he'll be flattered that you don't want to risk sharing him with other women. Get your thoughts together about a non-threatening way to tell him this and plan on presenting at least 3 alternative ideas, like the one Tiff suggested. Think of some alternatives that fit with what you know about his personality and likes/dislikes. Also, try to think of how much more confident you'll be by the time October rolls around. You'll probably breeze through the whole thing.

I think this is judgemental and harsh to say that she is "stringing" them along. Not only do men date several women ALL the time, without any harsh judgements placed upon them, but they are often sleeping with multiple women. Maybe that's a little judgemental and/or presumptuous (sp?) of me to say, but I have a HUGE problem with double standards. OreganDaisy is taking her time to get to know these men and exploring her options - what's the crime in that? I'm sure when she gets to the point of making a decision about who she prefers to spend her time with, or when one of or both of her male friends wants to step things up a bit, she'll do what she needs to in terms of making a commitment or ending the relationship(s). Until then, OreganDaisy, keep livin "la vida loca!"...or at least as wild as it gets for ladies like us who think it's a big deal to be dating two men at one time. :drool5:

Yes, we definitely need to put together an Atlanta/GA club. Are you guys going to go back to work after Spring Break? We're doing CRCT the week after spring break so I'm not sure how that would have worked out for me had I been able to do it this week.

Are these two issues a possible side effect of the sleeve surgery or has it just been a coincidence for the people who have had GB and pan. problems?

Congratulations guys! I am so jealous but in a totally happy for you kind of way. :thumbup: Keep us up to date.

Just thought I'd bump this up in case anyone new has some relevant information on the final insurance approval process. I saw a blog on OH about someone who got approved through UHC in 3 days, so I hope it won't be too painful. I've been checking in with the surgeon's office and as of yet they haven't received the records we put in requests for. I'll have to follow up on this again in a couple of weeks so my insurance approval isn't delayed due to missing records.

Hmmmm...this is a very interesting topic that's probably been danced around somewhat. Here are my reasons for deciding to stick with both sites. VST is WAAAYYY more organized to me in terms of the forum messages. I can usually find the type of info that I'm seeking by going to the appropriate thread, although some people do post off topic messages under certain threads. When I go to the OH forums, it seems freestyle and I have to be in the mood for wading through random messages and by chance coming across something that interests me. I guess that has something to do with the fact that the site covers different surgical procedures. However, OH has some great generic info on different surgical procedures and doctors. This may be available somewhat on VST but it's so easy to find on OH that I haven't even tried to find it here. I actually made a decision about choosing a doctor based on the info on OH. In general, VST seems more family like to me than OH and I gravitate here; When I go to OH, I rarely even log in the way I ALWAYS do on VST. As others said, there is good and bad everywhere and you have to learn to wade through the BS to find and use what you need the most. I think if you have a problem with a particular person or persons you should address them directly through PM, send the info about the problem to the moderator, AND/OR choose to ignore them. Clearly from the responses to your thread, most of us would hate to see anyone leave this site with a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe this is good opportunity for people to post things that concern them about VST (as OregonDaisy did) if they are comformtable with that. Maybe some things can be addressed by the moderator if people are more specific about their concerns. I stopped clicking on the hyperlinks once I figured out what they are for, so that's not a problem for me anymore. Sometimes, some of the adds bother me a teeny bit, but I filter that stuff out pretty quickly and move on to what I WANT to read, which is the experiences of the sleevers. Without the type of personal info that I have read on THIS site, I would never have been able to comfortably come to the decision to get this life-altering surgery. But, at the end of the day, we all have to do what's best for us mentally, physically, and emotionally. In some cases, that involves moving on. Good luck and best wishes!

Do you mind telling us what happened with your surgeon? (You may have posted this in another thread but I haven't seen it.) I guess I"m just wondering what might happen to cause a problem with the surgeon...

Hi sweetie. I haven't been sleeved yet but I thought I'd bump this up for you because I'm curious about it too. It does seem like the general opinion is that the people who are considered "lightweights" at the time of surgery tend to lose weight more slowly. I think you'd probably fit into that category since your starting BMI was under 40. Congratulations on your progress so far!

Thanks for the clarification guys. What you said makes sense and I feel better knowing that I probably won't have to curtail my drinking too much before meals. Waiting 30 minutes or so after eating to take a drink doesn't seem too bad, but I'm sure it'll take some getting used to, especially for people like me who can't enjoy a meal without drinking throughout. But, it seems like a small sacrifice in the big picture.

I'm confused...I thought drinking during meals meant stuffing yourself on liquids and not getting in enough food nutrients, or overstuffing your sleeve and vomiting. I don't recall hearing anything before about liquids washing the food down faster and causing you to eat more. Can you'll give some more details on this and how you space things out with the drinking? It seems like you'd never get any fluids in if you don't drink before or after meals. :confused1:

That's great! Do you have a surgery date yet?

Count me in on this one too! It's been about the last month that I got out of control - oh lord the soda drinking has been outrageous and that's my biggest food problem. I've been trying to slow it down the last couple of days and starting to feel some control coming back. It doesn't feel like a last supper thing for me because I've read enough posts from others who eat normally down the road after being sleeved. I feel pretty ok that I'll be able to eat many of my favorites - especially after reading Tiffy say she can eat ribs! Yay! I LOVE me some BBQ ribs.:wink0: I think I"ve just been overly stressed from work and family stuff and it's taking it's toll on me. Logging on here is a big stress reliever for me right now and I haven't been able too log on as much as I've wanted to for the past few weeks. Now that some things are leveling off for me in terms of stress inducers, I hope to get an exercise routine going and just start there. Maybe then I won't have to stress AS MUCH about what I'm putting in my mouth. I just need to maintain for two more months. They'll have to roll me to the psych ward if my surgery is cancelled because I gained weight. :sad0:

hmmm...maybe ankle weights wouldn't work but something around the waist might do the trick. :wink0: I wish I had thought to do that at my first consult weigh in and I wouldn't be stressing so much now about how I'm going to keep my weight down while still eating everything in sight.:sad0: I would have just been able to leave the ankle weights at home for my pre-surgical weigh in. But, I'm going to make it if I have to starve myself before that next weigh in... I've never heard anything about having to be on medication for co-morbidities. Joint pain/arthritis is one of mine but I don't really take anything for it except ibuprofen as needed.

Hey Slim. Reading your story makes me think of myself in a lot of ways. I too am an educator in the Atlanta area for the last 10+ years. I have one child and a few close girlfriends. But, I'm not married and my mother has never said anything about my weight - although I can tell she probably wonders what's wrong with me and why I can't be a halfway normal size. :sad0: I've been struggling quite a bit with whether to tell people about my surgery (after - definitely not before). I've pretty much decided to tell just to avoid half-truths, rumors, guessing games, etc. But, I also had decided that I would only tell the bare minimum, not all the gory details or personal issues. I tend to be a pretty private person. But I've also been wondering if that's the best decision. Reading about how you learned about this exciting surgery really makes me think that I might be an inspriration for someone if I could just step out of my comfort zone and reveal more to someone who has a valid interest or might benefit from the surgery. Thanks for sharing that great moment that changed your life. I'm going to keep that in mind in the future when I get my panties in a wad because someone has asked me about my weight loss. I've got two months left of my 6 month insurance requirements and I'm about to bust at the seams with anticipation. Were you not able to meet the requirements for insurance approval? I've been tempted to run off to Mexico every day since l learned about this surgery, but decided to be patient since I meet the basic requirements.

Tabitha, I think that the positive aspect of all of this is that it sounds like you don't have a leak or anything like that. Your body is tolerating food, which should be a good thing. I know I would feel exactly like you if I were in your position so I don't mean to sound righteous or anything. I guess I'm saying that if you have to try to find something positive in this situation, a revision to make your stomach smaller wouldn't be the worst thing you could have to deal with. But, I hope for your sake it's not anything that requires surgery. I do remember reading a post about someone who had developed a little pouch off to the side of her sleeve that was holding extra food. I believe she was having some other symptoms though. She did have to have a revision surgery. Can anyone remember where that post was so that Tabitha could PM that poster to compare notes?

That's great news! I hope your weight loss journey is much smoother from here on out. Maybe now you can actually begin to enjoy losing weight. Please keep us up to date.

I'm so excited for you! I know you can't wait to get back to your little girl, even though children have an unintentional way of spoiling the rest we need. But, all those free hugs are priceless.