lglavish

For me, I went to the seminar and had already scheduled a consult with my surgeon for the next day. During the consult he agreed that the sleeve was a good choice. Then I scheduled my H Pylori test and resting metabolism test (I had to wait two weeks as I was on a proton pump inhibitor which needed to be stopped two weeks prior to the H pylori.) Meanwhile I went to the first required class "Steps to Success" and started practicing some of the habits I would need for the future. I also went and saw my psychiatrist and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. Because I was a self pay it cut through a lot of red tape and as soon as I ponied up the surgeon's fees and program fees I was able to schedule surgery. I scheduled it 1 month out and immediately started the 4 week required diet preop. I then went to the surgery center, paid them their fee and did my pre labs and ekg. I then called the anesthesiologist group to pre pay for that. So my time line went from the seminar on 5-22-12 to surgery on 7-30-12. This is pretty quick but I saved a lot of time being self pay, and I already had a psychiatrist for the evaluation. I also saved on some of my labs as my rheumatologist runs them regularly and I was able to use those for some of the required stuff. Hope this helps! Good luck on your journey

If you were on an ssri it is really not good to stop them cold turkey permanently. I understand feeling like a slave to pills, I have RA and am on over a dozen rxs with two of them being injectable. My surgeon told me small pills are fine to take whole and the larger ones can be broken in half if crushing them is too much of a hassle or tastes too bad. I'm on zoloft and I stopped it only the day of surgery- I had no problems taking them the next day along with a statin and a beta blocker. It kind of sounds like staying off your meds might be pushing you into depression? Hope you feel better soon.

I agree 100%. A friend of mine told me about a co worker that had wls and lost big time- she then started preaching to everyone that they just had to eat right and exercise...... um... excuse me?

Well I made it- surgery went well but the first part of recovery was rough. It hurt to breath and I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. They gave me some iv valium and brought my anxiety level way down which helped a lot. I stayed 24 hours and came home this morning. Have moderate pain but the pain meds are keeping up with it. I didn't have any nausea at all- none, zip, nada- which surprised everyone. Going back to sleep for awhile.

Today is surgery day. We'll be leaving in 30 minutes. I'm hoping there are no complications and that I can lose this weight for good. I won't ever forget how it is- the stigma associated with obesity, not to meantion the health issues and depression. I vow not to ever lose the humility and empathy that being this big has helped create. It is one very endearing quality that we all have. See ya on the other side.

Thanks for all the great feedback!!

Thanks for the input- you guys are awesome

My surgery is tomorrow- I'm nervous! How is it after waking up? Please tell your stories. Thanks!

I am- 7 am pacific time tomorrow.

http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Precautions-for-Patients-on-Steroids-Undergoing-Surgery.htm

My rheum doc said 10 days on the Enbrel and don't have to stop mtx or sulfasalazine. Surgeon agreed. They said I can restart 4+ days post op provided there is no fever or infection. The views have changed a lot on biologics and surgery. Although prednisone can increase infection risk, if you have been on it this long I'm surprised they aren't increasing it during surgery because of the risk of cortisol insufficiency.

I'm self pay- no endo either, just an ekg and chest xray. My surgeon said the gummy Vitamins are fine to start a week post op as I didn't like the chalky ones either. I bought chewable Calcium to replace the horse pills I take now. Big day on Monday.

We applied for a 25k line of credit with our bank. Although we are upside down in our mortgage we have good credit. Were approved in a few days with at 8.5% interest rate. I've paid the surgeon fees and will pay the surgery center on Monday. I'd never even thought of a line of credit initially so I wanted to mention it here. Good luck!

A lot of the books I've read mentioned that until real food is started you don't fill up like you expect on the liquids and shakes, pudding etc. One really good book "A Sleeved Life" I bought on Kindle. Let us know if this is the case for you too!

You can request copies of all your medical records- maybe fax them to insurance yourself? The other way to go is just to schedule a consult with your pcp so you can lock him down. The office girl sounds useless- your doctor may not even know he still has forms to do.