RaiderRob

Thanks to everybody. Only 6 days away...I'm stoked.

So I'm a week away from surgery and I am getting everything together for the hospital. What should I take? What was that one item that you forgot or kicked yourself in the ass for forgetting? I'm in a private room, and most likely be in the hospital for 2 days. Thanks for any suggestions. ONE WEEK WOOOOT!

Any guys use compression clothing yet? How has it worked? I'm 5'11 360lbs, just wondering if they make stuff that will fit me.

Good stuff! Sounds like you had a great time.

Thanks guys. I just noticed I put this in the wrong forum, thought it was going in pre op...Good luck to your husband hope his surgery and recovery goes well.

I got the call from Dr. Higa's office a few minutes ago saying Blue Cross had approved me today! My date is March 18th, 10 days before my bday! Super excited, nervous, scared, relived, stressed all wrapped up in one. Please send prayers my way folks.:amen:....We need a rock on smiley on here.

My wife did the same thing. She told her mom and grandparents who I wanted neither to know. Her mom has the biggest f'n mouth. . I really don't care what folks think about me doing this, but I hate people in my business. Sorry this happened to you also..

I'm pre-op and my ldl is low so my pcp put me on fish oil to help raise my level. Talk to your doc about it. It's not expensive and is easy to take. I asked in my nutrition class last night if fish oil was ok post op and the dietician said that it is.

Did my nutrition class and esophigial manometry + 24hr ph study. The manometry and ph study sucked but it is over. Now on to my psych exam tomorrow and hopefully insurance approval and a date soon.

My echo turned out fine, and my PCP has cleared me for surgery! Only a few more hoops to jump through!!

Update- Met with my PCP. He was a good guy, and supportive of my decision for VSG. He wasn't familiar with it but after giving him the run down he said it sound like a much better option for people then the RNY which he has witnessed many patients with Vitamin deficiencies, and other issues related to the surgery. My labs and chest xray where good, minus my good cholestorol was to low so he told me to start taking fish oil to bump it up. The bad was during the visit I had a ekg which came up abnormal He scheduled me for a trip to the cardiologist and a eye doctor for my diabetic check up(wtf does that have to do with getting signed off for vsg?) Met with Dr. Higa who I really got a good vibe from. He wasn't anti VSG, but had questions why I was choosing VSG. I think he was impressed with my knowledge of all the pro's and con's of each type of surgery, and sent me off with my checklist to get signed off for surgery. His staff got my referals for psyche, nutrion, and esophigial manometry. I will be doing the manometry on the 7th, the nutrion on the 8th and my psyche on the 10th. I had my second appt. with the cardioligist for my echo today since the his in office ekg also came up abnormal . He said he wasn't worried that it would be really weird for me to have any major complications at my age even though I am morbidly obese. Sooooo I get the results for the echo Thursday, hopefully it is clean and I can goto my pcp appt. Fri and tell him to sign my a$$ off for surgery. If that happens, and I can breeze through the 7th, 8th and 10th I hope to have a surgery date by the end of Feb or possibly the begining of March. I was hoping to be under 300lbs by my Bday at the end of March but it looks like that won't happen. I'm still super stressed about the surgery but for right now my heart is my main concern. No matter what anybody tells me untill I get the clean bill of health in that regard I'm going to be a wreck like I've been the past 2 weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying that all is well, and that this won't slow me down too much. Thanks for reading.

I'm about an hour up the road from you in Sonora.

Good luck to you tomorrow!

Since finding out about, and deciding VSG was the right surgery for me back in August I knew that I would have to wait until after the 1st of the year to really get the ball rolling on the surgery due to finances. I initially decided on a doc, but the program fee charged plus my out of pocket maximum for my Blue cross PPO would put my out of pocket expense @ $9200 at a minimum....no F'n way I could or would swing that amount at this point in my life. After a few more seminars I have finally decided on Dr. Kelvin Higa of ALSA medical group in Fresno Ca. I did my labs and chest x-rays last Wednesday, and have my PCP appointment tomorrow @ 7:30am. I normally go to the FNP that works for the the doctor I am seeing tomorrow, but I guess he has to be the one that says I am a good candidate for bariatric surgery. My 1st appointment with Higa is on this Saturday, and my EGD is scheduled for next Wednesday. After Dr. Higa approves me as a patient I can use the Psych and Nutritionist @ Fresno Heart and Surgical free of charge. Hopefully everything is banged out before the end of January and I can get a Blue Cross approval and surgery date for the end of February.(Crossing fingers & praying) Since my PCP appointment I have had a ton of anxiety now since this is actually moving along.I'm not scared to the point of backing out(never will be either), but I feel like a 5'11 365lb 31 year old baby... I'm a worrier at heart but this is getting pretty tough. I have two little kids (5 and 2) that I'm afraid of leaving fatherless...I have faith that I will get through this ok, but it still scares the @$#% out of me. Did anybody else have this much anxiety before surgery? If so what did you do to cope with it? I really want to get my mind right for this so I don't end up being rolled into surgery crying like a big baby. I don't post much on here, but I would like to thank everybody for your stories, information and support given. It is such a great resource for people, and hopefully after I am sleeved I can become as big of a provider of help and information as the rest of you folks are.

Just saw this post, hope your surgery went well! I can't wait for mine, hopefully I can get my stuff together for the end of February.

Do you have an out of pocket maximum that you have to pay?

WOOT! I heard it was on the approved list, but I love seeing it in writing! Thanks a bunch for posting!

Right on hope all goes well for her.

Reading about Nate is actually how I found out about this surgery! Hoping it will work out as well for me as it has for him.

I went to a few seminars recently and found the Doctors from ALSA, Dr. Higa & Dr. Boone to be the best choice for me. They are not very experienced in the VSG surgery, but the practice has over 11,000 total surgeries between them. The seminar was very professional, and the hospital that they do there surgeries out of, Fresno Heart and Surgical seems to be one of the best in the country. Not only do these guys not charge a "Program Fee" like a lot of other docs seem to be charging these days, Fresno Heart and Surgical also provides the Nutrionist consult and Psych eval for FREE! It seems like The whole team of doctors and staff have the WLS patients success and well being means in mind, and are not in it for the money like a few other docs that I checked out recently. I would recommend anybody that is looking for a surgeon in California to at least attend a seminar with Higa & Boone. Thanks to Shirleyz for recommending these guys to me. www.alsamg.com

Thanks! I will look into Dr. Higa could be another option. Have you gone to one of his seminars? Do you know any stats about him? How many RNY's, VSG's, Lapbands? Anymore info about him would be GREAT!

Yeah they have a 950 dollar program fee which isn't horrible i guess. I might see if I can work my way around that since i live like 3 hours from his practice.

You are the man Gary. When I first started reading on this site seeing your results were amazing and made me seriously look in to this surgery. Hopefully one day I can make a thread celebrating being as successful as you.

Cirangle= too expensive with their $5700 after care program or I would be going to him in a heartbeat, and Aceves out of pocket cost is good but still to expensive. I have Blue Cross PPO and hope to find a surgeon who accepts it so I will be looking at a $3000 out of pocket max. After listening to folks in this thread and getting PM's I'm going to at least go to a seminar with Dr. Edward Felix in Fresno Ca, who has done a considerable amount of RNY surgeries to see what kinda vibe I get from him.

It will be nice to find T shirts that fit again at Wal mart or other department stores. Most places just don't care 3x tee's where I live and the closest Big @ Tall store is an hour plus away and expensive as $h*T...