SkinnyAnnie

I have my date... WOHOOOO! It's Monday 09/17. So excited (and nervous and scared and did I mention excited?!?!?!) Having a teensy problem with the pre-op liquid diet. Today is day 2 and well, yesterday I ended up having a bunch of string cheese, a bag of terra chips and some Peanut Butter. Today, same thing (minus the terra chips). So here are my questions in no particular order: Anyone else have struggles with getting in the groove of the liquid diet? How did you overcome them? Any tips or tricks that I should be doing? I KNOW after surgery it's no soda EVER. Period- but is it okay to have a diet dr. pepper once a day? Trying to wean myself off coffee and diet soda is proving a bit challenging. For those of you who work- how many days until you felt like you had a clear head? I have a bunch of huge meetings at the end of this week (last big thing due before the "big day") and am having a hard time concentrating. Definitely trying my best to keep to the plan, especially since the whole reason for the plan is to get the liver tight, happy and healthy- but I gotta say, it's a LOT harder than I thought it was going to be. Thanks in advance for your sage advice.

Birdy, thanks so much for the link- definitely helped to hear some good stories ( like shrinkydinkforme's ) I think i'm Judy a little overwhelmed and afraid to get mt hopes up too much. But-feel much better now. Thanks to all for your thoughts .

Hi again, I need some support- I am about halfway through pre-op (did endoscopy, cardiology, pulmonologist, endocrinology, psych and nutrition)- have to go for another endoscopy. And I am feeling very unsettled and unsure. I don't know if it's sticker shock because I'm a self-pay, anxiety because I'm scared, or excitement because I feel like help could finally be on the way. Does anyone else feel like this could be the craziest and most sane thing that you've ever done? I also don't want to have unrealistic expectations - but I gotta say, the struggling stories have officially scared the pants off me. Is the pain really *that bad*????? And how long should Ilan on being out of commission? I feel like I'm going a little nuts - is that typical? Thanks for any insight and advice

I am trying REALLY hard not to get discouraged on this journey... It's not easy, but I am pretty determined. Wondering if anyone had any success tapping into retirement savings to pay for surgery. I am a self pay and it's all gotta be done up front. I'm a little wary of medical credit cards because I've heard the interest is CRAZY. Thanks in advance for your input.

Hi there, sorry that it has taken me a while to reply- was out of town on business and consequently offline for most of the past few days. I honestly don't know who the surgeon was. Mostly because my sister's friend did the whole I'm doing this and not really telling anyone- so the details are a little sketchy. Havind said that, I am not sure if I did know that I would feel comfortable saying because I know less than nothing about the girls medical history and given the fact that ALL surgery has risk, I feel really strongly that I could be unfairly maligning a surgeon. I know this isn't a great answer and I'm sorry if I've caused any alarm for others on the site- it wasn't my intent. Thanks to all who offered information on surgeons in the US. It is very appreciated.

So, I was all set to go to Mexico for surgery next month and then one of my sister's friends went down for the same procedure and did not come back. I know, I know- the odds and lots of other things- but to say that this has caused a family freak-out is an understatement. SO- rather than turn this into an all out "sh8t show" I have agreed to look into options in the US. Here is the problem- I am 100% self pay and the Drs I have spoken to in the NYC area have said that they don't do gastric sleeve for self-pay patients- only the lap band (which I don't want- I can't get my head around having a foreign object into my body AND I have very stubborn PCOS and have heard that the resopnse from the sleeve is better than the band). Does anyone know of a US based surgeon who will do the sleeve for people self paying? Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

So, I was all set to go to Mexico for surgery next month and then one of my sister's friends went down for the same procedure and did not come back. I know, I know- the odds and lots of other things- but to say that this has caused a family freak-out is an understatement. SO- rather than turn this into an all out "sh8t show" I have agreed to look into options in the US. Here is the problem- I am 100% self pay and the Drs I have spoken to in the NYC area have said that they don't do gastric sleeve for self-pay patients- only the lap band (which I don't want- I can't get my head around having a foreign object into my body AND I have very stubborn PCOS and have heard that the resopnse from the sleeve is better than the band). Does anyone know of a US based surgeon who will do the sleeve for people self paying? Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.