Izuri

What an incredible difference =) You look great!

I had one about 4 days after getting home. They told me if I got to 5 days and still hadn't had one to use a dulcolax suppository - not the tablet.

How frustrating =\ Just think how great it will be to step on next time and have no problems! I haven't flown for years because I'm worried about this kind of stuff. I cannot wait to board a plane with no worries!

Haha made me smile too =) Those long questionnaires drive me a little batty too!

The only pulmonary clearance I had to do was 2 chest x-rays and finding my pre-surgery lung capacity with an incentive spirometer so they'd have a goal for post-op.

Top: 325 Current: 297ish First goal: 180 after 180 I will see how far I want to go, but my healthy weight according to BMI is around 135. Not sure if I will be able to go quite that low. But I hope so!

Insurance companies are so slowwww. I have had to call them just about every other day to get them to fix the billing for my surgery. Each time they tell me 30 days before they will know the copay and stuff. Then the next day I get another bill that isn't billed right. It's like deja vu =p drives me nuts! I've got my fingers crossed that tomorrow is your day =)

Lookin good!! =)

Congratulations! Before you know it you're gonna be on the loser's bench =D

I just wanted to chime in and let you know that you're doing fantastic! I know it seems so slow - but 40 pounds is fantastic! I know on normal diets I would struggle to lose 10 pounds a month - I was happy at 5 - You're hitting about 13 per month, and if you did that for a whole year you would be at 156 pounds lost. Even at 10 a month you'd still hit 120 lost. So you're rocking it right now. It's a slow process, but the year is gonna continue whether you lose or not, so at least this way you'll look back and be happy for every pound lost. Every single pound lost is a pound that you do not have stuck to your body anymore. =) Hang in there, you can do it!

Yay!! Sometimes earlier is not necessarily better. Either way you will have adequate time to prepare. Congrats =D

Sounds like fun! But tough. I can't wait til 6 week mark when I can work out. Congrats on the job!!

I struggle with this, but I find it's a little easier if I just do not keep any drink around me while I'm eating. I also asked a questions about tips on this and everyone had really good advice. I've tried making sure I'm drinking quite a bit before a meal, which helps too. There are still times when I am sitting around cursing the 30 minutes I have to wait, but I set the timer on my phone and try and distract myself doing other things. I am hoping in a few months it will be more of a habit and won't continue to frustrate me.

I am so sorry that you are going through this nightmare. My heart really goes out to you and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I hope that they find out soon what is going on so that they can actually make some headway on curing it. ((((hugs))))

Woohoo! You are looking great =) What an incredible difference.

I tried to call a lot but they started getting annoyed at me (I can't really blame them!) but it did get my file moved through quicker. If I hadn't called to check up on it quite a bit it would not have gotten done in time to have surgery before my insurance changed. I called whoever was supposed to be handling it at the moment, be that the insurance coordinator, the scheduler, the medical assistant. They kept me pretty up to date on what was going on with my file most of the time.

Sounds like you're doing amazing. We went into surgery at about the same amount =) Have fun backpacking next weekend!! You deserve it!

Mood swings are totally normal. I agree with Piplula - maybe it would help to talk to someone? Many of us have bottled things up for years, especially if we're emotional eaters, and when we can't have food to deal with stress we are stuck finding other ways to deal with it. It's a difficult thing. I know there are many therapists out there that work with bariatric patients, maybe it would be helpful to have at least a couple appointments, just to sort things out.

I am a big fan of adding red pepper to most Soups. I love spicy! I never add anything to cottage cheese - but I'm interested in seeing other responses to this. I had never thought of adding anything to it. I have, however added it to stuff like mashed potatoes, to add some extra Protein. I suppose it could be added to other things (if you put it in the microwave or heat the mixture it doesn't seem like cottage cheese at all)

Yay! I hope you have a swift and easy recovery =)

I have on and off been itchy around my incisions too. Just means we're healing =) Mine are in like a circle around my stomach and I find that if I itch in the middle of them sometimes it will soothe the itching.

It depends on your doctor's office and your general health. My doctor's office only required a psych evaluation out of office. But they did an EKG, blood work, chest x-rays, gallbladder ultrasound, and a general health assessment/questions at my pre-admission testing appointment (It is a bariatric clinic so all of it was done in clinic). It was done over a 3-4 hour period and I knew immediately after if I was ready for surgery. Some doctor's offices do not do this type of testing in office and will require you to go to an outside clinic for some of these. I know some of them are based on history. Since I was sleeping fine, it was deemed I didn't need a sleep apnea test. I found the best thing to do to see what to expect from my clinic was to go to their message boards. Not all doctor's offices have them, but many do, or have an outline on their website with the steps they take. They will also need to know your full medical history, so it might be good to look up dates of old surgeries, have a list of medications ready, etc so that you're prepared to answer their questions if you have had other medical problems in the past. I was anxious before the pre-op testing appointment, but they were very relaxed and after all the tests we had a short nutrition class that told me the basics, which I'd already looked into. Good luck! I'm sure everything will go great =)

Congratulations! It will be here quicker than you imagine =)

Thank you!!! I have been looking for a new scale and just hadn't found one I'd liked. This is perfect.

Don't worry, you're just in a stall. If you search 3 week stall or 4 week stall you will find a number of posts on this subject - You are not alone! You have just hit the dreaded stall that most of us eventually get to. The weight loss WILL continue, you just need to stick to what you're doing and not give up on your body. It's adjusting to this new shocking lifestyle. You threw it a curve ball. It's just trying to make heads or tails of it. However you wanna call it, your body will go back to normal and you'll start losing again. If you're looking for more information on this, there are quite a few threads I was able to find that may be helpful: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/47671-dreaded-week-3-4-stall-any-tips-to-break-it/page__hl__%2Bweek+%2Bstall http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/48315-stalled-at-3-weeks-and-now-at-6-weeksnormal/page__hl__+week%20+stall#entry443548 http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/47251-scaled-hasnt-moved-in-one-week-three-weeks-post-op/page__hl__+week%20+stall#entry432477 You will get through this!