JennyB

I didn't get one, but my surgeon said if I had asked he would have done one for me

I have dropped 3 sizes in three months, lost 37lbs since surgery 76 since last November when I put myself on a 6 month diet. I don't see changes when I look in the mirror, I still tend to grab bigger sizes first because I don't think that the 24s I need will really fit. Eventually my brain and eyes will get with the program.

A coworker suggested trying panty hose and cutting the tops of the legs off. I mostly wear 3/4 sleeves so I should be able to hide them easily....think I will try it!

This all stinks, I was prepared for a long fight, but it took less than a week for my approval. Sending out some good vibes for you guys!

How old where you when that diagnosis was made? I was told that I was when I was 16, truth of the matter is that I was going through a very traumatic time in my life, I didn't tell anyone what was going on and my family just knew something was wrong with me and so they packed me off to the doctor and they met with me for 20 mins and wrote a RX and put a little label on me that made the next several years of my life a living hell! Just saying if you haven't been to a therapist as an adult, you need to go back....I cannot tell you how much this has helped me!

I think that we all go through a mourning phase, most of us have had very long affairs with food so in the beginning it's scary and pretty dang hard to imagine your life without that part of you. It's like going through a bad break up, it sucks, sucks more, then YOU have to learn to put yourself up and move on. For a little while I was pissed off at food, silly as it sounds, but the one thing that was always there for me was now "gone" and it was because of my relationship with food that I got to where I was pre-op. I am 6 weeks out today and let me tell you all the head games that my food addiction has played on me have been hard and all the times I thought I am never going to eat again, I eat every single day, I do NOT feel deprived. It's a radical change for us and I think the hardest part of this journey is all mental. You can do it, we all can!

I was feeling this way when we went to a BBQ a few weekends ago, the first since surgery. I can be the life of the party if I want to be, but I was meeting a lot of new people so I was definitely wanting to just be invisible. Everyone knew, thanks to my hubby, that I had surgery..the host and his wife asked me questions when we first got there, because we were the first to arrive. After others showed up, it was no longer the topic of discussion and I just felt normal! I will admit I found myself adding food to my plate that I was no way going to eat just because it felt too weird to just get a little chicken and a spoonful of the side I could eat at that point. I just kept moving things around my plate and moving it to my husband's plate. LOL Glad you went back and added the "hidden" food in, just because it wasn't in your program, you still ate it. Hope you get to feeling better and enjoy yourself! Be proud of the journey you started and try to push yourself out of your comfort zone, this is our chance in life to just hit the reset button and truly find ourselves!

I was instructed to start mine the day after I got home from the hospital, check in with your surgeon or Nut

Yeah it takes a good while to get anywhere where we live out in the country, but I wouldn't trade it for city life! I love my little Texas town

I didn't have a number but I tried my best to get it to the top. I can say with 100% certainty that you need to use it and that it works to keep your lungs cleared out and functioning. I kept a pillow on my tummy when I used it because I always coughed with it, but had to to get my lungs cleared out.

Did you make the pudding or was it store bought? Since surgery I cannot eat store bought SF pudding without emergency trips to the bathroom. If I make it myself with my lactaid I am just fine!

Like Lissa stated, you should have been given a spirometer, you should be using it for breathing 10 times an hour or when watching TV 5 times every commercial break. My lungs almost collapsed due to this not being done, the hospital brought it in my room while I was still out of it after surgery and just set it on the side table but never went over using it with me. Even after I came home for 10 days my surgeon had me doing it.

I have never used any type of bc, my husband and I used condoms, then we stopped because we decided we wanted kids, after 3 years with no luck, since surgery we started using condoms again. I just really do not want to use other methods of bc...thoughts?

wow! I really liked the lady that I went to, if she weren't over an hour away I would be going to her regularly. No one on my insurance plan, even the ones that the insurance company directed me to, would take me on knowing that I was seeking the letter of "mental clearance" I spent nearly 3 hours on the phone calling offices and getting rejected. Called my surgeon's office in tears and they referred me to the lady I went to, it was $200 out of pocket and over an hour away from where I live, but I was kind of backed into a corner. I went in expecting her to be just someone they used to get the paperwork filled out, but she didn't come off like that.

I hit my first stall (3 weeks out) I am sad not to see those numbers dropping right now, BUT I am so thankful that my scale doesn't say 387 anymore that I can tough it out! It will move again soon!

FLS, I love it!

I have told friends and family, but I don't want to share with people at work, because most of the people I work with are ugly hearted people and I don't want to share something so personal with them, never mind the fact that I didn't know for sure that the surgery was going to get approved at the beginning.

I am 3 weeks out, lost 21lbs since surgery my waist size in pants is the same (well its a little less, but not enough to drop a pants size yet) but I notice the weight I am losing is in my face, shoulders, and my upper legs for some reason. I had to prove the leg part to myself today by trying on a pair of Curves workout pants that I bought at a garage sale for a dime last year, they are an XL and the day before surgery I could only get them up to mid thigh, today they were all the way up

That is where I am too, hopefully in a year and a half or 2 years I will be getting to announce a little one on the way for my husband and I! Being able to become pregnant was a huge reason I had the surgery, but I know it doesn't mean that I will be able to 100%, everyone in my family seems to struggle to get pregnant, so if it still doesn't happen we will be adopting, only I will be healthy and able to do all the things I want to do with my babies.

The reason my surgeon required me to get a letter from my PCP was because they have had this happen in the past where it was denied without a "second opinion" their explanation was that of course the surgeon is going to say it is medically required surgery, so to have someone that isn't going to monetarily gain from you having the surgery submit a letter also stating it is necessary then you have a stronger case. Praying that this gets approved for you quickly!

I would have loved stockings! I had a compression machine that I had to wrap each of my legs in at the hospital and at home for 12 days. If I wasn't up moving, I had to be hooked up. But I didn't develop any clots so I won't complain too much!

I loved having my hubby with me, we don't have kiddos though, and we are kind of glued at the hip lol Personally I wouldn't have made it without him being there, but if you would be more relaxed knowing that he was there to take care of the kids then I would ask him to stay with the kids.

Had my surgery at 349, puts us at a greater risk for blood clots, so you MUST get up and walk, use your leg compressors (my doc ordered a machine for me at home, was paid for by insurance) and I went home giving myself blood thinner injections once a day for 10 days.

I was scoped before surgery, my throat didn't hurt at all, but I did have cramping where they did biopsies and from the gas the put in of course.

One of my anesthesiologist pulled out the..."wow you have such an amazing face! People pay to have a lips like yours and your eyes, wow, just such a pretty face" I took is as a little humor from God and laughed, because I was talking to my husband on the way to the hospital that I can't wait to not hear that anymore, it's the ultimate insult to me anyway. lol