taurabird

I am in the same place as you right now. I have my insurance approval for the sleeve but I am waiting on the doctor to decide from the manometry test if I am a candidate or not....ughhh. This is stressing me out more than the whole getting approved process did.

That is good news. I am due to go on vacation on may 17th for a week up to Rhode Island to visit our grown girls. So now I am thinking that I may do the surgery a week or so before that and just tack the vacation onto the end of my time off before returning to work. Thing is I don't think my boss will let me go out for the vacation if I have the surgery first and then return to work. and I don't think it is right to go on vacation only to then leave again for surgery so soon afterwards. Guess I am trying to figure out how to do both.

I am slightly aggravated at my MD office. They still havent read the manometry and they will not schedule the surgery until they get the results. Ughhh.

NurseAndi- what kind of work do you do? I am trying to gage how much time I will need to take before returning to the hospital.

I am researching the same thing. I am a huge samsung phone person, I have the galaxy note 2. This is why I am holding out for the fitbit flex. But the Bodymedia sounded like a really good product as well.

Vicky- that is so good to hear!

I would call the RN case manager at your insurance company that submits your case to the MD for review and ask her exactly what she is looking for and ask her to define the terms she uses. I say this because my insurance paperwork read that I needed documented evidence of medically completed weight loss program within the last 2 years". The nurse said that a letter from my primary stating how long I had been seen by him and all the different types of weight loss attempts I had done during that time was all the were looking for so I urge you to directly contact the case manager and have her spell out exactly what they want.

Vicky- That is exactly how I feel too! Congrats on being sleeved! How are you feeling? This is a great support for me.

Can't wait to hear how everyone is doing today. How did your surgery go Larry?

Thank you guys!

Katie- Thank you for your kind words. Linda- I really appreciate you saying that I helped you already. I have started becoming more active and trying to answer medical questions that I have experience with. Izuri- I am convinced that without that aha moment there is a lower overall chance at long-term success. Bounding is something I have not done in quite a while! I am looking forward to that victory when it happens. It is very good to hear that you feel you are a better nurse s/p sleeve.

You should go to a pharmacy and buy Steristrips to close the hole back up if it is gaping open that much. That will keep the edges together.

This January I had a life changing moment after climbing only 2 flights of stairs at the hospital where I work, but before I explain what happened let me tell you what I do for a living and introduce myself to everyone officially. I am a female who is 5'8" and 39 years old and have been overweight since I was about 9 or 10. I am a critical care RN and I am on the rapid response team, that means that if a patient in the hospital has a major change in their condition I am called to the room to quickly assess the patient and treat the problem emergently in order to stabilize the patient while the doctor is called. It is basically like calling 911 in the hospital. So to get back to what happened, I was called to a room on the 4th floor but I was on the 2nd floor at the time so I took the stairs to save time. By the time I reached the 4th floor I was sweating, sucking air and dizzy, basically felt like I was going to pass out. As soon as I walked into the room I knew the patient was not breathing adequately on her own and she was not responding so I took over her breathing by using a bag/valve mask with oxygen to force air into her lungs while the respiratory therapist was preparing to place a breathing tube into her lungs. All of this is very demanding both physically and mentally. It was in that moment, trying to catch my own breath while giving her rescue breaths that I felt for the first time in my life that I had to make a huge change. Anyone that knows me understands that I would give my own life to help someone truly in trouble and here I was on the borderline of not being able to even help myself. To say that this really tore me up mentally is an understatement as I hope you can imagine. This was my moment of deep clarity, I saw my future and it included me as a morbidly obese patient being taken care of in a hospital because I couldn't take care of myself. This has been such a whirlwind of an experience so far so let me describe the other events that led me to the decision to have wls. I always considered myself to be healthy and strong up until about 2 years ago when I first started having some shortness of breath with activity and pretty much staying tired all day. For the first time in my life I could see that I had started the slow decline of aging but I still did not see it as a weight related problem. Like most everyone else I have been on every diet known to man and would be somewhat "successful" but would always regain the weight within months. I would diet with the only goal being to "look" better. My highest weight was 275 pounds when I was 25 y.o. and my lowest adult weight was 175 but that only lasted for a few months. My typical weight has hovered between 230-250 most of my adult life. I had considered bariatric surgery several years ago when I first heard about it but quickly dismissed the idea because I saw myself as healthy and the thought of long-term Vitamin deficiencies or malabsorption scared the hell out of me. I am an expert at losing weight but I can only maintain the correct eating pattern for a while before the nagging hunger gets the best of me and I fall off the wagon. Once that happens it is on like Donkey Kong, lol...I rapidly redevelop the all of my old cravings for sweets and carbs that have been with me for as long as I can remember and I lose control. It was at the same time that I had the scary experience at work that my job announced on the intranet webpage for employees that they were implementing several different weight loss plans for everyone that wanted to participate. One was a 20 week medically supervised exercise program with a personal trainer session each week and at the bottom it listed bariatric surgery. I clicked through and read all of the options and was seriously thinking about starting the 20 week exercise program and becoming serious about eating healthy. I then clicked the link to read about the bariatric surgery thinking that I would just see what it had to say. I was immediately blown away when I read about the sleeve, it overcame all of the objections I had about wls. I could literally not read enough about it over the next week, I devoured every piece of information I could find. After that week I had made up my mind that I needed a sleeve so I could take charge of my health along with the medically supervised exercise program. So at that point I started down both paths; wls and exercise. I attended the information session 2 weeks later on February 6th and had my first appointment with the surgeon, Dr Jawad, on February 8th. Today, March 25th, I received my official approval from my insurance to have the surgery! It only took a little over 6 weeks to go to all the doctor appts, get all the testing completed, submit everything to insurance and gain approval. The even more amazing part to me was that Health Choice approved my case in only 1 day!!!! The insurance approval was so fast that I am still waiting to hear the results of the manometry test to make sure that my stomach/esophagus does not have any pressure or motility issues that would make me a poor long-term candidate for the sleeve. So, of course, that is the only thing I can think of today, lol, I am so excited that I can't stand it! I am waiting on those results so I can be placed on the surgery schedule!!!! I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. Today is my 5th week on the exercise program. I have worked myself up to walking 4 miles, 3 times a week and doing yoga 30 minutes a day. I am able to do a mile in about 20 minutes and I have worked myself up to walking 4 flights of stairs before I am totally out of breath. My endurance is slowly improving but the important thing is that it is improving! I am so proud of myself for this new habit I am developing:) Thanks for listening and I am so excited to be a part of this message board, I have learned so much over the last month from all of you. I really appreciate everyone that contributes to these great discussions!

Yes, Jello and ice popsicles are great as well as clear broths but pudding, creamy broths or creamy popsicles are not considered "clear liquids".

I immediately think PE when I hear of chest pain on inspiration within a short time of surgery or hospitalization. Go to the ER.

This is a good topic. I need to look that last one up.

I have never had one. I am waiting on the fitbit flex to come out next month.

Hey guys, I am at work, 7p-7a working as rapid response team tonight. I am surfing the net waiting for some excitement...so now I am thinking I need to get up off my butt and go for a walk but I dont want to. Ugghh, why is it that I can go 90 mph in an emergency but can't find the energy to walk for 30 minutes when I have downtime??? Anyone else have this type of mindset?

Welcome nurses! I love this group. I am subscribed to it and find myself checking it to see what everyone is up to. Lets keep it going.

Linda, square dancing? That sounds like excellent exercise. How did you get into that?

^ I agree. You are burning more calories than u are eating. That puts you at a deficit before you even start. Your attitude is good for us out here, but as a fellow fat person I would have said the same thing and still been beating myself up. Try not to do that if you can because you are doing everything right...only tging you my want to have a couple higher calorie days and see what happens, make sure you eat a large amount of Protein as a part of those calories if you can. This will correct any protein deficits you have and tell your body you are not starving. I have read a good book on this called "smart exercise" it explains how the body reacts to exercise

Also watch out for the dreaded loss of muscle. A pound of fat is almost twice the size as a pound of muscle. If you are losing a lot of weight but not a lot of inches it could be that you are losing more muscle than you are fat. Only way to combat this is to exercise properly. There is a great book called "smart exercise" by covert bailey that I have read that explains the details and science behind exercise and losing fat instead of muscle.

Btw, I just realized I didnt congratulate you on your sobriety!!! I am very happy for you and I know that we nurses are very strong willed once we put our minds to accomplishing a goal. Keep your eye on the prize....our health....and staying out of an ICU bed, lol...

Linda, being busy is one of the things I love about being a nurse....it keeps me on my toes. But on my off days I get bored, must be my adhd, I find that I eat as a way to reduce the boredom. I really appr3ciate your post because I can see that I am at a high risk for trading my food addiction for a different addiction once sleeved. I am now starting to think about starting therapy to get a grip on it before it starts....also I realize that I need a hobby for my "off" time because my old hobby "eating" is going to be gone soon.