Ree

In this case I was going to suggest he just drop me off at the hospital and leave, and that when I was finally out of surgery and up I would call him and have him bring me my things. It does suck I have to do this all alone but we can't get a baby sitter. We never had a baby sitter. My daughter has literally been stuck to my hip since she was born. We don't know anyone around here, it's a fairly new area to us. No friends and family here. For those of you who have already been through this, do you think having him come back after the surgery would be fine? or should he wait until i'm out of surgery before leaving? It would be nice to have him there when I wake up but if it will be too hard for him to do with our daughter then going back home for a few/several hours might be a better option.

So last night my husband and I were talking about the surgery and how long after I would have to wait before we could try to conceive and he says "doesn't a baby do a lot to your stomach? wouldn't it stretch your stomach all the way back out?" Um no hun, the baby is in my stomach but not literally. It's in my uterus. he says "...oh" I think he felt stupid. He really thought a baby is in the stomach. Geez!! and we have a 3 year old too. You would think he'd know the baby was in my uterus all that time. It's ok. I still love him but some of the stuff he says makes me wonder.

To start with I do not own a smart phone. I have a phone that is older than dirt. I've had it for over 4 years and it's complete crap. I plan to get a new phone (a smart phone) in a few more months. So with that said, can I bring my laptop to use during my hospital stay? I'm confused, the hospital website says during your stay one of the amenities are wifi availability. But then on their list of "what not to bring" it says: "Electrical appliances such as air dryers, CD players, electric razors, TVs, computers, and other audio/video equipment are not permitted to be brought into the hospital according to the standards of the Joint Commission, a nationally recognized, independent organization that evaluates hospitals on safety and quality performance standards." Did you get to bring a laptop? just another question i'll need to remember to ask when they call me about my pre surgery screening.

Wow you can definitely tell you lost weight. Especially in your face. Congratulations on your weight loss so far!

Thank you. I sure hope they'll be able to visit me. I know that after I get out of surgery my support person (my husband) needs to bring me my things. They say to leave it in the car until I'm out of surgery. So I guess the surgery dept. is different from where i'll be recovering? sorry I'm all new to this.

So I got a surgery date for December 18th. I was looking through the informational packet they sent me home with today and on it I noticed that it said "no children under the age of 12 will be allowed in the surgery department". This is a HUGE problem for me as I have absolutely no family near by and my one and only support person Is my husband. My daughter is 3 years old and she will be with my husband at all times. So does this mean I won't be able to see them at all during my stay? As a personal choice I have decided not to tell anyone about the surgery except for my husband. Were you allowed to have your children come visit you after you had the surgery and were settled into your room? I'm not sure if the no children allowed rule applies only to pre-surgery or both pre-surgery and after surgery?

When do you plan to TTC? I only ask because if you are seeking surgery you'll have to wait at least a year (if not longer) to TTC after the surgery. I too struggled with IF (infertility) and it took me 4 years with several losses along the way before I finally conceived my THB (take home baby), even then I almost lost her due to a doctors screw up. With that said I don't have PCOS (that I know of) so I'm not sure how to approach that. Part of my problem was probably my weight and I was also diagnosed with hypothyroidism by my RE, I also kept having ectopic pregnancies, one of which caused my fallopian tube to rupture and caused me to bleed internally. I almost died from that. I can offer you suggestions on what helped me conceive but because of the PCOS I don't know if any of it will be helpful to you. Are you charting your cycles? if not that might be a good start. Plus get a basal body thermometer and take that every morning to chart your cycles. I also used instead cups right after sex and tilted my hips for a half hour during my fertile time of the month. supplements that I took: MACA (I used the bars and they are good for both men and women ttc), Vitamin B6 (high dose), and a must is Nordic naturals Omega 3 6 9. If nothing else take the Nordic naturals. Those were my life saver! Plus your everyday multi vitamin. I switched to a prenatal. Also, if you have any silver fillings in your mouth talk to your dentist about removing them, if it's possible. I know some fillings that are sound the dentists wont touch. But the thing with those silver fillings is that it contains mercury and I've been doing a lot of research on mercury toxicity and other heavy metals and there appears that there might be a link between this and PCOS & infertility. Also hypothyroidism, which is what I have. I went to my dentist and had my silver fillings removed and several months later I started to feel a heck of a lot better mentally when before I felt like I was in a mind fog a lot and I couldn't remember anything, I use to have severe anxiety problems, I got depressed and had horrible mood swings. I'm not 100% better but all those things for me have improved greatly since I removed the silver (read: mercury) fillings in my mouth. Just another thing you might want to look into and eliminate if this is something you got going on. https://www.facebook.com/PCOS.diet.fertility.weightloss.support/posts/115404238647859 I hope that helps. I know the struggles of infertility and it sucks! (((HUGS)))

Tomorrow I see my surgeon for the first time since the seminar. I suppose this is the appointment before the surgery? and tomorrow *hopefully* I get a surgery date. As far as I know I have completed all the requirement. So I'm just wondering what I can expect from tomorrow's appointment? Also, for everyone who is on the other end of this and are a few months out.... Do you stick strictly to only approved foods by your surgeon? If I'm going to be honest with myself I know that after surgery I can eat much smaller meals without a problem and I know I can stick with eating Protein first and eating healthier food options. What I fear is not being able to eat all the vegetables they want me to eat and not being able to stick strictly to their approved only foods for the rest of my life. This is what really scares me. What is your experience with this?

You look great! I know you said you don't exercise but what about food? Do you stick strictly with the foods your surgeon told you to eat? I know eating a very small amount of food won't be a problem after the surgery for me, and even eating healthier options and Protein first. My concern is not being able to eat the vegetables they want me to eat and actually sticking strictly to their approved foods list for the rest of my life. So that's what scares me. And Congratulations on your weight loss!

I already had the ultrasound done but not the throat scope, does that hurt? and how often do people end up needing their gallbladder removed after they already had the surgery? like is It common to have many problems with it after you get the surgery?

I can't speak for others but I feel like because my hypothyroidism was diagnosed as such and is now being treated, I can now get the surgery. Before being diagnosed and treated I was dragging through the day, I could barely keep my eyes open. I couldn't function and because of that I wasn't able to hold down a job. Now that I am on medication for my thyroid condition I am actually able to function during the day, I can stay up without falling asleep and I finally know what hunger pangs are. Now I feel like I need the surgery to kind of in a way 'undue' the damage a thyroid condition caused me for several years. I hope that answers your question and with all that said, do you think WLS can help someone like me? Also, my surgeon requires that any metabolic condition be under control before getting the surgery. Mine is.

Quoting 'Amazon13' "I think you need to come clean and be honest with yourself about your eating habits. In your post you say you don't eat a lot and then answer a post and say that you do. People just don't get fat by eating little amounts of food twice a day. You need to admit that you were eating two or three times a day, copious amounts of food. You may need a nutritionist to help you understand what kinds/how much food you should be eating at a meal. As has been said here many times before, the sleeve is just a tool it won't instantly make you lose weight. Make sure you seek counseling before you enter into such a life altering surgery; good luck." I know your comment wasn't directed at me but I felt compelled to respond. In my case that is exactly what happened, I ate 2x a day, sometimes only 1x a day and I gained weight very fast. My meals were not big, in fact I never wanted to eat and a doctor even told me he could sow my mouth shut and I would still gain weight because that is what hypothyroidism does to people. Admittedly though they were not healthy food options either when I finally would eat. I honestly feel like if I had known what hypothyroidism was or if someone even clued me in and mentioned that I should get it checked I would have saved myself years of gaining tons of weight. It wasn't just my eating habits that were affected, it was my everyday life. I would wake up for the day and an hour after waking up I would fall back to sleep and sleep for hours. That's how bad my thyroid beat my ass. Right around the time I probably developed hypothyroidism I was living at home still with my mom, I had a bedroom in the attic. My mom never bothered me, she was too busy with my younger siblings. I went to bed on Wednesday night and when I woke up I went downstairs and it was dark out and all the lights were off and everyone was asleep, so I just thought I woke in the middle of the night, so I went to back to bed. When I finally saw my mom she asked me where I was all that time and I was confused. She said I was missing for over a day and then told me it was Friday afternoon. Apparently I slept through Thursday completely, waking up around 3am on Friday after going to bed around 10pm on Wednesday. I was always just so tired and never had any energy to do anything at all. Before I turned 18 years old I was very active, had loads of energy and loved being around people, I was also at a very healthy weight (115 to 118 pounds). All I gotta say is that hypothyroidism sucks!

Is there anything else I need to do? From what I understand you don't get to see the surgeon and schedule your surgery date until everything else is completed. I went through all their requirements as far as I know. Now I just need to meet with the doctor and I *think* that is when I am suppose to get the surgery date. At least I hope I get a surgery date and preferably one before December 31st.

Don't beat yourself up over it, you are only human. Next time you get a craving for something that you really want to indulge in that you know you shouldn't, write it down in a journal and write about it, why you want that food? what does it remind you of? are you feeling stressed? did something happen to trigger that craving? etc.... By the time you get done writing about it, maybe, just maybe you will realize you don't need that food item as much as you previously thought. Hang in there, nobody ever said it was going to be easy!

Have you had your thyroid checked? I don't know how smoking factors in to eating habits but I do know that before I even knew what hypothyroidism was, I already had it and before I was diagnosed (years later) I was never hungry and only ate when I started to feel dizzy and like I was going to faint. Yet, although I never ate I was still gaining weight and fairly fast! I gained 150 pounds in a little less than 12 years! That's just plain insane, especially when I hardly ever ate. Little did I know my metabolism went to hell thanks to my sluggish thyroid. So if you haven't already gotten your thyroid checked that might be something to look into. Good luck and I hope your NUT can help you turn things around instead of threatening to penalize you with something that might be out of your control.

Um, I'm guessing the answer to my question is going to be yes, but i'm hoping it's a no. Anyways, is it common for surgeons to take vacations around Christmas? therefore unable to do the surgeries around that time? I was really hoping to be able to get my surgery right around Christmas. I see the surgeon this week and I was already told he usually schedules a surgery date about 4 weeks out. Also this year I already met my out of pocket max for insurance so if I have to wait till January that won't be good, the insurance starts all over again and policy changes (per the employer) generally take place. So what are my chances of getting a surgery date before the end of this year? I'm seeing a surgeon that is fairly popular, he was on Oprah years ago when she had her talk show, before her network OWN.

In regards to that, if you were large on top before you gained all the weight, will you still have them after the weight loss? As a teenager I was a 36 C and weighed 115 to 118 pounds but for over a decade now I have been overweight. Ok, not overweight but morbidly obese. I suspect a major part of the reason for the weight gain is hypothyroidism that went undiagnosed for several years because before that I was a healthy active teenager who loved being around people and doing things. Then one day I couldn't get out of bed and stopped having an appetite yet I was gaining weight fairly quickly. I had no idea what hypothyroidism was back then either. Anyways, I am now a 52 DDD but if I went down to a 36 C I would be more than happy with that.

I see the surgeon this coming week. I'm excited, but freaking out on the inside. Hopefully I can get an early surgery date. Well the jeans I have now started to feel a little big on me (I did lose 15 pounds since deciding to get the surgery) so I went ahead and shopped online for a new pair of jeans, the same jeans just in a smaller size. I noticed that the website was offering a pretty sweet deal where if you spend $100 or more you get $50 off. Well my jeans cost $54 so I thought it would be pretty dumb of me not to order a 2nd pair that would be practically free. The 2nd pair I ordered I got in a size smaller as I am anticipating losing more weight once I start the liquid diet and then after I am sleeved. I wanted to inform all you women out there who are currently losing weight and going through jeans fairly quickly of this deal. It's on the Catherine's website and they are called 'right fit jeans'. It's not just jeans that apply to this deal though, it's almost anything on their website where your total purchase is over $100, you get $50 off. You have to type in coupon code NOVEMBERCA Good luck!! Oh and the offer expires on Sunday.

When I went to the first initial NUT meeting (the one everyone attends) they weighed me in and they said that this is the weight they are going by for when they submit everything to the insurance company. Then when they were talking to everyone, we were told that this is the weight they go by and if you gain more weight (I'm assuming above and beyond that initial weight) then you won't be able to get the surgery until you lose that weight. She also said that in the past they have kicked patients out of the program for gaining more weight but they don't do that anymore, now they just make you lose it before you get the surgery. Now with that said, that initial weight for me was 275. I was able to get down to 260 while seeing their NUT once a month for 6 months (I know it doesn't seem like a lot). Right now I currently weigh 265. So this is why I wonder if I'll still be able to go ahead and get the surgery or will it be postponed? Like another member mentioned I think part of my problem was (is) knowing a lot of foods that I enjoy eating will be no more, so I've been eating some of them now and kind of 'getting that out of the way' so I can just move forward. If that makes sense?

I got a call today saying I was cleared to see the doctor and to schedule a surgery date. I see the doctor next week. However since the last time I saw the NUT (at my final appointment) I have gained a few pounds. Losing weight has always been a struggle for me and I gain fairly easily. I'm just worried about going in to see the surgeon to schedule an appointment and not being able to get a surgery date. Will the surgeon still schedule the surgery date? I am still well below my initial weight, however. Anyone else ever have this issue and was still able to get the surgery?

I don't know for sure obviously, but I don't think it sounds like a leak. I believe the shoulder pain people get with a leak feels the same if not similar to someone who is bleeding internally and gets shoulder pain. Which I have experienced. It's quite painful and all you want is someone to rub your shoulders for you to make the pain go away. I do know with internal bleeding the most painful thing I experienced was the feeling like my body was being electrocuted over and over again. Also, you are 3 months out. My surgeon said it's very unlikely that you'll get a leak once you pass the 10 day mark.

They are 30 calories each. I just know for me it's very hard for me to get supplements in but with this it doesn't even feel like I'm taking a supplement, it seems more like a treat but at the same time I'm getting in what I need for calcium and some Vitamin D. It contains 500mg of calcium per disk and 250mg of vit D. So I would have to take 2 a day (recommended amount by my NUT) at 60 calories total, which is actually about the same for what I've been taking now for calcium and I really don't like what I was currently taking. Magtart, they sell them at wegmans if you have a wegmans in your area and also walgreens might sell them too. If you go directly to adora's website they have a list of all the companies that sell them in their store.

I just received in the mail some calcium supplement that I ordered and it's the best tasting I have yet to come by. The name of it is Adora and comes in 30 count for about $8 a bag. So although it's a bit pricey I totally find it worth the price. I'll also mention that this is NOT calcium citrate so if that is what you are looking for then this isn't the product for you. However I asked my NUT about citrate and she said because I am not getting the gastric bypass, just the sleeve, that I could use any form of calcium but I need to take the recommended amount. The reason I love these calcium disks is because they are milk chocolate and melt in your mouth. They remind me of Hershey's chocolate and they come in milk chocolate and dark chocolate. My husband and daughter loved them too! So I thought I would pass the word along.

Since no one responded I'm going to assume that's because no one was sure about it. I compared it to common gummy multivitamins (since that is what I would be taking during the first few months after surgery) and this protein powder mixed with milk or water seems to have more vitamins per serving so I'll probably just use this as my multivitamin and kill two birds with one stone and get my protein and multivitamin in in one shot.

You look great!