ajb1029

Hi, I'm unsure if this forum is where this post needs to be, so move if needed. I have the 6 month diet requirement and have my first appointment with a new pcp. I am unsure what I need to make sure he writes down in my chart. It needs to be detailed since I'm actually going to have only one appt with him, and the next 5 are going to be with a new pcp in NC (I am in WY at the moment). What did you ask your doctor to document when you started your supervised diet? I am very anxious that the documentation may stall the insurance approval and want to have everything in order when it is submitted. I have UHC Choice if that helps any. Thanks!

If you have the time, I'd love some of y'alls input on the bolded questions. See, I bolded it so you don't have to read my ramblings, you can just answer the questions. So in an attempt to get on top of the whole insurance requirement list I decided to go ahead and schedule a doctor's appointment here in Wyoming so then I (should) only have 5 months of supervised diet in North Carolina. I decided to do this to 1)speed up the process and 2)if something happens and the insurance company denies me I will have that much more time to appeal. So my appointment is on the 28th, and I listed my reason for it as a physical and to lay out and talk about a diet since I was pursuing weight loss surgery. I have to go sign a release form before then so they can legally get my records from the last doctor. My dad said that since I had already tried the pills with no success to get a doctor sanctioned diet to attempt since those are more favorably looked upon than just me saying I've tried different diets-atkins, fasting, low calorie etc. So, what did you ask your doctor when you started your diet? Did you have them write down the specifics or just say “low calorie” or whatever plan you were on? In fact, what did you ask your doctor to document for you during this stage? I do have some interesting thoughts about the emotions and ups and downs I've read about all of y'all going through and have a theory. I base it on what I've read about water fasting (no eating, just drinking water). All the good, non-pro ana sites tell you that if you are fasting for more than 3 days then to be supervised by a doctor. Especially when it comes to obese people, from what I understand (and this could be totally false, bear with me) is that fat cells join around the toxins we put into our bodies, sometimes that is why losing the last few pounds is hard, the body doesn't want to intentionally poison itself and if you water fast for longer than a few days you start to lose about a pound a day, this is rapid weight loss and the body can be over run with toxins it can't get rid of fast enough. While I have never detoxed for longer than a few days those that go a couple of weeks or so find they feel like they have the flu, they smell terrible as well as other things. So, if you have weight loss surgery you are losing at the same rate, maybe a little slower/faster than water fasting and all the toxins are being released into the blood stream, making the hormones all wonky and emotions all over the place. While I don't know if this is true, it does make sense to me. Thoughts? Also, for those wondering, we moved. And it absolutely, without a doubt SUCKED BUTTHOLE. I HATE moving. My knees hurt, my back still hurts, my feet hurt and we aren't even done yet. This weekend was the only time we had the help of some friends so in a couple of horse trailer loads we got all the big stuff into the new house...in one day. Not fun. Okay? Not at all. But we are in our cozy log house, my room is just about the way I like it and while I am very excited about starting a journey towards weight loss surgery I am also very much looking forward to coming back and working the farm. That being said, have any of you had the gastric sleeve and do hard labor? When I come back in a couple of years or so we will have a garden to tend, horses/goats/pigs/possibly a cow to tend to and firewood to haul. I'm curious as to whether you had to up your protein amount, or if you were fine. But that's a long ways away, I'm getting ahead of myself. Last thing, for those of you that are Christians out there and had the surgery, how was the decision? I am still a tad conflicted that I am telling God that He made a mistake when He made me, and as a result I have to fix His mistake. But I don't want to be a glutton anymore, and I want to have self-control! Sigh. I need answers or input or something. 'Till next time you guys!

Hi everyone! I figured I would start a blog here, specifically about my journey. So let me introduce myself, my name is Amanda, I'm 24 and I have a bmi of right around 50. BUT no co-morbidities as of yet, thank goodness but I do have diabetes in my family so I may be playing with fire.) I have been overweight, or morbidly obese since I was in like....4th grade. I wasn't fat growing up-I played sports, but then my parents got divorced when I was in the 4th grade and there was an ugly custody battle and I started eating and stopped moving and I got fatter. I'm pretty sure (not 100%) that by 6th grade I could have been classified as morbidly obese or close to it, I was a whale! I didn't have a lot of friends, not until I joined JROTC in high school and learned I liked to run and sweat and have friends but my love affair with food was overwhelming for me. So I got fatter. Went to colelge, got into Zumba and ate a little better. Lost a few pounds but it came back. Transferred colleges, moved home.Got Phentermine the first time, lost quite a few pounds, got off meds gained it all back. Became a commuter student so I knew/know very few people from my several years there. Went to my pcp again to talk specifically about weight loss all I got was "try weight watchers and eat better and oh yea, here's another prescription for Phentermine (woohoo drugs that make me not hungry! ) Gained it all back when the meds were gone). I love to go hiking/swimming/adventuring and have no issues doing so by myself. Well, I take my dog(s) but food is still so freaking great. I've most recently tried Atkins (lost close to 20 pounds-gained it back after I started carbs again), ate the "broke college student"diet- this consisted of lots of water and cheap food, think-spaghettios, hot dogs, or nothing. I lost like 35 pounds and then I graduated and moved in with my mom and I gained it all back plus probably an extra 5-10 pounds. I've tried water fasting(super great for you, flushes it out toxins and fat) for a few days but all the weight I gained back I of course regained it all plus 5-10 because my body was like "YOU DIDN'T FEED ME FOR 3 DAYS, EAT EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!" Yea. Baaaad idea. Sadly, except a few pictures of a super young me all of the pictures ever taken of me I'm fat in. So, stay with me kids, here's when it gets a bit...convoluted. I went to a lap-band seminar when I was 17-they didn't do the surgery for people under 18 so I didn't really think about the possibility of weight loss surgery again until my step mom got the RnY and lost a crap ton of weight. I don't live with her so I only saw the after product, she's done a wonderful job at maintaining the loss. My dad brought it up a few years ago and I thought about it and did more research but I'm already anemic (it runs in the family, on the female side and it blows hard) and didn't want to deal with the malabsorption. When I moved in with my mom and did more soul searching and found the gastric sleeve and realized that it would probably be a good idea to into it more. I scheduled my surgical consult (I lived in Houston at the time), my insurance has a 6 month supervised diet so I was in the process of finding a new pcp to supervise me. And then we moved...to Wyoming. In the middle of nowhere Wyoming (this was in December). I did some more reading and found this forum, after lurking for a while I decided to join. Bear with me it's gonna get messy. My mom (who I moved with) found a new house to buy and so after we close (on Friday woohoo!) and move and do a few repairs I have decided to move to the Raleigh NC area to live with my dad and stepmom in order to go through the weight loss surgery process. I decided I wanted to go through the process with someone in the house that had 'been there, done that' and could help me especially post-op. So there's my story. I hope in the coming months (I should be headed to NC in 2-3 weeks) I will be able to document the process of jumping through the hoops of the insurance company and finally starting my life for real...being able to go on the same 4 mile hike much easier and much longer, participating in the couch to 5k program, going backpacking, fitting in the plane seat embarrassment free etc... PS the picture is me, hiking in one of Texas' state parks...fat. I could be so much more NOT fat!

To those who have commented on my other blog, HI! I am in the process of moving with my mom and it's kinda crazy. So for awhile I will just post new blogs, and once we're settled in some I will get to know more people on here. SO I talked to my insurance company and have to do a 6 month diet, have 5 years of morbid obesity and the usual bmi that everyone has. I also forgot to mention that I am only on my dad's fantastic insurance until I'm 26, which isn't a huge thing if I have a decent job lined up but it's been hectic and I haven't seriously looked here although NC has significantly more job opportunities than Wyoming. So I have really small time frame to do my diet and be approved, it's kind of stressful. My stepmom took 16 months to be approved. So to help with my anxiety I am hoping to see a pcp here and get a diet plan together and then have only 5 months and whatever the surgeon requires when I get to NC, and hopefully that helps. Back to my topic, facebook. I realized I have a TERRIBLE grip on time, and how it relates to doctor's visits. I argued with my mom long and hard that one of my visit's was waaay further back than it was. I was off by like 2 years. Based on what I can find on my timeline I have the weights for I believe 2010-2013, not 5 years, but two of the visits found me getting phentermine, which is wonderful btw-not hungry, loads of energy until of course your body adjusts to it... I do have a bachelor's in Criminal Justice and I am hoping that with surgery career options that were never open to me before are suddenly available. I have tried so hard in my life to be a normal/healthy person and for the most part I am, probably because I am so freaking stubborn. In fact I have been playing the "I should get it".... "no, I can lose the weight by myself" game for years. I will decide that I can lose the 160ish pounds on my own and I stop thinking about surgery until something happens like; I can barely fit in the airplane seat and I have to put a jacket over my stomach so the stewardesses can't see I can't buckle my seatbelt and I pray REAAALLY hard that the plane won't have turbulents, or clothes that used to fit don't anymore, or they barely fit or whatever else super embarrassing and eye opening things that happen to my fat @ss....sigh. I ramble. I have goals fo myself. I want to do the fun 5ks, the hard mud warrior run thing, I want to go jogging for the sake of jogging with my dog, I want my knees to not hurt and crackle like they do, I want to fit in a plane seat comfortably without infringing on someone else's personal space (I feel terrible when I fly), I want to cross my legs like a lady not a man and I wanna go skydiving! I am a little apprehensive when it comes to a slimmer body though since I have NEVER dated for the exception of a 10 year old thing and a high school thing that ended in what could be called sexual assault. I digress. If anyone is/was in my boat-never dating (in the more mature years) would you give me advice. I know it's kinda early to ask, but I'd love to hear any input you could give me about anything on here. Thanks for all the kind words! PS it looks like I will be pursuing the surgery at Duke Regional if anyone else is going/has gone through them I'd love to chat.