Luigi5144

Hi there. Is anyone from the Wichita Falls area?

HI BETHC! The links won't open for me. I suppose it's because it's a secret group. Here is my facebook page. Would you add me to the group through fb? https://www.facebook.com/jessica.russellrossi

Aug 24th!

I think I'll feel less pressure having kept it a secret. I don't need people thinking that I should've lost more by now or that I've lost too much. For me, It takes all of the pressure of having an audience away from the experience. It also takes away the pressure of having everyone compare your experience to their own or that of someone they know.

I think, that she must have some good qualities to have a loyal friend like you,but if she were a good friend to you,then you wouldn't have to worry about jealousy making her nasty towards you and you wouldn't be afraid to share such an important piece of yourself. Yes, that's true. She is an excellent friend. I think everyone has that one thing that they can't deal with due to a bad past experience. For some it's a bad shopping or restaurant experience. For some, it's being bullied. For some it's getting your hair done or something at a certain place. For many, it's a bad relationship. There are many people who won't touch a drop of alcohol due to watching the downward spiral of an alcoholic. And there are many even smaller things. I won't touch tuna with a 10 foot pole after vomiting it when pregnant over 10 years ago. There are people (I am one of them) who never realized how many people they have had bad experiences or associations with until it's time to name your baby. LOL Point being that everyone (E V E R Y O N E) has an avoidance subject/issue that they can't deal with based on their association with a horrid past experience. This just happens to be hers. I don't judge her for it. I just don't want to put her, myself, and our friendship through the anxiety triggered words and actions that I know would result. I have to do what's necessary for myself.

I started down this road last year and told two very close friends. And I immediately regretted it. I don't want to be compared to anyone they know who has had WLS and their 2nd hand details and judgements. WLS is a medical treatment for a condition that we all have. To me, keeping it private is no different than not telling people all about your daily meds or discussions with your doctors any other time in your life. I wasn't released to have my surgery last fall after meeting ALL of my insurance requirements, because my lupus was out of control. One of the two friends, wls never came up in convo between us again. And the other friend, I told her that I don't even know about WLS anymore since "I'll have to jump through all of those insurance hoops again and that'll take 3-4 months" which I did. She just doesn't know that I already have. I told her that I strongly suspect that I have a hiatal (sp?)hernia. And that when I got time, I'd need to get into the pcp and talk to him about that. (we share the same pcp). My surgery date is Aug 24th. As it gets closer to that date (like a couple of weeks from now) I'll play that out. My VSG would be scheduled this far in advance. Having such a problematic hernia that required surgical repair, would be scheduled nearly right away. It's the exact same incisions, same re-coup time in hospital and almost the same post of care/diet afterwards. I actually do wonder if I actually have this hernia. lol. But, my surgeon will take care of it if need be. My friend and I both had our gallbladders out years ago. I also had a complete hysterectomy (incisions are not even close to the same, but regardless.... it'd explain the hospital stay and down time), so that isn't viable. The friend and I are pretty close. She can be VERY nasty when she gets jealous. I don't want her to EVER look at me that way. Wow. Sounds absurd when I read that back to myself. But, she really is a great friend. A great friend who lost her BFF after the BFF lost 250lbs after gastric bypass.

Well, as my wise Granny says, "it's not about the cards you're dealt; it's about how you play them." Just imagine that in a heavy Southern accent LOL I don't know if any of you are SAMs Club members, but I've had an accidental discovery. A few weeks ago I called my weight loss surgeons nurse and asked if I could come in and buy some of their Protein shakes (they carry bariatric advantage). The nurse said that they were actually out of it and their order was late. She told me to go into GNC and get their version. It has the same nutritional counts and was like $0.49 cheaper per servings. So off I went into GNC and bought over $100 worth of their GNC Lean shake powders. 4 Different flavors. The only one i found that I could think about anything other than the wretched taste was the french vanilla. I would mix it with black coffee and cinnamon. Now, about every other week, I place a SAMs Club order. I just go through and select my items online and then they are all ready to pick up the next day at the store. Well, this last order I noticed that they have the same gnc lean shakes pre-mixed & ready to go 12pk case on sale. But it was one of those things where "price too low to advertise. you have to add to your cart to see the price." So, I did that to see how the price compares to the powders from the actual GNC store. Except, I forgot to take them back out of my cart and ended up accidentally buying them. For two days I kept beating myself up about how I wasted the money. Blah blah. Finally I opened the box and tried one. THEY TASTE A BILLION TIMES BETTER than the powdered versions. Seriously. They taste like a chocolate slim fast shake. Then I was kicking myself that now I know the expensive pre-mixed single serving bottles taste so much better but cost more than the powders. Then I noticed the nutrition labels. The powdered single serving is as follows: 200 calories, 17g carbs, & 25g protein. The premixed version is as follows: 170 calories, 6g carbs, & 25g protein. So then I was thinking, "geeze.... maybe the premixed shakes are worth the extra cost." And lastly, I sat down and compared costs per serving. The powder is $2.79 per serving after buying the $10 or $15 annual gnc membership. So, 12 powdered servings comes to $33.48 before tax once you've bought your membership. The premixed case of 12 from sams club was on sale for like $16.98 which is nearly HALF of the price of the powdered ones. It's regularly priced at $19.99 at Sams when it is not on sale. Even at the that price it's still over $13 cheaper per 12 shakes. I'm sold. Already added 2 more 12 packs to my weekly order for this Thursday.

I'm getting sleeved on Aug 24th! I can't wait.

I'm sorry about the setback, girl. Those hateful trolls will be there whether being overweight affects you or not. That's on them. You will just have to keep your chin up and look beyond them to things and people in your life who make you happy and to a longer life being able to do exactly that because of your commitment to this tool of WLS.

Finally after more than a year, I have been approved by my insurance and have a surgery date. Aug 24, 2015. I've been working hard to get weight off. I have lupus along with 4 other AI issues and have been on daily steroids, as well as MANY steroid shots, medryl dose packs and mega steroid dose via IV 6x since March for my infusion premeds. Yesterday was my first infusion without that mega steroid dose and I'm on a very slow plan weaning off of my daily oral steroid dose. Right now, I am down to 4mg daily. On July 19th, I'll step down to 3mg daily, Aug 19th, 2mg daily and so on. It's an uphill battle trying to lose weight while having to take steroids all the time. I've lost 11.6lbs since 6/18/15. I obviously want to lose as much as possible in the next 6.5 weeks prior to surgery. I am a Mama of a significantly special needs 10 yr old. He has complicated health issues as well as gross developmental delays. And, of course it's summer vacation. His 1st day back to school is the same day as my surgery. One of my wandering thoughts is going towards trying to exercise over the next 6 weeks. I have THE flabbiest arms and tummy. That is less about weight loss (although I sure wouldn't mind) and more about building up a little strength and endurance so that my recovery and "bounce back" is smooth and quick. It is WAY too hot here in TX now to walk outdoors. I have to have my son with me since it's summer vaca and I don't have childcare or nursing care for him. We do have season passes to our Water park. And, while I can't do my own thing (he can't swim) I think maybe just making a point to walk the lazy river so many laps each time and maybe add to that each trip. It may not be much of an exercise plan, but it's aerobic and better than nothing. If we can swing it financially, after the surgery, I'd like to get memberships to the little gym and aquatics center that are attached to the HUGE therapy center where my son gets PT, OT, & speech 2x per week. They have a big lap pool as well as a smaller warm water therapy pool. I take him for therapy on Wednesdays from 4-5:30pm and same thing on Fridays. I have to be there anyway for him and usually I just sit in the waiting room for those 3 hours per week until he's done. I know that I'm rambling. I'm sorry. I know every one of us has our own hurdles. I'm just trying to plan ahead. Holy Moly am I excited for all of us!

HaleyK, I just got my surgery date yesterday afternoon! Also Aug 24th!

@@Jersrose43 Do you know if Cigna just looks at the 89+ days or do they need the dietitian appts to be exactly a month apart? My First dietitian appt/eval was on 7/15. 2nd appt was on 8/19. 3rd appt was on 9/23. My last appt is scheduled to be on Oct 15. 1) 7/15 2) 8/19 3) 9/23 4) 10/15 If I have done my math, correctly, it's 92 total consecutive days. More than a month between each appt except for the last one. Do you have any idea if that matters?

@@imsoglad56 I'm in Wichita Falls. Hoping to have my sleeve surgery done in November.

@@DeeSleeved427 Mine was the 90 days..

@@DeeSleeved427 You and I are pretty close, then. My last nutrition appt is on October 15th at 4:30 PM. I have Cigna open access plan

@@txgirl82 CONGRATULATIONS!!!

@blondebomb Thank you for sharing. Right now, I take plaquenil, prednisone, eliquis, and cellcept for my autoimmune diseases. I don't ever take nsaids. I can't tolerate them, now. WL surgeon did an upper GI aleady. So that's taken care of. When I first saw the rheumy back in May, I asked her about it. She shut me down quickly saying that "you're only Xlbs. You're not big enough to need surgery for this." So, then I had my appt with the WLS in June. He was super supportive. But, that he wants the rheumy on board and wants to work with rheumy on my surgery plan. Meaning med management leading up to and immediately following the surgery. So I spoke to the rheumy again later in June or Maybe early July. She said that she thinks I shouldn't do it right now because of my current-flare. I told her that my surgery wouldn't be till the end of the year anyway because of the insurance requirements. She said "ok, then. In a couple months we can discuss it again." I've seen her a couple of times since then. I saw her nearly 2 weeks ago and asked her about sinus surgery. ENT wants to fix my nose. She said to give this new med a chance to get in my system (the cellcept; she took me off Imuran that day). I said "Ok, so how long should I wait?" her reply was "about 4 weeks". My follow up with the ENT is on Oct 21st, so no big deal. I didn't bring up the WLS to her that appt. I go back to see her in 4 more weeks. Meanwhile, my last nut appt is in 15 days. So, then the surgeon's office can get it into Cigna for insurance approval. I go in to see my primary care dr in two days. I wanted to talk to him about phentermine. I've taken it in the past with great success. And I am struggling so much with these steroids. I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. I don't expect it to help my AI issues. But, if it's one thing I can control about my body, I want to do it. I don't want to add gasoline to the fire so to speak by being morbidly obese. I have a special needs son and I want to be around as long as possible for him.

Hello everyone. I'm nearly done with all of my insurance criteria. I have one more nut appt on Oct 15th. When I met with the bariatric surgeon for my consult, he had told me how much he thinks the sleeve will help me. My primary care dr is very supportive. But, WL surgeon wants to get a "go ahead" from my Rheumatologist. Right from the get go, she has been unsupportive. She told me that I'm not big enough to get wls. So, a friend of mine who just had the sleeve done last week suggested that I research benefits of wls (specifically the sleeve) and lupus. I haven't found anything. I'm wondering if someone who has gone through wls that also has lupus could share something.... Pretty Please?

@@kimpossible67 My weight loss surgeon is very encouraging. My primary care dr is very encouraging, as well.

@@finediva I wouldn't even be attempting to do this if my BMI wasn't over 40. I don't need her approval for insurance requirements. My weight loss surgeon wants the rheumatologist on board.

@@Dotti how are you doing post-op?

New Identification for a New Life! Congrats!

I'm trucking along on my insurance criteria check list. Hoping for a November surgery. I had my consult with surgeon on June 30th, 2014. I had my reg. dietitian eval on July 15th, 2014. Next appt with her is scheduled for Aug 19th. Likewise with mid Sep and mid Oct. I had my psych eval on July 24th. Spoke to my primary care dr on the afternoon of July 24th. PCP is very supportive. My surgeon wants to get clearance from my rheumatologist since my auto immune diseases are in a flare right now. I've been on meds to treat them since May 20th. So, I doubly hope the meds put me into remission so that my rheumatologist will give her approval. As of July 17th, she said "not a good idea right now". Which I agree. But, I explained that it wouldn't be until the end of the year, anyway. So she promised that we'd talk about it again in a couple of months. Anyway, that's where I stand. I have the three more registered dietitian appts through Mid October. Then that'll check off the insurance criteria. I am on heavy steroids right now though between daily oral doses and a couple of injections in last few weeks. It's an uphill battle to distract my insatiable steroid appetite. blah.

Awesome! you've got your eye on the prize!

That's actually inspiring me. That's going to be one of my goals. To reach my lowest diet weight. Thank you! And Congrats on your victory!