Sharon1964

Where I work, I can't see the waiting room from my office. Some patients that come in every month may not see me for a couple of months. Friday a patient came in and I happened to be standing by the front desk taking care of something. I hadn't seen this patient in a couple of months. She declared, "well hi there skinny girl!" I looked around to see who she was talking to. It was me. It's nice to be in the phase where people notice. (although I had to laugh at her definition of "skinny")

I have a full face mask, and as I lose weight, I have to adjust the straps. If I lay on my back, I wake up with my tongue glued to my mouth. It's better if I sleep on my side (and manage to stay there). I upped the humidity in my machine and I use biotene dry mouth spray. Not sure how much it helps.

The purpose is that you should not graze all day. When you get a little farther out, it will be easier.

Not necessarily. Every surgical procedure has a global period, where all normal care is included in the fee for the surgery. The only time you would have to pay would be for followup care that is not normal - meaning complications. Minor complications are included; major ones are usually not.

That's me - quashing dreams.

Deadline for what? For medical necessity, they need to show you have at least the BMI that Aetna requires with no comorbidities, or the lower BMI with the comorbidities.

You might want to check with your doctor first. Mine says no bread, crackers, or Pasta for six months. The ingredient list includes corn flour, rice flour, potato flour... kind of sounds like the ingredients for crackers to me.

If you want a smoothie, make one with plain yogurt, a splash of sugar-free flavored syrup (I like the vanilla and the hazelnut), almond milk or similar, a handful of ice, and about 1/4 cup frozen blueberries. If you have Protein powder, throw a scoop of that in. Blueberries are one of the fruits that are lowest in sugar. Just don't have a gigantic serving.

A spoon.

Perfectly normal to want the last tastes. I spent my last month before surgery having those last tastes (shockingly, I didn't gain weight). I started at a BMI of 63.1 and 403 pounds. Now, 79 days later, I've lost 74 pounds and my BMI is down to 51.5. I'm happy with my progress.

I never actually pureed any of my food. I had mashed potatoes, smooth soups, applesauce, yogurt, hummus, Jello, pudding, etc. I wouldn't puree what the rest of your family is eating if it's something that's not on your plan. For instance, if they're having Pasta, you can't have that even if it's pureed (according to my plan, yours may be different).

You should have no problem switching, and you shouldn't have to repeat anything. Since you already have approval, it may be as simple as calling your insurance company and changing the authorization to your new surgeon.

People are here for many different reasons. I'm not here to get support. I'm here to read about other people's experiences, to post things that might be helpful to other people, and to have a place to record my weight loss that shows me a cool graph. One of the major (and most common) errors in thinking regarding an online forum is that people are there for the same reason you are.

Many times, nasty is in the eye of the beholder.

You've lost over 8 pounds in 11 days. When else in your life have you done that? Celebrate that!

I went to the movies today, and they had packages of edamame! I was quite surprised. It's an 8 ounce bag, and it says that's one serving. I'd call it two servings. A full bag is 150 calories, 16 grams carbs with 4 grams of Fiber = 12 grams carbs, 12 grams Protein. It was really good, tasted fresh, and they nuke it to make it hot. The bag comes with a small tub to discard the pods. Here is their webpage: http://www.edamovie.com/

Okay, I had to google that term as I've never heard it before. My surgeon calls himself a bariatric surgeon, or bariatric physician. He listened to my heart and lungs, and checked my reflexes. Then we talked about my medical history, and he told me he recommended the VSG for me and why. We talked about the procedure, we went over my insurance requirements, and he said he would see me again for the preop next summer (this was in December). I then met with his patient coordinator, who was assigned as my contact person. We went over finances, insurance requirements, etc. She gave me appointments with their psychologist, referred me for all of the required testing, etc. Months later, when I had everything done, I called her again and she sent in all of my paperwork for my authorization. When the authorization came in, she set my preop date, my surgery date, and the first two postop dates.

Give your tummy something to work on - try warm broth. You don't have to have Water all the time, you can sip any Fluid allowed on your plan.

I don't plan on reintroducing caffeine. I had to cut way back a couple of years ago, as I was having heart rhythm disturbances due to my level of caffeine intake. Since then, up until surgery, I was having one cup a day. I also had frequent headaches. Since my surgery 10 weeks ago, I've tried decaf twice (with my sugar-free hazelnut creamer), and it just wasn't the same. I don't mean that it was decaf, I mean the flavor altogether. No real attraction. Now I rarely get headaches, and I'm sleeping better and waking before my alarm.

Okay kids, from now on, if someone posts a similar thread, someone PLEASE quote it to protect against the dirty delete. I missed all the fun! Now for my two pence: I have worked in the healthcare field for going on 20 years. I have come to believe that reminder calls have no real effect on the number of no-shows that we have. I have personally spoken to patients on a Friday, they don't show up on the Monday that happened to be Columbus Day, and when I called them to ask if they were on their way (it was psych and the appointments were an hour long), they would say, "oh I thought you were closed today, it's a holiday." BLINK. BLINK. I just talked to you on FRIDAY! Why in the world would I remind you of an appointment that didn't exist????? Or you leave them a message and they don't check their voicemail, then claim you should have called them more than once. Then people get used to the reminder call, and if you get swamped and don't make contact with someone, they don't show up. Their excuse is, "well you didn't call me." So where I work now, we don't call or text. Our position is that you, the patient, are responsible for your own appointments. We are considering a system that makes automated calls, but if we do, I can hear it now.... "I didn't get the reminder." We have around a 5% no-show rate (most days are 1 no show or none; some have 4), which is far below industry standard. We are a pain management practice, and if people don't show up, they don't get their medications and they are in pain or go into withdrawals. We also charge $125 for a no-show. And lastly, if a new patient calls to cancel and reschedule their first appointment (which, from the responses, I think the OP did), the next available new patient slot would be more than 60 days away. Depending on if they give us a hard time on the phone, we may decline to reschedule at all. Okay, I think that was really 3 pence. But there's the view from the other side.

I didn't have heparin shots at home either. My surgeon gives prescriptions for Norco tablets for pain at home. Norco is relatively cheap and your regular insurance will cover it even if they don't cover weight loss surgery. Although I may be mixing up one answer to several posts above.

I always say "medical, I need to go thru the xray". Totally avoid the scanners. If you cannot hold both arms over your head, you can't go through the scanner. They're not supposed to even ask you what the medical problem is, and you can't let them classify you as an "opt out" which gets you the special patdown. You just calmly say, "no, I'm not opting out, I'm telling you I have a medical issue and cannot go through the scanner, which means you send me through the xray machine."

This. Yes, you should have. Now don't forget your feelings of panic and desperation when you didn't do what you should have done. Remember that feeling so you can make the choice to succeed in the future.

My surgeon says no bread, no crackers, no Pasta for six months minimum. It makes a gummy ball in your stomach and he's had to go in and retrieve a gummy ball of ravioli. Not wanting to have to undergo another surgery, I'm planning on waiting past the 6 month mark.

You're only 13 days out. I'm over 70 days out. Give it more time.