solo224

My BMI was just barely at 40 with no co-morbidities and I got approved on first try through insurance. It was actually super easy too. Started the process with my bariatric surgeon in March and had approval by May 1st but had to wait until June 1st for an opening in the operating room. Guess it just depends on your surgeon's office and if they know the right things to say in that letter to get things pushed through. And of course how difficult your insurance is and whether or not they want to drag things out. It's definitely in their best interests to get the weight off of you and down to a healthy weight now BEFORE the co-morbidities set in, rather than to have you end up on a bunch of meds and possible major health issues that they'll be footing the bill for later.

Daily. Keeps me in check being 18 months post op. When I have a gain of a lb or two, I always know the reason why and just make sure to do better the next day.

It may or may not go away. I'm nearly a year and a half out and still deal with this. I just keep telling myself I've lost my padding. It's definitely not low Iron, as my bloodwork is always great. But do stay diligent with those Vitamins.

Welcome to life after bypass. I've had the constipation issue since surgery. I pretty much just settled for pooping every few days until about 4 months ago. I had a hysterectomy 3 months ago and was warned that I could do absolutely no straining after that while I healed or I could risk rupturing internal sutures. So I started myself on Miralax and Colace daily. Immediately after the hysterectomy, I even added in Milk of Magnesia for a few weeks just to make sure I truly had no straining. But yeah, the constipation is completely normal, unfortunately. Miralax and Colace will become your best friends. My surgeon recommended a shot of Milk of Magnesia mixed with prune juice daily and told me this as I was being discharged from the hospital after bypass. I really wish I'd taken his advice then. Not that my weight loss hasn't been awesome, but I wonder if it could have been even better had I been more "regular" for those first few months.

I was pretty much the same way. Most of the pain was from the largest incision on the left side. My only advice would be to focus on hydration once you're able to start getting the fluids down. I was feeling pretty good throughout all of the first week after surgery, but week 2, I let dehydration hit me because I really had no desire to get much down and that is a cruddy feeling.