BlueBongo

You know what's crazy is that I was with BCBS of Anthem and my employer switched it to BCBS of Texas for January... though that made it a ton easier to get my RNY a month sooner they don't cover nutritionist visits... so I go monthly and pay out of pocket which is only a little bit more than my co-pay was anyway. What a way to set patients on the right track... you can have the surgery but we aren't going to cover the second most important part of the process for you, you're on your own as far as nutrition goes... mwhahahaha.... insurance companies, oy! I have worked with the wacky airline out here for years, moved to the east coast for 5 years (DC and Philly) and recently came back in December 2014 to the gorgeous desert. I do a ton of hiking and get out and about, the heat doesn't bug me too much and I definitely won't let heat stroke over come me at work... but I do think I may switch to the Protein bars and Protein shakes when I'm at work and just try to eat at home. I called my NUT and she mentioned that as the heat is easily 20 degrees more on the tarmac that my body is going to burn more just being out there and that when I do try to eat it will make me a bit un-easy from all of the exertion. SO, I think I will try this while we are just barely peaking at 100 degrees outside (though it's supposed to cool off) and see if that helps. Thank you all so much! I am all about the protein, my fridge is stocked with fish and tofu.... I keep finding new, fun, and delicious ways to cook the things I love. So it works out fabulously!!!

I'm a Crew Cheif and load master for a major airline at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport..... the reason I open with this is that I work outside rain or shine! My job is very physical and I walk upwards of 15 miles a day on top of managing and loading flights. I had my RNY at the end of January and have been doing really great meeting all of my nutritional goals and drinking at least a gallon of Water everyday (I do live in the desert and work outside!). One thing I am worried about and had started creeping up as the weather had begun to spike is that add I'm exerting myself and being outside working for 4-6 hours straight (sometimes without a break) I wind up not being hungry. Then when I do eat, I get rather nauseous. I feel full and not hungry when it's hot and I'm super busy with work outside....add the weather can be over 110 here, I'm concerned or wonder what I might do to try to counteract this? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! I don't want to be scraped up off the tarmac this summer, it's not too classy and will not help any of my vacation plans. Lol.

So I'm down about 58lbs, which I think is pretty great for being 2.5 months post-op! Though when I met with my NUT today she was concerned that I might be losing too much weight too fast and that judging by my food intake (I log everything religiously and definitely make sure I meet all of my nutrition goals daily) that I am not getting enough carbs nor enough calories in my daily diet. I keep myself at about 1,000 calories. My primary foods are various steamed veggies and mainly fish (with a little variation with beef once in a while but mostly fish!). I work outside doing a highly physical job and am burning more than I am taking in, apparently... also causing me to feel exhausted every day (I thought this was just from work.. but I suppose I could see how it might be from a lack of carbs)!. I drink about a gallon of Water a day and log everything... I'm neurotic about it. I was just thrown aback I suppose by being told that I was losing weight too quickly, needed more carbs and more calories. She recommended that maybe I try snacking three times a day between meals with a healthy carb since I have trouble getting carbs in, in general. Has anyone else had this trouble or noticed any issues like this? I feel like they told us not to snack, that the body will still be going through changes for at least 6 months or so... so the rapid weight loss is normal until the body sort of stabilizes a bit? I could be wrong... but just thought I'd pose this to everyone here and see if anyone else had similar experiences.. maybe? Thank you!

Wow, that's too bad! I had the same experience with mine.. quite uneventful and healed perfectly, losing weight like a champ and meeting all of my nutritional goals! However all of my follow up appointments have been with my Surgeon that performed the operation, he is amazing and has a great bedside manner... I am sooo grateful. In fact I have my three month follow up on April 27th and it is with him (as are ALL of my appointments!). I know some people aren't quite that lucky and have to see their assistants.

I was just surprised at even in my pre-op testing, or in getting my clearances, or even when I had my surgery was there ever a concern and even in reading all of my test results the numbers seems normal. I did look at my labs after my surgery and see that there is a difference though as the absorption rates change and though I've changed my diet/lifestyle for the past 9 months it will get better. I did talk to a specialist that mentioned this is normal for a short period after surgery which is why they say to avoid alcohol and all of the fatty foods we shouldn't be eating in anyway. The liver has to work in overtime a bit due to the change in diet and until we are "normalized" per se, that will remain the case with the liver. Thank you for the information and i'm glad I am not alone in this.... everything else has been good, I was just surprised by this but I suppose it is a learning process for me just as much as it is for me PCP as well as he doesn't have many patients who've had WLS surgery. I did start Biotin and Vitamin D3 though. So hopefully that will help some as well.

So I've been doing really well, I feel anyway... I've been meeting all of my daily goals (nutrition, exercise, etc). I had my RNY surgery on 1/27/16 and followed up with my surgeon two weeks post op with no issues, and decided to check in with my PCP as well last week because I felt like I needed to get on something for my anxiety.... Anywho, he recommended I also have my labs done to see how I am doing as well.... I got a call yesterday letting me know I needed to take a Vitamin D3 supplement as it was low and also that my liver was somewhat low functioning. They advised that I don't drink (which I haven't had any sort of booze in 8 months and I drink about a gallon of Water a day!) and that I don't take any anti-inflammatories... they said the rest of the results they'd go over with me at my follow-up in a few weeks. I was wondering if this is pretty normal? My diet is on point, I don't drink or eat anything I'm not supposed to and I am very very active. I'm assuming this is normal... but I have just been a little on edge about it. I imagine this will all get better the more weight I lose and as I continue keeping up on all of these goals and lifestyle changes. Just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences? Thank you!

Good luck getting back to it! I also had my surgery in January.. but I was a slacker and took two weeks off before my surgery, I am going back on Thursday this week after being off since 1/9..... I am actually kinda scared because I am a glorified baggage handler for a major airline. I swear to you the first time someone hucks a piece of luggage into my abdomen, I will be cutting them up and shipping them in pieces to Abu Dhabi. BUT, as I am seeing the small bills coming in from my surgery and my short term disability took it upon themselves to only pay 50 percent of my benefits while I've been out since they deemed an RNY to be a pre-existing condition.... AND I should probably start putting some of my money back into my savings account again that I've been spending for silly trips while I've been off work.... eh, gotta get back to reality some time!!! I also am waiting for the bill from my "out of network" anesthesologist that I saw the EOB on today... that should be a fun one to figure out as everything else was "in network" and I didn't get a choice in who knocked me out. lol. Darn responsibilities. I really need more time off though, I am kinda scared about going back to work too early and all the heaving lifting and over activity. But I have my glucose tablets on standby incase I passout, so I think I will manage okay. lol. Good luck on your own adventures back to reality!

So my very good friend that is going through this process with me had her surgery yesterday morning and I am officially one month post-op! The first few weeks I after I was doing spectacularly... meeting all of my nutritional goals, getting in all my fluid, and getting in a ton of physical activity. I was healing like a dream. The pain was luckily minimal in my own case beyond the usual discomforts. However, given all of the outside stuff going on and also being away from work for so many weeks I've just got way TOO much time to myself to focus on other less important things... and this has really been getting to me and grating on my nerves as I am dealing with quite a lot of stuff aside from just needing to focus on me and recovering from my RNY surgery. I've also been a bit depressed. I know being a bit depressed is also normal. I just can't seem to shake it and it's driving me nuts... I decided on a whim to go back to work way earlier than anticipated merely to get myself out of the house more, back to work, and just back into a regular routine (plus it's nice to get paid to do stuff too, lol!). I've been a little stressed too with the random bills coming in from the surgery, plus the bills I am going to have to pay my employer once I get back for my medical benefits while I've been out... etc, etc... so anxiety, depression, stress... I'm not my usual bright ball of sunshine. It's been really bad this past week since starting on the "soft food" phase of my diet. I know I am not getting enough protein , I am not eating enough period. I am getting all of my vitamins, yes. But I am not getting enough food or fluids. SO, I may just need to stop and go back to square one with my soups/puddings and whatnot from the liquid phase just to re-kickstart things... that is the general advice from the support group at my bariatric program; if you feel like you're having trouble, just start back at step one and slowly go from there.... I think I can do that and get back to where I need to be without sacrificing too much. I know most of it is this freaking depression that I've let overcome me... but I'm gonna try to start kicking it to the curb. Hasta La Vista, Babay!

So I had RNY on 1/27, the beginning of my new life! All smiles, all prepped, and the first few weeks were right on track with all my meds, fluids, water... PERFECTO! I was up and walking within a few hours of my surgery, no pain meds... I wasn't being superman, I just felt a mild discomfort from gas and my incisions more than any internal pains. I was rather happy with the exemplary outcome of all of that. Anywho... unrelated to all of that. The reason I needed the surgery was Pseudotumor Cerebri (with Papilledema)... wtf is that, you ask? Women in "child bearing years" that are generally overweight, their bodies have this tendency to create extra spinal fluid (ALL the fluid in your skull, what you cry/fluid in your sinuses etc, is spiinal fluid). When the pressure builds up because this extra fluid has nowhere to go, the women needs a spinal tap ASAP or a shunt put in as a permanent surgical option to alleviate said extra fluid. I opted for frequent spinal taps.... not brilliant, but better than the shunt and MUCH better than my head exploding (which could happen if I fly or scuba dive, which are two of my favorite hobbies as I work for an airline and have my scuba certification... so... anyway...). Enough of the medical background, I needed the RNY to drop more weight drastically (and quickly as the meds I was on were preventing this even with drastic workouts/physical activity/proper diets) so I didn't go blind and die due to the afore mentioned affliction. I got really sick in the middle of last year.... this is how 2015 went for me (I have a hidden super power and impulsively marry people too!) April I got married in Georgia to a former ex-hubby (longer story), he moved to Arizona in June... I got really sick in July and we both had to move in with my parents and had his cat in tow (I don't like cats and my parent's aren't fond of them either, they own a giant German Shepherd)..... so we've all been at my parent's home because of my illness keeping me from work a lot and my now hubby unable to motivate himself to find a second/better job, I was working as much as I could (I make a bit more money and was paying 90% of all of our bills before I got really sick and was still paying about 80% even when I wasn't able to work quite as much.. it drained all of my savings and retirement to keep us afloat, but I wasn't physically able to work a second job..). Anywho.. I am giving y'all way too much info.. but it was rough and we were really putting my parent's out... then come October/November I am working a bit more but I'm realizing the marriage thing was just a bad idea in all fronts and I am making all of "our decisions", doing all of the cleaning, and having to seriously nag to get things done... I don't like being this person, it isn't me. I tell him this, but things don't get any better as December comes. So I filed for Divorce on New Year's Eve. With my illness, the need to regain control of my life and the need to rid myself of the toxic elements keeping me from being happy... it was a rough patch through the Holidays. But I am changing my life... I can't let toxic people, toxic places, or toxic things keep me from reaching the goals that I have set forth. I need to be healthy, alive, and happy... these are my very basic goals. My hubby bringing home pizza's every night after work, eating fast food 3-5 times a day, and not taking care of himself when I have tried to help him prep meals, go to the doctor's, take and have even packed lunches for him to take to work.... I just don't get why someone, especially knowing what I am going through and commiserating with me and telling me they also want to be healthier and better... would fail to even try, and then also try to impede me at great lengths as though we are children in grade school and not adults. It's all so ludicrous. As we are living with my parents, I can honestly say that my habits have washed off on my parents quite a bit.. they pack their lunches and don't drink soda, they eat better, though they do still keep unhealthy stuff around... I don't care about any of that. I just appreciate that they understand what I am going through and though I don't expect them nor force them to live healthier, they enjoy living better and healthier! This definitely makes it a lot easier on me at home, even with my almost ex-hubby who isn't in line with us on this! It's just a tense situation which will be rectified in the coming weeks when he moves out, I move myself up to Oregon/Washington State (where I want to be, transferring with my airline), and I keep on my current path of trying to be happy and staying positive! It's just all crazy and so much going on. I feel horrible for my parents. I don't understand how some people can't truly be independent or take care of themselves, but I suppose that is just how life goes for some. I am glad to be feeling better, but this is only the beginning. I take my frustrations out by going to the gym, and though I am not ready to go back to work.. I am heading back to work this week just to get myself back on a regular routine and get back to reality. It's been a wild 7-8 weeks off... but gotta get back to reality sometime, eh?

I'm with EVERYONE on this and also wanted to post about it too.. thank you beating me to the punch! Ya know.. without these forums I would be SO lost and uneducated. So I had my surgery on 1/27/16 and since coming home from the hospital I am lucky to sleep 4 hours straight, stay up a few hours and then get a couple more hours sleep... this is the norm. Luckily I've always slept on my back. I'm not sleeping in my own bed yet because well I'm waiting for my Ex-Hubby to get out so I can get a new mattress and enjoy my own new king bed again with a new comfy mattress in my own bedroom... but I'm trying to be patient while I am healing. (long story, sort of) Anyway, not that everyone needed my backstory there.. lol. BUT I understand the sleep thing. I feel like I'm still on hospital sleep schedules, lol.. I couldn't sleep there, what I did was get up every and walk at least twenty minutes an hour when I was awake just because I didn't like sitting still... and even at home I go out walking a lot, I try to wear myself down... I get CRAZY tired but I still just can't sleep solid for more than 4 hours. I know this will go away, but goodness I am looking forward to sleeping a WHOLE night again soon.... baby steps though. This is OUR new normal and we are still learning our new bodies, the good with the bad. Just try to create some routines and do your best to create a relaxing restful environment for when you are ready to sleep. I know for me it's gotta be dark as a cave, not a single shred of light, no electronics on, and then I can zonk out. My mind is just too active when I need it to shut down... lol. This will all get better in the coming weeks. I hope the same for you too!

I know I'm only a few days post op, and I'm still on full liquids.... but I've been looking at my recipes and meal planning for when my two months-ish time is up and I know I will obviously run into the same struggles. I'm going to see my NUT next week, kinda jumping the gun a bit since I'm a noob... I know, but I like to stay ahead of the game and be educated about this stuff. Thank you for posting these questions and I, as well, look forward to reading the responses. I know when I had my last meeting with my NUT and also in the support group a couple weeks ago it was mentioned that it is most important to pay attention to how you feel, as opposed to the number of calories. Mainly because you don't want to over do it. BUT if you aren't feeling hungry, I do see the concern and wonder if it is better to wait and try to eat more. All of the guides I've been given and my doctors say they want us to eventually only eat 3 times a day without having Protein shakes.... given we can only hold 2oz of food in our stomachs, it is more realistic that to get the correct nutrition throughout the day WITHOUT added protein shakes/bars we would naturally have to eat more than 3 times just to maintain proper nutrition for a bariatric diet. SO as I am still a noob, I won't continue my diatribe.... but will hope that others have some awesome input and experience that I can learn from!

I just got home today and am doing alright. I wish you the very best with yours, definitely get up as soon as you feel you can and get to steppin' with your tunes on.. you won't regret it and you'll get rid of that gas a little easier too. Please keep us all updated on your journeys!!!

So I had my surgery two days ago and I had a major epiphany that I wanted to share with anyone that is thinking about, is going through, and is about to undergo weight loss surgery! When packing for the hospital please take a pair of headphones and a small mp3 player, cell phone, whatever to walk and listen to music, pod casts, etc.... it will be your true saving grace. I randomly packed my large noise cancelling headphones and let me tell you.... right after surgery, when they finally decided the anesthesia had worn off and I wouldn't hurt myself getting out of bed... I put those bad boys on, put spotify on my cell phone, and jammed out to my music walking through the corridors almost dancing!!! It really was the best feeling in the world and it truly lightened my spirits. I know this may seem odd and everyone's experiences will be different, but I would advise taking at least these with a light robe/pj pants, and small pillow. Might seem excessive.... but you'll be ever so grateful for them post-op! Hope this helps anyone going through the process and good luck in your journeys!

Down more than 100 lbs in such a short time! You rock that! My recommendation would be getting together with a personal trainer (or someone you know AND trust that is a weight lifter) at your gym to discuss proper weight training techniques, mainly so you can learn to properly lift weights. Weights will truly help some of that, you just want to take it easy and don't over do it! It might be a little pricey, but well worth it to tone/sculpt. Dead lifts can do some magic of their own, as well! But proper technique and knowledge for weight lifting/weight training is essential. Good luck!!

Thank you so much for posting. I just had my surgery yesterday and though I am not super concerned about the weight loss I am so appreciative of everyone sharing their experiences on here.... it has made this whole adventure SOOOO much easier all around. I hope you do continue to drop as you go and I wish you the very best!!!!

Hi Learningtolive, Yessss the 27th is my surgery date as well, I'm nervous excited all kinds of feeling, I have a pacific list of foods I can and can't eat Mine is today too and I wish you both the very best and most positive juju I can send your way as you venture through your surgeries today too! Good luck and see you both on the other side!!!!!

Congrats on getting everything done! It seems like the waiting is the longest part... I can understand that! After my doctor's office submitted ALL of my stuff, I called my insurance company every day (BCBS of TX) and after two days it was approved.. however, they are a bit archaic and send the approval letters to me and my doctor's office via the good ol' USPS... which really takes an extra week after approval! It was a little nerve wracking for me, I checked the mail box daily and bugged the insurance company to email me info... but they didn't, lol. It's fantastic that you've come so far and that you are making this amazing lifestyle change, I am so excited for you and will send all the positive juju I can to help that insurance wait along a little bit quicker. I wish you the best in your journey and hope you'll keep us all updated of your progress on the way!

That's awesome, for all of you!!! I am wishing you all the very best in your journeys... I will be behind you on Jan 27th! lol.

I have BCBS of TX and luckily had no trouble. I think they prefer you go throught a center of excellence... my surgery is on the 27th and I was given two discounts from BCBS; one for going through a center of excellence and one for using that hospital's wls program. Luckily my deductible is super low. It was approved after 2 days, but they don't send it electronically/fax....they mail it. That took about a week. I wish you the best with your journey!

Just got my date today. 1/27. woot woot. Doing my pre-surgery tests tomorrow... then back to working like crazy until my surgery since I will be off for 2-3 months.

I work for American Airlines telling people how to load luggages on to the planes. It has a lot of perks that I take advantage of fully.

Just waiting for my doctor's office to get my approval letter... I'm not sure why BCBS of TX is so ancient when it comes to technology these days, lol. I should be having mine in a few weeks though, I bought everything I need pre-op and am ready to do this liquid diet. Even got my post-op meds/nutrients ready to go. I'm so ready to do this. Good luck everyone!!!

Thank you so much! Now to get them notarized and done, I think I've got everything set... now to just get my way through the two week diet and pre-op testing, then I am set. Thank you so much!

I thought I could find a form from my insurance company that would allow me to setup whatever it is I might need for my surgery, but I can't find a thing on their website under their forms. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or information on what I might be able to do to set this up? I totally forgot I needed this and imagine I am making more of it than it is, but any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

So I just got my approval today, but have to wait via snail mail for it to get to me and my doctor's office....anyway, they require a two week pre-op liquid diet before surgery that I will likely have to start next week. As I'm lactose intolerant the only option for me of the 3 required options, they say no deviations, is the Bariatric Advantage brand ready made shakes. I know it would be bad to deviate from their requirements, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any other bariatric specialized brand ready made shakes that I might be able to find locally (Phoenix, AZ)? I know I can use the premiere Protein ones AFTER surgery, but they were not recommended before because they want to shrink the liver and I'm sure there are other good reasons as well. Just wanted to sell some advice!!