heidikat72

The whites contain the protein, the yolks contain the fat.

Ask your insurance company to provide you with your specific plan requirements in writing.

In December I thought the exact same thing! I had finally made the decision to have surgery and I wanted it NOW. But now here I am scheduled for surgery next week, all testing and medically supervised visits done and can't believe it went by so fast! Make use of this time. Start gradually making some changes in your diet, start being more physically active and gradually build up activity. Read as much as you can and think about what your routine will look like post surgery. Make a list of the things you are most looking forward to being able to do as the weight comes off - keep this list and look at it any time you start to second guess yourself or just need a little motivation.

you can still use myfitnesspal as a log - just ignore it's calorie goals and simply use it as a log - you'll still be able to see how many calories, grams of Protein, carbs, fat and mg of sodium you are taking in. Without logging in something (even if it is manually in a notebook or on an excel spreadsheet) you won't know how much protein etc you are getting - very hard to keep track in your head. You mentioned "barely snacking"...how much is barely? and what are the Snacks? Again this is where tracking would help - that barely snacking could be more than you think. If you are getting your protein and still need to get your calories up a little - add non starchy veggies - think green - broccoli, green Beans, spinach etc Other options for protein: nonfat, no sugar added greek yogurt - oikos triple zero and dannon light and fit greek tend to be popular options. low fat cottage cheese or part skim ricotta cheese tuna or salmon pouches - high protein, low carb and come in some great flavors as well as plain

Beautiful post and very well written...and all too familiar, I lost my dad to cancer in 2013.

I'll also be getting sleeved June 17th! At my first visit last December, the 6 month supervised period seemed like such a long time...and now that I'm less than 2 weeks away from surgery - I can't believe it went so fast!

ugh what a horrible thing to say to you. Try your best to just ignore his comment. At least your aunts are supportive. Congrats for making the decision to regain your health!

I am sorry you are not feeling support from your family right now. I hope she will turn her attitude around in few days after the initial shock of hearing your plans have passed. Do try to explain that you need her support. However, if she still isn't supportive, don't fret - you have a whole lot of support from everyone here. I intentionally have not told anyone in my family because I knew they would not be supportive. However my family is all 300 miles away so much easier to deal with not telling them. Do you have any close friends near you that you can count on?

check to make sure your surgeon's office didn't actually submit. Did you just talk to customer service at Aetna? I was running into the same thing this week and getting furious. Independence Blue Cross kept telling me no record of anything being submitted even when I sat on hold for an hour yesterday waiting to get through to the actual pre-authorizations department. My surgeon's insurance coordinator finally called me back this morning and assured me that it was sent over last week but that they have a specific person at my insurance that they send it to for bariatric surgery clearance and it doesn't actually get entered into the Blue Cross computer system upon receipt of the file but only after the file has been reviewed. That's why when I call, they say they haven't received it. But I should have my approval today.

I would see another doctor. Seriously. I'm 43 and sooo wish I had listened to my primary when he started mentioning surgery back 10 years ago. But I had to hit my rock bottom first. And FYI, my surgeon's team doesn't really even do the band anymore because of the long term complications.

I take it you are on the "XR" now meaning extended release? at my first appointment with my surgeon when we were discussing whether to do sleeve or bypass, I specifically asked about concerns taking prescription meds down the road (not any particular med per se) and specifically about extended release or enteric release drugs, drugs that are poorly soluble etc. He told me that the one of the great things about the sleeve is that because the intestines are left intact, there typically is not an issue with being able to absorb extended release or enteric release drugs. I would specifically ask your surgeon.

I haven't had surgery yet but one thing my team has told me even with just an hour trip home is bring a pillow to hold against my abdomen on the car ride home. that way if there are any bumps in the road, the pressure of the pillow against my stomach will help cushion the blow somewhat. with a 2 hour car ride home - I would think a couple stops to walk a bit would be a good idea, maybe not as frequent as every 20 minutes but definitely at least once. Good question for your surgeon.

I can tell you what I had to do, you may or may not need to do all of these. 1. Cardiac clearance - started with consult with a cardiologist and an ECG. Even though my ECG was normal, because of my high BMI and the fact that I wasn't very physically active, he also wanted an echocardiogram and a stress test before granting clearance (these two tests required another visit but were done together). 2. chest xray, abdominal ultrasound and upper GI (Barium swallow test) - all three done in one visit. My ultrasound report indicated a possible aortic aneurysm but didn't indicate size so my surgeon had me get an angiogram and consult with a vascular surgeon as follow up. another appointment for the angiogram and fortunately the vascular surgeon had an open slot right after my angiogram test in the same building so just one trip. Fortunately no aneurysm. 3. blood work - lots of tests so I think it was 5 or 6 vials of blood. my TSH came back high indicating possible thyroid problem so I had to have another blood draw to test specific thyroid function - fortunately those came back normal. 4. consult with pulmonogist, did a lung capacity test in that visit and he put in the request for the required sleep study. did the sleep study in the clinic a couple weeks later (had to get insurance pre-authorization and find an open slot in the clinic) and then the pulmonogist reviewed the report and made his recommendation. 5. psych evaluation 6. Hematologist consult - only required because of my very high BMI - surgeons protocol is to recommend insertion of an IVC filter to catch blood clots (and prevent possible PE) for patients with BMI over 50. My research on the filters didn't have me convinced that was a good option, so he sent me to a hematologist to go through my full history and see if and IVC filter was really necessary. Hematologist agreed with me and i'll just be doing lovanox injections twice a day for a couple weeks after surgery instead. Note: this was only required because of my very high BMI and me not automatically agreeing to the IVC filter. So quite a bit and one test had a tendency to uncover something that required additional testing. So I recommend that once you get your scripts for the testing - start scheduling immediately in case you need additional follow up tests!

People on motorcycles who decide basic traffic rules do not apply to them. As in deciding that the dotted line separating lanes on the highway is really a motorcycle lane and drive on the dotted line at 100mph and then cut over in front of a car at the last second. (Please note I have a lot of friends who are bikers but they have the good sense to obey basic traffic conventions, I only have an issue with the idiots who don't) And drivers who decide when traffic gets a little backed up that they are just going to drive on the shoulder for the next 5 miles and then cut over in front of another car at the last second when we come to an overpass/tunnel. Really people, I know you are in a hurry and want to get wherever you are going - so do the rest of us and we'd really rather not get in an accident because of your idiotic narcissistic moves. Can you tell I had a horrible commute to work this morning?

or perhaps not enough

If you are going to be there 3 months - try to get them to put you up in a flat (apartment) so you can prepare some of your own meals instead of always having to eat out. that way you'll have a little more control. and there is almost always a grocery store within walking distance. there are definitely some folks on here from the UK so they might be able to give you suggestions on brands etc. You can definitely manage there - just avoid the pub grub!

I lost 15% of my starting weight during my 6 month medically supervised period (6th appointment was last week, now just awaiting insurance approval and hopefully surgery on June 17th). I wasn't trying to lose a specific amount, just not gain and wanted to start making some changes. This is what worked for me. 1. Log everything and I mean EVERY BITE into a tracker like myfitnesspal. Even just eat like you normally do for a couple of days so you can see where you are. 2. Next, stop drinking calories - no soda, no sweetened tea, no starbucks 3. Cut out potatoes and Pasta (wasn't much of a rice eater anyway but cut that out too). Cut out almost all bread - occasionally I'd have a sandwich for lunch on a whole wheat deli thin - but not every day. I did occasionally have oatmeal for Breakfast but made sure it was a higher Protein, lower sugar option like quaker weight control or think thin brand. 4. Meals basically consisted of lean meat and lost of non starchy veggies - think broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, swiss chard. Afternoon snack was typically a little greek yogurt and some berries. 5. Move more. I was pretty much sedentary when I started so I started by parking slightly further away at work (I now park a lot further away). And started with doing just 5 minutes on a pedal exerciser a couple of times a night. Now 6 months later I routinely get in over 5,000 steps a day but it was most definitely a gradual build. Do a little more each day - it really does add up over time! 6. Gradually reduce calories every couple of weeks. All of this was done with help of my NUT. She'd look over my food log every month and discuss what was good, what needed tweaking etc. I won't lie - while simple to figure out what to cut when you log, it is hard to do. But think of it as starting your healthy new life now. You can do it!

Definitely show it to your doctor tomorrow. But typically if the fluid is clear, you are ok and likely not infection. But like LipstickLady said - stop messing with it!

check out the blog "the world according to eggface" she had bypass surgery 10 years ago and has lots of great recipes for post-bariatric life include protein ice cream.

My psych eval report I had before I ever left her office. The sleep study took about a week to get the report from the sleep clinic. And then my pulmonologist had to review it and write his report - which took another 2 days.

My NUT's guidelines specifically say to avoid collagen based protein and the absorption rate is poor compared to whey or soy isolate.

someone on a post a few weeks ago recommended these. I'm still pre-op so haven't tried them yet but something to look into. http://myscaraway.com/products/index.html

Most people who regain seem to do so by eating high carb slider foods and grazing all day long.

Are you referring to gaining during your medically supervised period or while on the 2 week liver shrink pre-op diet? I was told by one of the nurses at my surgeon's office that if during the medically supervised period, you have a gain from one month to the next, that it resets your medically supervised period back to the beginning. But that is dependent on your particular insurance requirements and any specific requirements of your surgeon's office and you may not be in the same situation. Since you have your weigh in tomorrow, I would just suggest drinking as much Water as possible between now and then to flush out any excess Fluid you might be retaining.

Honey, you need to include yourself in that statement too. You are also a brave weightloss warrior!