Wheetsin

I buy them at World Market or online at www.netrition.com. Netrition is a higher price per bottle than some of the other e-tailers, but my shipping usually runs about $5 compared to $35.

Salted caramel and strawberry are the ones I use most frequently. I also have... Peanut Butter, coffee, chocolate, cookie dough, orange, eggnog, white chocolate, vanilla,pumpkin pie... probably a few others I'm forgetting. Some are good, some are horrible (I think their chocolate is gross). The peanut butter is OK. Some PB2 tastes way better.

Umm... until about post #20 I thought you were talking about a Hello Kitty tattoo. Fark I'm getting old.

For WLS AGB = adjustable gastric band (like the lap-band, but not brand name) RNY = Roux en Y BMI = Body mass index BMR = Basal metabolic rate PPI = proton pump inhibitor PB = productive burp (I know it's a band thing, and a horribly misleading name, but it has come up in the revisions forum) NSAID = Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory Not an abbreviation (lots of these aren't) but sliming - excessive saliva production Like above, foaming/foamies - saliva that has been "churned" in the esophagus and comes in looking like soap foam or shampoo lather NSV - non-scale victory, a general well being victory that does not involve your weight (clothing fitting looser, a nice compliment, walking X stairs without getting winded, etc.) I'll think of more later, I know there's a bunch. More just conversational... The family ones - DD, DA, DH, MIL, FIL, SIL... where does it end? Second cousin twice removed? SCTR? Bah. HTH = hope this helps IIRC = if I remember correctly AFAIK = as far as I know IMO/IME = in my opinion/in my experience IMHO/IMHE = in my humble opinion/in my humble experience

Yes, just like the crazy ones always feel sane.

^ a friend of mine is a surgeon who contracts with 4 different hospitals. We've talked about it before and this is the gist of how it works. Per her, and since she's still in practice I assume she knows.

Yes. The nurses, anesthesiologists, and hospitalization are not "free" to the surgeon just because it's a self-pay patient. There is a surgeon's fee built into the self-pay rate. A typical surgeon's fee on a quick procedure like this is probably going to be $3k - $5k. That's their salary, so to speak, for the time they spent doing the procedure. E.g. my surgeon's $13K fee covers all pre-op stuff, the information class, etc. The surgery itself, 1 night in the hospital, and a year of post-op visits (only 3 of them are required). Everyone else involved will have to be paid out of the $13k he receives minus his own fee.

This stuff is kind of ambiguous sometimes - the terminology - because a lot of it is just stuff that people made up. As people tend to use it around here, a stall is apparently any period of time during which the scale doesn't show decreasing weight. I've seen people say that yesterday they were 200 and today they're 200, and they're stalled. I would define a stall as 4-6 weeks or longer with no change in weight or fat, up to maybe 8 weeks or so. I would define a plateau as months with no change in weight or fat. Not losing any weight for a day or five is NORMAL. People just seem to misspell it is "stall" a lot, I guess.

Think of your weight like an onion. The layers of an onion are about the same thickness. But the more you take off, the more difference they make. The first few layers - the onion may look about the same. The last few - each layer makes a tremendous difference. IME weightloss is much faster in the beginning. Closer to goal, I've had to work that much harder for each and every pound. I've not seen many people fly through, say, their last 30 and reach goal with relative ease. (It prbably happens, just not with the people I have visibility to)

Oh, when you call your insurance company it will help to know the CPT code for the surgery. 43775. So when you call and tell them you want to check on the requirements for a surgical procedure, tell them you have the "CPT code for the procedure" and then give them that number. They'll probably confirm it with you. They also aren't going to call it a "vertical sleeve" so the procedure name (wht they will see next to that code) is: Laparoscopy, surgical, gastric restrictive procedure; longitudinal gastrectomy (ie, sleeve gastrectomy) It always throws me off when they throw out the procedure name, and I'm used to a much more colloquial name. I'm always like, "I think that's it, can you say it again more slowly?"

Oh I so love to kick people in the bum...! My best advice is to go find something to do. None of us are obese because we're hungry. Hunger has nothing to do with it. Never has, never will. And the more you think about it, the more you're going to want it. Distract yourself, if you can. And think of all that weight you won't have to lose all over again if you stick with it.

Honestly - that doesn't even make sense. Your body has no concept of numbers. To your body there's no difference between 199 and 200 other than a pound of something, who even knows what. You could poop and go from 202 to 199, and I doubt that's going to trigger something in your brain that will cause either a stall or rapid loss. I'm sure your doctor said this for a reason but there's nothing in metabolic or body science that affirms it, that I've ever read (but I'm not a Dr). With my band I stalled for 18 months. My calories and food ratios were good, I was exercising, and just not losing weight OR sizes. That was my longest stall. So far with my sleeve it's been stall city. About 3 weeks post-op I stalled for about 10 weeks, and am just recently seeing movement again.

BTW, since we have some high BMI ladies here, what are you doing with your larger (28+) size clothing once it's too big? When I lost with my band I kept most of it (gave some things away) because I just never really 100% trusted I wouldn't need it again some day. I feel a little differently now, so we took several bags to a local charity that helps underpriviledged women who are trying to get established with careers. We were told they didn't take anything larger than 24 because "so few women would wear those bigger sizes". Gah! 3rd party charities aren't really my thing. I don't like that items are sold for profit vs. given directly to the people in need. So I'm trying to find another arrangement where the clothes are given directly to the people. As soon as I'm 1 more size down, I'm going to have literally about 5 truckloads of clothes (I have a LOT of clothes!) to find a home for!

I'm hoping to wean off my PPIs. I can make it on one per day. But if I go a day without any, I'm in for it the next. Even at 2 PPIs I was still having some reflux. I had really weird reflux lastnight and hadn't missed a PPI in about a week. *shrug* Maybe I'll just go back to chugging Maalox & popping Tums like popcorn, like I did with my band. From 2011: Here's a full article from 2009. Side effects start on 897.

It very well could be from the hormonse stuff going on. I was hit pretty hard in the hormone department around week 2, and it didn't subside much until week 4, and it's still not completely gone (I'm 3 mos out). First period was normal in terms of flow, but man - I had the WORST acne. And I never get acne. I had about 20 zits all over my chin (chin breakouts are usually related to hormones). I didn't even want to go out of the house, it was miserable. Second period - I still broke out, but not nearly as bad. Flow was pretty heavy (I tend to have a lighter flow), and lasted about a full week, maybe 8 days. Now, that's unheard of for me. I typically bleed for 3 days. MAYBE 4. Occasionally 2. It's more common for me to bleed for 2 days than 5. I'd NEVER bled for a full week, or longer. Third period - was a little weird, like it couldn't actually start. I was expelling brown/older blood & tissue for a few days. I usually do this a day or two before my period actively starts, but maybe just once... not for a handful of days. Then I'd have some red blood and think "finally" - but nope, just more brown, then a little more... finally after about 4 days of that crap my "regular" period came. Flow was considerably lighter than normal. Lasted 4 days. No zits. Fourth hasn't come yet, so we'll see. But overall it seems like I'm starting to level out.

Depends, really. I think most set up payment plans, but I have heard of some people who are required to pay in full up-front. There are also medical financing companies, but I couldn't tell you the names of them. A lot of self-pay people opt to have surgery in Mexico. Mostly because of the price difference, but also because the surgeons there do a lot of procedures. I don't know if they do more than the busier US surgeons, but they defnitely benefit from the undercutting. I believe MX surgery is in a range of $3800 - $6000. The people who do MX still need to find a US surgeon in the event of complications (I guess they could travel back to MX but I don't think that's a very popular option). I had a sufficiently annoying insurance fiasco and had decided that if I didn't get my approval by 3.1.2012 I was going to self-pay, but I was going to stay with my surgeon. I have good insurance and a large selection of surgeons, mine is who I've elected to have cut me open so it was worth the $ to me. I would have paid in one lump sum so I didn't even ask about financing. My approval ame through early Feb so I lucked out.

Oh you know? I completely didn't even think to add in height/size info. I'm a hair above 5'10. Pre-band highest: 385 - 400. For me, this was a 32 most of the time. Sometimes I needed smaller, sometimes bigger. The only stores I could walk into and trust they'd have something to fit me were Avenue and Dress Barn, neither of which reliably matched my personal style. Which kind of only existed in my head, apparently. After my band I stalled for about 18 months at 250. For me this was about a size 20 pant and a 14/16 top (I'm a pear+ with small boobs, I almost always wear about 2 sizes smaller up top). When I got to my low with my band, I was just squeezing into 18 pants and some regular/misses XL or XXL tops. Back up to my pre-sleeve high of about 350 - I couldn't even tell you what size. I was probably around a 26 or 28. I had a ton of 22/24, which is what I wore when my band was removed. They started getting snug, then got profanely tight... I had a major mental block pulling out bigger pants so I went so far as to wear them unzipped using a hair elastic to connect the closure, and just wore long tops that hid all of that. Stupid, I know. Then they got so tight that I couldn't really even do that because they were obviously not fitting on the thighs anymore. So I found some larger sizes in my closet... I never actually looked at the size but I'd bet about anything they were 28s. Now in the upper 270s again I'm wearing a size 24 skirt today, a downright baggy size 26 cami, and a 2x shirt over it.

Self-pay means you're paying for it out of your own pocket. Usually people self-pay when their insurance doesn't cover it, or they just don't want to deal with the hassle of insurance. The difference in self-pay versus contracted/non-contracted rates are crazy. E.g. as I mentioned, self-pay through my surgeon is about $13k. I think $12,999. So I could write him a check for $13k and that covers everything, start to finish, and a year's worth of post-ops (post-operation visits). My insurance company was billed something like $47,000. My insurance company actually paid something like $6200. Needless to say, surgeons like self-pays!

If you could manage to never actually ingest cholesterol, you could still have high cholesterol. Your body creates cholesterol. You could eat cholesterol free, and if your liver wants to keep pumping it out, it will. Your body creates cholesterol on a cellular level. Your liver can pump out about 1000mg each and every day. Everything around us tells us that it's only an ingestion factor, and it's not. Cholesterol in and of itself is a good thing. It's in literally every cell in your body. Every part of your brain needs cholesterol. Your cells build with it. Your ovaries need it to procuce estrogen (and vice versa for men). Your immune system needs it to keep you healthy. I could keep going... just rememer that cholesterol isn't bad. It just... keeps some bad company. Myth: there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. Cholesterol is cholesterol. LDL and HDL are lipoproteins (lipo = fat, Protein = protein). Statins keep your liver from producing cholesterol. Does statin therapy reduce cholesterol levels? The data says yes, but there's a huge assumption that's a good thing. But cholesterol isn't the only thing they inhibit - hence the side effects. (If you're concered about this, pull up some research on statins and CoQ10) My 2 mo post-op was about 3 weeks ago. Full labs were pulled and I was told that at an LDL count of 109, I had "pretty high cholesterol" (LDL). Now, even the most standardized chart will say that below 100 is ideal, and 100 - 129 is "near ideal". So how 109 is pretty high - I'm still chewing on that one. More & morepeople are starting to see high cholesterol as what's called a "manufactured disease." And guess which country is really the only one all crazy about it...

I think all you can do is edit it. Mods can delete. Flag it to a mod, or send a PM with a link to the message.

Man, I need to go buy some glasses or something. You will need to decide what's going to drive your decision on surgeon: local, insurance coverage (in vs non network), or experience, etc. A lot of people covered by insurance gowith whomever's the closest to them. I personally found a handful who were close enough and went with the one I felt was the best surgeon. You also need to find a surgfeon who will take the insurance that you have. Your provider's website should have a searchable directory. The surgeons may or may not be listed as bariatric surgeons. There are also directory maps all over the place, here's one to start. The length of the process depends on two things: 1. What your insurance requirements are 2. How busy/quick your surgeon's office is (Ok, it can depend on a LOT of things, but those are your two primaries) There are different kinds of "special diets". One is an insurance required 6 month diet. (There are variations but this is the standard). Your surgeon puts you on it because your insurance won't approve your surgery without it. When I said "found out what requirements are" above, this is one of the things you will need to find out about. You CAN just go to a surgeon's info seminar and trust the office coordinators to do this research for you, but IMO you're 100% better off if you find out on your own. All it takes is a call to your sinsurance company, or a read through your SPD, or having them fax you the requirements... whatever gets you the info. The other kind if special diet is a "preop diet" that often, but not always, consists of about 2 weeks on sugar free liquids. It's basically to prep your body for the surgery. I didn't have to do it (either time: I've had two WLS) - mine was 2 days of sugar free Clear Liquids. Some people have to do a diet of shakes and small meals. The "usual" diet is the 2 week liquids one. Insurance approval usually requires 1 - 3 meetings with a therapist before your surgery (more if needed) and 1 - 2 afterward. The afterward will be dropped before the before ones are. It's very standard and just ensures that you're in a good place, mentally (in a comprehehnsive way), and prepared for the surgery. There is no single price for the surgery (like there's no single price for anything else). A haircut here is $7, a haircut there is $50. My surgeon charges about $13k. That's for SELF PAY, that's not for people with insurance. I believe his rate is fairly competitive, and is definitely one of the lower self-pay rates in my area. Start with our insurance requirements, and with finding a surgeon you think you'd like to work with.

I'm assuming you're Linda, and your husband is Gordon? Because if not, your story takes on an entirely different message.

Any standard dosage should be fine, it should not bother your stomach. If you have extremely limited capacity still you may want to split or crush the pill (warning, it will taste horrible). At 2 days post-op I was able to take small pills. Especially if you go with the Tylenol tablet (little round ones) versus the standard size, it should be OK. There used to be a chewable max strength Tylenol called "to go tabs" or something - you might want to see if those are still around. Someone above mentioned a liquid Tylenol. That's what I used when I had my band. The standard one was a cherry elixir and it was called "Rapid Blast". I could only find it at Walmart, and they no longer carry it, at least at mine. Probably because of the price. IIRC it was $4 - $5 for what amounted to about 8 doses. Not too bad, really, but when you can get 50 doses as a pill for $2, and most people are OK with pills... It also came in a Tylenol PM formula that was "warm vanilla" flavor or something. It was horrible.

Chances are yes.

Your body can't use much more than about 30gm Protein a a time. That's not an exact number, but it's close to the consensus. So if you're having a 44gm shake, try splitting it in half and drinking a half AM and a half PM or something similar. It will help your body be able to use the protein, it will help with any hunger you're feeling, and it should also help you feel a little bit better. Re: the stomach pains - have you tried playing around with your bite size & frequency to make sure that's not causing the pain? You're still going to be really swollen at this point, and not have much capacity. Also, if the pain comes and goes, particularly right when you're eating, and especially if it seems to come and go with regular intervals, you might bbe feeling your stomach contracting, which it does any time you put something in it (as long as your stomach is normal, anyway!) I had this for a while. Being so aware of the peristalsis was cool (in a medical geek kind of way) but the pains could be pretty intense.