highfunctioningfatman

I understand the desire for that week, that is why I scheduled mine then. I definitely understand the excitement as well. That being said, if I hadn't paid for flights it wouldn't bother me if something came up for my wife and I needed to change plans. In your case it sounds like you will be better off with work and your husband to wait. What estuary do you manage?

I'm still pre op so Greek yogurt and frozen strawberries was quite nice!

From a man's perspective, crushed ice or course chopped frozen fruit is a wonderful close 2nd to pop rocks. When it is my wife's turn she concurs. Now I need to find a healthy caramel sauce for her. Or perhaps yogurt. I bet my crystal light lemonade ice cubes would be amazballs while on liquids. Or maybe... Oh, sorry, forgot that you were still here. Time to wake up my sweetie!

I'm paying out of pocket. They said that most of the time you can get scheduled in 1-3 weeks.

Surgery on the 29th in Tijuana.

Yep. Grants Pass.

I 'm sole supporter of my family. My wife is a doctor's dream. When I married her she had lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and Raynaud's disease. Since we have been married she has had skin cancer, cervical cancer and most recently this year a brain tumor. She has recovered from everything that has been thrown her way. She's freaking awesome! My job is to be there for her. I have considered weight loss surgery in the past but have been scared due to family history. My sister had gastric bypass back in 2000. She was quite successful and has kept most of the weight off. My mom was inspired by her journey and had gastric bypass in early 2001. Mom lost a lot of weight and looked really good. Mom had always had quite a few health issues and those had gone away for the most part. December 13th 2001 she went into the hospital with a blue toe. They told her that she didn't have enough Iron and potassium in her blood. She told them that that was impossible because she was taking iron and potassium supplements. She was discharged just before Christmas stage 4 lung cancer. The hypothesis was that she had had it coming on since the eight years prior when she had quit smoking. She had all of the signs if you stepped back and looked at them of a cancer patient. Her symptoms were so spread out that nobody ever caught it. It was believed that most likely she was a stage 3A when she was operated on for the bypass. The cancer continued to spread and she passed away February 13th 2002. She had just turned 50 years old. Needless to say this scared the hell out of me. At the time of mom's death I was 24 years old and 300 pounds. My weight has fluctuated as high as 340 pounds and is low is 267 pounds when my son was born in 2009. I have found that stress definitely plays a big factor in my weight. I have a stressful job. Quite a bit of the time I work 12 plus hour days. I am a commercial driver and a supervisor of the warehouse. I deal with a lot of FDA documentation and I am also in charge of quality control. I have worked at my company for 12 years and I tend to be a jack of all trades. I have been offered higher-level positions that will require me to travel and I have turned them down to be with my family. Those higher level positions would actually put me in a little less stress. Once again I choose my family. I have been a mostly happy fat man most of my life. My screen name high functioning fat man. My weight generally doesn't slow me down or cause me too many problems. The future however is going to be an issue. My job requires that I have a commercial driver's license. The Department of Transportation has been kicking around ideas about requiring anybody that has a BMI of 35 or higher or has a next size larger than 17 inches to go through a sleep study annually to maintain their medical card which is required to be valid to have a commercial driver's license. Now my weight is threatening my livelihood. My insurance will not pay for an annual sleep study. All of that costs approximately 1500 to $2,000 here locally would have to come out of my pocket. The industry that I work in is in oxygen and home medical field. One of the many duties that I have is to do overnight oximetry on patients is a pre-screening to sleep studies. When somebody complains that the oximeter did not work correctly I take it home and use it myself verify an issue. I know that I don't have sleep apnea based upon all of these oximetries. I will now have to pay to prove that I don't have obstructive sleep apnea. My wife cannot work like most people can. She has issues from her medical conditions. Most people that meet her would never have a clue that she has issues. I personally know of six people that have had Vertical Sleeve. The first one went to what he refers to as a butcher shop in Mexico. The other five all went to the same surgeon in Mexico. Of those 5, 2 are nurses and one is a respiratory therapist. They all have said that this particular facility is cleaner than any medical facility they have worked in in the United States. That eases my mind quite a bit having personally known of 5 people going to the same clinic. Do I like doing this? Hell no! It scares the crap out of me! I'm doing this and better my health. I'll be 38 years old at the time of my surgery and I'm scared that shortly thereafter I may never get to see my family again. I have a life insurance policy that will take care of my family if something happens to me but that doesn't ease my mind. I am looking forward to this only to have it done. I could continue on and be happy just as I am. Yes I know this will extend my life longer. Yes I know of all the health benefits but I personally have felt what happens if things go sideways. As a general nature that I do have kind of a course sense of humor. I can laugh about damn near anything including myself. I'm just hoping that I come out of this the same person that I am today butt smaller. Pun intended...

A couple of quick points. As to questioning if I plan on wls, it is paid for out of my pocket on the 29. Many of you have mentioned obsessive behavior with your scale, that would drive me insane. The final point is that my doctor doesn't need my weight, it is a standard of care expected from patients. The only time weight is a factor for typical medicines is when you go in for anesthesia. Those words are directly from my doctor.

My surgery is the 29th and I've made enough changes pre op that as of this weekend I am completely off of my blood pressure meds.

I have blue cross of Florida as well. By the time that I jumped through the hoops and looked at the lost wages while jumping through those hoops it wasn't worth it. I go to Tijuana on the 29th for less out of pocket costs.

Screw him! Oh wait, don't. Screw someone who wants you.

Unfortunately I'm the guy who can't do nothing. If I'm sick (once every 10-12 years I take a sick day) I feel better doing anything rather than sitting. That always gets me into trouble in my garage because next thing I know I'm cutting, welding, painting, fabricating... Fishing may be the lesser of the evils.

Surgery would be on a Monday and this would be the Saturday or Sunday after. I definitely know that I will have to take it easy. I talked to my surgeon and he said that if I was up to it and didn't try to horse it in that would be good but to not be standing or twisting when passing the rod. Trout fishing would be fine.

I have to admit that I'm crazy. I figure that if I can handle the flight back ok then I can handle the boat ride. I know that I can do trout or bass but salmon is salmon!

We call one of our cats "voyeur kitty" because she purrs during intimate moments. She got kicked out when she tried to get between my legs...

Glad to help!

I'm not sleeved yet but I'm making choices like I am. I went to a convince store not long ago looking for something to eat. In the past it was easy, some carb fueled crappy thing and off I would go. I ended up buying a cheese stick that the nutrition label really didn't scream EAT ME FAT MAN but it was better than my previous choices. Convenience stores aren't really all that convenient now.

Wow 120! You stop breathing every 30 seconds! The issue with traditional apnea is that an apnea is the obstruction of your air way because of the muscles relaxing around your airway. A CPAP, Constant Positive Airway Pressure is intended to inflate the airway similar to the air in a balloon keeping the balloon from deflating. There is also central apnea which is where the brain tells your body to not breathe. The issue with anesthesia is that if you have apnea you will most likely have a breathing tube in your airway to manually keep the airway open.

FYI. Some insurance companies won't accept a home sleep study for billing purposes. A home study only establishes and AHI, not and appropriate pressure. An auto set CPAP will range based upon settings but an auto CPAP is more expensive. A sleep study in a sleep lab will establish AHI, pressure and an appropriate mask.

I personally know 5 people who have been to him in tijuana. Three of those are Healthcare professionals and they said that it it the cleanest facility that they have ever been in. His coordinator sucks but it turns out that one of my friends is a coordinator as well and all has been golden since.

Please don't tell where you got that suit! I would have to get one for my wife but I'm afraid that it would never make it to the water before it came off. That sucker is sexy!

I know exactly which surgeon I want to do my surgery. I know 5 people have been to this particular surgeon. I feel very comfortable with the surgeon but I was not happy with his coordinator. When speaking to one of my friends I found out that they are a coordinator for that surgeon as well. It has been a completely refreshing experience to deal with the person that is my friend. It does make me wonder however how much business has been lost for this surgeon over the years by this coordinator and her lack of communication.

Sashimi (just the fish) is good to go. Sushi has the rice.

Did I mention sushi? Oh, I have a Wasabi addiction as well.

I'm truly going to miss sushi. The first date with my beautiful wife was to sushi. The night we were married, sushi. Our first anniversary, sushi. Half of our anniversaries, sushi. We have made a 7 hour round trip just to go for sushi.