KelseyBennett_vsg

Thank u Michael. Check these bad boys out. Lol.

Thank you so much everyone!!! Your words and encouragement keep me going!!! I have big news today too!!! I've suffered from PCOS for years!!!! We've been trying to conceive for our over 10 years!!! Guess what?! WE'RE EXPECTING!!!! My dream has literally came true!!! I'm living pain free. I feel great and now there's a little peanut growing inside of me!!! For all you women who are scared, nervous, doubtful...etc....JUST GO FOR IT. I PROMISE IT'S THE BEST DECISION I'VE EVER MADE FOR MYSELF. Of course, keep us in your prayers for a safe and healthy pregnancy!!! I love you ALL!!!!
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So, here are a few things I wish I had known before I had my surgery (I was sleeved 5/23/16):
The gas...oh my goodness, the gas. It hurts, it stinks, and sometimes you can't trust a fart. Lovely.
Surgery doesn't make it easier to lose weight. It actually makes it more complicated! Protein, carbs, sugar, fat...It's all scientific now. If I don't get my protein, I hold Fluid and don't lose weight. If I eat sugar, I don't lose weight. If I don't get all my Water for the day, I feel hungry, tired, and--you guessed it--I don't lose weight. I even landed in the ER getting 4 bags of fluid and a CT scan to check for complications. And my insurance got a bill for $7,000. After the one they got for $29,000 just a month previous...more on that later...
Mood swings from hell will descend upon you, and you will be powerless over it at first. Now, I am learning that I tend to cry right before a stall breaks. Fat stores hormones that have to go somewhere when the fat goes...extra PMS? Yes, please! NOT. Yes ladies, your period may go completely haywire for a while. FUN...
Speaking of stalls...the weight won't always come off in a predictable pattern. It may not come off as fast as you want it to. If you stick to your plan, you will lose weight, but along the way you will stall. You may not lose anything for a while, even though you're doing everything right. You will get concerned, you may think the surgery isn't working, but if you stick to your plan the weight will come off. On it's own schedule, though, not yours. The human body is incredibly complex and very good at learning how to NOT starve. Some people believe in starvation mode, some don't, but don't test it. You don't want to get sick and malnourished. You may need to exercise more and log your food to make sure you haven't slipped up, but the stall will break. Eventually...
You will become acutely aware that people who know you had the surgery are watching you. Watching what you eat, when you eat it, and how much of it you eat. Watching to see if you lose weight, and if you don't lose weight FAST, everybody has an opinion about whether or not you should have had the surgery and if it will work, and you may hear horror stories about somebody's friend/sister/brother/cousin/coworker who had the surgery and gained all the weight back. Or never lost it at all. Stick to your plan, and remember why you made the decision to have surgery. Be ready to avoid toxic people as necessary. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. So be careful who you tell. If you are married, consider your spouse's feelings. Talk about it. You will need them on your side if at all possible. If they aren't, it could be problematic. Be ready to have hard conversations and make decisions based on those conversations. You may learn things about your relationship that you never knew, which can be good or bad.
You will have regrets. Mostly in the beginning, but be ready to wonder what in the hell you were thinking when you had this surgery. It's hard! There is an overwhelming temptation to believe that this was supposed to be easier. It's not. It's effective, but it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of self-discipline.
People may judge you and say that you took "the easy way out". See the previous paragraph. And then see the second paragraph. You may have to educate a few people. Or tell them to get lost, your choice.
If you didn't already know it, you may find out that you have a serious problem with food. Get that fixed, and do it before you waste a lot of time and heartache. Go to therapy. The surgery will NOT fix your brain. I cannot stress this enough! You will find out that food is the glue that holds our lives together. We Celebrate with it, we mourn with it, we reward ourselves with it, and sometimes our social lives revolve around it. All of that has to change. Food is fuel. Period. You will not enjoy eating out for a while, if ever. The portions are RIDICULOUS, and most of it is nothing you should be eating anyway. "I'll just have a small salad..." No, you won't, not for a while. You won't be able to eat raw vegetables for a long time, and never before your doctor clears it. It's the last step. And it may be never for certain foods. BECAUSE...
Your taste will change. What your stomach can tolerate will (obviously) change for a long time, and maybe forever in some aspects. You may hate what you once loved and love what you once hated. Go with it. And get over your addiction to caffeine, because that has to go, too. Not forever, but your surgeon will have an opinion about when it's okay again.
If you smoke, a reputable surgeon will not do weight loss surgery on you. They will most likely test you for nicotine, so don't cheat, just quit. You won't heal as well and it's just plain bad for you.
You will have no vices for a long time. Because...you can't drink alcohol either! Not for a LONG time. Just look that one up, because I quit drinking a long time ago and I don't even care about this part. Except: you may trade old addictions for new ones. You may need therapy to fix this. If food was a coping mechanism for you, you had better have a plan for new coping skills. BECAUSE...
This is stressful as hell, if you hadn't figured that out. You hair may come out. Be ready. Biotin is rumored to help, but it isn't a sure thing.
You will need to take Vitamins for the rest of your life. Don't be cheap and skimp on this one. You need bariatric vitamins. Deficiencies can set you back in significant ways. It's not worth it. Take your vitamins.
Now. If you're still reading this, you may think I am one hell of a "Negative Nelly". Nope! I am a realist. You should be scared. You should think long and hard before you have weight loss surgery. If you even qualify for surgery, you've cleared a significant obstacle. If your insurance covers it, that's another significant obstacle out of the way. Soooo...If you have a surgeon willing to do it, and you can get insurance to pay for it (or if you can make it happen as self-pay) DO IT. If you still want to have weight loss surgery despite knowing how much it can suck, then you will probably do well. BECAUSE...
IT'S WORTH IT. All of it.

I hate to hear that this is happening to you as well! My insurance did the exact same thing to me even though my BMI is above 60 :/ I just finished the 6 month weight loss study, didn't lose any, maybe 3 lbs overall, but still up 8lbs from my initial surgeon consultation.... So I'm kind of in limbo. Mine should get submitted from pcp to surgeon then to insurance sometime next week. I sincerely hope that you don't have any more roadblocks in your journey!
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@ Don't worry - I didn't lose much during my supervised weight loss and was approved. I tried - but my Nutritionist said not to worry that it's difficult to lose with PCOS and that's why I'm having surgery.

I can't say how relieved I am that I found this thread! I have had one helluva ride trying to get ins approval. I started in September and weighed 352, well by the time I found out that I had to do a Dr guided weight loss study (after all of my other appts were finished and send off to ins and they denied me) it was February and I had gained 8 lbs. I proceeded to do the weight loss study and couldn't lose any weight, just yo-yo'd 3 lbs back and forth. I just finished my weight loss study Tuesday, and the NP will get the Dr's signature on everything and then off to the surgeon's office and to ins from there. I'm an absolute nervous wreck that the ins will think that I didn't try to lose the weight, even though I did everything that my Dr told me, and deny me again.....its been such a nightmare trying to get this surgery that I KNOW will save my life. I don't have any co-morbidities but my BMI is above 60....I'm just another "healthy" big girl and it sucks.
Anywho, thanks for reading my little rant. I hope to be very active on this forum as I progress with my journey...its been long so far but I know I'm just beginning.

I live in Alabama and have BCBS Illinois. My Surgeons office didn't tell me that I needed a 6 month weight loss study to qualify for my insurance approval. Just a heads up that every BCBS plan is different depending on who you get it though. I would call your insurance to find out exactly what you need instead of just taking your Dr's office word for it. Though BCBS wouldn't tell me anything OR send me anything in writing....they are kind of an nightmare to work with actually

So there! Told ya so!!!
WELCOME TO THE LOSERS' BENCH!!!!
Rest here for a moment or two.
THEN
Get your arse up and get mov'n!!!
Happy day, my friend.

Surgery went great. Started at 7:30ish and I woke up at 2! I was in a lot of pain in the drain area on my right side and of course at the incision sites. Sore throat from anesthesia. Pain meds have me very drowsy. They had me up and walking around an hour ago, just a little dizzy. Most pain comes from getting up and down, but got to brush teeth and feel so much better. Chewing ice chips and swallowing no problem. Gas pain went away as soon as I started self medicating. They are having me use a breathing device 10x per hour to help lungs recover. The hospital staff here is amazing!

It's just your mind playing tricks on you. It happened to me too. I was excited and not scared at all until a week before my surgery. I think we are in disbelief, thinking something will come up and we won't actually make this change until the day comes. I started getting nervous and questioning my decision in the last minute too. Don't worry about it. If something horrible was meant to happen, it would have happened while I was crossing the street. This is a decision you have made in order to get your life back on track. There is nothing to regret there.
English is my 6th language so forgive me if my sentences don't make any sense at times!

This is going to be long so if you don’t care about the story part, skip to the bottom for the numbers.
I never thought I would be here, post-op from WLS surgery, especially a surgery that removed most of my stomach but here I am, and I am thrilled to be here.
I grew up in a healthy, athletic family, really athletic, at the Professional level. We had healthy food and some not so healthy comfort food, but always real food in the house. I was always athletic, but slightly overweight growing up. Then in college, I started to yo-yo. My weight would change between 20 and 40 pounds. Then I had a baby, BOOM. I gained 70 pounds with the pregnancy and never lost it. I started working with Tech Startups in the dot com era and we had all the perks. Free food, free alcohol, all day every day. I moved up the ladder and with all the five star hotels came high calorie free meals. Extensive business travel meant eating out 5-6 days a week 3 times a day. On the days at home the eating out continued because I was so exhausted from the work week.
I was healthy with low to normal blood pressure and not diabetic most of this time. I was a healthy fat person for a long time until I wasn’t. I was active. I exercised, I could walk circles around even my thin friends in a mall. Then 10 years ago, diabetes. It was easily managed with pills and diet, so it didn’t create drastic changes. I never took it very seriously because I was never really extreme in my high sugars. Then about 4 years ago it seemed like things took a turn, I could never lose more than 20 or 30 pounds. My ability to exercise and be active seemed to diminish. Carrying all that weight was finally catching up to me and my body was breaking down and suffering. Then last year, high blood pressure came. After taking high blood pressure meds for 2 weeks that made me sleepy and made it almost impossible to run my business. I decided to have WLS.
I had researched and looked at WLS for years. I read WLS forums and talked to people, but always talked myself out of it. I finally decided that even if I died on the table that was better than dying slowly. So I knew I was ready. I went through the process very quickly. Almost not trusting myself to drag it out and I felt a real necessity to get the weight off quickly. I went from my first visit with the surgeon to surgery in 8 weeks. BCBSIL was wonderful and the whole process was fast and easy for insurance approval.
Another deciding factor that WLS would work for me, was because the post-op diet was something I was already familiar with. Low carbing? Sign me up. I had been an avid low carber off and on with varying levels of success for years. I realize now that the reason I was never successful was I gave up in stalls, but with the sleeve there is no giving up during a stall. I have always enjoyed low carbing because for me it makes my mind sharper, it is like doing coke or Adderall (no, I have never done either but I have been told the experience in great detail multiple times from multiple people). I have never viewed it as a punishment but a perk.
My issue prior to surgery has always been Portion Control. I skipped meals, focused on work and then would be ravenously hungry, and consume a whole days plus worth of calories all at once, or maybe in 2 meals. Even low carbing and eating healthy I would eat huge amounts. A 12 to 16 ounce ribeye is 900-1300 calories.
I was lucky to have an uneventful, rapid and easy recovery. I had very little pain, went back to work as soon as I came home (I work for myself), and stopped taking the pain meds within 36 hours of surgery. I met my Protein goals after the 2nd day. I eat all of the foods I enjoy, just in small quantities. I was lucky in the sense I never ate or liked a lot of the things that people have issues with giving up post-op. So I don’t have issues with avoiding them. I gave up sugar years ago to try and control my diabetes. I gave up alcohol for the same reason. I was already years out from either of these things when I had surgery so I didn’t have to give them up post-op.
Okay that is by backstory and how I got to the point surgery and why I felt it would work for me. This is where I am now.
Numbers
The weight I have on here is the weight when I first went to the Dr. It is not my actual highest weight.
HW 377
SW 358
CW 231
Total weight lost 146, 134 since first surgeon visit, and 127 since surgery.
Inches lost
Measurements in Inches
Bust (fullest part of bust):
20
Pecs (just above the bust line):
15
Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) :
21
Waist:
25.5
Abdomen:
22
Hips:
17
Right Upper Thigh:
8.5
Right Lower Thigh:
9.5
Left Upper Thigh:
8
Left Lower Thigh:
10.5
Right Calf:
2
Left Calf:
2.25
Right Upper Arm:
6
Left Upper Arm:
5.5
Total 172.75
I wore a tight size US Womens size 28 plus and a comfortable size US Womens size 30 plus. Now I wear a Misses 14/16 I am almost to a 12.
I have boundless energy to match my personality. I am so active in my everyday life in big and small ways. I don’t hurt all over anymore at the end of the day like I did before. I thought that was natural, because I had been so heavy for so long, I didn’t think there was a different way to feel, I thought that was norm. Now I know the difference. I feel like I have taken 20 years off my age.
So that is my story, if you read it all, thanks. I hope it can help someone. Obviously I am still not done. I need to lose at least another 50 pounds and once I get there I am going to evaluate and see if I want to lose another 20 or 30. I never thought that would be an option, to get my weight that low, but I think now it is a possibility.