Newbeva

How are you feeling and doing? Hope all is well!

I haven't had surgery yet, but will next month. Lately my pants of choice have been leggings. I know some say they aren't pants... but I love them and since this brand fits from 10/12 up to a 22/24, I'll be able to wear them to goal. As far as tops, I'll probably by several tank tops and wear one of my covers over it. Other than that, I know my local bariatric support group does monthly clothes swaps. Check with your surgeons office and see if they know of any.

My insurance approved my surgery 2 weeks ago as of tomorrow for May 1st - 2nd! I'm still waiting for my surgeons office to call me to schedule and it is driving me insane having to wait!

Congrats! That is awesome! Best of luck as you continue on your journey!

Congrats! You've done amazing and you look amazing! And happy too! Best of luck as you continue on your journey!

I'm in! I'll do my stats and weigh in Friday! Thanks for doing this again!

I should be in May too! Insurance has approved me, just waiting for my doctor to schedule me!

That's awesome! Keep up the great work! You can do it!

So exciting! I will be in early may for the sleeve. Best of luck!

If their office wasn't an hour away I would be! I keep emailing them though. Lol

My Dr submitted to insurance for approval on March 16. I check insurance each day after and it was approved on March 20th! Now I'm just waiting for my Dr office to call and schedule me. I talked to them last Wednesday and they said they hadn't received approval yet and it was to be mailed to them. I got my mail confirmation Saturday so I keep checking my phone for the call to schedule. It's driving me nuts cause I'm so excited I just want to get it scheduled and be on my way to the losers bench too! It'll be the first week of may for me!

March 24 weigh in 287. Didn't meet my goal but I lost some so that's still good. Thank you so much for doing this!

Finally got cleared! After all those tests... all it took was 1 MRI to show that I do not have an Atrial Septal Defect in my heart. It is just the small hole we are all born with never closed! Now waiting to hear back from the insurance company and planning for early May to have surgery!

I am currently working on completing my requirements to be approved for gastric sleeve surgery. I started my journey in November when I met with Dr. Turton for my consult. Since then, it has seemed like every time I get excited about this journey I am on, something happens to derail me. For my insurance I have to do 3 months of Physician Monitored weight loss. Started with my original PCP in November and was doing rather well. 1 week before my next visit, I received a letter from him stating that he was closing his practice to become a concierge doctor and that I could continue care with him for a yearly fee of $2500.... no thanks. After that I found a new PCP and restarted my journey in December with her. So far everything for that is going great. And she has had bariatric surgery so she knows some of the struggles. The main part that has been keeping me down is cardiology. I had an abnormal ekg and have to get cleared by cardiology to have surgery. I've known I had a heart murmur for a few years but was always told it was nothing to be concerned about. The cardiologist decided I needed an Echocardiogram to make sure that all looked good. Had it done along with my treadmill stress test (longest 6 mins every! but passed with flying colors. lol) and was feeling great and getting excited. Then the next day he calls and tells me I have to do a Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) to evaluate the size of a hole they found in my heart. So of course that killed my excitement and I began worrying about the financial side of it. The following week I went and had the TEE done and at first he said he needed to consult with the specialist that actually repairs those types of things because to him it looked rather large. 10 minutes later he comes back in and tell me and my mother and grandmother that the specialist said it is a rather small hole and isn't affecting the way my hear muscle is working at all and that I am good to go. He diagnosed it as an Atrial Septal Defect. He said he would do my clearance letter the next day. I was stoked and finally looking at the home stretch of the requirements. Then of course the next day I get another call from him stating that they "forgot" to get some images during the TEE and that I need to come in and have another echocardiogram done (free of charge at least). So I was like "okay... no big deal. A few needed images then I'll be cleared". Nope! he called me an hour after I left and tells me that based on the new images, there is a size discrepancy between what the Echo shows and what the TEE shows. Therefore, I now have to do an MRI of my heart. When I hung up with him I was so mad that I cried and was just ready to quit and give up. I feel like I am being yanked around because he knows I can't decline the further testing and still get cleared for surgery. I get he has to make sure I am good to go for surgery but after an extensive amount of research I am not concerned about the hole. It is very common and the fact that the specialist that does these repairs isn't concerned... makes me wonder why I am having to do this. And also why when the hole was first discovered, didn't he just order the MRI to determine the size once and for all instead of wasting my time and money. The schedulers called me and told me that I had my MRI appt on Feb 8th. I decided not to let this hold me back and was beginning to get excited again because the way everything was scheduled I would have my requirements met by Feb 16th. Of course, I get a call this morning that someone made a scheduling error and they cannot do the MRI until March 8th. They have me on a cancellation list in case someone cancels before then... but after that call I started feeling discouraged again. I feel like every time I get my hopes up, something happens to yank away that happiness and it makes me wonder if this is worth it. My friends and husband both reassured me that it is going to be worth it in the end and to not think about the long road I am on to get there... but where that road will take me. I get that... and I want to be excited about all this like before... but at this point I am struggling to keep my chin up. Especially since I am an emotional eater and I want nothing more than to drown my emotions in something completely yummy and horrible for me. Which I can't do because I can't gain a single pound before surgery and I need to stay on track... which is hard, but I will stick to it. Some may think that I am stupid but I have determined that if the cardiologist calls me after the MRI and says it is big enough to need repaired sooner rather than later, I will refuse. I do not feel that this hole will have much effect on being under anesthesia for less than an hour or 2. I had my tonsils out last year with zero problems with anesthesia. But I do feel like having heart surgery with my BMI this high could be risky. I will gladly have it repaired once I lose about 40 or 50 lbs so my BMI is lower and I am in better health. I also will have met my out of pocket and it wouldn't cost me much if any at all. I am sorry this is such a long post. I just mainly needed to vent and there are very few people that know I am having surgery or that I feel comfortable enough telling them all this (my mom has already gone against my wishes and told my grandmother about me having surgery. She says she doesn't understand the secrecy. I told her it is my health and my decision as to whom I tell what to.) On the plus side, I will probably meet my out of pocket maximum either before the surgery or will meet it with the surgery. Surgery copay is $2500 and I've met $800 of my $3500 out of pocket before the TEE has been processed and this MRI. Guess that is one good thing to look forward too.

Finally got cleared! Now just waiting to hear back from the insurance! Planning on surgery in early May!

March 17 weigh in -- 288.6 lb Thank goodness the plateau is over for now

March 10th weight in 292

You're looking great! Looking years younger too!

March 3rd weigh in--290

That's awesome! I have 1 last requirement to meet and I hope it'll be met next week. Then he said I'd be on the schedule 4 to 6 weeks after that. I may have to put it off until May, but it's still getting close! Best of luck!

Sorry I am just seeing this! Hope everything is going well since your surgery!

Weigh in 02/24: 290

Weight in 02/17/17 292lbs

Weigh in 2/10/2017..... 296 3lbs off! Yay! Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

I am also in the process of getting approved. Should meet all my requirement and submit to insurance in March (hopefully). I go back and forth with anxiety and excitement. I wonder if this is the best decision and if I'll just be one of the failures. But then I remind myself that as long as I put in the work mentally and physically and be cautious of my emotions I will be able to succeed. It will be hard, but in the end it will have all been worth it. This forum is great for support and you could also check out some local support groups to help keep you on the right track. You can this. And what made me decide to finally jump on board was my friend has the surgery in May of last year and has already hit her goal weight. She looks amazing and is loving life. I want that too and can't wait to have it. Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App