VSGnewguy

Anyone else scheduled for January?

I have a bad diet coke habit so I'm going to take the 'no carbonation' as a strict rule. If I make exceptions, I could see myself slowly letting diet soda back in and I'm better off without it.

I have not had my surgery yet, but my surgeon is Dr. Matthew St. Laurent at Northwest Endo Surgical. I've been impressed with his staff and particularly with how much time Dr. St. Laurent is willing to spend with his patients.

My surgery isn't until Jan. 11, but I am going to start on my vitamins early. I just purchased the Tespo liquid vitamin dispenser and ordered the Men's Bariatric Plus vitamin subscription. My surgeons office uses the PatchMD vitamins but I feel like I'll have better absorption with a liquid than a topical vitamin.

I just ordered mine a couple of days ago and had the same question so I emailed the company. This is their response, "Our formulas were based off of the nutrition guidelines from the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons. Liquid vitamins do have a better absorption rate than pills and with Tespo you are getting them mixed fresh daily with no fillers, binders, etc. We have many customers mention how good their bloodwork has been since taking Tespo vitamins. We would recommend that you discuss your concerns with your physician, so you can be monitored to ensure you are getting what you need. Thank you and have a nice day! Tespo Customer Happiness" Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using BariatricPal mobile app

They are still half off. I just ordered mine. The price is reduced once it's in the cart. As far as the dosage possibly being too low, I would think the higher absorption rate compared to traditional vitamins might offset that some.

Thinking about getting a Tespo. How's this working out for you?

I don't have any first hand experience but I've been seeing adds for Tespo, liquid vitamins dispensing system.

I've chosen to get the sleeve over bypass because I don't want to have to deal with dumping syndrome. I only occasionally get heart burn and it's easily controlled with otc medication so, in my case, it's choosing what I consider to be the lesser of the side effects.

I also have BCBS of Ill. I was approved. My BMI was just over 35 and I have several co-morbidities, including sleep apnea and have had a heart attack. Requirements were one appointment with Dietitian, session with Surgeon, and psych evaluation. I believe this varies company by company (or by your group) so you'll want to talk to the insurance company directly to find out specifically what applies to your plan. Once everything was submitted, the approval came in just a few days. Good luck!

I had a heart attack on Dec. 3rd of 2016. I'm having VSG in January of 2017. If I could turn back the clock, I would definitely have had the surgery BEFORE the heart attack. I say, the sooner the better. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

I have a little different take on this. It is, of course, each persons right to keep their surgery private if they chose to. However, WLS is so common now, that when someone misses work for "surgery" and then has rapid weight loss, most people are going to assume, speculate and gossip, that you had WLS. I think that, whether you tell people or not, for the most part, they are going to figure it out anyway. I'd rather have people be direct with me than talk about it behind my back so I have made the personal decision to tell family and even co-workers that I am having WLS.

I looked into WLS about 2 years ago but insurance wouldn't cover it because my BMI was just under 35 and my only co-morbidity was sleep apnea. My BMI has crept up and is now over 35 but more importantly, I had a heart attack in December of last year. Of course, NOW I qualify for insurance coverage. I'm glad to be getting the surgery but in hind sight, wish I would have gone the self-pay route when I had the chance before having the heart attack. Btw, I had even gotten a stress test earlier in the year and everything looked good, so I was more than a little surprised when I went into the ER and found out I was actually having a heart attack. I expected them to tell me I had indigestion or something trivial. After the surgery, I am hoping to be able to get off of at least a couple of medications my cardiologist has me on.

I also have BCBS (of Illinois) and have been approved for VSG. Definitely work with the insurance specialists at your surgeons office. They should be experts at navigating what is and is not covered.

Best of luck to you. Hopefully your wait won't be that long. I have a bit of a wait as well. After going through the process and getting approval from my insurance, I found out that I had to wait another 5 months in order to get cardiac clearance. My surgery is now scheduled for early January. The first couple of months have gone by kind of slow but I'm sure the holidays will fly by.

I have to disagree. I have under 100 lbs to lose but have had a heart attack so that, with my BMI of 36, qualifies me. I thought about VSG before the heart attack and didn't do it. I wish I could rewind the clock.

I thought the toughest hurdle to jump to get VSG would be getting insurance approval. Well, fortunately I got my insurance approval yesterday but am still waiting on clearance from my cardiologist. I had a stent put in back in December so I have to remain on Plavix for at least a year. This means I will have to stay on Plavix during my surgery which could cause an increased risk of bleeding. My cardiologist would like me to wait until the one year mark and have the surgery then when I can be off the Plavix. My surgeon has done the procedure before for patients on Plavix and is willing to do it in my case, if that's the route I want to go. It's a tough decision because on one had, there could be surgical complications but on the other, I could develop other problems like diabetes or have another heart attack while waiting 5 months for the surgery. After a lot of careful consideration, I would like to get the surgery done and get started on the road to lower weight and better health. Hopefully my cardiologist will give his approval soon so we can move forward. I have a tentative surgery date of Aug 10. Anyone else have a similar experience and if so, what was the outcome?

I would say let your own history be your guide. What is your track record for losing weight and being able to keep it off? The surgery is permanent so you definitely want to be sure about your decision.

Updating for anyone reading this thread who might be in a similar situation. The anesthesiologist would not sign off on me having VSG until I had been on Plavix for a year so I am back to waiting and have my surgery scheduled for January. The good news is that my insurance approval will still be good so I won't have to repeat the process.

My approval was pretty quick - about 8 days. I was surprised to get an answer that fast.

My surgery date will be Aug. 10th. I just got clearance from my cardiologist this morning. I'm looking forward to getting off some of my medications and hopefully getting rid of sleep apnea.

Thanks for the reply. I got approval from the cardiologist this morning!