Everything posted by aNYCdb
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Postponing wls
The simple answer is that you won't even have a surgical appointment until after you finish your dietitian classes, so just let the bariatric surgeon's office know about scheduling. The only concern would be some insurance need everything to have been completed within 6 months of surgery so if it gets pushed back far enough you may have to get some updated letters for whatever specialist you saw (or not every insurance company is different). On a separate note do you know why both surgeries can't be performed the same day? Or alternatively if you can get your WLS first and not have to wait 6 weeks for the shoulder surgery?
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Weight Lost During Pre-Surgery Diet
If you are talking about your preop liquid diet, then I'm pretty sure that 8 pounds is going to be on the upper end of the spectrum so I wouldn't worry about your doctor caring or thinking that you cheated.
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HELP HELP HELP on the website and App
A couple things. 1) As far as I know you can only change your profile stats from the web application (not the app). To do so is Under your profile (Link). This is where you can update for your surgery and add your weights if you choose. 2) I believe the newbie stat (and all those stats) are a function of how many posts you have made (I think it changes at 10 posts)
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Hoping for ESG
Congrats on starting you journey and I hope you are a good candidate for ESG. I would also add having had a VSG, that if opted to go with what you insurance covers it is a pretty minor surgery and a small incision. Either way recovery Fromm the procedure is going to be a minor part of your post surgical adjustment.
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Keeping Surgery Secret
My wife and some of my immediate family know, otherwise I’m not saying. So folks that I know who have had it recommended to me avoiding spreading it around. According to their expirence “thin people will look not understand the need, and the overweight will resent you for ‘cheating.’”
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Swimming shirts/wet suit
Ditto, rash-guards are what you are looking for.
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Stall help??
Don't consider this a stall. When you start adding food back you begin refilling the digestive pipeline that you emptied on your liquid diet. Food takes ~3.5 days from end to end. Just as this probably accounted for 4 pounds of percieved (but not actual) weight loss on the liquid diet it will make it look like your weight loss has stalled (or even gone up) for about 3-6 days. Trust me it was frustrating for me to see the same number on the scale for 4 days as soon as I started eating a little bit of soft food.
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After sleeve protein
I like the isopure zero carb Apple Melon, that said these clear protein drinks aren't usually ideal immediately post surgery, because they are really hard to concentrate (i.e. make into a 4oz drink with the amount of protein that usually goes into an 8oz drink). They are also hard to fortify with extra protein from milk (I recommend the fairlife fat free because it will give you more protein).
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Stuck
So I'm going to assume the date of your surgery was a typo and you are talking about being on a preop liquid diet, which for most folks means protein shakes. It's hard to provide advice without knowing what you are struggling with. Is it the liquid nature of the diet, are you having difficulty getting all the protein you need, are you just frustrated and hungry (trust me we have all experienced this on the preop diet)?
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Day four just left the hospital
Right after surgery I loved just a diluted bullion cube with some water. If you are trying to get protein in try a bone broth. Unfortunately you are probably going to suffer through the protein shakes for a while, but I would use a whey protein powder that way you can make it the consistency you want.
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Flatulence
I'm pretty sure that noxious gas after RNY or DS are pretty much expected. The issue is that due to the malabsorption that these procedures cause more undigested food makes it to the colon where the enzymes there attack it leading to a much more "robust" experience. I would also add that these are not generally temporary. I know people 10 years out from RNY that deal with this.
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Got my primary doctor to refer me!
I think the answer to a lot of these questions is going to depend on your insurance requirements. That said generally the prerequisites for surgery, testing, weight management classes (if required) need to be within 6 months of surgery. That may make it difficult to knock them out before or during your pregnancy. I suspect when you meet with the surgeon for the consult they will advise you to come back closer to your due date (or after) to dive into the program. I think you are also right to do the surgery after having your child, because for most surgeries it is not recommended that you conceive until at least one year after surgery (some surgeries are 2 years and even then there are some other complications due to malabsorption issues). All that said, congratulations on starting this journey.
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Question for the men
I haven't been tested, but I would be suprised if my T levels went up since surgery. While being obese definitely suppresses testosterone production so does operating on a big caloric deficit so I generally woudn't expect levels to increase until you have settled in closer to you equilibrium weight. That said everyone is different and there could be other reasons for increased T in the blood, that may or may not be related to the surgery. I'm not sure what your levels are or when your tests were, but stress could have suppressed your T levels in your earlier tests. Either way Testosterone levels don't really matter that much unless they are too high or too low (and generally a diagnosis of "Low T" is just an excuse old men use to get some winnie (winstrol) from an unscrupulous doctor in Florida. Either way congrats on the great progress so far.
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Frothy, yellow diareah.. need some advice
This is the sort of thing you should see your doctor about, especially if it has lasted three days. Foamyness is generally caused by excess fat or mucus in your stool, but this may be a symptom of a larger issue. Since you've cut out carbs though it probably means that it's not a gluten sensitivity.
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Surprised by Insurance.
I’ve never heard of 6 months of weight watchers, but most of us have had to do 3-6 months of weight management classes. How do they want you to document your WW participation?
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Sleeve complications again!
That sounds horrible and I'm sorry you are going through that. I will preface this with I'm not a doctor, but I think you should also consider seeing a different surgeon. You are "rejecting the sleeve" and "revision to RNY" both sound like complete bullsh!t explanations for what your going through and read more like "I don't know what the problem is" and "I really only do two surgeries, so if the first is causing an issue lets try the other." What is actually happening inside? If its kinking, what is causing the kinking? These are the questions that they should be able to answer before making any recommendation for more surgery. Also on a separate note an EGD is a test, what procedure are they actually doing to temporarily address the issue?
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Help! Stuck in a rut!
There is nothing wrong with working out with some intensity as long as your body can take it. The idea that working out is going to slow down your weight loss is rubbish (especially if we are talking about cardio). At the end of the day weight loss (with a few exceptions) is about operating at a calorie deficit (I've heard it described as eat less run more). Yes there is a point that can be overdoing it and you will see people here talk about "suvival mode," but don't worry most of us have the vestigial reserves to get us through even on a reduced calorie diet.
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Here you guys what I look like so far
Looking great so far, though I'm a little jealous shoes weren't an option on my preop diet.
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How long After Gastric Sleeve....?
I’m not sure what a stomach spasm feels like, but I don’t think I had them. Every plan is different, but generally you advance to purée after two weeks (I got permission at my first post op visit 12days out.
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No weight loss since surgery
Just because you are eating less than you used to doesn't mean that what you are eating isn't the problem. I don't know what you are having for dinner, but the "typical" breakfast/lunch/snack you are describing in and of itself is 800+ calories. On top of that you are doing very little exercise (perhaps this is due to some physical limitation that will change as you lose weight). To loose a pound you basically have to burn 3500 calories more than you take in. Assuming that you are burning 2000 calories a day and that your dinner is <400 calories you shouldn't be expecting to be losing more than a pound or two a week, which sounds about where you are with 5 pounds over 3 or so weeks.
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No weight loss since surgery
The good news is that the part of your stomach that was removed doesn't weigh 5 pounds (it probably weighed less than 1oz). Like other folks have said it might be easier to give advice if you can tell us what and how much you are eating? How much of it is protein? How much are you drinking? Are you exercising?
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Help! Stuck in a rut!
If I was in your position at this stage I would try mixing up my diet for a bit. A high protein diet is great, but sometime soon you have to mix it up a bit. Right now half of your calories are coming from protein. It’s not clear from your post where the rest of your calories are coming from, but if you are on a low carb keto diet, perhaps change that up for a couple of weeks (maybe target 1/3 of your calories from protein, carbs, and fats.
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Could Aetna deny me?
I can’t speak to chances of approval, but most of the time you aren’t getting scheduled if the surgeon’s office doesn’t expect you to get approved.
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Need to vent -- post op sleeve
I had the sleeve as well and I think you are reading into those comments something that wasn’t intended. From an objective perspective these surgeries are on a continuum with the expectedly weight loss and complexity of the surgery increasing as you get to the RNY and DS side. That doesn’t diminish our weight loss or mean that one surgery is better. All that matters is whichever is the best surgery for us.
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I think I screwed up, please help
That’s sounds like probably a little more than you should be comfortable eating, but everyone is different. I guess the question is did you get so full it caused pressure and nausea? If not you are fine if it did go smaller till you are further along. Either way you really don’t have to worry about it causing anything other than short term discomfort.