karen_marie

Up to 12 weeks?!?! I might have a heart attack if they told me that lol Glad you only got 3wks then

Congrats!

Congratulations on your success so far, it's incredible! And I ADORE your Link t-shirt brings back a lot of NES memories

What is causing you to consider switching to the sleeve @rnybeauty? Just curious, feel free to talk through your thoughts with all of us

Oh man, they're having you start pretty early for the liquids! I've gotta do 2wks then the day before is clear liquids, so my 2wks doesn't start til 10/11. And I know what you mean about being nervous! I think my heart skipped a beat or two when I actually agreed to the surgery date haha. But I looked into this about 5 or 6 years ago but couldn't go forward (insurance didn't cover it). Now I'm ready to make it happen

10/27 for me! Still amazes me how fast this has all gone. I only went to the free info seminar my surgeon's practice holds on 7/29 - that's just shy of 3mos from when I started to when I'll have surgery!

The dating world is most DEFINITELY crazy haha I don't miss it one bit For me, I don't think I'd be comfortable really talking about it in any detail until a few dates in, once I got a feel for the guy and was comfortable with him. I'd probably just say something about having had abdominal surgery recently and that I've really taken a keen interest in bettering my health. Then ask a question to turn the convo back to being about them - someone else in the forums mentioned that was a good tactic for anyone asking questions you're not yet comfortable answering.

First off, good on you for getting away from the toxicity! I was stuck in one of those (my first marriage) for 10yrs before even realizing what I had been dealing with. So I'm always super happy when I hear about people seeing what's happening and getting out sooner rather than later. As far as dating, I was definitely a big girl when I went back into the dating world after my divorce a few years ago. I never experienced any guys I went out with not responding to my body very positively, even as I started working out and losing some weight. And they did not have a thing for big girls - I was probably the biggest they'd gone out with. They're more attracted to your confidence I think. I noticed that making a big difference as I went on more dates. Since I met my now-husband being big like I am, I can't comment on the eating small amounts part of your question. But we've had a lot of talks about the surgery and he's been very vocal about wanting to understand everything it entails (he even went with me to the free info seminar to learn). I have shown him some YouTube videos of others showing their excess skin and commenting that I'll probably look similar to them after I've lost a lot of weight, and he seems totally fine with it. He's more focused on the fact that I'll be able to be healthier, rather than my boobs won't be as full, etc. He's also a pretty trim and active guy, so he's trying hard to understand what I've gone through in my dozens of weight loss attempts and just being supportive when he knows he can't ever fully understand. I'm very lucky to have such a supportive spouse, since I know that not everyone going through this journey is that lucky. I think dating may be a little bit of a challenge post-surgery for you, just because I think it may take some trial and error to find the right guy. Because the right guy will be supportive no matter what, and won't care about the excess skin and all that. Best of luck in the dating world!

That's great news! I remember reading your initial post worrying that you weren't losing, so I'm glad that stress has (literally) started to melt away

That would be so crazy! I'll just take being a more normal size again, not these over the shoulder boulder holders I've got now haha my roommate in college used to put a cup on her head and say it was big enough to be a hat

I agree with @OutsideMatchInside. I've got BCBS of IL (and live in IL), but it varies from policy to policy. I would think at the very least you would need to pay to your max out of pocket, then insurance covers rest of the surgery cost. Your surgeon's office may be able to help get more information from BCBS of IL, but it'd be better for you to do the phone calls just so you can ask all the questions you need and not worry about anything getting lost in translation.

Oh my gosh I never even THOUGHT about that! Now I'm looking forward to actually fitting my bras properly haha

Got my lab results back in my online patient portal. A1C is at 5.6, so on the high end of normal but not quite pre-diabetic levels. I'm close to straddling the fence on that (pre-diabetic would be 5.7-6.4 range) so I'll want to keep an eye on that. Vitamin D came back at 21, and it really should be at 30 or above. I tend to be low on my Vitamin D levels though, so I was expecting that. I'll see if they have any requests when they call me, other than probably taking a Vitamin D supplement.

I'll have to ask my doctor about it before my next labs. No one mentioned needing to fast, only that I should have had water to make it easier for them to take blood. This bariatric program has been around for quite some time, so I'm assuming there's a reason behind them not telling me that I would need to fast. Thanks for the extra input!

I'm thinking they may make me fast when I do the labs right before my surgery date (or when getting labs afterwards), but this was the very first set I've done. They said it wasn't necessary. Kind of hoping fasting isn't required. It would be hard to not eat or drink anything from bedtime to lunchtime (or later) the next day.

Seeing as it didn't even occur to me, and it wasn't mentioned to me when I made the appointment, make sure you drink water during the day prior to any lab work! I had decided to treat myself to an iced coffee this morning after dropping one of my dogs at the vet. Was sipping on it all morning prior to my lunch time appointment. When they went to stick me for the blood samples for the A1C and Vitamin D tests, they had a hard time hitting my veins because they were basically flat and shrunken. WHOOPS hahaha. Learned a lesson I didn't realize I needed, so thought I would pass along! They were able to get the blood samples in the end, but I've got a few extra holes in me that I could have avoided

@Millerlight make sure you're logged in and the link will work sometimes I'll not be logged in when I open multiple tabs, so I know from experience haha let me know if you still have trouble. I was able to open the link after I logged back in

Subscribed! I'm a YouTube junkie (Game Grumps and Markiplier have to be my faves), so I'm always looking to watch and support more channels Another guy that I subscribed to awhile ago is ObesetoBeast. I wasn't there for his journey, but he's pretty inspirational and not afraid to tackle stuff like how he deals with his excess skin, etc. I'll be watching your progress and rooting you on!

I use an online journal called Penzu. It's private, unless you want it to be public, so it's a great way for me to 'write' about my journey. I like going back and reading and reliving, and I'm hoping to continue as I progress. I'm only pre-op right now, but I think getting all my thoughts and feelings down in a safe, private space will help me.

There is a thread that I came across on here a little while ago that had put together a suggested hospital checklist from suggestions of dozens of members here. I tweaked slightly, but this is what I'll use for my general guideline to plan before surgery. I think some things will be left to the wayside, but a good starting list. Hospital Stay Checklist.pdf

Awesome progress so far! Helpful for us pre-op newbies to see people's progress

Never too late to start @bostonmama! A food blog is actually a really good idea.

Just curious as to how many others have kept some sort of private journal (hand written or typed/online) that they use to document the progress of their journey. I know a lot of people blog and have YouTube channels (feel free to share both!) that are viewable by the public, but my journaling is done on a site called Penzu, which is a private online journaling platform. I used it when I went through my divorce from my first husband, and it was actually very helpful to get all my thoughts typed out without worrying about others reading them. I could just lay it all out as bluntly as I wanted. I may eventually share some of my journal entries with friends and family, but right now it's my space to say what I want, keep track of all the pre-op appointments I've got scheduled, and just have a place to store all of my thoughts. I did splurge and pay the $20 to upgrade for a year of Penzu Pro, which basically lets me have multiple journals (so my WLS is a separate journal of its own), and different text and background styles, as well as the ability to download/print my journal if I want down the road. What are you doing to document your journey so that you can go back and 'relive' it down the road?

I literally just had mine yesterday! Here's my experience. I'm sure it's a variation of this for most people. Office scheduled me for 2 1-hr appointments back to back - one hour to take the MMPI personality test, one hour to talk with psychologist. I think I only needed about 1 hour to complete it all, but I'm sure they want to make sure everyone has enough time. Psychologist just asked questions like What made you look into weight loss surgery? What other diets/exercise plans have you tried? What do you think will be the hardest change/transition to make? Have you told anyone you're having the surgery? What does your husband think? Is he supportive? Basically, he was just getting a feel for if I understood what changes would need to be made, if I was able to recognize and acknowledge what will be difficult for me, as well as what type of support system I have in place. The MMPI test (you can google it, lots of people talk about it) asked around 330 true/false statements that I had to answer by filling in like a scantron bubble sheet. The doctor said if I don't hear from him after our appointment is done, that's a good thing, there were no red flags for him to follow up on. Seemed a bit scary beforehand but it's really not bad at all

It's something that I would love for him to be able to do! We're going to be buying a house next summer, and I'd love to be corny and have him carry me over the threshold haha.