elforman

"Let's get excited"? Sorry, that's just not me. I'm quite serene. I'm the calm in the eye of the storm. My wife is more worked up about this than I am. I didn't even sweat when I started teaching my daughter how to drive a few weeks ago. I saw the surgical coordinator today and we confirmed my June 5th date and arrival time. He told me that despite the paperwork I'd been given by the hospital's nutritionist, my doctor only requires a day and a half of liquid diet before the surgery, so I'll get to have a Sunday brunch as my food funeral. No alcohol though He hold me I can have a drink tonight if I want, but that's it. He made it clear that the doctor expects my post-op regimen to be two weeks of liquids, two weeks of puree and two weeks of soft foods. I'm prepared for that, I guess. As for vitamins, he gave me a few samples of Bariatric Fusion Pink Lemonade Stick Packs, then I ordered a box of 60 from Amazon when I got home. I'll also have to grind up my regular pills (Lipitor, etc.) and add the powder to that as well. If the taste is horrible I'll add half a stick of Wyler's Lemonade Singles to Go. I also learned that my doctor recommends being off work for 4 to 6 weeks after surgery. I'm glad I've got a very good disability policy through my company.

Ok, I just got my date, Tuesday, June 5. I've been doing a lazy version of Keto as my pre-op diet until now and have not been tracking my food, but I certainly will starting doing so the day after surgery. I know that Bariastic and MyFitness Pal are two of the most popular apps for food and activity tracking. However, are there any apps that store your information on the web and also have websites that allow you to enter all of your information as well? I love my phone, but I spend most of my time on a computer and it would be much easier for me (and my eyes) to be able to enter everything through a website as well as a phone?

One more update: MyFitness Pal doesn't track fiber or net carbs, even in the paid version. Total waste of time for me.

Fortunately, all went well. I lost 29lb in the three and a half months since my first appointment doing a sloppy job of keto and not exercising at all due to my bad back, bad feet and bad shoulders. They'll be submitting my paperwork to Cigna for approval tomorrow, and the staff said it usually takes up to two weeks for Cigna to process everything. Once the approval comes in they'll schedule me for surgery and I'll make an appointment with my PCP for my pre-op physical. My best guess is that I'm looking at mid-June at this point. The good news I got is that I will not be having my procedure done outpatient as I'd previously been told. It turns out that Cigna requires an overnight stay, so I'll be having the surgery at the hospital and will get to spend the night. While I'm sure the doctor would not do it out patient if it wasn't safe, I prefer the idea that I'll be monitored for at least the first 24 hours following surgery. So now I wait. Many people post about their nerves and fears yet I have none. My wife had a knee replacement two weeks ago and I was perfectly calm. I've had two epidurals in the last two months and didn't worry at all. I even took my daughter out driving on Sunday morning, her first time behind the wheel, and even then I was utterly relaxed. I'm really beginning to think that at this point in my life nothing is going to phase me any more.

I checked out both MyFitnessPal and LoseIt, and the annoying part is that both require subscriptions for the features I want. I'll stick with the free version of MyFitnessPal for now. Thanks for the help.

Well, for future reference, it took four days to get my approval and set a date. I'm going in on Tuesday, June 5, just two weeks from tomorrow. And I'm still super calm.

If you MUST drink V8 then I strongly suggest the low sodium version. But to me the whole thing looks like empty calories.

My first two epidurals were in one of the lower discs, L5/S1 I believe. They're ordered a third but this time it's a facet injection which would be in a different location since the first two have no helped at all. At first the insurance company would not approve an MRI until after I'd had x-rays (which were negative) and some PT. The PT didn't help so they did the MRI and found degenerative disc damage, the kind you just don't recover from. The epidurals were done with cortisone, a numbing agent, but apparently the first location was not the source of the pain. If the next ep[epidural doesn't help then one of the surgical options is to essentially burn off some of the nerves in the affected area. I don't know how significant a procedure that is and I'll worry about it if I get to that point.

That's exactly how I felt when I moved out of my mother's place when I was 20. Yes, I could cook, but I didn't know the first thing about being independent. So I raised my kids with the outlook that it was our job to prepare them to be able to live without me and their mother as soon as they possibly could. They're 21 and 18 now and I have no worries at all that they couldn't support themselves and take care of themselves in every way if the need arose, and that's the advice I give to all new parents as well.

I made sure that my kids could prepare a meal for the family at age ten. I've always thought kids should be taught self-reliance as early as possible. My daughter is 21 now and can follow almost any recipe. My son is 18 and isn't quite as skilled but can still manage to do things like cut up a smoked sausage, sauté it in onions and sauce then serve it over rice. So having them home from college over the summer means my wife and I don't have to cook much. You've got the right idea by letting them feed themselves. Hunger is a great motivator. If they want to eat and you don't help them, they'll figure something out. Or better yet, why not teach them how to cook? They'll need that skill someday.

I don't post pictures of myself, but trust me when I say I look like if Gabe Kaplan and Billy Crystal had an overweight son in his early fifties.

Thanks, If I ever get on Jeopardy and the category is Jeopardy, I'll run the category.

Sorry, you lose. There has never been a $500 question in the Double Jeopardy round. The highest amount in Double Jeopardy in the Art Fleming era was $100 and went up to $250 during the Fleming comeback attempt. When the Alex Trebek version debuted the values for Double Jeopardy were $200/$400/$600/$800/$1000, then all those values doubled in 2001. However, during the Super Jeopardy prime-time series there was a 500 spot in Double Jeopardy, but that game was tournament style and played for points, not dollars.

You are confusing FMLA with disability. In most cases, if you go on disability you're usually also required to file FMLA paperwork. The six day rule you're referring to is how long it takes for disability to kick in. Disability only starts paying on the seventh day you miss from work, so you can use any sick or vacation time you have saved up to cover those six days. However, FMLA leave is unpaid. For example, I filed for FMLA coverage because I had to take time off to take care of my wife while she's recovering from surgery. This allows me to take time off from work to take care of her as needed, and i can either go unpaid or use up any saved vacation time if I so choose. Here's a link that should help explain things: https://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/employeeguide.pdf

Something important to add to this: FMLA will only apply if the company you work for has 50 or more employees. If the company has less than 50 employees FMLA will not apply and they are not required to hold your job for you when you are ready to return to work.

I can't say I read every reply in detail, so I'm sorry if this duplicates anything already said, but I do have a couple things that popped into my head. If you think there's any risk at all that you shouldn't drive after surgery, take a cab or an Uber/Lyft if you absolutely have to go somewhere or take your husband to see his doctor. It's good that you ordered all sorts of things in advance to have on hand, but remember if you need anything else like food or medications, many supermarkets deliver and if you have Amazon Prime you can often get same day or next day delivery on commonly used items. I'm going to be in a similar situation as you since my wife is having her knee replacement this Friday and I'm expecting to have my sleeve done about four weeks later when she should be at least semi-mobile. I doubt I'd feel safe driving for at least four days after my sleeve, as that's how long it took the last time I had major surgery. Both our kids, 21 and 18, will be home taking care of us but neither of them can drive, so we'll definitely be relying on Uber, Amazon and supermarket deliveries.

And mine was a 15 minute phone call. She asked me a few questions and I answered in such detail that I covered some of her subsequent questions as well. Granted, that cost me $400 and wasn't covered by my insurance, but on the bright side I didn't have to take time off from work and travel anywhere.

If I lived my life based on the feedback I get from family and friends about my life decisions either I'd have killed myself or killed all of them, a long time ago.

The pre-op physical is pretty standard for most types of surgery. I had he same pre-op physical before I had bone spur surgery as I did before I did for my septoplasty: Just a routine exam, EKG, chest x-ray and some bloodwork. The only difference will be is if you have a significant pre-existing illness or condition that could affect your WLS. And as @sammi123 mentioned above, the endoscopy is a breeze. You won't remember a thing, and I'll repeat sammi's point because it's spot on: If they find a hiatal hernia it's no big deal and they'll fix it during the surgery. If you currently have GERD it's likely because of a hiatal hernia, so that should go away after surgery. (It is paradoxical that some people who do not have GERD develop it after they have WLS. I don't quite get that.)

The difference is that the incidents of hate-based racially motivated behavior has increased significantly since Trump took office. The SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) has all of the statistics. It used to be that, like him or not, a President of the United States was looked upon to provide a high level of moral decency. What does it say when Trump can't even denounce Nazis marching in the United States? Or when a president calls his opponents childish nicknames or calls every unflattering news article about him "fake news" with no evidence to back his claims? He is directly responsible for lowering the level of discourse and civility in the country. And yes, the KKK has always been around, but until Trump came along they'd scatter like roaches when they were brought into the light, now they stand proud, happy to have a bigger audience to spread their message of hate.

That's one of several reasons, but absolutely that kind of attitude from the president has spread into public life. People who felt marginalized before, people like homophobes, bigots and white supremacists have clearly gotten more vocal over since Trump won the election, and that's compounded by the fact that Trump has done very little to distance himself from them. In fact, he says thinks like there are good people on both sides of a KKK rally, he uses phrases like "America First," a slogan used by American Nazis in the 1940s who sided with Germany and recently called reporter Chuck Todd, who is Jewish, "Sleepy Eyed," a derogatory term used by white supremacists to describe Jews. When people like that see that their words and behavior will go unchecked it emboldens them to get louder and louder.

Trollish behavior has elevated in every facet of American life over the last year and a half. As much as I'd like to be able to leave politics out of it, just look at the troll in chief in the White House. Trump is by far the meanest, nastiest, crudest and most classless person ever to hold national office and much of the GOP is taking on the same demeanor.

I call it "internet arrogance". The anonymity afforded by the web lets people say whatever they want and they often go with their first, worst instinct. Then because there's no consequence to being wrong, people often will simply ignore it when they are being corrected.

Also, regarding an emergency situation. Insurance companies will pay for emergency room visits for any hospital. However, if you go to a hospital ER that is not contracted with your insurance company and you need to be admitted, the insurance company will have you transferred to a contracted hospital ASAP unless it is too dangerous to move you.

It's possible that despite being a center of excellence, your insurance company is not contracted with that hospital. Your doctor may be contracted with the insurance company, but remember that doctors' and hospitals' contracts are directly with the insurance company, not each other. For example, my wife is about to have a knee replacement and her orthopedic surgeon is contracted with Cigna, our insurance company. But when he submitted the authorization request, we found out that the hospital where he normally performs surgery is not contracted with Cigna and he doesn't perform surgery anywhere else, so we had to find a different surgeon and hospital. It sucks that you find yourself in this situation, but the sooner you discover things like this, the better.