allyb15

You would think that with intolerance to sweet tastes, especially artificially sweet ones, being so common after bariatric surgery that some of these companies would make their products less sweet. I bought a bariatric Decaf Cappuccino mix and I was really looking forward to it as an alternative to a cold shake. Even after thinning it out and adding extra decaf espresso powder it feels like I'm sipping a cup of old-school Sweet n' Low packets. You can always make something sweeter but it is so hard to make things less sweet when you can only drink a few ounces at a time. I understand products like Premier being sweet because they aren't marketed to WSL patients, but even the specific Bariatric products are ultra sweet. Back to adding unflavored whey to everything, I guess.

I love reading you guys posts! When I get to worrying about the particulars of surgery, I just do a search and find what you all experienced/experiencing... which is a great help. My Bypass surgery date is Oct 15th... my doctor's nurse told me I only have to do 7 day liquid diet, but i think i may try to start a little early.. I go to my Pre-Op testing and Dietician class on Oct 2nd then will see my surgeon on Oct 3rd...
Best of luck to all of you! [emoji847]

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What all is done during the Pre OP testing appt? I was told it was scheduled, but was not told what it entail.

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I have paid my Surgeon $790(before my first appt with him) and the hospital called and said I would have to pay them $1300, 10 days before surgery... my date is October 15th. The payments will satisfy my Out-Of-Pocket(OOP) expense with my insurance for the year. Once OOP is met, insurance will pay 100% of my medical expenses... for the remainder of this year

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Did your surgeon have you stop Contravene before surgery? If so, how many days/weeks before surgery? I want to wean myself off the drug. My surgery date is Oct 15th.

I finally got my surgery date yesterday. I am having the gastric bypass on Oct. 15th. After I got the date, I instantly felt sick to my stomach....which I knew it was only my nerves..lol... I am so excited. I started the process last October, got approved for the sleeve August 9th. Then my Dr recommended the bypass due to GERD... Got the approval for the bypass on Sept 17th. I go for a protesting appt and dietician appt on Oct 2nd.

Lol....I will be contacting her by tomorrow if I have not heard from the her.

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8 day insurance approval, I would say you got a pretty good insurance there.

Mine was submitted to my insurance on 8/1 and I recieved approval on 8/9

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Sounds a bit like the mini mental test.
Did you have to fold a piece of paper and drop it to the floor by any chance?

The woman who did my psych interview was a lunatic, I seriously thought she was drunk or on drugs (im not kidding or exaggerating)
She asked me questions like where did my cardiologist go to medical school, and several times asked me what my name was again.

that is alot of questions goodness.

I was asked during my psyc eval about whether I reached all milestones growing up, do I feel like a failure, am I depressed, what is my alcohol consumption like, have I done any illicit drugs... what is my relationship with my family, do I understand the risk of surgery, do I understand what would be required after wls. After that interview, I took the MMPI Diagnostic test... that was ~570 questions... it was a very long appt.

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Congratulations! And thank you for the awesome and informative information!

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Little Rock, Arkansas

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Thank you Lucylu1313!

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Just deleted 311 emails with Chinese writing! This is ridiculous.

Cynically, we can say that they require the diet as a roadblock to approval, betting that it will weed out some of the less serious prospects. This does seem to work to some extent, as there are some who go straight to Mexico rather than jump through the insurance hoops.
There doesn't seem to be much correlation between pre-op weight loss and long term success (note the number of people who can easily lose weight on a diet, but can't keep it off), but having some education and classwork ahead of time does have merit, helping to keep expectations more realistic.
Usually, your initial weight when you start the effort is what counts, but insurance companies vary in their policies, so it is best to check with the insurer, or the surgeon's insurance coordinator.
Your previous weight loss effort may count - some companies accept such a program within the past year or two with appropriate documentation. I was required a six month long medically supervised program, implicitly but not specifically with monthly check-ins but scheduling between me and the doc resulted in it being only about every six weeks, and that was acceptable. YMMV.
Philosophically, unless one is in the very high BMI ranks, my preference for these pre-op insurance diets is to use the time to work on developing the long term habits that will serve well long into maintenance rather than maximizing short term weight loss. In my case, though weight loss was incidental with no specific goals in mind other than improving dietary and life habits, I still lost about a third of my excess weight, put off surgery (success for the insurance company!) and maintained that loss for several years until going ahead with the VSG to finish the job. 6-7 years after that and still maintaining it.

You're welcome! Oh, and I forgot to mention that my surgeon and nutritionist have both advised me to follow the diet but not to be perfect. Pretty much tiptoe it to show that I'm making an effort but not enough to lose too much weight and not qualify. I know that I can't go below 257 lbs because of my height on the bmi calculator. I'm nowhere near that but its good to know the lowest you can go without a co morbidity [emoji5]

From my understanding, they want proof that you've tried to do this naturally. Also, to make sure you a are educated in your dietary lifestyle post op. My insurance requires 7 months of nutrition classes. Best wishes, good luck!

Does anyone know why insurance (UMR) requires a 6 month supervised diet plan? I'm just curious.... What if I lose weight during that 6 months, will I run the risk of being denied by the insurance because I no longer have the required BMI? I have a long history of losing weight on diets, but only gain it all back (plus some).

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