Chunkysoup

Yeah I know I am really going to have to work on eating slower and taking smaller bites,etc. I eat very quickly right now. I have always eaten very fast and it can be really embarrassing. My husband used to be a smoker and everytime he would cook dinner he would go out and smoke afterwards and then come back in to find me finished with my plate. So that is something I will work on. Refraining from drinking while eating will be hard too. I've always drank a lot throughout my meal (probably to compensate for my massive bites!). I have a good 6 weeks to practice all of this so I will start to implement it. Thanks everyone.

Hello everyone! I have surgery scheduled for 7/17/18. When I went to my nutritionist visit she suggested that I start practicing my eating by taking small bites (she said small like the tip of my pinky) and chewing the heck out of it. I still have my preop diet class that I will be attending in a couple weeks where they are going to be giving more detailed information about pre op and post op eating and of course my pre op appt (which is only 1 week before surgery). But I am wondering what those of you who have already had the surgery would suggest to prepare for the drastic change to our eating habits. I still don't know what kind of preop diet I will be required to do, if any (other than the day before surgery). Also, I started taking a daily PPI (Protonix) at my surgeon's request and they want me to continue this after surgery as I do get acid reflux a few times a week. Am I going to be able to take that in pill form in the first few weeks after surgery? Does it even come in a liquid form? The pill is pretty small and thin but I have seen a lot of folks talking about taking liquid forms of medications for the first month or so after surgery. Thank you all in advance for your advice and input, I appreciate it!

You can actually call your insurance to ask what they specifically require for approval. The only thing I really know is that they generally require a 6 month monitored diet and exercise plan. I don't know what their requirements are as far as BMI with co-morbidities or any other pre op requirement though. Hopefully someone can chime in that has used UHC for their surgery. I have UHC however my specific plan under my employer excludes bariatric surgery so I am self pay.

I plan to keep it from as many people as possible. I have told 3 people, my husband, my mom, and my sister and that was out of pure necessity as I needed help from all of them either for financing (husband) or child care. The information was not very well received. Nobody is "happy" for me. They all pretty much think it is an unnecessary risk "when I could just work out and eat right." This probably sounds terrible but if I could have kept it from my husband I would have. Unfortunately I couldn't because I had to finance the surgery so he would have found out! He even said to me, "But you won't get to to take credit for the weight loss, you're going to have to tell everybody that you had surgery". I said, I don't have to tell anybody anything and if I do decide to tell people then their opinion on whether I get to take credit for it or not doesn't matter to me. My husband has been the least supportive which is really discouraging. From what he has said to me it sounds like he doesn't want the changes I will be going through to affect HIS life. So because the people that are literally closest to me didn't have very good reactions it has really turned me off to telling anyone else. I won't have to tell my boss anything at all because I am utilizing time off that I had already requested.

Hi there! I am pretty new to the process as well. I had my consult on 4/16/18 and am working on all of my preop requirements. I am shooting for a surgery date in July or August.

Wow wow wow! What a transformation!

I would love to keep it a secret if I can. My husband knows that I plan to get it. I really hate to keep it from my family but I feel like I will be criticized by some and my mother would be worried sick if she knew. BUT, I'm probably going to end up needing her help watching my toddler overnight for the hospital stay so I'm going to have to tell her. There is a week in the summer that I have to be off work due to my babysitter going on vacation so I already have that time scheduled off and was hoping to be able to use that week to have surgery. I am hoping people aren't too suspicious of the weight loss because I've already lost over 40 pounds in the last 6 months. I've already had the "how are you doing it" questions so maybe they'll just see it as a continuation of the weight loss.

Geez that is a huge bill! Thank you, I will be sure to ask lots of questions!

That sounds much more manageable!

I think my price includes a year of follow ups (which I don’t know how many follow ups I will have during that time), the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and hospital fees. I will find out more on Monday when I go for consult. Really hoping I don’t actually have to spend 2k on preop testing. [emoji16]

I'm just flat out too chicken to travel to MX. Nobody in my family would support that decision. I've just barely gotten my husband to support having it done in the states. But really I thought paying cash for the surgery was going to be 20K + because that's how much one of my local bariatric hospitals charge. Then I started googling cash pay gastric surgery in OK because I saw that you had yours done in FL for what I thought was a pretty reasonable price. I found a surgeon and hospital who will do it for $10,000 and they are only 2 hours away from me. It was then that I actually had some hope. I can't swing $25K but I think I knew I could finance the $10,000. Then I realized that there is potentially another $2500 to pay! I'm really going to be stretching it. I am thankful that they are relatively close to me.

Yeah I would imagine that they would want to help out in any way they can to get what they can covered by insurance because that ultimately makes it easier on a self pay patient which means we will have enough money to go through with the surgery! Cost is a big reason why I posed this question. During the seminar the surgeon said pre-op testing runs around $2500. And I was like woah! I've got my financing in place for the surgery but I wasn't counting on an additional $2500 for pre op testing. But I'm sure that each patient is different as far as what will be required based on health history and payment status etc. I am hoping that I don't have to do all of the pre op stuff that insurance patients have to do. Because without insurance covering it, it will add up fast!

Good to know, thank you for your response! I too am hoping my insurance will pick up the pre-op testing.

I have my first consult on Monday 4/16. I am making a list of questions to ask. Those of you who have already had your surgery, are there any questions you didn't ask that you wish you would have? Are there any questions that you would recommend I ask? Thank you!

Me! I have my first consult on Monday 4/16. I will be self pay because weight loss surgery is excluded on my plan. Interested to see how the process goes. Let us know how your consult goes!

For those of you who did self pay surgery in the states, what preop testing did your Dr require? I go for my initial consult on 4/16/18 and was just wondering what all was required from other Dr's who had self pay patients. Thank you!!

Did you have your surgery in the states? As a self pay patient, what pre op tests did your surgeon require?

Weightwise.com is a bariatric clinic in Edmond OK. Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band (LAGB)- $8,995 Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (LRnYGB) – $19,995 Laparoscopic Gastric Sleeve (LGS) – $9,995 Single Anastamosis Duodenal Switch – $20,000 Revisional SADS – $13,000 ReShape Integrated Dual Balloon – $7,495 Those prices include the surgeon, asst surgeon, anesthesiologist, and an uncomplicated hospital stay. Pre op tests are not included in this price but insurance can be billed for some of that.

Yes I already have the 5k. I’ve thought about Mexico but honestly I’m too chicken to go that route. I would want someone to go with me and nobody in my family would. They would think I was nuts. I would think that too if I hadn’t been following on this forum and seen that so many people have good quality services there. My husband is already not supportive of the surgery so Mexico is really out. I can save the other 5k in the next year was just trying to see what everyone else did. Thank you for your response!

My insurance does not cover weight loss surgery so I am looking into self pay options. I have found a local surgeon and hospital that will do the sleeve for $10,000. I will either need to finance some of that or figure out a way to come up with about $5,000. What route did you go? Did any of you find creative ways to generate extra income? If you took out a loan, which company did you use? Thank you all for your input!