cbf

Yes, i was approved and surgery is 3/20. Starting liquid diet Tuesday. The doctor said he will repeat the upper endoscopy in one year and biopsy to monitor the Barrets. I also have a hiatal hernia so he said we can also look at that.

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Amen Sista Sleeve. You are not just preaching to the choir with this one! I keep moving forward myself in the firm belief this tool will aid me also.
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Thank you frust8... . I will be glad when i get the approval from BCBS.

I lost about 10 pounds, but about 4 of those pounds weren't real weight loss, just emptying the digestive track.

You wouldn't be normal if you didn't have a few jitters. You're undertaking quite a big step in your life. Dr Weiner likens it to getting married or deciding to have a baby, a major life decision. And you may have weird dreams, I had one where my surgeon sneezed and made my bypass pouch the wrong direction. The night before my youngest son was born I was dreaming about iliac arteries.No I didn't have a c-section, if I had planned one the dream might have made sense. As it was it made nothing logical to me.And my most current before my WLS that I'll be wheeled into the designated area and 1 my surgeon was in a car crash 2 my surgeon has a Migraine Headache 3. my surgeon decided to go to his son's high school graduation instead 4 my surgeon called to say he's no longer in the mood and with each of these scenarios: bottom line- No Surgery for me.None of your worries can be as silly as these. Now stop and think how far down the road to surgery you've already come. Now you trust your surgeon, you should trust the nurses you meet at the hospital. If they weren't caring compassionate people they wouldn't last very long in that profession. Surgeries these days are oodles safer than they were a short time ago. You don't want anything bad to happen, guess what? They don't want bad things happening and they will make sure they don't. Anesthesia these days is so smooth, easy on you and nothing to dread. I had my tonsils out with ether, I was only 5 years old but I still remember being so sick. They brought me ice cream and it came right back up, barely got warm in my tummy. That's how,it was in the Bad Old Days of the 1950s. So relax, kick back a little and remember all the reasons you sought out this surgery. Everybody has their own , some of mine and yours might be the same. But I bet you they all won't duplicate. I realized for myself a fairly simple one
Life without surgery- no real future-eventual death
Life with surgery- hope for a better and longer lifespan. It will take commitment, it will take time, and it won't be easy. But I am going to make this chance at life a good one. I'm sorry I rambled on so long but it is something I'm passionate about. You will be a success and I pray I will be also!
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Hi, I’m 69 and have a date for April 12th. Don’t be afraid of the anesthesia it’s much better today. Long story but I had the surgery in January but it was aborted due to a large hiatal hernia. No problems. Then had sinus surgery in February with general anesthesia no problems. It’s normal to be scared as this is a big step but I’m doing it for my health and to prolong my life!

Hi, I’m 69 and have a date for April 12th. Don’t be afraid of the anesthesia it’s much better today. Long story but I had the surgery in January but it was aborted due to a large hiatal hernia. No problems. Then had sinus surgery in February with general anesthesia no problems. It’s normal to be scared as this is a big step but I’m doing it for my health and to prolong my life!

Congrats to you! Good luck and I hope to see you post soon.

good luck

Hello Kakatlady,
Thanks for responding. I'm sure you will enjoy your journey to a healthier and thinner you. The good news is that I have not been on my medication for any of my "ailments" listed above since my surgery. I failed to mention I also had a hernia repair and GERD as well. After my surgery my acid reflux was very chronic and I was put on medication for that. My surgeon assures me it will go away the more weight I lose. Otherwise, no other meds. While the road is a little bumpy...I'm enjoying it and I believe you will too. The best of luck to you!

Hi Cbf,
The best of luck to you on your surgery. I know you will have a great recovery and elimination of many if not all of your above-mentioned conditions. The road to your good health and "new you" begins with this first step!
You are in my prayers.

Hi everyone- I've been off here for a little while now. I'm back on now.
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Hello Kakatlady,
Thanks for responding. I'm sure you will enjoy your journey to a healthier and thinner you. The good news is that I have not been on my medication for any of my "ailments" listed above since my surgery. I failed to mention I also had a hernia repair and GERD as well. After my surgery my acid reflux was very chronic and I was put on medication for that. My surgeon assures me it will go away the more weight I lose. Otherwise, no other meds. While the road is a little bumpy...I'm enjoying it and I believe you will too. The best of luck to you!

I had my sleeve done last year at 65. I also had my gall bladder removed and a hernia repair at the same time. I had no complications and took no narcotics after it. I will admit for a few days it felt as if I did a million sit-ups but after a couple of days all was well. I was worried that the surgeon might think I was too old but no, she never said a thing. I guess I was lucky in that I had no co-morbidities except the excess weight!
For those reading this, don't let your age make you second guess the surgery!

Hi catama-- its great to share the spotlight with another 70er, the 40s must have been truly great to produce both of us. Best wishes for all the future.

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I struggled so much during my 6-month supervised diet and pre-op. Mine was all mental - I figured I would never be able to eat "good" food again and so I had to eat all of the junk available to make up for the rest of my life. I managed to squeak out a 6 lb loss during my supervised diet (I was over 350 lbs so that was pretty much nothing). My surgeon doesn't require any sort of special pre-op diet so I was having food funerals literally up until the day before surgery. The only thing I did "right" was to cut out caffeine. Thankfully I did fine during surgery though I'm sure I was at much higher risk because of my poor eating prior. But, post-op I had the worst time because not only was I dealing with the normal post-op stuff I was also going through a massive detox from the sugar, carbs and junk. The headaches, cravings and moodiness were just not worth it. But, it is HARD so don't feel like you are failing if you slip a few times. Just do the best you can. And know that you can have good food after surgery but your definition of what is "good" will change. Now that I'm over a year out I can eat pretty much anything - I choose not to eat the junk now because I no longer crave it and my relationship with food is completely different but if I really want a taste of something I can have a bite. In hindsight I really regret not doing better during my pre-op phase but I also know that nothing anyone said would have changed my behavior...it's just something I had to figure out myself. Best of luck to you!

So, one of the great things about my surgical program is that they both do the surgeries and they are also involved in doing a lot of research being a teaching group. Yesterday i met with my surgeon and during the appointment she mentions that she has seen that those who have bariatric surgery and are on an antidepressant medication tend to lose more weight and have an easier time through the process. So my question is has anyone one else heard this or were you offered meds leading up to the surgery and then post surgery?
Generally im not the type who likes to take meds without reason and while i initially said "yes you are the one with the experience and you think it is a good idea then lets go ahead" to the surgeon, but now im second guessing my decision.

My surgery date is March 9th, I'm having gastric bypass but also fix my achalasia Type lll with a Heller myotomy and a fundoplication because the food and liquid don't go down and stays stuck in my throat it starts to spasm. I'm on meds for seizures and Migraine heads. Been under extreme stress these pass few weeks.

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I don’t recall any of the actual procedure. I last I recall being told was to rotate more on my side and bite down on the bite block when I felt the medicine.

It was super gentle sedation and super gentle waking up. Also they let me drink Water immediately after so I was stoked!

I wish yours is as much of a breeze as mine was! I’m sure it will be!

I had the groin incision lift and I honestly don't know if I made the right choice or not and it's been almost a year and a half. I did not want the scar to my knee, and I know that for whatever reason that incision often has issues with healing. I had a whopping infection in the posterior body lift incision and while the scar is on my butt, so I don't care, if I had that kind of scar on my leg, I would be upset. I actually had the thigh lift done twice, because I didn't like the results of the first version. My doctor is awesome, so he did a second thigh lift at the time we did the posterior body lift. I still hate my legs.
If you look at me in a bathing suit, the top half of my is fabulous. I had a brachioplasty, breast lift and augment, Tummy Tuck, and posterior body lift. There is not a piece of loose skin anywhere- I am tight and I love it. Then though we look at the bottom of me. In clothing I look fine, but without clothing my butt and thighs are covered in cellulite and not attractive. To be fair, I look like a fairly average, out of shape person, however I think if I had the full thigh lift, my thighs would be far tighter and better looking. That being said though, if I'm going to wear a shorter skirt, I wear tights or stockings and my legs look great, which also, had I had the full incision, the same would be true since no one could see the scar anyway.
With the benefit of hindsight, I probably would have gotten the full to the knee version, if purely because I can't wear anything now that I wouldn't be able to wear if I had the extra scars. My other scars heeled very well, so in a few years they would be close to invisible, and until then I would not have fat legs in all of the pants and longer dresses I wear.
In the end, it's up to your preferences. A groin incision lift fixes the major problems, but it is not going to give you the tight, thighs that you would get with the other version.

I had something similar--arms, breast lift and Tummy Tuck at the same time.
As far as what needs to be done--drains and the biggie, but I could handle my own really. Getting in and out of compression garments is another. Possibly washing those in the sink too so you can have a clean fresh set since you will be wearing them 24-7. Supervising you in the shower just in case... the heat and standing can cause some people to pass out. Those kinds of things... you have a lot in place to help like the toilet seat and lift chair so you may not need up and down help there, but you might.
I can't really speak to your timelines.... because you say you needed four weeks to recover from WLS. I recovered much faster. I was back to most normal activities in a week.
So.... my timeline with plastics recovery may be better than yours. BUT I want to warn you that when you have that much surgery done... the tummy tuck is the worst of it, but you have what I did in that both upper body and Lower body were out of commission... and that is TOUGH. For me it was twice has hard, easily, as WLS recovery. You feel like you've been hit by a truck and the swelling and muscle pain and just the inability to use either your arms to push/pull or your abs to stabilize/stand up is really a lot of difficulty.
I couldn't have worked remotely that soon out. And that long a drive at two weeks? I couldn't have.
I don't mean to scare you, but it's major surgery! Take it easy on yourself and let yourself recover. Don't push too hard.

Have you got,your little bag all packed? Drink plenty of fluids, hydration,is always good plus you'll be so busy tinkling you won't,be sitting around worrying. This is one of the few times in life a good,manicure doesn't make you feel better. How about going and getting your hair done? Might make you feel pampered. I love to go to the be a duty shop and have them wash my hair. Makes me feel like Cleopatra being papered like that. I'm a little strange cause I'd ask to have my hair cut that way if I got all hot and sweaty with my operation it would be one less thingvyo be concerned about. Sit down and relax today you'll probably,not sleep well tonight, just pamper yourself today, you are worth it.

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Here Here! Great post. I think success is just simply getting healthier. I think our definitions of success change over time as we reach personal goals. Right now, success is simply no more Metformin, Victoza, and Lantus Insulin. Those three meds made daily life rather unpleasant.

Thanks @Creekimp13! I did not learn about what BMI was until I first researched this surgery perhaps 2 or so years ago, so I have no idea what it really means. Numbers are finite.
Thank you all for your input, I've been stressing over this number of 135 all day and I am glad that it isn't as big a deal as my nutritionist made it out to be!

Don’t worry, it’s very uncommon to have this happen. On the up side recovery has been easy. Off pain meds by second day. Driving by day 3. Good luck!