mousecat88

Does the 15K cover all of the anesthesia/hospital fees, too, or just the surgeon's fee? I had liposuction in 2009 and it cost me 11K and I can't remember if that covered everything or if I paid other bills later from the hospital. I anticipate having an arm lift and a lower body lift in 2 years and I am saving money now, about 700$ a month until then.

I haven't had my surgery yet, but I am also saving for an arm lift and lower body lift. I know both procedures leave very long scars, and plan on getting some phrase of some sort along the scar on my arm. I was thinking along the lines of "beauty is only skin deep" - but I kinda' want something more metal than that \m/. I am a huge Aliens fan (and cats) and have a very large thigh tattoo of a xenomorph holding three kittens (lol). I want to get a cat-xenomorph "jumping" up my right side, but I can absolutely not do that until I lose weight and have the skin procedures, otherwise it'll look like a hot mess, so I am looking forward to that day. There's a lot of tattoos I anticipate getting. I recently got the one on my front thigh and one on my shoulder; the only two places I was confident wouldn't sag much. I have one I got when I was 130lbs and now it is very distorted because of my fat, so I hope when I lose weight it will reshape itself and look normal again, since it is on my pelvic bone and shouldn't sag.

For example, I just bought what I thought was a large tub of rice protein for 30$ and it's only 15 servings.

The big tubs are typically around 21 servings. You need to check the servings on the tubs you buy. I spent 50 bucks for 60 Atkins shakes at Walmart. You'll probably spend more on most powders for 60 servings.

Try pea milk! Sounds super weird, but I discovered it at Target and it's creamy and delicious. Cashew milk is very good, too.

For me, my surgeon runs the insurance initially to ensure it is covered. Then you go through all the hoops (the nutritionist, psych eval, weight loss, whatever)... and THEN they actually seek approval for the insurance. The first check with insurance is to make sure you have the right coverage and to get the guidelines from the insurance company to see everything they need to approve it. My insurance covers the surgery over a certain BMI... but they still have other requirements you don't see that they don't outright tell you unless you ask, that the surgeon gets (i.e. nutritionist clearance, psych clearance, etc). I was scared that I would go through all of the appointments and then at the end insurance would deny it, but that didn't happen. It doesn't sound like your doc is stringing you along. You have to complete all of the requirements from their office and from insurance before insurance will approve it. Insurance does not approve it in the beginning, but at the end.

I love my surgeon's office. My surgeon really pressed home the point that I am now part of their "family" and can come see any of their support staff any time I want for the rest of my life. I feel like if the rest of my support system left me, I always have them.

I AM, however, going to be active in the support groups at the hospital post-surgery. I feel like that will be beneficial; to have people around me that can relate.

I know everyone means well, but therapy is genuinely not right for me. I have been seeing therapists on and off for the last 26 years of my life and have never benefited from it. In fact, the last one I saw actually made me extremely depressed (and I do not suffer from clinical depression). It is detrimental to me. And I have tried A LOT of different people, so it's wasn't just me giving up on it or not having the right person. No one is the right person, lol. I do a lot better on my own. I am doing fantastically nowadays and my psychiatrist agrees. If things change, I'll reach out to someone again. But for now, I am not wasting my money. The surgeon's office has a psychiatrist on staff I can see anytime I want to discuss weight issues specifically, so she is always there for me, too. I'd rather go to her, if needed.

This kind of cracks me up because (although pre-op) I went through a list of criteria with my best friend for when I do get back into dating once I lose my weight, and after I went through my list which was something along the lines of "in 30's, wants no kids/has no kids, never married, educated, goes to gym, eats healthy, doesn't enjoy going out to eat constantly, etc)... she said it was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack and laughed. She is 38 with 4 kids and has been married twice and is now engaged again. The older we get, the harder it's going to be to find people without kids or never married. And I feel the same about being with someone who is overweight. I have NEVER had criteria regarding physical looks, even when I was 130lbs. I've dated skinny men, obese men, it never mattered. But I don't think I could date someone after this that is a big foodie or doesn't have a healthy lifestyle. I will need to straight and narrow to keep me on track, and I know that. Single forever? OH WELL.

Oh, for sure. I understand that. My coworker's daughter-in-law had this surgery. She didn't really want it, but her doctor told her she "had to". She lost some weight, and put back on 60lbs because she can sit there still and eat ice cream and chips and everything she was supposed to work away from. She still gets hungry. I don't want to go through all of this and fall into old habits. I think I misspoke when I made my prior comment. I understand that this isn't a quick fix, by no means.

Hm. I haven't had that brought up yet (the angiogram). I did see my ENT at one point during all of this, who had performed several sinus procedures on me a few years prior, and she didn't see any issues in the MRI. I'm going to see if the weight loss helps at all, and go from there with respect to the IIH. Regardless of how the surgery turns out for me, they are ultimately two separate issues and I want to ensure I preserve my vision. The idea of having vision loss is the scariest thing to me.

It was actually pretty convenient to have one. lmao....

My psych doctor spent the first 1.5 hours just asking me about any prior mental health treatment I've had and why I want the surgery. We went over my history of anxiety. She asked a lot of questions about if I had a history of depression, suicidal thoughts, or if I had any drug or alcohol issues, which I don't. The second 1.5 hours I took a 300 question personality test, which basically tested (again) if I was depressed or suicidal or had a tendency to be impulsive or suffer from addictions. It also had some questions about if you're happy with your job, hobbies, and how supportive your friends and family are. Stuff like that.

I'm pre-op, but have had a lot of gym time in my past. I highly recommend at least one personal trainer session. It is well worth it! They can show you tons of proper techniques with the free weights, and you'll get a range of motion with them that you won't get using the machines. A trainer can show you how many sets/reps to do, too, and every gym I've been to, they've given me a printout of my custom workout so I can bring it with me each time so I remember it all. Free weights are my absolute favorite at the gym - I always feel like I did so much more when I use them, activating muscle groups that are trickier to do on the machines. But I use the machines, too! I don't know what you mean by heavy weights, but starting with 5 or 7lb dumbbells is perfectly good for a beginner. You don't want to pull a muscle. I max out at 20lbs for any given exercise with free weights.

I don't do well with therapists; I am extremely stubborn and argumentative. I have a psychiatrist I see every two months. I've been seeing psychiatrists/therapists ever since I was four years old. I am very confident in my ability to succeed at this at this point in my life. I'm not banking on the new stomach to be the only thing stopping me from overeating. I realize it's just a tool and it takes a complete overhaul on my way of thinking and my lifestyle to make this work. I've seen enough stories of people regaining and I refuse to be a statistic.

Congrats on quitting smoking! I second the opinion on switching to flavored carbonated water, like La Croix. BUT, before your surgery you'll have to stop that, too, because carbonation is a no-no. But once you get off the caffeine/sugars from the diet sodas, it'll be so much easier to stop drinking the carbonated water because there's nothing addicting about it... except that it tastes good, lol.

I had a catheter put in when I had liposuction in 2009. They put it in while I was under anesthesia. I didn't even know I had one in when I woke up! I wondered hours later why I didn't have to pee... but I had been peeing the whole time and just didn't feel it. lol. I barely noticed when they pulled it out the next morning. Just some slight discomfort and it burned the first time I peed like I had a urinary tract infection, and it was kind of hard to "get it started". Granted, I'm a female so it had less far to travel, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as it sounds!

Can you get an IUD? Your annual visit and the IUD should all be free under ANY insurance (even Medicaid). And then you'll be safe for 5 years and not have to worry about making annual visits if for some reason you couldn't (EVEN THOUGH YOU SHOULD ALWAYS GO!!)

Oh, there's nothing you could say I don't already know, anyways. I never wanted to START dating him 5 years ago... but low self-esteem/self-worth is a bee-otch.

The honest answer for why I stopped dieting was because I was on a pretty extreme diet to lose weight and it was primarily the very long stall that killed me. I got really discouraged that I was doing so well sticking to something and had such a long plateau (even gained a few pounds). So then I went off the wagon hardcore because of that, coupled with a lot of interpersonal drama which just added to the stress-eating. Since then, I've worked on those issues and don't foresee it being an obstacle for me moving forward. I know now that plateaus happen. And the new lifestyle will be much easier to maintain with a smaller stomach, than me being very hungry constantly like I was. Pseudotumor is just one of a lot of reasons for this surgery, but definitely not the end all be all. Not at all. I was just wondering if anyone had a complete resolution of symptoms. The thing with my opening pressure. My opening pressure was actually considered within the normal range for an obese person. The tech doing the lumbar puncture even said they'd never heard of someone being diagnosed with it at my level, which was 25cm. But my neuro said it's a combination of symptoms that lead to the diagnosis, and 25cm was enough to affect my optic nerve. I have a neurologist and neuroopthamologist currently. It's the headaches that kill me... I've tried a ton of migraine meds and nothing helps, and the Diamox doesn't help that. It's very frustrating. But the migraines COULD be a separate issue from the IIH, too. I could just simply have cluster headaches in addition to the pseudotumor. The world may never know. lol.

Did your doc give you any driving restrictions outside of being on the pain meds? I have a one-week followup and will have to drive myself. It's about 45 min away.

Very true. He eats far worse than I ever did. It would be beneficial to just purge the entire home of those other foods, by virtue of him not being there. lol.

I have a scale already, but I have one that doesn't just tell you your weight, but also your skeletal mass, muscle mass, body fat percentage, water weight, protein percentage, and several other diagnostics. I don't plan on using it until I am a month or two out from surgery, but I think it'll be neat to see all of the other figures changing. The scale I have is RENPHO off of Amazon. It also connects via bluetooth to your phone, so you can track the trends of all of those figures over time. I'm more curious about the stuff like body fat percentage and protein percentage and muscle mass than I am about my actual weight.

Nothing has changed regarding my optic nerve swelling/vision. Everything has been stable since my diagnosis. I don't have any vision problems (yet).