Purpledva

You will be fine! My ekg and my urinalysis came back abnormal. I too thought that is was going to be a set back for my surgery. My surgeon just asked me to retake both. The 2nd tech told me to relax and she took it twice. And it came back fine on the 2nd attempt. My surgery was on it's scheduled day, July 25, 2018. I'm 10 months out and 95 pounds down. Don't stress!! You will be fine! Good luck on your journey!!

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Ladyleese,
Welcome to the JuneBunch. 😄 I have a series of fun adventures lined up next week. I will be back to post the updates. Monday, I have my preop workshop, etc. And then on Thursday, it's my run through with the Doc. I had sold myself on Gastric Bypass but after reading a few posts am leaning toward the sleeve. Decisions, decisions, decisions.............So I will ask the doctor what he recommends. Anyways, welcome and I am sure you will be just fine. I had a college buddy who was a social worker but soon changed careers after the stressful caseload. And now she is teaching.......go figure. From one stressful career to another.

I chose the sleeve because I didn't want to mess with the rearranging of the intestines in RNYGB. The research I read said that the complication rate was lower. Friends that just went ahead with bypass asked me why not just get the 'gold standard' since its reversible and some sleeve patients have to convert to bypass anyway. The way I figured it, I had a less than 5% chance of needing a revision to RNY from GERD. Then if I was that 5% and needed bypass then I would have a 20% chance of any complications from RNY. I didn't want to jump to that 20% complication risk right from the get go.
I didn't care that the sleeve wasn't reversible - why would I want to reverse it? Some people need to have their bypasses reversed because of malnutrition, but because the sleeve isn't malabsorptive the risk of losing TOO much isn't nearly such a problem. There are a lot of surgeries that aren't reversible and no surgery has zero risks involved.
Both surgeries are a TOOL. And your long term success is determined by how you use it when making a lifestyle change in eating habits. Those friends that had their "gold standard" surgery? They follow an everything in moderation diet and some are still working to get to their goal weight. I've eliminated a majority of sweets, breads, rice, potatoes, fried foods from my diet. I've reached my goal and have lost an additional 14 pounds beyond it.

Alex76, I think this is a lovely idea. I am in the southern suburbs but would love to meet others who are going through the journey. My date is June 3rd. Keep us posted if you want to meet up.

WOW! Congrats on completing your first 5K! That's awesome!

Hello All,

I don’t know if anyone needs this today so I’m posting it in case anyone finds it helpful!

I had Gastric sleeve on 7/26/18 . I weighed 276lbs.
Post surgery the first six weeks I dropped 35lbs really fast.

Things slowed down a little after that because I kept expecting the rate to stay the same. I have hit plateaus and taught myself not to be a slave to the scale. I weigh myself once a week and after a plateau I waited 2 weeks.

I also work out, but started slowly. I was walking on a treadmill at an incline for the first few weeks. Then I got bored and started to alternate between using an app with all types of workouts and mixing it with the couch to 5K app. In October a long time friend talked me into signing up for a 5K (even though I hate running)!

Today I am 7 and a half months post surgery . I am down 90lbs and completed my first 5K! If I can do it... Anyone can!

Reading everyone’s story on here is so inspiring and insightful on this journey of weight loss surgery that I figured I would share and track mine as well. It will be nice to hopefully look back and read this a year from now anyway after being successful with my gastric sleeve surgery...fingers crossed! All up to that dang insurance approval!
Backing up a bit... let me explain a little about me and my battle with the “fluff”. I’ve pretty much have always battled weight. I was always chubby as a kid and grew up in a big Italian family where portion sizes weren’t a thing and life revolves around food. For most of high school I was overweight... except junior year when I decided I would go on a major diet and exercise. I lost a lot of weight and looked good but still only got to 175. By senior year I was pretty much fat again. This would continue every 2 years until my first pregnancy. I would drop 40-50lbs and then gain it right back. By my first kid I really gained a lot though and was a little over 300. Only now due to the pregnancy, I got hypertension that never went away. Then I lost 80lbs. but you guessed it! Gained it all back and then some again! This pattern continued more and more. I remarried and got pregnant again and was back up to 275 again. I have always thought about the idea of weight loss surgery in the back of my head but I was going to try 1 more time to lose it myself and try to keep it off. I found a medically supervised weight loss program with “pills” and lost about 90lbs on it. That was almost 2 years ago. But now I have sadly gained at least 40 of it back and It seems to keep pouring back on me. Plus now I am suffering from severe osteoarthritis as well in both knees and I need a total knee replacement in my right. I’m still going to the gym and I’m still on the medicine, but my body isn’t reacting to it really anymore. So enough was enough and on March 1st I went and saw a weight loss surgeon! When he started explaining to me about how my body just starts to resist the weight loss and thinks it’s starving or wants to go back to my reset mode (which is my 300lb weight) it all made sense! I just always called it my inner fat girl wanting to come back out. He explained how cutting out this part of the stomach removed those hormones and will help me fight those genetics. Now I understand I need to keep up my end of the bargain and still exercise and count calories, but it def explained why it’s like all of a sudden my body would just hit a wall and start gaining back the weight even when I was still dieting. So sleeve it is and I couldn’t be more sure of this!
So here goes my journey. They set me up that day with referrals for the psychiatrist, the gastroenterologist and the nutritionist. Luckily, since I’ve been in this medically supervised weight loss program for 2 years, I pretty much already have in my nutritionist meetings but he wanted me to meet with a Bariatric one at least once pre-op. I met with her on March 9th for the first visit already and learned a lot about what to expect the first few weeks out of how to eat and the different phases of food. My next apt with the Bariatric nutritionist is April12th. My endoscopy is scheduled this Friday so hopefully that goes well and my psych is scheduled for the following Friday. I have already filled out the package they sent to me for that which was about 500 questions. I do think it’s a little weird they want me to release all my hospital medical records though.
I just hope and pray I get approved by insurance. Depending on who measures me, I range between 5-5 or 5-6 it seems. I also weighed in at 228 which left me with a BMI of 36. My insurance requires a BMI of 35 with comorbitities which I obviously have of hypertension and osteoarthritis. So the low end of BMI has me concerned with approval.
Now the other thing is this, and please don’t judge,....My daughter was born in Jan of 2016 and in May of 2016. my husband and I decided to have a “date” night home with a few margaritas for cinco de mayo. This was my first time drinking anything since she was born so they hit me pretty hard and he and I got into the biggest fight of our lives where he confessed some stuff that I was not expecting...throw in terrible post partum depression that I was suffering from that I wasn’t really aware of at the time and I ended up taking a handful of Tylenol PM’s that night. Well..of course I came to my senses right away and immediately called for help so this landed me stupidly in the ER that night vomiting up the pills and being monitored. I went home the next day after they made sure I wasn’t “suicidal” and of course followed up for a few months with therapy because I was just suffering from out of whack hormones thanks to post partum. my husband and I also worked things out as well. But long story short is....I’m really afraid that might be a clear strike against me for the psych eval. Especially if I release my medical records......
i guess we’ll wait and see. I’ll keep you guys posted on Friday on my Endoscopy.
And thanks for reading this whole thing if you made it up to this point! 😄

It makes me happy that we actually have a great group of people who we can turn to if needed. I mean unless you're embarking on this journey, you cant fully understand how exciting, scary, and wonderful this is. A great example is my wonderful husband, he supports me but I know I drive him nuts talking about it lol. Smashing Pumpkins helped get me through high school but so did 80s hair bands lol my parents raised me loving the 80s even though I'm a 90s baby (lol) and Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins were ahead of their time.

Hi everyone! I was approved by my insurance today & was scheduled for surgery on June 4th! 😊

Since a few of us are from the Chicago area and are having surgery around the same time, would anybody be interested in a Chicago area meet up?

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Good Evening Ladies,
‘I am new to the WLS forum. After 6 months or so, I have finally received my surgery date which is June 3. I have been trying to make my mind up for about 8 years and am ready to get this thing done. I’ve had all the tests completed and everything was fine except for an abnormal ecg. When I visit my doctor on the 13th for the final clearance, I am crossing my fingers everything will come out ok. So if you don’t mind another June surgery buddy...... I would love to tag along. Btw, I love the pumpkins too..😃

Fitbit??!!! I got mines in August of 2018. It was instrumental in my journey to WLS. I monitor my heart rate and step count on a daily basis. I will keep you posted after my next visit to the doctor on 05/16. Hopefully he will give me the all clear. So I am keeping my fingers crossed............

49Nash,
I sure hope so. I will keep everyone posted... All of the other tests have come back and everything is ok.
I am going to start following you if you don't mind.

I don’t think it is is buyer’s remorse, we know it will all be okay in the end, but there are days we struggle. Today was one of those days for me, and I’m only a week post-op. It truly is a lifestyle change and we can’t change everything overnight. The recovery stage is the hardest because your diet is so boring (if I have to drink more chicken broth my head will explode). Best of luck!!
Progress, not Perfection!

Yes, I had buyers remorse the 3rd day. I couldnt stop crying. It hurt so bad to just drink Water and I was in so much pain.
It gets way better, I promise!
I've had bumps in the road and went to the ER 2 times. I feel loads better!
Best wishes!