Puffy-no-more

Congratulations!!!! I bet it feels so great. I hope to join you in that land in another day or 2!!

I have and am using them. I just had some blood work done last month (my 3 month labs). Everything was good except for my iron so now I have to take an extra iron pill. But.....I’ve always struggled with iron so I’m thinking it’s not related to the patch. Like I said, everything else was good. I could probably take regular pills now but I remember a couple of days after surgery, I tried to take some Tylenol. I cut it in half and omg was the worst feeling ever. It felt like it was just sitting there! So I would definitely recommend the patches especially in the beginning!

I had united healthcare choice plus. The representatives told me it was 6 months but when I read the fine print on their policy, it didn’t say anything about 6 months. So my surgeon submitted everything after my first appointment (I had already did the psych evaluation and my surgeons office didn’t even have my records yet from my doctor’s office) and I got approved within a few days. So in all, with the psych evaluation, surgeons appointment and being approved, it was about a 2 week process to be approved.

Hello everyone. I'm new to this and am very nervous about this whole thing. I have been seeing my primary doctor for years about my weight and have tried numerous diets and pills thru my doctor. I have UMR for insurance but they go by the United healthcare choice plus guidelines for bariatric surgery. I have received different answers from different representatives through my insurance place regarding the 6 month diet requirements. Does it need to be consecutive? How far back can those 6 months go? Does it have to be doctor supervised or can I show weight watchers logs? My surgeon office initially told me it doesn't have to be consecutive and can go back 2 years. But I was just doing some reading and saw that some people with this same plan had to have consecutive visits and within the 6 months prior to the authorization being sent in. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Y’all are awesome! Thank you!!!! Im going to stop worrying about it and just make sure I get my protein in first.

Ok thank you everyone for your input! I feel like I have so much to learn. Like I didn’t realize that there are good carbs and bad carbs. Of course I know breads, pasta, rice that sort of thing is not the best right now (for me, probably ever cause once I get going on it......you know!) but for the life of me I’ve been trying to figure out why a potato is so bad. It’s a vegetable!!! but as for right now, and I’m not complaining I really love this aspect of wls, I’m doing good to get my protein in so I don’t have room for much else. I guess I’m more looking ahead as well and I plan on using weight watchers to help maintain my weight and they don’t technically count carbs so then I wonder if that would even work. anyways, I’m rambling. I just feel like I still have so much to learn and y’all are such a help! Thanks again.

Hey everyone. So I’m really starting to think maybe this is appendicitis.....? But I wanted to ask on here and see if anyone had any other thoughts. Since Monday, I keep having this stabbing type pain in my lower right abdominal area. It only last for about 7-10 seconds and then it goes away but it just keeps getting stronger and more frequent. I can’t figure out any correlation between the pain and when I eat or what I eat so I just don’t know. I’m 3 months out from gastric bypass and up till now doing great. Any possible ideas of what this could be?

Hey everyone. I hope that y’all are doing good. So the other day, my little girl came to give me a hug. I was standing at the time and all of a sudden she got really excited and said “mommy, I can put my arms all the way around you now”!!!! It might be dumb to some but it made me so happy and I had to hide my tears from her! Also, tonight!!!! I took a very comfortable bath for the first time in a very looonnnng time! Before, I couldn’t even sit comfortably in the tub.

Well naturally @Hop_Scotch I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas. @Arabesque I had my gallbladder removed about 10 years ago so I should be good there. It seemed to kind of go away a little bit ago but it’s starting up again. I’ll get it checked out.

@ChubRub I am totally with you on this obsession but I have a longer ways to go to get to goal than you do. I have several clinics that are about an hour away and they all recommend coming in and having consultations even before you reach goal. I haven’t gone in though because as @summerset mentioned, they will only do 1 surgery at a time. I’m needing a panniculectomy/tummy tuck(I will have to pay the difference), a breast lift, thigh lift and arm lift. There’s no way I’m doing 4 different surgeries and recoveries! I’m in the Midwest but am thinking of traveling somewhere else for these procedures.

I had a schedule! The 2 weeks before I started my preop diet was all my favorite foods and restaurants!!! I knew the only way to fit it all in was to make a schedule of everything I wanted to eat and when. And all the soda I could fit in me because I knew I wouldn’t be having soda again! My husband thought I was crazy but whatever.

hey. I am almost 3 months out from RNY. I totally remember being where you're at. Trust me!!! If you follow the plan, it does get better!! I remember wanting so many things that I couldn't have in those first few weeks and being depressed and feeling like what have I done!! For me, when I was able to start eating solids, things got so much better for me. I was able to experiment and try new things. Like I said, I'm almost 3 months post op and I've lost 64 pounds. Now?? I feel great and am wondering why in the world I waited 15 years to do this. I have so much more energy, can keep up better with my kids and my husband, and am helping them to be more healthy. Granted, I still have about 70 pounds to get to where I need to be but I'm on my way and would never have been able to do what I have done without this surgery. But even still, I have my moments where I could have a 44 ounce coke from sonic and I could go on and on and on. But I just try to distract myself and get my mind on other things because that's just not possible. What has helped me also, was to find a hobby to get involved in. I love doing diy projects and turning trash into treasure and that type of thing. It really keeps my mind busy. Anyways, I hope that offers you some encouragement. Where you're at is a very hard time but you will get through it!

I am 11 weeks post op. I got a rash on my abdominal area a few days after surgery and I still have it!!! I’ve tried hydrocortisone and all kinds of cream and nothing has helped. I didn’t think about it having to do with surgery. I guess talking to the surgeon would be the best idea.

I haven’t had it done but I’ve heard they do it the same as the flu test. I’ve had that and for me it’s not bad. Quick. Feel a little weird afterwards.

Hey. I’m 33. I didn’t have the sleeve but had the bypass and can give you what I know so far from it. I had surgery on 2/19/20. They went in and found some kind of rare hernia that they said could be very fatal if it had not been found so they had to do a lot work to that area. My doctor said that my recovery would be a little worse than normal because of it. I don’t take to anesthesia very well. As soon as I woke up, I was definitely in pain and let them know. I guess they fixed it cause I passed back out right away. This happened pretty much the rest of that first day of surgery. I would wake up in pain, they would give me more meds in my IV, and I would go right back out. I didn’t get up to walk until the next day. I wasn’t able to do much at a time but I did what I could. I had to stay 3 nights in the hospital. I had a very hard time getting my liquids in and I still do to this day. Once I got home, I stopped taking pain meds and felt decent. I was definitely sore but it was very doable. I was not able to start eating soft foods until week 4. Until then, I was having a really hard time getting in my protein and I felt really tired and week most of the day. By week 6, I was doing much better. Today, I feel great! I’ve lost 55 pounds and I am feeling it! I can’t answer your questions on the loose skin as I’m not to that point yet but I honestly don’t care. I do plan on getting a tummy tuck done and maybe a couple other things once I get to where I need to be but I really think I would rather deal with the loose skin than being morbidly obese and at a BMI of 50!!! I’m able to play more with my children and actually keep up with them! My husband and I are able to do “more” if you can get my meaning. Life is just so much better and I still have a significant amount of weight to lose! Good luck with your surgery.

@Darktowerdream thank you so much for this info. I’ve been needing to get something easy and accessible for those days when time is short. The pizza one sounds really good! I’m going to get some today!

Hey @lisafrommassachusetts it’s good to hear from you. I’m glad that you are doing well during this time. I agree with you about having this surgery if we had known this was coming but I really feel like it’s for the best. Before this happened, I was already a stay at home mom and I homeschooled my children so not much has changed for me in that regard. Of course, we can’t really do our regular field trips so we are doing more of nature type things like hiking and so on. My husband is an “essential” worker and has been having to work 7 days a week due to demand so that is different not having him home on the weekends like normal. I too have been struggling with snacking!! I’m not even hungry but feel as if I need to eat something! I have some cashews and if it gets really bad, I’ll have .2 ounces and that seems to satisfy me. I just reintroduced salad to my diet and I am in love!!! Grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, onion and whatever else I can find with some skinny girl dressing has been so good. I tried a grilled hamburger last for the first time. Wrapped it in lettuce. I could only have about 1/3 of it but I didn’t feel like it sat very well with me so I will probably wait a while before I try that again. Also, I’ve been having thinly sliced deli turkey with low fat mozzarella stick cheese and a tad bit of mustard as a roll up. That’s been really good. I know I’m not getting in my fluids nor my protein but I’m still working at it and trying to find new ideas to get it all in. Again, it’s good to hear from you and I hope everyone chimes in with a progress report. be safe!!

I would contact your insurance and find out from them exactly what they are needing the psych eval to show. Maybe its missing a certain question/answer that they want to have. And then contact the provider who did the eval and let them know. More than likely, they can adjust the report to what the insurance needs without you having to come in.

Ok. I will definitely take it slowly in trying to figure out what I can or can't handle. Thank you for your help!

Hey everyone. I had the gastric bypass 7 weeks ago today. I have a question about fats. I have been told by my surgeons office that foods high in fat and sugar will make me sick, cause dumping syndrome, blah blah blah. However, they tell me I can have a tablespoon of peanut butter. High fat, right? And there are other foods I have questioned on their list that to me would be high fat. So my question is, what is the bad fat that I need to be looking for? Is there a difference in how my body will react to it? Obviously greasy foods are not even in the picture. I get that that is bad fat but I'm talking things like nuts, etc. Thank you for any insight.

@catwoman7 thank you! That's what I was looking for. I haven't tried anything with sugar but I had 3 bites of a meatball with some sugar free barbecue sauce and I got really sick and went through the whole dumping thing. After, I looked at the nutrition label and realized it was really high in fat and that was probably why.(I know! I should've paid attention before I ate it but for some reason I was more concerned with the sauce. Lesson learned!) So I have been a little scared to try the avocado and etc because of that. But like I said I was confused because my surgeons office was saying to eat small amounts of nuts and avocado. So what you said makes perfect sense and helps alot!

The surgeon sends everything in to the insurance company when it is all completed and they are requesting a prior authorization. If insurance decides they need further information, they contact the surgeons office.

Aaaaaahhhh! I just told my husband last night that I can't wait for that day! Congratulations!!!! I can only imagine how you must feel!

Hello everyone. I hope that everyone is doing ok during this time. So I am almost 6 weeks post op RNY. Before surgery, the main thing I drank was soda. Other than that, I would make sweet tea. Like extremely sweet tea. Like 2 + cups of sugar per gallon of sweet tea. Same thing with koolaid. fast forward to now. Of course all of those things are completely off limits and honestly I’m not even sad about this. I decided to make a change and my drinks was one of the biggest parts of the change that I new I had to make. My question is that I am getting a little bored with just the water, crystal lite, and Gatorade zero. I have never in my life used any kind of artificial sweetener. So my question is, if I make a pitcher of tea, how much stevia should I use in that pitcher? Or is there something else that would taste better than the stevia? I refuse to have any sugar in drinks. That was my downfall before and I’m not even going down that road but was wondering if I could substitute. Thanks for any advice!

This is tmi but I literally just threw up after about 45 minutes of eating less than 1 whole scrambled egg. It was just sitting in my chest(at least that’s what it felt like) I used to be able to eat a full egg scrambled with no problem. Last night, I had the same thing with some chicken that I’ve had no issue with before. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t get a lot of drink down either. I have a virtual 6 week appointment tomorrow. Will bring it up then.