MaineDoc

My weight has fluctuated so much over the years that I had clothes in essentially 4 different sizes: XXXL, XXL, XL, and L Over the past 10 years I kept all of them because I always worried about going back even when I had successfully lost lots of weight and was comfortably wearing an L. This time, however, has been different. I *did* get rid of all my clothes XL and above once I got into an L. I finally had my surgery 3 days ago and I expect I’ll probably be in a medium when all is said and done. I’ll plan on getting rid of my Ls once that happens.

It is so interesting how we all experience things so differently. I’m day 3 post-op and it is legit work for me to get the daily fluid requirements. Drinking, even relatively small sips, can often lead to it feeling like my stomach and esophagus spasming. I’ve tried fluids at different temperatures-I think warm works the best, but even that’s not perfect. I’ve tried using hyoscyamine which has been somewhat helpful. But even with that I’m having to be exceedingly mindful of how much I’m drinking. Basically I try to make sure I’m drinking at least 2 Dixie cups of fluid each hour. Usually at first I’m ok but over the course of a couple hours it becomes increasingly uncomfortable. And in terms of hunger-I have ZERO appetite. I have absolutely no desire to eat or drink. Even seeing my family eat things I’ve historically enjoyed has not tempted me at all. It all just seems so off putting. And as others have experienced it feels like my tastes have changed. I used to genuinely enjoy protein shakes, even before I ever started in a weight loss program, but now I find them fairly revolting. I’m drinking them because I have to but it’s not easy. Anyway just sharing my experience to perhaps provide another data point in the conversation.

So I’m preop, a little under 3 weeks to go until my surgery. I’ve lost almost 70 lbs. As many of you have experienced I’m sure, a number of people have complimented me/made comments about how much weight I’ve lost. However I still myself as a “fat” person. When I look in the mirror, my eyes go to my “big” belly which I guess isn’t so big anymore but to my eyes really doesn’t look any different. Whenever I’m out and about, I still have a perception that people look at me as the “big” guy but that may not be the case. Have you all been through something similar? What has it been like to change your self-perception?

I’ve lost close to 70 lbs prior to surgery, which is scheduled for March 11. My primary reason for going forward with surgery is that I’ve successfully lost very large amounts of weight before (probably lost and gained 500 lbs in my life) but I’ve never been able to maintain it. My thinking is that the surgery will (hopefully) be the key tool for me to lock in the changes for the long-term.

My starting BMI was 39.7 (with hypertension and high cholesterol) and after about 6 months of participating in the medically supervised weight loss program, my BMI is about 29.8. During the first few months of participating in the program I thought strongly about not pursuing surgery. However after giving it serious thought and reviewing my own personal weight loss history of having gained and lost about 500 lbs in my life and discussing with my surgeon it really became clear that this is the right (and really only) decision for me. My hope is that I can finally get down to a weight I’ve always tried to get to, have come close to, but have never attained (about 185 lbs, BMI would be about 26 but I have a good amount of muscle mass). More than that, though, I hope to use the surgery as a tool to lock in long-term habits and changes so that I can maintain the weight loss long term and stop all this yo-yo’ing I’ve been doing for 20 years. Just sharing in the event this perspective is helpful.

Following up on this-just found out that I have been approved! Just wanted to let you know since I also was wondering.

Got insurance approval so it’s finally really real!

March 11 sleeve here

Awesome! Super happy for you. What a relief!! Happy vibes your way 😀

Nice job! If you don’t brag here where the hell will you?!

I’m scheduled for March 11. Just waiting for insurance approval. best of luck!

Man that is a heart breaker. I give you credit for rebounding from that and committing again to the process, not to mention having to pay out of pocket. How are you feeling about things? Do you have a 2 week preop diet?

Not trying to sugar coat things, but simply trying to offer a hopeful/optimistic perspective: The good news with your decision to take better control of your health by pursuing WLS necessitated that this pancreatic issue got worked up prior to going ahead with WLS. Perhaps if you hadn’t made this decision, the pancreatic issue would have become more of a problem if it hadn’t been discovered or if you had waited longer to have it worked up. Again not trying to minimize your anxiety and how frustrating this whole process can be for so many reasons, but just trying to maybe reframe your outlook on this as something else that will lead to improved health for you. I hope that you get an answer quickly, that it’s benign, and that you can proceed with WLS ASAP. My best wishes to you.

Good point-I haven’t received official word yet on insurance approval. I had the very same concern you expressed. According to the administrator in my program, insurance looks at 2 BMIs-one at the time the PCP makes referral to the program and one at the first appointment with the program. Based on that, I would qualify. She said she was unaware of anybody who completed the program requirements ultimately being rejected by insurance for having a BMI too low and she was aware of people with BMIs close to 30 who qualified. So at this point I’m cautiously optimistic but certainly not out of the woods yet. Please wish me luck!

I debated between sleeve and bypass-like most of us on here I suppose. The surgeon thought either would be reasonable but seemed to slightly favor sleeve, so I opted for that. Regardless, yes let’s support each other! I wish you good luck over these next few weeks. In some ways, it feels long enough in the distance that it’s still not going to happen and in other ways it feels right around the corner!