blackcatsandbaddecisions

I think skin removal is possible with insurance but very unlikely. I had insurance cover my surgery but my plan specifically states that no skin removal, regardless of stated medical necessity, will be covered. That’s not an uncommon provision. Regardless, I’d focus on the weight loss and related surgery at this point. Many people lose the weight and never have skin removed. If I didn’t have the funds for it I wouldn’t stress over it, and I’ve lost almost 180 lbs so I def have extra skin. I’ve posted a pic of me in a swimsuit, however, and even then it’s not that overt.

I was so scared- I had a whole list of stuff that scared me. I tend to overthink things and come up with worst case scenarios. Honestly I just tried to focus on things step by step to avoid freaking out. I am a total scaredy cat who had never had a surgery like this before. I spent plenty of time thinking what the heck am I even doing? But it was 100% worth it. I am shocked literally every day at how much life is better with my sleeve. Even outside of the weight loss, feeling like I don’t have this insane hunger all the time, or feeling like I am always on the verge of slipping up and eating a whole pizza to myself. 😂. I feel like I enjoy food more now than before because I’m able to get food I actually want, knowing my portion sizes will be smaller. I will say I had HUGE problems with swelling at my heaviest. My ankles were literally swollen for years. I had to be checked for all sorts of things, and in the end it went away after I lost the weight. I had ankle bones under there, who knew!

175 lbs down. Work outfits, and swimsuits.

I was an almost 10 lb baby….I was literally born fat. 😂. I was a fat kid, a fat adult, I was able to achieve most any goal I set out to do but I could never overcome obesity. I finally had to just tell myself if I could have, I would have. It wasn’t a lack of willpower, or knowledge, or anything. I simply could not maintain a weight loss on my own. Losing weight didn’t magically make everything in my life perfect, but it sure fixed the weight related problems…and I had plenty.

I was not thin when I met my husband- probably slightly overweight. I had been very obese my whole life and I met him during my first weight loss success. Over the course of our marriage I regained the lost weight and then some. I ended up morbidly obese after 15 years together. Now I’m a normal weight. He has never had a problem with my weight when I was fat, chunky, normal, etc. I am very appreciative of his support over the years. If anything our relationship has gotten better as I lost weight because I am happier and I want to go out and do more things as a family. I have no interest in meeting anyone new or trying to attract the attention of men. Cheaters cheat. Marriages may end for a variety of reasons but if you want to be in a relationship (sexual or otherwise) with someone else then have the decency to end the current monogamous relationship.

There is a logical fallacy that action is inherently more dangerous than inaction. Being morbidly obese is a risk every day, and in the end life expectancy is better for those who get surgery than those without. Your friends and family don’t live your life for you, they don’t know what being your current weight is like. For me I knew that if I shared my decision I would get people trying to talk me out of it. So I went ahead with it, lost 175 lbs, and I am still maintaining.

Yes! I am still running and I have been working on increasing speed over time. I did my first official race last weekend and finished the 5k in 28 minutes, which is fast for me. Now I am working to increase distance- my goal is to compete in a half marathon next year. I run on average about 15 miles or so every week, in addition to my daily spin classes.

I have to say the c25k app got me back into running post sleeve. I just ran my first sub 30 minute 5k race last weekend. The app works!

I did pay a consult fee for my two appointments. One was $100 and one was $150. I did feel like both surgeons spent a good amount of time with me so I felt the money was appropriate, in the sense that I was paying for their time. Maybe it’s not as normal and I didn’t realize. If you are interested in a potential drive I’m booked with Dr Streu in pdx for August. I was impressed with her and the facility. In discussing specifics I also feel like the amount of OR time required for the three procedures indicates that she’s a relatively quick surgeon which is important to me. We will see how I feel in September anyway!

I ate strained soup as broth, my thought was I know the difference between a broth based soup and a puréed one, so I stuck with things like chicken noodle, etc. It worked for me!

I had my surgery at an office almost 2.5 hours from where I live. They did almost all my pre-op insurance requirements via zoom. It was so convenient, took less than 5 minutes out of my day. Definitely ask if that qualifies for the insurance requirements. For the actual surgery I rented a house for 4 nights in the area. My kids are still excited about the vacation (they were 2 and 5 at the time). I stayed the night before, second night in the hospital, then two more nights before I had my post-op and we left town right afterwards. It was no problem at all.

I eat carbs, never had any problem with pasta, rice, potatoes etc. That being said I don’t eat any starches generally until dinner time, because it makes me sleepy in the afternoon otherwise. It also helps me limit the amount I eat. I am still maintaining at my goal weight around 18 months later so my strategy is working thus far.

I didn’t tell pretty much anyone, and even now a year and a half later I can count on one hand the number of people I told. I am a very private person though and I have strong a strong philosophical objection to the idea that I “owe” people information on my life. I think social media has given people an over-inflated sense of the importance of their opinions and the need to share them on every occasion - and yes I recognize the irony of me posting this on a social media site like this. 😂. I know people in my life would have had lots of opinions about my own choices, and I don’t care to hear them. Do I think many people assume I had surgery after I lost 175 lbs? Of course. I don’t really care, they can assume whatever they want and when people try to bring it up to me I just don’t engage in the conversation. If sharing about surgery makes you uncomfortable, don’t. If keeping it private makes you uncomfortable, then share. Go to social events and if you want to still keep it private then just find excuses to not take part in food right now. In a few months you’ll be able to eat to an extent that it won’t be immediately obvious.

Totally agree with a few of the suggestions in here- broth soups are vital to get some “savory” in as well. Minute miso and V8 were my friends, and I couldn’t find as many broth based soups as I wanted so I got a little hand held strainer and made my own. That hand held strainer was a godsend for post op as well. I just gave it away to a friend who had surgery last week- felt like passing the baton. 😂 Sugar free popsicles helped as well. The “two good” yogurt was good as well. And finally I tried to stay busy after work! Distracted myself with going shopping, home projects, taking kids to the park, etc. anything to avoid sitting around and craving food.

Fairlife nonfat milk has lower sugar and higher protein in it. I drink a latte every day made with this and can’t recommend it enough. Maybe fat free cottage cheese? I personally love the stuff. Second the silken tofu suggestion- good as a base for almost everything. I recently tried the Gatorade zero with protein- it was the least disgusting protein water I’ve found, which is admittedly faint praise but post op I took against all protein water with a vengeance.

Also I just read 300 calories- that’s far below a post-op diet much less a pre-op!

It sounds like OP got some help, I found when I was doing my 2 week liquid diet I was having problems due to a sudden drop in salt. It made me feel terrible. I got permission from my team to have V8 and I found out he “minute miso” mix at the grocery store that both helped get some sodium into my diet. I think the takeaway here is that the pre-op diet is crummy, but if you feel legitimately like something is wrong reach out to your team. I appreciated the two week pre-op liquid diet because it kind of prepped me psychologically for the post-op time. I do question the offices that have people on specific brands of shakes, etc. I can understand having restrictions on carbs, calories, sugar, whatever, but if it’s only a specific type of shake sold by the office that seems pretty suspect.

Yikes, anyways to OPs question, I’d recommend against it, if for no other reason than it has a reasonable chance of making you sick. No way to spend a fun event. If you do decide to do it, do a practice run at home first to make sure you know if it makes you sick, and if not how much you can drink now without taking an express train to embarrassingly drunk. 😅. Remember you won’t have food to “soak up” the drinks, and you just absorb alcohol different now. Also think about sugar content in drinks (more likely to make you sick at this stage) and carbonation. If you do decide to drink you might try a dry white wine, or a Bloody Mary, or something similar. Trying to think of low carbonation/lower sugar drinks. But yes, after a few months I’d say to your question on the regular gatherings there is no reason you wouldn’t be able to join in again. Again, I’d give it a few months, but if you want to start sooner that’s obviously up to you.

Same dang thing happened to me at a size xl. Had to wait to waste money to restart the loss. I am scheduled for skin removal surgery now- I have a full, expensive closet at my current size. Im thinking I will likely not change much size after the surgery, but it would be on brand for me to have to buy my entire wardrobe yet again. Luckily I feel like with a tummy tuck that would most likely influence pants sizes and I don’t really wear pants so fingers crossed.

Smart food cheese popcorn gets an honorable mention for me as well. Pretty much no limit on how much I can consume. Slides right through.

Trust me people have all sorts of opinions about what other people should do. Don’t get weight loss surgery, they knew someone who did and didn’t lose any weight. Don’t get this specific type of surgery, don’t expect to lose all the weight, etc etc. Weight loss is eating at a calorie deficit. Surgery helps us eat at this deficit by providing a physical restriction. Literally the only difference between losing 80 lbs and 180 lbs is eating at that deficit for longer. You can do it, just stay patient and keep the course!

So my starting BMI was almost 49, and I had 175 lbs to lose to get to my goal weight. I picked the sleeve because I liked how “simple” the concept was, and I knew people who had gotten it and had good results. I did end up losing all my weight and I’m at a 23 bmi today. Honesty either surgery will help- I feel like I went into this determined to get to my goal weight, and ready to make sacrifices. I feel like I see two different attitudes in the first 6 months post op- some people who are trying to use their sleeve to get the weight loss they need and make the lifestyle changes they know they need to embrace long term. Others are trying to see how they can work around the sleeve to get back to the way they used to live, and how they want to eat. I’m the end it’s up to you. I won’t pretend I could have gotten here without the sleeve- it gave me the restriction I needed and the reset to get back to where I should be. But I also couldn’t have gotten here without my own work and determination. You can lose this extra weight- it will just take longer and require a bit more perseverance than the people on the forum looking to lose 50 or 75 lbs.

Candy. Specifically any sort of gummy candy, crunchy candy, jelly beans, etc. basically if it is brightly colored and something that only a grade schooler should love then I was buying it in bulk. I gave up candy pretty much completely post surgery. I know that I can tolerate pretty much anything so I bet I could eat candy again, but I also know that reintroducing it is a bad idea. I won’t say I don’t miss it, but I don’t miss the hold it used to have over me.

I lost 175 lbs and I have a reasonable amount of loose skin. If I didn’t get it removed it would not be the end of the world, by far. I wear close fitting clothes and you can’t see it in pretty much anything I wear, outside of the arm skin for shorter sleeve shirts. I am a daily runner now (which would have been a comical thought a few years ago) and I do have to be mindful of what I wear to “hold in” the loose skin. But overall in daily life it just isn’t a huge issue. I always said I wouldn’t get it removed and you’d think by now I would learn to knock it off with these sorts of statements because now I’m booked to get a fleur de lis tummy tuck, breast lift, and arm lift at the end of august. I have the funds and I just felt like it was time.

So they are really on par with each other, since second one doesn’t include a breast lift. Btw this doesn’t include implants, I’m not interested in that and the surgeon actually said she recommends against it in cases like mine because they tend to shift, etc. Both recommended the same procedures. Both also said recovery would be a bit rough, but could return to a desk job in 2 weeks. Both also said I don’t have really any more fat to lose. Second surgeon showed me how he measured the arm skin and said it was basically just skin on skin at this point. Feels weird to have doctors saying that I’m done with weight loss, but I have to trust they know what they are saying. I’m still 165 and 23 bmi. So might have a reasonable amount of skin at the end of the day…. At this point leaning toward Dr Streu. She has a lot of experience and could do an additional procedure. I was fine not addressing a breast lift until I knew it was a possibility. She’s booking out until fall so would be a ways off but I’m strongly thinking about booking!