LadyH

My sympathies are with you. I'm not political about the vaccine in that I don't care who does or doesn't get it, but if someone else's poor choices means I'm denied my own care, then there's a problem. Government says everyone needs a vaccine, yet continues to put the unvaccinated ahead of those who have complied. I have already spent so much time and money on arbitrary program bs, and to think that this paying patient, who has waited a year already is put on hold even longer is just maddening. If this runs into next year, not only will I have to pay all costs all over again, but you know the doctors will say I need to have those tests and procedures done all over again because they're a year old and expired now, which is just more bs. I'm starting to think the whole process is a racket. Plus, I'll be another year older, so my labs will be another year less stellar, and all of that is more excuse for them to do even more tests, delay even longer, and further take advantage of my time and money. They told me I'm supposed to start meds on Sunday, but I likely won't even know by then whether or not surgery is certain. I'm not going to take more risks putting drugs into my system if there's not even going to be any surgery. I don't even get my pre-op class until Friday. This is so messed up.

I’m passing, but it’s like rocks

That's what I want to do now, but since I haven't had surgery yet, I'm afraid they'll change my vitamins/supplements requirements again.

That scenario worries me as does the fact that bari vitamins have also been up and down $12 per bottle in the last few weeks. I can see those going to $100 or more.

I'm getting gastric sleeve, my BMI is 38, and I have a 2 weeks liquid diet. You're right about every doc doing things differently! Thanks for all the info.

I'm concerned about dehydration and constipation. When I look at expected intake and the diet post-surgery, it seems like it's almost guaranteed to be a problem.

I think we've all seen on this site that there are enormous inequities for access to care, bari teams, quality surgeons, programs, plans, preparation, diets, etc. We can't possibly know which elements are scientific and which aren't. The research is all over the place. The 30 day mortality rate deal has to do with how hospitals report their "success" rates. Yep--if you get taken off the ventilator on day 31, the hospital reports it as a "success" story with regard to mortality/complications, etc. It's an enormous gamble.

I am so jealous you can "chat" with your surgeon. Here, they keep them locked away in glass cases, I guess. We patients are just strangers to them. I heard about the variant there--stay well!

Be very intentional with the cardiac clearance. My nightmares started with that. I was sent for cardiac ""clearance", but ended up with a PA who decided to go full diagnostic despite my having no symptoms. First, she said I was probably lying that I didn't have any symptoms. She gave me 2 MISdiagnoses and put me on a drug that would've killed me had I kept taking it. She required I undergo a test that almost killed me, then demanded I get an angiogram. She refused to allow me to see an actual certified cardiologist. No cardiologist ever examined me. Then, this PA completely reversed herself 180 degrees, said I was ok to have surgery after all. This PA also failed to get the proper info to insurance/billing so I could even get an estimate for all this BS for over 4 weeks! Her completely incompetent handling of everything from the paperwork to the tests to the misdiagnoses cost me over 4 months of time and agonizing stress, thinking I was dying of heart disease. I also have snapshots of the monitors from the tests and the data from the test, and the actual numbers is not what this PA wrote up in her reports to justify all her crazy ideas. She changed my data to fit her narrative and plan for more and more expensive tests/procedures. Thank God my GP ended up getting me in to see a real doctor/cardiologist--this took an additional 6 weeks--and the only way to completely negate all the erroneous hunches and bogus guesses the PA had loaded onto my chart was to have an angiogram that proved the PA had been wrong about everything. She literally risked my life 3 separate times and caused harm. My cardiologist said to me twice that the PA "...screwed you, she really screwed you." But of course, me, my husband and our insurance still have to pay for the over $35K in bogus tests/appointments/procedures despite them being completely unnecessary and dangerous. It is scary that we have no control over who is calling the shots and how much of our "program" is just to bring in extra dollars for the hospital.

I'm having multiple procedures as well, and I'm also very nervous. I've lost a lot of confidence in my "team" for various reasons, but I'm also concerned about contracting Covid while in the hospital since staff don't have to be vaccinated. I've heard some horror stories. With all the delays and changes of plan, I wonder if anyone is really in charge. Haven't met anyone in person yet, and I've been on this path since December of last year.

Wow! That sounds nuts to me. 20 lbs in a month? I kinda feel like if we could do that, we don't need surgery? Good luck to you. Let me know how it goes and what you do to get through it. I start a liquid diet only (protein shakes and clear fluids) 2 weeks before my surgery date.