SleeveToBypass2023

Thank you

I found a pic of me before surgery and I took the 2nd pic today right after a workout and before my shower. When I look in the mirror, I still see the person in the 1st pic. But looking at these side by side, I can't deny that I actually HAVE lost weight, and you actually CAN see it. 67 pounds down in 3 1/2 months, and counting.....

Just took a pic right now (after my workout, before my shower lol) and I'm actually stunned. Pic 1 is before the surgery and pic 2 is now. For the first time, I see a difference.

I never lost my hunger, and I don't feel any restriction unless I eat certain foods. I had to train my stomach and my brain to know I ate enough and I wasn't starving with my smaller portions. I never had problems getting my fluids in at all. Now, at 3 1/2 months out, my body "knows" I eat up to a certain amount and that's it. No more, no less. And now it's fine. If I tried to eat more, my body now thinks it's over-full and then I'm uncomfortable. The head hunger can be the worst, especially on top of real hunger. And I was MISERABLE the first 2 months or so. Now it's fine. Just stick with it, be persistent, and you'll get there.

I chose the sleeve over the bypass because I was told by my surgeon that you can't have pills with the bypass. I have meds for MS which can't be substituted, crushed, melted, or broken open. They must be taken as-is. I could have taken liquid or gummy vitamins, so I wasn't worried about that. But my MS meds are non-negotiable, so that pushed me to a sleeve and not the bypass. You mean to say I could have taken my pills, even if it took all day, with a bypass?????

My hair was down to my butt and I got it cut a couple of weeks ago. It really does help with the shedding and hair thinning out. It will grow back, but at first it can be a little jarring. I had heard that with the sleeve, the tastes would start to come back to normal, but so far, nope. And now my brain is trained to not like/want certain foods, so now I'm just kinda ok with it lol I don't have soda everyday, mostly because I can't tolerate it that often. But it's nice to be able to order it at a restaurant or have a can every once in a while. I mostly drink flavored water, gatorade zero, sugar free tea with skinny syrup (I make my own raspberry tea that way), etc...

**My hair has begun shedding...A LOT. I have PCOS so I thought I was already used to it, but it's to the point now that if I run my hands through my hair a few times, hair comes out. Not in clumps or anything, just a lot of shedding. I knew it was coming, so I'm not freaking out, but it still sucks. **2 nights ago I had some kind of episode where I had a snack about 45 minutes after I worked out at night and I had INCREDIBLE pain. Felt heavy, sharp pains, burning. Hurt to sit up, hurt to lay down, couldn't find a comfortable position. Took pepto twice before I finally got any relief after about an hour. I was left with burning in my throat. My husband said it sounds like reflux (I'm on a PPI for 6 months, but I've never had reflux or GERD or anything before). My snack was normal (1 tbsp hummus and 1/4 cup sliced cucumbers) but my workout was more intense than normal (had the treadmill at a 5.5 incline at a speed of 3.5). Now I have burning in my throat everyday and slight nausea depending on what I eat. **I'm always tired. I have spurts of energy here and there, but they don't last long and I go back to being tired again. Even a nap doesn't really help all that much. I mean, I guess it does a little, but mostly I'm less tired (but still tired). **My taste is still weird. I thought it would correct itself by now, but I guess not. Stuff I loved, I don't like or can't eat now. Sour/tart stuff still tastes really sweet. What little sweet tooth I had is completely gone (the thought of chocolate, for example, literally makes me grossed out). I have no craving for anything greasy, salty, or fried (those were my weaknesses). I never use salt anymore because the taste is overwhelming, even in small amounts (I used to salt EVERYTHING). I can barely tolerate pickles (which were a STAPLE in my diet because I was obsessed with them) because the taste is just way too overwhelming and strong, even in tiny amounts. **I can finally drink diet soda again, but where I used to drink a 2 liter a day, I can drink one MAYBE two 12 ounce cans per day (usually just 1) because it tastes a little different and it takes a while because I still have to be careful with the carbonation (stomach is ok if I go slooooow, otherwise I get into trouble if I drink it too fast). **I can tolerate a little bit larger amounts of food now, but I have to be careful still because if I overestimate how much I can eat, food goes to waste or I end up in trouble. For example, I can eat 2 scrambled eggs and 2 sausage patties now (used to only be able to eat 1 of each). But there's no way I can eat more than that. If I do, it HURTS. I can eat 3 oz of steak in 1 sitting now (with 1/2 cup of a side like green beans), whereas I used to only be able to eat 1 or 1 1/2 with 1/4 cup of a side. At first it freaked me out, but now I'm good with it because I knew we would be able to eat more eventually, and I'm careful with what I eat and how much (and how often). **It's actually gotten easier to eyeball my food and see how much I can have. I still weigh it if I'm not sure, but more often than not, I can guesstimate pretty accurately. **It's a lot easier to stick to my diet and not overeat or eat stuff I'm not supposed to. Now that my brain is trained (still a work in progress, but so so much better now) I don't think about stuff I can't have. I use MyFitnessPal and I have my meals all planned out for the week and use that to know what I can eat, how many calories and carbs and protein is in each meal (makes it soooo easy to stay on track and get everything I need each day).

Add a protein booster to them and that should help get the amounts up closer to where you need them to be.

I haven't noticed anything. And my kids would DEFINITELY tell me if they did lol Being a big person, I'm always paranoid about how I smell. I shower every day, wash my hair 2-3x per week, wear deodorant (and refresh it at least once) everyday, brush my teeth twice a day, choose a soft and pleasant perfume to wear everyday (even if I'm staying home). And I wear clean clothes everyday (I have friends that will wear the same thing for 2 or 3 days if they're staying at home, but I just can't do that). This has been my routine for the last 20 or so years.

I've never thought of that. I wish I had started that right before surgery, but better late than never. Thanks!!

Thanks, everybody. I really appreciate you all. I knew coming here and posting about it was the right thing to do. Nobody IRL gets it. "How can you not see it? LOOK AT YOURSELF" Like, ok, I am. And I don't see it. Now what? Ugh. But anyway, thank you again so much.

Thank you so much for this. I KNOW I'm losing weight, but at the same time, I guess I don't believe it. I always thought body dysmorphia was for people who are transgender, or people addicted to plastic surgery. I never thought about it for those of us who have been fat at least half our lives (or in my case, 24 out of the last 44 years). I so badly wanted to look in the mirror and love what I see as I drop sizes, but instead I still see "fat" me, "morbidly obese" me, "nothing is ever gonna change no matter what I do so why bother" me. I think I'll start with the old, ratty size 28 clothes. I can just get rid of them. They were my cleaning and working out clothes. Then I'll separate the size 26 and 28 clothes into donate and give away piles and bag em up. I think that'll be good enough for a while. Same with my size 10 rings. I'm hoping once I hit size 18/20 I'll be ready to get rid of the size 26/28 stuff because it'll be time to start the process over with my size 22/24 stuff lol

I can see the numbers on the scale are way down. I can see that I went down a clothing size and a ring size and now those are starting to be too big. I can see my double and a half chin is now more like a chin and a half. I can see it, and I know it, but I can't get rid of my size 26/28 clothing. It falls off me now (heck, my size 22/24 clothes are getting too loose now) but something keeps stopping me from getting rid of them. My old rings are a size 10. They literally fall off. I can't bring myself to get rid of them. I look in the mirror and I can see my stomach is a lot smaller. If I take stock of each thing, I can see it. But when I look at myself as a whole, I still see big. I still see fat. I still see size 26/28 clothes and size 10 rings. It's like I can see the changes, I know they're there, but I can't make myself believe it enough to take the steps to get rid of the stuff that in NO WAY fits me. Does this sound crazy? Anyone else deal with this?

My surgeon is one of 4 doctors that jointly own their practice. And he has privileges at one of the better hospitals here and my surgery was done there. I chose the sleeve because I have pills that can't be broken and that have no alternatives (my MS meds) and you can't take pills with the bypass. Also, the complication rate for sleeve is way lower than with bypass. Lastly, the types of BCBS you can get also differ. The ones provided to state employees seems to require more testing than BCBS through a regular employer. At least, that's what I've noticed.

So I called them, and it took 3 different calls, but they were able to tell me a little (they confirmed I have the coverage, and because I have the diamond plan, it has the absolute most coverage). SO then when I had my first appt with my bariatric surgeon, I was able to speak with the person who handles the insurance and she pulled up my coverage and was really able to give me more clarity on what's covered (basically, all 3 major bariatric surgeries, all the testing, the psych eval, and the 2 nutritionist appts). It really depends on the level of coverage you choose. The higher the plan, the more coverage you get. I have MS and I have had every medication, every MRI, every specialist, every EVERYTHING covered no questions asked. Same with my bariatric surgery, same with PCP, same with pretty much everything. Lower plans (and this goes for any insurance) cover less. Higher plans cover more.

I have BCBS of Illinois and they covered everything but $1500, and my secondary covered $1200 of that. So I only had $300 out of pocket. They approved my surgery within 48 hours of my surgeon's office submitting everything. From my 1st appt to my surgery date was 2 1/2 months. BCBS only required 1 pre op and 1 post op nutritionist appt, 1 psych eval, approval letter from my neurologist (because I have MS), approval letter from my PCP, having tried at least 2 methods of weight loss in the past (my PCP knew about me doing keto and also low/no calorie and put that in the approval letter). So it was a fast and painless process. My surgeon's office wanted the blood work and EKG before surgery. BCBS approved every test with no issues.

So were you 5 ft 2 in and started off at around 200 pounds? Then you lost a final total of 88 pounds and are now sitting at roughly 112 pounds (when your goal weight was 132)??? That's actually amazing weight loss!!! For me, my ideal weight is between 145-155. I'm honestly not getting anywhere near that, and I'm ok with it. My goal is 200 pounds, but secretly I actually want to get to 185 if possible. My surgeon went over the stats and averages and explained that the sleeve usually produces less weight loss that the bypass, but I wasn't willing to do the bypass because I have pills I HAVE to take and I knew that wasn't allowed with the bypass.

Yeah, I don't think so lol I am 3 1/2 months post op and have lost 65 pounds. This says the absolute most I'm going to lose (up through year 3) is another 50 pounds??? Nope. Maybe that's the average, but that's definitely not going to be me. I need to lose another 123 pounds to hit my goal, and I actually would like to get even lower than that. So this might be nice, and maybe fairly accurate, but I don't intend it to be accurate for me.

I'm 323 as of today. Not sure how I lost 4 pounds in 6 days, but I'll take it lol Actually, I might know. So in therapy, we've been working on healthy balance between eating and working out. I was keeping my calories around 700-800 calories and working out twice per day. I've slooooowly increased my calories to between 1000 - 1100 calories per day and I do one 45 minute work out instead of two 30 minute ones and it seems like once I did that, the weight started really coming off again. Who knew eating MORE calories (along with a reasonable work out plan and not going balls to the wall twice a day every day) would be the most effective way to lose weight? My bariatric team wants me at 700 calories and at least 60 minutes or working out every day. But my body doesn't like that. My likes things the way they are. At least for now. So this is when I really had to lean on my therapist, because she's a bariatric therapist and also specializes in eating disorders, and she kind of gave permission for me to not follow my surgeon's preferences to the letter. I still try to eat what they say and avoid what they say, and I still the kinds of workouts they recommend. I just have to listen to my body when it comes to length and frequency of work outs and amount of calories I take in each day.

I was in pain the first 16 days after surgery. You shouldn't be eating anything at this stage, and you should try drinking warm liquids. I found that helped A LOT.

I didn't have to do all that. I did bloodwork, ekg, 1 psych eval, 1 nutritionist appt. I had my initial appt, did that stuff, got the call with my surgery date, had the surgery 2 weeks later. From day 1 to insurance approval was 2 1/2 months.

I'm guessing she weighs 113kg since she was 138kg when she started all this and has lost 25kg. So she's roughly 5'7", started off weighing 304 pounds, has lost 55 pounds, and now weighs 249 pounds.

I checked my blood sugar this morning before breakfast and it's 113!!!! And my blood pressure is 128/60!!! I haven't been on blood pressure or diabetes meds in 4 months!!!! So, so extremely happy I could literally cry.

Every once in a while I think about how I have to fight for every pound and deal with so many stalls and I think the bypass would have been better. BUT...even though my surgeon was willing to do either one and let me pick, I had to do the sleeve because I have lupus and MS and have pills I have to take (and there's no liquid forms of the pills and they can't be crushed or broken) so I knew sleeve was my only option (no pills with bypass and I have to take them). Some of the things I was told to expect with the sleeve didn't happen for me (hunger hormone gone, food aversion, must chew slow and have small bites or stomach hurts and food feels like it's not going down, restriction, etc...) so there's times it feels like it was a waste of time and effort and money. But I HAVE had success, and I AM making healthier choices with my food. So it's still a win, even if it's a way bigger struggle than I thought it would be.

I have MS and had to have my neurologist sign off on the surgery, which he happily did. My PCP was very supportive because she knew I tried different things, including keto. She knew my health issues and was fantastic and proactive. If your doctor is really dragging things out for you and causing all kinds of problems, I would look for another doctor. Is your neuro ok with the surgery? How long will it take for your insurance to approve your MRI? Will your neuro insist on a MRI in order to send over a note approving you for the surgery? Your PCP can't insist your neuro do testing you may not need.