SpartanMaker

I pretty much have all the feels right now, but mostly I'm just anxious to get the surgery done and move on!

Yep, me too, especially that last one. That's going to be so hard for me!

I'm a fan of the ones that have both footpads and handles that you hold. I don't have any data to suggest that they are any better, but it just seems like having more sensors in more places would be a good thing. The one I have now in an Omron, but I recently saw on Amazon that InBody also makes one for the home market. InBody is the brand my Bariatric Center uses, so I'm tempted to get one of those as well. One thing to keep in mind: none of these home BIA scales are all that accurate. In reality, that's not super important to me. What's more important is that they are consistent; meaning I can actually track from one week to the next if my percentage of body fat is trending in the right direction. When I want a more accurate number, I'll go get a bod pod scan. .

I agree with many others here that have said only you can decide what's right for you. I will share some of my thoughts & experiences in the event they will steer you one way or the other. First of all, I think we all can sympathize with wanting it done NOW. I personally have been waiting 2.5 years to have my surgery and (maybe unrealistically), sincerely believe that my surgery date is when my new life will begin. It's hard to be patient for such a life changing thing. Even though I could easily have written a check for the cost of the surgery, I never really considered self-pay. Remember that ultimately surgery is just a tool. Even though it can be lifechanging, I know I still have to put in the work to be successful. Unfortunately, too many people end up right back on the diet yoyo. The last thing I want is to go through all this and still fail. For me, getting to this place where I really do feel mentally and physically ready took time. Perhaps a minor thing for some, but I also wanted local resources in the event I had complications or needed more help down the line. Something else for you to consider perhaps? A lot of people that lose significant amounts of weight, eventually need plastic surgery to get rid of excess skin (and potentially correct some other issues). While sometimes that can be covered by insurance, most of the time it's not. My point is that you need to make sure you're also financially ready to take on that expense.

Seems unlikely to me that it's related to RNY after 9 years, but could be I suppose? More likely there's something else going on. There are a lot of things that can cause those symptoms, so it would be best to see a doctor and let them figure out the cause. Best of luck.

You really need to talk to the prescriber. At the very least, they should help you learn how to properly give a shot, and may also be able to do them for you if you really just can't get over the phobia. Please don't skip the shots. Blood clots can be fatal.

Most likely just temporary water weight from working out. This is why the scale is actually not a great way to track progress. A scale that can track your % body fat, or even just simple measurements are probably better.

You've actually made the first step! Emotional eating is a huge problem for a lot of people and it's not just lack of willpower like people think. There are actual appetite-related hormones (cortosol is the big one), that are triggered by stress. Cortosol tells your brain that there is a danger and that it needs to fuel up to fight the danger. The trick to overcoming this is first to recognize that stress is a trigger for you (YAY, you already did this part!). The second part is harder: you need to train yourself to recognize the difference between real hunger and stress hunger. If your stomach is not telling you you're hungry and it's just your head, that's probably the cortisol at work. If you're still not sure, one thing you can try is to wait 20 minutes or so. If the hunger is real, you should be hungry still. if not, it was just the cortosol. This will take time, but you can learn to tell the difference and overcome the stress induced eating.

Thank you!!! I know everyone get's really anxious before WLS, but after so long waiting, I'm just about beside myself! As a guy, I'm not good with the whole emotions thing, but I do know there are lots of different feels going on!

Welcome! Have you started making any lifestyle changes yet?

Thanks all for posting this topic and for the encouraging replies! I've been seeing all the bad issues people are having and was just assuming mine would be terrible too. (Normally if there's a way to have a bad reaction to surgery or issues due to a medical problem, my body likes to take that road.)

Awesome Job! You're killing it! Just be kind to yourself when the weight loss slows, as it inevitably will. It's all part of the process. Think about it this way. You're already 70% of the way to the 200's! You'll hit that before you know it!

Did I mention that having surgery in peak COVID sucks? It does. Now open heart surgery is hard enough, but I was in the hospital a 7 days and was not allowed any visitors the entire time. I think that was actually harder on my wife through. Especially the first few days. I had some complications, was in a lot of pain and was highly medicated, so I was unable to talk to her. My nurse was supposed to give her regular updates, but like most nurses, she was overworked and wasn't able to call regularly. Imagine a loved one in the hospital after major surgery, but you can’t see them, can’t talk to them, and have no idea what’s going on other than they are having “complications”. Now maybe I should explain these “complications” a bit. Basically I was having trouble breathing on my own and they thought they would have to reintubate me. For those not familiar with the term, it means they would have had to put me back on a breathing machine. They didn’t want that and though I didn’t know it at the time, I didn’t want that either. Some studies suggest the mortality rate of cardiac patients that are reintubated is over 40%. Not good odds. Thankfully they didn’t have to go there and I was finally able to make the staff understand that one of the drains in my chest was causing the breathing issues. They removed that drain and I was immediately able to take a nice big breath. Crisis averted. Once I went home, the story honestly gets pretty boring. The surgical recovery period was hard, but being a big fat dude made it harder. The important takeaway here is that my cardiologist said I’d need at least a year to recover from the heart surgery before he would even consider signing off on the weight loss surgery. So my hopes for WLS in 2020 were dashed, but at least there was hope for 2021! Those of you that realize it’s now 2022 (I know, with COVID, I lose track too), will also realize I’m still waiting for my weight loss surgery. Why I’m still waiting well over a year later is a tale for next time!

I now use part of a protein shake as "creamer". I used to use real cream, but knew that would potentially be problematic post-surgery, so found the protein shake works pretty well.

For sure. I have not tried these in a while, but I have made my own protein bars in the past. At least for those, I can pronounce all the ingredients! I may have to try those again?

I don't think I could eat those. A decade or so ago, I lost about 80 pounds eating a low carb diet. Highly processed items like those you're showing were a mainstay of my diet then. I eventually gained every one of those pounds back and then some when I reached my goal. I think the problem was that at the time, I never learned how to eat real food. For me, items like that are like a gateway drug. If I eat them, I soon want to have the "real thing" even more. I plan to just stay away and focus on clean eating.

Interesting. My surgeon did a complete metabolic workup pre-surgery. I assumed to have a baseline.

There are also low acid varieties for those that need to cut down on acid as well.

Have you tried decaf? It can take a while to find the right one (it did for me anyway), but once I found one I like, I drink it exclusively. I actually feel better now than I did drinking the "high octane" stuff.

Green tea still has caffeine, so might not be a good choice either. I drink herbal teas (both hot and iced), for this reason.

Here's a list of the ASMBS approved surgeries. https://asmbs.org/patients/bariatric-surgery-procedures If you're planning to have something done that's not on this list, I'd recommend asking your surgeon why they want to do this different surgery. Keep in mind too that insurance companies likely won't pay for it. They want proven techniques. FYI, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list of forums, there is one for "Mini Gastric Bypass".

I work from home, so at first I was thinking a week at max. I asked the United Healthcare Bariatric Program nurse this question (she works exclusively with bariatric surgery patients), and she recommended 2 week. She said it wasn't due to pain, but just because I'd be extra tired and likely would be suffering from brain fog if I tried to start back any sooner. Hopefully that works, but I won't know until next month!

@The Greater Fool, thanks for clarifying on the duct tape! I totally missed where you said put something over the staple line! I was envisioning the duct tape going right onto the staples and it hurt just to think about it! I hear you on the medical tape. Some of them won't even stick to a bandage, much less your skin. Personally, I've found the cloth ones stick the best (and can be used without scissors, a nice bonus), followed by the plastic varieties. I've never found the paper tapes to work very well at all.

Have you tried herbal tea instead?

I think only your health care team can advise you, but I doubt it will be worse post surgery? One of the most common reasons for acid reflux is overeating. Certain medications such as NSAIDS can also lead to reflux. Having reflux at night is very common. When laying down, it's a lot easier for the food/acid to overcome gravity. Many people that have this issue find they need to sleep propped up to get the problem under control. It's also possible that one of the contributing factors to your reflux is something called a hiatal hernia. Up to 40% of bariatric surgery patients have this issue pre-surgery. This is where part of the stomach actually pokes through the diaphragm. Heartburn is a common symptom of a hiatal hernia and is something your surgeon will fix during your procedure. Best of luck.