NettyD

Ok I just heard back from the office today. My insurance has approved me for surgery! yay!

Congrats on your journey and I am semi new and still in preop stage. I have not heard of that insurance but You should search “Alameda Alliance for Health” in this app and see what threads come up?
Good luck on your journey 🥰

Well, the long awaited day is tomorrow! I am having gastric bypass and hernia repair on 3/29.
Thanks to this forum and all the wonderful people here, I feel mostly ready and know what to expect. Still scared of course, but ready. I will be back with an update...and probably lots of questions! Lol Take care, all!

Hello I have been referred by my pcp for weight loss surgery. I have a consultation with the surgeoun in about 2 weeks. I wanted to know if anyone had any experience with wait times and requirements dealing with California Medi-cal specifically Alameda alliance for health.

Thank you

Welcome! Congratulations on your surgery date. What are you looking most forward to with your weight loss?

Hi everyone I’m new here. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. Just started my preop shakes today.

I started this process in January this year.I’m completely scared,but I’m hoping that this becomes a great journey. Running around here getting all the clearances is the headache before the surgery now after the surgery it’s a journey that I hope I’m ready for.

Im two weeks post op. Started thinking about surgery a few years ago, but actually acted on it in late January if this year. Wrapped up my pre-reqs in a single week and cleared with insurance in one day. After that, had a week of food funerals (fun times eating things I wouldn’t be able to for a while), then started my two week high Protein low carb diet. It was tough, not gonna lie. I weaned myself off caffeine during the same two week period and BAM it was suddenly time for surgery. By this point, I’d lost about 6 or 7 lbs.
Rolled into surgery at 6am on 3/13, started on time at 8am, only discomfort afterward was nausea from anesthesia. No vomiting; they took great care to relieve the nausea immediately and sent me home with medicine to help.
First few days, I felt hungry. Dreamt of food. Realized it was just gas in my tummy causing a “hunger” feeling. The gas went away within a week and so did the faux hunger. I tried to go off pain meds too soon, and that sucked. When they do the surgery, they will go through the abdominal wall with the scopes. I had pretty strong abs (yay…) and the scope caused a bleed that healed very slowly. Caused me some pretty serious discomfort especially without the pain meds. Went back on the meds and rested for several days, all the while working to get all my protein and fluids in. Lost 9lbs the first week and then stalled three days into week two.
The stall just broke today, one week after it began. Total of 16lbs lost since the start of the pre-op diet. I’m three days into week 3 and just started soft foods.
If I had to choose one hard thing, it would be the emotional response I had post surgery. I realized “omg, I cannot eat those things…” the choice was no longer mine. I was scared at first, almost grieving. And then I felt light because the pressure of making the “right” decision was out of my hands.
Yes, I could still make a bad choice… and when I made brownies for my daughter the other day I was tempted, but I don’t want to hurt my body or deal with the backlash from eating so much sugar after barely having any for the last month. I can just imagine the sugar rush and terrible feeling I would get… it would suck. Not to mention, with VSG (my procedure), the first six months are critical. You’ll lose the most weight if you can just get through with as much discipline as possible. I’m thankful for my family and therapist; they’ve all helped me find my way in the dark.

I’m so glad I did this. Even as I just ate my first egg in weeks, I still wouldn’t change a thing. It’s like experiencing food again for the first time but with a coach in my body helping out 👌😊 Good luck to you with whatever you choose!

9 out of 12 supervised weight loss visits done
sleep study done
Abdominal ultrasound done
H. Pylori test done
nutrition class done
nutrition class follow up done
Now I have 3 more weigh ins and an endoscopy left to do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my insurance will approve this swiftly & I can get the May date I want.

Five years out. I wish I'd known how significant food addiction is...in the puzzle of obesity. All the diets and exercises in the world don't treat food addiction, and in fact, can exacerbate it. Charting longterm food choice behaviors, triggers, circumstances linked to bad choices....is something I wish I'd done sooner. I might not have needed surgery. Not saying I have any regrets (I don't). Not saying the surgery isn't an amazing life saving tool (it is).

Reading this forum, speaking to my team and having people 6+months post op share their experience prepared me.

The only thing so far that I did not expect was the large incision when coughinh the first few days feels like a burning sensation, other than that I was prepared for worse and thought I will be sipping forever but so far so good.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

Hey guys I'm back with my day 2 post op. Right out of surgery I was out of it I slept the whole day but I did make sure I walked a little and sip on sum Water. I haven't had my full liquids yesterday just water but I will start my full liquid diet today at 8 am. There was no pain It was all gas once you let the gas out your good to go. I did experience nausea twice due to the gas pain but nothing too serious. To everyone going for your surgery soon you'll be okay. My birthday is March 26th hopefully I get to have a little bit of fun . Thanks to everyone for the support.

Sent from my moto g power (2022) using BariatricPal mobile app

The nutritional appointments are going great just going over nutrition and how to eat after the surgery. I was required to lose 5 pounds which I lost first month just gotta keep it off 😩😩. Keep us posted when you get your surgery date

Lets see at my heaviest recorded weight I was 597lbs when I saw my surgeon for the first time in April of 2014. I am pretty sure I was even bigger than that, but I never really touched scales unless I was at the doctors office. The day of the surgery with a pre-surgery diet over that summer and then the two week clear liquid diet before the surgery I had got all the way down to about 463lbs the morning of the surgery. I had my surgery in Dec of 2014, so about 7 months of getting rid of as much weight as I possibly could before the surgery to try and avoid any complications. So far I have gotten down to about 255-265lbs. I have been floating around those same 10lbs for a few weeks now. Goal weight for me is to be at 220-230lbs. So yeah the last 30lbs or so pounds I need to lose have been the most challenging to get rid of so far. With summer coming I had initially wanted to reach that goal by the end of May. I don't know if I will get there, but if I would reach it by Aug 1st. I would be totally stoked. Either way good luck to you. Us over 400lbs people can get great results with this surgery. I have lost more weight in the last year and a half that what I actually weight. To date that number is 332lbs.

i was 520lbs at my heaviest before i started my pre op diet. I had my surgery on dec30th of 2015. I had my 3 month post op visit this morning and i am down 104lbs. I feel amazing my energy level is through the roof and i can do a lot of things i couldn't do before. I really been working hard every day with exercising and sticking to a strict diet. I do not and will not become the person i used to be.

I started at 415, with an all-time high of 426. I had the surgery last November, a month before my 61st birthday.
Right now I'm at 309. I can't report anything unusual to date; everything has been good with little pain and good progress.
I empathize with all of your frustrations: the chairs in restaurants (especially booths), airplane seats, event seats, etc. Next Monday I'll be on my first airplane flight since taking off over 100 lbs. I'm anxious to see how things go.
Obviously, the health improvements have been great. I can walk now without getting winded; climbing stairs is pain-free and easier; I can sit in a stadium seat with someone next to me, etc., etc. But I still have a ways to go, being slightly less than halfway to my goal. Blood pressure is way down, heart rate is down, all my blood numbers look great. For me, this was the right thing to do.

@@Ignatius
Apologies for the delay in replying...
Apologies for the possible length of this post...
Once I get on a roll, who knows where I could end up...
Anyway, here goes...
Firstly, a little about me...
I was sleeved on Feb 25, 2015.
I was 45 yrs old.
At my heaviest, I weighed 255kg..
That's 562 pounds.. (We use kg in Australia but as the majority here use pounds, I usually do the math to make it easier)
I was one of the lucky ones...
Despite my weight, I had NO co-morbidities...
No diabetes, no cholesterol, not even high blood pressure...
In the lead up to my surgery, my surgeon pulled no punches..
He made me fully aware that there were no guarantees he'd go thru with the surgery until he'd opened me up..
He was concerned about the fat around my lived and his ability (or inability) to get into where he needed to...
To give me the best chance, he put me on a 'liquids only' diet for 4 weeks prior to the operation...
I can tell you now, that was the hardest 4 weeks of my life...
What made it worse was knowing that it could all be for nothing...
Anyway, I stuck with it for the four weeks (had a couple of hiccups along the way, but nothing I hid from the surgeon) and surgery day came...
Long story short(ish), the surgery was a success...
I did three nights in hospital...
Again, I must be one of the lucky ones...
I had no complications...
No pain...
Nothing...
The nurses kept insisting that I use the 'pain pump', so I did...
But I didn't really think I needed to..
The worst part of the whole thing was, for the first eight hours or so, I was unable to even get out of the recovery chair...
This wasn't so bad for me because I slept for most of it...
But the poor nurse who had to hold the jug for me every time I had to pee - I reckon it might have been a different story for her...
Poor woman...
Anyway, three nights in hospital...
I was hooked up to a machine for my sleep apnea and that SUCKED BALLS!!!
The day after the op, I was up and about, walking the ward and peeing by myself whenever I wanted to (woooohoooo!!)
The doc was really pleased as he thought I'd struggle because of my weight, but I didn't... (Again, lucky?)
By day three, I was itching to get out, and out I got!!
Self administered injection for (blood clotting) for ten days and the all was good...
The progression of diet from liquids to solids was difficult, but nothing compared to the 4 weeks prior...
Once I got home, I struggled a bit with energy/tiredness..
Lugging 560 pounds around on no food and just after surgery was always gonna be tricky but I got there...
Once I started losing weight, I kinda looked at it as a percentage of what I wanted to lose rather than the actual poundage..
While the big numbers are great (really, who LOSES 230 pounds??) it's more realistic to look at it and be aware that I'm 70% of my way to target..
It's a much better way when you compare yourself to others (and you will, despite how bad an idea it is) and give you an idea of where you're really at...
I really like your question re 'losing motivation when you get to a stage where you can lead a fairly normal life".
It's not something I've ever thought about...
But I guess the answer is "YES", it's certainly a possibility...
I'm at the stage now where I'm finding myself able to exist quite comfortable, especially compared to where I was at...
And I guess that is very possibly a contributing factor to my recent 'funk'...
In short, this honestly the best thing I've ever done...
Like many people, my biggest (only) regret is that I didn't do it years ago...
Mate, I'm not sure what else you want to know or even if this has been any help to you...
I've not read it back so it may not even make any sense..
If there's ANYTHING you think I might be able to help with, please don't hesitate to contact me, either here or via private message..
Take care...
Jason

ARRRGGGGHHHH. Surgery center just told me to arrive at 11:30. So much for an early surgery
Now the surgeon will be hungry when he's working on me

Hello I am new to this group. I am having the DS on April 4, 2023. I am starting my 2 week diet today.

yes it does seem overwhelming at first, but after awhile it becomes old hat.

I lost 22 pounds and literally was in shock, i thought my scale was broken 😆

Congrats, I’m so excited for you! I’ve been on the forums here with you for a bit and remember your surgery getting postponed 😭 but now it’s finally happening! Yay! I had my surgery on 3/13, so one week out. If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be: have a heating pad nearby!! It helps with pain and gas and is my “bff” these days lol Good luck!! Let us know how it went. We are rooting for you.

Congratulations, I’m excited for you. I had the sleeve 3 weeks ago and I am feeling fine. Starting my new lifestyle

Hi all, new here. Well, of course I've lurked here at times over the years but ran away every time.. A little bit about me, been heavy most of my adult life, managed to live fine keeping most side effects at bay. sleep apnea, use a machine, HBP under control with meds. No diabetes or other issues. Three years ago I hit my highest at 450 and as covid got rolling I started to exercise a bit more and watch diet a bit better. Then all the wheels started to fall off lol. Knees giving me some problems which then led me to find out I was bone on bone for both knees. So I continued to get better on the diet and switched to biking and rowing. Phentermine/Topiromate helped along the way and ultimately lost about a hundred pounds. Had to stop those though when I had an Afib incident. Kept myself in the 350 range but man has this plateau been tough. Doc has me on Ozempic, A1C was also starting to creep up, to see if that will help but it really hasn't done much. I'm ok with diet but still not where i need to be to lose another 75 pounds, which is my target to get knee surgery. I truly believe that once I get my knees fixed I can be active enough to aid the weight loss. It's tough now with the knee.
So why am I here.... well my Primary and my cardiologist have both said it's time to really think about surgery. They both feel there are too many metabolic/hormonal challenges to continue my same approach. I met with the surgeon yesterday and he's recommended a sleeve. I'm at my whits end and feel like I have no other choice, but at the same time I read these stories about GERD, Constipation and all these other side effects I turn around and say eff it, it's just not worth it. At least I'll die happy... I know, not exactly healthy, but I'm being honest...
I've started the process, have a meeting with Nutritionist next week and psych and Endoscopy are after that. Likely can't get this done until August so I have some time to reconcile in my head the future, but right now I'm a bit overwhelmed and a little defeated.
I'm going to poke around here some more, thanks for reading.
Mark

I just started my process in January 2023 and had my first nutrition class on 3/15 and I was also sent lots of info to stay on track before and after the surgery! I’m nervous and excited for the future.
My surgery will most likely be in July. When do you think you will be scheduled?
I would love to follow your progress 🥰🙏🏾