NickelChip

I am just over two weeks away from having surgery. I was diagnosed with PCOS in my 20s and have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and am prediabetic. Because I wanted the best shot at having those specific co-morbidities resolve, and because I have a family history of GERD, I decided to go with the RNY gastric bypass. But gastric sleeve is also a good surgery. Overwhelmingly, you will find that people who have these surgeries have no regrets other than wishing they had done them sooner. A small number will have complications, but even among those, most will have no major regrets. My brother had the sleeve 15 years ago and says without a doubt it saved his life. This is a risk calculator that will also help show you the chances of various conditions resolving within 1 year for the various surgeries: https://riskcalculator.facs.org/bariatric/ This is a video from a bariatric surgeon that looks at both surgeries and how to decide: I suggest watching all of Dr. Weiner's YouTube videos. He's very trustworthy and knowledgeable, and a much better source of information than TikTok videos! (Although I watch YouTube channels for several bariatric patients and do really love hearing the stories).

This reminded me of a friend who got a LAP band (many years ago now) and named it after the strictest nun in her school growing up. Until she explained, I was so confused when we went to lunch and she said "Sister Agnes is not happy with me right now."

My nutritionist recommended Benefiber once a day when I start the liquid diet. Fiber should help in regulating both extremes. But yeah, your GI system is protesting!

Do you have a health care portal? I've found sending a message to my doctor through the portal is a good way to go if I have a question. Usually the nurse will respond within 24 hours, and if needed the doctor will give me a call. It might be better to get your concerns addressed that way. I'm sorry you didn't get to meet with your surgeon.

@Jayallday28 the difference between those pics in just 2 months is astonishing!

5 more days of "regular" eating before my liquid diet starts. I'm going out to dinner tomorrow night and to a diner for breakfast over the weekend. I don't plan to go crazy with it, but I do want to have a couple nice meals to think back on over the next month of protein shakes and broth! I might split a dessert.

Met with my nutritionist to go over the pre-op diet today (starts next Wednesday) and I am pleased to say she has okayed PB2 peanut butter powder during both pre-op and post-op liquid phases to add to my protein shakes for extra flavor and protein. I really enjoy the chocolate flavor shakes so much more with some peanut butter!

If you really dislike sweet, you can get unflavored protein powder (Syntrax, Unjury, and Isopure are all ones that could work) and blend with broth instead of water.

Wow, I can sure see it in these photos. You're doing great!

Three weeks from today I should be checked into the hotel with my mom and trying to get a good night's sleep before surgery! Crossing my fingers there are no further delays. The hospital is only an hour away, which would normally not be a big deal, but rush hour traffic is bad and I'm not sure how early I'll need to be there in the morning, so we decided to go the night before. My mom wanted to be able to stay and visit into the evening but doesn't like night driving, so she felt better about being in a hotel the night I'm in the hospital. Luckily, there's a Courtyard Marriott about 5 minutes from the hospital. Sadly, no hot tub

I start my liquid diet a week from tomorrow, which is why I will be spending some time this weekend buying things my 15 and 12 year old daughters can cook for themselves, and prepping some stuff ahead for them to put in the freezer so I don't have to deal with food prep for the next 4 weeks or so. After that, I should be able to make some foods that we'll all be able to eat, hopefully. Luckily, my kids are self-sufficient for breakfasts and lunches, but they are still really limited on dinner skills. I guess I need to work on that with them (along with teaching them to do laundry).

I know how easy it is to avoid the scale when you know it's going to be bad news. I do it too. But I'm going to urge you to make yourself face it. If you face it, you can beat it. I think the good news is, no matter how much you've eaten, there is no way you could regain 130+ pounds in a month. Maybe you've gained 5lbs. Maybe 10. But you know what? You've still lost over 100lbs. So, go get on the scale, acknowledge the number, and then look at yourself in the mirror, and tell yourself, "Self, I love you, and you're f*ing awesome. You're doing a great job, and I know you're going to keep doing it." No negative talk, no guilt. After that, look into getting a therapist to help you with the emotional crap that's making this hard for you, because food addiction is real, and you deserve for it to be easier. The biggest thing I've learned about shame and guilt over the years is the way I talk to myself sometimes, I would punch someone in the face if they ever said those things to someone I love. Try to treat yourself the way you would treat the person you love the most.

Near the top menu bar there's a circle with your avatar, username, and a down arrow. Click the down arrow. Look down past the content area to the settings section. If you select "my surgery" from this list, you can update your dates, weight, goals, etc. If you select "my tickers" you can create a ticker to count down to your surgery date or to track your weight loss. To get the ticker you make to show up in your signature, you have to select that option (I think it's in the last step) as the default is for it not to show up. There is also html code if you want to add it to a blog or something similar.

This is a very informative research article from the NIH website that should help put your mind at ease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3345131/ The TL/DR is you can have a safe pregnancy and can certainly have a natural delivery if there are no complications, just as you would without bariatric surgery. Most doctors suggest waiting a year or two before getting pregnant. You want to lose the weight first, and you want to be at a point where you can eat enough calories to sustain the pregnancy in a healthy way. By losing weight, you are likely to have increased fertility and a healthier pregnancy for you and the baby.

I start my 2 week liquid diet on Feb 7, but if I had to drink milk, I don't know what I would do . I can't stand the stuff! I haven't had a glass of milk since I was about 8. Thankfully, I can have protein shakes, yogurt, pudding, broth, and jello. If I start to feel grumpy about it, I'll remind myself I could be stuck drinking milk!

Wow, I just checked their website and under $5k for VSG and under $6k for RNY is super affordable. My copay plus deductible with insurance here in the States will still end up running me $3,000 (no matter which surgery you choose), but I'm sure the bill they will send to insurance will be eye-watering. I had no idea the prices in Mexico were so low these days. Back 15 years ago, it cost quite a bit more in Mexico from what my brother told me, but you couldn't even get it done here for the most part as no insurance was covering it back then and they were calling VSG experimental.

Yeah, I would just keep an eye on portion size to avoid overdoing it early on. I have a couple of favorite cookbooks out of all of the ones that I've bought (because I always overdo everything). They are: The Bariatric Diet Guide and Cookbook by Dr. Matthew Weiner (a bariatric surgeon), and Bariatric Meal Prep Made Easy by Kristin Willard (a registered dietician who specializes in bariatric nutrition). I would 100% recommend both of them and you can get them on Amazon. I like Dr. Weiner's book because he gives you what serving size to expect at different stages post-op. For instance, there's a chickpea curry with riced cauliflower. If you're at 1-3 months post op, your suggested serving is 2 tbsp curry and 2 tbsp cauli (which is 1/4 cup total). If you are 3 months to 2 years, it's 1/4 cup of each. If you are 2 years or more, it's 1 cup curry and 1/2 cup cauli. What I like is that it normalizes the reality that you start with really small portions and naturally eat more over time. I see so many people getting so nervous because they are hungrier at 1 year than they were at 1 month, and it's like yes, that's what is supposed to happen! I wish this book had the nutrition facts spelled out for all three portion sizes, not just the largest, because my math sucks with fraction. And I wish it had more photos, although the ones it does have are very nice and the overall quality of the book is high. What I like about Kristin Willard's book is it gives you 6 full-week meal plans and is meant for doing prep ahead, grab-and- go types of meals that you portion out in advance. Also, it is gorgeously illustrated with full-color photos for every single recipe. There is one weekly menu for purees, one for soft foods, and 4 for normal diet. They even include a shopping list for each weekly plan. In my opinion, (comparing to my surgeon's plan and what I see in Dr. Weiner's book) the suggested portion sizes are geared toward a patient who is 1-2 years post-op, so bear that in mind. You would probably get twice as many servings out of each recipe in the first year, and up to 4x the servings in the first few months. And of course both books are likely to have specific foods at a stage that your own program disagrees with, so you have to adjust accordingly. I'm also going to give an honorable mention to The Easy 5-ingredient Bariatric Cookbook by Megan Wolf, a registered dietician and bariatric specialist. The book loses marks for the lack of photos but gains marks for its stage specific portion size suggestions and for all the recipes being really easy to pull-off without buying out your entire supermarket for ingredients. The author is based in Manhattan, and these are definitely recipes you could accomplish with a tiny NYC kitchen and limited cooking skills. Honestly, if I had a friend going through WLS, I would probably give all three of these as a gift, along with a set of small (4 oz and 8-12oz) freezer safe food storage containers. Hope that helps!

I would suggest eating exactly what you would eat if you were at home while on the trip, or as close to it as possible. Bring your usual foods, pre-portioned in small containers, in a cooler with lots of ice. Or if you have the budget for it, you can get a small fridge/freezer for your trunk that runs on your car's lighter plug. You can find ones on Amazon that are under $200 and can get to -4F in temperature. They also are great for grocery shopping trips in the heat of summer, so not a bad investment to consider. Bring protein supplements if you're still taking them along with a shaker bottle or one of those small portable blenders with a USB charger if you use powder. Don't forget some big jugs of water so you don't have to rely on overpriced small bottles at the convenience stores. Bring hot food in a thermal food container for the first day and plan to heat meals in the microwave at your hotel in the mornings if you have one. They even make electric lunchboxes that can plug into your car's lighter that will warm your food and keep it the right temp for hours. If you don't eat snacks at home as part of your regular program, don't eat them just because you're on the road! Driving can be boring and lead to head hunger, so consider getting some audio books to keep you occupied.

Yeah, that sounds 100% within the normal range of early post-op calorie consumption. I am having gastric bypass in 3 weeks, and my program suggests 3 meals and 3 protein supplements per day for the first several weeks. In the beginning, the word "meal" is used very loosely. This is basically limited to yogurt, cream soup, cream of wheat, pudding, and applesauce. The expectation is you can maybe have a few bites. All the protein is coming from those 3 shakes (20-25g per shake). Calories are pretty much irrelevant, at least for now. Your entire metabolism has been rewired. If you follow what you're told to do, you will lose weight on a wide spectrum of calorie intakes. My program suggests no more than 200 calories per protein shake serving, with a limit of 5 grams of sugar and at least 20g protein each. So, if I had the recommended 3 shakes and went with the max calories, I would consume 600 calories in those daily supplements, plus another maybe 100-200 in "meals" depending how much of the yogurt/cream of wheat/pudding I manage to swallow. My shakes actually only have 90 calories each (23g protein), so during my pre-op liquid diet, I won't feel at all guilty if I drink 4 or 5 of them, or even 6 if needed. Post-op, I doubt that will be possible, but even then, I wouldn't see an issue with having that many if I could physically manage it. All of which is a longwinded way of saying you're doing fine! Congratulations!

That's been me this weekend! My surgery is Feb 21 and I start a two week liquid diet on Feb 7. On Friday, I had pizza delivered for myself and the kids because I thought hey, this is the last time for a long time that I'll have a pizza night. And then my mom came over yesterday and it was like...pick up tacos from the taqueria on the corner? Yes, please! Won't be having tacos for a while... I've been pretty dedicated to healthy eating since this summer, lots of green smoothies and healthy salads, but I think a few indulgences are only natural when staring down 4+ weeks of little more than protein shakes and broth.

Oh dear. That makes it harder. If you were at a private company, I would suggest going to HR and asking them to look into adding bariatric coverage. But with schools, you're probably looking at union contracts and policies that extend to the whole state. It doesn't mean it's not worth asking if you have an HR person or teacher's union rep who would be in charge of this type of thing, but it might be a lot harder. There is always the Mexico route for self pay. My brother did it about 15 years ago when you couldn't get a sleeve in the US pretty much anywhere, and he had an excellent result. I know there's a whole forum on here for Mexico.

Do you know why you were denied? Sometimes your doctor can make an appeal on your behalf and the decision will be reversed, although the circumstances are very much case by case. Generally, if you have 40+ BMI, or 35+ and you mentioned having sleep apnea and high blood pressure, you would be considered a good candidate. In the meantime, I'd like to recommend you check out Dr. Weiner's Pound of Cure videos and podcast, plus there's a book by the same name. I found these resources back in the summer and I started implementing the suggestions slowly and have seen some promising results. Not WLS level results, but I'm down about 15 pounds and my labs were so much better in just 6 months for things like cholesterol and to a lesser extent blood sugar. I really can't say enough good things about Dr. Weiner, honestly. And they're all the type of lifestyle changes you'll need to consider anyway for your best shot at longterm success. Think of it as training for when (not if!) you have the surgery. But keep at it with the insurance. Some of them have a lot of hoops to jump through and it feels impossible but if you don't give up, you might make it happen.

Also, as long as you aren't using oils and sauces or dips on them, you can always eat more vegetables with your meals. The fiber will fill you up nicely without adding a lot of extra calories. Speaking only for myself and my own psychology, I would avoid adding regular snack times or anything that looks like snack food, even "healthier" versions of snack foods. Personally I fear I would find it triggering, and it would be too easy to go from healthy snacks to not so healthy ones, "just this once" which of course turns into more than once so easily...

You can add unflavored protein powder to bone broth. It might even be okay with unsweetened herbal tea though I've never tried it.

I really like the recipes in the Bariatric Diet Guide and Cookbook by Dr. Matthew Weiner, and Bariatric Meal Prep Made Easy by Kristin Willard.