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Congrats! I wish you luck!! I'm excited when I see such a small amount of time out of surgery and someone posting their doing well... Being so close to my surgery date, I was starting to not want to look at the forum bc I felt like I kept seeing posts with just out of surgery and ... happened. Kind of scary when your so close to go in! How are you doing with your fluid intake? Walking?

no but I do agree that WLS will help eliminate or reduce the sleep apnea. I have Fed BCBS and got pretty quick response for surgical approval. I have other commordities so I think it sped it thru. good luck!

I have a an old 4cc band, it is so long since I had a fill that I forget the saline content but think it is around 2cc. I do not have oesophageal dilation as I have an annual barium swallow. I know some dilations can be reversed by short term removal of saline, I also believe (anecdotally) that once a dilation has occurred, recurrence is more likely. I may be explaining myself badly. If I ate fast and carelessly, food wouid not pass quickly. If I eat sensibly ( and I can eat all foods,certainly not just usliders - some require extra care), I will not have problems. I find this interesting as, until this thread, I had assumed that all medical thinking about the band had moved on. When I was banded in 2006, we were taught that food shouod remain above the band for some time to stimulate the vagus nerve. So we were told to work out or oetsoball "soft stop" and eat until that point, not drinking for 30 minutes. But, sometime around 2008/9, my baritaric team (and as I said, due to a house move, I had two of these) told me that research (meta-analyses as well as individual studies) had changed the understanding and that it was now accepted that the cause of satiety was the brain monitoring the number of movements of the oesophageal walls and that, obviously, the narrowing caused by the band necessitated a greater number of movements with anything other than liquid or very soft foods. I am, as you probably realised, in the UK. But I know that many people in the U.S. are taught the same. And this makes total sense of how my band works. As long as I wait for, say, a minute after swallowing, well-chewed dense food goes down. As I can then drink with ease, I know it has gone down. I can then continue eating. I feel comfortably well-fed after a small amount and stop. I no longer feel hungry. But if I choose to do so, I couid eat more.

I truly believe that in large part one of the reasons I built such a wall of fat around me was to insulate myself from unwelcome attention. One benefit to being fat for me is that it had helped me to finely tune my BS meter. I am hopeful that with my surgery and resulting weight loss I will keep both my BS meter and my compassion. Also, that with my age and life experience I have gained some skills in relationship-building and maintenance that will help me navigate my new life. In some respects it is a voyage into the unknown. I'd like to approach it less in fear and more as a grand adventure.

Oh Coops! I was going to comment on how positive and awesome your post sounded and then I scrolled down and saw your next post and oh no, the crud! Have you tried a neti pot or steaming for your sinuses? Denise, I don't seem to be having any of the issues you mentioned but then I've only been on it about a month and a half and I've been on what my Dr refers to as a "baby dose". Perhaps it is a sign of how much I need it that it doesn't make me hyper, it makes me functional :/ The food is going alright, I'm eating one meal a day, lots of liquids, trying to limit the carbs. Yesterday I had gallons of tea all day and then a burger in the late afternoon. Not the right choice I know but it could have been a LOT worse and you know it! At least the burger was from a snobby Seattle place where it is all artisanal hand crafted grass fed blah blah I am proud that instead of caving to the desire to make a late night run to the market for ice cream, I instead picked up my guitar and practiced Hey Feed - got any pointers on how to go about a first hanging in a gallery? A gallery around the corner from work has an open call to artists and you can have your (prepped) art hung in the gallery for a show, and I'm gonna do it! But I've never done it before and my Dad isn't here to give me pointers...

Ok. Assumed I was approved. Got my date (4/29) some time ago, got my FMLA papers filled out by surgeon and sent in. Today I get letter from insurance co requesting from surgeon - evidence of prior conservative therapies/ treatment and office notes. Hoping this doesn't cause a problem because I don't have evidence for the last few years bc all weight loss attempts were on my own. What do I do now? This could set me back several months , I think.

Had my preop labs, ekg and upper GI today [worst test ever lol]. Picked up my post op scripts, paid the surgeon and hospital, and submitted my leave paperwork. My regular scheduled days off are fri/sat so I'll pack my hospital bag then. I'm working up until Wednesday bc otherwise I'd go nuts at home but I'm so ready!!!!!!!!!!

The first few weeks I read about how everyone said that their only regret was waiting so long to have it done and I was like, BS, this stinks! Haha, 19 months post-op I am now on the same boat as them. I have zero regrets and while I got "lucky" in that my sleeve has zero tolerance for fats, sugar, and a good portion of food, ultimately I am at goal weight, I'm healthy, and there is no way I could have gotten here without surgical intervention. I can 100% say, while I questioned my decision initially, I would go back and have the sleeve procedure done all over again, every day.

Had my pre-op today! All went well... It's a go for a week from today! I DID find out that it is an absolute NO for makeup! 'My' office requires this as they measure your temperature by the forehead and do so frequently. They also require no nail polish or artificial nails as they do your o2 sat on your index finger and simply bc anything on your nails can harbor a huge amount of bacteria. At this point, idc about any of it. I'm just ecstatic for this to happen.

All wonderful posts above. My two cents: Your attitudes will change. For example: Surgery and weeks of post op liquids is truly the easy part. Matter of fact, the first hundred pounds down was my easy part. Now it's getting harder. My daily food choices must change and my exercise needs to go significantly higher if I'm going to lose my last fifty. As Miss Mac said, after that first chunk of weight comes off, you probably won't care about the "stigma" of WLS like you do now. You're going to be so happy to be thinner. Truly. All I wanted at the start when I was 302 pounds was to have my health issues resolved. They were. Now I want to be pretty. We got fat because we overate. We overate all our lives because it fed a psychological need. WLS does not change that. You will battle this as you progress in this process. Eating for comfort or for sport is still going to tempt you. You will be forced to deal with why you want to eat or else you'll eat. You'll have to find new ways to self comfort or... you'll eat. Guaranteed. I'm a year into this and I don't have it figured out by a longshot. But I'd do it again without question.

I have bc/bs.. the office manager at the bariatric Dr I am using said she can help me avoid the 6 month diet requirement ..so hopefully any other hoops I gotta get thru won't be too difficult or take too long either.

The main issue is that if you drink while eating, the Water mixes with the food and flushes through your stomach more quickly and therefor you won't feel full as long and will be able to eat much more. It's basically a way of bypassing your restriction, making it easier for you to eat more food. Drinking before eating can allegedly fill you up and make you eat less, and therefore not get ENOUGH food, but I find that theory to be pretty much BS, because I watched my post-op leak test and saw how fast liquid moved through my stomach. It was through in a matter of seconds, so the rule of not drinking for 20+ minutes before eating just seems like a surefire way to NOT get enough liquids in. I drink right up to the time I start eating. Drinking after eating will just make you overfull and uncomfortable. If your stomach is full of food, there's nowhere for the liquid to go and it'll just sit on top of the food and possibly get backed up into your esophagus, which is NOT good. But as I said, drinking WHILE eating is the most dangerous. Because when the food mixes with liquid to become a more apple-sauce like consistently, it passes through more quickly and makes it easier to eat more, defeating the whole purpose of the restriction.

So, I have Highmark BC/BS and my policy has the bariatric and reconstructive surgery riders, so I just found out I was approved for both a panniculectomy and abdominoplasty, which is AWESOME!!! But they denied my request for the brachioplasty, and I have medical documentation of the same issues on my arms as on my stomach. The stomach was approved but not the arms. The surgeon's office said I would receive my denial letter for the arm lift and it would include an appeal process. I will definitely appeal. I'm just wondering if anyone has had any success with appealing for a brachioplasty or really appealing a denial for anything. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

We are all here to help bc we have all been there. Good luck to you. You will do great! Just stay positive even when things go sideways. Remember this is a tool not a magic pill. A hammer cannot build a house without you using it.

My surgery is 1 week from today and I a SO sick. Vomiting, diarrhea, dehydrated and most likely going to the ER bc I can't even keep a sip of water down. I go Wednesday for my pre admission testing so I am praying this is over by then so they don't postpone my surgery. ????

The only thing I crave is In n Out. But, when I go with the family I can't eat is bc the smell alone makes me nauseous.

this is strictly my experience and journey...I have several dx's ..mine has changed soo many times depending on the psych I seen over the past 25 yrs. It's been Bipolar, MDD, PTSD, and then back to Bipolar/with MD...I understand I was reading your story and my goodness I thought I was reading mine. bless your heart. I lived through that vicious cycle the past 30 yrs. But mine went further. after 25 yrs of battling weight (up and down up and down) and many specialist I was also dx with hashi's. ( autoimmune disease) that destroyed one side of my thyroid I was put on armour a yr ago right before going through the process of getting the sleeve. I also dx with insulin resistant, pre diabetic. I ate also out of all emotions and craved simple carves to no end! I ended gaining like 30 some pds within a 6 wk period that's when my endocrinologists dug deeper with extensive BW and ended up doing US on thyroid and biopsy. I also had already been through 12 yrs under dr care for the "mental" issues and treatment with psycho therapy which done me wonders got other perspectives and causes of my underlying eating issues and I hadn't even thought about the sleeve bc I had no idea it was even being done. yea I thought about WLS in the past yrs but I always thought I didn't qualify till 2 of my specialist directed me to my surgeon. after being put on armour for my thyroid and I got my BW in the normal range before I was accepted for the sleeve , I was on a cocktail of 4 drugs for the mental diseases over the past 12 yrs it was 2 yrs ago I got weaned down to 2 and now I am at 1 and doing great. since getting my thyroid levels at optimal levels my mental issues has improved so much(for me) I was released by my psych and endo to have the surgery my highest weight was close to 275 and without the surgery I was headed to the 300 plus and I was miserable where I was. it does make you have a more depressive attitude toward yourself and it turns to being angry and disgust with yourself (talking about me and how I treated myself and myself internal dialogue) which made me a very outward moody person I hated life and could not stand the idea of facing a day which I know the MDD/Bipolar also had its affect on that thinking as well. But I am 10 months PO over 100 pds down. I no longer turn to food for that self comfort you mentioned that only last a short while till I bottomed out again and repeated this cycle to numb myself and how I was internalizing and it was a vicious cycle. I understand. I am soo thankful my 2 specialist directed me to the sleeve. my internist said I was candidate and the sleeve with me on daily meds there's no malabsorption issue and no redirecting organs and has a huge success rate as long as I DO MY PART and STICK TO MY PROGRAM. I had already started the lifestyle changes 2 yrs prior to this. I had already removed all processed sugars, breads, pastas etc bc of my autoimmune diseases and I had already dropped the calories while doing this of eating the less the 600 cal a day and yes for those who doesn't understand the starvation of this reduced cal intake and still kept getting bigger and bigger it happens. I am the testiment and charted. I was hungry all the time! but my body was in war with itself and it got to where everything I ate it stored. now I eat to live and have been released from prison and loving life. I am 51 and my life is just starting. do your research and I am so glad you asked this question. talk with your dr's you trust and that will support you. there's alot to the process. but SOOO worth it. I have found myself and relearning each day. as long as I am stable which I have been for a while I'm doing great. am I perfect? heck NO! but my awsome days totally outweigh my bad days now. my self esteem is out the roof. I have a dear friend who is over 300 pds and she came over one day and asked me how I have been losing weight. she is bipolar (not sure if its actual dx from a psych or self dx) but she has stood by that for over 40 yrs and I told her about my stopping the sugar addiction a few yrs ago and her words were "I don't see myself losing weight or getting off the sugar addiction wagon" and of course I said strict portion control..(her and hubs lives for food) its their recreation...(Iv been there done that)! I said as long as you tell yourself that it wont change. I am hoping my new life changes will inspire her! sorry such a long post I just wanted to share what I went through and I hope this helped. keep us posted dear and best wishes..xx

So, Ive been lurking on these boards forever reading all of your stories and hoping that one day I would get to share my story as well. I looked into the bypass more than a year ago when my doctor suggested it, I was fed up with my wieght, I dont seem to lose weight anymore I go on diet after diet to no avail and come out heavier than i started. I got diagnosed with pre diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and knew I had to make a change.. Unfortuanately when I started the journey then, I lost insurance and wasnt able to carry through, but I kept believing that one day, maybe, I to, would be a success story. I spent a year researching and making sure this was absolutely the option I wanted to take. Im really excited I have met with a nutritionist, I have a doctors appointment tomorrow, I have my psych eval set up in May and I have called my Cigna insurance spoke with them a couple of times and I have a 3 month waiting period with the dietician. I have always been overwieght since around the age of 10. I remember my doctor talking to my mother about getting me on a diet, and she declined saying it was stress of the loss of grandparents. That stress eating got me to the pleasently plump woman I am today.. The woman who feels like she has gotten to a point of no return. I actually lost a significant amount of weight about 4 years ago, I had gotten tired of it and completely revamped my life I lost 90 lbs! I looked amazing, I loved being alive, I had a whole new love for fittness that I had never thought was possible! I really miss that girl, and Im sure my kids do to. I got pregnant with my twins and the weight came on like no other.. I gained 80 lbs with my twins but actually once i delivered and healed from my vertical c-section them I was only about 30 lbs more than when i started. I of course had a lot of excess skin, something only cosmetic surgery will fix, but I felt good. Unfortunately, the next year and a half of sleepless nights caused my weight to spiral out of control, throw in every stress imaginable with being a mother of 4, working full time, finishing a degree, and LIFE and what do you get, ME! I know that my weight has put a strain on my relationship, I'm to the point that I dont want to leave the house because I feel so ashamed. My kids use to love when I took them on hikes and bike riding, and now it doesnt even seem obtainable. I feel horrible that I have allowed myself to become like this. I always put my children first and did everything for them and their health and making sure they had a good life and everything they could ever want, I just never thought my weight was taking away from them.. but now I know it is. As far as support goes, little to none, but that doesnt stop me I have always been my biggest cheerleader when it comes to getting what I want anyway. My fiance "supports" it but he got angry at me the other day and told me I was being selfish to him and he didnt have anything to look forward to and now i do. I know that when it comes down to it, this decision and my new lifestyle will cause some issues with us, however at this point I feel that I'm doing the right thing for me and my future. I hope that once he sees the changes in me, and starts to see me for the girl I was when he met me, maybe his attitude will change.

Metabolism, metabolism, metabolism. A deficit of 3500 calories causes you to lose a pound and a surplus of 3500 calories causes you to gain a pound. The thing that makes some people gain/lose at different rates is their basal metabolic rate. There are all sorts of calculators and estimators to determine your metabolism, but unless you have a true metabolic study done, there is no way you can know exactly how many calories you are burning from day to day, and therefor it is impossible for you to determine how much of a deficit or surplus you have. "3500 calories = 1 pound" is NOT BS. Having no way to know how many calories you are truly burning each day is what causes the confusion.

It happened to me too. I just summed it up to not having anything solid going in! I'm only 5 days out and it hasn't really stopped, it just isn't (as much) bc there's not much going in at this point! ???? Good Luck to you!!

A lb of fat is 3500 kcal, you need to have a deficit of that to lose a pound. I call total bs on that. I can eat several months of under a thousand calories and barely lose a pound a week. If I eat 800 cals of crap, I gain. 800 cals of disgusting protein, well there is the winner. I see the same stories all over this website. It's what you eat, not the calorie content of it

My insurance requires a 6mo physician guided weight loss program as well as a percentage of weight loss needed. We meet monthly. At my last weigh in, I was only 2-3lbs away from goal. I have not weighed in since bc dont want to hedge my bets on an alternate scale, ya know what I mean? So, I need to basically do EVERYTHING I can this week to be the 'last ditch effort' to ensure a good weigh in next monday. I've been eating smarter, more active, etc. But I'm nervous. So this week, I need to make sure I leave NOTHING on the table. I don't want to regret ANYTHING. (If I miss the WL goal this month, I weigh in next month...but I don't want to wait!) Anyway, what would you recommend to someone in my position?

I told my parents, best friend, and boss, who are all very supportive. When I would casually slide WLS into a conversation, everyone else would speak to WLS as if it were a cop out. "You just need to move more", or "just eat less", or "you must not want it enough". To be honest, I had the same mentality a year ago--before I got totally fed up and educated. Anyway, GOOD LUCK TO YOU!! It's going be a fantastic journey for sure, and the ones who support you and get to witness your transformation and get to be a part of it all are the lucky ones

I told my boss after surgery. He's a jerk and I told him bc I was nauseous in the mornings and was late a few times. I was telling him so he could fully understand why I was having a tardiness issue he didn't even thank me or tell me he was appreciative of me including him. I have FMLA so I didn't have to tell him jack. I have told a few coworkers who are so supportive. I told another manager and she is very supportive as well. If people ask why I was out or if everything is ok I am more open to telling people now. I wasn't at first and I was embarrassed and so ashamed but now honestly this is the best thing I could have done for myself and to be getting back healthy making permanent healthy changes to my diet and actually exercising I am almost proud to tell people. ALMOST and at the end of the day it's what I want and I'm learning to not care about other people.

I was sleeved Wednesday 4/8 and today is the best I've felt so far, with that said, I still don't feel "good". My tummy is sore, but not the incisions thank goodness! I've been drinking Water and juice, the g2 Gatorade went right back out unfortunately... Tried some cream of tomato Soup (probably not the best choice bc of the acid) and now I feel like I have to burp and can't!!! It sucks! I just want to take a bite of something, anything!!!! #thistooshallpass we'll see!