Hi all, I joined this forum in 2011 anticipating surgery, but my employer's insurance would not approve, but then I came down with leukemia and that totally shot it out of the Water. But I am back and hope it will be happening before the end of the year, with Medicare since I had to stop working.

I am looking for anyone who has been sleeved or going to be for support and encouragement.

I hope some will pick this group to communicate with others.

Was a long afternoon. Got there about 12 and home at 4:45. They put in the IV and first dose of meds then had to wait an hour. I was worried about being claustrophobic and remembering that the camera came close to my face, but they have a new camera that just covers your chest up to your chin so that worked for me. It is a new camera and they are just getting used to it, so my pictures were not of good enough quality to use. So I ended up going to the hospital to have the test completed. So now I have to go through the camera worry again. But they have a new one also and it did not cover my face either, a little closer than the other but I did fine. It takes about 15 minutes and I had pictures done twice, I even dozed off a couple of times, lol. The stress part was what I expected, shortness of breath, headache but I never felt any chest tightness or pressure, hope that is a good thing. We did not have time for the doppler because of change of location so I go back Wednesday for that. It turned into a good experience and am glad it is over !! Should have results in a day or two.

How is everyone else doing ?

Wishing You Only good news Lainie!

I'm hanging in there. I felt light heated today, so I cheated& had a veggie salad but with very little dressing. It is so hard drinking shakes only.

Hey Kathy, hang in there! Are you able to do a recipe with your shake? I'm going try my vanilla shake with some pumpkin pie spice and some pumpkin purée and maybe some stevia.

Hi everyone, I had surgery on 9/23. I too only chose to tell my immediate family (secrets not kept in our family too any women) & three people at work. I didn’t want to hear all the negative comments from my family and I work at a company of Archaeologist who are all very fit, active, healthy, thin & tall.

To my surprise my family have been very supportive and call or text me several times a week to check on me and encourage me. This is a first for me, to have them be so supportive. The first 3 days I was like what have I done! I felt like I just cut off all my hair and I can't put it back. But by day 5, I started to feel good and was able to drink without pain and my day 6, I was able to get my 60g of protein from my two Premier shakes. I returned to work after a week and have not had any problems, I have a desk job. I now have insomnia & bad dreams but no fatigue or headaches or joint pain. Blood pressure down from 130/89 to 101/69. I think for me little pain & no fatigue from surgery is because of my high tolerance of pain and from always feeling tired for years from the Fibromyalgia.

I drove to San Jose (1.25hr drive) after work Friday 10/3 to see my Mother for her Birthday and everyone was glad to see me. I think they thought I would look sick or have lost tons of weight in two weeks (lost 10lbs). They are very surprised to how healthy I look and no pain from surgery and little pain from my Fibromyalgia. Before surgery and one of my reasons for surgery was the amount of pain I was in daily. I was unable to exercise or walk long distances because of my constant joint, nerve and muscle pain and sleep was unbearable too.

I look forward to keeping up with my 7yr & 4yr old niece & nephew and less pain this winter from the cold & rain.

@@Vsglady, I bought some sugar free syrups, I will add a little of that to the vanilla protein.

Thanks for the encouragement

@@steffie4you glad to hear you're recovering so well & that you're getting support from family.

This is the second time today Where I read someone had insomnia & nightmares. Hmmm

Kathy, I don't blame you for having the salad, don't let yourself feel sick or get sick. I still don't know what our pre-op is, guess I will find out when everything else gets done. Still trying to lose this 17 lbs I gained sometime after April until 3 weeks ago. Still convinced it is the medicine I started taking in April. My blood sugar 14 day average has dropped from in the 200's to the 100's so not losing a few pounds makes no sense. But that dang needle on the scale won't move. boo hoo

Hi everyone! I'm a 52 (53 on the 17th) year old Newbie and was so excited to see this group I don't even have my first appointment until next Tuesday, October 14th. After I meet with my coordinator and go through the paperwork, I will see the nutritionist for an hour then the therapist for an hour. The following Tuesday, I meet with the surgeon. It all seems so fast. I'm glad I'm having the procedure done at Mayo Hospital here in Jacksonville where I live. I feel so blessed that my insurance pays for this and all of my doctors are at Mayo. I have had the BEST care anyone could ask for and am holding their Bariatric Center to the same high standards! I've been reading through a few of the different forums here and the information and support seems to be just wonderful. I'm really excited to start this journey and it's great to know I'll have others with me along the way. Congrats to everyone for chosing to make a change!

Hi Beachgal! Just wanted to welcome to this great group and wish you the best in your journey. Off to a delicious pre-op lunch -Day 2.

Welcome Beachgal, you will like this nice group of ladies, lots of shared experiences, help and support.

All, I had my venous doppler yesterday, It is not a bad test except for laying on my back for nearly an hour. I got to hurting so bad I felt nauseated. She gave me a little break between one leg to the other but did not help much. Got home and took a nap with percocet. Feel better today but a little sore in my back. Anyway, all medical tests are done ! Now I have to have some oral surgery next month. The last thing is my psych evaluation. I should have done that first but it cost so much out of pocket, I waited until now as I now have Medicare. Watch them reject me after all this. What kind of questions do they ask ?

Lainie

Hope everyone is having a nice day

LainieG, glad to hear the medical tests are done. Are you waiting on yesterday's test results or did you get them immediately? Good luck with the oral surgery, that always does me in.. My pysch exam was very pleasant, we talked about why I wanted surgery, why I got to this weight, post op goals, support system, I think some medical background...she has a background in treating bariatric patients so I felt very comfortable with her. Fingers crossed you will be approved.

LainieG, from what my bariatric coordinator told me is medicare doesn't approve you for surgery. They submit all the paperwork with the billing and if your ducks are in a row they will pay for it. My secondary ins doesn't cover the sleeve but they do the bipass and banding go figure. So I'm stuck with the 20% to pay for. Said they haven't had one person on medicare that was denied after surgery.

Start my 2 week diet, 2 shakes and a Protien meal on Monday, dang it's coming fast.

I'm doing the restaurant thing these last 4 days, tonight was Mexican O'La

My appointment was very similar to vsglady. It was easy breezy. Because I have HMO, I had to come back another day to take the written test. you should do just fine.

@@beachgal2935 welcome!

Ok, it blotted it out, but because I have bcbsil I had to come back another day for the written exam.

Grammy, medicare does have criteria to meet and so far I am on the right track. No one has told me when the request is submitted, I would assume before. Seems strange it may be after surgery. I still will have medicaid as my secondary and they cover it also. I just have to meet my spend down (1000.00) and they should cover the other 20%.

I will get my test results, hopefully by tomorrow. I am guess they did not find anything bad otherwise I would think they would contact me sooner. My biggest question is if the blood clot is still in my right thigh.