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New to site. Sleeved in Oct. 2014



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Hello,

My name is Madeleine and I am happy I found this site.

In 2014 I finally got good health insurance. One thing I wanted to do was have bariatric surgery since my best friend had it a few years before and it was working very well for her. I went to orientation in March and I found I weighted 437. I knew I weighted a lot, but that was higher than I have ever weighted so I went in the Pre-op diet with some passion. I had a great surgeon, Dr. Im at Kaiser, and he said I needed to get below 400 before he would do the surgery. I went to the classes and worked hard and I got down to 410, but those last 10 pounds were real hard. I think as I got down close the surgery became a real possibility and I panicked. The psychiatrist for the program, Dr. Z., talked to me and helped me realize I really wanted this and I had to get my butt in action. After that it was easy and by the time I went into surgery, Oct. 14, 2014, I was down to 388,

The surgery itself was not bad. I was a bit nervous, but everything worked out ok. My big post surgery issue were my feet. Within the first week my feet were killing me and it was hard to walk. The surgeon said it was likely due to the position of my feet during surgery. It took awhile to go away, but I am now able to take walks. At first, though, I was not sure what exercise to do since I had figured I would do a lot of walking. Finally I used a recumbent bike and that allowed me to exercise without hurting my feet.

I am now 7 months out from surgery, down to 265, and very happy I did this for myself. I am excited to explore this site and get to know other people who are on this journey too.

Madeleine

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Wow! You are doing an amazing job! I just had my surgery today , I can't wait to do an update on my weight in a few months???? reading your post gives a lot of encouragement. Ty!

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    • Aunty Mamo

      Iʻm roughly 6 weeks post-op this morning and have begun to feel like a normal human, with a normal human body again. I started introducing solid foods and pill forms of medications/supplements a couple of weeks ago and it's really amazing to eat meals with my family again, despite the fact that my portions are so much smaller than theirs. 
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    • BeanitoDiego

      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
      Surgery was in August of 2023. A bill shows up for over $7,000 in January. WTF? I asks myself. I know that I jumped through all of the insurance hoops and verified this and triple checked that, as did the surgeon's office. All was set, and I paid all of the known costs before surgery.
      A looong story short, is that an assistant surgeon that was in the process of accepting money from my insurance company touched me while I was under anesthesia. That is what the bill was for. But hey, guess what? Some federal legislation was enacted last year to help patients out when they cannot consent to being touched by someone out of their insurance network. These types of bills fall under something called, "surprise billing," and you don't have to put up with it.
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      I had to make a lot of phone calls to both the surgeon's office and the insurance company and explain my rights and what the maximum out of pocket costs were that I could be liable for. Also had to remind them that it isn't my place to be taking care of all of this and that I was going to escalate things if they could not play nice with one another.
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    • BeanitoDiego

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    • BeanitoDiego

      Still purging all of the larger clothing. This morning, a shirt that I ADORED wearing ended up on top. Hard to let it go, but it was also hard to let go of those habits that also no longer serve my highest good. Onward and upward!
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