I've been planning and getting excited for the gastric sleeve for months now. My insurance requires 6 check-ins w/a case manager and with the doctor's office before they'll agree to the surgery. So yesterday was my 6 month check in!! Woohoo! Getting so close Talked to my case manager (before going to see the dietitian unfortunately) and she's completely on board with signing off for the surgery. Was really worried about that one since you know how insurances can be.

Anyway, I go to the dietitian, and she looks at my food log that she'd wanted me to keep. She had told me in past appointments that she wanted me to concentrate on my Protein, and we talked portion sizes and all that, but no numbers really other than protein. Well, now she looks at like 3 or 4 days and is aghast at how many carbs I've eaten. Doesn't care that it was just the holidays. Or that I've told her that I struggle with being hungry when I don't have carbs (I know protein is supposed to last longer, etc, but I can eat a full-protein Breakfast and it lasts half the time as a bowl of cereal). Well now suddenly, this is a problem and she wants to delay another month. Really??? NOW you're telling me this?

What gets me the most is that she only even knows this because insurance required me to see her for 6 months...if it didn't, she wouldn't even know and I would have already had the surgery.

So I know there's nothing you guys can do, I just wanted to vent because I'm frustrated with this whole process.

I know it's very frustrating, but it really is going to set you up for greater success post-op. A month seems like a SUPER long time right now, but it's worth the trade off if it buys you years and years of health and happiness down the road, right?

Carbs are a HUGE problem for nearly all of us post-op. It's so so so critical to get your Protein in and in the very early months post-op, you will simply not have room to waste on carbs. Kicking that carb habit is critical for long-term success. While I've never subscribed to the whole "carbs are the enemy" mentality that a lot of WLS patients end up living by, it's a simple issue of space in those early months. When you can only eat a couple of ounces of food a few times a day, they HAVE to be protein in order for you to meet your protein requirements. There's simply no room for carbs. So you really will be doing yourself a favor to start adapting to that mentality pre-op. It's tough for sure!

I definitely agree, I just feel like that should have been communicated much more strongly in the past 6 months!! I mean, in the sense that it was something I definitely had to adopt or else surgery wouldn't happen. My goals for this past month were to do more strength training, cook at home at least once a week, and keep the food diary...no mention of the number of carbs.

Yeah, definitely frustrating it wasn't communicated to you sooner. It's such a long, tedious process in the first place. Sucks to have it drag on even longer than necessary.