Well, everything has been set in motion for me. I saw the surgeon for the initial consult for a gastric sleeve last year, but it turned out my insurance didn't cover it. I lobbied the HR/Benefits team at my company to fix that oversight, and they did, so I'm covered effective 1/1/18 and saw the doctor two days after that.

I know everyone's process will vary, but for me, after seeing the surgeon it was a visit with the nutritionist at the hospital (already done, and that covered pre-op and post-op habits mostly), the dietician in his office to supervise my three months of dieting (she put me on a low-carb and then only in the mornings near-Atkins plan, which I can stick to easily) plus I'll need to have an endoscopy done by the surgeon and a consult with a psychiatrist before they can schedule the surgery.

I'm planning on late May, since it'll be after my daughter graduates college and my wife has her knee replacement. That way both kids will be home from college and can help both of us recover. So what if it's their summer vacation? We're sending them to a great private college and they owe us!

I knew all sorts of questions to ask the surgeon thanks to this site so I knew much of what he told me ahead of time and I learned that he does not require a liquid diet ahead of the surgery. That's in contrast to what the nutritionist at the hospital told me, but I'll go by what the doctor says. Provided I meet the three month dieting requirement and it gets approved and scheduled, I can eat whatever I want between then and the day of the surgery. So no beer, soda, bread, pizza or pasta for me for three months, then I can binge a little, then comes the knife and the lifestyle changes.

I know I was at 275 the day or the visit with the dietician, though that was fully laden with two cell phones and other equipment weighing me down, but I don't much care about the numbers. I'm not going to weigh myself until I see the dietician again next month.

And that's all for me. Looking forward to participating more as the date gets closer...

I’m also on track for April or May!! Wishing you luck and maybe we will be surgery twins!