I don't really have a support system of people who have already done the surgery or on the journey. What advice would you give me? Any advice is welcome

I had to delay because of medical reasons (not due to weight) and covid shutdowns.

Hi there, I am in so cal and went through Kaiser. I went to the South Bay facility.
they definitely make you jump through hoops with all their pre qualifications (like classes, psych eval, etc). But it was so worth it. It was done as an outpatient procedure because it was in the midst of Covid, I had the gastric sleeve done because I was worried about vitamin deficiency issues.

i am now about a year and a half out from surgery. My friend/mom was really my support because my family/husband thought it was unnecessary (drs told me it would save my life). My friends husband went through it so he was a good sounding board, but This forum is awesome for any questions you might have and I honestly went here first.

i am pretty tall at over 6 feet but my highest weight was 330 lbs and now I am at 155-160 pounds. I am currently looking into trying to get skin removal surgery.
In case you are interested in that down the road: apparently they make you take classes for that as well.

complications I had: I had a slight issue with my blood pressure being too low post surgery and was taken off my meds which fixed the problem. Kaiser was very responsive to the concern and the surgical team was great about conferring with my other specialists (I have many) because they are all part of the same Kaiser system.

if you have any questions feel free to reach out!

good luck!

Hello and congratulations on your approval. The only advise that I can give you is read the back pages of this forum. It holds 20 + years of questions and includes everything you never thought you needed to know.

Hello and congratulations on your approval!

The best advise I can give is have patience and just ride the weight loss train as it goes.

Don't compare yourself to others, just follow your plan and do what you need to and the results will prove themselves!

Hello and welcome. My Number one most important piece of advice is that this is your journey and it will be unique. We are all here to cheer you on and support you but your experience will be different from ours and that’s perfectly fine. Trust your team and trust the process. It works.

Edited August 4, 20224 yr by ShoppGirl

6 hours ago, Orinskye said:

Hi there, I am in so cal and went through Kaiser. I went to the South Bay facility.
they definitely make you jump through hoops with all their pre qualifications (like classes, psych eval, etc). But it was so worth it. It was done as an outpatient procedure because it was in the midst of Covid, I had the gastric sleeve done because I was worried about Vitamin deficiency issues.

i am now about a year and a half out from surgery. My friend/mom was really my support because my family/husband thought it was unnecessary (drs told me it would save my life). My friends husband went through it so he was a good sounding board, but This forum is awesome for any questions you might have and I honestly went here first.

i am pretty tall at over 6 feet but my highest weight was 330 lbs and now I am at 155-160 pounds. I am currently looking into trying to get skin removal surgery.
In case you are interested in that down the road: apparently they make you take classes for that as well.

complications I had: I had a slight issue with my blood pressure being too low post surgery and was taken off my meds which fixed the problem. Kaiser was very responsive to the concern and the surgical team was great about conferring with my other specialists (I have many) because they are all part of the same Kaiser system.

if you have any questions feel free to reach out!

good luck!

I hope I am replying correctly...

Thank you and congratulations on your weight loss!! That is a huge accomplishment! Good luck on your skin surgery.

My primary doctor referred me to positive change classes and I took the nutrition class about 3 years ago. After that and during covid I gained soooo much weight and she (primary) recommended the surgery. I took classes online and then did my blood tests and that was it. Then I had a hospital stay (unrelated to weight) March, 2021 so I had to wait on my surgery. Fast forward to April of 2022 and my doctor said I should be ok to have weight loss surgery. I contacted Positive Change and they did not require me to retake classes and reordered my blood tests, I had a psy evaluation, and did not pass the first because I had not lost any weight (I actually gained) and he didnt think I put in the work. I had another appointment with him about 6 weeks later (mid July) and had lost weight so he approved me. I just had a phone consultation with a surgeon and he approved me for the sleeve on the condition that my specialist says its OK. He said the sleeve is better for me due to the medications I have to take.

Since I went through my classes a long time ago, I watched tons of videos on youtube from other surgical hospitals etc. A lot of places seem like they are really connected to their patients and give them so much support. For me, I feel like I am on an island. I haven't talked to a nutritionist, or anyone else walking me through this process. Most of my info this time around is via youtube; and I just found this place last night.

• What I am most worried about is drinking water. I get migraines if I get slightly dehydrated. I have been working out to lose weight and noticed how much I drink. I am trying to sip water throughout the day but I am failing at keeping myself hydrated and have had a migraine almost every day. How do you do it? Set alarms? How do you go through your day sipping so much water? How do you work like that?
• I also saw that you cannot eat gummy vitamins is that true? I cannot find that in the positive change book, maybe I missed it.

Thank you for your support and all the help!

11 hours ago, MyDogsLoveMe said:

I hope I am replying correctly...

Thank you and congratulations on your weight loss!! That is a huge accomplishment! Good luck on your skin surgery.

My primary doctor referred me to positive change classes and I took the nutrition class about 3 years ago. After that and during covid I gained soooo much weight and she (primary) recommended the surgery. I took classes online and then did my blood tests and that was it. Then I had a hospital stay (unrelated to weight) March, 2021 so I had to wait on my surgery. Fast forward to April of 2022 and my doctor said I should be ok to have weight loss surgery. I contacted Positive Change and they did not require me to retake classes and reordered my blood tests, I had a psy evaluation, and did not pass the first because I had not lost any weight (I actually gained) and he didnt think I put in the work. I had another appointment with him about 6 weeks later (mid July) and had lost weight so he approved me. I just had a phone consultation with a surgeon and he approved me for the sleeve on the condition that my specialist says its OK. He said the sleeve is better for me due to the medications I have to take.

Since I went through my classes a long time ago, I watched tons of videos on youtube from other surgical hospitals etc. A lot of places seem like they are really connected to their patients and give them so much support. For me, I feel like I am on an island. I haven't talked to a nutritionist, or anyone else walking me through this process. Most of my info this time around is via youtube; and I just found this place last night.

• What I am most worried about is drinking Water. I get Migraines if I get slightly dehydrated. I have been working out to lose weight and noticed how much I drink. I am trying to sip water throughout the day but I am failing at keeping myself hydrated and have had a Migraine almost every day. How do you do it? Set alarms? How do you go through your day sipping so much water? How do you work like that?
• I also saw that you cannot eat gummy vitamins is that true? I cannot find that in the positive change book, maybe I missed it.

Thank you for your support and all the help!

Water: super important and some people had success with alarms (I did not- I found them irritating) I used a water bottle with times on the side. You had to finish that much water by that time on the side of the bottle and you get 64 ounces in. You can get them on Amazon. Look for motivational water bottle or something. I drink way more than that now though …. Now that it’s a habit.
i found it difficult at first because of masking. I wasn’t allowed to take my mask off while teaching/inside so I had to step outside the classroom every time I wanted a drink. I compensated this one by making my OWN water bottle (it was a cup with straw) and wrote times on the side just like my other one. Because it had a straw I could slip it under my mask and take a sip without having to go out of the room.

gummy vitamins: I used chewable ones at first but they tasted awful and stained my teeth. I switched to just basic pills. I was told no gummies during the classes.
(that said: I used to have the occasional gummy bear at the movies…. Stolen from my kids ?….. but I can’t do that anymore because my body goes crazy when I have sugar/carbs).

The other one they recommend was calcium citrate chews. I don’t take these. By taking these it was too much calcium (found by bloodwork) so it’s one less thing I have to take.

21 hours ago, MyDogsLoveMe said:

• What I am most worried about is drinking Water. I get Migraines if I get slightly dehydrated. I have been working out to lose weight and noticed how much I drink. I am trying to sip water throughout the day but I am failing at keeping myself hydrated and have had a Migraine almost every day. How do you do it? Set alarms? How do you go through your day sipping so much water? How do you work like that?
• I also saw that you cannot eat gummy vitamins is that true? I cannot find that in the positive change book, maybe I missed it.

Thank you for your support and all the help!

In terms of fluids if you talk to your surgeon they should be able to arrange for you to get fluids as an out patient. Perhaps they can just schedule this ahead given your situation. I only needed to go one time and I was able to drink the full 64 ounces shortly after surgery but not everyone gets there that quickly (it depends on swelling I think).

i was also told no gummies. I did the bariatric advantage chewable multivitamin just after surgery but switched to the capsules the next month or so. Everyone is different on this too but I was swallowing small pills on the hospital the day after surgery so I had no issues with the capsules.

I hope I am replying correctly...

Thank you and congratulations on your weight loss!! That is a huge accomplishment! Good luck on your skin surgery.
My primary doctor referred me to positive change classes and I took the nutrition class about 3 years ago. After that and during covid I gained soooo much weight and she (primary) recommended the surgery. I took classes online and then did my blood tests and that was it. Then I had a hospital stay (unrelated to weight) March, 2021 so I had to wait on my surgery. Fast forward to April of 2022 and my doctor said I should be ok to have weight loss surgery. I contacted Positive Change and they did not require me to retake classes and reordered my blood tests, I had a psy evaluation, and did not pass the first because I had not lost any weight (I actually gained) and he didnt think I put in the work. I had another appointment with him about 6 weeks later (mid July) and had lost weight so he approved me. I just had a phone consultation with a surgeon and he approved me for the sleeve on the condition that my specialist says its OK. He said the sleeve is better for me due to the medications I have to take.
Since I went through my classes a long time ago, I watched tons of videos on youtube from other surgical hospitals etc. A lot of places seem like they are really connected to their patients and give them so much support. For me, I feel like I am on an island. I haven't talked to a nutritionist, or anyone else walking me through this process. Most of my info this time around is via youtube; and I just found this place last night.

• What I am most worried about is drinking water. I get migraines if I get slightly dehydrated. I have been working out to lose weight and noticed how much I drink. I am trying to sip water throughout the day but I am failing at keeping myself hydrated and have had a migraine almost every day. How do you do it? Set alarms? How do you go through your day sipping so much water? How do you work like that?
• I also saw that you cannot eat gummy vitamins is that true? I cannot find that in the positive change book, maybe I missed it.

Thank you for your support and all the help!

Hi I sawyou mention a timer. At one of my group meetings some post op people mentioned that they went on Amazon and purchased a device called GYMBOSS. It's very compact about 1 1/2 x 2 in. You can program how often how long between timer and it will run up to 99x before it shuts off or you shut it off. You can set to chime,vibrate,or both. I've been practicing with mine. Surgery is in 5 days. I know it will help me stay on track.

@mkellee

Congratulations ????. 5 days!

How is the pre op meal plan going? Did you prepare for the post op with anything special? Let me know afterwards!!

Congratulations again!!!

[mention=424419]mkellee[/mention]
Congratulations [emoji122][emoji122][emoji122][emoji122]. 5 days!

How is the pre op meal plan going? Did you prepare for the post op with anything special? Let me know afterwards!!

Congratulations again!!!

Thank you! For the last 6 months I've been eating the foods I would be after my surgery. I've lost 30 lbs. Really trying hard to do what it takes. I'm still heavier than I've been in awhile thanks to covid housebound rules I imposed. I knew this was coming and haven't taken any chances. I'm 63 and disabled so I can't afford any illnesses. But I'm doing well. I think I have a good mindset. And I have great support! Plus it's nice to find this just days before my surgery.