tracy327

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Well, here I am. August will be my 2 year surgiversary and I am dissapointed in my progress. my beautiful daughter was born completely healthy 6/2011 and after all was said and done I lost 78 pounds despit ethe pregnancy. Believe I was diligenta bout my nutrition and vitamins and although it was terrifying to learn that I had gotten pregnant 1 month after surgery everything turned out beautifully. Since her birth 11 months ago, I have effortlessly gained 23 pounds instead of losing the additional 37 that I needed to lose to get to my realistic goal of 140. I am so frustrated. I have not been able to work out as much as I would like but have recently gone back to proteinb shakes for breakfast. Itypically have sald with chicken or tuna & balsamic vinagrette dressingfor lunch and then eat whatever is for dinner. Yes, I admit to probably snacking a bit more than I should and totally understand why I havent lost any more weight but am terrified that I've gained so easily and am now back at 200 pounds. Im still 55 away from my highest weight but dont feel like it at all. I am in the process of looking into revision surgery. Not sure if DS or RNY would be the best bet for me or if Aetna or Bc/Bs would be the best insurance for revision. It is open enrollment time and I havethe option to switch. I'll update when I figure it all out.:)

I cant believe that 6 months has passed already. It has been such an intersting journey. I still am sohappy that I finally made thsi decision for myself. I have absolutely no regrets! As of this morning I have lost 65 pounds. Yippee! Weight loss has been painfully slow thos past month and a half but I am not complaining. I am also just over 5 months pregnant. If you have surgery be aware. Birth control pills did not work for me and therefore ...We are having baby # 3 in June! Great big shock/surprise. Luckily all is going well with the pregancy. I sometimes wonder how much I would have lost if it werent for the pregancy but then realize, its irrelevant. Ive lost 65 and am still losing very slowly and now that Im over my shock and initial dismay, am so excited and fell so blessed to have been surprised by such an amazing gift. I still have 49 pounds left to reach my goal but feel so much better than I have in a long tome. I can eat anything that I want to now just not very much at one time. It was a bit frustrating at Thanksgiving but that was my first holiday since surgery and in the grand scheme of things there are so many things that are so much more important. If anyone reading this is considering gastric sleeve surgery, I have nothing but positive things to say. You will not be dissapointed. I have never been happier! I look forward to the meeting my goal in the next 6 months!

I was sleeved 3 days ago and I just have to say that I am amazed and how wonderful I feel. I am still a bit sore but otherwise feeling great. I seem to have more energy than Ive had in avery long time and I am so excited to be completely recovered. Okay so the 2 days before surgery, I was very nervous, questioning my decision and really just asking myself if I had lost my mind. Oddly enough, the day of surgery came and I wasnt even a bit nervous, at least until I leaned over to kiss my little ones goodbye. They were still sleeping since I had to be at the hospital at 5 AM! I didnt like that part much at all and that wasnt a great feeling. Also, my husband was STILL in the hospital recovering from complications from a surgery (NOT WLS) I still felt a bit guilty that i hadnt postponed my surgery but he insisted i just go ahead. Once I left the house my nervousness dissapeared and there was no looking back. I instantly felt at peace with my decision and knew that all would go well and it did! I was uncomfotable when they woke me up but in no more pain than I had been with 2 prior c-sections. The worst part was that I woke up and still had the migraine that I had gone in with. My recovery was quick. The day after surgery my migraine had gotten worse and they told me they couldnt give me anything for it so I was relying on the pain pump they gave me for the surgery pain. I am telling the truth when I say that I didnt even need it for my post op pain but only used it to try to dull my migraine. I think it made the migraine worse and also made me extremely nauseated. Finally at 6 PM a new nurse came and offered me IMITREX for my migraine. YEAH!!! I came home yesterday and have no complaints thus far. Gas pains can be pretty intense but Im just trying to keep walking to keep everything moving. I start pureed foods tomorrow and cant wait for some cream of wheat! I do not regret my decision at all at this point. 16 pounds so far including pre-op diet loss of 12 and 4 pounds since Monday !

Well, I didnt realize it but Ive been holding my breath since I restarted this whole process. I had my clearance appointments on Thursday and received the call today that YES YES YES, I am approved by Aetna and cleared for my surgery on Monday. yippee yai yay!!! After getting a denial the day prior to surgery last year , I was really worried even though no one could think of any reason for a denial this time. As soon as I hung up the phone, the tears began to roll. Words can not express the relief I feel. I have been waking up at night feeling guilty for making such a choice. I still wonder how my children would feel and something happened to me. That would suck! I try to remind myself that the odds of anything happening are extremely low and so I try not to allow those thoughts to linger for too long. My husband went in foe surgery a week ago (not weight loss surgery) and has had some complications. Just found out that he will be in the hospital another 7-10 days so he will still be in the hospital when I hav emy surgery. Im so sad for him and thats snother thing that pops in my head from time to time. He had to have a surgery. I am choosing to have surgery. Am i nuts? Again, i dont allow these thoughts to stick around too long. Ive come too far to turn back now, especially after going through the ENTIRE PROCESS TWICE. It has been crazy but I am so ready for this next phase. I am only allowing positive thoughts and I am confident that I will have a quick recovery and will soon be well on my way to my new lifestyle! I am elated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, here I go. My 2 week pre-op diet starts today. Surgery is scheduled 2 weeks from today but I dont meet with my surgeon until Thursday. I know Im supposed to be getting Opti-fast from them but WOW- it is expensive, Ive decided that Optifast is not really an option and so Ill be doing a variety of other things such as low carb slim fast, no sugar added carnation instant breakfast, low sugar whey protein powders from the nutrition store, chicken broth, sugar free popsicles and jello, etc. I hope this is okay. I called the office last week but havent heard back from them so Ill be putting a call in again today. IN the meantime Im going to forge ahead wih my plan. I thought that I would want to eat everything I could yesterday since I would be started liquids today but oddly enough, that wasnt the case. I am so excited to know that I will start to see the results of all the hard work and waiting of the past few months. SO SO SO EXCITED!!!!

Less than 30 days till VSG! I cant even believe it. I am sooo excited and nervous. For the most part I am just super excited and can not wait for the time to pass so that it will be here. The mommy part of me is battling me and I keep asking myself if Ive lost my mind. I feel really guilty for choosing to go under anesthesia & the knife. I keep thinking about how horrible it would be for my children if I didnt make it through. Not only would they not have me , they would know that this was something that I chose. The rational & logical part of me knows that the chances of that happening are very slim but I still worry. I think if I wasnt a mommy, I wouldnt be worried at all but it is a bit scary.  I guess it's normal to have these thoughts so close to surgery. Also, after my denial last year, Im still so afraid that Ill get that same denial call the day before surgery again. I figure if I spout out my fears on here, I'll be able to release them a bit!

So Aetna denied me the day before my scheduled Lap-band last year. I was scheduled for Sep.2 and rcvd a call on Sep 1st that it was denied because my weight in 2007 was a bit under where it needed to be for a BMI of 40 with no co morbitities. Aetna has this silly clause tjhat states BMI must be 40 or above for 2 years prior to surgery. I am prediabetic and have high cholesterol and also had a sleep study which was inconclusive because I woke up soooo many times.I appealed all through the year and well, long story short, with another year of having a BMI of 40+, I now qualify under their specs. So within the same year, I am doing ALL of the same stuff AGAIN. What a waste of time and money for me and Aetna too!! I have completed all of my clearances and now just have 1 more dietician appointment, my final meeting with my surgeon and medical clearance appoitment. I have decided now to have a sleeve gastrectomy.I decided on the sleeve after reading about so many banders who were having their bands removed and were converting to the sleeve.  I am really excited about it and my surgery is scheduled for August 2nd. 39 days away! I am a bit nervous to get that call the day before again with some other wacky reason for denial but am trying to be positive!!