question

hi everyone.. first i wanna thank u guys for all ur concerns when i asked to go to memorial page.. i had to do that..i did get pretty shaky but if anything i feel stronger about having this surgery.. i am meeting my surgen on monday.. march 29th.. i have lost 19 pounds in 11 days ... my doctor told me that i need to loose about 10 pounds pre op.. it wasnt happening .. no matter how much i tried.. so finally 11 days ago.. i went on all liquid... post up diet... only one non fat yougart.. one can of chicken broath, 1 cup of skim milk and all the water i could drink.. as of today i am down 19 pounds.. already finding it easy to walk... only thing i dont know is if i am suppose to keep this weight off until the day of surgery.. which should be towards the end of april or first week of May..

Hi SS, Congrats on the weight loss! That's a whole lot! You're already well on your way. Maybe I didn't understand your question, but I'll ask anyway. Why would your doctor have you lose weight if he didn't mean for you to keep it off until surgery? -Eve

hi eve.. sorry maybe i wasnt clear enough with my question.. from the get go i was told by my doctor that inorder to qualify for the surgery u have to loose 10 percent of the excessive weight.. in my case its 10 pounds.. this discussion was about 4 months ago.. now that i am getting closer to my surgery... i am just wondering at what point do they document that i have lost enough to qualify for the surgery?? i am just scared.. its easy for me to loose the weight but impossible to keep it off... and with my surgery still about a month away.. i am scared that i will end up gaining it all back and plus sum more..

Hi SS, All clear now! I, too, was told by one of the staff that I needed to lose 10% of my excess weight before surgery, but I actually ended up gaining 20 pounds! (This was over a four month period.) I was finally told that I needed to lose some and then they'd consider that I was serious and I'd get my surgery date. At that point I knew I had to work hard. Over the course of the next two appointments I came down about 7 or 8 pounds and I guess they figured I was on my way, so I got my surgery date. I think a lot of the time they tell you to lose the weight to prove that you're serious and will keep up with all the post-op requirements. Sometimes it's surgically necessary to take off enough to make it safe to operate, but it sounds like you're not in that category. I think 20 pounds is a lot, maybe if you could just try to maintain it? I know that can be just as hard as losing sometimes. Also, I will tell you that I know for a fact that I got somebody's cancelled slot because everyone else in my pre-op group was already scheduled before I was, and I ended up being the one who got surgery first. So your big weight loss may make them take you seriously and they may try and squeeze you in! Maybe you can even ask for them to consider you for cancellations - that you're going to be on stand-by! Good luck to you! -Eve

Well, I'd try to maintain at least some of that loss just so they don't ding you on it. Thankfully I had a surgeon who didn't have that requirement, although I still tried to keep it in check... Dina