losing weight preop
I was wondering how much y'all weighed when you had your surgery? Last August I saw my surgeon and she said I had to lose 60 pounds, maybe 80 pounds before I could have the surgery. I will be having RNY. I am hoping to have in sometime in September. Last month I started doing a partial fast, shakes with fruits and vegtables because I really feel at this point I just need to get this done. The surgeon had said if she did the surgery after I lost 60 if she was not comfortable doing the surgery, the instruments were not reaching, she would close me back up and have me come back when I lost 20 more. So originally I said fine I will just lose the 80 because to me that would be pretty mentally devastating to get woken up and find I did not have the surgery. To date, I have lost 46. I am feeling really frustrated and I just want to get this done. Has anyone else had to go through anything similar? My start weight 491, right now 445. I am 5' 10" . It seems a lot of people have had the surgery in the mid 400s? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I am coming up on a year and I have gone through my mom and sister dying in the last 14 months and at this stage I just am trying to give it one big push and hoping if I see the surgeon at the end of August I will be close enough.
I was at 448 prior to my DS. My doc said to lose 15 pounds so my liver would decrease which would aid him doing the surgery as it is an open process. I did Slimfast for 2 meals and a small meal per day. I lost 21 pounds thus I went into surgery at 427. I am now 340 at 4 plus months out. Good luck!
HW 448 SW 427 CW 228 GW 199 for now!
Hi donna--
I responded to a similar post a little bit ago and added some--
I had my surgery on 7/9/08 (1 year, 1 week and 3 days ago). I started my process when I went to see my surgeon on 1/31/08. He told me to try not to gain too much weight because his philosophy is that if you are going to explore WLS, while it needs to be as safe as possible, if someone told me I had to lose 50 or more pounds to get it, you might as well ask me to go to the moon and back. I have been taking thyroid meds because it was borderline, I had severe sleep apnea (which I think contributed to my metabolic rate--I didn't sleep and I got to give up my CPAP machine 2-1/2 months ago--yeah!!), high chlorestorol, edema, asthma, back pain, degenerative disc disease and a few others I can't think of right now. What ended up happening is when I got approval, my surgeon has us go on a liquid diet for 1, 2 or 3 weeks depending on your BMI. I definitely qualified for the 3 because my BMI at my heaviest was 67 and I weighed my heaviest weight at 407. On surgery day, I was 386 (the same weight I was 6 months before) and my BMI was 64.
At my 1 year followup, I weighed 226 with a BMI of 37. What a difference a year makes!! I thanked my surgeon for not having the requirement to lose x beforehand which, for the reason above, probably wouldn't have happened. I couldn't move well and didn't have the energy more than likely due to the sleep apnea most likely. I felt that he had the foresight to know that the road I was traveling was not going to have a happy ending--in fact, months prior, I saw my PCP who told me that if I kept gaining weight at the rate I was, I would be housebound and immobile because of my weight. Like I said, I am grateful for his foresight and that x # of pounds lost did not equal commitment to a change. Any surgeon that would close you up because you didn't lose x more pounds -- there are doctors (the Davis' in TX and the one at Renaissance Hospital in Texas--that operated on people 500 pounds and up to 800.
The posts I see of people sweating the last 10 pounds to see if their surgeon would think they are committed -- my heart goes out to them because they have been trying. I don't think my commitment was less because I had to go through all of the testing which was grueling (and I had a couple of others like a sleep study and additional pulmonary because of my oxygen levels in my blood and my breathing), the psych stuff wasn't that bad because you understand why and as mine said during the eval--you have to hurt before you can heal. All of us going through this process is hurting-no doubt about that.
How far into the process are you with her (testing, psych eval, etc)?
I responded to a similar post a little bit ago and added some--
I had my surgery on 7/9/08 (1 year, 1 week and 3 days ago). I started my process when I went to see my surgeon on 1/31/08. He told me to try not to gain too much weight because his philosophy is that if you are going to explore WLS, while it needs to be as safe as possible, if someone told me I had to lose 50 or more pounds to get it, you might as well ask me to go to the moon and back. I have been taking thyroid meds because it was borderline, I had severe sleep apnea (which I think contributed to my metabolic rate--I didn't sleep and I got to give up my CPAP machine 2-1/2 months ago--yeah!!), high chlorestorol, edema, asthma, back pain, degenerative disc disease and a few others I can't think of right now. What ended up happening is when I got approval, my surgeon has us go on a liquid diet for 1, 2 or 3 weeks depending on your BMI. I definitely qualified for the 3 because my BMI at my heaviest was 67 and I weighed my heaviest weight at 407. On surgery day, I was 386 (the same weight I was 6 months before) and my BMI was 64.
At my 1 year followup, I weighed 226 with a BMI of 37. What a difference a year makes!! I thanked my surgeon for not having the requirement to lose x beforehand which, for the reason above, probably wouldn't have happened. I couldn't move well and didn't have the energy more than likely due to the sleep apnea most likely. I felt that he had the foresight to know that the road I was traveling was not going to have a happy ending--in fact, months prior, I saw my PCP who told me that if I kept gaining weight at the rate I was, I would be housebound and immobile because of my weight. Like I said, I am grateful for his foresight and that x # of pounds lost did not equal commitment to a change. Any surgeon that would close you up because you didn't lose x more pounds -- there are doctors (the Davis' in TX and the one at Renaissance Hospital in Texas--that operated on people 500 pounds and up to 800.
The posts I see of people sweating the last 10 pounds to see if their surgeon would think they are committed -- my heart goes out to them because they have been trying. I don't think my commitment was less because I had to go through all of the testing which was grueling (and I had a couple of others like a sleep study and additional pulmonary because of my oxygen levels in my blood and my breathing), the psych stuff wasn't that bad because you understand why and as mine said during the eval--you have to hurt before you can heal. All of us going through this process is hurting-no doubt about that.
How far into the process are you with her (testing, psych eval, etc)?
Thanks for the response. I love to hear that you are down to 226 after 1 year. That is awesome.
I know about some of the other things you are talking about. My #1 issue is that I shattered my right knee in 94 and have torn ligaments that cant be repaired for a number of reasons, too fat and history of infections in that leg after original surgery, and now i have arthritis in that knee.
I also have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, chronic anemia and sleep apnea. I know the dreaded world of the CPAP machine. Hoping to never see that machine again once I get my surgery and get some substatial weight off.
I also had cancer in 06. Which is another big reason to get this done and lose some weight. All these fat cells are circulating large quantites of estrogen which adenocarcinomas just love to eat up. So far I am cancer free but all this fat is just too big of a risk.
This lose 60 to 80 pounds before having surgery is just about zapping my strength. I was doing fairly decent until my oldest sister died in March, she was like my best friend, and then I gained some back and have since lost it again and a bit more. But, I am like .... Enough already, I feel like i am being tortured. If I could lose 100 pounds so easy don't they think i would do it. As you know because of all the health issues I cant really exercise at all. Some days I feel blessed just to still be able to walk. Thank the Lord I went back to school after my leg injury and got me a sit down job I can do over the internet from my home.
I live in a suburb of Boston and I trust the hospitals in Boston are good, but I am begining to feel like the surgeon the clinic gave me is just torturing me for some unknown reason. I am so tired of this partial fast. I could go to a whole fast, but then they said that I would have to go to the clinic every week instead of every month and have labs done every week. Besides I am a hard needle stick, it is a lot of extra money I dont really have, not too mention the gas to drive in and out of Boston constantly, the parking fees, and then having to try to rearrange my schedule to get in my 40 hours.
Well I guess I am getting into a rant now... but it was so kind of you to reply and share your story.
I know about some of the other things you are talking about. My #1 issue is that I shattered my right knee in 94 and have torn ligaments that cant be repaired for a number of reasons, too fat and history of infections in that leg after original surgery, and now i have arthritis in that knee.
I also have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, chronic anemia and sleep apnea. I know the dreaded world of the CPAP machine. Hoping to never see that machine again once I get my surgery and get some substatial weight off.
I also had cancer in 06. Which is another big reason to get this done and lose some weight. All these fat cells are circulating large quantites of estrogen which adenocarcinomas just love to eat up. So far I am cancer free but all this fat is just too big of a risk.
This lose 60 to 80 pounds before having surgery is just about zapping my strength. I was doing fairly decent until my oldest sister died in March, she was like my best friend, and then I gained some back and have since lost it again and a bit more. But, I am like .... Enough already, I feel like i am being tortured. If I could lose 100 pounds so easy don't they think i would do it. As you know because of all the health issues I cant really exercise at all. Some days I feel blessed just to still be able to walk. Thank the Lord I went back to school after my leg injury and got me a sit down job I can do over the internet from my home.
I live in a suburb of Boston and I trust the hospitals in Boston are good, but I am begining to feel like the surgeon the clinic gave me is just torturing me for some unknown reason. I am so tired of this partial fast. I could go to a whole fast, but then they said that I would have to go to the clinic every week instead of every month and have labs done every week. Besides I am a hard needle stick, it is a lot of extra money I dont really have, not too mention the gas to drive in and out of Boston constantly, the parking fees, and then having to try to rearrange my schedule to get in my 40 hours.
Well I guess I am getting into a rant now... but it was so kind of you to reply and share your story.
My surgeon said I had to lose at least 87 pounds to have the surgery laproscopically. I went to a program at University of Alabama Birmingham called "Eat Right" where I did Optifast (a high protein meal replacement program). I made up my mind to do it 100% and I did, no cheating. I lost 129 pounds from Nov. 13, 2008 to June 30, 2009. I had my RNY July 15. I would have had it sooner but my surgeon had to have surgery on his hand so I just stuck to the Optifast "one meal at a time" and kept losing.
My starting weight was 497. You can do it! I'll be happy to support you and cheer you on.
My starting weight was 497. You can do it! I'll be happy to support you and cheer you on.
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