Did they give you an amount of weight to lose before approval or after?

First I should say hi! My name is Summer. I'm new here... I def belong to the BMI over 50 club. I don't know how much I weigh because I don't have a scale. But I think it's between 430-450. That's where I tend to fluctuate.

I have noticed many posts about pre-surgery weight loss.

I had my consult last October. And she didn't say anything about having to lose weight before the surgery. 

Did they discuss this before you were approved? Or after?

And how much did you/do you have to lose?

my surgeon didn't give me a goal weight, he did say I would have the best change to lose weight with the ds. Honestly, I know he didn't ever expect me to get to a normal weight...well 3 years later, I went from 492, to 192...I lost 20 lbs preop.

Scott

Hi Summer,

What a pretty name--

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 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.  

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. 

Have you gone through any of the other parts of the process after consult?

Sylvia

Thanks for the replies ( :

Sylvia my psych eval is Tuesday.

I have to call the insurance company tomorrow and make sure that the coverage is the same as it was at my consult in October. I have to call and ask about a coverage code the insurance lady from the surgeon's office gave me. My insurance is still the same company and everything. So I hope/think it's the same.

If it is the same then I will just need a letter from my surgeon and a 5 year weight history. And I'll just have to gather up the paperwork from my former doctors.

If it's changed... then I don't know... let's hope it hasn't! Please cross your fingers for me!

I need this surgery. LIke today I feel like the walking dead. So tired and out of shape and out of energy.

Hi summer, I had to lose 15 pounds before surgery.  My doc does the DS open rather than lap so he can really see what is going on in there!  because the liver is in front of the stomach, he likes to have us SMO people lose a little bit.  I did the slim fast diet on Jan 1 for my surgery on Feb. 23.  I lost 21 pounds.  At almost 5 months out, I have lost 108, including the original 21 pounds.  Hope that helps!

Hi Summer,

I pursued my surgery through my medical group. They required I take a 6-month nutrition class and lose 8 measly pounds before they'd even give me a referral to the WLS surgeon.

I pretty much ignored the nutrition class and almost derailed my goal of getting the surgery. See, I remembered when I was just starting Weigh****chers back in 2000 and I could drop 6 pounds in a week. I merrily went on my way and would get serious about my diet about three days before a monthly nutrition class. It worked the first month. Didn't work the second month. They told me then if I didn't straighten up that I'd have to restart the nutrition classes.

Anyway, I tried harder and had a whopper 12 pound weight loss by end of my 6 months.

Then I gained it back in the month and a half between my last class and my first appointment with the surgeon. I think my surgeon didn't care as long as I didn't gain after I stepped on his scale.

The insurance approved me after I had my psych consult, a chest xray and an EKG.

And I did have to do the dreaded two-week "liver-shrinking" liquid diet with the last two days being clear liquids. There is not anyway you can do that and not lose weight.  I lost 22 pounds during my liquid diet.

However, every surgeon/insurance seems to be different. You should make some phone calls and find out for sure to minimize the chance of surprises.

Not to freak you out, but I have heard some horror stories about us high BMI folks having to lose 10 percent of our weight. Or 50 pounds. Or 100 pounds.

Good luck!!

Thanks for the replies.

I know I can lose weight in the short term. That's not a huge problem for me. It's KEEPING it off.

I can exercise my butt off and eat nothing. And I will and do lose weight.

I just can't keep it off.

So if I have to lose before surgery in the short term, I am fine. It's the long term that scares me. The surgeon hasn't said anything about any of this yet. But I'm also not approved yet.

So tha'ts why I was curious.

Psych eval tomorrow...

My surgeon didn't require it, but my insurance did.  I lost 35 before surgery.  They put me in a 3 month "class" where I had to go in for 2 hours at a time for three months (once a month) and get weighed and talk about food/nutrition after surgery.  The lady there said that if I lost more than 40 pounds that I wouldn't qualify for surgery because if someone can prove they can lose it then they don't need surgery. 

When I first met with the surgeon I was 472 lbs. He did an examination which meant he poked and prodded my stomach and said I needed to lose 40 lbs. It took me 6 months to do this. When I went back he examined me again and said I needed to lose another 15lbs. I got stalled and it took me 6 months because I kept gaining. I was extremely depressed and saw my surgery slipping further and further away.

When I told the surgeon how depressed I was over things he said the weight loss was necessary for anatomical reasons. I finally managed to lose the weight needed and had my surgery a year after my initial consult.