43 day update..

Its been 43 days and 40 pounds...

I was at my PCP/ID doc on Thursday and got some labs back, first BP is now 125 over 78. Cholesterol is 150 from 201, tryglycerides are not 197 from 247. Everything else is inline, the one thing I was worried about was my vl and its still undedectable and t-cells are 1099. Dont take my BP or Trygyceride meds anymore-  Doc said hey I dont care what else you do, just keep losing the weight. Whoohooo..

Two questions now, how long can someone lose almost a pound a day? UGH WHEN AM I GONNA HAVE MY AHAHHH MOMENT...outside of the first week this has been um uneventful, like a regular day. I want to have this 40 pounds smack me in the face.

LOVE IT..LOVE IT..LOVE IT..

Hugs G

congrats gman those are some mighty fine numbers! Especially the lbs! I cant wait to be joining you in the losers bench. I see my ID doc on 4/28 to get her blessing to get my surgery. I am doing the RNY. I have the same problems you NOW don't have---mainly high blood pressure and high tryglycerides.  My T-cells have always been high thank god. Right around 1600 and the VL has been undetectable for years.  Have my operation on May 5th so hope to see the same results your seeing soon. Congrats again and keep losing those numbers!

Craig

My vl and T-cells have been the same for about 10 years now, I just get paranoid when it comes to switching things up. Last year I went from combivir/sustiva to atripla and was a nervous wreck, I mean I was on them for most of the 10 years. Heck I didnt give up my stockpile of left overs meds until last week. You would figure that by now I would trust myself and my doc, I guess its the disease I dont trust.
Here is my journey over the last year, June was my, for lack of a better word, aniversay of finding out I was poz. I said to myself I was going to do something special for ME, so I went to my doc and asked about getting lypo/tummy tuck.
It was actually my ID doc/np that suggested I have weightloss surgery first. The did some poking around and asked a weightloss surgeon about the band and if he would do the surgery on me. The doc said he wouldnt and that the FDA rules wouldnt allow him to give me the band. My doc said oh thats BS, realizing that the surgeon didnt want to do it on me. So he found another WT surgeon he worked with that he really liked, called him and he said that it was BS and he would be glad to do the surgery on me. They talked it out and decided that the VSG was the best for me. 
This was win win because that is the surgery I orginially wanted, but wasnt sure we could get insurance to pay for it. Now with both my PC/ID doc and the surgeon on board "Medical Necessity" was ironed out.
I had my first appt with the surgeon in early December, first submission was denied, got all my secondary appts (Shrink, Nutrionist, doc approval) second submission approved, surgery on 3/7...here we are today.
Have you decided on a surgery yet?

Hugs
G

yep getting gastric bypass RNY done on May 5th. Can't wait.  I am on the 2 wk pre-op diet right now and uggg it sucks. But this too shall pass. I have already lost 14 lbs  and my surgeon wants me to lose a total of 20 lbs so almost there.  I have been POZ since 1992 so about 19 years. I have always been healthy but then again I have always taken my meds. Do you have to crush your meds?  I heard you have to do that and you off all people know how disgusting our meds are. Have you found an easy way to take them? Let me know.

Craig

The first couple of nights in the hospital I had the nurse break them in half. But sense then I just gulp it down like before. Not sure about RNY why, but the my surgeon and his team said I could take my pills the same night without crushing. I have always been able to take them a handful at a time, so now with one atripla a day its no biggie.
I also checked with my ID doc and even though there are some meds that you "can't" crush you can still get by crushing them. So they said if I need to I could crush my Atripla.
There are also some meds that have liquid versions until your done healing, ATRIPLA isnt one of them though. Check with your ID doc and surgeon to see what they say...
The one other thing to consider, I did the VSG surgery because it isnt malabsorbtive. So any timed released meds will get absorbed properly, make sure you check with your ID doc to see if your current meds might be affected by the surgery type.

Hugs G

Our Triglicerides are high because of the Meds/Desease, we are also at a higher risk of heart attack, they dont really know why though. We were actually going to use this as part of our explanation of medical necessity, but we didnt have to...

See my reply to Craig about pills and surgery (a lil up in this chain). We thought about RNY but there could be concerns with pills and malabsortion and if they are big pills like my Atripla could flow slow or get "stuck".

We should be talking about all of our issues, its our lives and health.

Oh one other thing, everyone should know that these posts are searchable from the internet. So if you are concerned about privacy. emails would be more appropriate. Thats why I dont want use my whole name or pic...

Hugs
G

Thanks Gman for the advice.  My pills while numerous are not that big so I think I can crush them if I have to.  My surgeon said that he has done several RNY surgeries on poz people with no problems with the malabsorption. I know when I had the band my triglycerides went back to normal rather quickly so I am hoping this is the case once I have the RNY. I am also hoping I will be able to stop crushing the pils once my stomache heals.

Craig

Great news, please keep us apprised of your situation, good to know we have each other to lean on out here in never never land.

Hugs
G

Congrats! You are going great out of the gate. After 3 years, my advice to the new post-ops is to look past the scale. I know that is hard at this point. Your labs showed a very positive trend. I think the weight will continue to fall and at times it will stall. It might even rise a little. Overall, you will see a downward trend. More importantly, you will see you life change and will have many NSVs. -- Tom