Newbie on the Fence

Hi!!

I am considering WLS, and I am having a hard time making a decision.  I have a local friend who had it a year and a half ago, and she said it was the best decision of her life.  She is glad she did it.  I want that feeling going in to it.

I am a mother of 3, who *has* to work fulltime.  I work the evening shift at a hospital, so it can be busy or slow.  Slow means we have more opportunities for snacking....not good.  My kids are 3, 5, and 8.  I don't like to take time away from them to work out, because once school is in session I don't get to spend much time with them, school is out at 2:20pm, I work at 3pm.  School starts at 7:50am, we are 20 minutes from school with the aweful morning traffic.  So I'm off work at 11:30pm, and have to be up at 6:45 am to get everybody ready.  Then later in the day I'm exhausted.  So exercise and I haven't worked well, and I end up eating useless sugary carbs to get energy and attempt to maintain it to get through the week.  That has been my existance for the last 4 years, little sleep, sugar, and little activity.  I have tried multiple diets, and could probably tell you the calorie count of everything I eat, without looking it up.  I just can't stick with anything, once I'm "off" the "diet" I gain it all back, and then some.  I did the hcg diet earlier this year, lost 26 pounds, and then promptly gained back it all, with an extra 10 pounds.

I feel like I'm at the end of my rope trying to lose weight.  I am 5'5" and currently sitting around 210-220 pounds.  I wasn't this heavy when I was pregnant with my last 2 kids, it's SO frustrating.  My BMI is borderline, but according to my local friend, our insurance will pay for any BMI above 27.

I want to be healthy for my kids, I want to run and play with them, enjoy my life, and be proud to be a wife to my husband.  He is relatively healthy, seems to find the time to do exercise and stay healthy, when I haven't been able to.

I am wondering how this will impact my life.  How long is the usual hospital stay?  I looked in the Miles and Meals post, so I can kinda see what my meals will be like for the rest of my life, I can handle that.  What should be my biggest worry, what should I make sure to ask my potential surgeon when I have a webinar on Tuesday?  I know this is a life change, I am thinking I need something drastic to FORCE me to change, so I can be healthy.  How long will I be "down"?  How much time do I have to take off of work?  What are tips that I need to know, and what, in your opinions, work best for lightweights.....the gastric bypass RNY or the gastic sleeve?  I have looked at both and am leaning towards the sleeve, because of my paternal family history of type 2 diabetes.

Thanks for helping me, in advance.  Any insight, tips, thoughts, suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

You are coming from a place that most of us are very familiar with.  Losing, gaining, to tired to exercise, not eating right.  Yep, we could have written the book.

I have been very thankful for my surgery.  I have lost 100 lbs and have gotten my life back.  I'm 62 so my recovery may have been a little different but with RNY, my group had you spend 2 nights in the hospital.  I took off several weeks from work with clients but I work at home and I did that from early on.  Most folks appreciate at least a couple of weeks. Sleeve, DS and RNY are all good surgeries.  Not all Drs will do all and not all insurance will pay for all. 

Listen carefully at your webinar.  Look at all the groups in your area who do surgery and see who appeals to you.  I would encourage you to use a Center of Excellance if you have on close.  They seem to have good information. 

Hi
Price has a lot of good advice.  All of us have been there - I am scheduled for surger this Thursday, so I know how hard the decision is. 

I have a couple of additional suggestions.  Check out the insurance policy for bariatric surgery from your insurance company.  That will tell you the specific requirements for them to cover your surgery.  (as and example, mine won't cover if you don't have a BMI of 35 for 2 years and a severe comorbidity). 

You need to find a doctor that will take the time to discuss the many options for weight loss surgery.  Each person is a little different, so the final decision is different.  For my specific case, I'm having RNY because of underlying conditions that make sleeve or DS high risk for me in the long run.  I suggest that you find a surgeon associated with the AMBS, as their entire program is very helpful for long term success.

The whole insurance approval process takes a long time - typically a minimum of 6 months at my doctor.  Part of the process is to make sure that the surgeon understands all risks that you have for this type of major surgery.  As part of this process, I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, Pre-Diabetes, and a couple of weeks ago I "flunked" the clearance at the cardiologist.  Therefore I need to have a nuclear stress test and echocardiogram (the first is an all day procedure) before the cardiologist will clear me for the surgery on Thursday. 

You will also be adjusting and becoming more assertive as a result of the entire program, as finding time for the special diet and exercise are very important.  I was surprised how supportive my husband and children are - they want me to be healthy too.

Take care, and good luck in your decision-making.

Kimi,

Welcome to the lightweight board. Good that you want to something about your weight now but Eliza is right.

Most (about 99%) of the insurance companies that do cover WLS require a minimum BMI of 35 with comorbid conditions and 40 without. And a good majority of policies that companies have also require that you prove being morbidly obese for a minimum of 2 and probably as long as 5 years. And that means doctor weigh ins, usually a pimary care or endocrinologist or ob/gyn.

Okay, what about the self pay route...even if you do that, most surgeons want you to weight enough to meet the 35 or 40 BMI anyway as they have to keep up their certification.

I know I sound like a "negative Nelly" but your friend that said you only had to have a BMI of 27 is most likely incorrect but the only way to be sure is to check your policy yourself.

Good luck.

Liz

I think everyone is nervous when they start thiking about surgery as an option.  As Price and others said, we have ALL been in this struggle and just could not maintain without surgery.  I would listen in at the seminar and ask questions....see if you can attend their support group as you can learn a lot there.  You can call your insurance company and find out the BMI requirements and they will mail you their info about this. I wish you the best of luck....I am SOOO glad I did this but everyone has to figure this out for themeslves....if they want surgery and when.

Good luck!!!

~~~Jennifer
p..s  most people are off work 2 weeks....you arent "down that long".....you will need to take it easy and eating is a struggle in the beginning....BUT you get used to the changes.  Keep reading OH...this helped me A LOT!

Thanks for the input everybody!!  I will definately write some notes down from your suggestions for my webinar on Monday. 

I was shocked too, about the BMI as low as 27, so I will double check that.  I have been obese, since my first son was born, that was 8 yrs ago.  Unfortunately most of that time I was nursing and/or pregnant, so I was on scales often at the dr.'s offices, but maybe that won't help me, since most of the time I was pregnant.  I will have to double check that with the physician doing the webinar.  The physician I was recommended isn't the same one (or the same office) doing the webinar, but I thought it would be a good place to start gathering info. 

Thanks for helping!  I didn't know the approval process could take so long, didn't quite know what to expect for "down-time" and am still having a hard time deciding.  I think my body is telling me I need to do something different.  I am training to do a 10K to benefit Seattle Children's in a few weeks and my knee is getting bad as well as my shin splints, so I think I have punished my body for too long.  I rested yesterday and today and hope to get back to training tomorrow, in case I am not approved for surgery at least I am on my way to a healthier life.

Thanks!  I will make sure to keep reading though! :-)
~Kim

Just to share... You wake up from surgery able to live this new lifestyle. The way you have to start eating so slow, taking it easy with jus****er, then just broth.. it makes it easy to adjust. I was someone who loved sweets and large portions. Now I don't even want the stuff and I'm just fine eating out of my baby size bowls. I even went to game night where everyone was digging into a giant bowl of caramel corn and I was not even tempted.

Keep searching, keep thinking, but know that this can work for you. This is a way to lose the weight and keep it off forever.

Good luck on your 10k! I live in the Seattle 'area' and have had kids at Children's. It's a great hospital. 

Thanks!  I am still going to listen to my webinar tonight, but I just checked with insurance, and she said I would have to meet the defination of being "morbidly obese".  It's having a BMI of 40 or greater.  So, at this point I wouldn't qualify, but she is going to have somebody from Carelink call me tomorrow to see if there is other qualifiers.  It's paid for at 80%, but since I have no idea how much this would cost, I don't even know of that is feasible. Obviously they must have a financial company set up for stuff, I would think. 

I will continue what I'm doing, which even though it's trying to lose weight, I'm only maintaining.  I will keep persuing this, but I'm not prepared to do what it would take to qualify for a BMI of 40.  Hopefully I will have different news tomorrow!
Thanks!