50 Year Old Type II Diabetic on Insulin and Lots of Other Pills - VSG As Outpatient - Atlanta, GA

As the title says, I am a 50 year old single mother to two girls (10 and 7) and have been struggling with my weight and health for quite some time. I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 1998 (16 years ago) and have been on insulin for the past 11. In the past couple of years, my weight and my health have gotten a bit "out of control" and with increasing needs for insulin (and still not having good control), I was finding it impossible to lose weight. I'm also an emotional eater with a stressful life. I live in Georgia where, unless you work for a large company with a medical plan that covers employees in other states, there is no coverage for bariatric surgery. I was therefore private pay. I started the research on all of this in about May and pushed hard to have it done for August 1 (as I'd organized for my children to be away for the subsequent 10 days.) I had my pre-surgical visit and informational session on Monday, July 28 and was regular diet until July 31 when I was put on a clear liquid diet (so one day before surgery.) I had the procedure as an outpatient on Friday, August 1, 2014 - surgery at 8 am and released at 10:30 am. My recovery to date has been completely without incident. A week and a half before the surgery, I was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and went on a heavy duty course of antibiotics (that did the trick) but I still have a residual dry cough. I'm currently on a week of protein shakes and liquids which has been going well (although I definitely do have some of that "head hunger"). I'm a small business owner and have been going in and out of the office since Sunday (two days after surgery) but am working remotely otherwise. My energy levels are pretty good. I will be able to move to soft food on Saturday, August 9 and go back for a post-op visit on Monday, August 11. The greatest byproduct at this time for me is that my insulin dosage has been cut in 1/4 (30 units) and I'm off all but one other diabetes oral med and one bp/heart med. My sugars are very good (better than when I was on 120-160 units a day) thus far but of course, I attribute it to the liquid diet and absence of any real carbs. One thing that I'm going to be thinking about as I move forward is the "diet" prescribed by the surgeon's nutritionist. It talks to non-fat and lots of artificial sweeteners. I'm trying to suspend all I know otherwise (because I DO NOT subscribe to the usage of artificial sweeteners otherwise and they do not agree with me plus I'm a huge believer in "good" full fats.) Time will tell how this all plays out.

Eileen in Atlanta
5'4", 50 year old female
Pre-surgical visit weight (7/28/14) - 216
Weight day of surgery (August 1, 2014) - 208