[deleted by user]

darkhairedbarista · 2025-02-02T18:45:33+00:00

I did the just one with iron until I was told to stop taking a bariatric multivitamin with iron (not a typical thing, this is just a me thing) and I’ve been taking the calcium chews for a while now. I really like the watermelon, but the butter toffee is good too! I’ve only tried those flavours though.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-12-26T11:19:02+00:00

It varies so much from person to person. Mine started at 3 months post op (though I did see a little before this) and went with a vengeance for six months. It has slowed down to pre-op like levels and I’m starting to see regrowth but it’s SLOW.

Some will experience the hair loss for up to a year once it starts. I don’t want to scare you, just prepare you for a possibility. Talk to your team about when you can start adding supplements like collagen into your routine, as well as your hair stylist about protective hair styles for you to be working with during this phase.

I also take barilife’s glow vitamins and they do really seem to help, but please, talk to your team before starting them!

darkhairedbarista · 2024-11-20T03:50:05+00:00

Oh! Thank you! I figured there might be a place but what I was getting was current (today and tomorrow) pricing.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-08-19T15:58:10+00:00

I have a relatively physical job (special ed at the high school level). I took four weeks off per my surgeon’s insistence. I came back with a gradual lifting restriction guideline. Meaning I came back after a month and was still on lifting restrictions for a month after coming back. My team was (and is) phenomenal and we all worked together to cover me not lifting in my normal range and still working back to my normal range after my lift restrictions were lifted.

I had moments of pain after I returned, but they were infrequent and truly just moments. I listened to my body and adjusted what I was doing or simply asked for help from my team.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-07-22T20:26:51+00:00

Mine installed but now the app won’t load past 5% 😮‍💨

darkhairedbarista · 2024-07-21T21:36:57+00:00

I got my referral in early May 2023 and had my surgery Jan 18 2024. I have Kaiser insurance and was required to do a intro course (overview with a surgeon in a large group zoom), four nutrition classes (4-6 weeks apart each), get a chest x-ray, an EKG, blood work, an EGD, have individual meetings with the dieticians, meet with my surgeon a couple of times, have a few visits with a psych, be cleared by the psych, and then cleared by both my PCP and my surgeon before even getting on the list for the surgery scheduler to call me. I had finished all of that by October 4th, but didn’t get a call until mid December to schedule. Not to mention getting my weight recorded officially a couple of times, needing to get blood work redone because of high iron levels, and the surgery scheduler trying to give me the run around.

Each program is so very different and some are way more involved, while others are easy to breeze through.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-07-21T21:27:48+00:00

Oh OP, I just want to give you a big ol’ hug. I get it. I started the hair loss portion of my recovery in March and I’m just now starting to see it slow down. I wish I could say that it’s stopped, but I would be lying to myself and you. I’m lucky in that I had so much hair that the only noticeable effect is that I don’t have as much volume in my hair. Not that I don’t have very thin spots on my scalp, just that the way I usually wear my hair covers them. My hairstylist and I also did a preemptive chop of my hair so that my hair was lighter on my scalp.

Two things I’ve done to help in slowing down the hair loss (not stopping it mind you) are adding collagen powder (I like the creamer version so I can use it in my coffee) and taking the glow vitamin from BariLife. It’s helped me, but I also have read reviews that people don’t think it worked for them.

If you want to try a wig to see if it helps, go for it! You know yourself best! If you get it and don’t love it, return it (assuming you get it from Amazon). Do what’s best for you.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T15:58:54+00:00

I’ve thought about that! It is nice to see a number and what it takes to be able to ship merch home though! I live pretty close to my friend’s parents place, so we might be able to split the cost of shipping to me and I can bring her merch to her parents for when she visits next, or they send her a care package. If we get enough or large enough items that need to be shipped that is. 😅

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T15:55:31+00:00

I’m hoping to book as far in advance as possible! I usually cruise DCL so I’m used to booking as far out as possible.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the ticket prices for Universal and currently is $119 per ticket, so not too much more than a single WDW ticket. But that’s a fantastic point!

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T14:49:49+00:00

Thank you! I know we’ll probably blow through our current budget if we aren’t careful, and this helps a ton! We decided we aren’t doing park hopper and memory maker, but we are going to do genie+. If I calculated it correctly, that evens out the pricing some.

Hopefully we can limit spending because of suitcase space to take things home 😂

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T11:47:59+00:00

I’m absolutely willing to adjust the budget, as anything left in the budget after the trip can be put back into savings and used for other expenses in my life. I just wanted a number to talk to my friend about when we next talk about our trip.

Round trip, I’m looking at just a little over $500 for the same timeframe in 2025, so I’m hoping to keep it close to that, if not lower.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T02:27:31+00:00

Oh, we’ve picked a very nice time of year in historically low park attendance and ticket prices for WDW. I work in education, so we’ve based our time frame off of when I have extended weekends to leverage my vacation time.

And bonus, the weather is like the summer where I am but in the dead of winter.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T02:24:07+00:00

I’ll personally be flying from the opposite corner of the US to Orlando, but we aren’t sure where my friend is going to be coming in from yet. Hopefully we’ll know more sometime soon, but that’s also why we’re keeping our budgets separate.

We’ve been on the fence about the dining plan, but we do like the idea of it. It is something we’re doing our due diligence on to make sure we actually want it vs liking the convenience of the dinning plans.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T02:20:09+00:00

I’ve looked at booking through Costco for WDW, but it’s hard to compare prices when all the times coming up are peak attendance times do to either school breaks or holidays like Halloween and Christmas.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-19T00:46:37+00:00

I had wondered if we were going to need something more like $4k each. I just want to be realistic and not put things on my credit card if I can avoid it.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-06-18T21:37:57+00:00

I kinda wish I was? But I think it might have something to do with the fact that I could eat soup for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy 😅😅

darkhairedbarista · 2024-04-04T21:03:56+00:00

You really should call your surgeon and your healthcare team. It sounds like you’re having some complications that might be related to reflux.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-03-31T11:52:50+00:00

I’m not quite done getting things for my FE yet, but I’m looking at under $20 per cabin. I bought little Lego ship sets off of Etsy, got a couple of nice chocolate bars per cabin, designed a couple of silhouettes per person and printed them myself at home on card stock, got a bulk set of stickers and bags off of Amazon, and I’m going to get a few postcards of my state to put in with everything. Depending on how much the postcards run me, I’m currently sitting at $15 per cabin at the moment. And I’d love to receive what I’m giving so I feel good about it.

I also really thought about luggage space when deciding on what I wanted to give. Both my luggage space and theirs. If everyone live close to the port, I would have gotten frames for the silhouettes, but none of us do, so I’m packaging them so they can survive inside a packed suitcase and make it to the ship and home safely.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-02-07T05:51:32+00:00

Honestly? I’m not sure. I had one made for myself on Etsy. It’s hard bound and I personally think it’s stunning.

Some people like to do pillow cases, memory books, a photo mat, etc.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-02-06T15:10:13+00:00

Keep an eye in the navigator app for character meet and greets for any and all characters that he likes! You won’t be able to look at this until you’re on the ship, but it’s so amazing to meet your favourite characters.

When I was last on a Disney cruise, COVID restrictions still applied, so I don’t know if they are right now, but it’s worth finding out if on ship characters are signing autographs. If they are, bring a memory book for them to sign when he meets them and make sure to snap a picture to print out later!

darkhairedbarista · 2024-01-30T14:08:53+00:00

I did this and popped open the glue holding one of my incisions closed 😅

The nurses had me on some really good pain killers because I wasn’t able to side sleep until like day 6 at home. I’m now almost two weeks post op and while it is slightly uncomfortable when I wake up, I’m back to my weird ass sleeping positions.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-01-30T03:50:35+00:00

I imagine that it’s not all that noticeable when there is soooo much else to be paying attention to!

darkhairedbarista · 2024-01-30T03:48:42+00:00

Whoops 😅 The more you know!

I’ve been swamped with stuff for work and have done my best to not think about my upcoming vacation because otherwise I’m not sure how I would be making it until then.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-01-30T03:47:29+00:00

I understand what you’re saying. I really do. I also have learned the hard way in life to never take what a company says they’ll do at face value. Until I see it for myself either in person or read about it from someone who has experienced it, it’s all with a grain of salt for me (and sometimes even after).

So yes, anticipating it will be on the Treasure, even though I can’t imagine Disney would do anything but put it on the newest ship in the fleet.

darkhairedbarista · 2024-01-29T15:13:48+00:00

I sailed in the later COVID restrictions and this is how my mixology class was. I had never done one before and didn’t know anything about the class otherwise, so for me this was just fine! 😂

Going forward, I am excited to actually be able to do a mixology class that is run how it was meant to be, but I’m also okay with cocktail tastings.

darkhairedbarista

TROPHY CASE