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Yipeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

I've got my referals for my appointments on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a go I think that Tricare will pay for the surgery at least I hope so. According to the Tricare Rep that I spoke to if I get the referal approved it means that they will most likely pay for my surgery with my out of network surgeon. Doing my happy dance. :party:Anybody else want to join me?
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

Wow Just Had An Awful Dream!!!!

I just got woke up from a really bad dream I guess you would have to call it a nightmare. I would tell you about it but I better wait cause I'm still freaking out a bit.   So now that I'm awake and groggy and don't want to go back to sleep yet I guess I'll do some posting.   I haven't really said how I personally got to the point where I needed a lapband so hopefully you have a glass of water and time to read.   I am 4' 9 1/2" I weigh in at a whopping 219.4 pounds. Imagine a large beach ball with fat little legs and arms sticking out. :thumbup:   Well anyway as a small child until I hit puberty I was bone thin. At that point the pudgy monster hit me and all of my family on my mother's side were so supportive and helpful. You know the comments like "you would be so pretty if you just lost weight" or " you have such a pretty face" I mean Gee why didn't they get it over with and say "hey fat pig quit eating and you'll be beautiful"   Well as you can imagine I had a few issues with body image. At 18 yrs old I joined the United States Marine Corps. I was in the best shape of my life coming out of boot camp!! :thumbup: I was super sexy and wearing a loose size 2 in jeans!!!! Now that is skinny. Of course that only lasted as long as it took for me to pack the pounds back on by eating lots of junk food. I stayed within reason though and stayed within the Marine Corps weight standards since if I didn't they would throw me out and give me a bad conduct discharge. I was stationed in Okinawa Japan for a year and came back and was station at Cherry Point NC where my battle with the bulge went overboard. I crossed the line and couldn't seem to get my weight back under control on my own so the Corps sent me to fat camp. Yep believe it or not the Marine Corps has a fat camp and it is a last resort if you don't lose weight there you are booted out the door.   In comes my dear hubby we met at fat camp. As a matter of fact we met at fat camp and got married 6 weeks later!!!!!!!!!!!:tt1: Now let me tell you what the Marine Corps sent me to fat camp for being 2 pounds over my max weight of 121 pounds! :huh2: Talk about tough. Anyway married hubby and found out 1 month after we were married that I was pregnant. I took that as a green light to eat anything and everything I wanted. I went from 114 pounds to 168 pounds in 8 months! I say 8 months because my oldest son was a premie.   So here I am gained all that weight with my first child and since I was close to getting out of the Corps because of my contract ending they didn't give me anymore grief about my weight. My oldest was 1 1/2 yrs old and I got pregnant with my 2nd packed on about 15 more pounds that never quite left either. Child number 3 was 8 yrs later and I hit 203 pounds at the end of that pregnancy. And some how I have managed to get to 219 pounds now.   I have had sucess at loosing weight with traditional diet and exercise on many many occasions. But as we all know diets aren't a long term solution for those of us with food issues. At one point about 10 yrs ago I was actually down to 148 pounds. But as soon as I started working where I'm working now at an office job I gained all the way back to where I am now.   So here is my fat story hopefully soon I'll have the band and will be able to tell a differnt story.   So long for now I think I can sleep now. Night all.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

Wow here I am on top again?

Ok so found out the 1st surgeon that I chose can only accept Tricare Prime not Tricare Standard. What do I have well you guessed it Tricare Standard. So I start looking for another Surgeon and found Dr Allen in Louisville. He not only accepts Tricare Standard he is a participating provider Woo Hoo Happy days. So I go ahead and schedule for a seminar with him tomorrow 2/21/08. I'm working on filling out all the paperwork you know call the insurance provider and that stuff answer all the questions. Well while doing the insurance part I was talking to the Tricare Rep and she tells me that all I have to do is fill out the paperwork and I will be prime again. Yippee!!!!!! Filled out the paperwork and as of 3/1/08 I am prime this means that I will have my surgery paid for 100% no copays or cost shares now the problem is after 6/30/08 I go back to Tricare Standard. Does anyone think I might be able to get a surgeon to get this done before my prime care runs out?? I hope so because it saves me tons and tons of cash. Wish me luck. :thumbup:
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

3
 

Went to my first appointment now I'm undecided

After going to my surgeon's office on 3/10/08 I am really undecided. When I went in to the appointment I just knew that I wanted a lapband without a doubt. But after meeting several of the office staff at my surgeon's office that have had gastric bypass instead of the band and seeing how wonderful they look and how they make the gastric bypass sound I am starting to change my mind.   Please help me make up my mind remind me of the pro's and cons of each one maybe I've missed a pro or a con that will help me make up my mind.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

4
 

Tomorrow is the big day!!!

I get to go to my first real appointment tomorrow to get my lab work, physc consult, dietitian, and meet my surgeon. I'm really excited.   But I am also feeling really bad right now. I have urinary tract infection, a really bad cold and just feel drained physically. Last night the pain in my back from the urinary tract infection got bad enough for me to give in a go to the urgent care clinic. This is when I found out that I had the infection. Now granted my back was and still is hurting pretty badly but I just couldn't believe it when the nurse came in with a pain shot and a shot with muscle relaxer!!! :confused_smile: I mean wow no reason for pain killers! I'll tell you what if they want to fix the prescription drug abuse problem in this area they need to start asking doctors why they are prescribing the pain medications to start with. I refused the shots and told them to keep their prescription for pain pills. I told them that I would take the antibiotics for the urinary tract infection but they could keep the rest of it. The nurse thought I was crazy. I told her not crazy just don't take narcotics unless I am in extreme pain.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

Started my pre surgery diet!!!!

I've already lost 3 pounds!!! :confused_smile: I can't say that it is easy though cause of course it is high protein low carb low fat!!!! I am really having a tough time with the low carb thingy I love my bread sugar all that good stuff. (maybe I'm fat because I do) LOL   I have managed to cut back on my diet coke drastically I'm down to about 16 to 20 oz per day vs 64 to 80 oz per day. It is actually starting to taste a bit bad for some reason. I'm finding it hard to drink that much right now. Hmmm go figure.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

3
 

Please Please Pray for me and send my insurance approval prayers

Ok here I am gave all the paperwork to my PCP yesterday afternoon. The office manager is submitting my referrals to Tricare on Monday! She is going to send them urgent so I should know something in 72 hours or less. I have to have these referrals approved or I can't go to my appointment at the surgeon's office on 3/10/08. On the 10th I'm supposed to do the nut job eval, blood work, meet with the dietitian, and meet with my surgeon. I have to be there at 7:15 am and they said that I would be there all day.   Now I have a question for all you experienced bandsters out there. I have to track everything that I put in my mouth for 1 week before the 3/10/08 appt. Should I eat the way I have been eating (namely like every meal is my last) or should I try to eat like a normal person? As soon as I leave the appointment I plan on starting my diet to lose 10 to 15 pounds before surgery. So what do you think? Any advice would be appreciated.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

3
 

OMG the wait is killing me

This waiting for the surgeon's office to call is killing me!!!! All I can think about is how my life is going to change when I get the lap band and when is the doctor's office going to call?????   Part of me wants to get my band ASAP and the other part wants to put it off until school is out for the summer so that the weather will be nice while I'm on sick leave.   I have 2 months of sick days saved up and I'm going to use all of them after I have my lap band put in. I know that recovery should only be a week or two at the most with the office job I have but I'm going to use all of my days that I have stored up.   Oh well hopefully they will call very very very soon. Maybe tomorrow.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

3
 

Oh crud another road block!!!!!!!!!!!! Am I the only one?

Ok called the surgeon's office today to see if maybe my PCP had possibly faxed my referral to them and maybe that is why they couldn't find it at the office. No such luck. But while I had the surgeon's office on the phone I asked if they had found out if I am required to do a 6 month medically supervised diet or not and conversation got around to insurance coverage somehow and I find out that the surgeon will accept Tricare Prime but not Tricare Standard!!! Well that was a blow but at least I found out today instead of rolling along thinking everything was good and wasting too much more time.   So here I am on the hunt for a Surgeon that accepts Tricare Standard (hopefully is a participating provider) and that works at a hospital that is a participating provider for Tricare.   I think I may have found one in Louisville. Dr. Jeff Allen with Norton Healthcare. Has anyone ever heard of him? Is he good? I'm going to a seminar with him tomorrow at noon. Wish me luck this is just the beginning of the journey but hopefully I can stay strong and finish it.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

My first attempt at a blog we'll see how it works

Ok here goes nothing. I'm not promising anybody anything but I'm going to try to keep a blog about this process. I didn't do very well when it came to keeping a diary so who knows. :thumbup:   Well I guess I officially started this lap band journey years ago but until recently when Tricare announced that it would cover the lap band I never had the chance to even seriously consider WLS. I've been interested in WLS for years but the whole idea of someone cutting out part of my stomach scared me to death.   On Feb 8, 2008 I went to the WLS seminar at Georgetown Hospital in Georgetown Kentucky. I took dear hubby with me as he has just as much at stake as I do. I liked what I heard and handed in the completed packet before leaving the seminar. To be perfectly honest unless they had really worked hard to change my mind I had already decided before I went to the seminar.   So on 2/8/08 began one of the longest 15 business days of my life. 10 to 15 business days is how long the program director Jo Wiggins said it would take the process the paperwork and make sure that it would be possible for the surgeons to do the WLS on me. They don't want to jerk you around and say that they can do the surgery only to turn around and say no. I can totally appreciated that because life has too many disappointments as it is and it would be just cruel in my opinion to jerk someone around when it comes to something as important as this WLS. So now here we are at 5 working days and I've already put myself going up and down on an emotional roller coaster. As some of you may know Tricare now covers lapband with certain restrictions. You either have to be 100 pounds over your ideal weight with co-morbidities or 200% over your ideal weight without co-morbidities unfortunately for me I was 100 pounds over my ideal body weight but as of yet don't have any of the specified co-morbidities that Tricare required so I figured I'll just gain enough weight that I can be 200% over my ideal but I couldn't gain it fast enough. Lucky for my I have an awesome doctor that helped me out he gave me a co-morbidity. :wink2: I love my doctor.   So here I am waiting waiting and it's killing me.   Well guess I'll talk to you tomorrow.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

I've got my first real appointment!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

March 10th!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!! I have my first appointment have to be there at 7:15 am they said it would take all day long. I was able to enroll in Tricare Prime now my surgery will be paid for 100% with the exception of the one time none refundable $500 program fee. Wow who really cares 500 is nothing compared to 2500 to 4000. LOL   Please everyone stand up and do the happy dance with me!!!! Oh yeah and Tricare is trying to pull the old you have to have a 6 month medically supervised diet I already have proof of that so :tt2: to Tricare.   Here we go people happy dance time jump on up off the couch and out of the chairs it's time to party. :party:
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

I am so pissed off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to my doctor last Thursday and he told me that my referral letter for the surgeon would be ready the first part of this week.   I called Tuesday to see if the letter was done yet and nope it wasn't. The girl that types the letters was off on Monday and had just gotten it on her desk Tuesday morning!!!! So I ask when can I expect the letter to be done they tell me that they will call me when they have it done.   The letter is very simple should take no more than 10 mins to type it up.     I called this morning Wednesday and still it's not done as a matter of fact the receptionist tells me that she can't find anything about it anywhere!!!!!!!!!! WTH :thumbup:   If I don't hear from them by tomorrow morning or they don't have it done by then I'm calling my Doctor at his home and asking him what the heck is going on. :huh2:   I know that this is the only thing that the surgeon's office is waiting for to schedule my first appointment!!!!!!!! I want to get this thing rolling and stupid people keep getting in my way.   Sorry to be so crabby. Oh yeah and BTW I have decided starting today I'm going to wean myself off of my diet coke. I only got a 21 oz cup of diet coke this morning instead of my usual 44 oz. I'd go cold turkey but I can't handle the headaches I get from cutting myself off too fast.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

1
 

Happy Birthday to me Hopefully it will be the last fat one

Well here I am Happy 39th Birthday to me. This time next year I should be well on my way to a thinner, healthier, happier me!!!!   Now if I could just get the surgeon to hurry the heck up and call me. I wonder do they know that they are slowly torturing me? Oh well in this world of instant gratification I suppose I should sit back enjoy the ride and practice delayed gratification. I didn't gain the weight over night I sure won't be able to lose it.   I love the entire world at this moment (give me a few minutes I might change my mind) :thumbup:   Talk to you'll later.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

3
 

Feeling really self concisous

OMG this is so awful I have to log everything that goes into my mouth for 1 whole week. This is day one. I am starving to death but can't bring myself to eat the rest of my McSkillet Burrito because I know that the dietitian is going to be looking at the log and saying to herself "yep I know what this one's problem is"   I think I'll eat the whole thing and skip lunch then it won't look so bad right? I mean after I have the surgery there won't be anymore fast food for me so why not live it up. I know that's the attitude that got me here or at least part of the problem not all of it.   So long for now I have a date with the rest of my burrito.
mel_smiddy

mel_smiddy

9
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