I received a call from my Surgical Weight Loss (SWL) doctor's office two weeks ago. My insurance, Tricare Standard, has approved my LapBand surgery. I have a surgery date of April 16th (not soon enough for me!).

My process began in mid-November 2008, with nine mandatory pre-op orders that had to be completed before the surgeon's office would request surgical approval from my insurance company.

Initial surgical weight loss seminar

Office visit with my surgeon

Blood labs

Chest x-ray

Upper GI testing

Psychological evaluation

Support group meeting

Pre-op wellness and exercise class

White light scan

I worked through these within seven weeks. Getting an appointment for the psych eval was the most difficult. All the psych doctors had full schedules three - six months out. I was blessed to be find and be placed in a cancellation slot.

All in all, my journey thus far seems to have been pretty painless compared to many people. I received approval from my insurance within a week of completing all of my surgical prerequisites.

So, now I find myself giving considerable thought to the surgery. Will I be happy when I’m finally banded? Will I discover that food was my drug of choice? Will I regret my decision after banding? Will I be able to live with eating several mini-meals for the rest of my life? Will I be faithful in all I have to do to insure that I get the proper amounts of protein, nutrition and hydration? How will the Lap-Band affect my quality of life and ability to get necessary nutrition when I am elderly?

I’m excited about the surgery, but I am not without “what if’s”. Am I the only woman that has these pre-surgery questions going through her head?

Are there any other Virginia Beach/Tidewater bandsters out there?

Am I the only woman that has these pre-surgery questions going through her head?

Nope...you're as normal as the rest of us (well, in my case abnormal)! What's a 'white light scan'? If you haven't found them yet there's a Virginia group under Forums/Groups/USA/Virginia. We've vacationed there a lot...Sandbridge. Sounds like things are going really smoothly fo you! Good luck. -BG

Thanks for responding! How has your surgery and progress been?

I live 10 minutes from Sandbridge.

I'm at almost the same point you are; surgery end of April or early May (submit to insurance the beg. of April when my 6 mo. diet is over). I started researching this last May. I think your 'what ifs' are very telling though, as they're all the normal ones we all have. I already know food is my drug of choice, but being aware of that and dealing with it (head hunger) are two different things. The only question I don't have that you mentioned was proper nutrition when you're elderly...one of the reasons I picked LB was the fact that you can get an unfill at any time and it can be removed if necessary. See you at the finish line! -BG