mlara86

When I got my and placed I had Cigna United Healthcare through Connecticut general life insurance co. They covered lap band surgery and everything associated with it. Granted it took me over a 1 1/2 years to get them to actually pay for the surgery (after they kept telling me I didn't qualify even though I did and had over 50 pages of documentation proving it) it took hiring a lawyer and literally with in 1 week of going to US Dist court over the matter it was paid for! I had 12 months of free fills from my doc, now I have blue cross of Idaho as a state employee, they denied the payment stating "not covered through the terms of the policy" (which I have never been provided, nor can I find a copy of online) I am sure an appeal will be unsuccessful (still going to exhaust all appeals) but I am looking for a doc that will provide a reasonable lap band maintenance fee because paying $200 for .25 to .5 cc of fluid is absolutely INSANE! Anyone have any advice??

After dealing with several insurance and legal issues after my LBS and successfully winning a lawsuit against Cigna, the stress of all of that got to me I guess. I had a few complications after I had a few fills, my stomach had become inflamed due to possibly being over filled (we never found out why since I was at about 5ml to 6ml on a 10 ml band) I had to basically start over with my adjustments. I slowly started going back up from 2ml now I'm around 4 ml, my doc will l only put in .25 to .5 cc a fill in fears of going to tight and going through all the crap over again(at one point I was unable to eat/drink for 1 week). At one point the changes happened in a matter of hours, all of the sudden I was getting acid reflux and then got so inflamed I couldn't even keep Water down, the pain was unbearable. Took it all out and started over, went from 270 down to 200 I was within 20lbs of my goal weight, I slowly started going up and took a break for a while, I missed good food and I was scared of possibly losing my band, I gained about 35lbs, now I'm really close to the "sweet spot" in the band but I'm afraid to go more, I have forgotten how to eat properly and I have lost all motivation to make the band work for me. Any suggestions on what I should do? This is starting to effect my mood and in turn my performance at work.

Thank you, I just need to figure out how to get in the groove again, and re teach my self how to eat properly. It's that whole recognizing when your full and eatting the right foods that I have gone away from. It depends on the day sometimes of how my bad works for me it seems like. Somedays it works really well others I can eat a lot, but I think it boils down to what and how I'm eatting. I have never been able to get over the portions, I still dish up the portions I used to be able to eat them feel bad about taking to much and not finishing it that sometimes I force my self to finish it. I was brought up to "clean your plate there are starving children in other countries!" or "take what you want but finish what you take" you can't do that with the lap band it's more like take a little and if your not satisfied take a tiny bit more then you will be satisfied

Any idea to what may have caused the hernia? The pregnancy? Vomiting? Both?

I am a bread lover and I can tell you this, kiss it good bye because you could get your self in a world of hurt if you don't, I can eat bread only if I drink fluids with it but that's pointless because I'm not making my band work for me, it's really hard though, I have lost my motivation. I can eat a tiny piece of bread if I chew it up really well and then I'm full but if I drink something I'm hungry again. I have been struggling with that because I love bread, but I have slowly been trying to break my self from it and just have to go with out the bread, eatting an open faced hamburger (lean, with mustard and a little bit of ketchup and mayo) and eat it slow and chew a lot, 1/2 to 3/4 of a 1/4 lb patty and I am full, I just have to re-learn to do without bread, eat slow and most importantly STOP when you are full and NOT clean the plate, dish small portions and read something when eatting. I share your frustration and fears though

i am so glad that there is a web based support group for lab bandees, the lap band journey site has not support what so ever, i can talk to people all over the country and world with this site, so glad that i found this!