Dibley Dawn

Tomorrow is the big day for me. May 4th, I will be banded. At times in this journey it felt like this day would never come, but here it is, just on the other side of the sun going down and coming back up again. I am scared, I am optimistic, I am worried and I am hopeful. It's been an interesting journey up until now and I can only hope that it gets better from here. May 4th, here I come

It's 4:20am here. I am leaving for the hospital in about 30 minutes. Yippeeeee and ACK !!!! allatthesametime!!!!!!!!!:DB)

Hi Amy, thanks for the encouraging words! i will keep my fingers crossed for you that your insurance comes through and that everything works out ok for you. I will update everyone when I am able to form cohesive thoughts

Thanks so much Jennifer. I will definitely keep you guys updated with how I'm doing.

I kinda hope they make me stay. that way, if there is any problem, they can hopefully find it right away and I won't have to make a special trip back to the hospital whilst in pain. I have to be at the hospital in just over 12 hours from now....KRIKEY!!!!

The hospital just called to give me a time to show up. I have to be there at 6:30am. My heart is pounding. I guess it is really real now.

Aw, thanks MzNelly, very kind of you.

A closet bander, i love it! that's what I'm going to be. I live in NYC, but i'm not in my 20's, i'm in my 30's. I'm about 25 in my head though My surgery is at NYU and hopefully, it will be happening tomorrow.

Good luck to you too London! The day did get here pretty fast. I hope the first month of liquids and mushies flies by just as quickly .

yes, choosing this surgery was a big decision. I had thought about it last May, but didn't go to a seminar until January. I cried on my way home from the seminar even...i was sooooo torn about what to do. Now, I am confident that this is the right decision for me and everyone in this forum has been a huge help in swaying me in the right direction, answering my questions and calming my fears. i can't say that I would have gone through with it if not for reading the wealth of information available to me here. that's just the honest truth. My surgeon didn't fill out any paperwork to verify the necessity, my PCP had to do that. At the time i went to the seminar, I didn't even have a PCP, so i called the surgeon's office to get a reccomendation. They referred me to a PCP and she was more than happy to tell me how fat and near death I am , so she wrote the letter telling the surgeon that he had her blessing. If your PCP is giving you a hard time, just tell them that you feel that you need this and you will find another MD who agrees, so please authorize it or you're going to move on. That's what I would do anyway.....I'm sure if you express yourself to your MD, they will eventually come around to your way of thinking. anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

How did it go yesterday? Please let us know.

some insurance carriers require different stays. my insurance requires that i am in the hospital for 23 hours, so it looks like i might be overnight as well. we'll see.

ooooooohhhh...happy dancing bananas!!!! I LOVE it! thanks so much for the good luck wishes y'all!

Hi Lizzie, You are going to be just fine on the liquid diet. just be glad it's only for 1 week. mine was for 2 weeks. today is my last day of it as the surgery is tomorrow morning, then i'm on Clear liquids for another 10 days. The pre-op diet was a scary bear when I first realized I had to do it, but it's now a tame little stuffed animal as it comes to an end. i am hoping the next liquid stage and the mushies are as easy for me as the pre-op diet. it really hasn't been that bad. good luck to you and keep us posted on your progress.

Thanks so much. I guess I'm mostly afraid of the pain. Hopefully I'll have drugs and I can walk around to relieve the gas.

well, i meant to say 40 or over. 40 is apparently the point at which a BMI means death is not far behind. I don't personally believe that, but your doctor may be convinced of it. I would just give them a call and see what they say. I know my insurance requires 40 and above BMI, so I assume it's the same with most insurance carriers.

Every surgeon is different. my pre-op diet consists of protein shakes (5 per day) supplemented with broth, jello,popsicles and lots of water. after surgery it will be pretty much clear liquids only. i'll be able to have 2 protein shakes per day, diluted if they are too thick, plus the broth and drinks with an approved amount of calories. i will be having mostly V8Splash and Fuze because that is what i have stocked up on. you should maybe call your surgeon's office and see if there is an approved list of drinks/foods that you can consume post op. this liquid pre-op diet hasn't been a walk in the park, but i definitely am not as scared to go to an all liquid diet after surgery as i would have been had i just gone cold turkey. as much as i have griped about it, i'm glad i did it. tomorrow is the big day for me....though i am having 2nd, and 3rd, and 4th thoughts about it. i'll just keep having 2nd thoughts about it until my mind gets back to "yes, let's do this"

me too, me too, me too.....trying soooo hard not to freak out right now. part of me is ready and part of me is scared. to. death.

I figured you did, but just in case nurse535 doesn't have the same restrictions, she should check. i really wish all doctors would just do the same thing. it's kind of annoying that they are all so different.

You should definitely check with your surgeon about adding fruits to the shakes. mine said absolutely not...so just make sure you check.

I don't really have a lot of encouraging words for you per se because I haven't actually had the surgery yet, but I will say this...I am also on the larger side of what most posters here seem to be. The good news is you will be encouraged by your liquid diet because you will most likely (if you can stick to it) be under 600 by the time your surgery rolls around. Also, the larger you are, the more weight you will probably lose during the first year, so keep that in mind. I have an insane amount (to me) of weight to lose, over 200 pounds, but I know that unlike the bypass or the sleeve, the lap band is going to be a longer process....If i can lose 100 pounds in this first year, I will consider that a success....if that is all i ever lose, i will still consider it a success. . best of luck to you in your surgery, please keep us posted on your progress.

2 more days for me. At this point, it kinda seems unreal, like it's not really gonna happen.

I have United as well and they approved me right away. The thing that took the longest for me was jumping through all of the surgeon's hoops. they wanted a psych eval, a nutritionist consult, a nurse consult and a letter from my primary care physician. I made as many appointments as I could all in 1 day and on the date I actually met with my surgeon I was able to schedule the surgery for 3 weeks later. My surgery is on Wednesday of this week. It really happened fast once I got the ball rolling.

I hope my surgeon finds my surgery easy too. I have not cheated at all on this liver reduction diet, even though the desire was strong...especially with Easter thrown in there. but I stuck to my guns. I just have to get through today and tomorrow. Hopefully I have lost enough that he will still do the surgery. I'd hate for him to get in there and then decide that my liver isn't small enough and just refuse to do it. I don't think i could do this diet for another 2 weeks.

they mean your Primary care doctor. Most surgeons would operate on pretty much anyone as long as they are getting paid. your general doctor would need to give the OK. if you think your general doctor won't approve, then go ahead and call the surgeon's office and ask them if they can recommend a Primary Care doctor for you to get authorization from. But if your BMI is over 40, most likely your PCP will say it's ok.