AMayo1

Been a few weeks since I blogged, but not much has happened except that I broke 290. Still in my pre-op period. From my initial visit with my doctor(June 9th) for my letter of medical necessity I am down 25 pounds. I have met the insurance company's weight loss of 5% in a 2 month period. I am down around 13 pounds from my Bariatric appointment on July 5th(though it is hard to tell I was fully clothed at that appointment and when I weight myself at home it is usually after I get out of the shower). I have gone from a tight 46 size waste pant to fitting comfortable in a 44 although they are a little loose. I think in another 10 I should be able to get back to my 42's. I can button the 42's at this time but they are a bit tight. I have also gone from a 4X scrub to a 3X scrub at work. Not sure when I will be ready for the 2 X scrub. I imagine not till after my surgery. I am still in my pre-op period. I have a lot of stuff scheduled for the week of August 8th and will have my next support group meeting. My bosses are being great and supportive. They have allowed me to change my work schedule on weigh in days that will start on August 19th. I will only have to take a half hour off to get to those appointments on time. I have enough comp time built up to cover that time. They have also approved me to be off for the month of October. My doctors group prefers a 2 week time off from work and at that point allow for 20 lb lifting restrictions. After 4 weeks there are no weight lifting restrictions. I can only return to work when I have no weight lifting restrictions. There is no light duty at my job unless you are hurt on the job. I have been able to exercise and to be honest I do feel better when I exercise. I did have to hold off when we had the heat wave for fear of passing out when riding my bike, but now that it has passed I am out on it. I have a 10 mile route that I have mapped out that starts from my house and only puts me on busy roads for a short period of time.

I have a 25 mile bike route that I am hoping to do on Labor Day. Today I did a 14 mile loop. I used the money my Mom gave me as a birthday present to buy a camel bak work much better then a bottle on the long ride. I have alway had bad coordination so it is too awkward for me to reach down and grab my water bottle while riding. I always had to stop to drink water. Now I don;t have to do that anymore.

may have to try that. sounds good

Has anyone tried Arctic Zero. My partner was asking me about it. There is one place locally that caries and I was thinking of picking some up tomorrow. What flavors did you like?

Frozen protein shake, Suppose to help with the cream craving. 1 pint is 150 calories and 14 grams protein. Picked up a coffee flavor and a cookies and cream flavor today. The store I went to charged $5 a pint.

you're welcome. Hope your journey goes smoothly

What about wine?

I am at the point that I need to start sampling different protein drinks. What are you guys using or have used and why?

great blog, mass me a little scared of what it to come, but I know it the long run it will be worth it

As one of the new comers thanks for a great post

great post

Every insurance and every doctor is a little bit different. My insurance requires a 5% weight loss and it must be completed in 6 months, my doctor requires a 10% weight loss. Most seem to require a psyche eval to make sure that you are ready for the surgery. Depending on your medical history you will have to undergo different medical tests. At the minimum a pulmonary test, EKG, blood work, pulmonary test, upper GI, gall bladder scan, ameeting with a Physical Therapist or exercise physiologist. Other possible tests are stress test, sleep study just to name a few. It will all depend on your medical history. Do not set them up yet, wait for the surgeon's team to do that after you had your initial consultation. You made the right first step by asking your primary for a letter of medical necessity. Second step you need to make is to call your insurance company and ask for them to send to you in writing what requirements they have for having the surgery done. Insurance companies vary from plan to plan even state to state. Ask them when you are on the phone with them if they require you to go to a center of excellence and if so which ones do they work with in your area? Third Step Call a bariatric surgeon's office, is there one your primary care doctor recommends? If not is there one your insurance company recommends? Look under the doctor registry on here. Once you have picked an office call them so that you can register to go to an orientation. At the orientation they will give you a packet, and they will go over what their practice procedures are for getting approved for the lap band. You can even go to several different groups orientations before you decide which doctor you want to go with. At this point, the group I went with required a 4 day cool down period before you could call and schedule your initial consultation. From there your group should help you through the process for getting the surgery.

My doctor's office gives out a card that explains that you have had bariatric surgery and should be allowed to eat off the children's menu. Unfortunately most things that are on the children's menu us is really not that healthy.

You have to be ready. With any weight loss surgery: bypass, lap band or sleeve. You need to be ready and willing to change. There are plenty examples out there with at least lap band and bypass that have gained the weight back. My best 2 examples are Carnie WIlson and Sharon Osborne who had surgery the same year. It looks like Carnie Wilson has put a lot of weight back on So was she ready to make and stick with the changes that she needed to do to keep the weight off.? Apparently Sharon Osborne was. Anything and everything we do; if we try hard enough we can justify to cheat on it. You have to figure out why you put the weight on, and I am no talking about just the eating. We are food addicts, and just like alcoholics we need to get to the root of the problem. This is i why they require psychological testing.

Even with the same doctor they can have differences between people. The doctor needs to assess each surgery and make recommendations based on how smoothly the operation went. So a doctor could have a basic protocol that they follow for most of their patient, but need to modify things based on the actual surgery. I for one plan on following all rules my team puts forth. For the amount of time and money I am putting into the band I am not going to do anything that may cause a problem.

Good luck. I am realizing that too, I have a tentative date in October if all the pretesting goes well.

Being in the medical field and having to deal with insurances. It has a lot to do with having the proper wording on the forms. You may qualify and meet all the requirements but if the doctor's office forget to check something you are denied. It is alway a good idea to appeal and to talk to the requesting provider to make sure the paperwork was filled out throroghly

Glad to see other people are having the same issue. I do del during the week and then comes the week end and I go crazy. I keep telling myself i just need to get the stuff out of my house and I will do fine.

My link Great article on CNN about weight loss, and also why it can be more dangerous to be an overweight male then an overweight female. Bonus the guy in the article is a friend of mine.

LOL another thing to look forward too

I think Men have a harder time expressing feelings and giving compliments. You can see that right here on the boards, the powder room is always active, the men's room not so much. The first part of the compliment is great, the second part is a little worrisome though. Do not let him start to sabotage you out of fear that you are going to leave him. Let him know that you love him and are not looking for strays.

A bit of tough love here, if you have been working out consistently for over a year you should be doing more then 2 miles on a bike and 1 mile of walking. It sounds that you may need to step it up, challenge yourself more. Are you reaching your target heart rate,? is your combined cardio exercise 30+ minutes a day at your target hear rate not including your warm up and cool down time? It sounds like you are eating right you just need to exercise more. There is the tough love and now for some advice. Our bodies like to adapt, the rule is that a person should be changing up their exercise routine about once a month. It does not mean you can not go back to doing what you are doing, just have a few different exercise plans and rotate them on a regular basis. Increase your time on the treadmill, increase the speed or increase the incline. On the bike increase the distance, resistance level or time you are on it or do a different program on the bike. Try an elliptical machine. Do not do the bike and treadmill on the same day. Just spend more time on one and alternate the days that you do them, Look into getting a trainer to help develop an exercise plan for you. Interview the trainer, you are paying them, make sure they are going to help you achieve your goals and not theirs. Ask the co worker who is doing great what is there exercise routine? Could you become work out buddies? Be accountable to each other.

Amen

I am scheduled to go to orientation on 6/23 with the Bariatric Group at Ellis Hospital. Has anyone had experience with this group? Good or bad? I have been contemplating this for several years and finally decided to go for it.