faithmd

As a person who has worked in burn surgery for years, it IS an urban legend. While lots of skin is donated by patients undergoing surgery to remove excess skin, I cannot find any place yet on the net that will pay for your plastic surgery in return for donating.

I agree, six months is nothing. My insurance requires a twelve month MD supervised diet. It is just something that you have to do unless you have the resources to go to a surgeon and self-pay. I suggest if you do that, that you do some serious research about the doctor first. Some are wonderful, some are questionable, some are quacks. Also, you need to set up aftercare in your area BEFORE you go elsewhere and have a band placed. Just some things to take into account. I am also here to tell you that six months means EVERY month. Do NOT miss ONE single monthly visit. If you do not have the resources to self-pay or decide that the six month diet is doable, then start right away! Also you have to find out if your policy has a weight loss requirement during this six month program. If so, you need to make sure you loose that weight or you will be denied. I was, and that was despite letters from two doc's saying it wasn't my fault and that I was sick and on meds that precipitated my weight gain. Good Luck!

I love it. It is very cute and will be so easy to jump out of the pool, shake her head and just go.

call your insurance comapny and ask them for a copy of the requirements for Adjustable Gastric Banding coverage. Ask them specifically how much weight it is required you lose. My ins co has a complex case management department that I was transferred to and a nice woman worked it out with me on the phone and then snail mailed me a copy so that I have it in hard copy in hand. My insurance requires a 12 month MD supervised diet with MONTHLY visits (and don't miss one, not ONE or that clock starts again) and a 5% loss of excess weight. What they do is take your starting weight (the first month you start seeing the MD) and then look at your ideal body weight according to the MetLife tables. They then take the difference between those and multiply it by .05 to get 5%. Mine was 9 lbs. So I had to lose 9 lbs in a year, not bad, huh? Well I got sick in that year and ended up gaining weight (starting weight was 344, went to 371). Despite having two MD letters explaining that I gained weight from meds, etc. My insurance company said I still had to lose the original 9 lbs and denied me the first time around. I applied at 348 (so I was already losing, but that didn't matter) and I had to be 335. No budging on that. Hope that helps, please call your ins co ASAP for what they require.

I'm so glad to hear it went well, but oh no, the gas again! I take it they were able to get it out laparascopically (no big incision)? I hope you continue to improve everyday. Please keep us posted on your progress.

I just wanted to say congratulations and Good Luck on Monday!!!!

??? And what happened? I take it that your ins co DOES have a diet requirement? You didn't say what the problem was in your post. I would never take the word of someone who worked in the MD's office. I listen to their experience to guide me as to how long it may take to hear and how often they get approal the first time around, etc... But I always advise folks to call you ins co yourself and ask them what thier requirements are for Adjustable Gastric Banding. And then have them send those to you in writing. I have a 12 month MD supervised program requirement, I've been working on it for 14 months now. It is a long road, but you can make it through anything!!

Keep us posted, please. And please tell me that you included the emails, highlighted and underlined where she already told you she had those results?

I'm so glad I hit refresh before I posted what I cut and pasted from Wiki. Kumbaya is Come By Here.

Thanks and... :wow2: :welldone: :waytogo: WOOHOO!!!!!!!! HOORAY!!!!!! I can't wait to hear myself!

I'll ship them to you! Pick out what you want and we'll work something out. i would hate to have anyone go "without." DH was in Alabama about two years ago at the new Hyundai plant for about 6 months. I came to visit twice and we found two "lingerie" stores that sold "gag gifts." They were some of the most fully stocked adult stores I've ever been in.

If fish and sometimes chicken are on some surgeon's mushy list, then perhaps they need to be blended with broth or mayo or something to actually make then mushy. When I think mushy, I think of something that I could squish either on the roof of my mouth, or with my fork on a plate down to nothing, Something that if I didn't have teeth, I would be okay to gum and not chew. Since the OP tried it and it didn't work, then I think that means it's crossed off her mushy list for now. Not every bandster can eat every food (from what I 've read here). I take threads like these and file them away into my brain for when it's my turn. It very helpful! Mental note to self, avoid fish for a while after banding, even in soft food stage (not much of a problem-I don't really like it).

Exactly! I have never called what I am doing now a "Die..." I can't finish the word because I don't even want to start my head thinking about it at all. I have made positive lifestyle changes. There is a group of folks at work who are doing Weight Watchers and are asking me what "Die_" I am on. I immediately tell them I am not doing anything like that, I am merely making better choices in what I eat, cutting out the things I know will make me hungrier and I am logging every single morsel of food I ingest. They are all amazed at how I can do it without "die_ing." I will fail if I think of it that way. You never are successful in the long term on a "die_" it really honestly is about making a choice to eat better and less and move more. Whether that means formal exercise, or parking farther out from stores, and taking the stairs. It took me 37 years for that light bulb to go on and stay on. I know it's only been about 3 1/2 months, but I'm really hoping that this bulb will continue to burn bright for me. Once I'm banded, I will have another tool to help me control my eating.

You are so very right Jack, I'm not banded yet and I've given these things up and it really has been no big deal at all! :clap2: It was relatively easy. And I know you and others have said that our tastes change a bit after banding and I may not even like some of the things I do now. I just know that I have also read a lot of posts about how emotional many people are in the immediate to recent post-operative phase. I figured with my luck, that's going to be me, I guessed the emotions after banding plus the potential deprived feeling might spell disaster for me. That's why I gave it up now rather than waiting to see if it would be easy or hard after the band was placed. Jack you have given such fantastic advice and are so down-to-earth. I look for your posts all the time.

Naming the penis...that reminds me of a funny story, when D(s)S was about 11 he was jumping over the back of the couch (it was in the middle of the room, so the back was easily accessible) and flopping down onto the cushions. His father and I both told him to stop doing that, that he would break the couch, or himself. He wouldn't listen...about ten minutes and two or three more flops later I hear "OOOOOOO MY GOD, OSCAR!!!! MY OSCAR!!!!!!" DH starts snickering and I am in the kitchen cooking dinner wondering what's going on. Here he comes, basically crawling into the kitchen, one hand on his "Oscar." He pulls himself up the fridge and grabs a bag of frozen food from the freezer and slinks away, crying quietly. He didn't jump over the back of the couch anymore.:heh:

That's what a lot of folks feel (the Last Supper phenomenon, I mean). But I have to say, your last sentence makes me very concerned you may not have done your research fully. The band is not intended to make you vomit if you eat too much. You DO NOT want to vomit! You risk slippage of the band if you do that too much. You also risk erosion in your pouch. The point of the band is that it is a tool that will help you feel fuller faster so you don't eat the quantoties you eat now. There are no foods that you really have to "give up" as a bandster (from what I understand). I know the Inamed book says certain foods will be difficult to eat but if you sepnd a little time looking around here you will find that among the bandsters here, they can eat just about everything. Everyone is different and you will not know what you can tolerate until after you try it post-band when you are at te stage you can eat whatever "it" is. Some peopl cannot do eggs, others live on them. Some cannot do chicken, for others it is all they can eat (of the meats). The band is not meant to make you sick so you lose weight, it is meant to help you control how much you eat, what you choose to eat of that is up to you.

BJean: Thanks!! I am really trying now to make healthy and easy lifestyle changes. That way when I am banded, it won't (hopefully) be such a shock. I cannot imagine eating regularly and then al of a sudden being banded and be faced with a liquid diet, no soda, no sugary foods, no breads, etc. all at once. I figure if I make the changes now, slowly, I'm much more likely to be successful post-op. I am probably limiting myself now to things I may then choose to eat post-banding becaue I know now without anything stopping me (a full feeling for example), I would just eat and eat certain foods.

I prefer GDI power

Wow, that's tough. I would suggest you reevaluate going into debt and doing self-pay if it's going to be so long. Check out Dr. Kirshenbaum, he's in Denver and is very reasonable. Many people here have gone to him from all over the country: www.lapbandrockies.com http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=26213

Kerry, I was denied for not losing weight as well. Long story short, I was pissed and did something about it. I know this is going to sound bad and I'm sorry, but I'm saying it to help you: Don't whine and say you can't, don't cry and say that you can't, dust yourself off and DO IT!!!! I started my one year, yep ONE YEAR MD supervised weight loss requirement for my insurance company at 344#, I had a requirement to lose 9# for a total of 5% of my excess weight to lose. I got sick in that year and was put on a medication that sapped my strength and made me sedentary. I grew to 371#. I got fixed and got off the med at 366# in January. I kicked myself in the arse and and got to 348# and then my surgeon sent in my application for the surgery accompanied by a letter from my PCP and one from my cardiologist saying that it wasn't my fault that I gained weight and pointing out that I was again losing since being off of it. My insurance company denied me because I wasn't the magical 335#. Yep, DENIED. So I kicked it up a notch two weeks ago because I was not going to be denied again this month. I weighed in yesterday at 330.4# It's not that hard, really it isn't (okay, the last week or so wasn't the greatest of my life, for that last 8# or so). Here's what I did and I never have felt deprived, NOT ONCE: I log EVERY SINGLE BITE of food I eat and everything I drink on www.fitday.com It is FREE and pretty easy. I also log all of my activities on there to see how my calories are burned. There are plenty of other sites like it, SparkPeople is one, but I didn't love the format, some folks do. The point is that it's free and esay and makes you accountable for all you eat. That having been said, I do NOT count my calories, I do not watch my portion size intentionally. Logging the food has sort of done that for me. I am completely honest on my log (it is private, no one looks at it but me). If I ate two cups of cottage cheese, I put that in there, eventually I started controlling my portions myself. I find I now average (I do not aim for anything) 1500-1800 calories a day and taht has been working well for me. I do not eat ANY refined sugar, no enriched flours, no white bread, no white rice (except the occasional sushi) no Pasta except the Barilla Pasta Plus in small portions, no Breakfast cereals except Kashi. It's easier than you think and it has made a HUGE difference in what I crave. I was a carb fanatic, I LOVED bread and rice and mashed potatoes, etc. I stopped wanting it. I watch my labels to see just how many carbs are in something. I want to say I am NOT low-carbbing it. I just watch to see so I don't get too much refined sugar or simple carbohydrates, that's what makes you hungry again. I easily eat way more than 100 grams a day of carbs, so no, I'm not eating low carb at all. But things like pasta sauce can have a lot of sugar in it. so I look for the one with the lowest amount. I also try to avoid any artificial sweeteners, I do have probably one beverage with Splenda or NutraSweet that is manufactured a day. I have found that they make me crave sugar and the Splenda makes me hungry as it is processed just like sugar, while you don't get the spikes in blood sugar, you do get the drops and that signals you to eat again. I use Stevia, google it. I also use Blue Agave Syrup to sweeten things. I have already given up all carbonated drinks in anticipation of banding as you aren't supposed to have the post-op and I have given up caffeine. I gave it up for health reasons, but it is an appetite stimulant. I have started eating like a Bandster, I take small bites (and use baby utensils when I am at home) and put the fork or spoon down between bites. I do feel satisfied faster. I try not to drink with meals because (hopefully) soon I won't be able to anyway (after being banded, I mean). I eat my Protein first, veggies second, and then carbs/fruit if I still have room. It has made a difference. That's it, that's all I've done and I had lost about 32 lbs that way. The past week or so all I had was salads or chopped raw veggies and one or two SlimFast Low Carb shakes or EAS AdvantEDGE or Atkins shakes (good protein and low sugars) and some cottage cheese every day, and I got another 12 lbs off. That was not easy, but the other changes were. You CAN do it!

Here's a link to a thread where I posted all the questions I took with me to the information session as well as to the MD consult: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32224

Here's a link to the Forum with two threads about questions to ask the Dr. as well as post op checklists, etc. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=73

I wish you the best of luck tomorrow night. I hope you have a really wonderful evening that ends on a sweet, spiritual, intellectual, vestal and elegant note. We're all here pulling for you!

I agree with your suggestion completely. Unfortunately if I chose that item, it would be my Kitchen Aid Professional stand mixer. Maybe I would buy some kitchen magnets shaped like stand mixers

I concur, I'd call them.