Fenton

Alas, I was turned down by my insurance company - apparently, my BMI is too high for their criteria for LB; they claim it's not clinically proven to be valuable at my size (BMI 58, I think). It's slightly disastrous, because my surgery was scheduled for 3/15, and I've arranged my work schedule around that date (very difficult to do, high stress profession blah blah blah). And the surgical coordinator is away until 2/28 - I should be starting the preop liquid diet the next day. Wah. So now what do I do? I have Empire BC/BS, and am going with Dr. Fielding at NYU in NYC...

Thanks all. The thing about the back support pillow: I've only ever seen them online, but I kind of feel like I'd be too big for them, and they wouldn't give me anything like adequate support, particularly those stubby side-arm things...

Heyo, Fenton here. 46, heading for my appointment in NYC on March 15th. At least, I *think* I am - I have a surgical date, but I haven't heard about the insurance clearance yet. I've jumped through all the other hoops, though, and my insurance does cover the procedure (in theory) - I just hope they get their act together, because I've reserved time off from work, and it's such a hard thing for me to arrange. I'm not worried about the surgery. Reading the posts here has been a really useful eye-opener; in the presentations I attended, everyone just went on about how great the lap band is, and how great their lives are now that they're banded, but no one went into the harder part of the process. I was intrigued by all of the descriptions of discomfort and poor sleep; I'm glad I found out about this side of things now, rather than discovering them for myself after the initial presentations had me imagining I'd be out ballroom dancing, 50 pounds lighter, the night after my surgery! So I know to expect some significant discomfort, and if it happens, I won't worry, I'll just know it's my body adjusting to the changes it has to undergo if it's going to get healthy again. I'll take my liquid tylenol, turn up the heat on my warming pad (thank you, Pre-Op checklist thread!), and embrace the discomfort as a milestone on my journey. I'm glad to meet you all, and I wish us the best of luck for a smooth ride... Fenton

I think that it may be more than a vitamins/minerals issue, more your body adjusting to a new nutritional state. When I did Atkins, I took real cares to cover myself nutritionally, and was taking tons of protein, but still lost hair; I think that any time there's an abrupt decrease in the calorie intake, including carbs, there'll be some hair loss. And that will gradually reverse itself as your body adjusts.

Oh, found it! For anyone reading this thread, you can find the post-op necessities checklist in this thread: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/post-op-checklists-t14814.html

Hi. I'm having my band put in mid-March, God and the insurance companies willing, and am now trying to plan things as well as possible so that everything goes smoothly. In the program in which I've enrolled, people are encouraged to keep journals, to keep track of their eating. I've seen the food Journal thread here, but it is a participatory thing, and it's harder to track what one person is eating. I wonder if any of you bandsters have 1. kept their food journal fairly religiously 2. would consider sharing several weeks' worth of their consumption pattern over the clear liquid/murky liquid/mushy phases of the recovery (and, if they did a pre-op regime, that too would be interesting). 3. might have any "in retrospect, things I would have done differently" insights to share. If this has already been done, please point me in that direction! Thanks, Fenton

Hi all - I'm due for the chop on 3/15, and am trying to line everything up. I'm SO glad to hear what you've all been going through; to hear the presenters talk about LB, it's like it's a walk in the park to a lovely tea party! I think I'm much better prepared after reading your experiences. DebLPN - you mentioned some pre-/post-op checklists in your post last week. Are those something you made for yourself, or is that something that's been posted or has evolved here in LapBandLand? Thanks all! And good luck with those gas pains!