Jellyfish

It does, thanks! Do you know where I can buy some Hibicleanse?

Thanks for all of the answers! You guys are always great. The staff answered almost all of my questions, and all of the more serious ones. The only ones they couldn't answer were kind of odd questions that they probably don't get all the time. Like whether the incisions could be moved so that they won't be right where my bra/pants sit, or what kind of surgical scrub I need to buy. But I can easily call the surgeon's office and ask the ladies there. They're pretty booked so I'm really hoping I won't have to do any other appointments between now and the surgery. It's nice to know that there are others out there who went a while between appointments too.

I've been wondering about that. Several people on here don't seem to have trouble, but the nurses tell me it's EVERY Cigna patient. They told me that back in March when I started this journey. I wonder why it's different for them? Do you know if your doctors office sent Cigna a preliminary date when they submitted you? Maybe that's it.

Hello. I have Cigna, I was just approved through them for my surgery date on August 2nd. They have definitely dropped their requirement from 6 to 3, as of June or so. Lucky you!! Unfortunately, Cigna also likes to wait the full 30 days that they are allowed before making a decision on your approval, from the time that the doctor submits it to them. Several of the nurses at my doctors office warned me about that, their Cigna patients almost all had to wait 30 days for an approval. In my case, I had to wait 29 days. I did try all of the things that are supposed to get you approved faster (calling every day, being extra polite etc). It didn't make any difference for me but maybe you'll be different! They are allowed 30 days from the time you submit your paperwork, not 30 'business days' (I had a few reps from Cigna tell me that. It's incorrect per my doctor) so don't let anyone tell you that. I did get one awesome rep one time I called who seemed like she really wanted to help me. She said that if the doctor submits a preliminary surgery date, the lower level reps can forward your paperwork up to the 'supervisors' who will look it over and approve it. My office doesn't give preliminary dates, but if yours is willing to that may get you a sooner date. Good luck!!

Ooh you have the same surgeon as me! Dr. Reilly is great, I'm SO happy I got paired with him. I'm getting banded on August 2nd just a few days after you! I did the diet for a few days just in case I got an earlier surgery date. It honestly wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, you can do it for two weeks no problem! Good luck!!

Hi there! I'm still pre-op, but I'm trying to prepare myself. Past dieting experience tells me that I will be just fine giving up the things I usually crave, potatoes, burgers, even chocolate. And while I *could* give up coffee (and am very willing to if it comes down to it!), I really REALLY don't want to. As silly as it sounds, coffee makes me happy, and getting through my long shifts at work (which have hit 24 hours in the past) would be rough without it. I have tried in the past to drink it black, but aside from tasting like dirt, it just doesn't make me as happy as having it with a bit of creamer does. Even worse, I am apparently REALLY sensitive to artificial sweeteners. Every time I try some new diet beverage or sweetener that people say 'you totally can't taste the difference' I can. I have tried ALL the diet sodas, not only do they taste bad to me, but they usually leave me with a wicked migraine after only a few sips. I've tried Splenda too, it had the same effect. Can anyone out there recommend something for me to try? In the past when I've dieted, I was able to limit myself to one 100 calorie cup a day, which sounded fine but when you're trying to stick to 1000-1200 calories a day, that's a LOT to spend on a single beverage. I'm willing to do anything to make this work of course, but if I could keep just one of my comfort foods, that would make me really happy. Any coffee addicts out there have some suggestions? Thanks!!

Hello. I would like to stop receiving e-mail notifications altogether. The notifications on the site itself are great and I'd like to keep them on. I found the notifications settings page and I unchecked email notification for all of them. I hit save changes, the page reloads and... all of the boxes are rechecked! Argh! I've tried it three separate times now, last night and today. Am I doing something wrong? I use Firefox.

Hello. First post here but I've been lurking for a while. I'm normally really shy (shy over a message board isn't that silly!?), but I decided that if I was going to be serious I needed to go ahead and sign up here. You guys are so helpful and supportive of others, makes me smile even reading other peoples' posts. So I have a couple questions. I was doing a six month supervised dieting to get approved through my insurance (Cigna) when all the sudden I get a call last week that !! Cigna has lowered their requirement froim six months to three!! And I've already done three!! I'm with True Results in Houston and I can't tell you how appreciative I am that they called me instead of waiting until my next appointment to let me find out. I know they're in this to make money blah blah, but still it was awesome of them to take the time to do that for me.They had been really on me to get all of the other requirements done early and I'm SO glad I did! The EGD is done, the psych is done, sleep study is done, I have the letter from my primary physician. The only thing left is the letter saying I'm good to go for surgery and the blood work, which they're going to do there on Wednesday. My questions are, how long do you guys think it will take for the insurance to give me an approval (fingers crossed) if the information is submitted Wednesday? I'd REALLY love to have the surgery third week in June but is that not enough time? Will they schedule a preliminary surgery date for me on Wednesday and we'll just hope I get approval by that date? I'm terrified that I won't get approved even though I meet all of the requirements, just from reading the horror stories on here... and I still feel like Cigna lowering their requirement feels just too good to be true. Anyway, my next question was how much recovery time those of you with sit down jobs needed? The only other major surgery I've ever had was a c-section and I bounced back from that in no time. My job is very easy, not physically taxing at all, I just sit down and type or answer phones all day. I'm hoping to get the surgery on a Monday and not come back to work until the next Tuesday .The thing is, I can't be out the first week of July due to my co-workers being on scheduled vacation already. I know I should probably just wait until the second week in July to be SURE I can have enough time off... but I'm just SO anxious to get this thing started. I'm losing sleep at night and everything it's so pathetic! I'm 26 and in reasonable shape other than the jiggly bits, a week or two off should be enough time for an easy sit down job right? Thanks for any advice!

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! I'm looking forward to trying these next time I head out to the grocery store. If they aren't too expensive I'll pick up a couple and post reviews. I hadn't thought about switching to Chai, I LOVE Chai! I think it would still have to have some sweetener in it for me, but I also think I might have an easier time with unsweetened tea than black coffee. About the black coffee, it's not so much the taste that discourages me, it's that black coffee doesn't give me that warm and fuzzy happy feeling like the sweet stuff does, if that makes sense. Since I don't technically need coffee, I'd almost rather give it up cold turkey than drink it black if I'm not enjoying it ya know? Although the coffee I drink is always the cheap stuff. It doesn't much matter to me when it's covered up by a ton of creamer, but maybe I would like the black stuff if I had a better brand of coffee? Any suggestions there? Thanks again!

Hi Gabby! Good luck on your journey! I don't know much about Medicaid, but I do know that the first thing you should do is contact them and find out exactly what their requirements are. Don't rely on the clinic to get that information for you, you need to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. They may only require some pre-op testing, or they may want you to do a supervised diet first. A lot of insurance companies require the diets, they can range from 3 months to 12. If Medicaid does require the supervised diet, they may accept documentation from a program like Weight Watchers if you have ever been on something like that. I have never heard of a two year waiting list, but I know that depending on where you go it can take several months to get the surgery booked even if you meet all of the insurance requirements. The best advice that I can give is find out what Medicaid needs to approve you and get started on those requirements immediately. You will probably have to go to a few different appointments and the longer you take to make those appointments, the longer it will take you to get banded. Once you have all of the documentation it will probably take a while for Medicaid to approve you, so make sure you get the ball rolling soon! Like I said though, my experience has been more with private insurance than Medicaid so for all know they're even easier to deal with. Good luck to you!

Thanks guys. I know that realistically the chances aren't great that I'll be able to have a surgery date in June, but I am glad to know now that it's at least a possibiity. As far as the scheduling goes with my surgeon, even though they have a ton of patients, for some reason right now they do have a lot of open time slots ot book the surgeries. They've told me before that the scheduling should only take a week at the most and when they did my EGD (same surgeon) it took two days. Like I said, I know it's kind of a long shot but I'm going to stay hopeful. Even if we can't make it happen, ealy July isn't so far away. I just hope they don't deny me...

Thanks, it's reassuring to hear that coming with someone who has experience dealing with insurance companies. Maybe bugging them will make me feel better too, because the wait is killing me already!! Erin: I have been doing the supervised dieting for three months and I do have a two week pre-op diet. I'm sticking to that now just in case they can get me in there earlier, I don't want to give them any hesitations. My diet's pretty easy fortunately, just 1200 calories a day, low carb, low fat, plenty of protien. I only have to do a liquid diet for the first day pre-op, I can handle that. 14 days would be just fine, I hope they approve me that quick! We found out I have a hiatal hernia too so I have more than a few reasons for wanting this to happen quick... the heartburn is killing me! Ugh!

Thanks for the quick replies! I'm glad to hear that a week should be enough time, I'l be trying to push for a June surgery date then. The clinic told me that my insurance company tends to take the full thirty days unfortunately, but I've seen other people on here say that they were real quick about it so, fingers crossed maybe I'll get lucky again! Has anyone ever had a negative outcome from pestering the insurance agents? I guess I worry that they'll deny me because I annoy them. Maybe that's unreasonable.