aviva1979

Just logging this as I go:
1st PCP visit on Jan 9th - met with surgeon, completed initial requirements (nutritionist, psychiatrist, support group meetings) - insurance paperwork submit on May 9th... pending their response.

Initial submission to insurance was denied, requesting a letter of support from my PCP and clearance (healthwise) to undergo surgery - had that appointment on 5/28 - insurance request was amended on 5/30 and approval received on 5/31! Next week I will get a call from the surgical practice to schedule!!!

Got the call from the surgical scheduler today (6/5) and I'm booked for July 11th - arrival time 6:30am, and I'm the first surgery of the day, so I'm supposed to start the procedure at 7:30am.

It's been almost 2 weeks of reducing my calories to under 1650 and subbing in a protein shake for a meal (and snack sometimes) and walking 3x/week - all big improvements on my lifestyle - which i'm doing as prep before my pre-op diet. the scale finally moved! it was flat for day after day and today i'm down 2lbs :)

Today is July 1st and I am on Day 5 of the pre-op diet. I've lost 10.8lbs so far - 5 from my "step down" pre pre-op diet and the rest in the last 5 days. Honestly, I'm pretty hungry all the time - but I'm resolved to make this work and hang in there. It feels really rewarding to see the scale go down. I wonder what will happen this week in terms of water retention as my period approaches...

July 5th - I've made it past the holiday! wasn't too terribly hard - just didn't go to any parties. feeling really good and convicted about making the right choices for ME - past the thought of cheating. the only person i'd be cheating is myself. i can't say it won't happen in the future, or that I don't think about food lots of the time - but i've done that before and it landed me at over 300 lbs - and the only person who can change that is the one typing right now! :) Down 15.2lbs as of this morning and feeling great!

So I was banded on July 11th - it was an inpatient procedure and it went really smoothly. Surgeon told me and my fam that I have "a lovely liver". pre-surgery I was down 17lbs. post-surgery I didn't weigh for a few days, and then from about Day 4 post-op to Day 14 I lost almost a pound a day. then I stalled for a little over a week.

First Fill on 7/31 - down just about 30lbs all told. got 4CCs. have an appt in 1 month for next fill. doc says most of his patients end up getting in the 6-8CC range, but that it varies a lot by person. so far he's been very pleased with my healing progress as well as my weight loss.

2nd fill coming up tomorrow (8/21). Doc has been extremely accommodating about moving my fills a little earlier with my work travel schedule. My period was a week late this month which was nerve-wracking. I want a baby someday but not right this moment. Now is ME time. My weight went from 282 to 287 before my period and then I was in Chicago for work for a week. When i returned (post-period) I was back down at 283. Then yesterday went to 281.6 and this morning I'm at 278.8 - what I think of as the "phantom baby" type of loss. I'm now just over 36lbs lost and this is officially the most I've ever lost before (have lost 30lbs twice in the last decade - only to regain it + more). Feeling really great!

Fill just happened (8/23 - was resched). [color=#333333][font=lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif][size=3] doc is very pleased with progress. I've lost 36lbs total (i'm 5'6" - started at 315/squeezing into a size 22, and am at 279/size 18-20). Have lost about 6lbs since 1st fill on 7/31. thankfully he still wanted to talk about how much i've been eating and how long i stay satisfied and when he saw the pleading look in my eyes that i'm winging it on pure will power, he was happy to do another fill. he started out by putting 2 CCs in (i got 4CC into an empty band at my first fill) but when i drank water i just felt tight. nothing came back up but it was moving down slowly... so he took 1cc out. so now i'm at 5cc and will see him again in 1 month. he thinks from here forward it will just be .5cc fills until i'm in the green zone and then we'll just see each other every 3 months instead of monthly to check-in.[/size][/font][/color]