wendy645

MY boyfriend says there's no use in telling my bosses about it because it's rather unrealistic to think they'll choose a plan based on my needs. I'm the only MO one at the whole company, so asking them to get a rider is just insane. Does anyone know if I could get a rider on my own if it was needed? :bump:

Yes, everyone keep posting! Even things that see, trivial for you are huge to pre-bandster thread-stalkers like me! :car:

What about Dr. Berger? Anyone? I know Coyotegirl had him but she hasn't been on lately.

Awww Bart's so cute! Bonzai's just recently turned 4 years old. We named him so because a) being a Sheltie, we knew we'd have to groom him a lot, much like clipping a Bonsai tree, and he always had soooo much energy, it just fit him I'm not banded yet. I have no idea when I will be, because my work is changing insurance mid-process. I'm not telling them and it wouldn't matter if I did so I'm kinda in limbo right now. *sigh* Keep your fingers crossed for me... I want to be a healthier mommy to Bonzai!!

That's an adorcious car! Where are you moving from?

I actually spit my drink on my computer. THANKS JACK! *wipes off keyboard, glaring at Jack*

When I was in high school I lost 19 pounds and nobody but my librarian said a damn thing. I was so disappointed. I was starting from 204 then on a 5'7" frame.

I can't wait for the comments! My friend lost 65 lbs and everyone fawned over her, and I was jealous as heck. Some people don't want the attention and comments. I welcome them! I crave them! hehe.

I'm glad you asked, I was wondering the same thing exactly!!!

I like your silly title!! I don't have any help for you, though, because I am not there yet and don't know anything! Are you using a straw?

I just sent you a personal message. I'm not sure if you can appeal with an exclusion b/c I'm not that far into the process yet. Best fo luck, though!!!

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/does-anyone-have-mid-band-21440/ I don't know if yuo've found this

Well the part that complicates things is that I'm not telling my bosses I'm getting this done. They're not understanding like that. Nice, yes. Great bosses, yes. But not like this. So I can't just kinda nose around like... Oh hey I need to know ahead of time which plans you're looking at so I can compare them for my own benefit which I'm not going to tell you about, and then hope you go with the one I like! *add sicky sweet smile here* Things would just be a lot easier if I could have them keep me in mind, but they would freak out. They're fit health nuts. *sigh*

I've seen examples of a few bandsters who turn to exercise and go crazy with it. Maybe it's replacing over eating with another crutch, and in this case it's exercise The Addiction Transfer thread ( http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f15/addiction-transfer-37273/ ) spurred this in my head. So for those of you who are like the above, I'm wondering what your view toward it was before hand. Did you enjoy it? Did you hate it? When did you start working out more and more? I guess I'm trying to see if there's a correlation between those who turn to exercise, and see if I may fall into that category down the road?

Maybe I'm just starstruck but have you called the Methodist hospital in... Houston I think it is? That Big Medicine is filmed at?

Well, due to my car breaking down and a bad storm I got there about halfway into it (3 hour drive). The surgeon was on-call and got called out not too terribly long after we got there. There were no patients, which was something I was really hoping for, and the lady that took over the seminar seemed in a huge hurry to GTF out of there. I managed to stay behind and was the last out the door, talking to some of the other people there for the seminar. One lady has the same insurance as me, so she gave me a heads up on them. I know there's an exclusion, but she said they'll fight but allow it if it's life threatening. The way she SAID it though upset me. As if she had contempt for me because I was smaller than her. She was seriously bitchy about it, and kinda looked at me like I look at skinny people... woah... I've never been looked at like that by someone bigger than me! I'm used to it from people smaller than me, but this threw me for a loop! I'm kind of in limbo right now because my employer is shopping around for different insurance! Now that I've started to look into this and started my 6-month diet, things are going to change! EEK!

I go to my info session tonight, and being the meticulously need-to-be-informed-of-every-little-thing-I-can-think-of person I am, I made a list of questions to ask the doc that are left unanswered after the info session. I'm driving 3 hours to get there, so hopefully he'll take pity on me and answer my questions! So here's my list, if you can add any others in the next couple of hours, I'd love to see them!!! Questions for Lap-Band Info Session 8/14/07 What kind of co-morbidities do insurance companies look for? What has your experience been with insurance denials? Do you help appeal? What do you do to help with insurance? Do you work to find loopholes in insurance exclusions, say if the patient needs something else like gallbladder or hernia surgery? Have you worked with Mercy Health before, and if so how did it turn out? Are there options besides insurance and self-pay? What qualifiers make or break your accepting a patient? What tests and specialists do you need before hand? What are your personal pre-op requirements? How many lap-bands have you done? What kinds of bands do you use? How do you decide which kind to use? Do you use different kinds of ports? Does the patient have to request a smaller port? Other than size, are there any differences in the smaller and standard ports? How do you decide where to put the port? What was your complication rate? Death rate? What caused them? What complications have you personally run into in the operating room? What is your protocol for complications? Can you fix a hiatal hernia while in there? What does that entail, and can insurance cover it? What is average recovery time? How long do you recommend taking off work? What is your pre-op diet recommendation? What is your post-op diet recommendation? Do/can you record the procedure? (Yes, I’m a Health channel freak) What can a patient do to minimize recovery pain and time? How long are patients usually in the hospital post-op? Do most patients get relief from GERD? What are the activity limitations? What aftercare do you provide, and what is the cost? How long do you wait to do a fill? Are your fills done blind or with fluoro? Is there an additional charge for fluoro? Why do people complain of shoulder pain? What can we do to prevent slippage? Why does erosion occur and what can we do to prevent it? Are there many patients who reach goal and DON’T need PS/TT’s? What can we do to be one of them? What is the “golfball”? How do we avoid it? How do we get rid of it? What about PB’s and Sliming? Do we get a card saying what kind of band we have? What’s on it? What affect does drinking while eating have? Straws to drink – yes or no? My PCP recommends 4 months supervised dieting before trying to get an approved consultation with you. What do you recommend I do in the mean time? Wish me luck, I'm jazzed to go to the info session, plus my mom and boyfriend are going with me!!! :girl_hug:

You got it done in Mexico.... so BC/BS AZ will cover fills but not the procedure?

I'd suggest another fill, too, or in the mean time try eating standing up and seeing if it makes any difference? Just a thought.

I'm actually excited that I won't be able to turn to food as therapy anymore, because it'll force me to look my problems in the eye and not eat through them. This way I can be on my road to healing and figuringmyself out, which is an ultimate goal of mine :girl_hug:

Seriously. We get judged enough for what we eat now, I don't want to continue the scrutiny! At least when people see me eating like a rabbit, they leave me alone!

Yay! :girl_hug: Thank you! I figured most of them would be answered, but then I'll write the answers beside them and ask anything that's left. It's good to know they're so informative, I went to one on GBP a few years ago and they didn't cover the lapband at all, but I've been told this will. Plus, I wonder if I was the only one incredibly let down by the info packet straight from LapBand's maker... y'know, the one you call the 800 # for? It was lame!

Awesome smiley use, btw! Congratulations on a smooth surgery! I'm excited for you!!

I'm just starting, I've done my first PCP consultation bringing up the subject, attending an info session tonight, and setting up a nut. consultation today, and since the info session is 3 hours away, I have to leave work early. I said I'm visiting a doctor for hernia repair consultation... which is mostly true. The doctor wil be at the info session, I'm visiting that and by proxy him, and the PCP said they could most likely fix the hernia while in there, so... That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!

This is why, if at all possible, I'm not telling anyone but my mom, boyfriend of 9½ years, and best friend. And they all support me 110%. I don't think other people will, and to be honest, I don't feel like listening to their crap about it. I've researched this well and I'm sure you have too, so they can piss up a rope! We're doing this for us, not them!! I hope you've sat quietly and thought about this long and hard... if it's something you really want to do, don't let anyone get in your way. This is a life-changing decision and you know who needs to make those?The owner of said life! YOU! :girl_hug: At least you know you have tons of support here!!