virtualgirl

Research the program at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore as well if you are still researching Drs./programs.

Hi Tara, Congrats on receiving your date and for persevering through the denials to reach this point. My dietician just mentioned the program at St. Agnes to me at my appointment on Monday. I had not heard of the bariatric program or St. Agnes until that point. I was set to have Dr. Cantor at Holy Cross perform my surgery. I would love check in with you to see how you are doing, how the program at St. Agnes and Dr. Singh is working out for you. You will get through this liquid stage diet and on to a new improved you. I'm considering the sleeve as well, as I am a big sweet eater and I don't think the lap band will work for me because of that and also living forever with the port and band was a turn off. With Roux n y, the process of re-routing my small instestine freaks me out worse that the lap band. So a VSG seems like the best alternative in my book.

Wannalise and Becca ~ thanks for the encouragement.

Hello everyone ~ I am new to the board as well. I am a few months into the journey and making the decision on lap band vs. sleeve. RNY is not an option in my book...the whole re-routing and malabsorption freaks me out. I started the process with Kaiser Mid-Atlantic in July and attended my first WLS class in August and first WLS seminar in September and a second one last week. Under Kaiser Mid-Atlantic and my plan, I have to go through 6 months of NUT appointments that includes 2 gastric bypass surgery classes, attend 2 WLS seminars and a host of test, plus losing 3% of current body weight. I have actually completed all of the tests and the mandatory 2 seminars. I have one more NUT session and then the referral goes before the approving board and then I get to meet with the surgeon that will be performing the surgery. At last check, the surgeon is backed up about 4 months, so I'm thinking my surgery will be in the Spring, which is okay with me. I am leaning more towards the sleeve as someone else mentioned the lap band as a foreign object, the port and the need to have the fills performed. Plus from my research and attending the seminars, it is not the best option for me as I am a big sweet eater; since I don't want RNY, hesitation towards the lap band, the sleeve seems to be the only other viable option. I am 41 and have been fairly overweight most of life, but definitely obese/morbidly obese since my late twenties/early thirties. I have asthma (a fairly recent development) but fairly healthly for a fat girl, but I question how long will that last with a family history of diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiac disease and osteoarthritis (which is currently my only problem). I am married with a 15 year son. My husband is supportive 99.5% of the time. The actual process freaks him out, but he tries really hard to give and show support. So I give him props for that. The driving force for my decision is age and the potential for more critical health issues. So here I am on my yellow brick road towards a healthier me. I look forward to sharing and receiving support and advice. Good luck to you all on this journey to a new, improved you.

Hello everyone ~ I am new to the board as well. I am a few months into the journey and making the decision on lap band vs. sleeve. RNY is not an option in my book...the whole re-routing and malabsorption freaks me out. I started the process with Kaiser Mid-Atlantic in July and attended my first WLS class in August and first WLS seminar in September and a second one last week. Under Kaiser Mid-Atlantic and my plan, I have to go through 6 months of NUT appointments that includes 2 gastric bypass surgery classes, attend 2 WLS seminars and a host of test, plus losing 3% of current body weight. I have actually completed all of the tests and the mandatory 2 seminars. I have one more NUT session and then the referral goes before the approving board and then I get to meet with the surgeon that will be performing the surgery. At last check, the surgeon is backed up about 4 months, so I'm thinking my surgery will be in the Spring, which is okay with me. I am leaning more towards the sleeve as someone else mentioned the lap band as a foreign object, the port and the need to have the fills performed. Plus from my research and attending the seminars, it is not the best option for me as I am a big sweet eater; since I don't want RNY, hesitation towards the lap band, the sleeve seems to be the only other viable option. I am 41 and have been fairly overweight most of life, but definitely obese/morbidly obese since my late twenties/early thirties. I have asthma (a fairly recent development) but fairly healthly for a fat girl, but I question how long will that last with a family history of diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiac disease and osteoarthritis (which is currently my only problem). I look forward to sharing and receiving support and advice. Good luck to you all on this journey to a new, improved you.