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Time to pull out your before picture and put it on your refrigerator, or hang in your pantry. I saw a video blog on youtube of one girl who even had a before picture of herself taped to her water bottle so it wd remind her constantly why she needed to keep drinking her water. Ask yourself every time you choose to open the refrigerator or pantry do you want to go back to the girl in the picture. You have done a great job with your weight loss so far and you are stronger than this!

Check to see what your max out of pocket is for the year. You might not end up paying as much as you think you will. Mine is $2500 for the year. I had already spent $1700 before my surgery. I have yet recvd my bills but I already know that I will have to pay only $800 more dollars to hit my max and who I pay will be determined by the insurance company on who filed the bill with the insurance first. Once my max out of pocket is hit for the year my insurance picks up the balance for the remaining of the year.

I had surgery june 18th. In jan wt 234. Dr appt 3 weeks before surgery wt 217. Day of Surgery Wt 211. tomorrow will be two weeks since surgery and as of yesterday Wt was 205. I'm pretty disappointed at this point as I have been on nothing but liquids since the surgery taking 3 shakes a day at 32 grams of protein each or 2 shakes and 4 oz of low sodium broth. I'm also getting in 64 oz's of water in a day. Taking in less than 500 calories a day I thought there would have been more than 6 lbs loss over 12 days. I'm on this forum constantly and see people are losing 5-6 lbs in the first few days after surgery but 12 days it seems my body has been hit by a train to only lose 6 lbs since surgery. What the heck am I doing wrong?

Congratulations!! It will be here before you know it!

Exactly why my MIL doesn't know anything about me having this done. I told my DH not to say anything to her because instead of being supportive I felt it would give her ammunition to find fault and this is too tough a battle to go thru to deal with this kind of stuff. I totally agree with you that it is totally a individual decision.

I know it's hard but don't get discouraged. Same thing happened to me as well with Cigna. I got a denial 3 days after submission saying I was missing physician's recommendation as well as 6 months of diet. They recvd both - in fact they recvd my entire patient file for each individual month and a letter was also enclosed my dr had written why I needed to have this done. My case worker was totally baffled but told me it happens more than it doesnt and that with the denial the next step wd be to appeal which they immediately did and had a peer to peer with Cigna's dr. They requested to have the information placed on one page instead of reviewing each months of weigh ins's and dr notes on 6 different pages. My Dr also had to write a one liner saying I was all clear for surgery. Once my case worker sent it back that way they approved 2 weeks later. I think this is probably one way that Cigna tries to allow themselves more time in reviewing the case because once they deny they automatically have additional time to work thru their process. If you have a case worker that works for your dr they should be handling all this for you.Also don't expect to get any information from Cigna that is correct once it's denied because the notes are not updated so customer service can see once it is being reviewed by Cigna's advocate who is assigned for the peer to peer. I learned this the hardway and with much frustration when I tried to get info after everything was resubmitted and kept being given inaccurate info. As this was happening I heard from my caseworker that I had been approved but they were waiting on the info in writing before they proceeded and had Known for a week but at the same time Cigna was telling me they were showing in their notes they were waiting on a peer to peer to be done with my dr.

Thanks everyone for the pep talk. I appreciate all the words of encouragement. I know I need to stop worrying about the scale. I didn't gain overnite and I know it's going to take time to lose it. But being Human I can't help from wanting that instant gratification. Here's to keeping my chin up!

I totally understand what you are going thru. I have Cigna as well and my experience sounds like wht you are going thru. when I called they wd tell me one thing then put me on hold and they wd xf me to another dept who doesnt update the files so the other dept has no idea what is going on except for old info. unfortunately it only gets worse because if you do get a rejection it is then in the hands of the cigna case worker who's information doesnt xf to customer service either and at that point you just have to depend on your case worker with your Dr office to communicate with you. I finally got a approval 25 days after it was submitted. I was ready to pull my hair out.

I got a upper GI pre surgery.

Had my surgery on June 18th and happy to say have not had any nausea at all!

I found this website last night and bookmarked a great number of their recipes. It looks as if it something I can make for my entire family to eat that will be healthy and be able to eat as well. I also think it's great that there are recipes based on all stages if you click on the carrot at the top right . http://www.advancedbariatricsurgery.com/forum/default.aspx?f=5

Thanks for all the replies! I have waited so long to have this done and don't want to screw up now. I am starting to feel better day by day and right now only experience "head hunger" not physical hunger which is a demon that I will just learn to overcome.

The worst diagnosis that can be given is self diagnosis or those who aren't qualified. I recommend you call your surgeon or physician right away. This doesn't sound like something you should take lightly.

I'm at 209

I have to be at the hospital at 5:15 MONDAY morning and am scheduled for the 1st surgery of the day at 8:15. I have been so busy this week that I haven't had time to even think about it very much. All I can say is Wow! several times today I have thought to myself "hey girl don't you realize you are about to voluntarily remove 85% of your stomach, are you crazy? why aren't you nervous?" I am so at peace about this whole thing it's so totally unbelievable. My only thought I keep having is what if I do this and don't lose the weight I'm gonna feel like a complete failure! Non-sense aside I can't wait to get my life back!

My reasons I chose to go with the Sleeve was after much research. I personally did not want to have to contend with malabsorptin issues, dumping which can happen with the sleeve but much more so with the bypass nor did I care about having my insides redesigned. I also know there is a whole lot of less down time with the sleeve with the typical same results.

I attended the seminar in November, had my 1st appt with the surgeon the beginning of January and am scheduled for my Surgery on June 18th. For me I had to have 6 monthly appts with my primary physician to monitor a supervised diet for my insurance. That is what took so long for me. My 1st appt with my primary was in November and the last was in April. My surgeons insurance coordinator submitted everything the last week of April to the insurance company and I didn't get a approval until towards the end of May. During this time I did make some lifestyle changes that I knew I was going to have to make anyway and decided I rather do it before the surgery and make it easier for myself after the surgery, such as removing all my diet soda's from my diet. This was extremly tough for me as I was totally addicted and had severe headaches from the withdrawals for a couple of weeks. I also started walking to get myself exercising and started really watching my diet. I knew anything I lost prior to the surgery was going to make the surgery that much easier for me and for me personally once I decided this is what I was going to do I didn't see a need to wait until I had the surgery to start making changes.

Talk with your husband and explain why you need to have this done. I would suggest have him attend a seminar with you so he can hear from the physician explaining the process. My husband was not that keen on the idea at all until he attended the seminar and then he was onboard.

I started mine on Sunday, which is the protein shakes and a sensible dinner w no carbs such as rice, pasta, potatoes or bread. I'm a diabetic and two days out of the 5 so far ive switched it up and had my meal at lunch time instead of dinner time and had my protein drink at dinner time due to getting sick hungry. Most of the time I have been able to distract myself enough to make it thru the growling stomach and I know with me if I can distract myself with something for about 20 minutes I'm good to go unless I start getting sick. I figured in the evening when I am more likely to be idle and thinking about food I can just go to bed and sleep it off, lol

It sounds like something is incorrect on your statement. I wd def call your insurance. If you have a $2000 max annual then you should not have to pay no more than that period. I have a in network annual max out of pocket of $2000 and $4000 out of network. Even with your copay's and deductibles it should still be part of your max out of pocket amt. I have recvd similar statements in the past where it showed what was billed and showed the insurance did not pay anything and I start to freak out then see a tiny blurb on a different part of the statement reflecting the doctors office/ whoever is doing the billing did not get a preauthorization and therefore insurance nor I was responsible for the bill, it even went so far as saying I was not to pay that I did not owe the amt.

Went to the surgeon today and was set up with my surgery date for June 18th! The dr sd he usually required a liquid diet for two weeks but since I had done so well with my weight loss as long as I promised not to go crazy he wasn't going to require it of me! So exciting but at same time feels weird to be ecstatic about someone cutting into me and removing majority of my stomach.

Congratulations!

So I completed all my prereq's required for insurance on April 4th and my case worker just submitted my paperwork this last Friday, the 13th to the insurance company. I just got off the ph with Cigna to check to see if they had recvd my paperwork and they told me they had recvd it and it's being reviewed. I asked how long it usually takes knowing the standard answer is 20 days but the representative told me they usually have a answer within 5 business days! Oh how I hope that is true, as patience isn't a virtue I have been blessed with! I'm trying my best to keep my hopes up but know I will be completely devastated if I get declined. I researched my policy pretty thouroughly and I know I have met everyone of their requirements at least twice, including doing 2 six month physician supervised diets. the first six months was 24 months ago but there was concern that the insurance might reject asking for a more recent six mth diet, I didn't want to give any reason for the insurance to deny me so I went ahead and did a more recent six month diet and my case worker submitted both . I am a light weight compared with alot of people who have this done but I need to do this for my health. In Jan at my 1st visit to the surgeon my BMI was 39 and my weight was 233. My insurance requires there to be two comorbidities with a bmi of at least 35. My only concern is whether I lost too much weight in the last few months! I have diabetes, high cholesterol, GERD, I have a extremly large Hiatal hernia, and have found out from my upper GI that I also have a gallbladder full of stones. My weight for the last 6 years has consistently been within 10 pounds except when I'm on a diet and everytime I diet as soon as I eat normal foods the lbs lost wd immediately bounce right back to the previous weight. In November I decided once I went from being prediabetic to diabetic I had to make the decision to have surgery which I had been bouncing around in my head for about 4 years and had gone to previous sessions but until November it was more about my looks and not about my health. I have watched my mother suffer with diabetes for years and have seen her health deteriate and know how hard it is to control and don't want that for myself if I have a chance to do something before things get real bad I am going to do it. So in November i went to my first seminar and Jan had my 1st appt with the surgeon. I had my nutrition appts, psych eval, all my blood test, upper GI, all completed by end of Feb, only thing left were completion of a more recent 6 mth physician supervised diet which as mentioned earlier now completed. In Jan, after already reading day in and day out every forum about vsg to see what I cld find negatively, positively, and just educating myself as well as watching hundreds of youtube videos I knew I had made the right decision to move forward and that I def wanted this for myself. I came to the decision that I wasn't gonna wait to start making changes to my lifestyle to when I had the surgery that there were things I cld go ahead and work on that I cld control regardless if I lost any weight or not so I was going to go ahead and start making those changes now instead of trying to deal with them while recover ing with a life changing surgery when there were too many other things to deal with. The biggest change was my addiction to Diet soft drinks. Yes, I call it a addiction. I wd have a diet coke as soon as I got out of bed in the morning and always had one in hand during the day and had them until i went to bed. Since I knew I cldnt have them after the surgery I committed to quit the soft drinks. It took me two weeks before I stopped having headaches, and every so often I still have the desire occassionaly to buy one but I have replaced my soft drink habit with crystal light and keep it on me at all times. I started losing weight and exercising (walking a hour 3-4 times a week) and started losing some weight, I also know all the amt of Metformin I'm taking for controlling my is contributing to some weight loss as well. I have hit stalls 3 times and each time they have lasted for several weeks. My body is crazy and my weight will bounce 6-7 lbs thru out the same day instead of the norm 2-3. and When I lose it is like 2-3 lbs overnight. I hit stalls at 222, 218, 212, and now as of Sunday 208. At my six mth check up my weight when I left my house that morning sd I weighed 216 but when I got to the drs office their scales sd 210. I was like what the heck! I havent seen that weight on my scale, I shd have worn my steel toe boots. My surgeons office keep telling me to lose as much weight as I can before the surgery that it will be that much better and not worry about dropping below the 35 min bmi to have the surgery. They sd they use the weight from the 1st surgeon visit and that's why a weight history is required so the insurance can see how weight tends to keep creeping right back up . Oh I'm praying that is true because I have dealt with my weight the last 25 years I know right now that I have a goal and that I will have help to get me beyond that point when I have failed with diets in the past, I don't know what I will do if my surgery is rejected. I havent seen my weight below 201 in 25 years and know I need this. I'm excited that I'm finally at this point in the process but can't help from letting the negativity creep in with the what ifs. I'll be so happy when this week is over!

I finally got my approval!

After all the hoop jumping with the insurance and waiting for the decision from the insurance company, I finally heard from the dr's office saying that they got the approval. It has taken so long to get to this point that I am so FREAKIN EXCITED! Sounds really strange even to me to be excited about having 80% of my stomach removed but I am so looking forward to doing all the things I haven't been able to do for so many years!