rabid24

Thanks! Everything went super fast. We went in at 9, surgery started at 11:00, out by 12:00 and he was discharged at 3:30. He's been feeling pretty good, but I think it's just because the morphine hasn't worn off yet. I think it's about to though. I can't wait to go next!

Well, todays the day for my husband anyway. I'm getting ready to run him up to the hospital. Wish us luck! :clap2:

My name is Jodi and I will be banded on October 4th. It seems like there are alot of us with that date!

That's AWFUL! Kids can be so cruel. I got some crap for being overweight in high school, but it wasn't too bad from the kids I went to school with. I was friends with "popular" kids. I guess that kept me safe. I do remember standing on a street with a bunch of my friends once and some older girls drove by and yelled out the window "Hey girl in the brown coat (me), YOU'RE FAT!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA". That bothered me, and my friends had to stand there and act like it didn't happen. My weight was something we didn't talk about. And not to mention, it was a completely pointless statment. Kind of like I said about the guys I work with. It's like they have to tell me I'm fat or I wouldn't have known. Yes, the fat calipers were humiliating. I think they partially did stuff like that to shame us into losing weight. I guess kids aren't the only ones who can be cruel.

Hi All! I'm due to be banded October 4th and I couldn't be happier! I work with a bunch of skinny college girls, so I've always felt pretty out of place. I've also had my weight brought up to me many times by insensitive (male) jerks I work with. I just had my last baby on Christmas Day 2006, and for a long time I guess my co-workers were trying to guess if I was pregnant or just really fat (I guess it was both). Luckily one of them had to come tell me what everyone was talking about. ANYWAY! I get a call from one of my coworkers yesterday wanting to know what size I wore because they were getting ready to order some polo shirts for us. When I asked what sizes they come in she said "I don't know, they do have men sizes". So I said I guess I would take a 2x, and she says "Ok, I'll order that in mens then". Ok, now I fear that the mens shirts will look different than the womens and everyone will know they had to order mine in mens sizes (and we have to wear them everyday). I told my husband if it was that humiliating I was just going to quit. I'm WAY over qualified for this job anyway, I just like that it conforms to my schedule. He doesn't think it's that big of a deal though. I know I have no one to blame for being in this position but myself. However, that doesn't stop it from being humiliating! Hopefully I won't have to worry about crap like this much longer! Thanks for listening:)

Yeah, I hated Junior High. My gym teacher made all of us line up and get weighed (guys and girls together). Then they would yell out our weight to the other gym teacher in the back of the room so they could record it in their notes. This was only slightly more embarressing than when my high school gym teacher used the fat calipers on our lower stomach to see what our fat percentage was. Yep. Fun fun! I'll never forget the feeling of her hands grabbing all my fat in that strangely aggressive manner.

Well, to update my shirt dilema... The girls shirts all looked pretty much like the guys. HOWEVER, mine didn't "come in" for some reason, so I'm the only one getting to wear my old uniform and I still stand out anyway. Oh well, I just keep telling myself "it won't be this way for very much longer".

I agree! It gives it all meaning, doesn't it?

I almost didn't post this little dilema here, but now I'm SO glad I did. You guys have had some great advice and words of wisdom! Wasa- I like the thought that this could be a blessing in disguise. I've always envied the girls who have always been thin, but I guess that does really limit what they can empathize with and truly understand. It's these sort of things that make us who we are, and honestly, I like myself the way I am (other than the weight part). Knowing that I'll get the band in a few weeks is really the only thing that keeps me at that job. It would just make me sick if I finally get real thin and I can't rub it in their faces:) Just kidding! (kinda) It's like having a secret weapon up my sleeve. I know when they start acting like this that before long, they won't have my weight to talk about anymore. Then what will they do for fun?

I know that 90% of the shirt situation is in my head. I tried to make it seem like it didn't bother me at all so they wouldn't think anything about it. It's just that when someone else recognizes that your fat and brings it up to you in a nonchalant manner, it just makes you (me) want to fall through the floor. What's really funny is that I've spent my life trying to go unnoticed and blend in. On some level it's probably why I let myself gain weight in the first place. Now I hope no one notices that. Ok...I guess I never said I was sane:) However, the guy who came up to me to let me know my coworkers were talking about me was ridiculous. It's like he thought he was being a friend and that if he didn't let me know I was fat I would go about completely unaware. Now THAT'S crazy!

Thank you all so much for your replies. It's amazing how much it helps to know that there are other people out there who have went through this same sort of thing. I would go to HR, but I'm the kind of person who would be too embarressed to even bring it to someone elses attention. I just want it all to go away, and I really don't want to make these people think they have gotten to me in anyway. Besides, before they know it, they'll be eating those words

I'm scheduled for October 4th too. It seems like a million years away at this point. No, I wasn't asked to lose any weight before surgery. In fact, I was kind of afraid that if I did I wouldn't qualify for the surgery anymore. I'm kinda surprised that they would ask that of you, because if it was easy to lose weight, we wouldn't need the surgery in the first place.

Hi All! Yeah, I think we should go with TENacious Tens too. I would give another suggestion as well, just to not feel like I'm being a slacker, but I have no imagination anyway:) Mary, that is a great story. It's the kind of thing that's good to hear right about now. I hope to be there myself before long, barely being able to remember what it's like to be fat. August and September will fly by, and we will all be there before we know it. My husband was scheduled for surgery on September 7th. We were getting so excited about it, then got a letter in the mail from the surgeon saying he was moving it back 2 weeks. Goodness, I hope that doesn't happen for me. It's like finding out they changed Christmas.:cry Anyway, it's good to see this board getting so active! It means Octobers getting closer!:clap2: Take care. Jodi

It really depends on how you're going to pay. If your self pay, it will be alot sooner. If your wanting to file insurance, then it depends on the insurance and what they require you to do ahead of time. It will also depend on how busy your surgeons practice is. For me, it will be 5 months from seminar to surgery. From my first consultation it will be 4 1/2 months. I have Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield. However, mine is also taking a bit longer because I'm letting my husband go first. So basically, it could be anywhere from 2 weeks to a year.

It was Dr. Oz on Oprah that if a man can lose 35 pounds, he will gain an inch in size. However, he did also say that this will taper off (so not one inch for EVERY 35 pounds!). Sorry to burst any bubbles:)

Ooooh, I have some questions. How did you do on the liquid phase? Did you notice your milk supply go down at all? How many times a day were you breastfeeding then? My baby will actually just barely be 9 months old when I get banded. The worrisome thing is that one surgeon said "Well, if you can't breastfeed it'll be ok anyway. There is no nutrional benefit to breastfeeding past 9 months anyway." I wonder where he got this information. Anyway, it's good to see it IS possible.

Hi! It sure is lonely here in the October board. I expect it will be picking up very soon though. I'm due to be banded on October 4th. It would've been sooner but my husband is getting banded on September 7th, so I have to give him enough time to recouperate so that he can take care of us when it's my turn. It seems like forever away, but I know it will be here before we know it. That's really neat that you get a membership to a gym with it. I'm actually looking forward to working out (although I'll just have to do it at home). Good luck to you! Jodi

Hi! Yes, I'm still breastfeeding. My son is just a little over 7 months old. I'm scheduled to be banded on Oct. 4th. I've talked to two surgeons who assure me I can be banded and contiinue breastfeeding. One thinks I may need to supplement during the pre-op liquid diet, but other than that I should be fine.

Good luck! I can't wait to be there myself!

You should get discouraged if you gain weight at first because it will work its self out eventually. I mean't you SHOULDN'T get discouraged. It's too early to be posting...

No, I don't think anyone gains three pounds of muscle in one week, but it would be nice. The way I understand it (and this is according to Bob Greene ) you probably will gain weight when you start excercising. This has nothing to do with gaining muscle, but because the way your body responds when you start tearing down fibers to make muscle. In other words, when you start working out, you'll also start retaining alot of Water. You should get discouraged if you gain weight at first because it will work its self out eventually.

My husband and I both went for our psych evaluations yesterday. We are trying to do everything at the same time to minimize the amount of time that he has to take off work so we can save it up for surgeries. Anyway, it was an awful experience. I tried to call for two solid weeks, each time I got her answering machine saying she would be out of the office today, May 9th. Well, it stopped being May 9th at some point. Anyway, she never returned my call. I ended up having to be routed to her assistants cell phone through numerous other calls to the hospital she works in. I should've known this would be a sign of things to come. Anyway, when I made the appointment I told her I need to make an appointment for my husband on the same day, and her first reaction is "Oh, you BOTH want surgery?" Like this is some kind of red flag already. Yes, we both want to be healthy and quit batteling obesity...how nutty. She said "You'll need to come in at 8:00 for some paper work, then I'll interview one of you at 9:00, and the other one at 10:00, you'll need to come back at 1:00 for feedback". I said "Ok, I've gotta go pick up my son from school at 11:30, but that'll work fine. It's good we'll be able to switch back and forth because we will have our other 3 children with us as well". She said ok, and everything was set. Well, I get there at 8:00 for my part of the paperwork and she said "Where's your husband". I told her he was in the car with the kids, and he would come in when I was done. She said "Oh no, the exam part of this takes about 2 1/2 hours, you have to do it at the same time". Um, WTF? She said 'some paper work', not '2 1/2 hour long exam'. I called him up and told him to bring in the kids and we took the exams with three kids, one of them a screaming baby. She kept asking me "Now Jodi, why didn't you know how long this would take? Were you not paying attention?" I was so confident going in, I have read and re-read on this subject. I have thought about it, and I've even read about all the reasons they would deny someone. No suicidal thoughts, not trying to be a super model, don't smoke, do drugs, or drink, no pychosis ect.... Well, apparently all that didn't matter. She asked why I wanted to lose weight and I said "To have more energy for my kids", in feed back she tells me this is a red flag because I will need to 'push through' my lack of energy to exercise in order to make this surgery successful. Well, I NEVER said I didn't push past it. I have 4 kids, I don't get to just lay around regardless of how much I want to. She asked me if I had tried to lose weight before and I told her about how I've pretty much dieted for the last 18 years, losing some weight only to gain it back. She grilled me forever about why I gained it back, then she told me that if I lost it with diet before, I should be able to do it like that again. And also, that if I gained it back before, I would probably just screw up with the lap band and make it null and void. Pretty much I should just give up I guess. I wanted to cry so bad. She also said one of my 587 questions (that was all true/ false, no degree of inbetween) showed that I was showing signs of depression. I asked her for an example since I feel pretty darn happy, and she didn't know. She then ended the interview by grilling me on the date, day, name of the hospital we were in, what town we were in etc. I didn't know I looked THAT out of it. I asked my husband how it went with him. I thought he would do worse since he hasn't REALLY tried dieting for more than a couple of meals here and there, and knows only what he does about the lap band because I've told him. Well, he did "just fine, no problems". She didn't even ask him what freaking day it was. In the end she gave me the "green light" for surgery, but wants my husband to go to all my doctors appointments with me to take notes because I clearly can't take it all in by myself. :angry Anyway, I just had to gripe. I didn't know it was going to be so horrible. Thank god that parts over with, one less hoop to jump through! Now I've just got 2 more (consultation and pre-surgery visit), and I'm good to go! Thanks for listening!

This is exactly what I plan to do. I only went to her because she is the only one in my town that's recommended by my surgery center. I wonder if they would keep recommending her if they knew how she was. My husband said she even briefly tried to talk him out of going where we are going because she said there is a place that does it closer and wanted to know what our motivation was to do it in another town instead. (My motivation is that the closer place primarily does RNY and I don't want to have them trying to talk me into that instead). Also, she herself is the directer of a weight loss program through the hospital that's entirely diet and exercise related. I think she kind of resents the surgical weightloss methods. At any rate, she was not the best psychologist to do this sort of evaluation. I am a little scared that even though she said she'd give me the go ahead for surgery, that she'll tell the surgeon something else. She seems pretty out there and unstable. There was alot more to her craziness, but I edited for content since my post was pretty long as it was.:phanvan Thanks for all the well wishes!

I think they normally just are making sure you don't have any major psychological issues. I've found several websites that tell you what they are suppose to look for, here's a good website: OAC ­ Obesity Action Coalition - Psychological Evaluations This is a good one too, it tells what will make them exclude someone: http://www.move.va.gov/download/Resources/BariatricSurgery/NCPRecsforPreOpPsychEvalforwebposting706.pdf I think it shouldn't be so bad if your psychologist isn't crazy herself. I guess in the end, as long as they pass us that's all that matters. I was really honest in everything, and I think (in most circumstances) it's better that way.

Hi! Thanks so much for all your help! I've decided to give up dieting just long enough to get my insurance approval. It didn't end up being as hard as I thought it would be Anyway, I went to the seminar on the 12th of this month, had my psych eval. today, and my first appointment on June 12th. I probably can start dieting after that. But as my signature says, my husband gets to go first. I will put off my surgery till fall, although I hate to because Tallgrass says they can get us in in about 2 months. Oh well, I shouldn't gripe. I know there are alot of people who have a lot longer wait and more red tape to go through than us! Thank goodness for Federal Blue Cross. Thanks again everyone!