circa

I'm so excited. I have 2 consults - one on the 16th and one on the 21st. I'm quite anxious to just keep the ball rolling on this. I want this done so I can move on with my life. I know its not good to rush things - and really, I'm not. I'm ready for this, I know what I'm in for, and I've done my own weight in research haha.

I'm so excited. I have 2 consults - one on the 16th and one on the 21st. I'm quite anxious to just keep the ball rolling on this. I want this done so I can move on with my life. I know its not good to rush things - and really, I'm not. I'm ready for this, I know what I'm in for, and I've done my own weight in research haha.

Thanks! I knew you'd help me fill in the blanks! I do know some of the answers to those questions - he is FACS and he's only had to convert to open twice - both were on GB though one was due to a gall bladder issue and an infected bile duct and the other was due to a HUGE growth that they wanted to remove in tact. Not too bad! :thumbup: The rest of the questions are going to serve me well! Thanks so much! I have a book that I already have them down in - I carry it with me everywhere so I can write stuff down as I think of it.

Okay so I'm hoping to be going in for my consult soon. I have a list of questions to ask the surgeon and I want to know if I'm missing anything 1. How many sleeve procedures and bypass procedures have you performed? 2. How long is the hospital stay? 3. Will I have a drain tube after surgery? 4. Do you use sutures, staples or both? 5. What size bougie do you use for the stomach? 6. What is the pre-op diet? 7. What is the post-op diet? 8. How long is the recovery period before I can: a: go back to work b: drive c: do aerobic exercise d: pilates/yoga exercise e: weight/circuit training 9. Are there any prescription or OTC medications that I will not be able to take after? (ex birth control, midol, EDTA) 10. I'm ready now - when you can start cutting?

That's what I was thinking - and he's obviously very experienced in things like resections, **ectomies, and wound suture and stapling before he even got involved in bariatrics. I really think I have an excellent opportunity here :wink:

Okay so I go in for my consult with Dr. Kam - he's been in this area for only a year and a half but has over 800 bypasses and sleeves overall in his career - he started as a trauma surgeon so he's good with the staples and such haha :wink: He has a thorough understanding of the liver as well - which is great for me considering the Wilson's disease. I'm quite excited :wub: I meet with him on the 21st of this month - and hopefully will be for surgery shortly thereafter

So. I called and finally got ahold of the scheduling coordinator and she told me that the insurance company hadn't sent them the approval letter. I have it. My doctor has it. My cousin's wife's sister's pet ferret has it, but they don't have it. *argh!* So I call the insurance company - they said there was an issue with their letter generation system and it didn't get sent to the surgeon's office *flail* So they're going to mail it to them tomorrow as they can't fax a letter that hasn't been generated yet - makes sense but doesn't make sense haha. I asked them to fax them my copy or my doctor's copy but they said they couldn't do that (mine's at home and I'm at work). So they apologized for the SNAFU and gave me the approval code and info and told me to give that to the surgeon's office along with their direct line and to have the surgeon's office call them. So I faxed all of that over to the surgeon's office and now I'm just waiting to hear whether or not that will suffice - if it will, she MAY be able to get me in for my consult on May 21st instead of in 4 months! :wink::thumbup::wub::thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup::crying:

So. I called and finally got ahold of the scheduling coordinator and she told me that the insurance company hadn't sent them the approval letter. I have it. My doctor has it. My cousin's wife's sister's pet ferret has it, but they don't have it. *argh!* So I call the insurance company - they said there was an issue with their letter generation system and it didn't get sent to the surgeon's office *flail* So they're going to mail it to them tomorrow as they can't fax a letter that hasn't been generated yet - makes sense but doesn't make sense haha. I asked them to fax them my copy or my doctor's copy but they said they couldn't do that (mine's at home and I'm at work). So they apologized for the SNAFU and gave me the approval code and info and told me to give that to the surgeon's office along with their direct line and to have the surgeon's office call them. So I faxed all of that over to the surgeon's office and now I'm just waiting to hear whether or not that will suffice - if it will, she MAY be able to get me in for my consult on May 21st instead of in 4 months! :thumbup::thumbup::sad::thumbup: :glare::thumbup::mad: :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

EAS why protein powder has a ton of protein in it - and you can dress it up rather easily so it doesn't get boring. Also - have you tried other meats? Maybe try Bison or Pork Loin (a leaner cut of pork) or even some fish options. There are a lot of other choices out there :thumbdown:

It amazes me at how some people see Mexico as a third world country with no health system or even running Water. They went into attack mode because they are scared and uninformed. Don't let their ignorance keep you from being happy and healthy. There have even been weight loss surgeons from Mexico on The Doctors television show and on Dr. Phil. While I also don't think you should believe everything you read - especially on the internet, I do think that the internet is a good research tool. Bottom line - they're not paying for it and they can eat that roasted crow when you come back happy and healthy :thumbdown:

Haha - that's all any statistic is - a sales or talking point to further an agenda - there's nothing real about most statistics. They're compiled using studies and surveys. They're never accurate. I'm glad you love your band and I hope you have no complications from it - I'm opting for the sleeve because it makes more sense for me. I'm very sorry that you lost your brother too. That's a horrible tragedy. :thumbup: I think we all have our preferences. We all have our reasons why. Many are ingrained into us by others - family and known and trusted professionals - others are gained by experience. its a personal choice to make but I think we all agree that GB isn't the way for any of us :ohmy:

In the theory of keeping my options open and keeping busy, I am going to check out another surgical center - they're about 3 hours away, but have appointments on saturdays so that helps. If nothing else, it'll keep my mind on the end result goal instead of sitting here doing nothing - and I can go hang out with my best friend that lives down there too haha. All this will do is help me get more information and keep more options available to me. This other surgical center accepts only one of my insurances but said that they will work with me on submitting to the other for coverage - and they even said they'd put that in writing! :wink: Last thing I need is to get burdened with a big ass medical bill when I wasn't expecting it. So the 16th I head down for the initial seminar. By the time i Have the surgery, I'll have been to so many seminars, I'll be able to GIVE them :wub: I just want my damn sleeve. I get irritable because i have no control over this and I'm rather OCD.

In the theory of keeping my options open and keeping busy, I am going to check out another surgical center - they're about 3 hours away, but have appointments on saturdays so that helps. If nothing else, it'll keep my mind on the end result goal instead of sitting here doing nothing - and I can go hang out with my best friend that lives down there too haha. All this will do is help me get more information and keep more options available to me. This other surgical center accepts only one of my insurances but said that they will work with me on submitting to the other for coverage - and they even said they'd put that in writing! :biggrin: Last thing I need is to get burdened with a big ass medical bill when I wasn't expecting it. So the 16th I head down for the initial seminar. By the time i Have the surgery, I'll have been to so many seminars, I'll be able to GIVE them :thumbup: I just want my damn sleeve. I get irritable because i have no control over this and I'm rather OCD.

I think that there has been so little information gathering on the band in the US thus far compared with GB as well. I know they've been doing the band in other countries for years - anyone know what their statistics are? I find it hard to believe that there's a 1% overall complication rate with _anything_ that is this involved.

What I was told by someone "in the business" is that the 1% band complication rate is during or immediately after surgery while in recovery. That sounds accurate to me. However, just reading this board, its quite evident that there are far more than 1% complications with bands overall.

"I'll be glad to shed these extra pounds as soon as you shed your stupidity - let's race and see who gets there faster."

exactly. if it was just calories that weren't absorbed well - I'm all for that haha. But the essential Vitamins and nutrients that you need to....well....LIVE. That's a bit harsh. If someone could invent a way to just not absorb the calories well - we'd all be happy haha. But bypassing half the digestive system is not my idea of fun.

Ya know, maybe if I hadn't been working on this for a year and a half now, I wouldn't be so frustrated. I have ZERO idea how this can be hard. I'm sitting here with everything done - just waiting for the surgical date. Insurance companies BOTH have sent me letters of approval. I've contacted every other surgeon's office within 200 miles of me - either they don't take my primary insurance or(and sometimes AND) I have to start completely over with THEIR process which means giving back my approval and having them do everything from step 1 all over again. WTF? What kind of sense does that make? They want to send the exact same paperwork to my insurance company to get the exact same answer I already got from my insurance company. Huh? I'll have to see their doctor who will go over the medical records my doctor sends after they take my history that I already have with my doctor so that this doctor can put his stamp on it and give it to the surgeon. Uhhh What??? Yeah. Makes NO sense. I mean you can quote procedures etc - but this is why this crap costs so much! Because there's 5 people doing the same thing over and over again that's already been done! I might as well stay where I'm at - provided I can actually get a phonecall back from these people. UGH. I'm just frustrated that I can't even get someone else to move when I've already done everything I can do. I have no more pre-op appointments that I can do - only other thing I could do is the shrink visit and dietician visit but I was told that if I do them BEFORE I have my surgical consult that they won't count and i"ll have to do them again. *flails arms wildly* So no phonecalls back, no appointments to keep, no paperwork to fill out....just sitting here waiting...

good luck to you too! Hopefully we'll both hear something soon!

glad to hear you got it all worked out! hopefully that will be the end of your issues.

I so believe that you're right about this. The two-stage process is the way to go. Sleeve and then DS *IF* necessary. Like I said before, the more research I do into this (and I don't just mean reading what is said here - independent research, both pro and against the sleeve) I see it as the way to go. I was reading some info on the sleeve - and it was an anti-sleeve report - the cons of the sleeve were still better than the ones for the band! This won't be true for everyone, but I'd rather take out a portion of my body that isn't working, rather than put a device that could cause issues on a body part that isn't working right anyway. I wants me a sleeve! :thumbup: bypass just scares the bajeebus outta me. I don't know why, per se, but it just does. I think part of the issue is that I've heard about so many people stretching their pouch out to be the size of a regular stomach - now you have 2 stomachs?! One that you've stretched out and another just flopping around in you??? Yikes!

You have my dreamjob! In addition to being a fulltime wife (and yes, with my husband, its a fulltime job haha) I also work for an energy exploration company in a legal and finance department. Its fun work - I love dealing with our landowners. They're great people! I also contribute on our family farm - not as much as I'd like to these days, but that'll increase as my health does :thumbup:

what on earth do they have you on?

ugh I wish mine was going that fast! I feel like I'm following a turtle with all the waiting - and I HAVE insurance approval heh. I can pretty safely say that they have already contacted your insurance company and made sure you have bariatric coverage. They probably know what the stipulations are as well for your specific coverage and have gained preauthorization to move forward. All of this is usually necessary for the insurance company to put their stamp of approval on the surgery itself.

I suppose they technically could stop you if the surgeon decides to take their recommendation and they recommend you not have it. However, I think that the only reason I've heard of denial for is being mentally unstable to handle such a change at the time. Just being potentially uninformed, they may suggest that you go to a seminar or speak with a dietician to gain more information before you go forward just to make sure you're fully informed with your decision.