Stevehud

so here is the first update.... My surgeons office called. The peer to peer review is..cancelled. Yesterday I had to go and get a weigh in in a rush from my pcp to show the three months of consecutive weight loss care because we had moved up the date of my nutritionist meeting from dec 1 to nov 26. So we had to show care in December. so I did that and faxed that off to the insurance company along with some other minor stuff and the insurance company decided they don't need the peer to peer, they say they escalated the decision to the same doctor who denied me the first time for him to review this "new" paperwork, and will have a decision either today or Monday. .its amazing how they keep stringing me along. Knowing damn well , each day pushes them closer to having to pay nothing. If they string me along just 6 to 7 more days the surgery will not happen until well after the new year, which means a new insurance, new surgeon and hospital all new appointments and testing, and probably 6 to 9 months on a waiting list as well. which pretty much would mean the surgery will never happen and then I will be not only fat , but look like a jackass as well. anyway ill keep you all informed. man its f***ing depressing.

I was tempted to end my diet last night and grab mcdonalds or something on the way home. But I didn't want to let the insurance company win twice. Yes the peer to peer is tomorrow and I will find out then what my fate will be. I believe I would get the ok if I went though the whole appeals process, it is just that I do not have time to do so. Also my HR person brought up the fact that the insurance company knows I wont be on their rolls again next year and maybe they are trying to save money by dragging out this process until I wont have to bother with them anymore. Which I would not put it past an insurance company to do. Thank you all for being behind me. I will let you all know how this turns out tomorrow. keeping my everything crossed until then.

Hello all, earlier in October or early November someone posted a picture of a Water bottle marked out with a sharpie with the times of day on it and how much you would drink at that time to help with hydration . Does anyone have a copy of it. I have looked around and cant seem to find it. Any help would be appreciated.

starches like sweet potatoes or Yams even are simple starches and as such as readily turned into sugar. After so many weeks of non sugar filled items, you gave your body a huge dose of good old glucose. When it hit your blood stream it kicked your bodies insulin production into high gear and your endocrine system moved adrenalin to the bloodstream to help the blood filter the insulin and sugar out, a side effect of this is flushed skin, increased heart rate or palpitations, sweating, irritability etc. Dumping is very much related to too much sugar and not enough protein to balance out how your body deals with it.

By the way if you want the sleeve to just keep you from eating a lot or eating badly, you should not have surgery. Until you can come to grips with why you eat the way you do, you wont succeed. WLS is about changing your lifestyle, the very basic things that you do everyday. You want to eat a chocolate bar, the sleeve wont stop you. If you eat slow enough you can graze right around the clock and gain weight. You have to want to diet and exercise forever. Read a lot of the posts here. You will learn a lot about what is required of you.

personally I bought the nutria ninja the blades are better ( the nutria bullet has a problem with blades chipping and leaving metal in your drink.) One thing is you mentioned using raw nuts for Protein after surgery?? Maybe you should ask your nutritionist, since nuts, ground up are not liquid, they are still solid food and will tear up your sleeve and digestive tract . By the way Vegetable protein is normally very high in non-soluble Fiber which may cause you problems as well. There is a reason why nutritionists have you use whey Isolate and not hemp or soy protein, they do not digest well in the short time they are in your sleeve.

so you went from oxycodone, the active painkilling ingredient to Percocet which is oxycodone plus acetaminophen ( Tylenol) and that worked better? Hmm that's strange.

for me personally don't care what procedure someone has as long as it works for them. I do not wish this lifestyle ( not the right word I know) upon anyone. My whole reason for even mentioning that my surgeon wont do lapbands anymore. Was sort of as a response to why lapband forums were sowing less use may be because the lapbands themselves are used less. Certainly not to put down anyone who uses a band.

Its very disconcerting to be honest. I went to my team today to see my nutritionist in our last meeting before surgery. While we wee talking the surgeon knocked on the door , he wanted to see how my weekend was ( he had seen me last Thursday) and to mention that I weighed in another pound and a half down from last Thursday. My surgeon is even going to do a monthly Q and A session on my blog! Now obviously he will not be answering totally specific questions just general ones about WLS etc. It seems like I am in the minority with my relationship with my team. I just hate that other people here have had to deal with so many problems. I know someone mentioned that a lot of people have problems with Mexico, I have to admit I am one, but not because of the care, because of the after support. There just isn't any per se. I think so many here will agree, that the surgery is just the procedure, but its the living with it, that we have to be good at.

So I have been selling off some toys from my collection . action figures still in their packaging, star wars figures mostly. So a lady finds me on facebook and she buys a few items, I meet her and she starts telling me about how she lost 40 pounds through her life and wellness coach and that she would like me to meet him and etc etc. I cordially decline and say Im set with myself for the surgery and yada yada. So this morning I get a message from her on face book, "Hi its me the woman who bought some items from you yesterday. I would really like to set up a meeting with you and my wellness coach, it wouldn't take long and I know he could get you the same result without the surgery. (Well Im glad SHE knows he can) so again im nice, I say no thank you im ok with what im doing etc. an hour ago I get another message. "hi again its me, my wellness coach asked me to contact you again he says its important that he talk with you , he feels the surgery is a mistake. " OH HE FEELS??? Well I would like to simply have been rude but I wasn't. I wanted to scream at this lady and call her a few choice names. It just boggles the mind that people think we are doing this needlessly. Im not trying to drop a few pounds for a wedding. I'm telling you nothing is worse to a bariatric patient than some idiot who lose a few pounds and believes that makes them the god of weight loss. They need to be slapped a few times. How many of you deal with or have dealt with this?

I apologize to mr-sto, due to the site making it look like his post. My bad. I did want to respond to the person who said lap band was a permanent change to your body? well it isn't, its completely removable and you are back to normal human function. to say you discount studies because abc news reported it, is like saying I can rob a bank because I didn't like the cop who told me I couldn't. You say well its old band or old procedures, well current studies shows between 19% and 35% of lap band patients have their lap bands removed and a full 50% of those who did were revisioned to another method. To say that doctors don't like lap bands because they have to see you again? Seriously? That worries me. I must be the only person on earth who happened upon a whole team right in the same place, I see my team that's surgeon, nutritionist, np etc. we already have sent in forms etc to meet with my team 15 times post surgery in the first year. They do the blood work, they do everything from weigh ins to recipe info to medication guidelines, the surgeon does surgery on thursday and Friday only mon and tues he sees pre surg until non then after noon and on Wednesday he see's post surg patients. Evidently there really is just a huge variance in care from practice to practice. That's appalling to be honest.

Mrsto- first off I do not Allege my surgeon said what he did. This is not a trial. He said what he said, you can believe it or not that's your right, but please do not cast aspersions on ME. thank you. I have never put the band down. I will say this I have Never heard of any person getting a band on top of their sleeve, a band on top of a full bypass is similarly moronic. But since you want to challenge me, here are just a few stats for you. Oh and on the personal note, I know of 4 people who have had wls. Hardly a large enough sample I agree, but 3 of those had lap bands 1 had full bypass, out of the three lap band patients they have all had theirs removed within 2 years of surgery 2 have since gained back more weight than they lost. The one person with full bypass lost the most weight by far and has kept it off without complication for over 5 years now. That's my personal experience and it in no way reflects anything but that. Now as to that data : The following 3 studies directly reported on the percentage of failures, which were as low as 14% and as high as 68% of patients... % of patients with unsuccessful weight loss after a specified amount of time Studies # of lap band patients in study % with unsuccessful weight Year tudy Study A 201 After 14 years - 68% 2014 Study B 32 After 3.6 years - 62.5% 2014 Study C 200 28.8% 2014 - See more at: http://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com/lap-band-surgery-failure.html#2_Types and The percentage of patients requiring reoperation is extremely high... up to 50% of all patients require lap band removal. - See more at: http://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com/lap-band-problems-lap-band-complications.html#sthash.oAYNeJuq.dpuf According to ABC news Nearly half of patients who have laparoscopic gastric banding for obesity eventually need to have the devices removed because of erosion or some other malfunction, researchers say. Among 82 patients followed for at least 12 years after lap-band surgery at a single institution, 49 had at least one reoperation for complications or device failure, according to Dr. Jacques Himpens, of Saint Pierre University Hospital in Brussels, and colleagues. They also reported online in Archives of Surgery that 41 had the bands removed during follow-up, with 14 then undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. In all but a few cases, inadequate weight loss or device breakdown was the reason for band removal. Now as I said personally whatever works for you is GREAT! My method isn't better than yours for you and your method is not the best for me.

I have to honestly say I am truly glad for everyone here. agree or disagree sometimes just knowing there are people willing to talk about things is a great help to me and others. Sometimes people need the disagreement in order to move. Its just nice to not be alone. Ill tell you this, and its very true, The other day I had my weigh in and final pre surg meeting with my surgeon. The medical assistant there ( I had always seen my surgeon at a sister hospital) well the medical assistant she was also overweight. Well she started talking to me and my wife about the procedure and my weight loss so far and she said oh when you come in next I probably will be post surgical myself. So I asked her if she had ever been here, and she said no, and I told her all about this place. I told her because this is not gonna be easy for me as it wasn't with all of you, but to see the help given here, it makes you smile when your nervous about the future and its empowering to know you have people who care. I love you all, and that's not some weird cult or religion thing, just the truth. Even those I may argue with or disagree with I respect the heck out of what you have accomplished and I love that you are here to help others. I like to end my blog posts with, "We can do this." and Thanks to you all, I truly believe it. Even Lipstick lady. ( smirk)

I am going to be a very teenys bit controversial but for a good reason. If Riskygirl hasn't had her surgery yet, I would have to ask if you are really ready for this. I have studied here and everywhere else for years before finally getting the mindset in place to know I can do this. And I know we all want you to succeed and be happy. If you haven't had the surgery yet, you may want to do some soul searching and talk to a professional so you can truly decide if you are going to go all in on this. Now if you have had your surgery, I would still suggest seeing someone , post surgical depression is a real thing, and many many here have gone through it and have listed great advice. But depression is an awful thing and hopefully you can find someone to help you through it. Good luck and I hope you find your way in this. you can do it.

I do not know why people would denigrate people based on the surgery they had. I may or may not like the lap band but I most assuredly would never even bring that up. I know I did mention in one post my particular surgeon doesn't do lap bands anymore and said to me that he spends half his surgery time removing lap bands. But that is not indicative of anything. People who succeed on it have my full support and I truly want them to succeed. People who have problems with it, I feel for them and wish they didn't have problems. What works for me should never translate into hate speech towards another.

obvious spammer reported.

Hello All, my name is Steve Hudson, I am 43 and pre op gastric sleeve. I weigh about 340, im down from 261 for my pre surgical weight loss. Anyway I write a blog called cutting the fat with a knife. I will post the address at the bottom. What I am trying to do is im going to keep this blog very blunt in cases telling people the things that I feel men need to know. The reason is that I have seen many cases where men avoid the life changing and potentially life saving surgeries because of the stigma that other men have. The macho peer pressure that I am sure many of you have gone through. 1 year post op I will compile this blog into an E-book for men who are thinking about WLS. I even have a few hospitals and weight loss centers that are asking for copies when it is complete. So far almost all the books out there are by women and deal with a lot of womanly issues. I was reading one book and there was two chapters on bras and panties another on pregnancy etc. Not at all a help to me. My surgeon is actually going to appear on the blog as an ask the Bariatric Surgeon byline once a month. OK all this being said, I would like to ask you al some thing now and then to see how your experiences coincide with mine etc. So the first question I would like to ask , I will post it maybe in a top ten type list and give credit to each contributor of course unless you wish me not to, keep it a couple of sentences if you would please. Here's my first question. Was there a final straw, event or moment etc. that made you move from thinking about WLS to actually taking the steps to have it done? If so what was it? Thank you for your help. Even if you do not wish to contribute but wish to check out the blog, I do many video taste tests of various Protein powders, ready made drinks etc, with even more to come. Thank you all for your time. Oh and this book will not cost anything it is not a money issue it will be free to all. I am absorbing any costs myself. http://cuttingthefatwithaknife.blogspot.com

as an ex medic, I can say this, what you are describing is the one of the beginning stages of oxygen deprivation. As you body realizes it needs more oxygen that it is currently getting it pulls blood away from the extremities and the blood flow closest to the skin is greatly decreased. As a result the nerves under the skin activate randomly, which causes that tingling sensation some describe it is itching or crawling depends on the person. If you continue to have this you will cause you body to shut down and you will pass out there is no doubt in my mind on this I was a medic for 11 years. If I were to come upon scene and you had this complaint I would put you on high flow O2 , start an IV for fluids and elevate your feet to get blood flow back to your brain fast. I wont say the s word that rhymes with broke, because that's too alarming. But it can be a very distinct possibility. It sounds a lot like your lungs have not sufficiently grown to accommodate your workout..fervor. Some of my colleagues talk about this with crossfit people. they do "exercises" that are not normally done as exercises except by specific highly trained athletes and as a result they get calls to the crossfit centers all the time. One case I remember discussing was a gentleman who was made to do clean and jerk heavy weights, well when he went to put the weights up over his head he wasn't used to doing so, toppled backwards and the bar with weights landed on his leg crushing it. They have had people passed out in their cars in the parking lot from overexertion, for some reason mostly women seem to suffer from the dehydration more so than the men, not sure why, I think that's more social than physical. Anyway sorry to digress. I would however check with your doctor, and please go a bit easier, it sounds like you are going a bit hard on the workouts. Its great to lose the weight, but you have gone through massive body changes. Be careful.

So anyway, Today I had my big meeting with my surgeon and the nurse practitioner. Well because I have some issues with the company I work for, we are in a time constraint. My surgeon knows this and is working with me to move fast. So his team that deals with the insurance, (great people by the way) asked me to see if I could get the office notes from my primary care physician (pcp) for the past two years and a letter saying there was no reason he could think of medically why I shouldn't be a good candidate for bariatric surgery. Well ive had my PCP for nigh on 20 years. I knew I would have no problems. So I drove to the doctors office and sure they gave me the office notes but then there was a problem. My pcp who had been a friend even for years refused to write the letter. Not for any medical reason, but because his practice is affiliated with a different hospital than the one im having my surgery in. The hospital he is affiliated with couldn't get me in to their program for 9 months at a minimum and I would have to have ll my tests done in boston, a good distance from my home, and expensive to park etc. Also the surgeon I chose has done over 100 sleeves, and theirs has not. So I talked with my team and they basically said we will go without his letter and we should be ok. I ask , have any of you dealt with affiliation issues and your PCP?

im actually sorry that I ever posted so many people have taken my words out of context and used them against me. All I was trying to say. was that the definition of a lie is not telling the truth or misleading someone with incomplete information. I never called anyone a liar or inferred it. I also have said that there are people who have posted on these boards that they are not telling people because they fear people thinking they didn't do it themselves. Which I personally wont do. Nor do I believe in it. This has no bearing on what others do. I also said that I wish ( you know I wish it means in a perfect world, or with magic or miracles or harry potters wand whatever!) that people would take the time to educate people on what is required of you both pre and post op in this surgery. I say that because I am trying to erase the stigma attached to WLS by men on men who have it. Because many men refuse to have the surgery and die horribly of the comorbidities associated with being obese. Did you know we now have two new terms for people who are do obese that the words morbid obesity no longer apply? We now have Super-Obese and Mega-Obese. I personally, not you or anyone who doesn't, feel that keeping quiet and letting people keep their antiquated ignorant notions, is the antithesis to providing a solution to this problem, and contributes immeasurably to the ostracizing of those who require it among those who do not know better. I also wish my refrigerator would turn to gold, and that I owned a mustang. I wish is not an indictment of anyone. I have shared my journey with hundred via my blog and social media. no one who knows me doesn't know about it. But that's me. stop blaming me for not being you. By the way I had my pre op weigh in today and surpassed my goal by six pounds. all my pre-cert paperwork has now been filed, as soon as its back I get my date, estimated to be the third week of December. People will read about that tonight on my next blog post.

very cold. not even close

this forum is a haven lol i would not know how people get through the surgeries etc without this place. and the people here.

and i have to confess i read your post wrong. lap band is different. i for some reason assumed you were having a sleeve or bypass, lap band doesn't have issues with absorption of liquids per se. so skip that part of what i said earlier.

im a sleeve patient and interesting fact my surgeon also stopped doing bans, he said half of his week is spent removing bands. he doesnt beleive in their efficacy and the side effects dont justify the benefits. Not that im impugning anyone. just saying what he said. I have a feeling the lap band is going to go the way of the dodo within a few years tops.

dont get me wrong im not saying you wont be covered Im praying you will. Ok here's from the mouth of one who knows. "most pre-certifications are just qualifiers to see if you even qualify for coverage". That I can attest to as it is with me, i'm covered but now i have to be truly certified. Anyway, when the nurses who do the pre-certification get your report they will question the psych eval and then everything else opens up. So your first approval is proof of coverage, but the final pre-cert is the go ahead for payment, they are drastically different.