gentylwind

I am private pay and the surgeon still required the psych eval. Just wanted to put that out there. Private pay does not mean no psych eval.

Ask your doctor if you can have in-patient IV antibiotics to try and get rid of the infection without taking out your band.

I would think a nice warm shower would help as well, water directed onto the site of the pain.

I am cash pay, and had a surgery date within the month. It seems insurance people have a lot longer wait, averaging 3 months to 18 months depending on insurance requirements.

I am being banded on a Friday and plan to return to work on the following Wednesday.

You are most definitely in a very tiny minority of patients. I have five people in my life offline who have had the band who are doing fantastic and all the research shows it is a benefit to the vast majority of people who undergo the surgery. I am so sorry that yours is not working for you, but I have to speak up to encourage those who would be dissuaded by your very unusual situation and your generalizing in advising against it for everyone based on your situation. You are not the norm. I hate that for you and I am sure it is hard to hear. I hope you find a way to be happier and healthier and I am sure you mean to wish everyone here well.

I found a LOT of reviews of him on obesityhelp.com. I met with him yesterday and I feel really, really comfortable with him as my surgeon. His whole office is awesome. He is very soft spoken, but smiles genuinely, looks you in the eye and he took as much time with me as I needed, asking me several times for more questions if I have them. Good luck!

Yay Jmegirl! I am thrilled for you!

Some do...if your endoscopy testing shows erosion you are at higher risk of band erosion, which is why your doc does not feel the band is for you most likely. You can have reflux without damage, which I think is fairly common, but if your tests showed issues from the reflux, the band may not be your best option.

I met my surgeon today. LOVE him. Love his staff. He changed my pre-op diet...he doesn't want me to do two weeks of liquids only. Shake for breakfast, shake for lunch, low calorie/low carb dinner. Full liquids two days before surgery and clear liquid only the day before. I am so glad..whew! lol

Hey ER, I am thrilled with our new president as well! SO hopeful for our country and the world. You may already be aware, but if you take your iron in conjunction with Vitamin C it will bind better and be better absorbed by your body. I found this website helpful: Iron Good luck!

I start my pre-op diet on Friday, meeting my surgeon today. We'll probably take my pre-op pics tomorrow. I am getting both nervous and excited!

I start my pre-op diet tomorrow, so we shall see!

Didn't his surgeon give him a pre-op diet to follow?

Hello all. How fun to find fellow Texans here! I had my psych eval this past Saturday..major positive experience. I meet with the surgeon tomorrow and start my pre-op on Friday. Eek! I have been sick as a dog since Saturday. I sure hope this goes away soon. I am ready to fall over out of my chair with fatigue. I am glad it hit before I started my pre-op at least. Not sure why, just seems like it would be more difficult to deal with if I were also worried about my chicken Soup or something. I am getting excited now. My bariatric psychologist was so positive and so encouraging. I really loved her and feel like I have another tool at my fingertips to help me succeed now that I know I can call her.

Just sending you hugs. This is a big big step and I am thrilled to see your friends stepping up to the plate. I hope moving day wasn't too traumatic.

LOVED my bariatric psychologist and I will definitely go see her again if/when I need it after surgery. My face to face meeting with her was about an hour long. She gave me about four tests to do at home prior to coming to meet with her and those took about an hour as well. She was really up-beat and positive and I really really liked her. I feel like I have another tool in my shed to help me get the weight off along with the band. eta: My eval consisted of a lot of questions meant to find out if I have a binge eating disorder, suffer from emotional eating or untreated depression and whether or not I will be likely to be able to stick to the postop diet and change the way I relate to food.

I am cash pay. I had my consult at the beginning of October and will be banded on 11/21/2008. I got my surgery date the day of my consult and could have done it only two weeks later if I wanted to. I chose to delay until the end of November for personal reasons. It really does matter in terms of whether you are paying for it yourself or if you are wanting insurance to cover it. Insurance takes longer. Cash pay, they lay out the red carpet and you can pretty much move as quickly as all the pre-op stuff allows.

I do not smoke but my surgeon does require that one be completely over addiction to nicotine before he will consider doing any kind of WLS.

I am not banded yet but I have four people in my life who have had the band for over five years. All of them have maintained huge weight losses. Two have lost 100 lbs, one has lost 125 lbs and one (who has had her band for 7 years, one of the first in the U.S. to get it) has maintained a 200 pounds weight loss. I am optimistic. :biggrin:

The key to shrinking the liver is through depleting it of glycogen. Glycogen is what your body makes and stores there when you consume carbohydrates. This includes sugar, flour, rice, potatoes, peas, corn, basically any starchy or sugary food, including fruit. The fastest way to shrink the liver is to do Atkins Induction. You can google it and find it easily or just go to Atkins.com. It consists of eating 20 grams of carbs per day, all of which come from leafy greens and vitamin-packed vegetables, up to 4 oz of cheese per day ONLY, and the rest from high Protein items such as chicken, fish, beef, eggs, pork (it recommends you skip bacon and sausage as well as processed meats like lunch meat. No more than twice a week on those). If your doctor has not recommended a liquid diet for you, I would suggest you do two weeks of Atkins Induction phase, preferably longer. You will lose weight and your liver will shrink down nicely.

Yay Teri! SOOOO close now!

Hi all! I live in Allen, AngieAngel! I am scheduled for surgery on 11/21/2008 with Dr. Manuel Castro through TLCEdge. I am paying cash. Preop will be for two weeks prior to surgery consisting of six Protein shakes a day, all the broth, SF Jello and SF popsicles. I have been practicing with this some days and do really well. Other days I really struggle with an insane desire to eat everything I can while I still can. I keep reminding myself that I won't be giving up everything, just bread, gum and carbonation most likely! I am glad to meet you all and look forward to both supporting you and being supported.

I love reading about your lives and really look forward to getting to know you! My name is Sheri. I am 38 years old, divorced but living with the love of my life now for the past year and a half after a long distance relationship for five years before that. I have three sons. Nick is going to be 14 next month and Alex is 10. My oldest son Joseph died not quite two years ago after an 18 month battle with leukemia. He's the inspiration for a lot of the changes I am making in my life. He was 13 at the time of his death and would be 15 now. I have been obese since being pregnant with Joseph 16 years ago. Prior to that I was always on the high end of normal. I was a tiny little thing until I hit puberty and then God decided apparently that I need an ass. A really big one. I have been successful in losing weight on my own with Atkins, but have found since Joseph's illness and death that I have been gradually gaining back. I like eating low carb, so I am optimistic that this is going to be a good tool to help me during the times when I am feeling lazy about the kinds and amounts of food I eat. I have been researching the band for years and years but just now decided to bite the bullet and do it. I will be paying cash. Surgery is scheduled for November 21st and my pre-op diet starts on the 7th. I have already been doing half days of liquids only here and there, working on not drinking with meals and I have given up all carbonated beverages and weaned myself off caffeine. Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Surgery date - 11/21/2008 Highest Weight - 274 Preop diet starting weight Surgery weight (Your weight the day of surgery) Current weight - 242.2 Goal weight - 135