SpecialK

Look under Monthly Support Groups section - 2008 - March 2008 and you'll find a Big group of March bandsters-- we have a nickname called Shrinking Shamrocks. Here is the link: March 08 Bandsters - Lap Band Talk Forum - The largest forum for Lap Band Surgery Discussion and Lap Band Surgery Support

Never heard of this before. Is it FDA approved in the US? Have many surgeries have been done? Complications rates, etc compared to Lap band, RNY, etc. Those would all be things I'd investigate and of course talk with your own doctor on what's best for you as always. Good luck!

Had to look up the words to We Are the Champions.... couldn't resist. We Are The Champions Written & sung by Freddie Mercury. I've paid my dues Time after time I've done my sentence But committed no crime And bad mistakes I've made a few I've had my share of sand Kicked in my face But I've come through And we mean to go on and on and on and on We are the champions - my friends And we'll keep on fighting Till the end We are the champions We are the champions No time for losers 'Cause we are the champions of the World I've taken my bows And my curtain calls You brought me fame and fortune And everything that goes with it I thank you all But it's been no bed of roses No pleasure cruise I consider it a challenge before The whole human race And I ain't gonna lose And we mean to go on and on and on and on We are the champions - my friends And we'll keep on fighting Till the end We are the champions We are the champions No time for losers 'Cause we are the champions of the World We are the champions - my friends And we'll keep on fighting Till the end We are the champions We are the champions No time for losers 'Cause we are the champions

Greg -- if you like this one better, you're welcome to use it if "Care Bears" is too fluffy or girlly for you ...LOL :w00t: We're all still the Shrinking Shamrocks and WE ROCK. P.S. Reminds me of the song from Queen,,,We Are The Champions!

I finally get it on why the various Monthly Bandster Date support group threads are so important, the logos I'd seen for other groups like Shrinking Violets, Victorious Valentines, etc. It does feel really good to have a group of people from all over, regardless of surgeon who will be going through the stages you are at the exact same time and sharing so openly about how it feels to see TV commercials when you're on pre-op diet, etc. Ihave a great local group under the Ohio thread that has been super supportive so I'd also encourage you to connect with your local area folks. We ended up meeting in a public place - a mall -- and we have a great time chatting and sharing together. Some even brought clothes to swap that last February get together. Keep up the posting Shrinking Shamrocks. It really helps me. We Rock! P.S. Its March 1st!! We're officially in our month now.

Greg -- Welcome aboard and yes, feel free to use the Shrinking Shamrocks logo! Sue and I will see you in the hospital on March 17th!!

I'm hoping I don't have a catheter. When I had laproscopic gallbladder surgery in October 2007, the anesthesiologist asked if I could go to the bathroom one more time before they headed me back to surgery and if I thought I was all clear, no catheter. If I thought I had anything left in my bladder then maybe they'd do a catheter. Didn't need to tell me anything else to get me to go sit on the "porcelain throne" one more time to avoid having a catheter. Unfortunately I did have sore abdominal muscles from that same laproscopic gallbladder surgery (and I'm told the muscle soreness is very similar to lap band surgery - nearly identical incisions too) and it made it a pain in the butt (literally and figuratively) to clean up down under for a couple days but nothing bad. I found a shower with a portable or moveable hand sprayer helps. I also seem to remember I had to keep my bandages clean and dry the first 24 or 48 hours and stay out of a full shower - just being careful to keep the Water spray below my belly button in front.

Have you used the Advanced Search option to see if there are any threads with a match on this insurance company name? I had Aetna and I found lots of support under the Insurance forum thread. Good luck. P.S. Advanced Search button is kind of hidden on this web site --upper right hand corner above the New Hope Bariatrics advertisement box. Pretty hard to find but its a good search engine. The other Search (Google) button goes out and searches outside this web site which didn't help me at all.

Here is a link over to the thread for our monthly get together for this March but I saw you post over there already too. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f56/central-ohio-get-together-march-8-2008-a-51861/

I'll be there with bells and Shamrocks on counting down the days to my surgery date!

Hippie girl - you are so close! Hang in there! God Bless You and keep you safe through surgery and traveling back from Cincy.

Yes Hunter- congratulations and take it easy for a few days! You've earned it and now you can start moving ahead with your new life! We will all want to hear how things went. Two of us have March 17th St. Patrick's Day surgery appointments in the same hospital! We can be up walking the halls together once family goes home!

Suecasb - I haven't heard from Charlene yet on pre-op diet and testing appts, etc. but I figure I will. If it gets to be 10 days out, like about March 7th I will call and be sure I find out if I have to at a minimum do a week of pre-op Optifast type diet. I know we definitely have nothing by mouth after midnight on the night before surgery. Do you know your surgery time yet? I don't. I suppose we will learn that at the pre-op visit too. I would just as soon get it over in the morning but whatever is fine too.

My orthopedic guy was very positive actually about me saying I was just about 2 weeks out from having my weight loss surgery. I just proactively said I know that losing a major amount of weight will help all the joint pains and issues and he agreed but wasn't judgemental at all. Praise God! The downside, the Xrays did show my right knee has more arthritis in it than my left but he wasn't sure what was making the crackling and popping sounds so I'm off to have an MRI on my knee tomorrow. Here's a good one...I had one closed MRI for a shoulder about 3+ years ago and it was really claustrophobic so I said I want an Open MRI and he said No Problem... yea! I don't know if it costs more but I'm happy. Last, I asked my orthopedic doc about having to give up taking Aleve (I believe its what is called an NSAID) and whether I can get a prescription for something to offset knee pain in the future after my lap band surgery. He said he'd like to see what I will need after he knows the MRI results but he thought I could work my my primary care doc and find a good arthritis medicine that will be okay.

Thanks for making this thread for us to combine forces. I'm really not looking forward to the Optifast/Slimfast portion of this prep but I'll do whatever I have to do to get to my goal. I'm in the BMI over 50 group too. Best Wishes to All

For those who like the Care Bears version of our Shrinking Shamrocks logo, I found cute Good Luck (green bear) Care Bears stuff on eBay! Just Googled to see what I could find. I also did some eBay searching on Shamrocks or Four Leaf Clovers and found cute jewelry stuff too. Splurging on myself...

Very nice on your own graphic there! You're 10 days closer to our goal than me...

I haven't got my pre-op testing day lined up yet but if they try to do it one week out, I've still got time. That would be a blessing for me if its only the 1 week of Optifast type diet instead of 2. Good luck to all!

I think its interesting to see our ages of who are going to be March 2008 Bandsters -- so far I'm seeing our youngest at 18 years old, then ranging to 34, 44, 47,52 and 62. I can tell you that if this technology had been an option when I was in my 20s, 30s and even 40s I would have had to seriously consider it because in each of those decades I would work really really hard to lose a major amount of weight (like 100 lbs) and then eventually it would slowly creep back on. Unfortunately during those previous attempts for me, it was often a 'guy' I was trying to lose for instead of losing just for me to be healthy. That is the big, big difference now in my mindset so if I had to take the journey I did to get here, I'm still looking forward to the next 40 or 50 years in a thinner healthier body! Best wishes to all my fellow Shrinking Shamrocks.. just love that nickname. I'm actually going out to an Irish restaurant in downtown Columbus area in the next week to keep the spirit up before I hit the 2 weeks of liquids. So far my surgeon's office hasn't called to say I have to do it, but almost everyone else I hear has to, so I'm mentally getting prepared.

Yes. Lauren's Hope was where I ordered mine too. Here's what I put on mine. I liked the idea I could get a different band over time if I got tired of the same one all the time. Adj Gastric Lap Band w/ Abdominal Port No NG w/o Scope

I first checked my healthy insurance plan to see who was In-Network. Once I found out which facility/which groups of doctors were, I actually went out on the internet and bought the background documents about the different doctors I was considering to know where they graduated, where they interned, any issues reported to the board etc. Then I checked who was a member of the American Bariatric Surgeons Then I checked with others on this website who had surgery by the same doctors. All combined, I felt I had alot of information to make my decision.

As if one surgery and emotion filled two weeks isn't going to be enough, last Friday I twisted my knee while I was still in bed and its really painful and I have a doctor appointment tomorrow a.m. to hopefully get it xrayed and get an order for some physical therapy appointments. My orthopedic guy is very anti-overweight ---warned me years ago to get that weight off or those knees will get worse and worse and of course they have. Then I had a rotator cuff tear in my right shoulder and he said my overweight was a contributing factor on that and would make healing from that only harder. True and painful to admit but I did get better with physical therapy. I am hoping when I see him tomorrow about the knee he won't suggest any surgery. I really don't want to do anything until after I've had the lap band surgery on March 17. I'm able to walk on it but I just have pain if I move it a certain way so I'm not sure what he might say. Wish me luck and say a prayer this knee will get better with just physical therapy until I can get some weight lost that will of course solve the long term problem.

Okay I thought I was prepared to tell my male boss (I've only worked for him less than 6 months) about my lap band surgery. I took some pictures in with me and he was really understanding and said to do whatever I had to take care of in the two weeks leading up to surgery and take as much time as I needed after 1-2 weeks would be fine. We'd work it out. I got a little emotional (teary but not blubbering thank goodness) when I tried to explain a little about how hard its been to get through the whole insurance approval process and how there is some worry and fear that coworkers would be judgemental about it once they figure out I've done something like this. On the other hand, I said there are coworkers who are judgemental about severely overweight coworkers too. Anyway, it wasn't too bad and I'm glad he was so supportive. Really didn't want to show any tears though but I'm riding a wave of emotion about this. I told him I plan to tell a limited number of close coworkers and not tell others and he said that is fine, do what you feel is right. I said at some point I may be more open about it but for now, I'd like to just limit who I have who knows what I have done. Okay, that is one emotional hurdle down for me in my walk through the last few steps to surgery and a new life.

Sarah - thanks for the great detail on what to expect the day of surgery. I'm so excited one minute and kind of scared the next just thinking about it.

NDWife - yes I was able to do co-pays when I went to the Psych and Cardiology and even initial surgeon appt. I had to cover the extra cost of the cardiology tests that insurance did not cover. I went to Dr. Diana Brenner, Phd in Westerville for the psych consult just because she was on my insurance plan and close to Westerville to continue to be a person I could see for depression or other needs.