SpecialK

I'm hoping I'm not the only one that knowing I have to send in the administrative fee and schedule consults isn't a little scary to think -I'm really going to do this. Please keep me in prayer as I made appointments this next week and hopefully get them in by Dec 21 when I leave Ohio to go to Arizona for the holidays. My plan is to tell my brother and sisters in person over the holidays what I'm planning for 2008. I hope they will be supportive. For now, I haven't told family, just 1 close friend and of course folks on the discussion boards where I can be anonymous for a while longer. Chicken.... I'm still going to do this. I filled out their paperwork and I'm mailing it back Monday.. Hold me accountable group! By the way, I tried to put a smiley face on my one post and didn't do it right and I created a ticker factory BMI ticker but I haven't figured out how to incorporate them into my postings. So help a newbie out please.

I got the paperwork today from Mt. Carmel Bariatric program letting me know I have been accepted and the $300 administrative fee is due and they gave me the list of the consults I need. I'm going to check my health plan and see if these are on it as approved providers but it says your own doctor can recommend a different provider as long as they do a bariatric surgery evaluation. I guess I count this as Step #3 on my journey. Step #1 was getting brave enough to go to an orientation/information session by myself, Step #2 was sending in the application packet. So it was 15 working days (Oct 22-Nov 9) from the time I mailed it to them from the time they mailed the acceptance to me for those who are nterested in the future.

Do you know if I can choose a psychologist that is on my health plan and do the scheduling of this or do I have to use the one Mt. Carmel's Bariatric program uses? What is the doctor's name you've been to? As long as I complete a psychologist evaluation for having weight loss surgery and they certify I am mentally sound and okay for the surgery, is that what is needed? I recently found out my counselor I've had for 5 years+ (LISW, MASW) is no longer on my health plan to I have to change to a new person and that is an adjustment. I have a choice of psychologists with PHD instead of just LISW,MASW degrees so I don't know if this is the level of qualification that can do the psychologist eval for bariatric surgery. If so, I'd rather get on board with establishing a new counselor I trust that is close to my home rather than just close to Mt. Carmel. Thoughts?

I am not banded yet but I have been reading alot of forums and talk about what they can eat and not eat. I read several people posting and saying that White Bread in particular is difficult because there really isn't much to it and its empty calories to eat it compared to say a whole grain bread or something else. I saw several replies saying they are avoiding steak until they get well underway with the banding diet and see if they can tolerate it but if so, they said to chew, chew, chew until the steak is paste in your mouth and that with this much chewing it will take you a long time to eat a small portion. The ones I read said they had better luck with Prime Rib due to it being more tender and something like a beef stew where the meat is cooked to very tender stage with long cooking time. Some also have said they have trouble with hamburger - not sure why since its ground up but bottom line, some can eat small portions of beef as long as they chew it and eat small bites. Last, on chicken, I did see a few people posting that they had some difficulty with chicken but it was the same story as the beef - cut it into tiny pieces and chew, chew chew until you've broken it down well. Okay, I have to say I am reading what I can and can't eat post surgery because I don't want to have a post surgery let down with feeling like something was kept hidden from me on how life would be. When I checked into Gastric Bypass as a possible option a couple years ago, I was told I could NEVER have sweets ever again. If there wasn't a version with Splenda, forget it, you'd have something called 'dumping syndrome' because with how your internal organs were re-routed for the bypass, the intestines can't handle the sugar hit. Just some of what I've read. I'm not scared off at all by what I've read. I think I can live with this as long as the fill level in my band keeps me feeling satisfied and not real hungry at a small portion level.

I mailed in my paperwork Oct 22 to Charlene so let's see how many days that is now... today would be about the 15 working day ... hoping maybe I'll hear something next week. I called last Monday and left a voicemail for her that I want to know when I will hear about acceptance. I guess I'll call again this next week. I think I heard at my information session I attended that when they accept you the $300 administrative fee is due right away. And I heard there is $200 for a nutriotionist you have to pay right away. Are you saying there is also a $300-$350 for psychologist I have to pay to get that done. I guess I will pay that out of pocket and use my 2008 Flex Spend Health Care $ toward that. I'm hoping that the psychologist appt would be January 2008 as I think I'll have burned through all my 2007 Health Care Flex Spend account with the $300 + $200 but I'll have to see. I'm not too worried about a psychologist appointment as I have had counseling for my depression and if he checks with my counselor she should be able to show him I'm 'mentally stable' -- ha ha! Actually I do feel good and really positive about what I'm doing and he should sense that in the appointment. If he uses the session to try to scare me out of considering the surgery and gets me emotional, I'm not sure. Hopefully its a simple appointment. I'd be up for meeting for a coffee or salad or whatever you banded folks can tolerate in January. November and December are flying by for me and I'm real busy at work. Maybe meet at someplace like a Panera's where we can get a table and stay and talk for as long as we'd want without a restaurant shooing us out the door. Maybe at Polaris Mall area off I-71? How does that work for anyone else other than me in the north end of Columbus and the one lady in Mansfield.?

I actually heard about some books on a Bandsters group off Yahoo. First a posting on there mentioned a booklet being sold on eBay (of all places!) called The Gastric Lap Banding Diet and Recipe Book (64 pages but really big type and lots of white space on pages). Its written and published in Austrailia by Naomi Hills. Its 8x11 pages and spiral bound. Home computer printed. I'm just getting into reading it.Second, the Yahoo group Bandsters also had a couple books that could be purchased from another Austrialian website and those books were The Food and Nutrition Guide for Gastric Banding (24 pages 8x11) and a Pocket Guide for Food and Nutrition for Gastric Banding by author Trudy Williams. These are printed by Wesley Nutrition Center - not just off a home computer. I got both the books in the mail from Austrailia this week so I can tell you its legitimate to order them. Will write more about what I think of them. Funny that with the US surgeries for lap banding increasing and the requirements on diet by all the insurance plans, that there aren't books published here in the US that you can get at Barnes & Noble, Amazon or Borders. Maybe the books in Austrailia are out because the surgery was done for years outside the US before FDA approved for here in the US.

Yes, I would love to hear how your progress goes. Go Buckeyes!!

I posted my introduction information today. I live just northeast of Columbus and work downtown Columbus. Just applied to the Mt. Carmel program. Waiting for acceptance and paying my lovely administrative processing fee and nutrition fees to get the ball rolling. I've got AETNA insurance and its an 85% pay, 15% coinsurance for me after I jump through the right sequence of hoops they ask for. Definitely have a BMI and sleep apnea, pain in knees and hips, etc. so I guess they call that comorbidity things.

I put some info about me on the Introductions thread of the Ohio forum group. I've been reading about the others posting about being in the Mt. Carmel program. I'm hoping we will hear about others in that program too.

Hi. I'm new to the site. I have submitted an application to the Mid Ohio Surgical Associates for Mt. Carmel Bariatric Program in Columbus, Ohio. I'm hoping to get the process of evaluations underway and the 6 months of required nutrition documentation with a doctor completed by May of 2008. I'm single, never married female, 51 years old and 345 lbs for 5' 5" tall. Yes, an atrocious BMI. I have been heavy all my life. I've done Weight Watchers so many times I can't count anymore but I still think they have a good program but I tried working diligently in the past year and barely made a dent in the weight I need to lose. I'm struggling with knee, hip pain from my weight. I have a CPAP machine for sleep apnea which is mild at this point but was considered important that I get treatment. I am fortunate that I don't have any diabetes or high blood pressure at this point. Thank the good Lord! I am a Christian and active in my church. I have multiple brothers and sisters and my oldest sister is approaching my same size in weight. I've got three 'skinny' siblings. They have always been very loving and accepting of me in my fat state of health but they let me know they worry about me all the time. They don't want me leaving this earth any earlier in life than necessary. I do fight some depression but its under control with medicine and that is a very long story but the hard life I had kind of made the eating feed off depression and depression feed off getting more and more overweight. You know the vicious cycle I'm talking about. I went to the Bariatric Center in Groveport Ohio a couple years ago to consider weight loss surgery, the Gastric Bypass, and the more I studied about that, the less convinced I was I wanted to be 'replumbed'. My primary care doctor I've seen for a long time was absolutely appalled and opposed to me considering that surgery. My best friends were also very strong in discouraging me. So I walked away from that idea. I kept investigating options and found the lap band procedure, that it can be done laprascopically and that it is reversible, has far less complications, etc. I've been studying on it for about a year and finally went to the Mt Carmel orientation session in October 2007. I sent in my paperwork to officially say, Yes, I'm ready to seriously be evaluated to do this. Mt. Carmel's surgeons are Dr. Patricia Choban, Dr. Mark Miller, and Dr. Price. I don't know which surgeon I will choose yet. I've seen Dr. Choban's name mentioned on this site but don't know much about the other two doctors yet. My favorite hobbies are quilting and lately scrapbooking, I love gardening but get tired easier than I wish, I love playing golf - have to ride a cart can't walk the 9 or 18 holes, and I love traveling. Of course, I'm a big Ohio State fan but I didn't graduate from there. I have a MBA from Univ of Dayton and work as a project manager on computer systems projects for a big company in downtown Columbus. I have no children but 2 sweet cats named Patches and Pearl. Okay, that's a bunch of stuff but I figure I'm going to be actively corresponding and posting on this site for awhile so I'd like to know about others too. Thanks for the other intro's of yours.

I mailed my completed medical history paperwork into Mt. Carmel Bariatric Center and Mid Ohio Surgical Associates on October 22. Now waiting to find out if I will be accepted to proceed forward. I have kind of an interesting angle that I saved money in my Health Care Flexible Spending Account at work for medical expenses and I now know I can use some of this for my $300 administrative fee and $200 for nutritionist if they can get me in before year end to get the process started. I called Charlene and left her a message to call me. Don't know how long it takes them to go through your application/medical history from the time they receive it.