Wiffle

Thinjen, I am glad I am not the only one. Since deciding to go for the band, I have been eating more and more. I had been trying to overcome my compulsive eating via the "Overcoming Overeating" (OO) approach and while my compulsive eating was down, I haven't been able to lose. Anyway, with the idea of the upcoming liquid diet and possibility of not being able to eat certain foods after banding, my body has really been getting ready for this famine by wanting everything in sight! I don't know how else to describe this other than I must be insane. I'm in a huge depression about my size, heck I even cry about it. Yet I eat some more.

I'm glad I found this thread! I refuse to drink animal milk anymore, although I will have a little on a bowl of Cereal. I love with a passion the 8th Continent Soy Milk. Their website has recipes too, and not just smoothies. I am planning on eating a lot of tofu once I get this band. I even have an old recipe for a delicious tofu chocolate mousse that will probably be helpful for the soft food stage. Do we have a dedicated recipe resource somewhere on this site?

Hello, everyone. I looked into lap-band several months ago, and then thought I would not get insurance approval so I dropped the subject. Come to find out that I did apparently get approval, so now I am trying to learn about what life will really be like with this thing, what to expect, etc. This looks like a great board! I'm 40, married, and reside in the Dallas area. Dr. Benavides is the surgeon, although I have never met him. After I turned 30, I started to gain weight. Then, I moved to another state with someone with whom I really shouldn't have been with. In all that misery, I gained a lot of weight - around 245 pounds on 5'1". Once I got out of that relationship, I decided to lose the weight "once and for all" and dropped over 100 pounds in a year and kept it off for a while, but it was a huge struggle. I could hardly eat anything at all and had to work out all the time to lose the weight and keep it off. I got married, and who has time to work out all the time and my husband and stepdaughter eat regular food so I do too. And a lot of that weight is back. I try and try, but at 40 this weight does not want to come off. I am avoiding seeing people. I just hate being like this. I binge from time to time, but I don't think I eat enough to be this size. I really have got to do something about this weight. I feel like my life is at a standstill until I can fix this mess. It is so depressing!

Thanks for the good wishes and the welcome! Why do you have four more months to wait for scheduling? Is that an insurance requirement? I went to one of Dr. Powell's seminars. When I talked to my PCP about it, she referred me to Dr. Maese who referred me to Benavides, who come to find out banded two of my DH's cousins!

Hi Keri! I met my DH on an internet dating site, so we have internet husbands in common too! I am not sure what I weigh right now. Several months back I put the scale away and decided to work on my compulsive eating behaviors rather than obsessing over the scale. Since then I think I have gained, but my DH doesn't think so. On the other hand, since I stopped obsessing over the scale, I have started to wean myself off antidepressants. I'm in McKinney, and my insurance covers the procedure in Decatur of all places. Ugh. Over an hour each way should be loads of fun. Congratulations on taking care of you!

Thanks for the welcome! You have done great! You must be so excited to be down that 22 pounds, even if part of it was from the liquid diet. There was a time when 22 pounds wouldn't have been a huge deal to lose with just a little behavior modification, but now 22 pounds seems like a dream come true. When the procedure seems scary, it is helpful to have these boards to read. I know that I am going to think the same as you after my surgery, was this a huge mistake? Did you prepare your hubby for the misery? Was he scared for you? My DH is very protective so I can imagine him trying to take me to emergency for the gas pain or something similar. Thanks so much for the good wishes.

That is so very sad. You have a very good and kind heart. I too hope that some small child isn't heartbroken over this. Perhaps you could check with animal control. If the family missing their cat calls to see if animal control has him, perhaps they will tell them that a cat matching the description was run down?

Rene, have you been banded yet? I am still working out all the details but supposedly have insurance approval. I am working with Dr. Benavides' office. They tell me that they do surgery on Mondays in Decatur (west of Denton) which is 60 miles from me. What a pain! There seem to be plenty of people close by to us.

McKinney here too! It is getting to be quite the "big city" around here!

I didn't think that I was going to be approved by UHC because I don't have comorbidity to speak of (well, more now than then) and my BMI wasn't that high. In fact, I had given up on getting this procedure at all. But, come to find out they did "approve". I have UHC through my husband's employer, who is self-insured with UHC as a benefits administrator only. They only enforce the contract that they have with the employer, we use their network doctors, etc. My family really cannot afford this surgery without insurance right now, so I called UHC myself even after the doctor's office called me to let me know I was approved and to schedule (we didn't get an "approval" letter from insurance, just an advisory to contact them ASAP if I end up going inpatient). UHC said that since the doctor and facility are within network, and it is an outpatient procedure, that there is no approval even required from them. This really blew me away! I do think that a lot of the restrictions are with the employer and what they are willing to pay for. If the company is self-insured then UHC just pushes the paperwork and money for the company but it isn't out of their pocket. Please let me know if am not understanding correctly on that, but that is how it was explained to me by the benefits people. I have heard in a few different places that UHC is the best to work with, so I hope that anyone having problems will be able to get them ironed out quickly.