coolcrystal

Hey Cindy! Our dates are right next to each other!! WOOHOO and welcome!

Mine is Feb. 27!! Wow, look at all the Valentine's bandsters! TachaBaby505.................Natacha.......................9 January 2008 crystalcml...................Crystal..........................28 January 2008 DxMOM........................Jennifer.........................1 Febuary 2008 CynthiaMcC ..................Cynthia....................... 1 February 2008 Sadie........................Sarah..............................2 February 2008 4jin02.......................Janis...............................4 February 2008 Neenco.......................Dineen...........................4 February 2008 Kittenquite..................Ko.................................4 February 2008 slbindc......................Susanne...........................4 February 2008 petergriffin.................Russ................................5 February 2008 Big marathoner...............Amy.............................5 February 2008 Michelle9003.................michelle.........................5 February 2008 Beachbum0519.................Alisa...........................5 February 2008 girlsmack....................Shannon..........................6 February 2008 Peabody......................Amanda..........................6 February 2008 JaxBandster..................Karen............................7 February 2008 EnchantedRuby................Ruby..........................7 February 2008 TinaBobina...................Tina.............................11 February 2008 LilMissBand-Aid..............Irene...........................11 February 2008 Angie4b1g....................Angie...........................12 February 2008 aveamora.....................Staci...........................12 February 2008 sharon160....................Sharon.........................12 February 2008 Mac the Knife................Mac............................13 February 2008 travel_anna..................Anna...........................13 February 2008 Princess21...................Kimberly.......................13 February 2008 Viridescence.................Viri............................14 February 2008 Nikki2001....................Nicole..........................14 February 2008 taismommy....................Tamika......................14 February 2008 voxwatt......................Cristina.......................14 February 2008 Glynda.......................Glynda.........................15 February 2008 Bluelion........................O..............................18 February 2008 Valvinnek....................Alyssa.........................25 February 2008 Amieru.......................Amie............................26 February 2008 Dana-k.......................Dana...........................26 February 2008 hijabigirl1973...............Stephanie.....................26 February 2008 Mel119.......................Melinda....................... 27 February 2008 Coolcrystal..................Crystal........................27 February 2008 fireleo.........................Jess...........................29 February 2008

Awee, thank ya very much!! My doctor is Dr. Fox, who works in the True Results in Dallas. My friend used him and has lost over 100 pounds now, and I did research on him and liked what I saw. But, I hear lots of good stuff about Marsden too, so I'm sure if you used him he would be good for ya too. There's lots of great doctors in the D/FW area to use.

It's hard playing the waiting game. I just called insurance and they said they'd have my answer by the 7th letting me know if they will approve me or not. This has been a 7 month long journey and I've been obese for like what 9 years now.. what's one more week, right?? well, let me tell you... It's such an emotional thing, especially since I've been on this forum for a few months now and I litterally became addicted to this place... if I get turned down, that means I won't be part of this forum anymore.... I would be like the weird lapband forum stalker who can't get a lapband or something if I kept coming here, right?... I'll be the non-banded freakshow. LOL. Yeah, trying to add humour here, is it working??? Some will probably say just to take out a loan and get it, but, I can't financially do that and do not want to get me and my husband into a rutt we cannot escape; especially being a homeowner, never knowing when the A/C will die, or the garage door will break, or whatever.. I'm so scared of hearing no, that it's causing me to not sleep at night, butterflies all the time, and hives on my back.... I will feel like my life will be over if I hear 'no'. I know it won't be, but I will feel odd coming to this forum anymore if I'm never going to be banded... And all will be revealed in .... 8 days. :tongue: 8 Days of hell waiting.

Thanks everyone! Yes, I got a date of February 27th to get my surgery!!! I have to start the South Beach diet phase one 10 days before my surgery date, so I'll start that on the 17th, maybe even before that.. my pre-op is on Monday the 4th. Wooohooo. I hope I"m as successful as you guys are!!!

Thank you for all your support Make!! You are awesome!

Sorry, i couldn't help but read this; I'm sorry Aetna is screwing you over like this. But fight it... you shouldn't have to pay for all that other stuff. But, I disagree with the socialized medicine part of what you said. If you look at other countries, like UK and Canada who have socialized medicine, obese people are completely left out and neglected... You would not easily get this surgery there. They could care less about obese people. Socialized medicine is the worst thing... most people wait months for an appointment and die waiting for cancer treatments too... Socialized medicine is not what we need.

I just got approved through Aetna POS. I work with Verizon, so it's insurance through them. My company is big time into health and I even have a fitness center at my job.. so, it wasn't a shock when I found out they support the surgery which I think that's why it went pretty smooth. All my paperwork was submitted on 1/22 and I just got approval today on 1/31. It took 8 days. Also, the lady who submitted all my stuff said she put on the paperwork that I had a surgery date of 2/4 and even though that was a big lie, she thinks that's what got them to hurry up and approve me quicker. She said they realized they needed to get the approval done quickly for my surgery. LOL. So, now I should be able to get it done in February. I can't tell you how happy I am. This has been a 7 month long journey for me. Six months of doctors appointments, a psych evaluation that cost me 400 buckaroos and was pointless and seeing the dietician who told me everything I already knew from this forum , etc... but, it finally happened. I wish you all the best of luck!! :frown:

The hell is already over!! I just got a call from my lap band office and the lady who handled my case told me I got approved!! She said she put on the documentation that my surgery was on the 4th, which was a complete lie, but I don't care. LOL. And that made them speed up the process of getting it approved faster. I got the approval in 8 days. I'm completely amazed. I can now feel like more apart of this forum.... This is one of the happiest days of my life!!!!!!!!!

My doctor says they cut it to fit your body.

I think what he/she is saying is that even if their insurance says they do not cover the surgery, can they fight it and try to have it covered by insurance. My answer is that I think I've heard of some people doing this, but it's very rare. Also, if your insurane is through your company, sometimes the company has exclusions and will not support it. For instance, last year my company did not support the lap band surgery, so no matter how much I fought for it, I could not get it covered, but this year they do support it so now it's being reviewed. If they say no, I can still fight it. (appeal it). You might want to do a search on here for your insurance.. Which do you have?

I wish you both all the luck. I wish I could be in the same boat oddly, as I'm still waiting for approval. LOL. And I just know I'll probably be like you as well and want to cheat or cheat alltogether... but, don't hate yourself for it or get down on yourself. Just tell yourself, "i went through all this and got this surgery so I have to do it right". But, we are food addicts and so it's hard not to want to. But, I bet it will pass once you can get on more solid foods, so, just think about that day.. the mushies are only temporary.. Big hugs and good luck.:tongue:

Hi Annie, welcome to the site! there are a lot of wonderful people on here and a lot of great information about situations like yours as well. Sorry you had such a bad time with the gastric bypass... I would advise you just to look around the forum for a while.. and do searches and you will find so much stuff out. I have learned so much from this site, that when I went to talk with my lap band doctor he was shocked I already knew what fleuro was and unjury Protein mix.. and stuff like that. I told him it was from this site. welcome again! Crystal

Aweeee, thank you Make... I would still come periodically, but it would be hard reading about stuff that I can't have... it would probably be very hurtful, but I still want to be supportive to the folks who I do care about on here. But, I'm not gonna lie and say it wouldn't be hard.

Yeah, we had one of those the first year, but it did us no good. The one time we asked them to help us with the A/C they said there was nothing they could do because the inside unit had to be completely removed and cleaned (we had just bought the house and the previous owners didn't clean it out well) and they didn't cover any of that. It just seems like plans like that only cover certain things and if anything else can be blaimed for the malfunction, they will blame it on the other and you end up having to pay for it anyway. So, we let it expire and then two months later the fan went out.. another 500 bucks... and now we have to get a whole new A/C this summer if that doesn't last.. But, either way, those home warranty things cost like 400 a year... financing a lap band would be at least 300 a month.. a super big difference there..

It seems like your doctor will not support it at all, no matter what you do; so it's either stick with this doctor and never have hope, or not care how bad it looks and find a doctor who will support your decision. Maybe you can call around and ask doctors if they support WLS. If they say no, then try another. Mine luckily did, but I found out through a friend that had her and helped my friend get approved for her surgery, so I knew right away she supported it. Good luck.

Thank you so much Jill! I will try to get it no matter what, but I know eventually you can't appeal it, right?

I feel so alone. I'm so upset with the people at my doctor's office. One of the girl's sense of humor is not so funny.. she's downright rude and irritating. I felt great going there until the day she told me she was going to submit my stuff to insurance without even having my 5 year history, which she failed to tell me my doc hadn't sent. I thought my doc had. She was like, "well, we'll just go ahead and submit and wait until they ask for it!" WTF?? why not just submit everything, especially when Aetna is involved.. ya know? From what I hear, they FIND reasons to turn people down. It was like she just didn't care at all. Then when I had called her to see if she did get my 5 year history, she was like, "I see you are going to make me work today!" and even hung up on me one time "by accident" of course. So, finally she got everything and sent it to their insurance person to be submitted... So, I call that lady and left two messages, no call back. Sent her an email.. no response. I finally get ahold of her today and I was like, this is Crystal ______ I sent you an email and left you a voicemail last week.." and she put me on hold for about 5 minutes, and then came back and said, "HI Crystal, I need to call you back in 10 minutes". In my email I had asked her when my stuff was submitted so I could mark it on my calendar and how long I should wait until I called to check back on it. I feel like I just want to cry... She just called me back saying that another girl is handling my file and that it is being faxed today, even though they've had my file for almost a week. I said, "why has it taken a week to fax it" and she was like, "well, we handle 6 sections (whatever that means)"...maybe doctors.. I don't know. So, this whole time I thought it was submitted on the 14th and it's not getting faxed over until today... which means it's a holiday, which means, they won't even begin to work on it until tomorrow. I'm very upset. All this could have been submitted weeks ago had that one girl told me from the beginning she didn't get my 5 year history!

Curious if anybody on here has ever gotten pregnant while they were waiting to be approved for their band? I'm starting to get a little nervous because I'm a week late.. and I'm NEVER more than a day late. My husband says I'm just stressed, but I feel cramped and have all the symptoms of being on it... so maybe I'm just REALLY super late. I'll give it one more day and then I'll find out with a test.. I'm just freaking out because if I get pregnant and then get approved for the lap band I will be... well, happy with the pregnancy.. but my body cannot, I repeat, cannot handle a pregnancy... I need to lose weight first and the last time I got preggers I had a miscarriage.. And I seriously doubt you can get the lapband if you are pregnant, right? Has anybody else been in this situation?? Oddly, my fortune cookie three days ago said: "Be prepared to modify your plans". :wink2:

Awesome Pippi! Mine arrived at aetna on the 22nd. I"m suppose to call back next week to check on the status of it.

Great! On myspace?? Well, I started this morning, so I am not pregnant.. I was rather happy. LOL.

yeah, I had a feeling they wouldn't. I told my husband this was a big fear of mine... to go and get pregnant right before being banded... well, I'll find out soon either way... UGG.

My hubby has this too and sausage, red meat, bacon and alcohol break him out bad. He eats/drinks cherries/juice.. and takes meds for the inflamation...

I can't wait till I have restriction like that and don't go out to eat as much. Me and my husband eat out for lunch almost every day. We have date night once a week, which was last night for us. After sharing a basket of chips and salsa at Chili's I had the southwestern eggrolls (appetizer) . I ate every last piece. I was completely stuffed and litterally felt like I wanted to puke it up. Oddly, i wasn't even hungry anymore after the chips, but I ate the eggrolls anyway cuz they are just so dang yummy. I don't know WHY I keep eating when I'm not hungry because it's good. I wish I could turn my tastebuds off. Had they been gross, I wouldn't have eaten them. I hope I get approved for this band. I seriously need it. :wink2:

Luckily since I live in the Dallas, Fort Worth area there are tons of very good lap band doctors at my disposal here. I'm curious if I get my approval code if I can just take that to any other dallas doctor and get it done or if I have to stick with the one I picked out. But, I do like the doctor, this is the sad thing, just not a few on his staff...