Shinyhappymommy

Well, I my surgeon was approved, as was the Lakewood Surgical Center where he performed the surgery. See my sig line for his name.

My doctor is in Denver and his surgery for self pay is $9,000 which includes the first three months of fills. After that, I think fills are $200. He's quick to respond to email and calls me personally at least once a month. I am very satisfied with my surgery.

I was having an allergic reaction to the tape too. I have a prescription steroid cream called clobetsazol that helped the rash heal quickly. I tend to get rashes that heal slowly, so I use that cream a lot, mostly on my fingers where I get cracks and blisters for some reason. That cream helps a lot.

I think that is what I have. It's BCBS, (I think Anthem) and my dh is a federal employee. It was great for my surgery coverage. You just need to call them and ask what your bariatric benefits are. Mine covered 90% if my bmi was over 40. It was. If it's 35-40 I would have needed some comorbidities. You should have a coverage booklet that outlines what is covered as well.

Queen of Hearts, do you have a link to that forum? Thanks.

I actually got a rash from the plastic tape square things that were put over the steri-strips. When I called my surgeon, he told me to go ahead and take them off, including the steri-strips. It was less than a week post op. You might ask your surgeon if you can do the same thing, especially since you're more than a week out. Sorry about that, good luck.

I ended up nursing my almost one year old about 5 or 6 hours after surgery. I tried to pump, but nothing would come out, so I just nursed him. It kind of depends on what your surgeon and anesthesiologist recommend. Our goal was to pump and dump one feeding and then nurse the next. That wasn't exactly how it worked out. It was nice for dh because our son slept 10 hours straight for him that night, not a usual feat. Dr. Sears has an article on his website about anesthesia and he writes that the body has metabolized the anesthesia quickly enough that it's safe to nurse. Other places I read that you should pump a feeding or two and dump. Good luck figuring things out.

I think it's the former. She was awful. I never liked her on the show, I don't know what people see in her. Well, I know what they see in her, but I don't have the same enthusiasm for it. Even my kids were holding their ears during her performance. After she was done performing and they show a wide shot of all the judges, Simon shoots a glance at Randy that seems to reflect the horrible performance vibe. So who's going to take it tonight? I'm guessing it will be David. :cursing:

Did you have bloodwork done through your surgeon's office? If so, I'd ask them if that is included in the amount you were quoted. The amount of my surgery didn't include the pre-op work ups, those were done at my pcp's office. It also didn't include the $400 for the nutritionist and pscyh. appointments. There was also some confusion when I went in the morning of surgery and the surgery center quoted me another $900 that I needed to pay them. Well, when all was said and done, it looks like I'm still only going to pay my doctor and the surgery center a combined total of what I had originally planned on. I purposely didn't bring it all up until after the insurance had processed the claim. There are cheaper self-pay options. My surgeon in Denver is $9000 self pay. You'd have to get fills and aftercare in your location, probably, but you might look into other options.

I don't mind going. I just always feel guilty if I don't get it done. My inspiration: I had a sweet home teacher who was a new convert at 70 something. He home taught us diligently. He got cancer and the first thing he was concerned about was letting us know is that he may not make it that month. His cancer looked like it was beat. He and his sweet wife took my kids on an rv trip over the weekend while we moved our household across town. They had so much fun. When they got back it was apparent he was wiped out. Getting to the doctor that week confirmed that the cancer was back with a vengeance. After that, instead of getting out to teach us, he'd invite all his families to his home where he taught us. The first time after the cancer came back, he shook and scratched (the pain meds) and taught us to not take time for granted, that you never know how long you have to live. It was all I could do not to cry as we listened to him. He passed away last January, only a few months from his cancer coming back, having only missed one month of home teaching. Whenever I feel like I just can't get it done, I think of this dear brother and I know if I try, I can do it. Thanks for the reminder about visiting teaching. My partner just had a baby, so I may need to do some finagling to get it done this month.

Another nursing mama here. My baby was about 12 months old when I had my surgery. He's my third and his older sisters were extended nursers as well. As far as losing weight while breastfeeding, it's never been one of the perks of breastfeeding for me. My sister as well. She says she can't ever lose that baby weight until she weans (usually about 12 months old). Something about maternal fat stores or something.

LOL, Rainer! That makes me laugh. Good for you for nursing twins and sticking with it so long. I am a firm believer that breastfeeding is important, and not just until that first birthday. To the op: My baby was almost one when I had surgery. We've had no issues with nursing. He eats a lot of solid food, so if I had a baby that was mostly getting their nutrition from nursing, I might hold off on restricting my calorie intake a bit.

I'm wondering why you'd want the drug rep in the OR. Maybe to witness that it is indeed unsnapped? There's no way they should make you pay for that problem. I hope you can get it worked out. So glad you have answers now to why you haven't had any restriction. Good luck.

Thanks for the kind words and compliments. And envying my bone structure? Wow, you made my day. :thumbup:

Here are a couple of face shots of me. The before is in November and the in progress one is from this month.

That must have been so cool.

In discussing my second fill with my surgeon, I found out I had more than I had thought. He hadn't mentioned that I had 2ccs in from surgery. So it went up much quicker than I had anticipated. I have no complaints, though. So far, so good.

When you are well enough, I hope you let us know how it all went down. Hop you have a speedy recovery and I am so sorry this happened to you.

You're welcome. To edit your post, click on edit, then below where your post would be you'll see "manage attachments" you can just remove the attachments. If you want your smaller pictures in your post, you can right click and save the ones I posted, then repost them as attachments (just like you'd remove them, but adding them instead of deleting them) in your original post. Hope that made sense.

Now if you remove them from your original post, this thread won't take so long to load and have goofy margins. :welldoneclap:

I resized them for you. You look great!

I got about 4 ccs with my first fill in my 10 cc band. It was different for a few days, maybe even a couple of weeks, but eventually it loosened to where I could eat everything. It wasn't too much for me. Every body is different, though, so pay attention to your own self. If you can't swallow Water, start getting reflux or can't get any food down (once you're eating food) then you're probably too tight.

Congratulations and wow! We have so much in common. We're at the same weight. Have about the same left to lose. My dh is losing weight too, though he doesn't really need to. I've been pondering about when the last time was that I weighed about this much. I honestly am not sure. When your weight is going up and up and up, who wants to weigh often and keep track? Not me. So I remember from several weight loss efforts where I was, but other than that I'm lost. I don't feel like I've been struggling too hard and I keep saying that I know that as I get closer to goal that it will get harder. The only thing I can't say is that I'm on the exercise wagon just yet. I'm active (I run a daycare), but haven't gotten much formal exercise in. It's fun to read someone's post and really be able to relate. Melissa

This actually jives with what my surgeon told me during my last fill. He said that hair grows in 3 month cycles, so being 3 months out from surgery, our hair will start falling out. He seems to think that it will happen for about 3 months and then we'll see it stop. I'm noticing a little more hair in my hands when I shampoo, but not anything I'm alarmed about. I lost a lot of hair after my baby was born in Feb of 2007, but it only affected me in that it was annoying. I couldn't tell a difference on my head. I have thick, curly hair.

Here are a couple of face shots. I'm almost three months post-op and down 53 pounds.