katinhouston

Did you ever hear anything about your approval? I'm just wondering because I had United Healthcare try to pull the "one surgery per lifetime" card with me for my revision. It turns out that was not in my husband's company's policy at all and they were trying to deny saying it was something like - obesity surgery standards--blah blah blah. They said they would remove or replace my band only. They denied my case, I immediately appealed and just heard back last week that they are overturning the denial and will be paying for the revision. My advice is if it's truly what you want then don't give up! I'm not going to say it's an easy thing. It's extremely stressful both physically (putting up with the band and weight gain for longer) and especially mentally! You just have to decide if it is something you want to fight for.

I posted this question over on the general discussion section, but thought I would pose it here since you guys have specific experience in this area--- Hello everyone. I have been lurking for a while but this is my first time posting. Sorry kinda lengthy!! I have a question and wanted to see if anyone could give my any insight. To give you a little bit of history-I was banded 2 years ago. I initially lost about 55 lbs. over the first 4-5 months. I then got an adjustment that resulted in me being too tight, learning to drink with my food just to get it to go down, then drinking all my food down. I maintained my weight loss for several months, but eventually over the last year have gained back about 30 of the 55 lbs. After researching VSG, I am very impressed with both how happy people are with their sleeves and the amount of weight that is being lost. My main question is this, over the last 5-6 weeks I have been trying to lose the weight that I had gained back on my own. I have been eating the band/sleeve/low carb way, with mainly Protein and occasionally some vegetables with one of my meals. I have eaten between 900 and 1200 calories and exercise on the elliptical for approx 50 mins 3-5 times per week. I lost 10 lbs in the first week and a half and nothing since. I am worried that through all the years of yo-yo dieting and then the band that I have made myself weight loss resistant! Has anyone had extreme trouble losing weight on their own or with a band and then had success with the sleeve. I don't want to go through the risks etc of another surgery just to fail again?!?!?

Thanks for the encouragement Oregondaisy and Tiffykins. I just found out that the dr. that I had been seeing (not the dr that did my original lapband) is not covered under my insurance (united healthcare), so I am in the process of setting up an appt. with another very experienced reputable dr. here in Houston. Dr. Carlos Ferrari. I am hopeful that he and his staff will get my revision approval quickly and I can schedule my surgery ASAP. I really just want to get on with healing and losing the weight I have to loss and getting on with living life! I am still worried because of the increased risks associated with revisions-but don't feel like I really have any option at this point. My band is not working for me and will have to eventually come out anyway. I am also still worried about not losing all of my weight (approx 110 lbs)-I so want it gone NOW! Thanks again

Thanks everyone for the encouragement! I feel like the sleeve is the answer. I just have to get my doctor to agree! He feels like since there is nothing actually "wrong" with my band that we should try to make the band work with proper adjustments. I understand what he is trying to do and appreciate his honesty (he could always have said -yeah lets do the revision and made $ off of me). But, I feel like its prolonging the inevitable and don't want to waste another x number of months figuring that out. I would rather have the surgery (which I don't take lightly BTW, and am scared to death of), but then I can get on with losing the weight and on with my life.

Thanks for the info Tiffykins. I really think that is what my problem is too. I would do low carb loss 30-40 lbs then gain it all back and then some. The same with the band, as soon as I learned to eat around it then I did. After reading and researching hours and hours over the last few weeks, I feel like the sleeve is the way to go-now I just have to convince my dr.-right now, he thinks that since there is nothing "wrong" with my band that we should try to get me adjusted properly and see if we can make it work. I appreciate his honesty and caring bed-side manner-he really is trying to do what is best for me and not just make money off of me with another surgery. The problem is that I think it is basically just prolonging the inevitability of eventually having a revision anyway. I am just terrified of failing again! I do now truly understand what you mean by the "honeymoon" phase, and plan to take full advantage of it to try to get to goal quickly and then work on maintaining!

Hello everyone. I have been lurking for a while but this is my first time posting. Sorry kinda lengthy!! I have a question and wanted to see if anyone could give my any insight. To give you a little bit of history-I was banded 2 years ago. I initially lost about 55 lbs. over the first 4-5 months. I then got an adjustment that resulted in me being too tight, learning to drink with my food just to get it to go down, then drinking all my food down. I maintained my weight loss for several months, but eventually over the last year have gained back about 30 of the 55 lbs. After researching VSG, I am very impressed with both how happy people are with their sleeves and the amount of weight that is being lost. My main question is this, over the last 5-6 weeks I have been trying to lose the weight that I had gained back on my own. I have been eating the band/sleeve/low carb way, with mainly Protein and occasionally some vegetables with one of my meals. I have eaten between 900 and 1200 calories and exercise on the elliptical for approx 50 mins 3-5 times per week. I lost 10 lbs in the first week and a half and nothing since. I am worried that through all the years of yo-yo dieting and then the band that I have made myself weight loss resistant! Has anyone had extreme trouble losing weight on their own or with a band and then had success with the sleeve. I don't want to go through the risks etc of another surgery just to fail again?!?!?

I don't like the thickness of the Protein shots either-kinda like drinking too sweet melted Jello or something. What I have done in the past is mix about 1/3 of the shot into a bottle of Water. You don't have the texture and the flavor is very diluted-it makes them tolerable. If you spread your protein shot over three bottles of water then you can get your extra 40 g over the whole day.

Thanks DeeDee. I will post my question over there. As I have been reading/researching over the last few weeks, your weight loss has been such an inspiration! Thanks for the welcome!