Wheetsin

Holli - all I know for sure is that he builds incredible cases, going to extremes to get all the documentation. One RNY lady had gone to different PS and been denied, I think 3 or 4 times. He got her approval on the first try (from what I've been told, don't know this personally). I have UHC, which might make it a bit easier for me - the same plan a friend of mine who had RNY has, and she's received approval for her TT at 100% coverage. She has to self pay her brachioplasty, but hey - that's like half priced. I will follow up with mom and see what she says next time I see her. I think she has to see this surgeon next week anyway, so she might just wait and ask then - not sure.

Oh I will also add, I managed to make an ass of myself in recovery. It was ash wednesday, which to begin with, 'm not going to know that from any other day. And second of all - I had the "who cares" that comes with declining sedation. The two nurses taking care of me had the ash smudges on their foreheads. I only remember part of this, but apparently I told the first one she looked like Charles Manson "because of that stupid swastika tattoo on your forehead". The second one (this is the part I remember) I kind of went off on, as much as you can when you're half asleep, and told her she was filthy and needed to go bathe before she touched me b/c I didn't want to get an infection, and how negligent of the hospital to let its employees come to work so dirty.

I had surgery between 10 and 11, and was on my way home around 1. I spent all of about 45 minutes in recovery. Within my forst 10 minutes of waking up I was asking if I could leave. I had virtually no pain. When they asked me to rate my pain I remember telling them, "Maybe like a half..." (on the 1 - 10 scale). I remember the lady telling me she was going to ask my surgeon for discharge approval, and then the guy coming in to wheel my bed out saying, "Already?" and the lady answering, "Yeah, she was breathing on her own before we got her, has no pain, and is asking to see her husband." Then they told me I was their "record recovery", and wheeled me out. I did have some recovery pain, but only when I moved my abdomen... e.g. up & down from the chair, or sitting to go the bathroom. Supporting my stomach from underneath - taking the weight off my staples - worked wonders for me. I had one bout of hunger 3 days post-op. I think it was largely head. I had about an hour where I was almost panicky because I was *really* hungry, and worried I'd never be able to eat enough again. Weird, huh? And very unlike me. But like I said - an hour, very short-lived, and the nice thing is that do this day, my appetite has never returned. I get hunger pains, and feel hunger, but I don't really care, whereas before -- uh oh, can't let me get to the point where I'm actually hungry before I eat! I had surgery on Wednesday. I slept most of that evening & most of the following day. Friday I was up & walking around (slowly, but only b/c I didn't want to have to walk around holding my stomach in public). Saturday we drove an hour out of town and spent the day with my parents. I didn't do as much as I normally would, and was moving a little slower, but spending the day away was no problem. Sunday I rested. Monday I could have returned to work, but I can telecommute and it just so happened that one of my incisions was right where my waistbands hit, so I telecommuted thru Wed & returned to the office Thursday after my staples were removed. The only "complication" I had was that I'm allergic to a lot of adhesives, including the tape they used to cover my staples. Couldn't have known that before since this was my first surgery. When they pulled the tape off, a lot of my skin came with it and I ended up with some really swollen, raw areas around my incisions. But that's all about the adhesive, and has nothing to do with the band/surgery.

I take pictures, dressed and nekkid. I have to, b/c I don't see the loss otherwise. This morning I tried on a pair of jeans that I wore to my pre-op appointments and there was no way to keep them up. Literally falling off. And I still had to ask my husband if he could see a difference, because I find a way to rationalize it. "The pants aren't too big, they just stretched out." "That's just a really flattering angle, I don't really look like that..." I'm afraid to believe it, because every other time when I've believed it, it hasn't come true.

Sounds like you're gurgling. I do that so loudly that I've learned to just go "Oops! Excuse me!" and cover my mouth. Everyone thinks it's a burp anyway, and going along with it is easier than explaining. I really only do it anymore if I'm stuck on something, but used to do it any time I ate or drank.

I told you I was peeing hair & legos. I knew that had to be b/c of the damn $20 band. If you're crafting bands out of innertubes, does that mean I could just blow my way to more restriction? Umm... that's not what I meant...

I had to tell DH what a FUPA is. I was just like -- here, this... *pinches & wiggles* In his defense, he's a damn foreigner.

I always have a place to prop my book when I read at night.

I think you're right Pnut. I better go make a post letting everyone know that I think I have a slipped band, and my weightloss has stalled b/c I have lost anything since 2 hours ago.

Ok, I lied. Each of my psych consults were $20 a piece. So I paid like $80. :mad: ANd now I think I stretched my pouch because I can swallow without PBing.

That pisses me off b/c I paid like twenty bucks for this damn band.

:cool: Guys it has been almost six months and I've only lost like 102 lbs what am I doing wrong? :heh:

Trying to understand... you were at 2ccs, and then me removed .3cc, or the .3cc came up missing and for the third fill he just brought you back up to 2? Either of those right? I would pay for the fill like normal, unless you specifically asked him to put you over 2 and he didn't (in whcih he should have told you why & you should have had the conversation then). Maybe your doc thought 2cc was right, but the .3 was enough to keep you from feeling restriction... Dunno, I just know that from my perspective, based on what you've shared, I don't see any "at fault" on the doctor's behalf that would keep someone from paying full price.

Hi Dani, and welcome. I'm not in Florida, but I'm usually there at least once or twice a month, and my employer has suggested I consider the move more than once... but I just don't want to do flying cockroaches. :cool:

Any chance you're using a different browser or computer than normal, or that you would have done anything to change your internet settings? Right click on a ticker and copy what it says next to "Address: (URL)." Enter that into your browser's address bar, and see if you can view the item directly. If not, and others can see the same ticker, it's probably something local to you.

Never had trouble. Went out with some fellow lap-banders the other day and we went to a place where we weren't sure we'd be able to share. I just told the waitor we were emdically unable to eat a meal each, so we wanted to share. If you're concerned about no tbeing able to order a children's item, then don't. Get a regular one, and have a few meals to take home. Or just order a side item, or a la carte, or an appetizer (and you'll probably still have leftovers).

I can see yours. Haven't noticed problems w/ any others. But the tickers link directly from tickerfactory.com, and aren't stored locally here, so if there's something wrong it's probably on their end. If they "disappear" for a while, probably a server down for a bit or something.

Very cute! That reminds me of some commercials that ran a little while ago. I think they were for a healthy cereal or some kind of bar. But a lady would walk into a bakery and walk out & have two big cinnamon buns stuck on her butt. Or she would be at the sidewalk and go to wave for a cab and have a big donut stuck to the underneath of her arm. I think there was another one where a guy had an eclair wrapped around his waist like a floatation device.

I followed the induction phase of the Atkins diet for over a year. Actually, what we (most of us anyway) eat is not at all like the Atkins plan. Low carb was just part of Atkins, about 60%. The other big part was hig fat intake, which was critical to the plan as he wrote it. (Unfortunately "Atkins" has become synonymous with "low carb", and people use it that way, not even realizing they're essentially ignoring half of the plan). High Water intake was another aspect, but not as stressed as the fat intake. I'm sure there are some, somewhere, but I don't know any bandsters who go out of their way to add extra fats to their diet. Someone once said that the band is a medical way to stay forced to follow Atkins, and that's simply not a generally true statement. Now Atkins aside, focusing on "low carb" -- not really. I eat low carb b/c I feel better when I do. And I try to get healthy carbs from Beans, whole fruits, etc. and avoid starchy carbs. But I'm no where close to being back on Atkins, even though my carb intake is what the Atkins plan calls for.

It's never a good thing to talk about someone who isn't even here. If you want to encourage her, or her return, I would suggest email or some other means that she keeps up with.

dpingl - that's correct, but it's also approximate. I'll never truly know what I've lost. Here's the scoop... I weighed the night before surgery on my home scale. A few months later I had to replace said home scale, and the new one (that I use now) weighed me about 7 or 8 lbs higher than old home scale. My weight on home scale number one, compared to weight on home scale #2, shows 100 lbs lost (actually about 102 now). I can guess that if I still had old scale it would show 109 lbs lost, but since the number truly doesn't matter that much I just go by whatever it reads... no adjustments or anything. I got weighed on the scale at Dr. H's office at my consultation, but did not get weighed on the same scale before my surgery. If I remember correctly about 6 weeks elapsed between consultation and surgery, and I had a lot of "last suppers" during that time, so I know I only gained. But I don't know how much. Last time I was weighed on their scale it read about 5 lbs higher than my home scale #2, so it would probably read a loss of about 97 or 98 lbs lost. So since it's all relative, I just go by whatever my home scale reads, which is possibly a handful of pounds lighter or heavier that what any other scale would read. This is also why, "I don't really know, about X amount..." is the best I can do when I'm asked how much I've lost. :cool: I do wish they'd weigh you the day of surgery on that scale. Now when I go in and the nurse says, "Oh you've lost X pounds..." that's never an accurate number, because they're only counting X from my consultation weight, and not factoring in whatever weight I gained between consultation and surgery that has also been lost. And I truly hate weight as a measurement of fat loss any way. Weight does not equal fat, and scales will never tell you with any accuracy how much fat you've lost.

I found out not too long ago that the PS who did my mom's foot "specializes" (supposedly) in post-WLS PS. Or so I'm told. And he's supposedly very aggressive with insurance companies... is reputed to not take "no" for an answer. If I end up needing PS, which is very probably judging by my frowny-faced bottomless belly button cavern, he is the surgeon I will go to. I talked with mom this weekend and asked her to ask him if he'd be interested in meeting a group of WLS patients considering PS (down the road) -- just to talk, answer questions, show pics, whatever. Don't have an answer yet, but anything you guys would be interested in? It's a little over an hour away from where we live (we're in between KCI & WoF), but we go there at least once a month & would be happy to give a ride. (BTW, "mom's foot"... she had melanoma and had to have part of her foot removed, from the bottom of the ankle bone down to the edge of her foot, and from about 1" in front of the ankle bone back to the start of her heel. It doesn't look pretty by any means, but that wasn't the point in her case... and she was still extremely satisifed with him as a surgeon.)

Got this one this weekend, it was great. Someone found out I had lapband and they'd heard of it, but didn't understand it. "That's the one that they don't have to cut you all up for right?" Sure... "It's adjustable right?" Yep... "I know they stick stuff in you with a needle, but what do they stick in?" Just saline... "How does squirting saline on the band make it shrink? Like it shrinks when it gets wet? Then how come it's not shrinking all the time, because we're wet inside..."

It's nice to read your report. Little things tend to disuade me. The IV, and the PB, definitely played their part in keeping me from doing the band sooner. I think drains would play the same role for PS, even though I'm increasingly sure I'm going to need PS to get any of my body back.

My little "pause" is over and I managed to hit my 100 lb milestone yesterday. The pauses can be challenging to go through... 3 - 5 weeks at a standstill, but usually I make up for it in the few weeks before the next one. Kind of like a sprinkler with a kinked hose... instead of going steady, you kin it & nothing happens, but then watch out when you clear the kink.