Wheetsin

You misunderstood. :eek: I had my surgery about 5 months ago. The point to my posting being - I'm very close to having lost enough weight to make my BMI under 40, and I have no comorbs. BMI over 40, or under w/ significant comorbs, are the general qualifying factors. The scary part being, I'm still no where near done, still MO, still around size 24/26, and if I walked into the surgeon's office (in a few weeks) there's a chance I wouldn't qualify. That's what's scary -- to think of others in my position who maybe can't get the band... and knowing how much I still need it.

How did PBing get us here? I'm really not getting that... SeamsSew - different people will use slightly different definitions for PB, but as I use it, it's having to bring up food, saliva, liquids, etc. that - for whatever reason - cannot pass through the stoma. When something cannot pass, chances are it will have to come back up on you. It's not the same as vomitting - much worse - but usually quite painful until it happens.

Guys, you know what I just realized? I'm about 10 lbs away from no longer qualifying for lap-band. When I hit ~280 my BMI will be just a hair below 40, and I have no comorbidities. Knowing how big I still am, and how far I still have to go, and how I will need my band just as much then as now... that's a little scary...

If you're gaining weight, you aren't going to starve. Esp. if you're eating 15 oz of food (heck, you aren't going to starve on 2 oz) Fills are usually done at the surgeon's discretion, though I know people who have gone to other docs b/c they agreed to give fills sooner than the surgeon. 3 months is a long time IMO. My surgeon is aggressive with fills and does them 5 or 6 weeks post-op (of course you can request no fill at this time too), and generally goes for a 40% - 50% fill, depending on how you've been losing without. I was fortunate in that the band itself gave me restriction, but that doesn't sound like it's your case. Long story short, if you don't have restriction from the band itself (doesn't sound like you do considering the quantities you caneat), then weightloss is going to be solo until you can get a fill. :confused: You say you weren't stuffed after 15 oz. Maybe try to focus on "no longer hungry" vs. "stuffed"? It's a generally good practice, but if you're struggling to lose until you can get a fill (temporary), it really can help. I think a lot of people find that if they pay attention to this, and really chew well and swallow small bites, they're full sooner than they could have ever dreamed - even without restriction. Good luck!

Atkins - followed the induction phase for a year, and lost a ton of weight on it, very quickly, but had too many side effects. Introduced carbs back to my diet, and gained the weight back even quicker than I lost it. Don't remember the name of it, but every day at dinner you had to eat a cup of beets (barf), and 1 cup of vanilla ice cream every night for dessert. Self-prescribed diet of 10g fat or less every day combined with 1hr + exercise a day, 5 days a week. Worked very well, but my willpower only held out for about 7 months. Weight Watchers. Did it with my mother. Hated every second of it. Despised the weekly meetings. That's about it.

Sometimes I'm able to "PB" without anything coming up. It's almost as if the contractions used to wretch are enough to push the stuck foods down. This has happened the last two times I've had to bring something back up. I get in the bathroom, do my wretching, and feel better without the actual food object coming up.

On obesityhelp.com there is a listing of doctors by state, and a list for people to record what carrier they had when they were approved. So - should give you something to go by in terms of what KS surgeons accept what insurance. See if you can find it & look through. It'll also tell you whether or not any KS bandsters who have posted their info to the list have Medicaid. Not a definiteive answer, but an OK sampling.

Hmm... that much swelling, vein protrusion, and pain might just be phlebitis (inflammation)/thrombophlebitis (inflammation b/c of a blood clot). I've had suerficial thrombophlebitis a few times. Not in a long time, but for a while I had them frequently enough that I could call my doc and tell him what was wrong. Here's what I looked for. - Extremely painful to even the lightest touch. I men seriousl - blowing on it will hurt. - Skin above and around is very hot to the touch (I would hover my hand over it and could feel the heat radiating from my skin) - After a few days could usually see where the clot was, in the form of a red/dark "worm" visible under the skin. - Did I say extremely painful? - I mean extremely painful! I know from the times I had them and what my doc would tell me that 2 weeks is about the longest to know if you'll develop it or not. E.g. the trauma happens day 1, and if you're going to get a clot it should be apparent by day 14. So in that sense it definitely doesn't sound like a clot. So take that for what it's worth. If you're having significant pain/swelling/vein deformation, go see someone. The nearest doc is 5 hours away? Do you have an urgent care clinic or ER you can visit? If it is something more significant than "irritation", you don't want to mess around.

You guys with boobs suck. I'll be wearing boy shorts and a bandaid.

Excellent advice! Truly. It's kind of like your post-op pain medicine, to draw an analogy. My advice/philosophy - Take it whether you think you need it or not, because if you don't take it, it's going to be too late if you end up needing it... you're already going to be hurting.

Searc here for a thread called "Things to ask your surgeon" or something like that. There's LOTS of really great suggestions on questions you might want to ask. I don't have autoimmune so I can't comment. Oh, BTW - I had pretty much made up my mind to do this, knew my insurance would cover it, and then got a job offer with another company that I couldn't refuse. I didn't let the operation stop me from taking it, so here's what I did: ASAP look over the insurance options you have (I had like 13 to choose from, it was a nightmare!) and write them down. Then search here and OH for insurance companies known to be "band friendly". (If the other options don't make it too attractive, in my case I could have just hopped on to DH's policy, which did NOT cover the band, but would have given me everything else and the measly amount I pay for insurance would have been sooo worth it for the band alone). Cross off the others, leaving me with 3 or 4 possibilities. Bring those back in to work and review the SPD for each looking for any exclusions around bariatrics, bariatric surgery, gastric banding, etc. One had an exclusion listed so I crossed it off, leaving me with 2 or 3 choices. Called my HR rep and asked if the company had bariatric exclusions on the policies for either of those carriers, found out they did not. Called a rep from each insurance company and asked them, specifically, if the lap-band was covered for my potential policy. (I had to ask about "adjustable gastric banding" or something, b/c "Lap-Band" isn't in their literature). So in the end I had 2 or 3 choices that I was 95% sure would pay for it, so then I picked my policy based on the overall features I preferred, out of pocket for surgical costs, etc. So changing jobs didn't impact me in the slightest. This was all in June of last year, and I went to my seminar in November. The one caveat I'll add is that the company I'm at is huge, so I felt confident that I'd have my choice of carriers. If I had been going to a small place, I may have done things differently, so that I didn't end up going some place only to find out they only offered 1 policy and it didn't cover WLS. And we had the means to pay out of pocket, too, as a back-up plan so it didn't "matter" if insurance covered it or not, but heck - that little bit of work & research was SOOO worth $16k. Hope this helps.

Oh - Yoda - I quoted you, but please don't take that post as a response directed at you. I just quoted you because your statement very clearly summarized a recurring theme here.

The danger here is that when you hop addictions, you usually hop to something you can't/won't sustain. Hopping addictions maintains the "all or nothing" mentality. A few people can do it successfully, just like a few people can diet successfully, but the vast majority of people cannot. Sure, maybe three years from now they're still there, but really long term they're no where to be found. A second aunt thrice removed or something really distant like that was a hard core drug addict a few years ago. Big time. She claims that one day she looked in the mirror and saw a demon looking back at her. She turned her life around, completely around, almost cold turkey. She quit hanging out at the biker club and joined a church. Had all of her "rock and roll" tats covered over with religious ones. She quit talking to all of her friends and family who hadn't been "saved". (so I'm hearing her story secondhand, obviously!) She started hanging out at airports looking for people who looked "abandoned" and trying to "save" them instead of hanging around bars looking for guys she could blow for a nickel bag. She tore down her Harley Davidson posters and put up religious posters in their place. She did a virtually step-for-step transition from drugs to religion, literally "this for that" the entire way. Last I heard she was a missionary in one of the Dakotas. Think she's any less addicted? Heck no. She just swapped her addictions. And say what you want, this type of scenario has a reversion rate of something like 96%, meaning 96% of the people who swap addictions, assuming they remain physically able, etc., will swap right back. Maybe they'll hit 6 or 7 other addictions along the way, but the bird doesn't stray far from the nest, so to speak. And guess what - it's been about 6 years, and there's a lot of serious suspicion that she's shooting up again, and this doesn't surprise anyone because they know how deep her addictions are. She's a great window, everyone can see right through her. Ok, so that's an extreme example, but the same thing happens. She had to be going 100% at whatever she was going at. It didn't matter *what* she was doing. A lot of dieters will hop addictions from food to exercise -- how many do you think keep it up long term? Not many! Some will hop to smoking, or drinking, or hop the addiction to their actual weight loss (which is the beginning of why so many eating disorders seem to arise from failed weightloss attempts). Granted, an addiction to knitting may be less detrimental to your health than an addiction to food, physically - but in mental terms you're still an addict. And *that's* what you need to focus on fixing, rather than just finding a new focus.

Self help books are pretty much a waste of time IMO. I think therapy can be great, but it's only going to be as good as the therapist doing it, and only as good as the effort the patient puts toward it (not specific to you, in general) and like anything else, you have your people who are good at what they do and your people who are not very good at all. Fat represents a lot of things to a lot of different people. For some it's safety - "armor" so to speak. For some it's control. For some it's companionship, or comfort, or acceptance, or whatever the need may be. I despise weight watchers, and I don't give any more credit to hypnotherapy than I to do magicians really being "magic". (And both thrive on pressure and senses of obligation.) I didn't expect hostility, but it has happened in the past, so I just wanted to throw out the feelers. Lots of people think it's BS, but really - it's been right too many times to be wrong. Of course, everything I post is always just my humble opinion.

I should add, travel makes my band really fickle. I had the pleasure of sliming over cream of tomato soup.

It's simply amazing to read all the differences in what we can/do eat. I can't do bananas, but I can eat Pasta and bread. Haven't tried rice. Applesauce hurts like mad, but tortilla chips and Jerky (turkey) are fine. A friend of mine can't tolerate any chicken at all. About 85% of what I eat is chicken, and I think I'm tighter than her... maybe... And day to day... I had Chipotle on Sunday, went down like I wasn't even banded. Had Chipotle Monday and it took me about an hour just to get through 1/3 of it because because the Beans were deciding to hang out & chill with my stoma instead of heading straight home like good girls & boys. Our bands definitely make sure we know who's in control.

I'm at a similar state, but it's nothing like the old ways... so I can kind of relate, and kind of not. It's a struggle for me to eat enough to get my basic requirements for Protein in, even if I go liquid. I'm just not hunrgy very often, and fill up quickly. I'm full before I can even finish a Protein shake. Because I try to put so much emphasis on protein, there's not a lot of room for anything else. Which means that if I'm really craving something, protein goes by the way side (my philosophy is that it's better to have a small amount of something and satiate your craving, than get to the point where you obsess on it, which is when you'll eat way too much). My weightloss is inconsistent as well. I've lost a lot of weight, but it comes in spurts. And lately it seems like my "stalls" (use that term very lightly) come in right around the 10lb mark. I know that has to be coincidence because my body never took math, but it's still a pattern I've noticed. So - in July I lost rapidly from 301 to 290, but I've been at 290 for a while now. Before that I went from 317 to 300 rapidly, but it took forever to cross the threshold of 299. I've gone as long as 5 or 6 weeks with no loss at all. So long story short, I'm always surprised, rather than expecting, if I step on for my weekly weigh and there's a change.

How long from the time your approved until you actually have surgery? For me it was about 2.5 or 3 months. It was however long I had to wait to get in for the consultation, and however far out the surgeon was booked. Whats the hardest part? Hmm... nothing's hard, exactly - IMO. But the worst part about it for me is the pain associated with a PB. I want to change jobs put now I can't per LAP BAND, Ideas? Can I rush the process? Not really. It's a matter of how long your insurance company takes, which you're not going to be able to have much impact on, and when the surgeon & pre-op care people have availability. How long until you feel normal? I never felt abnormal. But if you mean in terms of pain, I had surgery on a Wednesday and went out & about that Friday night. It was probably 1.5 - 2 weeks before I could move w/o pain. Probably about 3 - 4 weeks before I had no pain at all, but the last week or two was just little twinges at my incision sites when I'd move a certain way. Worse the Gallbladder surgery or the same? Dunno, never had it. Mortality rates per this Dr. H? None that I know of, but that's not specific to Dr. H, it's true for like 99.999999% of lap-band surgeons. This surgery doesn't involve the same mortality risks that something like RNY can involve, so if there have been any mortalities I'd guess it's a function of the surgery itself, and not a function of lap-band (in which case I'd also think you would want to look at the statistics for your anesthesiologist more so than for your surgeon). I've followed the progress of lap-band since 2001 and have never come across a case of mortality due to the band. Can't bet my life it hasn't happened though.

I think we do this because on some level we still get something out of being fat. That doesn't mean we want to be fat, or enjoy it, just that we get something out of it. And preserving that something is a big part of why we sabotage, and know we're sabotaging, but still don't do anything about it. When I say this here, people have gotten to the point of being truly, emotionally involved and angry, but I don't mean harm by it. If you're willing to consider what I've said as possible, then I would suggest you invest in a book such as [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684857383/sr=1-6/qid=1154541191/ref=sr_1_6/002-0097261-8233668?ie=UTF8&s=books]I Wish I were Thin, I Wish I were Fat[/ame], [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/059525571X/sr=1-3/qid=1154541478/ref=sr_1_3/002-0097261-8233668?ie=UTF8&s=books]Fat & Furious[/ame], or any other psychology (behaviorsm)-based information on obesity & overeating. I'd be happy to PM you about it, if you'd like, but in the interest of ensuring your thread remains a calm one, I won't take the liberty to post.

I completely expected to see something like, "Just eat pasta every meal. PB every meal. You never gain weight!"

Cynthia, that's such great news! Too bad things didn't work out differently, but I'm still very glad you're getting everything taken care of.

Weighed today. Same weight as when I last logged on 7/24. I try not to set goals, but have the unofficial one of 100lbs at 6 mos. I need to lose 8 lbs this month to make that happen. The scale better start moving!!!!

No secret. I think most of it has to do with needing to lose 200 lbs to begin with. I'm thrilled. I definitely had much lower expectations when I showed up at the hospital, so I just keep my fingers crossed and enjoy it while it lasts.

Youch. That's insane! There's so much pain involved when you have to PB, I can't imagine going through it for an entire day. I think that if I ever got beyond the 2 hour mark, I'd call my surgeon or hit the local ER and request an unfill! But I guess I don't really know until I'm there...

Ok, back in my wild and crazy days, to go with my "Deadly Nightshade" hair color I had my lip (corner of my mouth) pierced, my eyebrow pierced, my nose pierced, and ear cartiledge pierced. I did the lip & nose myself, or more correctly with friends. We bought the disposable piercing guns you could get at beauty supply houses (and now at your local mega store). The eyebrow & cartiledge was done professionally. Eyebrow felt like a bee sting and it took about 2 hours for my eye to quit watering. I'm super sensitive around my eyes. I tear up just getting my eyebrows waxed. Nose hurt like HELL. We shoved little pieces of potato up our noses to keep the posts from piercing through to the other side... but then couldn't figure out how to get the posts out of the potato. (Brilliant, eh?) So we had to really wiggle the posts around so we could get the potato out of our noses... hurt hurt hurt. Cartiledge didn't hurt a bit, but I used EMLA since I'd heard it would hurt so much. Lip hurt quite a bit. The gun only got it about 1/2 way through, so I had to just grin & near it and push it the last half. Not horrible, but hurt. Within a year all piercings were removed. No infections, I just got tired of them. Definitely a phase. I really wanted to keep the cartiledge piercing, but it never would heal. Anytime I would touch it my ear would swell up like an ant hill. One night I took the earring out, thinking that might help, and come the next morning I couldn't get it back in so I figured oh well. To this day (we're talking 10 - 12 years ago) I still have black spots, front and back, where the stud went through. Tiny, and no one but me ever sees them, but still there. I actually would like to get my nose pierced again, and wear a teeny tiny, tiny gold ball... tiny, tiny. I just remember how much it hurt before, and can't fully make up my mind to go through it again. When a friend got her tongue pierced she was told cold liquid foods (I remember she ate a lot of popsicles and sorbet) for like 3 or 4 days, and to wash her mouth with mouthwash 6 times a day. If you want to talk about painful piercings... I went with the guy I was dating at the time to get his Prince Albert. He almost, literally, passed out - and as soon as he came back to he chucked on the floor. I told him he was crazy, but he really wanted it. (He had the very tip of his wee-wee tattooed too, with little tribal designs).