MacMadame

It depends on your insurance company. Some want a 5 year weight history and some only 2 years and some no weight history. Then some will use any year you didn't qualify as an excuse to deny you while others consider an up and down pattern a sign you need surgery. However, if they do deny you for that reason, I would think you would have grounds for an appeal as the NIH's guidelines say nothing about being morbidly obese for X number of years just a history of failed dieting.

I don't know about disability because I always get that through work. But you will have trouble getting a private life insurance policy for about 5 years out from your surgery. Group life through work shouldn't be a problem in most cases though.

It's really impossible to know if you've hurt anything unfortunately. Luckily it's not like with a sleeve where you would get a leak if you did something bad. So that's why you can't do it again! (Because you won't know for years and year.) But everything I've read has lead to me conclude there is no reason to do a clear liquid diet for a week or longer. The ASMBS even says that in their paper on nutrition. So if you are going crazy with the clears, why not move to fulls early instead of jumping to mushies which you really shouldn't start this early out no matter how good you chew them. Susan, in addition to talking to your surgeon, maybe counseling would help. Does your surgeon have someone on staff you can talk to? They can help you with coping techniques for your food urges. I really like the book "The Emotional First+Aid Kit" which I got on Amazon -- it's a guide to post-op life and talks about all the normal things that we go through in our heads and gives suggestions for how to cope with them.

It's not Aetna's fault. It's your company. They chose not to cover this lifesaving surgery. Plus, if you have other choices at Open Enrollment, it's unlikely your company is paying for WLS on any of the policies they offer. That's my situation. Aetna has actually been very good to me. They have paid for every pre-op tests, all post-op meds, etc. It's only the surgery they don't pay for and that's because my company didn't include the coverage. So it's my company that I'm mad at. They cover IVF, they are talking about covering sex change operations, they give us $300 to join a gym and a discount at Jenny Craig but they won't cover WLS. Morons.

I like my gray hair. It's more silver. But my hairdresser keeps dying them when she does my highlights.

I can see it and I have a Mac too.

I know someone who has done that. It's working for her. She is losing weight again.

Well, I didn't have a band but a sleeve. But some days I wonder "should I have had the DS?" (The sleeve is sometimes done as the first stage of a DS; IOW a DS is a sleeve plus intestinal re-routing.) But I know I don't really want one. It's just some weeks I only lose a pound and then I panic.

I looked into this once I found out that my company had an exclusion for WLS. What I was told by my insurance company is that if I have a complication that involves removing the band, that they will not pay for it. However, other complications such as for blood clots would most likely be paid for. But there are no guarantees. You need to talk to your insurance company though because it will depend on their policies and the exact wording of the policy. I found mine was pretty good about paying for everything I submitted -- which was all the pre-op testing, the post-op prescriptions and even my stomach biopsy -- which was a direct result of my surgery and so should not have been covered.

I'm back from my vacation. I got to ride the Tower of Terror FOUR TIMES. Woot, woot!

Most 11s got that way with artificial enhancement anyway. I do think that people are like Water and seek their own level. But that level isn't 100% determined by looks. It's a complex formula of looks, personality and status.

As far as loose skin goes, you could easily have 10 - 20 lb. of it depending on how big you were before and how elastic your skin is. I've been watching a lot of Big Medicine and those patients almost always lose around 15 lb. of skin when they do those big operations where they contour the lower body. I don't think I'll have that much, but I started out with only 90 lb. to lose.

Be sure to take your pain meds and walk like crazy. That's all I know. Walking will help with the gas which can contribute to the pain.

Welcome to LapbandTalk!

More like 0.1%. And plain. Congrats, Beth. My cholesterol is 131.

You can get too much Protein, but you have to get an ENORMOUS amount. According to some studies, you can have something like 2.8 g of protein for every kg of body weight. Most nutritionist recommend no more than 2 g per kg but again that's still an enormous amount. Most of us are getting something like 70-100 g which is no where near that amount. I'm around 77 kg so I'm getting slightly more than 1 g of protein per kg of body weight for example. However, if you are worried, drinking a lot of fluids helps the kidneys function better and is recommended when on a high protein diet.

Doesn't he know we're 99.9% women here?? Oh and plain.

I don't know about anything particular, but stuff does happen immediately post-op that catches people by surprise. You might want to lurk on the Post-op Support subforum and get a feel for what you might experience.

The smaller you are, the less calories it takes just to run your body ... make your organs work, breathe, pump blood, etc. So now you are operating at less of a calorie deficient than you used to (assuming your calories are the same). At the same time, the farther out people get, the more they try things that they might not have tried in the beginning. So you may be eating more and drinking and exercising less. Finally, your body gets used to whatever you do to it and adjusts/compensates. The first one you can't do anything about and it's a good thing -- it means you are healthier. The last two are in your control though. If you evaluate your lifestyle and find some room for improvement, you can implement them. Even if you are doing pretty good in the diet and exercise department, you can kick start your body by mixing things up. I tend to mix things up anyway just because that's how my life works. I don't always exercise on the same day, I do different kinds of exercises all the time, and I vary how many days I exercise each week. Also, I get a lot of calories one day and hardly any the next. All that kind of stuff can help. I know that as a dieter, I've never had a stall, and I'm hoping as a WLS patient that I'll continue my streak.

I use Heathwise's protein hot chocolate. I'm drinking one right now!

This could actually be good thing! If you get your thyroid under control, you may be able to lose weight without surgery. And if you can't lose enough, then at least with your thyroid under control, you know your surgery will work.

I've never heard of it, but wouldn't an Upper GI show what is going on with your band and tubing? Either your surgeon or a regular doctor can order one of those.

It works on my iPhone too.

California Local Lap-Band Support - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum Fifties - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum :drool:

Oh, that's too bad. What are they going to do to find out?