MacMadame

Sometimes things fall through the cracks too. Like each mod thinks another mod took care of it.

It was the easiest of my 3 operations. Easier than both c-sections and the open cholecystectomy.

Because she's an idiot. Oh, and he's one, too. :thumbup: Slips happen. Once you slip, you are prone to them. So I don't really agree with docs who respond to a slip by a surgery to reposition the band or replace it. It's just postponing the inevitable for most people and at the cost of a surgery. If you are going to have a surgery, anyway, I'd say just revise to something else that won't slip. People fly to other parts of the country or other countries for surgery all the time. It does increase the risk but there are extra measures they can take to combat that. My surgeon would put you on lovenox for a time after surgery if you were flying, for example. I think it's going to depend but in general it seems like the VSG take a few more days than a band. But I've seen banded people take longer than you to recover too. So it may not be a few days more than the last time but a few days more than average. I was back to work at 1.5 weeks and wished I'd taken 2 but, from what I can tell, I had a slow recovery, mostly due to the hiatal hernia repair I had at the same time. It depends on the policy. But if they don't, there are US surgeons who do the sleeve and have been for a number of years. You have lots of choices, not just Mexico vs. Mass. My surgeon finds them comparable. We even lose weight just as fast even though there is no malabsorption. (I think it's because we can eat less and have no ghrelin.) Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

This is something that has always amazed me about bariatric surgery. The prices vary WILDLY and you most definitely *don't* get what you pay for all the time. My surgeon has done more sleeves than anyone in the country. We live in a high CoL area too. But he only charges $17,500 for a sleeve. If you don't want to go to Mexico, for whatever reason, you'd be much better off coming here to CA and getting him than you would be going to someone who has only done 25 sleeves and charges $7,500 more! Customer support code for "we know we're wrong but we'll never admit it."

7 weeks out. If you can tolerate them sooner, go for it! But most people can tolerate them at 2-3 months.

Because insurance requires a lot of documentation of your problems before they'll pay for a revision...

Most of the protein I see at GNC and other places is whey based. You probably just stumbled on a soy section. :ohmy: That happens on the web sometimes.

It's a slow news week?

:ohmy: I said I wanted to look like a particular WOman, who I'm pretty sure you don't even know what she looks like... because she definitely doesn't look like a man.

I got a bike fit today! They moved my seat down and back and adjusted my handle bars and now I am more balanced on the bike and also can go 2 MPH faster with the same amount of effort. I'm stoked!

I went to "track" but it was at the park this week. We ran a beautiful route, very scenic. I think I got about about 4 miles of running in and a bit more of walking. And there were a bunch of people who I kept passing (and then they'd pass me back). Usually I'm so far behind that I can't even see the next slowest person!

Evening races are the best. I'm going to do one next year called "Showdown at Sundown". It starts at 2:30pm instead of the usual 7am!

Maybe exercise DVDs aren't the right exercise for you. I find them pretty boring myself....

You took the words right out of my keyboard.

I want to look like that! There was this 72 year old woman who did the Ironman World Championships last year who was RIPPED. She looked much buffer than me and I'm jealous.

Yikes! Mine only charges 17,000. And he's the most experience sleeve surgeon in the US.

Thanks for checking in!

I took the day off. I'm resting up for next Triathlon on Sunday.

Sign up for a triathlon. Then you'll HAVE to work on running. I felt the same way about that first 20 min. run. I was sure I wouldn't be able to do it!

Let us know how it goes!

So soon? How exciting! I'm happy for you.

And this is why, when you mentioned having a slip, I was completely taken aback and started rethinking my decision to have a bad. I figured: if *Susan* can have a slip, then ANYONE can and that includes me.

Oh and I forgot to introduce everyone... Susan and Elizabeth are moderators here who just got their bands taken out and revised to a sleeve at the beginning of the month. OregonDaisy is a moderator who is getting revised to a sleeve next month. Wasa is a long-time LBT member who was revised months ago... it's coming up on a year for you, isn't it, Wasa? I never had a band. I went right to a sleeve and mostly because of Susan's experience with slippage. For some reason her story really brought me up short and made me realize that even rule followers have trouble with the band. Then I started looking for an alternative and found the sleeve.

Have you found your insurance company's bariatric policy yet? It should list what their criteria is for revisions. Some policies are kind of buttheads about it -- won't pay if your weight is below 35 BMI, for example. But most of them will pay if the revision is medically necessary. With your band problems, you should easily qualify on that score.

Have you appealed? Because you meet the NIH qualifications and I don't know of any insurance whose guidelines you don't meet. But I do know of people who met the qualifications who were denied anyway and won on appeal.