laurenwhite82

One of my supervisors where I work, her brother had both RNY and the band after he began to regain so obviously its possible. Interesting too!

Thanks for your taking the time to respond! My PCP is Dr. DeOre....I really like her a lot! My insurance required 6 months so Ive been seeing a lot of her lately. Before this, I was one of those people who went to the dr when I got sick once a year, maybe. I feel like a crazy person now. Anyway, the testing day sounds like a very crazy day! You would think they would have people to walk you through all of that stuff, but I know they are very busy people. Maybe after Im banded they will hire me to do that as I am not very fond of the job I currently have... I will keep an eye out about the faxing issue. Luckily I work pretty closeby, so if i have to go get it and run it over there during lunch or something I will. I suppose I will just cross my fingers and hope it all goes smoothly and try not to be too pushy. I have worked in doctors offices and hospitals before and know all too well how "red-tapey" things like this can be. I know what you mean about creating more stress for yourself as that is what im doing right now. I dont think ill be able to relax until i have a letter in my hand saying im approved, but im sure gonna try. I know I am driving my boyfriend nuts! Glad things finally got worked out for you and you finally have your band! If I think of any more questions I will PM you. Thanks again! :smile:

We should all meet up! It would be nice to know other people in the area who are banded!

Thanks for your response. Do let me know how all your testing went today, how long it took, etc. I kinda figured it would be a month or so after the consult till my surgery date. Im getting antsy! One of my bosses is being a pain about time off, even though I am barely ever gone and have the days built up, so I figure I will just call in sick the day of the tests so I dont have to hear it. Good luck today! July 1st will be here before you know it!

It is terrible what your "friends" did to you. They cant look past their own insecurities enough to support you so you dont need em! On another note, has the diet helped your lupus (blood work and stuff)? Also, did you know you had lupus before you were banded and have you had any problems due to being banded with it? Congrats on your success so far and it sounds like you are doing great. I am originally from Texas too, but north Texas....a looooong way away from El Paso!

There are plenty of other american doctors who would help you. I know the drs at NYU will see people who were banded by other doctors. Especially if you are having trouble. What are you eating?? Are you chewing? How long have you been in pain and, if your dr was not responding, have you tried to contact any other drs to get their help? Have you gone to do a barium swallow to see if you have a slipped band? All of these things are part of routine band follow up and, if something is wrong, you arent gonna lose weight at the same rate. This does not make the band a bad proceedure...just means you need a better doctor and more follow up.

Still....you give no more information regarding your problems. This makes people wonder about your motives. Just sayin....makes you sound a little fishy.

I guess it all depends on what you consider "relatively healthy." The chemicals in it could cause people to get cancer, heart problems, a whole host of diseases that, because they have no long term research, would take a while to figure out. It could encourage people to change their diet, but how many side effects will they see due to the additives?? This to me seems like it would have so many more long term problems than most "fad diets." Maybe im just paranoid.

Karobix- Arent you worried about the chemicals you are ingesting?? You have no idea what the long term effects of this stuff will be. There are already enough chemicals in our food...this is part of what began the obesity epidemic that america faces now. Just look at the side of the box of most of the things we eat. Non-chemically enhanced foods are becoming hard to find, and when you do, they are 3 times the price of the other crap. What happens when in a few years your body becomes used to the "sprinkles"? You are no longer able to enjoy normal food without this additive?? Sounds like crack cocaine to me... In weight loss, a lifestyle change is imperative. Obese people will do almost anything to be thin (this just proves that theory). These people who tote these snake oil weight loss "treatments" should be arrested for fraud and public endangerment as they have not ever been proven to be safe. In fact, many people have died as a result of bogus weight loss "medicines." I don't think the people on the lap band board are going to be the most receptive to this idea as most have tried some diet pill or fad diet and have landed right back where they were. This is why they are on the lap band site....because they are tired of all of this other crap.

How soon after your surgical consult were you able to get in for the tests?? I know Im gonna have to take at least a few half days off from work in August to get all this done. On top of it all, one of my bosses is kinda being a pain in my side about taking any time off, even though I have the time available and it is a slow time of year in my department. Oh well....Just kinda wanna get an idea of how many hours the consult and the tests each took. I saw that someone said the tests took 4 hours! Wow. Good luck with your pending approval... I havent even submitted yet and Im already getting nervous. Im sure youll be approved and itll be over before you know it!:rolleyes2:

Thanks for the advice....sounds like a pain in the ass. What we will do to lose weight! Haha! Do you think the patient area people would willingly just give you a copy because Id rather just walk it myself to my PCP if it is going to be a big issue. BTW...is your PCP at Murray Hill?? Just thought since you said it was only a block away. Mine is. I wonder why they dont schedule the esophogram for you but they schedule everything else....weird. Anyway, any other good advice for us NYUers??

Just out of curiosity.... How many of you who say your doctors are "very conservative with fills" pay for your fills out of pocket versus have fills that are covered by insurance?? Maybe I am a little jaded, not that someone should get filled too fast, but surely there is a happy medium. Do you think they are lining their pockets with your fill money or legitimately being cautious??

Good luck! I will be submitting to Cigna sometime in August and I think my tactic is sending them more information about my fat butt then they ever wanted. That way, maybe they will just be overwhelmed and approve me quickly! I was lucky enough to dig up not just 2, but 5 years of weight history with a BMI over 40. Along with that I am sending 2 letters of recommendation from different doctors plus a personal letter stating my case (my PCP recommended that I do this). My BMI is 44 i think now and I have PCOS and high cholesterol so I am really having a hard time seeing how they could say no, but they do all the time. Do you think information overload will help?? I'm kinda becoming a little OCD about all of this....haha. Help!! :smile2:

I am very sorry that they did this to you....insurance compnies suck and are generally the spawn of satan. However, don't hold it against Moonshine. She's probably just bitter because her parents named her Moonshine....wouldn't you be??

I will be banded at NYU as well....Dr. Ren here. I am in my 5th month of my 6 months required by insurance and will be seeing the nutritionist July 10th. Hopefully I will have surgery in September sometime. I have heard from other people that some of the office staff can be a little interesting, so do let us know if they ask you to submit anything further. Good luck with everything! Question...do any of you go to the support group meetings at NYU (or do you plan to after being banded)? Thanks!

I have PCOS and am on metformin. Have only been on it for about 6 months. The only major side effect I have seen is a little diarrhea if I eat something highly processed. If I eat healthy food, its not really a problem. I have lost weight while on it. I am also on birth control, but I have been on birth control for like 9 years now, so I have a regular, normal period. Without the birth control, I am regular but very very very heavy and crampy that I cant really go to work or function in life for my heaviest days of my period. I cant imagine being without my nuva ring! I am on the time release metformin btw. I think i will have to go off it during the liquid diet before and after surgery, but can go back on after that if i need to.

I am not sure why your psychologist would try to change your mind about which procedure you preferred. That is a personal choice, and I wouldnt think it would make much of a difference psychologically. Hmmm.... Anyway.... Personally, I thought about the seeve but, since it is not adjustable like the band, there is a tendancy for the pouch to stretch back out and people to regain their weight (from what I read). It is a more involved surgery than the band as well, although not as complicated as RNY. The sleeve was never a real option for me as my insurance will not cover it. It is still considered "experimental" by Cigna because it has not been around as long. Anyway, it has to be something that you choose, as it is a very personal endeavor we are on. Do you have another appointment with your psychologist? If so, you might ask why he or she recommended another surgery. Make your dr aware that you have done the research and you have reasons as to why you have chosen what you have chosen. Is your psych. associated with a bariatric hospital? I will have surgery at NYU (which happens to be very band gung-ho) and had to go to "their" psychologist to get approved for surgery. Maybe the hospitals wants are rubbing off onto the psych.?? Every dr has a surgery they prefer....who knows! Good luck with everything and stick to your guns!!

Mine is making me have the 6 month diet plus 2 years documentation of my BMI being over 40. So far I have one year but Im having to scrounge around for the other! What totally sucks about it is that I went to the dr plenty of times at my student health center (I was in grad school for the last 2 years) and they didn't weigh me!! This has been the case for a few of my drs...they just didnt weigh me...not entirely sure what to do about that.

So im starting to get close to the end and thinking about every possible thing that could go wrong....yes, bad attitude, i know, but im just trying to be prepared for anything. I have Cigna and was required to do the 6 month pre op appointments. I am in my 5th month right now, but when I look back over my dates of my visits I wonder if this will be a problem. My first appointment was Feb. 1st. Ive been trying to go at the beginning of every month but this month I ended up going on the 2nd (counting as my 5th month appointment) and am going again on the 30th (counting as my 6 month appt). Do any of you know whether my insurance will consider the dates too close together or will they say I am missing a month since I technically wont be going for the month of July?? I know my dr will move the date up if needed, but Id like to get an idea if this will be a problem so I can talk to her about it beforehand. I am being banded at NYU so I plan on asking the patient liason there as well, but I thought Id see if anyone here has had any experience with this. Thanks!

Good luck to you! The waiting is the hardest part! Hope they arent jerks to you too.

I only had to have one appt a month, but, if we are really getting down to technicalities here, some months I had one at the beginning of the month and one at the end (one on the 1st and one on the 31st). I just dont know how big of jerks Cigna is gonna try to be.

Thanks for all the responses....still trying to get ahold of the patient liason at NYU (shes a very busy woman apparently), but I think I will go ahead and ask my dr. to have the dates reflect one appointment a month just to be on the safe side.

I began looking into Lap Band while I was in grad school and I was on student insurance. My policy excluded WLS. I spoke to my dr about it there and she said when the surgery is flat out excluded, it is really hard to get companies to change their mind. You basically would have to by dying in the hospital for them to make an exception. You mentioned you are a student. I do not know if this is your situation, but many insurance plans sold through universities/colleges, geared toward students, have these kinds of exclusions because they know they will not be paying out long term for your healthcare. Generally speaking, you will only be covered by them for 2-5 years. They are frankly not very concerned with your health in the sense that once you are not covered by them, they are not forking over money to treat any health issues, obesity related or otherwise. They figure that very little is going to happen to you within the time you are covered by them. This is why the rates are somewhat affordable, usually the benefits arent so great. I knew I would be getting a job the next year, so I just waited it out. I now have Cigna and it is covered under my plan. Will you graduate soon?? Good luck to you!

I live in Westchester Co. (Tarrytown) and plan on being banded by either Dr. Ren or Dr. Fielding (havent decided which yet) at NYU. I am currently in my 5th month of my 6 month pre op diet.

They basically want to see if you are prepared to make the changes you are about to make. Also, they want to see if there is a history of eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, bulemia, etc as these things can problems for anyone considering weight loss surgery. Even though it is one more hoop to jump through, I think it is an important one as so many peoples weight issues are tied to their emotional/mental health. These are big changes we are making and can be hard to handle. I just had my evaluation on Friday. It lasted about an hour and a half, 30 mins of that was filling out paperwork and the other hour was talking to the psychologist. Many people have to take the MMPI which is a personality test, but I didnt have to. The visit pretty well consisted of the dr asking me what kind of an eater I tend to be (emotional, binge, etc), talking about what kind of struggles I have had with my weight in the past (on the job, socially, etc), and answering questions I had. The psych. i saw has seen many bandsters before and after, so I know that if I have problems afterward, I can at least have someone who is understanding. It was pretty painless overall!