Jennifer77

I HATE chocolate and peanut butter. I have a hard time with protein powders/drinks. I have tried to mix the powder in some yogurt and it's just not working. My question is... has any one found a "good" protein bar, that I can use as a meal replacement. I really like grabbing one for breakfast, and carrying them around in my purse for just in case moments. Here is my issue. Like I have already said I HATE chocolate even the fake kind. I have not found a protein bar that doesn't have that awful tasting excuse for chocolate. I like crispy fruit and granola type bars. I can't seem to find any that have a high enough protein content and a low enough sugar content. PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I have discovered that since my banding I have been extremely lactose intolerant. At first it was painful. I was living on gas-x strips and nothing helped. I was mixing my protein shakes with milk. So I switched to lactaid. It helped a little, but it was still an issue. So I tried lactose friendly powederd protein shakes, and that didn't do much. I started drinking the clear Isopure sugar free drinks from GNC and stoped eating milk, and cheese products. I felt a billion times better. I don't have the gas cramps any more. I decieded to do an experiment and I added cheese to my meat and crackers at lunch, and the gas came back. So, no more lactose for me. It makes me sad. But gas and diarhea just aren't any fun.

Didn't they give you any Zofran? It helps quell nausea and vomiting. I lived on the stuff for the first week. Talk to your Dr. about getting some. It dissolves on your tongue so you don't have to worry about trying to swallow a pill.

You may also want to switch your milk for your protein shakes with Lactaid. And try to use a lactose friendly protein powder. I was never lactose intolorant at least I never thought so untill the band. I switched from protein shakes to Isopure clear protein drinks. The lactose in the milk and protein powder was causing terrible gas cramping and pain. The gas made it hurt to breath. I thought I was going to die. But after the first week, I switched and felt a billion times better. I am 5 months post-op and have never been happier with my decision to have this done. Hope this helps a little. P.S. Cut your Isopure in half and dilute it with water. They can be a little thick and heavy. That way your not only getting your protein, but you are also getting your fluids. I would just keep an empty glass bottle around and pour half of the new bottle in and then fill the rest of the way with water.

Psychiatrists and Nutritionists ALWAYS have to fight to get their sessions covered by insurances. Especially one time only visits. All of the psychiatrists I contacted work on their own with no office staff and usually pay an outside company to do their medical billing. And sadly most all of those billing company's really don't do a good job of getting money for the Doctors. I paid $250 cash and then submitted the "super bill" to my insurance carrier myself and later got a refund from the insurance company (minus of course my regular 20% co-pay) Now of course there are some offices out there that aren't that way, and do take the time to fight and appeal the decisions that the insurance companies make, so if you want to do the research and call around to everyone then go ahead. I just decided to take the matter into my own hands and deal with my insurance myself.

I am three months out and I keep wavering between 20-25 lbs lost, and I am ecstatic. I could never have lost that much weight in three months before. As I am sure you couldn't have either. But one thing I heard somewhere along my long line of dieting, is that you lose the weight in the reverse order you put it on. My tummy was the first place I started to gain weight. So, I am expecting that to be one of the last places I lose it. I can still remember my first stretch mark showing up just above my belly button. I had no idea of what it was. YIKES!!! Well now it's a whole family of them above the belly button, below the belly button, on my arms. I am surprised my eyeballs don't have stretch marks. I did after all gain 100 lbs in the six months following my high school graduation. Stop worrying, just keep doing what your doing, and eventually you will feel and see your results. I hate to get preachy on you, but "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Oh, and that gummy chewy center thing is gross too. You can't have a gummy chewy center and roll it in rice crispy's and think that that tastes good, and is a crunchy bar. Gross.

I cant believe that you have already had 5 fills since your surgery date in May. I had my surgery the end of April, and I have only had 2 fills. My Doctor wont even think about giving me another fill until at least 4 weeks after the previous. But every doctor is different. I am happy for you and your final restriction. It's a good feeling. Even with only my two fills, I feel a pretty good amount of restriction. I have 5cc's in a 10cc allergan band. Anyway, congrats again.

Start with the surgery centers themselves. Call around to all the bariatric surgery centers and ask if they are a "Blue Cross Center of Excellence (COE)". Blue cross only covers the procedures at the centers THEY deem as COE. After talking to tons of Dr.s offices by looking them up on my Anthem Blue Cross website, and hearing that the Dr. is a contracted physician, I would start the process only to find out that the center that the doctor uses is not a COE therefor ABC would not cover it. I called around to about 8 different surgery hospitals/centers before I found a location that was COE. And then from there I asked them which physicians on staff were contracted through ABC as well. And that's how after six months of searching, I finally found the center and doctor that my insurance would cover. Good luck. In this day and age you need to be your own advocate. Alot of Dr.s are dropping their contracts with the insurance companies because they are quite frankly getting screwed by them. I work at a brand new surgery center, and we don't contract with anyone because we would loose too much money and be unable to stay open. Make the calls and make sure you are asking the correct questions, and you should do fine. BTW, blue cross is terrible about paying for the after care. As far as your fills and such, you may need to pay for those on your own. I ended up paying a "fee" after my insurance pay outs to cover the cost of my aftercare (fills, consults, post procedure follow up visits). Again good luck.

I take the Bariatric Advantage Vitaband chewables. They are specially designed for lap-band patients. I also take Bariatric Advantage Calcium lozenges. Because my Dr. said that you should also up your calcium since your bones wont get the good work-out they get currently by lugging all your weight around.

I already posted and told you about Dr. Paya, but I also want you to know that I too went to Dr Billy. He is awesome. He was part of my insurance and I did my procedure with him at St Johns in Oxnard. They were a center of excellence. If you want a no nonsence kind of Dr then he is your guy.

Northridge hospital has an EXCELLENT WLS program. My Doctor Recommended Dr. Mark Paya. If I remember correctly they charge $15,700 which is the best cash rate around. That includes all before and after care and up to six fills. It also includes the consults with the nutritionist on staff. Go to their seminars, you can find the next one on the lap band web site. Home It was the first seminar I went to on this journey. I would have gone there if they were a blue cross center of excellence. (I wanted to do mine through insurance) He does his surgerys out of Northridge and West Hills surgical center.

My culprit for my terrible pain and gas was milk. Dairy products. The second I cut out milk with my Protein shakes, my gas problems were solved. I also lived on gas-x strips. I switched from the milk based, milkshake like Protein drinks, and went with the clear Isopure from GNC. I didn't have the gas or the pain anymore. The only problem with that was that I don't very much care for the Isopure. I dilute it half Water, half isopure. It helps me get it down, and it also helps me get my fluids and protein in. When I do need some milk I usually use Lactaid. I hope this helps you as much as it did for me.

I did the isopure during the liquid phase. I thought it was the best option. The milky kinds gave me terrible gas and made the post op time very painful. I found that once I cut dairy, the terrible cramping and abdominal pain went away. I did find that it was too thick and syrupy for me. So I kept my bottles, and would pour half of one into the empty bottles. Then I would fill the two bottles the rest of the way with water. I had the two drinks and it was also a good way to make sure I wasn't only getting my protein, but that I was also getting my fluids in.

I work in a surgery center and I get phone calls like this all the time about insurance and just trying to submit the claim. We submit the claims regardless, but we know that they won't pay. We even try to appeal, but still they won't pay. Doctors offices and Surgery centers know who will and will not pay for certain services. They have been dealing with insurance companies for years. What is really difficult is when insurance companies change their policies. One year they cover something and the next year they deem it "not medically necessary". Patients come in and want to know why it was covered last year but not this year. We don't have the answer for that; all we know is that now we have a ton of angry patients who don't want to pay because they didn't have to before. When your Dr's office tells you that your insurance company isn't going to pay, they are doing it so that you don't bank on it. Some people think that they will be different and go through all the hoops with a false hope. And when it comes down to it in the end and the insurance company refuses and the patient then walks away and cancels. Then you are left with an office staff that has invested a lot of time and energy into a patient for nothing. And a patient that is sad and disillusioned thinking that they might be the exception to the rule. They really just want to prepare you for what they inevitably know is going to happen.

I am in the exact same boat as you. I haven't lost any more weight since my initial liquid diet weight loss, and I to had restriction for the first few days after my first fill and then nothing more. I am going in again for another fill on Wednesday. From what has been told to me by my Doctors and other members of this site, is that it takes a while for things to get how they should be. It's a slow arduous process. We just have to be patient and stick with all the guidelines as best we can. It will happen eventually. We just need to rise above these hard learning times. It sucks. Especially when everyone is watching you like a hawk thinking that this is going to be like a RnY, and your gonna loose buckets of weight fast. It's just not that way with the band.

I just can't seem to get motivated to eat properly. I have had one fill so far. When I eat what I am supposed to, I feel great. That should be motivation enough, but I am still fighting those old demons. I HATE that the food I am not supposed to eat is the easiest. And with as expensive as food is getting, it's hard to afford the proper foods. The bad food is so much cheaper and easier. ARGH!!! This is not fair. Anyway, just needed to rant. I know it's a slow process and I am not going to change overnight. poop.:blushing:

I have blue cross of CA (now known as Anthem of CA). I had no problem getting the prior-auth. And as soon as I was done with all the pre-op tests and evals, it just took a couple days for my auth to go through and get approved. You just really need to do your research and find a Dr. who is in-network, and uses a facility that is one of Blue Cross' "Center Of Excellence" (COE). The Blue Cross COE standard is probably the most important if you want to go through insurance. I went through several surgeons before I found one that was up front and honest about their facility. Eventually I just started calling bariatric surgery centers and hospitals in the area to find out if they were a BXCOE and then asked which Dr. did their bariatric surgerys. Thats how I found Dr. Billy. He was also recomended on the lap-band web site. Otherwise Blue Cross will not pay anything. And Blue Cross of CA is terrible about paying for the after care. My Dr. just charged me a "fee" and that covers all the follow-up care for my procedure.

My Doctor told me to stay away from the protein bullet drinks. He said that they used to tell their patients to drink them, but they just found out that they use a very inferior protein, and you don't get all the amino acids you need from the protein. They told me to drink only Whey protein isolate. It's the best form of protein out there. It has all the essential amino acids. The other kinds of proteins aren't as complete. They said the bullets are better than nothing, but try to only use them in a pinch. And not to make them your only source of protein.

I am a little over 6 weeks post op, and I too can still eat just about anything I want. I have had one fill so far and I am scheduled to have my next fill in three weeks. Please don't get distressed by what happens for the first few months of this process. It takes time. Slow and gradual is the best. That's why I chose this over RNY. Your habits don't change overnight and if you wake up with instant restriction you are going to be in a world of hurt. I am sure that right now your eating habits haven't changed all that much. I get things stuck occasionally, and it's hell. You have to re-train yourself. Use this time when you have a little more leeway to practice your new eating habits. As my old band director said "Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect" Take this time to practice perfectly. Trust me, it's not a bad thing. It just takes time, and you are only going to make yourself miserable if you focus on these things so quickly after your surgery.

First off, PIZZA? That's a strict no-no for me. And you sound like I do. Lunch is hard when you only have a half hour to do it in. I am seriously considering to ask if I can be alloted at least 45 minutes. With waiting for the microwave and then the time to cook the food. I am only left with about 20 minutes to eat. I find myself PBing and sliming after lunch everyday. My restriction is fine, I just need to have the time to slowly eat and make sure my food is thoroughly chewed. I was eating pizza because it would go down pretty easy, but I found that I would get hungry again pretty quick. I changed to eating straight protein (piece of baked chicken breast) and vegtables and the hunger difference has been night and day. I am pretty much staying away from carbs because I seem to get more hungry on them. At first it was hard, but now I am so thankful for the decision because now I see my weight going down again, and I don't snack anymore.

I too just watered down regular 100% fruit juices not from concentrate. It gave the plain water just a little bit of flavor, and the sugars were natural sugars, just very diluted. And besides the full strength juice got to be too much for me. My palate changed from enjoying bold flavors to appreciating more subtle flavors so just plain water became a wonderful thing for me. Regular juice became too thick and powerful, so I loved watering it down anyway. And you don't have any artificial flavors entering your body.

Totally normal. I was banded April 28 and I still have some bruising. I had bruising around three of my incisions. Don't worry about it. Oh, and your gonna be swollen too.

I don't know. I have never been diagnosed with that. Usually when I go to see my gyny (which is once a year) they just tell me to lose weight and I will be fine. When I am smaller, I do have regular periods.

So, I just got banded on April 28th. I received my first fill last Wednesday May 28th. Today I was eating dinner, and self admittedly, I ate too much and too fast. I am still trying to get in the proper habits. I know they won't happen overnight, so I am not too disappointed in myself. I went in to do my semi normal burp up the last bite of food routine, and I found myself violently vomiting. Now there are some weird things happening in my GI track today, so maybe I could be coming down with a stomach flu, but as I was surprised to see what looked like blood in my vomit. It kinda has me scared. It wasn't enough to really tell, but it was there. I called my husband over too take a look (he's so good to me), and he thought that maybe it could be too. What do you guys think. I don't have any pain or any acid reflux. I work with Gastroenterologists so I can ask them tomorrow, and maybe even throw in an EGD at the end of the work day or something. But I want to know if any of you may have experienced this.