afw

I can second this - I never went to the doc last year at all (me=slack) so I was able to provide records from my OBGYN for the other four years and my Weight Watchers booklet for 2007. I still had it in my purse after 11 months because I kept telling myself I'd be back... next week...

Wow. Amazing. Also, I am never going to eat liver, ever. :-)

I have Blue Cross of North Carolina's PPO plan, through my employer. I already loved my job - now I love it even more!!

So my insurance will pay 100%, no copay, no deductible (in general, though I myself am not yet approved), and I've got my consultation scheduled. Yay! This is the phone message I just got (my phone company sends transcribed voicemails to my email, which I LOVE): "Hi! This is ***** calling from Dr. ****'s Office. Just want to let you know that we have verified your benefits with your insurance company for the Lap-Band. If you could just give me a callback at your convenience. I can be reached at *******. Thank you." And I go in to see the surgeon on May 20. They say they can usually get you scheduled within 4-6 weeks of your consultation, so I should be banded by early July! YAY!!!!!!!!!

It was great! I really enjoyed it. It was very informative and it meant a lot to me that the surgeon did the whole thing himself - I really like the fact that he is not afraid to make himself available and accessible, he doesn't hide behind layers of coordinators and nurses. That means a lot to me.

So tomorrow at 6pm is my seminar. At this point all the info I have on Lap-Band comes from this website (and others), and those commercials with the really heavy people saying "If I lost the weight..." I am a little nervous, but only about something getting in the way of this happening. I can't see what that could be - I'm in very good health; I actually had a doctor say to me once, "you know, you really have no right to be in this good of health given your weight." My insurance policy covers the procedure, and I meet the guidelines, and as far as I can tell my employer does not exclude WLS. I decided that I would never do gastric bypass, partly because the whole idea of slicing out half my digestive system completely freaks me out, and also because the mortality rate scares me. Half a percent seems like a lot! I have two children, ages five and almost two, and half a percent is too high for me - I would rather be fat and alive and here for my children than dead trying to be thinner. And since I don't have any health problems it's not like I'm facing a crisis. But .05%, that's one in 2000. The odds of dying in a car crash are one in 5000, and I drive my car every single day. So that I can live with. I am starting to feel more excited, too, about the idea of being smaller. I think it's held me back professionally, at least to a degree, although since I pretty much mommy-tracked myself when my son was born five years ago, it's hard to know how much of that was my choices versus others judging me. I'm going to accept responsibility for it either way, because whether it was my choice to focus on my children or my choice to overeat, I own it. I have decided, if there is a good reason not to do this, I won't - but it has to be a really good reason, like the insurance won't pay, or I have some undetected health issue that precludes it. I won't let the reason be that I don't want to live on liquids and mushy foods for a while after the surgery. I'm not too thrilled about that part; I've always been a person who liked texture as much as taste and I've never been a fan of gooey foods. I didn't learn to like mashed potatoes until my 20's, I like to crunch things! But it's time-limited. I might be counting the days until I can eat something with some bite to it, but if I know it will end I can tolerate it. So, I hope the seminar tomorrow leaves me hopeful and not deflated. I have heard nothing but good things about the surgeon I am going to see, so that's in my favor. And I have already made a new friend on this board who will be at the same seminar, so that's exciting too. Wish me luck! I look forward to reading these posts from the beginning of my journey in 18 months, when I am a size 10 and my children don't recognize the old photos of me.

So my insurance will pay 100%, no copay, no deductible (in general, though I myself am not yet approved), and I've got my consultation scheduled. Yay! This is the phone message I just got (my phone company sends transcribed voicemails to my email, which I LOVE): "Hi! This is ***** calling from Dr. ****'s Office. Just want to let you know that we have verified your benefits with your insurance company for the Lap-Band. If you could just give me a callback at your convenience. I can be reached at *******. Thank you." And I go in to see the surgeon on May 20. They say they can usually get you scheduled within 4-6 weeks of your consultation, so I should be banded by early July! YAY!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to second that - getting up and moving around hurts but it is your friend long-term. I haven't been banded yet, but I've had two c-sections, and with the first they left the epidural in for 24 hours, which meant I stayed parked in bed. I was miserable for two weeks with that one. With the second I had a spinal (no catheter stayed in my back) and I was up moving around 8 hours after the delivery. When my daughter's pediatrician came in to see her the next morning, 24 hours after surgery, he thought she was a vaginal delivery since I was up, dressed and brushing my teeth and moving around like a normal person. So GET UP as soon as the nurse tells you it's safe, even if it hurts. You will be glad you did.

I'm not a doctor, or a nurse, but I'd be sure to tell my surgeon about being around someone with MRSA. There are antibiotics that will fight it, and they might want to give them prophylactically. Maybe some of the nurses can chime in if I'm being overly cautious, but that's a nasty bug and I'd want my surgeon to know about it.

So tomorrow at 6pm is my seminar. At this point all the info I have on Lap-Band comes from this website (and others), and those commercials with the really heavy people saying "If I lost the weight..." I am a little nervous, but only about something getting in the way of this happening. I can't see what that could be - I'm in very good health; I actually had a doctor say to me once, "you know, you really have no right to be in this good of health given your weight." My insurance policy covers the procedure, and I meet the guidelines, and as far as I can tell my employer does not exclude WLS. I decided that I would never do gastric bypass, partly because the whole idea of slicing out half my digestive system completely freaks me out, and also because the mortality rate scares me. Half a percent seems like a lot! I have two children, ages five and almost two, and half a percent is too high for me - I would rather be fat and alive and here for my children than dead trying to be thinner. And since I don't have any health problems it's not like I'm facing a crisis. But .05%, that's one in 2000. The odds of dying in a car crash are one in 5000, and I drive my car every single day. So that I can live with. I am starting to feel more excited, too, about the idea of being smaller. I think it's held me back professionally, at least to a degree, although since I pretty much mommy-tracked myself when my son was born five years ago, it's hard to know how much of that was my choices versus others judging me. I'm going to accept responsibility for it either way, because whether it was my choice to focus on my children or my choice to overeat, I own it. I have decided, if there is a good reason not to do this, I won't - but it has to be a really good reason, like the insurance won't pay, or I have some undetected health issue that precludes it. I won't let the reason be that I don't want to live on liquids and mushy foods for a while after the surgery. I'm not too thrilled about that part; I've always been a person who liked texture as much as taste and I've never been a fan of gooey foods. I didn't learn to like mashed potatoes until my 20's, I like to crunch things! But it's time-limited. I might be counting the days until I can eat something with some bite to it, but if I know it will end I can tolerate it. So, I hope the seminar tomorrow leaves me hopeful and not deflated. I have heard nothing but good things about the surgeon I am going to see, so that's in my favor. And I have already made a new friend on this board who will be at the same seminar, so that's exciting too. Wish me luck! I look forward to reading these posts from the beginning of my journey in 18 months, when I am a size 10 and my children don't recognize the old photos of me.

I just want to say that is a great way of looking at this. It's so easy to think of yourself as a failure for getting fat - in fact we're basically told that all day every day. But you are right - people used to say that those with depression just needed to buck up and get on with their lives, when they literally couldn't. Thanks for helping me feel better about what I am considering.