slinkymalinky

Appeal the decision! Bottom line is that insurance companies don't want to pay, ever, which is why they're so rich! If you hound them enough and they realize you won't back down, I would imagine they will approve you.

I got my date - August 5th!!

I haven't been banded yet, so please help me understand...I have heard that the stomach pouch doesn't allow for more than 1/4 cup of food. So, if you have three meals a day, that would be 3/4 a cup of food. Yet weight loss is supposed to be 1 to 3 pounds a week. Something doesn't add up for me here. Don't get me wrong, I would rather lose the weight slowly and safely, but 3/4 cup of food a day wouldn't be enough to sustain my cat, let alone me!! And if I did eat that amount, wouldn't I be dropping 20 pounds a month? Thanks for any advice!:confused2:

Great idea to start a MB lapbanders group! I think we should keep a thread going on here too - that way we may find people from Manitoba who aren't aware there's a Yahoo group yet. Hope you'll feel better soon Zoltrix - coughing can't be much fun after surgery. Hi Linda - can't believe Jen is giving you all chocolate shakes, you lucky girl! I'm starting Optifast on the 22nd too. I'm sure we'll run into each other the day of surgery. Keep in touch!

Hi Zoltrix - I was at Maples by 3:30pm on July 8th - I don't remember seeing anyone with children, but it didn't take long for me to see the surgeons, so maybe you had already left. How are you doing now? What kinds of foods are you eating at the moment? Keep us posted! Lmbmkm - sorry to hear about your surgery date being pushed back - we might see each other on the 5th though - my name is Tracey by the way, I usually don't go by Slinkymalinky on a daily basis:smile: Hope to see you there!

Hi Everyone, Had my consultation today (July 8th) at Maples, and have my surgery scheduled for August 5th! Yay - I'm so excited!!! 2 more weeks of regular food and then I start the Optifast for two weeks...I despise vanilla so that should be interesting Glad to hear you're doing so well Zoltrix. Not long and you'll be on real foods again. Keep us posted as to how you're doing!

Hi Everyone, I'm new here, hoping to be banded soon if I'm approved. My question is....I have a medication that I have to take every day - it's a 75 mg capsule. Although it won't be a problem to have the surgery, I'm wondering how I will get the meds down after I've been banded. I can't take the beads out of the capsule apparently. Has anyone had a similar experience, and how did you manage?

:smile2:Question for those people who have been banded. (I'm hopefully going for surgery in August if all goes well). Now that you've been banded, even if you are at the beginning of your weight loss, do you still obsess about your weight? Do you think to yourself - well it will be at least 2 months or 4 months or 6 months or whatever until I weigh this amount...or are you just enjoying the process. I hope that I will enjoy the process, and will enjoy the mini-milestones along the way...whether it be fitting into an old pair of jeans, or being able to see my toes (not such a mini-milestone either!) Just curious to know how you all feel about the process!

Just read a few of the posts about keeping lap band surgery to myself. I have told my husband, parents, one coworker and one friend about my plans, and as far as I'm concerned nobody else needs to know. However, I need to book time off work for the surgery, and because I don't tend to take a lot of sick time it will be noticed by my coworkers and friends. So, what do I say? Especially if I'm in pain in the days after surgery, they will KNOW that something is amiss. I'm trying to think of something that I can tell them...for some of them "none of your business" or changing the subject will work, but for others I think I'm going to have to be somewhat more economical with the truth! For those of you who didn't tell every man and his dog about your surgery, what did you tell them instead when they asked?:grouphug:

Welcome to the board! I haven't had my surgery yet, but good luck to you, and I'm sure you"ll do great!

:tongue2:thanks for all the ideas - hernia or gallbladder sounds good. I'll just have to choose one and try to remember to stick with it!

Hi again, You know I'm not sure what surgeries are covered in Canada, and it may be different from province to province depending on medical coverage. In Manitoba, I think that gastric bypass is covered, but lap banding is not. don't quote me on that, but I know that the lap band isn't covered.

Hi there! That's good to know that False Creek is so reputable - I knew the two were affiliated, but wasn't sure what their reputation was out there. I have an intial consult in a couple of weeks, but because banding is very new here, I can probably go for surgery within a month or so after that providing everything goes OK. I will keep you posted!

thank you all for your advice - it looks like it is certainly do-able....I'll just have to talk to my doctor about it! Good luck everyone!

Just wanted to add my two cents. I was a pack a day smoker until 2.5 months ago. I had tried every imaginable aid to quit, with no success. I managed to quite reading a book by Allan Carr called something like Quitting Smoking the EasyWay. I know that won't help you right now, but if you try in the future, give the book a try, as it worked for me, and I was a die hard smoker. I don't even miss it now, so willpower doesn't even come into play. Good luck with your surgery, and eventually with quitting smoking.

I'm also paying for the surgery myself, and the best advice I got was from my coworker. When I asked her about whether it was worth it financially, and should I do it...etc..etc...she said "Life is not a dress rehearsal." That really stuck with me. There's no point looking back at your life ten years from now thinking, "I should have...," and "what if?" that's just my two cents. Good luck!

Hi Dawn, I'm new here too - waiting for an initial consultation on July 8th, but because the clinic I'm at is very new (i'm in Manitoba, Canada), I'm hoping to be banded by mid-August! Like you I'm 222lbs, but I'm only 5'4, so my BMI is a little bit more! Not sure what my goal weight is yet - I think I'll know it when I get there! If you want to keep in touch that would be great, as it seems we have a similar journey, and are starting it around the same time. Take care, tracey

That makes sense. Thinking back we DID eat less than we used to nowadays. I hardly ever eat the Jumbo portion or drink the Jumbo drink, but I probably have a large, and at 5'2" I guess my body really doesn't need that much. I also try to always leave food on my plate when I eat out, but when the restaurant portions are monstrous, I guess leaving for or five fries doesn't make much difference. :redface:

Hi, I'm new here - I have a consultation at the beginning of July, and hope to be banded shortly after that. My question is....does anyone have any regrets that they had the surgery? And secondly, do you think that most of the negative side effects that you have experienced are due to either eating too much, too fast, the wrong thing etc. I'm so excited about the prospect of having this done, but at the same time I'm cautious and want to be sure I'm doing the right thing. Thanks everyone!:confused_smile:

Thanks so much for the positive words everyone...it's great to hear you've all had such positive experiences. It all seems so far away, but I could be banded in as little as two months. I think I need to take the bull by the horns and give it a shot, after all, as my friend told me, life is not a dress rehearsal!!