maddan

Been overweight all my life and have had some success in losing weight from time to time. In September 2007 I started looking into lap-band surgery. After checking with my insurance company and learned that this procedure was not covered. As fate would have it, my employer changed insurance companies in October. After checking with the new company whether they covered this procedure, I learned that they did, but that there was certain things that I would have to do to qualify. One of the things I had to do was a six month doctor supervised weight loss program. I did that and was rejected with the reason being that the paperwork wasn't done right. So, we went another six months and finally got approval. All in all, it took almost 2 years from my initial inquiry. I am just over a week away from my surgery date and will report back after that is completed. Today is February 22, 2010 and I have been banded just over 5 months and have lost about 45 ilbs. Had a slight setback in December after going through the Christmas holiday when I actually gained 2 lbs from the December Dr appointment to the January Dr appointment. Got a fill in January and have definitely felt greater restriction. Have had more episodes of getting stuck since then and seems that lately it might have gotten tighter perhaps from getting stuck and then vomitting that this has irritated my band some. Hope I haven't messed things up, but I feel the restriction most of the time.

It has now been just over four years since surgery. I have lost 95 lbs since the beginning and feel as though I have achieved nearly all that I would have wanted by now. I would still like to get down another 15 to 20 lbs., but am not in a hurry. My last doctor visit and weigh in was at the four year mark back in September and that showed that I lost about 12 lbs in the last year. Doesn't seem like a lot - that's an average of 1 lb per month. I am still learning my limitations and dealing with the getting stuck problem from time to time. Always remember to chew well.