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I have Anthem BCBS with Tricare Standard as a secondary (though we haven't processed anything under Tricare yet). My doctor just submitted 4 office visits that were all pre-surgery and they were rejected by BCBS. Has anyone had that happen? If the surgery is covered, are the office visits covered too?

Way to go on your weight loss. I go for my first fill on Thursday. I know I need one because I'm starting to feel like I need more restriction. All those foods that people say thay can't eat, it seems like I can eat almost anything and that kind of worries me because I'm afraid what I'll try, lol! I don't want to be so restricted that my food choices are so limited but I want enough of a restriction that I more aware of being careful. Does that make sense? Keep of the good work :thumbup:

That is so cool! Can't wait to read about it in your blog. I'm from Southeastern New York (upstate to you city folk, lol) and walking every street in Manhattan is quite a challenge. Good luck! :thumbup:

I'm so excited! I was getting nervous since I started solid foods that the weight loss would be really slow now and I have 2 weeks until my appointment for a fill, so I called the office and asked if I could go in and get weighed. (My scale doesn't go high enough unfortunately and I don't want to buy a new one right now because I don't want to get obsessed with the scale). So.... I was pleasantly surprised to know that I've now lost 27 pounds in one month! Wooohoooo! I'm now able to do some walking and that will help too. :thumbup:

Good for you! Good luck!

That makes sense to me now, thank you!

Oh that is very interesting that you could eat the scrambled eggs and now can't. Thanks for your input. After I posted that long post and then read some more on this site the light bulb came on, lol! I will know now to be careful after my fill. Proceed with caution as they say! This is a great site. I do have a monthly support group I go to but this is here 24/7, I like that! Thanks everyone for making this an informative site.

I realize after I posted that perhaps I can eat most anything at this point is because I haven't had a fill yet. So maybe I'm speaking too soon! I'll let you know it a couple of weeks when I have my first fill!

What did the doctor say on that first check up where you weighed more? Did he/she also think it was from your period? I wish I had some secrets to tell you to lose the weight. I was on the "full" liquids for the first 3 weeks and thought that might be why I did so well. I hope that on your next appointment in a couple of weeks you will now notice a big jump. Hang in there and don't be discouraged. It may be that you need to have a fill before it really kicks in. Good luck!

Isn't it great? I'm thrilled for you and for all of us! :w00t:

Before I started regular food I was losing a pound a day and then I was afraid once I ate real food that would slow down. Well it did, but only slightly. I think it is important not to stay too low on the calories too, so maybe when I started foods it was a good thing. I guess I worried for nothing. Now I'm adding some exercise into the picture, slowly though as I'm pretty arthritic. Keep up the good work!:w00t:

Why don't you give your doctor a call? Maybe they will push up your fill appointment. Did you lose a lot of weight on a pre-opt diet? I'm just asking because sometimes those who lose a lot of weight before surgery don't lose as much after. It's like any diet you start, initially you lose more weight than later on. Good luck. I hope things go better for you.

I'm so excited! I was getting nervous since I started solid foods that the weight loss would be really slow now and I have 2 weeks until my appointment for a fill, so I called the office and asked if I could go in and get weighed. (My scale doesn't go high enough unfortunately and I don't want to buy a new one right now because I don't want to get obsessed with the scale). So.... I was pleasantly surprised to know that I've now lost 27 pounds in one month! Wooohoooo! I'm now able to do some walking and that will help too. :thumbup:

Moving on to the next stage... Starting with scrambled eggs. I made two just to see how much I could eat and I had about one bite more than one egg. I won't be trying meats until next week so no turkey for Thanksgiving. But I will probably have a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Next to try before the meats would be tuna and then other kinds of fish. :cool2:

By now you should have had your surgery. I hope everything went well. Good luck to you and let me know how you are doing!

Thanks for the link! Good info.

I find it very interestering to read what some people can't eat and what some people can. Goes to show you that everyone IS different but it is good to know what might be problem foods so one can proceed with caution. I was banded Nov 2 and I'm experiementing with foods now that I can eat more things. Last night we had a holiday decorating party at work. I chose my items that I was going to eat carefully and shrimp was one of them. I had 2 small ones dipped in cocktail sauce and they went down fine. I wasn't going to push my luck though. I also had other things like humus and refried bean dip and some cream cheese type spreads, all okay. I can eat ritz crackers and I did try a pita chip but chewed it very well. That was my dinner, so I didn't eat anything the rest of the night. It's funny how some people can't eat scrambled eggs. That was one of the first "regular" food items I tried and it went down well. Mostly now though I have egg beaters and I love the flavored ones, especially the southwestern flavor. I'd be leary about hardboiled eggs though, so not ready to try those. One thing that they told me when I make the scrambled eggs was to add more milk than usually so they are fluffier. Maybe that helps them go down better too. But the egg beaters I eat as is, or just add a tiny bit of low-fat shredded cheese to it. Speaking of cheese, I almost wish I couldn't eat it because that has always been my weakness! But I do buy low-fat varieties now and they work well. The only one that was a bit of a challenge was the laughing cow cheese bites that kind of felt like it was clogging me up a bit if I had too many but I'm not going to buy those anymore. I'm going to get weighed today. I'm afraid to have a scale in the house because I don't want to be obsessed with it but it is my one month post surgery date and I'd like to know where I'm at. :sad:

Tomorrow will be 1 week post surgery. Today I'm not just having protien shakes but have added yogurt, cream of wheat cereal, fat free ricotta cheese and creamed soups. I'm not a hot cereal lover so that didn't go over too well but everything else I had small portions of and liked it. I even had a small fat free pudding which was good too. I've got to remember to fit my protien shakes in there too inbetween but sometimes it is hard. Maybe once I get back to work tomorrow I'll have a better system and I won't be taking 2 naps during the day! That sort of messes things us too but I figured I needed the rest.

Today I went to the doctor for my follow up appointment, the first since surgery on the 2nd. I lost 11 lbs since surgery! Everything is healing well. My next appointment is a follow-up with the nutritionist when I go into the next phase of eating pureed solids. And in 5 weeks I see the surgeon again to determine if I need a "fill" or not. I had my first serving of natural applesauce (in one of those little snack cups) which turned out to be a good test. Not sure if I ate it a little to fast but about 2/3 of the way all of a sudden I realized I needed to slow down. Wasn't sure if I could get more in or not... and I was hungry when I started eating it. Woo-hoo! I did slow down and was able to finish it and that held me until it was time for a late lunch after the doctor appointment.

Moving on to the next stage... Starting with scrambled eggs. I made two just to see how much I could eat and I had about one bite more than one egg. I won't be trying meats until next week so no turkey for Thanksgiving. But I will probably have a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Next to try before the meats would be tuna and then other kinds of fish. :cursing:

Good luck to you. I hope it all works out. Judy :thumbup:

The sore throat is from the tube they put down your throat for the anesthesia. I had a little bit of one too but it didn't last too long. I had a hard time at first getting a lot of liquids in because we have to sip everything. Plus I slept a lot at first. Sound like you are coming along though, good luck! Judy :thumbup:

You'll feel better before you know it. I found the recouperation to be quick. It may be difficult to sleep the first couple of nights but by the 3rd day I noticed a tremendous difference. Good luck to you!!! :thumbup:

It's normal for the port area to be more sore than the other incisions. I was at almost no pain (banded on the 2nd of Nov) and then I did something stupid. My shoe lace came untied and I bent over (sitting down) to tie it and that hurt. Usually I put my shoes on while on the bed so I can kind of do it sideways. Live and learn!

Woohoo, went to the cardiologist today and I lost another 9 lbs, so that makes 20 lbs lost since surgery on November 2nd and 29 lbs lost including pre-surgery diet. My cardio doc was happy too cause my blood pressure was good. He wanted to do a recheck because the surgeon has removed the water pill from my bp meds since he said the diet was enough of a water pill. so, all is good. I have an appointment with the nutritionist on Monday. Hopefully I can move to the next stage!