festivus

Hi: I'm scheduled for March 18th. I just have the pre-op testing left, and that will be on the 4th, along with the start of the pre-op liquid diet :biggrin: I just tried a shake for dinner to see how that is. I too am nervous. The best things for me have been the group sessions. No one is sorry they have done this and that keeps me focused. I can't wait for the 20th (2 days in) when you can start drinking again and you've been home for a day. Best of luck to everyone!

I just found out I was approved by insurance!!! My date is March 18th and I can't wait for my new life to begin. Good luck to everyone!

I have United. As mentioned above, they want a 5 year (in a row) history of a BMI of 40 or greater (or BMI of 35 with co-morbilities), and a 6 month supervised diet. I have finally gotten all of my paperwork together. I am having this done at NYU. They should be submitting my documents to United this week and I'm supposed to hear in about 1 week if I've been approved. In the meantime, I have a surgery date for March 18, assuming all goes well with the insurance.

Hi Bandaide: I'm right there with you. I finished the first round of doctor's appointments, waiting for my letter from my PCP and my supervised diet and I'm a wreck as I wait for the insurance approvals. My nerves are more focused around, what if I can't..... get insurance to cover this, stick to the pre-op diet, lose weight after I have the procedure, maintain the weight loss..... I find that the more I get into this, the better I do feel about it. I have talked to a few of the women in my surgeon's waiting room and felt even better after talking to them. Tomorrow I'm going to my first support group. I read the book, "The Idiot's guide to weight loss surgery" which was written by my surgeon. And I read the blogs on here that I am particularly concerned about. I feel like the more I learn about it, the more confident I become. I was also afraid of telling people. Embarrassed by my "failures" and what they may think of me. To my surprise, while I have only told a handful of people, every one I told knew someone who had this done and said they were much happier with their decision. It's not like we have many options out there. You are doing this for a healthier life. I look at it as if I do nothing, then either nothing will change, or more likely, I'll only weigh more. At my age, it gets MUCH harder to loose weight. Hang in there and talk to people on here who have gone through it. Good Luck!

Hi: I'm not sure about the Protein in the blood, you may want to check with your surgeon on that so that you don't stress. Low Vitamin D seems to be very common right now. Mine was so low it was off the chart and I'm always in the sun when it's warm here. My doctor put me on Vitamin D pills, which are tiny little pills, and the levels are getting better, but still low. Having a proper balance of vitamin D will help you with your energy levels and a little bit with loosing weight. Again, check with your doctor about whether this will be a problem.