bama_belle

I just looked on the website and I am approved. APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited!

So I finally met Dr. Stahl. The folks in his office were all very nice. They weighed me (266.5 - down 2.5 from April 1 - YAY!:crying:), got my height 5' 1 3/4", took my picture and side profile :biggrin: and then I waited.... He examined, asked me some questions about my health history (started with the PCOS at 16 and ended with me in his office), then asked me what I was expecting from the surgery. I was honest with him, point blank, that my biggest concern is my health. I don't want to be 115. I don't even want to be 120. If I could get to 140 pounds, I'd be a happy woman. Really! He said I'm a prime candidate for the surgery, though he did try to convince me that gastric bypass would be more successful for me. I told him I appreciated his advice and opinion, but it was the band or nothing, that I was not willing to live the next 40 years the way my step-mother is living hers after having had the gastric bypass. I know, not everyone has the same problems she's had, but... I'm just not willing to take the chance. So... they said their report to the insurance company would go out by Friday, and they said Tricare is usually pretty quick to send an answer back, and I should know something in less than 3 weeks if there are no snags. Can't we just get it over with tomorrow??????:wink2:

So I finally met Dr. Stahl. The folks in his office were all very nice. They weighed me (266.5 - down 2.5 from April 1 - YAY!:thumbup:), got my height 5' 1 3/4", took my picture and side profile :thumbs_up: and then I waited.... He examined, asked me some questions about my health history (started with the PCOS at 16 and ended with me in his office), then asked me what I was expecting from the surgery. I was honest with him, point blank, that my biggest concern is my health. I don't want to be 115. I don't even want to be 120. If I could get to 140 pounds, I'd be a happy woman. Really! He said I'm a prime candidate for the surgery, though he did try to convince me that gastric bypass would be more successful for me. I told him I appreciated his advice and opinion, but it was the band or nothing, that I was not willing to live the next 40 years the way my step-mother is living hers after having had the gastric bypass. I know, not everyone has the same problems she's had, but... I'm just not willing to take the chance. So... they said their report to the insurance company would go out by Friday, and they said Tricare is usually pretty quick to send an answer back, and I should know something in less than 3 weeks if there are no snags. Can't we just get it over with tomorrow??????

Hey gina, be thankful for the bones, you'll appreciate them later in life I assure you. :blushing: I know it's a curse now, but when the rest of us are fighting the osteo you'll be kicking along just fine. :smile:

I have been on Byetta for a year now, but not yet banded. I take it with Metformin and Amaryl. I never lost a pound. Granted, I haven't gained anything, but I haven't lost a pound.

Ahhh the coworker from hell. :smile: Years ago, after my daughter was born and I was trying to lose the post-baby weight, a fellow coworker and I started dieting and exercising together since she wanted to lose a few pounds, too. Well, our boss started that very next week coming in every morning with donuts or something like that for breakfast - or even worse - blackberry muffins from a local bakery that were HEAVEN in your mouth. Geezzz.. Then he'd get mad when we didn't eat whatever he brought, even though we told him many, many times we were trying to lose weight. It was almost as if he were literally harassing us with food! :blushing: Stick to your guns, think about how HOT you're going to look and how gross she is with all her Al Bundy tummy rubbing and all that burping. :cursing: Smile at her and do this: :thumbup: and don't let the fools get you down!

I have Tricare Prime (just got it) and got approved for my first consult visit, which is on Monday with Dr. Stahl. I'm so excited, especially since I argued with United Health Care for over a year to get approved. I'm well over the 100 pd overweight mark with a BMI of about 50, have diabetes, sleep apnea and fibromyalgia along with bursitis in my sholders and hips. I think I'd just kill over if they said no. I am so hoping this goes quicker now that Tricare has given me this green light.

I am having my first consult with Dr. Stahl in Alabaster on Monday. I have no idea what to expect. I've jumped through all of the hoops so far with the insurance (Tricare Prime) and got the approval to go see him. I've been on a supervised diet for a year with my endocrinologist, and I've filled out all of their required paperwork. I'm a basket case, waiting until Monday gets here!

Does anyone know of any support groups in the Bessemer/Fairfield area? I have an appointment on 4-7 with Dr. Stahl in Alabaster, but I'd like to find a support group in my work area. Also, has anyone here had any experience with Dr. Richard Stahl?

I just found out late January that since my hsuband is retired Army we are eligible for Tricare Prime which pays almost all of the bills for the surgery. You still have to meet their eligibility requirements and you have to go to one of the doctors on their eligible list, but thankfully mine is. You might check it out and see if you are eligibile for the Tricare Prime. BTW. it was only $115 per quarter to upgrade the insurance.

So, I haven't posted to this blog in a year. I got mad because United Health Care turned me down. I fell into a funk, and pretty much just stopped trying. And then something wonderful happened. I found out that I am eligible for Tricare Prime due to my husband being retired Army, and guess what. They pay for weight loss surgery! We already had Tricare Standard, but they would only pay a certain percentage and it was harder to get approved, so I bit the bullet, wrote the $115 per quarter check to get it started and enrolled. It took 30 days to get the insurance started. So that was March 1. I called them and asked exactly what I had to do to get them to pay for the referral visits, etc. to my preferred surgeon, and they gave me all the info. Of course, this means I have to swap primary care physicians, but since I haven't been happy with my current one recently, that was not a big deal. The PCM I went to see listened to me, asked all the right questions and spent time talking with me about the decision to have the surgery. And he wrote the letter. :w00t: I will be continuing to see Dr M. I think this was a good decision. So, on April 1 I have an appointment with Dr. E. Stahl, who is my endocrinologist/diabetes specialist. She was not happy that it had been so long since I last saw her, but she was pleased that I had managed to stay the same weight for a whole year. 269. I didn't lose anything, but I didn't GAIN anything. That's the important part. When she found out that I had jumped through all the hoops and had the OK from the insurance company to go see Dr. R. Stahl, her husband and my chosen surgeon, and had not heard from his office yet, she obviously made a phone call because that afternoon his office called and I have a consultation appointment on Monday! :thumbup: I'm so excited I can't stand it. I've reread all the LapBand info a dozen times, I've literally memorized the brochure, which is good and not good, but Dr. E S thinks I'm an excellent candidate for the surgery. Hopefully, Dr. R. Stahl will, too!

So, I haven't posted to this blog in a year. I got mad because United Health Care turned me down. :biggrin: I fell into a funk, and pretty much just stopped trying. And then something wonderful happened. I found out that I am eligible for Tricare Prime due to my husband being retired Army, and guess what. They pay for weight loss surgery! We already had Tricare Standard, but they would only pay a certain percentage and it was harder to get approved, so I bit the bullet, wrote the $115 per quarter check to get it started and enrolled. It took 30 days to get the insurance started. So that was March 1. I called them and asked exactly what I had to do to get them to pay for the referral visits, etc. to my preferred surgeon, and they gave me all the info. Of course, this means I have to swap primary care physicians, but since I haven't been happy with my current one recently, that was not a big deal. The PCM I went to see listened to me, asked all the right questions and spent time talking with me about the decision to have the surgery. And he wrote the letter. :smile: I will be continuing to see Dr M. I think this was a good decision. So, on April 1 I have an appointment with Dr. E. Stahl, who is my endocrinologist/diabetes specialist. She was not happy that it had been so long since I last saw her, but she was pleased that I had managed to stay the same weight for a whole year. 269. I didn't lose anything, but I didn't GAIN anything. :wink2: That's the important part. When she found out that I had jumped through all the hoops and had the OK from the insurance company to go see Dr. R. Stahl, her husband and my chosen surgeon, and had not heard from his office yet, she obviously made a phone call because that afternoon his office called and I have a consultation appointment on Monday! :crying: I'm so excited I can't stand it. I've reread all the LapBand info a dozen times, I've literally memorized the brochure, which is good and not good, but Dr. E S thinks I'm an excellent candidate for the surgery. Hopefully, Dr. R. Stahl will, too!

Wednesday evening I wound up in the Chiro's office with a compacted C4 vertebrae and pinched nerve in my neck and have NO idea how the hell I managed all that. Guess it was the sumo wrestling and bungee jumping from the week before? :biggrin1: NOT. Anyway, fast forward to Friday, I've been through 4 Chiro visits and been flat on my back for the past day and a half... I feel better and finally returned to work this morning, but dang it's been a rough week. On top of that, yesterday I started new diabetes meds. I've been taken off Avandaryl, which apparently has contributed to some of my weight gain in the past few months. I'm now on a new medication called Byetta, which you have to inject, but the good news is there are very few lows or crashes with this medication, and in the clinical trials, most people lost weight! :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: It would be nice if this were finally the answer to me losing weight and I wound up not having to have the surgery. Who knows. At least I know I still have the option.

Wednesday evening I wound up in the Chiro's office with a compacted C4 vertebrae and pinched nerve in my neck and have NO idea how the hell I managed all that. Guess it was the sumo wrestling and bungee jumping from the week before? :biggrin1: NOT. Anyway, fast forward to Friday, I've been through 4 Chiro visits and been flat on my back for the past day and a half... I feel better and finally returned to work this morning, but dang it's been a rough week. On top of that, yesterday I started new diabetes meds. I've been taken off Avandaryl, which apparently has contributed to some of my weight gain in the past few months. I'm now on a new medication called Byetta, which you have to inject, but the good news is there are very few lows or crashes with this medication, and in the clinical trials, most people lost weight! :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: It would be nice if this were finally the answer to me losing weight and I wound up not having to have the surgery. Who knows. At least I know I still have the option.

Well, let's see. Yeah, I did. I bawled like a baby. No matter how hard I tried to keep the calories down and do what I was supposed to do, I still gained weight. I don't see how. But I did. On Friday, October 27, I found out I weigh 280 pounds. That's the heaviest I've ever been in my life. I don't want it to become 290 or 300 or... more. I am also diabetic, have sleep apnea, bad knees, bad ankles, bursitis in both shoulders, chronic bronchitis, depression, absolutely NO energy for exercise.. shall I go on???? Dr. S., my endocrinologist, has referred me to who she thinks is the best to do the surgery. I've printed out the paperwork so I can fill it out and send it in. I've called the insurance companies (I actually have two, strangely enough) to find out their take on this. :angry UHC, of course, states that my policy does not cover WLS. Period. WHATever. I will fight it, of course. My second insurance, which is from my DH being retired military, will cover at least 80% of the cost, if not more.:clap2: We'll see. So at least I know I have one hurdle partially done. Funny thing, when I finally decided I wanted to do this, I want it over NOW. Is that normal? I guess it is for me. I'm not a patient soul.

I need to invest in a better pedometer than I have. The one I have will change steps without me even taking a step sometimes. Cheap piece of crap. LOL. Thank you for the advice!

So, the right knee is killing me this morning. I don't know why this of all mornings. It's not that cold outside. It's not raining. I haven't done anything out of the ordinary. Even so, it was all I could do to make it up the stairs to my office this morning.:crutch: For those that don't know me, in high school I was running laps around the football field at track practice, stepped in a gopher hole (I live in the sticks!) and managed to all but destroy my knee. Track was no more. Hell, if Freddy Kruger were chasing me right now, I'd just have to turn around and wait for him. I told G. this morning about my decision to have the surgery. G. is my boss. He's a butthead but I like him. Anyway, I knew he would be against it for all the obvious reasons, but ultimately, I wasn't asking for his approval, I was simply giving him advance warning that sometime in the near future I was going to be out for a while. He did ask me to wait until after the first of the year since we have an ISO audit coming up and I said I would, but I'm not happy about that decision either, because when I take time off from work after the first of the year, the company is going to force me to use up any vacation and personal time I have before they would pay short-term disability, which I think is unfair and ought to be illegal, but whatever. I'll deal with that hurdle when the time comes. Fasting BS this morning was 234. Not good. I know its the stress. Oh well, all of that will be better soon.

So, the right knee is killing me this morning. I don't know why this of all mornings. It's not that cold outside. It's not raining. I haven't done anything out of the ordinary. Even so, it was all I could do to make it up the stairs to my office this morning.:crutch: For those that don't know me, in high school I was running laps around the football field at track practice, stepped in a gopher hole (I live in the sticks!) and managed to all but destroy my knee. Track was no more. Hell, if Freddy Kruger were chasing me right now, I'd just have to turn around and wait for him. :drum: I told G. this morning about my decision to have the surgery. G. is my boss. He's a butthead but I like him. Anyway, I knew he would be against it for all the obvious reasons, but ultimately, I wasn't asking for his approval, I was simply giving him advance warning that sometime in the near future I was going to be out for a while. He did ask me to wait until after the first of the year since we have an ISO audit coming up and I said I would, but I'm not happy about that decision either, because when I take time off from work after the first of the year, the company is going to force me to use up any vacation and personal time I have before they would pay short-term disability, which I think is unfair and ought to be illegal, but whatever. I'll deal with that hurdle when the time comes. Fasting BS this morning was 234. Not good. I know its the stress. Oh well, all of that will be better soon.

After a couple years of refusing to even talk about WLS, the drs. have finally convinced me.. no, wait.. I've finally convinced myself that if I want to see my grandchildren, I've got to do this. Not for someone else, but for me. I'm 38, 280 pounds.. the highest I've ever been in my life.. and I don't intended to reach 290. EVER. This has got to stop, and for me, I know now, this is the only way. Hooray for me? I don't know about all that. What I do know is that I want to live to be really, really old. I don't even have a consult date yet. I *do* have the paperwork from the drs. website so that I can get an appointment. I *have* done my research on www.lapband.com. I do know that this is the way I want to go. So, I guess, as I posted just recently at www.beforeandafter.com, this is the first step of many. tina

Thanks, everyone, for the welcome and words of encouragement. I know it is cliche', but it truly does help knowing that there are others out there to talk to, who have gone before me. Tami, I was recommended to Dr. Richard Stahl at Cahaba Valley Surgical Group. I just mailed the paperwork to them this morning, so we will see. I have heard of Dr. Miles, though. He did my step-mother's surgery.

Well, let's see. Yeah, I did. I bawled like a baby. No matter how hard I tried to keep the calories down and do what I was supposed to do, I still gained weight. I don't see how. But I did. On Friday, October 27, I found out I weigh 280 pounds. That's the heaviest I've ever been in my life. I don't want it to become 290 or 300 or... more. I am also diabetic, have sleep apnea, bad knees, bad ankles, bursitis in both shoulders, chronic bronchitis, depression, absolutely NO energy for exercise.. shall I go on???? Dr. S., my endocrinologist, has referred me to who she thinks is the best to do the surgery. I've printed out the paperwork so I can fill it out and send it in. I've called the insurance companies (I actually have two, strangely enough) to find out their take on this. :angry UHC, of course, states that my policy does not cover WLS. Period. WHATever. I will fight it, of course. My second insurance, which is from my DH being retired military, will cover at least 80% of the cost, if not more.:clap2: We'll see. So at least I know I have one hurdle partially done. Funny thing, when I finally decided I wanted to do this, I want it over NOW. Is that normal? I guess it is for me. I'm not a patient soul.