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The following Abbreviations are commonly used on this discussion board: ACL = Anterior cruciate ligament AMRAP = As Many Rounds As Possible (crossfit) BB = belly button bc = because BCBS = Blue Cross/Blue Shield BED = Binge Eating Disorder bf = best friend BM = bowel movement BMI = Body Mass Index bp = blood pressure BPD = Borderline Personality Disorder or Biliary Pancreatic Diversion bs = blood sugar btw = by the way CBT = cognitive-behavioral therapy CC = common channel c diff = clostridium difficile cos or cuz = because CPAP = continuous positive airway pressure CRNP = certified registered nurse practitioners cw = current weight CXR = Chest X-Ray Dr. = doctor DS = Dumping Syndrome or Duodenal Switch EGD = Esophagogastroduodenoscopy EKG = Electrocardiography ff = fat free GERD = gastroesophageal reflux disease GI = gastrointestinal GNC = General Nutrition Corporation store GP = general practitioner or family doctor HBP = high blood pressure hr = heart rate hw = highest weight ICU = Intensive Care Unit Idk = I don’t know IMHO = in my humble (honest) opinion IMO = in my opinion IUI = Intrauterine insemination LAP Band = Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band lol = laughing out loud LSG = Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy med = medicine MFP = my fitness pal msg = message NASH = Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis nf = non fat NG = Nasogastric NP = nurse practitioner NSAIDS = Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug NSV = non-scale victory (“scale” means “weight scale”) NUT = nutritionist OA = Overeaters Anonymous Onederland = a magical place or destination for those trying to lose weight. It might correspond to attaining a weight in the hundreds or losing a hundred pounds. op = operation OSA = Obstructive sleep Apnea Oz = Australia PB = Productive Burps PCOS = Polycystic Ovary Syndrome PCP = Primary Care Physician PM = private message (email) PMS = premenstrual syndrome POSE = Primary Obesity Surgery Endolumenal postop or post–op = post-operation or post-surgery PPI = Proton Pump Inhibitors ppl = people preop or pre-op = pre-operation or pre-surgery PTSD = Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder PVC = Premature ventricular contractions RA = Rheumatoid arthritis RH = reactive hypoglycemia RN = registered nurse RNY = Roux-en-Y RTD = ready to drink SADI-S = single anastomosis duodeno–ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy s/f or sf = sugar free SIPS = stomach intestinal pylorus-sparing surgery smh = shaking my head, scratching my head SO = significant other SOB = shortness of breath sw = weight at surgery tmi = too much information TPN = total parenteral nutrition TT = tummy tuck TTC = trying to conceive Ty = Thank you. [but according to the urban dictionary “Ty” is also an abbreviation for “a total stud with a massive carrot”.] u = You UGI = Upper Gastrointestinal VSG = Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy Vit = Vitamin wks = weeks WLS = Weight Loss Surgery WOD = Workout of the Day w/o = without wt = weight or :-) = = smiley face or :-( = = sad face

I had to do one, actually I don't know if it was my doctor or my insurance that required it. I have Empire BC/BS, and my surgeon was the one who did the procedure.

i have care first blue shield which is a fed blue in maryland and the only out of pocket stuff i will pay is copays so for everything it will cost around 600 total that is it

One friend of mine, who is 3 years post op, said the girls were finally beginning to look normal! She's never breast-fed so she hasn't experienced the deflation. Yours might not get smaller...some would be very envious of you. When you reach your goal weight, and have been there for a year or two, that's when you should consult a plastic surgeon and talk about breast reduction. Me? I'm definitely looking into having the girls put back where they should be and maybe even implants! But that's YEAR'S down the road!!

Kelli, I have Federal BC/BS of Kansas City and what Tiff wrote was all that was required by me. When I went for my psych eval. the doc had previously sent me some paperwork and there were some questions that asked me about what kind of diets I had been on ,how long, and how much I had lost. I'm five weeks post op, so that must have done the trick. Good luck!!! Deb

I hope Tiffykins is right in your case. I also have BC/BS, but I'm in Ohio. I just got my denial letter in the mail on Friday. There are a few states where BC/BS is finally approving the sleeve, but most (as in Ohio) still consider it investigational/experimental. I will be appealing their decision. I'm VERY surprized your surgeon's ins. gal didn't understand the language in your policy!! My surgeon required me to be under the supervision of his hospital's nutritionist for 3 months. They don't really expect you to lose weight, but it is encouraged. I still got denied. I'm sure they would have approved an RNY in a heartbeat, as I meet all their requirements. You should be able to go to your BC/BS website and read what is allowed and what is excluded. My surgeon's ins. gal basically lied when she told me at the seminar that she wasn't having any trouble getting approval's for the sleeve through BC/BS. I expected to be denied and figured she was not being honest with me. I'm ready for a fight now!:thumbdown:

Hi Susan, I see that you were approved for the Sleeve in July at the MTF on Bragg. Congratulations! I am the spouse of a Retiree. I was referred to Womack MTF in Oct 2012, but was approved to see a off-post civilian doctor. As we know, that won't work bc Tricare will not pay for the Sleeve off-post. I spoke to the bariatric clerk at Womack and she said one of their surgeons have been deployed. The doctor is expected back this Spring, but it may be some time before she take referrals from civilian doctors. (They have other drs, but they are not taking referrals.) Can you tell me who I need to talk to in order to get into the program now. I am tired of waiting. I am also afraid that if I wait until the doctor returns, they still may not take me.

Hello Pokeyvenus,well done for your weight loss so far!!!,I've got my op-sleeve in January 8th,just can't wait!!!,I've got only6-7st to lose,but can't lose them!!!!So fed up with the diets!!!!!!!On NHS I wouldnt get it because I. Not fat enough,so I'm paying for it,going to have it done in Prague.Just can't wait when it over and I will be slim!!!!!!How is your family and your friends dealing with your decision,that u had it done???ive just told only my best friend and my boyfriend.Im scared that my work colleagues will be jealous!

I completely understand your thoughts and anxiety over this. My fiancé was the only one who knew everything I was going through step by step. I stressed a lot over telling my family , mostly my parents bc my cousin had WLS (she hid it from extended fam and we “accidentally “ found out even though we all already knew she had it done) and there was some negative feedback from my family about her having it. I wound up telling my parents and siblings and have had nothing but support from them. Talk about taking weight off your shoulders ! I am glad I told the, bc it was causing me stress to hide it. Now, I’m about to start my pre op diet and need all the support I can get! Whatever you decide, I hope it works well for you.

Thank you moneida! I have a dr. Appt next week - I just felt so disappointed bc my surgery date was set and I was so focused on beginning new journey. However, I am now trying very hard to follow the rules of being sleeved - chewing longer, eating without drinking, taking vitamins, and limiting my calories to 800 a day. Now if u could just get motivated to exercise:)

I had to stop taking my BC a month before surgery, due to the blood clot risk, and my doc and surgeon still aren't comfortable with me taking it.

Well, one i have no pain tolerance what so ever....but i just was sleeved on monday.... the gas felt like i was being stabbed with a knife but that is all over now. The dr said i did so well bc i had taken it upon myself to start my liquid diet two weeks prior vs 7 days....I'm totally ready for this new journey! My stomach was 40 oz now its 8...i was told not to eat more than 4 oz at a time....it maybe rough at first but well worth it at the end! Good luck!

While I'm a bargain shopper, I have a lot of really nice clothes, maybe not top designers, but from places like Macy's, Dillards, Kohls, Belk, Torrid, Venus, etc. Most are current and all are in excellent condition bc I've always taken great care of my clothes, hung everything to dry and such. I also know that to buy them again would be something I could NOT afford. I've realized I will have to do much less volume and be more creative about pairings and figuring out what flatters. I'm fortunate that I'm tall-ish (5'9") so a lot of my dresses and my cardigans can be worn for a long time before they're falling off I think. I wouldn't mind donating things but I'm also practical in my realization that much of this was bought when I was working and now that I'm retired, I don't have the disposable income I once had. I'm 56 so I've got a few years before I'm sitting on the sofa in sweatpants but not sure how to sell what I have and get back a little cash to re-buy some new duds. That idea sounds cool with reusing the fabrics but I don't see it being a viable day-to-day business bc it probably wouldn't be practical and while I can't speak for everyone, most of the things I've bought as my fat self were never sentimental or something I'd want to save, I can't wait to be in a size 8 or 10 and hope to never have to buy another piece of clothing with an X in the size! I want to shop at cute places in the non-plus section for Chico's, Boston Proper and Venus and have someone tell me how thin I am Vain I know but a girl's gotta dream p What part of Tn you in? I'm in Crossville, AL, about 45 min from TN/GA/AL junctions on I-59, just south of Ft. Payne myself. aL

Thanks Keith. I finally finished it off (and reposted the final version) today. It's now on it's way to the local BCBS. I actually expect that they will offer to remove the lap band but deny the revsion because I'm not >35BMI. Seriously, I think a lot of the insurance issues are related to weight discrimination. Pretty much any other diagnosis and and if the first treatment failed you'd have no problem getting a different treatment. Heck, if I had the symptoms I had without a lap band they would have been all over getting me in and covering whatever it takes to fix it. For the Fed BCBS stuff I posted on a few boards asking for others who were covered and got several public and private responses. I also did lots of googling on the variants of VSG and Fed Blue to find people who had been covered and the name of their doc. Then googled or looked up on Obesity Help a lot of the docs that were mentioned. Then called around to see what the various doctor and BCBS offices said. There were three states where the local BCBS administering for Fed Blue plan seems to have issues including Washington and California. In my state there are two BCBS offices that share administration of the plan and they disagree. The phone people are in the BCBS company that says it's covered but the pre-auth people are in the other company and say that it isn't. What's really frustrating is that there seems to be no Federal oversight of the plans that I could write or call to get this sorted out. I didn't include the doctor's names in the post because I didn't want to cause them any trouble in case they were using one of the old CPT codes for VSG (before it had an official code). And generally didn't want issues to come up in the states where VSG has no problem. If money wasn't a concern I'd probably already have gone to Dr. Aceves. But my hangup is what happens if I have a leak and need very costly emergency care. Who would pay for that. So if I can get some sort of coverage then I'll go with Dr. Cirangle in CA. There are a few local doctors here who do VSG but they just don't have the experience with revisions that Aceves, Cirangle and Hargroder have. I didn't really know as much about VSG and revisions when the pre-auth was submitted by the local doctor. It would be great if he could do it but they've only done about 100 VSGs and they want to do it in two surgeries six weeks apart. I just don't want that if it can all be done at once. And, heck, it's less than a used car if it comes down to self-pay for me. Well worth it. I loved my lap band while it worked. I think you should continue to fight on appeal. How good were your surgeon's notes? Will their office write a letter saying they had no choice? Much of the VSG info I used I got from Teresa who has a blog where she put her letter. I just added to it and wrote my own version. Also macmadame had posted a great list of studies and details that I referred to. Congratulations on your weight loss and improved health! It's amazing to feel like you're in control isn't it? I wish things could have stayed that way for me. I want to kick myself for not trying to get control before I regained so much weight. Britt

Hi Lisa, I am so happy for you.. I am just waiting for all my appointmens. My daughter and I are both doing it together. You said you have BC/BS..so do I but it is BC/BS federal. I know I have enough health issue's for them to approve me, but I worry about my daughter. Other than being very overweight she is healthy...but not very happy. I just think if she dosen't lose the weight she will have my health problems later in life. We both have appointment on Oct 25th, so keep us in your prayers that we can get the ball rolling in the right direction. Keep up the good work and enjoy your new life.

I'm cooking for a husband and 3 kids, 2 of whom are teenage boys. I just eat whatever I cook for the family - healthy food is healthy food and appropriate for everyone. I hate cooking, lol, but I'm glad I have to do it. I think it always kept me somewhat in check. I would never feed my kids crap, would never let them eat take out regularly, or feed them 2 minute noodles, packet macaroni cheese, white bread and rubbish like that, so my base diet was always healthy, it was just all the crap I fed myself on top of it. Cooking for one would be really hard, I even make too much salad for lunch!

I had two, one September 21 and another November 19 to rule out barretts esophagus. They are a piece of cake. Procedure is literally maybe 10 minutes unless they find polyps or something that need removal. But after Iv and being wheeled down I remember talking to the Dr, nurse etc. He asked if I had any questions, I told him I was nervous bc i had never been knocked out b4. He assured me all would be fine they were giving me propofol (sp?) to knock me out. I must have given him a weird look cause he then said "don't worry Michael Jackson used this", I said well mj died using that so that's not very comforting . It was funny. But I said I was ready, everything faded and I woke up in recovery. Had to stay for an hour in recovery and then went home. Had a bit of a sore throat but nothing terrible. Was more like it was dry. As far as a standard practice, my understanding is if you have reflux or Gerd prior to surgery they do an egd to check the lining of the stomach. Bc some people get reflux/Gerd post op and if you have existing damage some doctors won't do the sleeve then.

Oh my... I feel better that I am not alone in my battles my hubby is sweet man, he cares about the family, but he has big problem with over-using the Facebook and Internet in general. He can read Wikipedia for hours, leaving our 1.5 year old twins watching TV and fight over toys. He is not working, I make money and he is stay home dad... Or maybe stay home lawn mower... I love him dearly, but I am so exhausted leaving to work at 5.30am before kids wake up, coming home at 4.30, cooking for the family, cleaning little bit.. And before I know it it is time for twins to go to bed. After they are in bed, I take shower and go to bed myself, because I wake up at 4.30, etc... And the story repeats every day... And he is homegrown computer programmer so he works on his software hobby all the time... I tried to tell him that it is not normal that sitting at the computer is last thing I see him doing at night and the first thing I see him doing in the morning... Kids are fed and diapers are changed, bit he never plays with them, talks or reads to them... I feel like the computer is his addiction... he says he is tired too and i know that watching kids is tough work, but heeey... i am also just a human being and not sure how long I'll be able to go like that ugh... Feels better to just rant about it

So there is light at the end of the tunnel ) I sort of also feel fed up at this point but then there are times when u simply can't help it

So I started soft foods at 2 weeks post op and I still have some problems. For eggs I learned the egg whites r the only things I can handle. The yolk has too much fat and it makes me feel horrible it hurts and I feel sick. So I only do a soft scramble egg white. Tofu I can not do. I can do 1/4 of a price of tilapia sometime I will mix it with black beans for extra protein. What silverware are you using? I use my babies spoons lol so they r tiny and I can have about 4-5 bites of that size. If I was using a bigger spoon it would probably be one bite. I learned also that chewing really good helped me ALOT. I thought it was BS at first but then I tried to chew really good defiantly like meats and eggs etc and it helped ALOT!! For comstipation my surgeon and his PA recommends taking stool softener everyday ever 4 hours until you become regular. And if you don’t have a BM within 3 days then take a stimulant laxative to get things moving. They really push push push us to take a stool softener. Because it is not healthy to be backed up and can cause “weight gain” on the scale and get u upset. Due to it being waste weight. Also a lot of high protein diets will make people constipated because we are not getting enough fiber because fruits and grains are off limits. My surgeon only recommends 45-50 grams of protein a day. He said our bodies will not absorb more than that. But follow what your surgeon suggests. There are also DR V videos on protein intake that support my surgeons theory also where too much protein can be a pain with gout etc. anyways off topic lol I agree not a bowel blockage as you wouldn’t be able to keep anything down. It would come up and bile would also come up. Hope this helps

Soooo, just as I was beginning to feel hopeful I found out they cover it....but you have to be with the plan for at least 3 consecutive years. WTF? What a load of BS. What does it matter? I am paying $350 a month regardless. I just can't believe it. I am so disappointed. :(

Hi again, maybe every doc is different but they told me no cab bc they need to be able to contact that person if needed, as well as, make then responsible for u. Again sweety, call bc no need wasting money on a trip if they turn u away. They asked me when I got there to meet my driver nd made him give his number to call when they were done. I'm just lookn out for u. Did anyone else go thru the same thing as i did with requiring a driver to be there?

I've been married ( now divorced) and had boyfriends. The last one did a job on me. He had a fantastic body which made me insecure from the get go. But since being with him ... I gained 40 lbs very quickly. Which in turn made me very insecure. I didn't want to be intimate with him after awhile bc I didn't like the way I looked I gained an additional 10 lbs and he broke it off with me... No reasons. I know the the reason and this was all under a year. You don't need the extra baggage of him. I don't know him but he doesn't sound like he's nice to you. You may think you love him but maybe you love the idea of him. You need to work on the number one person which is you!!! And everything else will fall into place. I promise you this....

lol I havent had a fill in like 2 months I feel like I should go back maybe next month lol I dont want to gain (even tho I already did gain these past 2 weeks) I think its time 4 a fill, but then again Im scared bc if I get any tighter, I may not eat out anymore...but maybe I should avoid eating out period, probably help me cut out calories and stuff lol ill eat out one I reach onederland!

I'm in Little Rock but heading to Mexico on Nov 13th for surgery with Dr Ortiz. Two years ago Indid the entire 6 month insurance requirements for lap band. I was seeing Dr Luttrel but backed out bc I wasn't comfortable with the band.