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So, during my initial consult, my doctor asked if I wanted to go ahead and get me psych consult. I agreed because I was sure I wanted to get the surgery. My psych consult consisted of me waiting for psych forever, and then her coming out and telling me she was really busy, so if possible, could I just fill out this quiz and just leave it on the table in the waiting room (privacy?) when I was done and she's pick it up and call me later. The quiz was one to check for depression and other mental issues (asked the same question 3-4 times in different ways to make sure you were honest). So she calls me later and we talk for maybe 10 minutes where she asks about my support system, etc. She asks me about 10-15 questions off a list and we are done. No, it wasn't thorough but it was a means to an end and I was approved. Well, the bill came yesterday. $575 dollars just for her. After insurance, around $400 out of pocket to her for that. My surgery only cost $1500! I'm debating calling and challenging the price---really, she did so little---but I wasn't sure if that was just part of it and I should just suck it up and pay. What do you think?

I have started working out on my Elliptical. We are supposed to be getting 30 minutes of exercise daily (I have been walking). However with the elliptical, well it's pretty obvious in less than 30 seconds that it has been 20+ years since I have actually "worked out". LOL. I was following the training settings on mine and their recommendation is to start with 20 minutes the first time, and do that for 5 days and then the following week go for 25 minutes.. and keep increasing over the weeks until you reach 40 minutes. Well I have everything I can do to even get through 1 song on my playlist. LOL I'm assuming I should just start there and go? 5 minutes this week and try for 7 or 10 minutes per time the following week? So there is my confession and someday my inspiring starting point: "The first time I got on my elliptical, I couldn't even finish the first song on my playlist".

My doctor said 1 ounce every 10 mins....ALL DAY thunder32

GARBGLDKFIHERJBJF Last week they said they are closing at noon today for the pre-op, for the holiday (that makes sense???). I said well when do you open? He said 5am, but don't come early because they'll be busy with people in the hospital. I said so like 10:30? He said yes. Then the preadmission lady calls over the weekend to get questions filled out; and said they close at noon on Monday. I said yep, I'll be there at 10:30. Couldn't sleep well last night, I've been up since 7am. I get the kids ready for our 45m haul to the hospital. We get there early (10:05am), and the lady says, pre-op closed at 10 today!!!! Are you...argh... what!!! I am so pissed right now. I asked if tomorrow is enough time to do pre-op for Wednesday -- she said yes, but her super smart office is the one that re-itterated that they closed at noon today, and I see how far that got me. If my surgery is post-pone due to their incompetence, so help me....

MG I was sleeved on 10/2 and doing well also. I am down 36 pounds from surgery and 81 pounds total. I am 19 pounds from 100 and have 41 pounds to reach my goal of 185. We are the same height. Tough staying away from sweets this time of year for my company gets bombarded with gift basket after gift basket. I need to increase my water intake and stay on top of my vitamins and protein. Slacked off from the gym last week but going back to daily gym this week. Been working on strength and muscle toning as well as minimum of 30 minutes of daily cardio. Had been on a stall for a few weeks but weight is creeping off again. Keep up the good work!

I got banded in 12/07, and long story short, I did great for the first 6 months - quickly dropping 60 lbs. from a combination of following the rules to the letter, eating right, and working out 5 days a week. I plateaued around the 6 months mark when my working out became inconsistent, and I didn't push myself because I felt very comfortable at the weight I was at that point. Over the next couple of years, those 60 lbs. stayed off. A whole lot of other stuff happened in my life in the following years including getting married in 2010 and having kids. Before kids, though, as newlyweds, I got pregnant and the result was a partial molar pregnancy - basically, I drew the statistical nightmare short straw that day. I ended up getting referred to a gynecological oncologist with a diagnosis of gestational trophoblastic disease, also called choriocarcinoma, a rare but highly treatable form of cancer. Over the course of months, I had countless testing done, lots of lab work, and 7 rounds of methotrexate shots. It wasn't until 7 months after first finding out I was pregnant, that my HCG (pregnancy hormone) finally hit negative, indicating that the cancerous tissue in my uterus was eliminated - and right before starting a much stronger chemo drug, thankfully. So, during those 7 months, I kind of lost myself. I gained 30 lbs., and I joke that it's because I spent those 7 months stuffing my face to avoid having to speak at countless parties, BBQs, get-togethers, and events where we were bombarded by pregnancy announcement after pregnancy announcement by friends.. but honestly, I was depressed and grieving, and isolating myself from most of my friends because I was internalizing all of what I was dealing with. Even now, only about 4 people outside of our parents knew about what we were dealing with. A year after my HCG hit negative, I got pregnant, resulting in an easy pregnancy, an awesome labor, and a healthy baby boy. I gained 20 lbs. with that pregnancy, and by the time I was 5 months post-partum, I had taken off 28 lbs., so I was feeling confident about getting back on track with the band. Then, surprise! As my son hit 6 months old, I found out I was pregnant with baby #2. During that pregnancy, I gained back all of the weight I had lost, plus some, putting me about 10 lbs. below my consultation weight when I first got my band. After my daughter was born, right before I went back to work, I visited the bariatric surgeon's office and had all of the remaining Fluid in my band taken out - maybe 8ccs, or something? I can't remember - because I was getting stuck all the time, and I felt confident that I could eat clean, work out regularly, and take the weight back off. He made an off-the-cuff comment about, "Most people think that, and they're wrong. Only 20% succeed." I thought, I'll be that 20 percent. Buuuuuuuut I'm not. I joined an awesome gym almost a year ago where I've developed a love for weight lifting and kickboxing, and I'm surrounded by other regulars who love to do OCR events, and eventually, I'd like to try a Spartan trifecta. But in the past year, I've been trying different things to see the scale reflect a lower number - low-carb, carb-cycling, cutting out processed foods and sugar, tracking/weighing everything religiously - and I am still lingering very close to my pre-op start weight. I can see my body composition changing in certain ways thanks to weight lifting.. my shoulders and upper arms are slowly becoming more defined, my quads and lower half is different, too; but my mid-section stays the same, even in terms of inches. And that pendulum of weight holds me back from box jumps, from completing Olympic lifts, from attempting OCRs (I can't imagine pulling my own body weight over a 12 ft. wall.. at least not right now), etc.; and enough is enough. So, I called up the bariatric surgeon's office and made an appointment to come in and talk with someone about getting back on board with the band. I haven't seen them since 2014, and since then, their practice has split and restructured. I'm hoping I can get in sooner through a cancellation (otherwise, mid-August it is..), but in the meantime, I'm going to be revisiting the binder of information from my surgeon from when I had my surgery almost 10 years ago, and trying to reconnect on here. Anyone else going through something similar? I feel like a total newbie all over again! Thanks for letting me reintroduce myself!

I take Protonix and it has gone generic. It costs me $10 and it's a very tiny pill. It's every bit as good as Nexium. It's a prescription .

Thanks for the encouragement and reassurance Lara Saved, I mix two scoops of the vanilla Isopure with about 8-10 oz of Soy milk. I can't stand the taste some days so i also add a little sugar free Torani syrup to flavor it. I believe the Isopure is 50gm for two scoops and the Protein in my soy milk (8th Continent) is 6-8 grams depending on how much I use. It takes me about one and a half to two hours to drink it. My heartburn is wicked evil if I don't take my pill about 10 minutes before I eat or drink. I have also noticed that some Crystal light will make my heartburn act up too which it wasn't a problem before. I am on famotidine and everyone here says to get on a PPI but when I asked my doctor, he just said to stay on the famotidine and see how that goes. I wonder why - maybe it has something to do with PPI's absorbing your Calcium? I dunno.............................. if anyone does, feel free to comment.

Hi there. Anyone else scheduled for surgery in Ottawa this month? I just got the call this morning. Surgery is set for March 3!!!! Can't wait!!! Starting my OPTIFAST feb 10.

You can ask your clinic for advice, but it's probably going to be up to you to figure out, mainly because you have to work it around your schedule. It can seem complicated at first, but you get used to it. I take a multivitamin with iron plus an additional iron supplement, calcium 3x/day, B12, biotin, and D3. Calcium and iron are supposed to be at least 2 hours apart, and I also take a prescription thyroid medication that's supposed to be 4 hours apart from calcium and iron. I use a free app called Medisafe to track my medications and remind me. It's really useful because you can track what time you took everything, and it also tracks how many of each you have left and reminds you to refill. You can set reminders at whatever time you want. I set reminders as follows, but I usually stay ahead of schedule. 6:00 am - Thyroid prescription 10:30 am - Multivitamin with iron, B12, Biotin, D3 1:00 pm - 1st calcium 3:30 pm - iron 6:00 pm - 2nd calcium 8:30 pm - 3rd calcium I also recommend getting a pill organizer with 3 or 4 compartments for each day, where each day has its own removable box (the one I have looks like this one: https://smile.amazon.com/Organizer-Compartments-Moisture-Proof-Medication-Supplements/dp/B07Q9JSHMP). I distribute my pills in that once per week, and then I can just grab the box for the day.

I think if clothing is sized 9, 11, 13 it is more a junior size and I find that they fit a little smaller. Sizes 10, 12, 14 are more misses or women's sizing and would then be larger. So your size 11's are more like a 10 so if you had a size 12 I bet the would fit perfect!!

Don't stress out about it. Your body is still healing. Losing anything during the healing period is fabulous, let alone 10 lbs! :cursing: Just follow your dietary instructions, don't cheat, drink lots of water, walk and exercise as much as possible and it will come.

You are both doing great! Just remember that the pre-op diet depletes the carbohydrate stores in your body almost completely. Carbohydrate stores are stored w/a lot of Water. So, a lot of what you lost in the pre-op diet is water weight (maybe 10 pounds). This is why people on Atkins and low carb diets can 'gain' back so quickly... because as soon as they eat some carbs again, their body replenishes the carb stores in their body which means they will start holding onto some water weight as well. In any case, this is what causes an inevitable yoyo effect w/low carb diets. And, the reason why you can't keep losing at the super fast initial rate. Anyway, just don't let it get you down. Remember 1-2 pounds per week is a healthy rate of weightloss and definitely not considered 'slow' although it may seem that way just because we'd all like to lose weight faster. When I was doing Weight Watchers as best I could, I would lose 0.0 - 0.5 most weeks. Now that is slooooooowwwww!!! So, please feel good about your big losses so far! Congratulations!!!

Yes, too late. The baby is well up into my stomach/esophagus area (baby belly starts to poke out immediately under my boobs) and even though the needle isn't going into the amniotic sac, they (in their words) would have to use fluoro to safely guide the needle to the port, and fluoro is not the best idea, so unless it's a true emergency they don't want to touch me with a 10 ft pole. I'm guessing that's driven by at least 80% potential liability concerns.

If I had wanted to, I could have gone from consult to surgery in 10 days. I chose to have 30 days of "last meals" instead. I was covered on Medicare and had got everything scheduled quickly. I enjoyed my last suppers!

So I had my first fill about 3 1/2 weeks ago. I initially lost 10 lbs quite quickly and then a couple more, all inside of about 2 and a bit weeks. When I wake up I always have 1 cup of coffee, then right up to about 2 or 3 in the afternoon I'm not really comfortable with much (I feel quite a bit of restriction) I usually opt for yogurt and berries or cereal, something that goes down easy. But by about 4-5 I start to get really hungry. I can eat a full plate of food( alot more than a cup). But way less than before I was banded. But I seem to be hungry right up to bedtime and can eat just about anything. So does anyone know whether I need a fill or not? Why am I SO restricted for half the day and NOT the other? If I call my surgeon, they'll just see that I'm down in weight and may not give me one, even though it happened within the first couple of weeks, any suggestions out there would be of great help!! Thank - you:)

Me too- I had a lot of trouble the first few weeks and now I am at week 8 post-op. I am with you on that we would get a warning signal from our stomachs, I would think. And its not like we can take gulps after gulps- I usually have to wait 5-10 minutes before I can gulp again.

I believe you are just experiencing the post-op "Whoosh!" most people get when starting a low cal diet. I lost 10 lbs in the pre-op diet (7 days) and then another 11 in the week post-surgery. I'm sure things will slow down a little for you as you eat more food in the coming days.

I am hitting week 3 and only lost 10 lbs so I am also losing slowly. I have read a lot about the 3 week stall so not really sure what's going to happen now. We all have to make sure we are getting in protein and fluids and the rest will follow even if it's slower. Hang in there.

Nice job!!! It takes alot of courage to work out amongst the beautiful people. I still have problems with that so I'm going to use your post as motivation. I've been sitting on my butt since I was banded on 10/19/09!!!! Thanks.

I have totally given up Diet Coke. For those that know me...know that I ALWAYS have a diet coke sitting next to me and that I am ashamed to to say that I can go an entire year without drinking a bottled Water but drink 10-12 diet sodas a day. This is what I did to quit 3 weeks ago. I stopped Diet Coke completely because of the carbonation. I thought that I would ween myself by drinking coffee. I was mean on day one...I even cussed someone out by phone (bill collector) and this not my way of doing things. Day 2 - I was still a little irritable had maybe 2 cups of coffee...but I stopped drinking coffee to. I had a slight headache for a day or two...not a major one. I have been drinking bottled waters...but I doctor it up with crystal light or Hawaiian punch flavors. No sugar or calories. I now drink 6-8 bottled waters a day. I have my surgery on April 3rd. I was told absolutely no carbonation and that is what kick started me.

So Happy For you!!!!!! I am so jealous! I am down 35 pounds and am still in same clothes and size! guess I was stuffing myself into those 18/20.LOL I think I am bordering on dropping a size and need about 10 pounds to go! This is why no one has noticed any weight loss I guess since I am in the same old outfits!!!! Keep it up. The day I can't shop in the Avenue will be a very happy day for me!! Hate that store!

Well....my day is here! As of this morning...I have hit my goal weight of 165lbs!:thumbup: I knew this day would come but until you actually see it, you just don't believe it!:drool: Funny, I thought I'd be jumping up and down and screaming over it, but I am pretty calm about it and happy as a lark. I had to go for a tad bit of unfill yesterday. I am down to 5.2cc's. My body is adjusting a bit and I may have to go in again for another tweak by getting more taken out so I can maintain. It's amazing to me that I don't need as much fill as others. I mean I just assumed we all were pretty much on the same with that but not needing much more than 5cc's is amazing to me. Anything too much over 5.4cc and I get stuck and throw up in my sleep. Which is NOT a pleasant feeling at all.:biggrin: It's scary because I think, what if I don't wake up and I choke?! So now, the major question is....do I need to lose more or should I be happy with what I am now? My initial goal was 170 but then I thought 165 would be better for BMI purposes. Now I am not really sure if I want to stop. What about 160? Plan for the monthly weight gain, blah, blah, blah. Am I turning into one of those skinny bitties who obsesses over the scale!:thumbup: There are some places I feel need to get a little thinner but I am not sure if it's because they are not quite as toned as I want them to be or if it's really just a tad bit flabby. Everyone knows from previous posts I am not exactly happy with where my tummy is but I want to give it a full year before considering anything else. I tried on a size 10 and danced all around the dressing room when they fit. I am thrilled with that....so what is it in me right now that wants more? I am going to have to meditate on that. I mean, I don't want to look sickly! Shape and curves are good.:thumbup: RIGHT???? I am feeling really silly right now...why am I not as happy as I thought I would be? On a different note...my doc left the office where he was. He is on an extended vacation right now and when he comes back he will decide where he will be. Not sure how I feel about that. I love him but I love my nurses too. I bet my main nurse will go with him and if that happens I will move my files with him. Didn't see that coming!:confused: As always....I AM BLESSED! Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?:cursing: Surgery Date: May 21, 2009 Starting Weight: 280lbs Dr. Michael Metz - St. Luke's Hospital Denver, CO:thumbup: Follow my progress thru photos: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/members/5...lbums3475.html