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Does anyone have UHC and have to go thru BRS for approval. Please tell me all about it. I know my ins covers the surgery I'm just wondering how long approval took for u after they submitted and if u ran into any problems.

Hello, Lately I've been having a lot of mid to upper back pain. I noticed it tends to happen after I eat something as it causes a lot (I'm talking sailor style) of burping. The upper to middle back pain is painful enough that I have to take 2 pain meds to even help. Sometimes it does nothing. I'm even trying to rub icy hot because I"m desperate. I went to my primary Dr a few months back because of this & had an ultra sound of my gallbladder. It came back negative. Someone told me it could be missed via an ultrasound & that I should have a HIDA scan? Does anyone have any information on this? Also, I was going to try to see my primary Dr about this but am wondering if I should try to see my bariatric surgeon instead? Appreciate any feedback you guys might have. Thanks Fran

In a nutshell... My name is Terry and I give up, I can not do long term weight loss through will power alone. My BMI is currently 40 and I am 110 pounds over my ideal weight. I am very active physically, but have always been able to out eat my physical activity. While my health is good, I am 57 years old and have had both knees replaced, if I do not find a way to get down a healthy weight, I am not sure how much longer I will be able to maintain my level of activity. I went through a brief period of depression when I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to resort to bariatric surgery, but for the first time in a long time I have hope that this may be the tool necessary get my eating under control. My insurance covers LB after a 12 month Dr. supervised diet. If I could maintain a diet for 12 month without the surgery, I WOULDN'T NEED THE SURGERY! So, I will be self pay. I have picked a surgeon, submitted my paperwork and should hear back this week. In talking to the surgeon's lapband nurse at the seminar, they can process me fairly quickly and I am hoping for a January surgery date. The lifestyle changes that worries me the most are the speed of eating, since my family often wonders if I chew my food at all based on who quickly it goes down AND separating drinking and eating, given that for most of the life, a bite of food is always immediately followed by a swallow of liquid. But having discussed this with my wife and my two kids (12 and 9) I believe I can do it.

When I had my band in 2009, this is the part that kicked my butt and NO ONE had prepared me for it. I mourned food. I lost my best friend. I was an emotional mess for a month. There is a HUGE psychological component to bariatric surgery and weight loss...there's no easy way through it. Just know that to be successful you are going to have to be honest with yourself and face your food demons and for a while, frankly, it is going to suck . But it does get better. As you learn new habits and start to feel better physically and emotionally t gets so much easier. You can do this, but it takes some work! Congrats on making the decision to take charge of your life and health. Listen to every word they have to say at your meetings, they've got a lot to share. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

A short Poem for you Smart alecks and rude They're only crude. Bariatric pals and friends Help,and good advice never ends. Maybe not world class poetry but I do work,cheap. Have a good night and get some rest, okay? Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

Prices of Protein vary widely, depending on brand, quality, and where you buy it. Some of the best deals are online. All Proteins are not created equal. Some have sugar, some are high carb, some have fillers, some are not whey isolate. Some are for weight gain, some are for loss (depends on the needs of the individual). Read the labels, ask your nutritionist if your not sure. unjury and I think some others are created for bariatric patients. Beware cheap products - sometimes they are cheap for a reason. Don't stock up. Your tastes change after surgery. What you like now, you may not like then. Also, on the website "The world according to egg face" there are many , many protein shake recipes that are amazingly awesome. Check out the website. Egg whites can be bought in powdered form to add protein to foods and drink. It's safe and tasteless. My son (a marine and a body builder) uses both powdered egg whites and whey protein. You may not need to have whey protein forever. A lot of us learn to LIKE it. I also have Atkins shakes for breakfast. I prefer a liquid breakfast in the morning. If I'm low on my protein for the day I'll have another shake in the evening to make up for it. Sometimes I'm just too busy and forget to eat. If that happens a shake is a quick easy meal. Usually I can get the protein I need from my foods. I like fish, seafood, Greek yogurt, chili w/beans, cheeses, and on rare occasions beef. I have trouble with poultry still. You'll get it all figured out. It's an adjustment but not as hard as it seems. :-)

I haven't had my surgery yet (hopefully by end of month), but I met with my nutritionist for the final visit yesterday. She went over everything I would need to know for after surgery. She said I would need to take 2 Flintstone Complete Vitamins, Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D 3-4 times a day, Vitamin B-12 and Biotin daily. My sister had gastric bypass surgery last year and her doctor only has her taking fusion chewables 4 times a day. I looked at the bottle on line (www.bariatricchoice.com) and it seems to have everything that I was told to take. Does anyone else take Fusion? I would rather take just one thing than all that other stuff.

Just a few days away from staring my pre-op diet. Surgery is scheduled for Feb 16th! I think I'm more paranoid about the pre-op diet than the actual surgery. I have 2 weeks of eating a specific products purchased from our Bariatric Dept. There is a wide variety and I'm sure it will be fine BUT.... If I don't lose weight they cancel the surgery.. In writing this I see how silly it sounds but I can't seem to shake the feeling! Could use some prayers!!

That does sound like it is a bit on the low side. One time my mom was lying down on the couch, my daughter called me and said there was something wrong with mom. She was white as a sheet. She couldn't talk. She tried but no words came out, only a few whispers. She couldn't move. She looked like she was dying. We called an ambulance, they came in and measured her blood sugar and I believe it was in the 30's. So 58 is too low. So I think you are right about reactive hypoglycemia. Here is a link https://www.stjoes.ca/patients-visitors/patient-education/f-j/PD 7972 Reactive Hypoglycemia after Bariatric Surgery.pdf According to their webpage: How can I prevent reactive hypoglycemia? You can help prevent reactive hypoglycemia by following your diet guidelines for bariatric surgery. • eat 3 healthy meals and 2 healthy snacks each day • space meals and snacks 2 to 3 hours apart • eat protein at each meal and snack time • avoid skipping meals and snacks • avoid or limit alcohol depending on what stage of diet your are at • avoid or limit caffeine depending on what stage of diet your are at • avoid sweets like cookies, cakes, candy, pop, juice and sweet drinks Instead of sugars and simple carbohydrates, eat complex carbohydrates because they release less sugar over a longer period of time. Having a complex carbohydrate with protein will slow this release even more.

My insurance also required a 6 month supervised weight loss management, although when I started I was on a different insurance company that I would no way have surgery through them but knew I would have different insurance because of a new job I was getting. So I paid out of pocket for the first 4 months but glad I did. I also was worried that I didn’t lose enough or too much to still be able to qualify... what I was told was that they do go by your original weight, even if you should go under the BMI requirements that they know some of us just can’t keep it off without the surgery so no problem there. I am lucky that I only have about 100 lbs to lose, and being allergic to dairy helps me as I won’t have as much transition for that issue. I was worried when I felt I hadn’t lost enough for my monthly weigh in and appt with the dietitian but she said she saw that my muscle mass was going up and fat mass going down even though I wasn’t losing a lot of weight but over all the trend was going down.. that made me feel a lot better.. i am very blessed I have an awesome bariatric team where I am getting my surgery done. I think that is a huge help on this journey. i just found out yesterday that my surgery date is January 30th!!! But I still working on a goal weight I have in my mind before I get on the table! 😊 good luck and keep in touch!

Hi Folks, I did not find a topic of patients travelling within the EU and Turkey for BARIATRIC surgery. Your personal experiences in this forum can be very useful to people of our fraternity. Cost wise, Turkey bypass cost is just over £3k and Riga or Lithuania is about 30%+. The UK costs are a minimum of £11k. This makes medical travel very cost effective. I was advised in the Emirates that Turkish hospitals are very good. Can we generalize though? I do understand that one cannot be overtly critical. The goal being - minimizing risk. I have come a cross various clinics with reviews that are questionable. I cannot obviously trust all service providers with myself. I look forward to all replies and thank you all in anticipation. I wish all those having surgery ,wherever you may be , the very best of luck with your new body. Sent from my Z1 using BariatricPal mobile app

Your list of symptoms included: * Extreme fatigue * Feeling dizzy upon standing * Feeling fainting when standing up too long * Feeling weak after eating. Several individuals that undergo RNY gastric bypass surgery experience a condition called Reactive Hypoglycemia. It is a form of low blood sugar. This occurs in individuals that had diabetes prior to surgery but also in those that don't. You experience a large drop in blood sugar around from 1-3 hours after a meal. It catches some people by surprise because they faint, dropping onto the floor. But it can also be corrected by recognizing the signs of low blood sugar and reacting or by modifying the way you eat. https://www.ridgeviewmedical.org/services/bariatric-weight-loss/enewsletter-articles/reactive-hypoglycemia-postgastric-bypass This link describes some of the symptoms of the condition. http://www.weightlosssurgery.ca/before-after-surgery/reactive-hypoglycaemia-post-gastric-bypass/ If this matches some of your symptoms, you might read up on the condition using the internet. I am not sure about some of the other symptoms but you are taking quite a bit of medication (vistaril, remerom, zoloft, wellburtrin) and you may have some bad interactions happening. The most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery is to meet your Protein, Fluid and Vitamin daily requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. Weight loss is achieved by meal volume control. At 10 months post-op, this should be around 3/4 cup per meal. So back to basics, reverify that you are meeting the prescribed requirements for protein, fluids and Vitamins. This article describes my experience after RNY gastric bypass surgery. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf Life is full of trade offs. In my case I had high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea and severe acid reflux (GERD) prior to surgery. I traded my love of food for good health. At 3 years post-op, I am content with that decision. I have been able to find some pleasure in eating again. I found mixing food groups together provided some flavor. I also found that softer foods such as chili and Soups went down much easier than harder foods such as steak. I hate Protein shakes and no longer take these. But I did this by fortifying the protein that I consume in meals. "Protein First". Anyways at the end of the article, I have included some recipes if you care to try them.

Hi everyone! I am new here was told by a friend of mine to stop in. I recently found out I'm preggers and looking for forums/threads for pregnancy post op bariatric surgery. A little about me I'm from Fort Worth, TX and had Open RNY on 10/01/2003 by Dr Hugh Babineau in Tyler TX almost 11 years ago. My starting weight was 276 and I have lost and maintained a 136 lb weight loss. I had all my reconstructive plastic surgery March 2005 with Dr. John LoMonaco in Houston TX which was a full body lift (tummy tuck with muscle repair, butt lift, outer thigh lift, contour liposuction) and a BL/BA. Hi y'all I'm 37 with no kids (first pregnancy I miscarried) so needless to say I'm excited and scared all at the same time. I've been very career minded and am starting my family a little later an most. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone and reading all about everyone's journeys. I love to hear and support someone starting out or are as far out as me! [ATTACH]46220[/ATTACH]

Weird, my BMI was less than 50 and I had to do one. Like all things bariatric, advice differs between surgeons.

Yep...you're in band pergatory... that awkward time between surgery and adjustments. There are SOME lucky people who have profound satiety and just simply do not feel hungry. I wasn't one of them! I got HUNGRY! And the professionals at my bariatric program thought that was over stating my case. I was very early in the banding program. They only had experience with RNY folks who really don't get hungry for at least the first 6 mos. Now, I try really hard to talk about hunger during support group. It's real, and the only thing that will fix it is the appropriate amount of adjustment! Hugs,

"THOU SHALT NOT?" Somewhere in the dark mists of my distance past, the term “reverse psychology” entered my awareness, especially as applied to child-rearing. The idea was that if you told your child “Please slam the door when you leave the house,” the defiant devil in that child would shut the door quietly in opposition to your instruction. I don’t have human children and never observed reverse psychology work magic in my childhood home. No matter how firmly you told my brother not to brush his teeth, his teeth went unbrushed. Telling him to jump on the bed would trigger a marathon jumping session (causing the box spring to violently part company with the bed frame) instead of a peaceful bedtime story. And I was no angel – I rewarded my mom’s laissez-faire attitude towards teen dating by involving myself with the worst losers I could find. Despite all that, I know there’s a kernel of truth in the concept of reverse psychology. If you told me I must never, ever eat chocolate again, I’d get started on a chocolate binge before you even finished your sentence. And if you told me, “Thou shalt not even think about potato chips,” my every waking and dreaming moment would be filled with potato chips. Unfortunately, this principle doesn’t work in both directions, at least not for me. If you told me, “You must eat nothing but ice cream this week,” I’d be happy to comply. I’d grab my car keys and ice cream scoop and race to the frozen foods section of the nearest supermarket (after a quick stop at Baskin Robbins). Author and eating disorder expert Geneen Roth tells a story about a mother who worried about her daughter’s weight. Even when the mom locked sweets up in a cabinet, the daughter managed to smuggle sweets into the house and hide in her bedroom to gorge on them. When the mom took Roth’s advice to give the child free access to sweets, the girl tired of them and began to make healthier food choices within a few days. This was a clear case of what I call Forbidden Food Syndrome, in which forced abstinence increases the person’s desire for the “bad” food. I don’t doubt that Roth’s advice in that case was sound, but in my personal experience, food rules aren’t the only cause of secretive food hoarding and gorging. My mom’s food rules had more to do with good manners than with nutrition. I had to take at least one bite of each food on my plate, chew with my mouth shut, ask for permission to leave the table, and dirty no dishes after supper. Other than that, I could eat whatever I wanted, in any quantity. Even with that much freedom, I would hoard and binge on sweets, alone in my room, at every opportunity. I wasn’t eating out of defiance, but neither was I eating for “good” or healthy reasons. Even at age nine, I was eating for emotional reasons – comfort, numbing, entertainment, you name it. As an adult, I have a better handle on my emotional eating than I did at age nine. I’m well aware of the food-obsessed Jeannie who will run without hesitation right into rush-hour traffic if a brownie might be waiting for me on the other side of the road. I know intimately the defiant Jeannie who insists on eating a piece of garlic bread even though she knows that the third or fourth bite could easily get stuck in her esophagus or stoma and cause a lot of discomfort. I have to monitor myself every day in order to maintain the delicate balance between choosing not to eat a piece of birthday cake because eating it doesn’t serve my weight management goals and choosing to go ahead and eat the entire cake simply because I know it doesn’t serve my weight management goals. Sometimes I feel like a freak because I have to deal with issues like this. I watch “normal” people making carefree eating choices and enjoying complete eating freedom with no awful consequences (or at least, that’s the way it looks to me), and deep down inside, I hate those normal people. They’re not yoked to this heavy burden of disordered eating like I am. It’s just not fair. But I’m gradually relaxing about my eating issues enough to be able to listen better and to hear more messages from my normal friends and acquaintances, and to realize that they too struggle with things like Forbidden Food Syndrome from time to time. I have a disgustingly healthy co-worker who told me once that she can’t eat chocolate because it gives her bad migraine headaches. She avoids chocolate, but she confessed that she wants it all the more because she can’t have it, and when she tells herself it’s OK to eat one small piece, she finds that she can’t stop – she eats three, five, seven pieces even though she knows she’ll pay for it sooner or later. She doesn’t pay with obesity, she pays with pain. She doesn’t know the pain of obesity as I do, but she and I struggled with the same basic problem. Little does she know how valuable her chocolate story is to me. It reminds me that I’m really not a freak – I just have a more intense and widespread eating problem than hers. It’s a matter of degrees. She’s five degrees off-center while I’m 45 degrees off. Neither of us is perfect. We both have to work at making good choices – not just in our eating behavior, but in every piece of behavior that could have good or bad consequences for us or for our family and friends. To my mind, this is just part of human existence, part of the responsibility that adult humans bear for maintaining a civilized and (we hope) peaceful co-existence with each other and ourselves. All this may be too philosophical for you, but I’m telling you about it because thinking about my eating problems this way has helped to put them in perspective, and putting them in perspective makes them a lot more manageable. Perspective is the art of seeing things in correct relationship to each other. As I wrote in Bandwagon, without perspective, my computer’s monitor looks ten times bigger than my neighbor’s barn across the road. In fact, my computer monitor is tiny compared to that barn. Without perspective, my weight management challenges seem enormous. I lost all that weight in just one year, but my maintenance job goes on forever. But consider the alternative. I could go back to obesity. I could have a stroke and become a human vegetable, reliant on others for everything from speech to toileting. I could lose my limbs to diabetes, reliant then on others for everything from tooth-brushing to transportation. I could suffer cardiac arrest and die at age 60. Or I can work at maintaining my weight and my health, with a huge payoff of mobility, independence, and longevity. So…back to Forbidden Food Syndrome. Although I’ve said that reverse psychology doesn’t always work with me, I must also say that one of the reasons I chose the band was that living with it would allow me to choose from a wide variety of foods I like. My nutritionist told me I might have problems eating certain foods, like celery or pasta, and I was willing to take the chance because life without celery or pasta still looked pretty good to me. But when my surgeon, speaking at the bariatric surgery informational seminar I attended, said that gastric bypass patients need to avoid all foods that are high in sugar, fat, or simple carbs because of the possibility of dumping, I mentally walked into a barbed wire fence and backed right off. At the time, I had one gastric bypass friend who didn’t dump, but the bypass patient who spoke at the seminar reported that he does dump, and when he described a typical day’s eating, I thought, “That’s not for me.” That guy was justifiably proud of his weight loss and didn’t mind a limited list of food choices, but I knew that limited food choices would send me running straight for the junk food if only out of sheer boredom. The night of that seminar, I hadn’t eaten a chocolate chip cookie for several months, but just the idea of giving up cookies forever made me want to stop at a bakery on the way home. I chose the adjustable gastric band, and the breadth and flexibility of my “OK Foods” list is one of the things that makes my post-op life enjoyable. I do overeat from time to time, but not because of Forbidden Food Syndrome. Taking foods off the Forbidden list has robbed them of some of their power over me. As a pre-op, I would attend a co-worker’s birthday party and eat two pieces of cake (Forbidden) because I’d been avoiding cake and missing it so much. As a post-op, I recently walked through the break room at work and saw a birthday cake on the table. I briefly wondered what flavor it was (impossible to tell from the decorative frosting, whose neon colors can’t be found in nature) and told myself I could try a little piece of it later, on my official break. Lo and behold, come break time I was quite hungry and not in the mood for cake. I wanted my chicken salad, and when I was done with that, I had no room for cake, so I went back to work without another thought about birthday cake. Now, that’s freedom!

My nut gave me tons of samples. I can take iron in a multi-vitamin or separately, but be careful not to take iron with calcium. I also take omega-3, vitamin D, biotin, and get a B12 shot. I like the bariatric vitamin caramel calcium citrate. I also take a chewable omega-3 from BA. I have a multi-complete vitamin from celebrate, but I don't care for it so I am taking a gummie multi and vitamin D I purchased at target. I doubt my nut would like that because "the only vitamins they recommend are celebrate and BA." Lots of people here take gummies though.

Standing outside this morning I looked about and all was quiet. Moments later a light breeze started to affect one of the Maples we planted thirty years ago. It drew my attention because it was a soft rustling noise that came from no where and sounded peaceful and pleasant. Suddenly in the distance I could hear the rumbling of thunder and it felt ominous. Approaching my peaceful moment with the ability to give me cause to worry. It hit me that the entire experience of a few moments was comparable to the journey of weight loss surgery. We get to a point where we give in and think that we have reached the bottom of our life. There is nothing left and we think there is nothing for us out there to help or offer us an option to turn our lives around. But through gentle words and in the form of encouragement by family, friends and the medical field we learn about Bariatric Surgery. We are offered a tool that can assist us to find a new path to good health and well being. A fear builds deep within us but we know inside that this is the only option left. This is make or break it time and we have no where else to go. We see our mortality and the future looks dim. We are willing to do what it takes to find ourselves on the other side which offers a new life without food addiction. We can't even imagine how that would feel to be thin and in good health. Finally having the real control of our future and our lives. Not being the object of well intentioned or intentional comments or opinions that hurt so deep we feel wounded and or scarred for the rest of our days. But it is not to be. We have an option. A gentle breeze overcomes us as we realize we do have an option. We do have a future. One that will keep us around long enough to enjoy the rest of our lives as the person we always wanted to be. Being able to watch our children grow up and then the grandchildren. Not to mention doing all the things you thought you would never do. Making a bucket list of experiences you want to have and places you want to go. Not to mention the effects this new and improved you will have in a positive way with your family and friends, work acquaintances and yes even strangers. This is the gentle breeze of realization that is engulfing your spirit and giving you hope for a better life ahead. When does the thunder roll in the distance to threaten this new found peace you are experiencing? When you realize that it will take real effort on your part to accomplish this. When you take the time to really start changing how you view food and figure out why you used food as a comfort in good times and in bad. We are conditioned to believe that food plays a much bigger roll in our lives then simply giving us the proper nutrients to keep our bodies in good working order. By well meaning parents who told us how it was so important to clean our plates to the diet industry that makes millions off of failed diets. The false comfort in the form of food related slogans that advertising companies use to make us think that food equals happiness. That food is the backbone of our lives. Here are a few. Help yourself to happiness – Golden Coral Come hungry, leave happy – IHOP Unwrap a smile – Little Debbie's Comfort in every bite – Mars Bar Life tastes better with KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken Little nuggets of joy- McDonald's Chicken McNuggets Double your flavor,double your fun – Double Mint Gum Feels like home – Sarah Lee Get your smile on – Lay's And on and on, teaching us that food is the answer to all our woes and will bring us happiness. But we know from our own personal experiences that this is not the case. And yet we battle these feelings of needing food as the drug of choice to fulfill in us an emptiness every single day. We find ourselves reverting back to the habits that has brought us momentary relief only to find that it did not help at all. This is the thunder that we all experience in our journey. The fight to stay on course and not give into the heavy winds and booming sounds of habit or the artificial comfort of using food to make us feel better. We are in a war. We will win a battle at a time. We will get there. Maybe not today or tomorrow but we will control this disease. Weight loss surgery is our tool to learn new life long habits and choices that will once again bring the gentle breeze of hope and then success.

Once upon a time it was nearly impossible for a bariatric patient to keep their protein counts up. We were taught to only eat certain foods and to avoid others. Chicken breast, lean beef, and fish was the rule of thumb. The problem with these foods was that several people had problems eating, swallowing, and digesting them. And we were told that once we hit a certain point, to avoid protein drinks as we needed to be eating our protein rather than drinking it. Isn't it nice to know that times have changed? New research and information has given the bariatric patient so many more options on foods we can eat now to keep our protein levels where they should be. We are no longer restricted to the leanest cuts of meat, but are encouraged to try other cuts such as dark meat chicken, 80/20 or 90/10 ground beef, and (a personal favorite) BACON. Additionally, we are encouraged to eat eggs and shrimp, salmon and pork. And protein drinks (when done RIGHT) are no longer a no-no! How Much Protein Do We REALLY Need and Why Is It So Important? According to most surgeons and nutritionists, we need about 65-70 grams of protein daily. That goes up a little bit if you're recovering from surgery or are sick or pregnant (to about 85-90 grams). Protein is an essential building block of our bodies. When we're losing weight, especially, protein is one of the hardest working macronutrients on the planet. Beyond muscle building, it also helps strengthen our immune system, rebuilds tissue, and can even improve brain function. Additionally, when we lose weight, our bodies burn protein. When we're not getting enough protein, our body takes it from wherever it can get it - typically our body muscle. What's more, it can actually take muscle from our cardiac system! How Can I Get My Protein? Focusing on protein is the #1 concern of many bariatric patients. Of course, eating your protein is the very best bet. Focusing on protein foods with a high protein to fat ratio is the very best bet. Some of the best protein foods are egg whites, chicken breast, and shrimp. Although other meats, poultry, and seafood are also good options. Cheese is another great choice as are nuts and seeds. Beans do give some protein, but many bariatric patients have issues with digesting them. Another good option is the protein drink. Once only encouraged in the early phases after surgery, now many nutritionists and dietitians are encouraging the bariatric patient to include protein supplements in their daily diets. Most contain high (35+ g) amounts of protein, and leave you free to consume other healthy (and needed) foods later on such as vital fruits and vegetables. The #1 suggested protein drink that nutritionists suggest is whey protein. It is, by far, the most digestible and assimilated protein on the market (that means your body can use it a lot easier than other kinds). Sadly, many people can't tolerate whey or stomach it. If this is the case, there are other options available that are almost as easily digested such as egg white protein or vegan (brown rice, pea, and hemp) proteins. If I'm Focusing On Protein, I Don't Have Room For Other Foods, HELP! VITAMINS! You remember those vitamins and fiber supplements the doctor sent you home with? TAKE THEM. It's true that we often have to forgo fruits, vegetables, and whole grains when we're focusing on protein. That's why these supplements are so important to our lifestyle. Remember The Basics! The basics of our lifestyle don't change with time. We still need to remain focused on protein, water, and our vitamin supplements. Keeping these three things at the forefront of your mind will help ensure you successful weight loss, successful maintenance, and a successful lifestyle overall!

@@beccaconaty87 Hi there and welcome! I just wanted to reach out and welcome you to this site. Honestly I don't know what I would have done without my Bariatric Pal family. They have helped me so many times when I had had questions or simply wanted to rant a little bit. There is one regret I have had regarding weight loss surgery and that is I wish I would have been brave enough to do this in my twenties. I was scared for all the reasons you listed. Instead I kept moving forward with yo yo dieting and adding more weight along the way. In the process I developed high blood pressure high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, Gerd, sleep apnea, stage 3 kidney disease. I have severe arthritis of my spine and have had now 5 surgeries to deal with that. My knees are bad, my hips are bad and I suffered from severe migraines. All of this was a direct result of being obese. I carried an extra 150lbs around for 25 years. I truly believe that having this surgery gave me my life back. I am down 111 lbs in just 9 months. all of my comorbitities have resolved but the damage to my spine is done and cannot be undone. If you do this for yourself, be brave and do your research. It really will give you that time back with your kids as well. Please feel free to reach out with questions. I suspect like others you will likely to told to go the bypass route because it will cure your Gerd where the other surgeries may make that worse. You only want to go through this type of surgery once.

petag21, I know this won't help you over the weekend, but on Monday morning, I want you to go and get your insurance card, then go to your telephone and call your insurance company. Tell them you want to have adjustable gastric banding done and ask if they have a special procedures case manager who takes care of the bariatric cases that you can speak with. If not, then speak to whoever can help you figure out if they cover it and if so, what the requirements are. Have a pen and a pad of paper handy, write down the name of every person you speak to and note the date and time. Make notes of what they say. Most big companies have case managers that deal exclusively with special procedures like this. If not, then with the codes below, you should be able to get somewhere with the rep you talk to. The codes to ask if they are covered are: laparoscopic surgical adjustable band:Procedure code 43770; diagnosis code 278.01 Once you have found out from them if they cover it and what the requirements are, ask them to snail mail (and email if they can) you a copy of those requirements.<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

I think the two best surgeons in Mexico are Dr. Aceves and Dr. Rumblaut. Dr. Aceves has done more sleeves, I believe. Dr. Rumblaut has a band himself. They are both very experienced in bariatric surgery, have excellent reputations, and are capable of doing complicated revisions.

i have to agree with missbs.... Bariatric Advantage Calcium chews in chocolate r delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!! i couldnt believe i was eating something good 4 me...my mom sneaks and eats them...lol...

I had a great surgeon in Knoxville, TN and I am sure they work with you being out of town to do as much as possible in as few visits as they can. His name is Dr Stephen Boyce @ New Life center for Bariatric Surgery, and they are a Quality Center. 2/7/11 pre-op - 254 2/22/11 surgery - 243 Today 3/6/11 - 228 down 26 lbs

Hello Everyone! This is my first time posting anything on this site, I've been watching hundreds of YouTube clips about VSG and am nervous and excited about going through the process. I would love to have a friend go alongside me who understands the struggles associated with choosing bariatric surgery. My family doesn't understand, my friends don't understand, my church would never support such a decision - so really, I'm on my own. About me: I decided after many other failed diet attempts to do VSG after a coworker of mine did it and looks PHENOMENAL! I am considered a lightweight because I'm only 218 lbs with a BMI of 38.6. I don't have any comorbidities so I've honestly been working overtime to gain the 7 lbs I need to hit a 40 BMI (don't judge me). I'm still not there yet but I've def gained weight and feel HORRIBLE!!!! I hate the way I look and feel about myself. But I'm willing to gain in order to lose. I fear getting VSG and losing too much. I don't want to be skinny, like a size 0-2 but my surgeon says African American bariatric patients who get the sleeve tend to lose less than our racial counterparts. Weird. I'd be happy with 140-145 lbs. Anywho, would love to find a friend, or "sleeve sister". God Bless You All!