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noble199 walk walk I did that right after surgery. I got sleeved 7/16 and doing great lost 19 pounds since surgery Congrats in your new journey but walk walk

My husband is 67, weighed 320, is 6'2 and loved the wings that got him fatter. Post sleeve he is down to about 255 and he is smiling and happy, he is off some HBP meds, and no longer eating big bowls of fruit at bedtime to keep him from being unconscious during the night from horrible diabetes dropping to 40. I was scared he would die everytime I called rescue. He was terrified of this surgery and we went to seminars 10 years. During those 10 years, he had a heart stent, the diabetes was getting worse, he had cellulitis that was life threatening in his legs and ankles, on 3 HBP medicines, can barely walk due to nerve pain in his legs and back pain. He has been fat since he was a baby. Its is a wonder he is alive with the sleep apnea. You are young enough to do something about this before you develop these problems. Those wings - well we do not miss them. We would choose having a bounce in our step again to a platter of wings any day.

Well, I go for my seminar at WeightWise on Saturday and am so excited. I'm worried that I may have to postpone havin my surgery :biggrin:. I got laid off last Thursday from my job where I have worked for over 10 yrs. It was completely unexpected and now don't know if it's financially responsible to use the $$ in my savings for surgery or if I should save every penny until I have a new job?? One part of me says, do it, I may never have a better time. The other side of me says, it's financially irresponsible to be spending that kind of $$ on something that is optional. I'm afraid if I wait that I may never have the $$ in hand again to do it. Not to mention when starting a new job, it may be a while before I can schedule a weeks vacation. On top of losing my job, I am also moving. I signed the contract to sell my house last Tuesday and then lost my job on Thursday. Not sure what's going to happen now. I was buying my grandmothers house but not sure what's going to happen now as I doubt any bank will loan me $$ when I don't have a job. I may have to do the lease to buy or rent it from my my grandmothers estate until I get settled with a new job. ARG!!! I am so stressed!!

i went to a orientation on july 8 had consult with dr.july 10 and surgery set for september 11- i did all my research and got referral letters from 2 dr's and had history and called my insurance with proc/ codes for approval and was set and approved with in 2 weeks.i have bcbs of mich which had no excl. at all for weight loss surgery.my psyc and pretesting are this week and 16 days to go! so all in all from start to finish less than 8 weeks for first consult to surgery-yahoooooo i have a great dr who is a leader in this surgery did the research on him the surgery and the hospital now im psyched and ready to go yesterday.ive also lost 42 lbs in the past few months while working on this so im more than ready-good luck to you jc let us know how you are doing im right behind ya all-victoria

im so glad i found this post i too have aetna pos II and i have actually gained weight since my initial visit..im on the 90 day thing, but since i started and in dec 08 but skipped jan im having to do my final appt tomorrow.....but when i went to the initial visit on 12/21/08 i was 244 a bmi of exactly 40.0 so yea i aint gonna lie i knew that if i followed that 90 day thing with eating right and exercise daily i would loose and fall below 40 so i got on a "i will never get to eat like this again" binge and i have gained about 6lbs...since 12/31 to the present, which puts me at a bmi of 41 so im praying they approve me even with a slight weight gain in 4 mnths...and for the fact that i missed a month....but made it up by extending to april. Also my case mgr told me that aetna didnt require psych eval...that was up to the surgeon...i read on the aetna website that only if an individual has a history of psychological mishaps is when they would require a psych eval. and so far the surgeons office told me dr. marsden doesnt require it also.....so my last visit is tomorrow....and hopefully i will know something by 5/10/09!!

HI THERE.. I GOT BANED ON 01/20/11. EVERYTHING HAS GONE REAL WELL, NO MAJOR SIDE AFFECTS. IVE LOST 38 LBS SO FAR. JUST GOT MY FIRST FILL YESTERDAY...MONTH POST OP. I HAVE BEEN READING SOME OF THE DISCUSSIONS AND IM CURIOUS AS TO WHY SO MANY SURGEONS DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AS FAR AS FILLS GO. I READ THAT SOME DRS WONT FILL FOR 3 MONTHS AND SOME FOR 2 MONTHS. JUST CURIOS AS TO WHY THAT IS. IS IT THE SPECIFIC DRS PROCEDURE? IT WOULD SEEM THAT FOR THE SURGERY ALL DRS SHOULD BE ON THE SAME PAGE.

Greetings to all, I am a 43 year old single man living in Staten Island, NY. I had a lap band installed on 8/16/2012 which would have been my grandmother's 101 birthday if she were alive. I chose this date because I felt she would be watching over me. Also, it was exactly 5 months after my first visit with Dr. Marina Kurian of NYU Langone Med. Center in NYC, NY. Also, the number 4 has been prominent in my life and I consider it a lucky number. 8/16/2012 are all multiples of 4. I was 320 when I went to Dr. Kurian, lost about 10 pounds on the liquid diet to prepare me for the surgery and now I am at 292. My goal is to get al least to 200 pounds if not less. I lost my wife, Tracy, on April 4, 2011 exactly 2 years and two months from our wedding day. In about 8 months I gained 60 pounds from eating and depression after she died. It was the heaviest I have ever been. I decided in February 2012, I decided I wanted to be healthy and decided on weight loss surgery because dieting failed me. I wanted a R n Y Gastric Bypass but my personal physician suggested the lap band because he had one done at NYU Langone Medical Center. Well, that's enough for now. If there is anything you want to know, feel free to email me or respond to this post. Also, feel free to check out my blog website, www.grizzlybearspeaks.com. Cordially, Rob "Grizzly Bear" Bennett

I just saw my doc this past Wednesday for my preop and asked the same question. He told me that though he is comfortable performing either procedure, he likes scientific data. The rny has been performed for 30 or 40 years with very high success rate and the sleeve has only been performed for the past 10 years so it doesn't have the longterm data to back it as rny. So I chose rny because I feel the same way. Something interesting though while at my appt...all of us in the group that day were asked if we wanted to participate in a blind random clinical research study for a single incision gastic bypass. Being random you wouldn't know which surgery you were getting until you woke up but my doc did the first single incision rny back in 2004 and is coming to the end of his clinical trial...thought that was interesting though I opted for the normal 5 incision...he said the single is a bit more difficult and a little more post op pain involved. Good luck with your decision! I wish you the best!

Evening Ladies.. Diane, how nice of you to stop by, hahaha. Yes, hubby is in Orlando, yahoo, I'm enjoying quiet time, haven't left the house today ) Betty, Sherry, Kat, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to wait until after my upcoming trip to Mexico and my Dec/Jan trip to go for a fill, chit by then I will probably have gained 10 lbs, my close still fit the same, but I feel so thick, does that make sense? Darcy we'll have to meet for a Scrabble game . Donna, Diane, I'm going to be available for cocktails tomorrow night, that would be Wednesday, here in VA, LOL. Diane the Operation Smile was great, the rain held off until the end, at least it was warmish and not a freezing rain like last night was. I found out this am my heat was not working in my bedroom, it was 66 freakin degrees. I called the hvac guy, of course, since I have a 10 year warranty, that's 6 years old, they couldn't work me in until tomorrow, hum, guess they already spent the other money. Yep, getting cabin fever, I think I'm going to run out to Wawa's and fetch a custom made salad. I have been pretty good today, had two protein shakes, aren't ya proud of me! Later girlfriend! NJW, are you near Atlantic City, now there's a meeting place.

I need a partner. I am NOT liking navagation of this site. It is hard to find what I am looking for and I need just to have someone to speak to directly. Anyone interested in just speaking banding with a married 41 yo female?

Hello! I have researched LapBand surgery for about a year. I just met with my surgeon last week. I am now in the process of getting everything I need done, bloodwork, nutritionist, etc. I would love to have a buddy along the way:) I am married with a 10 year old daughter. My goal is to have surgery this summer, but not sure that it will happen that fast.

it's mostly likely from the IV fluids they gave you in the hospital. It's basically salt water, which a lot of people retain. I've heard of people leaving the hospital weighing up to 10 lbs more than when they went in! It does take a few days to work it's way out of your system, so hang on. You should start dropping weight very soon. as for protein shakes, I never had trouble with drinking things from day 1. I was worried about it because we were told we'd only be able to drink a little at a time, but the PA at my clinic told me not to worry about it - that my stomach would tell me if I was drinking too fast or too much.

http://www.amazon.com/Isopure-Protein-Drink-Grape-ounces/dp/B001M0NJNC/ref=sr_1_10?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1368475024&sr=1-10&keywords=isopure+zero+carb Isopure Plus 0 Carb Protein Drink Grape Frost, Fruit Punch was one drink I used and you can get it delivered from Amazon

You're doing fine. I lost 15 pounds my first MONTH after surgery. Then 10 the next month and 10 per month for the next year. Stalling early on is very common, just stick with the program and the weight will start coming off again.

My surgeon did warn of the bounce-back, he said it's normal to bounce back 5-10 pounds when you settle into maintenance so he set my goal 10 pounds less than where he wants me to be long term. That being said I also say maintain your body where it feels most comfortable for you. My surgeons goal is 175 with 185 long term so that's slightly above normal BMI for me but at almost 5'11" I feel pretty comfortable where I am right now (185-188) If I lose more great, but if I don't at least I'm at a place where Im much healthier.

You are doing a great job! You are losing a little more than 2 lbs per week, which is what is expected. You may not think it is a lot now, but if it continues, it adds up. I am 6 1/2 months out and have lost 67 lbs. That is about 10 lbs per month....exactly what you are doing now (you were banded 2 months and 1 week ago). So it may not seem like it, but it adds up to a great deal if you keep up the good work. Also, as you continue to get fills and finally reach restriction you won't feel like you are starving yourself. It may seem like I "diet" to people because I eat between 1200-1500 per day, but I don't think of it as a diet, because I don't feel hungry all of the time. It gets better, really it does.

:help: Is this a new disability of the band? I have been banded 10 days and I get these awful sharp shoulder pain. It started about 4 days after surgery. These don't feel like the gas pains which get better by walking and eventually burping out (sorry for the visual). These pains occur when I'm up and about - even if I'm sitting around as opposed to walking around. Ibuprofen helps some but laying down on my left side is what fixes it. Is it just me - anyone else out there?

Ok, I just need to let off some steam. :frusty: My past two weeks have been pretty crappy. It's 17 days from the end of the school year and the kids are going crazy. I teach in an inner city school, so some of the issues get really bad because they are used to solving their problems with yelling and fights. :boxing: :confused: I've pretty much come out of the band closet with most of my co-workers. If they ask questions, I answer. Because of this, two of them are looking into the band and one other is seriously considering it. This has been pretty much the only highlight of these two weeks. One person, our retired nurse's assistant, gave me her opinion of how much weight I should lose. :omg: HUH?!? She asked me what size did I want to be and I answered her a 10-12. She then proceeded to tell me that because I've been heavy for so long that I couldn't possibly get down to that size and besides, I would just look anorexic. :confused: Excuse me????? My mother is that size and I'm the spitting image of my mother, so I know that size will be great for me. I had a UIL contest with two teams of students and we've been practicing for 3 months. The Friday before the Monday contest, one team member gets suspended and one flakes out on me. The rest of the team performed crappy in the contest. I have no idea what they've been doing at home, but obviously nothing. :huggie: Since the contest was yesterday and we started giving a standardized test today, we naturally had a faculty meeting that discussed important information,which I missed. Seems that our principal has taken a new job:pout: (which is great for her) but we all really like her. She's one of the reasons I've stayed at this school for six years even though it's quite a long commute for me. :phanvan Nobody likes our Asst. Principal and the word is that she has thrown his name into the pool to go to a middle school. Pray that happens. If he stays at this school, I might have to quit my job and find some other way to support myself. :pray: And to top it all off, I've been having slight port pain since the weekend and my period should start any minute. Of course since I'm not getting my first fill for another two weeks I'm naturally getting HUNGRY. :hungry: In the past my favorite way to calm my nerves when this much crap was going on was to eat, but I'm not doing that this time, so that's a good thing. Most of the stuff going on, I'm used to, because we never really know what's going to happen at the end of a school year, but when you throw pain and other peoples opinions into the mix, it has driven me NUTS. I did tell my mother what the person said about looking anorexic if I dropped below a size 14, and she just laughed. There's not a snowballs chance in hell that I would look that way. I just hate that some people feel they need to tell me things like that. Ok, I feel much better now. Rant off. Time to go take a shower and let the hot Water do it's thing. Might even get the urge to curl my hair for work tomorrow. :grouphug: Thanks for listening! Audra

Creepy!! So is this guy now in some type of 10-step recovery program, and he's on the step where you have to go and apologize to the people you have hurt? Why after all this time must he confess? Will you continue to talk to him? I know a guy named Anthony...

Hi all! First of all, I'd like to say thank you to all who have posted and shared their WL journey. I have been lurking here gleaning as much info as possible. I guess it's time I share! I am 53 years old. With a BMI of 40 and several co-morbidities. I have tended to be a little heavy all of my adult life, but never as extreme as in the last 10 years, in which time I have gained 100 lbs. At this time I have attended 3 seminars.....OK, I am a slow learner. The first one- I thought "oh how extreme!, If I can't control what I eat now, how could I with WLS". And, "My Dr. would never go along with it". And, "I could never afford it!" The second seminar was after much research and a hospitalization over my heart-resulting in my PCP recommending WLS. That is when I discovered that the closest WLSC (one hour away in Southern OR) was not COE rated, which is a requirement of my insurance. The third seminar was a webinar for WLSC 4 hours away, to the south in Chico, CA. I am willing to go the distance for surgery and fills, however they don't have any type of "medically supervised diet, exercise or behaviour modification program" which is a requirement by by insurance plan (GEHA). Six months within the last 12 months I have to have documentation of the "medically supervised" diet and exercise. I saw my PCP at end of November (when he recommended WLS), however hadn't been to see him at all in previous 12 months, so have to start from then. I also saw him in December, so that I could add that to the record, but he really doesn't know what he is supposed to be documenting. He said that if he codes for "obesity" the insurance doesn't pay. I may have to just self-pay for these visits so the insur. will cover surgery. I have seen others refer to the 6 month "medically supervised diet " but never any specifics, like how do I document this. I really am ready for this surgery now, am willing to go through the 6 months of diet, but want to make sure I am doing it right so the Insurance covers! Also, would like to have an actual "program" so that I can feel some progress! Any ideas out there? (Thanks for listening to me babble on!)

For my visit, I talked on the phone to a nurse and after met virtually with the physician's assistant and dietitian. I can post about my dietitian's visit later if anyone is interested. First, I spoke with the nurse over the phone for about 15 minutes. She asked the following questions: What type of surgery or intervention are you interested in? What is your current weight? What is your blood pressure? Tell me about any prior surgeries? Next, I met with the physicians assistant (PA-C), for about 50 minutes. She asked the following questions: What is your weight history? How long have you struggled with weight? What do you think is the cause of weight gain? What are your lifestyle habits? Have you taken weight loss medication? Did the weight loss medication work for you? How much weight have you gained in the last year? What is motivating you to lose weight? What type of exercise are you doing? What's your living situation like? Do you eat out? Who does the cooking in the household? Do you eat three meals a day? Do you snack? What are you snacking on? Do you struggle with emotional eating? Have you been diagnosed with a kidney stone? Do you have an irregular heart rhythm? Have you had an EKG? Any bleeding disorders or blood clots? Have you been diagnosed with an eating disorder? Have you met with a therapist? Do you have heartburn? Do you have a stomach ulcer? Do you use your CPAP? Multiple family planning questions. Next, we discussed my medical history. She gave a general overview of: Obesity Metabolic processes Emotional health Coping skills Lifestyle changes Weight loss medications Expectations The differences in surgery, benefits, and risks associated with the sleeve and RNY were discussed. She made a surgical recommendation. There is a 2-form of contraception requirement. I was given an outline of tasks to complete. Those were: scheduling a blood draw and contacting my sleep center to request my CPAP usage download. A scheduler will call to schedule a psychological assessment, physical therapy, and an appointment with the nurse clinician who'll act as my contact throughout the process. It was also encouraged that I attend the support group for bariatric and weight management patients. Lastly, I was given the clinic's late policy and the reminder that if I gain 10 pounds before surgery, I will be re-evaluated to be sure I'm a good surgical candidate. I had the blood draw and eight tubes were taken. I was tested for vitamin deficiencies including B1, B6, D. Also, calcium, iron, prediabetes, cholesterol, creatinine for kidney function, parathyroid hormone, and others. Hope this helps anyone curious about the first visit.

What a great NSV and what a great looking bunch of lass's. I can see a slight resemblance in the cheek curvature of everyone. P.S., I hope to look as great as mom does when I am her age and I would hope I look just as great after having 10 kids...wow! Hehehe, I fell completely apart after 2 kids. I was 145 when I got pregnant with my last one and skyrocketed to 240lbs . Not even 3 kids yet.. I plan on taking one of these pictures when I see my mom in July or August and my sister. I used to be the smallest and now I am the biggest..even still after dropping the lbs, I'm still the biggest. Can't wait to "not be" anymore:cool: .

GOOD LUCK! I'll be thinking about ya tomorrow, I go on Jan 16th. I've sure learned something on this 10-day LowCarb liquid diet, seems like the weight is melting off of me. I'm barely taking any medicine for diabetes because my bloodsugar is almost normal, haven't seen that for years. Jan 16th will be banded by Dr. Cook at Frye Medical in North Carolina

Iwas kind of feeling the same way you are a couple weeks ago. I let all of those what ifs play through my head then I realized if I DON'T do it, chances are I won't be around in 10 or 15 years anyway. I figured getting the band is MUCH less risky than living the way I am now. KWIM? Good luck on Thursday!!!!!