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I too have Highmark BCBS...I waited 2 1/2 weeks for approval. I am scheduled for banding on 11/18. I called the insurance company once a week to see if it was approved. Guess I couldnt wait for them to call me Good luck

Hello why the last 14 pounds is taking forever to come off? I didn't lose anything last week. I'm stuck at 139. Come on can you sprinkle something over here so the pounds come off before I'm 34 lmbo that's in December 7.

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks on clear liquids! One more week to go! I'm getting really bored on the liquids, and can't wait for the next stage! Any good recommendations for mushies?

Omg, the office was SO GREAT!! The staff already feel like family, they are so warm and friendly and want to be sure I understand everything that's going to happen. The nurse I spent the most time talking to will get right on my insurance, but she says they don't require any strange pre-op hoop jumping. Once she gets the okay, everything will start rolling along. She says the biggest delay will be insurance, but that I could feasibly be looking at getting in within 4-6 weeks! Once I get the okay I will do the sleep test, blood work, etc. But OMG, I was reading all these stories and thought it may not be until after the first of the year! Cross fingers for me that it rolls on through! :tt1:

You have to establish the correct intake balance and exercise balance to consistently loss weight and everyone's is different. I personally had to eat very high protein 80-90 gms consistently, around 100 gms of carbs and exercise 6 days a week doing cardio and weights 3 days a week. Ihad many stalls along the way and some lasted as long as 5 months but I never gained and sometimes I lost inches. I do measure and weigh my food and count calories but more important I monitor my protein intake and portions. Be patient we did not become obese overnight.

This forum has been a life saver to me. I was sleeved on 7/18/11, exactly 6 weeks today. At first, I thought I would never feel normal again. I had a day or two of what have I done, but for the most part have no regrets. That being said, I feel like I turned a corner between week 4 and 5. At first, I didn't think I would ever feel normal again until that time. I started to get most of my water and protein in, my routine became more normal. I feel like myself again. The only difference is that I feel like I am a picky eater, not a restricted eater. There are very few foods that I cannot not eat, but a lot of foods that I choose not to eat. Its not that I felt bad before, its just that I feel sooooo much better now. I think you are too soon in to see all the good things that are happening to you and will continue to happen. Although some of us had a shorter process than others making it to the actual surgery, all of us had many attempts at loosing the weight before we considered it. I bet you are the same way too. I think you will feel differently in the near future. Remember, this is a process. We will have our ups and downs. Own it and move on. One word of advice, that I have found helpful.... be prepared when you leave the house. Take snacks and always have something you can eat with you. You will not be worried about what you are going to eat and what people will think of you. It has worked for me, sounds silly, but it is great advice. Good luck

Though it may be hard to believe, one week isn't really considered a stall. There are posters here that have been at the same weight for a month or more. I will gladly take a week. I've read that its common to stall at 3 & 6 weeks and 3, 6, 9 months about. Your body has to adjust as you lose weight. This early after surgery you'll stall, but it will continue to drop after a while. At 5 weeks I didn't lose, but 6th week I dropped 7lbs. Try upping your calories, Protein or exercise. One or all may help. Just don't get discouraged and try staying off the scale. The most I will weigh myself is 2x a week; Monday is my official and Thursday is my progress check. If I haven't loss by Thursday I start looking back at myfitnesspal to see what I've done and adjust if necessary. Good luck to you.

Only 2wks post op, you're still very swollen and the restriction is greater than when your swelling will go down. Don't concern yourself with calories right now. While losing you'll want to be between 450-850 cal/day and not really anymore than that. The first two weeks is nothing but liquids. You shouldn't worry if you can't finish you liquids all at once unless they aren't going down at all. Sip your liquids...you can't take big swigging gulps of liquids like you used to. Give yourself time...I'm 5 weeks post ok and experienced the same thing. Even still I can only drink about 1/2 skin fast protein drink when I drink one. I usually save the other half for later in the day.

Take it slow, if you drink too much you will have a vey uncomfortable feeling in your pouch. I did it only one time and felt nauseated. I put my drink flown too between sips. I am three weeks out and and able yo take bigger sips than right after surgery.

LOL I'm glad... Besides I haven't lost any weight in the past two weeks... Then suddenly because of last night I lost 3 pounds. :redface: hahaha! yay

Yep.. mine uses the green zone chart. I find it helpful to take in a week or so of my food journal, that way whoever I end up seeing.. doc or pa.. can see that I've been compliant to the best of my ability. And they can counsel me about poor choices too.

I am 3 1/2 months post lap band surgury, doing pretty well the first two months, lost 36 pounds, only 8 of which came after the first fill at 6 weeks post op. Not doing as well now, the restriction is better, which i thought would be a good thing, but i chew really well, and still end up with pain when the food gets stuck. not all food, just some foods. this week got really sore and went back to soft foods because it seemed tender. so this weekend, i ate a hamburger patty, chewed really really well, thought it was going well, at the very end of eating it it started to feel wrong. like i couldnt swallow spit, so i was readying for the regular stomach pain til the food got thru my port. well this time it was really sore, and like i said, came on late, and then settled in my left flank. I see enough kidney stones in the hospital that i am thinking this is a kidney stone pain. :cry never had those before, is this a by-product of my surgury? I am for the first time starting to doubt my wisdom in getting this done. :think any words of wisdome out there? anyone else get kidney stones?

So I have a question. Should my side still hurt? Left side? Hurts to cough etc. I'm a week and 2 days post op. Just wondering how everyone else felt at this stage

I'm going in for a second fill on August 8th and I was just curious about how I would know if I need one. I have heard others say they get hungry quickly therefore they would get a fill. Right now, I eat every three to four hours. I sometimes snack depending on what I have eaten before. Portion wise, I can eat about two cups or so of food. Just curious thats all. Thanks for your input in advance.

My op date is the 12th of August. I'm Irish too, I live up north, and I smoke too lol. I'm on my pre op diet and yes it is SO flipping hard and I had to stop smoking, but all I can tell you is the thing that keeps me going is the thought of me not being fat anymore! I'm just so excited to loose weight and I would do anything to loose it, so of I have to stop smoking for a few weeks and diet then il do it to try be healthier. Il probably smoke again after my op though lol. But just think of how good your going to look. And remember how dangerous it is for you if you don't quit smoking! Just try have one smoke a week but 2 weeks before your op you need to seriously not have any. Best of luck! Btw who are you getting your surgery with?

Hey Congratulations! I'm scheduled to get my band on the 27th too! Yea! We are band twins. Ha. Only two weeks for the liquid diet? Luckey you. My doc but me on 5 weeks before my surgery date. It's Optifast and costs about $300 a month. I haven't been sticking to it 100% but doing pretty well considering. I haved a dinner out when I just can't get around it without being rude. The Protein diet is to shrink the liver becuase it cover part of the upper stomoch and reducing it helps prevent organ damage during surgery. Also, protein helps you heal faster after the surgery which has it's own rewards in and of itself. So only two weeks and you get to eat a meal everyday. Lucky girl. Enjoy. and congratulations again.

Well, after sifting through all the junk. getting laid-off, not having insurance, etc... I have my LapBand surgery scheduled for August 27. I am going to self-pay, but I definatly think it will be worth it! I am going to have it done by Dr. Simms here in Waco. I am glad I will not have to drive back from Dallas or Austin the day of the surgery. Ok I am rambling now, They are putting me on a "liquid" diet for 2 weeks prior to the surgery. Is this normal? has anbody else done this. It is a slimfast in the morning and at lunch, with a small protien for dinner like fish or chicken. they said it is to make sure the liver is out of the way. I am excited!!!

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I am just wondering how easy it is to stretch out the pouch. I am just under 2 weeks out, and the other night I was drinking some cream Soup. I was feeling very unsatisfied after 1 full cup, so I poured myself another. (note, not very hungry, just unsatisfied) I drank about 2/3 of the second cup and my stomach felt like I'd just eaten Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, I was FULL. It hurt for probably an hour. I don't know how soup could do that but I guess I did. anyway, today I was allowed to try strawberries and bananas. I was able to eat a whole banana, and about 4 or 5 strawberries and don't feel full at all. I am not hungry, but not really full either. Am I just being paranoid or what.......?

I was banded a couple weeks before you and I'm down about 50 lbs so we're right where we belong. I don't know what your family situation is, but if I was in your position, I'd have Thanksgiving with my family (or as close as I could get) and have dinner, in reasonable quantities, and try to enjoy myself as much as possible. I've been through a lot of holidays with people who were miserable because they couldn't repeat the experience they had as children. If you have a family, try to make these times as pleasurable as possible for them, and maybe you'll find that you bring yourself out of your funk, as well. Anyway, have a happy Thanksgiving.

The first 5 months after getting banded, I ate just like I did pre band. I had no restriction and I was thru dieting, so I refused to count or measure anything. I lost about 5 lbs in those 5 mths. After my 3rd fill, I finally found mecca.I was done with eating like a trucker. 24-26 lbs in 2 months? That's fantastic! When I was actively losing (like the first year or so), I lost an average of 10 lbs a month. Some months a little more, some a little less. But everytime I weighed in with my gym trainer (every 2 weeks), I lost something. I didn't start working out till I'd lost about 50 lbs. Then I went the expensive route for about 6 mths - hired a personal trainer and saw her every week. I really didn't work out all that hard either. I went 3 days a week, for about 60 mins a session. I still go 3x a week for about 60 minutes (I can walk much fast5er now tho!) You're doing very well, IMHO. I wish I would've lost more those first few months. Maybe if I had followed the rules, but I can't do it over again... Good luck! Marci

I missed it by 5, shouldn't be a prob;em getting it by the end of the week! Every time I walked past the cookies in my parents house I threw them away.... Then the family got mad and I had to go buy more haha

I went to the er they gave me iv because I was dehydrated. Figured it was the band and said they couldn't help me. Called my ob dr and she said meet her at her office. After he assistant and I searching independently I found a dr that takes the medicaid 2hrs away and she made the calls. I went there yes the band slipped and he was preparing me for surgery this morning to remove it. I felt horrified when he said I don't qualify for any other surgery so it would be just removing the band. Thank God I remembered some threads I read here about people having slippage that wasn't severe and the dr or moving the fluid (which the other dr did while we waited on this one), and waiting a month or so to see if it would correct itself and it did so they had them refilled. When he came back to see me I ask him about that possibility. He thought I was asking because he said I wouldn't get discharged until Fri and it's a holiday weekend. He said it wasn't likely to fix itself but it wasn't an emergency if I could keep down water (which I already had at that point) and food so he said he would give me crackers and if I kept them down he would let me go home and I could come back another time. I kept the crackers down and the first dr came to check and I talked to her about it again she and told her why. She said it might likely slip again and I said but that's a might correct? And she said yes. I told her I wanted to give it some time and then get another xray and if it fixed I wanted to refill it if not then remove it. She said I could do that. It was my decisions. I felt so relieved! But she scheduled me to come back in 2 weeks and I don't think that's enough time even though I don't know. I just want to give it every possible chance I can. I think I'll call after a bit and reschedule, not sure how long I want to wait but at least all of the 6 weeks I'm off on maternity. Then I'll ask for another xray. Now I'm not sure about the insurance paying for the refills but I figured since the unfill was under them it could be seen as part of treating the problem I came into the er for (I went thru the er with these Dr's as well so they would be able to see my the same day). But if not and it does fix then I feel paying out of pocket for fills is something I could handle as long as they hopefully do at least 1cc at a time (4cc was in band). I could just do it slowly to save up. I wouldn't complain about that. In the meantime I'm going to pray it fixes itself and pray the insurance will cover the fills if it does. It's a big relief to me that I stormed my memory before they admitted me and I ended up in surgery this morning!

Pleae do not feel embrase this is not a fashion show meeting. This is a healthy lifestyle change. I was worried too, but felt at ease since almost everyone that attends the meetings will look exactly like you and it will put you at ease. I've just one week post op but I've been told carbonaed beverages such as soda and beer are out but wine is okay. Just think of it as changing to a more spohisticated drink in celebration of your new body. :biggrin2:

my doc as well requires we measure food precisely at every meal and to ensure how much protien intake there is. 2 0z of protien and 1z of veggies and fruits. three 0z at every meal i plan to go by the guidelines because for me. My full feeling is when I feel it in my stomach and I also dont know if that is exactly the way to know when your full. gosh ive overate for so long its like im not intuned to that feeling.

Definitely take this time to get prepared! Spend more of your time reading the post-op forum than the pre-op forum. That way, you won't be the one asking these same questions that get asked every single day here: HELP it's after surgery and I feel hungry, is that normal? HELP every time I eat my stomach roars and grumbles, is this normal? HELP I'm three weeks out from surgery and the scale hasn't moved in four days, what am I doing wrong? HELP I'm on full liquids and I can drink a protein shake really fast. Did they actually do my surgery? HAVE I STRETCHED MY SLEEVE? What should I eat on purees? When should I start exercising again? How long until I can lift my baby/toddler after surgery? When can I go back to work? If I lift weights, use expensive oils and body wraps, and gobble 1000000 mcgs of biotin every day, I will successfully avoid having any loose skin or suffering any hair loss, right? What should I take with me to the hospital? etc. Seriously, though, being nervous is completely normal and understandable -- but keep reminding yourself, complications and an early death are a lot more likely if you remain obese rather than undergo a surgery that is safer than a gallbladder removal. No surgery is risk free but obesity is a lot riskier than this surgery!