Taking The First Steps To A New Life

[Abby E 0]

I have not been scheduled yet for very much on this journey but in 2 weeks I have an appointment with my family doctor to have them varify that I am qualified as well as to pick her brain on the surgery. The surgeon I want to go to requires the future patient to attend one of his seminars before even being considered. So I guess that is my first step and I pray that I succeed quickly. I don't think I have ever felt so confident with one of my decisions as I do with this one. I hope the process goes fast because I don't know how I will feel if I have to wait a year. But any advise from others would be great!

[Holly Dolly 575]

Good for you for checking it out. If I were you, I would call your insurance and ask if they cover it, and what do you need to get preauthorized. Hopefully you wont have to do the 6 months of a supervised diet.

[Shelley64 26]

Congratulations on starting your journey. I'll be curious to hear what your primary care physician has to say about lap band. My pcp didn't know much about the procedure but she was supportive in my Quest for more information. I went to 2 different bariatric seminars. The first time I actually went to one in support of my sister who was considering gastric bypass. This was about 4 years ago and they were just starting to do lapband at our hospital. After making the decision to pursue it for myself, I went to another seminar where they talked about both surgeries in detail. Based on the surgery itself, the reduced complications and the recovery time, I knew lapband was for me. My BMI was just under 40 but I had high blood pressure, pre-diabetes and high cholesterol/trigs. The cholesterol/trigs are unfortunately just part of my genetic makeup but my blood pressure and blood sugar are now normal. My primary doc kept me on 5mg of blood pressure medicine for kidney protection (based on the prior pre-diabetes diagnosis) which I was bummed about BUT my nurse at my surgeons office agreed completely saying it doesn't hurt anything. I'm a little over a year out and based on my scale this morning, I'm down 50 lbs. I had a great surgeon and he and his staff are awesome. I feel like I'm part of a family there. I'm going to make a suggestion on a book you should buy or check out at your library. It's titled Band Wagon. It's written by a lady who had lapband and it's full of great information that I have found really helpful. I got the book after my surgery but wished I would have had it prior. I've read it several times and go back from time to time and re-read sections over again. It's real basic terminology, what to expect stuff and it's an easy read. She's pretty funny too which made it hard to put down. Check it out and Good Luck!

[mags2u 57]

Congrats! Best decision I've made thus far!

[journey4me 23]

So her name is prudence?

[Abby E 0]

The surgeon I want to go to is Dibenedetto in NY. He has done 2 hernia surgeries on my father and my father has no scars so he is my ideal choice. I have called my insurence company and the lady only told me that I have to qualify and to find a surgeon to find out the pre-operative process ( I think she was a bit clueless about the procedure). Thanks everyone for the support. This really makes me happy to hear your successes with the lap band!

[Krystyneh 55]

In October I had decided to go for lap band surgery. My insurance says that I need to complete seeing a nutritionist for 6 months before I can even speak to a surgeon. I have finished 4 appointments and I have finished all the blood work that I needed done plus a complete physical. I still need to have my last 2 appointments with my nutritionist and have 2 psych evaluations done. Since seeing my nutritionist I have lost 15 pounds My insurance doesn't demand that I lose a certain amount of weight before surgery but I want to be 250 pounds on surgery day. I still have 3 appointments with the bariatric program I'm going through before I can see the surgeon. I also have to watch 3 lap band seminars online and fill out 3 questionaire's also before I can have surgery. I'm hoping to have surgery anywhere between may and august. It's a long process but definitely one that is worth pursuing. The seminar that you are going to need to go to definitely tells you a lot of information. You are going to want to get into the habit of exercising a lot now because yes the band restricts how much food you can intake at a time but without exercise you're only going to lose a little. good luck