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tonibugg I'm actually quite tempted. I want a juicy burger but in my gut I do not feel hungry like that empty hungry feeling. Every day the pains get a little better. tjloser I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thought I would do a play by play for others, but also for my own record

Ok, so i am ready for the wrath that I'm sure i will get about posting this.... but i really want to know how others feel. How do you feel about Medicare and or Medicaid paying for Lapband? This infuriates me...... I get up every freaking day and head to work for 7am and work till 4.... then I clean office building on the weekends to supplement our family income to be able to get the "extras" in life. I work because i have to and because my family need food, house, car, electricity... and insurance. So not only do we pay for the insurance, but the co-pays, the meds, the deductibles and the 20% after that. In the meantime, people are getting all their pre-certs, surgery and fill...... for free. Why should i have to pay for your surgery when you don't have a job or insurance to pay for it your self.... Then come on here and complain about and or wonder if your fills will be covered......Really!!!! I wish the government and other peoples taxes would have paid for mine....Oh and my recent Tummy tuck... i sure could use the help paying that $8800.... any takers Ok, Bring it.....

So today has been a busy (but productive) one! I had my nutritionist consult this morning and got a lot of good info, and then I stopped downstairs at a bariatric products shop and got some chewable vitamins. I admit, I didn't quite know what I was doing when looking at the vitamins (SO many choices) but I tried to choose a good multi vitamin that had a high dose of folic acid (for about 20 bucks). I then spent a good portion of the day (while at work, lol) making my other appointments. I was successful in setting up my labwork and EKG at my primary care provider for Friday, and my case manager scheduled my sleep study (7/17) and all the hospital tests (Upper GI, Right Upper Quandrant Ultrasound with Gallbladder, and Chest X-Ray) are on Thursday. Whew! However, after doing some research, I'm going to cancel that sleep study and reschedule with another provider that is in-network with my insurance. So one of the last pieces of the puzzle is scheduling this darn psychological. I am having a TIME with this! My surgeon's office gave me a list of local providers that they typically work with, but it turns out that NONE of them take my insurance. I have been quoted anything from $450-$700! So today I went on my insurance website and looked up in-network providers that do bariatric psychological evals (I was pleasantly surprised that I could specify that service in the search option) and I called and left a message for a provider right down the street. Of course, I am irked that they didn't call me right back, lol. Hopefully they will call me back soon and I can get something scheduled. Side note, while I was on my insurance website, I found out that they offer a $30 discount per order on Nutrisystem. I have been doing Nutrisystem for about 3 months, wish I had known that!!! I called Nutrisystem and they said they can't apply the discount retroactively, but they can apply it to future orders. Well, considering I am probably cancelling Nutrisystem before my next order is shipped as I am getting ready to have surgery, that doesn't help me out that much. Doh! Oh well...

So after much consideration I decided I would go ahead and blog my sleeve journey.... I wasn't going to because of keeping up with it but after surgery I find myself on this forum 3 and 4 times a day! So I guess I'll start out with why I decided to even get the sleeve and go from there This first blog will be long!! sorry!! In May this year, I had a meeting with my knee doc who explained to me that if I did not lose at least 60 to 80 lbs in the next year I would have to have a knee replacement because it was simply not holding up to my weight requirements. I cried and complained, went on yet another diet and failed and then ran across an ad for Dr Nicholson's weight loss seminar. I thought yay! I'll get the lap band and get this weight off! Well, I went to the seminar and loved him and all of the information, if you can possibly absorb all of that info in one setting! Anyway, after hearing the info I went home off on my own new journey to find the best option for me because what he was saying about the lap band was definitely going to be a no go. I did not want to deal with the fills and unfills and the possible erosion complication just from the info he was giving me. I started to look at video blogs of people with the lap band and couldn't believe it! There were problems with food getting stuck, vomiting if your food didn't like your band (ex: a piece of lettuce covering your opening), NOPE! the band was def a no go for me.. I did not like the extreme of the RNY or Gastric Bypass but the sleeve seemed like a good fit for me! Low complication rate, quick recovery, back to normal (albeit smaller portions) food after a couple of months and people are keeping the weight off! So I sent off my paperwork to Dr Nicholson's clinic!! Now for the Doom and gloom .. lol My Aetna policy has a weight loss surgery exclusion on my policy, as I am self employed so if I was going to consider going on with the surgery I was going to have to self pay. I contacted several medical financing companies and even my bank but for what I was doing and the associated costs it was just simply not going to happen. As I said before, I am self employed, as is my husband so those are hard circumstances to get financed for a large unsecured loan like I was talking about, approx $14K. Now, you have to know my personality, if I want something, I don't just sit back, I am a go getter and something like financing was not going to hold me back! I researched and dug and found a couple of companies would either 1) finance me or 2) do it for much cheaper. I was thrilled! Until I learned that these surgeries were in Mexico AHHHH!!! Are you kidding me?!?! Surgery in Mexico?!?! Don't they harvest your organs there?!?! I know, I went a bit overboard but I couldn't believe I could afford it so it was at least looking into right? Well, I researched lots of Dr's in Mexico and decided on Dr Jose Rodriguez in Juarez. He operated out Star Medica hospital. I researched his credentials, his staff, the hospital, the area and on and on. I found out that he had been doing these surgeries longer than Dr Nicholson and had a low complication rate. He was out of a company called Belite Weight and they would finance half of the surgery for me as long as I could cover the other half up front! Woo Hoo! So Mexico it was!!! Now for the surgery My surgery was scheduled for June 29th and I was completely prepared. I did the preop diet of Dr Rod's choice, basically the Atkins diet but with 50 carbs a day. I could handle that, as a matter of fact my husband and daughter (21 yrs) went on it with me and we lost weight! I lost 19.2, my husband 30 and my daughter 10.4. I was so stoked to get on with this surgery! I had bought our airline tickets in the early part of June and gotten our birth certificates to cross the border (don't believe the hype, the birth certificates worked just fine, no problems!) finance documents signed, family doc here on board with my journey, and so on and so on. I was prepared! We landed in El Paso and the hospital sent a shuttle for us to take us across the border to the hospital. We crossed the border and Juarez was a pit... a desolate pit. Scary as a matter of fact, sand lots with kids playing in them, people living in conditions I couldn't even fathom! They lived in cinder block houses!! businesses boarded up, people driving like idiots, I freaked completely out! I thought, what the HELL have I gotten myself into?!? Now, please know at this point that my husband and my daughter insisted on going with me so I am not alone but there were 2 other women there who were alone! I couldn't imagine being alone! Well, we finally got to the hospital and man was I relieved!! It was so nice! It was super clean, modern, smelled nice (not hospitally lol) so completely different from the outskirts of Juarez! There was mall across the street, nice restaurants within walking distance, the US Consolates office was 2 blocks away. Couldn't have been more pleased! Anyway, we did a brief stay at the front desk (I was with 4 other patients) to get our arm bands, checked in, pre op, etc. All went well and we headed up to our rooms. I was completely floored! It looked like a spa hotel room with 2 rooms, leather couches, cushy futon with giant pillows and a really nice bathroom. So nice! I was calming down at this point and happy we were in a safe area!! Day of Surgery!! I was so nervous the morning of the surgery! They came in and drew blood and took my vitals and EKG the day before so the day of surgery you don't have much to do or think of except that you are about to embark on a journey of a lifetime! Your choice! The thoughts that went through my mind were... 1) What if I am not one of those people who recovers quickly? 2) What if I die on the operating table? 3) What if I need a blood transfusion? How does that work in Mexico? Do they have the same strict testing as the US? (the answer is yes by the way lol I asked!) 4) What if I don't get to see my grandson ever again? CRAZY questions!! My mind was playing tricks on me and I was doing this surgery electively!! What the crap was wrong with me? doing this in Mexico no less?! My husband was wonderful in calming me down and so I just cried instead of backing out =) When they finally came and got me around 11:30 I was about ready to just back out, call it quits and go back home, stomach in tow! lol They got me down to preop and I was praying (along with my husband :wub: ) that everything would be fine, quick recovery, the whole bit! I remember them giving me something to "relax" me and off I went..... I woke up in recovery and they wheeled me back up to my room quickly so I was with my family. I had a little gas under my shoulder blade and a little pain from the drain site but great other than that! I got up after about and hour and walked walked walked! The gas pain went away after the first day and I never really had any nausea problems so I was a lucky one!! God is good!! My mom and her boyfriend came to the hospital to see me, yep! they drove in my Dallas and came to Juarez for 2 days to spend some time with me! I love my supportive family <3 My whole family and all of my friends were so supportive and good to me the whole time! I love them all!! Anyway, fast forward a couple of days to going home!! Home again, Home again, jiggity jog!! We left for the airport around 9:30 am although our flight wasn't until 1:30pm. We needed to make sure we got across the border in time to catch our flight and had heard horror stories about it taking sometimes 3 hours to get across. Lucky for us, it was the Mexican Election day!! There were only 3 people ahead of us to get through the border so less then 20 min to get across! Woo Hoo! We got to the airport with plenty of time to shop, go through security and time for me to sit down and rest for a while. The flight home was uneventful and once home I was content to take a nap =) Happy to see my kitties (Bella and Momma) and my 12 year old lab Buddy. I have a grandson that is 1 year old and lives with us and seeing him made me melt!! There is nothing better than a grandbaby!! I love him dearly!! Well, after all that, I am home! I work from home so it is nice to be able to work, nap, sip sip, work, sip sip, nap lol I feel like one of the cats! I feel good though! I have walked, done some laundry, cleaned and even cooked a little. I will venture out tomorrow!!! Thanks for reading!!! They will be shorter here on out! PROMISE!! Oh by the way, my weight!!! 6/15/2012 247 lbs 6/29/2012 227 lbs -19.2 lbs 7/1/2012 229 lbs (gotta love the IV fluid and being swollen!0

I think people on this forum may be the only ones excited to be "overweight". By that, I mean, my BMI has put me in the "obese" category for so long - I'm just over 1 point from being "overweight". I'm so happy right now, I set a goal to be at 205.0 by my next fill on July 16th and today I was 205.2. So close! Plus, I still have 12 days until my fill. I hit a plateau last week for about 6 days, and I started feeling those old feelings of "I'm never going to hit my goal, I'm just going to gain it all back, why can't I do this" but my husband just kept reassuring me that people hit plateaus and just be patient. About 4 days ago I started losing again. I've been in a good rhythm and have been losing 1/2 lb - 1 lb a day. How? I'm logging every single morsel I put in my mouth. I'm focused on protein first, then veggies and fruit. I'm drinking 80-120 ml of water a day. I'm taking all of my vitamins in the morning and making sure I get enough sleep. Most importantly, I'm exercising every day. I wear my FitBit and strive to hit my 10,000 steps and 15 flights of stairs a day. I either jog 2-4 miles outside, hit the treadmill and elliptical at home, or do the UFC Trainer with Kinect. My dream is to start some sort of kickboxing/MMA class when I get to my goal weight. I knew that lap band surgery would be a journey, a long one, and I wouldn't expect results too fast, but I've been pleasently suprised by the way my body is responding. I'm 6 weeks out and have lost 38 lbs. It feels SO good to be headed in the right direction. I'm going on vacation to Vegas in September and would love to be down to 180 lbs by then. Just have to keep up the hard work.

Thanks for your story! This is awesome to communicate with others who're going through the same experiences. I'm not scheduled until August28th and I can't wait!!! I scheduled my flights today, from Western Ky. to Mexico, just the trip has me excited. I've never been to Mexico, or on a large jet. I'm going by myself, my hubby can't get off work to go, there's no-one else I would want to take with me.. I look forward to the time alone really...I'm a nurse, mother, wife, Never get to be alone. Anyways, I hope you're still doing well, sounds like you're doing well on energy, you diet etc.. I hope I have similar experience. I think I will, I'm not afraid, or even skeptical about the procedure and am familiar with what to expect. I also realize the band is a tool, not a cure-all for wt. loss. I plan to exercise, eat 3 good meals a day, and be patient most of all. Keep us posted please, we enjoy reading others' day to day experiences/feelings/and especially the successes...

You say you posted this but can't see it. I found it no problem. You might have to refresh or even close your browser and reopen. Great read! Good lick.

Holla people of the banding! It is Day 4 post-op for me. In my previous entries, I used hours-no more, I shall use days from now on because 1. Adding 24 to everything gets on my nerves 2. I'm just not that good at math Today was a fabulous day for me, I took it easy yesterday after overdoing it on Day 2, so Day 3 I mainly rested, read, watched TV and thought how long is my stomach going to look so bloated? Isn't that an odd thing to ponder? I'm fat, but I don't want to look unnecessarily bloated! Pretty ridiculous, anyway that's how I felt. I have only taken 2 pain pills today, which is good because I was starting to fondly imagine them being M&M's. I continue to fall in love with my Crystal Light Lemonade and drink about 20-30 oz of protein today. I have yet to feel a hunger pain, or think about food in an unhealthy way, does no good so I will not waste my brain cells on disgusting greasy food that I no longer like, and Lord knows it doesn't like anybody! Today I woke up feeling 99% better. My pain is minimal and seems to be concentrated to lower left and lower right side of my abdomen. There are no sutures or bandages there, that's just where it hurts for me, again, this may be from the hernia repair I just don't know. The important part is that it is getting better and better every day. I went shopping at Old Navy today, we have an outlet close to my city. I purchased 4 or 5 pair of terry cloth shorts that have a drawstring and they are the shiznet, especially in this heat. I looked upon some bathing suits and told them I would definitely be seeing them next year, maybe every style! I came home and walked 1 mile and took a shower, I feel great! I still havent tried to put solid food in my mouth, I'm uncertain if my Dr put any restriction or not when he placed it, but the way I feel now, I don't need it yet. I want to thank everyone on this site, you guys are truly the only one's who understand, I thank you and am grateful for you everyday. Tomorrow is Day 5 and I'm excited about each and everyday that I'm alive. I'm also thankful I chose the band and not the bypass, it was the better decision for me. So here I am on Saturday night feeling anxious and happy about my future. I wonder when I can enjoy a glass of wine? I know they're empty calories but I still want a glass. I'm sure beer is out of the question, I don't like beer anyway. I will have Crystal Light Strawberry Kiwi and pretend, I'll put it in a wine glass! Lo & Behold!!!

I had to comment on this blog, I work in healthcare and see the abuse of the system every darn day. Medicare as everyone stated prior is earned, and it is there to help people over 65, disabled individuals and transplant receipients. Medicare benefits at that are kind of crappy which drives me nuts since everyone pays into it. Medicaid on the other hand is a whole different beast. I live in one of the most expensive states in the union, and about half of our patients are on medicaid for medical. I honestly don't feel bad about children receiving it, I'm from the school of every child under 18 deserves medical care. But, what frustrates me is that where I live, every six months you have to literally mail in a postcard to the state updating your demographic info and your medicaid is updated for another six months. People who don't do this, expect me (who has nothing to do with the patient other than paying for their medical) to do it, I'm like "you're an adult do it yourself" of course I can't say that, but I say it in a nice way lol. I think there should definetly be a time limit on how long people are on medicaid, unless they have a chronic illness (ie cancer) and they literally cannot work due to their illness. @bayougirl, you think that's bad in regards to the junk food on your dime? How about where I live they can use them at fast food restaurants. Real nice, huh?