Alexandra

Maybe it's "associated"? (Sorry for picking on ya, Ali, but "accoviated" sure sounds like it should be a word if it isn't. What did you make up?)

Accoviated? What does that mean? :) I have to go with gall bladder, too, Seppi. The fact that eating makes it worse and eating heavy food is worst of all is very telling. Good luck!!

Cindy, you will not be happy to hear that Aetna is possibly the least band-friendly insurer out there, outside of plans with full exclusions for bariatric surgery. Do you know if your plan has such an exclusion? That's the first question to ask. If it doesn't and you have one of Aetna's standard plans, you may still have a fight ahead of you. Here are the first questions you have to answer: 1. Are you medically qualified for bariatric surgery? (That is, is your BMI over 40? Or is it over 35 and you have medical conditions caused by your weight?) 2. Do you have medical conditions that would make RNY surgery unadvisable? RNY gastric bypass is still Aetna's preferred treatment, but they will allow banding under certain circumstances if you have contraindications for bypass. 3. Have you been trying to lose weight under a doctor's supervision for at least six months? If you haven't the first thing you MUST do tomorrow is make an appointment with your primary care doctor to talk about your weight. Get medical and exercise advice (no doubt they'll have it all printed up to hand you) and make a plan to visit at least twice a month for the next six months to check in and get weighed. This is REQUIRED by Aetna and you can't move forward if you're not under a PCP's care for this already. 4. What state are you in? Some states have better than protections that others when it comes to medical decisions being made by insurance carriers. It's not true for every state, but if you are in NY, NJ, CT or CA I know Aetna has been forced to pay on third-party review. I'm sure there are other states with such protections; call your state department of health to find out if you do. Good luck!!

This thread is being locked. Shakeerah, please refrain from name-calling and personal attacks.

No regrets whatsoever. It hasn't been easy, but weight loss has NEVER been "easy." What it is now, that's it's never been before, is POSSIBLE. I've lost 129 lbs and it's staying off, for the very first time in my life. I LOVE MY BAND, and would do it again in the proverbial heartbeat.

I don't think it's unnerving. People who have already reached their goal weight are not actively trying to lose anymore, right? So they'd have much less need of a weight-loss support board. I'd think there wouldn't be many people at all checking in here regularly if they're not actually trying to lose anymore.

Diane, what good news! This sounds very much like what I had, in fact, with a lot of the same symptoms. You'll feel MUCH better once the medication kicks in. Take it VERY easy as you eat solid food again. So glad you're better!!

Hope you heal fast and this is all behind you. What a hassle, but now you have a new lease on banded life!!

Average day for me: breakfast: coffee and a Protein bar (for convenience). On weekends I might have some scrambled eggs and cheese, no more than one egg's worth. lunch: 2/3 - 3/4 of the innards of a deli sandwich. That is, about 4 oz of grilled chicken and a slice of cheese or so. snack: frozen yogurt dinner: a small portion of whatever's on order, chicken or meatballs or sausage. My family eats out often, so at a restaurant I might eat most of an appetizer of crab cakes, chicken soup, eggplant rollatini, southwestern salad--it varies depending on where we eat. Getting used to not ordering a whole meal took a very long time, but I got tired of looking at the full plate of food so I finally learned.

It was deleted by the person who started it, but I don't know why.

Carolyn, your questions boil down to what I was most concerned about when I was researching surgery: Would I be able to be "normal" afterwards? The idea of saddling myself with a lifetime of handicaps because I couldn't manage my weight on my own was the #1 issue I wrestled with for months. But the time came when it was crystal clear to me that I simply couldn't manage my weight on my own. (You'd think 40 years of trying would have proven that to me, and it finally did.) So the scales tipped in the direction of having surgery to reclaim my life, which was honestly slipping away from me. And the answer is: YES, I AM NORMAL. There are no broccoli shakes in my pocketbook, and no one has ever noticed how I'm eating or not eating when socializing. Yes, it was hard to get used to no longer being a glutton, but that is a change I simply HAD to be prepared to make. There is nothing I can't eat, I've just had to learn a different way to eat everything. It's really a freeing thing--one of my favorite aspects of this life is knowing that I will always be able to make a meal on just a few bites of something. It really works to make just a little food completely satisfying! There are no ugly scars; after 2+ years they are hard even for me to find. I also have no burping or gas issues, I never did. I honestly can't imagine regretting being banded. Sure, there are times even now when I wistfully remember the "pleasure" of a giant plate of nachos or Chinese food, but then I remember the misery of being 340 lbs and I'm back to being thrilled. Eating too much is what got me there, and I am ecstatic about the fact I can no longer do so.

Leener, don't worry about stretching your pouch with liquids. Cain't be done! You will feel uncomfortably full LONG before you can take in any amount that will do any damage. That's your cue to stop consuming anything, when you feel full. Remember, the stomach is made of soft, flexible material. It's supposed to stretch a little. If you are feeling full on cream soup it means you've reached your capacity and should stop. That's all. You ABSOLUTELY will not damage your pouch on liquids. What doesn't fit will just come right back up.

Kellie, you HAVE to change your title! You look so, so tired and beat up, you poor thing, but the fact that you already say it was worth it is so inspiring! You're going to be our PS poster child. Heal fast, and be super good to yourself, you deserve it!!!

Hi Carol, It is not at all unusual for people to feel like the first fill doesn't make any difference. But you may also find that it "kicks in" a couple of weeks after the fact, so don't leap to any conclusions just yet. My theory is that the stomach walls thin out in reaction to the increased pressure, and over time they return to their original state which is what creates restriction. That's just a theory, but it seems to fit the phenomenon that so many people report. Give it at least another four weeks and then decide if you have restriction. That'll be plenty of time to seek another adjustment. Take it slow, you don't want the restriction to surprise you!

Fingers crossed for a good report, Diane!!

Great news, Teresa! What a relief, and I'm sure you'll feel 100% better when the Protonix kicks in. Whew!!

First things first: NO EROSION! :biggrin1: :bounce: :rockon: Next: The verdict of the gastroenterologist was that my band is too tight and my esophagus is dilated. My surgeon says that the protocol for that is a complete unfill (which I am FINE with) and see where things stand in a few months. He put a dark spin on it, as he is wont to do, by saying that the band will have to come out if in a few months my esophagus hasn't recovered. His take of how this happened doesn't quite jibe with my experience of the way symptoms progressed, so I'm just going to see how things go. He took out as much of my fill as he could, about 1cc, and sent me on my way. Clears for a day, fulls tomorrow and then on to mushies. I'm going to continue taking Prevacid for a while since that really helped with the heartburn, and I'm going to have a fluoroscopy in early April to check the position of the band. By then my symptoms, or lack of them, will probably tell me if there's anything to worry about. Thanks for everyone's good thoughts. Keep 'em coming! I could really use a good night's sleep in my own bed.

It takes a lot of evidence to convince insurers that something new is preferable over something established. Even though this surgery is cheaper, the case can be made that it's not as "reliable" in terms of helping MO patients take the weight off. Also a factor, I'm certain, is the industry's fear that a lot MORE people would go for bariatric surgery if banding were more widely available. The seriousness of RNY probably keeps many, many medically qualified candidates away. It sure kept me away! So carriers would have to be shelling out untold amounts of money to treat people who currently cost them nothing. As for the future costs of allowing patients to remain morbidly obese, we'd think carriers would care about that, right? But they don't. Any given individual is statistically likely to be someone else's problem in the longer term. All of this will come home to roost as the population ages and grows fatter. I personally believe that banding will in time become the WLS of choice, and people will have to prove immediate need to qualify for RNY. But this will be slow in coming, like all medical revolutions within the insurance industry.

This is just such a personal decision I don't know what anyone else can say that will help. For example, NewSho's comment above doesn't ring at ALL true for me, since all I wanted was to lose XXX pounds as safely as humanly possible. That number, XXX, is equal to whatever I could lose that would leave me lighter than the 340 I started with. That was my priority. Keeping the weight off was priority # 2 for me. (Losing it quickly wasn't even on the list. See how our priorities differ?) And I felt that banding, with its longer-term action of behavior modification, stood me a better chance of that over RNY. The fact that RNY guarantees weight loss almost in spite of what the patient eats seems to me a lose-lose situation, so to speak. Once that malapsorptive action lessens, after 12-18 months or so, unless I'd learned a whole new way to eat the weight would just come back on. And I know I couldn't be sure of learning a whole new way to eat unless there were significant negative repercussions to overeating. Dumping isn't something to count on--it only happens on certain foods and to certain people; it's by no means a sure thing.

Well, it's certainly true that everything is connected, so I guess I can't rule that out. Being banded changes our internal anatomy to some extent, and fluids just can't move along they way they used to. So when our bodies are producing more Fluid than usual, things can go awry. So we catch bugs from other people, but the effect may be made worse because of the band. Live and learn... I'm stocking up on Sudafed for the upcoming spring allergy season!

Good for you, Grizgirl! Isn't it extraordinary how wonderful it is to feel better! You're right not to worry about being unfilled; being comfortable and healthy is MUCH more important. Heal up! :biggrin1:

Regina, it's always worth fighting for the right. Aetna denied me but I appealed and won--they'd happily have paid for RNY but here I wanted to cost them LESS and they didn't like it. Tough. Keep appealing; there may be someone on the other end with a brain and all it takes is one. Good luck!!

Babs is right, shopgirl. Why on earth would you want another fill? Your esophagus is giving you a hard enough time eating as it is. Why make it worse?

Donna, your pain is much more likely to be muscular than anything else. If you have a port infection it's more likely going to present first with warm redness in the port area, with more achiness than a stabbing pain. As far as why someone would get a port infection, the only reason outside of surgical healing would be erosion. Infections don't just spontaneously pop up out of nowhere; there would have to be an underlying cause.

The very first step usually involves seeing a primary care doctor for a complete physical. Are you planning to go through insurance? You might want to give them a call and see what the prerequisites are for your plan. That will tell you where to start. Good luck!