Damander

If you haven't started your own blog, you really need to! I would love reading your posts everyday! And if you have, please send me the link! That was the most entertaining thing I've read since damnyouautocorrect.com!

Btw, I have decided to blog about my journey so if any are interested, the link is lapbandwagon.blogspot.com I doubt it's as interesting as some of the others that are doing it, but I wanted to do this for me so I can look back and reflect when I have lost the weight! I've only made my introductory blog

Go search for Stacey Diederich-Speager (copy and paste if you want) and request her as a friend and send her a private message that you are wanting to join the group. Then I have a post to add your surgery date so I can add it to our little calendar thing. It's a great group of people and you will love us!! If for some reason you can't find her, go add me facebook.com/damander and I will let her know to add you!! Simple Simple!

Congratulations Shirley!! You can totally do this!!

I am also a November bandster-we do have our group on Facebook, it is completely private and no one can see it except for those who are in it. It's an amazing group, but I definitely agree that LBT should implement this kind of feature!

lol on the photos, because I know exactly what those are like! I will definitely take photos and all that stuff.. I am not interested in seeing myself now but in a few months I know I won't feel that way! Thanks again!!

I will join the band wagon November 17! I start my pre-op diet next Thursday and I'm so friggin excited I can't stand it! So glad to have a group to talk to and I'm very ready to begin this journey!

My surgery date is November 17 and I'll start my pre-op diet next Thursday! I can't wait!!

It took forever to get clearance from the doctors with all that I had going on, but yea-they submitted to Tricare on Monday and I checked the website daily and this morning there was an approval so it did go relatively fast! Definitely stay positive and if you do have co-morbidities, just know that its usually an automatic approval! Good luck to you!!!

Thank you guys!! All the stress just completely went away! Good luck to all of you on your journey as well!!

Ok, so everything worked in my favor because I was approved today!! I am 5'0, 214 lbs NO comorbidity, BMI was a little over 40 and that's that! Approval was simple!! Good luck!!

I was approved!!!!!!!!!! This is the best news ever!! Now just waiting on S&W to call me with the surgery date, but I am so excited! I have been so stressed about this but Tricare Prime South has not failed me and I got approved the first time around! Yay!!!!!!!!! So ready to be on this journey with the rest of you guys! I am looking so forward to it!

My surgeons office called me this morning to tell me that I have been medically cleared for surgery and they are submitting to Tricare for approval.. I got online to the humana military site and saw that they already got it and it's pending..I am almost there but so nervous at the same time! I am scared they won't approve me because of the new requirements from Tricare but I will be optimistic!! They said it will take about a week but hopefully its only a few days..

I haven't done anything other than regular diet and exercise and HCG, but like I said-they won't accept hcg since it isn't fda approved for weight loss. My PCM documented conventional dieting and exercise as well as my hcg, but that was it. I won't go back to my PCM because he laughed at me for my weight gain (Talked about it in another post). He was a new PCM and I just got him to send the referral to the bariatric center and I will switch pcms when this process is over.

I never saw a duration, but I haven't done any of those programs..they were too damn expensive. All I know is this is really getting me down. I finally finished all my requirements, only to be told no? I'm pissed.

I did go and review the manual and you are absolutely right about this. No one has mentioned this to me and my surgeon said that I shouldn't have any problems getting approved, so we shall see. I have not done any commercial weight loss programs except for Hcg and that doesn't count. It's so frustrating and I am so nervous that I will not be approved for this. Sigh.. They have sent me for so much testing, I have racked up about 7k in tests for the bariatric center so to me, it seems silly that they would deny me after they paid for all of that you know? The way I see it, they should approve all overweight people because they would be paying less for dr visits and CPAPS etc in the long run, you know? Ahh.. oh well.. I guess I'll stress about it for another couple weeks. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!!

It appears that the requirements for different Tricare regions are different. I am Tricare Prime (south) and there is no supervised diet. I just finished my last test today and when the results come in they will be submitting to Tricare for approval. Obviously seeing as we are all different regions here, I would call Tricare yourself. They will be able to tell you exactly what is going on because none of what you are going through applies to us, so we have no idea how to help you Good luck!

I think you need to do a little more research before you get the surgery so that you feel your decision is the best one. The lap band is a tool-exactly what you said. It doesn't make you lose weight, you still have to work for it. Most of us (if not all) are at a point and have been at that point for a long time now where we just simply cannot lose weight on our own. Surgery is such a drastic measure; if we could lose the weight on our own we certainly would. The band creates a pouch with your stomach for your food to sit in to make you feel full faster. Most of us do not have that sensor that tells our brain we are full. This will do that. Eating smaller portions of whatever you want are not going to help you lose weight. This is a lifestyle change; there will be exercise and dieting for the rest of our lives. If we let ourself just eat what we want, we will end up to right back where we started. If you don't think the band is for you, please do not make the mistake of getting it..but the band is right for us. We need this in order to achieve success in a healthy life. Good luck to you!

I had my nips pierced for 4 years..and those were the best four years of my life! I LOVED THEM!! The only thing that I didn't like was that I had to wear a bra for 3 days/nights straight because my boobs are so big that the weight of them put too much pressure on my newly pierced nips. And yes, mine always looked hard.

The title says it all people! I am 26 years old and am from Waco, but living in Temple with my husband and children! I am waiting on a date from S&W bariatric center here in Temple so I can begin this amazing/hard journey and would love to find others in my area who have already had the surgery or are in the process of getting it. This forum has been super quiet, but we need to liven it up! Looking forward to hearing from you!!!

If by getting the lap band, we were also provided with a personal trainer...just a thought.. we are paying all that money (or insurance is, whatever) for the surgery, it would be amazing if we had someone to work directly with us, one on one to shed those pounds... Ah well..I can dream can't I?

Do not let the negatives run your life! I will be banded sometime next month and I have been reading all of these posts and have determined that EVERYONE gets frustrated at times. And more importantly, everyone is different! Reading the negatives doesn't stop me from wanting the band, in fact, I appreciate it because I know it's not going to be an easy journey and if I only saw positive posts/comments then I would feel like something was wrong with me if I wasn't feeling like rainbows and ponies when I woke up..you know? You are right, the band is a tool so make it work for you! You control the band!

So if you have read any of my other posts, I apologize but I am going to reiterate a little so new readers/responders know what's going on. I was diagnosed with mod/severe dysplasia when I was pregnant last year. I had the LEEP done in April and I go for regular PAPs every few months. My surgeon said he needed documentation stating that I received treatment for this and am under the care of a physician. Done. So they called me back a few weeks ago and said that I needed to have another PAP (per my GYN) since I was due so I am waiting on that next week but got an email from the surgeons office stating that my PAP had to be normal before I could be "cleared" for surgery. Normal? My PAPs aren't normal and my GYN informed me that they wouldn't be normal for a while. So I sent a nasty-ish email back stating that is not what they originally told me. She said that they will submit all my information to the board after I get my PAP and they will see that I have a history of abn PAPs and may say they need a letter from my GYN stating that I am good to have surgery. My question is should I go ahead and have my GYN submit that just so that they will have it and it won't make me wait another couple weeks before I can get approved?

You couldn't have said it any better pugs, I completely agree with you.

Yea, I wanted to tell her to read my information that I got from the surgeons office. This isn't just some fad diet, this is for the rest of my life. Nothing about this surgery even SOUNDS like the easy way out! She is ridiculous!