LisaJane

Good post I am getting banded on 4-25 and have been having jitters about surgery. Thank you!

Hi, I'm just finishing the last few days of my two week liquid pre-op diet (which has gotten A LOT easier, it was agony the first week). I also have pcos. Any ladies out there with pcos looking to take someone under their wing/a buddy to chat with? I'm sure I'm going to have questions about diet/medication and would love the advice of an experienced bandster with PCOS. Lisa

I FEEL YOUR PAIN I started my pre-op liquid diet yesterday, getting banded the 25th. I am furiously starving. It's not head hunger, my body is physiologically in starvation mode and the hunger pains/ lightheadedness are pretty uncomfortable bc there's no restriction yet. Having total of 770 cal a day- four ultra met light shakes (190 cal each) plus one sugar free Popsicles and h2o. My doc told me I should be exercising vigorously- maybe tomorrow or the next day after I get adjusted. I just ate a pickle and 1/8 cup pumpkin seeds because It's too early for my second shake and i felt really shakey. Surely a pickle has less calories than a SF popsicle and pickles are just fiber, water, vinager, and salt 0 cal, 0 carb. Is this what it feels like to come off a drug addiction??? I hope yesterday and today are the hardest.

I too was borderline - just at 35 - and wanted to know the same thing. I was told by the nurse coordinator at the bariatric center that it's based off of your BMI at the time of my first consult with my bariatric surgeon. I had to get my PCP to provide my weight dating 5 years back to the bariatric surgeon. I would think it would be your weight at the time you submit for approval, but she said it's the weight at my first consult. So, I asked my PCP what I should do about losing weight, and she said I should try to maintain the BMI that I had so I stay within that approval range because she really believes getting banded will help me long term and doesn't want me to get denied bc she knows I can't afford to pay out of pocket. I'm DEFINATELY not giving anyone advice to gain weight in that six month period...I pushed my BMI at 37(which is a good 15-20 lbs). Part laziness/not going to the gym regularly, part worry about not being approved...just another excuse to eat whatever I wanted....but anyway...maybe you should ask your regular doctor their opinion about what's best for you in the long run and how you want to go about achieving that. I won't know if I'm actually approved until I finish treating h. pylori (which will be at least 3-4 weeks from now), but I'm praying the extra weight will be in my favor, otherwise I'm 20 lbs. worse off than when I started this whole process and 20 lbs takes me at least 4 - 5 months of REALLY hard work at the gym to lose. Good luck

I think I read somewhere that h.pylori can be detected in a blood test as well (I could be mistaken). The nurse I talked to today said that if it isn't cleared up it can cause complications after surgery, so they have to get rid of it completely. Good luck!..I hope you get approved and everything goes smoothly!! I have no patience, cant wait.

Just a thought for anyone still in the process of supervised diet and/or wellcare/weightcheck appointments. It might be a good idea to ask about your provider about your lab results soon after the labwork gets done...I didn't do this. I just got a call from my surgeons office. I thought they were going to let me know if I was approved or not. I had a stool sample taken 6 months ago when I began this process. They just told me that they were looking at my chart and they cannot submit anything to empire bcbs for approval because I tested positive for h.pylori antigen. Really?? I got all that lab work done 6 months ago, I would think they would want to start treating h. pylori intestinal infection as soon as possible, not after I finished all 6 months of weight check appointments. It's a two week round of couple types of antibiotics and ppi (prevacid)...it's called PrevPac. After the two weeks of antibiotics, I have to wait one week, then take another stool sample. If the h.pylori is gone, then they can submit for approval to empire bcbs. I'm slightly annoyed bc I wish I got a head start on getting it treated. But I'm glad to take care of it, all times I have had stomach problems..maybe h.pylori had something to do with it? ALSO....even with my insurance the PrevPac was $125...just for antibiotics and prevacid. ok, now i'm just bitching. LOL. I'm just going to keep doing what I am supposed to do....and now that I have to wait at least 5 weeks minimum to get banded there is no reason why I can't get a head start on trying to shed some lbs. to shrink the liver and feel better. <3 lisa

Thanks so much for the words everyone I hope we all get approved. I'll try to call my insurance after a couple days pass next week. Hopefully we'll all have some good news soon!! I never dreamed I'd ever be so freaking excited to do a two week liquid diet, but I can't wait.

Hi All... I just finished the required 6 months of "weight check" appointments and submitted to my surgoens office . My BMI is now 37. I gained 6 lbs during this 6 months period since I haven't been to the gym as much with school and work. I have PCOS, high cholesterol, GERD, hiatal hernia, depression, a mild form of sleep apnea (doesn't require CPAP, instead I wake myself up in my sleep before my airway is obstructed about once an hour, my sleep specialist said this would improve with weight loss). The only thing I take medication for is PCOS. I have Empire BCBS and the nurse coordinator had submitted all my paperwork from the weight check appointments to insurance company either Friday afternoon or on Monday. Every minute of my day is consumed with wanting to know if I will be approved. Since I do not have high blood pressure or diabetes, I have anxiety that I will not be approved, especially since I gained 6 lbs during this period. I'm so eager to have the surgery that I'm afraid I'm setting myself up to be really crushed if I get denied. I feel like it could go either way with the approval. Anyone with a similar situation? Anyone with Empire BCBS? <3 lisa

Hi there, During my sleep study, I was waking up 1-2 times per hour. The Dr. said that just like with sleep apnea, my airway starts to become obstructed. Instead of the airway becoming completely obstructed and I stop breathing (apnea), my body becomes aware and I wake myself up instead. I forget the name of the disorder, but he compared it to "pre" sleep apnea. He did say that losing weight would improve the symptoms. Just wondering, does anyone else out there have the same issue? If so - was this considered to be a co-morbid condition?

Thanks everyone for the honest and helpful feedback

Hi All, I am supposed to be losing pre-op weight. I haven't set a date yet, but my Dr. wanted me to start losing for surgery. Ever since I made the choice to get banded, I feel like I need to experience my favorite foods before I can't have them for a while. Anyway...it worries me that I think like this. I have a consistant workout routine and have only gained a pound......but still it doesn't matter b/c it's all about where my head is at. I'm worried that I will get banded and still have the urge to eat after I have already finished a meal, or what if I have room in my stomach before my first fill? I always start the day out great with egg whites or a protein shake....lunch is usually ok. As soon as dinner time and the time after dinner roll around - all I want to do is have a snack attack. I guess what I wanted to know from any night time eaters or anyone out there was this: has anyone else felt this way before getting banded? Has anyone noticed that the band decreased appetite? Not like....hungry for breakfast, lunch, or dinner appetite....but after dinner appetite? This is something that I need to work on with or without a band...I think it's going to take a long time.

Hi there, This is my first time posting and I too have PCOS with the same BMI, 35.5 - 29 yrs old. Type 2 Diabetes also runs in my family . I contact my insurance company (empire blue cross bs) and they said the surgery would be covered if the doctor deemed it medically necessary, up to 85%. I was worried if I lost 5% of my weight for pre-op that I would no longer qualify, but I contacted the bariatric coordinator and she said that if my BMI goes below 35 before the surgery, I would still be covered by my insurance, since it's based off of your inital weight when you first see the bariatric specialist. I would definately call your insurance company . I am on yaz and 200mg spironolactone and have been gaining weight steadily. I haven't had a real period in 6 months since the weight has been creeping back on. I excersize regularly but I struggle with keeping weight off. I worry that if I want to have kids - what will happen to my body if stop taking the spironolactone. Plus, I'm sure that I am doing damage to my kidneys taking such a high dose day after day. Anyways, I have an evaluation appointment with a bariatric specialist and I know that PCOS is a definate comorbidity. I pray that getting off this excess weight will help keep the pcos in check. I think lapband will help. Also I like the idea of lapband bc it's not as permanent as actually changing the shape of your stomach by cutting it and sewing it back into a different shape.