roeroe

The following are restaurants identified by ObesityHelp members as accepting WLS cards or offering an open children’s menu to all ages. Golden Corral Olive Garden Chili’s Applebee’s Red Lobster Denny’s Cracker Barrel Outback Steak House The Keg i found this on the internet.

re-read your post and you had some more questions that i didn't answer. i didn't bring any paperwork with me. the first consultation with the surgeon is informational. you will leave his office with plenty of paperwork. i started a binder and still take it along to all of my appointments. i only had to bring myself and my insurance card.

each doctor is different. my surgeon gave the seminar, so if you called his office to see him, he sent you to the seminar first and at the seminar you spoke to someone on his staff about making an appointment to see him. so if your doctor gave you an appointment you are fine. he probably does it differently. good luck

Last night my husband and i went to CVS for our flu shot. i think november, december and january bandsters should make sure they get theirs. every year i seem to get the flu the week between christmas and new years and since i am getting banded on december 1st, the last thing i want is the flu. also if it is flu season think about how many people in the hospital and doctor's office could be spreading the flu. also you wouldn't want the doctor's to cancel your surgery date if you became sick. we have been waiting so long and it would stink to have to postpone your date. i hate to throw up and i am sure after being banded, that is the last thing i would want to happen. i went to CVS and gave them my blue cross blue shield card and it didn't cost me a co-pay. GET YOUR FLU SHOTS MY FRIENDS!!!

i am scheduled for the same day, December 1st. i am also nervous about the unknown, we can prepare as much as we can, but we will not know how we will react to the band. i am sure that we all have the same story. past diet failures but i know that we will all have the same end story lap band success. i agree the negatives are out there, but i too think the positive stories out weigh the negative. my surgeon has told me to listen to my band and to get to know it and become friends with it and make sure to follow up on the fills.

i have blue cross blue shield federal employee insurance; they required three meetings with the dietician; clearance from psycologist; pulmonologist; cardiologist; gastroenterologist; primary care doctor letter of support and five year weight history. started the process on august 10th with a seminar and have just one more dietician appointment november 8th and surgery on december 1st, so the process can go fast. i am scheduled for an overnight stay in the hospital but some people leave after the surgery. depends on your insurance. good luck.

i love your personalitly. i am starting the liver shrinking diet in 3 weeks and i have to do it for two weeks which includes thanksgiving. that stinks. it is so funny how this diet varies from doctor to doctor. some people say they are allowed to have one frozen diet meal a day (weight watchers of lean cuisine) other say they can have cereal and oatmeal. some people do not do the pre op diet at all, just the way you would prepare for a colonoscopy. (enema yuck) why is so different from surgeon to surgeon?

awww this is a great post to read. i am an old fashion kind of girl. these are the posts i love to read. you know that is so sweet. and you are a lucky lady in so many ways. that is what this journey is all about. feeling good, loving ourselves, not hiding anymore. congrats.

thanks for sharing your story. so many of these stories sound so familiar. strangers speaking your thoughts, fears and pain. hopefully the next story we tell is one of success. good luck on your upcoming surgery.

11 pounds??? that is so great. you should be so so happy with that number. it is normal to be nervous. probably the most thing is the unknown. we can try to prepare for this but we really can't until we are experiencing it for ourselves. Best of luck to you and i hope you have a quick recovery, GAS free. that seems to be the most common post surgery complaint that i hear. i am not banded either so i look forward to hearing how well you have done with it. keep up the good work on the next four days of the pre op diet.

hi there. my name is roseann i live in barnegat, n.j. i am 41 and also a mother of two. i work full time but i am always on facebook. i keep it open to keep up with things during the day. feel free to friend me. roseann lauterbach. i will be banded on December 1st and i am also looking for friends to share this journey with me. my e-mail is roeroe1117@aol.com if you want to chat. looking forward to sharing this very important decision with as many positive people that will welcome me. here is to the start of a new life with new friends.

I am a italian who was born and raised in brooklyn and my dad came over from italy in 1963 so he was as strict italian as they come. it was insulting for anyone to say to him no thank you i already ate. people who would have said they couldn't eat another bite came to visit my house and tried to say they were full, but ended up sitting down and eating a meal that could choke a pig. not sure why, but italians seem to think that food is life and sitting down and sharing a meal with a friend or family is what life is all about. Maybe that is why my entire family is overweight. i am sure it is difficult to look at a huge mound of food on your plate, but if you can stand it, just eat slowly and keep telling them how absolutely delicious it is and leave the rest on your plate. i really don't think you will ever get them to understand that you are eating less. it is drilled into their brains from children that you clean your plate. we had a full bowl, actually dish, a bowl would be too small, of pasta everynight as a first dish and then a second of steak or chops of cutlets. when i think of how much food i ate as a young kid, i get sick. here is a good idea, try to strike up most of the conversation, it is easy to not eat as much when you are doing all the talking. good luck

my insurance covers the surgery but i have a $200 per day stay at the hospital and i am staying for one night. i had to pay my co-pays for all doctor visits for pre surgery clearance heart; stomach; psych; lung; primary all co-pays for each visit and usually two visits each. nutritionist visits (3) at $30 each. try to stretch out the office visits so you will not have three copays in one day. that happened to me. didn't think about the toll that would take on my budget for that week. tests completed stress test, ecco cardio, upper endoscopy, chest xray, possible sleep study. i had a $75 co pay for my upper endoscopy and bills still coming in for other test. i have learned to be a bit of my own advocate. i talked my pulmonologist out of a sleep study. i told him i did not snore, and he examined my throat to see i had a wide airway and he measured my neck to see that it was under 16 so that i was not a likely candidate for sleep apnea. that saved me $300 because that is what my cost would have been. where there is a will there is a way. good luck to you

congrats on your weight loss on your own. that is a great sign that you are ready for your journey and will be successful. why did you have to lose weight? it is bind boggling how different insurances require different things. it should be standard.

thank you so much. that was easy. i appreciate the help.

December bandsters, go to the main forum page and you will see a list of forums that are available: basics for lap band surgery beginners main lap band surgery forums lap band surgeons and one called lap band support groups - in this forum you will see each month listed and you can go to the December 2011 forum and keep in touch with other December 2011 bandsters. that way we can keep in touch and read posts from eachother. there is probably so much more to this forum that i am not aware of yet. lol

The only bad thing about my December 1st Lap Band Surgery date is that i have to do a two week pre surgery liquid diet and that means i am not enjoying Thanksgiving this year. I am italian and food is our thing especially during the holidays, but even though the closest i will be to a turkey is to be drinking my turkey broth, I WILL be celebrating the holiday. this year I am thankful for the courage i found to start this journey. I am thankful that i have a job and have insurance to pay for this (minus some copays along the way). and thankful for my husband and children for their love and support and most of all THANKFUL for this forum and the many friends I have made in the short time I have been on this forum. I keep this forum open on my computer all day while i am at work, and i have the opportunity to check it ever now and then (when the boss isn't looking lol). so here is to the December bandsters. Good luck to you all and feel free to send me a friend request. we can share our journey together.

i do not log onto this forum on my phone, I use my desk top computer at work. I created the following weight loss ticker but i had to cut and copy it onto this blog post. how do i make this a permanent fixture on my lap band forum profile so it will appear everytime i comment? thank you.

Just what we needed. a positive and successful post. Congratulations to you. what a great encouraging post to read. you look wonderful. i am so excited for you. i am going to be banded six weeks from now and i am so happy to see that you are loving your band. thank you for sharing your story and for giving us future bandster hope. it has been kind of negative lately and was second guessing there for a second. but i am back on track waiting for my special day. well, good luck to you and continued success to you. Way to go.

i had one on the 28th and for a week after i was gassy and burpie but no mucus. i would call the doctor and ask. always be on the safe side.

good luck to you also Lisa. it boggles my mind how some people say they have no restriction at all. that scares the heck out of me because i over over eat and i was hoping that the lap band would do just that, not allow me to over eat. i am going forward with this. i have to. i feel there is no other option for me. i have not gone to support group meeting at my hospital either because i am afraid of the same thing. i should try to go to one, actually they have one today at 1:00 and i could go on my lunch hour from work because it is around the corner from my office, but may use the rainy day as a reason not to. i think i may way until after i am banded and then go so no one can try to talk to me out of lap band. would never do gastric, too invasive. i feel that i get enough support here with bandsters anyway, but it would be nice if we could all sit around and talk. it is nice to actually talk to people face to face.

call the surgeon's office and have them make that decision for you. they deal with the insurance companies everyday and i know i have read this type of post before so i am sure it happens all the time. why do liquids if you don't have to.

I am going to take it one day at a time and i am going to tell my husband to hide the scale, because if he doesn't i would probably weigh myself everyday and i do not want to do that. This is forever now. this is not me going on weight watchers or atkins and starting a diet for a wedding that is upcoming or a vacation, this is for my life and i am not going to think of this as a diet anymore. this is going to be the new me that learns to love herself, love her body and eat only good choices. i am going to say, how many Cookies have i already had to eat in my life, i know what that tastes like and after i swallow it i forget what it tasted like anyway. I am going to do this for life now. December 1st is fast approaching and Lap Band, i look forward to spending the rest of LONG life with you and i hope we can learn to live together in harmony and give eachother exactly what we need. my motto is ONE DAY AT A TIME. thank you all for your support. Skinnyminime, i read alot of your posts and you give me encouragement. thank you very much.

have you guys read all the negative posts lately. anyone second guessing this. i spoke to my gastro doctor about all the negative posts lately and he said that if i stay away from creamed soups, ice cream shakes and high calorie liquid food that will just pass through the band, i will be fine. lately i was thinking about not coming on the forum anymore because so many posts are about the negative and people saying they are planning to take out the band, but i only try to read the positive posts. anyone noticed all the negatives and is it affecting you?

my surgeon said that this is a good way to get used to the liquid diet because after each fill you will have to be on a liquid diet anyway. i have to be on the liquid pre op for 2 weeks and that includes thanksgiving. what the heck. no thanksgiving for me this year . good luck and take it one day at a time.