Caribear

I second the ginger tea. You might also want to try mint tea. Hope you feel better soon!

My insurance requires that my doctor supervised diet involves the doctor counseling me on exercise and diet, specifically. I would call them and tell them that you are planning weight loss surgery, and that you need them to help you with the supervised diet. It is also a good idea to get your insurance company to send you a written copy of your coverage for bariatric surgery, if possible. Some companies are picky about what your visits entail, some not so much.

Are you planning on being self pay, or are you going to see if your insurance will cover the surgery? If you are trying the insurance route, you may have to choose a surgeon that is within your network.

I use this one, and it is pretty accurate. It seems like the Eatsmart scale brand is fairly reliable. https://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Bathroom-Capacity-Technology/dp/B001KXZ808/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1466722652&sr=8-3&keywords=eatsmart+scale

I don't think freezing would affect the protein. The World According to Eggface site has recipes for protein ice cream, and she doesn't seem to have any issues with that. Let us know if you try it, and how it works for you!

Thank you for this!

Praying for you!

I have an extremely hard time with this. I have been overweight since I was eight years old, so I have absolutely no clue what I will look like. The best guess I have is that I will look similar to my mom.

I am also pre-op, but I also had my gallbladder removed laparoscopically, and I can hardly see them anymore. I think it depends on your skin type, but generally I think they are not very noticeable.

You will be swollen for a while after surgery. They pumped you full of IV fluids, and you will have a lot of swelling because of the actual surgery itself. Keep sipping fluids, you will be fine.

I have not had my surgery yet, but I have heard a heating pad helps a lot. Feel better soon!

My mother's reaction was "well, couldn't you just write down what you eat? I am sticking to protein and vegetables and I am doing ok." Keep in mind that she is only about 20 pounds overweight, and that I have been logging my food into myfitnesspal for about five years now. So I know how you feel. I think when most mothers disapprove of this surgery, they are doing it from a place of love. You are her baby, and you are telling her that you are going through surgery and making a huge life change. I would give her a few days to let her get used to the idea. Explain to her that you need her support. Hopefully she will come around.

I can't tell you how much this statement resonates with me. I have never been thin, not since I was about seven years old. Being heavy is just part of who I am, and I have no idea how I am going to wrap my head around being thinner. I sent you a friend request. I am quite a bit behind you so far as the process goes, but maybe we can offer each other some support.

HI all, I thought I would come in and introduce myself. I just started the first steps toward getting sleeved today. Several years ago I was pretty active on here in the lap-band forum, because that was what I decided I wanted. When I went to my first meeting with the surgeon, he tried to talk me out of the band and insisted that I should do bypass or RNY instead (I was about 380 pounds at the time) but I had my heart set on the band. A few months into the process, several of my friends on the band forum passed away suddenly from erosion-based complications. I had already lost some weight and decided that maybe I should just try to do this on my own. And to some extent, I was successful. I lost 120 pounds on my own. But now I have gained half of that back, and I have decided that I am really tired of trying on my own and failing. I went in to see my primary care physician today and told him that I was interested in pursuing WLS again. His reaction was that he would help me through the process, but that he was hesitant because I had "proved that I could do it" on my own. I responded by reminding him that even when I was "successful", I had only gotten down to the 260s, which is far from a healthy weight. I told him that I had at least 9 months of physician supervised diet required by my insurance, and that if I did somehow manage to lose the weight on my own during that time, I would not have the surgery. I also reminded him that even though I am "healthy" (read: no co-morbidities yet) at 330 pounds, that I have a family history of heart disease, and that hauling around this much weight is a huge strain on my heart. He agreed to help me through this process. Anyway, it is nice to meet you all! Like I said, my insurance requires 9 months of physician supervised diet, so I will be here for a while.

:.( She will definitely be missed here. I will be praying for comfort for her family. <3

The story you are about to read may be hard to believe. It is the kind of story that would occasionally make it into my email inbox, and I would scan it briefly before clicking delete and muttering about how this kind of junk gets past my spam filter. If it hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't believe it. But it did happen to me, and I pray that you read this and consider what it says. A few weeks ago, I was watching my favorite Christian television station. The show was a talk show-type discussion about hormones. I almost changed the channel, but something (Someone) made me stop and listen. The woman on the show was named Dr. Barbara Hoffman, and she was talking about her line of bio-identical progesterone creams. They discussed how progesterone balanced estrogen, and how it was very important to choose bio-identical over synthetic. Synthetic progesterone can do all kinds of awful things in the body, because the body just doesn't always know what to deal with it. This includes birth control pills and shots. I began to think back over the past few years, about how my health began a downward spiral after I had my son. Then it occurred to me that it was after I had him that I started on the depo-provera shot. I started to research progesterone, and came across all kinds of literature that talked about how progesterone deficiency can cause all kinds of problems, including some that were hauntingly familiar: fatigue, weight gain, mental fuzziness, painful periods, cravings for carbs and sweets, and body pain, to name a few. And on other pages, I read that depo-provera will cause the body to stop producing its own progesterone, since it is a synthetic form of the hormone and causes the body to think it has enough. After about a week of research, I decided to go ahead and order the cream that I had seen on tv (Better Heath Naturally ProHelp Moisture Treatment Cream). I figured that I would try it out, and if it made me feel bad I would stop, but hopefully it would help me with some of my fibromyalgia symptoms. When the cream arrived, I went ahead and put it on as per the directions on the container. That day, I didn't feel any different. The next day, I used the cream again, once in the morning, once in the evening, as the directions suggest. I thought I could notice a little bit of a difference, but brushed it off as being psychological. The third day, I woke up, went downstairs, and started making breakfast for my son before I realized that my body didn't hurt. At all. I went through the day without saying anything, because I again thought this must be a psychological thing, or I was just having a good day, or something like that. But my boyfriend noticed that I was much happier and seemed to be in less pain than normal. And after a few days, I had to say something. I had almost no pain. I was able to play with my son for the first time without hurting. I had tons of energy, and I just felt good. It just felt so good to feel good again. Then I noticed that I was starting to go longer between meals without being so hungry. While before I was counting the minutes until the next meal, now I could go for hours past "meal time" and not even notice. But what really got me was when I passed up chocolate. My son brought home some Easter candy, and was trying to feed it to me, but it just didn't sound appetizing. When it hit me that I had just passed up chocolate, I had to run and tell everybody I knew about this stuff. I have gone about a week now with no cravings at all. When I eat, I actually feel full before I am done, and it has helped me cut down on some of the high-processed carbs that are so bad for me. I sleep better at night, even though I have stopped taking my sleeping medication. Plus, I am cutting down on the meds that were previously keeping the pain in check, and am still feeling great. I feel happier, and my son loves being able to play with me without being afraid of hurting me. The scale has been going down steadily, but I have noticed that my body seems to be changing a lot more than it was. However, I'm confident that it will start going quicker soon, since I am more active and eating less. I know that no single thing is a "magic bullet" for everyone, but I just had to tell you all about how this cream has helped me. I am including a link below to the site where I bought it, and also the site of the manufacturer where you can read a little more about it. If you are considering trying this, please do some research first. Some women do fantastic on this stuff, but some don't. But if you are one of the ones that are helped by it, then it is so worth it. http://shop.daystar.com/ http://www.bhnformulas.com/

Oh my goodness, Ky, I am so sorry. I'm sending you hugs and prayers. I can't tell you that I know how you feel, because I haven't been through the things you have. But I have been through some pretty serious traumas, and have struggled with PTSD from them as well, and I can tell you that the only thing you can do in those dark moments is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I've been at the point where everything seemed so overwhelming that I couldn't see myself getting through it, but I just had to keep reminding myself that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, the world will keep turning, and life will go on whether I chose to participate in it or not. I had to keep doing the things I knew were good for me, even if I felt too numb to care. And now on the other side I see how all of that has molded me into a person that I like a lot better than I liked the pre-trauma me. I also have chronic pain, and I can tell you that you eventually get used to it, as miserable as that sounds. You have to be forgiving of yourself while you find your new normal. I know things can get overwhelming, but I also know that you can do this. Sending you love and hugs and prayers <3

I'd call your insurance company and see what they have to say. It might just be a mix-up. And I'd call the anesthesiology office too to see what they say. I can't imagine that your insurance would pay for the procedure but not the anesthesia.

I don't have it, nor do I know anyone with it, but I think this would be best discussed with a surgeon. It may not be an issue because lap-band is much less invasive than many other surgeries, but this would definitely be something that your surgeon would have to determine.

I agree with the others, I didn't want to be cut up and rearranged so much that it was non-reversable. I have heard from several others with BMI over 50 that their surgeons were pushing either RNY or BPD/DS. My surgeon has suggested this to me as well, and his reason was that RNY and BPD have higher average success rates. But for me, the numbers aren't different enough for me to agree to be chopped up and stitched back together. No thank you. Your informational seminar should help you decide, but let me say this - don't let anybody pressure you into doing a procedure you're not comfortable doing. Average numbers are just that, the average. It doesn't mean that you can't do better or worse. It's all up to you, really.

I'm so happy for you! Doesn't it feel so great when all your hard work pays off? Go you is right!

Hi Lisa, I haven't been banded yet, but I think it's normal to go through this. It's a major life change. For a lot of us, I think we get sad because we have an unhealthy relationship with food, and the surgery means we have to change it. I have heard several bandsters comparing it to a "break-up" with food. It's always been there, it's always been a comfort to them, but it was not a healthy relationship, so they had to end it. Another thing, especially if you've had a long road to get here, is that depression that comes with the accomplishment of a goal. It happens to a lot of college students after they graduate. You spend so much time working towards this goal, and once it gets here, there's a sense of loss because you've become so used to the "working towards" part. You may have some depression and "what have I done" feelings right afterwards, too, just so you know. But I know you can do this.

I'm from north of Dayton here, not banded yet but hopefully will be in the fall. Nice to meet you!

I'm sorry yesterday was such a rough day for you. I sympathize about the migraines, they just throw everything out of kilter. I am glad you are feeling better today though. I had a rough food day the other day too, so I'm feeling your pain there as well. But yay for the nsv, and double yay for realizing that all you have to do is take a deep breath and keep going forward. I know you can do this!

Hi Tamara, nice to meet you!