Robin Lanzoni

I don't have the answer but I'm surprised your surgeon didn't already address this during your visits. I think I'd ask my Dr first.

I have a Blendtec. It's 3hp vs the 2hp of the vitamix. I insanely spent another $115 to get a larger carafe for it. It's great. It really is. But I use the little bullet blender more. I keep one at work and one at home. You can make tiny smoothies with the bullet one. A large blender like the Blendtec or Vitamix is going to need to make a lot. Most people post op aren't able to take in very much.

1/2 cup of FRESH carrot juice has 450% of the RDA of Vitamin A. And it's far more readily absorbed than from a pill.

Health vs Cost.... which one will win? A bottle of any juice will never have the same nutritional value of FRESH, UNCOOKED, UNPASTURIZED vegetable juice that you make yourself. Centrifugal juicers whip a lot of oxygen into the juice, causing it to lose nutritional value quickly, so it's important to drink it ASAP if you use this kind of juicer. You can't juice it way ahead of time to store in the fridge for the day because, after an hour, it will have lost too much of its nutrition to be worth it. A twin-gear juicer would retain much of the nutritional value because of the gentle extraction of the juice. They are expensive and even I don't have one (getting it this year). I do have a manual juicer that I adore. It's small, portable, easy to clean, it uses no electricity so you can take it apart and just throw it in the dish washer. It was only about $50. Love it. I also have a large centrifugal juicer for home and a small one that I keep at work. You can also juice with your blender by putting the veggies in with a little Water, blend completely, then pour it all in a nut milk (mesh) bag to strain the juice from the pulp. You just hold the bag over a bowl and gently massage it to squeeze out the juicer. This is the fastest way to juice. I wouldn't suggest juicing fruits as this makes the sugars too readily available without their cell walls to slow the digestion. Even carrots and beets I would juice in moderation while on a weight loss program. I have my certification in Natural Hygenic Nutrition. I've been vegetarian for 20 years and RAW VEGAN on and off for years. I once juice fasted for 2 months straight. Nothing beats the feeling of fresh juicing. I believe it's worth every penny. You can google or look on eBay for "nut milk bag" or "nut mylk bag" or for Lexan juicer if you want to learn more. Here's the manual juicer I have: http://cgi.ebay.com/LEXEN-brand-MANUAL-WHEATGRASS-JUICER-wheat-grass-/320645648324 Mine is exactly the same. I have a pretty tote bag that I carry it in when I want to take it with me. It's very small and convenient and makes no noise since it's manual. Robin

This sounds like a very delicious thing to have as a very very rare treat once weight loss has been well under way. Sounds almost equivalent to eating a pint of low fat ice cream.

Charts I've looked at list the healthy weight range for someone 4' 11" as 107 - 134 pounds. Why would you sleeve for that? Your insurance couldn't possibly approve it.

I am having my sleeve done at an MTF that's 5 hours from my house. It's going to be ALOT of work to get it done since their surgeon requires a 5 month program and monthly support group meetings. Man, this is going to be tough. I work full time and have an autistic child. I don't have family here to leave him with overnight. They have agreed to allow me to use a civilian Dr who accepts PRIME. I was told to have the Dr write some very specific phrases on his referral that states I'm over 60 miles from the nearest MTF... etc. I have not spoken with the surgeon but I have spoken with the nurse. She said they will try to work around things for me but not the time to surgery. Sure, I'd like it sooner but I'm 40 years old... what's another 5 months? Where do you live?

Unless the DR is coding it differently, it's not being approved with Standard or Prime. Here's my challenge: If there's anyone out there that claims their VSG was approved OUTSIDE an MTF with Tricare, please call your Dr and find out what code he used for that approval. That would help alot.

Even if Prime started covering the sleeve, someone would have to find a network provider. How many Bariatric Surgeons accept PRIME? The closest surgeon to me that accepts STANDARD for the Band or RNY is over 2 hours away.

Awaiting elaboration with breathless anticipation since the MTF I'm about to try with is about 5 hours from my house. If I could get a civilian Dr, that would be terrific.

If you felt no pain, I would assume that your tummy isn't ruined at all. Did you chew it very well? I agree with not beating yourself up over this.

A good jeweler can size rings into an oval instead of round. You can't tell from the top but it's a way to keep the integrity of the channel setting. My rings are too small because I weigh so much now, so I have the opposite problem. I put my rings in my Safe Deposit Box for now. Once I have surgery, I will wear them when they fit, stop again when they are too large and resize them when I reach goal. For now, I bought some pretty gold plated rings from HSN. It feels good to have something on at least.

I'm curious about the answer to this one.

That is so exciting!! Keep up posted on your progress and good luck.

I think milk is terrible for you so I'm voting for vanilla SOY milk. Robin