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Congratulations. I have verbal approval also but have not received the written approval letter. It should be here any day since it was mailed on September 18th. My doctor's office does not schedule your surgery until they receive the written letter to make sure the surgery codes are correct on the letter providing proof the ins. co. approved you for the correct surgery. I know I will have an October date, but right now do not know the exact date. When I spoke to my doctor's office on 9/24, I was told they are now scheduling surgeries for the second week of October. Hope you get your date soon.

Linda, Thank you very much. This sounds delicious. I will definitely try this recipe. Might even try it prior to surgery. My surgery date will be in October but not sure when. My doctor's office does not schedule surgery without the written letter. It will be either 10/8 or 10/25 due to work schedule.

I agree with Fred1977. Mary, you should ask your doctor's office to submit the claim. You don't know for sure unless you try. My doctor told me that he thought the ins. co. would deny my claim submission the first time. The office sent it in with only two nutritional visits due to lap band complications and i had not completed the six month diet. I received verbal approval on 9/23. it was approved on 9/18, one week after ins. co. received it for review. My doctor's office also received approval notice. They do not schedule surgery until they have the written letter. I hope it arrives on Wednesday, 9/25. I am looking at a 10/8 or 10/25 surgery date.

I have reflux now from my lap band. I am hoping it goes away post-sleeve surgery. I started off on Protonix and then the generic for that. I have been on Dexalant for over a year now. It worked very well for me until April of this year, My doctor had me double the dose for about 2 weeks and now I am back to one tablet a day at the 60 mg dose. They also have a prescription saver's card on their web site which gets me the prescription for $20 a month. I talked to my surgeon and he said if I wanted to stay on it that was fine. He normally starts patients on omeprazole. He said he keeps his patients on a ppi for 6 months post surgery. I have a friend who is almost 2 years post op and had reflux prior to surgery and said he will be on a ppi for the rest of his life. He said about 5% of sleeve patients have permanent heart burn. I asked him also if I had a higher propensity to have it with the sleeve since I already have it, and he told me no. Mine is due to my lapband and the prolapse. I hope you find some relief for your heartburn. It can be very miserable at times. I also have propped up the top portion of my mattress to help with elevation.

If you go by band standards, I was a success. More than 50% EWL and kept it off for more than three years. I was not where I wanted to be. I think you had great results with 85 pounds in 4 months. For the past three years plus I have been on rx meds for heart burn due the band. The med that was the most effective to treat it started to not work in April of this year. Even with no Fluid in my band right now, if I don't take my medicine I get terrible heart burn. My doctor said it is better for the patient to get both surgeries at one time. I have seen both opinions on the forum. Pretty typical. You also see different pre and post-op diets and lengths of time before introducing different foods for patients. My biggest fear is how much scar tissue is there from the band. I don't think there is a way to know until they actually do the surgery. My doctor said that a revision normally takes about 2 hours to perform.

Congratulations. Keep the bench warm for me too please.

Congratulations. I am a band to sleeve revision surgery also. Doing both in same surgery. Date will be 10/8 or 10/25.

My doctor's office and I have received verbal approval from ins. co. for my surgery. In order to get a surgery date, my doctor's office requires the written letter. The letter was mailed on 9/18. Hope it arrives on 9/25. I am a band to sleeve revision patient. Optum waived the six month supervised diet criteria due to band complications. Looking at a 10/8 if available by the time I get written approval. If that date is unavailable I will have to wait until 10/25 due to work obligations. Very excited but still a little nervous even though I know it is the right decision for me.

My doctor's office and I have received verbal approval from ins. co. for my surgery. In order to get a surgery date, my doctor's office requires the written letter. The letter was mailed on 9/18. Hope it arrives on 9/25. I am a band to sleeve revision patient. Optum waived the six month supervised diet criteria due to band complications. Looking at a 10/8 if available by the time I get written approval. If that date is unavailable I will have to wait until 10/25 due to work obligations. Very excited but still a little nervous even though I know it is the right decision for me.

My doctor's office and I have received verbal approval from ins. co. for my surgery. In order to get a surgery date, my doctor's office requires a written letter. The letter was mailed on 9/18. Hope it arrives on 9/25. I started with a BMI of 35. I am a band to sleeve revision patient. My ins. co. waived the six month supervised diet criteria due to band complications. Looking at a 10/8 if available by the time I get written approval. If that date is unavailable I will have to wait until 10/25 due to work obligations.

My doctor's office and I have received verbal approval from ins. co. for my surgery. In order to get a surgery date, my doctor's office requires a written letter. The letter was mailed on 9/18. Hope it arrives on 9/25. I am a band to sleeve revision patient. My ins. co. waived the six month supervised diet criteria due to band complications. Looking at a 10/8 if available by the time I get written approval. If that date is unavailable I will have to wait until 10/25 due to work obligations.

I just received verbal ins. co. approval on 9/23. My doctor's office will not schedule with the written approval even though they also received the verbal approval. I hope the letter arrives on 9/25 since that is one week since it was mailed. When I spoke to the doctor's office today, they told me they are scheduling surgeries for the second week of October. I am hoping for a 10/8 surgery. If that date is not available, then I will have to wait until 10/25 due to work obligations. I am a band to sleeve revision surgery. My ins. co. waived the six month diet criteria due to lap band complications. I am very excited and a little nervous even though I know I am making the right decision for me.

I received verbal approval from the ins. co. on Monday, September 23. Written approval was sent on 9/18. My doctor's office will not schedule with a written letter. I am hoping for a 10/8 date. If it does not happen then, I will have to wait until 10/25 due to work constraints. I cannot wait.

Hi Jashantee, There are a few more St. Louis area folks on the forum. I am having my surgery at Des Peres Hospital by Dr. J. Stephen Scott. I just received verbal approval from the ins. co. today. I think the earliest I can get away from work for surgery is October 25th, which isn't that far away. Only tests I still need are chest x-ray and lab work. My ins. had a six month med sup. diet also, but I got approved early due to lap band complications. I need to attend pre and post-op diet class. As Jessica said use the time to learn about the surgery, food choices. It does go by fast. I already completed 3 of the 6 required classes before receiving ins. co. approval. Welcome to the forum. You can learn a lot and meet some good friends through this site. It won't be long before you are posting your approval and surgery date. Good luck.

I can answer my own question. The answer is yes. I received verbal approval from the coordinator that the insurance company waived the 6 month diet criteria based on device failure and band intolerance.

I was going to ride today and the carrier had a flat tire so by the time it was fixed, it started to get dark. I did do two rides in yesterday and am up to 82.8. However the big news is I GOT VERBAL APPROVAL TODAY FROM THE INSURANCE CO. Now all I need is the written letter, then figure out when is the best time to leave work for a while. Butter and Laura, I told you both that when I got approved, I would be shouting it in the forum and everyone would know. I will get my miles in the before the month end and hope to pass 100.

Good luck. My sister had one of her parathyroid glands removed a long time ago. I have had elevated levels before and then normal ones. I had a test performed, but don't remember what it was called. I remember they injected something radio active into me and then check to see if it was glowing. Good luck with your surgery.

I got in 8.5 miles so far for a total of 76.1 miles. Going out again tonight and tomorrow. Should get in another 15 or 16 miles. It is much harder with the grand kids in the carrier to go for long distance and a better work out. The two of them together plus the carrier is about 80 extra pounds.

New bikes are exciting. Get a good pair of riding shorts to go along with your new ride I keep adding things to my bike. Next year I plan on getting custom wheels.

Come on Laura, we will do this together. I have 32 miles to go or about that. We're supposed to have great weather here this week, and I have no deployments scheduled in the evening. I have had my grandchildren from Friday through Sunday and Monday evening. I went out a bought a bike trailer so I could ride and take them along. You can do it too. I like your new profile picture also. Tonight sunset was at 7 p.m. so the days are getting shorter. After end of October I will only be able to ride on the weekend since I will be dark by the time I get home from work.

The insurance criteria is determined by the contract your employer negotiates with the insurance company. I have UHC and my employer goes through Optima for bariatric services but another person I know has UHC and they do not use Optima and she had different criteria to meet than I do. Good luck with your journey.

My surgeon's office also conducts nutrition classes that qualify for the six month diet. If you are going to use Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, check with your insurance company first, some accept them and some don't. I have UHC and they have different criteria for different employers. Mine will accept Jenny or Weight Watchers as long as you can produce the booklet with the weekly stamps or proof that you attended during the required time period. My insurance also requires that the same method of diet is used for the entire six month period. Good luck. My doctor submitted my claim early to the insurance company due to lap band intolerance and I am waiting to hear if they will approve this request. I should know within the next two weeks. If not, I am using this time to examine my eating habits and work on making better choices the next time a trigger occurs.

Laura, I am behind where I had hoped to be also. This "job" thing keeps getting in the way. I shouldn't have any more late night/early morning calls for the remainder of this month. Fiddle, I thought by now you would be at "150 or higher". LOL. Everyone is doing great, keep up the good work.

I got in 17.6 miles today for a total of 67.6 miles. I will be able to finish the month up riding.

I like to be informed about the choice I am making for my sleeve gastrectomy surgery. I wanted to start this thread to list videos that are of the actual surgery itself narrated by the surgeon or other medical professional. There are some surgeries videos on You Tube and also webcasts. I felt this was helpful to me and might also be to others. Some of the links listed are the entire surgery while others are portions of the surgery. http://www.lapsf.com/live-sleeve-gastrectomy-surgery/ http://www.orlive.com/halifaxhealth/videos/weighing-the-options-gastric-sleeve-surgery http://www.or-live.com/vanderbilt/2320/event/rnh.cfm? http://orlive.com/search?CRITERIA=sleeve%2520gastrectomy&SEARCHOPERATOR=any&SORTORDER=rank&LCOLLECTIONS='>http://orlive.com/search?CRITERIA=sleeve%2520gastrectomy&SEARCHOPERATOR=any&SORTORDER=rank&LCOLLECTIONS= http://videocenter.shawneemission.org/videos/weight-loss-surgery-gastric-sleeve This link will allow you to watch different types of surgery after you search for the criteria. http://orlive.com/ There are several other sites out there. Please feel free to add on to this list.