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It depends on your insurance. I have UHC and they used my weight from my first visit with the doctor and nutritionist. The coordinator at the insurance company told me they won't penalize you for losing weight before the surgery during the six month medically supervised diet. I was a revision also and still had to meet my ins. co. criteria. I had some tests that showed my band was causing problems so my insurance company approved me early and did not require me to complete the full six month medically supervised diet. Good luck to you, and hope you get a date soon for your surgery.

I got fish on soft foods which for me was the start of the third week. The link below takes you to a blog about pureed foods. http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html Here is another recipe when you get to soft foods. Shelly's Baked Ricotta 8 oz of Ricotta cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 1 large Egg, beaten 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning salt & pepper to taste 1/2 cup Marinara Sauce 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese Mix ricotta cheese, parmesan, beaten egg, seasonings together and place in a oven proof dish. Pour marinara on top and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake it in the oven @ 450 for about 20-25 minutes (best) or nuke it till hot and bubbly. I usually made it first in the oven and heated the leftovers in the microwave. It is also from theorldaccordingtoeggface.

Butter, I can sum that picture up in one word. OUCH. Hope you feel better soon.

Globetrotter, I read some on insanity, but seems strange you're not seeing results. They do say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Do you think you may be overdoing it and not getting in enough nutrients or liquids?

My insurance was through United Health Care, but my employer has Optum review and approve all bariatric surgery requests. If you go online to your insurance company website and look at coverage and benefits you may be able to see what they require.

If you can't get support from your PCP, you might ask your bariatric surgeon for a referral to a more weight loss surgery friendly doctor. Since it's early January this will give you time to establish a doctor patient relationship. Sounds to me like you have several comorbidities and this is not good Healthwise but helps with insurance approval. My insurance required a minimum BMI of 35 with at least 1 comorbidity or a BMI or 40 or greater with no comorbidities. I will keep my fingers crossed for you and good luck.

Congrats. From the name on your thread, I thought something was wrong until I read the post. Isn't it fun to lose clothing sizes?

Mirabb2002, Congrats on completion of your 6 month diet and your weight loss so far. That is phenomenal. I saw my doctor throughout my medically supervised diet.. During that time I also had to get an approval letter from my primary care physician for surgery, insurance company also required a psychiatric evaluation. My doctor performed an endoscopy. It was discovered my lapband had prolapsed during the endoscopy so I had to also have a motility study performed. During this time I also had lab work about two weeks before surgery, chest x-ray and an EKG. My doctor's office also has a class where you are given instructions specific to your surgery for your pre and post-op diet. I didn't have to have a sleep study performed since I had one in August of 2012.

My gut feeling is no you won't lose as much as you did in the first month since most people see the biggest loss then. I think as gmanbat said exercise is a key along with good eating. They go hand in hand, if you have one and not the other they don't work nearly as well as together. Glad you are back on track. I also had got a little off track between Christmas and New Years.

If you buy them from the manufacturer, make sure to search for online coupons. I found one that gave me three free bottles. The bottles are 25.4 oz or 750 ml so they last a long time.

Yes, yes, yes. It's crazy. I can be in two fleece blanket in my house and still be cold. Here is another thread about being cold, so you know you are not alone. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/290470-anyone-else-cold-all-the-time/page-2#entry3298144

50notFat, Congratulations on your loss. I am glad I had my surgery also.

I find some of the basic Torani sugar syrups at my local grocery store in the coffee area. You can find both of them on Amazon. Here is the url for Torani's website. http://shop.torani.com/Sugar-Free-Syrups/c/Torani@SugarFreeSyrups Here is Davinci's site.http://www.davincigourmet.com/products/sugar_free_flavored_syrups/ Both site have store locators and offer recipes for the products. I am not endorsing the recipes because many of them I do not consider the healthiest choice but it gives you some ideas.

Please post recipes you find to the forum under recipes and pre op diets so others can also try them. Everyone loves new recipe ideas especially pre-op and in the liquid and puree stages since it is rather limited.

Get some sugar-free syrups like Torani or Davinci. They can be a life saver. I added them to Protein drinks, plain greek yogurt and vanilla yogurt. It helped give me variety. I added caramel and PB2 to chocolate shakes. Think snickers bar with Peanut Butter. I added sugar free pumpkin, raspberry to vanilla shakes. Made a great pumpkin pie flavor for me around Thanksgiving time. Add applesauce to your oatmeal along with a sprinkle of cinnamon. If you like chocolate milk add chocolate syrup to your milk or heat up the milk for hot cocoa. You might also get some no sugar added or sugar free hot cocoa. I hope these suggestions help. Good luck to you on your pre-op and upcoming surgery. You can do it. Think of the long-term benefits. This will be one of your first challenges in your journey of making healthy food choices. I got some of my Torani at the grocery store in the aisle where they have coffee. For some of the other flavors I got them on Amazon or from the manufacturer. You can also search the internet for discount coupon codes.

Torani sugar free syrups are a life saver. DaVinci also makes some great flavors. They saved me during the pre and post op liquid phase. I still use them today in recipes. chocolate shake or pudding with some caramel flavor and some PB2 can't be beat. They also have a sf Peanut Butter flavor. pumpkin was great with vanilla pudding. Adding these flavors to plain or vanilla greek yogurt increases your variety of food choices.

Butter, if there was a dislike option for this post about your injury, I would press it and bet a whole lot of other members would follow. Hope you recover soon.

Having had two c-sections and some of the "worst pain in the world" ailments, kidney stones multiple times, gall bladder, and back surgery. My sleeve was not bad. You will have some pain, but it isn't anything that pain meds won't take away. There are not that many nerves in your stomach area so minimal pain. If you have had your gallbladder out, and did not have any problems with the CO2 gas used, chances are your sleeve will be the same I had a band to sleeve revision in one procedure. My surgery took two hours. I had surgery on 10/25 and was home on 10/27 Monday, 10/28 was the last day I used pain meds and I do not consider myself to have a high pain tolerance. I had TVT surgery on 11/4 and now have TMJ and both were worse than the sleeve surgery. Good luck. I hope I see a post from you post-op saying it wasn't as bad as you imagined.

I am on Dexilant and take it 1 x a day. It is a time-release medicine. I had severe heart burn when I had my lapband. I was on prescription PPIs for over three years I started off on the prescription your on but it didn't work for me. I was on protonix which worked for awhile and stopped. I finally found nirvana with Dexilant. Earlier this year prior to the sleeve one time a day wasn't enough and under doctor supervision I increased to twice daily. Now am back on 1 x a day and not one instance of heart burn since my sleeve operation. That alone makes me very happy. I hope you get some relief. Heartburn can be very painful.

I consider mashed potatoes, refried Beans, yogurt to be soft foods not pureed. Here is a link or two that may help you. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/292198-staple-foods-for-puree-phase-2/ I never had a pureed stage. I had liquids, full liquids which during this phase I had to puree any soups I ate except for broth and then soft foods which included tuna, cottage cheese, greek yogurt w/o fruit, cheese. Hope this helps a little.

Woo hoo. What an accomplishment. Way to go.

I lost 85% of my stomach, bad crappy eating habits and 27 pounds. I will get the remaining 45 off this year through exercise and good, healthy eating. One of my goals for 2014 is to ride 1,000 miles on my road bike outside from mid-March to end of October. I have it all mapped out. Now the weather has to cooperate. I think it's very important to write down your goals and how you will accomplish them. I know for me it helps me track to see if I am on course or have veered off. I use the SMART method. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. If you post something vague like I will lose 50 pounds this year but have no clue how you will do it, you can spend a lot of time spinning your wheels and not accomplishing anything. Happy new year to everyone, and I hope everyone meets their goals.

Pjackson, Welcome. I like your resolution in http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/292893-my-ny-resolution/ I plan to post periodically to this thread throughout the year for updates. Not sure if it will be monthly or quarterly. If anyone following has a suggestion, please feel free to post.

I am doing wonderful, or I guess I should say onederful since I am in onederland and 45 pounds from goal. I posted pics from 7 weeks out here. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/292846-before-and-after-pics-at-7-weeks-out/ Looking forward to goal in 2014, lot more moving and being healthy.

My doctor's diet did not include rice until five weeks out. I think you'd be better off choosing a sugar-free version and no rice this early out, but that's my opinion. If you're not sure, check with your doctor or nutritionist.