kimk1999

That was the same with me. I was right at a 35 BMI (bare minimum) and with a co-morbid condition. I'm not sure how long the approval is good for, but I think your medical clearance is only good for 30 days. If you delay, you might need the bloodwork, EKG and chest x-ray all over again. For my Cigna plan - we have a high deductible. Each year, I pay the first $1500 out of my own pocket for any doctor visits, then it's 80%/20% split with insurance (me with the 20%), until I reach $4000 total out of pocket. I had some other surgery earlier in the year, so this hospital fee was really just $450 (my final amount to get me to $4000). If they had delayed my surgery, it would have cost closer to $3.5k out of pocket. The self-pay feature at my surgeon's office is a max of $16k. Their fee included nutritionist and psych eval. Overall - I had 3 surgeon visits, 4 dietician (with a dr) visits, a psych eval, bloodwork, EKG, x-ray, and the surgery itself. I'm not sure how much all of that totaled up to be offhand... Maybe $600-$700 over the span of 4 months?

Sounds good, I sent the request

My paperwork was submitted on Dec 3 and we had approval by the 12th or 13th. So I guess I'm about the 9 days mark too. This was post a 3 month supervised diet, and all the other hoops and hurdles to satisfy insurance requirements. I was right on the cusp of a 35 BMI (bare minimum) plus I had 1 confirmed co-morbid condition (a few others suspected, but not officially diagnosed yet). I was nervous that they'd drag their feet till Jan and I'd have to start my high deductible all over.

If you're on the computer you can just enter the username instead of email. I'm kimk1999

You're not alone or crazy or whatever. I completely understand the dilemma about not wanting to be social due to weight gain. Congrats on the weight loss by the way. There will be plenty of other games later on. Hopefully by the time the next one comes along you'll be further on your weight loss journey with more confidence, and you will be further post op with less 'restrictions' too. If something comes up sooner I'd suggest to take a protein shake with you and drink it on the drive over to the bar. I've had a bit of wine here and there already. If you go with reds you can sip it very slowly without the taste changing due to temp changes.

I'm actually in the same boat looking for answers too. I'm 12 days post op and have the upper respiratory / cold symptoms. Coughing hasn't bothered my band/stomach (yet). I'm pretty miserable though.

I thought you were preggers and have the lap band, lol. My doc 'normally' does the procedures on a Wednesday and 'most' people can return on Monday. For me, like Leepers, I have been in a lot of pain and I'm glad I took longer time off. Something else to consider, for a while you'll probably be struggling to get a decent calorie intake and your mind maybe a bit foggy. It will probably be difficult to focus. Again, my doctor, won't allow us to go swimming at least until they see us 2 weeks post-op. No soaking in a tub or hot tub either for the two weeks. They want the incision site to heal without being soaked. We can take showers just fine, just no soaking. Pain - well that's really up to how your body handles pain. I was in a lot of pain that day, lived off painkillers and was basically drugged the first day or two. Some people are able to go out and walk a mile the same day as surgery. My pain mostly lasted about 5ish or so days. I still need pain killers at night after moving around all day. I still use the heating pad and ice packs and it's been almost two weeks. Good luck!

I'm still very new to this whole thing, but could your band be too tight? Can you get it unfilled at least?

Haha - yeah maybe. At least go there for a proper fitting. The bras will be a lot more expensive but should last longer. Even if you get measured and try on a bunch of bras, you can "think about it" and have no obligation to buy .

It sounds like you've gone to the store to actually get measured. Have you actually had the lady look at you with the bra actually on with the sag / extra fabric issue? It's weird and uncomfortable for me to do that and it took many years before I'd do that (granted I was skinnier than I am now - but with your ticker at 138 you must be smoking hot )... anyways, let the lady look and make suggestions. Maybe you need a razor back bra. Maybe the straps need to be tightened. I know my mall has three official lingerie stores - Victoria Secret, Soma, and Fredricks. My preference is Soma. They go and pull all the difference sizes.

mrse13 - congrats on the 15lbs! That's great news. Was that just in a week or since you started the pre-op diets? I did a lot of walking shortly after my surgery. I felt up to it. I kept pushing myself even though I've had little to eat and now I'm starting to get sick. Push yourself to exercise but not stress your body out too much.

I'm not sure what type of clothes you're looking for (style wise). Work, casual, trendy, etc. I like old navy, decent prices for decent clothes. What I'm really looking forward to wearing again is Ann Taylor. They have some nice clothes.

To be honest, I'm having a tough time sticking with the two week liquid rule from my doctor (I'm almost two weeks post op). This coming Monday I get to progress to two weeks of puréed foods. Well last night we wanted a date night. We ended up settling on this UK pub place. I was planning on being good when we were headed there but their 2 soups of the day sounded terrible. So I decided to have a few bites of my finances fish and chips (stayed away from breading). Bad bad idea. I chewed it really well, but I felt so sick afterwards. I didn't vomit or anything but I was miserable. Needless to say I'm back to doctors orders. Yeah I've started being a bit more hungry but I'd rather have a hunger feeling than a nauseated feeling. The doctors know what they are doing. Don't second guess their orders because you see people on here that can eat stuff earlier (that might be more for me than for you). Congrats on getting banded and I wish you the best of luck!

Glad to hear Lady .

I'm a little over a week post op. I've had a sore throat for a few days and now I've started coughing. I used to take the effervescent airborne but not sure what preventative to take now. Also, just about anything with zinc makes me very nauseated so Zicam products are out.

Very nice. I think that's who my fiance's friend used. I went through Sun Coast Bariatrics, but they are in St. Pete. Dr. Tiffany Jessee and Dr. Robyn Ache are the two surgeons in this office.

Erinm51 - sorry I'm on my phone and not sure if we've talked before... I'm in Clearwater. What surgeon did you pick?

Leepers- even down at the stomach? I know my left shoulder hurt really bad but the stomach didn't seem like gas. :/

If it's just to the left (maybe a few inches) from the belly bottom that's where my port is located. If I move wrong, get up off the floor wrong it'll scream at me and last for a long time. I think it's because it's stitched to your muscles or something like that so as you move around it moves too and upsets your muscles. At least that's my theory. When I go walking, I tend to try to keep my stomach somewhat tight but not too tight or I physically hold it somehow to keep it from jiggling and hurting. Does that make sense?

Oh yeah - heating pad for your left shoulder and good ice packs for the belly. We have three ice packs that I've rotated through. I'm still using both now.

Like the others before me, walk, walk, walk. You won't feel like it. You'll be in pain, but it really does help. Also, allow yourself to let the gas out when you need to. I told my fiancé not to laugh and warned him multiple times not to laugh. I still apologize for farting in front of him, but he hasn't made me feel self conscious about it and its helped. He's also patted my back to try to help me burp. I like the chewable gas x tabs.

The straw thing is hit or miss with me. Too much air leads to uncomfortableness but I like the convince. The pain from air is something I can live with. Now the gum thing, there's been a few times in my past (yes out of thousands of times that I've chewed gum, there were a few times) that I've accidentally swallowed it. With the band I'm not going to risk gum getting stuck in my pouch. That is not worth it to me as I feel that can only come back up or require some other bad intervention.

Wow! That's amazing and it's only been 6 weeks?

Merry Christmas to you as well

I'm at what they still call the full liquids phase. I'm allowed cream of ____ soup, but I'm not at the pureed stage. I'm not sure if the extra chicken would count towards the pureed/blended phase or still with liquids. I'm getting bored and I really miss my crunch too! I'm a texture person and desperately want more than smooth bland stuff.