gentylwind

My psych eval was $250. I am not using the Optifast but am buying my own shakes.

Darwin award waiting to happen. Good grief people, use your heads. You are sticking a foreign object into your belly to try and access another foreign object inside your belly. Ever heard of sepsis? Why would you risk it? If you hit your tubing instead of your port, you are hosed (no pun intended) and looking at another surgery. Leave it to the experts. Don't be foolish.

Listen to the ladies above. If you can't do the pre-op diet now, how are you going to do the postop diet later? You can do this. You really, really can. Catch yourself in your food fantasies and put them aside. Realize this is your chance to have the life you always wanted. You don't want to be turned away from it. You can do this!

I am appreciating it too! I get banded two weeks from today. :thumbs_up: Started my pre-op diet this morning, so far so good. I get a Protein shake for Breakfast, one for lunch, a low calorie/low carb dinner and all the FF broth, SF Jello and SF popsicles I want. Crystal light and all that too of course. Diet Splash etc. I am SO ready. Taking my "before" pictures tonight!

I am self pay. My pre-op testing consisted of: Blood work EKG Urinalysis Psych eval and that's it!

No, that is where they put you in the hospital while you undergo heavy duty I.V. antibiotics and monitoring.

I was at a wedding two weeks ago and saw a cousin of mine whom I have not seen in a while. She is thin and fit, but self-admittedly bulimic. We were dancing at the wedding and I was having a good time. I take belly dance lessons and am relatively graceful. She says to me "You know what I LOVE about you?!", hollering over the music. I said "No, what?" And she said "That you can STILL feel sexy anyway!" I stopped dancing after that. That one stung.

I am private pay and the surgeon still required the psych eval. Just wanted to put that out there. Private pay does not mean no psych eval.

Ask your doctor if you can have in-patient IV antibiotics to try and get rid of the infection without taking out your band.

I would think a nice warm shower would help as well, water directed onto the site of the pain.

I am cash pay, and had a surgery date within the month. It seems insurance people have a lot longer wait, averaging 3 months to 18 months depending on insurance requirements.

I am being banded on a Friday and plan to return to work on the following Wednesday.

You are most definitely in a very tiny minority of patients. I have five people in my life offline who have had the band who are doing fantastic and all the research shows it is a benefit to the vast majority of people who undergo the surgery. I am so sorry that yours is not working for you, but I have to speak up to encourage those who would be dissuaded by your very unusual situation and your generalizing in advising against it for everyone based on your situation. You are not the norm. I hate that for you and I am sure it is hard to hear. I hope you find a way to be happier and healthier and I am sure you mean to wish everyone here well.

I found a LOT of reviews of him on obesityhelp.com. I met with him yesterday and I feel really, really comfortable with him as my surgeon. His whole office is awesome. He is very soft spoken, but smiles genuinely, looks you in the eye and he took as much time with me as I needed, asking me several times for more questions if I have them. Good luck!

Yay Jmegirl! I am thrilled for you!

Some do...if your endoscopy testing shows erosion you are at higher risk of band erosion, which is why your doc does not feel the band is for you most likely. You can have reflux without damage, which I think is fairly common, but if your tests showed issues from the reflux, the band may not be your best option.

I met my surgeon today. LOVE him. Love his staff. He changed my pre-op diet...he doesn't want me to do two weeks of liquids only. Shake for breakfast, shake for lunch, low calorie/low carb dinner. Full liquids two days before surgery and clear liquid only the day before. I am so glad..whew! lol

Hey ER, I am thrilled with our new president as well! SO hopeful for our country and the world. You may already be aware, but if you take your iron in conjunction with Vitamin C it will bind better and be better absorbed by your body. I found this website helpful: Iron Good luck!

I start my pre-op diet on Friday, meeting my surgeon today. We'll probably take my pre-op pics tomorrow. I am getting both nervous and excited!

I start my pre-op diet tomorrow, so we shall see!

Didn't his surgeon give him a pre-op diet to follow?

Hello all. How fun to find fellow Texans here! I had my psych eval this past Saturday..major positive experience. I meet with the surgeon tomorrow and start my pre-op on Friday. Eek! I have been sick as a dog since Saturday. I sure hope this goes away soon. I am ready to fall over out of my chair with fatigue. I am glad it hit before I started my pre-op at least. Not sure why, just seems like it would be more difficult to deal with if I were also worried about my chicken Soup or something. I am getting excited now. My bariatric psychologist was so positive and so encouraging. I really loved her and feel like I have another tool at my fingertips to help me succeed now that I know I can call her.

Just sending you hugs. This is a big big step and I am thrilled to see your friends stepping up to the plate. I hope moving day wasn't too traumatic.

LOVED my bariatric psychologist and I will definitely go see her again if/when I need it after surgery. My face to face meeting with her was about an hour long. She gave me about four tests to do at home prior to coming to meet with her and those took about an hour as well. She was really up-beat and positive and I really really liked her. I feel like I have another tool in my shed to help me get the weight off along with the band. eta: My eval consisted of a lot of questions meant to find out if I have a binge eating disorder, suffer from emotional eating or untreated depression and whether or not I will be likely to be able to stick to the postop diet and change the way I relate to food.

I am cash pay. I had my consult at the beginning of October and will be banded on 11/21/2008. I got my surgery date the day of my consult and could have done it only two weeks later if I wanted to. I chose to delay until the end of November for personal reasons. It really does matter in terms of whether you are paying for it yourself or if you are wanting insurance to cover it. Insurance takes longer. Cash pay, they lay out the red carpet and you can pretty much move as quickly as all the pre-op stuff allows.