funsize

2 month pos op went from 413 to 358 now but this pic is before and one month pos op

Hey everybody surgery july 1st 78 pounds down soo happy with my results

Hi again y'all!
Hit my one year surgi-versary on Wednesday & I'm now down 100lbs! Feels surreal. This hasn't been easy but I'm thrilled with my progress thus far.

2 months post op and 45lbs gone !

A little over 5 months out and down 71 pounds!

I'm 19 yrs old and have been considering surgery since I was about 17 since I've dealt with obesity my whole life.
My surgery was Nov 18, 2014. I started at 298 and am now at 254! Only 7 weeks out of surgery but have seen a huge difference in how I look!
It's so funny that I look in the mirror every day and always tell myself that I don't see any changes and feel upset and then I actually look at the pics I took right before surgery and how much I've changed. Literally puts me in tears!
Of course I'm still in progress, my goal is to be about 120, I'm hoping that happens! I'm really short, 5'1 so technically that's pushing almost still being overweight lol.
I can't wait to be a year out and look as great as all of you guys! Everyone here is such an inspiration ????

New Year's Eve update
12/13/2012 vs 12/31/2014

Thanks! But no gym for me. My life is a workout..."weight lifting" by splitting and stacking wood, hauling 40 pound bags of feed and dog food, carrying 60 pound dogs, lugging 5 gallon buckets of water and 80 pound bales of hay. "Pilates" via wrestling 80 pound dogs and 150 pound pigs, "cardio" through chasing down horses, running for dear life from bulls and shoveling snow. Then for fun, there's horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing!

I'm 10 weeks out - I can't wait to look as awesome as all of you a year out!

Beautiful!!

OMG you look amazing. ???????????? it is nice to see someone another shortie and their results, I am 4'10. I get sleeved on December 8th. ????

Beautiful!!

Beautiful!!

Beautiful!!

Beautiful!!

OMG you look amazing. ???????????? it is nice to see someone another shortie and their results, I am 4'10. I get sleeved on December 8th. ????

Me trying on wedding dresses April 2014 at 231lbs, 5'2.

Me on my wedding day oct 2014, 168lb

Hw 299 cw 159 ..5'8 22 months out

Great job! You look fantastic! How long did it take you to lose all that weight, and at what point did you get addicted to exercise? ps cute boots

I had my surgery June 26th and I am about 9 pounds from my doctor specified goal.
HW:226
SW: 205
GW:128
CW: 137
Oh and I am 5'1

Aetna still considers the LapBand "investigational/experimental" and excludes it completely on a company level. I have never yet heard of any cases where Aetna paid of its own accord, so unless or until Aetna changes its policy on the band being investigational the best bet is to see if you have an external appeal provision in your state. I did, and I won! Here's how it went:
The State of New Jersey, like many other states, provides for a third-party review of insurance carriers' decisions. That means there might be a law in your state that provides you with the right of EXTERNAL review if you have exhausted your company's appeal process and lost.
In my case, I took my Aetna denial through the third-party process, and my case was referred to an INDEPENDENT reviewer in accordance with the state's mandate. The third-party reviewer agreed with me that the band should not be considered investigational and that IN MY CASE it was a medically necessary procedure.
Now, I knew from the start that Aetna had a policy against covering the band, and I also knew that I couldn't switch insurance carriers until my company's next open-enrollment period almost a year away. So I decided to get started anyway investigating weight-loss surgery. The pretests and qualification criteria are the same for all types of bariatric surgery, so the carrier may very well cover what your primary care doctor refers you for in the early stages. Even if you have an exclusion for weight-loss treatment, perhaps some of the visits and/or tests could be covered simply as diagnostic procedures. Aetna covered the office visits (except for the psych eval, because the person I had to go to was out of network and I have an HMO), blood tests, nutritionist visit, and so on.
All of this took more than three months to accomplish. Then the cycle of request, denial, appeal, denial, stage 2 appeal, and final denial took another three months. Then I took my request to the state and waited *another* two months before the decision was finally made. Now it's almost a year after I started and if I hadn't won my appeal I would be switching carriers right about now with all my prequalification testing long behind me. I wouldn't have to start all over again with another carrier.
My point is that even if you know or think your carrier won't cover it, start anyway and proceed as though you are considering ANY type of weight-loss surgery. You'll be glad you got started, because it takes time to amass the tests and histories that every carrier needs to evaluate candidates for WLS. A year from now, Aetna and other behind-the-times carriers may very well have changed their tunes completely and you'll be that far ahead of the game.

Halloween last year & Halloween this year (sleeved Dec 11)

My first BEFORE and AFTER picture this is about a 50 lbs difference.

Hey all!! I wanted to share my update B&A pic, Halloween edition! I chose my outfit last year during the Preop phase. My surgeon, Dr. Ariel Ortiz, completely inspired my choice. He reminded me of Batman- intriguing, handsome, mysterious (even though after I met him he was still handsome but a total ball of energy- so cool). I thought of the operating room as the Batcave where he would whip me into shape with all his fancy gadgets and weaponry. So I decided last September I wanted to be Poison Ivy! A year in the making, I am so thankful and blessed

Everyone looks amazing! You should all be so proud of yourselves. Here is my before and after! It sounds shallow but I love looking at myself and seeing where I came from 10 months ago and where I am now- 128 lbs less!!