SpecialK

I have 2 kitties one is about 6years old and is an angel and never bothers the tree, the other is about 2 years old and she won't let the Christmas tree alone - believe it or not, I tried putting non-breakable ornaments on the bottom third of the tree but she stretches and bats off whatever she can reach so now the bottom 2' or so doesn't have any ornaments on it. Crazy. Last year she climbed the tree (I had a bigger one - artificial) and she actually laid inside the bottom row of branches and looked out at me. I'm doing WW to keep holding myself accountable for controlled eating and tracking my food until I get through all the insurance approvals. It is a small miracle but I lost .2 lbs during Thanksgiving week when I went to my weigh in tonight - I know its a small loss but that is just the point - its a loss! I really put in alot of effort and I'd like to see better than a .2 lb loss in a week - that is something I am looking forward to having my band for - more rewarding weight loss if I follow the program. Tonight my WW leader gave us a good mantra to live by ... she said look at your eating program as Living a Lifestyle, not doing a diet. Good concept for us future bandsters too.

How did everyone do over the holidays?

I am so thankful to hear you say how you started at around 349 as that's pretty close to where I am and I can't wait until I get past the ankle swelling thing where my socks leave indentations around my ankles. Its encouraging to hear how positive you are about the change its made in your life. I got my MBA at the University of Dayton but mostly completed classes here in Columbus and only drove to Dayton a few times. The graduation ceremony at the UD arena building was a blast - silly string flying all over and just a great party atmosphere. I was debating on whether to go to graduation or just have my diploma mailed to me and I'm glad I went. I have a first appointment with my surgeon this week and clearance doctor appts with cardiologist and psychologist also this week. I'm not a fan of having to disrobe at doctors offices, I don't think anyone who is seriously overweight does, but I know this is part of the process.

My mom and I are cooking up a storm but I asked if we could skip doing dressing as we're going to have yams and mashed potatoes and she was fine with that. I am making a Jello salad with shredded cabbage, carrots and pineapple as something sweet to enjoy. We've got a green bean casserole (made with cream of mushroom Soup and the dried onions) and of course turkey! My house smells wonderful. I chopped up some carrots, celery and green pepper to munch on to keep me out of the potato chips. I did sneak into that bag last night - craving something crunchy and salty but I did stop before I ate way too many. Happy Thanksgiving to all! I'm thinking of you because next year I'll hopefully have my lap band at the holidays!:)

Juli - 8 months and 97 lbs lost! You sure must be doing something right! Keep up the work. You're inspiring me as I go through all the paperwork stages. I have my first surgeon appt on November 30th. Its becoming more real just thinking about meeting him.

Nice to see you on the postings too. Do you live central Ohio or Cincy? Cleveland? The Central Ohio group of bandsters is going to get together in January to meet each other at Polaris mall. More details to come.

Nice to hear from you. Is your city of McArthur outside Cincy or Columbus? Good luck.

WOW. I can so relate to you being upset with losing Dr. Vigilianco as your doctor now for Barix. Wonder what happened. I think Dr. Choban was with Barix and she's now with the Mt. Carmel Bariatric Center with Mid Ohio Surgical Associates. For me, I discussed the three doctors I have to choose from with my Mom and with my own research and I have asked for my first surgeon appointment to be with Dr. Phil Price. He's on Mt. Carmel's faculty, has worked at Mt. Carmel quite a while, is a trauma surgeon in addition to a general surgeon which is a extra specialty, and he's also listed on the American Bariatric Society as a Circle of Excellence surgeon for bariatric surgery. I really liked Dr. Miller too he just doesn't have as much years of experience as Dr. Price. I really liked Dr. Choban too based on what everyone said of her too. So, as you said, its an emotional decision picking a surgeon. Keep us posted on who your new doctor is. I have Cardiology clearance dr. appt Nov 27 I have Psychologist clearance dr appt Nov 29 I have Dr. Price's first surgeon consultation appt Nov 30th !

I'm hoping this works. This is my first time trying to post with pictures. There is one file with the AP band - see how its rounded all the way including under the buckle part. Second file has the other models of bands in it and the one on the right is the VG band that doesn't have a saline pocket under the buckle area. Seems like they are going to the AP band on new surgery patients but will be checking this out. AP New Band Type picture.bmp Bands filled and unfilled.bmp

I got a call from Charlene and they asked if I want to do my initial surgeon appointment now or wait and I think I'll go ahead and meet them now. I think they want me to pick between Dr. Choban, Dr. Price and Dr. Mark Miller for an appt. I think I remember reading one of you had Dr. Choban, has anyone else had Dr. Price or Dr. Miller in the same practice group? If so, thoughts?:help:

Informal meet and greet at Polaris mall for Columbus area bandsters. We got this idea started to meet as the Mt. Carmel banded group but we can open up to others in the area. Meet January 8, 2008 at Polaris Mall in the food Court area - That's the 2nd level of the mall. Let's say 6:30 to let everyone get off work and get there. We can find a nook or spot where we can sit together and the food court will offer alot of choices of what to get to eat or you can just get a beverage. Whatever is best for you. Wear PINK and I'll get a helium balloon to mark where the meeting spot is. Shouldn't be too hard to spot a group of us that are losing substantial weight and wearing pink!

I was able to get my new psychologist appt set up for Nov 29 by being flexible and taking a 2pm appt which is no problem for me because I can work from home that day and go the appointment and then come home and keep on working through the beauty of the internet. That will be one busy week for me. Cardiologist Nov 28, Psychologist Nov 29 and the Mt. Carmel Support Group mtg Dec 3rd! Since we've been saying meet at Polaris, how about if I throw out a specific day and time day and everyone can chime in if they can make it.? So here goes... Meet January 8, 2008 at Polaris Mall in the Food Court area - That's the 2nd level of the mall. Let's say 6:30 to let everyone get off work and get there. We can find a nook or spot where we can sit together and the food court will offer alot of choices of what to get to eat or you can just get a beverage. Whatever is best for you. Wear PINK and I'll get a helium balloon to mark where the meeting spot is. Shouldn't be too hard to spot a group of us that are losing substantial weight and wearing pink!

I have a ladies Bible study group that meets in Westerville on Wednesday nights and these ladies are as close to me as sisters so I decided it was time to open up and tell them what I'm investigating and trying to get approved for. I don't know what I was so worried about telling them -- they were super supportive. I thank God for such good friends. I just hope my family and other friends will be understanding and supportive too. The whole issue of do I tell or do I keep it secret until its something that I have to tell them (like at work) is on my mind. Anybody else out there eBay shoppers? I found a great deal on a hand blender and a food processor and I'm hoping to be able to experiment with cooking and chopping with these over the next months to see what I can do with recipes for after surgery. I like homemade soups so it should be interesting.

I actually delivered my $300 administrative fee to the doctors' office with the paperwork they needed me to sign so that step is done. I am still waiting to hear about an appointment with the psychologist. I had a couple doctor appointments today and I had a chance to discuss weight loss surgery with them but decided to keep quiet. My primary care doctor (a woman I really like) was so friendly and things for my annual physical were going so good at my 7:00 am appointment, that I just didn't feel like talking about it with her because she's been real opposed to weight loss surgery, gastric bypass in the past. I figure I'll tell her when I'm ready. Second, I had laparascopic gallbladder surgery by a really great surgeon at Mt. Carmel and it went wonderful and I went in today for a quick post op check to let him see for himself things were all healed and I was doing fine. It was all of 5 minutes in there. I am really encouraged though because that surgery was very similar in length and things to the lap band laparascopic procedure in several ways. I had a 1-2" size incision up on my abdominal area below the center of my breasts and 3 little tiny 1/2" incisions for the ports for the other instruments. I was in surgery on a Wednesday afternoon for that and able to go back to work on Monday. I was really happy with how that went. The incisions have healed up great from that. So at least I know they can operate laparascopically on me in the abdominal area successfully. I had soreness of my abdominal muscles and I was told it was from where they put CO2 gas in the abdomen to elevate the abdominal wall from the organs underneath the muscles. Anyway, it was only bad for a day or so, by a week, I could barely remember I'd had the surgery. I've seen other postings on this lap band surgery for laparascopic that sounded very similar. I didn't tell the surgeon about the possible lap band because I was only in there 5 minutes but I think I could call and ask him a question if I needed it. I'm sure he must know the doctors (Choban, Price, Miller) at Mt. Carmel because he's done general surgery there for a very long time. Oh well, my 2 cents for the day.

Nice to have you join the thread here. I'm just learning bits and pieces too. I just figured out how to use smiley faces yesterday! Haven't got my signature working with a BMI ticker showing progress but I'll get there. Did you have to pay a $300 or so administrative fee to your doctor's office? a fee to the nutritionist? I am scheduling my clearance appt now for December mostly and start the 6 months of nutritionist appts my insurance Aetna requires in January probably. That means I can't probably even think I'll get banded until June or so. We'll see.

Lining up the hoops to jump through!:bounce: I called today to get scheduled for a cardiac clearance appt and got in for Nov 28 with Dr. Chawla at Mt. Carmel West. I called today for a new psychologist and their voicemail said they are booking appts about 4-6 weeks out at this point. I'm trying for a new counselor doctor that will be near my home so I have access ongoing for counseling versus using the ones on the list Mt. Carmel sent me. Those on their list weren't on my insurance plan for behavioral health. I called the sleep doctor's office and found out that I won't have to have an appointment with him since I saw him in the last 45 days or so. So that's one clearance down! He'll just send in the report! :clap2: P.S. Thanks for helping me figure out the use of the smiley faces! It worked. Now I'll try working on the ticker.

Can someone explain what you're talking about or provide a link to the manufacturers' website or somewhere I can read about the differences in them. Got my acceptance letter to the program at Mt. Carmel Bariatric yesterday. Mailing in my $300 administrative fee they require and scheduling the various consults I have to do for insurance like psychologist, cardiac clearance, etc.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one that knowing I have to send in the administrative fee and schedule consults isn't a little scary to think -I'm really going to do this. Please keep me in prayer as I made appointments this next week and hopefully get them in by Dec 21 when I leave Ohio to go to Arizona for the holidays. My plan is to tell my brother and sisters in person over the holidays what I'm planning for 2008. I hope they will be supportive. For now, I haven't told family, just 1 close friend and of course folks on the discussion boards where I can be anonymous for a while longer. Chicken.... I'm still going to do this. I filled out their paperwork and I'm mailing it back Monday.. Hold me accountable group! By the way, I tried to put a smiley face on my one post and didn't do it right and I created a ticker factory BMI ticker but I haven't figured out how to incorporate them into my postings. So help a newbie out please.

I got the paperwork today from Mt. Carmel Bariatric program letting me know I have been accepted and the $300 administrative fee is due and they gave me the list of the consults I need. I'm going to check my health plan and see if these are on it as approved providers but it says your own doctor can recommend a different provider as long as they do a bariatric surgery evaluation. I guess I count this as Step #3 on my journey. Step #1 was getting brave enough to go to an orientation/information session by myself, Step #2 was sending in the application packet. So it was 15 working days (Oct 22-Nov 9) from the time I mailed it to them from the time they mailed the acceptance to me for those who are nterested in the future.

Do you know if I can choose a psychologist that is on my health plan and do the scheduling of this or do I have to use the one Mt. Carmel's Bariatric program uses? What is the doctor's name you've been to? As long as I complete a psychologist evaluation for having weight loss surgery and they certify I am mentally sound and okay for the surgery, is that what is needed? I recently found out my counselor I've had for 5 years+ (LISW, MASW) is no longer on my health plan to I have to change to a new person and that is an adjustment. I have a choice of psychologists with PHD instead of just LISW,MASW degrees so I don't know if this is the level of qualification that can do the psychologist eval for bariatric surgery. If so, I'd rather get on board with establishing a new counselor I trust that is close to my home rather than just close to Mt. Carmel. Thoughts?

I am not banded yet but I have been reading alot of forums and talk about what they can eat and not eat. I read several people posting and saying that White Bread in particular is difficult because there really isn't much to it and its empty calories to eat it compared to say a whole grain bread or something else. I saw several replies saying they are avoiding steak until they get well underway with the banding diet and see if they can tolerate it but if so, they said to chew, chew, chew until the steak is paste in your mouth and that with this much chewing it will take you a long time to eat a small portion. The ones I read said they had better luck with Prime Rib due to it being more tender and something like a beef stew where the meat is cooked to very tender stage with long cooking time. Some also have said they have trouble with hamburger - not sure why since its ground up but bottom line, some can eat small portions of beef as long as they chew it and eat small bites. Last, on chicken, I did see a few people posting that they had some difficulty with chicken but it was the same story as the beef - cut it into tiny pieces and chew, chew chew until you've broken it down well. Okay, I have to say I am reading what I can and can't eat post surgery because I don't want to have a post surgery let down with feeling like something was kept hidden from me on how life would be. When I checked into Gastric Bypass as a possible option a couple years ago, I was told I could NEVER have sweets ever again. If there wasn't a version with Splenda, forget it, you'd have something called 'dumping syndrome' because with how your internal organs were re-routed for the bypass, the intestines can't handle the sugar hit. Just some of what I've read. I'm not scared off at all by what I've read. I think I can live with this as long as the fill level in my band keeps me feeling satisfied and not real hungry at a small portion level.

I mailed in my paperwork Oct 22 to Charlene so let's see how many days that is now... today would be about the 15 working day ... hoping maybe I'll hear something next week. I called last Monday and left a voicemail for her that I want to know when I will hear about acceptance. I guess I'll call again this next week. I think I heard at my information session I attended that when they accept you the $300 administrative fee is due right away. And I heard there is $200 for a nutriotionist you have to pay right away. Are you saying there is also a $300-$350 for psychologist I have to pay to get that done. I guess I will pay that out of pocket and use my 2008 Flex Spend Health Care $ toward that. I'm hoping that the psychologist appt would be January 2008 as I think I'll have burned through all my 2007 Health Care Flex Spend account with the $300 + $200 but I'll have to see. I'm not too worried about a psychologist appointment as I have had counseling for my depression and if he checks with my counselor she should be able to show him I'm 'mentally stable' -- ha ha! Actually I do feel good and really positive about what I'm doing and he should sense that in the appointment. If he uses the session to try to scare me out of considering the surgery and gets me emotional, I'm not sure. Hopefully its a simple appointment. I'd be up for meeting for a coffee or salad or whatever you banded folks can tolerate in January. November and December are flying by for me and I'm real busy at work. Maybe meet at someplace like a Panera's where we can get a table and stay and talk for as long as we'd want without a restaurant shooing us out the door. Maybe at Polaris Mall area off I-71? How does that work for anyone else other than me in the north end of Columbus and the one lady in Mansfield.?

I actually heard about some books on a Bandsters group off Yahoo. First a posting on there mentioned a booklet being sold on eBay (of all places!) called The Gastric Lap Banding Diet and Recipe Book (64 pages but really big type and lots of white space on pages). Its written and published in Austrailia by Naomi Hills. Its 8x11 pages and spiral bound. Home computer printed. I'm just getting into reading it.Second, the Yahoo group Bandsters also had a couple books that could be purchased from another Austrialian website and those books were The Food and Nutrition Guide for Gastric Banding (24 pages 8x11) and a Pocket Guide for Food and Nutrition for Gastric Banding by author Trudy Williams. These are printed by Wesley Nutrition Center - not just off a home computer. I got both the books in the mail from Austrailia this week so I can tell you its legitimate to order them. Will write more about what I think of them. Funny that with the US surgeries for lap banding increasing and the requirements on diet by all the insurance plans, that there aren't books published here in the US that you can get at Barnes & Noble, Amazon or Borders. Maybe the books in Austrailia are out because the surgery was done for years outside the US before FDA approved for here in the US.

Yes, I would love to hear how your progress goes. Go Buckeyes!!

I posted my introduction information today. I live just northeast of Columbus and work downtown Columbus. Just applied to the Mt. Carmel program. Waiting for acceptance and paying my lovely administrative processing fee and nutrition fees to get the ball rolling. I've got AETNA insurance and its an 85% pay, 15% coinsurance for me after I jump through the right sequence of hoops they ask for. Definitely have a BMI and sleep apnea, pain in knees and hips, etc. so I guess they call that comorbidity things.