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I just ordered a cookbook from amazon.com with recipes for people who have had WLS. The author of the book had lapband surgery in 2003. The books title is Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery Over 140 delicious, low-fat, high Protein recipes to enjoy in the weeks, months and years after surgery. The authors are Patt Levine and Michele Bontempo-Saray. I just opened it last night and starting reading through it. She has instructions after each recipe to let you know if it is good for the liquid/pureed time frame or if it should wait until you can consume more normal foods. It also will let you know how to serve it to others who have not had lap band.

"Pumpkin pie pudding": Make SF or FF butterscotch pudding, mix in a can of spiced pumpkin and a tub of SF or FF cool whip. This may not be the exact recipe, but it is GOOD and pretty low cal. Get some carnation SF hot chocolate packets and when she brings out the hot chocolate and looks at you like poor pitiful you--say, "Oh I brought my own... just need some Water." And... as a matter of fact I just read another post where someone said their first mushy meal was blended meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy. So maybe blended prime rib, mashed potatoes and au jus??? I don't think I'm that brave, but it would be pretty funny to see the look on sis' face when you walked over to the blender and dumped it all in! Anyway... I suppose you and your sister have at some point been eating buddies?? If that's the case there is probably a part of her regretting your decision for her own selfish reason's. When I was in weight watchers they talked a lot about this issue... people don't like change and when you're the one that is changing they don't know how it will affect their life. As for why your sister was willing to embrace her daughter while she is hasseling you.... could be a couple issues or a combination of both. Her daughter needed to do this to start on a very specific path to better her life that will quite possibly have a positive affect on your sister. Also, as a mother... you hate seeing your children gain excess weight, and you always wish they would try to be healthy. My son just turned 4 years old and he went through a stage where he was getting chubby. I could feel panic set into my heart when I noticed this and I remember thinking to myself how hard it must have been for my mother to watch me get fatter and fatter and fatter as I was growing up.

So was this an extra large person... or just an extra fatty liver? When I had my consult with my surgeon he told me that he wanted me to lose 35 lbs because at the weight I was the day of the consult (354 lbs) I might be pushing the limits of the tools. Now, I know I'm super obese... but I found it hard to believe that I would need to worry about being opened up, and I have lost about 10 lbs with 2 weeks left before surgery. Does fasting or liquid diet within the few days before the surgery really help reduce the size of the liver?

Last time I lost any weight it was about 40 lbs getting me to that "skinny" weight of just over 300 lbs. I knew the people that said it to me meant it as a compliment... but I still found it extremely annoying. I am scheduled to be banded two weeks from tomorrow and you just reminded me that I am going to hear this again. I guess I will have to learn to pretend it doesn't bother me (until they start asking me if I think I'm losing too much).

As a former Customer Service Rep for a medical insurance company (not Cigna), here are my recommendations to you: Call Customer Service and ask them if you have to have the psych eval by 12/31/07 in order to be grandfathered for the surgery. If the CSR tells you that they cannot provide that information to you then ask to speak to the supervisor. Explain that you are having difficulty getting in to see a mental health provider due to the holiday's and you really need to know if you have to have this by the end of the year in order to be grandfathered. No matter who you end up talking to be sure you note the date, time, the person you spoke to and ask them if they can provide you with a tracking number that is a reference to the conversation you just had with them. You will, of course, be happy to wait for that while they track it into the system in order to provide you with that information. I'm sure not every medical insurance company uses tracking numbers... but I would bet most do. If the CSR or supervisor tells you that s/he cannot answer your question ask them who can. I'm thinking that the reason that they can't answer this question for you is because Verizon is a large group and probably makes their own benefits which Cigna probably just administers so it is going to be up to Verizon to decide how these benefits are going to read next year. If you really can't get any answers from Cigna then find out from your HR person who the medical benefits consultant is for Verizon and contact them to go over this situation, they may be able to provide you with more information then Cigna can. Be sure you get names, dates, times, what they said. Make specific notes so that once it's all said and done that they can't go back and tell you there is no record that anybody told you that. If you find out you must have the psych eval before the end of the year and your surgeons office can't tell you who to go to that can get you in before the end of the year then I would suggest asking if they can provide you with a list of questions that are commonly used in a psych evaluation. When I had my psych eval I used someone that I had been to previously and I got a copy of the psych eval that is used by the facility that I wanted to go to. It's possible you could even find the psych eval questions on-line somewhere, although I don't know this for sure. Once you have a list of general questions you will need to answer then I would take the phone book and explain the situation to every mental health provider listed in the yellow pages until I found someone that could get me in before the end of the year... one note, double check with your insurer if they have to have a specific degree (psychologist or psychiatrist or any mental health counselor). I cannot imagine that if you have already started this process, and they have said you can be grandfathered, that they wouldn't grandfather you just because you couldn't get in to have your psych eval before the end of the year.... but you never know. Best of luck to you!

PB = Productive Burp = your food coming back up when you burp.

My mistake... somewhere I managed to think you were self pay for the original surgery-I just reread your original post and am not sure where I got that idea. But if your insurance company covered the original surgery then you're right-they should cover complications if you're on the same plan. I do think it's important for people to realize that if they are actually self pay and they have complications then their health plan will most likely not cover treatment of complications related to the original WLS. But I do apologize for adding any unnecessary stress to you! I'm glad you're feeling better!

I have been overweight all of my life. I was a fat kid before there were fat kids. Starting at age 6 I really started to put on the pounds and that didn't stop for years. As an adult I have gone through a ton of counseling and have found that my weight has stayed right around 350 for the last 5-10 years and every time I go on a diet I end up right back at this weight. So I actually have a couple of questions. 1) I'd like to hear from people who have been fat all their life that have been banded to see if their results are any different than those of people who got fat during their adult years. 2) I'm hoping the fact that my weight has been steady for the last several years is a sign that I'm not doing too much emotional eating, and wondering if that fact is going to increase the chances that I will be successful after my surgery which is scheduled for Jan. 3rd.

Most medical plans that don't cover obesity treatment don't cover any complications following obesity treatment. I'm surprised that the doctor's office told you that it should be covered. Maybe they know something about your plan that isn't typical to other medical plans. I wish you luck on getting coverage through your health plan, but don't be too surprised if it's not covered. And if you need to know for sure before you decide for sure you're having this done, I'd certainly suggest calling your health plans Customer Service to find out.

I was thinking about trying was the chocolate unjury mixed with some coffee and milk over ice to make an iced mocha... has anybody tried that? If so, what did you think?

I tried the unflavored first in some cranberry/raspberry juice and I personally don't think it added any flavor, but I agree with the person that mentioned that it smells bad. Actually, I think all of them do if a line of it stays at the top (you know how that happens when you mix powder into liquid). I tried the chicken flavor and it wasn't fabulous, but I think it was just as good as any broth and has quite a bit of Protein. I put the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry sorbet in milk (at different times of course) and the chocolate was the only one that I thought, "This is really good." I got the 5 lb container of vanilla Body Fortress at WalMart for about $36 and it is pretty good. Originally I mixed 2 scoops with 2 cups of 1% milk to replace Breakfast and the only thing I didn't like about it was that I couldn't get all the lumps out. This morning for the first time I started with 1 cup of luke warm Water, put the 2 scoops in and mixed it up well and then added 1 cup of 1%. It was still good and NO LUMPS!!! It kind of has a coconutty taste to it. I plan to get more of the unjury and now that I see that amazon has belgium chocolate (from the earlier posting) I'm going to check that out too!

I am just getting ready to :rainbow::rainbow:start my journey, and these same thoughts have run through my mind. What if I like the attention that other guys give me? What if I have the opportunity to find something better? But the truth is that my husband has loved me through thick and thicker. The first time he met me I weighed nearly 380 lbs. We started dating when I was at my "low weight" of 304. Where were the other guys? My husband has looked at me with those "come hither" eyes when I was looking at myself and thinking "yuck!" Most days he does things that annoy me, and occassionally that makes me wonder what other opportunities will be out there, but then I think about the fact that he loved and accepted me, and has been attracted to me when other men would let a door swing shut in my face. What if I do lose weight, jeopardize my relationship with my spouse for someone that became interested in my at a "normal" weight... then heaven forbid I gain all this weight back again. The man who wouldn't look at me while I was this way before isn't going to be too interested in me if I go back to that. I am lucky for what I have and I hope that I never lose sight of that no matter how "smokin" I get!

I just found the following report on line....it doesn't totally answer the question, but it does in part: Lap Band Surgery: Pregnancy Of the 678 potential fertile women (age 18-51), 21 completed 25 pregnancies as of July 2002. Two pregnancies occurred after tubal ligation: one ectopic pregnancy and one producing a full-term infant. Three women had first-trimester miscarriages, and two had elective abortions. None had complications related to obesity. There were no reports of diabetes, hypertension, neural tube defects, or eclampsia. Among 18 deliveries, 15 were vaginal and four were caesarean (one urgent for decreased fetal heart rate, three for cephalopelvic disproportion, and one repeat caesarean for twins). All pregnancies were full-term, and all fetal weights were normal. The mean birth-weight was 3,680 g (range 2,385–3,989 g). Three women had two pregnancies each during the study. Eight women had their first pregnancies, although all women had previously tried to conceive at heavier weights. These eight women lost between 12.4 and 48.4 kg (mean 28.6 kg) over 6 months to 2.5 years before becoming pregnant. Eight women gained approximately twice the weight that is recommended for women of normal weight during their pregnancies. Patients with the most weight gain (one case with 46 kg) had no Fluid in their adjustable bands during pregnancy, and therefore no restriction of their food intake. Only two women required removal of fluid from the band for nausea and vomiting (one had a spontaneous abortion). The other 16 women who kept the diameters of their bands constant during gestation had 2.5 to 3.2 ml in their bands, resulting in three women losing weight (1.2 7.6 kg) and nine gaining weight (3.2-46.0 kg) during their pregnancies. Adjustment of bands consistently relieved nausea and vomiting when they became medical concerns. The changes in body weight during pregnancy and 6 months after were excluded from EWL and BMI evaluations for the laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) series.

I was pre-diabetic at the time I became pregnant with my son. I was almost immediately diagnosed with gestational diabetes which I had to give myself insulin injections for throughout the majority of my pregnancy. By the time my husband and I have decided that we're ready to have #2, I should be well on my way to a healthier weight... so, is there anybody out there that experienced gestational diabetes prior to banding that has had a post banding pregnancy that can tell me how that pregnancy went?

I agree it was the hot tea. I also haven't been banded yet, but my friend had problems eating in the mornings and Jessie Ahrons (or something like that) that wrote one of the books on lap band did a fill on her one day and she suggested that she start out her day be drinking something hot... coffee, tea... whatever because that will loosen things up.

I think it's extremely important that you seek counseling from a mental health professional. I would say that most people that are/have been morbidly obese are dealing with an addiction. With your sudden decision you may not have taken the time to realize just how much you have used food to avoid feeling other things... now here you are with no way to "fill the void" and also lacking the knowledge of how to properly deal with your new band.... it's no wonder you are feeling depressed. If you are having trouble getting answers from the doctor who did your surgery there is a link on this site where people discuss food and if you go to amazon.com do a search under books and then type in "lap band" there are books about gastric banding and also a recipe book. Now that I have thought about it I think I will get a couple of these books as well. Hang in there

My husband and I were hanging out with my friend who had just gotten her lap band a couple months earlier (and her husband). She had also been told not to drink carbonated drinks because they could stretch out the pouch. So we're sitting there playing a game and she was drinking this alcoholic beverage that her husband had gotten for her because he thought it wasn't carbonated. Well, it was. She let it sit for a while hoping the carbonation would go out of it and she finally started to drink it pretty slowly. All of a sudden she let out one of the loudest belches I have ever heard in my life... everybody in the room stopped to look at her. After it was over she said she was looking around to see who had done that because she hadn't even felt it come up and had no idea it was her. It was FUNNY! So, cheap entertainment (not)... probably not worth the risk of stretching out the pouch. But I won't forget it any time soon!

A friend of mine was having issue's with losing, went in for a fill and ended up speaking to the nurse that "wrote the book" on lapband-literally. I don't know her name. Anyway, she suggested my friend have a simple xray done to see if her band had slipped or if her pouch had expanded. Both may cause little or no weight loss. She had the xray and found the band had not slipped so they took all the fluid out of her band and allowed her stomach to shrink under the band for a period of two weeks and then started putting fluid back in. She started losing weight again after the process. Just something to keep in mind.

I wasn't approved due to credit issues, but you can apply at Plastic Surgery financing & Cosmetic Surgery Financing Nationwide. It was a very simple process to apply, you can do it on line in just a few minutes. Then they will contact you within the following days to let you know if you can be approved based on your own information or will offer to re-run your application if you can provide a co-signer who would be qualified. My friend got this information from a reputable LapBand clinic in the area where we live. They provide loans for all medical services-not just weight loss surgery. As for the coverage through your medical insurance.... it sounded like you had already been told that your plan doesn't cover it. If you have a benefit booklet you should look through the list of plan exclusions, or call Customer Service and they can tell you. If your plan excludes obesity treatment then regardless of medical necessity you will most likely not be approved. I worked in Customer Service for a BCBS plan for years and I was the one struggling with obesity myself having to tell people that it wouldn't be covered when they called crying... that was always hard. Only in the most extreme cases did I ever see them approve the surgery outside of the contract. Also, just because you're dealing with a BCBS plan doesn't mean that it will be covered because others are telling you that it was for them. These are independent licensee's of the BCBS Association and they all have their own rules, often times based on mandates required by the state where they are located. One thing you might consider is finding out which employers in your area cover bariatric surgery through their medical plan and seek employment with them... these will be larger groups that make their own medical benefits. Also, it seems like more and more insurance carriers are choosing not to flat out exclude obesity treatment, so you might also check around with insurance carriers, call customer service and ask if, as a general rule, their community groups and individual plans exclude obesity treatment.... if they don't exclude you could look into getting individual coverage or see if you could find an employer insured with them to work for. Be careful of waiting periods for pre-existing conditions.... and there will almost certainly be some requirements for proving you are worthy of getting coverage for the surgery. If you are with BCBS and you do get approved there is a chance that they will require you to go with a Blue Distinction provider. You can find out who the Blue Distinction providers in your area are by going to Blue Cross Blue Shield Association - Better knowledge for healthier lives. My own surgery is scheduled for Jan. 3, 2008. My employer covers it after proving medical necessity, but unfortunately the benefit is 50%. In my area it is pretty typical for the surgery to run around $16,000 and I had to do a lot of work on my credit before I could get the financing for the $8000 that I will have to pay. You might want to start on that first if you are going to try to get financing. Check out your credit report if you haven't already and make sure there aren't any surprises on there and make sure anything unpaid gets paid if possible. That will only be to your benefit. I was declined by surgery loans, and Wells Fargo before finally getting my credit report cleaned up and getting approved the middle of October (I started the process in July). I wish you luck!

I am finally scheduled. January 3rd is my day... my New Years resolution should finally come true. My BMI is just under 60 and my doctor has told me that he would like me to lose 35 lbs prior to surgery because there's always a risk with someone my size that he will have to convert to an open procedure once he's in there. I know I'm "super-obese" but I also know I can't be the largest person they've ever done surgery on and I know the incidence of having the surgery convert to open is pretty small. Have any of you, or anybody you know had to be opened up unexpectedly once the surgery got started and can you comment on the difference in the healing process. Just wondering what my chances really are of having to be opened up and what it will be like once it's done. Also.... any tips for pre-op diet to help get closer to the 35 lb loss? I am down 10 lbs now and have 1 month to go.