Athey

Hey all - I'm not banded nor am I getting banded. My husband is. He's getting his done on the 31st and he's a mess of stress. He got the idea to go after the lap band during the end of the summer when we visited his family and his Aunt and Uncle who both got lapbands about a year ago. His Aunt used to be HUGE and she looks so good now and I think that got him really excited so he went for it. Now that it's actually coming to do it he's really scared shitless. He mostly seems to have this huge irrational fear that he's gonna die in surgery. It's not even the life altering changes to eating habits, but the surgery itself. It's hard for me to comfort him because I just don't get it. I've had SO many surgeries in my life and all my family has been the same, that surgery is just like 'Eh - big deal' to me. I had pancreatitis and had my gal bladder removed about a year and a half ago, and I think that's a pretty serious thing to go through and it STILL didn't bother me. Hell, it was a relief! No more freaking gal stones. I was GLAD to finally go into surgery. So I just keep telling him "You're not going to die in surgery" and he's like "I know, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm scared"..... So what can I do?!? So what's your advice? Anything that you wish someone had said to you before you were banded? Something that would have made you feel better? Anything? TIA

My MIL has BCBS of IL and she's been trying to get approval for a band for almost a year with no luck. They just keep sending her in circles. Totally giving her the run-around. She's got diabetes and loads of other health problems that would all be solved by getting banded, and they still won't do it. My DH is getting banded in a few days and when he decided to go for it and went to the doc, we got approval from our insurance (BCBS of CA) really quickly. It's amazing how different insurance companies can be - even blue cross from diff states.