travel_anna

Gibson - CONGRATULATIONS!!! YEA!!! YEA!!! It feel great to get approved - I remember that! Mac the Knife - It took me only 4 months from my initial appointment to surgery, and I could have done it in 3 if my own schedule hadn't gotten in the way. For me, insurance usually requires 6 months of physician supervised diets (monthly visits, 30 days apart), but since I had done Jenny Craig last year for 7 months, they were willing to count it. Otherwise, I too, would have had to wait for 6 months. Anna

Gibson - No such thing as an ugly February bandster! Anna

Love the name victorious valentines! Hope it gets added to the final vote.

Oh yes - and as for a center of Excellence. My insurance (BCBS) listed all of the big programs in the twin cities as centers of excellence and would only pay for my surgery if it was done at one of these centers: Park Nicollet, HCMC, The U, Abbott and Unity. My understanding is that you have to show a certain number of procedures and a certain low percentage rate of complications to get the distinction. Anna

Hi everyone - I am going with Dr. Weatherille at Park Nicollet - my date is scheduled for 2/14/08. I chose that clinic and him as the surgeon because he is doing all the banding for that group and has had a lot of experience with it. He doesn't push towards RNY the way other groups do, and truely believes in the band (fewer short and long term side effects). I've been very pleased by the whole process and they are very organized. If you check out the Minnesota section there are several other people who have just gotten banded by Dr. Weatherille or who will be banded in the next couple of weeks. Good luck with your decisions! Anna

Jfran - I know how much work that can be as a heavier person. At my pre-op visit with the surgeon, I had to crawl in the passenger side and across and I literally had to put the seats down in order to struggle through. Congrats on such a huge NSV - hopefully, I'll be able to do it easily in the future too. Anna

Hope the pre-op diet keeps going well. I meet with the nutritionist on 1/29 to get started! Good luck and I'll be thinking of you in the upcoming weeks when you have surgery! Anna

CONGRATULATION! I remember the day I got my approval - nothing beats that!!! Anna

Hi everyone! It is so good to see more and more faces on here! Coolcrystal and MirandaK - good luck with getting a February date! Anna

Hi Pizzicato66 - Like Crystal, I will be banded by Dr. Weatherille, just a little later on Feb 13th. Looks like you have had great success - congrats! That give me hope that I can succeed too! Crystal - I don't know if you've met Dr. Weatherille yet, but I did meet him at one of my pre-op appointments. I thought he was great - honest and straightforward. Anna

Hi everyone! I've just found this Minnesota thread - how exciting. I'm being banded on Feb 13th in St. Louis Park with Dr. Weatherille. I've been thinking about having this done for so long now (3 years), that I can''t believe I am actually going to do it. I have BCBS as my insurance and it also required a 6 month supervised diet. I got lucky though because my aunt convinced me to do Jenny Craig last year. I did it for 8 month, losing a whopping 20 lbs (nothing, considering I need to get rid of nearly 100lbs). BCBS counted Jenny Craig as my 6 months of supervised diets. If you've done anything like that (WW, JC, LA Weight Loss, etc), send the records to the insurance company and they may count it. Good luck to everyone! Anna

Congratulations! I know that I can't wait to finally be able to shop at a store other than Lane Bryant of Target (plus size)! And LOL - I'd never heard/seen it called Lame Giant - I like that! Anna

Ok. Slightly larger pics than I wanted, even though I sent them out as "smallest, lowest quality". Sorry - it is a little discerning to see my picture up there so large... Anna

Hi everyone - I thought it would be nice to put faces to names and get some pre-op pictures on here. To start us off, here is one taken of me around Thanksgiving and one biking this past summer! Since I've never posted any pictures, I hope this comes out. Anna

Crystal - I will also be banded by Dr. Weatherille in St. Louis Park. How cool to have someone else on the site that is going to be going through the same process, at the same time. I can't wait to see how we both do after getting the band! Anna

Bandster.................... Name (Optional)................... Surgery Date ______________________________________________________ TachaBaby505..................Natacha................................09 January 2008 crystalcml.......................Crystal..................................28 January 2008 Sadie.............................Sarah.....................................2 February 2008 Big marathoner................Amy......................................5 February TinaBobina......................Tina......................................11 February 2008 LilMissBand-Aid................Irene....................................11 February 2008 Mac the Knife...................Mac.....................................13 February 2008 travel_anna.....................Anna....................................13 February 2008 Amieru...........................Amie....................................26 February 2008