Wheetsin

Call the hospital you will be going to and ask them.

My parents have TriCare Standard (I think...) and have submitted their paperwork to the surgeon. They should hear something in about 3 weeks, given the office's current load.

I did not, but it is possible.

I hate WW. I think it works most for people who are emotionally needy and afraid of failing, hence the group meetings where people will stay on track because 1) they're afraid to be the one who doesn't lose weight and 2) they can get "support".

Most sites I use have DH/DW/SO. SO can mean a same-sex partner, or it can just mean a significant other, e.g. a boyfriend/girlfriend, fiancee, etc. It's not like anyone has been intentionally excluded from the world wide web abbreviations list. :wink2:

When you go to a primary care physician, they weigh you, check your BP, temp, etc. and record it in your paperwork. If your provider just wants to see a history of obesity, copies of your records should show it.

bandster Hell is different for different people. I've seen people say that having to eat cold Soup is Bandster Hell. I never had Bandster Hell in the classic sense because except for one day, I was never hungry post-op. So for me, Bandster Hell is when I'd doubled over the sink praying my stick will come unstuck. :biggrin:

We can't really tell you why you always feel hungry. Maybe you're one of the ones who will need a fill in excess of the base volume. Maybe your band has slipped. Maybe you're eating foods that go right through vs. hard proteins/solids. Who knows? I have a 4.0 band and have ben sitting at 3.25 for about 8 months now. I have lost about 160 +/- 10 lbs. I stopped feeling hungry on the last day of my pre-op diet, except for a handful of times I've felt hungry in the (almost) 2 years since.

I never regained true or hunger or my appetite post-op. I'm almost 2 years out and can count on one hand the number of times I've been truly hungry. Don't worry about what you're eating (withins urgeon's guidelines, of course) so much as healing right now. There's no reason you have to have different types of mushies. Most people just find they like the variety.

No amount of exercise, or OTC product, is going to help skin that has been signififanctly stretched for a significant period of time. Most people who report that exercise helped are seeing improvement, but what happens is that the muscle under the skin bulks up and occupies more of the loose skin. I have lost weight disproportionately, much quicker on top than lower body. My stomach skin, arm skin, thigh skin, and "side boob" skin is a mess and will either stay that way or need to be surgically removed. Sorry for the poor quality, the orginal is tiny so I blew it up a bit.

He was an awesome actor. From what I read, he died of an OD on prescription medication. But you know how these things flip-flop.

Oh Lisah25's back!!! :biggrin: I don't say this lightly, but anyone who refers to lapbanders collectively as cheaters, or even as "taking the easy way out" is an idiot. Period. There isn't even any debating that one, because it's someone yapping out of their pie holes without having a clue what they're talking about, and if you aren't informed on something, you should probably keep your mouth shut about it. Once after a fill that sent me over the edge, I spent 8 hours unable to pass my own saliva. I had to ask a girl at work I didn't know that well for a ride to my surgeon's office. En route, she could not go more than about 4 minutes without having to pull over so I could yak out the door. Thank goodness she was not a sympathy puker. I had been in severe pain the entire time, and had pretty much yakked myself to exhaustion. A surgeon without band experience had to do my unfill, which took between 10 - 15 minutes, left me significantly bruised and, for about 4 days after, feeling like someone had punted me in the got with a steel-toed boot. I would LOVE to find ANYONE willing to look me in the eye and tell me that was cheating, or "the easy way out." Just one person. Is weightloss less valid because you achieve it with surgical or manual assistance? Do you have to sweat off every calorie at the gym, or eat only lettuce, for it to mean something? What's valid and what is not? At what point does the fact that you lost weight outweigh the means you took to get it? About 10 years ago there was a lady on TV who lost something like 200 lbs on a strict diet of popcorn and Bud Light. Is her loss more valid than ours? This whole idea is preposterous.

Biotin does not prevent hairloss. If it did, we wouldn't have any bald people, and expensive products like Rogaine, and hair Clubs for Men, and wigs, and surgical treatments for hairloss, and... Have you been tested to show a Biotin deficiency? If you have a biotin deficiency, you will lose hair. Period. Not just the hair on your head. Eyelashes, eyebrows, arm hair, etc. Taking biotin only increases the amount of biotin in your system, and that will only have a significant impact on hairloss (ALL hair) if you are counteracting a deficiency. As of about 4 months ago, there was never a single study ever that showed an improvement of hairloss by taking Biotin in people that did not have Biotin deficiences (I spent some time aiding a Band practice and did a TON of research on this for part of the information packet and SG presentations). You've been banded about 6 months, and average about 700 calories. If your ticker is accurate, you still have a good supply of fat reserves. I don't see where your calorie count is going to be the issue, as long as you're getting healthy calories. *Many* people maintain 600 - 800 calories to achieve their weightloss, and only up it to maintain. For a good year or so, I averaged liberally below 800 calories. I believe Wasa averaged about 600 during the year she was in weightloss mode. Every doctor I spoke with, including my surgeon, PCP, three close personal friends who are doctors, etc. all felt this was fine as long as they calories I did eat weren't crap, and as long as the fat was there to breakdown and supplement. And as long as I promised to hit a minimum Water intake of 64 oz + 8oz for every 10 lbs of excess fat (guideline that stems from old Atkins research), which I usually did, but not always. Have you gone to your doctor and had her test you? Labs can show (common) deficiences. If you have a, or a few deficiences, you need to know exactly what they are and not just start popping supplements... that can be very bad for you. (People think they're harmless, so not true.) If you search here and read through the hairloss threads (tons of them), the one thing you will find repeated by seasoned bandsters is that it's a waiting game. The hairloss starts, persists sometimes for 4-6+ months (about a year was the worst I remember), and then almost overnight it stops. There is no one product that consistently shows results. "Oh, I prayed to the great god Suave and didn't lose a single strand!" Umm... good, and maybe you're one of the lucky ones for whom surgery does not result in hairloss... doesn't have anything to do with the great god Suave. By the way, IF you have a Biotin deficiency, which you probably don't, and IF taking Biotin helps with your all-over-the-body hairloss, it really is going to help all over the body. In other words, not only will your eyebrows, eyelashes, and arm hair grow, but so will ALL hair.

We've had a few troll efforts (I could count them on both hands) in the time I've been here. I don't think many aren't able to recognixe them for what they are, especially when it's post #3 or something like that. Sometimes we bite, knowing they're trolls, because sometimes it can still make for a fun discussion.

We've had a few troll efforts (I could count them on both hands) in the time I've been here. I don't think many aren't able to recognize them for what they are. If you can't, post count is usually a dead giveaway. Sometimes we bite, knowing they're trolls, because it can still make for a fun discussion. :biggrin:

In the FAQ section there is a thread that lists abbreviations, initialisms, etc. Abbreviations and What They Mean

Some Dr offices won't make medical record copies for other doctors. They will give you access (they have to), but will not reproduce. Faith's advice is spot-on. Request a copy FOR YOURSELF of your records, or go there and request they be released to the WLS office. If they will copy, fine, if not, deliver your own copy. If it's something you want, never let "when we get to it" get in the way when you can take the matter into your own hands. Most preliminary bloodwork (in fact, all - I think) is fasting. That's standard. The pre-op blood work doesn't need to be fasting, usually. High cholesterol can qualify as a comorbidity, but whether or not it makes you "more qualified" depends on your insurance company (e.g., comorbs weren't required for my approval, so it wouldn't have mattered for me).

Took me about 3 weeks from submission to receiving the pre-approval letter.

I made some edamame hummus this weekend. MmMMmmmmmMmmMMMMMMmmMMMMMmmmmmmmm. Of course, it's not "hummus," but it was good.

Oh, gurgling. That happens, especially when you're not that far out. Mine have pretty much gone away except for when I'm stuck. I would suggest paying attention to how it works at different times of the day. Me - for example - I'm just darn tight in the early day, that's my "sweet spot" so I've learned to avoid most solids until early evening. If you can get down liquids without a problem or discomfort, "too tight" doesn't come straight to mind... I would tend to think it's more a matter of eating behavior or learning your own restriction patterns. Maybe try starting off with some hot soup, and then see if you can do a single bite of something solid. Make it a very small bite, make sure it's chewed thoroughly. Wait 5 minutes. If that bite still feels ok, try another.

Oh another tip - use your night-time drops! And if you wake up in the middle of the night, put more drops in before you go to sleep. My husband's doctor insisted on preservative-free drops, and thicker gel drops for night-time. Both gave him so much relief in the first few days. A few times at night our dog woke him up to make a potty, and hubby went back to sleep without reapplying the drops. Both times when he woke up he had noticeable blurriness that lasted about 2 weeks. His doc likened this to putting a coat of varnish on some wood, and then stipling it with a brush before it was dry. Over the course of about 2 weeks his vision cleared, as his doc told him it would, but those 2 weeks had to have been sucky for him. So anyone looking into this, O.D. on the drops! The light halo effect is interesting. It's something that most of us "nromal sighted" people see to some degree most of the time, but people with glasses don't because of the the refraction from the glass lenses. He kept describing this halo he was seeing, and wouldn't believe me when I told him that I saw it too.

I miss some of the older people, and I don't miss others. I do wish Lisa would show back up again. (And others, of course, but her name comes to mind). She was always a very rational voice.

Hard to tell. How big of bites are you taking, what are you eating, and how much are you eating in what amount of time? If two bites is too much, what happens after one bite? Do you feel anything when you eat non-solids, or does it go right through? Etc.

How quickly are you currently losing weight, how many calories are you eating, and where are they coming from, what's your fluid intake, etc?

Now that's an interesting first post... My husband had LASIK in November. He swears it's the best check he ever wrote.