Wheetsin

Exactly! :huh2: (emphasis mine)

Oh, that's a nice thing to say to someone! That's like, "Well honey, not everyone can be pretty because someone has to stay at the bar to watch the pretty girls' purses!" :huh2: See, this is where I'd have to say I was there because it was required for my degree/the only open section/etc. And that she can tell me as much as she wants that the learning is what matters, but is she willing to convince my benefits department that handles tuition reimbursement the same thing?? Ay yay yay.

Ok ok, smack me like a rubdown whore, but I have to be Devil's Advocate (I'm an atheist, right?) In my first week I lost more than 20 lbs. BUT I was fully aware that at least half of that was hydration. And I started near 400 lbs. Even if I carried my weight well, NO ONE carries 210 well! Look, I carry it well... in my wrists! They're borderline dainty! And my surgeon noted it was one of the highest 1-week losses he'd ever seen... so yeah, it's not your everyday thing.

My surgeon is a general laparoscopic surgeon. He does lots of laparoscopic procedures. In fact, when I needed by gallbladder out last year, he did that surgery too. It was neat - he already knew the band was there, knew exactly what to expect from it, and even gave it a looksie while he was in there cutting out my GB. Nothing about him not being dedicated to WLS bothers me. He's done tons of WLS surgeries (I think between 2k and 3k) and has the additional experience of generic laparoscopy. I see that as a win-win. I loved that my band doc could do my GB doc, took the care to reuse the incisions as much as possible, knew and understood what he was going to see with the band there, etc.

A friend at work wears Apple Bottoms pretty exclusively. She's not fat, but she's very curvy - tiny waist, large hips & butt, etc. They're really, really cute, and cute on (her) too. She told me to get some, but I don't know... I'm more "delfating saddle bags and flat butt minus the butt shelf".

It will depend on your specific plan. UHC doesn't just have one insurance plan, that have many many many. My employer alone offers something like 9 different choices (that's just the UHC choices), and so far several of our choices had big differences in what's required. In fact, several others in my building also with UHC (different plans than I have) don't have coverage for the surgery at all. In other words, there's a chance some of the people saying "I didn't have a problem" also didn't have the 5yr requirement in their plan. I know I didn't. So -- unless you find someone here with your exact plan, etc. -- take it with a grain of salt. You should call your rep and ask them if there's any way to waive the 5yrs MO requirement - e.g. sometimes in lieu of a higher BMI, they will allow more comorbidities. That way you'll know for sure and won't have any upsets/surprises. With insurance, you need to really understand what your options are, what to expect, and most of all - don't be afraid to really advocate for yourself. Including finding out what your waive options might be.

An employer exclusion is when the employer opts out of certain coverages to reduce the overall cost of providing insurance to its employees. When you're facing an employer exclusion, AFAIK, the only real course of action you have is to ask your employer to add the piece it excluded. Not many employers are willing to take on the extra costs (can be significant) because one person wants something done. So my personal suggestion if you're going to go this route is to work with peers who also have interest, do the math, and show them some ROI numbers. I can't say it will have any success, I've never seen anyone come out with good news, but at least it's a smarter way to approach it than, "because I want it." :thumbup: Do have her check where the exclusion is. Because your UHC plan covered the lap-band doesn't necessarily mean all UHC plans will. Even within my own work building, carrier covered my band under my plan, but others with the same carrier, different plan, are not covered. I've only seen one person ever claim success and they worked for a small company and knew the owner and had them pull some strings or something like that. *shrug* Supp plan for lap-band, I don't know enough to say yes or no, but I would guess not very likely. Especially when you're MO, supp plans are VERY hard and can be VERY expensive to get. LMK if I can guess at answers to any other questions. :tt2:

OMFG that's sick. My pudgy lap dog weighs 13 lbs. I can't imagine that 10 lbs on a 4 y/o covers much more than the weight of the bones. (I didn't read the article)

Yeah and I've totally turned into her. I'm just amazed at the lack of respect people have for your property, you know? When we built our house we had like 3 neighbors, no other houses built in our plat yet. I got kinda spoiled. One morning we got new neighbors, and I happened to be looking out the window when she walked by with her dog, let her dog walk up into our yard, and take a dump on a stepping stone trail we had put in. (And this wasn't the first time I'd watched her do this, or said something). So I opened the window and asked her to please not let her dog shit in our yard. She was like Oh I was gonna pick it up. I'm like -- ok, good to know, but like I said, please don't walk your dog into our landscaping for his bowel movement, mmmmk? We've been looking at moving, especially now that I'm knocked up. Somehow the 2 of us outgrew a 3 bed/2.5 ba. Shite like this makes me that much more eager to get away, even though I know it doesn't necessarily solve any problems.

I took the day off today, went to leave this a.m. for an appointment, and my driveway was blocked. I was already running late. Four cars, all empty, the parents outside talking to the kids. I asked one o the ones holding car keys to move her car and she told me In a minute, the bus gets here any time now. Needless to say, I didn't let that fly, and I'm sure we'll come home to retalliation one of these days. But I did make a follow-up call to the school. Spoke with a different lady who seemed much less concerned than the first. We'll see, I have no problems with being the squeaky wheel. BTW, we're in a fairly nice neighborhood. Your typical city limit subdivision. It's an area thatI consider a great single income housing area. When we built our house, DH made roughly half what he does now and I made roughly 1/3, and we easily qualified for our mortgage, so we're not talking about a neighborhood that has any business holding its nose up in the air... but it thinks it does, if that makes any sense.

I did not have that problem, but as crazy as it sounds, your story is far from the first time I've heard it. I've never heard of someone getting it overturned. There's really nothing to overturn. Either they cover it, or they don't. I *think* (it has been at least 6 - 8 months since I've seen something come up on the topic) most people considered themselves lucky to have the bulk of the costs covered, and decided the fills were a reasonable cost to assume (not saying this is what you should do, just the outcome I remember most clearly). Also, check with your surgeon. Mine, and many I've heard of, include fills for a set amount of time... usually a year (if they do it). So OOP costs might not begin until 12 mos post-op. Mine were free for a year, and after that my co-pay kicked in. ETA: try searching for related keywords. I *know* this has come up before, and should still be here somehwere.

We're aware of it but can't do anything ourselves. We'll have to be patient and wait for Alex or one of the other powers that be to pop in.

I'm lucky (I guess...) in that I don't have any food intolerances as of yet. I can eat pizza, but whereas I used to love me a slice of hand-tossed bready goodness, I now prefer as thin/crispy of a crust as I can get. This is because I know I'm going to be full in very few bites, and the topping has always been the better half to me. Usually I eat the topping off, and if I'm still hungry I will nibble on the crust but usually have to put some parmesan & salt on it or something. I've become much bigger on textures, and the texture is just kind of... wet mush. ETA: Uno's is an exception, of course. Their cust could be a meal in itself, entree and dessert. It's so good!

Wait a minute, that's not what I said. I was trying to help you with info, but you need to not get completely discouraged by something I didn't even say. I'm not even qualified to begin making a ruling on something like that, and wouldn't presume to do so. What I said was (abbreviated): I believe my surgeon's cut-off is 60, and that's the cut-off I've most often heard. That's not to say they will never do the surgery, I'm sure there have been exceptions. And the BMI AFAIK is a guideline for lap procedures - it may not apply to open. And I'm sure they've found ways to work with people to help get their BMI to a safer range.

To play devil's advocate, it could have been a retarded comment from a lame person just trying to point out that miscarriages do frequently happen. *shrug* On the other hand, if he or she ever does relate it concretely to you being overweight, go right to your HR department and do not compromise.

With my surgeon, anyone can come to the seminar. No referral needed, but you do have to sign up to come. You can bring guests. My parents are working on getting banded. They had their info seminar - no cost, no obligation. They've even started their pre-op work (I advised them to wait until they had insurance approval but they decided against). IIRC, the first time there's a charge is during the consultation. The second time there's a charge is when I paid the $20 copay for the surgery to the hospital. Keep in mind tho, that's how *my* insurance did it... I can speak for anyone else's. Best of luck. And just be sure to ask up-front about fees. I've read some horrible stories about people getting just shy of surgery, then being charged excessive fees they hadn't planned on, and that aren't covered by insurance.

Celebrating Cs is a nice idea - I mean C is "average" and even though no one wants to think of their kids as average, most of them are - at least academically. I don't know if it's the same there, but here in the states Cs are hard to be happy about because most colleges require above a 2.0 for entrance, unless you're focusing on community colleges. And even then, I'm not sure any take students with below 2.0. I think falling below 2.0 is actually grounds for academic suspension in most schools. Average new admission GPAs are around 3.7. We have standardized testing that also impacts admissions, but there are many, many colleges that will not accept someone with a GPA below a certain limit (when I was looking at colleges it was 2.5 for absolute bare bottom). My primary undergraduate college was not a "good college." I believe our requirements were 2.5 and minimum of 18 or 20 on the ACT. So to get in to that mediocre school, a straight C wouldn't have cut it except for some type of exception which would probably have included a student being admitted on academic probation. The kicker is -- with our economy and market, with the exception of trade schools and the like, bachelor's degrees are really more of a bare minimum anymore, instead of the great qualifier they used to be. More and more employers expect graduate+ degrees.

yeah that's a screwy philosophy. If everyone can improve, we wouldn't have "A" in our grading scale. I've seen the same thing at work. "If you're a 5, you're cheating the company. The best anyone can be is a 4." ut 5 is formally part of our review system, so all you've done is killed our ambition to fight that much harder to get the 5.... dumbass.

Teachers should use a grading rubric for assignments, and it should include all grade or point levels. Have you been given something like that? If not, or if the teacher has made it clear that they simply do not give "A"s, then I would escalate the issue. GPAs do matter, especially in undergraduate studies. And in gradaute, if it's not a B or higher, you've failed the class.

Generally info seminars are "free to the public"... think of them as tactics to draw in business. No medical clearance needed since nothing is being billed to your insurance. You can gather info on the surgeon, the procedure, etc. Usually you'll also get a packet to fill out, which is the first step in the proverbial journey. That's where you'll list your insurance information, and what the office will use to begin the process. But whether or not you complete/submit the paperwork, or when, is up to you. (There are differences in how it's done, but I think this is a generic "what to expect")

If I bring lunch, and it's not left overs from whatever I cooked the night before, then it's something like pepperoni chips, <meat>salad (tuna, chicken, turkey, etc.), hummus/pita, cottage cheese, etc. If I eat lunch out then it's usually an organic soup, or maybe a baked potato. Lunch is a difficult meal for me so I try to keep it to things that don't cause me much trouble, in lieu of not eating anything.

RNY = Roux en Y, another type of weightloss surgery. (Google can shed more info, I'm too lazy to type it out here)

You probably PBed. When I first read your post it sounded like you choked on the food though (stuck in throat, couldn't breathe)... so gauge what is was you felt. Chewing is just part of the equation. There's also the quantity you're swallowing at once, how much total volume you're eating, potential intolerances, how quicky you're eating, etc. If you're PBing - which is not an accurate term, I know - but not choking and not vomitting, and not too tight, and not having intolerances, then it really is just a learning game.

I lost weight between when I had the confirmation test and my first OB appt. They told me they were not worried about it -- that I still had "plenty of reserves" (I have about 45 lbs left to lose). I'm not trying to lose weight, I just really don't have any appetite, and for about a week and a half I was super super tight. We had not used birth control for about 5 years, no pregnancies. I was banded about 2 years ago and we had to use condoms and ovulation tracking (I can't use hormone-based BC). For the last year or two we would try for a month or two, then something would come up and we wouldn't, then we would, then we wouldn't... We probably actually tried hard - doing everything we could think of, being very mechanical about sex, etc. - for about 4 months (not consecutive). My surgeon's guidelines are -- if morning sickness isn't an issue (I've not had the slightest hitn of it), and you're able to meet some caloric guideline set by your OB (they didn't give me a calorie number, but aren't concerned at all that I lost), then you can keep your current fill.

I gave up carbonation long before my surgery, but in addition to the "stretch the pouch" idea (I don't know, that's another one that doesn't make any sense to me), sodas are empty calories and several people find the carbonation/gas uncomfortable. Having been away from sodas for a long time, I tried a sip of DH's a few weeks ago and - wow - you don't realize how gross they are when you're drinking them every day. Kat nailed the gum. Anything we can't pass has to come back up, or be let through. Gum is the right size and definitely the right consistency to get stuck.