MacMadame

Thanks! ....

The Stomaphyx is for RnY, btw. It wouldn't work with a sleeve.

I'm on Prilosec, btw. Well, I was. I'm now supposed to wean off it.

I think it does vary from state to state but it also depends on how the policy is written and which company it is. When I was going through this, I found that my insurance company was adamant that they would not pay to remove a band, if it slipped or eroded. But when I asked about the sleeve, they implied complications would be covered. They said a leak would be treated like an accident. Also, most of the complications you can have from WLS are things that can happen to anyone, even if they didn't have surgery, so it's harder to deny them. For example, you can get a kidney stone or a blood clot at any time. Sure, surgery ups your risk, but they can't absolutely prove that surgery caused these things. The leak is the only thing I can think of that is directly related to surgery and, even then, some insurance companies will cover it anyway. My surgeon says about 90% of his self-pays who get complications get them covered by insurance. I still took out a home equity loan just in case prior to my surgery. (Well, I tried to anyway.... long story.) I figured that I might end up out of pocket by as much as 40K if I had a leak so I wanted to be prepared.

WASa is right about the calories too. I tell people that when I was eating 1200 calories a day that I could easily eat 1500 just by making different choices and not changing my frequency or volume or I could eat 800 a day just by making other choices. Right now I'm actually trying to eat more so I stop losing weight, but I want to do it in a healthy way that doesn't encourage bad habits.

And the software is very buggy. Now I'm totally confused. I can't even remember what we were talking about. :lol0:

Congrats to you both! As for the drain, some surgeons use them and some do not ... Mine doesn't, at least not for my surgery (I don't know about the RnY or DS.)

Do you have a link for this article? I want to save it.

Mac OS Safari, latest one I did notice that most of the urls I use don't have www in them. My bookmarks don't and when you click on links on the board, they don't. Those seem to work mostly. When I go to the home page by typing stuff in, I type www and those mostly don't work. But it could all be a big coincidence...

Yes. We have a normal stomach so we can take anything that we otherwise normally can take.

I think it's grazing that does us in. I can't eat any more now than I could a few months ago and I know some people 2 years out who can't eat any more than they could at 6 months out. But there is nothing to stop you from eating 1/2 c. at dinner, waiting 30 min. and eating another 1/2 c. In fact, sometimes I do that to get all my Protein in. (Well, not 1/2 c. two times... but I'll put out 1/4 c. of veggies and 3 oz. of chicken and eat it in two sittings.) The difference is that I'm in control. I'm still tracking my food and I'm still aiming for certain nutritional goals. I am eating to a plan because I decided to do this before I did it. I didn't put out my dinner, eat it all, and then go get more even though I hadn't planned on it and don't need those calories and nutrition. It's the out-of-control eating that causes problems and I'm not sure exactly what causes that. Maybe head hunger. Maybe ghrelin coming back. Maybe some kind of unhealthy relationship with food.

Word! So I got my first "hate" comment on my blog. I know people are prejudiced against WLS but I still can't fathom why anyone would actually take the time to post on someone's blog "in my mind I will always be better than you". It baffles me. I answered back "It's nice to be a legend in one's own mind". Bwahaha.

Complications are interesting. Because the US surgeons don't own their own hospitals (though some are partners in their hospitals, but that's rare), they don't have as much control as MX docs when it comes to this IMO. My surgeon told me that if I had complications, he wouldn't be charging me anything extra. However, the hospital would. He also told me that many times, for an operation like the sleeve, my insurance would pay for the complications even though they wouldn't pay for my surgery. (My insurance company said something similar though of course I couldn't get it in writing so who knows what would have actually happened.) I looked at what other people had spent on their complications and I figured that I wouldn't be bankrupted by it. I also went with a surgeon with incredibly good stats in that area. I would rather not have one and avoid the whole thing. However, we applied for a home equity loan prior to surgery "just in case". Unfortunately, there was a paperwork snafu and I went into the hospital with the loan in limbo. Then, the morning of my surgery, my bank failed and was bought out by Chase and the entire loan just disappeared. But I didn't have complications so it all worked out.

When you say "experts" what do you mean? I find that those online tracking site always tell you a much higher number of calories than ever worked for me. And this was pre-op too. If you want to know how many calories you need to eat on average, you need to get your RMR tested. This test will measure your actual oxygen consumption and translate that into the number of calories you consume at rest (i.e., sitting down). Then, you can add in your exercise and/or multiply by an activity factor to get a range of calories you can eat between. Or you can do it the old fashioned way and just slowly up your calories until you stop losing and whatever number it is, that's the number it is. I am going to do a combination of both. I want my RMR to get me in the ballpark and then I'll just experiment to see what works.

Oh and I forgot to say that he also said it's better to go down 5-10 lb. more than you wanted than 5-10 lb. less and that I could go to 110 or even 105 and be fine. I think he's wrong about 105. But I thought he was nuts to think I could get down to 115 and I think I'm going to. I guess we'll see.

I count everything. Maybe eventually I won't, but it just seems easier to count it all.

Yeah! So... at this far out, how much do you eat?

And the good surgeons in the US often have patients who travel all over to use them. So the same issues -- how are you going to get follow-up care and what kind of relationship do you want to have with your surgeon -- exist even when you use a US doctor. For me, staying local was important. But the doctor also had to meet my standards. I was lucky that I live in an area with several surgeons who have been doing the sleeve since pretty much day one. I even had a choice of programs. So I was able to get what I wanted and stay local. But, if I had not had these choices locally, I would definitely have looked outside my region. Yes, after care would be an issue. But not an insurmountable one. My surgeon does a lot of after care over the phone, for example, and I get support online and there are local support groups not affiliated with any surgeon I could go to. So I just don't believe that you have to stay in the US to get good care and that you have to stay local. Sometimes staying local is a bad idea, in fact, if there are no experienced sleeve surgeons in your area.

I wonder what he meant by that because, they aren't very much alike at all mechanically. Weight loss is similar. But that's about it.

Even if you find one you like pre-op, your tastes will most likely change post-op. So it's probably not worth trying them out now. Get them now... I ended up with something like 41 samples! ... but don't try them until later.

It's definitely fat! It's in my panus so it's kind of obvious. Oh and I have a bit in my calves too. The stuff in my thighs, I'm not so sure of though. That might be loose skin. I have decided my skin will go back and that's that. Hopefully my skin will agree with me. :thumbup:

I started running pretty soon after surgery. I don't know what got into me. :thumbup: I was around 175 by then, I think. (It's so hard to remember. That's why I have a blog.) I was around 161 when I signed up for my first triathlon.... and I was definitely running then.

I was uncomfortable for a while too. At first so much is coming out and mine started so early.... but now I feel kind of silly for worrying.

Hi Lisa! 100 pounds is a lot... you should be proud. Plus, you have to start somewhere, right?!

Well I pushed him to the back of my list... the surgeon I picked had a coordinator who answered EVERY SINGLE QUESTION in my email. And there were a TON of them. I printed out my questions and her answers for my notebook and it was 3 pages worth! So I met him, liked him and went with him and that other guy lost out.