afw

Before & After I doubt you'll find it cheaper than Amazon - that's where I got mine. Susan Maria also sells it on her website as part of a package that includes about a dozen single-serving sizes of various Proteins to try. She did not have a band, she had gastric bypass, but it's still a great read and totally relevant.

I had my post-op follow-up visit today - I was banded 11 days ago. My NP said I could schedule my first fill in two weeks, but in two weeks I'll be on vacation for a week, so I asked if we could do it just a little earlier, before I leave, which would be 20 days after surgery. She said we could try, but that if I still had this sort of firm-feeling swelling around my port, she might not be able to do it. I'm not really scared of needles, though I don't really want to get stuck more than necessary. I have been quite hungry, although I'm getting that under control by adding more Protein supplements. I also feel great - plenty of energy, and my incisions have healed up beautifully. So I am wondering, has anyone else successfully had a fill at three weeks after surgery? Or should I just go ahead and reschedule for the day after we get back from the beach and not worry about it?

Well, I'm still on full liquids, so protein powder is really my only choice - I'd give my right arm for a hamburger! Fear of messing up my healing and needing another surgery is the only thing keeping me on the straight and narrow. I think I've decided to put off the fill; we've decided to leave for our vacation one day earlier, and I don't want to risk being overfilled and being four hours and a ferry ride away from my doctor. I really need this break and it would be so rotten to ruin it with that! So I'll do it the day after we return instead.

I just said, Abdominal Surgery - none of their business, and they ARE NOT ALLOWED to make you say more. Just saying abdominal surgery is not a lie at all, and people tend to get more imaginative - they start assuming it's something female, and once they think that they don't want to know the details. :-)

I'm right there with you. I want some real food too. I don't really want to overeat - I would be happy with a small serving, as long as it was something real, with some flavor and texture. *Why* are all the Protein supplements so sickeningly sweet? My husband made himself a hamburger last night, and OH it smelled so good... I've thought about chewing and spitting, too!! Haven't actually done it, though. Last night, I picked up a book when it got bad, and that really helped - I read Jennifer Weiner's new book and by the time I got too tired to keep reading, I wasn't hungry anymore. :-)

I was banded one week ago, and I have only two incisions - one, about two inches, over my port, and one tiny one, perhaps 2/3 of an inch, up high, near the bottom of my sternum. Nice job, doc!

I was banded Friday, and I too got very very hungry yesterday - I was on clear liquids also, though not so strict; I had maybe 250 calories a day. I called my doc and was told it was fine to move to full liquids, and I'm OK since then. Call your doc! They may tell you it's fine to add protein shakes, strained soups, and other things that will make you feel sooo much better.

new2me - I was you last night. I also was banded on July 25. I do not believe this pain is related to the gas; it's referred pain from your diaphragm being irritated. I sat up a lot more yesterday than I had since surgery, and started full liquids, and by 6pm I was in agony - my shoulder felt like I had a hot iron rod stuck through it, right in the center. After four hours of this, I read on another thread to lie down - so I did, flat on my back, to let my belly expand, and let my band and diaphragm separate. Within five minutes the pain was gone. It was amazing. Please go lie down right now!

I hope I never, ever am able to eat a "normal-sized" meal again! We went to a restaurant a few weeks before my banding, and even then, no bands, all four of us - my husband, myself, and our kids - ate only half the food on our plates and took the rest home. Most restaurant portions are so ridiculous, but we start to think they're normal - "normal-sized" meals are what got me to morbid obesity in the first place. Now, I expect I should be able to eat a reasonably-sized meal in a month or two. I just got banded four days ago, so my experience is definitely limited.

I'm up tomorrow too... I have to be at my hospital at 8:25 am. Clear liquids today... I'm kinda hungry, but it's actually quite surprising just how filling lime Jell-O can be! What was really shocking to me was how easy it was to say goodbye to food for a while... I sort of thought I'd want to go eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's or 9 or 10 chocolate chip Cookies last night, but I actually had no desire for that junk at all. I have not been on a liquid diet pre-op, just a high-protein one which wasn't that hard, really. Good luck to you tomorrow!!!

Really the only way to know is to call your insurance. There are many Blue Crosses - I have BC of North Carolina which is not the same as BC in another state. And even though mine was covered, another employer might exclude it. No one here can tell you if you're covered, but you might be able to find people with your same insurance in your same state who can tell you how long approval took, what the requirements were, etc.

I LOVE my Mirena. I got it for birth control, not bleeding problems, about two years ago, but I stopped having periods after about nine months and haven't had one since. It's fantastic. I know four other women with them and they all love them. It wasn't even painful to have it placed - more like, hmm, I don't think I'd much want to do that for fun, but it was OK. I would definitely give that a try before a hysterectomy! Much less invasive and can be done in ten minutes in your doc's office - not weeks and weeks of recovery from abdominal surgery. When this one "times out" in three years I will be getting another, and probably another until I don't need them anymore. Edit: Oops, I forgot to mention weight gain - I had none; in fact I was losing like crazy but I also had just given birth when I got mine. Mirena's hormonal activity is very localized; it releases progesterone only in the area of your uterus, not throughout your whole body like when you take the pill. Also, the pill contains estrogen - Mirena does not. I'm not aware of weight gain being a side effect but I bet their website would tell you more.

May I ask if you can explain why you're on an all-liquid diet? I understand why docs put their patients on a liquid diet like Optifast pre-surgery, and I understand the purpose of the liquid diet after surgery, but I don't understand how a liquid diet that still includes stuff like ice cream, melted or not, could be accomplishing anything. I'm not criticizing at all - I just want to understand the science here. I'm scheduled to be banded the day after you, and all my doc said was to eat mostly Protein and limit carbohydrates as much as possible from now until then, and Clear Liquids only for 24 hours before surgery.

If your employer's health care plan specifically excludes WLS, you're out of luck - no appeal will help, they will not pay. Sorry, I know that's rotten news. Self-pay is your only option. The good news with that is, you probably won't need to worry about all that six-month supervised diet or that five-year weight history. Good luck to you!! I hope things work out for you.

I also am a patient of Dr. Enochs. I will be banded three weeks from today. I don't think he routinely puts people on a pre-op diet, it just depends on your circumstances - I have a visit with him on Tuesday to go over my labs, so I'll know more then. Insurance is more a function of your insurance company than the doctor, but this was my experience: it took about four days following my final visit with the psych (my last pre-op step) to get all the data collected and submitted to BCBS of NC. Once that happened (last Friday morning) I had approval on Wednesday morning, and was scheduled by mid-afternoon. I had already checked BCBSNC's criteria and I knew I met them all, but I didn't believe it until I heard it! Good luck to you!

Can you add me to the 25th next time you update? I don't want to reprint the entire list here. Hope you are feeling well!!

Hi everyone - I am Amanda, I am a 35-year-old mother of two kids, a boy age 5 and a girl age 2. I'm married to the most supportive and loving man in the world, and once in a while (say, 40 hours a week or so) I work as a senior software engineer for a small company. I was 20-30 pounds overweight during adolescence, hit true obesity during college, and have fought it ever since. My weight loss story is probably familiar to most of you - lose half your excess weight, life intervenes and you lose your focus, and it all comes back plus ten percent. So I find myself roughly 110 pounds above where I should be. I'm actually not that nervous about the procedure; I had two cesareans with my kids which really were not a big deal, and from which I recovered very quickly, and I had general anesthesia about 18 years ago to repair a badly broken bone. I'm more worried that I won't be able to keep to it - that's been my history before; I do very well on diets for a few months and then I gradually slack off until I'm right back where I started (plus a few extra). I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to find my "sweet spot" before I completely lose my momentum. Good luck to all of you! BTW, Siouxsie, Clarks are almost the only shoes I wear, they are the BEST. :-)

Hello Band Sister! I also am scheduled for July 25, as of about 1pm today. I got insurance approval this morning and they called to schedule me a hour or so later.

I got insurance approval today, and am scheduled for July 25 at 10:25 am! YAY!!!!

I saw it last night, on an endcap with some other "As Seen on TV" items, for $54.99.

24 months medically supervised diet is NOT for your health - it's for their bottom line. It's just a way of putting up a gigantic, basically insurmountable roadblock so that you don't send them the bill, and end up paying for it yourself. It's one thing if they just don't cover it because the policy excludes it; it's another if it purports to cover it but makes it impossible to ever get it. Honestly, our health care system is so incredibly screwed up, it makes me sad for the future of our country. I read an article in the New York Times the other day about how many doctors are quitting medicine because they don't get to actually practice medicine anymore; it's all paperwork and bureaucracy. I'm very lucky to have insurance that covers Lap-Band without many hoops to jump through (no supervised diet requirement at all), but it's just that - pure luck. Access to health care should not be governed by luck.

I don't think you need to feel obligated to tell her. After all, if you had to have some other really personal procedure, you wouldn't feel obligated to tell her that either. Your job is to get yourself healthy in body and mind, and if she won't be helpful, then don't share.

That is heartbreaking!!! What an emotional rollercoaster for you! Please don't let your husband talk you out of it. If you decide to wait because *you* choose to, then that's one thing, but if you know this is the right thing for you, stick to it and be there at noon on Wednesday! If you can survive all of this, living with the band is going to be a cakewalk. Please come back and let us know what you're going to do!

First off, CONGRATULATIONS!!! I hope your marriage is a long and happy one. And as for the insurance, you should be good to go - if they have your name and you are on the policy, you're covered. If you want to be sure, call them up tomorrow and make sure, but I can't imagine you having trouble. I had a friend many years ago who got a new job with coverage as of the first day of employment, and his wife went into labor with their baby the NEXT DAY, nine weeks premature. He didn't even fill out the insurance paperwork until after the baby was born, but they were covered as of the day before, so over $200,000 of newborn intensive care was paid, no questions asked.

My surgeon said you should get 32 to 64 ounces of Water a day. That old rule about 8 8-oz glasses every day for every person is a myth. If drinking that much water works for you, and you feel better drinking it, then great, you should keep drinking it! But if you are in good health, and not working in high temperatures, your body does not need that much water. Plus remember your food contains water too. It's pretty clearly not working for you, so I think you should feel safe in dialing back as long as you don't go below 32 ounces. snopes.com: Eight Glasses of Water a Day