Chele6378

I have pretty bad anxiety, I take 2 medications to control panic attacks and I passed my psych eval with out any problems. He did suggested I go back to counseling for my anxiety but really just wanted to make sure I understood what the surgery meant, how it would change my life.

So I'm trying to keep my surgery a secret but I'm so excited I just want to tell everyone!! I'm afraid if I tell people, I'll regret it later. But I'm so excited!!! I want to call all of my overweight friends and co-workers and family and tell them I'm taking this huge step to save my life! Most of my family and close friends know but my co-workers don't. Anyone regret keeping their surgery a secret? Anyone regret telling everyone?

My date is Jan 26th!!! My pre-op appointment is the 14th. I just can't wait!! I seems so quick yet I feel like I have to wait so long! Go JAN BAND!

Wow! 184 is lower than my lowest weight in the past 10 years! I busted my ass to get where I am! And I'm not talking about getting the scale high enough. I mean I went to the doctor. I followed up. I took every step they told me too and crossed every 'T' and dotted every 'I'. I worked with what I had!! I'm heavy enough but I still had to do the work my insurance company required. If you're not heavy enough, take that as a blessing and focus on something else to make yourself healthier. Maybe therapy and changing medications is the answer? I wish you good health and success in the future.

I am choosing the band over RNY for many reasons but the number one reason is I want to learn to eat less. I have tried to do this before, on my own, without a tool and I have had short term success. I need something to help me long term. I can only starve myself for so long before I start to just eat myself back into morbid obesity. The lap band is my tool. Here are the things I am hoping the band help me do... *eat smaller portions without feeling deprived *eat a meal and be satisfied, not want to snack an hour later *lose weight faster than just a normal diet *keep me in check! If I start to feel unrestricted, I can tighten up and get back on track. *make me accountable I hope I am going forward with the right mind set. My mom had RNY 7 years ago. She lost over 130 pounds in the first 2 years. Now she's starting to gain weight back and she is beginning to suffer from low Iron requiring infusions. My reasons for having WLS are so many but the icing on the cake (no pun intended) was being diagnosed with sleep apnea this past year. My father has apnea. He also has insulin dependent type 2 diabetes. He's on coumadin. His blood pressure is out of control. He's 380+ pounds. Smokes even after being diagnosed with COPD and he's not following any kind of diet. I will not follow him down this path! I wish everyone luck! I wish myself luck! I'm looking forward to my new lige

BCBS IL required a psych eval. My doctor requires blood work, EKG, chest xray and pulmonary function test which he's not making me do for whatever reason.

Thanks Karen! Your post helped me out! :rolleyes2:

My journey started on 8/24/2009 with a visit to my regular primary care doctor. I met my surgeon on 9/3 and my surgery is scheduled for January 26th!! So it was a smidge over 5 months for me!

Thank you for all of the replies! I'm a very open person, I'll pretty much answer any question and I'm not one to keep secrets but this seems so personal. It's kind of weird....I can tell everyone how my daughter was conceived (IUI with an unknown donor) but this seems too personal. Ahhhhh....less than 3 weeks away! 25 days and counting. I'm so excited!!!

I did the Atkin's diet once upon a time and the veggie I ate the most was Cauliflour. There's so much you can do with it. There are tons of recipies on how to make faux mashed potatos with cauliflour. Good Luck!!

3 months of supervised diet? DONE Psych eval? DONE 17 pages of notes sent to BCBS for approval? DONE My packet o' papers was faxed over to Blue Cross this morning! This is our second shot at approval. I think we dotted and crossed everything now and I will be approved this time. I lost 15 pounds on the supervised diet but find myself doing a little cheating lately since the 3 months is done and I want to eat whatever I want while I can. Anyone else in the same boat as me? I was hoping for November surgery and now I'm thinking it's going to be January. It'll be a good way to start the new year!

1.What is your current and goal weight? Highest - 262, Current 249, Goal 140 2.What is your surgery date? Not sure yet... 3.What is your age? 31 4.Where do you live? North of Chicago, IL 5.Where are you having surgery? Good Sheppard Hospital 6.Who is your Doctor?? Dr. Hoeltgen 7.Insurance or self-pay? Hoping Insurance. That's what I'm waiting for... 8.What was you "deciding factor" for having this surgery? I sweat like crazy getting ready for work. I can barely keep up walking next to someone. I hate knowing i'm the heaviest person in the room. I won't go to mommy and me gymnastics with my toddler because I'm the fat, sweaty mom trying to get off the floor!

I am feel extremely motivated today! I thought I would try and share my motivation, incase someone was having one of those unmotivated days! I am in the final stretch of my pre-approval diet; I have my last weigh in on saturday. I have lost only 11 pounds in the past 2 months but I also haven't been starving. I'm just making better choices. My portion are still large but I'm eating better foods. Good Luck EVERYONE!! WE CAN DO THIS!!:thumbup:

Hello All! I'm still on the waiting train...choo choo My surgeon should have finally recieved my psych approval today. The person I saw had some computer problems and was 3 weeks delayed in sending my approval over. I have my final diet appointment with my PCP on the 21st. And then we send in for approval. I'm thinking that I won't have surgery until January. I wa really hopeing for November but I think that's just too quick and December is so hectic with the holidays, should I really do it then? So here are my questions - What is the average recovery time? and by that I mean how much time should I take off from work? Should I apply for STD, just incase? What can I tell people at work? I work with some nasty people and I want to keep my surgery to myself. I really don't want to hear all of their comments... Thanks all!

A co-worker had the surgery and kept it a secret. I've actually run across his profile on another site. I've been going back and forth about asking him questions but I don't want to invade his privacy. He didn't want people to know so I don't think it's right to call him out. He looks fantastic though and I have commented on his loss. I'm hoping to have mid week surgery. Take the remainder of that week off and then the following week. I have a paid time off bank so any time I take comes out of my bank not just vacation or sick. I'm getting more and more nervous. My last diet appointment is next saturday, the 21st. I hope I get approved!

WHOA! That questionaire was crazy!! Thank goodness I'm not an alcoholic becuase I swear that's all that thing asked about! 4 weeks until we send in for approval again. I'm so excited! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! And there's a skinny me standing there....

The surgeon got my denial from BCBS today. I thought they'd deny it but we decided to try anyway so they'd send us a list of what I need to do. I've been on a doctor supervised diet for 2 months. My next appointment for weigh in is Monday. That'll be 9 weeks that I've dieted. When my paper work was sent to BCBS i'd only met with the dietician once so I knew they'd want more. Monday will be my 3rd appointment. So...only one more month of diet and a psych eval and we'll be resubmitting for approval. I'm so so so excited!! If all goes well, I could be banded in December. All I want for christmas is lap band surgery!!

IL Here too!! I'm waiting...and waiting and still waiting! UGH!

I feel your pain!! Hang in there! We'll be banded before we know it! :thumbup:

Pre-op Chicago Bandster here too!! I didn't know there were so many of us!! I've met with Dr. Hoeltgen in Barrington and I've choosen him as my surgeon. His office has sent in all of my paper work the the insurance company so now I'm just waiting to see what we have to do next! I started a doctor supervised weight loss program with my PCP last month too, just in case!

La di da, la di da...COME ON! UGH! Waiting just sucks! Met the surgeon. He had a whole schpiel about Bariatric surgery. My BMI is low enough to make the LapBand work for me but high enough for RNY to be an option. He said he'd go either way with me since I'm not diabetic and my blood pressure is just on the boarderline. So the desicion is still mine. That made me happy! I was worried I was going to be pushed into bypass and I really don't want that... So the Realize Band is the band this surgeon likes. A few days after my appointment, a person from the surgeon's office called and asked about my insurance coverage. She said she was going to request my records from my PCP and send me in the info for approval. I didn't think it'd be this fast!! Who knows though, I probably won't pass the first round anyway, right?

La di da, la di da...COME ON! UGH! Waiting just sucks! Met the surgeon. He had a whole schpiel about Bariatric surgery. My BMI is low enough to make the LapBand work for me but high enough for RNY to be an option. He said he'd go either way with me since I'm not diabetic and my blood pressure is just on the boarderline. So the desicion is still mine. That made me happy! I was worried I was going to be pushed into bypass and I really don't want that... So the Realize Band is the band this surgeon likes. A few days after my appointment, a person from the surgeon's office called and asked about my insurance coverage. She said she was going to request my records from my PCP and send me in the info for approval. I didn't think it'd be this fast!! Who knows though, I probably won't pass the first round anyway, right?

Hi Abigail - Check your insurance again. I have BCBS also and they just changed the wait from 6 months to 3 months in June of this year. I'm just seeing the dietitian at me PCP's office. I go and weigh in every two weeks and my insurance covers it since it's a regular doctors appointment.

HECK NO! My surgeon offers a program thru iBariHealth and it's $99 a month and they come to my house, help me get all of my insurance requirements met and do the psych eval. $3,700 is an awful lot of money!