marie715

Hi, Hey, but you HAVE lost the recommended amount of weight. You've lost between 1 -2 pounds per week, and closer to the 2 pounds. Congratulations!! And the best part of it is that those pounds are gone forever!! Keep up the good work. Marie715

JWRN, thanks, I will do that. I totally blame the anesthesiologist. I was uncomfortable because when he came into my room before the surgery to talk to me he was chewing gum. And I remember thinking "Can you chew gum and do anesthesia at the same time?" Guess the answer was "No." My surgeon said in his 12 years of surgery he could only remember 2 times when the patient had to be woken up like that.

I am wondering if anyone's anesthesiologist had to use a Fiber optic scope to assist in placing the tube down their throat. There is a high liklihood that that I will have to have this done. I had surgery 12 years ago and the anesthesiologist couldn't get the tube placed and they had to wake me up in the OR room and cancel the surgery. I came back a week later and another anesthesiologist was able to place the tube but at that time there was talk about using this fiber optic scope, if she couldn't get it placed. Since I had this incident, the anesthesiologist for my lap band will decide whether or not I need to have it again. I'm a little concerned if I do because I am awake when they place the fiber optic tube down my throat. If you had this done, can you please tell me what you remember about it? My doctor said I won't remember anything about that because I will have versed in me and that wipes out your memory. But still. Thanks, Marie

Way to go, Carly!! I'm scheduled for Sept. 4th and your post is very reassuring to me. Wishing you continued good luck and success in your recovery and beyond.

The type of scale that you weigh yourself on, not a food scale. I threw mine out long ago. With PCOS, it got to be too frustrating to eat right, exercise, hop on the scale and see that it did not move. Just curious if anyone else who is banded has gotten rid of their bathroom scale.

Hi again, I got my surgery date for Sept.4th with Dr. Sarker. I've been emailing other lapbandtalk posters who have contacted me. I hope I haven't already emailed you. I found out last Thurs. and was really kind of shocked. Dr. Sarker's insurance woman, Marva, (I now call her Marvelous Marva), said that HMO of Illinois immediately approved my request. She attributed it to me using all of the doctors within my plan. Once they saw that I was working only within my doctor's they approved it. And get this - Without a 6 month diet!! Yeah!! Marva said that she always tells patients that if you want this surgery the best insurance to have is HMO of Illinois. She said regular Blue Cross/ Blue Shield has tons of requirements. Anyways, please write back and let me know what is going on with you. I'll write more later, too. Regards, Marie

Will you please add me to the September 4th banders? I'm having it done at Loyola Medical Center near Chicago, IL.

Just found out yesterday that I am a September 4th bander. My surgeon does the lap band on Thursdays, the patient stays overnight, they do a swallow test on Friday and then they go home.

I started my Lap band journey in March 2008 and yesterday was told I was approved by my insurance and they were ready to schedule my surgery for Thursday, September 4th!! I have learned alot on this website and I'm looking forward to the continued support that I know I'll receive here. And I hope to offer support to those who are in the midst of their pre-surgery journey.

Hi Cleo's Mom, I can help you to understand the stress test with the injection. It is called a doputamine stress test. Doctors have a choice to either have a patient walk on the tread mill until her heart rate gets to the number they are looking for or they can use this drug to get your heart rate to the number they are looking for. You lay on the table and they begin the injection. It is not uncomfortable. You can feel your heart start to beat faster, kind of like if you are scared. They are taking ultrasound pictures while your heart rate is going up. Once you reach the number, they stop the injection completely. And then you just lay there until you recover and your heart rate is just about what it was when you started. Sometimes, the doputamine cannot get your heart rate up to the number they want and so they have another drug they inject that is like a booster and it will get your heart rate up. They only use the booster if they need it. They'll tell you if they are going to inject it but you won't feel any difference between that drug and the doputamine. The entire test takes about 45 minutes. I went to my stress test alone and drove myself home after with no problem. Good luck.

Hi, you and I are at about the same place. We were ready to submit my info to BCBS IL HMO on August 1st and then noticed that the psych eval results were never given to Dr. Sarker. That was donen on April 22nd! I called the psych eval 'dr.' on August 1st, She returned my call on August 5th and said she would have the results to Dr. Sarker on the 6th or 7th. I was (and still am) angry. I told her that she is holding up my insurance request. As of Friday, August 8th - no results sent to Dr. Sarker yet. I will call her again today but this makes me so mad. I have been going through this process since March. I have not lost any weight on my own, either so I am scared that the insurance will make me do a 6 month supervised diet. I'll post again once I hear back from BCBS HMO of IL. Please do the same. I like to stay in touch with other Dr. Sarker patients. Good luck. Marie715

Yeah, Mindy!! I am going to print your post out and keep it with me. You have PCOS and you lost 100 pounds with the lap band!! So take that, PCOS. You don't have Mindy to kick around anymore. And soon, you won't have me to kick around either. PCOS, this fight between me and you has been going on way too long and you've won every round so far. Not for long. My KO with PCOS is coming soon. Congratulations, Mindy. Marie

Those are GREAT results!! Congratulations. I know how happy you must be.

Thanks for posting this. I just watched it and I guess I feel better about my upcoming surgery. At least now I know everything that the surgeon is going to do. All of the animated videos I've watched of what the surgeon does made it look so simple. But seeing a real surgery put it in perspective for me. There's alot to the surgery.

Thank you, Kegra, for taking the time to share your story. Your words are so inspiring to me and other PCOS sufferers.

Jaclyn, I'm so glad you posted your message. You're absolutely correct. The only people who understand PCOS are those of us living with it. You have a couple of really great things going for you. First, you were diagnosed with PCOS at such a young age. That is really going to benefit you. I didn't get diagnosed with PCOS until I was 35 yrs. old (I'm 48 now) and the only reason I got diagnosed with it then was I read an article in Good Housekeeping about it and noted that I had 9 out of the 10 symptoms of PCOS so I brought that to my Primary Care Physician's attention. You were able to get help so much earlier in life than I was. And now you have the lap band to help you out. I am in the final stages of pre-ops and should have my insurance referral submitted within a couple of weeks. We're here for you in this forum and also, you are going to be a big help to me and others in this forum. We need to stay in touch via this forum so that we know we have others going through what we are going through. Post again in a couple of days and let us know how you're doing and what you are struggling with. Regards, Marie715

Here's the URL http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/surgery-next-week-should-i-cancel-postpone-70622/ It is under the General Surgery forum with the Title 'Surgery next week -- Should I cancel/postponne???' His post is #11. , my reply is #22.

I am so tired of people not understanding what PCOS does to us. There is a thread in the General forum where the poster said she has PCOS and therefore has difficulty loosing weight and keeping it off. Anyways, her reason for posting was that she is having doubts about the surgery for other reasons such as financial, etc. I about flipped when I read the response from a poster who said (I did the boldface font): "..... As a side issue, you may want to get another opinion on the idea that your weight loss is significantly effected by your polycystic ovarian syndrome, (if I understood your comment correctly). In my opinion, while it may be peripherally related in terms of hormonal- and thus Water retention, it is not something that has a significant impact on your ability to lose wt, and keep it off. (are you on metformin?)......." And then when I noticed that it was a man who posted it, I about fllipped. He suggested getting another opinion on the idea that our weight loss is signficantly effected by PCOS? It's not an opinion or an idea. It is a fact. This was the calmest response I could muster: "Please, Brian, with all due respect, there is no way someone who does not have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome should make statements that imply that water retention is the cause of the inability of those of us that suffer from PCOS to loose weight and keep it off. If only it were as simple as water retention. Peruse the PCOS bandster forum and you'll see stories of what PCOS really does to us. It most definately has a signficant impact on our ability to loose weight and keep it off and water retention is most likely the least of our concerns." Anybody else fed up with with people having these misconceptions about PCOS?

Please, Brian, with all due respect, there is no way someone who does not have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome should make statements that imply that water retention is the cause of the inability of those of us that suffer from PCOS to loose weight and keep it off. If only it were as simple as water retention. Peruse the PCOS bandster forum and you'll see stories of what PCOS really does to us. It most definately has a signficant impact on our ability to loose weight and keep it off and water retention is most likely the least of our concerns.

Hi, thank you guys for posting. You can't imagine how good it feels to know that someone else knows EXACTLY how I feel and has experienced EXACTLY what I've experienced. Minervous, your story is my story. There is just no way to explain what PCOS does to a woman unless that person has actually experienced it. I should be getting my last approval before the insurance is sent in, next week. I want this surgery so bad. Good luck to you guys. Marie715

Thanks so much for posting your daughter's success. I am so happy for her! I should get my pulmonary approval for surgery on July 30th and then we'll be able to submit the insurance forms. I'm so scared I won't get approved. I started this process in March 2008 and I am so ready to get this done. Wishing your daughter continued good luck and success. - Marie

Hi Susan, I am pre-op with the hopes of submitting all of my insurance forms at the beginning of August. Please tell me more. What was your insulin level pre-op and what has it been reduced to? I'm currently taking 40 units 3 times a day and then 80 units of a long lasting insulin at night. Thanks, Marie

Hi Dancing and JudyMarie. I am a patient with Dr. Sarker. I am going through all of the preop's and feel like I won't be ready to even submit the forms to my insurance until sometime in the Fall. It takes so long to book an appointment and then after each appointment there is some type of follow up. I would be very interested in email with you both. I am interested in your opinions on post-op support by Dr. Sarker and Loyola in general. Thanks, Marie

I've been on Spironolactone for a good 12 years now. I'm not real impressed with the results. When I started the medication, the doctor told me that it would reduce my facial hair by 30%. To me, that is not enough. I've never been able to tolerate more than 100 mg a day. I use Vaniqa and shave my chin and mustache area. Total bummer. It makes me feel so unfeminine.

JudyMarie, I am a patient with Dr. Sarker but I have not yet been banded. I am in the process of jumping through all of the BCBS HMO of Illinois hoops. I'd love to stay in contact with you and compare notes. I have been in contact with another poster - Slim2beNik (not quite sure if that is her user name) who is a patient with Dr. Sarker also. I hope to hear from you soon. I can go into the specifics with my experience in a private message to you so as to not bore the other forum readers! : ) Marie715