boxergirl301

I'm in the 1%. I went in today for a fill under fluoro (first one since mid-january - been banded almost a year) and after a lot of prodding was told my port flipped. I am scheduled for surgery for first thing in the am tomorrow. My doc said that sometimes exercise can cause it to come loose but that it can also be caused by trauma. In my case, I think it was the latter. I fell down a flight of concrete stairs in late January and fell on my left side. I broke my thumb and ripped the nail clean off my finger and was bruised in pain for weeks. My doc asked me today if when I fell if it hurt on my left side in my abdomen. I was like duh...my entire body was in pain after that...but yes, specifically my left side. Needless to say, I am guessing thats what caused it. Can someone tell me if they have to take all the Fluid out of the band when they fix the port? I really dont want to start at square one again - although I guess I should be thankful that is the least of my problems. I am also wondering if since i fell down the stairs at work and all my doctors and hospital bills associated with that were paid by workers comp if workers comp would have to pay for this as well (I'm kinda half kidding about this but if it is flipped due to my fall shouldnt they have to pay? my insurance is excellent and im lucky that i have it but if i dont have to pay the copays every little bit helps). I hope this helps answer your question and I will post again after my port is repaired to let you guys know how it went.

I just wanted to thank you guys for starting this thread. I am so embarrassed by my slow weight loss and with my bandiversary coming up in a couple weeks I am mad at myself for not doing better than I have so far. I was banded 05/23/08 and was doing well until January where I plateaud and I have been at 45 pounds lost ever since (I gain and lose the same 3 pounds every week). I am so close to onederland that I can't stand it. 5 pounds is all I need (which consequently puts me at a 50 pound weight loss as well which was my goal for one year) but I can't seem to get to that point. I scheduled a fill for tomorrow but I almost cancelled the appointment because I'm embarrassed at not losing anything since January. I joined weight watchers 2 weeks ago so I can log what I'm eating and I realized that I do eat a lot of crap so I'm changing what I eat - but still not losing. About 2 months ago I started exercising about 3-4 times a week (biggest loser DVDs, slim in 6, dance away the pounds, etc...). I didn't lost a pound. So 3 weeks ago I started exercising 5 days a week with no excuses and still no loss. Inside I am proud that I have gone from a size 22 to a size 16. Inside I am proud that I can sit at the baseball stadium in those tiny seats and my butt isnt overflowing. Inside I am proud that I got on a plane in February and for the first time in years I wasn't scared that I would have to ask for a seatbelt extender. Inside I do feel better overall. All my friends and coworkers say I look like I have lost a bunch more weight since I started exercising and although I'm not measuring myself I'm sure I have lost inches because my pants are looser and maybe thats ok. But heres my problem, I do have emotional issues with food that I have been trying to work through. I thought I would be on less meds after the band - not more. I stopped taking my 'happy' pills in november and I lost 10 pounds just by not taking them anymore. However, I was miserable. I had to go back to the doc a month ago and start taking a different kind (the other kind was not band friendly) and the new pills made me want to eat everything in sight. So now he has me on another medication (I take 7 different meds for various things right now and I'm only 33 - it shouldnt be this way). Anyway, my point is that just when I start to feel better about myself, I have another setback. I know with the 'happy' pills, weightloss is harder. Plus I had a complete hysterectomy 5 years ago and I definitely have issues with my estrogen (or lack thereof) which I know also makes it harder for me to lose weight. In addition, I normally feel good about myself daily and the progress I have made. However, recently I was at the movies with my family, and a guy was being jerk so I told him he was a jerk and he followed me out of the movie theatre to confront me and tell me that I was so fat he couldn't believe that people actually get as fat as me. I cried the entire ride home and tried to explain to my 12 year old daughter that I wasn't letting the stupid man get to me - even though he really was. This total stranger made everything I have worked for over the last 11 months seem like a total waste. I shouldn't let anyone take away what I have accomplished over the last year, but it's hard not to let something like that get to you. I guess my point to this post is that I am ashamed that I havent come back to this board since last summer. It is nice to find others in the same boat and to know that you are not alone. It's nice to know that some of us really do struggle with this. I hope all of you meet your goals!:thumbdown:

Bandedgirl08, congrats on the new size!!!!! That is an awesome feeling. Miss Meliss, girl its like the scale is a neon sign calling my name. It calls me in the middle of the night 'Michelle, michelle, come step on me...you know you want to.' However, I am afraid to weigh more than once a day because I know if I do that I will get discouraged because we do fluctuate. Anyway, I wish everyone luck and may Gas-x relieve all your pain and bloating (cuz it sure isnt working for me):w00t:

Ok so I'm a little late responding to this but I just found this site like 2 days ago (wish I had found it like 2 months ago). Anyway, I was banded 5/23 in Conroe Texas. Hope all the May bandsters are doing well. I hope that most of you are off those yucky Clear Liquids.

I was banded 5/23 and had my first weigh in today. I totally flopped the pre-op diet so in 6 days I've lost 17 pounds (don't ask me how). Anyhow, I know thats the last big number like that since today I graduated to semi-solids (not a moment too soon). I do have a question, my doc already scheduled me today (automatically) for a fill in 2 weeks. Is this necessary? I am feeling restriction (not too much but enough). Any help is appreciated.

Im newly banded on the 23rd, and have been on full liquids for a few days. But first, I want to find whoever creates those Chili's commercials and force them to eat chicken broth and Jello for a few days because the thickest applewood sliced bacon on a freakin beautiful cheeseburger DOES not help my morale right now!!!!!!!! Ok, so now that I have that out of my system (i am literally dreaming of bacon these days), when I was put on full liquids a couple of days ago, I decided I had to do things my way in order to survive. I got up the strength and decided to make homemade chicken and dumplings from scratch (originally I planned to share with my entire family but that quickly went out the window). Anyway, so I took out the dumplings and put the chicken and the soupie stuff in a blender and I've been eating off it since Monday. It has made me feel like I'm eating something real, and when I'm nauseous it actually makes me feel better (go figure). The other thing I did today, was go to Boston Market -- they have the best chicken tortilla soup, and I blenderized that and I had that for lunch - very tasty and filling. Although I wanted to kill the drive thru lady for including the cornbread piece - my boxer enjoyed it :scared2: My next treat? Homemade chicken gumbo with no rice - blenderized of course. I'm glad I'm not alone. My first post-op weigh in is tomorrow. Good luck to everyone!

Kimmie, It's usually not as easy as just who is your insurance company. Here are some things you need to find out: #1. Is your insurance plan self-funded or fully-insured? You can find this out by calling your HR dept, going online and reading your benefits materials, or by calling your insurance company. Often times, larger employers offer both self-funded and full-insured plans to their employees (so an Aetna plan might be self-funded and a BCBS plan might be fully-insured). #2. If your plan is fully-insured, go online to your insurance company's website and go into the 'provider' section. You want to look for something that is similar or close to 'medical policy'. You should be able to access this section without having a provider login. You will then want to find the medical policy that pertains to the lap band (sometimes its listed under just surgery). Insurance company's medical policies list out not only what they will cover, but what the requirements are to have that something covered. So it will tell you what your BMI needs to be, if you need co-morbidities, if nutritional counseling is required, etc. If you can't find this, you can call your insurance company and they should be able to either mail you or tell you where the medical policy is as it is public information. If your plan is fully-insured and your request is denied, you should be able to appeal (depending on the language in your plan documents) 2-3 times. However, appeals generally dont get overturned as appeals are only sent to other insurance company staff to review each time. Based on medical policy alone, UHC is generally your best bet - their basic requirement is that you have a BMI of 40 or greater or 35 with 2 co-morbidities. BCBS plans and Aetna generally require nutritional counseling, a stated history of morbid obesity, a 6 months doctors supervised diet, etc. #3. If your plan is self-funded you have more options. Self-funded plans (in simple terms) are plans in which your employer actually creates the plan and the requirements and then hires an insurance company to administer the plan by paying claims - even though all the money for all claims comes from your employer. This means your employer has flexibility in what is and is not covered. So if your plan is self-funded, call your insurance company and find out the medical policy still. Most self-funded plans still use insurance company medical policy to make decisions cuz its easier. However, you will then need to call either your HR rep, your insurance company or participant advocacy (if you have one - a lot of fortune 500 companies are getting advocacy depts) and find out if your employer has any additional restrictions on the procedure. For example, my last employer (with the second largest benefits consulting firm in the world), I had UHC EPO. UHC's medi5cal policy stated that they only require a BMI of 40. However, my employer said, in addition we require a 5 year history of morbid obesity and a 6 month doctor's supervised diet. My employer's requirements overwrote the insurance companies medical policy since my employer was footing the bill. Now, here's the good news with those self-funded plans. If your request is denied, generally you have 2-3 appeals left. The first 1-2 appeals would be to the insurance company (no help), but generally, your last appeal would be sent directly to the administrator of the plan (your employer!). This is your chance to state your case about how a $50k surgery (or whatever it is) will save them $75k in future claims. Most larger employers have a benefits committee that meets once a month (made up of past and future HR employees and executives) and they make final decisions based on the appeal you wrote. If your employer feels sorry for you, or maybe they have extra money to throw around:lol: they can override the insurance company decision and you can have the procedure. I know this was long, but I have worked in this industry for over 12 years and even I had issues getting my procedure covered (thank God for the LARGEST benefits consulting firm in the world - #2 sucks).