RestlessMonkey

You'll make it L. J.! Good luck! I bet you breeze through!

An exclusion to the policy means that the service is excluded...it is NOT covered. Either your employer elected to exclude WLS or the insurance company never offered coverage. It would be as if you went to buy a new car with cloth seats and then decided to sue because the seats weren't leather. The deal never included leather seats...you bought "cloth". This is the same thing...the payment for your coverage does not include WLS. SO ...no, appealing won't help you. Sorry!

It's really up to you. My doc recommends eating Protein then veggies then fruit then grains/pastas and avoiding refined sugar and white flour products, BUT....he says his goal for each patient is for them to be able to eat normally but less. Some posters here are avid calorie counters, others don't every even bother. Personally I won't "diet" because I've done it a million times, lost a bit, then gained it back plus plus. When I diet I think about food ALL the time. Part of what drew me to the band was actually being FREE of thinking about food; not having to weigh each serving and calculate the calories for each meal. As one friend I met on here put it "I didn't go through all this to eat cardboard the rest of my life". I agree with TQUAD64 that you should follow your doc pre and post op but once you are healed, it will be up to you. It is YOUR tool and you will use it with your own style. I can still eat pizza. I don't like it as much as I did, but I do get full faster and one piece fills me up now where before I could eat 3. We got burgers the other day and I ate half of mine (and part of a small order of fries). I'll order from the kid's menu next time....and we don't do fast food as often; it's not worth the trouble to me any more. So you will find your own way; whatever works for you!

How many fills have you had, and how restricted are you? I struggled and gained back some (not quite half!) of the weight I lost early on pre and post op until finally my 4th fill is providing me with the restriction I heard so much about. For me it makes it MUCH easier to make those healthy choices because I get full and don't want junk.

I totally understand being dismissed because I'm fat...and not just in the doc's office, either! So I do feel your pain. Maybe I don't even expect much in situations like that any more? I know I've successfully dieted many many times; keeping the lost weight off is the hard part and the band really really helps with that. My start has been slower than I hoped but it is happening. My best advice to you is to use the 6 months however you see fit...but if dieting=struggling, don't let it get you down. You do have to work with the band, but it helps immensely! Good luck!

My doc's office gave me a prescription for phenergan to have on hand. Honestly? I think that person needs an attitude adjustment. They could've called you in an antinausea med and asked you to come in, say, Thursday to check your band. Are you sure it was the nurse? If so I would complain. Actually I would complain regardless. If you are sick, you can't drive. And rather than an UNFILL, a medication to keep you from vomiting would make more sense. I'm not a doctor, but still...

My port is tilted and two of the four times I've had fills, my Doc has needed to mash a bit to find it. Personally I don't find it too miserable. I don't expect to need fills forever and like another poster said, as I lose it will get easier to find. The little pain involved (and I've had lots worse!) is minor compared to the misery the band saves me, so I just ignore it. It hasn't ever been so bad that I've needed pain killer afterward etc. If the port is too badly tilted you can require surgery to reattach it so I mostly am just glad he can access it at all.

Once you have restriction gum can get stuck...if so they can remove it but you have to go in to a doc's office. Safest to just use sugar free breath mints!

Atkins is a long term diet that includes an induction phase, and so on... I followed a diet prescribed by my surgeon. It was low carb low fat, it was not Atkins. Some surgeons may prescribe the induction phase of Atkins...? but your doctor will direct you.

I'm not sure what you wanted. What doctor was this, your surgeon? Or your PCP? Do you not want the lap band? You've done WW many times with, I assume, limited or only short term success. There's no magic diet they can give us, I wish there were. If you want the next six months to count, you can surely make them do so. Establish a pattern of exercise; don't snack, eat healthy, get ready. If you've been to WW a lot, you know what is healthy and so on; there's nothing stopping you from taking charge and taking care of yourself. If you are unsure of the band, or feel forced into it in some way, then this six month period will be a time for you to research it, think it over, and perhaps find it isn't for you. Either way, you're in control, so you can use the time as you see fit.

I use EAS carbcontrol advantEDGE and get them at the grocery store.

Good to know you're feeling better! Hopefullly on down the road you'll be able to eat rice again!

I buy, freeze, and dole them out. Works great.

I bought a small 2 cup food processor from penny's. It makes noise but it's very fast. And it doesn't "whine" like my blender does. You might want to check it out?

I am surely no surgeon nor doc...but still from what it sounds like yes, you need less restriction. As to the chocolate? Perhaps its a caffeine addiction. I'd discuss that with a nutritionist, seriously. You should maybe be anxious if there is NO food and you're starving, but not have a panic attack over chocolate. The nutritionist can maybe help you with that.

I think many American surgeons have brochures that offer financing but am not positive, of course. Just make sure, wherever you get the band, that you can either go back there frequently (esp for the 6 months to a year) for fills, aftercare etc....or find a surgeon or fill center near you. (realize many surgeons will NOT touch someone else's patient regardless of where they had the surgery...or they will take the patient on but charge really high fees) So plan ahead for fills while you're investigating!

I think you should listen to your surgeon. Get a slight unfill, and start following the "rules" again.

i can tell you one thing .... quitting isn't easy (for most of us) but it's only really hard for a little while. Each and every day it gets better until the day dawns when you don't want to smoke and haven't even thought about it. That doesn't really ever happen with food...so like you I was afraid to quit because I thought it would be lifelong misery (like most diets are). It wasn't. There were tough times, for me anyway, but I just thought "I've already gone X days (or weeks or months) without a cigarette. I don't want to start over and I want to quit, so hang in there". Use the patch, use the commit lozenge, use chantix, whatever you think you need, and do it. You will feel good (and smell good!) and you can use the money on new clothes!

I'm sure your surgeon will work something out for you if necessary! Good luck!

Thank goodness my clinical isn't 12 hours...just 245 to 1030PM and lunch from 6-630. And I probably can drink if I HAVE to but as a student and a guest I don't want to be "special" if that makes sense. Of course I could just drink throughout the time but don't want to do that. Frankly I already 'stand out" being the fattest and oldest. I don't want to have to take breaks when the others aren't. That's just a competition I have with myself....I'll just drink a lot before shift, chug some a time or two in between, and go from there. I think I'll be better off it I take the lunch time to eat, not drink, because I get so hungry by time to go home that I eat too much. My doc doesn't want me to snack so I have to figure it all out where I can drink and eat and still be a respectful "student and representative" of my school...It'll work out! :w00t: THanks for all the tips!

Thanks to you both. As a student I want to pass, and I have certain rules that I must follow, so just drinking anyway won't work. I think I'll try the drink in advance...only other option is to drink with my meal...which I may have to do for the 2 days a week that I have my "acute" clinical. On the bright side as students we take our full 30 minutes! :w00t:

Until you are restricted...(have sufficient fill) there shouldn't be any issue with taking time released meds because they will go straight on through to your stomach. Do check with your doc of course. Once you are restricted he may prefer that you switch to a non time-release formulary because the restrictive action of the pouch makes it work like "time release" anyway. Your surgeon however will make that call! And those of you opening and drinking capsules...take the parts of the capsule once you've gotten the "med" out, and put it in Water, and see how quickly it dissolves. If it dissolves fast (like within 5-10 minutes) you might want to try taking it whole. Because...if it dissolves fairly quickly, then even if it gets "stuck" it won't be much of an issue.

I still take all my pills including my Klor-Con which is a huge potassium pill. No problems. Have you TRIED to take your pills? Just spread them out.... and low dose aspirin is VERY small. You should be able to take that easily!

It is harder to place the band laparoscopically if your liver is too large. That will be your surgeon's call. Many of us (myself for example) don't have liver disease but do have enlarged "fat" livers and I had to do a diet to shrink mine. Your surgeon can give you guidance.

The band is a tool, that's all. Many many successful bandsters can eat what they want, and they do. It took me a while to realize this but it finally came through: I will use it however I WANT to use it. Except for the warning about "no carbonation" (and even that, eventually I may be able to tolerate) I will in large part determine what I can and cannot eat. I have a friend who weighs 120 and she's 5'5 and she has weighed that since high school. She is my age and healthy as a horse. She does NOT weigh/count/avoid/portion/fret over food. She does generally avoid processed things like white flour BUT she has only done this for about a year or two. AND if she wants to go to, say, Red Lobster and eat 3 cheddar biscuits, she does. MY point in all this: We will be in control and will use the band as we see fit. Personally I do NOT want so much restriction that I wonder each morning if I'll be able to swallow my own saliva. More power to those who feel they "need" that (but then, what you can eat when you are that tight is prety much nothing) but my doc says to aim for getting full on 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of food (note food...not "protein powder" etc) and be satisfied for up to 6 hours. Period. In other words if my family is jonesing for a hamburger, I will select from the kids/seniors menu. I'll have a small order of fries and may not eat them all. I won't go to hell and the world won't open up and swallow me if I do this LOL By the same token, bandsters who want to avoid hamburgers and fast food and anything that smacks of "unhealthy" may surely do so. That is the beauty of the band. In other words, there are no absolutes, nor are there any exact ways to work it perfectly. It adapts to us even as we adapt to it. If you choose leaner, healthier options you'll lose faster. I have 5.5 ccs in my 14 cc band and can still eat bread if I want to. I have to chew it very well, but I can have it. This isn't a punishment, it's for life. We have to choose how we're going to live it.