Miper70

Do you use American money or exchange it out?

Those of you who went alone...was it scary or did you feel ok about everything? My husband wants to go, but I would rather him stay here with our kids. He is petrified of sending me off to Mexico alone. By the way, I am planning surgery with Dr. Ortiz in Tijuana.

Wow, this is a very interesting thread. I'm still in the "I don't know" stage, but I swear my gut tells me to go the RnY route. The first reason is that I already have an autoimmune disease which puts me at greater odds of rejecting the band. I also just had plastic surgery so I'm not too awful worried about sagging skin. It's so tight right now I can hardly breathe. I'm not necessarily wanting to lose it faster.....just want to lose all of the weight. I've also been eating right for over 11 years now with not a whole lot to show for it. I was always scared to cheat too much because I thought I would weigh 400 lbs instead of the 200 that I do. It's only been recently (past 6 mos or so) that I have been eating things I shouldn't because inside I just gave up losing weight. The fight was so hard and nothing to show for it. I exercise everyday........I eat right.....nothing. At this point in time, it is so easy to talk myself into doing the wrong things and I'm scared I'll do that with the band. I could easily tell myself that once I started losing weight I'd get my willpower back, but what if I dont?

You have no idea how much this post scares me. I have been trying to decide between lap-band and RnY and of course everyone who has lap-band says how great it is...yadda yadda and the same with the bypass. I read where Inamed says the lap-band is not meant to be permanent and people were saying, well by the time 10 years or so rolls around and you have to get it replaced or whatever, your eating habits will have changed. I don't think so. It is so easy to fall back into eating wrong. Once you start eating the processed foods again, your body just craves more. Take it from someone who lost over 65 lbs. and kept it off (on my own) for over 3 years until I got pregnant and started eating differently. SCARY! I'm petrified of RnY becuase of stretchage, but I think if I could have the fobi pouch put it, I'd choose RnY right now.

I posted this on another board and got so many conflicting stories, it's not even funny. If they had lap-band then it was the greatest thing. If they had bypass, it was the greatest thing. There are quite a few of us still trying to make up our minds and it's hard.....really hard.

This thread has gotten me so baffled. I too cannot get Tricare to even think about paying for the lap-band. I know any day now they may cover it because Medicare now covers it, but I just called 5 minutes ago and thy DO NOT cover it.

Just wondering if anyone has been approved recently. I was told by my surgeon's office that Medicare is now on board and covering lap-band, so Tricare will also. I will find out soon since all my stuff was sent in last week.

I have the same question, but I guess I'll be finding out soon enough...my stuff was sent through last week.

Why would you drop down to standard...are you sure it's covered? I just went from Prime to Standard (because my surgeon only accepted Standard), had my pre-surgery appts. and am now waiting to hear what Tricare says. My BMI is low at 36.7, but I have co-morbidities so....we shall see. They told me in the surgeon's office that Medicare stepped up to the plate and started covering lap-band in Feb. and whatever Medicare does, Tricare follows. I have my fingers crossed.