♥Amy♥

Hey susancarole! The pre-op diet is kinda getting off to a slow start. I really need structure and discipline so I'm thinking about talking to my doctor about doing Optifast or something like that. Does anyone know if insurance companies typically would cover something like that?

Thank you so much, everyone, for the supportive and encouraging words. You have no idea how much it means to me. And yes...she is a hater.

Has anyone who has had Optifast prescribed by a doctor have it covered by their insurance? Just curious. I know Optifast is an approved physician supervised weight loss program by Aetna but I'm not sure if they cover it. It's tough getting a straight answer from them. Thanks in advance!

So yeah, for the first time last night I talked to her about me wanting to have Lap-Band surgery. She works in a hospital in medical records so she thinks she's a doctor by proxy. :teeth_smile: She says to me "You mentioned this a long time ago and I wasn't too thrilled with it. So I informed her that she was right about me talking about WLS but it wasn't LBS it was GBS. And she said "Noooo it wasn't! It was LBS you were considering!" Yeah ok...anyway. So she says "You go on Weight Watchers and you lose weight just fine." So I said "Yeah, that's why I'm still 120 lbs overweight." So she says "Well that's because you don't stick with it!" :redface: Now this is coming from a woman who is also over weight. Sure, she lost about 40 lbs and has kept it off but she's still a size 18 (she is 5'3") and has diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. If anyone should be doing this it's her. This is also someone who called me a "fat pig" when I was about 6 or 7 years old and if you saw pics of me from then you would know I was the opposite. I could have stood to gain weight. So then she proceeds to tell me "I don't know anyone who hasn't had this surgery that hasn't gained the weight back in 5 years." She knows one person and she had GBS and that's just one person and I've never seen this person before so I don't even know for sure that she gained the weight back. My step mother been known to bend the truth or lie when it suits her needs. So I told her that I know it isn't a magic bullet and that I'm going to have to change my eating habits for the rest of my life but the band is a tool that will help me do something that I haven't been able to do on my own. And I told her that I have given this a lot of thought. A lot of serious thought and I've done quite a bit of research on the surgery so I'm not going in to this blindly. I know all the pros but I also know most, if not all, of the cons. I lost about 75 lbs on weight watchers when I was 17-18 but...I worked for my parents and being that they wanted me to lose weight I could leave whenever I wanted to go to the gym and I lived at home so my step mother did all the grocery shopping. I lost the weight and then I thought "Cool! I'm done!" Yeah...:wink_smile: Obviously I wasn't. I know now that I won't ever be done. This is something I will have to work at for the rest of my life. So she says to me "You're going to have to go on a diet for the rest of your life if you do this. Why can't you do it without having surgery?" ARGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :smile2: Sorry this was so long. I just needed to vent. Thanks for "listening" :biggrin: :rant:

Wow! That's so awesome! Can I ask how much of the weight you lost was due to the surgery? How much of the 25lbs was lost pre-op? I really can't wait to be banded! :thumbup:

Congrats on your surgery! I'm no doctor and I haven't been banded yet (can't wait!) but I've read on here that there were people who were still a little uncomfortable 2 weeks out but are fine now. Maybe you're a slow healer? Make sure you're taking it easy and try not to be depressed. You did a great thing for yourself. You just need to give it a chance to heal. Being depressed will make it take that much longer. Are you walking? I'm sure that would help with the healing and the depression. Good luck!

How long did you do your pre-op liquid diet for? And what did it consist of? You look amazing, BTW. Great work!!

So far so good! I went to my Pulmonologist appointment yesterday. Monday was the cardiologist, this coming monday is my meeting with my PCP to go over everything and officially start my 6 mo. physician supervised diet and exercise plan, Oct 4th I have a echo cardio gram appointment. The Cardiologist said everything sounded fine but he wanted me to have one "just in case" but he doesn't see any reason, from his standpoint, why I shouldnt be able to have the surgery. Nov 1st is the nutritionist and Nov 18th is the Endocrinologist. The only doc I am using that is reccommended by my surgeon in the psychologist. I was informed by a few psychologists that were on my plan, very nicely, that if they were to work with me on this I would end up paying more out of pocket for them than I would if I paid the flat fee for the surgeon's psych. considering she knows what he wants and the others will have to do a lot of going back and forth. Anyway, I'll be making some more appointments soon. The 6 months will be up before I know it! :thumbup: Thanks for asking!

I would just say that you need a consult and exam when you are making the appointment. That's what they told me to do when I went for my consult. You don't have to say that you are having the surgery until you get there. Make sure you get copies of the all the reports and any letter the specialists might write to your surgeon just in case. If anything is missing when the time comes to submit it all it will delay the approval process. Luckily for me I don't need any referrals. I probably wouldn't get much done quickly if I was constantly having to get referral notes from my PCP. Good luck on the rest of your journey! :tongue2:

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place but...I know most surgeons will let you choose which kind of band they put in but can we also have a say in how big of a band ( cc size) we can have and is there a difference in weight loss as far as that goes? I read most people have 10cc bands but I have read that a few people have 14cc bands. Does anyone know why there would be different sizes? I'm guessing a 14 cc band would allow for more fills so I figure that means that the weight loss might not slow as quickly as it would with a 10 cc band? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I know hardly anything about this stuff. Thanks in advance!:girl_hug:

Congrats on the surgery and thanks! I can't wait to be where you are :confused:

Thanks Lcubed and susancarole!:smile:

I know it's a bit late but I'm new so I just saw this :wink_smile: Dr. Holover will be my surgeon. I just met with him on the 17th. I don't know if I can answer your question but hopefully it's been answered by now :smile:

Sorry you were denied but you should actually consider yourself lucky. Aetna just changed the requirement at the beginning of the year. Before February, I think it was, you had to have a BMI of 35 or over for 5 years. Good luck on your journey to bandland! I just started mine. Aetna is a PITA when it comes to all they want you to do to be approved but it will be worth it in the end. I've been obese all of my adult life so this is a long time coming for me. :smile:

Hi everyone! I just started my journey to bandland on the 17th of this month. I had my consult with Dr. Holover and I had my 1st Dr's appt yesterday. I went to the cardiologist and he's sending me for an echo just to be on the safe side but he said as far as he's concerned, I'm ok for surgery. I have the Endocrinologist on Nov. 18th and today I'm going to make a few more appointments. I'm not really rushing them because I have Aetna and they require a 6 month physician supervised weightloss and exercise regimen. I know there was something in the requirement about a 3 month pre-op thing as in place of the 6 month diet. Does anyone who has Aetna know about that? I have the Open Access HMO. I have an email in to the surgeon's office so maybe they can help me decipher that. It would be great to be able to get the surgery sooner rather than later. So, hello to all you other Long Island banders and banders-to-be! I'm from Suffolk! :smile:

This has been an issue for me, also. I told my parents what I plan on doing but I'm not so sure I want to tell my in-laws. They're very judgemental and although they can stand to lose a few pounds they think they're better than me because they are much smaller than me. They are "judge a book by its cover" type of people and I've come to terms with the fact that they don't like me because I am not "normal" looking. The only thing that is stopping me from keeping the info from them is what if, God forbid, something happens to me during surgery? If DH has to call them up and say "Mom and dad, Amy had surgery today and such and such happened" They are the kind of people who instead of rushing to his side to be supportive and comforting, they seriously will yell at him and ask why we didn't tell them before hand. They're very toxic people but DH loves them so I tolerate them. I don't want them to know because once they know then everyone will know but what if something was to happen? Ugh!! It's amazing how much wrestling we have to do when it comes to doing something for ourselves! :cry_smile:

I asked my surgeon about the realize band and he said that there is more chance of erosion with the older band and the realize band because it is one chamber (where as the newer bands have several "compartments") and when it gets filled it tends to crease in certain spots causing uneven pressure on the stomach which in turn can cause erosion. I'm so sorry this happened to you, Carol. *hugs* and I hope things work out for you in the end. Try and be positive. I know it's easier said than done but being depressed won't help you lose weight. If you want to keep that 50 lbs off you need to do something proactive. Lots of luck!

Thanks so much, Jo Ann. I haven't attended any meetings yet. I will be sure to attend as I get closer to having surgery, though :rolleyes2:

Hey Jo Ann! I'm sure you're doing great. Congrats on the surgery. I hope to be where you are very soon. :rolleyes2: What do you think of Doctor Holover? I'm getting nervous because I haven't read too many positive posts about him and his office staff on the OH Forum. I thought he was great but it's the after care that I read was lacking. I even read something about him cancelling a lot of appointments post surgery. Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated. I need to know that I am making the right decision as far as he is concerned.

Hey there! I had my 1st consult with Dr. Holover on the 17th. I have my first appointment with the cardiologist today. I'm hoping to get everything done soon but I have Aetna and they require a 6 month physician supervised weight loss regimen :girl_hug: Oh well...it will be worth it. I just hope it all goes by fast. I'm anxious :girl_hug: How do you like Dr. Holover? So far he seems cool :rolleyes2: