anonemouse

My mom is coming with me, to give me some moral support and to drive me back home.

I live about 6 or so hours from my hospital, so I get to spend that night in a motel that's across the street from the surgery center. I'll spend one night in the hospital, and one more in the motel before heading home.

I'm pretty good, except I'm so freakin' hungry right now. Day 2 of my pre-op diet. Wah! I wish I got to be at the hospital at 6:45 on my surgery day. I get to go in at 5:30.

Oh, and happy birthday!

Your sons were very cute. I was the woman in the red shirt and denim shorts (you may not remember me). I thought about saying something, but I wasn't sure if it was you or not.

From what I understand, most people have trouble with both intestinal gas and with gas in the body cavity. The GasX will only help with the intestinal gas. There isn't anything to help the body cavity gas except walking, which helps it get absorbed into tissue.

I started my pre-op diet yesterday, and yep, I'm hungry.

Yep, that's the requirement. If you've done a medically-supervised diet within the last couple of years, though, it should count. When I had everything sent to insurance, I hadn't been on a diet within a year, but I did do a medically-supervised phentermine diet for all of 2005, and First Health counted that as my diet attempt. So, they are willing to bend a little.

Tell them that you are having surgery. It's illegal for them to ask what it's for.

Toot away. You deserve it.

LOVE the cow cake, Sarah!

Oh, and they're really good about contacting you through email, also. You can ask them anything and they'll get back to you really fast.

One thing I really liked about their program is that they give out a packet at the seminar that contains listings of all the insurance companies and their requirements, so that you know what you'll have to do. The program manager or whatever she was (short older lady with curly hair) was cool, too.

Yep, it's important. Not as important as their experience, but if I had to choose between two equally experienced surgeons, and one was nice to me while the other one wasn't, I'd go with the nice one. I can't wait. I'll definitely post some updates. It may be several days after my surgery before I will be able to post, though. My mom wants to baby me since this is my first surgery, so I might not have access to the internet for a while.

I LOVE the stuff that's in Mucinex. Just to warn you, though, you can get it cheaper under another brand. Go to Walgreens or some other drugstore and get the store brand or one of the other brands (blue and gray box, but I can't remember what it's called). I live (when I'm in Crossville with my parents, at least) about a quarter of a mile from that winery.

Hi, Vicki! I was originally going to use Dr. Olsen from Centennial, but my insurance wouldn't pay for them. I am now using Dr. McGrath-Weaver in Memphis. What insurance company do you have? I don't think you'll have any problem getting approved, since you have co-morbidities, even though your BMI is under 40. Although, you may run into trouble if you have to do a diet before your insurance will approve you. Dr. Dyer is the only one of the three surgeons at Centennial that works with Medicare patients, so if you are on Medicare, you'll have to use him. To be honest, Dr. Olsen doesn't have a great attitude about the lap-band. He told me (and another patient that posted either here or at OH) that patients who have the lap-band aren't as committed to losing weight as patients who have RNY. If you have the choice of which surgeon to go with, I would recommend Dr. Houston. He's by far the most experienced with lap-bands, and I've heard lots of good stuff about him.

Yep! There's Stonehaus Winery and Chestnut Hill Winery. Stonehaus is off of exit 320 and Chestnut Hill is off of exit 322.

I am from Crossville, which is about an hour west of Knoxville. I am actually living and going to grad school in Richmond, KY now.

Not really stamina, I just know that if I take a break, I probably wouldn't go back. Plus, a Master's is just enough for entry-level positions in my field. If you want to move up, you have to have either a ton of experience or a doctorate. I'd love to see Alaska. Just seeing the scenery on TV is awesome. I'm just wary of the weather because I'm from Tennessee. We don't DO cold weather here. When I was in elementary and high school, we would have classes canceled if they even THOUGHT we might get snow or ice.

I've thought about visiting Alaska (heck, I've even thought of applying to a PhD program there), but then I think about the winters. I hate cold weather.

I looked on Art.com, but the only Bles that was there was Herri Bles.

I am looking forward to: being able to apply to any internship/PhD position that I want to, without worrying that I physically won't be able to do the fieldwork being able to climb over wire fences without worrying that they'll break when I'm doing my thesis fieldwork not having to turn sideways and walk on the tips of my toes to walk between desks when I'm at school going hiking with a group of friends and not wheeze too hard to talk being able to climb back on the tube when I fall off after tubing behind a boat finding an attractive swimsuit actually having fun when I go clothes shopping, instead of thinking it's torture

We're all pulling for you, Alexandra!

Plus, it apparently logged me out after a period of no activity. I had to run to the store and post office just now (gone for maybe 45 minutes) and when I refreshed LBT when I got back, I had to log in again.

I had to switch because my insurance wouldn't pay for my original choice, Dr. Olsen at Centennial in Nashville. I chose to go with Dr. McGrath-Weaver in Memphis, and I am so glad I did! No offense meant to folks who had Dr. Olsen as their surgeon, but I just wasn't very comfortable around him, once I had my consult with him. He didn't have a very positive attitude about the lap-band, and even made a comment about how people getting the band weren't as committed to losing weight as people who chose RNY. To be quite honest, his bedside manner sucked. Plus, he didn't have much experience with bands, only about 25 or so, according to OH. I was really quite relieved to learn that my insurance company wouldn't pay for him, because I was having some severe second thoughts about having him as my surgeon. Dr. Weaver, on the other hand, is a wonderful woman. She has a lot more experience with banding, having performed over a hundred when she was doing her fellowship. I met her for the first time this past Wednesday, and I was very impressed with her. She went into all of the possible side effects of the band, without basically telling me that I wasn 't committed, like Dr. Olsen did. She really seemed to care about me and my success, which means a lot. I mean, bedside manner (or lack there-of) isn't a deal-breaker, but it helps a lot.