stateofzen

My official preop diet is high protein/low carb 7 days before surgery, with Clear liquids starting 2 days before surgery. I went ahead and started the high protein/low carb a couple weeks ago and will continue it until surgery since I figure I've got to eat like this after surgery and I might as well make it a habit. I do feel lucky to only have to do 2 days of clear liquid before surgery though. You can do it! Just remind yourself why you are doing it and get through one block of time/one meal/one day at a time.

Thank you! I just really wanted to get a head start on the surgery and I'm feeling pretty good!

A clothes exchange is just where people trade clothes, perhaps for the cost of shipping. So if I have size 3x to offer up and need 2x, the idea is that I send my clothes to someone else and then get clothes from a third person. It's a nice way to lessen the cost associated with weight loss so that people don't have to buy a whole new wardrobe with every size they go down.

I know! Yesterday I went through some stored clothes that I have and realized that I got rid of anything smaller than the a step-down from where I'm at now, so I guess I really will get to shop. It was nice to already be able to pull a few pairs of pants and a few shirts out that I can wear again-- or will be definitely be able to within another 10 lbs! I have a bunch of stuff I'm probably going to offer up in a clothes exchange before too long, so I can pass clothes on to other people losing who may have started a bit bigger than me.

How frustrating! I had a similar experience-- I called my insurance, they told me what I had to do (6 month medically supervised), and when I was 5 months in I called back to find out about psychologists I could go to for an eval only to be told my particular plan from my employer excluded WLS. I was pissed, and devestated. I had to wait to switch to my husband's insurance, and now, a year after that crushing phone call, I'm finally approved and scheduled. Hang in there! It will happen for you.

I think it's a blessing to have a good month before your surgery to do all of the research you can, and get started on the "psychology" of the band. I've been reading,reading,reading and making lots of "to do" lists so that I'm as prepared as possible. Some of the things on my to do list: borrow the weight loss surgery cookbooks from my library to see what I might want to buy, test several different protein replacement drinks so I know what I like and can stock up beforehand, buy a new pair of athletic shoes to 'treat my feet', look for a good food scale, start weaning myself off diet soda, etc. It feels like I'm making a step every day even though I haven't had the surgery yet, and I feel like I'm setting myself up for success by preparing now, and not after I'm got the band on.

Has the band even been around for 10 years? I would not be surprised if this is sort of true (can that last forever in the body without degrading?), but I just don't know how accurate 10 years is. It's great that you have a friend who had the surgery to talk to! What a great resource.

As a fellow psychologist, I can say: she's full of crap (i.e. misinformation) and clearly is speaking outside her bounds of competence. That's just not true. The Realize band brochure says 50-100% excess body weight and I believe at my seminar, the surgeon said his patient's average was 60% of excess body weight. That's a big difference.

I'm sorry that you had this experience. Ugh. Here are a few responses I would consider, at least to vent with: "Oh, so when did you graduate from medical school? I had no idea you were a doctor! Clearly, since you know better than the medical community there must be some brand spanking new research you heard about in med school and I'd love for you to be my primary care physician!" "I didn't realize you'd ever been morbidly obese and knew the magic bullet to beat it. Please, tell me how you lost ___ lbs and became one of the 2% of people who kept it off at 5 years because I'd love to know!" "Bite my fat (lazy, you must think) butt!" :cursing: I'm mostly just joking-- naysayers have no idea what they are talking about but there's no convincing them so don't waste your breath. Sorry you had to hear it-- don't let it keep you from doing what you know, and the medical community knows, is the only effective long-term treatment for obesity.

I did my pre-op diet through my PCP at $30 co-pay, so it added up. I had to pay out-of-pocket for the initial surgical consult (200), my EKG (65), and the nutritionist/physical therapy seminar (100). The psych they referred me to wasn't in my network so it would have been 300-- so I went to one in my network for my $40 copay instead. I've put a lot of my own money into this, but it's been gradually over many months so it hasn't felt bad. To do it all at once would have been a little rough!

Which low carb diet are you doing? If you're not doing a specific one (South Beach, Atkins, Protein Power, etc.), you might want to buy or borrow a book from the library and start following a specific plan. It may help a lot. I follow Atkins and part of the reason I'm losing rapid weight now in pre-op is that I'm doing the optional induction phase which is super low carb. I pretty much eat lean meat, cheese, occasional eggs, and lots of lettuce (there are a few more vegetables I can eat but I go for ease over variety). It's not something I could or would want to maintain forever, but it does the job in the short term. It even got me off my cholesterol meds! Not that Atkins is the only plan to follow-- but I do think it helps to follow a plan if you aren't already. Otherwise, I don't know what's going on for you in particular, but I definitely would not take it as a sign that the lap-band won't work. I'd take it as a sign that you *need* the lap-band! I should edit and say: Of course if your doctor's plan is none of these, follow your doctor's plan of course.

I love Milo's sweet tea made with Splenda (so obvs no calorie, no carbs). I also really really like Powerade Zero. Crystal Light's pomegranate cherry is good too-- though I usually "half" the packet in a bottle of Water or it's too much for me. I am so addicted to Diet Dr. Pepper that a big part of my pre-op is weaning myself from that.

I'm a girl, but I'm totally going to be a September Stud Thanks!

Everything will probably be fine-- your doctor does this all of the time and if they pre-scheduled you they did it thinking they could get it approved. But, in the chance it isn't approved, it isn't the end of the world. Disappointing, yes, but not the end of the world. Like you said, you've been working this since January, so if you have to give the insurance company and your doc a few extra weeks to get everything squared away, then you can do that, right? I speak from experience here. I found out 5 months into my 6 month diet that my employer specifically excluded WLS from our plan. I cried and felt hopeless, knowing that I'd have to wait another 5 months to switch to my husband's insurance, and then have to hope they took my diet from the previous insurance and wouldn't make me redo it. And now, after some procrastination on my own part, I am approved and scheduled and it's going to happen. I lived through it and I'm going to make it out on the other side soon. And, I think it will all be worth it in the end. Good luck! I hope everything works out for you.

I've told the people I would tell any significant news to: my parents, my in-laws, and my best friends (who also happen to be my colleagues). Everyone has been super supportive. I don't plan to discuss it otherwise because it really isn't anyone's business. I mean, knowing the kind of comments I've gotten from "always-thin" people when I was losing weight during my pre-op doctor-recommended low carb diet, I'm just not interested. I go back and forth between wanting to roll my eyes and wanting to smack someone who has never ever had a weight issue telling me how unhealthy that is, or how if I just exercised I would love it! As if I've lived this life without every trying exercise and diet to lose weight Whatever. I know people in this world are so afraid of being fat that they cling to the idea that it's easy to control for everyone if they just work out-- it's a security blanket for people who don't know any better and let them have it. But I'm pretty sure I (and we), and the medical community, are a little more expert on obesity and how you treat it.

hserra, we're date buddies! I don't do my pre-op stuff until two days before my surgery, so I'm glad to hear all of the info from yours danide! I know it will be a little different, based on my surgeon, but its been so long since I did my workshop (in September of last year, I think), that I honestly don't remember a single specific thing. I know we go back over it during my pre-op day, so I'm trying not to be anxious. My doc doesn't have a pre-op diet, but I'm doing Atkins myself for the next month. Started 3 days ago and had my "beast" day on day 2 where no matter how much approved food I ate, I felt ravenous (you should have seen the size of the steak I had for dinner). Luckily that has passed and I may be in crave-free zone- whee :thumbup: Anyone else looking at their exercise plan right now? I have to admit, I don't exercise at all but I want to get something started before my surgery so that the seeds of a plan are in place. I'm looking at starting with an exercise bike until I build up some stamina.

I scheduled my surgery for September 17th (a birthday present, as my birthday is the 16th)! I could have done an August surgery, but since I have so much to lose I want to get a good head-start before the surgery and make sure I hit the ground running. My doc doesn't do a pre-op diet, so I'm doing one of my own for the next month (low carb works for me in the short term, and actually improved my cholesterol/got me off my meds). My WLG is to lose 100-125 lbs (125 would put me at a BMI of 24.9). But really, *any* weight I can lose and then freaking keep off will do me some major good so I'm going to try really hard not to worry about the number. My goals are to have less back and foot pain and to not worry about whether the airplane seat belt is going to buckle around my lap. This is a weird goal, but maybe some of you gals will understand-- I want to stop ruining every shirt I have because food cannot help but drop straight on the huge shelf of my chest.

During the 6 month required diet (which I did for 8 months in the end) I did lose about 25 lbs. I gained about 15 of it back after Christmas until now. Because my original supervised diet was still within a year, they didn't make me redo it-- they counted it from April-November of last year. I've lost about half of what I've regained since the beginning of the summer and I want to do as much as possible more before I do the surgery. I just can't dip below 255 or I won't qualify anymore

I was approved with BCBS AL in 15 minutes, not kidding. Just this morning, actually! I got a call from my docs office with a question about my insurance and she said she was going to call it in for approval-- called me back 15 minutes later and said she got it and they'd get back to me Monday to schedule the surgery. It's a little surreal. This time last year I was one month away from finishing my 6 month diet and I found out that my workplace insurance excluded bariatric surgery. I was pretty crushed, and mad at myself for not knowing it sooner but it was probably a blessing in disguise because I got to build some confidence that I could make the changes I needed to succeed. I switched to my husband's insurance, which does cover it, and after procrastinating for another 6 months on finishing the final things (my psych eval, faxing records), I got it in and I'm now approved. Wee!

I found out at month 6 of my 7 month pre-op diet that my particular BCBS plan (AL) does not cover any bariatric surgery. Wow did I feel stupid for assuming it would. After a little emotional breakdown, my husband and I started looking at options and found that his insurance plan BCBS (AL) does cover the band. So, things are pushed back while we wait for open enrollment with my new insurance going into effect in January. My question is if anyone has ever done this, and what happened? I'm going to keep up my doctor's supervision so that I'll have had continual dr supervised diet well over the requirement. Do you guys think they'll make me start all over on the new plan? Have a waiting period? I'm just really curious and even though this may seem silly, I don't want to call BCBS because I'm irrationally afraid it will prompt them to change their policy if they know beforehand. Yes, that's so irrational, but I can't help it.

As someone who has approximately your pre-band measurements (5'7", 260), you are definitely an inspiration. Congrats on the payoff for all of your hard work.

No diet, alone, is successful at long term weight loss (for 98% of people, anyway). That's why we're all getting/have gotten bands. I think we need to keep this in mind as we bicker about low carb. Atkins-based induction led me to lose 15 lbs in 2 weeks in May. After 2 weeks, I started to eat in more moderation and took off an additional 5 pounds. Now I'm kick-starting myself with another 2 weeks because I found myself starting down the fast-food, ice cream road again and though I hadn't gained any yet, we all know that was just around the corner. Since I want to make some real changes in how I look at food before I get the band so as not to go through the process only to fail, I'm trying to find this elusive land of moderation and low-carb is helping me do that. That's me-- it won't work for everyone. I just hate all of the tearing down that goes on about what the right diet is when there is no one right way of eating. Funny aside-- when I tell people I'm doing low-carb, I get lectures about how unhealthy that is (seriously, I have). But when I tell people I'm doing "no sugar, no starch", they pat me on the back for my healthy decisions.

My name is Maren and I live in Alabama. I'm 34, with a high weight of 293 and a BMI of 47 (starting). I have BCBS and am in my third month of the 6 month supervised weight loss. My doc has me doing a controlled carb diet, mostly to get me in the mindset of putting protein first and carbs last for my post-surgery lifestyle and I'm down to 278 after only a few weeks of *really* trying. Believe me, I've done the calculations and know that to be safe in terms of insurance coverage, I shouldn't get below 260. I think I'll have to add back in a few carbs over the next few months and then once I'm approved, get back on track. That's sad, considering I've been morbidly obese for about a decade, but I'll play the games just like everyone else. For a long time I've thought casually about surgery, but I haven't gotten serious until recently. I actually don't have any major health concerns yet but I've had three miscarriages (no successful pregnancies) and even though there is no clear reason why weight would have anything to do with it, my OB specialist recommended I put off any more attempts until I lose weight. My doctor (primary) and my OB-GYN think I should do the full bypass because of my weight, but I have thought a lot about it and think I prefer the band. I'll hold off final decision until I talk with my surgeon, but in the meantime I'll be preparing for the LapBand procedure. I look forward to learning from you all and journeying with you. -Maren

Thanks for the reply- I appreciate hearing from people with a similar issue. The morbidity/mortality comparison makes me really like the band, as does its versatility. Even though my OB says he's had patients with bypass have successful pregnancies, I just worry about the "what if I need more room" issue to provide adequate nutrition. And frankly, when I get right down to it, because of my job (college professor), I can't really easily take off at least 2 weeks for post-surgery recovery unless I want to wait another year for next summer when I don't have any classes. I don't get "vacation" or "sick days" like most people do because of the different nature of our work calendar.