CSinTX

danide -- You go girl. papoose -- Nice to hear from you again, it's been several weeks. debrarh -- Congratulations on your surgery date. Glad to have you aboard. WENDY ANN -- Unfortunately most of here have been at the mercy of our insurance companies for the past several months. Persistence will pay off. Play their game and you will win. WAH.MOM -- Hello WAH.MOM. Welcome and glad to have another voice in all this chaos.

Congratulations kimmila and sannersplace72 for your approval and Congratulations mom05 for getting your surgery date. All were milestones for me. I have never been one for needles and in fact when I got married in 1988 I had to do an aids test for the state of Louisiana and I fainted on that one. But this surgery has me so excited. I am so ready to shuck this weight off. I am amazed that I have absolutely no apprehension about doing this and that is just not like me. Just think in a few short months we will be able to eat those tiny portions, feel full and look great and all at the same time. My daughter eats very healthy (did not learn that from me) and loves to go to those fancy restaurants where they charge you $20 for a cup of food. I have always dodged those places because I did not want to pay $20 for dinner and leave looking for the nearest fast food place. --- Now we can go to those places, enjoy the healthy foods, smaller portions and be satisfied. Can't wait. BandedNellie I completely feel the same way about my husband now. For years he never knew what I weighted and when I started this, I decided to bring him in. He has been their 100% and is planning on attending our meeting next Monday and the pre-op on Thursday. The other night I made the comment that there will only be half of me to love soon and he said "not half" but same amount just concentrated. Hope ya'll are having a great day. Cathy

CONGRATULATIONS and welcome to our world It was a huge relief to get a date and then to get a sooner one was fantastic. I hope you guys get approved within days of them submitting your paperwork. We all need to think positive thoughts and a looming uncertainty of approval is just counter productive. I did absolutely nothing towards my surgery until I had approval. I'll pray for your approval to come soon. Cathy

Hi Gale, I am so glad that you finally heard from them. Did they say why they will only submit 3 weeks before surgery? I guess they feel confident that your file is a slam dunk. Thanks for trying to help me find a calcium citrate chewable. All 3 of the ones that you send me have either Vit D or magnesium or both. It should be illegal for companies to put more than the recommended daily dosage. Twinlab Calcium Citrate chewable wafers have 400IU of Vit D (100%), 1000mg of Calcium (100%) and 500 mg of Magnesium (125%). Rainbow Light Calcium Citrate, chocolate chewables have 1000mg of Calcium (100%), 1000IU of Vit D (250%) , 500mg of Magnesium (125%) Bluebonnet - Liquid Calcium Magnesium Citrate has 1200mg of Calcium (120%), 800ID of Vit D (200%) and 600mg of Magnesium (150%). I think I finally have my Calcium project finished. I am looking at: Carlson Chewable Calcium Citrate (Vanilla) flavor - 250mg of Calcium --or -- Now Calcium Citrate powder - 1tsp is 700mg --or-- Solaray Calcium Citrate Chewable - 250mg, 2mg of Vit C Has anyone every heard of either of these 3 companies? Thanks for everyones help. Cathy

It will be very interesting to see all the different suggested Vitamins to get. Seems that each doctor has their own system and I bet we have several different versions listed before long. Here is my list. Vitamins: Multi Vitamin & Mineral Supplement - must get daily - 2500IU Vit A, 60mg Vit C, 15IU Vit E, 400mcg Folic acid Iron - 36mg daily in 2 (18mg) doses sublingual Vit B12 - 1000mcg daily calcium citrate - 1500mg (taken in 3 doses of 500 ea) Magnesium - 400mg daily Vit D - 400IU daily 2 week Pre-op diet (given by dietitian): 3 Meal Replacements (liquid and/or solid) with less than 200 calories, more than 10gms of Protein, between 15-27gms of Crabs and less than 7gms of Fat. and 1 meal of regular food that I would eat a year from now and in those portions. 6 week Post-op diet sugar-free liquids and if you are still hungry after 10 minutes then Full Liquids

Congtratulations and welcome to our group. I'm so glad to see somebody out there makes just a calcium citrate. Now if we can only find it in liquid or chewable. That is awesome to know. I'll add it to my list for sure. Boy, do I know what you mean. I was going on week three and having a fit that no one would give me the opportunity to schedule my surgery. It finally happened and everyone is happy. I am sure they are, they are not hearing from me anymore. You think they would learn that lesson real fast. I sure hope you hear something soon. I have read several on here that don't have a pre-op diet. I'm sure if you doctor wanted you on one he would have given you plenty of notice. Let us know how Friday goes. I go to my class next Monday. Congratulations and welcome. Don't be silent.

danide, mom05, butterfly2010 and sourmissg - thank you guys for everything. For your support, understanding, patience and love. So glad that we have each other. We consider you in our group as long as you keep posting. Welcome and glad to have you. Good morning Gale. You have so much patience with them. I hope you hear from them soon and with GREAT news. So last night I decided I better start getting ready, so headed to the store with my pre-op list, post-op list and Vitamin list. Oh and my husband. Started with the first isle in the store - the drug isle. We spent (I kid you not) at least an hour trying to sort through all the bottles of Calcium looking for what is on my list. Must be around 500mg, chewable or liquid. My husband got restless, I got aggravated and we left empty handed. So here is my dilemma. My doctor wants me to take a 500mg calcium pill 3x a day. My sheet says that our body can only absorb approximately 500mg increments of calcium at a time. So then why do so many companies sell them in 600 or 1000mg per tablet? The other problem I ran into with the calcium is that they all are over the normal daily recommended dosage of Vit D. I saw one company that boasted 250% of the daily recommended dosage of Vit D per table. And the doctor wants me to take 3 of these a day and that would be 750% more than I should take. Does anyone know what the ramifications are for taking such high dosage of Vit D over the long haul? What are you guys doing for calcium? Help:confused:

Hi Gale, Did you have any luck today? As everyone here knows, after days and days of calling, emailing I got my surgery date yesterday for Sept 10. Then last night (after 6pm) I got a call from the doctors office that they might have another day available if I was interested but would not know for sure until this morning. Because I was doing the pre-op diet already and have lost 5lbs they offered to change my surgery date. My pre-op appointment will remain as Aug 26 at 3pm, and then I'll go for surgery the following morning at 8am. So now that I'll be banded Aug 27, can I still be in this group? This has been my family. Cathy

Thank you Gale. Now we have to get your doctor to return your calls. Have you tried calling from a different phone number? (just in case they have caller id) Thank you.

I got the GREASE today:thumbup: I have been calling and emailing almost everyday since my approval on Aug 2 to get me a surgery date. August 23 - Bloodwork August 26 - Pre-op appointment Sept 10 - Surgery

Hello, I started looking into it in January 2010. Scheduled my seminar for Feb 3, approved Aug 2 but don't have a surgery date yet due to the doctor. When things are in my control, I'm patient but now that I am approved and we are going on 3 weeks and the doctor still won't give me a surgery date, I'm pissed. That would be the one question for your doctor. When will they actually give you a surgery date, before insurance approval or after. Most here seem to have a surgery date at the latest on their approval date. Good luck. Cathy

Hi Gale, Do you think our doctors forgot about us? Still nothing for me either. How was your trip? Cathy

My daughter is at ISU. She is starting her 3rd year in the Design program. Must be a good program to up root my only child from Texas to move to IA. She loves it up there (except the rain). Back to your Aunt. It's too bad that she was not more supportive that 2 family members were going through this at the same time. Poop on her. We'll be your supportive family till she comes around.

KAS1971 - Don't give up, you can lose those pounds before your surgery date. Instead of doing a 2 week pre-op, do a one month pre-op. That will do it.

Love your graphics and thanks for giving us some color. I see you are in Iowa, what school do you go too?

Congratulations. It's a great feeling to know that there is only 1 more obstacle in the way. The actually surgery. Then we are in the home stretch.

Have you checked your approval letter from the insurance company to see if you have time limit? My approval letter clearly states that my approval is only good for 90 days from submission (not approval).

Hope everyone had a good week. Even though I don't have a surgery date yet I went ahead and started my pre-op diet this past Monday, just in case the doctor should call and want to schedule the surgery. Had a good week and yesterday was invited to lunch with a friend. Said yes, thought I would eat just half a hamburger and only feel a half the guilt. Well about 6 hours later I was doing the porcelain praying. Food poisoning:frown:. Guess that taught me not to cheat. One good thing about last night, I lost several pounds this week. What a jump start to the diet. Hopefully I will get a surgery date sometime next week. This waiting for a surgery date is worse than waiting for insurance approval. Cathy

Hi Gale, Have you heard anything yet? Cathy

Welcome hserra and look forward to you sharing your journey with us. Congratulations on getting your date. It must be such a relief to have a date to count down to. I feel I am in limbo because my dr is dragging his feet on getting my file to the scheduler. It's been 9 days since I was approved and nothing yet. I started bothering them on a daily basis Tuesday, hopefully will hear something by the weekend. Anyway, congratulations to both of you for getting your dates.

I did something tonight that I have not done in a LONG while. I took my measurements. Besides pounds, I want to track how many inches I lose. I measured my neck, bust, waist, biceps, butt, thigh and calf for a total of 219". Woo, that's over 18 feet. Somethings gotta give. Anyone else out there doing this besides me? Cathy

Come on danide, tell us what you learned. Don't make us wait. I'm so excited that so many of us are going through this around the same time. Just when I get discourage about the doctor not calling me with a surgery date, I do get excited reading about everyone else's visit. So give us the details of your Pre-Op Seminar.

OMG. I am sooooo with you. I was approved 9 days ago and still waiting for the scheduler to call me. I spoke with the manager today and he said I should hear something within a week. Usually the squeaky wheel gets the grease but my squeaky wheel hit a glob of gum and got stuck. You know how sticky glue is on hot summer days -- ya that's me. Stuck. Cathy

I had to do the 6 month diet thing and was told absolutely don't gain a pound and lose a little weight. I only lost 8 pounds total over the entire 6 months. Was approved 3 days after we submitted paperwork.

Hi rkwilliams1013- Congratulations on your approval and hope you get a date soon. Welcome and look forward to your input. Cathy