lauragshsu

I don't regret it, at all, and I've had a ton of troubles. I've had two fills since surgery, but six unfills (including a complete unfill). I'm incredibly sensitive to fills and and have found that even .25cc too much will make me vomit (not PB, but vomit). I had a single incision through my belly button...and after seven months, the incision still hadn't fully healed. Come to find out, I had a port infection, so a month ago I had a secon surgery to remove my port, clean the area and let it heal. I'm having a third surgery (hopefully) on the 23rd of this month to replace the removed port. Given all that, I would not for a second NOT do it again. I was 319lbs at 27, borderline diabetic and had fertility problems. I got my initial Dr referral for my 28th b-day last November, and it was the greatest gift I could give to myself and my family.

I've considered alterations, but only for a few favorite items. I'm very cheap :eek: I've found I can go to the local thrift store and get stuff for $3-$4 that fits. Again, I'm VERY cheap (all my daughter's clothes come from a thrift shop, too).

I live at about 5,000ft, and have flown down to southern Texas (almost sea level) and back and have never had any issues. I've been told sometimes the band can tighten up during flying, but I never had a problem (and had even had a fill a week before the flight).

I wish I had known. I gave away two huge bags of size 24s and some 22s a few weeks ago to a store similar to Goodwill. I have some 22s still and some 20's, though. I feel your pain, though. I gave away over half my professional wardrobe (slacks, skirts, nice jackets, and also some jeans, tshirts and sweaters), and don't have the money to buy new stuff I don't think I'll be in too long. Thus the glory of thrift stores.

The psych eval was a two parter for me. I had an initial session with the doctor, and we just talked for a while. Before talking, he had me fill out several surveys and we talked about the things on there (especially being abused as a child). Then he had me come back a week later to fill out the WLS survey, which was what he had to evaluate to deem if I was "mentally fit" enough for WLS and all that comes with it. The longest part was finding a psych eval dr. Tricare kept referring me to people who weren't in business, only worked with kids, flat out didn't do it, one who was retired and a person who had died six months prior.

While I'm not in Germany, I can tell you tricare was so easy to get approval from. It took me less than 4 months from my initial PCM consulation on base to surgery. It would have been about 6 weeks less, but there was issues in getting my psych eval (I kept getting referred to people who didn't or couldn't to the evals). In seven months, I've lost 93.6lbs. I haven't been this "low" (yeah, it's odd to consider 225 low) since I graduated high school.

Ack! What happened to the spreadsheet?? I went ot go into enter my weight from this week and all the names and weights are erased. Is it showing up like this for everyone or just for me??

There was no copay or anything with Tricare. However, my surgeon does have a $500 "program fee" that's not covered by insurance (they don't even send it to insurance), that they get to keep even if you back out. They tried to bill me for the H. Pylori test, but I refused to pay it because 1) it wasn't part of the written additional fees not covered by insurance and 2) they never even tried to bill tricare for it.

I agree with Maggie. I understand where it's illegal if underaged girls are involved or if a person is forced into it. However, I've never understood why the whole thing is illegal. I don't believe in it because of my religious beliefs. However, I've never understood why marrying a woman (even though they're not legally married) when you're married is any different than having a wife and a mistress.

My pain from the surgery is great. My pain from the UTI is still intense. I'm going to go to instacare tomorrow if it hasn't lessened. I finally got ahold of my surgeopn today (a week after the surgery). I'm going to have to go in for a third. I thought he had just moved the port, but he removed in completely. He said he didn't want to move it elsewhere because he didn't want the bacteria from the infection to stay in the port and be moved over. I'm going to see if I can have my third surgery for port replacement right before Thanksgiving (so I don't have to take any more time off).

I've never regretted it, even though I've had issues. I have been overfilled since my first fill, and it took several unfills before (the last being under fluoroscopy) I'm finally not "overfilled". My incision never shut (single incision through the belly button, just glued shut), and I had to have "exploratory wound surgery" last week, where the dr moved my port, cleaned outt he initial incision area and sewed it shut. After all that, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I've lost 90lbs in 7 months without a stringent diet and hellish exercise plan (though I do stay active and try and eat sensibly).

The bad thing is I can barely move without pain, so I've put on three pounds from lack of activity and exercise. I've bannned myself from weighing myself until next Saturday, because it's driving me crazy. On a different note, I'm not sure how/why people are becoming addicted to oxycotin. It's great if you're in pain, but makes me feel so fuzzy headed.

Surgery went well- almost no pain. The Dr moved my ort and sewed (yay!) my incision shut. I am in tremendous pain right now- Tuesday I was having severe stabbing pelvic pain. Several hours in the ER needed to find out I have a bad kidney infection. I'm taking an oxycotin every 4 hrs for the pain, and it's barely taking the edge off. I'm hoping the antibiotics help clear it up, fast!

Thanks guys! I'm not yet nervous about it, but annoyed more than anything. I'm going to take off Tuesday (Monday is a holiday) to recoup. I can't see trying to be on my feet all day and wrangle a bunch of fifth grades less than 24 hrs after surgery. I'm annoyed because I have to use one of my precious few sick days. In the end, I would definitely do it all again. I hit the 220's this morning for the first time in 10 years. That alone has made me happy I've done this.

Well, I get to go back under the knife on Monday. At almost seven months post op, my incision (single incision through the belly button) was still open and draining fluids (my dr doesn't suture it shut, just glues it). After three bouts of antibioticsand waiting and waiting, I went in today to ask him to please just stitch it shut. He pushed down by my port (right above the incision) and pus came out. He's opening me back up Monday to move the port and clean out the incision area. Fun!

Does anyone know if there is a weight limit, and what it is, on the kids crawling tubes at places like Chuck E Cheese?

That's why I'm using my child as an excuse to go up in the tubes :thumbup:

My friend had bypass. She almost died (after being in a coma for two weeks). Guess what? she only lost 45lbs or so and ended up having another surgery to have the band placed over her bypass stomach.

I'm with Dave. I went to see my PCM Nov 25 and got a referral immediately (of course, my BMI was 47). I had no comorbidities, but I have PCOS (which sometimes they count), plus a family history of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. I didn't have to see a nutritionist nor did I have a Dr followed diet of any kind. I was banded less than 4 months after that initial PCM visit. It only took that long because of tricare insisting I see one of their drs for the psych eval. I could have been banded at the beginning of January if it weren't for that. My surgeon (and his whole team) told me tricare is one of the easiest insurances to both work with and to get approval from.

My husband didn't want me to have the surgery, either, at first. It was because he was afraid I was going to die. It came from a friend having bypass and having severe complications and almost dying (she was in coma for 2 weeks). I showed him all the stats, especially the page we were given at a seminar that showed my surgeon's stats vs the national average. He was still nervous the day of, but has been very supportive. The thing is, you know your fiance better than anyone else here, and only you can be the one to discern his real motives for being against the surgery.

I was told I had to be off birthcontrol too. However, having Mirena (which still has BC hormones) "didn't count". Weird.

I decided on lapband after watching a friend have bypass. She had severe complications and was in a coma for two weeks. Even after all that, she only lost 40lbs. She later went on to have lapband.

Yesterday was the "official" halfway point. We have been doing this for three months and have three more to go. We currently have a total of 571 lbs lost- that's incredible!!! So how is everyone doing on their goal? I've only fot 13.6lbs more to go on mine. I'm trying to decide if I should bump it up some more, but I think I'll stick with my original goal. Here's the spreadsheet link again, just so we don'thave to go searching back through everything. https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApBMiLjvkwExdEh3eXQwZ2JOemthWHRhaWRZMldpR2c&hl=en&authkey=CIbr1NIE#gid=0

I am an AF wife and got easy approval from tricare- no waiting and no 6 month diet. The thing that took the longest was my psych eval because tricare insisted I go to one of *their* doctors. They referred me to people who didn't do psych evals (for surgery), only worked with kids, were retired and one person who had died 8 months before. Go tricare! Once all ym stuff (labs, psych eval) was turned in, I was approved within 48hrs.

Mine accepted PCOS (I have tricare for my insurance). Also, I have a family history of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, and they accepted that (I was borderline diabetic, so the family history of diabetes made it more serious).