nallygirl

Hi everyone! I have been banded for nearly a year now and so far it has been a great experience. Yesterday though I noticed a bump up under my ribcage where there wasn't a bump before. I felt around my belly button where my port normally should be and I can't feel it. So I'm wondering if my port has somehow become detached and has moved up? Is this possible? If it is should I make an emergency appt with my dr office or just wait until my next visit (in 4 weeks)? There is no pain...just a freaky bump on my rib cage! Thanks for any advice of info!!

Mine was about $300 for two weeks of Optifast shakes & soup which also wasn't covered by insurance. I don't know if you have a Flex Spending Account but I was able to use that to pay for mine. I just had to submit the prescription from my doctor to prove it was a medical necessity. If that's not an option for you then I agree with everyone else, I would ask if you can buy something comparable on your own. Good luck!

Im in for 10 also!!

Checking in...final weight for this challenege is 234. Didn't make my goal but I'm still happy I'm losing

Opps accidentally posted under the wrong challenge! Not sure how to delete a post

I was so scared to get on the scale this morning after the weekend I had but was very happy to see I'm down 2 pounds!! YAY! Starting Weight: 239 Current Weight: 237 I only made it to the gym three times last week so my goal this week is to make it all four days!

I had my first fill a few weeks ago and mine was pretty much like yours. The PA injected me with something to numb the area but honestly it didn't help at all. It took her 10 minutes to find my port. She just kept moving the needle around and when she though she had the right spot she would push down and it felt like a bee sting when she did that. For the most part I couldn't feel it, until she would push down (which she did a lot). She gave me the same reason though for the difficulty, said it was because I have a lot of scar tissue blocking where she needed to go to insert the needle in the port. I'm hoping the next one is a little smoother but I'm kind of freaked out about it now too!

I'm only a month out, won't get my first fill until next week but I average about 2 pounds per week.

Congratulations!! Good luck with your surgery!!

Hi Renee! I had my surgery on March 16th and I didn't have any issues at all with my surgery or recovery. On day three I was sweeping my floors and day four I was out walking at the outlet mall with my friend. As for the gym, I was back in the gym walking on the treadmill within a week. After two weeks I was cleared to run but still no weight training. The surgeon said I cannot do weight training or core work until week 6 just to give myself extra time to heal. It seems like every surgeon is different though so you might be able to weight train sooner. For the pre-op diet, I did still workout but I noticed a huge drop in energy. I was only able to do an hour max and that was just walking, zumba or kick boxing class. Now that I am able to eat actual food again my energy has returned and I haven't had any issues in the gym with long workouts. Hope that helps! Good luck with your surgery!!

Hi Karen...I am 12 days post op and even though it did take a few days I was definitely hungry after my surgery. Once the swelling goes down from surgery I was told to expect to be hungry. I didn't feel like I was starving but I could tell I would have a little rumble here and there. I just progressed to mushies today and it did help with the hunger. Good luck and Congrats on your surgery!

Hey teachkins! It's most likely due to your increased protein intake. If you Google ketosis you'll see one of the symptoms is bad breath. I had the issue before when I was doing Atkins and now that I've started drinking the protein shakes again I've noticed the issue a few times myself. Hope that helps

Hi Kelli! I'm 5 days post-op also and still have some pain in my biggest incision which I'm assuming is where my port is. It is really uncomfortable to sit in certain positions for too long but it seems to get better every day. Hang in there!!

I am on week 2 of my liquid pre-op diet. My surgeon makes us use the Optifast products. So I have Optifast shakes 4 times a day, one Optifast bar and one Optifast soup (powder soup mix - chicken and tomato). The shakes are tiny, only 8 oz and the soup isn't much either. The one thing that has kept me somewhat full though is constantly drinking water and if I'm super hungry I'll have some coffee with splenda.

Hi Justin, For me personally I had to do a 6 month medically supervised diet and exercise program per my insurance (Cigna). I did mine through my surgeon's office but others have done their's through a Primary Care Physician. For mine I went to a group meeting once a month at my surgeon's office. They would record my weight then we would have a class on a nutrition topic (reading food lables, importance of exercise, healthy options for eating out). Some in the class also had a weight loss goal set for them by their surgeon that they had to meet before the end of the 6 months, my surgeon did not have this requirement. At the end of the 6 months I had to get all my pre-op testing done so my PCP would write me a medical clearance for surgery. Not everyone's PCP made them do this. Some didn't do their testing until they received insurance approval. The testing included blood work, chest xrays, Upper GI and gallbladder ultrasound. Once that was done, my clearance letter written, the surgeon's office submitted all my paperwork to the insurance company for approval. I received an approval in a few days and my surgery was scheduled for the next month. From start to finish this process took me 8 months and I have my surgery on March 16th. Since you only have to do a 3 month supervised diet yours may take a much shorter amount of time. But I would plan on it being at least 5 months before your actual surgery date. As for the psych eval, mine was very quick. It was a 30 minute session with a psychologist. She asked me questions about myself, what I do for a living, how long I have considered weight loss surgery, what else I have tried, why did I decided to do it now, have a researched the surgery. She also asked me questions about my history with weight, was I over weight as a child, what are/were my exercise habits. Then she asked if I had told anyone about wanting surgery and if they were supportive. Basically to me it seemed like they were trying to make sure I was aware this is a life changing decision, that I wasn't making an impulse decision to have it done and that I have a good support system in place after surgery. It's really not that bad at all. Like you I was really upset when I found out I had to wait so long for the surgery. Once I decided this was right for me I wanted to have it done tomorrow! Looking back though and seeing how much I have learned over the past 8 months I am grateful to have had the time to prepare myself for this new lifestyle. I hope that helped to answer some of your questions. Good luck!

Hi gregt...While I haven't had my surgery yet that is actually something I asked my nutritionist about. She suggested I just add an additional scoop of Protein powder to my shakes. So if my brand says a serving size is 1 scoop, I will just add 2 scoops for the extra calories. I'm not sure if you are using RTD or are making your Protein Shakes yourself, but if you are making them yourself you might want to try this out and see if it works for you. I'm sure some people in the post-op section would have some great ideas as well. Good luck to you!

Hi Justin, If you are planning on using insurance to pay for surgery you may want to start there just to see if they cover the gastric banding. If they do, then you can ask about your specific situation as well. Have you gone to a seminar yet or met with a surgeon? This would be a great question to bring up with the surgeon during your one on one consultation. It would also be a good idea to discuss alternatives to narcotic pain relievers after surgery. My sister was on methadone when she had a major surgery and they were able to give her non-narcotic meds that still helped with her pain. Congratulations on seeking recovery! Stay strong and good luck with your journey!

Hi Jshivery! Welcome and good luck with your appointment!

LoL! Oh good I'm soooo happy to hear its not too bad!! Do you have the Soup too? I heard from someone else who had her surgery through my surgeon that we will be allowed to have one Optifast soup a day along with the shakes. She said the chicken was awful but the tomato is supposed to be bearable! We shall see; I start mine on the 2nd

Hi Everyone!! I'm kinda out of the loop, it's been a crazy week but wanted to say Welcome to all the new future bandsters, CONGRATS to everyone who has their approvals and Good Luck to all of us still fighting through the insurance process!! I had my final round of testing on Wednesday which included gallbladder ultrasound, chest and abdominal xrays and my UGI scan. Now it all needs to be sent to my PCP so she can write my medical clearance letter. Then that all needs to go to my surgeons office so they can submit everything to insurance. Little by little things are getting done. Hoping I'll get an approval in early Feb and a surgery date in late Feb!! Hope you all are doing well!! ~Natalie

@aDORAblesista - I don't have a surgery date yet but my surgeon said I will have to do a 2 week pre-op liquid diet. He makes all his patients do it to help shrink their liver prior to surgery. It seems like each surgeon requires something different though. @cheechtrish - Congrats on your surgery date! Good luck with everything!! :thumbup:

YAY!!! I'm so excited for you!!! Congrats on your surgery date and thank you for all the great information!!

@justplaintired – I would love to tell you that I'm used to it and that I wear it without fail every night but in reality I am horrible about wearing it. I have a tiny nose (so they say) and am a mouth breather so I have to use the full face mask. Let me tell you it's a good thing I'm single because that thing is so not sexy to wear to bed LoL!! I look like a fat fighter pilot!! LoL I have been better about it since I started this process but I still don't wear it every night. @chimboree26 – Yay!! That's great you're going to Dr Halmi too!! I don't have a surgery date yet since I don't have everything submitted for approval yet but I will most likely be around the end of February as well from what I'm told. Good luck with your surgery!! @kloee - My surgeon offers both the Realize and the Lap-Band. My surgeon prefers the Lap-Band though so that is what I went with.

I hate the cpap too. Hopefully losing weight means no more cpap!!