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Woohoo! It looks like my insurance may cover any follow-up care. "Related Care Following Bariatric Surgery If you did not receive your surgery under UMP coverage, the plan covers medically necessary follow-up care or complications post bariatric surgery only if: 1. Your surgery was covered by another health plan or you would have met UMP criteria at the time of your surgery. You or your provider must submit medical records to UMP to show that you would have met UMP criteria. 2. The procedure performed was one of those covered by UMP (Roux-en-Y, sleeve gastrectomy, or laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding). If you do not meet the criteria above, followup care (including lap band fills) or complications after bariatric surgery are not covered. If your care was covered by UMP or meets criteria above, all care for complications or reoperation must meet UMP criteria and medical policy. Panniculectomy (removal of loose skin) is covered following bariatric surgery for a medical condition only when specific medical criteria are met. Most panniculectomies are considered cosmetic and are not covered." The only clarification I would like is whether criteria means simply meeting the BMI requirement or if they mean the six month dieting plan requirement.

Last week, my doctor referred me to a Gastric Sleeve Surgeon. I attended his open house and I have a consultation reserved later this month. I contacted my insurance agency because part of their requirements is for me to work with a Bariatric Case Manager. I spoke with her today and she informed me of a few new wrinkles. My insurance company only covers surgeries through a Bariatric Center of Excellence. That doctor is not part of any centers that have that certification. A few days ago, I stumbled across this forum (and another). I realize that going to Mexico and paying for my own surgery is an actual option. I wrote my doctor and she is discouraging me from this route. She made it clear that my insurance will not pay for any additional surgeries that rise out of complications. I could go with my insurance but it will take anywhere between 7-12 months before I can have the surgery. Whereas, if I paid, I could probably do it in September or October. I really, really want to self-pay and do it in September. But, I am also afraid of not being covered for any after-care treatment. Did anyone else have a similar choice?

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I just found out that if you go to the perky Jerky website, under the Contact Us They have a drop down for WLS/Bariatric Surgery patients. If you fill out the form, they will send you free samples! Just requested mine today.

I am past childbearing age, but just wanted to mention that there was nothing about it in my bariatric materials.

https://www.bariatricpal.com/magazine/710-keto-and-bariatric-surgery/

Please don't take this the wrong way, but if there's one thing you'll here on this site perhaps more than any other it's this: don't compare yourself to others. There's nothing good that can come of it. Even if you found someone that was your exact same starting weight, height, and even had surgery the same day, there are still way too many other variables that could impact your progression. Just some examples: age, physical fitness, %body fat, basal metabolism, diet, bougie size, surgical complications, etc. Honestly, it sounds like you're doing fine. If you're not happy with your loss so far, talk with your bariatric team. They may have suggestions for you such as increasing the amount and type of exercise and/or changes to your diet. Best of luck!

Hello everyone! My name is Kaila and I am brand new to this forum (actually any forum) and I am definitely looking for some help with this journey. I will start a little about myself. I grew up the majority of my life in New Hampshire, am currently a proud army wife and mom of an almost 3 year old boy. I work as an office assistant and also as a home sales consultant with Seacret. I've spent the majority of my life taking care of others that it wasn't hard to forget about myself, leading to my unhealthy diet and with stress and anxiety, an addiction to food. After moving to Colorado I gained a lot more weight in a short period of time because trying to breathe in this elevation was so difficult it took away my physical activity that I had in our other home. Within 3 months I became prediabetic, hypertensive, and had high cholesterol. I had my surgery and all my preop appointments at Evans Community Hospital at Fort Carson. My doctor was Dr. Mayfield. He was amazing. Very personable and straight forward. He didn't sugar coat anything, but definitely made you comfortable to talk to. I had a month of pre op appointments including mutliple nutrition appointments, wellness (metabolism testing), bariatric surgery group counseling and psychological evaluations. Going through the appointmetns were really important and informative. My doctor was very lenient on the pre op diet. I ate reasonably and cut my calories down by half, but I still enjoyed my cravings occasionally. The day before surgery I ate up to 1:30 pm (only 2 very small meals concidering my Vitamins definitely helped minimize my diet, so I definitely reccomend takin them before surgery for at least 2 weeks) and they provided me a magnesium drink that cleans out your system. At that point I could not have anymore solid food. Day of surgery was a bit tough phsycailly. I just remember waking up and all I could say was pain and shake my head. I spent 2 nights and 3 days admitted. They try to make you walk right away, but I didn't walk until the 2nd day. I was very much under the anestisia for a lot longer than I wanted to be. In order for me to go home I needed to drink 4 - 5 oz of clear Fluid within 1 hour. The first time I tried to drink it I became really sick. Eventually I was able to drink 8 oz. within 3 hours, so they let me go home. My problem right now is that I am on the full liquid diet, but I cannot injest more than 35 oz a day, and only clear fluids. Its painful to drink still ( 5 days post op) and I can't really drink any full fluids yet The first day I tried I ended up in the hospital again dehydrated. Has anyone else had such a hard time drinking after surgery? All I keep hearing is that the 1st week is the worst, but people I've read their information or seen youtube are drinking full liquids like champs the first week, so it makes me feel a little broken. Im also having a really hard time with commercials. If I see Little Caesars pizza one more time I may snap. I have also had such a heightened sense of smell. I could smell my grandmothers plain toast while she was upstairs. It seems like it's making it more difficult. Also, walking is increditbly difficult. There's always a sharp or dull (it changes) spot under my left breast where my stomach would be, but when I walk it becomes more painful. Should you push through it or take it easier? Any advice would be wonderful. I am definitely open to anything that would make my life a lot more comfortable right now!

New study on hair loss and WLS http://bariatrictimes.com/2010/11/11/hair-loss-among-bariatric-surgery-patients/#more-1289

This is a copy and paste from the "Tell Us Your Story" forum Yesterday was my surgery. I had a check in time of 12:00 noon. I was very thirsty, as you can imagine! They brought my husband and I back and we worked on some paperwork and the final pre-op weigh in, I was down about 30 pounds since I started with this doctor last June. 13 pounds were from the pre-op diet alone. I also got a huge heparin shot in my leg to prevent clotting and an anti-nausea patch behind my ear. The hospital was running a bit late (they kept apologizing) but brought me to the OR at 1:45. I was having some anxiety laying on the table, but the put me under very quickly. Next thing I knew, I was awake and the nurses were asking how I was doing. I remember replying "Hot, thirsty, nauseous." I'm not sure how it all happened, but the next thing I knew, I was in the big hospital recliner with a bottle of Water to sip and a fan pointed right at me! I felt much better at that point. They wanted me to get up pretty soon after that. Walking was not at all a pain, but I was having trouble focusing my eyes. My DH was there too, and he sent out some texts to the family that I was all done. I passed out at that point. The rest of the evening kind of went on that way: sip, sip, sip, walk, doze off. I listened to music and podcasts to help keep my mind at ease. DH had to leave to help out with the kids at home. I had my surgery at a stand alone bariatric hospital, and there was only one other patient there overnight. My abdomen was a bit sore but not too painful. However, my right shoulder was. Luckily I had brought a heating pad that is helping A LOT. I asked for chicken broth, but before I could try it, I had a dry-heave thing. The nurses waved some alcohol wipes under my nose and that helped it to stop. I waited a bit longer till it had totally passed to try anything else. At abut 5 this morning, the nurses got me up and dressed. I did some more walking and sipping. I had to really play around with the sipping. Too little and I think I was swallowing too much air which was VERY uncomfortable in the esophagus area. To much and my tummy kind of spasmed. Around 7, I had to go back for the barium swallow/X-Ray which was AWFUL. Apparently, the liquid is having a hard time moving into my stomach (refluxing) and is kind of just sitting in my esophagus. She also saw a big air bubble sitting in the top of the stomach. That sort of explains why swallowing has been (and is still) very uncomfortable. Not painful, but really strange feeling. At that point, my husband returned and I got discharged to come home. I'm still having the weird feeling in my esophagus. My surgeon said the swelling there should go down in a day or so. But other than the general discomfort, nothing super acute has been bothering me. I think I might feel a smidge worse tomorrow. I've been drink water, Vitamin Water Zero (the lemonade is good and not too sweet, the mixed berry is good too) and some warm chicken broth. I am trying to take it all slowly. The weather is really sunny day, so I may even take a little walk outside! Please let me know if you have any questions about the surgery, my background or even the pre-op diet!

@@Inner Surfer Girl Thank you. I hadn't considered OA. I do think I need more face-to-face interactions. Next week I'm attending my first bariatric support group. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I think that losing your hair and it's texture change is directly related to not getting enough protien in your diet. Protein drinks are good but they still are not as good as eating meat or fish. With protien suppliments and powders your body does not absorb as much protein as it does from real food. Step up eating protein and see if it helps. My MD always harps on eating your protein first and then worrying about veggies and starch if you can fit it in. Also, my good friend had the gastric bypass and she lost a lot of hair. When it grew back in it was wierd for a while but eventually went back to normal so hopefully it is a temporary situation. Finally, to the others talking about companies not having WLS on their plans. Unfortunately. this is becoming more and more common. My insurance has no coverage for any Bariatric anything...period. This is more cost effective for companies and what they pay in the short term for their employees health coverage. Unfortunately, they never seem to realize they will pay out more in the end with their employees having Diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart problems related to their obesity. My company is now even talking about making the employee pay more out of pocket for their health insurance if their BMI is over a certain percentage. I hear many companies are thinking about resorting to this. I think it is still an acceptable form of discrimination!

You can call back and ask to speak with a Supervisor. Explain that you got two widely different answers on two phone calls and ask for clarification. If, in fact, your particular policy excludes coverage for bariatric surgery, that means it won't be approved for anyone, under any circumstances. That's what an exclusion from coverage means. If it's covered, then ask to be sent a copy of the criteria that need to be met for surgery to be approved. I hope this helps!

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I had RNY surgery. “Not obese enough”??? If you medically qualified for the lapband then I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have medically qualified for the sleeve as well. They go by BMI and I believe it is the same for sleeve and band. (40 or, if you have comorbidities then it can be 35) It sounds like you likely used a general surgeon instead of a bariatric surgeon. Both are qualified to do the procedure but a bariatric surgeon is far more educated on the actual Bariatrics aspect. They are much more informed and actually take a couple of years to specialize in WLS. As opposed to a general surgeon who only learns the procedure and then does it. He doesn’t take that extra time to learn the ins and outs of it all. Even being on the smaller side of overweight, I still don’t understand why a surgeon would perform a procedure that has SO MANY complications and such an incredibly small rate of success. Why would he perform this operation at all? It is such common knowledge within the bariatric community that the band is a hugely bad idea. If you said you had it done several years ago then I might understand more, but you had this in 2017. The surgeon should be ashamed. Did he tell you the complication rate is far higher with the band than with any other procedure? Did he tell you people lose far less weight with the band and the rate of regain over a 5 year period is almost double that of the sleeve and RNY? My surgeon told me it won’t be long before we are seeing commercials saying “if you’ve had the lapband and had complications, call the law office of...” I’m very sorry this happened to you. I am super angry for you, to be honest. Your surgeon did you a huge disservice. I actually had a lapband for a long time and the loss was incredibly slow. After several years, I developed complications and nearly died. I had to have the band removed. I chose to also have a revision to RNY and it is a completely different experience. It’s so much better. If you continue experiencing pain or the other issues you mentioned, I would strongly suggest finding a new surgeon and having a consultation. Try your best to find someone who specializes in Bariatrics rather than just a general surgeon. I had a general surgeon with my band too because I really didn’t know the difference, to be honest. It was a huge mistake. I wasted a lot of years of my life with that awful band. Again, I’m very sorry. I’m seriously angry right now. I can’t believe these surgeons are still doing this procedure. Please don’t give up. I know this is hard. It’s so hard. But just remember why you did this. You wanted a healthier, better quality life. You can still have that. It may just happen a little differently than planned, that’s all. As of October 12, 2017, I am 4 months post op and have lost 100 pounds. I have reached my goal weight and could not be more ecstatic!

I definately spend way more time cooking, shopping and planning meals. Before surgery I was always eating junk and fast food, now I am playful to make sure I have the proper groceries and I have had to learn to cook differently. I live on Pinterest finding recipes that I can use as a base and then tweak it to make it Bariatric friendly.

I've been trying to get a lapband since 2008!! I started in nov 2008 and had 2 appts then in Jan my company decided to change insurance carriers and the new ones they added didn't pay for any bariatric surgeries. I was so frustrated!! Then just this year my company changed back to united healthcare. I started my appts in feburary this year.

At a bariatric surgery conference I attended in July 2011, several surgeons stated that one of the most common reasons for failure to lose weight is the failure to separate liquids and solids....in other words, drinking while you eat. My #1 reason for not drinking while eating: the liquid would come right back up, in a fountain. Do that in public a few times, and no one will ever invite you out to lunch again. For further confusion on this interesting topic, read this article by Australian dietitian Helen Bauzon: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/healthy-living/food-nutrition/yes-you-can-drink-and-eat-at-the-same-meal-time-r63

Exactly this. There are unfortunately no standards at all when it comes to pre and post bariatric surgery diets. I found this incredibly frustrating early on as it makes it seem like it's not science, but guess work. On reflection, I suspect it has more to do with how long a particular program has been doing bariatric surgery and the experiences of their patients over that time. Most teams probably only update their plans rarely. Some may still be clinging to recommendations that were more common a long time ago. Also, some doctors are just more conservative than others. Anyway, whatever the reason, every bariatric program is free to design their own plans. Some are very strict, and some not so much. When I asked my team about this, I was specifically told to ignore what other programs were doing. They designed their plan around the outcomes that work for them. In terms of conflicting advice between your written plan and what you were told, I agree it's best to ask. I had this happen a few times, but I always asked about it and was given a reason why they wanted me to deviate. For example, at my 2 week post-op visit, I was told I could progress faster than the written plan. This was specifically done for me because I was healing well and had no nausea.

Hi, I was banded in Belgium (with no problems at all and only £3,100) and when I came back I went to see my GP and she has made referrals for aftercare to the NHS Dietician and my nearest NHS Bariatric Unit which is in Chichester, which is where Dr Shaw Somers also works. Don't rule out the NHS and what they can provide for you.

Hi! I’m scheduled for Nov 16 as well! One protein bar a week out won’t affect your surgery. From what my bariatric nutritionist said, the important thing is to stay low carb, low fat in order to deplete the liver’s glycogen stores and use up some of the liver fat (so smaller liver for surgery). Then the 2 days immediately prior, it’s very important to stick to the liquid diet because otherwise you could go into surgery with bits of food still in your digestive system. In that case, some surgeons may still do the surgery but others will close you up without operating. So definitely a bad scenario. I have been having 6 egg whites/day on top of my protein shakes, and my bariatric nutritionist is ok with that until the last 2 days.

I have UMR insurance, I have been wanting to get the Gastric Sleeve for a while now. However I am not sure how to even start, where to turn or if I can get my insurance to cover it. I live in Idaho so they are not mandated to cover any bariatric surgeries. Does anyone have advise or know a way around it? Thanks in Advance

I have been a little MIA for a while trying to finish up my final graduate school classes-and I finally graduated! In the midst of the last year I've had some regain and trying to lose it. i'm also dealing with a ball out of left field- a possible cancer diagnosis. I have had a very persistent ovarian cyst for about 15 months. I've changed forms of birth control during that time and the thing has grown and shrunk multiple times. My Ob-Gyn has been very appropriate, following the ACOG rules and seeing me every few months and doing many MANY ultrasounds. Now it's changing and I'm having some strange symptoms that she (nor I) will dismiss- and Friday I had a CA-125 blood test. Because I'm a nurse and going through Nurse Practitioner education right now I have access to very professional scientific databases of research. The research has shown over and over that a Ketogenic diet seems to show great results in various types of cancer treatment. This has to do with the fact that insulin/glucose cycle feeds tumors and on a keto approach you drop your glucose intake and stabilize insulin resistance... So today i'm doing some cooking and tomorrow the hubs and I will embark on a full blown Keto journey. i'm a bit nervous because without a gall bladder i'm sure i'll have some dumping syndrome, but in any case my doctor ALSO fully endorsed this approach when I saw her-which I was happy about (since many doctors look at you with glazed eyes when you mention any change in eating). I know that many bariatric folks don't do keto but this is much more than a weight loss attempt right now- it could be my life on the line... Thank you for letting me ramble. I would just like to ask each of you-regardless of which religious/spiritual approach you take, to please pray for me/send me positive thoughts,vibes, etc. I really need them and will update as I know more in the next 2 weeks.

Hello, I am new here and relatively new to being sleeved, which I had done on 7/28/14. My highest weight was pushing almost 380 pounds. I was hovering between 350-360 pounds for many years. I was turning 50 years old (actually "young" ) last year and wanted to take hold of my weight issues, which I struggled with for a good portion of my life. I was tired of feeling weak, having low stamina, low self-esteem and wanted to no longer have type-2 diabetes (~2+ years), sleep apnea, higher BP, higher cholesterol and low-T. Most of all, I was worried about something happening to me and not being there to support my family and leave my children without a father; the only thing worse would be having a debilitating disease due to my morbid obesity and becoming a burden to them. From the end of February last year, I started dieting leading up to my surgery. My total weight loss pre/post surgery is ~115 pounds. I no longer have type-2 diabetes (my glucose numbers are normal, my A1C was in the upper 4's for the last 3 readings), my sleep apnea is greatly diminished, my BP is normal, my testosterone levels are "very good for a 50 year old man" (per my endocrinologist), my cholesterol numbers are normal, I have much more energy, greatly improved self-esteem (I don't mind pictures taken of me anymore) and more NSVs than I can shake a stick at. My only regret is not having this surgery a few years back, everything after the surgery has been positive. I am looking forward to this longer, healthier and better quality life I am giving myself. So if you are reading this and contemplating having the surgery, research about it as much as you can, make sure you are prepared to make this lifestyle commitment and, like the Nike ad states, "Just Do It". Your life will improve too. Have a great Day.

W8loser, Does your insurance company have a Bariatric Program -- are you assigned to a Bariatric Nurse? If so, I agree with the other poster that you should contact notify your nurse. If you are not a part of a Bariatric Program, then I'm not sure that contacting your insurance company would be worthwhile at this point. But you might have a couple of options. Definitely try to establish with another PCP quickly.... but this is easier said than done right? Take a look at your insurance company's medical policy regarding the GS. Most will allow solid documentation from Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig in addition to clinician (MD/DO, ARPN, RD) documentation. For example, United Healthcare will accept Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig documentation in conjunction with documentation of at least two physician visits. So you could use Weight Watchers as an alternative this month if you are unable to see your physician. Hope everything works out for you.

I get my fills in Tucson at the Bariatric Center on Camp Lowell/ Swan. Scott is who does the fills. He is great