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I have Anthem Blue Cross and they have a BMI of 35 and mine was 32 so they would not even look at it. My issue is that 60% of my weight is fat. My doctor says they get a number down and they won't budge from it. They don't care about the individual and other issues they may have. He said they get incentive bonuses for reaching a particular amount for denials. So I am paying for this myself (luckily I have good credit). I heard that after January 1st alot of companies were no longer going to cover alot of bariatric surgery because they feel as though it has become a fad. What is our world coming to?

Download this APP from the people who I went through they have a Bariatric Bistro for food list and recipes... Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I just got back from Tijuana and my gastric bypass surgery. I went through BariatricPal TeamMX and Bill Yanez. Dr. Illan is one of the best bariatric surgeons in the entire North American continent! And the other doctors, nursing staff, and valets are the best. Oasis of Hope Hospital is a great place with spacious rooms and the nurses come quickly if you push the nurse button. A doctor comes in to visit you at least two times a day to check how you're doing, check your incisions, and answer any questions you may have. Then, you go to Puebla Amigo Hotel and Casino and the rooms are wonderful. One of the doctors you already have met comes every day to check on you. The valets are available to help you during your stay there. They will take you out to tours and shopping and to eat. I have had zero complications since my surgery. I also like the post-op diet phases. I have 9 phases. I feel it allows me to slowly get back to a normal diet, while allowing my pouch to heal. I know I can call the doctor or send her an email if I have any questions. I can also call or email my nutritionist there with any questions. I have two weight loss sisters and I know we will keep in touch. I just wanted to share my experience. I hope this helps. Please get in touch with Bill Yanez if you have any more questions. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

I've had my morning coffee with 1/2 & 1/2 every morning and every afternoon, I have a cup of Earl Grey tea. I have done so since the day I got home from the hospital. My surgeon and I had that conversation at the very start of my pre-op routine. That is one reason why I keep trying to persuade folks to be 100% honest and upfront with their surgeons. When the entire team is on reading from the same play book, the chance of success is much higher. Coffee was something I knew I would not be willing to give up, so together we worked out a program that compensated for it. For every cup of coffee/tea, I add equal amount of Water to my daily intake. Ask and discuss your concerns with your bariatric team. Go Team!!

I am in Arizona too. I did research online mainly and decided to go w/Scottsdale Bariatric Center. Dr. Robin Blackstone was my surgeon and she is one of the top bariatric surgeons in the country. SBC is a Center of Excellence and has a great reputation. All of their surgeries are done at the Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Hospital (which has a separate bariatric wing) or Piper Outpatient Center which is connected to the Hospital. I have been very happy w/their entire program and everyone I had appointments with there from Dr. Blackstone to the psychologists to the dieticians, to the insurance coordinators. If I had one gripe it is just that they are a very busy practice so many times appointments run late. But, everything else and awesome support groups really make up for it. They have support groups twice a month run by a psychologist. OK, I'm starting to sound like an infomericial. I would just recommend you at least attend their seminar because it is a great education in all of the available weightloss surgeries (they do lapband/realize, RNY, and the sleeve) and what you can expect from each one. Even if you don't decide to go w/them, the seminar is well worth the time. Here is their website: www.scottsdalebariatric.com

Those of you who are just taking Flintstones chewables or no multivitamin at all, what do your surgeons and doctors have to say about that? How are your bloodworks looking? My surgeon insisted I take, at a minimum, a bariatric multivitamin, calcium+D3, B12, and a probiotic.

He won't dare harm you. His malpractice insurance would go through the roof! They'll probably give you extra special care so you don't come back to haunt them! If he is the ONLY tricare bariatric surgeon in town, can you go to another town and get the surgery? They are all correct; he is actually trying to steal from you.

Try bariatric foodie.com. She wrote a whole book on protein shakes. Saved my sanity during the pre op diet. Good luck!

Hi guys! I'm new here so I'm sorry if this is the wrong board or whatever, but I have a question. My insurance is BCBSFL and while researching, I learned that BCBS does not cover bariatric surgery in Florida. But I do have a BMI in excess of 40, and I was wondering if there was something I could do like submit a form or something that would get them to cover it? Has anyone had any luck or experience with this? Thanks in advance.

Good morning all! I'm super excited and very scared as today I finally join the losers bench as I go into surgery around 1:30 this afternoon. Please send good vibes and prayers my direction and if anyone else is having surgery today, please let me know so I can say a prayer for you and we can be bariatric buddies!!!!; Hope everyone has a great day!!!! Sent from my Pixel using BariatricPal mobile app

i live in oklahoma, near tulsa.. my uncle works at a place where they do a lot of bariatric surgery & he's always saying how much pain the patients are in & talking about all the bad stuff he sees. i never hear anything positive. (he may just be trying to scare me, though, by not mentioning anybody whose done well).. he's one of the guys that monitors people's hearts & makes sure there's no problems.. he doesn't live in or or work in tulsa, he works in a smaller city. maybe the doctors there don't have enough experience. i don't know what the deal is. my aunt (the above mentioned uncle's wife) is a nurse for a hospice center.. she travels around from house to house & sees people who are dying from various things (cancer, old age, heart problems, etc) & makes sure they're cleaned up and have everything they need & she talks with them & all that stuff.. helps them with whatever.. eating, bathing, doing household chores, etc.. she says that she sees bariatric patients pop up quite a bit.. people who have had lots of problems & complications. my other uncle lived next door to a lady who had bariatric surgery & she died from complications... i asked him what type she had, he said he didn't know (but i'm assuming it's an RNY, not a sleeve).. she was in poor health & was going to die anyway, but she died from complications to the surgery. my parents have been in bars and restaurants and stuff & talked with people who have had RNY & they say they're always throwing up and stuff... everybody is always pointing out the bad things, never the good ones.

I had my surgery on 10/21/14. It took me many years to come to terms with the fact that I needed a little something more in the way of help to get the weight off. Now that I am on the other side of surgery I'm realizing this is harder than I could of ever imagined. I was 8 days out and was already tired of the protein shake! Now I'm on the pureed diet but am still required to drink 2 protein shakes a day. According to the plan I should be eating 3 protein meals, 2 protein shakes and a protein snack. Meals are 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup and if room is left I can add vegetables or fruit which I have absolutely no room for. On top of all this I'm supposed to be drinking 6-8 cups of water as well. I can only get in 2 protein meals, 2 shakes and maybe 2-2 1/2 cups of water. Now I find that I'm beginning to get dehydrated so today I've been forcing myself to drink more than I have been and I'm just very uncomfortable because my stomach is so full. Did anybody else have this issue? I'm on this meal plan until the day before Thanksgiving when I go back to see the nutritionist at the bariatric center. It's a whole new world mentally for me. I knew it would be hard and I keep on telling myself at the end of the meal plans that I will be back to eating the way I was when I began this journey. I had lost 50 lbs. before surgery just following the meal plan they gave me and I know I can handle that part it's just this time before I get back to that where I'm having trouble.

Hello to all the 8/17 sleevers (and 8/18 I can't believe a month has gone by either! Last year at this time I was unhappy with my weight and wondering what I would be able to do to get to a weight I would be happy with. I was wearing a size 22W, and just miserable. I could never have imagined that in March I would call the bariatric center and start this process and be ONE MONTH out at this time! I'm halfway to my goal...and I'm so thankful. Everyone seems be doing so well! Keep it up!

I know the feeling. I had to take almost the same exact ones as you 1 week post op. The multi vitamin chewables and the ursodiol were the worst for me. Maybe ask your surgeon if you can switch to something else that might make you feel better. I was allowed gummy vites after a month since i was having trouble with the chewable. Currently i'm doing gummy multi and chewable bariatric calcium/d3 gummies, but going to start using the patches soon as my stomach does not like pills after surgery. Chewable OR swallowed. Good luck, experiment, and hopefully you will find something you can easily take and tolerate.

I'm going to KC bariatric which is through Shawnee mission Med. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I take Biotin for my hair loss.. and I take calcium and bariatric Vitamins that's it Julie

Hi Everyone. My name is Cindy and I am waiting for my primary insurance to send their denial letter so my surgery can be scheduled. My primary insurance will not pay, but my secondary insurance will pay. Plus secondary insurance does not do pre-authorization letters. So, as soon as the denial letter is received from the primary insurance we can schedule my surgery. My surgeon said it will most likely be mid-May. I have thought of myself as being overweight most of my life. Looking back on it, I was a twig when I graduated from high school. It's just that those who were around me were so petite. I had one successful pregnancy 30 years ago and was never able to lose the excess weight I gained then. Over the years I have tried every diet, sensible and fad, that I could find with varying results. But every time I lost weight on a "diet" I would put it back on and then some when the "diet" was over or I got sick of it. Over the last 3-5 years my weight has been steadily creeping up and I am so tired of being tired and out of breath all the time. I want to be able to do things with my grand-children but I am not able to do much of anything for more than a few minutes at a time before I need to rest. I am winded just walking up one flight of stairs to our bedroom so I avoid having to up and down as much as possible. I started my surgical weight loss journey about 5 months ago. It took longer for me to decide this was really what I needed to do than it has to do all the prerequisite visits, tests, and screenings. I really wanted to get the gastric sleeve but it is excluded by my insurance, so I will be getting the by-pass instead. The reason I wanted the sleeve was to avoid the malabsorbsion (sp?) and to be able to continue taking my anti-inflammatories for my osteo-arthritis. However, I have made peace with having the bypass and having to make the commitment to be really careful to get the proper nutrients and supplements to keep my healthy; because that is what this is all about anyway. I want my life back. I am sick of living a half life. In February I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. I have not lost any weight, though my body composition has improved, I have more lean and less fat than I did when I started exercising. The best thing about doing this is that I have found something that I love to do. I can't believe I would ever say that I love going to the gym and working out with a trainer. It is fantastic and I am really looking forward to the improvements I will see after I begin working out again after I am healed from the surgery. I am sure the that the walking that I will be doing during the healing process will get me ready for even more intense work outs than I have been able to do to this point. My husband had this same surgery 14 1/2 years ago. He never had the kind of support that is available today and is amazed at the amount of pre-surgical preparation and information that I am getting. He lost about 80 pounds when he had his surgery and over the years had put some of it back on. But since I have started my journey he has been using the things that I have been learning and has lost nearly 15 pounds since December. He is nearing his lowest post-surgical weight. I think he is even more excited about me having this surgery than I am. He is being very supportive. When I told my family back in January that I was considering having surgery they were all very supportive. My best friend, who is more like a sister than merely a friend, decided that it was time for her to have bariatric surgery as well. She had not heard of the gastric sleeve before, so as soon as I told her about it she started researching it for herself. Last month she flew to Mexico and had it done. When I talked with her several days ago she had lost a total of 29 pounds (including the pre-surgery weight loss). Anyway, I feel like I have a great support system in place. And I am SOOOO ready to make this change in my life and to make it a permanent change. It's funny, I have never felt so certain about, or committed to, any of my previous weight loss attempts. This is my year for change.

Yeah I have read some horror stories with cosmetic surgery in Mexico, but I haven't heard anything bad about WLS.I have insurance but they have excluded any weight loss coverage including bariatric surgery. Of course I can't give you any recommendations on that. But I can't suggest doing as much internet searches you can find people who have done it get their opinion. Contact NIH. Who knows they may have a study and can help you out. Well worth investigating. And if I can help in any way please don't hesitate to ask. Sent from my LGUS991 using the BariatricPal App

Dr. Jin Yoo at Duke Oh wow! I thought about him, but I decided on Dr. Tyner at Bariatric Specialist. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J120AZ using the BariatricPal App

Thank you all for your kind responses. I am settling into a routine and we have caregivers during the day. I have hired some extra help every other Friday and every other Saturday to give me a little break. It's expensive though and I do have anxiety about money issues but we will get through it. Today is my physical with my PCP. Tomorrow is my first therapy appointment. I do think the depression meds are helping. The change in the time though did a number on me and I'm waking up way too early. Hopefully my body adjusts. I weighed myself this morning and I was 171.4......I'm trying to keep up with the Vitamins and the Protein but I do A LOT of running around...so maybe it's all the extra steps that is getting the weight down. It could be the anxiety too. I am trying to take some time for me....especially with the school work. I renewed my license the other day and the difference in the photos is amazing. I hope the color photo they mail me with my actual license is a little better than the black and white printout because I look tired! Oh well, it's just a license photo. I hope everyone has a great day today. I am constantly amazed by the angels that are sent to me when I need help the most. So many people have been so kind to both my mom and me and that makes it a little easier to deal with. On a positive note she has a physical therapy reevaluation today and I hope that goes well so she can continue on with home PT services. She had her occupational therapy reevaluation last week and I was told that went very well. If we could just control her left shoulder and arm pain we would be in such a better place. It's day by day but we are getting there.

On Friday I went in to see the doctor only to learn that I only had 2cc in band versus the 3cc they had been telling me I had. I have been struggling with weight loss - due impart to my own devices - and had become discouraged. Yet at that moment of learning about my band I asked myself "will you choose frustration or motivation?" With motivation I had so much more to gain - a renewed hope and kick (my doctor is the) ass attitude. It's all part of the journey... Realize that you are on a journey to higher consciousness & embrace it. Expand your awareness through meditation & contemplation. ~Deepak Chopra

It is also important to remember that bariatric surgery is not a magic weight loss solution. It is simply a tool to help keep you on the right path. Everybody is different. Everybody will have different results. Your body has gone through a huge change. Give it time to do it's thing. Just follow the program and it will happen! It WILL happen! Don't get discouraged. Don't worry about it. Just do it! Good luck!

I was in your shoes about this time last year - our insurance doesn't cover any bariatric procedures - and I ended up looking in Mexico mainly based on price. I had a friend who had used a dr near El Paso, TX - and really liked him - but he was pretty expensive - at least in my opinion. I did a little research on the Bariatric Pal forums and could find nothing even remotely troubling about Dr. Illan - and his price was one of the lowest I found. Long story short, I had my procedure this past January and was 100% satisfied - I've lost around 80 pounds - so happy that my wife is coming back in a couple of months to have the same thing done with Dr Illan - he's great, the facility is great, his whole team is fantastic, and the whole group that makes up BariatricPal MX is top-notch. If you pick them, you can put your mind at ease -and start shopping for smaller clothes!

I don't know if protein shakes are generally discouraged in the long run by dietitians dealing with bariatric patients. I guess that's a matter of philosophy as much as a matter of the experiences they have made.