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Congrats! I went thru hell too. I ended up doing 10 months because I had to start over with the 6 mos hoop because I had two appointments too close to gether but in different months. That SUCKED! But I finally got it all done and approved and had the band Dec. 2007. I was 250, went to 150 and now at 170 and happy! Trying to loose 10 lbs now. I got off track this fall.

Lol, I am not laughing at what you are asking about, but more at the word use. Being a first grade teacher, I love silly little word plays like that. I am afraid of having skin in excess like that. I say keep going with it. it has been 3.5 weeks since you had surgery. The skin is elastic and should go back down. I have been lucky with what weight I have lost since I started all this. I stall, so to speak, but my body is settling everything. You might see it one day, but the next you will notice that the stretch marks are getting thinner and going away.....always the best part. Keep your chin up, lol, use tape if you need to, everything will work the way it is supposed to.

a lot of women complain about moodiness the first few months. I'm not sure if there's actual medical research to back this up, but many people have said it's because estrogen is stored in fat cells, and when you lose weight quickly, a lot of that is released. Many women also report screwed-up menstrual cycles the first few months, so I suspect the hormone theory is probably correct. It should all work itself out though - it doesn't seem to last more than a few months - so you may be near the end of it. 45 lbs in 3 months is pretty good. It takes many of us about a year to lose 100 lbs, so you're doing just fine. as far as baggy, saggy skin - some of that will look better eventually because things seem to re-distribute a bit over time - but after a 100 lb weight loss, you'll inevitably have some saggy skin. I had a ton of it. I could easily hide it in clothes so no one knew it was there, but *I* knew it was there, so I had it removed when I was about three years out. So that's an option if you decide you can't live with it..

But do look honestly at an unfill if you think at allt hat you may be a bit tight. Do you really think I might be too tight, I haven't had a fill in 6 months can it get tighter as you loose weight?:thumbup:

Skin Tags are largely due to hormones. You can snip tge smaller ones...that's what a derm would do. The larger ones you can take a thin piece of string and tie it around the base of the skin tag. Snip the excess string so you can't see it. This wil cut the blood supply to the tag and it will die and fall off.

My period was messed up with come every 20 days for about 6 months, month 4 I had 2 periods. When I asked both my weight loss and Gyno if it was due to weight loss they said "you're not loosing fast enough for that" Gees thanks.

I've had two tummy surgeries (c section and appendix) the appendix surgery left me with a scar from my hip to my belly button and even at my smallest weight I could not get my apron to disapear. For me I would need surgery to remove the skin. If your young you probably have a good shot of reducing it with exercise. Even thoug I know mine won't go flat, I'm still going to do exercise to reduce it. Good luck !!!

lol Rhonda..this happened to me too! my scale was saying i was 20lbs down..when i went for my first fill on oct 27th their scale said only 13!! I was so bummed.. lol but hey 13lbs is 13 lbs... now i no longer step on my scale! i will just wait til i go to doc on dec 1. I do feel my pants fitting a lil loose soooo i will go with that! good luck

Your lettter has a lot of good content. I particularly like the next to last paragraph about the insurance company itself discriminating against you. I did not have to write a letter, but I included one in my packet anyway, just for extra justification. In it I mention the family history of obesity and how it affects my life and all of my medical conditions that have resulted from being overweight. Feel free to use some of this content if you want to. I wish you good luck and good health. Here is my letter. I Xd out proper names for this post. This letter is a heartfelt request for BCBS to approve bariatric surgery to help me lose a significant amount of excess weight that has caused me many chronic health issues and has seriously affected my quality of life. My adult life started at 108 pounds at graduation, at a time when I was both anorexic and anemic. The reason for that was deliberate. I did not want to be morbidly obese like the rest of my family, many of whom weighed over 300 pounds. My oldest brother died of a heart attack at the age of 47 – at a weight of 420 pounds. My mother died at the age of 67 because of an abdominal aortic aneurism. She was 5’2” and weighed 320 pounds. My father survived two heart attacks and eventually died from a stroke. Two of my sisters have been large from childhood and currently weigh over 300 pounds as do many of my cousins. Since my late 20’s I began having problems controlling my weight and I consequently yo-yo dieted for three decades. Boy-oh-boy, I feel like I tried everything that came along, from South Beach, Sugar Busters, food Combining, Weight Watchers, Richard Simmons, even the Dolly Parton Diet, among many others. Remarkably, I did have 50 pounds of success with the Atkins Diet twice, and gained it all back much quicker than I lost it. For about 15 years I have been taking medication for chronic high blood pressure while working physically demanding jobs. On 9/11/2010, I suffered a Cardio Vascular Accident. Due to outstanding care at Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Hospital in Xxx Xxxx, Illinois (where I met Dr. Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx and changed to his medical practice), damage was minimized. The most significant lasting effect was loss of balance and altered proprioception. This has rendered me to be a moderate fall risk and forced me into an early retirement from federal service. I am unable to leave my home unassisted and can no longer drive because even though I can see, people and curbs and cars are not where I think they are. In 2007 my right knee had to be replaced. At that time, my weight was around 180 pounds. I gained even more weight during recovery and eventually had to have a partial replacement of my left knee on 11/7/2012. Osteoarthritis is another issue that has hijacked my health. My vertebrae have degenerative disc disease and my body is failing to support my current weight which fluctuates from 220-235. On 2/14/2013 I had a three level ACDF. I also am being treated by the Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx Pain Clinic for thoracic radiculopathy, sciatica in my left leg, and femoral nerve impingement in my right leg (which is exaserbated by my overhanging 53” belly). In order to get around, I must use a cane, my walker, or someone to assist me because I cannot stand for more than a couple of minutes without high levels of pain in my back, sides, hips and legs. Also, this belly has affected my posture so much that standing up straight, although it can be done, is painful in its self. Turning over in bed is painful because my weight is difficult to maneuver with this pendulous belly. The skin under the overlap gets red and irritated, so I am using medicated powder per doctor’s orders. At the time of the CVA, I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes, another condition than not surprisingly runs in the family. I am still taking meds for this condition to prevent transfer to full-on diabetes. My cholesterol is chronically high, so I am taking Lipitor for that. Due to chronic digestive troubles and reflux, my primary care physician, Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx, ordered an EGD on 2/22/2012. The findings then were: Irregular GE junction, Hiatal hernia, Acute gastritis, and Reflux esophagitis. The attending physician, Xxxxx Xxxxx, prescribed Omeprazole to relieve the reflux. Since the stroke, Dr. Xxxxxxx has had me on a 1200 calorie USDA Pyramid diet (allowing for a Mediterranean chef in the house). Dr. Xxxxx asked me to follow a 1000 calorie diet with adjustments for preventing reflux (i.e. no soda, citrus juices, caffeine, fried foods, etc . In spite of my best efforts at diet and exercise, my weight continues to rise. I am in pain every day, and my home has become my prison. I am taking Bupropion to battle depression and anxiety as I tend to have much worry about becoming a wheelchair-bound invalid. My weight issues have not been resolved even under my doctors’ care and concern, and I fear that I am becoming my mother and facing a premature death like hers. Surgical intervention will certainly produce positive outcomes for me. I am not big-boned, but a naturally petite person who is carrying another person around her waist. I will follow my doctors’ orders and be the best patient ever. Your consideration is appreciated and I look forward to being a much healthier me in the future. Thank you so much - you are saving my life.

I can tolerate some skins, like on potatoes or stone fruits, etc but I cant eat apple skins. I had the same worries though - I read everything on here and here there is a very protein focussed trend, it really worried me since to me a chicken breast and a few vegetables does not make a healthy meal - personally I consider the vegetables the more important of the two foods. I have continued to eat my way, I'm in Australia and we're not given the same guidelines anyway. Guess what? There's more than one way to skin a cat. I'm healthy, happy, normal weight, have all my hair and I most definitely dont eat enough protein by American standards. I'm also quite confident that I have a better long term outlook for bowel health and blood chemistry because I do eat carbs in good quanities - wholegrains, fruits and vegetables. If I can only fit so much in, I will always always choose my vegies over my protein. I actually decided not to be banded initially because the protein heavy, vegetable poor (by which I mean quantity - in Australia we have a guideline of 2 fruit, five veg every single day) diet seemed unhealthy to me. But I've found that you can eat any way you damn well please, as long as its healthy, lowish in fat, and low enough in calories and you exercise, you'll lose weight, barring of course that some people absolutely do have metabolic issues that are best managed by low carb diets. That's not to diss ANYONE's dietary choices, its simply what I believe is relevant to myself and my lifestyle. I also felt that mental health is an enormous part of our health in general and that achieving normality - giving up this stupid obsession with dieting, counting, foodwatching forever, for once and for all - was every single bit as important as achieving a healthy weight. If I have perfect nutrition but spend all freaking day obsessing over it, I have not achieved good health! So I eat what I want, when I want, most of the time its good, sometimes its not, I use food appropriately - for nutrition and as a social custom also, I can partake of things like sweet foods and alcohol moderately and my diet is most definitely NOT perfect. But because I have made such gains in terms of the mental side of it, I'd consider my outcome an extremely successful one.

well the insurance companies likes to make you jump thru hoops. this is ususally an attempt to prevent people froom following thru with the surgery. Most insurance companies do want a 6 month diet program of some sorts. once a month or every 30 to 35 days. Some companies will want you to loose weight but mine didn't. i just couldn't gain. I say just do the 6 month thing. i know it sucks but hey you gotta do what you gotta do.

Most fills are done with a 22 guage huber needle, so a bruise wouldn't be uncommon. I know you didn't mention if you were cleaning your belly button when you found the blood but If there is only a tiny bit of blood on the end of the q tip, and, if you were cleaning it with the q tip, you may have just irritated it a bit. However, if your belly button is in a moist area (mine is in a fold of excess skin) it could be a fungal infection. Make an appointment with your doctor to have it checked. Something fungal can be easily treated with a cream. Good Luck

I went to the NP yesterday for a follow-up, and I gained 6 lbs! I was devasted. She was so annoyed. She was saying how I needed to reach 260lbs by surgery, blah blah. So I mentioned how the surgeon told me not to loose anything, granted he didn't say gain, but he told me not too. She quickly cut me off and said that I had to loose 6 pounds by 1/24. I feel confident that this will happen, but I am so aggrevated that my surgeon tells me one thing, and the NP tells me another. The surgeon told me that I don't need to get an apena machine before surgery, she says I do. It is very confusing. Also...has anyone else noticed when you get weighed in the afternoon you weigh more? All my appointments are in the afternoon, and I am so nervous that I will loose the 6 lbs but then when I get weighed, I am 3 pounds more. I am just frustrated. I did great today. I stuck to the Post-Op lapband diet I was given, and worked out, so I guess I just need to work it until 1/24. Just so annoying!

5 days does seem a little quick for staple removal but then i never even had staples i had the glue closure on mine, when i was nursing we used to leave stitches 10 days before we removed them which is roughly the time it takes for the skin to start knitting together .. u can buy steri strips in chemists/pharmacy nothing to stop u putting more on if the others came off quite quickly

So iam noticing that my skin is dry especially on my face n stomach after the sugery is this normal?

Does any live in Mass. and have Medicare. I was wondering what the requirements were. I called the insurance company and they didn't seem to know anything. I think I have a 6 month medically supervised diet program to complete. Has anyone done that and what is it that you had to do for that. Has anyone been really close to the 40 BMI with no comorbidities since all mine are just borderline. My BMI is now a 41.5 but worried if I loose to much then I won't qualify for the surgery. If I qualify then I will be going to Burlington Mass. but doing my pre surgery appointments in the Danvers/Beverly hospital. Of anyone out there has used them for bariatric surgery or is going to use them I would love to hear from you. My niece went through them and did fine.

I cant wait to loose more. I literally have an entire closet of nearly brand new or brand new clothing that i have not been able to wear since 2014.

I was diagnosed with PCOS at 13. Had an ovarian tumor removed at 14, (it was the size of a softball). I am a extreme and rare case because I was so young when it was diagnosed. The Doctors thought the tumor was cancerous, I was sent to the UCLA Norris Cancer Hospital in L.A. for the surgery. They had no idea it was PCOS. I was only 220 lbs. when I had this surgery, I am just about 6 feet tall so my BMI was relatively low. My symptoms include skin tags (on my neck, under my arms, under my breasts, on my stomach and one on my leg), skin darkening, severe acne, and face/body hair growth, inability to lose weight, extreme irregular periods. I still don't get a period if I stop taking my birth control pills, which I did for the lap-band surgery. Dealing with facial hair, acne and skin tags was rough through high school but i never had the skin darkening until college where I grew to the 280 lbs range. I was banded on December 7th 2010 and have gone from 313 to 288 lbs. I use a foot scrubbie (the kind with soap in it) for under my arms and where my thighs rub together in the shower every day because of the darkening. I don't scrub REALLY hard just hard enough to stand it. I also use aveeno body lotion after the shower every day. I have always done this because if I don't my skin becomes VERY rough. I have notice a difference in color (it is much lighter) and it seems smoother as well. I do take 300 mg spironaldactone every night, for hair growth and have been looking into laser treatments for my facial hair. I was wondering if the treatment results lasts a lifetime or do the hair follicles grow back eventually? Please if anybody is concerned or has any questions for me let me know. PCOS can lead to ovarian tumors if not treated. I have been dealing with this for over 13 years. I have been on Metaformin, and spironaldactone, for a very long time and can not wait to get off of it. Has anyone been able to loose enough weight to get off all of their PCOS meds? Thanks, K.

My insurance did not have a supervised diet but my doctor required that I loose 30-34 pounds presurgery. I had a blood clot tht was not fully resolved so I ended up having to wait 7.5 months. Does your doctor have you attend mindful eating group sessions? If not see if your insurance covers psychiatry visits and see someone who specializes in eating disorders. This is at least a 50% mental battle. Esp. until you hit restriction from fills which took me 6 months. The band will never prevent you from eating ice cream or candy. EVER. Anything that melts in your mouth slips through the band. While the insurance company is using this to weed people out; this is the time for you to learn and live new food habits. I ended up loosing 50 pounds from my first consult to surgery. How happy would you be to 50 lighter when you have surgery?

I'd say the weight definitely came off my upper body first. My face was the first noticeable place. My arms have decreased a lot, however because they were so big I do have considerable excess skin on them. Honestly, I'm fine with that though. Skin I can easily hide with clothes but there's no hiding fat. I'll take the excess skin over the fat any day. Best wishes.

Oh my goodness, my boobs, halelujah! Actually all over really, like you I had and still have huge arms, although I've lost 68 lbs my arms are smaller but I have skin, they are still big but I'm exercising now so hopefully I can tighten them somewhat. My face, my belly, my hips, my legs, heck even my feet shrunk.

First of all, thank you Deb's hubby!! And as for your age, remember it's only a NUMBER! Once you've had the surgery and you begin to loose the weight you will feel SOOO much younger and with so much more energy! Thank you for the heads upon the website! Enjoy your weekend!! Veronica

I am not sure I am doing this right, I have been lurking around for several months but this is my first post. I have had my surgeon's first consult & am currently seeing the dietitian (3 month insurance requirement), my question is: how do you deal with being at a 41bmi and still showing that you are 'compliant ' to the supervised diet without loosing too much as to not be approved? Sorry if this is considered hijacking the thread, thanks any advise.

I chose the sleeve, because the complications and malabsorption with bypass always bothered me. When I heard the sleeve was proven effective I knew it was the one for me if I was going surgery route. I first attempted to lose on my own a few years back. I also have hormonal conditions such as autoimmune thyroid and PCOS, which lead me to believed I had malabsorption issues just from things I noticed with how I felt. They did confirm when they did Vitamin levels that I was deficient in several and close to being deficient in one. I feel more comfortable giving my body the change to absorb as much as it can by still having my stomach and not re-routing GI tract and lose/maintain healthy weight at the same time. Plus, I've never been fixated on being an unrealistic weight goal or loss. I am very realistic - my goal was in line with the weight range my dietitian gave me which will still have me in the obese category technically for my height... I'm looking to be healthier, more mobile, and have more strength not to be thin per se or a certain pant size. Lastly, I had hoped to avoid as much distress of loose skin, and thought I'd be better with sleeve since my end goal after surgery would still be quite overweight. I've lost around 7% so far of my body weight at a normal, healthy rate, and honestly I've already started noticing changes with my skin. When I lost significant weight (almost 100lbs) a few years back I had virtually no loose skin except an unnoticeable to others amount on my stomach. As I lose now I am coming to terms with the likelihood I will require some skin removal, and should start savings now. I had hoped I could just be okay with it and wear it proudly, but I'm actually having skin irritation already just from around 25lb loss. Each weight loss journey a person has is different. This experience is so much different from my last one just a few years ago. And as everyone pointed out you can gain with either option which is often shown on weight loss documentaries. I was told by my program's psychologist to prepare for a 10-20lb weight gain after you hit your goal weight, and to set a limit you will not allow yourself to go over i.e. 200lbs, so if you reach that point you reevaluate yourself and get back on track, because weight will always be an issue for each of us, and everyone that loses through whatever means has to stay on top of it or it'll become uncontrollable. Sent from my SM-G530T using the BariatricPal App

Hi tuttle, I think it is a really good thing that you are able to ask the question in this forum. Sometimes the first step in dealing with regret is to give voice to it. Depression is a complex thing, and any major life change can spark it. It is not just something you can think yourself out of or that you have chosen to feel. The physical changes that this surgery brings can bring on depression, particularly dehydration and malnutrition, so be attentive to that. What we all have done, by having this surgery, is make a permanent change in our lives that we cannot take back. Even with good results -- 60 pounds is amazing!! -- the reality of the change is still there. I have been depressed, clinically, before, and I work in mental health now. It is important to allow yourself time to mourn what you have lost and not beat yourself up for the regret. It is hard to give up something we like; it is hard to learn entirely new ways of coping with stress, of living our daily round; it is hard to accept the changes that are happening to our body and our world. So allowing ourselves to feel that is part of the process of healing. Like a cut, it has to scab over before new skin can grow; you are still very much in the healing stage. As you mourn the loss, you will begin to find hope and encouragement. In the midst of the loss there is also joy to be had, thankfulness for altogether new things that these changes are bringing and will bring. I wish you peace as you move through this time, and hope, and the grace to accept yourself, exactly where you are, right now, even if it is feeling regret. Tomorrow is a new day, with new opportunities.