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Hi Melissa, I am in Charlotte and have BCBS of NC. Dr. Gersin will be my surgeon. According to the BCBS of NC policy for gastric surgery, it is one of their requirements although the surgeon would probably want the information even if it was not required. The good news for us is that the insurance person in Dr. Gersin's office said that once all the tests are done and everything is submitted for approval that BCBS of NC is very good about approving within 3 to 5 days, but I have read onhere that for some it only took 1 day!! I think I am a week from submitting my information and I'm getting pretty excited. Good luck with your journey in Raleigh! Suzanne

I don't think salad comes until 8 weeks out. Hang in there. I'm also waiting.

That sounds great! I had to fire my personal trainer because he was trying to kill me. Seriously - I am good with sore muscles but when your joints and back ache for a week you know it is just too much. I am doing these group fitness classes that involve weights and lots of core work - hard workouts without killing me. One thing that I have found... and maybe it is just me... but I have visible muscling in the shoulders and arms, but I feel like I STILL have too much fat to see much definition in most parts of my body. I think it is just my reality.... I am curious if anybody who has lost alot of weight (I am down over 180# from my life time highest - down 160# since sleeve) can ever really get a toned looking body. I suspect the ship has just sailed.....LOL... but, I am happy enough with how I look, just never gonna look like someone who was never fat.

I met my new trainer today..He is very nice..We talked for over an hour and he laid out his plans for me...The next 8 weeks we will see each other 2 times a week..Each time he comes he will teach me a new move so that I can start building up lost muscle mass... The next will be once a week and so on...I have to start walking 8000 steps a day...Crap that is a few Kilometers like over 6. That's 4 miles a day........I better get started I think..yikes! Have to purchase 2 lb weights and 3 lb weights and a ball.. that you sit on.... So it begins..Soon I will have muscles that show...lol.......I hear Rocky going off in my head!!!!!!

Try some papya enzymes (available at any health food store)... I had my surgery in October and the first week on solid foods I decided that I would have just ONE baby carrot... I thought I chewed well enough but noooooooooo.... That was not a pleasant experience so early on.... I had already purchased the enzymes in case of emergency and took them then.... within an hour my painful chest was gone.... It cannot hurt to try and see if they break down some of that carrot to get it past your band... Good luck!

It has been 2 weeks for me so far. I talked to the surgeons office friday and they showed insurance as pending. They were going to check with them today about it. Then, about an hour ago, I got a call from insurance wanting to verify some information and make sure I understand who is and who may not be in network as far as Dr, hospital etc. They will be calling me back this evening. Hopefully not much longer.

I have BCBS IL and it took roughly 2 weeks for my approval. My Surgeon office took care off everything regarding the insurance approval. The Kane Center is Awesome fir those located near Chicago-Burbs!!

It will get better! It will get better! It will get better. The first week everything is slow going. Just try to stay hydrated, don't worry about anything else. Week two things will start going a little faster. It won't take half an hour to take the two tablespoons of Tylenol liquid. I burp constantly when trying to eat even two months out. I did Especially in the beginning though. It is a sign you are trying to fit too much in. I like the gas x pills better than the strips. I also had a lot of acid. Maalox helped a LOT! It will get better. Just make sure you stay hydrated. Super cold stuff went down better for me than warm stuff. You just have to test stuff out and be prepared to vomit, don't push yourself or your pouch. It'll tell you when you're full. Listen to it!! Pain and vomiting follows if you don't listen. It will get better!

You know,I am going through the same thing!I weigh every day and I have been stuck on the same 2-4 lbs ALL MONTH. :-( Yesterday since I am 7 weeks post op,I changed my diet around a little-I ate lean skinless boneless grilled chicken,greek hummus,tzatziki and a litle pita bread, and salad plus I made a protien drink with water instead of soy milk and I had an apple (peeled) and some eggs with a little cheese for breakfast.Dinner was 1/2 of a salad and 1/2 of a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I am incorporating fruits and veggies back into my diet after the last of the mushies.I am actually chewing a LOT slower (as compared to pre-op) because I am scared of getting something stuck,and I am enjoying my food a lot more which takes away the feeling of deprivation like you get on traditional diets. I also worked out for an hour and sat in the sauna at the gym for 30 minutes.I actually have broken the plateau and I am now down 2 more pounds to make a total of 34 lost since pre op August 17th (liquids). The leader of support group I go to says that a food /exercise diary can be a great tool for breaking out of a plateau because it makes you realize exactly what you have eaten and how you have excercised and allows you to make adjustments to what you are doing. I also think incorporating some new combos of veggies or daringly changing up how/how long/what you do for movement and excercise helps too.

I also have three meals and will have up to two Snacks if I feel particularly hungry that day!

i had another .5cc put into my 4cc band today which i now have a total of 2cc. i lost 4lbs since april 15(my last fill) not much. i am really hoping this fill will do it for me. i have to say that for the past 8 days i havent been that hungry. so maybe its starting to work. my surgeon said that i am pretty tight and that i should notice quite a bit restriction. how soon should i feel this? i had a cheeseburger tonight and ate it fine. i am getting alot of pressure from my doctor for this to work. she says that my band is tight and that it should be working more than it is. i am more determined now than ever to lose at least another 10 pounds before my next fill which isnt until sept. 20 pounds would be the ideal weight loss in three months though, i dont want to get my hopes up. andrea

When you first start out you will have different taste bud you need to get in at least 60 grams of protein. Try cheese string, carbmaster yougurt, I know everything tastes different but you need to start getting your nutriention in. Drinking protein shakes are good right now but you need to start eating what ever you can eat. Take baby steps and add just one thing a week and start reducing the number of protein shakes you take in. In therory as long as you are taking your vitamins, and calicum citrate the only thing you need to survive is protein. When I first started out I ate apple sauce pintos and cheese from taco bell and protein shakes. I still drink protein shakes every once in a while because I just dont have time to cook all the time.

So I have posted several times about my difficulty in taking my bariatric Vitamins. I take the Celebrate brand chewables: Multivitamin, the Calcium, and twice a week, the sub-lingual B-12. The multivitamin is the one that makes me the most queasy. I try to take it with a bit of food, but it is so unpleasant to my stomach that I have to lay down afterwards, sometimes with a bucket, "just in case" (although "in case" hasn't actually happened). Today, I was upset and couldn't eat, so I didn't eat anything and took my multivitamin with just some of my daily coffee/Muscle Milk drink. Within 30 minutes, I had crushing chest pain. My husband was at the airport, leaving the country for work, so I packed a bag and tried to get myself to the ER. I just couldn't get the courage to drive there! But I was afraid to call for an ambulance or bother my neighbor or friends because I was sure it would subside and maybe it was just gas or something stupid. Or, maybe stuck food (although I hadn't eaten - go figure). I wanted to get to the hospital where I had my surgery, so that they would know my situation, and where my surgeon practices - but that is maybe 15 miles. I couldn't drive there in my condition in case I caused an accident and hurt someone. So I drove part way through my neighborhood, changed my mind, pulled over and considered calling 911, and then most of the pain subsided. This is the same reaction I have to codeine, which is an allergy of mine. I don't have many allergies, just codeine and guinea pigs, and bleach. Codeine does this exact same thing to me, or at least it did the last time I took it, maybe 25 years ago. I did go on to the hospital. They took me back immediately in a wheelchair, so I bypassed the full waiting room and all the forms. I had an EKG, blood tests, and chest x-ray. The EKG had some slight irregularity, supposedly not heart attack related, but everything else was normal. My alarm for low breaths per minute (or whatever) kept going off. They wanted me to stay over for monitoring but I desperately wanted to go home, especially with my husband out of the country. I agreed to get a stress test from their cardiologist tomorrow and I agreed to no physical activity until then. Bummer because I wanted to start Water aerobics tomorrow. I am a healthy woman, 47, no comorbidities, pretty active. I am 99% sure it is an allergy, but will do what I was told and update. The first nurse I encountered today was kind of a know-it-all and told me it wasn't an allergy because I didn't have hives. Hello, I never had hives with codeine either. Also, she cut off my circulation (to the point of immediate pins and needles) with the blood pressure cuff, which has never happened before, and when I mentioned that, she acted like that happens when blood pressure is taken.

Special K, OK got ya! Lol.. I wanted something BAD so BADDD today at the store, but I resisted. I used to the love those soft butter mints that melted in your mouth! Good grief! Special K, I am working a candy fair with my family next week. I well standing there selling 2,000 pounds of fudge. Help me!!! :mad:

My son is a pharmacist, and he also told me not to open capsules or crush any "time release" medication post op. You risk an overdose of the medication if you do. Prior to surgery my PCP changed all of my prescriptions that came in a different form to soluble tablets or liquids temporarily. The rest I had to crush for two weeks post op. I would call your surgeon's office and ask for a clarification.

I had a pain in my left side for about a week and a 1/2. It is a muscle pain. My doc thought it was a gas pain but the pain meds don't work on gas lol. They did work on that pain though. Take your meds thats what they are there for. As for the other, not everything is going to be perfect, listen to your docs. If they thought there was an issue they would tell you. You need to relax, take a deep breath and say serenity now Seriously, just concentrate on your liquids etc. You will be fine.

I gainied weight to get the approval. However, I also could show a history of weight gain and loss through many programs such as LA Weight Loss, Nutri-System, Weight Watchers, ect ect. Thank God I had kept records, because the insurance asked for them. My doctor wrote an awesome letter. We started working the insurance company first of February and I got approval the first week in May.

That is exactly how I've had to view this operation. I call myself a serial dieter. I would go on all sorts of wild and wacky diets, fasts and alternative regimes and stick religiously to them for months only to have a weight loss of only 5 or 6 pounds, nothing like the losses I should have had. And I would inevitably fail because I would see all the effort and willpower I'd shown and not been rewarded by weight loss. So I'd say "screw this, I want to eat like a normal person" and within a week or so, that loss would be gone. I explained it to many people as a hike up Mount Everest. You get your supplies and Sherpas ready and say goodbye to everyone at base camp. You hike all day and feel you've done well and set up camp for the night. Next morning you wake up and there you are back at base camp again! Morning after morning you wake up after a successful climb and still find yourself maybe at the foot of the mountain, but still not getting anywhere. After a while, you give up as your Sherpas are getting tired (and secretly think that in the middle of the night you are moving them back!) and you feel like an idiot. With the band I feel that I haven't been allowed to ever give up. And although I still seem to be only making slow progress up that mountain where people who started after me are further up to the top, I can finally see that I am inching forward. I've never stuck to a regime before where it is so slow. But I feel that I don't have a choice and this is my last hope. I'm not letting go of it. Doddie and I are what Doddie calls Turtles. Slow and steady wins the race and we'll get there but won't compare ourselves to anyone else and will be happy in our own victories. Good luck tomorrow! Mary

Yup. I'm 3 weeks out and mine is still sore. Luckily it's the only part left that's sore.

Sorry to hear about your setback. I wish you the best of luck next week and hope that the doctor will do both at the same time for you. This might take some time but I bet if you go back through your medical records of all the doctors you have been to you could get all the information they are looking for, I would also have each doctor do a letter talking about your diets etc. Chris

I was sleeved on 12/22. So I'm about 3 1/2 months post op. I'm really struggling with abdominal muscle soreness. It's around my incisions and abs in general. At my 3 month post op appt my surgeon said some people experience soreness until 5-6 months. He recommended that I stop doing lunges and squats for 4-6 weeks as that engages the core and could be causing the soreness. It's so uncomfortable at night that I can hardly sleep. I get maybe 4-5 hours a night. I'm getting super frustrated. Has anyone else experienced this soreness? Any tips or advice? I was seeing great results in my legs/rear from doing the squats and lunges. I've completely stopped for 2 weeks now and I'm not noticing a difference in the soreness.

Yup! I did it! First, about 5 days after surgery, I was getting into bed after waking up to pee, forgot about it, went to get in bed like I normally did, and my arms gave out and fell face down onto the mattress. Thankfully the mattress was soft, but it did hurt. Than a week and a half after the surgery, I came home for a few hours, tripped and went flying face first down, I was so scared, so I braced myself and landed on my face and knee, I had my first follow up that day and the dr said everything was ok. Hope all stays well.

I'm am super nauseous! I went to the dr and said it could last up to 6 weeks! I'm feel sick all the time. Is anyone feeling like this? Sent from my iPhone using VST

Hello Everyone! Sorry i couldn't come on yesterday but all i did pretty much was sleep and sip water. I didn't have much gas but i was really nausea and it was a very uncomfortable thing, let me tell you. I seem to not be able to find a comfortale position in the bed either. I just basically placed two pillows high and one folder under me and then i could feel some comfort. I am feeling alot better this morning and no nausea feelings either. I have no regrets and I am not even hungry either! I did drink this morning something cold and nto warm and it was a good change from yesterday. I have a cup of tea sitting next to me and i will drink that too. I was told to only have room temperture until the nausea and then i could have hot/cold. This is clear liquids for the first two weeks. Not bad when looking at the list...Any way i think walking around in my house and going back/forth the the restroom has done me some good. Good luck to everyone and for reading my post. It's not that bad, but prepared to feel a little discomfort and a little pain, especially wearing those ted stocking.. Talk to you guys later, Gateyboo

Well... I should have been paying closer attention to all the messages on the board that say "liquid in, liquid out". I have nothing binding me and it should have made sense that air alone could not pass from within. And so out of laziness because I had found a comfortable spot on my recliner (can't WAIT to go back to my bed in a week) and the dream was too good to leave behind... i sharted. It was terrible. In the middle of the night, I had to shower change and clean (it wasn't alot but I'm totally anal about that kind of thing -- see what I did there? LOL) So it just jostled my whole sleep flow then i had nightmares all night (unrelated). It was just bad. It made me remember a meme I saw online that said "Love is like a fart... if you have to force it then it must be ****." So... lesson learned - just take it to the bathroom. The timely discovery of chicken soup broth on the dreaded Day 3 was a total win for me. I mean... chicken broth is just colored tears. It's horrid. It has this irony smell to it and it leaves your mouth tasting all .... gamey. So my husband suggested to me, as he sat there looking at me stare off into the distance undoubtedly wishing for something I could chew, to boil up a Progresso chicken noodle soup then strain out all the stuffs and drink THAT broth. I mean... a single tear wants to fall when I think how ingenious that was. I could taste the chicken.... but the carrots and the celery and the noodles.... it was all a part of that beautiful bowl of liquid gold. And I felt satisfied when I was done. The chicken soup broth was a game changer. So the hubby went out and bought all sorts of brothy soups that I'll strain and enjoy in the coming days! Exercise wise, just in time, I've stumbled across an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game called Ingress. So the whole purpose of this game is to get you out walking, hiking, biking. That's the bottom line. But they've entrenched the game in this Matrix like story line that there are portals all over the world that XM (exotic matter) is leaking through and there are two factions of belief about what can be done with XM - The Resistance (who believes that XM is going to be harnessed to enslave the human race so we have to fight against whoever is trying to do so) or The Enlightenment (who believes that XM could be our passage way to "leveling up" as humans and taking us to the next plateau). And so you have to walk around claiming portals (that are just really buildings, murals, landmarks and other sight seeing things...) in the name of your faction. I'm part of the Enlightenment and man... this thing has gotten me SO excited about walking!! I am sitting here icing my Achilles wondering if I can go back out and check out some portals I saw earlier. This was incredibly timely and just what i needed. All the pieces are falling into place just like they really should - because I was supposed to do this. I was supposed to finally shed this weight and burden and get back to the business of being me. To quote a late 80's visionary... "I love it when a plan comes together." -Hannibal of the A-Team