Living in Wilmington, DE area and was wondering about locals in DE, NJ and PA

Hi Everyone!

I'm glad there are some posts to this thread finally! I have ended up staying the March, 2008 bandsters group to find some folks.

I hope things go well for you Lynn. Bummer they are messing with you.

366 - I finally gave up trying to get insurance to pay for it. I went self-pay and time is zooming by. I can't believe I am at the less than 2 weeks phase. Are you getting banded at St. Francis? I only ask because I switched from Christiana to St. Francis and now am attending the "support groups" right next to CHRIAS. My next one won't be until after my surgery.

I have to tell you that once I had all my stuff done, I got a date very quickly. Once you have all your stuff or even almost all of it, call Misty and they will give you a date and set you up for a pre-op appointment. I had my pre-op appointment on 3/5 and my last clearance visit on 3/11. My band surgery date is 3/25.

I look forward to "chatting" with any others in this Delaware thread.

As of now everything is a go. pre-op is done and final clearance from pulmonology is done. Unlees I hear from Shannon at PMRI or Misty at Chrias I am a go.

reporting at 10am on 3/19

overnight and hopefully home by Thursday afternoon

The big problem (for me) is having a very sedentary job. If I don't have my butt parked in front of a PC it's parked in the drivers seat.

Hi Pattman, and everyone else for that matter. I am Laura. I was banded 12/12/06 in Salisbury, MD. I used to live in DE and have a lot of friends and bandsters that still do so I jump back and forth between the DE and MD pages.

I have a couple of suggestions for you in terms of exercise.

1) Get one of those exercise balls and sit on it at your desk instead of a chair, it really works your core body muscles and improves your posture at the same time. The great thing is you really don't even feel like you are exercising and you don't even have to break a sweat!

2) Google isometric exercises. They are done mostly by just breathing and holding your muscles in contraction for short bursts of time, but boy do they work! Best of all, you can do them at work, in the car, waiting in line, etc. and no one will even know.

I am also interested in hearing more about your docs, I need to find a competent doctor that I am comfortable with for the band. Not such an easy task, especially after someone else has already banded you.

Please let me know how you fell about the doc, the staff, there attentiveness and efficiency, if they take insurance, their attitude/approach to fills, etc. Thanks in advance for sharing.

Laura

Hi everyone!

Lynn - that is great. Are you excited? I am!

Hi Laura - good to have you here. It is nice to have someone who is further along the path than we are. I love my doctor. He has been kind and attentive and answered all of my questions. The staff for the most part is attentive and responds quickly. Sometimes it is difficult to get someone to answer the phone, but my experience is that they will call you back. They do take insurance. I am self-pay for the surgery, but my insurance is paying for all the pre-op visits. (weird!) I will be banded on 3/25 so I can let you know more later. I don't know where you are in Maryland, but pretty much the only doctors that do this surgery in Delaware is the group I am dealing with and they are in Newark. (Actually, just down the street from Christiana hospital)

Hi everyone. Glad to see you guys are here. I never noticed the Delaware site before today. I am starting my clear liquid diet in 6 hours in preparation for surgery on Tuesday morning. I am nervous; however, I am excited to get started with the LapBand proceedure. It has been a long journey so far (since August 2007). I feel very confident with Dr Wynn and the Chrias staff. Wish me luck. And I look forward to chatting in the future.

Good luck on Tuesday. Dr. Wynn is great. I have my post op appt on 4/4. can't wait to see the weight loss.

The 48 hour preop liquid is not too bad. I am in day 12 of full liquid and beginning too feel hungry.

Just remember after surgery, drink water, walk, drink water, walk... it is a good way to remedy the shoulder gas pain. Also a heating pad and Gas-X strips.

another good post site is the master thread for march 2008

:thumbup:

Lynn

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I really need them at this time. You will have to keep me posted about your weight loss as I will you with mine. So far the liquid diet is going well. I think I will be starving by late afternoon though!:thumbup:

Have a good one!

Hey Delaware!

Today is your band day, so I don't think I'll see you on the boards, but I wanted to post and wish you well. I like the Chrias staff as well. My surgeon was Dr. Peters, but Dr. Wynn was to assist. It turns out that Dr. Iragou did the band and Dr. Peters did the hernia repair. I have to admit that they were all real nice.

Good luck in your journey. I'm guessing that you went to Christiana. I believe they do surgery there on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I know there are more folks from Delaware out there. They banded 5 people the day I had surgery. Hopefully more find the group. Lynn gave good advice about the March, 2008 support group. They are a great group of folks!

Lynn, how did everything go????

hey everyone my name is alicia I live in newark I didn't really realize how many people are from de on this site. well I'm not yet banded just got the phone call from my pulm doc today that everything is good and there's no need to see her again so she's sending over her approval so hopefully i can call chrias on wed and get my surgery date. I can't wait my seminar was in jan and I feel like getting this done has taken forever. I'm just so happy only a few tiny more steps and it will be here.

Hi Alicia!

Welcome to the group! I went to a seminar in January as well. I was surprised by all the clearances that I needed. But, I did set up an appointment with the Dr. before I went to the seminar. As a result, I actually saw Dr. Peters in the morning and went to the seminar later on that day.

Does your insurance company have any requirements?

Well, it sounds like you will be banded soon. Feel free to ask questions! There are a few of us newly banded and a few who have been banded for a while longer.

Hello Alicia.

I was lucky and once I knew my final appt dates I called Chrias and scheduled myy surgery with Dr. Wynn. I had my preop appt and surgery scheduled within 3 weeks of the call. I had a bit of an isue with pulomonology, but cleared that up.

My insurance is BCBS DE and they approved a 23 hour stay post surgery in thebhospital. I ended up staying a bit longer, Dr would not let me leave until I peed for them. I spoke with a friend that works for BCBS and she said I should not get a bill from the hospital for the stay, since it was DR. ordered due to "lack of peeing" lol

I am sure things will move quickly for you after you manke that call

HopeInApril and I attended the Life Skills classes together in Feb.

Good luck and feel free to ack anyone questions or about concerns, we are all open to answer and help

well i officially got a date 4/29. unbelievable I'm so excited I can't explain, just a few more appointments and less than a month away from my new life.

Delaware - how are you doing? Did surgery go well on tuesday? Please let all of us know.

HopeInApril - are you recoverying ok? You are just over a week post op.

AMC - Congrats on your surgery date. Maybe you will get lucky and get an earlier date if anyone else cancels out. You never kow. I do need to say , check on your arrival time for the surgery day. I was told 10am and they called me at 9am asking me where I was, I had even double checked with Misty the day before!

Good luck to all of us in our journey..

hello everyone! I am alive and kicking today. Doing much better than I thought I would. I am a little over 48 hours post op. Trying to get all the liquid and Protein in. I called Sam (the dietician) and he said that I need to take it slow over the next few days and will soon be able to get the 64/64 in.

I had the surgery at St Francis. I could not have asked for a better experience. Everyone there was kind. There is a bariatric section. I pretty much had a nurse to my beckon call. The room was large and private. I hugged the nurse before I left.

I am sore in the surgical sites, but am doing better than I thought I would be able to. I have a lot of gas. It has no where to go. So I am waiting for it to come out the other end. haha. It feels funny that I cannot properly burp. I guess that is something that I will have to get used to. How long did everyones gas last? How long was is until you were able to get the 64 oz in per day that is recommended?