Ok Banded pro's this is my first time posting , I would like to know if n e 1 has been banded in columbus, ohio at the Mt. Carmel hospital and if so how was your experience? I have just sent in my first set of paper work to be approve by their Dr. Also they are charging $300.00 for administrator fee (paper pushing to the Ins.), not to mention I will have to spend another $200.00 for their nutritionist and this $500.00 is not covered by my insurance:faint: . Are fee's normal? I was just wondering because I feel as much as the surgery cost, these things should be included! N E help would be nice

Hi all! I have been lurking on here for over a year now. Feel like I know some of you! I've jumped through all the hoops, finally got approved and am scheduled for Lapband Surgery on March 30th. Yesterday was preop day... today I'm beginning to realize it's almost here!! NOW I'm getting nervous. But I do want to thank all of you for, unknowingly, helping me through the past year. This is a great thread!!

Karen

Congratulations Karen! You'll be a Lucky Loser which I understand is the March 2009 nickname for those banded in March this year. I was a Shrinking Shamrock banded in March 2008! Its hard to believe a year has gone by.

I was banded in March 07. We are just the Marchies!

But that's okay too.

Funny that we've got March represented well, huh?

Sillypuddy

I sent you and PM.

But I'll put it out here too. Your SO is just worried for you because she loves you and is scared. Fear is a big deal.

I had a conversation with Nurse Niki and her husband before her surgery. He was scared to death about it. But he's on board now.

And look her up. She's back in school too. It's so much easier to wrestle all there is out of life when you are working toward your health goals. Happiness and confidence comes so much more easily.

Look me up if you want to chat one on one. I'm a gay too, btw, it the rainbowie ticker didn't clue you in.

Hey all glad to hear everyone is doing so well!! Kathy I wish I'd have known about the meeting woith Dr. Choban that would have been a good one. do you know when the next one is and what the topic is? I am feeling great and don't want to lose my momentum. I think it helps to get a "support boost" every now and again and I think I'm up for one. Keep up the good work everyone!!

Hi friends. I'm celebrating my 1 year bandiversary today with an Irish jig... happily dancing along with my lapband now. Best wishes to SueCasb and GregW who shared my surgery date with me and to NurseNiki who blazed the trail a week before us.

Hi Kathy,

Yup, it's been a great year, except I'm a little bummed right now. After what had been continual losses for the first 11 months, I've hit a wall. Seems like no matter how hard I try, I haven't lost any in the last 5 weeks. Coincidentally, that's when we got our gym membership and I've been working out 4-5 times a week. I keep telling myself that I'm gaining muscle (since I'm lifting weights), but it's still disappointing & frustrating not being able to lose. I told myself at the very beginning that if I lost 100 poinds I'd be happy, but now that I'm at 98, I want to keep going (another 10-20 more to go). Plus, I got "rejected" by the style show committee. Oh well, I guess I should be thankful for my successes so far. It has been an awesome year and I made some new friends in the process.

Kathy,

Congrats for making a year. Sorry I haven't been online for a while. My year will be April 2nd. I see that you have lost 93lbs, that is great. I have been stalled at around 40 lbs since November I don't know what to do. I started at the gym 4 weeks ago and have been going 4 or 5 times a week and just started back to walking at 5am since the weather has broken finally. I feel like I'm not eating enough but I can't eat anymore. I am going to start going to the nutrition meetings and see if they help me any. Sorry about rambling.

Again, great job.

Darla

Here is a link over to my March 2008 group forum where I posted some pictures of before & after.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f114/march-bandsters-master-thread-53908/index287.html#post1174993

I have 2 postings so look before and/or after where this link starts.

Congratulations Greg! I'm doing lots of exercise too and it does seem like I am building muscle for the short term but hang in there!

I was able to see Dr. Miller for a tiny fill of .25 cc's yesterday to bring me to 10.25 ccs in a 14 band. When I explained to him that my calorie count was climbing consistently above 1500 and that I wasn't staying satisfied long enough with a meal or snack portion, he agreed it was time for an adjustment but also said now that I am getting pretty full on my band, he will go very conservatively on each adjustment because he doesn't want to have to do an unfill. After having read where others got .5 cc and were in the E.R. the next day or two getting an unfill back out of that adjustment, I'm willing to go the conservative route.

So here is a real mental victory for me... I had a business lunch at a Japanese Steak House on the east side of Columbus just 3 hours after getting my band adjustment which puts me on liquids only for the day. So here I am ordering Hibachi Chicken (yum) and watching everyone else eat their whole meal while I sipped on ice water. I got a take home box for my whole lunch and just had to explain to the vendor who was buying lunch that I had a doctor appt and needed to be on liquids but that I'd enjoy the meal the following day. What I didn't tell them was that meal will probably make me about 3-4 meals! So will-power prevailed and knowing I can't risk eating on a band fill day kept me strong.

The scale is down this a.m. but I expected it would be after a day of liquids so now the gradual increase in food types will help me see if this adjustment did the trick on staying full and portion control.

I'm a little behind in posting this but there is still plenty of options to attend. They are held the First Monday of the month (except for holidays) from 6-7 pm in the Mt. Carmel West Auditorium which is located in the Mt. Carmel Medical Staff Bldg which is just south of the Emergency Room entrance. Check out www.mchs.com for the site layout of the hospital. Parking is about $2.50 for the 1-2 hours of the meeting.

April 25 meeting -- Annual Fashion Show at Tuttle Mall !!!!

May 4 - Addiction Transference

June 1 - Childhood Obesity

July 6 - Vacation Planning

August 3 - Community Action Raising Awareness

September 14 -- Exercise

September -- WALK FROM OBESITY -- Google for more info

October 5 - Body Image Disturbances

November 2 - Healthy Holiday Recipe Exchange & Potluck

December 7 - New Years Resolutions

Special K

Congrats on 95 lbs almost 100. I haven't seen you in a while I'm sure you look great. I am going to make the committed to start going to the support meetings and nutrition meeting every month. I am still on my platuae and it will not move. I started to walk again in the mornings now that the weather has finally broken and started going to the gym.

Do you know anyone that is going to be in the Fashion Show?

I hope all is well.

Darla

Hi all

It is so good hearing from all of you guys. I'm doing fine I have lost 115lbs so far was banded 1/7/08 all those banded march last year great job on your walk to good health. The lady who feels she is not being supported by her partner always think of your health and when you start feeling good about yourself everone around you will start to support you and if not that will be alright too.

Thanks for the advice LadyRoz! I am continuing to go to all the appointments for my clearances. Had my psych eval,and they didn't lock me up,so guess I am good there... LOL Had the appointment with the pulmonologist because of the asthma,and he said he doesn't see a problem with recommending me for surgery,although the pulmonology tests that were done after that appointment were HARD! Darn allergies have my asthma acting up! Hoping they turned out ok. Next wednesday I go for the sleep study;really don't know if I have sleep apnea or not-guess I will know soon. I know if that is the case, you have to be on the bipap machine six weeks before being a surgery candidate... NOOOO!!! I am making appointments as fast as I can to expedite the process. Have an appointment two weeks later to get the sleep study results... I have also been wondering about something that maybe you all could help me with. What if it isn't all hunger;what if you're an emotional eater? Will the lapband still help? I guess if you're full,it won't allow you to eat out of emotion because there is no room? So many thoughts swirling through my head!!:smile2: Then I read posts from you all-I can only dream of how my body would feel minus 60,80,90,118 pounds lighter!!! That is awesome!!! Keep up the good work everybody,and I will keep forging on!

Joyce

Sillypuddy - sounds like you are moving along great on getting all your clearances. Keep it up!

I had a .25 cc (tiny tiny) lapband fill on Monday a.m. and then I was on liquids that day and went to semi-soft the next day and I'm up to full food as of today. I had a salad with a grilled chicken breast and dipped my fork and the tiny pieces of chicken in fat free ranch dressing and after an hour of working on it, I had eaten it all. Wow!

Here's the part that you'll either laugh about or go Ewww! My salad had a little extra protein at the very bottom -- when I got almost done I spotted something black and was not sure if it had wings on it but yep ... it did and I saw that dead bug after I ate the whole salad!

One other interesting factoid --- 1 fluid oz of saline is = 29 ml

so .25 ml = .008 fl. oz. WOW that really helps me think about how tiny that amount of saline he put into my band really is.

ml = milliliter. This is a VOLUME measurement. it is 1/1000 of a liter. when talking about water or similar liquids, it is equivelant to one cubic centimeter.

cc = cubic centimeter. This is also a VOLUME measurement. Most syringes measure their capacity in cc's. If you have a 5cc syringe, it will hold ~5ml of liquid in it. (so 1 cc = 1 ml)

And the good news is, the scale is moving on down again! Amazing considering that is such a tiny adjustment on the band.

Edited March 27, 200917 yr by SpecialK