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I would love to get together shawna. I am getting banded tomorrow. I've never posted anything on these before so i will try and look for your reply when I am done with my surgery.

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I am still certainly up for a get together with all takers. I am from the East side, Mayfield Heights area. I would be happy to travel somewhere more centralized in Cleveland. It would be really nice to have a group going.

Courtenay, did you finally get banded? I havent heard anything new and I wonder how you are doing.

Shawna, hows it going so far? We were banded 2 days apart so we are very close as far as time spent in the journey. I still would love to get together.

IAmTess, I am so happy you have decided to join our losing team :0). I hope everything is going well with the surgery. Our start weight was only 1 pound different so we started from a similar position. I am currently down to 179 (have to update my stats). Please let us all know how you are doing once you are back online.

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hello clevelanders !!!

i just found out about this site today (i've been on thinnertimes.com for about 6 months).

i've had the psych eval, done the 6 mo. diet, seen the surgeon etc. i am waiting for my psych eval results & then it's off to insurance-company-approval-land.

my surgeon of choice is dr ben-meir :tongue:

ps - i live in lake co.

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I live in Lake County as well. I was just banded by Dr. Leena Khaitian out of Geauga Medical Center (Part of UH). The dr and her staff are simply perfect. Being that Geauga is a small hospital you definately don't feel like a number.

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It is great to see a couple of new people from the Cleveland area. This thread isn't very active but I would love to get to know more people around the area.

I haven't pretty much reached my goal since my last post on this thread from May. I am currently only 2 pounds away from a normal BMI at 142 pounds. I am not really looking to lose anymore right now and am mostly focusing on maintaining through my pregnancy.

I knew before I got banded that I would lose weight . . . but the stats say typical loss is 50-60% of the excess. I really never even dreamed that I would be almost at 100% so quickly.

I love my band . . . it has changed my life and is absolutely the best thing I ever did for myself.

Congratulations on being newly banded scanlon21 . . . . you are definitely still in recovery and keep in mind that it only gets better from here.

I am happy you will be joining us soon on the melting side of life, a_thinner_me. You will have to let us know when you get your final date.

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just thought i'd drop in and say HI and give you an update. i called my insurance co yesterday and they said i was denied. they said i need more counseling.

i don't think they mean nutritional counseling, because i had worked with a dietician this year for 6 months. and now that i think of it, i remember the psychiatrist said my psych tests were fine and he was recommending more sessions but they weren't mandatory for surgery.

i guess the insurance company thinks they are (mandatory). kinda bums me out since my insurance doesn't pay for psych visits.

have you guys been denied. how many hoops did you have to jump through?

:ohmy:

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I live in Lake County as well. I was just banded by Dr. Leena Khaitian out of Geauga Medical Center (Part of UH). The dr and her staff are simply perfect. Being that Geauga is a small hospital you definately don't feel like a number.

Hey, I see you're from Mentor. I'm from Willoughby ! :ohmy:

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just thought i'd drop in and say HI and give you an update. i called my insurance co yesterday and they said i was denied. they said i need more counseling.

i don't think they mean nutritional counseling, because i had worked with a dietician this year for 6 months. and now that i think of it, i remember the psychiatrist said my psych tests were fine and he was recommending more sessions but they weren't mandatory for surgery.

i guess the insurance company thinks they are (mandatory). kinda bums me out since my insurance doesn't pay for psych visits.

have you guys been denied. how many hoops did you have to jump through?

:ohmy:

I am very sorry about your initial denial, but don't lose hope. You may still be able to make this work if you are persistent. Can they tell you exactly how much counseling they think you would need to turn it into an approval?

Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with this. I had a WLS exclusion so I was self pay and skipped the insurance hassle.

Just a suggestion . . . there is a forum on here for insurance and financing. You may want to post a thread there stating "Denied Due to Need for Additional Counseling" People will give you lots of suggestions there . . . and perhaps some people may answer that have had this specific problem and overcome it. This Ohio thread isn't very active and only a small number of people see it.

By the way, we are neighbors too . . . I am from Mayfield Heights which is just a hop, skip and a jump down 90/271 from Willoughby :0).

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hi heather ! it's been a while & a lot has happened. i went for 3 more sessions with the psychologist, he wrote his next letter, & got approved. he did give me some coping tools etc. nothing major.

so i got banded on 3/25. i'm getting my first fill on 4/24. a ex-coworker friend from progressive has been doing this with me all along. that was probably the biggest help of all.

i see you're pregnant now, that's great !!!!

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I am looking for someone to work out with -- I have lots of stuff here at the house elliptical and recumbent bike small hand weights wii and wii fit plus exercise dvd's but losing motivation a bit. Can we talk?

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nobody? all well...i found a Ballys total to use..

sorry, just saw this... Fitworks is good, but I don't know if they'd let you in for just a day or 2. We have a few Bally's around too.

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I am looking for someone to work out with -- I have lots of stuff here at the house elliptical and recumbent bike small hand weights wii and wii fit plus exercise dvd's but losing motivation a bit. Can we talk?

sure scanlon. i'm in willoughby, i see you're in eastlake.

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I would love to shawna, having my surgery tomorrow. I will definitely need some support after and am good at giving it out too...lol.

i would love to, also ! how about a starbucks or something?

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scanlon & a_thinner_me,

I am in the Mayfield area so not too far away. I would be up for a little get together at a Starbucks or something similar if you are interested. I don't really know any local bandsters and it would be fun and interesting to get together with a couple of other local people.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
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