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Has anyone heard that there BCBS of michigan changed their supervised diet requirements for the surgery? Did they lower it from a 12 month supervised diet to a 6 month supervised diet? My surgeon mentioned it but he wasn't sure and didnt elaberate too much on it. Any guesses??? I would love to get this aproval sooner than later. Thanks for any responses. Patti :ranger:

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A lot depends on who you have BCBS with. We have BCBS of Mi and it is through Teamsters and we don't need to have any supervised diet as of last January.

Where in Michigan are you from? Where are you having your surgery? I had mine done in Mexico and get my fills in Hillsdale. I live in SW livingston county.

Kari

banded 7-15-07

Dr. Ortiz

down 52 lbs.

lots more to go

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:rolleyes:Hurley bariatrics. Dr. Kralovich is my surgeon and I am so waiting for this patiently. I am in Argentine/Linden area just a block south of the Livingston/Genesee County Lines. My BCBS is a ppom and a self pay that we have had for years. My husband kept it from one of his first jobs like 20 years ago. Where did you go thru to have yours?

I take my sister in for hers this Tuesday at the Barix in Ypsilanti, alot of mixed emotions for her lately.

Well thanks for your reply . Oh, one more thing, do you attend any support groups in the area, I havent been to any but would like to check them out and go with my sister to some too. Thanks, Patti

:)

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I live in Wisconsin and my husbands insurance is BCBS of MI - strange I know. When I got all my info from them in Oct 2007 they still required you to do 1 year of physian sup. diet or other ones like Weight Watcher/LA Weight loss. Dumn luck I actually had tried LA for the last year before going into wanting lap band

The one bad thing about BBCB is that they do not give a pre-approval, so you pretty much go into surgery only on faith that they will pay:(

So, if I were you I would call the help number on the back of your card and have them send you a letter stating everything you need to do before surgery-that really helped me.

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I am switching to bcbs-MI in Jan.08 I have been ont he phone with them several times and the way it was explained to me was the you do not have to go to the doctor every month for 12 mos. The lady I spoke with said that would be a waste of time. However you need documentation for weight loss failure over the last 12 mos. I have been waiting for 1-1-08 to get here because I don't have a contract # yet and they say that each policy is different. We will have a ppo1 plan? Good luck to all - We sure don't need 12 mos to knoe if we are fat or not?!;)

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    • LeighaTR

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      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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      1. Selina333

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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
      1. This update has no replies.
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