What kept you going in the months before your surgery?

The only way I can lose weight beemerbeeper is by doing the DS "diet" but my band won't let me. If I eat any type of carb at all, even fruit, I gain and gain. Well now my doctor made me join WW, which I did, and the only food I can eat that will get through my disastrous crapband are soft foods like mashed potatoes and bananas. A cookie will slide right down but a bite of chicken and I'm frothing and stuck. The only reason I lost weight with the band was from doing a low carb diet. But something has changed with the band (another poster said it was stress maybe?) and I can't get much protein down. Then, to be honest, I get frustrated and hungry and eat bad things so I can get something in. BUT I stay in my points and STILL gain weight. If that's not a sign that I need surgery, I frankly don't know what is.

Today, I had a slice of pizza with whole wheat crust, some cherries, a bowl of oatmeal and a half of a tuna sandwich (bread has never been a problem for me) and I'm starving but because I used full fat mayo in the sandwich and cheese on my pizza, I'm at my point allowance. I tried to eat some salad but it got stuck. None of that was good for me to eat because it's so carb-y but it's all I can get in.

I've done low-carb for years. It's my favorite way to eat. I'm gaining because I can't do it anymore and they can't take any of my fill out because my stupid port flipped over and I'll be damned if I'm going to have a surgery to fix it just to have another surgery to take it out!

Lynmarie, are you positive you have to do a 6 month diet?  I had a band revision and I was excused from the diet because I had a band in me.  I would call the insurance company and find out if there's an exclusion.

Yeah, what Janine said.  Good grief, are you sure you have to do a diet with that alien in there? Oh, God! I just thought about Sigourney Weaver! Anyway, that's just plain dumb as rocks that they would insist you do this diet with your current anatomy.  For heaven's sake, haven't you been through enough?

I am laughing my butt off right now!  That is exactly how it feels too!  Like this crazy alien flailing about in my abdomen! 

Oh I am sorry.  I didnt' realize you had a crap band that was giving you restriction.  That is terrible.  You just have to do the best you can until you get your surgery.

I don't think you should make yourself suffer even further by trying to stick to WW points.  Do what you have to do to get yourself through until you can get surgery.

How long are they making you wait?  Your special cir****tances (flipped port) should be considered.  Grrrr.  I hate insurance.

~Becky

Isn't that ridiculous?  I called Aetna and they said they won't waive it under any cir****tance.  So I appealed and they said I can't appeal because it's not a claim but a policy bulletin.  Since I used to work for Aetna, I made a few phone calls and discovered that if my band needs to be removed for medical reasons (ie slippage, erosion, etc) then I can appeal to have it removed at the time I have the DS but it has to go to peer to peer review first.  I also found out that a flipped port is not a covered reason for revision or removal.   So basically, they want me to have surgery to revise the PORT, heal from that and then apply for band removal and DS on the basis of failure to lose BUT only after I do their joke of a diet for 6 months.  I am 1/2lb from my SW 4 years ago.  So that misery was all for a 1/2lb.  Best $20,000 I've ever spent - NOT!

SO, I'm going in to meet with an NP at Duke tomorrow to see if there is anything I can do about this stupid band in the interim.   Is it wrong that I'm sort of hoping for something minorly wrong (like just enough slippage) so that I can get this done?  6 more months of this crappy thing is like a nightmare!

I swear they should be taken off the market.  I know, I know, there are people that do well on them, but it has done nothing but make me miserable.  Hate this stupid thing.  

I cannot wait for a life with no frothing and "PBing" (just a pretty word for projectile vomitting).  No more port pain, no more random restriction one day and then open wide the next.  

More than anything?  Can't wait to eat a piece of chicken and a steak without worrying that it's going to come flying out in a few minutes!

That is the biggest bunch of hogwash.  I hope to heavens that the nurse can document something that will get you off this slow ride and in the fast lane.

Let me know?

~Becky

Lynmarie, hogwash, hogwash, hogwash! I am sorry you have to go through this.  The more I read about the band, the more I understand just how inhumane and cruel it is, first of all to ask someone to eat like a toddler (come on, that's no life) and second of all to see them suffer when things fail with the "alien" itself.   



Read every post on OH.  Study all material you can find on the DS.  I practically memorized dsfacts.com.

Clean out your closets, put your formerly too small clothes in size order like a dept. store because when the weight starts coming off you will be able to shop in your own closet.  This will keep you from overlooking things that will fit and save you $$$.

Make and keep the required appointments and keep documentation of everything. 

Clean your pantry and plan what you will need early out.  Will you need help w/children?  Try to get that planned.

Think positive and reinforce that by viewing the before and after pics.  They should motivate you.

In other words, keep busy; that will help you keep from gaining, too.   It is all worth it in the end.

Nancy, I love this! So positive, thank you, thank you! Your little coffee mug is perfect!