New to the board

Hello all, Joan here from Sheridan Oregon. I had WLS 6 yrs ago 8/3....My dau. is interested and has BC/BS according to her Ins. book she has to have a 5 yr history of obesity...YEP...and a BMI of 40...she is at 36.5 any idea's out there would certainly be appreciated. She was looking into RNY Lap...I had open RNY...I lost 141 pounds and rebounded during menopause! Up 35 pounds and am very very unhappy....I am grateful I found this board...Local people with info and support....is awesome...Joan

Hi Joan, Welcome to the Oregon Board. I don't have any advice for your Daughter ,I don't know anything about that Ins Co. Sorry to hear about your wt gain. I hope you find encouragement here on the boards. Have you checked any of the other boards on the site? There is a new board for wls post-op's who are a year or more out. I have found alot of good advice. Check it out sometime. I will let you know what it is called..It is so new,I can't remember what they are calling it.. I have a awful memory anyway. All of us on this site, no matter what stage we are in,all have a common goal. Which is to lose weight and keep it off. We need each other to accomplish this. So,keep coming back. Check out the other message boards. Good Luck. Jeanne~ 304/179/140

Hi, Me again. The message board for post-ops 1 year and up is called. wls grads. You can find it at the top of this page. Click on "communites" then "other forums". Take Care.. Jeanne

Hi Joan! Welcome to the board! I have heard it is common to rebound like that. I dread that day. I already have to watch it to keep from gaining now, so losing is even more of a struggle, but I keep plugging away. I feel your pain!!! As for BCBS, I guess it must not be Regence for state employees at least because my BCBS doesn't pay at all...they have specific exclusions. As for her BMI, well she could shrink on height. Usually we fudge our height to be more than it is and stretch high when being measured. If we relaxed and just stood normal straight rather than stretching, most of us would find we're a bit shorter than we thought. Heck, if we slumped at all, it could be even more than that! So that is a good place to double check her bmi. And there are some things I've heard of including wearing heavy shoes and clothing when you go to get weighed. Hopefully that will help. I hope you check back in with us and keep coming back for support. Maybe you can get that 35 lbs off again....we'll cheer you on!!! Dina

The lap band works, but only if a person is really dedicated to keep weight off. What happens is that the stomach will stretch over a period of time so that the band becomes ineffective. The band can even slip out of position I have heard. The advantage is a lower cost for the surgery than some of the other methods. I got the bypass which reduced my stomach to hold about 3 oz. It will stretch over time to hold about 6 oz, but a lap band stretch will be larger, allowing more food and therefore a possible rebound. I would recommend the bypass if possible. My Dr., Stepen Tersigni, also does the laprascopic procedure with just 5 small incisions. Mine have almost completely healed after only 11 days. He's done over 700 of them and has not lost a patient yet due to the surgery. I find I don't even want to eat much anymore. For lunch I could eat a lot, but now I can't get much down, and the urge to eat that amount is gone. My Dr. in Coos Bay did all the insurance stuff to get approved. I did absolutely nada there. The insurance plan I had is the federal employee's Blue Cross, which was lucky for me that they covered it, as the regular Blue Cross doesn't I understand. Jerry

Hi Joan, The duodenal switch surgery works very well, and it seems a lot of people haven't heard about it. So that might be something to look into. We have several revisions to the DS from RNY posting on the DS board also. You can click the link below to read about it. Best wishes to you and yours Isha 366/247/220-170 www.duodenalswitch.com Eat Normal & Lose!