Waiting on insurance approval

I have the lapband.  I deal with severe GERD and either no restriction or too much restriction.  The swallow study showed nothing wrong, so the doctor has to make his appeal to the insurance company with just his notes and his personal diagnosis.  We are trying to get coverage for a revision from the LapBand to Gastric Bypass.  I have Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas.  My whole package has been received by insurance.  It has been routed over and is being reviewed.  I'm so nervous.  I call them 2x a day.  I apologize for being bothersome, but they are cheerful and understanding.  I just pray that one time I will call and they will say "its approved!"

As soon as I get an approval they will schedule my surgery for 2 weeks from then.  I will start an Optifast diet for those two weeks to shrink my liver.  Until then I have started the diet I will have to eat for a year after surgery.  Its an ultra low carb diet.  Eggs, meat, cheese, green veggies, 1 gallon of calorie free liquid a day.  Nothing else.  I quit drinking wine, and even cut back on coffee.  I have been on the ultra low carb diet for 3 days.  I am severe carb flu state right now.  Lightheaded, dizzy, headache, fatigue.  I know I will be out of it by later this weekend.

This is all moving fast, but I wi**** was moving faster.  I just want to be in the hospital recovering and working on my new life.  Doing the low carb is tough with no restriction (I am completely unfilled now) and I desperately want a sandwich!  I just want to hear a "yes" from my insurance company.

I feel you!  I hate not feeling full.  Its awful.  I just want to cry sometimes.  Its not fair.  We should be full!!! Not always hungry.  It just doesnt make ANY sense you know what i mean?

Adam

Hang in there sweetie the 3rd day is usually the worst. When I do the start of low carb I just eat anytime I feel hungry so I don't go crazy. Then after 3-5 days I go to a more scheduled type of eating but for for the beginning I just snack all day if I need to just to get thru it. I hope your insurance comes thru soon the waiting is the worst part! You can do it tho, if you have survived a band you can survive this.

Try some tylenol for the head aches and just try to take it easy this weekend if you can, by Mon you should feel pretty normal again! I had my band removed a year ago and I have lost with just the low carb hi protein type eating.

If you haven't seen it before you might go to Atkins.com they have awesome recipes and if you just google high protein eating you will find zillions of recipes to fix, all really tasty. Hang in there it will all be over soon!!

I'm down 10 pounds in as many days, feeling good.  No more headache but I still feel disconnected, and I don't have the tremendous energy people talk about.  I am using Ketostix and I seem to go in and out of ketosis.  I went to outback with my husband and they gave me sweet tea instead of unsweet.  I had put splenda in and thought I just over did it.  I think that put me out of ketosis for a few days just from that one glass.  That scares me that it is so sensitive that I can come out of fat burning and have everything I eat be bad for me rather than good with just one glass.  But I am not knocking the weight loss so far.  I just want the revision so I can not feel hungry all the time and this diet is much easier.  

No word on insurance yet.  Hopefully we hear this week.

I started my 2 week diet on yesterday, I am so excited and I am sure you are on pins and needles during this waiting period. Keeping fingers crossed!

Fingers crossed that the insurance comes through for you!  Reading your story sounds frighteningly familiar to me so I thought I'd just shout out and say hey.  Welcome to the group!  There are quite a few of us who post regularly that are Band to Bypass revisions so hopefully you'll find some good support.

This is really the hardest part of the journey - the waiting, trying to eat RNY style and not knowing if it'll happen at all.  I must say that for me at least, once I had the revision it was like waking up from a bad dream.  I had that Band in for 7 years and I had forgotten what normal felt like.  What eating without pain or choking was, not having to wonder if that bite would be the one to start me foaming and sliming.  With the bypass I've gone back to normal.  Food isn't a challenge.  I never experience hunger.  It's crazy and wonderful and so much easier!  

I'll be on the lookout for your update - I'm sure it'll work out.  Ashley

Thank you!!  He unfilled me to ease up the GERD and i gained 10 pounds in a week!!  lol  obviously I enjoyed eating normal for once in the last 8 years.  I'm so anxious to eat like a normal person and not have reflux and hunger!

It's a good thing he's unfilled you so the acid reflux is better.  Even if you gain, or better yet maintain your current weight, it's healthier for you and will make it more likely they can revise you in one surgery without complications.  Try to think of it in those terms!  

I think we revision patients have some advantages over newbies in that we already know how to follow some of the basic rules of post-op eating.  For example, no eating with drinking (as if that was even an option with the Band!), waiting 30+ minutes before drinking again, eating protein forward, taking supplements etc.  If you have strayed a bit from those things then I would suggest getting back into those habits again, figuring out how you will track your food (MFP or whatever), making sure you drink enough fluids, blah blah blah will help you as much as low carbing now IMO.  

I gave up alcohol and all things white (sugar, pasta, bread, rice) 6 weeks before surgery and haven't gone back.  It isn't even food for me now - I can be around it, prepare it for my family but I don't care about it anymore.  You'll get there.  Hope you get the good news from your insurance soon:)