Well, I have spent the entire night binge reading blogs about lap band surgery. I love reading about their successes and honesty when things weren't ideal or they might have cheated a little. It gives me hope that post-surgery I don't have to reform myself into this perfect eating/exercising machine. Do I need to make major changes and adjustments? Absolutely! But there is no reason to hold the pressure of perfection on myself. It seems silly even just thinking about it now.
We are playing the waiting game to hear from the bank about the loan. I'm praying it comes through.
I am so excited for this change in my life. I feel like I spend all of my free time thinking about the surgery, the changes that will happen after the surgery, wondering how fast the weight will come off after, if people will even notice, how much the liquid phase and mush phase post-surgery is going to suck, how much pain I'm going to be in and for how long... The list pretty much never ends. I've kind of stopped talking to my friends about it because I don't want to annoy them with all of these hypothetical questions about a surgery that I still have no money for. Gah, I wish the bank would come back with an answer already.
I don't really have too mush else to say. Summer school has officially started this week and I am already feeling buried in homework. Only 34 more days to go! And, yes, I started counting down the first week. It's that torturous.
It will definitely consume a lot of your time and thoughts its a huge change! This is a place that you can get all of those questions answered though!!
ReplyDeleteHello, soon-to-be-banded sista!
ReplyDeleteI had my surgery through True Results also. I'm curious, is there an option that if you have hiatal hernia, your insurance will cover half? That is exactly what happened for me. I did have to pay about $900 for the EGD to diagnose the hiatal hernia (they told me 99% of obese people have one...), but that brought the $9800 cost down to $5000 for me! Please forgive me if you've already mentioned this on your blog...I tend to speed-read sometimes and miss chunks of info...if not, please talk to your Patient Advocate about this.
Thanks for reading and commenting! I love hearing from other people in this journey, too! Was the EGD a test that you had to do before the surgery? My patient advocate hasn't mentioned anything about this test to me.
DeleteThat's a really good thing to ask about. Both my husband and I had hernias that were fixed the day of surgery!
DeleteYes, I did the EGD to diagnose the hiatal hernia. It was a quick procedure- 10 minutes, but does require anesthesia. Then my doc came out and said, "yep, we found a hiatal hernia". So that meant that my insurance company would be footing the bill to repair my hernia, and during said procedure, my doc slipped on the LapBand. I was never to happy to be diagnosed with something!! Because it brought my payment down from $9800 to $5000.
ReplyDeleteIf you are not being tested for a hiatal hernia, you don't need the EGD prior to surgery.
Thank you so much for all the information. I have a call into my patient advocate to find out a little more information. You all are so helpful! :)
DeleteHi Alli! Another new follower here. :-) I had hiatal hernia repair, too. My understanding is that most surgeons now check for it while inside at least, and then repair - as they have found it is important to success with lap band, because if you don't repair it, it can be made much worse after putting the band on. I used to have heartburn fairly often, and since having my lap band and hiatal hernia repair in April, I have had NONE. :-D They didn't check for mine in advance because my insurance WAS already going to cover my lap band surgery, but my surgeon also said that almost everyone she operates on needs it.
ReplyDeleteI had a comment about that teacher, too. Of course she has to work with your needing time off for surgery! And because you are a self-pay you may feel like it is "elective" but it IS for medical reasons! You are right you are protected by hippa laws, but I hope you also feel completely justified that this is a medically necessary procedure, you have every right to be private about it, and deserve accommodation! Same as if you were having any other medical procedure you can think of that was both necessary and private! No one has a right to expect you to justify why you need the time off, a note from the surgeon should be enough. When I had mine at most I might have told people "stomach" or I might have told someone hiatal hernia. But really, there are many things in "that area" that are private. ;-P I had some volunteer jobs I had to back out of, and I know some people were wondering what the surgery was for, but they got over it. It is fine if you WANT to tell anyone, but if you want to be private, it is no one's business!
I am still at a crossroads of what and who to tell. So far it's spread to my immediate family and a few close friends. I know I need this procedure medically because I was not headed down a good path previous to this new chapter of my life.
DeleteI don't think of myself as a self conscious person but I don't think I've ever been picked on for my weight before and I just don't want to expose myself to that. I definitely like the idea of leading people to believe that surgery is for a hernia and not being specific because it truly isn't their business but I tend to probably be a little more open than most... :)