sleasley
07/06/2004...I am 32 yrs old, 5'2" and 216 lbs. I have had issues with my weight all of my life. When I was in high school, I was under-weight. When I was 18, I became pregnant with my 1st child and discovered that I really liked food. I never lost down to my pre-pregnancy weight but I did stay around 150lbs for many years. The last 7 years have been full of diets and depression. I have taken every pill and been on every diet know to man. I have stayed around the 180-220 mark most of the time except for a brief 9 month time frame during which I got down to 164lbs. In 2000, I was thrilled to find myself pregnant. That's when I offically broke the 200lb mark. I have not been able to get under that. So I am now hoping to get the lap band soon. Today, I made appointments with Dr. Smith (surgeon) and Dr. Hall (psych) plus my PCP, Dr. Barclay. Tricare Prime is my insurer and I am very worried about that. The current Tricare contract is with HealthNet Federal Service but that changes to Humana on 11/01/04 and I am not sure how "band friendly" they are. Keep your fingers crossed and I'll keep you updated. BEST WISHES TO ALL!!!
8/31/2004...Tricare approved my consult! YEAH!!! That is step one for me. I am going to see Dr. Hamn tomorrow in Plano.
9/7/2004...I had my consult with Dr. Hamn on 9/1/2004 and it went GREAT. My blood pressure has been high and my pcp is having me track it for the next two weeks...Dr. Hamn said that he would definatley use this info in my requst. I was able to get in touch the PCP that I saw for the past 3 yrs until he left the state last year...hopefully, my records will get in Andrea this week. I hope that my surgery approval request will be on it's way this week. I am scheduled for my psych consult and nutritional appt are both on 9/21/2004. Now the REAL waiting game begins!!!
9/15/2004...YAHOO!!! I am approved. I can't beleive it but I called Tricare today and I have been approved for surgery. They received my authorization request on Monday and appeoved me this morning. I am having my psych eval & nutritionist appt on Tuesday, Sept. 21. I guess I will get my date after Dr. Hamn's office gets the results from my psych eval.
9/22/2004...Completed my psych eval and nutrition consult yesterday. All went well. Also, I saw my PCP yesterday. Even though my blood pressure has been high, he didn't want to start me on any meds since I was having the surgery soon. I was releived about that. I got the results from my psych test and I passed. He just faxed the results over to Dr. Hamn so I should be getting a surgery date soon!!!
9/23/2004...Still no call from Dr. Hamn's office so I decided to call. Andrea is out until Monday so I guess I will call back then.
9/27/2004...Called Dr. Hamn's office and was told that Andrea no longer worked there. Spoke with Cindy and after she found my chart, she said that they had all of the info necessary to schedule my surgery. She stated that she would mailed me a letter with my date this week. So I'm still waiting!!!
10/5/2004...Y-A-H-O-O, I finally have a surgery date!!! On 10/25/04, I will become one the banded!!!
7/25/2005...9 months post OP and I am down 46lbs. Pretty good and most importantly I am happy with it. It could be more if I had tried harder. My 2 biggest obsticles are not wanting to exercise and snacking. I feel and look so much better that it is hard to be disappointed. My goal is to be at 159lbs by my 1 yr date. That would put my losing 65% of my excess weight and therefore a sucess at WLS. Goold luck to all of you researching the band and those who are pre-op. A word of advise...be prepared to work because your band can't do it all. This is DEFINATLEY not the "easy" way out!!!