What is this whole surgery about, anyway?

WHAT IS LAP BAND SURGERY? Most importantly, it is NOT Gastric Bypass surgery. That is a much riskier surgery that involves actually cutting your stomach in half and re-routing your organs so that the stomach is made smaller and the food bypasses part of your small intestine. Lap-Band Surgery is a gastric banding system that reduces the amount of food that your stomach can hold at one time. The surgery is minimal and done via laparoscopic surgery (considered “outpatient”, although I’ll stay overnight after the surgery occurs). A silicone gastric band will be placed around the top of the upper part of my stomach, and will be gradually “filled” with saline, which will decrease my ability to eat large quantities of food. I’ve included a picture of the band. I decided on this route, because it is so much safer than by-pass. The last data I saw was that it has a 10x lower mortality rate than GB, and you don’t have the major issues with not being able to absorb nutrients. Additionally, it is reversible, although that is not the intent to have done. But – you aren’t cutting apart an organ for the same success. Big benefit in my opinion!!! As part of the surgery, both the band and a “port” are implanted in my stomach – the port is the section that the doctor will use to fill my band starting about 6 weeks or so after the surgery. They’ll keep filling it until it reaches the right comfort level. WHAT NEXT? Well, once I decided to pursue this option, I had to commit to a long process. To qualify through my insurance, I’ve had to go to monthly monitored visits with my PCP for 6 months (started in July 2008), get nutritional counseling, have psychiatric evaluations done to ensure I can be successful, attend support groups and informational meetings… and the list continues. I finished with my PCP visits on January 8th, 2009. That Friday (last week), the surgeon’s office submitted my paperwork to the insurnace company, and told me that it would be about 4 weeks to get an answer back. Once that approval came through, it would be about 10 weeks to the surgery date (originally estimated at end of March / beginning of April). I clearly met the criteria, because I got a call yesterday (Tuesday the 13th) from the insurance company informing me that I’ve been approved for the surgery! Yikes! Yippee! Hooray! Halleluiah! Holy Cow! I was NOT expecting any response that quickly, but I have to believe it is a sign that this is the right thing to do. I’ve been chatting with my surgeon’s office this AM, and of course they have to get the actual PAPERWORK before they can schedule the surgery, but they are saying that it is more likely at this point, that we’ll be looking at the end of February / beginning of March timeframe. Wow. That is about 6 weeks or so away! I’ll keep everyone posted.