15 days!

My mom and I

My brother, Trey, and I

My dad and I

Taking a picture using my webcam!

Me with my little cousin, Dylan!

At the beach with my girlfriends :)

At the movies with my friend, Patrick!

Lauren and I headed to dinner :)

At one of the Anthropologie's in Dallas my boyfriend took me to visit!

My boyfriend and I during one of my Dallas trips :)

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So I just thought I would post some pictures from the last few months!

And onto some good news...Yesterday I talked to the surgeon's office and set my surgery date for Friday, October 23rd!! I am super excited! Only 15 more days! Does anyone have any last minute advice for me? Things you wish you would have known before surgery? Things you wish you would have done before surgery? Any and all responses are welcome :) Yall have a great night!!

DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!

Hey everyone!! I have some big news!! Guess what?!?!?!?! Drumroll please!! I GOT APPROVED THIS MORNING FROM MY INSURANCE COMPANY FOR SURGERY!!! AHHHH! I still can't believe it! Here is the story...



My surgeon's office called me last week to let me know that they submitted all my paperwork to my insurance company last Monday, September 28th. My surgery scheduler who I had been communicating with, Angela, told me that it could take my insurance anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to let me know if I would be approved or denied. I hadn't heard from Angela as of this past Friday before I went into work at 2 that afternoon. Although when I got off work Friday night I had a missed called around 5 p.m. from the surgeon's office!! They left a voicemail! I dialed my voicemail and it was Angela. All the message said was "Hey Kristen! This is Angela. Call us back at the doctor's office if you get this within the next few minutes. If not, I will call you Monday morning." I obviously didn't get back to her in time but this morning she did in fact call me back like she said she would! I answered my cell phone and this is what she said "Kristen! It's Angela again from the surgeon's office. Good news! Your insurance company fully approved you for surgery! They think you are a wonderful candidate and now you are ready for your surgery!" I tried not to cry from excitement while I was on the phone with her but she could tell I was very eager and excited!



It hasn't sunk in yet but I AM APPROVED FOR LAPBAND SURGERY!! This is such an answer to prayer! It goes to show that being patient and thorough with all my appointments has paid off! There are so many people that go through terrible let-downs from their insurance company and I am just thankful I didn't have any of those troubles! Angela gave me several dates my surgeon has open for surgery :) It is starting to all come so fast and feel so real now that I am approved. I know I want the surgery sometime during the last two weeks of October!! Thank you all for your thoughts and encouragement and advice! I am so appreciative!

Hope everyone has a wonderful night :)

Happy Thursday :)

Hey everyone :) Hope everyone is having a great Thursday. It is 10:40 a.m. and I just woke up about 30 minutes ago! Gosh I love the days I don't go into work until 2 because I can catch up on my sleep! I am so sleep deprived it's not even funny!

Anyways, lets talk about The Biggest Loser!!! Poor red team went home :( I really really liked them! They were two sweet and funny guys! But how sweet of them to sacrifice themselves going home so Shea could stay! For those of you who don't watch The Biggest Loser, at the end of the weigh in it came down to two teams with the smallest percentage of weight loss...the red team and the orange team. All the other teams vote on which of the two teams goes home and which one stays. The biggest contestant on the show is on the orange team. Her name is Shea and I think she started out around 460 pounds. Something like that. She is actually is the biggest contestant the show has ever had! So when it came down to the red team going home or the orange team going home, the red team sacrificed themselves because they knew Shea needed to stay on the ranch and lose more weight! It was the sweetest thing and yes, I was in tears. Every week I end up crying my eyes out! The show is so inspirational to everyone but being overweight myself, I can relate to some of them and their struggles. Anyways, this week was week 3 of the show and the red team went home :( But I cant wait until next week! I love Tuesday night TV :)

Another random question, who else is a makeup fanatic?! I know I am! I spend way too much money on makeup...its sad :( I find myself going to Sephora, MAC and Ulta way more than I should! Long story short, I just placed like 5 makeup orders on 5 different websites within the last two weeks and I cant wait to get them all!! I did receive my first order from MAC on Tuesday and it was for a bunch of their pigments...they are beautiful :) I am waiting on an order from eyeslipsface.com, or ELF, which is a website I recently found out about that sells lower priced makeup. I have never used any of their products but from watching haul videos on youtube I am excited about it! I also ordered a few things from Ulta and a few things from Sephora so those should be coming in soon :) If anyone is interested, I could do a haul video...which basically means I can make a video when I get everything in to show you what I got and tell you about the products! Just let me know...I would be happy to!

This was a totally random post but just felt like typing! Hope to talk to you all again soon!

Video Blog!

I apologize for not posting in a while. I decided to do another video blog so I hope you enjoy :) If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! And if you watch The Biggest Loser, let's talk! It's my favorite!! Have a happy Tuesday!

Very first vlog :)

Just wanted to make a video post and introduce myself to everyone :) Hope you enjoy!

Lapband Questionnaire for everyone to answer!!

Hello everyone on this wonderful Wednesday night! I just spent the last 6 hours catching up on my tivo from earlier this week! Gosh there has been some fabulous shows on TV! First of all, the show I have been following the entire season is More to Love!! Have any of you been watching this show!? I got hooked from the first episode when I found out it was about overweight women trying to find love! Like many of you can agree, I saw apart of myself in some of these girls and got hooked to the show! Some of them were so curvy and beautiful...and some of them not so much. Aw was that mean? Anyways, I also had to watch one of my all time favorite shows on TV, THE BIGGEST LOSER!! AHHH! This show is my guilty pleasure and I do not miss a minute of this show the entire season. I have to admit, I have been known to watch episodes twice haha! And lastly, I watched the VMA's that everyone has been talking about! And I have no comments to the Kanye controversy. It was so awful and made me furious. Moving on :)

Second order of business, I want to create a questionnaire for all of you who already have the band!! These are just so questions I am curious about and want to see what your opinions are! Some of them are going to be yes or no questions but feel free to add to the answer if you want! I am just going to label the questions with numbers and when you comment, just answer the questions with the corresponding number! I would be sooo thankful :) I love to hear all of your advice!! Thank you sooo much!

Questions:
1. Did any of you experience hair loss after your surgery? (This is something I am really freaked out about. I heard it doesn't happen often but in some cases it does.)

2. How many days do you think I should take off of work after my surgery? Or lets put it this way, how many days did you take off of work? (I work in retail so I am constantly on my feet f.y.i.)

3. From post-surgery liquid diets, the actual surgery or anything else, what was your least favorite part of your whole lap band experience?

4. For those of you who were fortunate enough to have insurance pay, how long did it take for you to get your approved letter?

5. This is random, but do any of you have Independence Blue Cross? Just curious because that is what I have :)

6. How long have you had the band and how many pounds have you lost thus far?

7. Did you have any issues with throwing up after surgery? I am a little scared about this.

8. How soon after surgery did you get your first fill?

9. How long do you have to wait after surgery before you can start working out?

10. How long after surgery before you felt comfortable enough to drive?



Ok fellow bloggers! That is all I can think of for right now :) But thank you so so much for filling these questions out!! Cant wait to hear from you all!

Happy Friday :)

Happy Friday everyone :) I hope everyone has had a great week so far! I have been working non-stop but overall this week has gone by super fast! I finally made all my required appointments for my surgery. My last appointment before I turn in all my paperwork to my insurance is my meeting for my psychological evaluation on September 29th at 10 a.m. The sweet receptionist lady told me to allow a full 4 hours with the doctor so that should be interesting :) Four full hours to sit and talk about myself and my issues...that sounds wonderful! I love to talk about anything and everything so it shouldn't be too big of a deal for me. On a different note, I finally got all of my Labor Day weekend pictures on the computer and I am going to post some of them for you all to see! Everyone have a fabulous weekend and hope to talk with you again soon!!

My boyfriend, Burch, and I on the way to the Auburn game!

Game Day in Auburn...there is nothing like it!

My boyfriend and my brother at the game :)

My mom, my dad and I camping...please excuse this picture (PS-My mom would kill me if she knew I posted this picture). This picture was taken pre-makeup and pre-shower haha!

The boyfriend and I...still camping :)

My boyfriend channeling his inner diva! HA!

One of my best friends, Kyndal, and I...she came to visit us!

For those of you who don't know, this is my signature pose! You will see this is many of my pictures haha :)

This picture was taken on top of this gorgeous lighthouse overlooking the lake. Its beautiful up on top...the only problem is the 100 steep stairs to get up there!

The boyfriend and I

On the way down the steep stairs!

My cousin Lauren and I on Labor Day! Boo Alabama!! Go AUBURN!!

Me with my cousins, Lauren and Leah :)

I'm back :)

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know I am back from being out of town. I noticed I hadn't posted since last Friday and wanted to say hey! I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend...I know I did! Last Friday my boyfriend came into town. We have been together since June of 2008 but he currently lives in Dallas, Texas. His job is out there and his family lives in Texas. Before we became serious, he moved out there so we are doing the long distance thing. I live in Birmingham, AL so it is about a 12 hour drive unfortunately :( We wouldn't know that because we always fly to see each other. We manage to take turns flying from Birmingham to Dallas and Dallas to Birmingham about every 4-6 weeks so its not too bad. Anyways, it was his turn to come to Birmingham so he arrived early this past Friday morning. I went to the airport to pick him up and then we ran some last minute errands before heading to the campgrounds with my family and some of our friends about 2 hours away. It was beautiful all weekend and didn't rain once! We have a camper so we definitely don't "rough it" haha. I am not the "tent camp" kind of girl but a camper works just fine :)

We spent the day on Saturday in Auburn, Alabama and went to the first football game of the season. Football has always been a big deal in my life since I was a little girl. My dad is a hardcore Auburn fan and we have had season tickets to the football games since before I was born. I also graduated from Auburn last December so Auburn is near and dear to my heart :) So we spent the day in Auburn, ate lunch, walked around the campus that was crawling with people everywhere and get some new hats and shirts and headed to the game. It was a night game and we had scholarship tickets so that meant free food the entire game. It is dangerous having free food during the games but I was actually good despite the fact that I was starving. My boyfriend was enjoying the free food and got like 2 cokes, 2 hamburgers, a hotdog and some peanuts. He probably won't even gain one pound! Disguisting I know! But I had a diet coke, a bit of his hamburger and one cookie! So I was pretty proud of myself. Anyways, we played Louisiana Tech and won the game 37-13. We played great and makes me think we have hope of having a winning season this year (which is better than last year).

So we got back to the campgrounds at like midnight Saturday night. We camped until Monday afternoon and headed back to Birmingham. Monday night we went to dinner with my cousins and hung out with them at their house. I hadn't seen them in a while so it was great to catch up. The next morning I took my boyfriend to the airport and he headed back to Dallas. We used to be all mushy and sappy and cry everytime we left each other, but we are so used to it now. It isn't that bad...we just know we will see each other again in about 4 weeks.

All this to say, that is why I haven't posted since last Friday. Thank you everyone for your comments! I love reading them :) I will post some pictures from this past weekend as soon as I get them on my computer!

As for a surgery update, I have to finish my requirements before I submit everything to my insurance. I am cramming three appointments on Friday, September 18th. I have a sleep study that morning, a one-on-one nutrition meeting that afternoon and I have to get my blood drawn and lab work done later in the afternoon. After that, I have a psychological evaluation on September 23rd I believe and also on that day I have a 4 hour nutrition class I have to do. FOUR HOURS....goodness gracious. Hope its not too boring. Did any of you have to do all of these things I am having to do? Which ones are interesting? Which ones seem like a waste of time?

Thanks yall! Talk to you soon :)

First Meeting with my Surgeon

So it is 12:05 in the morning and I just got home from work. Boo! I work at the lovely Anthropologie and unfortunately we have to stay hours and hours after the store closes to make everything look perfect for the next day. Anyways, this is the first chance I have had to sit down and update everyone on my meeting with the doctor today! So here it goes from start to finish...

My appointment was at 2 p.m. and my mom went with me, also known as my number one supporter, but we got there about 30 minutes early. While we were waiting in the waiting room, a familiar face walked in the door. I remembered it was a lady my mom and I met just a few weeks ago at the lap band seminar and at that time she had just had the surgery! We sat and talked for a few minutes and she said how well she had been doing with the band. She has only had the band for 5 weeks and is already down 30 pounds since the day of surgery. She looked great! I can't wait to be in her shoes someday. Anyways, we talked and caught up and then the nurse called my name.

I went back to the hallway where they took my weight, height and blood pressure. You would think I would have remembered to take my medicine with it being my appointment day but typical me, I forgot!! All that to say my blood pressure was really high, my weight was 256 on the dot and I am 5'7'' (I thought I was 5'8''...must have shrunk). Then I waited in the room only a few minutes before the surgeon walked in. He is about 40 years old...fairly young...and the meeting was short and sweet. He told me based on my paperwork the band was perfect for me. He went over a lot of technical things about how it really requires a lot of self-control and determination on my part and if I do it right, things will turn out good. He said typically his patients do not stay overnight and I most likely wouldn't because I am so young. He also told me that he does not fill the band at all during surgery and that he uses the Realize Band. Umm...what else did he say?? He meets with patients in 15-minute time slots so it was definitely short and sweet. I didnt have time to ask him everything but he was busy. (That is the only thing I regret is that I didnt have enough time to ask him all my 140,567 questions haha!)

Then we were escorted to another office to sit down and talk with the "surgery scheduler"...man wouldn't you like to have that official title? :) She was nice...although she seemed to be irritated or maybe it was just that they seemed so busy right at the time I was there. Im not sure. Anyways, she looked over all my paper I had brought in from doctors and all my medical history I had my doctors fax to her. This took her about 10 minutes, meanwhile my mom and I sat ackwardly trying not to interrupt.

FINALLY....drumroll please.....She said I have most of the important things gathered already that needs to be submitted to my insurance to get surgery approval. And believe me, I had sent a lot of doctor co-pays and time getting check-ups and lab work and papers faxed here and there....so I guess it paid off. Although she said I still have to do about 4 other things before she can submit all my things to my insurance company. First, I have to do the sleep study. Second, I have to have a psychological evaluation done (not sure why I need this but apparently my insurance requires it not matter what). Thirdly, I have to do a one-on-one meeting with a nutritionist. And lastly, I have to attend a group nutrition class. She said after I complete these four things and get the paperwork and results sent back to her, she will be ready to send it all to my insurance. I told her I want the surgery in the month of October do to work and vacations, etc. and she said that is definitely possible if I get these four things done soon!

So of course, on my way home I started calling nutritionists, psychiatric doctors and sleep study doctors. I made appointments for ALL FOUR requirements in my 30-minute ride home!! Haha and the funny thing is, 3 of my classes/evaluations are on the same day and last one is a few days later!! I should have everything completed by September 23rd!! I hope I can get all this into her soon after and have my surgery done in October!


WOWOW! I just typed out so much but that was my day! Does any of this sound familiar to those of you who had to go through your insurance company?! I am a little scared of being denied only because in the surgery scheduler's office she had two cubies. One read "insurance approved" and the other read "insurance denied". My mom and I totally curiously looked all around her office while we sat there and waited for her to look over my paperwork. The stack of people who had been approved was about 10 people. The other stack...the "denied" stack...there were about 50 or more!! I must say it freaked me out a little but Im praying things go well. I have put so much time and money into this and Im hoping it all falls into place.

Thank you all for reading about my day and sorry it is so stinking long! Have a great night everyone :)

*Kristen*

Countdown to my meeting with the surgeon...13 hours!

Hello everyone! How is everyone doing on this lovely Wednesday night? I should be sleeping but instead I am making a list of questions to ask my surgeon tomorrow! Thanks to all of you lovely ladies, I have even more and better questions to ask him so THANK YOU!! I am so excited and anxious to meet with him tomorrow and can't wait to see if we will be able to set a surgery date! I appreciate everyones comments and support. It means a lot and it is nice hearing for all of you who have had the surgery done before! Anyways, just reminding everyone that I meet with my doctor for my pre-op consultation at 2 p.m.! I will post tomorrow night and let you know how it goes!!


As always, here are a few pictures from the recent months!

Me on the phone with my man...Im always on the phone because we are doing the long distance thing at the moment unfortunately :(

My boyfriend and I in Atlanta at a friend's wedding--This shows off my size a little better :)

The boy and myself being goobers!

My cousin, Lauren, and I before her pageant!


Ok, enough pictures...I need some sleep!! Goodnight everyone :)