B-52

Gas-X has nothing to do with the post-op gas pain most people complain about. This pain is from the procedure of pumping air into your abdominal cavity to make it easier for the surgeon to work. After, they extract the air, but never get all of it. The air will accumulate and move upward, under you ribs and eventually accumulate in your left shoulder. My daughter is a Nurse Practitioner, critical care post-op. She informed me the ONLY treatment for this is to get up and start walking as soon as possible after surgery, as much as possible. It is a standing order for all post-op patients in Hospitals. People may experience different "gas" pains in their digestive tract due to radical changes in their diet. Gas-X will work for this.

I am officially in One-derland !! I have been flirting around 200 lbs. for 3-4 days, and have been at 199 for the last 2 days straight. My First Goal reached! My 2nd goal is to loose an additional 10 lbs. This will put me in the "Over-Weight" class. Where else can someone get excited by being over-weight but here, having passed from "Morbidly Obese" to "Obese" to Over-weight ? My 3rd goal will be to get my BMI into the "Normal" range. The biggest compliment I have received thus far: I was at a business conference where I ran into people in the business I have not seen in over a year in some cases. One person exclaimed for all to hear "You're remarkable! The older you get, the younger and better looking you get! It's supposed to work the other way around" (I'm 60 years old)

About the same with me. My surgeon is split between 2 practices, plus I know he is doing surgery twice a week. But he does see me every time I have a office visit, and he does the fills. No fluoro either. Drink a cup of Water before I leave. Cell Phone??? Why would I want to call him???? I deal with patients and their families every day. The last thing I want is to have them have my cell #. There is always somebody in the office if I need help at least 2 PA's that I know about. I've gone to his other location when I was doing the pre-op thing.

Dr. Washington has retired, as of 1/1/2011. Dr. Suen Sowemimo, M.D. has resumed his responsibilities.

I use MyNetDiary -Pro. Can input foods you eat. Has a very large database of available foods. Can scan the barcode on packaged items to load the nutritional values. You can also enter your daily exercises, manually or use the large data base for that too. Set goals, enter you weight, display charts and graphs for daily progress, etc, etc. etc.

As for myself, I do not weigh or measure what I eat. You have to "Respect" your band, and stop eating when you are full. The band will tell you.I've had to learn when the band is telling me that is enough. Do not force the issue. You can and that would stretch the pouch to where you could start eating more than you should.

Going fast is not the way to use a eliptical!!! It's about resistance. How hard you have to work. I use one everyday. If I wanted, I could go like crazy at the lowest setting, but it would not do anything except ROM, and probably pull a muscle or 2. Granted, you have to start somewhere, to get the rhythm. But then you need to start upping the resistance to get any cardio effect. I'm a 60 year old male. I do 30-45 minutes a day at a resistance setting of 15. I wear a heart rate monitor to ensure I am getting the right amount of work. When I finish, my shirt is soaking wet with sweat.

2 weeks post-op, I would not get too worried. I had to learn that the real process does not begin till after 4-6 weeks post-op. It took me 3 fills before I could say the band started doing what I expected it to do all along. Everyone is different. Do not compare (and compete) with other people. Another reason I keep the surgery to myself, and make it my own personal program.

Sorry, not my style of humor. I believe if people ask me a straight forward intelligent question, they deserve a straight forward intelligent answer.

I have been using a elliptical for about 3 years now. Can't stand the pounding (impact) when using a treadmill. Perhaps when I loose more weight. Anyhow, there are 3 different styles of elliptical machines at the gym I go to. I am only comfortable on one of them. Seems that on the other 2, I am standing very erect, almost feeling like I am leaning backward at times. The one I use I feel that my weight is leaning a little forward. This is the only one I am comfortable with, so when it came time to purchase one I bought the same brand. Ellipticals are more about resistance and time rather then speed. Set a goal, say 20-30 minutes for starting out, and set your resistance to "1". When you get comfortable, start increasing your resistance to 3, then 5, 7. When you can do 30 minutes at 7-10, then it's time to think about monitoring your heart rate and go fro the Cardio for 20-30 minutes. After that, you can start increasing your time.

But don't forget all the release forms you blindly sign when going through admissions. Those would probably protect the hospital from any lawsuits, and the hospital will discipline the employee. When I see new patients I need all the release forms signed just to be able to talk with the insurance companies.

First of all, this is why I chose not to tell anyone that I had the surgery. Second, I tell people I am on a diet and I watch what I eat and how much.

I'm not a heavy drinker, I can go months between drinks. But I do have a few from time to time on occasions. For instance: In June we were on vacation....a Caribbean cruise. I had at least 2 mixed drinks a day. Last week, the July 4th weekend, we went to a ballgame and I had 3 lite beers throughout the game. Whenever we go out to dinner I will have a pre-dinner cocktail. I don't drink anything else carbonated. Now I'm not saying it is OK to drink while being banded, or when dieting for that matter. I'm not saying carbonated drinks are Ok either. All I'm saying is what I have done, and have had no personal effects....other than the effects of drinking 3 beers at a ballgame.

This is not for me, but I would like some info for my Wife. She has not been banded, but is on a medical supervised weight loss program. She has mentioned the desire for breast reduction, and a tummy tuck in the past. Now that she is loosing considerable weight, it may be something we should pursue. So, I have some questions: What type of Dr. do you contact for the consultations. A general Plastic Surgeon or is there a different field? Is this something Insurance will cover? We have excellent insurance. I have never seen a single bill for my band surgery, Dr. visits or fills. Although I did have to do 6 months of pre-requisite consults, etc. What is the cost? Any other info you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks.

Being filled yesterday, you should not be eating solid foods so soon. Having said that, I also have 8cc's in a 11cc band. The feeling you have right now, get used to it. It will not happen as often as it does right now, but it will happen more easily if you are not careful. Give it 2 weeks to make any determination. If still very tight, Dr. can take out a 1/2 cc or so. But it sounds like you are there where your fills will be "Fine Tuning" based on your weight loss. I go back in 2 weeks, and if my weight loss is not good, I may ask for 1/2 cc. Last visit things were fine, and did not get a fill.

Your Dr. is correct. You must remember for the first few weeks you are in the post-op healing stage. Some loose weight, some do not, some gain.

Not to rain on your parade, but you are only 1 week post-op and really haven't eaten anything. Those numbers, at least in my case, jumped all over the place for a week or 2.

I take 2 scoops Muscle Milk Light every morning. 1 scoop Vanilla-banana, and 1 scoop chocolate. It does not make me feel bloated, but I am satisfied with only that and other supplements for Breakfast. Funny about GNC. I buy my Muscle Milk online. Once when I was running low, I went to GNC and the guy did all he could to talk me out of it and purchase a GNC brand of shake mix.

September??????? I had my first fill 4 weeks post-op, and 2 more 4 weeks apart for a total of 3. If you're one that will depend on fills, which the majority does, you're going to have a rough time.

At week 3 it is probably real hunger. It took me 8-10 weeks before my band started to do what I was expecting it to do. Week 3 I was on mushies. Different Soups, chili. scrambled eggs, quiche, mashed sweet potatoes. and on and on. At this point it is not about loosing weight or controlling hunger. It is all about fully healing before they can get down to real business.

I have had too many problems with all breads that I have tried to eat, so I pretty much wrote it off. Beside, bread will fill you up fast and deny you of what you really need. Protein. I was at a Johnny Rockets last week. Ordered a hamburger, put the bun on the side and ate the patty with a knife and fork. Also had a side of chili. FF and Onion rings are a thing of the past also.

I don't see it that way at all! Just the usual post-op aches and pains, but nothing I would call major. No different from any other kind of major surgery. Many people expect that once they hve the surgery the pounds will begin to fall off the next day. Th first month is not about loosing weight. It is about healing and getting to the point where you can begin to function normally again. If you drop some pounds from the post-op diet, so be it. If you don't, or if you still feel hungry, so what? Think of it this way. You had surgery, they put something in your body, but it isn't turned on yet. You have to wait and heal, then the Dr. will activate it by starting the fill process. I was very discouraged the first few months. Showing up for my appointment with my Surgeon, getting on the scale and showing little or no weight loss, my mentality was that of being on one of those diet programs where I felt I would be chastised for non performance. The Surgeon laughed at me and said if you had lost weight, you wouldn't need to be here for a fill.

I love to snack on raw vegetables, but now, after having my 3rd fill, those are pretty much a thing of the past. Too hard. Carrots are the worst.

Are you getting enough Protein? I find it helps me NOT have a appetite. My wife, who is not banded, but is on her own diet finds protein helps her a great deal and she is loosing nicely.

The first month is not about loosing weight. It is about healing from abdominal surgery. It took me 3 fills (4 months) before the band, and this new weight loss program, really started to work the way it is supposed to.