band2sleeveinNoVA

AMEN!!!!!!!!! So glad that I found Dr. Greene and Linda the AMAZING PA!

I am going to SECOND, the BEWARE of Dr. Pinnar notion - I had my surgery 5 March 2010, and have had amazing results - HOWEVER this is due to MY hard work and not Dr. Pinnar nor his PA.
Dr. Pinnar did completely leave his DC/VA patients high and dry with literally NO notice. And what the previous posting said about finding someone to fill you is 100% true, in the DC/VA area there are many lapband surgeons but they want to APPROVE you as being a patient and are wary of taking on other surgeons patients. Thankfully for me personally I shelled out the $17,000 and my remaining year of care is being honored by Dr. Greene - whose PA is absolutely amazing I might add and made me feel inspired and excited to lose my last 17 lbs (96 lbs lost total).
Further, the quack that Dr. Pinnar "sold" the practice to is just that - firing the PA in front of patients and not even having anything to do with weight loss anymore - he is now just running a sleep Center there. He took my chart home to his personal residence and I had to demand it back to give to another office. Dr. Pinnar didn't care who he screwed when he left, he just cared about making more of a name for himself.

I had my band in March 2010 and was he same way up and down with Fluid in the band and then it slipped even though I'd never puked nor eaten bread or trigger foods. I was revised on 5/23 to the sleeve and I am loving it! Though recovery was a bit longer and more difficult (drinking for me was very painful at first and I lived off Popsicles). Now I can eat anything again in small portions which does get annoying sometimes because I know my body needs the calories to workout but there's definitely a hard stopping point. The band can also desensitize your stomach so my PA said that likely I will be able to eat more a bit sooner than someone who wasn't banded. All in all so much better! I returned to work on post-op day 6 and would have done 5 but it was a holiday, started running again on day 9 and was feeling good by day 12. I'm 9 weeks out and feel the best I've felt in a year! -30 lbs after gaining 25 with the slip. Good Luck!!!!

Very easy recovery after a removal. Sl. Soreness but you will feel better- no food getting stuck, no sliming, but you can grieve, too. Cry until you can't any more and then begin your future journey.

I like the Premier Protein shakes. I am 5 weeks out and still have one every morning. I like the taste and it has 30 grams of protein!

I too am an unjury fan. I love it. They have a chicken Soup flavor that is really good and helped me through my liquid stage. The unflavored mixes well and has very little aftertaste. Im having some in my coffee as we "speak".
Corinna

LOL!! I wondered this, too. Now, 10 months post op, I don't want it back.
We all have our relationships with food. Mine was unhealthy, for sure. I went for the quantity and snacking, not necessarily the unhealthy. After the surgery, I was a little sad that I could not gorge myself like I used to, but then I was physically becoming the person I had always envisioned myself to be. At that point, I was so happy that my relationship with food had changed.
Yes, I still eat. Often. But the quantity is soooo much less. With the sleeve, it still gives me the feeling of satiety, which is what I always yearned for pre-sleeve. For me, this is exactly what I needed.

This is the week, I feel like my journey REALLY began.
I began a self-imposed liquid diet(mostly liquid anyhow).
I got my surgery date! (July 2nd Yay!)
I lost 10 pounds.
I have been really pushing myself to workout.
I just got back from krogers where I parked at the back of the parking lot, and walked as long as I could inside before getting a shopping cart to lean on - and then I couldn't find what I was looking for so literally spent like 25-30 minutes walking today..
Now last week I couldn't walk around the block.
I've also been doing Ultimate Fighting Challenge on Xbox Kinect almost nightly, and am trying to start up turbo-jam. After I get through w/ turbo-jam I'm going to begin doing P90X - that'll be um...interesting.
Each night before bed I do stair pushups as well and squats in front of the stairs(so I can fall back and sit down when I need to lol). I started w/ 5 stair pushups and am now at 20 on the 6th stair up. When I get to 50 I'm moving down a stair.
My diet has been really good and I just feel really on track and motivated...though could always use more SVs and NSVs lol to keep me motivated - I just hope I'm building a lot of muscle which will weigh more but in the end help me lose more too.
I'm attaching my weekly food/exercise journal - I think I did pretty good...except for Friday and Saturday. Each day is a new day, and I'm finding this forum to be a HUGE wealth of information and motivation. I think the forum is almost as good as the surgery itself! - -well not the forum, but the people in it, and the community here. Thanks for welcoming me!


Direct link: http://www.fitbeginning.com/images/Week1-Pre-op-NutritionReportPatrickcurl.png

You might want to google World According to Eggface. She has a bunch of recipes for Protein ice cream that sound delicious. Certainly better for you than any other frozen treat.

Every single itch, rash or pain that your excess skin causes should cause a doctors visit. If it is documented to likely cost them more in treatment over time, then to just do the surgery, almost every company will approve it. Foremost, you should be proud of yourself. No, the excess skin my not be the prettiest thing in the world, but what you are doing for your life and the rest of your body is beautiful and strong! Don't let that negative tape recorder in your head find something new to say. Keep up the great work! Congrats on breaking 300, you should celebrate!

I skipped the morphine all together. The morphine makes me sick and since I was not in any pain, but only discomfort from the gas I stopped hitting the pump after hitting it one in recovery. It made me do nothing but sleep and they kept demanding that I stay awake.
'sides, your bowels will move better without the narcotics. So will you.

sorry i forgot to tell you I also had the hurnia surgrey to

Well, for starters, don't lie down! It's the old joke, "Doc, my arm hurts when I do *this*. Well ... don't do *that* with your arm anymore!!"
j/k
But seriously, I have read here where most people early out cannot lie down. My wife made a little embankment of pillows that I laid and slept in. I know a lot of people live in a recliner chair for the first week. So, not uncommon and totally normal.
Did you have a hiatal hernia repair, too? I did and I know the pain in the chest is probably going to be a little more pronounced because of this. I also know a lot of people also use Gas-X.
Right now, your stomach is all swollen and it is not in its *normal* position. This is going to cause stomach fluids to ride a little higher and gets more pronounced when lying down. When the swelling goes down, your stomach will settle ... in position and being uncomfortable. First couple weeks are the hardest, but you will get through it.

Sleeved onthe 23rd as well... so over liquids...BUT today was way easier than yesterday to sip everything, so here's to hoping all our tomorrow's are even better! Try a creamier Soup if you can, it helped me a lot today to get rid of the sweet feeling in my mouth. I also use the ramen noodle packets in hot Water (I cannot under any circumstances tolerate the taste of unjury) and that helped as well. Xylitol gum (sold at Vitamin Shoppe) is sugar free and has a pretty decent lasting taste as well.... good luck!!!! Congrat's on 20 I'm down 14.

If it makes you feel better, I was sleeved the same day and will"ditto" your feelings. Today just has not been a great day. Tomorrow is going to be better for both of us.

LOL..... I got such a kick out of "Crapband". Great name
Hope your surgery went well and you have a speedy recovery.
Let us know how you're doing.

I was sleeved Wednesday the 23rd and went back to work Monday the 28th - I have a desk job and I'm able to work a few hours - go home and rest for a couple of hours - then go back and work a few more hours. I think tomorrow I will be able to pull a normal 12-14 hour day
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What may be interesting to note is that in the last 14 business days I have received 46 explanation of benefits from 3 insurance companies (1 of which has not been active since 2007 and I had surgery in 2010)....these EOB's state that Dr. Eric Pinnar is billing all my insurance companies for nearly $150k of treatments and procedures and when I looked up the procedure codes some of these procedures are for things I never had! I've got calls into the fraud departments at all insurance providers and a fellow Pinnar patient who has become a friend of mine also has had repeated claims filed for surgery and aftercare that we both paid $17,000 up front for. Fraud at its finest. The "billing department" that was given to my insurances listed a number that was tied to a Synchrony Health which was tied to Dr. Merchia's personal residence in Great Falls, VA where it lists him as selling it in summer of 2011. Shady.
Would be interested to hear what anyone else has to say?????