donali

Hey, Vines - I am so GLAD for you that now you have something to target that should actually have an effect! Three cheers for not dropping this, and for getting to the bottom of it so it can be fixed. HarleyNana - The article you posted sounds as though they're focusing on increasing the T-3 cells - this is what the Wilsons Thyroid Syndrome treatment focuses on, but by actually supplementing with T-3. I wish there was a doc nearby that charged reasonable prices for me to try this therapy... It really makes sense to me. Alas... lol

Yes, I have heard of someone having to go to the doc and have an offending piece of something that wouldn't go through retrieved from their pouch. I don't recall for sure, but I think it was a piece of meat. This was a friend of someone in the SD support group. So, it IS possible to have something stuck that needs to be removed by a doc, and it IS possible for the doc to get it removed. It's also possible that an unfill may create enough space for the thing to pass. Hope this helps!

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese I'm not cheap, but I am on special this week I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol I intend to live forever - so far, so good I love defenseless animals, especially in a good gravy If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends? If you ain't makin' waves, you ain't kickin' hard enough! Mental backup in progress - Do Not Disturb! Mind Like A Steel Trap - Rusty And Illegal In 37 States Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes. Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy. Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you. If I worked as much as others, I would do as little as they. 24 hours in a day ... 24 beers in a case ... coincidence? I think not! If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something. Many people quit looking for work when they find a job. Dancing is a perpendicular _expression of a horizontal desire. Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film. Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk? What happens if you get scared half to death twice? Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery. Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark. Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill them. Laughing stock: cattle with a sense of humor. Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? Wear short sleeves! Support your right to bare arms! For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened, small stain. Corduroy pillows: They're making headlines! Black holes are where God divided by zero. All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand. I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose.

I believe that's the "smiley" version of "beating a dead horse"... Had absolutely nothing to do with your post, but when I was looking for loving smilelies I saw it, and had to put it somewhere!! lol xxoo

Just had to add this... lol :deadhorse:

(((Bright))) - So glad you're going to let someone help you sort all this out. Soon you'll be good as new!! We miss you!! We need you!!! We love you!!!!!!!! :kiss2: :star: :star: :love: And just because these were too funny to pass up!! lol :lalala: :deadhorse:

There is a Yahoo! group for eroded bandsters. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ErodedBandsters/ Esther, the list owner, has been banded twice and eroded twice. A couple of others on there have been rebanded and no further problems so far. Hope this helps!

If you have a satiety disorder (excess hunger not related to emotions, but physical, excess hunger) which I suspect most of us do to some degree or other, then of course you will gain the weight back when the balloon is removed, because the hunger will return... It is unreasonable to expect a physically hungry person to be able to ignore that EAT signal indefinitely. The band really helps to turn that EAT signal waaay down. As long as you are able to keep the band and the level of restriction you need, your hunger will be managed and the weight will come off.

!!!This is NOT a lapband statistic - it is an RNY statistic.!!! Lapband patients do not necessarily lose faster in the first few months - usually it is not until we get the proper restriction that the weight starts to come off a little faster, which usually takes at least a couple of fills.

Hey Crystal - Congrats!! You may want to look into a non-bulking fibre agent, like Benefiber to help you with the constipation problem. I also found that prune juice worked wonders.

For those of you who want to stop checking in when the news here isn't as good as you hope, why not start your OWN thread about the good things for you about the band????? Why not start your OWN thread about how happy the band made you today? DON'T stop coming here! Starting posts about how the band has made a postive impact on your life helps EVERYONE, including yourself. It helps make the board more balanced. It gives people something to look forward to. It reminds you of how good it is to be banded. It is NOT a slap in the face to those who are having problems. I challenge all you happy lurkers out there to start your OWN posts about how happy you are with the band today. Come on, you can do it!! If you want to read happy news, post happy news - it doesn't have to be a major happening! :clap2:

MHO follows: If you post on a message board, you are automatically soliciting advice. If I had something I felt might be unpopular to say to a person, but thought they might find it helpful, I might be moved to send them a respectful PM/email pointing them to more research opportunities, IF they had a PM/email available. IF they had a PM/email available, I would assume that my on topic/respectful PM/email would be accepted. I would be devastated/embarassed if my good faith message was received in any manner other than I had intended it. I would have either sent an apology message or an apology post, whichever I felt was the most appropriate, and then I would drop the whole thing - at least with that person specifically. If I still felt as though I needed to make a point, I might make a generic post about my understanding of good message board etiquette. I would not post private conversations, or cross-post those private conversations to another board. I probably would most definitely seek out valued opinions about whether or not what I sent the person was "out of line". The post on this thread about how the receiver viewed the message is a valuable reminder - it's not what I intended that's important here, but how the RECIPIENT felt. If the recipient was offended, then I am terribly sorry, and would say so, even if I still felt like the info I had to offer was important, valid, and NOT inflammatory or alarmist. As a side note, I would like to say that it IS very difficult in some groups to post anything but the rosiest of support posts. Continued posts from people with severe problems are almost always discouraged. :lalala: Even here the serious problem posts invariably spawn "Where are the HAPPY bandsters??" threads, or even a thread that says "I come here for support, and all I find are problems." Even in this very thread, those here who have eroded have been challenged with the question about whether or not they were "model" bandsters. The smallest nudge that possibly our erosions weren't REALLY a risk of "just" being banded that can't be controlled, but something that we must have brought onto ourselves by our less than "model" behaviour. Some people just cannot accept that the risks are genuine. :lalala:Even if they may be small or low incident, having them posted makes them seem higher incident, because NO ONE can pretend that the complications just don't really occur - at least not to anyone that YOU know. And once people have made up their minds, and/or have actually gone through the procedure, they have a hard time accepting that there MAY be some very real negative consequences. They don't want to think about it, :lalala: they don't want to be reminded of it. :lalala: And until something major happens to YOU, you probably would just as soon pretend that complications aren't really THAT possible. However, once YOU are the one with a major complication, those infinitessimal percentages don't seem quite so small, or quite so impossible to collide with. This is human nature. It is what it is. Another reason why this board is so rare - we have real people who have had just about the worst that can happen to us happen (believe me, erosion is NOT the worst thing that could have happened to us), and we have NOT been chased off this board, and allowing us to stay has NOT sent this board crashing. The reasons for this are, I think, two-fold: 1. We have some very level-headed people here who are able to remind the masses that these severe complications are NOT the norm, without having to dismiss/belittle/blame those of us who have experienced them. 2. The people who have experienced these problems have not condemned the band, and are not actively discouraging people from getting banded. Thanks again to those strong-voiced, level-headed people who are able to put these complications into perspective without dismissing the fact that the complications occur, and thanks to my fellow eroded bandsters for their level-headed dealings with this devastating reality, and sharing their information without having to condemn this tool which is such a wonderful saviour to so many. May LBT always be able to share the reality of being banded without losing perspective one way or the other.

When you get to a tighter restriction level, the little things will start "showing up" as being problematic. Many people with a good restriction level cannot drink cold beverages first thing in the morning. You had ice tea. Many people with a good restriction level have problems with potatos and eggs - potatos, for some reason, seem to recombine and clog things up. I still have problems with potatos occasionally, after being unbanded for a year. Over-easy egg was my first PB. You may want to avoid some of these known problematic items and see if that helps. Hot liquids in the morning, avoid potatos and breads and eggs until you are more certain of your restriction level.

Hey, Vines - How are the thyroid meds working for you?? Hoping you're seeing some progress. xxoo

!!!BRIGHT!!!! So good to "see" you again!! :kiss2:

Vines, check out this other very interesting site: http://www.wilsonsthyroidsyndrome.com/

I thought this article was very interesting. Perhaps the synthroid isn't working properly because your T3 levels aren't being addressed? http://www.worldwidehealthcenter.net/articles-159.html I took my temp this morning before getting out of bed as instructed, and it was 97.6. He says a good indicator of low thyroid is that first morning temp, and if it's below 97.8 it's likely your thyroid is low... Per the article, some of the most common symptoms caused by hypothyroidism include poor concentration, mental confusion, memory disturbances, cold hands and feet, overweight, difficult weight loss, menstrual problems, dry skin, thin hair, and low energy levels. Other symptoms include migraine headaches, hypertension, depression, hypoglycemia, atherosclerosis, diabetes, infertility, and even acne. In his book, Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness, Dr. Barnes described over 47 symptoms that may be related to poor thyroid function. I have a lot of the symptoms mentioned above, like dry/rough skin, fatigue, poor concentration, mental confusion, memory disturbances, overweight, difficult weight loss, thin hair, low energy levels, depression, hypoglycemia... I think I'm going to try some thyroid med myself. My blood tests have always come out "normal" - I have no idea if that was low normal, and I'm sure they didn't do any of the more extensive testing.

I don't think any of the recent problems here were with diabetics. I am not diabetic.

So glad you're doing well!! Please keep us posted.

Since no one knows for sure all the factors that may lead to erosion, do you really want to risk it? The band was not designed to restrict you to a liquid only diet. I would recommend getting a slight unfill, and let the band help you as you change your eating habits for the better. You never know when you might have to go "solo", and wouldn't you love to have good eating habits already in place if that ever happens? Being too tight definitely creates a risk for slippage, as people who are too tight tend to vomit, which is the number 1 cause of slippage.

The mid-band is a bigger, softer band. It has no hard parts. I think it uses a different fill solution than saline - a contrast solution, I believe. The mid-band tends to self-fill. I believe this is due to the type of fill solution used. So most mid-banders face a lifetime of unfills, as opposed to lapbanders who are generally getting fills until they reach their "sweet" spot. The lapband fill level generally stays constant as long as there are no leaks, changed only by fills/unfills. The stats I have read rate the mid-band at a lower erosion rate than the lapband. I believe the mid-band was French invented, and it is not FDA approved in the states, but many people here have gone outside the U.S. for their surgery and return with mid-bands, either through their own or their surgeon's choice.

I had to vote that I paid over $15,000... The banding surgery itself was only $10,000, but the removal was $5,500 and the port repositioning was another $1,500 or so (can't really remember how much that was...) Four fills at $100 a pop. Medication. Transportation. Altogether, my banding experience cost at least $17,500. Self-pay. Ouch...

(((Leatha))) So glad you got an unfill - did the doc say anything about prescribing something to increase your esophageal motility? I do think it is odd that the medical professionals are convinced that no one could be eroded/eroding unless they have a lack of restriction. A lack of restriction would really only happen once enough of the band had made it through the stomach wall - meanwhile, it's still there, creating restriction Glad you're having the endoscope done just to be sure. If nothing else it can reassure that there's nothing worse going on with your esophogus than mere irritation Sending good thoughts your way!!

Unfilled bands have been known to erode, as well. I don't know how tight they were empty, but... The thing is, eating too much and being too tight may cause erosion, but I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of bandsters have overeaten at least occasionally, and many have been "too tight" (how tight is "too" tight??). So if overeating and being too tight are factors, they still only effect a small percentage of those who overeat/are too tight - because I honestly believe there are lots of people out there that DO overeat and are/have been too tight who never erode. I MOSTLY did not overeat, and I don't believe I was ever too tight...

The big problem with both of those options is that they are temporary. As soon as the gastric balloon is removed, or you go back to eating solid foods after Optifast, any weight lost will more than likely come back on.