Alexandra

Dana, I too am on Synthroid, .125 mg for me. It's only uncontrolled hypothyroidism that would disqualify anyone for banding. That's one of the reasons there is so much pre-op testing, because if such a condition exists it must be treated first. Well-controlled hypothyroidism, diabetes, hypertension are not reasons to stay away from the band at all.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Lady!!

You have every right to feel ripped off by your doctor. It's really disturbing that the pratice would take and band patients without more preparation. I'm really sorry this is happening. But then it's a really good thing this forum and others like it exist! Information is crucial, and if doctors aren't providing it other bandsters can, thank goodness. As someone pointed out earlier, the band can't do anything to heal emotional pain. All it can do is help us eat less. Is that something you want to do? Eat less? Lose weight? Maybe just meditating on that will help, sometimes. I'm not saying summon inner strength to get over urges...for me it's more of an inner weakening, letting go of the will to eat when I know I'm not hungry. Emotional issues are, or should be, separate from the behavioral issues of eating. When I'm heading toward overdoing it, I don't think about rules or following anyone else's directions. I just try to remember that I want to not cause myself pain, I want to be thinner, and the food I'm hankering for will be there later when it really is time to eat again. I don't need it RIGHT NOW. I'm not offering any advice on working on emotional issues; that's work to be done with a professional. I'm just sharing what's helped me when I have the desire to defy the band's message that I'm done eating. After surgery may not be the best time to be deciding if you want the band in the first place, but better late than never. Presumably a desire to lose weight is what brought you to it in the beginning, so keep that in focus if you can. :biggrin1:

Loopy, I applaud your post. Thank you! For what it's worth, I'd like to offer another way of saying "work with the band" that might not feel so negative. People are all familiar with the AA model of dealing with addiction, the 12 steps that start with "We admitted we were powerless over [insert addictive substance here]..." Well, when I'm having the most trouble I get back in control by acknowledging that I HAVE no control. At times like these, controlling what I eat doesn't take asserting my willpower, but rather admitting that I have no will at all and handing it over to the higher, stronger power--in this case, a band of silicone. So I rely completely a lot of the time for the band to do its work for me. True. But I have to stay out of its way, LET it guide me away from the table. THAT took some learning and tears, but it came. Recovery from addiction takes, in 12-step circles, "hitting bottom." Perhaps the decision to have WLS in the first place can be seen as that bottom for people addicted to food. If that bottom hasn't been reached, if the patient has surgery before he or she is ready to give up the addiction, perhaps the time just isn't yet right. The fact is that a lifestyle change has to be arrived at by the patient at some point if WLS is going to help permanently. This is not news to anyone, I'm sure.

First, I think you mean Erosion, not CORRosion. "Corrosion" doesn't have any meaning in dicussions about the band. Erosion is the complication you see mentioned that requires band removal. Erosion of body tissue is a potential complication of ANY implanted medical device. The statistics on it with the band are given by most sources as 1-3% overall. There's some thinking that as time goes on that number will increase, but even in Europe where the band has been in use much longer the percentage is not much higher. Banding is so new that any statistics are still works-in-progress. For me, the chance of a second surgery is an acceptable risk to take. It hasn't happened but I know that it may someday. Ask YOUR doctor what his/her rate of removals or erosions is; that's a number that is going to mean much more to your decision than general statistics. Welcome to LBT!!

The Y is great for people who are just getting going! When I joined the first thing I did was take a low-impact, low-stress aerobic class called "Back In Shape." (My Y's fitness classes are no additional charge.) It was full of much older people and I wasn't even the largest one in it at 280 lbs! The more you go the easier it gets, I promise. The Y has a HUGE variety of things to try, so just look at it as a learning experience and keep trying new things. It's not exercise, it's experimentation!

I think we can make a stronger effort to name threads clearly. The orifice thread, for example, should have been tagged Adults Only right from the start, and if everyone agrees the moderators can just go in and add an "Adult" to the thread name whenever something like that occurs. I'd find that much preferable to having to send a password to people who ask. Incidentally, Dawg, yes, password-protected forums are definitely possible.

I have NO tolerance for pain, yet didn't have to take pain meds after banding surgery. My two childbirth experiences were WAY more painful, even WITH epidurals. Banding surgery leaves you sore and tired, and the resolving gas can mean shooting stabbing pains for a while afterwards, but it was no more than a 3 on the scale for me.

Perspnally, I'm not in favor or password-protected sections or things like that, just because they're so labor-intensive. I'd vastly prefer people use good taste and good judgement in general, and when starting threads of that nature label them clearly so anyone who wants to avoid them can. It's not so hard to be respectful and exercise restraint, even when discussiong adult issues. The presence of an adults-only section might indicate that such topics are encouraged over other types of topics, and I don't think that's a message we want to send.

Jigglypuff, I've had two episodes like this over the last 2.5 years, and all I could determine to do is stay away from whatever caused it. I've heard rumors that tiny sips of soda can help in situations like this, but I've never tried it. It's just a matter of figuring out what works and not letting it happen again. It sucks, though, and I know it!

No one can promise you will never gain weight again. That's a sales pitch. If you work with the band and if you don't develop any complications, the band can help you lose weight and control your weight more easily in a permanent way. Restriction is a very basic element to the way the band works. The band restricts the amount of food one can eat at one time, and adjustments increase this effect, increasing the restriction. The tighter the band, the more the restriction, the less you can eat. Being too tight is dangerous, while being too loose keeps the band from working at its optimum level. Finding the right amount of restriction can be tricky, and several adjustments may be needed. It's CRUCIAL that anyone banded far from their homes find a good local doctor to see them if there are any problems and, ideally, to have adjustments when necessary. Bariatric surgery is not considered medically necessary in this country unless one has a BMI of 40 or above, or between 35 and 40 in the presence of other medical issues. So not being 100 lbs overweight does not mean you absolutely would not be considered qualified. You should speak with a doctor about that, and find out what your insurance carrier's guidelines are. Good luck, and keep asking questions!

Oh, Jonathan, I'm so sorry. But I am sure you will find the answers as to why this was, and make the most of what life has handed you. You're doing great so far! Lost 40 lbs, and gained a wife! :biggrin1: You know what they say: Live long, and prosper. Peace.

Hey Shelly, what a gorgeous dress!! I often get nostalgic about my wedding dress and want to take it out of the attic, but then I remember it's a size 26 and wouldn't fit me now. Sigh...I can't wait to see your wedding pics. You're beautiful!

Oh, Vera, what a tragedy. My heart breaks for your whole family. Strength and peace from me, to all of you. What pain, I can't imagine. :cry

Wow, Gypsy girl, you done great!! I'm in a VERY similar place as you right now, and just last night I was thinking after dinner: hmmmm, that was a lot, wasn't it? But I don't really think it was. One thing I'm 99% positive happens, over time, is that our esophagus loses some sensation. So you might not even really know if you're pouch packing, which makes it all the more important to be careful. If you do go in for a fill, will you get a fluoro? That can tell you if your pouch is distended. I wouldn't worry about the baby spinach, because that really scrunches down to almost nothing. But I've been able to eat a whole chicken thigh in a disturbingly short time, with no discomfort or warning signals at all. (Speed is my demon, unfortunately.) So I can totally understand your concern about the breast. Please let us know what you decide. I'm thinking of going for another adjustment sometime...well, sometime. I'll be very interested to hear your experience with it. Good luck!!

Thank you for clarifying, Dr. Billing. Glad to have you hear!

Susan, gracious of you to apologize. I certainly didn't mean anything other than I thought Donali's post was funny. Nothing personal or petty about it. We all know how that feels. :hug: Now, my thoughts on the topic at hand are as follows: When I have been on diets in the past, the reason I "allow temptation" is that I completely resent being left out, being different, being separate from the rest of the world. My brother was allowed to have Yodels and RingDings in the past, but not I, so I'd spend dessert time sitting at the table resenting the hell out of the world. Later on in life, having access to "forbidden" foods was a way of lashing out at the world that "forbids" me to have them. Now they're no longer the temptation they once were, and so I can have them around and be able to resist their charms more easily. Perhaps that's an effect of being banded, or just growing older. Who knows? But I don't live alone, and clearing my house of tempting foods would just show me once again that I'm different, I'm defective, I'm not allowed, I'm not worthy of these treats. Well, the hell with that. The focus has shifted, inside me. If I care about myself and my health, I simply won't overindulge in crap that makes me feel like, well, crap. It doesn't matter if it's in the house or in the store, if I want to stay away from it I will. And if I don't... :biggrin1:

You're absolutely right that eating like a bandster would help you lose weight, even if you don't actually have a band. And if you can do that, really DO that for the rest of your life, maybe you DON'T need a band. A new car sure looks good! :biggrin1: What the band brought to MY party was the ability to eat like that, for the long term. Eating a low-calorie-diet for a few weeks or even months is just dieting, and that may be easy for some or near-impossible for others. Eating that way long-term is much more difficult for everyone. Being banded has let me eat less day in, day out, day in, day out without feeling deprived, without reading myself the riot act fifty times a day, without feeling different from everyone around me, without the difficulties I've always had before. And that's what's making it work for me.

Maybe we should always assume everyone is always joking, unless directly informed otherwise? Seriously, folks, comments about spelling on message boards are ALWAYS said in good will and jest. It's clear that even spelling corrections can be taken more personally than they're meant. So let's all step back and take a deep breath. If the thread-starter so requests, this thread can be locked.

Donali! :) :pound:

I've seen loads of journalistic inquiries posted online with only an e-mail address as a contact. That's not unusual. And it's not the first Pete's post that was remarked upon. The psbilling post is the one that has me concerned. NO doctor should offer to share patient information, for any reason. Now, maybe he just meant that he has patients who fit the requested profile and can help put the producer in touch with them, but if that's what he meant that's what he should have said.

If that is indeed a post from Dr. Peter Billings of Washington, I hope he will come back and delete or edit it. That is very unprofessionally presented, to say the least. And in any event, the inquiry was for NYC-area teens. And IF anyone is inspired to contact Peter Kaplan, who originally posted the inquiry, PLEASE CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY. Do NOT post any information here.

Hi Tia!! Nice to see another Abkin/Bertha babe here. Hope we get to meet you at a support group meeting soon! Good luck with your surgery, and welcome to LBT!! :biggrin1:

NWMarc, whatever issues might affect weight loss in an individual are issues that will have to be faced whether the person has a band or not. The band does nothing to change anyone's underlying metabolism or medical conditions. It only makes it easier to eat less. So if you know and understand your own health, you can make a considered and informed decision as to whether cutting calories will help you lose weight. To beat a dead horse, the band is just a tool to help us cut calories. 'Taint magic.

That's a great story, Fran, except for what happened to you the first time! I'm not sure a refund is really enough to make up for the fact that you had to have two surgeries. What went wrong the first time, do you know? And might you want to share the name of your Mexican doctor? Congratulations on your banding, however bumpy, and I hope the road ahead is smooth and uneventful.