Alexandra

Juju, if your insurance carrier is Enlightened enough to cover banding, then fills should be included. It's important for them to know that fills are an INTRINSIC part of the treatment and absolutely required surgical followup. A lot depends on how the procedure is billed, whether it's in the office or in a hospital; whether radiology is used or it's done by a surgeon or NP or whomever. So check with your doctor for specifics. His staff is likely to know exactly how your carrier handles it.

My thoughts when reading things like this is marketing, marketing, marketing. Statistics can be bent to support any position, and the important thing is to know the motives of the presenter. This group seems to have a vested interest in promoting RNY over banding, so of course they're presenting only the statistics that support that position. Phooey.

My thinking is that forever is a VERY long time. And the risk of screwups is too big. Ever seen a bad tattoo? Imagine having to live with that, FOREVER. Nuh-uh, not me.

Hi Mistic, Welcome to LBT!! Before exploring Mexico, do what you can to see if you are qualified for it medically. Do you know your BMI? United is generally good about covering the band for qualified individuals, as long as the contract allows it, so don't run for the border until you've thoroughly explored your stateside options. Having access to care is crucial so if getting to Mexico frequently isn't convenient, you definitely want to try to stay local. Good luck and keep asking questions!

Hi Juju, SlimFast shakes have enormous amounts of sugar, so they're really not the best for you. There are lots of brands, and you should experiment to see what you like. Personally I preferred the powder type that I mixed with milk, sometimes added other things to make a smoothie and sometimes just shaking it up with the milk. The brand I liked was Kashi GoLean, with 30g of Protein and 7g of Fiber per serving. To my palate, the pre-mixed kind in cans was always too sweet.

Have a wonderful time! Cancun is where the love of my life proposed to me, so I have VERY fond memories of it. If you can, take the day trip to Xcaret. It's amazing! Hasta la vista, Babsy!!

Hi Juju, I don't know about the "majority" of people getting tummy tucks. Certainly some do, but it's by no means universal. The amount of hanging or loose skin you will have is unpredictable. Exercise will help tone the underlying muscles but can't do anything about skin elasticity, which is more related to your age, heredity, and the speed with which you lose weight. So it's a wait-and-see proposition. I've lost 120 lbs since my heaviest weight and don't need a tummy tuck. I know people who are about where I am who have had plastic surgery already. I'll see what happens in another 50 lbs, but so far the only area I'd really like to see tightened up is my upper arms, and I'm not going to have surgery just for that.

Estela, and anyone else who has trouble sleeping, have you tried melatonin? That stuff is the bomb. I love it, and now Trader Joe's has chewables!! I sleep wonderfully now.

Here is my Fitday graph of weight lost in the last 9 months or so. As you'll see, it's by no means a straight line. But it ends up going in the right direction!!

No, and now of course I wish I did. It wasn't until I bought the home version of Fitday that I started charting my weight loss with any kind of consistency, and that didn't happen until June of '04.

Paula, the good news is that the reflux is gone except for very slight symptoms if I eat too late at night. So it's manageable. However, it's scared me off of wanting any more fill anytime soon.

Kathy, I know what you're asking and the answer is not really. Except for the period right after Christmas, when I had a new fill and strep throat to boot, the last fill had been in June of '04. I just thought it would be instructive to see what the chart looks like when someone plots their weights frequently. People get so hung up on the numbers-per-week that it's almost like they're missing the forest for the trees. Lots of people would have been undone by those upswings, losing hope or thinking it was all a lost cause. But bince July of last year I've lost 40+ pounds, or an average of 4-5 lbs per month. And that's the SECOND year of being banded!

Everyone heals differently, but I'd venture to say that MOST people are back at their regular activities after the first week. Total healing takes a little longer, but I was back at work on the Monday following my Wednesday surgery. The weekend with two little kids at home was a little tiring, but on the whole it was no big deal. "Average" weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week, but it is not at all regular. Again, everyone's patterns are different but it's not uncommon to drop a few pounds in a week, stay steady for the next several weeks while the sizes go down, and then drop another five pounds seemingly overnight. It's not a race, of course, and over time the pounds do come off. Fills are obtained on a totally personal schedule. There are several things to think about when deciding if an adjustment is in order, and you'll see threads on those issues often. In general terms, if you're finding yourself hungrier between meals while eating mostly solid Proteins, it may be time for a fill. But you'll know it when you get there. Many people need 3-5 adjustments in the first year, some less, some more. There's no predicting, which is why it's so important to have good, convenient aftercare available. Without proper adjustment, the band is just an expensive piece of internal jewelry.

Hi Cherie, You sound a lot like I did when I first started investigating banding. The one question I kept asking people was whether I'd ever be able to forget I was a WLS patient--would I ever be "normal"? And the answer is a resounding YES. The only difference is that we eat a whole lot less of what we used to eat, and therefore lose weight. Throwing up is a sign that we're not doing something right--it's not inevitable but it can be a very important learning experience. Ask away, we're all here to share!!

Hi Isa, If you want to attach a photo to a post, click on Manage Attachments below the box where you're writing your post. That will allow you to upload the photo to the site. What you're trying to do is link to a photo on your hard drive and that doesn't work.

I hear you too, Margo. My doctor and hospital are both within about 20 minutes from me as well. This proximity was a BIG reason why I decided to fight my insurer for almost a year rather than let them win and fly to Mexico for surgery. I know how important good aftercare is, and if it wasn't convenient to get to I know I wouldn't have followed up as carefully as I should. Good aftercare to me meant LOCAL aftercare, so it was worth the wait and the fight. I knew it was meant to be when I first went on to the Inamed site and found that my doctor was one of the first in the U.S. doing banding, and had participated in the FDA trials. And to find that he participated with my insurer was icing on the cake! The only piece of the puzzle was the exclusion my carrier had for the band, but that fell into place too. Patience and persistence rule the day!!

Christine's right, Juju, we don't give up eating. Not at all! What we do give up is habitually eating to excess, the OVEReating that made us and kept us morbidly obese. But it's a big change, and to be successful you really have to be ready to take the step. Let me submit that you may not be there yet. For one thing, there's no guarantee that getting banded will get you "thin." If you have reached a point in your life where you admit that you need help with excess intake, the band can help with that. But IT is not going to make you thin. Only you can do that, if that is indeed your goal. And getting thin will take a lot of effort from you, along with the restriction the band will provide. Only you can answer this question for yourself. I know for me I'd gotten past the point where any diet in the world was going to help. I was healthy, but so big I couldn't be an effective caretaker to my children. Just past 40, I knew it was only a matter of time before my health started feeling serious effects from my lifelong obesity. I was totally ready to give up OVEReating in the pursuit of a healthier life. So, are you there yet?

Ab-so-TIVELY, Kathy! You've got it, exactly. Now comes the hard part--really internalizing the fact that your small dinner IS dinner, and that you really don't have room for any more snacks/munching later in the evening. That's the real head work. You're a bandster now, bestme!! :)

Hi Ivan, Welcome to another New Jerseyan!! Hope everything continues to progress smoothly for you in the pre-op phases. Saving a seat for you in bandland! :)

I swear by capris. Until I lost weight I always thought they looked ridiculous on me but now I love them. I wear bike shorts to work out but for casual wear I like the plants a skosh longer. I'm so tall that capris actually end right about my knees.

Condolences from me, too, Babs. Sounds like a very rough time, but this too shall pass. Congratulations on staying smoke-free!! That's going to get easier and easier and you'll have so much to be proud of. Good luck with everything!

To me it wasn't a question of banding vs. bypass. Banding was the most effective treatment for my obesity that involved the least amount of damage and the least potential for negative side effects. That is the pro-vs.-con approach I take to making most decisions, particularly those about my health. Why create problems where none exist, if a less-invasive treatment has the potential to work just as well in the long run? Why indeed? Do as little harm as possible to achieve the desired results is usually the medical yardstick applied to deciding among treatments. It still boggles my mind as to why it's not evident to everyone that this clearly shows banding to be the more desirable first step in treating obesity. Every successful bandster is a potential RNY horror story that didn't happen. Unsuccessful bandsters are just people who haven't yet gotten the right restriction or who haven't learned the bandster lessons. And both of those situations are easily corrected with patience. To my mind there's no such thing as an unsuccessful bandster, just one who is still on his or her way. But unsuccessful RNYers have nowhere to go, even if the only problem they have is less-than-optimal weight loss. Even aside from all the possible complications, where are they when their weight starts to come back on? What are their options then? Nothing. They're back where they were before, just them against the weight and the tool they have is no longer in their arsenal. Sorry, I could go on for hours.

LaMadam's right, Becky. What people can and can't tolerate changes dramatically over time. The only thing I've had a problem with from the very start was scrambled eggs. But now that seems to have settled down a bit and I can eat them in small amounts. It's not a hard-and-fast thing, restriction. Over time you'll find out what your body likes and doesn't like, what your band lets you eat and what it wants you to think twice about. It's an ongoing learning curve.

This month I've had visits from relatives and old friends who live afar. These are people who have known me all my life, but I haven't seen much of in the last 2-3 years. Naturally, they were amazed and pleased. They were also a little weirded out. Evidently I now look like my mother, which no one has EVER said of me before. She was a beautiful woman undone in later life by alcohol, but early pictures of her bear a striking resemblance to Lauren Bacall. So to have an aunt on one day, and an uncle the following weekend, be moved almost to tears by my resemblance to their dead sister was both complimentary and a little sad. I'm really sorry my parents aren't here to see my transformation.

Just want to clarify and be sure everyone knows that what's true for one state's BCBS is not going to apply for others. They are all separate companies, and the rules are NOT universal. What I've heard is that BCBS of California and Texas have just decided to cover banding, which is a HUGE step in the right direction. But it doesn't mean they all will.