Alexandra

Hi Doug! I just posted to you on the other thread, but I didn't realize you were already scheduled. Wow, that's soon!! I had a challenge preparing my spouse (my kids are too young to worry about it), but he eventually came around. I'd definitely NOT recommend having your kids at the hospital; though it's only a half-day you still want to concentrate on yourself and not them. How old are they? Unless they're adults and can drive you and act as your support, I don't think having them there does you or them any favors. Morristown Memorial Hospital is a great place to have this surgery. You'll be home (depending on where you live) by mid-afternoon.

Hi Doug, Nice to meet you! I'm sorry I missed the November meeting but the weather was such that it just didn't make sense to go out. And sadly there won't be a meeting in December. But I'm DEFINITELY going to the one in January. As far as pre-op diet changes go, I don't think the docs make any specific recommendations for most people. Your mileage may vary, of course. And of course smaller meals are always a good way to go, especially since once your surgery is scheduled you'll probably experience "last meal syndrome" and start overeating. Anything you can do to avoid or counter the effects of that puts you ahead of the game. Have a good meeting tonight. Be prepared for an overwhelming number of RNY people and a presentation focusing primarily on that operation. But there are prospective bandsters in the audience so don't be afraid to speak up and ask your questions. And of course, come back here and ask whatever new questions come up.

Cat, if your coverage is through a NY company then the rules of NY state will apply. But they are pretty close to those of NJ so I think you're in good shape. I know of another Bertha patient who had Empire BCBS of NY and she had no problems at all with her coverage. Lauri, unfortunately states each call their own shots with regard to health insurance regulations. If you want to get authoritative information on your options, contact your state's department of insurance (or health, which may be the department governing health insurance). I wish i could help!

Michelle, I'm so glad it was nothing big!! We can all benefit immensely from your experience, and what a joy to hear that you're OK and doing fine. :)

Shmeier, you've gotten great advice here from wonderful people. I don't have much to add except that if you do NOTHING else try seriously chewing each bite to smithereens before swallowing. Then put your fork down for a count of five before taking the next bite. Eating that slowly and deliberately does a couple of things that could help: --making it less irritating to eat, and more enjoyable --slowing you down so you can feel full before taking that one-bite-too-many that might result in a PB --making your meal take more time and effort so that when you are full your hands and mouth can also experience the sensation of "enough" along with your stomach It is very hard to really internalize the changes banding makes on our eating habits. Believe me, I know. I've gone right back into gulping and taking giant bites now that I have almost no restriction after an unfill. And I've been banded a while. Successful weight loss with the band is a team effort--us and the band--and takes a leap of trust to allow it to teach us the right way to eat. You are not alone. But you can do it...we all can.

Hi Shrinking! We have the same doctors and I'm glad to "meet" you! Have you been to any of their support group meetings yet? Congratulations on your banding!! BTW, I can assure you that the state of New Jersey has a law that states that services provided in network hospitals all have to be treated as in-network. Rest assured, BCBS will have to pay enough of MIA's bill to satisfy them--you won't have any responsibility for the rest. "Usual and customary" does NOT mean you will have to pay the balance. Don't worry--you're in great shape with BCBS! And welcome to LBT!!

I too have heard of at least one other instance in which this happened. It's probably the rarest of the various complications...luckily it should be relatively easy to repair. Good luck, and please let us know how it goes!

Michelle my fingers are crossed for you! Good luck!!

Hi Sultana, When I had my symptoms they were very subtle. What it felt like to me was that food was sitting in my pouch for a while, making me almost uncomfortably full for a long time, and then suddenly it would go through. That's what I meant about having "new" restriction, since prior to that I'd been feeling perfectly normal and having no unpleasantly full sensations after eating. I didn't experience reflux at all except for that one nighttime episode with Water, and that evening I had drunk about 64 ozs of water in the three hours before going to bed. But when the doctor had me drink barium under fluoro, he used the word "refluxing" to describe the motion of the liquid. It was rising up a little before going down, although I didn't feel it happening. It does sound as though you're having some of the same issues to a greater degree. Good luck!!

Sultana, what you describe sounds very much like what happened to me back in early October. I'd scheduled a fill appointment for a month on, and suddenly found myself rediscovering restriction. (See my thread "Restriction as a mind game?") There was even one episode of nighttime regurgitation--of water--that alarmed me. I kept my fill appointment in November since my doc uses fluoroscopy and I figured we'd be able to see what's going on. And we did. The fluoro showed the beginnings of a slight pouch enlargement, which could eventually have led to slippage of the stomach. So my doctor loosened the band a bit in the hopes that everything would settle back into the right places. Since then I've had absolutely no sensations of reflux or regurgitation (and precious little restriction, too, but that's to be expected). I think you should definitely call your doctor and see about having your band loosened temporarily. You don't want to leave a bad situation in place so long that eventually your only recourse is another surgery. I'd much rather have a period of no restriction than a stomach being strangled by a slipped band. Good luck!!

Happy Turkey Day everyone!! This is my second banded Thanksgiving too, and I'l really looking forward to it. It's a whole different animal than it used to me! I will overeat, i'm sure of it, since at the moment I don't feel like I have much if any restrictionn. but even so, "overeating" has a different meaning than it used to--maybe only 2000 calories instead of 5000!

Hi Kim E! You're a brave woman, getting banded three days before Thanksgiving. Now THAT'S commitment! Have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to getting to know you better. Cheers!

Momhappe1, and everyone else who is faced with this inevitable issue, believe me you are NOT alone!!! Almost every single bandster faces this plateau before their first fill, and it's not at all uncommon to even put back on a few pounds. At this time it's especially helpful to look at your weight loss over a longer timeline than week-to-week. You've lost almost 20 lbs in one month! Considering the average loss is 1-2 lbs per week, you'd still be within average parameters if you didn't lose another pound until the end of February. Microanalyzing each week's weight is absolutely counterproductive, in my opinion. This is ESPECIALLY true at this stage, when your body is adjusting to a major change in caloric intake right on top of having surgery. RELAX. You're doing great!!

Crap. The holidays have barely gotten here and already I'm overboard with indulging. Yesterday a professional associate dropped by our offices and gave us two presents. One was for "the office" since we had just moved into new digs and he was giving us a little housewarming gift--a pound of high-end chocolates, thank you very much. The other gift was for me personally, since I guess he thought I'd been extra helpful to him recently. This was a TWO-POUND box of the same high-end chocolates! Oh. My. God. Of course I immediately declared the entire haul to be office property, but it was very ego-boosting to be given such a gift I must say. And naturally, yesterday and today I've been overindulging in these amazing chocolates. Of course the result of that is a complete breaking down of any resistance I might have to other carbs. Tonight my husband baked Cookies, and oh, four or five of them found their way into my greedy mouth over the course of the evening. Between them and the chocolates I am in sugar shock. I have to go to bed and try to sleep it off. Tomorrow is another day, and one in which I hope there will be no chocolate. Seriously, my tummy hurts. An aside, maybe pertinent maybe not: this particular gentleman has been one of the very few people to make comments about my weight loss. He saw me for the first time in months not too long ago and his comment to me was that he might fall in love with me. He seemed really insistent that now, suddenly, he found me cute and appealing. :rolleyes The guy is in his 70s so I'm not too concerned--he's sort of a grandfatherly type from whom the sexist comments are sort of expected--but it occurs to me that the gift of chocolate is probably not unrelated. Is he trying to sabotage me, consciously or unconsciously? Or maybe he just loves to give chocolate and now thinks it's OK to give it to me?

Hi Jodie, I don't have any specific book recommendations for you, but I can tell you that a lot of what I do with my personal trainer could easily be done in a livingroom. Things like squats and lunges have a negative connotation, at least to me, but man they really make a huge difference!! The idea is to use your own body weight as resistance, and the muscles in your legs get a workout just bringing your body back to the upright position. Two of the best lower body exercises are the easiest to describe, but hard to do. The first is a squat. Stand with your legs apart, a little wider than shoulder-distance apart, and hold an object (a filled liter bottle of Water will work fine for now) with both hands in front of you. Then, bending only your legs and keeping your back straight, lower the object to the floor between your feet and slightly in front. It's OK to lean forward but the trick is keeping your back straight. It may feel like this isn't much of a challenge, but do three sets of 10 or 12 reps and believe me, you will feel it the next day. Every single muscle in your legs is being used, and used well. The other one is a stationary lunge, which I find REALLY challenging. Stand with one foot front and one foot back, with your feet both pointing front--I find that I really have to spread my feet way apart if I'm going to do this at all. Then try to lower your rear knee to the floor and rise up again. You can put your hands on your front leg for balance, but don't push with them to rise up. Crunches are what you want for your abs, not so much sit-ups. When I do them I'm on an exercise ball, which totally alleviates the back discomfort I felt on a flat floor. (If I were to buy anything to use at home it would be an exercise ball.) But even without the ball a great help for crunches is to hold something in both your hands, like a walking stick or broomhandle, and use it to reach for the ceiling. That gives you the correct movement for a crunch. For the lower stomach muscles lie on your back, bend your legs, and raise your knees to your chest repeatedly. Arms are a little trickier, since you do have to do lots of different moves to target the various muscles in them. Get yourself some 10- or 15-lb weights and I'm sure you can find a book to describe the movements to use. (When you do get the weights, use one of them for the squat movement described above. Hold one end of the weight in your two hands and let the other end bang toward the floor.) Good luck!!

Ryan's mentioning of the holidays has me thinking about what my family will see when they convene here next week. Last year at this time I'd lost about 30 lbs but I was still just getting used to being banded and it was mostly Water weight. I don't think I'd lost any clothing sizes yet; at that time I was just getting in to new things that I'd bought prior to surgery but never worn because they hadn't quite fit (you know, the wishful-thinking wardrobe). Now, another year out, I'm wearing a size that I don't think anyone in my family has ever seen me in. When I shop now I'm not looking for anything starting with a "2". That's a milestone of a magnitude I can barely get my brain around, since I started wearing size 22 jeans as a teenager and only went up from there. :banana Another measure of my diminishing stature is that I finally had to take my engagement ring in to be sized down. The last time anyone bought me a ring it was size 8.5, and for the longest time my wedding/engagement bands were tight. Now they've been loose for so long I've actually damaged the setting, so as a birthday gift I'm having the stones re-set into a completely new band. It looks like it's going to be a size 7, or maybe 6 3/4!!! The scale has not moved significantly for me in about three months now, but I am far from discouraged. There are new contours to my body and I've had to completely restock my wardrobe over the last year. And that process continues even though I'm not "losing weight." I'm sure losing FAT, and that's what really counts.

Thanks, everyone. Nancy, there's no question that exercise is making the difference. Weight training is amazing in its effects, and I just re-upped with the personal training for another 10 weeks even though it's expensive. I highly recommend whatever resistance training can be incorporated into an exercise routine. For anyone reading this who feels exercise isn't something they can do, believe me, I felt that way also. I didn't even start pretending until I was 6 months out, because at 300+ lbs it was just too painful to think about. But as the weight comes off it gets easier and easier, and I rearranged my schedule and even my life to make getting to the gym absolutely as easy and convenient as possible. I even moved my children to the Y for day camp over the summer so I could work out before picking them up. Then in the fall the Y started this fitness challenge, which just means if you work out three times a week for three months you get a t-shirt. Last year they did the same thing and I just walked by the sign, not considering for one second that I'd be able to keep that sort of commitment. THIS year I signed right up and now there's no doubt at all that I'll be lining up to get my t-shirt, size XL. :D I am NO jock, and I know this is a common refrain, but really, if I can do it ANYONE can.

Lisa, that sounds cool and I might do it someday with a "right hand" ring or something. But the ring in question is an heirloom stone that was originally set in platinum in 1925. My grandmother gave it to me and I had it set in a plain Tiffany setting when I got engaged the first time. Then when my real husband proposed five years later, he added a sapphire-and-diamond enhancer, which I had welded to the Tiffany setting even though it really was a bad fit. The result was a mish-mash, albeit one with character, and I love it to pieces. The new ring will be a completely new setting, with all five stones in one band for the first time. It should be stunning, and it will definitely feel like a new ring but using all my original stones. I can't wait to see it!

Harleynana, it sounds like you and I have the same PCP!! When I first mentioned surgery to my doc she was ambivalent, because she has a couple of patients who have had the RNY and she doesn't like what it's done to them. But once I explained about the band and showed her Inamed's booklet, she changed her tune. And she's VERY pleased with my improved health!

Tracey, if you're getting aftercare in the U.S. I'd definitely recommend getting only an Inamed band if you have a choice. Many U.S. doctors won't touch any other kind because they haven't yet been approved by the FDA. If you're elsewhere, your doctor will likely make the decision based on your anatomy and whatever else he deems pertinent.

Kim, I think what you felt is perfectly normal. We all feel the early stages of restriction differently--what is called the "golf ball" feeling by some might feel like a "gasping pain" to others. But the physical reality is, I think, the same. Whatever we have eaten is too big to go through the stoma and is taking up room in the pouch. The next bite then is actually felt in the esophagus, because it can't go down. I've seen the phenomenon when getting fill, and on the fluoroscope it's amazing that a substance backing up even a little in the esophagus creates a feeling like something is in the throat. And I wouldn't make any judgments based on eggs. As Leatha says, they really behave differently than you'd think. My doctor told me they were a good mushy food but I was NEVER able to tolerate more than one tiny bite. Try again with something really soft, and be sure to chew carefullly. I think you'll be fine; it will just take some time to get used to the sensations. Take care!

Holidays have been brutal for all of us, I'm sure. That annual get-together where people can mentally assess what's happened in the last 12 months was always something I dreaded. Especially at the event held by my in-laws, which is a 6-hour food fest in a room of mostly thin people gorging themselves insane. (What is it about Italians?) Last year I stressed and nibbled and ended up NOT STUFFED, which was in itself a miracle. But so much has changed since then, and I'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year...all except the shopping. :rolleyes

Thanks for the support, people. I feel much better today after the sugar has worked itself through my system. It really is like a drug! I don't avoid it all the time or anything and usually don't have any problem with small amounts, but the amount I had yesterday really made itself felt. I hope I'll remember how lousy I felt and just not do it next time!!!

Phooey on your endocrinologist!!! He has no idea what he's talking about. People don't die getting the lapband done. Sheesh!! Would he have made such an inane comment if you were going in for a joint replacement or something? Of course not. Before banding, I saw an endocrinologist once or twice while I was getting my thyroid checked out. He suggested I look into bariatric surgery (which I'd already decided to do) but he was so out of touch his recommendation was VBG (vertical banded gastroplasty). This was an early version of "stomach stapling" that isn't even performed anymore because it's ineffective. :rolleyes My conclusion was that endocrinologists are not up on current advancements in baritric surgery.

I'm coming to this late, but I'll throw my support to number 3 also. Those are some amazing green eyes you have there, blossom!!