Alexandra

Oh, Becky, what a rough go! I hope you get some relief soon, and that your band is safe and sound through all of this. Does anyone have any idea how one picks up an h. pylori infection? I know we're tested for the bacterium before surgery (and now we know WHY, I guess!), but I've never heard anything about how to avoid it post-surgery. Where does this come from, does anyone know? Hugs and good thoughts for a quick recovery, Becky!! (And holy cow, 75# in 9 months is FANTASTIC!!!)

Hi Becky, welcome!! :D

Vicki, I know it's very frustrating and tiring fighting with insurance carriers. In my case I had no other choices either--self-pay would have meant a trip to Mexico I couldn't take the time for and lots of debt I really didn't want to take on. That was plenty of motivation to keep on the insurance treadmill month after month. I won! And you can too. And all that extra time gave me more time to read and think and really understand what banded life would be like for me. I don't regret any of it. Keep the faith, and let us know how you're doing!

Oh Tellie, what a drag!! There's never a convenient time to have health issues, is there? Tell your family something else; if you want to keep your privacy then do it! There's no reason to spill the Beans if you don't want to. Good luck and best wishes for a quick fix and recovery!!

Hi Vicki, It sounds like you have great motivation to get through the insurance obstacles. Keep your cool, keep your correspondence, and most of all, keep going! I'm positive that the time will come when banding is accepted and becomes the preferred bariatric surgery. Good luck!!

Donali, THANK YOU!! I'm sure you were all cursing me out yesterday, but let me assure you I was having the same problem as everyone else. My online time has been severely limited lately, and when I discovered last night that I still couldn't get here I started to comb through my old e-mails looking for contact information for Alex. (I'll get it now, you can be sure.) But I was interrupted yet again by a little girl needing attention, and I had to run. What a joy to find you all here again this morning! And Donali, your idea is terrific. If LBT wasn't back up today I was going to post LOOKING FOR LBTers notices at Spotlight and on a couple of Yahoo lists. I've asked Alex before about how he's supporting LBT and whether the day will come that he just wants to bow out. He said it's just a tiny part of what he carries on his servers at all times anyway and he couldn't see any reason why he'd change anything. But if nothing else, we absolutely need an e-mail list or something to let us keep in touch. Whew!!

I don't know why I haven't posted about this yet, so here goes. I had leftover tofu with szechuan sauce for lunch on Thursday; I ate about half a small serving. Everything seemed to be settling fine, but as I went back to my desk I realized I was a little uncomfortable. Golf-ball time; thought I might have had just one or two bites too many. But tofu is soft, right, so I didn't think anything of it. Then over the next hour it got steadily worse. I tried to drink water but it was becoming clear to me that something--maybe a pea?--was stuck and nothing was going down. After another hour I was really miserable and went to the bathroom to try to get whatever was stuck back out. With only middling success, I was now in pretty bad pain. But what are you gonna do? So on with my day... I had a personal-training session set up for 4:30, and I went to it even though I was very unhappy. Well, 45 minutes of exercises finishing off with some ab crunches was what it took to get things moving! My trainer, I'm sure, thought I had the flu because I must have turned green as I practically ran to the bathroom. God. It was horrible. For the first time since I have been banded, it felt like real vomiting. I'd already upchucked earlier the saliva and slime we all know so well, but this time, FINALLY, there was more. It was scary, but oh, the blessed relief. I was shaking, and went home swearing I'd never eat again. But, of course, by this time I was both hungry and thirsty so along with drinking water I tried some refried beans at dinner. Nuh-uh. I didn't eat anything solid until a good 24 hours later. My esophagus was really irritated and even now I can feel the vestiges of what I put it through. I was surprised it was tofu but really, I think I just have to stay completely away from Chinese food. I can't eat it slowly and I've had problems before because of that. But this is the first time I've ever had a situation where the meal is well over before I start having discomfort. Has that happened to anyone else? Lesson: well, just the same old, same old. TAKE IT SLOWLY. WAIT BETWEEN BITES. And be good to your band. I know I will.

Your doctor's instructions sound very cautious, but not out of the realm of "normal." My doc says 24 hours of fluids after a fill, that's all. I always advocate giving a fill three or so weeks to "settle." Of course, with a first fill you might not really feel a huge difference, depending on how cautious your doc is (and he sounds pretty cautious). Over the next couple of days I think you can expect increasing hunger, and no sense of restriction at all as long as you stick to liquids. There's no way to know what kind of restriction you may have until you try solid foods, and then you definitely want to give it at least a couple of weeks before you consider getting any more fill. My fills always take several weeks to make themselves known, and you may be the same way.

Ooohhh, how exciting!! Enjoy the honeymoon period, it's FUUUN. And now that you're a grownup (and presumably he is too) the post-honeymoon part will be fun too. Good luck with everything!!!

My turn to say AMEN, Donali! food is not supposed to be the only thing we think about at all times; it's certainly not that way for my skinny colleagues at the desks next to me. They always have, and now I do too, just eat LESS. We still love food and enjoy our celebrations and whatnot, but in our daily lives it's just not that important. Yay, BAND!!!

I think I'm out of the loop, D. This honey of yours is coming to live permanently?!? Are you nervous about that or is it a dream come true?

I can't eat eggs at all, haven't been able to since banding. But last night I had the most delicious burger patty, nice and rare the way I like it and the way no restaurant will cook it anymore. As I ate I kept thinking "eggs are softer than this!!" but I've come to accept that eggs and I have parted ways permanently. Hey, there are worse things to live through. :mad:

Donali, I think Trading Spaces needs a new carpenter, you interested? You're cute enough!! :mad: I sure hope you take pics of you and your honey enjoying the new porch. We can't wait to see them!! You've definitely got me thinking of what kid-friendly project I might be tackling in the near future. Something without nails, hmmm....

Marie is exactly right, Maurice. You're in the hard part now, the part where you wonder if the band you had installed is actually going to do anything for you at all. But this too shall pass. Just be patient with yourself and acknowledge that the band is not DESIGNED to work without a fill. It would be very surprising, in fact, if you felt much appetite supression at all with a completely unfilled band. So you're absolutely normal. You'll have a fill before you know it, and you'll start to appreciate the miracle that is the band. :mad:

Neicy, my tyhoughts and hopes for safety go out to you too. I'm watching the news and this looks really horrific! I heard on the radio that Slidell is where a lot of the evacuees went. Is your town really crowded right about now? Stay calm, and don't fret if you eat a few chips. But do make that tuna salad!

I took the liberty of making an avatar out of that last one. Here it is if you want to use it.

And here's the update. You look wonderful!!

I'm not Donali, but I resized the photos anyway. Before

Hi Deb, from a fellow Abkin patient!! I hope you'll be going to the support group meetings--they're really great and I try never to miss one. They're held the last Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the doctors' offices (in the meeting room down the left-hand hallway). So the next one is on the 29th. Sounds like you're doing great! Congratulations on being banded and graduating on to real food. See you in two weeks, I hope!!

Hi Mistycat, In a nutshell, the band is a silicone ring implanted around the top of the stomach to restrict food intake. The beauty of it is that it's adjustable, and can be tightened and loosened as necessary. Those adjustments are done by way of saline injected into a bladder surrounding the ring (picture an inner tube for an idea of the construction), and are commonly called "fills." I prefer to call them "adjustments" because taking some saline out can be just as important as putting some in for the success of the banded patient. The band is designed to work with saline injected into it, and most patients have their first adjustment 6 or 8 weeks after surgery. Adjustments are personalized for the patient in question: there's no average or right amount. There are only three levels: too tight, too loose, or just right. Visit www.inamed.com and seek out information on the LapBand system. That will give you the details on how the band works. And keep asking questions!!

Gail and Butta, you're still learning how to operate with restriction. Lots of people eat in such a way that they swallow air, and that's a habit that really has to be broken post-banding. Pay attention when you chew and try to keep your mouth closed between taking a bite and swallowing. Your small piece of salmon and 1/4 of a baked potato sounds like a reasonable meal for someone with very good restriction. And if that went down readily I'd say you're not too tight. I have trouble with eggs too; have never been able to eat them really at all since banding. And in the morning I eat a Protein bar for breakfast, Leatha, with no trouble; they really melt into nothing which makes them easy to tolerate. I think the situation will improve as you learn to take in less air when eating. Good luck!!

Marie's right, and especially to use the quotes around "behaves." It's not the band that's wishy-washy, it's your body. The band is a fixed system made of mostly solid materials, so it's not the agent of the changing restriction (in the absence of a leak or other malfunction, that is). There's no explaining the way our bodies behave, though, and I agree it's frustrating!! I too have had days where I just can't get anything past two bites down, and others where it seems like everything gets by. I've been unable to isolate the triggers so I've stopped trying. Days where I can't eat are GOOD days, though, because I know the next day things might be different. And since I'm not done losing weight I embrace those times of greater restriction.

Hi Katy, I'm a NJ insurance broker and I can tell you that Horizon is band-friendly. Like all carriers they require lots of testing and have stringent criteria for qualifying for bariatric surgery of any kind, but if you do on medical grounds there's no reason you can't have the band over some other surgery. Good luck!!

Oh, wow, this is so heartbreaking. As a mom my heart goes out to the children, what a terrible tragedy for a young family. For any family, of course. Michelle, my soul hurts for what your family must have gone through. What pain and trauma. I guess it was some time back but I still wish your family much peace and healing.

Hi Pipsi, This is all pretty simple, and if you keep playing around you'll get the hang of it soon. You've already successfully created a "thread," so you've already figured out how to ask a question. At any time if you want to start a thread just go to the section that seems most appropriate to the topic and fire away! People will answer you right on the thread (as I am doing here), and the conversation will take off. It's not necessary to respond "to" anyone in particular, since all posts in a thread are visible by everyone. You just click on "post reply" and your comment will be added to the bottom of the thread. If you want to contact someone directly, you can click on the "PM" button in the bottom of a post by that person, which will let you send a "private message." These are messages that go directly to the person you're contacting and that no one else can see. You may also be able to reach someone by e-mail, if they've enabled that feature in their profile. Feel free to ask more questions! There are NO stupid questions, just...well, you know the rest.