Alexandra

Hi CurvyG-- Congratulations and welcome to LBT! You're very lucky to have Dr. Ren, you're in great hands. Good luck and we look forward to getting to know you better!

Wow, this is very interesting. I've been having some nighttime reflux recently, which I think is a combination of a tighter fill and also the residual effects of being sick. I'm still pretty congested and as we know that can make our restriction worse. But I don't think it's acidic material that's being refluxed. There's no pain or irritation, just a sense of there being liquid in the back of my throat. I'm going to ask my doctor whether that's at all possible, or if I'm just hoping. :rolleyes For what it's worth, IMO many banded people seem to experience this sort of thing from time to time. It seems directly related to the level of restriction. It can be dealt with for a while but once the fill is loosened it goes away completely. To me that's very good news, and I'm going to deal with this until I lose more weight.

Hi Katerzz, I was 340 when I decided on banding. You are definitely not alone--there are lots of people around who started out way heavier than you. Perhaps your age is why your doctor recommended banding over bypass. I completely agree with the recommendation!! You're so young and have so much life ahead of you--you don't need some dramatic alteration to the way your body works that will create issues for you the rest of your life. Better to have an adjustable tool implanted that will help YOU gain control over food, and live your life as a smaller person with normal bodily functions. Please feel free to ask whatever questions arise. Your size is not an obstacle and I'm sure your doctor knows what he's talking about!

Oh, Lisa, this is such a roller coaster you're on. Whatever the future holds for you, one thing you can do in the short term is to get the junk food out of your house!! If you only have a limited amount of time to live with the band you definitely want to make the most of it, and having that stuff within arm's reach is only going to make it harder. It may be comfort food but it's sure not comforting you, right? Chris will just have to get his fix outside the house for a while--you've got way more important fish to fry. It's almost too bad you're not having any reflux--if I tried to eat three candy bars and Doritos right before bed I'd be in agony all night long! So it's just out of the question. Maybe if you imagine that your stomach will create acid when you eat that stuff that will, at the very least, keep you up ALL night long coughing and gurgling. It's just not worth it!!

I guess our perspective depends, too, on where we are. My four fills and six office visits would have likely cost me $2400 or so if I paid out of pocket. My doctor does fills at a hospital under fluoro so it's an expensive undertaking.

Faced with that choice I think I'd go for the package deal, too. Money should never be a reason to delay an adjustment, and if you go for this deal you won't have to worry about it at all for two whole years! Whether it's a fill or an unfill or just a checkup, the peace of mind I'd get from knowing it's all included would be priceless. Sure, you may not "use it up" but if you don't, that just means things are going extremely well for you. It's like insurance against a situation where you need lots of fills or adjustments, and we all know that's entirely possible and there's no way to predict. I've had four adjustments and, oh, maybe 6 office visits in the last 19 months. I'm sure if my insurance carrier had been given the option to pay $2000 for all services in the first two years, they'd have JUMPED at it.

Lots of good thoughts and wishes for a VERY SMOOTH procedure, Patty!

Congratulations, Babs!! Recently my BMI got below 35 and I know how that made me feel. Revel in it!!

Hi Pati, I'm coming to this thread late but I wanted to say I can relate to this too. My husband is a cook, and my eating something he cooked was a little ritual we both got a lot of pleasure from. For a long time he just couldn't accept the fact that his best audience and biggest fan was unable to partake the way she used to. But even he got over it. He still cooks, just a lot less, and we've both become more interested in healthier food. It's an adjust ment, no doubt about it, but when you think about the very long run this will just seem like a very short moment in it. Congratulations on being banded, and welcome to LBT!!

Hey, that is really cool!! It's long overdue. It is a bit, um, boiled down (in the manner of women's magazines, ya know), but there's nothing actually false in it. And that's a huge improvement over the early press days!

Hi Jingle Red, This is a very common requirement here in the US, and not only for insurance reasons. I think it's in everyone's interest that the patients be screened carefully, and part of that process is making sure the person seeking surgery clearly understands what's in store. When you think about it, weight loss surgery is a team effort. The patient, the surgeon and his/her staff, the insurer all want to do everything possible to insure success. The psychological evaluation is a part of that, and for most people it's pretty simple. What they're trying to ascertain is whether you understand the surgery and are prepared to make the changes necessary afterwards. They look for evidence of eating disorders or other addictions, or behaviors that will tend to compromise your life as a bandster. Do you have any concerns that you might not be considered a good candidate?

Hey Bertha/Abkin groupies!! Next Wednesday is almost upon us so I wanted to remind everyone of the support group meeting at 7:00 in the doctors' offices. If anyone is interested, I have a winter coat that needs a new home. It's a really nice women's coat, hip-length, in a generous size 2X and in very good shape. Navy blue with a faux-fur ruff and plaid lining. And warm! Someone with long arms would love it. I'm really tall and it fit me very well for a while. If anyone wants it just post here and I'll bring it to the meeting next week.

Hi Shaz, Erosion is a process whereby the band sort of wears away the stomach tissue beneath it, creating ulcers or holes in the stomach walls. This is a serious condition and as far as I know, always means the band has to come out. It is RARE, though, and I don't know of any clear-cut symptoms that indicate it's happening. Some people have loss of restriction, some people have a change in restriction, some people have pain, some people have nothing at all. Because there's no ONE way it happens, there's no ONE way to prevent it. I personally think the most likely cause is surgical error (or accident) in which the stomach wall is slightly nicked when the band is being installed. Another theory is defective bands, wherein the inner wall of the band is not perfectly smooth. But these are just guesses. The risk of erosion is just one reason to keep a close eye on your band and have AT LEAST annual checkups by x-ray. But remember that the rate of erosion is still only 1-3% so the chances it will happen to any particular person are very low.

Back to the original question: Vinesqueen, other people have answered with regard to the size of pills taken. If you're also concerned that being banded will somehow affect the way medications work in your body, the answer is no. Nothing about your digestive system or absorptive abilities has been changed by the surgery. As you lose significant amounts of weight, your doctor may want to adjust the dosages of whatever you're taking. Just stay in touch with your doctor and keep him/her apprised of your weight loss as it progresses.

Oh, man, that is priceless!

Roro, please go back to square one with your research. Don't rely on what other people tell you--we ALL can share stories of the bad reactions we got from people who don't realize there is a world of difference between banding and bypass surgery. Banding is NOT like bypass. It does not give the drastic results, both good and bad, that people think of when they hear "weight-loss surgery." Banding is totally different: safer, slower, healthier.

Roro, you might want to place this in the Texas forum, since not everyone reading this is from your area. And we can't really answer your insurance question, either. Your insurance carrier is the best source of information on how your policy works. If you have a plan that says you'll pay 80% of a surgery, typically you don't have to come up with that up front. Most providers will bill you and/or help you work out a payment plan.

Pati, it sounds like you're just feeling the port! It does take a little getting used to, and yes, at only 7 days out it could indeed be a bit swollen still. But the pulling sensations are normal (unless they're painful) as your surgery heals. Welcome to LBT and don't worry!!

I think the skins are more problematic than the meat, which is no harder or easier to eat than any other kind of meat. (I'll leave the discussion of what's in them for another time.) We definitely want to steer clear of any sausages or meats with tough, chewy skins.

Wow, Lisa, what an experience you've had/are having! You deserve an enormous amount of credit for staying sane through all of this. I'm glad there's an explanation, even if it isn't what you wanted to hear. Now at least you and the doctors all know what you're dealing with. Good luck and I hope you heal up fast this time!!

It's hard to say; I know there have been people at meetings who had surgery as recently as two days before. On the 24th you'll probably be home before mid-afternoon. If you really get enough rest who knows? You might indeed be feeling up to it. But don't push yourself!!! At that point you probably wouldn't get much from the support meeting since you'll be so fresh out of surgery. By the time the next one rolls around you'll be back on solid food and probably thinking about why you're so hungry and when you can get a fill. THAT'S when a support group meeting can come in really handy.

Hi Seppi, Yup, I'm a Dr. Abkin patient and I'm really happy with him and Dr. Bertha and the other doctors in the practice as well. Are you coming to the support group meeting on the 26th? I'll definitely be there and look forward to meeting you! The group meets on the last Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m.

Jonathan that's a very moving piece. I think most of us can identify with your experience; I know I can behaviorally, even if I never articulated what I was doing. Being banded puts only one obstacle between the compulsive eater and food--a physical barrier. If a compulsive eater is determined enough that barrier can be gotten around. I know there have been times that I've eaten a surprising amount of soup for a bandster. There is clearly some mental work that has to be done. What the band gives me is time between that compulsion and the satisfaction of it to redirect my attention until the compulsion passes. And over time, the compulsions have almost completely disappeared because I've learned that stuffing myself gets me (and has always gotten me) absolutely nothing I can't get elsewhere. I have the blessed distraction of a loving supportive husband and two very active little girls. If one lives alone I think this would be a lot harder lesson to learn and therapy could be extremely important. Physical pain is a powerful motivator, and overeating solid food is something you're not likely to do more than once. The tricky thing is not making that vat of soup in the first place because you'd probably be able to consume a goodly portion of it even after being banded.

Congratulations, Jonathan--you're really on your way! Try to keep the last-meal syndrome to a minimum. You really don't want to ADD obstacles for your surgeon, right? All best wishes for a very smooth and uneventful surgery!

Thank you, everyone, for the kudos! How cool that one of these threads has my name on it. Lisa, yeah, I was stalled in the 260 range for a looooong time. I got just below 250 back in September/October and stayed there for a while during my unfilled period. ON December 23rd I weighed in at 246 and that's the day I got a fill. Then I got sick. The combination of the two made 9-10 lbs disappear seemingly overnight. Michelle, I didn't make a lot of noise about it because, well, I kind of feel that it doesn't really matter at this point. But I am pretty chuffed, I admit. Milestones are great indeed but from my slow progress and bounces I don't really count them until they're well behind me. The next one I've been looking forward to is 230, which is the very lowest weight I've ever hit since I was about 23. (I got there with Optifast back in 1990, and stayed there for a whole week or so.) So when I get to 230 and feel that it's here to stay, that will be the one I'll want to make noise about. 100 lbs from my high point says more about the high point to me then where I am now. And where I am now is buying some sweaters in a size 14. (Lisa, what IS it with those Avenue sizes?!?)