Alexandra

I bought the PC version too, and love love love it. One thing it has that online doesn't is the ability to build custom foods by ingredients rather than nutritient value. I was never able to figure out how to create and save "turkey sandwich" online, and since this is something I eat a lot it was very frustrating! So there's a greatly improved custom-food feature. In addition, it's much faster than online, since it moves at the speed of your computer, not your internet connection. The only downside is that you can't access it from different locations, but if that's not a big problem I highly recommend it. It has loads of features I've never even explored!

Karen, have you talked with your doctor yet? How are you feeling?

Sparkling, generally speaking if the surgery was covered then fills are covered, at least to a certain point. (One year? Five adjustments? It probably varies.) Fills are an integral part of the overally treatment, and if the treatment was approved they will be too. But each carrier has its own procedures. Your doctor will know precisely how to code the procedure and submit the claim for maximum coverage. And I'll bet a lot that he has an insurance specialist just for that.

Dody, many people end up with other people doing fills than the original surgeon. I imagine the majority of people who travel to Mexico have lined up someone closer to their home to do adjustments (at least, I'd hope so). And some offices have nurse practitioners or physicians' assistants doing the fills (it's not surgery, after all). So I don't think not being able to find the port is all that unusual, especially if it's being done without benefit of fluoroscopy. But no matter how many times the person got jabbed, the result should be bruising, not infection--assuming proper care was taken with sterilization, that is.

Horizon is BCBS, and yes, they are very band-friendly. If you're medically qualified, Sweetness, you should be golden!

I'm going to confess something here. Even though I love vegetables, I almost never eat them because there is just no room for them once I eat protein. A vegetable "serving" for me now is one or two cherry tomatoes. What vegetables I do get usually come in soup. It's just not something I'm going to worry about. I take a multivitamin every day and an additional B-complex, with more vitamin C when I feel a cold coming on. Fiber supplementation is necessary, but I'm sure it would be anyway given the non-bulkiness of my diet. That's my story. Let the brickbats fly!

I think it stands to reason that esophageal problems are more likely after banding, since our small pouches ensure that there will be food held up close to the sphincter for longer periods of time than before. It's virtually impossible to eat only small-enough amounts to prevent this from happening on a regular basis. So I don't think it's surprising, but it's certainly something we should be aware of and guard against. These are for the most part minor problems, but if we ignore them they can indeed become more serious. (For the record, I disagree with my surgeon's assessment that there's anything wrong my my esophagus. I'll know more on April 5 when I have a barium swallow test.)

Emtbaby, the "odds" of that happening to you are something like one-thousandth of one percent. So don't worry. Banded people do have infections from time to time, of course, but I can't imagine how it could be caused by a fill. There's more to your brother's friend's story, I'm sure. Something else may have been going on internally that he didn't know about beforehand. An injection with a sterile needle using saline solution can't possibly cause an infection all by itself.

I guess (amazing as seems to me) that I'm one of those people who fit into the smaller sizes! This is what being 5'10" does for you. It's meaningless, really. There's an article in the paper today about clothing sizes and how the non-uniformity is all a ploy to foster brand loyalty. They figure if you finally learn what size you are in a particular line of clothing, that's the brand you'll stick with. And you know what? They're right.

The only negatives I've had with the band are bouts of reflux (preventable by managing my own behavior) and spending lots of money on clothes. Living as a banded person is something we have to learn how to do, and there are bumps and changes we simply have to adapt to. If we can't or won't the negatives will be greatly increased. But losing almost 130 lbs vs. the "negatives" of occasional reflux? No contest.

Wow, kabasm, that's great information!! Do you work for an insurance carrier?

Welcome to LBT, Susan! You really do have a rough road here, I'm so sorry. The body is an amazing organism and everything works together; it sounds as though you have many other areas of concern besides just your band. But being too tight (which is what you are) will affect everything else, and not help you lose weight to boot. It's so tempting to keep tightening the band when the weight doesn't come off, we all know that, but it can really work against us in big ways. Can you get an unfill? You are hungry because you're not eating enough, that's clear enough. And being bedridden will probably just make being tight even worse for your system since gravity can't help you much in moving food down where it belongs. I'm sure you've heard that bread and Pasta are very problematic for most bandsters with good restriction, so that too might be part of your trouble. I know I can only have one or two bites of anything bready (including flour tortillas) before I'm completely full. Good luck, and please let us know how you're doing!

It's SO frustrating, dealing with insurance carriers! My heart goes out to both of you. It may take time but I'm positive they MUST disclose to you the reasons for any denials of coverage. If you don't get a letter with details within two weeks or so, complain to your state insurance or health department. (One of those departments will be the one with jurisdiction over HMO organizations; try searching your state's website for Consumer Health Insurance Complaints or something like that.) Shelby, if your carrier is saying they need more information or something, that's not a true "denial" and can't be counted against your appeals. It's simply an "incomplete." Keep plugging away, and start counting the denials frlom the moment you know your carrier has ALL the information they need to make a determination of medical necessity. Good luck!!

The trick for me is literally taking one kernel at a time and making sure it's completely swallowed before eating the next one. (Of course, now I can do that pretty quickly. )

Another popcorn lover here!! :popcorn:

Wow, I agree with Susan, Ready. If any part of your tubing or port has "worked its way through the skin" you want to have that repaired immediately! How could that have happened? Did you heal up OK after the original surgery?

Dani, I agree that it sounds like you're too tight. Even if you can't get an unfill, you should try sticking strictly to liquids for like a whole week to see if there's some irritation in there that will heal up. Once the PBing starts, if we don't let it really heal irritation can just make the problem worse; it's a vicious cycle. So try going strictly to liquids (don't forget the protein drinks!) for a whole week and see if that makes the situation any better. An unfill would definitely help too, but if that's not really feasible try this first. You might lose a few more pounds which could loosen things up a little all by itself! Good luck, and please take care. You don't want to run the risk of damage to your stomach, esophagus, or band. :hug:

Janet, that's a brilliant thing to do, taking specific notes like that. It sure looks like being too hungry is exacerbating your pain, doesn't it? Perhaps being banded is making you experience hunger differently now, and you're not used to it. Things do feel different inside when our stomachs go from being football-shaped to hourglass-shaped, and it can take time to understand all the new cues. Vanhos, I'm glad you had a scope and saw that nothing was wrong. Perhaps you could try logging notes in the same way, and really trying to identify your pain triggers? That is a great start and could really show you something important. And I too want to congratulate you on losing 50 lbs! RNYers lose faster, no question, and comparing one to the other is pointless. For a bandster you're doing great!!

That isn't quite the way I've heard it described at many pre-op meetings of my surgeon's practice. They make a big deal of the malapsorptive properties of the procedure, but perhaps they do a different version than the one your surgeon did. Many patient's impressions are informed in large part by the expressed opinions of their surgeons. My surgeon's practice has done thousands of both procedures and doesn't seem to have a bias (anymore). I attend MANY pre-op meetings with RNY and bandsters talking about their experiences. While the practice is also way below the 2% national average for complications, it seems that a frighteningly large percentage of the post-op RNYers who speak at these meetings have experienced at least one complication requiring re-hospitalization. I'm not saying all the patients do, of course, but it does seem that the people willing to speak at these meetings have a big run of bad luck. This is just my observation, but it was borne out yet again when last week someone shared her story of actually taking an early retirement because she'd been in the hospitalized so much after her RNY. She has no regrets and certainly looks amazing--in fact, she's now having to add calories back into her diet because she's getting too thin. That's another complication, attractive though it may seem, but not one I was willing to risk. Everyone has to weigh the pros and cons of each surgery for themselves. The determining factor that makes the most sense to me is whether the weight needs to come off quickly, for urgent health reasons. Even very morbidly obese people can be relatively healthy, as I was, and for them banding may be the better choice.

:) Oh, and the weight went down the toilet, btw. :biggrin1:

Dody, restriction is simply not an exact science, because the body's reaction is responsible for a lot of the tightness or looseness. Everyone is different and it's absurd to blame the doctors for what nature does. MANY people experience changes in restriction days or weeks after an adjustment is done. That said, there is no question that using fluoroscopy makes for more precise adjustments. Jay, I agree that a tiny unfill might be in order, but you may also be making the situation worse by continuing to try with solid foods if you can't handle them. Try going on liquids and mushies for several days or a week and see if that resolves the situation any. Irritation can swell the tissues, and if that happens when you're alread on the cusp of being very tight it can make the situation much worse. Good luck!!

Hi Cindy, Yep, those steps are pretty standard. But you can certainly call your insurer first and see what sort of coverage your policy provides for bariatric surgery. If you know your BMI you can probably tell whether you're medically qualified for the surgery (is it over 40? Then you are.). If you are medically qualified and your insurer provides for bariatric surgery, then you can get started with all the doctor's pre-op procedures.

I chose the band primarily for reasons of safety. I have two small children and the idea of spending even a single night in the hospital was more than I wanted. All the various possible complications of RNY were so potentially debilitating that I simply wouldn't consider it then or now. Plus, as a generally healthy person I didn't feel the need to drop the bulk of my weight particularly fast. I wanted a safe, sane speed of loss so I'd have time to really accept it as real and permanent. But there's another point I want to emphasize, mentioned above: THIS was another huge factor for me. The RNY involves quick and invitable weight loss no matter what the patient does. If the patient is unable to change his or her behaviors permanently, the weight will come back on when the malabsorptive effects of the surgery wear off. (And no, those malabsorptive effects are not minor--supplements are required with the RNY as well as the DS, and are just as important.) I had absolutely no faith that I'd be able to maintain weight I lost via an RNY, and I still don't. Banding FORCES you to change your behavior. If you want/need to find ways around it, you certainly can, but you won't be presented with the false assurance that you can still lose weight while doing so. I needed a teaching tool, one that will allow me to gain greater control over my intake while providing the support I need during those times I fall off the wagon. The band doesn't go away (unless it's removed), its effects don't wear off. With the band, because I know Cookies (ior whatever one's poison of choice) are compromising my progress I can go back to avoiding them with much greater ease than without the band. The RNY might prevent me from absorbing the calories in cookies for the first two years, enabling me to lose weight, but once that's gone and I still haven't learned how to avoid cookies, that'd be me gaining weight. You can't count on the dumping syndrome as negative reinforcement, since it only happens to 20-30% of RNY patients. And sure, the RNY is restrictive as well, but it's not adjustable. The pouch will stretch over time and once it does, there's nothing to be done about it. The band allows for adjustments when necessary. Sure, that's not always a fail-safe because it's damaging to be too tight, but for my money ANY adjustability is better than none.

We have several sets of car keys stashed in various places in the house for just this reason. There's also a hide-a-key stuck somewhere to the underside of the car. I keep the keys to both cars with me at all times, and so does my husband. We have only done what you describe once, and I will never let it happen again (knock wood). You poor thing!!!

First, I'm wondering if the medical community at large agrees that removal of the band warrants conversion to another bariatric operation at any time. What if the person is at goal weight? Wouldn't any doctor (and insurer) wait to see if the patient regains a significant amount of weight before doing another operation? And second, I have to echo DeLarla's objection to the "weight regain is guaranteed after removal" item. I hear doctors say that all the time, and it's just so demeaning to us as people. First we're told we have to change our lifestyles because the tool doesn't do it all, and then we're told that the doctors don't actually believe we CAN change our lifestyles enough to maintain the lost weight without the tool. OF COURSE we all know the band helps, and of course we as lifelong dieters know that without it maintaining the loss will be harder. But it's not helpful to be told that it's impossible and we should give up before we start.