GeezerSue

Tricia...GERD-and-the-band is a huge issue. The band tends to CURE reflux in those who have it pre-banding but can CAUSE reflux in those who never had it. Many people learn to live with it and treat it with proton pump inhibitors, elevating the bed, not eating after a certain hour, avoiding spicy things, etc. Others--myself included--have decided that it made more sense to get rid of the CAUSE of the problem* and have moved on to other surgeries. Sue (*I had more than just GERD, but it was one of my first problems with the band.)

www.breasthealthonline.org

I think that the needle should be a non-coring Huber needle. Anyway, picture this: You fill your turkey baster up half-way with Water and then put that water into a baggie. Then you decide to take the water OUT of the baggie, again using the turkey baster. No matter how hard you try, you just won't get all the water back into the baster.

Let me disagree with you on this point. I know people who were astonished to learn that their bands had slipped. The only thing that they seem to have had in common was "less restriction."

Not a life-long committment, just for the weekend. I'm going to go through these juvenile posts and put the names of those I consider to be major sources of discord on "Ignore." Because of this action, I'm going to have a relatively Bullshit-free holiday weekend. I encourage y'all to do the same (we don't all have to choose the same irritants, each of us is free to pick their own irritants)...or whatever YOU think will make YOUR visits here more pleasurable. Ciao... Sue

Could that because they limit their interpersonal relations to posting on an internet bulletin board?

Hey! Don't tell HER... ...BUT...

True...but we were better than ANYONE who didn't believe exactly as we were taught to believe....lol...godless Commies were just high on the list.

Paul...we finally agree...on a NUMBER of things. One little correction or addition...I was in Catholic elementary school in the 1950's. The "under God" thing was the result of a campaign sprearheaded by the Catholic men's organization the "Knights of Columbus." The nuns paraded us all out to say the "new improved" pledge together and to thank the KoC for their hard work. Not that we didn't play "Commies and Good Guys" in addition to "Cowboys and Indians"...the Cold War was a big deal, too.

Those people were not at all :mad: , right? :clap2:

About twenty-five years ago, I ran into a now-deceased aunt in a department store. I asked her how she had enjoyed her Thanksgiving. She said, "I have a son who was recently born-again and daughter who has become Mormon. We have to negotiate Grace. The only thing I gave thanks for was that they all went home early."

Could be a thread-killing tactic...could be evidence of an imbecilic, childish desire to gang-upon people who are discussing something you don't want to have discussed. But it's pretty boorish either way when all one has to do to stop reading something that offends them is stop opening the thread. My opinion only, YMMV.

It could be an Eye of the Beholder thing. My mother is 83-years-old and has just moved to Assisted Living. One of the questions they ask is the resident's religious preference. She wrote "Raised Catholic but no religion now...please leave me alone." Does that stop the well-intentioned people who are convinced it's okay to be deceitful if doing "God's work?" Uh...no. So they stop by to welcome her, AND to proffer non-stop invitations to join their services...and they are relentless, in spite of her "please leave me alone" comment. And I'm sure they are all convinced that she is "moving in the way of the lord," because Mother tries to be polite and that's how THEY perceive her politeness. (When they leave, she calls me and says, "I almost told them to get the F out of my way...") It rains? Thank God. It STOPS raining? Thank God. Someone SURVIVED the crash? God protected them. Someone DIED in the crash? God wanted them home. They were running late for an appointment, but traffic was light? God did that, too. If that is how someone perceives the world, what they see is is STRONGLY influenced by their belief system...and that belief system influences how they percieve everything. Not to mention that, as you know, dying people are often under the influence of drugs AND have other physical problems that interfere with their processing information and communicating what they are thinking...IF they are thinking. (And, no, of course I don't believe in Satan...or any other mystical or spiritual stuff.)

So...I guess this is how it feels to be the only virgin in town the morning after the gang-bang...you THINK you're glad you weren't involved but feel somewhat left out anyway.

I am SO glad to see the support that those who are having problems with the band are receiving. It hasn't always been that way. When I finally decided that the band had to go, I received--on another site--a ton of advice on how to make it work, or lectures on giving it another try or hate mail telling me that I was there to bring everybody down. (What I was TRYING to do was explain that for many people the Band Reality at three years is a whole different ball game than the Band Reality at six months.) What started out as my magic tool became a choke chain that was hurting me. I started to hate it and want it out. (The only other time I felt that way was when I discovered that Ihad cancer and I just wanted those parts OUT. Now!!) (Not saying the band is like cancer, just saying the the urge to get it out when it became problematic was similar.) NOW what I get--from some of those same people--are LOTS of e-mails, mostly asking me to keep it quiet and telling me that they are ready to move on and have made appointments for consultations regarding revisions. Even some of LapBanding's biggest success stories--people featured in commercials and on websites for YEARS--are talking gastric sleeve because the reflux issue has become too much to deal with. I feel very bad for anyone who had so much hope and was so disappointed. (And I feel even WORSE for the self-pays...because I was one!) No surgery is perfect. If the prize was not behind Door Number One, that is no reason to give up and go away. There are other doors. Do not give up. (And, no...I do NOT get paid a recruiting bonus for drumming up DS patients, but so far, it is serving me well and I'm down about 90 pounds in about 9 months. I SHOULD be able to say that I have "learned" something and that I'm working my ass off. I haven't and I'm not. Not ONE of those pounds was because I made an effort. It has ALL been the surgery...I just sit here and eat crap and don't exercise. Which is probably why my weight loss this month is either one pound or zero, depending on time of day. The free ride may be over...it may be time for me to take SOME responsibility...but I was kind of burned out after the band experience.) Anyway...do whatever you need to win the WAR...the battles are irrelevant. Sue

In the olden times, before the "high fructose corn syrup conspiracy," that's how Coke tasted! I've never liked the "new" coke! Well...maybe with a little rum...LOL Sue

I'm concerned about this statement. It sounds as though someone has told you that band-related GERD can be prevented by avoiding "too tight" fills. That just isn't so. (Unless there is some recently published study I need to read.) MY band was NEVER tight and I got GERD anyway. My surgeons would not have given me a tight fill if I had asked for one...which I didn't. I never had a fill that kept me from eating. My GERD continued whether I had 0.4 cc's of saline, or 0.8 cc's of saline or none. (I never, in three years, had more than 1.5 cc's.) This article explains that the band can mess up the esophageal functioning which in turn can cause GERD: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=16027327 I'm concerned because when I read your post, I get the message that if we are all careful and conservative (which is the responsibility of the surgeon btw) everything will be just fine...which also might lead a reader to think that anyone who has the problem got it from not being cautious and conservative. Real life--including life after banding--just isn't that simple.

Actually it will do just fine...but the one I read was several years ago. And, BTW, I'm an atheist veteran!!! My dogtags say "declines to state" where religion goes, because I didn't want to fight about it. My recruiter told me about a guy he served with who researched religions to find the ones with the most holidays and then decided he was Druid. However, I can still recite most of the altar boy responses to the Catholic Mass--IN LATIN--if that earns me any points. LOL MEA MAXIMA CULPA.

At the risk of throwing matches on this can of gas, the surgeons who tell patients that they will lose only 50% of their excess weight are NOT "against" the band. They are merely reporting the facts. (AND they should mention that while no one is limited by the statistics eveyone figures into them.) While I think that it is commendable that we go into ANY wls with a positive attitude, I don't think I've ever encountered ANYONE who says, "Well, my goal is to be among that majority group who lose about half their excess weight." Everyone thinks that THEY will do better. Truth is, over 25% of 5'3" banded people who start at 300 pounds will never get below 225 and they will still be MO...after all the work, all the hoping, all the planning and money, over 25% will still be MO. People need to know that going in the door. Doctors who encourage this kind of magical thinking are not being honest and should be avoided.

Actually, I read a while back that the "no atheist in a foxhole" thing is far from the truth. (I wish I could remember the source.) It seems that a number of people have died while their voices were being recorded...plane crashes, police/fire radios, that kind of thing. Turned out that the religious folks were saying "Oh, God" and the non-religious folks were saying stuff like, "Oh, shit!" Whatever it was I read said that most of us die pretty much the way we live. I do want to mention that an intense multi-page thread where the atheists come out of hiding and DON'T get reminded, by some self-appointed messenger of doom, that they're going to burn in a hot place that no one has ever seen and the atheists don't believe in is kind of a nice change. Growth is a good thing.

Inamed used to have a list. But being on that list did NOT mean they are experienced... I don't know anything about a "certification." I just know that Inamed used to list doctors who had taken the training seminar or whatever even before they had performed their first surgery.

Mine never went off...and I thought it would, so I told security and was searched with a wand on several trips...but it never went off.

I'm so against using those cards...so imagine how surprised I was when I GOT a discount (at Souplantation) because the cashier noticed that my card (which I kept right next to my driver's license in case of emergency) had a diagram of a stomach on it. But I SELDOM go to places like Souplantation or buffets. They sell QUANTITY. That kind of picking and choosing helped me become obese. I now demand QUALITY. There were only a few things I could eat at Souplantation when I was banded, and I essentialy stick to the same stuff now that I'm DS'ed. So, I can go here: http://souplantation.com/locations/restaurant.asp?store_id=98&store_name=Irvine and pay $9.00 (or $4.50) with a wls card and TRY to find stuff to eat that is satisfying...and go right home and look for some Protein I can eat... or I can go here: http://www.mrstox.com/menus/menus_entrees.html and pay $35 or so, but have absolutely delicious meals, served on linen table cloths, with a piano playing softly and VERY attentive service and have leftovers that last for two more meals and be satisfied. I realy think that those "feeding trough" places play into our weaknesses.

There are more than two wls's. Right now, you're on a band board, asking if you should get the band. If you go to an RnY board and ask if you should get the RnY or a DS board and ask if you should get the DS...the answers will all be pretty much the same!! No surgery is "the best." Each has its plusses and minuses. You have to see where you fit in best. Allow me to complicate your decision-making process by adding Door Number Three: http://obesityhelp.com/forums/DS/about.html http://www.duodenalswitch.com Good luck, Sue

Here's what I DO know: You don't want advanced esophageal dysmotility. If your surgeon decides the degree of dysmotility you DO have is enough that he thinks the band is a bad idea...listen to him. If the condition is advanced enough that getting the band will make it worse, the band won't help you lose weight anyway. That's because the only things you WILL be able to eat are things that will slide right through the band...and make you GAIN weight. So, trust your surgeon...if he says it's worthwhile to give it a try...GO FOR IT. If he says it's too risky for you, work on Plan B!! Good luck!!