GeezerSue

The book I recommended took a whole chapter to say this! And they made the point that the self-contempt that some people have relating to their over- or under- eating issues is a reliable and familiar feeling and, for many, feels safer than dealing with scary NEW feelings. But you sure know a smart nurse!

It won't solve any HUGE problems...but if you have one it CAN work like this... You sign up to have money withheld from your pay--tax free. You are billed for the procedure. You submit the bill to your Section 125 account and they reimburse you the entire amount even when it hasn't yet been withheld!!! (That varies from employer to employer. Check it out.) You pay the provider. If you are in a 20% tax bracket, you can end up having only $4000 withheld to provide you with $5000 in your "bank." good luck

You did not have brain surgery. For most people, wls is NOT an instant cure. There are some good books...one may appeal to you. I've found part of "It's Not About Food" to be helpful...I'm sure that others have their own favorite tools. I can share two things I learned. First...stop judging yourself. Stop with the loaded words...no calling yourself names. If you ate and then went back for a moccachino frappe quadruple whammy, you can say "I drank that coffee drink." You cannot say, "I'm a pig." Then, you can OBSERVE...without committing to immediate change. Be a scientist and your own experiment. Just watch and SEE what it is that you are doing when you opt for the choices that aren't taking you where you want to go. (Don't commit to a major change before observing for a while.) You may find a connection between your stimuli and your reaction that will help you with a change.

Worst possible news first? There is a teensy, tiny, itsy-bitsy, beyond way-small chance that she MAY have put the needle into the tubing instead of into the mesh, thus causing a leak in the tubing, which would have to be replaced under a local and that's about it. If I were a betting woman (and sometimes I am) I would NOT go anywhere near that option!!! Breathe. That was about the worst thing possible, given what you've described. And I once went with a woman who had her entire port replaced and she drove home the whole four hours...so it's REALLY not a big deal even if it is bad news...which is just isn't going to be. BTW, my friend's port replacement took WAY less time than my last dental crown...WAY less. She MAY HAVE inserted the needle, removed the saline to see how much was there, dumped it, added more saline and just missed the port access on the refill. Or some series of actions close to that. I would SO give you a sip of my Bailey's that I can't drink until November....but you're not here.

P-38!!! I had you on my keychain once!!! How did you escape? We were in Germany, together, too. Do you remember any of this? Sue

They could change. And there is no telling on the variables. Who knows how many of the reoperations were because early bands were placed prior to the pars flaccida technique, or who has lost so much weight that she's getting an older, higher-profile port changed to a lower profile port? I know that one of those people had a really bad surgeon (who doesn't do the band anymore) and he nicked her diaphragm and she's had NOTHING but trouble. One of the people in the middle group mentioned that she has mild erosion, so she knows she's doing SOMETHING...she just doesn't know what. And I'm pretty sure that a couple of those "I'll have my band forever" people are old-timers. They are doing very well, at a normal BMI and happy...and while they say that they MAY, at some later date need SOMETHING changed out (because very little lasts forever) they do NOT want to contemplate life without the band.

Full moon, maybe? Great minds? Whatever. Someone at another site a couple of us here visit posted the same kind of poll just today. (Of course, variables--as discussed elsewhere--were not covered, so we don't know who did the surgeries, when they were done, which band was used, etc.) Here's what they've gathered so far... HTH

MY band surgeon is cuter than YOUR band surgeon...oh...wait...same guy. Never mind.

Waht 3loves said...I even bought the JNJ stock waiting for the FDA approval...and gave up waiting. It's still pending? Bummer. Jim, I think it's a VHS vs BetaMax thing. I think that the last wisdom I recall on that debate was that BetaMax held at least minimal technical superiority (which is why it's still used in the film industry) but what good would that do if you culdn't find a movie to play in it? So, Inamed is all over the place and you won't find yourself in a large city with no experienced band doctor and you won't have to explain the difference in the solutions...but--again, if memory holds--the SAGB is softer and less likely to be involved in erosion issues...or so they say. I think it's a personal preferences thing. Enjoy Monterrey!

Hi, Erynn...Welcome! Funny thing about the scars from surgery. My port was placed at the sternum...right where the bottom band of my bra sits. Well, the bra is still there, but the scar has moved south. Way south. It is now about FIVE INCHES below my bra...headed toward my navel. If you have a lot of weight to lose, more scar tissue than you might imagine may well end up being removed in plastic surgery!!

Maybe? The data that is fed into the program consists of "facts." The resultant stats are subject to manipulation. The decisions we make based on stats are subject to all sorts of influences. I think they all have a place in the "figuring".

Lisa, Your picture is in the dictionary, next to the word "survivor." Keep it up.

Lisa... We haven't "talked" in so long...are we still friends? Did you come to my "rescue?" (I don't get to the zoo often and I was having too much fun watching "pack" behavior to remember to send for back-up!!! LOL.) How cool that you're here!?! Do be careful, though...in the past twenty-four hours, I have added one plus one and I got one...and then I got someone's name wrong...so probably nothing I say can be trusted. Hey, in all seriousness, on another site, I asked about the difference between "confrontation" and "anger." Most agreed that there can be very happy people who simply take a stand for certain things and won't back down...and there can be people who are truly seething with anger but try to paint a "rainbows and pony" scene to hide the truth and absolutely FREAK when anything threatens that charade. As we all know, the cudmudgeon-y folks seldom grab automatic weapons and blow up groups of people...they ALREADY get their little bitches and moans out during the course of a day, as irritating as it is to the ranibows and pony people. But it's those "artificially happy-happy, nice-guy" people that no one ever expected to go ballistic who make the evening news. So who is REALLY "angry?" Anyway, nice seeing another...what is this group?..."Disgruntled Old Failure!" BTW, as of this morning, I'm down a hundred pounds from my pre-banding weight...and down 80 pounds (the +/- 60 I'd lost and regained with the band and an additional 20) since my DS surgery. My belly is still too big...but my boobs and bottom fit quite well into SIZES...you know, the ones with no letters...the sizes that don't look like lattices...XXXXXXXXXX Hi to Chris...unless I got that name wrong, too, then "Hi" to whoever you see who is cute and looks good on a bike. I was in LV in January...but I was only eight weeks post-op and my esophagus still hadn't healed up...I never left the freakin' Bellagio the whole time. So I didn't try to contact anyone I knew there. See ya... Sue

do you have access to a flexible spending (IRS Section 125) program through work--or spouse's work? If so, you might have A LITTLE help there.

Okay...you win the "creative complication question contest!" I really don't think I've ever heard that one before!?! To the best of my knowledge, though, the dilation--which for some reason the medical dudes thought needed an additional syllable, so they call it "esophageal dilatation" (probably because they were science majors, not English majors)--as we are talking about it here, begins at the bottom of the esophagus, where food stacks up waiting to get into the stomach. It's not an easy thing to find photos of, because "esophageal dilatation" is BOTH a symptom of what banded and other people have when we have inadvertently enlarged our esophaguses (esophagi?)...but it's also a medical procedure performed by gastroenterologists to WIDEN an esophagus narrowed by strictures or disease. So it's a good thing (the procedure) and a bad thing (what we do.) So my guess would be...no...the back of the throat would not be involved. The images I've seen have been of an esophagus that was just wider a the bottom. Like an upside down skinny letter Y. Any chance you've lost enough weight that some of the fatty tissue in that area has just disappeared making a "normal" opening (that you aren't used tohaving) feel "different?"

Jenny, I hope you soon discover that your problems have resolved. Life is too short to spend it in misery!! Good luck, Sue

And high fructose corn syrup...the devil incarnate, honest!!

My only option was "pool walking." Wasn't even up to water aerobics! I just got in the stupid pool and walked back and forth the short way with a bunch of other old people who did the same thing every day. And then it became easier, but it WAS hell at the git-go.

Try to relax...we've either been through this or know someone who has...and MOST OF THEM have no long term problems of any kind. So...chill. Really! Think of a funnel. Made out of leather. (Yeah, weird, but it kind of works.) You can pour in infinite amount of a liquid in there, but solids--just by sitting there and exerting force on the funnel--can start to stretch the darned thing. This does NOT mean is it ripped or thrashed or broken...it's just a little stretched out. If I were a gambling women I'd put my money on "eating too fast." Because we are used to trying to fill up a STOMACH, we have no idea of how little it takes to fill up a FUNNEL. If you give your food time to get there, and send a signal that it's there on up to your brain, your esophagus will not have a reason to stay enlarged and it will reduce itself. Remember, unlike that leather funnel, it is a living organ. It changed by getting bigger and it can change and get smaller. You may need to figure out if YOU are stretching it (best option, because you can stop it). Start there. Exhale, now!!!

Malice, Of any problem to have, a "stretched pouch"--if that is the layman's term the nurse is using for "esophageal dilatation," is one of the easier ones to try to cure. Most of the time, all or most of the saline is removed and the esophagus--in the absense of too much food putting pressure there--cures itself. It takes a while...but it happens. One might want to try to determine WHY the dilatation is occurring--is the patient eating too much or too fast, is there a hernia putting pressure the esophagus from outside, is there esophageal dysmotility keeping the food from moving into the stomach--and resolving the causative problem to prevent a reoccurence. MILD dilatation is pretty common...and, as long as it stays mild, is not the sign of trouble. Perhaps your doctor has told the nurse to disregard MILD dilatation and make sure he knows about severe cases. I think I'd want him to take the time to tell me what I need to do to prevent doing anything that causes any real damage.

What SHE said...

I admit that I've been preoccupied recently with family responsibilities and all, but REALLY...I've found far more posts COMPLAINING that people are discouraging others with the use of this phrase than I have seen posts where people are actually USING the phrase. Again...I have been--and mostly continue to be--up to my ass in alligators right now, and because of that I don't often read and seldom answer the "regular" newbies questions because I figure that others are in a better position to do that. So it is quite possible that I have missed that issue. Do we REALLY have people telling others that the other won't do well once the "honeymoon phase" is over...or are they saying that THEY did well during they felt was like a "honeymoon phase" and then not so well afterward? I'm not being my usual argumentative self...I just see way more complaints about "flag burning" and I haven't noticed any burning flags, if you'll exuse the example.

GAWD...senility is tough...the TOPIC, Sue...the TOPIC. The band can only work when it is adjusted properly. If, anytime after the intial healing period--usually six weeks--the CALENDAR is the determining factor on your adjustments, you are getting follow-up that is easy for the doctor. If it's any consolation, during the FDA trial times with the band, they did the same thing--then they figured out they didn't need to wait so long. More than one FDA trial participant got fed up and went across the border and had adjustments there, because crazy-making is crazy-making. At least one of those 'rebels' is STILL banded and doing well. If she has to have an unfill for a precautionary reason (like for unrelated surgery), she gets it (and gains weight) and then gets refilled (and looses weight.) Literally a spokesperson for the band and you may have even seen her on TV ads! So even those who get frustrated and go off on their own can succeed.

Yeah...mine were about $900 as billed to insurance. But "billed to insurance" is just fantasy...so that their EOB can tell me how much they "saved" me. Crazy overbilling compared to what they COULD charge. (My OR and two-night stay for BR surgery at an uppity hospital where the "stars" hang out was billed as over $47,000. They actually accepted--between insurance and my part--around $2300.) Anyway, that's one reason some of us almost-border-dwellers hooked up with Tijuana doctors for follow up. OTOH, WITH insurance, the $900 adjustment worked out to about $300...which was better than killing an entire day crossing the border to save about $200. But a fill under fluoro is a good idea...and self-fills (there are a couple of banded doctors who unfill themselves for every bariatric conference so they can pig out...yeah, really) are usually the shortcut to problems. RN's--especially RN's with oncology experience--are very good at the adjustments...often better than most doctors because they so more work with the ports...but if they HAVE TO do an adjustment without a band doctor around, they should find a nurse-friend who will help them because problems have happened with the DIY approach. (And they HAVE TO have the RIGHT Huber needle if they don't want to need a port replacement.)

And an incorrect paraphrase is just incorrect. YOU might want to reread what I wrote. I was talking about people who "lost" 20 pounds in the first two weeks post op...or some other huge amount. According to your sig, you lost nine pounds in the two weeks post-op. Big difference. Less than half. Nine pounds CAN be lost. To "lose" 20 pounds in 14 days, one would have to underconsume 5000 calories a day. Which would pretty much mean they were 300 plus pounds, eating nothing and jogging at about 8 mph for 20 hours a day. (Okay so I'm exaggerating, but the math doesn't work for a claim of 20 pounds. There has to be a tremendous amount of Water weight involved in that.) And it was Rumbaut who explained that to me. Maybe YOU function well when all you hear is "positive advise and support." That makes you a glass-half-full person, I guess. But half the planet is "glass-half-empty" people and they have their needs, too. Some of us need to hear all the pros and all the cons. I hope we all get the support we need, even the (male or female) curmudgeons. Being married six months...or being banded six months--no matter what other people thought your chances of success at either might be--still does NOT qualify anyone as the source of all wisdom and truth about success at either venture. Not you, not me, not anyone else. One of the most despised banded people I even encountered did a GREAT job with her (relatively short) journey, and at nine months out was at goal and telling people who had been fighting a longer time with far more weight to lose exactly what they were doing wrong. She was eventually chased off of one board by the members and permanently banned on one or two other boards for appointing herself an expert. I don't think MY marriage is drudgery and work...and I feel sorry for anyone who finds themselves in that situation. But my MARRIAGE--the long term, have kids, pay bills, good times, bad times stuff--is VERY DIFFERENT than the first couple of years and there is very little most newlyweds can tell most long-married folks that the latter haven't already been through and accepted or rejected. It isn't an attempt at being patronizing...really. It's just experience. The people who used to tell my husband and me that our marriage would be strong like theirs if we would just join their church or their Amway group (?) are long ago divorced. People who NEVER thought they would consider any wls do. People who got RnY are banded over it. People who got bands change to RnY. People who got DS started drinking and oops. You have no idea how much email I get from previously die-hard bandsters and all of the emails start with "PLEASE keep this just between us..." because they are having to reexamine their position and are embarassed and not up to the fights from people who are going to try to convince them to just try harder. So youthful enthusiasm is cool...but not generally a deciding factor for the old folks. I'm glad to read that. I was starting to worry about the source of your information about marriage...LOL! I hope yours--if you have one--is doing fine. And if the info came from someone else, I hope they get their situation worked out. I don't THINK my husband and I are the exception, because we know others like us...but we are in love, and hold hands, and tickle and giggle and laugh and bicker and look at our daughter and think we did a GREAT job and we suffer when surgery rudely interrupts our sex life and really LIKE to spend time together. (He has 626 days 'til he retires, not that we're counting or anything.) The honeymoon phase (and I don't think I ever use that expression, but anyway) may have used more calories...but the last 25 years or so have been WAY better! Yeah, I know it wasn't all for me, but I'm on Prednisone and wired.