GeezerSue

THAT'S WHAT I FORGOT...this senility thing is such a pain. Yes! My counselor advised me to try a Protein type shake or smoothie or yogurt some such thing. AND, the band surgeons tell us (or me, at least) to refrain from Protein shakes or smoothies or yogurt, because they are liquids! In fact, I recall one (rather arrogant, young) Mexican physician (you know of whom I speak) actually YELLING, "Yogurt is a liquid! You can't have liquids!" Alrighty then, now I think I've got it. So, I guess I'm wondering who is "right." (I know, they probably are both right.) I probably need the protein and I probably should stick to solids. And I am definitely resistant to change. KEEP ON TALKING, FOLKS! I'M SEEKING WISDOM HERE! Sue *getting older by the minute*

From my perspective, getting DOWN to a BMI of 35.5 would be wonderful! So, from MY perspective, having any wls when one is not MO or almost MO with serious co-morbidities, is a little (not a lot, just a little, it's done in other countries all the time) extreme. OTOH, I remember how bad I felt when my BMI was under 35 but over 30. I felt huge. I felt enormous. I felt hopeless. And maybe if I had done something a little extreme back then (not that the band was available back then), I would never have arrived at a BMI of over 50. I will ask this: Have you worked with the emotional issues yet? After banding, when you can hold less, those issues will still be there. And in your case, with so little (from my perspective) to lose, those issues will be in the foreground very soon. Good luck deciding... Sue

Background: Before I was banded, I always ate Breakfast. I always ate everything. Since banding and getting good restriction, I have been unable to eat until give-or-take three or so hours after I get up. So, after forty years of drinking black coffee/nothing added, I'm now drinking half nonfat milk-half coffee with some no sugar added vanilla flavoring. Concern: I'm working on my eating behaviors and my counselor told me that breakfast is important and that drinking coffee eventually sets us up for being really hungry later. (If I've got that right.) She told me to try to eat breakfast and it might be a matter of learning a new habit...start with little portions, etc. I'm wondering if I am being my usual resistant-to-change self and just don't want to try to eat when it might be difficult, or if I should just re-explain to my counselor that banded folks have real physiological eating-in-the-morning issues. Questions: (finally ) Since banding, how do you deal with the first meal of the day? SPEAK UP, PEOPLE!

I realize that we all have different emotional needs, and that somebody has to go first, and that you have to be an experienced laporoscopic surgeon before you even start doing LapBand, BUT I WOULD NOT PAY TO BE PART OF SOME SURGEON'S TRAINING EXPERIENCE. I feel that those first, few proctored patients should get a free ride! The research shows that the overwhelming majority of complications occur within the surgeons' first fifty surgeries. The "problems" start to slow at about 30, and then level out after 50. That, of course, does not mean that every surgeon will have complications with every patient in the early surgeries...but it does mean that when those complications DO occur, they tend to be within the early surgeries. So, I'm glad you wen't elsewhere! Now, it that surgeon experienced with LapBand?

I changed to childrens' chewable Vitamins, with minerals. (The Sav-On/Osco/Albertson's brand, with essential minerals.) Post-op I used liquid (children's) liquid Advil/Tylenol when I had a complicated root canal. They also have the disolves-on-your-tongue variety of several meds. If I need them now, I just use a pill cutter and take a little at a time. However, a recent antibiotic about did me in...but the nurse told me that some antibiotics have as high as 40% of patients who take them having esophageal irritation. So, watch out there! Sue

My last fill, I, too, stayed in town an extra day...just to be sure. It was fine, but i was glad i took the time and made sure.

Donali, If I had this tatooed across my forearms (where I can see it), would it be big enough to be legible? Sue

I don't know which posts you're talking about, but I suspect you're reading posts from people recently banded, especially as far as the "feeling the port" issue goes. As with any appliance--braces, a dental bridge, boob implants (but I'm guessing on the last two, really)--these things take time. Then, they become part of you. I CAN tell you that this surgery was a big, fat nothing compared to a c-section and a hysterectomy. Then, "problems with the fills." Do you mean GETTING fills? Okay, if you're doing this in country, you need to find out your doctor's idea of when a fill is necessary. It varies WIDELY. I don't consider my situation as a "problem" as much as it is an occasional source of frustration. If I want a good fill, from someone who isn't worried more about malpractice insurance than my band, I have to hop on a plane and fly to my surgeon. I knew that going in and I'm okay with it. His fees are covered, but the radiology place charges about $100. This is in Monterrey, Mexico. In the US, most surgeons include at least a few fills. Here's my take on the fills: They are a necessary follow-up to the surgery. But the doctors make their money on the surgery. Why would any doctor want to bother with adjustments on someone else's surgery patient? In the time it takes him to do two adjustments ($300-600 in his pocket), an experienced surgeon can do the surgery ($5000 in his pocket). I know which one I'd do. And I suspect there exists a certain level of resentment that the out of country doctors do the surgery and expect US doctors to provide fills to their patients. Only YOU can make the decision. And you need to be prepared to hear that even if your insurance DOES approve LapBand, several US doctors will not perform this surgery on people over x-years-old or over a BMI of over-whatever. At that point, your options may have to be reexamined to include going out of country and/or paying cash. But cross that bridge when you get there. I sure know about being tired of being tired. I was barely moving and I was walking with a cane two years ago and I retired medically. I slept at least 18 hours per day. If my husband wasn't home to cook or go for take-out, I lived off of Cereal or Peanut Butter sandwiches, because I was really unable to do any more. I "desatted" (ran out of oxygen) after walking just a few yards, and we had to move because I wouldn't leave the house because I was afraid I could not get up the three steps to get back in. I've lost only about half my excess weight so far, and I am now a whole new person. A functioning person. Would I rather feel my port or feel how I used to feel? I LOVE MY BAND! Good luck on your decision-making, Sue

Wade, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but--once the healing process is over--you will most likely want EXACTLY the same foods you want right now. That's why people often wryly comment that "this is abdominal surgery, NOT brain surgery." Before you have surgery, make sure you are clear on this. You will be physically restricted from eating the portions you are eating now. But if you are anywhere near as crazy as I am, you will be in a battle with yourself over stupid things, such a "just one more bite," and wanting to eat more, even though you absolutely know that if you eat another bite you will make yourself sick. About "wanting" foods...I'm half Italian and half Mexican and, since banding, cannot eat Pasta, or tortillas, or masa (the stuff between the corn husk and the filling in a tamale). Trust me, I still want those foods--and more--and I've been banded a year. Good luck and ENJOY those meals! Sue

And, oh yeah (I'm senile and repeating what Donali said...I do this a lot) ONE can of soup will likely contain 70% (or more) of the sodium she needs for the day. So if she's taking in two or more cans of soup per day, she is consuming way too much sodium, and that's the cause. I'm very sensitive and on diuretics for edema because of weight, heart/lung issues old age (?) etc., but she MAY have some of these issues, so...how are the shoes fitting? And rings? Puffy ankles? Simple cotton socks cause ribbing lines in her feet/ankles? All of those soups are just turning her into a sponge. I think from now on I'm just going to write "What Donali said." Sue

I'm thinking that your twin is experiencing the weight gain that is indicative of being overfilled! Also known as "soft food syndrome." When we cannot handle solids (which we need to make the band do its thing), we start eating soft and liquid foods. And we gain weight, because we are "eating around the band." Some people need a day or a few days post-adjustment to let the trauma of the fill (or unfill) subside so that the mucosal lining of the stomach is no longer swollen, and then they can return to solids. Sounds to me as though your twin either has an EXTREMELY sensitive stomach (how long post-op until she was able to eat?) or she is overfilled and will continue to gain weight because she will have no choice but to "eat around the band." Sue

Mello_One, First, are you talking "vomit," as in when we have the flu? Or are you talking about being unable to deal with your own saliva or more than a teensy sip of Water? These are very different things, and which one you're going through would make a big difference. Besides all the very wise posts already here, I was wondering...have you had a general anesthesia before? I ask because, for some people, it can take quite a while for the demons that anesthesia brings on to exit the body. And then there's the whole healing thing, too. Our daughter had breast reduction surgery this summer. Three weeks post-op was her absolute worst week. She wasn't in so much pain; she was just miserable. Everything was wrong. And besides that, nothing was right. And she really just needed to whine and keep telling us that--although she was back to work and wasn't in any severe pain--she sure was not her old self and that was just not okay. Don't think I'm dismissing your recent misery! Just remember to factor in the post-op blahs. Keep us posted, Sue

Joanne, I'm not generally a "this is happening for a reason" kind of person. This time, I'll make an exception. The BMI is only a "general guideline" to the body's well-being. I have the frame of a linebacker and always have. Not long after I finished Basic Training in the Army, I got married. (Just a hint here, people who have just made it through basic are generally as slim and trim as they are ever going to be.) My wedding ring was sized up to an 8. Yup, e-i-g-h-t. Big, big bones. No chance of bone density issues as I now head toward my sixtieth birthday. Yet, women with smaller frames, who were the same height as I, weighed much less and had much lower BMI's. I go through all this nonsense to point out that your doctor's preoccupation with a number is IMHO pretty silly. And, given my experience watching how these things go, he may just prove to be just as anal about your fills. If so, you will be one frustrated cookie. So, in this case, if things don't work out with this guy, this time, it may not be the worst thing that's ever happened. I DO wonder how experienced this surgeon is, as the more experienced out-of-the-country guys don't even balk at a BMI of 50, and do them all the time. I hope you get the surgery--and the follow-up--you want and deserve. And I hope you get it sooner, rather than later. But missing this particular opportunity may simply be the opening to more promising opportunities. Good luck on the whole thing! Sue

Since I got decent re-fill (I had been unfilled for a while) I am unable to eat much of anything before 10:30 a.m. I CAN drink some really good 1/2 a cup of fat-free milk, 1/2 a cup of coffee w/ a scoop or so of no-sugar-added vanilla powder. It's so much fun, that eating Breakfast isn't even an issue. Sue *now dealing with the fact that I can eat late in the day*

Oh, yeah...there's a Yahoo over-50 bandsters group, too. (But we're cuter here.)

Kathy, I can answer only from my own experience. I was 55 when I was banded and I was worried about being too old. My surgeon chuckled and explained that he had a patient who had been banded a couple of years earlier and now, in her seventies, kept showing up at Bandster Bashes with new boyfriends! That said, each doctor has his own rules. So, I've read here about strict pre-op diets, and BMI limits and other things my doctor didn't have. But he had done over 1400 bands when I went to him and what he did have was plenty of experience. I compare the surgeons to parents. It takes an act of congress before the first kid gets a bike or the car keys...but those same parents, a few years later, have no qualms when it comes to the third kid. They weren't WRONG about being so protective...but it was more about if the parents could handle it than if they kids could handle it. To me, it's the same with the surgeons. Those who are out of the country and have eight or ten years experience seem to me to have far fewer rules. It's more about what the surgeon can handle than what the patient can handle. (Whew! I talk too much.) But this is my way of saying that if you hear "No," from the surgeons, it wouldn't hurt to find out how many bands they have done...and to keep asking. If you don't have luck locally, check with the "pioneers." They are in Italy, Germany, Belgium and Mexico, and were involved with the pre-FDA testing. Don't overlook the Australian and New Zealand doctors, either. They are the surgeons who performed the first surgeries and trained the others. I KNOW several of them do the band on patients your mom's age and, in most cases, the price is lower (and the travel abroad may just be tax deductible.) Good luck...if you need any links to those doctors, I think I can find them. Sue

Fla. Women Disarm Intruder With Sandwich TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Confronted with an armed intruder in their home, two women plied him with a ham sandwich and rum until he became groggy and passed out. Police arrived and arrested Alfred Joseph Sweet, 52, to end the five-hour episode. Cathy Ord, 60, and Rose Bucher, 63, said they tried to befriend the man after he burst through their kitchen window with a sawed-off shotgun Tuesday night. They made him a sandwich, gave him a bottle of rum and suggested he shower and shave so he could ``sort of be disguised in his getaway,'' Ord said. ``We just treated him with kindness,'' Bucher said. She said she had offered Sweet cash and the keys to her Cadillac, but he just sat with them, holding his gun. The intruder never said what he wanted, the women said. ~~~ Please, try to stay within your doctor's eating guidelines. Sue

A little late for this year, but... when our daughter was teeny, tiny, we'd take her to the homes of three of four neighbors and that was it. As she got older--and more and more weirder and weirder people started using Halloween as an excuse to hurt kids--we decided that having a Halloween Party was the way to go. And so did a few friends. And then, so did the Girl Scout Troops we led. So we planned ahead and had really great Halloween Parties with cool scary stuff. As our daughter got older, she hung with kids who also seemed to prefer parties. There was one night with an excess of sugar, and a few measly leftovers. But no grocery bags full of junk. So, maybe in some little way, we taught her that the event was about friends and fun and not about candy. I hope. Sue

Yeah and don't forget the conversion rates. Our $12,000-$30,000 CASH surgeries translate to $17,000-$42,000 in Aussie Dollars! Yikes!

This makes me so happy :banana I may need to be restrained. (I'm on the wrong side of the country, but that's okay.) So now we have the Pacific Northwest and Gulf Coast covered...it's only a matter of time, huh? Sue

No apology necessary, Leo. I often "say" things the wrong way...when I didn't mean to do so. And we all have different "comfort levels" with what other humans do. My next door neighbor (who had had a stroke) had a home health aide, who--within a week--was trying to underbid the company she was working for to get the job on an "under the table" basis, even though she had signed a contract saying she wouldn't do that. On my advice, the neighbor let the worker go and let the employer know what was going on. It's hard for me to accept that the woman who was trying to cheat her current employer wouldn't eventually try to cheat her next one. (And, no, I'm not a goody-two-shoes.) Yet, the neighbor on the other side was saying, "Everybody does that. They just want to make a buck. The agency underpays them, and deserves it." She thought I was unreasonable. So...knowing what I know about several various doctors, I would still choose verboonen over several others to do my surgery. But I have a couple I'd choose before him, too. Kinda like, "which is 'better,' butter-pecan or caramel-praline, cherry garcia or chunky monkey?" :ermm I apologize to ANYONE I offended with my comments on this or any other doctor. And really, really, I'm not recruiting for any doctor...although, like many others, I'm very happy with MY surgeon. Sue

Like I said... "Okay, somebody is probably going to get mad at me for posting this link. AND, I agree it has nothing to do with how well he performs surgery, but apparently he did plead guilty to health care fraud...' I didn't say he wasn't a good surgeon; I did said he was a convicted felon. :rolleyes If I were inquiring about a surgeon who had a criminal record, I sure hope someone would mention it and let me make my decision based on all the information I could gather. I think I'm grown up enough to sort through it all, and I think anyone who asks probably is, too. It was not my goal to convince people that my doctor is great. I've met four Mexican LapBand surgeons, and recommend three of them to others, plus one doctor whom I haven't met but who also has an excellent reputation. If verboonen has nothing but happy patients, that speaks highly of him as a surgeon. (But I still wouldn't be sending any substantial amount of money in advance. Not because I wouldn't trust him because of his convinction, but because, like I said, I'm a skeptic...and I don't trust many people, especially if they're asking for money!) Harshly :rambo yours, Sue

They'll notice; they just won't know WHAT they're noticing. So they'll ask if you have a new hairstyle or if you changed lipstick colors. It will never occur to them that your shirt sleeves "grew" two or three inches. And to me, that's good, because I sure didn't want them to notice when the scale was moving the other way. However...when you go for your mammogram or eye exam or tax guy or to some other appointment you keep annually, THOSE people will start screaming. After the double-take. And it's fun! Sue

Hi, pegs.. Welcome. As an Aussie, you are fortunate to have (mostly) far more experienced surgeons than we do here. (I've read about them on the OzBand boards.) Is the procedure the same there as here? Mostly done with no more than an overnight stay? Tell us all about it! I know that Perth has active support groups, how about Melbourne? Sue

Denise, The only person I ever met who had had surgery with Joya, had a horrid experience, especially in terms of the surgery itself and recovery. When I met her, she was in another doctor's care. In the overall scheme of things, one person's bad experience isn't much, but this lady's experiences were enough that I had to mention it. The doctors about whom I never hear anything negative (well, sometimes people complain about staff, but never about surgical competence) are Sanchez and Rumbaut in Monterrey. (They are not partners; they are actually competitors.) In Tijuana, Kuri is consistently competent and (like Rumbaut) someone Inamed calls to fix problems created elsewhere. And Lopez in Tijuana, has a good reputation, too. (Ortiz is also in Tijuana and competent, but--based on my experience and that of others--getting a good fill is a hit and miss thing with him. Ortiz and Lopez were partners, but they may have moved on to other partners...I'm not sure.) Sue