leo

It does grow back, I think taking Vitamin b12 also helps.

Sorry for going off topic a bit. But talking about portions, the other day a co worker (slender female) was eating lunch with me and was telling me to "eat more". I had this little bowl of Soup and a small portion of mash potatoes, which for me seemed a lot, but there is this skinny little girl telling me to eat more Never thought something like this would ever happen to me.....

I used them, personally I think they are the best. But thats because they are my doctors The facility is headed my Dr verboonen and Dr Ponce de leon. Both are great doctors and are good at what they do. But as others might point out, Dr Verboonen has been involved with insurance fraud and he has done his time for it. But if you are looking for a doctor that is good at what he does, just look at me, I am a perfect example of his work. click on the link below to see my before and after http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=4130&highlight=leo+pic

My Bad, I retract my previous comment, sorry for ticking you off maam I'll try to stop making any more general blanket statements from now on. Actually, the comment was just posted in haste I should have spend a little more time to make it politically correct. And also, the posting I made was in no way supposed to be negative, I am banded in Mexico also, I have nothing but praise....

Mexican bandsters get larger fills, because Mexican doctor don't abide by any Fill schedules. While people banded in the USA normally get smaller fills because doctors are more cautious. (lawsuits maybe?? ) For me personally, I always felt the restriction right after my fill.

sorry, i meant erosion , but then I did some further research and it seems slippage and erosion are a bit different. Band erosion - the Band can erode through the wall of the stomach. This results in loss of restriction to eating, or Band infection caused by leakage of stomach juices onto the Band. It is reported that such erosion rarely results in a sudden life-threatening situation for the patient. Erosion of the Band almost always requires removal of the Band, with plans for a later conversion to a different weight loss procedure. Erosion seems to be worse the slippage...

Hope you have a speedy recovery!!! btw this is called "corosion" in the lapband community.

actually the midband is from a french company( http://www.midband.fr/mid_anglais/present.htm) , the johnson and johnson is the swedish band (http://www.ethiconendo.com/morbid.jsp)

I am not taking sides either, all I can say is what I always say, I don't know this doctor personally so no comment. But for the newbies considering lapband surgery, there are lots of resources on the net, like the yahoo groups for example. And lapband surgery is different for everyone. It's like the stock market, past performance and does not guarantee future results and vice versa.

It actually looks quite similiar to the infection I had. Same location , mine was just a bit smaller. I think mine took close to 2 months to totally close up. I remember wondering if it would ever heal..... But in the end it did. I think if I had used neosporin from the start, I could have prevented the infection.. Good luck and hopefully everything will heal up fast!!

Hope everything is fine with you Kelly! When I am super tight, I always have a milkshake from mcd's. Or anything liquid with a high sugar content. Seems to open up the band a bit.

and all the people that got invites will be able to out invites of their own pretty soon :cool:

Great pose alex!!

leatha totally hit it on the nail with the post i qouted below: Also imagine this situation. You have only a small opening between the upper and lower stomach. if food settles in the small pouch , and you suddenly take a big gulp of water by mistake. Everything could come up thru your mouth :eek

Right now my band is kinda loose, so it's time for a fill also. Hopefully I will be able to start loosing again after my planned fill in january.

I am glad your brother is ok

I still eat all the same food i used to love, just less. But I can't eat much bread, rice, and other carbs because they tend to get stuck and make me PB.

your look wonderfull. I love your smile

I used a cashiers check. I didn't have to talk to customs directly because I had a driver from the doctors office pick and drop me off from the San diego airport.

Congrats!!!!

here is a older pic for comparison, p.s. hopefully no one thinks i'm shallow for showing off pics I just think being banded was the best decision I ever made...

here is a side view.

still have a lot of toning to do, but I am totally happy even if I don't loose anymore :banana

FYI Erosion happens when the band grows into the stomach lining, thereby blocking off the "hole" between the upper and lower stomach. It's kind of like a slippage but worse. *for newbies wondering what erosion actually is

Michelle hit it on the nail about the fill part, in the states they abide by a certain fill schedule and you will need a couple of fills before you reached the right amount of restriction. Normally they recommend you to get a fill if you haven't lost weight for at least 1 month. But since you only have .8cc in your band you might ask your doctor if he can give you another fill soon.