faithmd

No, those are my last two initials. Good luck tomorrow! I saw your other thread in General Discussion about being banded tomorrow, I think it might be better posted in the Jaunary 08 Bandsters thread (you'll probably get more responses from those who are going through it with you). Just remember to walk, walk, walk.

It's totally normal for you to be scared. I think we all were in our own way. Hang in there! The surgery length totally depends on many factors. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 mins (quite short) to a couple of hours. The likelihood is that your family won't see you for a couple of hours. That doesn't mean you are in surgery that whole time, you will be in recovery waking up for a bit before they can come back and see you. In my case I was admitted (that what my surgeon's practice does) overnight and my husband couldn't see me in the recovery room, he had to wait until they had me settled in a hospital room. That's pretty common if someone is admitted after surgery, the family sees them in their room. Did you ask your surgeon how long it takes? That would the person who would know a GUESSTIMATE in your case. And they are ALWAYS estimates.

That is a popular question: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f9/how-many-days-before-mushies-30582/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/how-soon-mushy-foods-1187/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/why-do-some-doctors-allow-you-eat-mushy-1-week-post-op-44909/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/how-long-before-you-were-eating-mushy-food-27508/ Does it matter? It seems we are trying to either trying to validate our cheating on OUR doc's post-op diet ("See, someone else can have mushy food in three days, I was okay to eat those mashed potatoes, etc...") or it is to see if others have cheated with us, or it is find other to commiserate with ("My doc is sooo strict, yours is too? Thank goodness someone else understands."). Really, does it matter? You should be STICKING like GLUE to what YOUR DOCTOR (or nutritionist) told you to do. I wasn't allowed mushies until after three weeks. I could do pureed after two weeks. I think. I don't honestly remember and it's only been six months. See how it fades? It seems awful right now (and it was, that part I DO remember), but this is your life and your BAND. Stick to the diet, please. PLEASE do not get jealous of what someone else can do and think it's okay for you to do it, too. And please please please do not fall into the trap of "I chewed it really well, it went down fine, I feel fine, so it is okay." It's NOT okay. See Wendell's thread in the FAQ section about how the band really works for a good description of why eating early is bad. A year or two down the line someone may have a slip (they rarely know what causes slips), then I wonder if they think back to when they had that piece of pizza "chewed really well" and wonder if that contributed to it. I honestly believe that a)surgeons are sick to death of hearing us food addicts (I'm including myself here, otherwise I wouldn't be fat) whine and cry and piss and moan about how we can't possibly go a week or two or three on liquids so rather than have us cheat and eat something like fried chicken or pizza or steak they relented and went for the lesser of the evils and gave us the "mushy" phase a litle early. b)the other thought is the surgical technique has improved over the years and the sutures are a bit better and the new AP band and the Swedish band (Realize in the US) and the Midband are wider bands and thus should stay in place better and have less of a tendency to slip. But do we know that for sure yet? Hoe long term are the studies (and are there any large studies that demonstrate that shorter liquid and mushy phases do NOT contirbute to band complications?). I think it NEVER hurts to go a bit longer on each of the stages, especially the liquids stage. It gives your stomach a chance to heal and from scar tissue around the band to hold it in place (they can only suture on the front of the stomach, not the back, scars must form to hold the back in place) and to allow a "groove" to form for the band to settle in. The more you eat of food with more substance (yes even if you chew it really well) the more churning your stomach does to produce acids and enzymes to break that food down. Think about it. You walk into a bakery, you smell something wonderful, your mouth starts watering. You've started that digestive process. It's your body reacting to preparing for food. If you eat something you have to chew and chew, the body is producing lots of enzymes to break down that food. Producing those acids and enzymes causes (to a degree) some movement of the stomach muscle. Now I'm not saying it's in there running a race, but keeping the movements of the stomach to a minimum in the early days after banding is never a bad thing.

I believe that there are many factors in how your scars will look. Here's a thread of scar stages: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/scar-stages-share-yours-6117/ I found it very helpful. I agree that the staples leave the dots and that was one reason I didn't want them. But the fact is whatever your doc does is what you will have. My doc uses staples. He was able to give me a valid reason why he preferred staples (not that I liked it, but it was valid nonetheless). That is that staples allow the wound to drain if there is any need for it to happen. If a wound is closed with glue or covered with steri-strips and develops an exudate that needs to get out, it cannot with the glue or steristrips covering it. The chances then increase for an infection. Now one could say it could go the other way, things could get into a stapled wound, but usually it doesn't go that way. Stuff comes out, not crawls in. While the chances of a wound infection are very slim, many people develop seromas, esp. at the port site (A seroma is a pocket of clear serous Fluid that sometimes develops in the body after surgery. When small blood vessels are ruptured, blood plasma can seep out; inflammation caused by dying injured cells also contributes to the fluid.) With staples the seroma can just drain, versus having to open part or all of an incision covered with glue and/or steristrips. The last thing that convinced me was that to date that surgical practice had not had a single infection. Did I want glue or steristrips? Hell yes I did. Do I wish I had had glue or steri strips, yea kind of. But I weigh that with the fact that I didn't have an infection and it was kind of a wash. I scar badly so I was really hoping cosmetically for glue. However, a) I'm married, who else is going to be looking at my stomach? I'm REALLY fat, I won't be wearing a bikini, ever. c) Given the fact that I am starting at such a high weight, if and when I have PS, the real likelihood is that that entire expanse (or at least part of it) of my stomach that has the incisions on it will be removed.

Yep, I'm in the same boat as you. We could be twins. It's all my fault, I know. I just have to get my mind around it and get it done. I lost about 45lbs before I was banded and it was just about effortless. I have been at a plateau since September and have completely fallen off the wagon. I was just reading Boo Boo Kitty's post in the Life at (or near) goal forum and got a mild epiphany. I stopped drinking. I have stopped drinking water/fluids. Thinking about it I bet I'm lucky to get 20 oz in in a day. And I stopped logging EVERYTHING I ate and drank. Those are my two biggest screw-ups. Tomorrow I'm logging again. And I'm heading to the store for a couple cases of bottled Water (I KNOW that's the only way I can guarantee I get it all in). I used to put the pitcher int he fridge and when it was gone I knew I had drank my water for the day. Then I tried keeping track of how many times I refilled my water bottle, that didn't work either. What does work is drinking a minimum of four bottles of water a day. So I'm going to do it. I WILL. Hope I've helped in some small way. It helps me to know I'm not the only one, too.

As far as decorations, we got engaged in late October and knew we wanted a Halloween wedding the next year, so after Halloween we scoured the stores for decorations and I bought some at 50%, then a few days later more at 75% off, then a couple days after that I spent nearly $200 for two baskets full of them at 90% off. What a DEAL! So if you go with a theme wedding (any theme, really) you could try that-esp if you have over a year to plan. Even if you don't, now is a GREAT time to buy strings of lights and table cloths and stuff like that at 50-75% off in the after-Christmas sales. If you are planning a Valentine's wedding, or something near the Fourth of July, you can get loads of red and white lights and red table cloths and tissue paper, etc that you could use. I kept looking in the clearance sections at Walmart and Target and Meijer and my local craft store everytime I went in. The spring after we were engaged I found at Meijer (like a Walmart) a HUGE wall of gorgeous silk flowers in fall colors for 75-90% off. I bought a cartload full. And my friends and I made all my bouquets and floral pieces ourselves. I think I spent about $40 total. And my bouquet looks as beautiful today as it did they day I got married. I went to the David's Bridal $99 sale with the intention of buying the biggest dress I could with the longest train I could find and using the material from it to make another dress. After all beaded satin is upwards of $50 per yard, but I found a dress that I could modify and would work for me without having to make a new one. I did anyway for the costume ball (I made a Renaissance wedding gown and all the bridal party was in Renaissance attire for the costume ball-most of it was rented costumes), but that cut down by one the dresses I had to make. I'll see if I can find some pics and post them. For gifts for those who stood up for me I made their skirts and bought the gold sweaters and shoes they wore (sort of looked like fall leaves). And I made each of them a silver charm bracelet. bluemud.com is a GREAT silver site.

I have to agree that a potluck wedding reception is not the best idea. I had to plan two weddings (long story) and buy my dress on a verrrry limited budget. I was able to pull it off (and a theme wedding to boot-got married Halloween) for around $6-8K. That's with 200 guests for the "big" wedding and a complete meal. Here's what I did, I researched and researched and researched some more. The internet is helpful to a point, but I found a few books that were MUST haves for me and were absolutely INVALUABLE. Here's my "must have" book list, this book: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Cater-Your-Own-Wedding-rev/dp/156414819X/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_2_img?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1564144747&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1D7XM8DKRJEB7QBDRSCA]Amazon.com: Cater Your Own Wedding, rev. ed.: Books: Mike Flowers[/ame] and this book: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/How-Have-Wedding-Small-Budget/dp/1558706461/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199587551&sr=1-6]Amazon.com: How to Have a Big Wedding on a Small Budget: Cut Your Wedding Costs in Half: Books: Diane Warner[/ame] and this book: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Bridal-Bargains-8th-fantastic-realistic/dp/1889392227/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199587551&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Bridal Bargains, 8th Edition: Secrets to throwing a fantastic wedding on a realistic budget (Bridal Bargains): Books: Denise Fields[/ame] I didn't use the planner I bought, I found it difficult and not a good fit for me, so I bought a zippered binder and some pockets and index pages and used that, best $10 I ever spent. I loaned it to some friends and they used it, too. A couple of important suggestions, look around the town you plan to marry in for halls that you can rent that may not be the first thing you'd think of. For example, the local "wedding hall" we looked at made us use their catering service and had a cake cutting fee to bring in my own cake. RIDICULOUS! A reception there would have not only cost for the hall and the cake fee, but the menu with ONE meat and two side dishes and coffee/tea STARTED at $40 a person and that is a bargain! So I thought since we planned to get married at Halloween, let's have some fun. I wanted to have a barn dance/costume party. What goes with a barn dance? BBQ! So I contacted the local fairgrounds and rented a converted horse barn that they use for meetings/etc-it cost me $250 for a night, $400 for two nights (so we could decorate the day before). I called catering companies galore and went with one about 90 mins away that offered two meats, three sides, PLUS salad and coffee/tea/lemonade and cake or pie for dessert in an all-you-can-eat BBQ buffet for $13 per person (they are now about $17 per person). The food was hot, they set it up and even left ALL the leftovers for us to take along with pans to put it in! The biggest thing is that I did EVERYTHING myself to save money and I REGRET that to this day. I did too much. I cannot say i truly enjoyed my wedding day. So PLEASE do not get in the trap where you feel that to save money you'll take on more to do. Go to the local university or community college and put an ad in their paper for help for whatever you can pay per hour and hire a few folks as servers or set-up. The local community college may have a culinary arts program where you may get a good break on either reception food or at the very least be able to find some servers. I do wish you luck, it CAN be done!

I'm glad someone was able to help you. Are you keeping fluids down? Might want to stay on liquids or very soft foods for a couple of days, you are likely very swollen and inflamed in there.

Oh gosh, I hope he gets better quickly! What an awful thing to happen! Please keep us updated.

BBK, I love you, man! You are very inspirational. And you give very solid and important tips. I don't drink, hardly at all. I'm lucky to get 20 oz of Fluid in in a day. I think this has been the biggest reason I've plateaued for four months. That and I stopped logging all my food. No more. Tomorrow morning with my first bite and sip, I'm going to log it all again. You are a wonderful woman, a beautiful person inside and out. Doggone it, I am going to get a grip on this crap and tackle it! I WILL do this! Thanks again for the inspiration!

Lauren, things are just sucking for you lately! ARRRGGHHH!!! I feel for ya, lambchop! Crossing all my fingers and toes and eyeballs and arms and legs and everything else I can find to send you good luck to find a job and beat this nasty patch of ringworm ASAP.

Justin, I realize you were just banded so you may not know this... Fills can "kick in" at just about any time. Granted you may feel better about being filled on a Monday so that if you are too tight you have time to have an unfill that week. But it seems waaaay more often than not, fills are not felt for a week, ten days, two weeks, three weeks, etc. Just wanted to give you a "heads up" so that later down the line when you are getting fills you won't expect to feel some restriction in the first few days.

I ran a poll about this last year before I was banded. I tried to get my doc to glue me instead of stapling. But the doc is going to close you the way he/she is comfortable doing. At least that's the way it was in my case. Despite MULTIPLE people being sutured then glued and taking the results of my informal poll to him AND my reaction to staples, I still got staples. My other option was heavy suture material along the skin. Never mind. I'll take a couple staples and a bit of itching over a Frankenstein-looking closure. Here's the link to my thread, it grew to be a good size. Hope it helps! http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/what-were-your-incisions-closed-31852/

I'm sorry, I don't get changing names, maybe I'll want to change later, though. Ya never know I know you as Laurend, I LIKE Laurend. And I know I'm talking to Lauren, or as with Denise822, Denise... or in my case, Faith. Guess mine wasn't that creative, either. LOL!

Starting this thread brought up a couple as "similar threads" at the bottom of this page, goodonya! I replied in one of them. I use Stevia, I like it. It is a bit tricky getting used to how much to add for the desired amount of sweetness, but once you get it, it's soooo much better for you. Thanks for asking about it again! I think it's a very important alternative sweetener. And best that it is not a ARTIFICIAL sweetener like Splenda or Nutrasweet or Saccharin, etc... I also love Blue Agave nectar. Agave syrup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The calories are like sugar, but the Glycemic load/index is very low, so it's not processed like sugar.

I know many are fond of the Magic Bullet, but I am just not impressed with it's power (or lack of) compared to other blenders out there. Plus it's pretty expensive at $50-$60, the cheapest I've seen it was at Kohl's at Xmas and that was a four hour day after Thanksgiving sale price for $36. The Magic Bullet has *only* 225W of power. There is a personal sized blender at Walmart that you can get online that is 350W and is only $18ish, here's the link: Back to Basics 3-Speed Brushed Chrome Personal Blender Express, BPE3BR - Wal-Mart I can't find it in the stores, but I did find it online at Walmart and if you're not a Wallyworld fan, here's an msn link with more estores that carry it: Back to Basics 350-Watt Personal Blender Express price comparison I just ended up buying a new blender (I needed one anyway) from Walmart, it's an Oster that came with a food processer attachment and a free personal size mix mug (not all the boxes had that, but they do sell those for about $13 or so) and it was $40 (now less than that). It has 450 watts. I do really like it. This is it: Oster 12-Speed Blender and Food Processor, 6889-015 - Wal-Mart Here's the link to the personal mixer cup: Oster Blend-n-Go Cup - Wal-Mart But did you know that if you have a blender that has the screw-off base with the removable blades (screw the base off the jar and take the blade assembly and a gasket ring out for cleaning) that that ring actually fits on canning jars? Talk about nice and small, you could use half pint or pint size jars and not have to worry about buying another blender/mixer at all. I have a bunch of those old glass canning jars with the handle on them they used to sell in the dollar stores, those work great.

Most nutritionists will say that anything over about 25 grams of Protein intake at one time is not really well-metabolized by your body. It's just waste. So in order to get the best benefot from your protein, spread it out. Also, if you are making mega protein shakes, it is also believed that if you mix a Protein shake and refrigerate half for later, the protein is breaking down and again my not be as helpful for your body as it is when it is mixed fresh.

Not a stupid question at all, here's a link to a really good thread about this very topic: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/honest-32629/

Julie, I wanted to say all the things OHJuli said, but she did such a WONDERFUL job of writing it and putting words to the thoughts in my head too, I'm just going to piggyback onto her comment and say: Yep, what she said! (Because OHJuli is freaking BRILLIANT!)

While I know your intentions were good, I went and read the comparison page, and I caution anyone against deciding to go with the Realize solely (or in large part) based on that comparison. The Realize trial was fairly recent, the comparison was made using the information gathered in the FDA trial period for each band (Realize and LapBand). The LapBand FDA trial was (I believe) in either 1999 or 2000. The surgical technique for band placement has changed DRASTICALLY since then. The technique used now is just about the same that will be (is) used for the Realize (from what I understand). Here's a link to a VERY good journal article about the current banding technique: http://thinforlife.med.nyu.edu/assets/REN%202.pdf?RCD=J53039&NAME=Christine_J._Ren There are different types of LapBand as well, as the poster above me wrote, your surgeon is your best guide for what band is the choice for you. The only thing I would add is that of the LapBands available, I insisted on getting the newer AP band (there are many threads about it around here), and I actually delayed my surgery a month to make sure I got it. The difference in the AP versus the other LapBands is small, but I wanted to be sure I had the latest technology (that has been in use in Australia and Canada for a long time already) available from Allergan. For more info about the Realize band and its success do a websearch for Swedish band, because that's basically the Realize band.

They actually have them at the Dollar Store, why spend $20 if you don't have to! Isn't this band a finicky thing?

I too haven't seen much written about nausea except for after surgery. I didn't mean to be flippant in asking about pregnancy, but it did strike me as you mentioned it has happened over the last month or so and you do not feel "sick." You are vomiting and not PBing. I think it is possible if you are fairly tight that some food could be retained in the pouch for a few hours. remember we aren't producing much in the way of stomach acid to break things down that are in the pouch. The acid breaks things down lower in the stomach.

Pregnant???

Hello Motherofthree! :welcomeB: to LBT. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page you will find several thread links where others have asked this same question. It's probably been asked hundreds of times here, there are many more threads out there. If you are interested, the serch function on the blue toolbar is a great feature, I almost always click to go to advanced search and then I choose to search thread titles only and then put in what words I'm looking for. I write this not to demean your question, but to show you that there are loads of responses on here about it and in addition to those you may get from your thread, you may want to see what others have written about it in the past. For me it was the fact that I didn't want my insides rearranged. I did not want to not be able to eat anything I want to. With RNY you are limited by the surgery itself and many people have real problems with cramping and "dumping" when they consume foods with sugar in them or alcohol. I am not a big drinker, but if I want an occasional Vodka Tonic (double lime) I do not want to "pay" for it with an hour in the bathroom. If I want a bite of cake, I don't want to be in pain from it. I like the fact that five years from now I could still get adjustments if I want to "tweak" my weight loss. With RNY in five years, I'd likely be starting to regain my weight and then what could I do? I already would have had feet of intestine taken out. My option? A band! (Or a sleeve gastrectomy.)

Almost certain it is always General Anesthesia. As far as technique, please follow this link and you'll find a webcast you can watch of an actual lapband placement: Tampa General Hospital