faithmd

I think about it all the time now, too. Just have to get the DH interested again.

I included positive and negative posts to you to be honest. I don't think anything is 100%. You can eat through all of the surgeries, or they fail in the long run. But the band can be loosened and then retightened and you can start fresh. You've been through a restrictive procedure that worked for you once before, perhaps it will work again. And the nice thing is that it can be removed if something happens to it. If another surgery comes along that is better, you can remove the band without having had anything rerouted or cut inside. If they can eventually do a surgery despite your multiple abdominal surgeries, then the band can be taken out and the new surgery performed. I wish you all the luck in the world. If this is all you can do right now, then I say go for it. As I mentioned earlier, it looks like restriction helped you lose in the past, no reason it wouldn't help you again. You are older and wiser and know how to work the restriction.

iluvlongnecks, the only way to know for sure is to get your insurance card out and call and ask. Do it NOW. That way you won't have to live in suspense. After you find out, ask them to send you a copy of their requirements so you have them in writing. Good Luck

Good luck, girl! Did you shave the more important part along with those legs? I'm sorry to hear it is ovarian cysts! At least they can yank an appendix out. Well, they can yank ovaries out, too...but it's not as simple of a recovery in the long run. Take care, I'm up north, will you keep us informed, please? Thinking of you...and the hot doctor...but not together, of course

That's exactly what I did. I started my 12 month MD surpervised Insurance company required diet in March 2006 and then in Feb 2007 I began to eat like a US bandster. Proteins first, then veggies then carbs. I gave up all the white and refined carbs I could. I began reading labels and avoiding as many artificial sweeteners and things with high fructose corn syrup in them as possible. I started eating with baby or toddler utensils to practice the smaller bites. I began trying different protein drinks and stopping drinking with meals. I tried different baby foods and bought my blender and other things I saw on the pre-op checklist in the FAQ thread here. (I never used the heating pad, but I'll have it for any aches in the future-I got lucky with no gas pains.) I bought Gas-X strips and liquid Tylenol in abundance. I tried different vitamins and chewable calcium to find ones I liked. In the five months to my banding, I developed positive behaviors and I fully believe that "practising" was what has made the transition as relatively easy as it has been. I lost about 40 lbs between February and my band date. That was a big bonus. It has also helped because my co-workers and friends don't ask what I'm doing to lose weight anymore. They knew I was watching what I ate and changing my lifestyle so they just assume that's what is causing my continued loss. And really, it is. The band certainly isn't magic. I haven't had a fill yet and I'm planning to hold out for as long as I can before I start getting them. I figure as long as overall I continue to lose, I should be fine. But the second it gets feels like I'm starving myself, it gets really tough or I start steadily gaining again, I'm heading in to start my fills. I'm not silly enough to think I can really do this all alone. I got the band for a tool, I should learn how to use it to the best of it's ability.

I cannot reccommend any specific diets, I think we all have different tastes. What I think might be yummy, you might think is too sweet, etc. I have heard many folks really like the Matrix line of Protein drinks. They are the highest quality and are a litte more expensive, but it's worth it and you get what you pay for. Try tossing what you like in a blender. Make creative soups, you can do this. It's a month out of your life to save something you paid $$ for. In my liquid stage I liked popsicles, yogurt drinks, Campbell's Soup at Hand soups, Campbell's Gold Select soups, lots of soups that come in boxes (usually no chunks in those), tomato juice, V8, unflavored unjury Protein powder added to things, pureed stuff with liquids added to make then a soup.

Dressing up the pureed food with sauces like sour cream, salsa or BBQ sauce can cut down on the icky look of the blended stuff. Also I bought little tiny Rubbermaid/Tupperware type bowl containers and ate out of those. Something about seeing a plop of pureed stuff on a plate was gross, but a spoonful of it in a small bowl wasn't bad at all.

The newer baby foods are quite good, try the organic varieties, and stay away from 1st foods, you want at least stage 2 as they taste a lot better. I ended up tossing what I wanted to eat in the blender and eating that. It really helped. For example, on the 4th of July I tossed a grilled fat free hot dog and a small can of Beans with a little catsup and mustard and BBQ sauce to taste and whizzing it up. It was YUMMY! I also took watermelon and made a granita (like a watermelon ice) with it. Do a search for granita recipes on the net, you'd be amazed at what can be made into a granita. I found a tomato granita recipe. I wanted mexican, so I pureed some canned white breast chicken, some salsa, a bit of refried beans and some queso. I topped it all with some sour cream, heaven. Remember, anything you want that you can blenderize (so no Doritos) can be a pureed food. I bought loads of baby food and once I figured out I could blenderize real food, I didn't eat much of the baby food I bought. Though I really liked a lot of it. Needed salt, though.

Hello, welcome! I was banded June 21st and yes, the liquid diet pre-op was hard, but the post-op diet was tougher. Two weeks of liquids, two weeks of pureed, two weeks of soft foods and then real food. But it is soooooooo important not to cheat post-op because it can mess up your healing. The sutures have to heal and scar tissue needs to form around the band to hold it in place, when you eat, your stomach churns to digest and that motion can break forming scar tissue. Try not to focus on how difficult the liquid stages are, it's only a few weeks out of our lives. How many years have we been fat? I can handle six weeks of misery to start losing weight and being healthier.

Mine was three hours, I had an hour interview with the therapist and then had to take the MMPI-2 which took me about two hours. Then I had to go BACK and do it again because I was supposedly portraying myself in too good of a light. Pfffttthththt! That high score is also frequently seen in patients with higher education and a high IQ. Guess the therapist I went to thought that wasn't possible with me. LOL! He never asked what my IQ was tested at.

Tengal, This is what is called Bandster Hell. It is TOUGH, it is HARD, it SUCKS, but eyes on the prize!!! You can do this, you really can. You read all about others going through it before you were banded, now you are here, it's your turn and you've just got to get past it. Renenber when you started considering the band and it seemed so far away? Remember when you got your date and it seemed like it would never get here? Now here you are two weeks out. You can do anything if you know when it will end. It will end in a month. It will be over and you can move on to a new life. I know you just want to chew and eat real food. But it's only one MONTH out of your life! One little month. How many years have you been fat? Can you not give a month back? Yes, you can! Don't cheat, now is the time you have GOT to let it heal, cheating now may not show up until years down the road.

:welcomeB: to LBT! I agree with what Tracy said. Having been through a purely restrictive process once, you know what you are getting yourself into. I'm flummoxed as to where the nothing but problems part of your post comes from. I do not see nothing but problems posted about, in fact I think they are fairly rare. If you include productive burps and getting food stuck as a problem, then I guess I can see where you are coming from. But those are merely consequences of the band and it's what should keep us a bit more conscious of how and what we eat. Just like bypass patients get cramping and dumping with sugar and alcohol in the beginning. That's what keeps them honest. If you've eaten past a restrictive procedure once, I'd be interested in why your doc thinks a second restrictive procedure would be the right choice for you? Are you at a different place in your life now than you were 10 years ago? Would you make different food choices? Are you ready for the work the band is? I'm not getting down on you at all, I'm truly asking because these are questions that come to mind when I was considering the band, and when I read your introduction. I think the band can be very successful, here's a few threads that might give you some different perspective, a couple are polls about whether people are happy they have the band, and in both, the number are higher than 90% that they are happy with their choice. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/happy-lap-band-36259/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/how-many-happy-sucessful-34980/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/poll-you-glad-you-were-banded-38781/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f15/ten-years-lap-band-38936/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/share-us-what-has-improved-you-37441/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/would-you-do-again-30418/ If you are leaning toward a bypass, and your doc won't do it, I would seek out a second opinion about it. You very well may find someone who would agree to do a bypass for you. Different surgeons have different skill and comfort levels. And they would never say to a patient, "I'm not skilled enough in doing RNY on patients with previous abdominal surgeries." They would think it would make them sound bad. To me it would be a breath of fresh air, for them to be honest. If you really don't think the band is for you, then you should expand your search and look into other surgeons and perhaps other procedures such as the duodenal switch. Good luck and again, welcome to LBT, we are glad to have you here. Anything we can do to help, just post!

Check out this thread, which is a few below yours in the same forum: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f15/ten-years-lap-band-38936/ Realize that when any medical procedure is new, there is uncharted territory. Things will be improved over time, tweaks to surgical technique will be made as instruments are improved and technology improves. If I am destined to lose weight and keep it off for only five or ten years, then so be it. It would give me five or ten years that I will be healthier that I wouldn't have had without the band. In ten years, who's to say that there won't be a pill that we can take, or perhaps they will have perfected some genetic manipulation that will turn off the "fat gene." I'll take a few years if that's what has to be, over none.

aluckygem, are you post-op? If so, the narcotics and the surgery itself can slow your intestines to a crawl for a while. One thing I found that worked was to get baby apple prune juice, it comes in little 4 oz bottles which are the perfect size and I drank one per day, that helped keep things moving until I was on pureed and I ate a jar of babyfood prunes a day. As the poster above me said, don't be surprised if once you get going again, you have the liquids in=liquids out experience.

Sure, I've had the scale jump up as much as six lbs in a day when I was either near my TOM or after a fairly salt-laden day. I wish I could tell you for sure what your surgeon's reaction will be, but I don't hink anyone knows but him. I hope other Coburn patients will chime in here, since they've had more experience with him. How long did you do the Optifast for? If it was two weeks, 12 lbs is nothing to sneeze at even with cheating. In any case, I wouldn't worry too much about it, what will be, will be. The cheating period on the pre-op is over tomorrow, you can't go back and change what you ate. You just have to focus on the future and not cheating on the post-op diet, that's VERY important. Eyes on the prize, eyes on the prize. If for some reason you do get cancelled, you can get rescheduled and try again. Try to take some deep breaths and relax. In either case it will be okay.

Actually, I think your belly looks pretty good. But did you know that on this same forum where you posted this thread, there is a sticky thread called Scar Stages, Share yours? This would be a good place to post this pic, and subsequent ones so we can see how you are progressing. Here's the link: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/scar-stages-share-yours-6117/

Hello Wanda, the best thing to do is to call your insurance company with your card in hand and ask them. While someone else's Humana policy may have dropped the requirement, yours may not have. Or vice versa. Everyone's policy can be different with different riders. If yours has not dropped the requirement, then that's what it is, a requirement. No getting around it. I had to do 12 months. Six months would have been WONDERFUL!

WasaBB, I agree it's her business, BUT my problem was that she wrote a book and did the talk show circuit with the teaser that she was going to tell women how she lost the weight. The implication was she DIDN'T have weight loss surgery.

Two weeks is just way too early, for the reasons outlined above me. I'm amazed someone is filling at three weeks. Though I don't know the dates, could be more like three and a half weeks. I can almost see that. Every surgeon is different. You never know. Please remember that the first fill will likely not gove you restriction for any long period of time. It usually takes a minimum of two, bot more often three or four fills to get good restriction. It is frustrating, but that's the way it works. Time does fly, though. I never would have thought I'd be six weeks out from the band already. It seems like yesterday I went to the informational seminar (that was in February).

HPB, I fail to see where ANYONE has been snotty or rude to the OP. I think Manatee was merely being blatantly honest. Everyone above you offered suggestions for what she could do. Very diverse suggestions. Obviously there are issues with him or her or with the relationship. What husband who completely understands the Band and has learned all he can about how it works (which is what a mate should do) would be exhibiting the behaviors she's telling us he is? Certainly we don't have all of the story, there are many things missing. Actually, it really didn't make a whole lot of sense to me as it was written. I can't tell if the OP is saying he's upset because she's eating too much, or because she's eating too little. I also can't tell if she's saying she vomits because she's so upset at their fighting, or because she eats too much (but she says it isn't a PB-though how could it not be, if it's a quantity issue?). I also can't tell if she isn't eating all day until he gets home because she wants to save her calories until he's in front of her so she doesn't overeat, or if she doesn't eat all day because he doesn't want her eating too much. It's hard to understnd if he's forcing her to eat because he is upset because she's losing weight. Is that because he likes heavy women, was she heavy when they married? Is he insecure and thinks she'll leave him if she loses weight? Is he heavy? Is he jealous because she's losing and he isn't? So many things aren't answered here. Yes, this board is for support, but support encompasses offering reasonable suggestions and asking questions. How would it be helpful to stroke her and say, "We're sorry, it's going to be alright"? Because you know what, maybe it won't be. But we won't be able to help if we don't write our thoughts and ask questions. I also fail to see where anyone points out that something is WRONG with her. I see where people offering suggestions on how to look into herself (BetsyJane for example) and see if something she is feeling or doing-even if unconsciously-could be contributing to what's going on. People that "care a lot about you" and know about your being banded should have taken the time to learn about it and shouldn't be (using the OP's term) forcing her to eat. If it's someone who doesn't know about your band, then what would they care how much you are eating, anyway? I'd call that a busybody.

Hello MissNilsa, :welcomeB: to LBT and congrats on your LapBand! There is an entire forum here dedicated to plastic surgery. You'll find it by going to the home page an just scrolling down a bit. Also, at the bottom of this page are some threads that are related to your thread title (arms, arm flab, etc). Hope that helps!

_Becca's made a great point, it does seem to help when you realize how much work it is to burn off say a slice of pizza. Makes it less worth eating that pizza! For all you folks counting on that first fill. I haven't gotten mine yet, but I read over and over how the first fill RARELY if ever helps you feel any restriction. So try not to put all your eggs in that basket, I'd hate for any of us to be devastated. It seems it takes a minimum of two and usually three or four fills or more to get to that "sweet spot." We can do this!

If you were banded four days ago, are you doing more than drinking? I mean, are you actually eating??? And yes, you'll truly know. The pressure you feel is likely whatever you have ingested sliding through the swollen opening that the band creates. It's normal so early I think to feel something like that.

And yes, you CAN do this diet again if you have to. Eyes on the prize my dear, eyes on the prize. You can do anything you have to if it means the end result is what you desire. Keep that in mind, okay? It's tough, it sucks, but it gets us to the goal we want. Remember post-op sucks, too. The liquids stages and the soft stages seem to last forever, but there is a purpose to them, It is important to follow them more carefully than you did the pre-op diet since this is the time of your healing. Take care!

I'm sorry, I don't think anyone can tell you that for sure but your surgeon or his office. I would bet at your PAT they'll culture your throat and see what the blisters are. You said you get sick when you're stressed? Does it always manifest itself with these same blisters? OR did you mean that your immune system is depleted when you're stressed and you catch anything around? Because if this blistering response is the same every time, and you can express that to the PAT folks, it might be okay. I do not know. I wish you luck!