leatha_g

Pretty girls, all of them.

Let's see how these look. These are Ginny's photos made smaller. Enjoy!

Thanks Amy. I think he's pretty handsome too. Even better, he has a great heart and wonderful sense of humor.

I would think as long as you follow it with a glass of water to wash the pouch out, it should be okay, but as always you might want to contact your doc to make sure.

I hope he did an Upper GI to make sure the band looks okay? Glad to hear you went for help! Feel better soon!

I would ask Dr. Rumbaut to please help introduce you to someone he works with in the area.

I don't weigh and measure either. I can tell by looking whether I've got too big a portion or not. Protein, the size of your fist or a deck of cards - that's easy. It's the carb monster that gets me in trouble.

Thanks everyone for the nice compliments.

welcome !! 3 days sounds a bit early to me. in my case, the third day was about the worst, but some folks say they did it with no problems. I would encourage anyone to take AT LEAST a week.

By the end of your second week, I think you'll feel much better. Congratulations on the 12lbs!! Are you walking? That really did help, but I understand. This last banding - all I wanted to do was sleep. I had some awful bruising with both these most recent surgeries too.

I have 'fat' days and 'skinny' days too. I had a hysterectomy in '96, so it's not that with me, either. I do believe, though, that we retain Water etc and it makes us feel puffy. but, yea, I definitely have those days. I also think this may be part of our process of adjusting to the weight loss. Some days, I feel like I have gained back 20 of what I have lost. they say it takes awhile for our head to catch up with the loss. :cry

Just thought I'd post the reply I got back from the lady who had an 'open' band. I can't remember the name of the person asking. :cry Reposted from Bay Bandsters: **Hi Leatha: I don't get e-mail thru Yahoo... too many to deal with.. so I just go on the website to read the posts.. Yes... my band in fact did Open.... No one knows why.. It was closed after my surgery Oct 30th 03... and closed for the first fill... and closed during the second fill.. then somehow over the next couple of weeks it opened up.. that was in April 04. It did not break (unless the clasp broke)... according to the x-rays it looks like it is just open.. and according to the way I felt.. I slowly lost restriction over a couple of weeks.. so it slowly opened up. I am trying to loose weight (not too successfully).. so that I can have it taken out and another band (the new one from Inamed) placed this Oct 5th... My surgery date may be postponed since I haven't lost the weight he requires... I hope not.. Don Mills at Inamed said there were only 2 others that he knew of with this problem.. one the doctor didnot close it at all at the time of surgery, and one the doctor did not use the tool and did not close it properly.. I don't know what happened with mine.. Good luck to your friend, I would be interested to know what it turns out to be... Hugs, Maria **************************************************

Poor Alex! I understand completely also! I had company over the weekend and I completely abandoned all reason where food is concerned. Then, today I was going to do so good but wound up not having a single bite of food until 6pm when I got home and of course the fastest thing was the worst. It's okay. I'll get it together when everything slows down. We can do it!!!

Thanks Vicki and welcome to the list!! There's many excellent posts here. We have some great folks! Glad to have you here!

Sounds like we all did something right. I started teaching my kids about music from birth (and before). I'm one of those old hippie rock and rollers so I raised them both on classic rock. Took them to concerts. Me and my daughter still attend concerts together. I taught them then, they continue to teach me now. However, some of that stuff Jeremy is into is NOT the music I taught him. lol. I love rock, but I can't stand that screaming and violence in some of that stuff they have these days. I guess my age is finally showing. When he let me listen to the more peaceful 'ambience' stuff I said a quiet thank you to God. lol

I'm sorry, I don't know much about Mexico. I know most of those include everything and the only pre-op most of them do is bloodwork and possibly an EKG on the day of or before surgery. I think it's included in the total. It sounds as if Cirangle does his fills in office, without flouro. That's all well and good if he has no problem accessing your port, but I would think you would need flouro at some time in your banded life. I've heard many good things about him, his patients love him and I definitely support local care due to the possibilities of complications such as being over-filled or port problems etc. Things can and do happen with the band. I would hate to know my doc was hours and hours away and it's expensive to fly back and forth, not to mention very uncomfortable if you are in pain or nauseated. He has a very good banding reputation. 3 yrs follow up is probably worth that extra amount of money, but I'd have them lay out for me what that included. Fills, port problems sometimes require minor procedures in office, I'd ask if these were extra or part of that 3 yr coverage. If so, I would feel comfortable with it. In the long run, I think it would be far less expensive than trips to Mexico. Just my opinion. There are many others who can help you with the questions about Mexican docs at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/mexicanbandsters/

I believe you are certainly right. The only question I have is : does he do fills in office with no flouro? If you need flouro there will probably be more charges. I would think this follow up would only cover his office type procedures/visits. Anything outside that will be additional.

He's in Lodi. He's in two bands, one is more 'ambience' called House on Ponce DeLeon, another far more scary one called Horror City Superstition, I think. They have both recorded, but I think they mostly play for like High School venues. He loves it, though and taught himself both instruments. Jeremy had a tough time in school because of dyslexia, but he has more than compensated in more creative areas of his life. I'm real proud of his tenacity. Thanks !! Leatha

Makes sense to me that if you have enough, you don't need more. ?? Then, my past experience is such that my insurance would not pay for them. They are considered elective. They do however, boost energy etc. Sorta.. Just FYI Leatha

Wowee Gail, You've lost 30lbs since June!! That is a great loss!! Congratulations!

Yessum. Two. Thank you very much! They really are great kids. I am definitely blessed.

Good luck to you! We'll all be here rooting for ya!! Let us know how it goes when you feel up to it!! Have a safe trip!

Cute cute cute!! Thank you for sharing!!

Yea. No worries, Paula. I think we all understood what you were trying to get across. I just don't want folks to be disappointed when all our skin don't shrink back to what we think is normal. It seems like a pretty big misconception. I'd say if you're fairly young and have a smaller BMI, you might get lucky. Those of us who had 100lbs or more to lose. I wouldn't hold my breath!

Amen to that. lol