leatha_g

Never heard of tater tot pie, but it sounds like a recipe for a cardiac event?lol

Frito pie is really one of my all time favorite meals. (and it shows). But, first, you have to have Texas Wolf Brand Chili. Heat the chili first, then spoon over Fritos, add some shredded cheddar cheese, pop in the microwave long enough to melt the cheese, add diced onions and if you're really wanting to make it even better add some sliced avacado, lettuce and tomato. OMG!!

:lick YUM YUM.. Starch, my favorite food group!!

Unfortunately, not all docs give this stuff out. I had to ask for the Patient Handbook the day I was discharged and they acted as if they had no idea what I was talking about. I have never seen the serial# associated with my bands - either one of them, but for those going forward, it might not be a bad thing to ask for. The only card I got was the one with the xray on the back identifying me as a gastric band patient. These docs get complacent, sometimes. They think they are only dealing with people who aren't intelligent enough to know or care about these things, so they throw them to the side and hope it never becomes an issue. My original doc was in the FDA trials. You'd have thought he'd of had a leg up on some of this info, instead, he was too busy collecting his $200(or would that be $20K?) as he passed GO on his way to his Bermuda vacation.

Every implant used on a patient (in the US) must be associated with a serial number for tracking purposes. Being in the medical supply field, I would assume that goes with a 'lot' number also. So, in essence, you 'bad batch' theory could be true. I am sure if all problems were reported and tracked back to serial numbers and lot numbers, Inamed would certainly see the connection pretty quickly if it were truly a batch problem. If this were found to be true in enough cases, they would also be required to do a recall on this product/lot number and closely follow those patients who already had this 'lot' implanted. In Mexico or other countries, they would still have this information, but whether they have to document it is something I'm not sure of.

You poor thing. lol, Frito Pie has been the thorn in my side, too. You're doing great!!

Well, I think it takes a lot of guts to come out with that confession and being 5ft tall, I too, understand how hard 190 can be on such a small stature. I also understand how 190 can balloon up to 250 in only a matter of time (and bad habits). I commend you for taking your health in your hands and congratulations on your weight and inches lost!! You're doing the right things, just don't be so hard on yourself. Any loss is better than no loss, right? Now, we wanna see those before and afters.

Big choices. Having moved from the state I had my surgery in back to Texas. I can tell you that I had a time locating someone who would continue my follow-up. Turns out I had what was diagnosed as slippage so he was able to capitalize on the deal and re-band me. Otherwise, everyone I spoke to besides this one doc absolutely WOULD NOT see me UNLESS it was in the ER. Of course, I had insurance issues also, but those I called who took my insurance refused to touch someone who was banded by another doctor. Whatever you do, have your follow up care decided and established BEFORE you make any decisions to have your surgery anywhere away from home. By this, I mean that you should establish a doctor/patient relationship by seeing this person BEFORE surgery. It has been often said that patients call prospective docs and are TOLD they will see them only to be refused AFTER they've had surgery.

Talk about Carpel Tunnel!!!

http://www.lap-surgery.net/ This is the addy to Dr Spivak's webpage. He is an excellent Dr and his patients love him. Did you do the Surgeon Locator that I referred to in the other post??

I've heard some docs recommend Nioxin shampoo/conditioner. ?? Pre-natal Vitamins were good for hair and nails when I took them. Unfortunately, this is to be expected, but just as quickly as you lose, you should see that there is new growth as well. My hairdresser always comments on how much new growth I have. I also broke down and got myself a perm. A perm to my hair is like some sort of mega-Vitamin. This may not be the case with everyone, but it sure jumpstarts the growth in mine.

Amen to that! lol. I am still miserable. I can't breathe. I'm hungry. I can't eat because my throat hurts too much. I can't talk. I can't sleep. lol. I'm a mess.. hopefully this will be my turn for the year and I'll be done with it, but I promise to stay home rather than go out and share it with 20 other co-workers. Ughh..

That's a pretty tall order, getting to goal in 6 months. How much excess weight are you wanting to lose? You do know that with the band the average weight loss is 5-10 per month? This does not mean you have a guaranteed loss of 5-10 per month, this means in the end, you will have 'averaged' 5-10lbs per month. Some months more, some months less. It may be that with exercise you have gained some muscle? Muscle weighs heavier than fat, so you could actually show a gain. In which case, you'd still show some inches lost due to 'compacting'. Try measuring yourself to keep up with the inches you are losing. This may help you to not become disappointed when the scale doesn't seem to be moving. Also, try ONLY weighing once a week. We all fluctuate 3-5lbs per day anyway. I know I sure do. Another thing to consider. If you started out with a very low BMI, your weight loss will likely be slower than someone who started out with a higher BMI. Sorry.... 18lbs is smack dab in the middle of average!! You're doing well!!

((((Roro)))) it sounds as if you can use a hug. The 'dumping' of which you speak is only associated with the gastric bypass. This is due to the resection of the colon. This does not happen with the adjustable gastric band. You CAN eat sugars with this surgery - (however, this does NOT mean you should). It is also possible to get something stuck and have to have it removed but I believe this is a very rare occasion. More likely, with the band, you will do what we refer to as PB (productive burp). I call it throwing up. However, since the offending article has not yet been mixed with bile, it is not as offensive as true vomiting. You hear of this 'roto rooter' problem much more often in gastric bypass. In the event of stuckage like this with the band, your doc would/should be able to simply Un-fill any Fluid that you may have in your band. I can't tell you that weight loss in any form may not age you. Sometimes, when the fatty deposits become smaller in our faces, wrinkles and such do show up. I know I'm seeing mine much more. However, I'm 44 years old. You are not. All one has to do is to go back through some of these threads in this forum and check out the pictures to see that wrinkles or not, most everyone here who's posted before and after photos simply look as if they're younger than when they first began. Some look like totally different people. You be the judge. In the case of gastric bypass patients this 'aging' also has much to do with the malabsorption associated with resecting the colon. Your body simply does not get all the nutrients it needs to maintain healthy skin and hair. I applaud you for at least making a beginning by writing about your thoughts and your dispair related to your obesity. It's a very big step to take. Each and every one of us here has had to face the same demon. If you go to www.inamed.com , there is a Surgeon locator on the left hand side of the page. This might be one place for you to begin. Most all docs who do the surgery have informational seminars/meetings that might be of help to you in choosing a local doctor. I wish you peace in whatever you decide.

You just don't know until you get to see a band surgeon. The liver is very close to where they will be working, both with the lapband or gastric bypass. They may want you to go on a pretty strict diet immediately prior to the surgery to help 'shrink' the liver and get it in a healthy state. This makes your surgery much less risky. As far as health concerns. I have had several episodes of DVT(deep vein thrombosis - blood clots in the extremeties) and one episode of Pulmonary Embolism (blood clot in the lung). I also have Systemic Lupus which is a chronic autoimmune disease. Luckily, I don't have severe symptoms with that, but it's always a concern. You can go from healthy to dying before you can blink an eye, so I hear. I was the first ever to have a vena cava filter implanted at the same time as I had my lapband done in order to prevent any possible clots from moving to my heart or head or lungs. I was turned down by the first doctor I chose because he didn't want to take the risks with my health concerns and the fact that I had to take blood thinning drugs for the rest of my life. Luckily, I did find someone who had already banded someone else with the exact same problems as me and my surgery was successful. Will I ever have complications due to these issues? Maybe. Will I be better off having lost my excess weight if I do? You betcha! We can only live for today, right? Today, I choose to be banded and to fight the good fight where my health is concerned. Tomorrow, I may have to change my focus. Good luck!

Aww Theresa Marie.. what a sweet thing to do.. using your wand just for lil ole me. Well, I believe I do feel better already. Actually, I must be much much better. I have been sitting at this puter all evening as compared to lying prone in a semi coma last night.. ack! Thanks all for your prayers and well wishes. It is so nice to know that there really are people who care about our well being somewhere out there in the great world we live in.

Nope, but I have been drinking Isopure Alpine Punch some. I'm not having any stomach symptoms, thankfully, but with the fever I am having to drink, drink, drink to try to avoid dehydration. Thanks for checking on me, though..

Unless your family members have experience with a certain surgery or have been researching them, I wouldn't think they'd have very reliable information. This is a journey best studied/researched on your own. The internet is full of information, message boards, even medical journal findings. All you have to do is a search in Google or Yahoo (any search engine) entering words like adjustable gastric band or gastric bypass. It's very time consuming, however, you are very lucky that there are many others who have gone before you and now have a lot of that information already looked up. There are many many websites with personal stories. all you have to do is search them out and read til your little heart is content, but without this valuable knowledge, your personal experience can be quite bewildering. Arm yourself with every piece of knowledge and understanding you can get. This is not really one of those things you can learn in one conversation or even in a matter of a couple of weeks. In order to learn everything there is to know, you must be willing to devote months to the effort, ie, locating the right doctor, finding out about selfpay vs insurance, jumping through the hoops (psychological eval/cardiac workup/dietician), getting approval, what to expect during surgery, after, liquid diets, hunger before your first fill, signs and symptoms of anything suspicious, what your band is trying to tell you, how to listen and know what to do next. I just posted several links on another prospective bandsters question moments ago.. http://www.inamed.com/products/obes...d/prodinfo.html http://bigolalaskan.com/lapband/fills.htm http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Index.html http://www.weighless4life.com/hub.cfm/gastric-band this one has videos http://www.gisurgery.net/OverviewOb...tricSurgery.pdf http://www.obesitylapbandsurgery.com/tectec.html __________________

Welcome! It's very smart of you to do alot of research up front. The band is a very simple design, but a very complex thing to live with. there is much to learn. Please feel free to read all the sections here on LBT and you can also see the manufacturers information here at this link. http://www.inamed.com/products/obesity/us/patient/lapband/prodinfo.html http://bigolalaskan.com/lapband/fills.htm http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Index.html http://www.weighless4life.com/hub.cfm/gastric-band this one has videos http://www.gisurgery.net/OverviewObesityBariatricSurgery.pdf http://www.obesitylapbandsurgery.com/tectec.html

Just keep putting something in there. Sip, sip, sip. Soups, yogurts, anything to trick the tummy into thinking it is getting something. Believe it or not, all growling from the tummy doesn't necessarily mean we're hungry. With the band, you'll notice ALOT of noise, mostly the band itself acting as a funnel. There is also alot of noise coming from the small intestine which is next place everything makes a stop. Since the stomach is relatively empty now when we eat (instead of being stuffed from having stuffed it 4 hours earlier or less), once it hits that small intestine, it goes to work and we get to hear it. That's something new since our tummies were probably rarely empty pre-band.

Actually, one of my co-workers had it and found it acceptable to pass it around. lol. Thanks everyone. I stopped by Boston Market on my way home from the docs and got me some of their Tortilla Soup. I'll get over it, I just hate to be so miserable.

Woohoo!! Congrats on getting a date!! Now off to the store for protein drinks, jello, popsicles, broth, tea, crystal light, propel, whatever suits your liquid fancy!

Yup. I think that's what it is. The doc just put Upper Respiratory Infection on my diagnosis, but this isn't your run of the mill URI. lol. This morning, just getting out of bed and trying to sit in my desk chair I became so faint I nearly passed smooth out and had lay right back down. No nausea thus far, thank goodness, but I am one sick puppy..

Have you done any reading on the other sections on this board? There is lots and lots of information there for the taking. It would be hard to give you everything, but I can tell you that I've lost 69lbs that I surely would not have lost without the band. It takes some getting used to, as far as making the right food choices and learning that it's okay to eat a minimal amount of food. (we all have plenty of storage on board already) The lapband is the safest of all weight loss surgeries offered and leaves all of your organs intact. It is completely reversible if, for some reason, a person needed it taken out (although, it's meant for life). It is adjustable, so if I'm not losing weight according to the 'average' weight loss expected, I can go in and have my doc tighten it up to help me better lose weight. This goes hand in hand with my own efforts in making the right food choices. The recovery time after surgery is minimal. The pain is very minimal. The complication rate of surgery itself is almost non-existent compared to many bypass patients requiring lengthy ICU stays and worse. www.obesityhelp.com has a Memorial page for bypass patients. There isn't one in existence for Lapband patients. However, there have been deaths occuring around lapband surgery. Most of them were not related to the band itself, but due to the patients not contacting someone when a problem presented itself. There was also one man who had a heart attack on the OR table, but it had nothing to do with being banded. The deaths related are still miniscule comparatively. As with any surgery, there is always a certain amount of risk, involved. There is probably more risk involved in NOT having the surgery and becoming more and more obese, which brings with it many many health factors. With bypass, you have about an 18 month window of opportunity to lose your excess weight, then your body begins to adjust and often you begin to regain your lost weight. On the other hand, in some situations with bypass, people have been known to be unable to stop their weightloss and finally waste away because the weight loss can't be stopped. This is more due to the inability to absorb nutrients, because of the part of the colon that has been removed. Which brings us to the very real aspect of nutrition. With the band, everything I eat, my body gets nourishment from. Hence, the reason for making good food choices, because with so little intake, everything must count. With the bypass, your nourishment is flushed right on through, leaving you having to take loads of supplements for the rest of your life. With the band, you get to take 2 Flintstones a day or some really good Multivitamin and your done. There is no window of opportunity with the band. You can continue to have it adjusted and you can continue to make good food choices so that you continue to lose. Thankfully, it's a relatively slow weightloss, which allows your skin and your mind to keep up, resulting in less flab - depending on age and amount of weight lost. Sorry, I know that's rambling all over, but those are some of the things that come to mind.. Good luck with whatever you choose! Most importantly, get yourself a good, experienced doctor. If you get a band, have your aftercare in place BEFORE you are banded. Read, read, read everything you can find, because it is you who is in charge of knowing how this thing works. There is lots and lots of info here and there are many other boards on the net also. Happy Reading!

:cry :cry OMG I am SOOO So sick!! Sunday night, I suddenly started to lose my voice and got a fever out of nowhere and now my head is stopped up, my ears are stopped up, my nose is stopped up, my bones hurt, I had 102.6 fever last night, my throat feels like raw meat. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh.... I did go to the doc today and asked her to give me an injection, which she did, so maybe it'll help. We'll see. I guess it was just my turn. I haven't had even a cold for at least 2 years now. Just wanted to let someone in on my misery... lol.