Miss Meow

I believe Dr. Ortiz will arrange for a pick up from the San Diego airport and drive you over the border if you would be more comfortable with that. I fly out of Tijuana quite a bit but unless you speak decent Spanish it's sometimes difficult to navigate.

The Marriott is as nice as most Marriotts.

I believe Dr. Ortiz will arrange for a pick up from the San Diego airport and drive you over the border if you would be more comfortable with that. I fly out of Tijuana quite a bit but unless you speak decent Spanish it's sometimes difficult to navigate.

Just got mine today and it was a piece of cake. I so terrified to get it done that I waited 5 months. It was easy and I feel dumb for waiting. I was told to wait two weeks before I question if I have restriction or not.

I would agree with your dr. Try to lose those 14 lbs on your own. It's been three months since I've had surgery and I have not had a fill. I think I really learned some good eating habits through this process and I am successfully losing weight right now so I don't need a feel.
Rely on those habits you have learned on the past year and you can probably drop those last 14 on your own. At least give it a shot.

8 days after my surgery i was still on liquids!. I think 8 days out is much too early for food like that. If you did not get any fills during surgery( i didnt), then you will not have much restriction yet, your body is still healing from the surgery. Just because you can consume food at this point, doesnt mean you should, have to be very careful.

Who is Carnie Wilson ?

My doctor says that the "restriction" that you feel after surgery is actually from being swollen. As you heal that feeling will go away and you will feel hunger. Just be prepared for it.

Well...this is definitely NOT the first time I have heard that! Let's see, since I have scheduled my lap band surgery I have had folks exclaim, "but you are NOT THAT big?!"...or "jeeze, just go on a diet"...or "but YOU don't need it!" (this last one typically comes from folks that are bigger than me).
*sigh*...deep breath...OK, it took me a minute to think about whether or NOT I should even reply. I mean, come on! I am ashamed that I am unable to diet and KEEP the weight off. I feel like a total failure. Sure, I can diet and I will lose some weight, but then my willpower cracks, I get hungry...and the rest is a history of up and down. If my weight is down, I feel great about myself...but if my weight is up...forget it, I am miserable - God forbid I run into someone I haven't seen in awhile, I just feel like a pile of failure.
Trust me I have tried EVERYTHING! (here is a quick sampling)
* I am a lifetime member of Jenny Craig (bought my membership when I was 21, I just turned 38 yesterday)
* Starvation
* Sensa (that stuff is disgusting, makes me extremely jittery)
* 7-day miracle diet (not what it sounds like, it is a diet where you eat every 2 hours, very low calorie, and quite balanced, however, like I said, VERY low calorie)
* Atkins diet
* Stopped eating dinner (for years...because doctor recommended this in order to lose weight)
* Diet pills (worked great, until you stop taking them...but I was basically high all the time)
* Lots of exercise (I was teaching aerobics twice a day...lost weight, but I wasn't able to spend the time I needed to spend with my daughter, she was 3 at the time)
* Cabbage Soup diet
* Diabetic Diet
* Weight Watchers
* Ali (gross)
* Relicore
So I have made the decision to get the lap band. I am only about 40 lbs away from my goal weight. But I am tired of never reaching my goal. I am tired of never having enough willpower to succeed. I decided on the lap band because of the way it acts like a tool to help you achieve your weight loss goal and most of all maintain it! Yes, I can make the decision to eat only 800 or so calories a day without a lap band...but I already know the outcome if I were to take this on without the lap band. I am choosing to be proactive. I am choosing prevention over reaction. Why would I want to put this off until I am diabetic, or have high cholesterol? Why would I wait until I destroy my knees? I don't think I SHOULD have to wait. I don't think that SOME people are more "deserving" of the lap band than others. It is a personal decision.
I think it is quite thoughtless and flippant to say to someone in my position that since I only want to lose 40 or so LBS that I should just go on a diet. Trust me when I say, I WISH, I really, really WISH it were that easy!

Kymie- that is awesome! My first fill is a week from Monday, I can't wait. I'm doing okay with just willpower, but as I was driving home yesterday I was thinking about how in a way it's like I don't have a band except for the awareness it gives me. But I know the restriction will come!!
Grace- I know what you mean about the follow up- it's kind of hard to try to figure out everything on our own. I too love the boards for all the information I get!
NJ2NC- I have no idea where my port is- my surgeon said I wouldn't be able to feel it, but right by my port incision is a bump- it may just be the scar healing from the surgery, though. Let me know how the fill goes, I'm a little stressed out about it, honestly!

Good topic. Mine is on the left, slightly below my ribs. It does bother me if I bend at the waist, maybe because I'm short, 5'3. I think once I'm skinny it probably won't bother me as much, plus I'm only a few weeks post op and still not able to even sleep on my left side. But I was quite annoyed the first time I bent over and realized "Porticia" was having a tantrum!

I HATE Whiners....I can't stand people who cry and say "I can't do this" I can see right through people who "Make excuses"
I did not have this surgery so I could go on another diet. The Dr. told me if I have this surgery, it will "Change My Life" forever, and take away many,
if no all, the medical problems I have.
I expect nothing short of this!!! And have acheived it!
People whine saying what do you mean, I'll never be able to eat this or that again??? What do you want...being skinny or your comfort food.
If my Dr. told me, in order to have 100% success, I would have to eat bread and Water for 6 months, I still would have asked "Where do I get in line?"
It took me 13 months to reach my goal. There are many foods I will never, and really don't want to eat anymore. No more family barbecue "Pig Outs"
No more "All you can eat Buffets"
I didn't cry and whimper when I got stuck. I took it as CHANGE and learned to live with and around it....changing ME not the band.
I can now walk in public, wear a bathing suit, do yard work shirtless, buy normal clothes in a regular store and look good.
I read here on LBT everyday from people, and they talk as though they have come to a cross roads in their lap band journey, have to make a decision,
and they BACK DOWN instead of sucking it up and moving forward.
It's a free world, everyone chooses how to run their own life. Just don't come back here a year from now and say the "Band does not work".

I am new here also. You are an inspiration to me. I look forward to reading/learning more about you.

I understand where you are coming from. I guess I could be in the category of a "skinny" bandster. One of my fears was that I was going to be turned away once I got to Mexico for surgery. But my BMI was at 35 and I had sleep apnea and other health issues. I had another friend who did it who was the same weight as me. She said a lot of people judged her but she doesn't care now because she finally is happy and content with herself.
I am afraid to tell a lot of my family and friends because of the fear of being judged. That I wasn't heavy enough and I should have just tried to eat right and exercise on my own. Because you know I haven't thought of that or tried those things yet.
All I know if I thought about my weight probably 100 times a day. I refused to be in pictures and was so embarrassed about my weight that I opted out of an all class high school reunion. I guess I was going to be judged by my weight either way and at least with the band I will look good.

Sounds like you should have picked up a few more things while shopping at Walmart. I have multiple sizes in my closet so fortunately I will have stuff that fits to wear when I start really losing good.
Cngrats on the weight loss.

The lap band is a tool you work with, it doesn't do all the work for you. I don't have any fills either and I am working the band like it isn't there. I am changing my life. Yes I have the band and it comes in handy, but it doesn't force me to go to the gym in the morning. It didn't force me to stop eating potatoes, beer and rice...
You are doing the work. You have a tool. It is like someone building a house, you would compliment him on the look and craftsmanship of his work, not question the tools created to get the results.
You are not a fraud. You are working hard to achieve your goals

I'd like to tell you you're not a fraud, but you can still choose to feel that way. So I'll just tell you how I feel. I feel like I worked very, very hard using my band and my behavior to get me to my goal weight. Anybody who thinks that's "the easy way out" hasn't been down the same road as me, so who are they to judge? At the same time, the whole freaking point of my WLS choice was to make weight loss easier (and more successful) than all my previous attempts, and it would be foolish of me to deny that.
Sometimes when I hear myself telling an acquaintance that I lost weight by eating less and exercising more (which is the truth), I catch myself thinking, "If only they knew!" But I have no way of reading other peoples' minds (my own mind is already hard enough to deal with) or predicting their responses to things I do and say, so I try not to waste a lot of time dwelling on what they think of me. If some of them choose to think of me as a fraud, that's their business. If they choose to tell me I'm a fraud, they'd better duck!
Jean

The band is more or less "forced Portion Control, " so I don't feel like a fraud when I tell someone that all I am doing is focusing on diet and exercise...because it is 100% the truth. It may not be the WHOLE truth, but it is all the truth they need to know!

I

I know where you are coming from. I havent told alot of people either, how ever when they compliment me i just try to say thank you but then they go on with how are you doing it and so on. I dont want to tell them about my WLS so i have been saying "watching what I eat" which is the truth technically right?
but yes i do feel like i am telling a white lie.

well we women can always dig something up to feel guilty about! Seriously, you are eating less and moving more and the rest is personal medical information...I just watched the Star Jones interview and it made me sad that she was so viciously attacked for not telling about her WLS! She was very vulnerable and just trying to protect and take care of herself! Its a great interview I recommend it...I really never told anyone but huz and daughter and I am glad for it...

I absolutely feel this way! But like you, I feel that it is mostly me at this point. I count my calories and make better choices. But that doesn't help the guilt. It is what it is.

If you're serving as an inspiration for others to improve their health and their life - I say be proud of it, and encourage and support others any way you can. If you can help others, that's a big NSV in my book. If they're successful, I guarantee you they won't care how you did it. If they're not successful, then maybe you would consider letting a few extra people in on your secret, and can inspire them to take the next step - but that's totally up to you!

I don't feel like a fraud because while my band helps with portion size it does not restrict the type of food I choose. That is all me. I am working harder than I have ever worked in my life and I am going to take all the accolades that come with it! I also tell everyone that asks about my weight loss about my built in willpower (my band) It helps me be more accountable and I try to educate them on wls. You are doing awesome! Enjoy it because YOU earned it!

I do, I feel I shouldn't have needed band, I could have lost it on my own, but like dr said Ive lostit before but unable to keep it off. I went to seminar and there were people so much larger than me, and Im sure they were saying the same thing. but so far Ive been able to keep 33 lbs off, I think I did expect things to be easy as it has been for some, but in reality, theres gonna be struggles.
my virtual hug for the day was:

You stay with it honey, keep going. I think we may have all heard this - "Don't sweat the small stuff, and remember, its all small stuff." You will be so incredibly happy with yourself, happier than ever before. I know, I know - we told ourselves that we wanted it to be healthier. Well, deep down I really wanted it to look good again, to not only feel (sxier) but to look it also. I will never regret having the band, and if I had to do it again, I would in a heartbeat. I also recommend it to anyone who asks. Whether they are just asking due to watching me loose the weight, or they are in need, or they know someone who is in need.