La_madam

I'm a very happy Ortiz/Martinez patient. www.obesitycontrolcenter.com

afer your fill, be careful with hard boiled eggs, that is something I can not eat

Warm water seems to open me up but cold water or cold beverages seems to tighten me, that is pretty much the norm for alot of us, How is it when you eat solids? Are you able to keep it all down, one sign of slippage I was told by my Dr. was that whatever you eat or drink will come back up instantly, not being able to keep anything down. vomiting

Vines, what in the world are you nervous about? If it is anything like last years bash you are going to have so much fun! See you tomorrow Vines

I'm happy for you Alex That is such great news. Thanks for sharing it with us

Call me strange, but I tell anyone and everyone who ask..Iam so proud of my success. Not to mention the more who know the more focused and motivated I am. It keeps it real for me while out in public. I make such better food choices when I am around my peers who know of my band I think the reason for that is I do not want to be judged by what I eat, so it helps me to stay on course. And the best part is I'm able to help others by telling everyone. I have sent 5 people to Dr. Ortiz and 2 too their own doctors who were covered by their insurance. I own a restraunt so Iam around food constantly and alot of my customers are obese , they have watched my transformation over the last 17 months..We all have our reasons for telling or not telling.

That is great news..I'm so glad you were the responsible bandster and called your doc when you knew something was not right. I hope this works for you..So happy to hear you are feeling better and able to drink water

That is a very hard question to answer.. Everyone is so different, I'm sure I could eat a whole lot more then I do but just because I can does not mean I do I eat when my stomach is growling, I then eat until that growl goes away. For example it is 2:30 here and so far all I have had today is 2 scrambled eggs with chorizo & cheese scrambled in it with a tsp of sour cream. Ive been up since 3:30 a, this morning and go to work at 4:30 am I ate around 8:30 am My tummy is starting to growl a bit now so I will go have a slice of cheese to tide me over until dinner at 6:00 I normally eat lunch at 1:00 which is a small salad with 1/2 chicken breast. but to day I had no time busy work day for me today.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs or egg whites with 2 sausage links, or a veggie omelette with a few small pewices of cantaloupe or honeydew Or scrambled eggswith cottage cheese, I have no carbs in the morning, it is strictly Protein, carbs in the morning is a sure way for me to graze and be hungry all day long. Lunch: Small salad with 1/2 chicken breast or Tuna scoop with a few crackers and sliced cheese dinner : whatever I cook for the family, meat veggie & fruit or salad sometimes a rice or Pasta as a side dish. I do not do well with rice or pasta.., I have eliminated the bread from our dinner table.

Babs, I say go get another opinion, go se the other Dr. ...for your Dr. not to check your band while you were there to see if the 1cc was still there is horrible knowing the emotional state you were in, he could of very easily eased your fears of you having a leak and putting your mind at ease. If they feel you are being difficult, it could be because they are giving you the run around did they ever think of that? What a horrble ordeal, I feel for you. Hang in there and do not stop until you get anwsers, this is your body and your band and you have the right to know the facts PERIOD!!

Anyone who thinks getting the band is the easy way out is crazy. There is nothing easy about this, you can still eat around the band,you still have head issues , it does not cure emotinal eating, you can still NOT exercise, you can have complications ( I know I have) You have to give up certain things like carbonation and NO drinking with meals, small bites and chew your food to death, vomiting on a piece of food that is not chewed well enough, sliming, golf ball pain in your chest, reflux at night etc...nothing easy about this and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise, tell them to walk in your shoes for a while.

I do not know exact direction but here is the streets. Hope to see you tomorrow

If it were that easy, there woldnt be an epidemic on obesity in the U.S. People who are jelous are insecure about themselves, she may be in fear you will leave her in the dust once you lose your weight. I can bet if she was obese and had the chance to get the band she would, she may be jealous becasue you are getting the lap band and she is not .Dont let her sway you from your decision to a happier healthier life.

Have you tried Tenessee bandsters in Yahoo groups, http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TN_Bandsters/ or http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/tennesseebandsters/ Maybe someone one one of thesegroups can help you find a local Dr. in your area. You can also email Don Mills at Inamed and ask for a list of Tennessee Dr.'s in your area , you will have to call them all to see if they wil ltake on patients banded in Mexico Don.Mills@inamed.com

Anna, what do the scars look like? How bad did it hurt afterwards..what was the down time?

I had esophagitis and I took prevacid for a month and it worked great for me. I took the prilosec & nexium for my gastritis

Hi Julie and Welcome to LBT Congratulations on your new band. I wish you lots of success Once you get your fills it gets easier, I think it is when you have no restriction that it is a little difficult. Glad you found us!

I like the ADULT CONTENT,and it being moved to the Lounge for the sake of no one being offended( which I'm not) and you are fully aware of it 's contents before entering, so it is your choice to read or not to read, to post or not to post. I'm a mother of a different breed I guess, I have 3 teenage boys with whom I have never monitored their choice of television, movies, music or what internet sites they go to. I have a very open relationship with when it comes to SEX. I'd much rather have them feel comfortable coming to me and asking questions then trying to monitor them and the content the are looking at on the web, , they will find it on the web regardless so I'd rather be upfront about it. My boys have a very good role model in their father as to how to treat and respect a woman, my boys are fully aware of safe sex and practicing safe sex. This is something my husband and I believe strongly in and it is our responsibility as parents to teach the boys and allow them to feel comfortable coming to us about sex and it's totality. Sex was a 4 letter word in my house growing up, I could never go to my parents and talk to them openly about it, I refuse to have it that way for my boys.

I have heard it takes about 5-6 cc's on the VG band to really get restriction.I was told the VG band was used for patients with a larger BMI..There are several threads here on the subject, if you do a search on the VG Band at the top of the page you will find some helpful info.

I did have Esophagitis in November of last year and in April of this year I had complete bowel obstruction and had to have surgery and also had gastritis from the bowle obstruction. My esophagits was a direct complication of my band, my bowel obestruction was related to my wieght loss, my band was not affected by it but without my band I wouldnt of lost weight. Who knows if it would of happend without my band..I will never know. There is threads on both of these topics here on LBT that I started for you to read if interested.

Dee Dee, there is light at the end of the tunnel..hang in there, we all have been where you are and asked the same questions. It does get better. Try drinking more portien, it does help with the wimpy feeling and does help with hunger. 8 oz of protien does not seem like enough, I was drinking 3- 12 oz cans a day on the liquid phase which was 60 grams of protein and it helped alot. What I'm suprised at is your Dr. will let you have tuna, if he lets you have tuna why not other soft foods with protein like refired beans, cottage cheese

Happy Birthday Jamie, hope your days is special

Great News! I'm very happy to hear it

Veronica, I'm sure you are in need of a fill, it has been a year since your last one, Call Dr. Martinez he will tell you what he thinks. What is it that you are eating in a day exactly? because we all know more calories in then calories burned will produce weight gain. Do you have any restriction? if anything I would go and see Dr Martinez to make sure all of your 2.2 cc's is still there and all is well with your band and maybe get a little adjustment. It cant' hurt.

Its nice to know we all can have different opinions and may not see this eye to eye but we all have the same common goal..to help these people as much as we humanly can. I have been doing whatever I can to help, this week we ( the family) are sending clothing to a friend who is a bandster who lives in Texas who will get the clothes to the Astrodome or wherever they are needed, they need plus size clothing in both men and women and Im sure childrens clothing too. Ive sent money to the Red Cross personally, I have had a fundraiser at my restarauntand sent more money to the Red Cross,I purchased $200 in gift cards from Wal-Mart to send out.I have sent a box of toiletries to Alatina, I will continue to send boxes of clothing and toiletries.. Like I said in another post before I may not have much but right now I have more then these people do