DeLarla

Jenna, I was lucky and dropped a good amount of weight in the beginning, too. Your body is detoxing and cleansing from all the liquids flushing out your colon. After 2 weeks of liquids I felt like I had a colon scrub, clean as a whistle and all that sludge gone. Everyone be warned - Jenna's kicking Band butt!

I see so many new people with so few introductions. Tell us how you all got your screen names. There's some really cool stuff going on here! Pacomamma, you should take down the cow and put Paco's picture up (better yet, one of you!) I laughed at your reply!

Just kidding, silly... seeing your belly like that is cute. I can see all your guts n' junk!

I just read on another post that someone had a great experience at the Molding Clinic. Is that place new?

OMG, I'm snorting and farting from laughing do damn hard here! Was it the Snooty Poop? The one that doesn't smell? Bubba, my husband is the opposite of yours. I don't even bother closing the door any more cause HE always stands over me and talks while I'm busy. Then he plugs his nose and makes poopy stinky noises. I'm like, "why the hell do you come in here if you don't like the smell?" And if he doesn't open the door, the cat paws under the door till you open it, and Sachi likes to come and drink out of the bidette while I'm going potty. I finally stopped closing the door. At the Bonekovics' it's a family affair.

Wow, what a great post! The Molding Clinic is fairly new to my ears, as are the names you mentioned. Congrads on your new belly band, and thank you for sharing such a great experience because I've heard rumors that didn't sound so nice. But rumors are rumors, and your experience sounded excellent.

Okay, that looks really tight to me. Are you able to eat? This is wild. KELLY POSTED NAKED PICS!

C, my doc says to eat for 20 minutes then stop. That will give you the best satifaction. If you have a little now, then wait and have a little more, you'll be able to eat much more. Does that make sense?

The first signs of erosion can be deteced under fluorscopy. If you decide to go the no-fluoro way, you might want to stagger your appointments by getting fluoro the first fill, then if your band is okay getting no-fluro the second fill. It's a good idea to keep an eye on the band, and the docs can see if it's working properly under x-ray. I know a lot of people who do it with no fluro and are really happy. It usually takes a week or so for a fill to kick in, so even under fluoro you can get underfilled or worse, overfilled.

I asked Inamed for the information, but they refuse to divulge any information. I will ask Dr. Billy next time I talk to him, but I was hoping other members might ask their surgeons next time they speak, too.

Good question. I'm an awesome success. I stopped losing weight a couple months ago, but I'm still down 70 pounds. I don't have a port so I can't have a fill, but I still have enough restriction that I'm not gaining anything back. Medically speaking, I need to lose another 60-70 pounds if I want to see myself on the "normal" BMI scale (I'm still considered morbidly obese.) My husband doesn't want me losing any more, and neither do my friends. They say I'm happy and healthy now. I'd like a new port next year so I can lose 30 more, but I'm happy where I am today. Obviously you'll lose weight if you eat right, but none of us were able to eat right without the Band anyway. Some people have more willpower or whatever you want to call it so they found a way to eat healthy food in small proportions according to the Band rules. I like goodies too much. Maybe one day with a new port and more restriction I'll be able to give them up, but the Band is just a tool while we still have to do most of the work. You say you aren't trying, but when you have no restriction it's just like not having a band, right? Well, we couldn't manage our food before that tight restricted feeling, so maybe you need that feeling again, which you'll get from your fill?

Kathy, you get five gold stars for your excellent attidude, research and preparation! Newbies will learn from you. The most important thing you said is the same way I felt when I originally went to Mexico, which was the feeling of giddy excitement. If I had any fear or creepy feelings, I would never have gone. Go with your gut. Kuri removed my infected port a month after my initial surgery. He didn't care who I was or if I had any money, and he never even asked for an ID. He looked at the tube sticking out of the infected wound and put me on a bed. Afterwards, I offered him $500 cash but he told me to send it when I had it, so I mailed a check 6 months later. Kuri's only concern is healthy patients. When a doctor removes your port, the tube is clamped and left inside. I was extremely impressed with his surgical skills, and I feel bad for not remember the name of his lovely female assistant, who cleaned the heck out of my insides to get every last bit of infection before sewing me up with neater stitches than I can do on my machine. The problem was that he was supposed to shove the tube into my abdominal cavity, but instead they left it right underneath the new incision, which had been the problem incision all along. In the last month, at least 4 surgeons told me it's totally common knowledge that tube so close to a wound would prevent it from closing, and nobody can figure out why someone so experienced as Kuri did that. Like I said, maybe he had some reason, but it cost me 7 months of aggravation, heartache, sadness, etc. There's a current conversation about Kuri on the Vegas boards, and the biggest problem people have is waiting up to 5 hours after their appointment time for fills (he schedules 40 patients at a time according to something I read this week, and he's always late, 2 hours late once.) But what does it tell you when patients go flooding to him? They must love him, right? When you are laying on a surgical gurney, intimidated by the lights, scrubs, equipment, tubes, etc., and you look up and see his warm caring eyes peeping through that yellow smiley face hat, it really puts you at ease.

Wow, I'd love to see the band in action. Okay, who around here is a programming genious that can program a virtual stomach with a virtual band so we can see how the contraption really works?

I avoided this post all day since I love egg drop. I usually buy the dry mix in the soup isle, but now I gotta try this homemade version. Thanks!

Oh, I thought you said Carnitas so I was all over this thread.

Kathy, you aren't going to die! But you hit the nail on the head. If you personally have a great experience, then Mexico is great. If you a bad experience, you learn the hard way. You've probably seen enough around here to know that it's a gamble, but it's worth the bet. Kuri is a very caring guy even though he made a mistake with me, but maybe it wasn't even a mistake??? Maybe he had some weird reason for leaving my tube under the infected wound. Who knows? But you will really like him - he wears this smiley face hat that lets you see his human side. I don't want to be the one responsible for keeping people from chosing Mexico; I just want to be the one that is 100% honest so new people can make intelligent & informed decisions. No doctor is perfect regardless of what anyone says since they're just humans "practicing" medine, and there's no such thing as a perfect human being. On a lighter note, I also had an extra bonus bad experience at the boarder. For random reasons, our driver was stopped by boarder control. Security ran at us from every direction and split us all up to search our things. My skinny friend bought one of those Mexican sarape's (shawl with hood) and they believed she was a Mexican that we were trying to smuggle her across the boarder. My heart was pounding as we were interrogated and separated, and I had to show them my surgical scars to prove I got a LapBand. The let us go after about 10 minutes, but I was fresh out of surgery and pretty much ran (at 280 lbs) the rest of the way to my car with my luggage and THAT'S when I nearly died!

Wow, Tina, that's lots of questions! My food gets stuck between my throat and sternum, and it's very painful. I think the stoma is what the band surrounds, which is the area between the pouch and the stomach below. I get the golfball in my throat. My doc explained that all the "action" goes on in the bottom stomach, which is where all the digestive enzymes are produced. That's why she was dead-set against me getting a gastric bypass since the bypass cuts off the bottom part of the stomach where all the digestive action goes on. I could be wrong, but I think the food starts its digestive process in the top part but it starts sort of dripping down into the bottom part to complete the process. When you introduce food or liquid into your mouth, the belly starts moving around to start digestion. I'm not sure if your stomach makes acid all the time, but I assume it does since it's pretty much always active and doing stuff. Acid reflux can be pretty scary, so make sure to talk to your doc who may prescribe something to prevent/protect/repair your esophagus. I hope that made sense, and I hope it's accurate considering I'm going only from memory, which gets dusty and rusty on occasion. Be good to you.

This stinkin' thread makes me laugh! Thanks to my "partner in crime" (inside joke but damn funny) for asking me to post something funny to get things rolling around here again. When I told hubby about ratemypooh.com he said some guys mentioned ratemycameltoe.com. I haven't gone to the pooh site, and I probably won't, but if you need to see vaginas, ratemycameltoe.com has a wide variety. Which brings us to my second question... what's the big deal with vaginas, and why are so many women taking pictures of theirs?

Silly Daisy, you're not a bad girl, you're just human, that's all. And three little cookies certainly didn't cause any of us to be obese. If I could stop at three cookies I'd be thrilled with life. I was lucky cause I had good restriction before ever getting a fill, but even with good restriction I could eat 3 cookies. Teresa lost like 70 pounds with no fill, it's just that some people find it easier to give up the goodies regardless of complete restriction. Now excuse me while I go eat some more Peanut Butter M&Ms while thanking my Maker that I only eat a handful at a time these days instead of whole bags.

If I had a local doctor for follow up, I would be happy. Unfortunately, the closest band surgeon that will see me is 6 hours away. Sucks.

Most patients have excellent experiences in Mexico, but the number of nightmares have been growing out of proportion lately. I went to Mexico three times and each time the doctors made stupid mistakes (twice Lopez, once Kuri.) Too many erosions and port infections lately added to the recent drug overdose - you have to be willing to gamble if you go to Mexico. Again, MOST patients have GREAT experiences... then there's the rest of us. I went to Mexico to save five grand, but I owe more than that in bills from all my Mexican related complications. If you're lucky at gambling, go for it. Be prepared for the Mexican cheeleaders though, because some people defend Mexican surgeons and get free fills for sending over referrals. Good luck to you. BUY AMERICAN! Woo hoo! (Too bad I didn't take my own advice.)

Don't make me bump this, people! Too many of you asked for some fun, now let's talk poop.

I think I want the shot from the back. Bending over my bike. If we are gonna be brave, might as well go all the way!

Princess, you need to rent Stephen King's, "Cat's Eye" trilogy. There's a short story about a smoking clinic that could scare you to quit! Anyone ever seen it?

I'm glad you bumped this. I never saw it the first time around. With obesity running rampant, we will soon overtake the world and eat all the normies that don't understand us. Please pass the salt.