DeLarla

Thanks, Vera. My doc was so throrough with me. When you add up all the time he spent at my side, it's probably hours. I owe him a good try. And his advice is loaded with nothing but common sense so it's hard to disagree with him.

ChicagoBoy... by the time I add up all my surgeries, $15,000 might be a good deal. Be good to yourself, it's worth it.

Do you have a local aftercare LapBand surgeon lined up? Please read my post, "BEFORE GOING TO MEXICO" for further information.

I just got back from my 4th Band-related surgery (actually 6 surgeries if you count the two times they cut me open without putting me to sleep first.) I'm somewhat of an expert at this point, and I learned something while in the hospital that I feel is important to share here. My current surgeon hugely discourages any of us to compare ourselves to other people. He says the problem with the boards is that we can pick up too much bad or useless knowledge that will only make us feel bad about ourselves. Tons of banded people get it set in their minds that they want a certain amount of saline in their bands, for example, some people demand a full cc during their fill appointment. They'll tell him that their friends all have more saline than them, or that they have a band with a larger capacity than most people. But each one of us is different. The way he explained it really sunk in deep. Penni was with me at the time, and we both have the same band. But then I got on Penni's scale and we both weigh exactly the same weight. When you look at Penni and I, we look completely different. I'm way taller than her, and she's got nice big boobs, while I have huge feet next to hers. Even Penni's sweetheart, John, was blown away when I told him that Penni and I weigh exactly the same. The point our surgeon slammed home was for us to stop comparing ourselves to anyone else. A fill level is really only important to the surgeon. Each person is different, each has different DNA, genetic make up, metabolisms, needs, hydration... each and every one of us reacts completely different. And each doctor is different, too. They each have their own plan for filling bands. Some follow Inamed's recommendation of giving small fills to gradually "sneak up" on restriction. Other doctors give aggressive fills to make restriction really tight. He just shook his head at the sillyness of the "sweet spot" that every talks about because there is really no such thing. Some people feel they reached the sweet spot because they are able to eat and stop eating after they are full. But that is not the band, or the sweet spot, doing the work. It's the person, who has learned what the correct band portions are for their specific needs. He sent me and Penni home with homework to do, which we are posting on a separate thread, and this was sort of part of the homework. We are not allowed to compare ourselves to others, which is why I thought this might be a good place to share this newfound information. Now I gotta do my homework - uggh... it involves taking responsiblity for what I put in my mouth! As if I didn't know, but sometimes we gotta be reminded that the band is only a tool, and the band will only work if we work the band!

Becky, please let me know what your doc says about ulcers leading to erosion. I'm almost sure that I've seen warnings about ulcers on several occasions. Billy asked and answered so many questions that I'm overwhelmed with information. Plus, I had quite a bit of anesthesia, morhphine and pain meds in me that a lot is still fuzzy. Thanks to everyone for being here. I really do have big alligator tears running down my cheeks right now. I have not seen the wound. It is too disturbing to me. Every time I think about it, I get goose bumps and queazy. My friend will be here this afternoon to do her first unpacking and repacking. I wish I had half the stomach as her. By the way, I have made my own diagnosis as to how my ulcer-type-bruise got inside my stomach. I might be wrong, but it occurred to me that I often take pills dry. I often forget to take my meds, so I just swallow and run out the door. It's really important that drugs don't sit inside the pouch or stomach like that. So from now on, I'll be sure to wash them down with a lot of Water.

I just had another port-removal surgery that left a huge cavern-of-a-hole in me. If you look into the hole, you can probably see the band from the inside! Totally gross.

I snuck on John's computer but he needs it back... but quickly, Billy was pleased with the wound after removing 6 feet of packed gauze. I'll write more later. By the way, he told me to avoid aspirin as well, because plain ol' aspirin is also a stomach irritant. He said we need to stick with Tylenol. Will write later, thanks again!

As you can see, I'm severely allergic to tape/bandages, so Penni got really creative this morning with paper tape. Here's a close up that shows the entire area - most of the red is from allergic rash from the bandages.

Poor Penni, I was having trouble swallowing (FOOD, duh) but I was too sick to get to my puter so I asked Penni to post whether anyone else has problems swallowing. The big dork didn't even catch her typo so the title came out looking really bad, and she never finished writing the body of the post cuz she had to get me to the hospital. When she saw all the responses she was so, so embarrassed, but she ended up not deleting it because I was doing really bad and was really depressed, so she read the posts to me in my hospital bed, and I nearly died laughing. You guys are nuts! I can't believe you naughty girls! But thanks for getting me out of that funk... and yes, I was in the hospital - I'll post those details later. Love you guys, you slay me.

Megan, I killed Penni, she's exhausted so I gotta get off their puter so we can all sleep. But warning, you've opened a huge can of worms asking about our homework. We will each reply tomorrow. Get out your reading glasses. Peace, baby! P.S. Have a Number 2 pencil and a spiral notebook handy... college ruled.

I'm having Penni post some stuff for me cuz it's hard mustering up the courage to talk about my situation. Penni is amazing. Lord knows how or why the girl puts up with me, but she's treated me better than anyone ever has. She had a romantic weekend planned with John, but they insisted on cancelling to take care of me instead. My brother and sister live nearby and could have taken me, but Penni insisted. And, it's JOHN's BIRTHDAY today, but instead of celebrating they spent the day caring for me. I even bruised the heck out of Penni's hand cuz she made me squeeze it when they couldn't find a vein for the IV (they stuck me lots of times in 3 places.) Through all the pain and emotion (and let me tell you, my last pain was nothing compared to this), Penni somehow made it a fun and damn silly time. I'd try to cry but she'd make me laugh. She tried to stay with me all day, but my surgery was delayed 6 hours so I made her go home. Before she left, she went to the gift shop and bought me plushie stuffed animals just like Voodoo and Sachi (my fur babies) to keep me company. But she showed up right before I went into OR, and Dr. Billy was kind enough to let her stay in the surgery room till the last minute. She sent "a driver" to pick me up at the airport, so a guy in a suit was holding up a card with my name when I landed. She's driven me back and forth to the hospital twice and is taking me there and back tomorrow, an hour each way. She bought me bandages and is changing my dressing (sorry, Darcy.) Michelle is right, there are really angels among us. Thank you everyone for the nice words to Nurse Penni Money. And Vera, Penni let me hear the message you left her, and we both cried together. Boy, I better make a deposit into the good kharma bank real soon. Anyone need a favor or 97?

First, Penni is not my friend, she's my sister. All the nurses in the hospital figured we were sisters, so we just went along with it. I'm not home in my own bed, I'm at Penni's house in California, so Chris can't take care of me. But the poor guy has called and is sitting at home stewing and fretting wondering how I am. He thinks I'm coming home tomorrow, but I have to stay an extra day so Billy can check my wound tomorrow. Darcy, this one's for you - it's a 3 inch long gaping wound packed with gauzed, and they did not sew it shut. Nice n' gross. Penni will take a picture of it tomorrow cuz she's really gross, too. Billy insisted that I look at it because I need to monitor it, but I didn't do so well and almost passed out while Penni stared right at it. My friend, Gross Mary, home in Vegas will be responsible for changing my dressings. GROSS.

I hear ya, Leatha. I'm not here looking for answers, I just need to vent. Monday she came in my office and offered me an OJ and a McGriddle sandwich with a bite taken out of it. She ordered 2 meals for herself but wasn't feeling well so tried giving me the rest of the 2nd meal. Yes, after all the screaming at her, she still brings plates of food in my office. I told her that ordering 2 meals is a lot of food, but she said she orders 2 cause it holds her over till dinner, but then I see her sneak out to lunch and bring leftovers back. This time I took the OJ cuz I love OJ, but no, I didn't take her used sandwich. Just glad I can vent here.

No, that sounds weird! But you are much teenier than me. I can barely feel my ribs!

Try baking chicken at a low temperature for a couple hours in BBQ or broth instead of 1 hour at at a high temp. Or cook chicken in the crock pot with a little Water. Slow cooking makes it fall off the bone, much easier to swallow. Lots of people food-process chicken to make pate.

"I have a tendency to eat until I'm stuffed and crave sweets. I look forward to getting to know you all better." Boy, who does that sound like? Oh, me! I'm glad you're not lurking any more. Peace.

I stress-eat, too. But I've always had a good amount of humiliation. I couldn't imagine parading around the office at 10:00 a.m. with a man's dinner. Can't she be a normal obese woman and hide the food in her desk drawer? Just venting.

I think we've all been in your shoes. The skinny hot women get all the attention, dates, flowers, etc. Here's the way I twisted it to make me the lucky one: First, think about all the rotten men that have screwed us in our lives (not saying all men are rotten, but too many of them are.) I wish it was as easy as kissing a few frogs to find my prince, but it was more like being bitten by snakes, attacked by wild tigers, crushed by stampeding buffalos and crapped on by elephants before I met Chris. That's what my dating days were like, anyway. Nothing but lyin' cheatin' two-time double dealin mean mistreated pigs, which is why I put up with so much from Chris cuz he ain't anywhere near as bad! I dated about once a year, but my skinny friends had dates every single weekend. So I consider myself fortunate that I didn't have to wade through half the crap, neglect, abuse, lies, affairs that they had to. The cuter you are, the more dates you have, the more dating-drama and BS you gotta go through. We are lucky cuz when someone pays attention to us, we know that they are paying attention to "us" and not our boobs, flat sexy belly or big poofy hair. Guys that hit on chicks just cuz they look hot are real sleeze bags to me, so let her have the flowers.

That's so true. I'd have said, "yumm, gimme some." But actually, no I wouldn't have done that, not in the middle of a rush project in a law firm. Maybe I'd have snatched a piece and hid it in the fridge. I figured out that she waited for the partner to leave for a court hearing. She's sneaky that way.

I'm so disgusted right now. Our trial went horrible on Monday (I'm a paralegal) so it's been "all hands on deck" this week scrambling to appeal the decision. The whole office is running in circles over this enormous legal document that's about 200 pages. I'm working with 2 attorneys plus Erin (she's the secretary) to get this enormous project out before the noon runner arrives. So at 10:30 a.m. I was running in circles around the office, looking for Erin, who had a stack of the documents. I start smelling garlic, so I head to the kitchen to find her making two huge french bread pizzas in the toaster oven. She's got the pile of docs that WE NEED NOW sitting on the kitchen counter; she's got sauce on her fingers, burning them as she gets the hot pizza with bare hands. Who the hell stops to make french bread pizza at 10:00 a.m. in the middle of our most hectic day/disaster in years? Oh yeah, Erin does.

Sweetness, my husband likes to feed me, too, regardless of Band rules. So last time I saw my surgeon, hubby was with me, and my surgeon looked right into hubby's face and told him the rules. Chris has been much better since then. Fight fire with fire, ask your surgeon to call your house and ask for your mother. It's hard enough fighting cravings without people shoving chocate mousse under your nose! I wouldn't have been able to resist that!

This severe anal odor only occurs in a small percentage. I read a post where a young man was forced to stay upstairs in his room alone on Thanksgiving because his odor was so repulsive that nobody could bare being around him. And I've heard that people wear carbon filters in their underpants. There's a very popular person around the boards that has the problem (most people think she has a band, but she's also had somewhat of a bypass.) I won't breach her privacy, but she said there's no odor that can compare. Apparently it makes regular pook-pooks smell like Heaven in comparision.

Shae! Wow, I've been watching and waiting, and here you are on the other side. Trust me, I felt lousy, and if I can get better, anyone can! I didn't have any Band related pain though (except in my back and shoulders.) Sip warm tea with honey, water all day, walk as often as possible. None of these things helped me, but they work for most people. Just relax and let that heating pad sink in. Or have someone put one of those huge heat pads on your lower back.

Where do I start? First, one of the girls that got her band in the hospital with me dry-heaved right after surgery for hours. It's really important NOT to throw up or dry heave because it could cause slippage, so do whatever it takes to avoid it. As far as calling your doctor, that's what I did. I was so bad that I ran to my primary care doctor. She approached me to listen to my belly with the stethoscope, but then jumped back after a huge belly rumble and yelled, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" The rumbling scared her from across the room, so she ordered every test possible to rule out bacteria or Mexican bugs. All my tests came back negative, so she just told me to take some Imodium. However, things didn't run through me instantly. I was having some very "urgent" moments where I couldn't get to the bathroom on time though. So use your best judgement, it can't hurt to call the doc, but I think you sound how I felt. It took two full weeks before I was okay.

I currently have 1.7 in the same size band, but I don't have much restriction.