Terry Poperszky

Yea, I had mine in January and our company was in the process of being acquired, with accompanying lay offs. When we decided to take the 11K out of our savings buffer, I wondered if I was doing the right thing, but figured if I did get laid off, it would be easier to get a job if I was thinner. Hope your job outlook improves.

There are no guarantees in life, but it sucks when you follow the rules and still don't succeed. Please keep us informed.

I am bothered by the drive-by's where people with one or two posts show up and start posting negative comments about the band. I understand that the band doesn't work for some people, so I decided to check out some sites for other forms of WLS. Guess what I found out, those of us who have chosen WLS aren't so different from each other. On the other sites I found: people who were loosing weight and were really happy with their decision people who weren't loosing weight and were struggling with the reason people who ignored there Dr's pre and post op instructions and couldn't figure out why that was wrong. people who were on plateaus people who were mad because their WLS didn't automatically make the pounds come off. people with complications people who had lost most of their weight, only to gain it back again when they went back to old habits. In other words, I found the same types of things there, that I find here. That makes Jean's quote in my signature all the more real.

Plateau finally broke, and I have dropped 5 pounds since my fill on Friday. Last couple of days have been really interesting as I believe I am in the green zone with 4.3 cc in a 10cc band. Well today is different and my body has been hungry most of the day. But I ate my normal dinner, and had my evening treat (Skinny Cow), but I was still hungry. So I pulled a couple of chicken thighs out of the fridge, warmed them up and I am munching on those. The sweet treats are nice, but the protein is what keeps the hunger away for me.

I live in Layton, so I'm about 40 minutes away from his office. Fun part is the fills take less than 5 minutes

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Dr. Hansen was/is my surgeon. I couldn't recommend him more highly, but you won't see him much after the surgery. Your main point of contact for the after care will be Kristi the RN who heads up his LB program. Most of the staff are banded, and they have gone out of their way to make sure I am successful with my band. Fact is that Kristi gave me her cell number and told me that if I was having problems with my band, day or night to call her and that either she or the Dr. would meet me at the office if i needed help. One of the things that I really likes is their fill program, once you are 5 weeks out you will get your first fill, and then they see you every two weeks after. The support group was much better than I expected as well. Good luck I think you will be very happy with Dr. Hansen and his staff.

Way to go!

I use a Garmin, but I am really surprised to hear you are having trouble with your Polar, they are a very reputable brand. Have you contacted their customer support line yet? My first HRM was a Polar, I switched to Garmin because they had superior GPS technology.

Looking good! Keep it up, one step at a time.

Many of us are quite tight first thing in the morning. My Dr. told me to get used to my first meal of the day being a Protein shake. Everyone in his office is banded and they all start the day with one.

The waste is to ruin your health, trying not to waste that junk. I told my 12 year old daughter this morning when she said she had gotten a doughnut that was too big (Her Monday morning treat for being ready on time), eat until you are full, throw the rest away.

Irish Whiskey, margaritas

I bought it for my wife before I was banded. I wanted her complete buy in and I couldn't expect her to do all the research that I did. It was well worth the money.

My wife and I have been quite open with our two daughters (9 and 12) about my lap band. Before surgery we walked them through what would happen, how it would affect my life and more than that why I was doing it. So as I have had to adjust to my new lifestyle, my daughters and wife have adjusted with me. But I didn't realize the extent of that adjustment until I heard these words come out of my 9 year old's mouth "Mom, you are chewing too fast, you need to slow down!" The look of shock on my wife's face was priceless

Been there, done that which is why I put the smiley face there. No hard feelings and I hope your day gets better.

Please re-read what I said. What I didn't say was that you made the figure up. Please I offend enough people as it is without putting words in my mouth I said that the 25% figure concerning the older bands, and not the newer ones. If that isn't true, then I am mistaken. If it is true then what you said misrepresents today's lapband surgery success rates (and are mistaken). In reality, until one of us links to a study that supports our statements, then we are BOTH simply passing along hearsay.

Sugar Free Popsicles OR a cup of strong decaf coffee is what I use.

Ms. Maui, let's be fair. That stat was true of the older lap bands wasn't it? And while you are at it, can you tell me what the reversal rates are for Gastric Bypass and Gastric Sleeves? Oh, wait they can't be reversed can they? And as long as you are interested in stats, would you care to let us know what the mortality rates are between the different types of bariatric surgery? Any bets which surgery has fewer patients die within 30 days of the surgery? Now, I don't have an axe to grind, and even if what you said was actually true of the lap band that I had installed, I would still have gone ahead with the surgery. I like choice in my life, and with the lap band I have a choice. With GB and sleeve, there is not going back, no further choice. Now, with that said, if my band fails and they can't put another band in. I will probably revise to a sleeve, if that fails (they do), I will opt for something else. But you see as a band patient, i have that choice. My friends wife who had GB and makes her self sick 4-5 times a week with dumping, doesn't have a choice anymore. http://www.obesitylapbandsurgery.com/statmain.html

Hmm... I read Missy's post and I don't find that statement anywhere. Most doesn't equal all, and is detrimental to people looking for the "FACTS". BTW, my surgeon gave me a complete list of the complications, alone with stats for other centers of excellence as well as his own stats (good and bad).

Based on my experience, yes. I am still only up to 3/4 of a cup for the first month and a 1/2 anything over 1/2 a cup would make me extremely uncomfortable.

This is something that most people don't understand on forums, that many people only post the negative so that the experience looks skewed. Mike, not only are you welcome here, you are and the others like you are needed to help people understand the band journey properly. BTW, congratulations on the loss, keep up the good work.

Sure there is, but plateaus happen. Use the time to make sure you are still doing everything right, portion control, food logging, counting calories, moderate exercise, talk to your NUT. Then, if you find an area you need to correct, correct it. If not start looking at other measures of success like are you losing inches. For me, I haven't moved the scale for two weeks, but my pants are looser. Believe me, I know it is frustrating. I am at the 250 mark, I have been here one other time on WW, and my body just doesn't go below this weight without a fight. You can force it, by extreme exercise or extremely restricting your calories, but those aren't long term answers. If you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, then the weight will come off eventually.

Yup, banded on 1/7 and currently stalled for two weeks. Totally normal according to my past experience and my Dr. Review that you are following the rules and be patient.

"Despite the common use of LAGB, the mechanism that generates early satiation, prolonged satiety and sustained weight loss is poorly understood, but insight is emerging. It has been demonstrated that the passage of food through the banded area and gastric emptying is not substantially delayed and cannot account for the prolonged satiety" "Care must be taken to ensure that patients understand that a drink with their meal is not going to reduce their satiety; however, the difference between this and maladaptive eating behaviours such as drinking large volumes of Fluid in order to ‘flush’ moist foods through the band must be emphasized. This study used a solid and dense Meal Replacement with 250 ml of Water only. This could be applied to a solid Breakfast meal and a cup of black tea for example." These are the two most important points that I gleaned from the study: 1. We really don't understand why the band works. 2. Acceptable drinking habits are easily confused with unacceptable drinking habits.