New Hope

Good for you, Debby! What's nice is when you quit feeling guilty for being in the regular size depts. and can enjoy shopping again. That's just around the corner for you!

Best of luck to you. Ortiz seems to have a great reputation. But please be sure to have a local dr. lined up BEFORE you're banded to avoid any problems.

Marleen, that's wonderful! I love Dr. Spivak! I hope I can be as successful as you! Gram, Harley's Nana's mother is getting a band and she's 73. I bet you could pm her for some helpful info.

So glad that's over with! Keep sipping and walking.

So glad to hear from you, Tanya! Sounds like you're being a good bandster. Congratulations, girl, you got your band!

If you think you need to postpone the surgery and give it some more thought, then do that. There's nothing wrong with waiting until you're sure this is what you want to do. It's normal to have mixed emotions. There are so many shows right now pushing plastic surgery. Most of the individuals on these shows aren't happy with themselves. I wonder if getting things fixed or replaced is really going to help them. I don't know how much weight that you'd like to lose, but you're very young. It's possible that you'll be able to lose the weight and not have any problems at all with sagging skin. Best of luck on whatever you decide to do.

Hope you're feeling better soon. The prilosec needs to be taken continually to work.

This is great news! Take care of yourself. We miss you when you're not here.

Dr. Spivak had me follow a low-glycemic diet right before banding. No big deal, just basically eating healthy foods - no limited portions. Lots of vegetables, lean meats, no organ meats (like liver) or fatty foods, avoid fats, butter, heavy sauces. He gave me a print-out for it. If you can't get one, you can pull one off the internet.

What a beautiful family! Have a safe trip.

Angie, best of luck to you! How much weight would you like to lose? Do you have any other health problems? If so, you'll be amazed how they will improve.

A lot of local anesthesia is used to separate the entire length of the vein from surrounding tissues. So I'm not sure if the little "bee stings" are caused from that or just from good blood flow trying to get established. It's very important to walk and keep your feet elevated when you sit down. Honestly, they had hurt so much before the procedure that anything would be an improvement! Hopefully this information will help others know that there is a simple solution and it is covered by health insurance.

So have you been practicing your poses?

Congratulations and Best of luck to a whole mass of LOSERS!!!

Best of luck to you! Please let us know how you're doing when you feel like it.

Terri, that is wonderful!! Pretty soon you'll be dancing. And 43 pounds gone is great, too!

Thanks so much, Crystal! I was so surprised how easy and painless the procedure was. My legs just felt like they had little "bee stings" last night - nothing major.

Kathy, thank you for your well wishes! Spider veins are considered a "cosmetic" problem and not covered by health insurance plans. Here's a good informative site on them with treatment options: http://www.emedicine.com/plastic/topic437.htm This procedure is done in the doctor's office. A tiny needle is used to inject a saline solution into the spider veins (which are near the skin's surface). If you're having problems with varicose veins, I urge you to check on that procedure. It's great.

I couldn't find anything about this in the archives, so I wanted to share this information for others who may have this problem. Yesterday I had a "Radiofrequency Ablation of the Sapenous Vein" procedure done on both of my legs. (That is fancy talk for varicose vein surgery.) This was done under general anesthesia by a vascular surgeon in an operating room. It is an out-patient surgery and takes about 45 minutes. Some doctors use a laser. This particular doctor uses intense heat. A small incision is made above the knee. A long, slender filament is placed inside the main vein (Sapenous Vein). This vein runs along the inside of your leg from the groin to your ankle and when working properly, returns the blood flow to your heart. The heat or laser seals off the top of the vein and it will wither away. Healthy branch veins take over the job of transporting blood flow back to the heart. If just one leg needs the procedure, it can be done in a sterile environment under a local. Because I had both legs done, my surgeon chose general anesthesia because in addition a lot of local injections are used along the length of the vein and this would be very painful if you were awake. I had been havng intense pain in the front of one calf for a long time. It would wake me up at night and a velcro wrap helped a little with compression. Recently the other heel started having shooting pains running up it. Sitting with my feet hanging down or standing still for any long periods of time was very painful. My feet and ankles would swell. A doppler ultrasound revealed the main vein had several areas of "reflux", causing blood to "pool" (in both legs). The standard old method of treatment was "vein stripping" and involved an incision at the groin and the ankle, pulling the vein out, damaging connecting smaller branch veins, several days hospitalization, and long-term pain. My varicose veins were not visible. I don't have the surface spider veins. Some people have very large, ropey, oozing varicose veins. (There are some pics in the links above.) These veins run very deep. Heredity, pregnancy, and obesity are just a few of the causes. Routine exercise is very important. I had recently been riding my bike for extended periods and when I stopped and stepped down, both legs just collapsed (like water) - no feeling, no warning, just blam! I landed in a crumpled heap of bike and body. This was due to poor blood circulation. After this happened a second time and I was left with extensive bruising, I thought maybe it was time to get this problem taken care of. I was sent home from the procedure with my legs tightly wrapped in heavy ace bandages, from my ankles to my mid-thighs for 24 hours. I am supposed to wear compression stockings for two weeks. Surprisingly the pain has been minimal. I took a couple of Advil yesterday afternoon. I'll take it easy for a couple of days and should be able to resume bike riding in a week or so. I look forward to pain-free days and nights! I'm very thankful that this minimal invasive procedure is now available to those of us that have this painful problem and wanted to share this information with you. If deemed medically necessary, health insurance does cover this surgery.

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2788.htm is a doctor's written report with plenty of information about varicose veins, diagrams, and treatments. http://www.varicoseveinstreatment.com/whatis.jsp shows some treatment options. http://www.veindirectory.org/content/prevention.asp also lists some preventative measures and treatments. Endovenous Laser or Radiofrequency Ablation of the Sapenous Vein is covered by medical insurance when deemed medically necessary. The insurance code for this treatment is 37204.

A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!

Congratulations, Nancy! We look forward to hearing from you after your surgeries.

Wow, Darcey, what does all of that mean? Aren't you glad you've lost so much weight before you made this career change?

Wow, Corgi, great job on the weight loss and glad you're feeling so well. And congratulations, aren't mushies wonderful? LOL

16 pounds gone? Great! A fill should be scheduled when you are eating hard proteins regularly, following all the banding rules, and not losing weight for an extended period of time. This can vary per individual. We have a bandster that waited 9 months and lost over 60 pounds before her first fill. Some rare bandsters have lost their weight with no fills.