Vicki J

Ella Bella - I went through the Kaiser program in SSF but there is a person on this board going by the tag Warrior that has just gotten her surgery date for Richmond. Try and get ahold of her. She will be the best person to tell you the way things are in Richmond.

I went through the No. Cal lapband process and it is quite frustrating. The main reason it's so frustrating is because they only do the surgery at 3 of the Kaiser facilities and are, therefore, quite overwhelmed. Their director of bariactrics is changing jobs so I don't know if the new person will get this straightened out or not. Yes, the process is long. The last time I was in the orientation room at S. San Francisco they were saying 4 to 6 months before the next appointments. I'm not surprised it's now 32 weeks. I think the availability of the band is causing a landslide of people to show up. You also have to be the one to "keep in touch". When an appointment becomes available due to a cancellation, they don't call anyone to let them know. It sits there unless someone calls to check. So, my advice to anyone trying to get through the system "faster" would be to call and check for cancellations every week after orientation. Once you get through your appointments and are waiting for surgery I don't think you can do much else than wait. At that point they have a system in place to call and fill the cancellations. I don't know how it is at the other facilities in Fremont and Richmond. This is just S. San Francisco. I was told when I went in and started the process in June '07 that you could not pick your facility. You were assigned a facility depending on where you lived. At our facility they pretty much did the 10% thing. Yes, some people got away with less and some were required more. I lost 70 pounds of the 130 I want to loose prior to surgery. I made sure that they would not cancel my surgery due to too much weight being lost and then proceeded to loose. I figured that I was in this to loose weight anyway so why not start at orientation. That way they had my starting weight to show that I had over 40 BMI. I was banded in Dec. '07 and I'm now down 95 lbs. So don't look at this time as wasted time but look at it as an opportunity to get ahead in loosing weight.

Tarasa - During this time you are not only healing but you're not able to do a lot of things like exercising. Also, from what I understand they pumped about 10 lbs worth of liquids into us and that will fall off of you within the next couple of weeks. Don't be worried about not showing the weight loss this soon after your surgery, it will happen. Watch all the calories in any liquids you drink as they can be really sneaky in pushing up your intake. Also, some drinks like gatoraide have sodium in them. Watch your sodium intake too. It will happen. Good going on keeping track of your calories. You will need that during the period between the time you get to start solids and the "right" fill. That's what's kept me going while we search for the "sweet spot". Good luck on your journey!

Hi everybody. I, too, just found this thread. I don't think it's fair for me to go by my bandiversary because I lost so much while I was on Kaiser's program/waiting list. Also, I wouldn't have 100 lbs to loose if I went by when I was banded and I totally plan on claiming the 100 when I loose it. So, I have the goal to reach 100 lbs by the anniversary date of when I started the process which was June 6th. With only 9 pounds to go I really hope I can make it. Will you guys let me go with that?

Heartfire - Wow, it sounds like you're in some beautiful country. I don't blame you for not wanting to go to the bay area but, unfortunately, that's the only place I know they are doing it. I keep hoping they will do it in other places but we can't even get a fill somewhere closer. It's a real bummer. Yeah, I've been chugging right a long loosing weight. Sometimes I have to work at it a little more than I want because I get where I need a fill but hopefully soon we will reach that sweet spot and I can glide on through. I have about .2 pounds before I reach the spot where I shed that "obese" label forever. Of course, that's when the weight stalled for its monthly pause. I keep telling myself it too will be gone soon. I wouldn't have chosen another surgery for anything. I know that we have to work at it while we wait for the right spot but at least it is forever adjustable and as you said it isn't as invasive. I have (knock on wood) had no problems with this and see the light at the end of the tunnel. That's a first in so many years I can't remember the last time I saw that light. I thought the bulb had burned out for sure. Now all I have to do is get over feeling guilty because I have to buy clothes once a month. My DH gives me a hard time (good humored hard time) about this. I told him I could stop loosing or gain it all back and he screamed NO! I can tease with the best of them. LOL Keep me posted on your progress. I think Kaiser's adopted the mantra of "Go west". Also, feel free to PM me if you want. I see those quicker.

April - Good to hear from you! Boy you've had a little bit of a rough time. I know that for a couple of weeks after I get a fill I have a very sensitive esophogus and it tends to spasm whenever I eat. I describe it as the feeling of fingernails going down. I have to be really careful. Then it seems that things adjust and I find I can eat more. I have a problem with my doctor because I don't know how much he really knows. I tried to explain this to him and he just told me that if it continues to call him. Of course, it stops and thanks to others I have discovered what it is. He also has been dragging his feet because I continue to loose weight even if I'm hungry because I stick to the program. I have emailed him regarding this because he doesn't listen to what I'm telling him about how much I can eat and when I get hungry. As to your problem, maybe you should get a small fill, say .5cc. I think it sounds a lot like me and that you're going to have to be VERY careful the first few weeks after a fill with what you eat. If you have a PB episode, go to liquids for a couple of days and let things rest. The best advice is to ask your doctor. Explain the whole thing to him. I wish I could be of more help. Go to smartbandsters.com and ask them. They're old pros and Jessie, a bariactric nurse, is on there and she will get back to you. Good luck and keep me posted.

Welcome, heartfire. Glad to have another member. I was laughing yesterday because I haven't figured out how all of us Californians got to be posting on a thread labeled Kaiser Maryland. But I'm glad we found each other. I don't know where in California you are located but if you're from the Sacramento area you'll probably be going through So. San Francisco. I was banded on 12/12/07 by Dr. David Lee down there and I'm so glad I did it. The journey is long and often times very frustrating but being here now, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I started with orientation on June 5, 2007. I decided right then and there that I would follow their meal plan (pre-op diet) and start my weight loss journey from that point on. To date I have lost 89 pounds from my highest weight which showed up early last year to now. I was worried at one point that they would not give me my surgery because I had lost so much. They all assured me that this would not stop the surgery so I tredged on. Kaiser is in it's infancy in regard to the lap band. They have only been doing them for 1 year. The staff is really paying attention and they are always trying to get feedback from the patients. So it's a learning experience for us all. Please feel free to contact me (PM or online) if you have any questions. Each of the Kaiser facilities (all 3) that do this surgery have a different program. It's pretty easy to get through if you're willing to stay in it for the long haul. Like most other programs, you'll have to go through a psych evlauation (piece of cake), see a nutritionalist, meet with the director of bariactrics, and see the surgeon. Good luck on your journey!

Hey smilin_apple - I've been running all over this last week. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. My Dr. is David Lee. I really liked him and I'm hoping that this was just a lack of communication. I need to make sure that he realizes that I'm not going to eat more than 3 oz. of Protein and 1 cup of veggies no matter what. I told him before my surgery that I fully intended to continue with no more than 1200 even if I wasn't at the right fill so I would keep loosing weight. I think I need to remind him of that. He can't go by the fact that I'm loosing weight because of it. Anyway, my last fill has helped and I'm doing pretty good with it. We'll see how it's going as I near the 14th of March. As for your problem, a lot of people are tighter during the mornings. On the other board that I am a member of they talk about this a lot. They suggest starting out with a warm drink in the morning. This tends to loosen the stoma. However, there are still people that just can't eat in the mornings. A glass of milk has something like 9 grams of protein so maybe a couple of these through the day would be good. Make sure that during the hours you can eat to eat 2 to 3 oz of protein FIRST. I have a tendency to still eat a bite of protein and then one of veggies. Since I can get the 2 to 3 oz in it's not a problem. But if I'm tight I do the protein in case I can't get what I need down. I have the problem in reverse. I get tighter in the evenings. It gets better the further out from my fill I get. But the first week or two is a pain. Literally! Since I'm not much of a Breakfast eater by nature I have to make sure the protein is the main thing I eat. If these things don't help, call the doctor. It is possible you need as little as .1cc taken out to make it right. From what I have heard, if you can't eat solids and you are drinking most of your calories you can hinder your weight loss so it's better to have a little taken out. Let me know how it is going.

Hey smilin_apple. Good to hear from you. I got my 2nd fill on Monday (4th) and pretty much had to brow beat the Dr. into giving it to me. He asked me how much I was eating (I told him 3 oz + 1C veggies per meal) and I told him I was getting hungry at about 3 hours. This is about the same as the last time and he gave me a fill. Then he asked me how much I was exercising. I was truthful about it and told him that I hadn't really gotten into a regular routine since surgery. He replied that with that information he wasn't going to give me a fill. My daughter and I both got the impression that I was being punished for not exercising. I finally convinced him to give me a fill and he gave me 1/2 cc. This puts me at 3.5cc. He then told me that I could pretty much figure on not getting anything next time. Hmmmm. We'll have to see about that. If I don't need one I don't want one. However, how can he tell at this appt what's going to happen in a month? This may be something that we'll have to include Dr. Stiles on. I'm down about 16.5 since surgery. I'm coming up on 2 months out next week. I've been plateaued for the last couple of weeks. It sure is frustrating. But this is something every person trying to loose weight goes through. Well, like I said it's good to hear from you again. Keep me posted on how this fill does for you.

Hi Heather - welcome to the board and as a fellow Kaiser lap band member. I went through the program at So. San Francisco and was banded on 12/12/08. I started the program with orientation on June 5, 2007. I, too, was very surprised at how easy it was to get referred to the program. I had one doctor tell me that I would not be accepted because they only took people way bigger than I was. That was about a year before my new PCP referred me. He didn't even blink at my request. I was on their pre-op 1200 cal. diet during my wait and lost about 56 pounds. I'm now down another 13.5 since surgery. I'm down a total of 83 pounds from my highest earlier in 2007. So I'm a happy camper and I really love my band. I hope your journey goes well for you and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

JLM - Where in northern California do you come from? Which Kaiser will you be going through. I'm east of Sacramento in a small town called Penryn. I went to the S. San Francisco Kaiser for my surgery. Good luck to all of you starting out on your journeys.

susieQ - I'm doing great. The fill they gave me has me on the loosing track again. Whoohoo! I was feeling ok within a few days. You're port site will hurt for a couple of weeks but that's nothing that Tylenol won't help. I came back to work on day 6 and had a rough first week. I wasn't taking in enough protein and so I got worn out real quick. Once I started being a good girl with my protein drinks I came back pretty fast. By the first of the year I was going good. I'm about 5.5 weeks out now and don't have any problems unless I eat too fast or something I KNOW I shouldn't do.

I went to the same facility. Orientation is pretty drawn out but it's one of the many things you'll have to go through. It sometimes gets pretty frustrating but hang in there. They are very overwhelmed and sometimes it seems like they loose sight of the emotional turmoil it creates. Good luck on your journey and feel free to contact me for anything. I try to answer questions and give moral support. I've met a lot of good people on the internet.

The average weight loss that the surgeons want to see is 1-2 pounds per week. Some people will loose more and some less. Remember this is an average and not an every week thing. Loosing weight right after surgery (liquid phase) usually only happens with people who are 1) lucky enough to have restriction w/o any fills or 2) count calories until they get restriction. There are several things that can effect weight loss such as calorie intake, sodium intake, Water intake, and exercise to name a few. One of the things that can help is to journal your food intake. Fitday.com has a great free program to do that with. Some people need more than 1 or 2 fills to feel any restriction. Keep in mind this is a very individual thing and you should try not to compare your weight loss with others. Yeah, I know, it's hard not to do that. I know that I lost about 14 pounds after surgery while on the liquid phase only to gain 3 pounds of it back when I started solids. This sent me right back to my fitday. On another site it was brought up that people who use non-dairy coffee creamers and drink coffee throughout the day don't realize that they can take in 400 - 500 calories just on that. When you're trying to keep things around 1000-1200 calories a day, it uses up a lot of what you can have. I hope this helps. Vicki

susieQ - Hi and welcome to the board. I'm from the Sacramento area and was banded by Kaiser in December. It was a long process but I'm really happy I stuck with it. How far into the process are you?

Hi Laurel - I'm Vicki and I had my surgery at SSF Kaiser on 12/12/07. I had my first fill on Tuesday and now have around 3cc's in my band. So far I'm doing ok. I'm still waiting for the weight to start going down. I had to wait around 6 months for my surgery and I lost most of my 78 pounds prior to surgery. For some reason I got really motivated to do it. I was on the liquid diet during Christmas so there was no overdoing it for me. I did regain 3 of the 14 pounds I lost after surgery when I started solids. I'm down to eating approximately 1 cup of food at meals. They're going to have to fill me more if they want the 1/2 cup you mentioned. Feel free to contact me by PM if you want to.

Ok, I must be missing something here. I see that there are a few people who are mad at lpbndinfo and can't for the life of me figure out why. Did she hurt someone or is it just the need to know? I give advice to people on a few of the boards and quite frankly they don't know who I am. Does this really distress people that much? I thought we were all here to help each other on our journeys no matter who we were. So what if she knows/works for some doctors in the field. Maybe they're ok. I think it's up to the people getting the band to check out the doctor of choice regardless of what someone on this board says. I mean, I've heard good and bad about lots of doctors. I know that there are a lot of people I know that would be grateful for any information that they received about how to get the band. How many people have gone to doctors for all sorts of reason knowing that they weren't the best but because they had no other choice. I sure would like to know what set this off. Oh yeah, I use my office email also because it's the one I check the most.

Some insurances will take Weight Watcher's or something like that as a supervised diet. Check with them. Also, you can go to bandstersinsurance.com for more information.

Have your friend call the bariatric department at Kaiser. That's what I did in northern California because I got so tired of all the different information.

Hi Cindy - SSF is also a very long and painfully slow process. From what I hear the timing is even longer. They say that it will be 5 to 6 months from the orientation to just your first appts with any of the bariactric staff. I don't know about Fremont. I went through Dr. David Le and I'm pretty happy with him. I meet with him on the 8th for my follow-up appt and he will decide then if I need a fill. Right now I'm loosing, eating about what they want me to eat but getting hungry at about 3 hours. They want to see you go 4 to 5 hours in between meals. They have you go see your surgeon once a month for a year for fills and just check-ups. We also have to go to a post-op class once a month for a year. Thankfully that is in my area. The surgery went pretty well. Day 2 was my worst. All in all, I'm happy with my surgeon. As Warrior said, you WILL get frustrated. It is an emotional roller coaster getting to where I'm at. The trade off is a whole lot of money being spent. Good luck on your journey! Warrior - Good to see you online!

You get to choose where you go? We didn't. They said that they broke Northern California up into sections and where you landed is where you went. I hope you're right. SSF has a 20 to 24 week wait from what I read on the board from the time you go to orientation until your next appointment. I don't know about Fremont. If what I read is true, then it will probably be around 8 months to a year for surgery. That's only a guess though. I was pretty amazed at the difference in the different Kaiser processes. The nurse at SSF told me that one of them didn't require a psych appt. I have been talking to another person who is going through Richmond's process and it is totally different too. So, I don't know what to tell you on the other ones. All I know is now that I have gotten the surgery I'm sure glad I put up with all the hassle. I'm doing pretty well and I'm loosing really good right now. I've lost 4 pounds since starting solids on the 26th. Of course, probably the only good thing about being on the liquid diet is you loose pretty fast. I think I've lost around 13 pounds since surgery. Right now I'm doing really good with the hunger situtation. I'm thinking he'll probably want to wait on a fill for a while since I can only eat a little and I can last the amount of time they want you to between meals. I'm crossing my fingers that I've somehow ended up one of the lucky ones that won't need too many fills. But I'll let him make that decission. Good luck on your journey through Kaiser's process. It will get frustrating but it will be totally worth it.

I've been laying around healing. I had one bad day (the day after surgery) and I've been doing pretty well since then. The only other problem that I had was I wasn't taking in the protien I should have been for a few days and boy did I feel it. I'm on track now and only have a little pain when I overdo it. I've lost around 10 pounds since surgery. I had put a few back on due to not being deadly strict on my diet but have lost those and a few more. I can't wait to start up with more than their "full liquid" diet which starts on the 26th. I heard about Dr. Alami. I guess he injured his leg during one of the sports he plays. My other friend who has him went to Dr. Le or Li for her fill but is really hoping he gets back soon. She isn't unhappy with the other doctor but really likes Dr. Alami. I don't feel hungry at the moment. I will probably get to that point as things go on. I have an appointment on the 8th and if I need it I can get a fill at that time. I won't get one if I feel like I do right now because I don't want to get too full. I'll just have to see. The hardest thing about going back to work for me is the port site got sore from all of my moving around. I still have to wear my pants partially unzipped if I'm going to be sitting up straight because I get sore. It all has to do with how my bulges go. The port is actually a few inches above my pant line. Oh well. Minor issue. Everything else is healing nicely. Hang in there through the holidays. You'll get your fill and be happier right after the new year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!!

I had my psych evaluation in August 07. It's a pretty straight forward thing. They seem to be looking for the fact that you know what you are getting into. They go over the emotional eating thing, do you have any people who are addicts, alcoholics, etc. in your family - that type of stuff. One of the things that they are looking for is that you fit what they think is the type of person who can succeed with the band. Therefore, if they hear words that tell them you eat emotionally or that you have a lot of family/life issues they become concerned. I don't think that they would ever cancel you permanently unless they thought you would be doing yourself harm if you got one - i.e. anorixia or something like that. The band does take some work so that you can succeed and from the sounds of it getting stuck isn't the place to be. I've only been banded for 9 days so I'm still on liquids and I don't want to go to the stuck place. If you are a person who has a lot of problems with emotional eating, they want to get you the help you need to work through those problems. Again, they are doing this to try to help you succeed. I didn't feel that any of the questions were "trick" questions. It's pretty straight forward. My daughter has had some emotional issues and is having to complete some classes before she gets banded. She is comfortable with this which is good because it has put off her surgery for months. Don't let that get you worried because the whole process is taking months now. She wants to get the issues resolved because she doesn't want to go through surgery just to be in the same place she is now. I have read of people who did not recognize their emotional ties to food and have become depressed because they don't know how to handle their problems after banding. I'm just rambling here so please don't take offense. Once again, the psych appointment is pretty easy. Just listen to the question and realize that they are on your side. I hope this helps.

Well, the next time you guys hear from me, I'll be a bandster!!!! The day has finally arrived and I'm so excited. It's truly been a long 6 months. See you on the other side!!!

Lana - Glad to hear that you've got your fears taken care of. Going into surgery is stressful enough without other worries harping on you. Checking out all the information available online is a good thing. Glad to be of help! Want2beme - I know how you feel about being worried about attacks because you say something. If people check out this thread, they will see it happened to me just because I accidentally worded something a little wrong. I think we should all be able to voice our opinions and experiences without fear of becoming a national enemy. LOL