Ang1982

Hey good luck with meeting Dr.Woodhead, I hope he's willing to work with your doc so you can get this show on the road. Keep us posted! What region do you live in if you don't mind my asking?

If you want to get your's done within the US - Dr.Kirschenbaum in Denver is raved about and he is approx $9500. I believe for fills you would be looking at approx anywhere from $125-200 per fill. Check out fillcenterusa website to see if there is one near you. Sorry can't help much more than that as I am Canadian and my surgery cost includes fills for life. Good luck in your journey!

Arrived in the mail today and you know - it's actually not as ugly as I thought it would be. Stainless steel with the standard little "alert logo" and the engraving is there but doesnt stand out like "HEY anyone can look at my wrist and see wtf is up with me". In case anyone is curious it says: On the front - Adj. gastric band w/abdominal medi- port / no NSAIDS & no NG tbue w/o scope see back for more details Back- my name Surgeon - Dr.Robin Woodhead his phone numbers More info in wallet UMI - Home is the company I ordered it from. Came to just over $40 including shipping.

Happy Birthday Wheetsin! I hope that you get pleasantly surprised by your DH and he holds off on purchasing the camera. But regardless, wishing you a happy birthday and a great year.

I have to agree with this statement, please make sure that you make many stops and get lots of stretching/exercise done. My bestfriends husband lives in California while she lives up here in Canada as they await their immigration stuff to be sorted out. He was up visiting for the summer and drove up. After his visit was over and he had to drive back he just jumped in the car and drove straight back without really stopping at all. 13 hours... the next day he was helping some friends move, doing regular things, etc. and then that night at dinner... he had a stroke. He's 25. After many different tests by various different specialists they couldn't determine the exact cause of the stroke but are pretty sure that it had to do with the fact that he was sitting for so long and then when he was helping them move the clot broke free and for whatever reason didn't get absorbed into his body and it went to his brain and that was that. They don't forsee him having another stroke - and he was pretty healthy up to that happening. Goes to show you that you can never be too careful. He is 25 and that happened, and he does have some after effects so please, please be careful. As driving that long a trip just after surgery could be even more risky than just that length of trip in general.

OMG Chrisann where do you live? You got breakfast for $1.07?! Man that'd be like 6 bucks here! :cursing: Second fill until March 6? I don't even get my first one until then so as much as you can be jealous, it could be worse haha.

If you do end up doing the long drive, may I suggest bring along a pillow. My surgeon is only 2 hours away and I found it reasonably comfortable to just buckle in then hold onto my pillow against my belly. Guess it helped keep things from bouncing around, etc.

BC MSP does not cover the lapband at all unfortunately. Any of the BC lapband surgeons (all 2-3 of them) will tell you that it doesn't as will BC MSP if you phone them. Gastric Bypass yes, lapband, no.

I'm actually in agreement with this. The ads along the sides and top is fine, but the ones in the middle of threads irk me.

Heh, admittedly so I am. I used to be a big addict but now I'm much more laid back about it.

Awesome! Yes, it is nice to do something within someone who loathes it equally haha. Feb12 day 1 - 10 minutes - complete

Thanks Diane! That's the plan, gonna make sure I do!! I actually haven't snacked at all. I have my protein shake for breakie, half a cup of whatever my pureed of the day feels like being for lunch and half a cup for dinner. Today's the first day I actually had a tiny cup of apple sauce in the afternoon because I thought I was gonna die LOL. Either than that, no snackages for me!!

Thanks, I am not looking forward to the exercise but I am looking forward to losing the weight so I guess I'll suck it up when it comes to the exercise - put my big girl panties on (soon to hopefully be small girl panties hehe) and do it. Just do it. You're right - I don't want to get back to Curves right away as I think that will be a bit much so I was planning on when I get my first fill getting the docs a-okay to go back (that would be at approximate 5-6weeks), until then I will just be friends with my elliptical. Other than that I don't get much exercise, I have a sit down desk job and in the evenings I go home and mess around on my computer. Although once we are out of the winter/rainy spring my DF and I are going to get going for walks in nice weather. :tt2::mad: I think the idea for March is a great one, and I do agree that February would have been a bit soon. :tongue: Good plan, let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

I'm curious - do you live in BC? I don't knock going to Mexico at all - I don't have a doubt in my mind that they wouldnt be VERY capable surgeons with great facilities. BUT that being said - if you do live in BC just be prepared to have to possibly search long and hard or cross the border to get fills if you go out of Province for surgery. There are to my knowledge 2 (maybe 3 - one on the island) doctors in BC that do Lapbands/aftercare and they do not/will not take others patients (as stated in other posts) unless some sort of fill clinic has opened somewhere that I am unaware of. Sure you could go to Everett or Arlington WA for fills but what happens if you get stuck and need a defill asap (emergency even) you're going to have to deal with the whole crossing the border issues and what if for whatever reason they dont let you cross? All things to keep in mind, if you are willing to deal with those chances then best of luck in Mexico. Just be sure you arent sacrificing your health in aftercare to save a few bucks from the start. :mad:

Hey girlie, it was easily almost two weeks before I had to #2 at all. I didn't feel backed up or anything I just didn't have to go. I guess just from being on liquids my body was peeing it out rather than the other. And when it did decide it was time (just around the 2 week mark) there was no need for Milk of Magnesia or anything - it just happened and normally. But now I definitely don't #2 everyday like before - MAYBE every 2-3 days and I'm on pureed/mushies now. Well done on the weight loss so far - keep kick @$$.

Oh gosh! You poor thing what a day that was! Those are the type of days you just want to go home, curl up in bed and not get up until it's quarter past icecream lol. At least you could have a good laugh about it!

Sounds like a plan. I got up a bit early today (and I'm soooo sleepy right now) and did 5 minutes on my elliptical, figured I would start with 5min at a time or my poor leg muscles may be Jello and I may not be moving oh so swiftly tomorrow, so I will do another 5minutes when I get home. What is your plan to exercise? Do you have a machine of sorts? Going to go for walks?:scared2:

Thanks for all the advice everyone. And Jachut you're right just frickin do it. My thing is when I get home from work that's the last thing on my mind. So, tomorrow I get up a few min early and get my ass on that elliptical and go. I think I will start easy with 10 minutes, my poor muscles will probably die if I do too much right away - I'll let ya know how it goes!

hmmm okay sounds like a plan.. yah I have an elliptical that stares me down in my living room.

So here I am almost 3 weeks out of surgery... and I don't exercise, at all. Nothing, zip, nada. To be honest I never even really walked much during the post op gas phase because I didn't really have to. So here I am with a Curves membership that I have had since last hmmm June (did I mention I only went for like a month when I had it lol) and an elliptical sitting in my living room yet you think I have gotten up/out to use either? Nope not at all. So obviously I have a LAZYNESS issue (duh, that's how I got fat haha) but can anyone give me some pointers on how to kick myself in the @$$ and get on it? :smile2:

TFOT "The Future Of Things" (a website) - it's a link, click it to read story he is referring to.

My surgery was $14000 that I paid directly to my surgeon and he paid out the appropriate people from that amount.

My girl friends black lab from pretty much puppyhood had to be crate trained and as much as it seems "cruel" to have them in such a small space she does much better when she's in her crate (her crates a reasonably big size). It's her "comfy place" and her "home". They've tried letting her run free in the house to this day when they are out and it ALWAYS ends badly (she's 2+ now). Her crate is somewhere that she is comfortable with and doesn't cry in when she's knows its time to go there.

Ahh that sucks. Those things are so handy. Although I don't have the actual Magic Bullet because here they are like $70 (for a blender no thanks) so I got walmarts knock off version (miracle blender) for $30-35 instead. So far it's not yet kicked the bucket although it doesn't really seem to have the power to do much besides liquids with a bit of ice or frozen fruit in it. I tried tuna and mayo the other day and I was sure I was going to blow the motor, and get this - the blade actually bent. Is the Magic Bullet better for stuff like that?

Well I am almost 3 weeks post op and feel absolutely fine so I could start doing exercise at any point... except my problem is UGH I just don't want to. I HATED IT SO MUCH and well I haven't lost enough weight yet to have that attitude change. *sigh*.