RedTulips3

I PMed you Clevergrrly. Laura, what a nice dr. you had that he didn't make you pay for your revision surgery. As nice as my dr. is, business is business. Your hospital/anesthesia only costed $800? That's extremely cheap. If you had your port replaced, it had to come from another band, so didn't you have to pay for it? Who did you pay for the replacement?

Genesis, Sorry to hear about your previous issue and your current issue. Congratulations on your weight loss so far! Are you going back to your dr. soon for a fill? Maybe make an appoinment and see if your 5cc is still in your band, that will be the way to find out if you have a leak. Or just maybe your optimum fill level has changed and you need more to get the right restriction now. Good luck and I hope everything works out!

Howdy neighbor! Welcome to the Jan. 08 board. First I want to commend you on your weight loss so far! I see your posts around here a lot and I check in on your blog once in a while and you're doing amazingly so kudos to you! I was also curious about the post-op diet and I wanted to find out from others who had their entire band replaced, but I haven't found many around here on LBT. I have my one week check-up with my dr. tomorrow, so I will have more details about it tomorrow. Before surgery my doc said that I would be able to progress more quickly from liquids to solids because like you said, all the scar tissue is in place and there isn't much healing that the stomach has to do. But there is swelling from having surgery and the stomach being aggrivated from having the old band removed and the new one put in. My doc doesn't differentiate between clear and full liquids, but I stayed with Clear Liquids til 3 days post op (as opposed to 4 last time). I did liquids the first 4 days and then I added in pureed baby food for the last few days because I felt like I could handle it. Babyfood is part of the week 2 post-op diet, but I wouldn't add anything else from the week 2 diet. I can definitely tell a big difference between this surgery and the first in regards to general recovery, but also in tolerance of the amount of liquids. 2 days after surgery I was drinking well over 60 ounces, whereas it took me like 4 days last time to come near 60oz. The first time I had a Protein shake when I was banded the first time, it took me 1/2 hr to sip 4 oz, but this time I could drink the entire 11 oz within 10 min. I'm going to stick with his regular Week 2 post op-diet, which is anything pureed to babyfood consistency, but I'll see what he says. I have a feeling I will probably be able to move to soft foods by the end of week 2. I'll also just see how I feel too and listen to my body and how my stomach/band reacts I agree that the band has been a tremendous help and I am happy that I had mine replaced because I don't think I could make it without it!

:blushing:LOL...so I totally read your post wrong! I'm not really sure how I did that....anywho, good luck on getting those last pounds off. You might think that one clothing size and 23lbs won't be such a huge visual impact, but I actually think it's the exact opposite. When normal weight people lose 10lbs, you can tell the difference and people rant and rave about how good they look. It took 50lbs+ for me to lose for people to start noticing. When there's less to lose, the difference is more noticeable, so don't be surprised if people do notice. 1.33lbs a week is still really good at this point for you, and like you said, as long as you're not gaining. Hope your fill went well!

:thumbup::blushing::thumbup: Thank you for the complement. Congrats on your weight loss so far as well!

Any artificial product put in your body has only a limited life-span. Things like knee replacements, and pacemakers etc. In 15 years, there will most likely be a more efficient and effective band, so at the point, if your band becomes defective you would get the new one. Kind of like getting a tune up, if you will. Like when you trade in your old cell phone or ipod for a newer version. That's how I see it. I happened to get a band that was defective after 8 months, but it's yet to be determined what the issue was. So I got a new one. It happens to be I had the older Allergan band and got the new one, but that's obviously not why I got rebanded. I wasn't expecting it to happen in the first year (or the second or the third), but it did. In regards to the insurance companies not paying, if you were covered before, they should cover to fix a problem. I assume insurance companies pay for something like replacing or fixing a knee replacement that has become defective over time. Why would the band be any different?

Yay gingerbug! Getting below 200 is an AMAZING feeling. I use Fitday too, and I like how they have how much weight you need to lose per week in order to reach your goal. How long are you planning to be on a liquid diet for? I was on a plateua the past few weeks also. It was a combination I guess of not having as much to lose and not being 100% with my food, but I think the main part was having no fill. That was due to the fact that I had a leak in my band and I was rebanded last week. Maybe you need a fill or are you at a good restriction level? I wonder if you can still lose 2.1lbs a week when you only have 23lbs til goal (yay!) because I'm realizing how the last few pounds get harder. I say go for it, but I wouldn't want you to be upset if you didn't get there when you expected to. Do you mind me asking how tall you are? I'm really excited for you to be in onederland because I know how exciting it was for me when I hit onederland!

Clevergrlly, I know you posted this awhile ago, but I was wondering how you're doing and if you had your band replaced and how it's going? I also had a leak in my band. Still not sure where the leak/problem is yet. I had my band removed and new one put in this past week. The band is being sent back to Allergan to find out where it is defective. Before removing my band, my doc injected blue dye to try and see where the leak was, but couldn't find it. After he removed it, he injected the blue dye and couldn't find the leak. Hoping to find out from Allergan what the issue was. I was self-pay the first time around. Half to the dr. half to the hospital. In terms of payment this time, the way it worked for me is that the hospital provides my dr. with the bands so it's their fault for providing the faulty band so getting a new one was not a problem (the band itself probably does not cost much to produce). My anesthesia and hospital stay were covered by insurance. I did have to pay my surgeon's fee for performing the actual surgery which was around $4000. I didn't ever have to deal with Allergan/Inamed at all. What happened with your payment in the end?

Hey all! I'm back from from getting re-banded. The surgery went as planned and I'm at home recovering. I feel better than I did the first time because the surgery was less invasive, but I'm definitely in pain, but the medicine is helping with it. Feeling better each day!

Ang, you're looking great!!! Heather- WTG! Looking great too! WOWOX7- I can't see the pics, just some things that look like links

Congrats SB and Diane on your respective major NSVs! Woohoo! Diane, wow! I can't imagine what you went through having the issues you're having, especially being in a foreign country! I can't really be of much help because I haven't had such issues. I only had one episode where I couldn't get anything down except Water after swelling up from getting stuck. If everything gets better and you stay in Barcelona, maybe you want to look into getting your tubing shortened and "de-kinked" when you get back to the U.S.? You should be able to get your fills out of the band, specifically for cases like this when it's an emergency. I hope now that it's been a few days since this that everything is okay! Sending you well wishes!

Hey fellow Knockouts! Just a little (more like big) update about what’s been happening with me in the past month or so. My lapband journey has taken an interesting twist and turn lately that I never would have expected. It turns out that my band has a leak! I’m getting re-banded this coming Wednesday. I never thought that I would be the one with a defective band. It wasn’t even something that I worried about going into the surgery initially, but it happened. (I apologize that this is post is extremely long!) Here’s how it all played out: Some of you might remember my posts about not being sure if I had restriction as I felt like I could eat a considerable amount. However, I had been consistently losing weight because I’ve been strict low-carb (even pre-band) so I couldn’t complain. In retrospect (now that I have absolutely no fill and no restriction), I did have some restriction and it did help with the weight loss, but I hadn’t gotten to my sweet spot yet. I had a fill in May, which brought me up to 2.4cc in 4cc band. I went back the first week of July and only 2.2cc was there. There was no concern about a leak because such a small amount could have evaporated or the doc couldn’t get all of the saline out. I got a fill to bring me to 2.7cc. It didn’t make much of a difference. Went back 2 weeks later and got a little more for a total of 2.9cc. Still no difference. Went back a week later and got a little more for a total of 3.2cc. (I’m still confused as to why an entire 1cc was added over a small time period and I didn’t feel a difference at all. It wasn’t the leak because my doc made sure that my fill was still in my band before he added the fill each time). After all those visits in July, I was only 3 weeks from the original date of my next fill appointment mid August, so I just waited to go then. I had an inkling that maybe something was up because I hadn’t felt any difference in restriction, but it was a distant thought. When my doc went to remove the fill before adding more, nothing came out. My doc has never missed my port, but he tried again to confirm that nothing was in my band. So over a 3-week span, I had lost my entire fill of 3.2cc. I was definitely surprised and I wasn’t sure what to say, but I was relatively calm about it. He just said the obvious: that there was a leak somewhere in the band and it needed to be replaced, and that was that. As an experiment, he added 3cc to my band that day and when I went a week later to meet about getting rebanded, less than 1cc was left. As of right now, we don’t know where the leak/problem is, but I’m having the entire band replaced. Some docs replace only the part of the band that has the problem like the port and tubing, but the way he explained it (and it makes a lot of sense), is that, yes there may be a leak in the port/tubing, but if he just replaces that, it’s possible that there could be a leak in the band itself too and you’re still left with a defective band. Some people have fluoroscopes or contrast tests to find the leak, but my doc said that a leak by the band may not even show up on those tests because it’s surrounded and encased by the scar tissue and the stomach that’s sewn on top of it and that’s why we didn’t bother to do those tests and the entire thing is just being replaced. When I go into surgery, my doc will inject the blue dye to see if he can find the leak, but regardless of where it is, the whole thing is being replaced. Like I said before, no one plans for this to happen. I’m not sorry at all that I had the surgery in the first place. Having the band for the past 9 months almost has been a great experience and I’m extremely happy with my progress thus far. I’m down 70lbs since surgery and 130lbs in the past year. I’m in great physical shape and I’m healthier than ever and I couldn’t have done it without the band. I still managed to lose weight this summer even without restriction, which I credit to my low-carb eating and exercise. I'm not excited to go through the whole thing again, but it’s completely worth it. Now I can actually answer the question "would you do it again?" honestly and say, "not only would I, but I am doing it again!" My doc reassured me that my recovery time would be quicker because the stomach is already sewn into place and the scar tissue is formed and there’s a spot for the port already made. All he has to do is remove the old band and slip the new one in. Obviously there will still be pain from the incisions and the surgery itself, but overall I’m optimistic that it won’t be too bad. When actually faced with deciding to have surgery again, I had to really think it through and consider my options. I considered not getting rebanded because I had done so well until now even without decent restriction, but I quickly came to the conclusion that that would not be the best option. As much as I had been successful, maintenance of the weight loss is key and that’s what the band is there for along the way and at goal. Additionally, the less we have to lose, the harder it gets to lose those last pounds and again, the band and restriction is what will help us get there. And I can’t even tell you how clear this is to me because I have absolutely no restriction right now. I can eat and eat and eat and eat like I did pre-band and I don’t like it at all! I’m looking forward to being over and done with my surgery and getting back to my normal routine. I’m looking forward to actually getting to my sweet spot and reaching my goal weight. I was aiming to reach my first goal weight of 160lb by my 1 year bandiversary (the original one that is), which I think would have been feasible, and I’m still aiming for that even with being rebanded. I have tried to remain as positive as possible about the whole situation. In general, I try to just take things as they come and deal with them, and I think I’ve been pretty successful doing that. Like anything in life, in a few months it won’t be such a big thing, it’ll just be another part of “life”. I pray that the surgery will go smoothly and that there won't be any complications. I will hopefully give you guys an update as soon as I am up to it after surgery to let you know how things went! Thanks for reading my extremely long post! Thank you in advance for your support as I know I can count on it here at LBT! I have been so busy as I’m a full time college student and I haven’t had a chance to post much, but I have read your updates and I see your progress pics. Keep up the great work everyone!

Good luck! Hope everything goes well!

It's amazing how everything shrinks. I used to wear a size 11 and now I wear a 9.5. My ring size was 11 and now it's 7.5. My wrist is so small now too, I keep having to move my watch band a notch tighter and taking out links.

I think I've found some of the names that were dropped. Hope this is the most updated list! Name______Start Weight____Current Weight____Goal________Lbs lost *****:cool2:************************:tt2:************:tongue2:*********:w00t:**** 1day at a time.....263............263............243............0 2BHealthE!.........194............179............194............0 ahsem2bme..........244............244............225............0 aJoneen............223............223............213............0 Aphrodite1984......208............208............190............0 Ariel..............199............198............180............1 ArmyWife4life......209.5..........209.5..........190............0 Barb12590..........228............228............213............0 Bea1128............210.5..........208............188..........2.5 Brandymom1234......227............156............135............0 Caramia71..........208............207............195............1 Crzytchr...........281............279............265............2 DebinFl............181............181............168............0 georgiagirl........245............239............230............6 HarleyGirl.........188............188............175............0 HeatherA...........210.5..........210.5..........200............0 HeatherO...........155............154............140............1 Jazzyywan..........255............255............190............0 Jodi_620...........196............192............177............4 KikiVal315.........237.5..........237.5..........220............0 laurigee...........267............180............160............0 Leslie2Lose........220............214............205............6 lindar172 .........274.2..........273.6..........256............0.6 LisaB..............205.5..........202............180............3.5 livn4thm...........235............235............210............0 Long2bthin.........248............246............230............2 Luu2008............203............203............183............0 KikiVal315.........237.5..........237.5..........220............0 Mamanmidwife.......299............295............280............4 mamato3............186............186............170............0 MarinaBleu.........226.5..........226.5..........216............0 memom..............210............210............170............0 Minxz..............300............300............290............0 mominlv13..........299.8..........297.6..........275............2.2 nip50..............175............175............160............0 NurseNiki..........258............255............239............3 odamay.............242............242............225............0 paige65............252............252............232............0 pj_txlady..........220............220............200............0 Redtulips3.........180............180............170............0 Renee74............214............213............199............1 Renewedhope........171............170............150............1 reif78.............294............195............185............0 shaversd...........235............230.5..........210............0 SpecialK...........294............294............280............0 Sunshine2..........177............176............167............1 Tess...............304............304............280............0 thatDEgirl.........211............211............195............0 Turler.............225............222............210............3 wendyw.............192............192............172............0 wowox7.............195............191............170............4 WyominGirl.........327............327............312............0

WTG Gillian! That's amazing! Congrats on your weight loss so far!

I weighed in unofficially on a scale I don't usually use and it said I reached my goal weight! I won't have a chance to weigh myself on my official scale til Fri. so I'm updating as if I reached my goal! Good luck everyone else! Name_________Start Weight ____Goal____ Lbs lost____Current Weight *****:thumbup:********** ****************:tt2:**********:w00t:***** aJoneen............230.........220.......7.......... Bea1128............220.........199.......9.5........210.5 Babs0101...........185.........170.......0.......... blesdbyonmzur......159.........148.......4.......... BTTRFLI1432........221.........210.......6.......... Bunkey1965.........212.........195.......17.........193:thumbup: Chocolate_Snaps....254.........240.......6.......... Darr5380...........167.........155.......5..........162 Epm316.............209.........199.......7..........202 erikadawn..........199.........175.......0.......... FloridaGirl........235.........215.......0.......... HeatherO...........172.........155.......17.........155:thumbup: Heft_Bandit........261.........245.......6..........255 JennyPoo...........169.........159.......5.......... KarenG.............160.........158.......6.......... KathyStrick........305.........290.......0.......... Lapbandfan.........258.........230.......2.......... Leslie2Lose........224.........209.......4..........220 LessNLess..........144.5.......140.......0.......... LilMissBand-Aid....234.4.......225.......6.2........ Lunabeane..........221.........200.......16.........205 Luu2008............219.........189.......16.........203 Luv2Laugh..........232.........212.......0.......... luvinke............206.........190.......0.......... mamato3............199.........184.......11..........188 mcgreen............189.........175.......0.......... mdgarcia31665......225.........200.......0.......... melboyd............266.........256.......14.9.......251.1:thumbup: Missrach...........269.........175.......25.........244 MollyMolly.........192.........182.......2.......... mominlv13..........316.........300.......15.2.......299.8:thumbup: MSnika3............228.........204.......4.......... MyTurn.............250.........240.......7..........243 NANAbanded.........225.........199.......10.........215 Ninja..............204.........189.......5.......... NukeChik...........221.........199.......6.......... Ollie..............242.........210.......0.......... Redtulips..........194.........180.......14.........180? Renewedhope........174.........155.......8..........171 ronni_NC...........243.........220.......0.......... slgandera..........185.........173.......7.......... StartingOver.......220.........205.......15......... Sunshine2..........187.........170.......10..........177 want_so_bad........170.........155.......0.......... Sades.......(7/16).192.5.......180.......8.6........ Sadie..............220.........199.......6.......... smwww..............189.........179.......0.......... tp78...............212.........195.......7..........

Good luck to everyone! I'll be adding my name to the list soon, just waiting til I can weigh in next week on the scale that I normally use and have an official start weight.

Sounds great! Can I make a suggestion that we put the current weight next to the starting weight so it looks like this? Name......Start Weight.....Current Weight......Goal.....lbs lost Or if instead of how many lbs we lost, how many more we have left to go? I see a bunch of people already submitted their stats so it might be difficult to do the second suggestion. Any thoughts?

I tried on a wide-calf boot and it was too big!

Leslie, I didn't lose any weight 2 weeks in a row and then I also gained weight last week even though I was exercising really hard and eating the right foods. I know how you feel about gaining! I just had to be patient with it and indeed it was water weight that FINALLY came off this week. Just keep it up, but I know how hard it is to see a gain! Name_________Start Weight ____Goal____ Lbs lost____Current Weight *****:cool2:********** :biggrin:****************:tt2:**********:w00t:***** aJoneen............230.........220.......5.......... Bea1128............220.........199.......5.......... Babs0101...........185.........170.......0.......... blesdbyonmzur......159.........148.......4.......... BTTRFLI1432........221.........210.......6.......... Bunkey1965.........212.........195.......15.........197 Chocolate_Snaps....254.........240.......6.......... Darr5380...........167.........155.......3.......... Epm316.............209.........199.......6..........203 erikadawn..........199.........175.......0.......... FloridaGirl........235.........215.......0.......... HeatherO...........172.........155.......13.........159 Heft_Bandit........261.........245.......6..........255 JennyPoo...........169.........159.......5.......... KarenG.............160.........158.......6.......... KathyStrick........305.........290.......0.......... Lapbandfan.........258.........230.......2.......... Leslie2Lose........224.........209.......5..........219 LessNLess..........144.5.......140.......0.......... LilMissBand-Aid....234.4.......225.......6.2........ Lunabeane..........212.........200.......9.......... Luu2008............219.........189.......14......... Luv2Laugh..........232.........212.......0.......... luvinke............206.........190.......0.......... mamato3............199.........184.......6.......... mcgreen............189.........175.......0.......... mdgarcia31665......225.........200.......0.......... melboyd............266.........256.......5.8........260.2 Missrach...........269.........175.......25.........244 MollyMolly.........192.........182.......2.......... mominlv13..........316.........300.......10.8.......305.2 MSnika3............228.........204.......4.......... MyTurn.............250.........240.......0.......... NANAbanded.........225.........199.......7.......... Ninja..............204.........189.......5.......... NukeChik...........221.........199.......6.......... Ollie..............242.........210.......0.......... Redtulips..........194.........180.......10.5.......183.5 Renewedhope........174.........155.......5.......... ronni_NC...........243.........220.......0.......... slgandera..........185.........173.......7.......... StartingOver.......220.........205.......15......... Sunshine2..........187.........170.......8..........179 want_so_bad........170.........155.......0.......... Sades.......(7/16).192.5.......180.......8.6........ Sadie..............220.........199.......6.......... smwww..............189.........179.......0.......... tp78...............212.........195.......7..........

Laurinda, I remember at my first consultation with my doc, I asked what he thought I could get down to and he told me 190. Being 305lbs at the time that number sounded absolutely amazing to me because it meant being under 200! I couldn't even fathom such a number. That number was a great number to shoot for when starting out at 300lbs+, but that only put me at the edge of overweight/obese categories. By the time surgery rolled around I was 250lb so we lowered it to like 160-170, which seemed more reasonable. If I would have set that goal when I was 300lbs I would have given up! When I got below 200, I reassessed and decided that I want to shoot for a normal BMI weight as my goal. 160lb will put me just above it. 155lb is my ultimate goal as I will be in normal BMI range and that will be a loss of 50% of my body weight! You're not crazy at all! I think it's great that you're not caught up in the number on the scale. For a lot of people though (including myself), it's their motivation (either positive or negative) to keep on going. I definitely think that as you lose more weight, you can figure out a goal weight for yourself, if you want to. Being out of the 200s does wonders for your perspective on things. At least in my case, based on my height using the BMI chart, when I got into the 190s, I was like "190 is only 30lbs from 160, I can totally get to 160!" Whatever you're doing is working since you've lost almost 80lbs since surgery so keep on doing it and congrats to you!

Congratulations on making it to onederland! I agree, your pics are amazing! WTG!

I had .5cc in 4cc band put in at surgery.

I just reread my post and realized that I made a typo. I wasn't asking why you have to eat vegetables, but you understood that's not what I meant. I had a small chuckle with that. Anyway, I understand the eat Protein only, and I do that frequently because I count carbs, but I enjoy eating my turkey in a salad. Lettuce is pretty boring by itself an hour after eating my protein, but I understand the approach. In regards to not eating too much in order not to stretch the pouch, I don't feel like my consuming larger quantities is stretching the pouch. I assume it means the food is just going through the band because I don't have enough restriction. Maybe I'm wrong. But people do get unfills to be more open in order to eat a larger quantity of food, so wouldn't that just be the same as me? Would a flouro reveal that? My doc doesn't use flouro. What do most people consider slider foods? Is it just anything that goes through the band easily? I have become very attuned to signals my body gives me. I can tell when I'm hungry and when I'm not. I know a certain portion can keep me satisfied for a while, but I can physically eat more. Maybe that's my soft stops and maybe I naturally listen or don't listen to them. But I've never gotten to a point where I was like "woah, I just ate WAY too much". I want to try chewing less, but I'm afraid I'll get stuck. Maybe I have to find a balance between big bites and pureed mush. A few times, in my haste because I was so hungry, I didn't chew as well and I got stuck. A lot of people say that the first few bites especially need to be chewed well to sort of "warm up" the pouch. That makes a lot of sense to me. In addition to that, if you swallow a not well chewed piece of food it sits there on top of the band without being able to pass at all and everything you eat thereafter will "pile" up on top of that piece and put pressure on it causing a lot of discomfort.