susieq321

Yasmina,

as you noticed I am 5 years out.. but I was lucky I heal well and fast, I drove to Boston 4 days after surgery and then 2 days later had to fly across the country for work. I didn't need painkillers after I left the hospital (all the bandings were done in the hospital back then) So it depends... my advice take a pillow for the ride home from the clinic it helps with the bumps and the seatbelt. At two weeks out I was walking slowly on a treadmill and doing pretty much everything else too.

Move slowly and heal well, I can't say enough good things about Joffe and Yau as surgeons and their staff at the TLBC.. several are banded so they get where you are and where you are going which is so nice.

Good luck.

Yasmina,

Congrats... that is awesome. You will love Nisrine she is banded and look at her.. hotty mchotty there and such a nice person. Tip from having done this write down your questions in advance so you have them all it is so easy to get in there and forget half of what you want to know about the band and the clinic etc.

Good luck

I was done by Dr Sliwin (not the best beside manner but oh my god an amazing surgeon, he actually has been to seminars for surgeons on how to deal with WLS patients and patients who have had massve losses of weight, our skin changes and has to be dealt with differently etc) I paid $10 500.00 for both the TT and Breast lift/reduction that was including all taxes. I am going back to see him for my thigh lifts and pretty much any other work I need done aside from the face and I will go to someone who only does faces. Yes I am now a firm beleiver in the power of PS... I was happy with who I was before and now I am delighted never underestimate the power of perky boobs to make a girl feel good. I don't plan on touching the face as part of the WLS surgery but I beleive in the power of aging gracefully.

And thank you so much for the compliment.

Puddin, I have a quick question and I will ask the guy who had the Beltline this too.. but recently he had a thich lift that also continued around to give him basically a butt lift with the thigh lift. I am just trying to figure out because the beltline does basically a butt lift with the tightening of the skin in the back of the body any reason you can think of why the surgeon would do a double butt lift kind thing? (by the way he had two seperate incisions the beltline incision and then with the thigh lift the incision goes around the front o his groin all the way through the crotch and around the back about 3/4's of the way along the back of his buttock line. (yes you would think I saw it but no only had it described in detail...)

I thought it was strange to go and do the double butt lift sort of thing.

thank you for the information interesting I hadn't heard that Joffe or Yau was going down to Sarnia.

As for the 100 patients someone has to be in the first 100 and I know the 3 patient in Canada to be banded and she has never ever had an issue lost all her weight and has kept it off for 5 + years now. I kinda went with the method of being somewhere between 50-60.. and the docs only get better with time.

I had a TT of course there is scarring but when I think of their scarring vs mine massive scars some that span several inches in width on top of the scar that goes around the body. My scar is a thin scar that goes hip to hip. The one scar I saw yesterday is about 6 months younger than mine (I was done 3 years ago) and his is stll purple and raw looking. But that is all in how you heal that person heals badly. I heal well, if you were just looking at the area of my scar from a few feet away you wouldn't see it... you have to get close to notice there is even a scar there.

I was talking to the organizer of the Canadian Wellness Bandster Bash the other day and we were discussing what we would like to see happen at the bash at the end of May.

But what we would like to see might not be what everyone else wants, so Kathy would like some suggestions as to what people would like to have seminars or round table discussions on.

We know we are booking a yoga for larger sizes in the morning, there is a reception on Friday night and sometimes we have a discussion or just the party and head to the pool

Saturday is seminars, and Sunday is open round tables with different topics open to discussion.

If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see this year or at future bashes it would be great to hear from you. You can email Kathy directly at munjacake@rogers.com with suggestions etc. Or post them here and I will make sure Kathy comes and reads and is aware of them.

There are few docs in Canada who do the Beltline Liptectomy (body lift) it has a huge complication rate even for plastic sugery. It has about a 50% complication rate. There are a few people who have had it that I know of but all of them have scarring.

I had a breast life/reduction and Tummy Tuck, I love the results. It doesn't change how you feel about your body in some ways, but in other ways it does. It made me more comfy, I lost about 150 lbs so I had a lot of hanging skin on my stomach and now I feel more comfy.

I think it is really individual and you need to be generally happy with your body and really happy with your mental state before you will be happy with plastic surgery.

I know Dr Joffe and Yau used to do some surgery out of the Bluewater are they still doing surgery there? Is there someone else doing surgery there. I am just curious because i thought it was great that somewhere outside of Toronto was getting banding done.

Heather

If you talk to TLBC about the pre-op diet they will let you eat high Protein low fat instead of the yogurt and Water diet. So something like grilled chicken breast works.

They just want you to shrink you liver a bit if possible.

Heather

Since I have the joy of helping plan it I think I just might be there. We love meeting new people and I know the guys love meeting new guys and seeing how they are progressing.

HD

Argon,

I think I know who you are talking about her initials are MS... she is a good friend of mine and she would be flattered to know you consider her an inspiration. This is one of those people who when you meet is truly a good person, she is a good kind spirit and has worked damm hard on her head and her body to get where she is today. She is one of the bandsters that I respect the most out of the dozens that I personally know.

If it is who I am thinking of I am not sure if you read this but she has started to work with the TLBC clinci on life coaching too.

Ok, maybe not famous, but to me, this one gal is. For those of you who don't visit the canadianlapbanders site, you may not know of her. She doesn't post much, which is a shame, cause I find her inspirational. (if you are a member, and don't know who I'm talking about, you can PM, and I'll tell you who's posts and pictures to look for on the other board)

I won't name names, but she was banded a little over 2.5 years ago, started at 427 and is now at 138. From what I've read in previous posts, about 230lbs of those were lost in the first year.

No comparing though, cause seemingly the higher the weight you start at, the faster it comes off in the beginning. But then again, there's another recent bandster, done in May who had 50-ish pounds to lose, and is very close to done. AHHH!

Anyways, not that she's alone... there's lots of people who've lost huge amounts like that on here, and elsewhere (with the band), but it's nice to hear of people a little closer to home.

:clap2:

Tracey let me know there was some confusion as to the bash... the dinner price is also seperate because there are a lot of people who only want to bring their significant other to the dinner and not to all the conferences. So for the price of the bash everything is included, except the hotel room.

This means lectures by surgeons, there is usually a specialist in plastic surgery and specialists in dealing with body image and things like head hunger. The speakers aren't booked yet, but they usually are great at getting very good speakers and they try to split the focus for new bandsters and more senior bandsters topics. The total price also includes all of your food and we customize our menu so that the food is bandster friendly as much as possible.

It is usually a great weekend which lets you connect with people who have been through or are going through what you are. And it is always great to put faces to names.

The Canadian Lapbanders also arrange a monthly meeting for those who are local to Toronto and we have several people who attend. We try and mix up the location around the city for people to get there easier.

Heather