NM Sunshine

Crabcake Gross 'T' in that I have to keep in in the refrigerator!! Yea, I can just see my embarrasment of hauling that giant jug in. At least it is orange plastic and not clear plastic! I'm on 3 BP meds. One was cut in half some weeks ago. Now I am to go off the second med by halving the pill for a week, then take it 1 day on and 1 day off for the second week. Then elimate it. In the past when I went off one of the meds (because I was out of pills) my BP jumped to 200/105. It's a reaction I have to sudden stops.

Crabcake & Indigo Girl The doc redid the blood tests yesterday in case a mistake was made and I'm doing a 24 hour urine collection. Those should reveal if a mistake was made. I had high blood pressure, it has dropped so doc removed some of the blood pressure meds. The blood pressure continues to drop ( about 90/60). I'm now weanning of my main med. We'll see what happens. Crabcake, That is one of the main reasons I got banded. To get me off these meds and to avoid diabetes and such.

Hi All, anyone know anything about this. I was banded on 9/11/07. In late Oct. I got blood tests. It turns out that my bad cholesterol shot up from normal to 189 (very high) also triglacydes up. My creatinine is real high and my BUN is up (both are signs that my kidneys aren't cleaning my blood very well. Also my blood pressure is much lower than it should be. Went back today for more tests. My PCP seemed to imply that the lap band surgery may be part of this???? Maybe just misread him. A year ago my blood work showed me to have and ideal LDL/HDL triglacydes were low. No kidney problems. This has me bitting my nails from worry. Anyone know anything about the surgery and the problems I have?????????????

Denise To be within 15 pounds of goal would like a piece of heaven. Do you excersize? Perhaps if you increased your workout or begin a workout (if you don't excersize). It sounds like you are stuck in that starvation mode where the body decreases your metabolism. The body does this because it is still back in the stone age, feast or famine. Excersize is one way to boost the metabolism.

WASABB You are the poison that needs to be drained not Dr. G's stats

Jessie Also remember that if your work requires use of your abdomen muscles, like lifting more than 10 pounds, it will take close to a month before you can use them. That is one to check with Dr.V on. BlueEyed I envy you. the nearest fill center is 250 miles from me. I fly back to TJ for my fills.

Jessie I didn't take the painkillers because you have to grind them up and their taste was BITTER ugh... I take a lot of meds for other things and they often cause me to be tired but not so tired as I was after surgery. Also I take meds for Bipolor and they make me sleepy. I use to be hyper and couldn't sleep. You just may not have the sleep problem. I didn't have much pain but a LOT of gas.

Only the 1 fill. I do really need a 2ed fill as the 1st just didn't work after a few days. Others have a very different experience on their first fill.

Jessie Seems like I slept most of the time for the 1st week

Jessie Laura is one of my favorite persons. Blue eyed I posted a message but it didn't post........must have been something I'd done. Great that you still feel restriction. It left slowly for me too, then regained appitite. Where R U going 4 fills?

kmmmm I went for 1st fill with an empty stomach. You drink water at the fill and you need to know if it goes straight down or if it backs up. Having food in your stomach would effect this process and give a false water test.

Judy2291 I was thinking the same thing!!!! But looks like we're fine. Jimmyjoe Wel be here you, you can count on us. Most of us have been there and I think you will find it so much easier than you think. Laposcopic surgery is easy on you with just small incisions. Not much pain. Nite all heading for zzzzzzzzzzz

2bthin 35 pounds congradulations. Seems like you are steadily losing 10pounds a month. Perhaps you have an image in your head of what your body will look like when you reach your goal and want it so bad right now that anything in between is exaggerated toward the old you. Hey it's been almost 2 months since I had the surgery and I've only lost 10 pounds. It was 14pounds but I gained back 4 before my first fill. And yes it does make me :sick . I have hypothyroidism, which may be why it is so hard to lose weight.

I hear that shunning is a POWERFUL tool, Lap Bandit you're funny.LOL Hi Blue eyed Are you still feeling restriction? Do you know when you plan on your first fill?

Holly That first banding can cover the whole restriction range; from feeling no restriction to feeling very tight. Mine is no or very little restriction. Some say it takes until the 3rd fill for the restriction to really take.

Judy Getting down medicines was one of the most difficult things to do. I chopped them up but later found out that there are some meds that you shouldn't chop up (time release type). WOW how embarrasing to be in public and have to barf........lucky to have a poo poo bag around. I never thought of it but, It may be handy to keep something like that in your purse, just in case. Those instant diet puddings are ok during the early period after surgery. Have fun at the outing (((Judy)))

Judy2291 I now think the only way to handle her is to not respond to her posts. Ignore her and pm that to others if she does show up. If she comes in with a different handle, it will be easy to recognize her. I'm sorry to hear that was going on when you had just came back from surgery. How was your surgery? How are you doing now? I was very tired and sleep a lot the first week or so. Also I had a lot of restriction for some time after surgery.

For those going back to Dr. G for fills. On other threads I'v e read a bit about how peoples doctors take sometimes 20 minutes of probing and poking until he finds the soft part of the port. When I went for my fill Dr. G found the right spot immediately and it felt like a pin prick. Perhaps it has to do with all the years of doing the surgery, 17 years. Now I don't know if that is just lapband or not. I think the band has been around for 17 years, just not in the USA.

Mistymoon That is what people on forum have told me. They said that you shouldn't get another fill for at least two weeks after last fill because you may not feel the restriction for two weeks. I hope it is true because I am counting the days. My Dr. hit the port immediately and I just felt a prick feeling. But, I think my stomach swelled because I did feel good restriction the first few days afterwards.

This new thread sounds GREAT! :whoo:I sent an email to Lap Bandit about it. Hopefully we get pm's to everyone who would like to join us, excluding the 'problem' two. NewBlue I also understand that shrinking your liver not only helps the surgeons but also helps you. The surgery is a lot easier on you and makes recovery faster with the smaller liver. I had a hard time on just liquids but ate a lot of soft stuff like diet pudding. Dr. G said that my liver was small and like a 15 year olds and my surgery took 25 min.. I don't know why but sure was happy to hear that. Before surgery I drank wine, a glass or two, after dinner (no beer or hard liquer). The whole liver thing is a mystery to me. I sure cannot see how carrot, cucumber or celery would be a no no. Carrots do have a lot more sugar in than other vegetables though. After surgery you won't be eating any of them unless they are cooked very soft or put in blender. And yes the preop was hard. After surgery it is real easy to stay on liquids because you won't have an appitite for a few weeks, and very little food will fill you up. Christene, There are doctors who even have no preop diet. Suprises me. Preop is also a preparation diet to help us do better after surgery.

Hi All, I think my last post was an answer for several pages back....silly me. Mistymoon I got my 1st fill a week and 1/2 ago and don't feel any restriction but, people say that I may begin to feel it the second week after fill. We'll see.

mistymoon I know what you mean by discouraged with the band and the will power thing. I started the Southbeach diet so as to keep my cravings restrained. It does work. I couln't get my ticker to work if I followed the directions so I copied the picture and pasted it into the big box. It worked. Good Luck

SKINNYDIP I'd say definately go to the other hospital. A year to 1&1/2 years is just way too long at our age. I think fat is much more damaging to us over 60's. I'm thinking heart attacks, hypertension so on. It has a major effect on how many years we live. Had read somewhere that you live 40% longer with the band than you would without. I've been observing that everyone I see over 80 seems to be real slim. Packing on a few extra quality years sounds good to me. Good luck on your journey.

PHYL forgot to say that is odd how it is that you felt more restraint on the 2ed fill than the 3rd. I thought the 3rd was the magic number... the fill that is suppose to really work. But you have lost a lot of weight and those bands get looser the more you lose. Perhaps that is what is going on?

PHYL :hungry: me most of the time. I know what it is like while RVing. It's the hardest time to stick to a diet. Also hard to get some excersize in. Guess thing to do is when you pull in for the night is grab hubby and take a walk. We had an older class C that we sold and bought something smaller. It's a new Class B 23 ft Airstream Van. Has everything, bath shower so on, but it is much smaller than the one we had before. I like the spaciousness of the other one but it was getting 8 miles to the gallon while the new one gets 25 MPG!!! Anyway, before DH didn't want to take trips cause of the cost of gas. Now he wants to take them all the time. He has two set up for Nov. I'm not excited about going as it makes it harder to lose while on the road. And the resturant food is difficult. I think we should be eating low glycemic food and high protein with low carbos. That stops the cravings.