Leena

I would say go for the treadmill. I just got rid of my total gym, neither dh or I was using it. I bought a treadmill at Sears about a year ago and just started loving it. I also have a stationary recumbant bike, made by Schwin, and it's 2 years old and still wonderful. On Monday I bought a mini-stepper from Walmart for $39 and am hooked on it, however it does require balance. I'm not sure what your weight is, but my biggest concern personally ahs always been the weight limit on machines. DH and I had it out a year ago when we were treadmill shopping. At the time I was 350 so we had to buy a better (more $$$) treadmill due to my weight, and then I didn't use it a whole lot at first. My sons have a small trampoline with a 250 weight limit, can't wait to jump on that.

I love to use Mrs. Dash instead of salt. There are a few different flavors of her, extra spicy is great on eggs. But I was never a user of salt, so I don't know how it compares.

My surgeon has a self-pay lap band price. It's a bigger discount than what he charges the insurance companies. But his includes 1 night in the hospital and 3 months of after-care.

My son has keloided scars. One of his biosiblings also has them. His is partially hidden by his eyebrow, don't ask, he arrived with it at the age of 3 1/2 yrs old. Anyway the pediatrican recc. coco butter 3 times a day. After a year it started to look somewhat better, but it still looks like a keloid, ropey pink scar thing. Thankfully he's a boy and scars are cool. BTW he's 7 1/2 yrs old now, so it's been 4 years of coco butter.

i think the only reason I have managed to loose 3-4 or more pounds in a week is really watching what I eat and exercising. I'm so proud of my weight loss. It's just a downer when my mom says, "You mean you only lost 3 pounds this week." She's on the thinner side of things being 5'9" and about 145 pounds. She's also only been higher than that when she was pregnant with my little brother. So from her point of view I should be super stick girl by now. LOL. I would never ever let her pay one single cent of my surgery costs, NO WAY! She and I don't have the best relationship to begin with, long long story. So we aren't on those kinds of terms.

Thanks so much. I canceled my appoitnment for this week and am on the schedule for the 24th for a fill if I need one. It seems the more Water I drink the more restricted I become. Sounds wierd to me, but I don't mind staying hydrated if it means better restriction.

I had restriction with my first fill, 1cc in a 4cc band. It lasted almsot a month. With my second fill of .4cc it didn't make any dent. So I went back for a third fill a week later of .6cc which brought me to 2cc in a 4cc band. My third fill was 12/6 and I feel restricted a whole month later. I'm supposed to go in for a fill this week, but am going to cancel it because I definately don't need one. Hmmm, could this be my sweet spot?

I'm almost 4 months post-op and my weight is slowing down to that 3-4 pounds lost in a week. And that's a good week. Some weeks I loose 1-2 pounds. Anyway, I'm sort of getting tired of being asked how much I've lost. Mainly it's from my mother atleast once a week. I'm getting tired of it. I tell her each time that I'm at the point where I'll only loose a few pounds each week. Thank God she doesn't ask me how much I weigh as I won't tell her that. Any advice on how to deal with the constant weight questions?

Canned tuna has a lot of protien, one can has about 37 grams of protien in a 6 oz can. Egg whites are another favorite of mine, but they tend to be quite filling. My post-op instructions say to eat protien first at every meal and then if and only if you have space eat veggies, fruit and grains. I happen to like EAS low carb shakes, the only ones I can tolerate.

$200 fills don't sound too bad. My fills are $250 and are done without fluero. Thankfully I had three months post-op inlcuded in my surgery price. It looks like the fills I had then will last me for a while, knock on wood. I considered changing insurance companies during dh's open enrollment period at work, but couldn't find out if things would be covered or not. I'd only be willing to switch if fills were covered. I figure my surgery was the price of a commuter car and will last longer and be more benificial in the long run. Hopefully I won't be trading it in within 4 years. Yes I know the insurance company is a pain in the butt. Covering anesthesia only was a riot, my surgeon's office had never heard of it happening and even called on my behalf to ocnfirm it. Now they're having their self-pay patients submitt anestesia fees with this company just in case they pick them up again.

I live near you and chose to use Dr. Mehta in New Brunswick, surgery was at Somerset Medical Center. It takes me about an hour to get to his office and he has a great support group as well as wonderful office staff. I'm not sure how many people he's banded as of right now. As of my surgery he has yet to loose anyone, including bypass patients. If you google Mehta Bariatric Center you'll be able to find him.

I paid 14,500 for surgery plus $500 for a psych eval. Now I pay $250 for fills after having used up my 3 months of free follow-up/fills. So far I'm still at $15,000.

My insurance covered the anesthesiologist fee, and pre-op fees but not the lap band or surgery fees or hospital fees. I guess they were willing to chip in and make sure that I was sedated, because you know anesthesiology must be medically required for surgery.

Dh and I just recently revisisted the idea of moving from the east coast (NJ) to the west coast or west (either CA or AZ, possibly TX). I was banded in NJ and have a great surgeon and he does my fills and follow-ups. If we move west it's not going to be reasonable for me to fly back and forth. So, is it going to be easy for me to find a new surgeon willing to do my fills/follow-up? We won't be moving until summer at the earliest. I also don't want to have to join their program either. Right now I'm paying 250 for non-fluero fills and am a pretty easy fill patient. Thanks, Leena

I have 3 sons, ages 3, 6 and 7. I told them about the surgery, granted the 3 year old didn't get it. But my 6 and 7 yr olds had a lot of questions about the surgery. They watched the videos online before hand and saw my incisions/scars afterwards. I don't think 6 is too young to understand it. However, I did not take my sons to the hospital with me. The surgery waiting area is only for people over age 12 anyway, atleast at the hospital I was at. After surgery dh was there with me, but there is no way I would have wanted any of my sons there. My surgeon keeps patients overnight as well. So my sons ended up staying with a friend of the family for the night anyway.

Ok does it make sense to hold off on fills and save them for later? I have a 4cc band with 2cc already in it. My weight loss is slowing down, but hasn't completely stopped. I think I've resolved my emotional eating issues, as I haven't done it since the beginning of October. I'm working out and am loosing slower, 2-3 pounds a week. So is it okay to not go for a fill? I'm scheduled for one in the next weeks. Has anyone taken a break from getting fills? What did your dr say? Also has anyone used up all of their fills in the beginning and regretted it later on? I guess my concern is that I don't want to be at 4cc in a 4cc band and still not be at or close to goal. Thanks, Leena

I'm almost 4 months post-op and can eat pizza, but only one slice of thin crust or domminos crispy melt. So pizza can be eaten, in moderation. I only eat about 1 slice a month now. I used to be able to eat about 4-5 slices at a time and now one is a lot and takes a long time. I know some people who can eat regular crust pizza, but I'm not one of them. Some people get stuck on bread-like things and others don't. Personally I can't eat bread, even when I'm really loose.

Chicken/vegetable broth is good, home made is the best. I also kept some pedialite on hand for dehydration issues I had. Decaf tea was really good too. There are also a lot of sugar free liquids/drinks now made with Splenda so you may want to check out the grocery aisle. I lived on icee pops, but don't know what sweetener they had.

Post-op I walked around a lot, drank a lot of water and took a few gas-x strips to get rid of gas. Honestly I think walking around helped me more than the gas-x.

Birth control pills don't work with me, and I've tried 4 different brands. I also tried the patch and the ring. The ring irritated dh and the patch was good with the exception of falling off all of the time. And I also had a reaction to the glue/adhesive from it. So right now I have the Mirena IUD. I use it to reduce my period's severity and length, not for birth control. Anyway I've had it since June and really love it. It does release hormones and has to be replaced every 5 years. Hope this helps.

I had a previous surgery and this happened to me, tonsilectomy. I was awake for part of it, accidently and then even told my mother after they brought me back to me room from recovery. I was able to make moaning noises apparently. When it came time to have my lap-band, almost 10 years later, I told my Dr. about my previous experience and spoke with the anestesiologist, who said it does happen and he would monitor me closely to be sure I wasn't waking up early. Lapband went smoothly, last thing I remember I was moving from the gurnie to the OR table and just layed down. I asked about the monitors, were they HD/ Plasma/etc and don't even remember hearing the answer. The next thing I knew I was in the recovery room with a pulse monitor on my finger and the nurse came by and explained how to use the morphine pump. 8 hours later I was moved to a room, yes they were short on beds that's the only reason I was in the recovery room for 8 hours.

I've only goofed up with water once, and I ended up projectile vomiting it right back out, poor dh was in the line of fire. Granted I was less than a month post op at the time, but I'll never do it again.

I can not even imagine being on soft foods right after surgery. I had problems getting down clear liquids, it would literally take me 15 minutes to have 1 ounce of Water, yes I was constantly drinking. It sounds like you need to either slow down eating or maybe thin out those soft foods with some milk or other Fluid. I couldn't get a protien shake in until 3 weeks post-op, they made me slime and foam. I wasn't on soft foods until 4 weeks post-op. And in the mushie stage I couldn't even finish 1/4 cup of ff ricotta cheese at a time. I was really swollen from the surgery and had AMAZING restriction. Trust me it goes away.

I started jogging last week on the treadmill, about 4.2-4.4 mph. Well now my belly flop is starting to hurt from being jostled around while jogging. My boobs are having the same problem inspite of being in a sports bra. Do I need a smaller size of sports bra? And what can I do about the belly flop? Thanks!

What about something detectable by bloodwork: cholesterol, insulin resistance, etc. I know depression related to weight is even a comorbidity with my insurance.