lovecats85

I'm not preggo,,, where is my period?!?!?! It's getting expensive taking all these pregnancy tests to put my mind at ease. I know alot of you said you didn't get your monthly visitor for 1-2 months after surgery but it's been 3 months and I want it to come back so I can quit worrying about it!!!!

I am thinking about getting banded, but I would like to have a baby in a few years. Has anyone been pregnant w/ the band, and what are your thoughts/advice/opinions???

Ok, so I have been feeling like maybe I was top tight since my fill on Thursday (PB’s a little, had some sliming, REALLY sore throat this am possibly from reflux, etc), so I call Dr. Maese’s office and they said if my throat hurt to come in. So I leave work and I come in and he makes me swallow the barium and he’s like "it’s going right through, you actually need more fill, blah blah blah" and I was like "my throat hurts" and he just went off about how I wasn’t going to lose weight, I needed more fill, I’m not having reflux (I burped when I drank the barium b/c I have been burping a lot and he said he didn’t "See" my burp on the flouro even though I think I know I burped), and he had his nurse do a swallow to show me how I should look if I was tight enough and yelled at me for eating potatoes and went on and on about how skinny his nurse is and how she weighed more than me to begin with, etc. Basically I couldn’t get a word in edgewise and all I was there for was my throat. He doesn’t’ understand that I care more about not developing Barrets esophagus than I do about looking good in a bikini. Sure I want to lose weight but I would rather it be slow then feel the way I feel right now. I just really cant stand his egotistical rude A-hole attitude anymore, but I have no choice but to go to him b/c my insurance will cover fills from him b/c he bills it as a flouro (and Dr. Barker doesn’t have flouro so he cant bill it that way). Does anyone in the Dallas area have a doc that does fills under flouro for patients that weren’t banded by him/her. So, anyways, my throat still hurts so bad and I am waiting for Dr Barker to call me back. I’m going to tell him I just can’t see Dr Mease if the 2 of them are going to keep telling me different things - Barker says get .2 cc’s fill at a time, Maese wants to fill me up to the brim, Barker says eat 6 small meals per day, Maese says don’t eat after 5 pm. I’m so annoyed with this. If he would have just given me small frequent fills like I asked I’d be fine, but no he has to jam all the fluid he can in there and ignore my medical symptoms and just yell at me or go on about how hot I’ll be when I lose the weight. Then I asked him about nexium, he said sure take nexium, I asked should I crush it? He said "you’re so open you could swallow a whole steak." Ok, can you not just answer my ? Like a respectable doctor??!?!?!?! GRRRRRRRR. I’m so annoyed. And, shouldn’t he take some fill out if a patient requests it - he refused to take any out and wanted to put more in!! Oh, what to do?

Apparently I am one of the ones thats band opens wide up during my period. I was so hoping to be one of the ones thats band closed shut,,, but it opened on up for me to pig out on Xmas dinner. Of course, it was ALOT less pigging out than previous pre-band Xmas dinners so for that I am thankful. I hope you all had a happy happy holiday!

Anyone been banded by these guys? I have a consult w/ them on 8-4-05.

My hopefully-soon-to-be band doctor suggested I switch insurance companies since I have blue cross blue shield and they don't cover it. can you guys tell me what insurance you have and how easy/hard it was to get it covered and what the pre-reqs were. thanks

I have been on here many times talking about how my period have been wacky since I got the band. I always thought it was just due to the band, or due to the weight loss, but I found out yesterday I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome/ PCOS. I am kind of freaked out about it, since I really want to have children in the next 2 years. I know there was a few threads on LBT about PCOS but I can't find them. Can anyone find the links, or share with me your own story about PCOS and how I can expect it to affect my life and my plans to have children. Thanks.

Thanks everyone. I actually had normal periods before banding b/c I was always on birth control and I guess that kept me regular. I went off BC before being banded and for the last year my periods have been very irregular and I finally went in for some tests because I have had a period for a month now - I guess due to the homrone imbalance from the PCOS the lining keeps building up. I am just worried because I want to have a baby sometime in the next few years.

10 or 15 lbs in the first 2 weeks and then NOTHING for 3 months!

The poll asked what my doc says - which is drink it if you want to (just none in the 4 weeks after banding). However, I don't dare touch carbonation because ONE SIP will give me a stomach ache ALL night! I CANNOT tolerate it at all!!! Also, I can't stand the way it tastes now. Every now and then I think of sip of soda sounds good and I put it in my mouth and it just tatses like nasty fake fizz and I spit it out. I have truly lost my taste for it. I am now an iced tea w/ splenda addict!!!

All the years of being overweight and inactive have caught up with my left knee, and now it looks as though I am going to have to have arthroscopic knee surgery to "smooth" out the bone. Has anyone had this done? I am scared of going under the knife again. LB was my first surgery, and it went fine, but I am not looking forward to another surgery. Plus, I always hear people say that knee surgery really doesn't even help knee problems. Any thoughts, experiences, opinions?

I havent craved anything, but I always notice how there were foods I thought I liked because I was just wolfing them down, but now that I chew and really taste my food, I find my tastes aren't what they were before!

I did not have a catheter (or if I did it was in and out while I was knocked out) but I really don't think I had one. You can have sex as soon as you want, but I wouldn't be trying any crazy positions until you're healed enough. Of course, after you start losing weight, you will not be able to keep your man off of you!!!

Ok, So I got a fill Tuesday and did liquids for 2 days and now I feel like I'm eating just as much as before. My band is almost all the way full!!!! Today I had 1/2 a salad for lunch, then ate the other 1/2 of it just now (4 pm) and had a few m and m's (stressed - need chocolate!) and I will eat dinner later. Yesterday I had a good 1 - 1 1/2 cups of pasta at lunch, a peice of dark chocolate for a snack, and 6 fishsticks and 3/4 cup carrots for dinner and like 1/2 cup sugar free ice cream. I hear all these other bandsters saying they eat like 2 crackers for lunch and 1/2 a lean cuisine for dinner and thats it. I have never been able to eat that little and my band is almost completely full now! I think I eat pretty sensibly and I'm losing weight (very slowly, but still losing) but it worries me that I eat so much more than other bandsters (like 1-2 cups of food per meal) and I worry that I am hurting my band. Why is my band so full, yet I eat so much more than all of you???

I am a starbucks addict. I am addicted to caramel frappucinos. I have at least made the better decision lately of getting frappucino lights, but I know they still have alot of sugar. Plus, $4 a day is alot of money! So, I looked around online and found some frappucino recipes and I played around and I have come up with the perfect light frappucino you can make at home!! I am drinking one right now and it is OH SO GOOD! Directions : Brew some STRONG coffee, and freeze it in a ice cube tray. Then put 4 coffee ice cubes, 6 regular ice cubes, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1 tablespoon splenda, and one tablespoon sugar free caramel in blender, and blend. Viola, a delicious sugar free low cost low guilt frappucino at home!

Alot of times after I eat I have some soreness in my throat. It's at the bottom of my neck (like where a man's adam's apple is). It feels like I'm getting a sore throat - not a hige pain but a noticeable annoyance. Does anyone think this could be band/esophagus related?

I had sx in the US - in Dallas - as a self pay for $11,500. The doc said he gets paid the same but can get better overall prices at certain hospitals. So, I went to a lesser known hospital for the cheaper price. But I'd have paid more to have my surgeon since I just knew he was the one I trusted to do my surgery. I knew I would have to self-pay but I was too scared to go to Mexico!

Everytime I've gotten a fill the needle pain is just a little prick and no big deal, right. But I got a fill today and it hurt like the dickens when he put the needle in, and it's still hurting hours later. The nurse says sometimes they pinch a nerve. Has anyone else had this pain after a fill? It's driving me nuts. It's not the worst pain I've ever had, but it's noticeable pain!

well, I woke up this morning and I feel fine now. I don't know what happened. I guess it's over now. I hate getting fills - something always happens where I never feel quite right for a day or two after getting one!

on another note - I'd be careful with carbonation - I know some of you have tricks and some of you drink it just fine. My doctor actually says I can have it ---- but if I take ONE sip of carbonation I am in pain all night. Carbonation is the only thing that is true evil to my banded tummy!

gas pains - been there, done that! Now that I'm banded it's just a side effect I have to live with ---- doesn't happen to often but every now and then it creeps up on you and you just have to wait it out! My hubby (who is thin and not banded) has had trouble his whole life with gas bubbles. Even he says there is nothing you can do or take - eventually the gas pocket moves and you're fine.

OMG - it took me 8 months to lose that much weight! You are really moving along fast!!!

I cannot eat before 11 am!!!!

This happened when my mom was going to have foot surgery and it turned out to be NOTHING at all. Don't worry yourself yet! It's probably nothing - but the doctors just think better safe than sorry. I have a heart condition (SVT) and I have lots of PVC's (irregular beats) that show up on an EKG - it's no big deal, but it still causes me to have "abnormal" EKG's,,,, but I had surgery just fine, so don't worry!

Oh honey - I was so nervous before my sugery - I cam on here and gave someone my husbands phone # in case I died and wasnt back on the board. It sounds so silly now, but I was terrified at the time. Everyone told me it would be ok,,, and guess what - it was! It was no big deal really! And, it was the best decision I ever made! I cant even begin to tell you how much happier and healthier I am now. I had never been under before, but it was smooth sailing all the way. That being said, if you cant decide, then wait and re-schedule your surgery. It's your decision and you can always have surgery later. Just do what feels right to you! For me, I was scared of the surgery, but I was more scared of being unhappy and unhealthy and obese my whole life.