Fanny Adams

My understanding (which may or may not be right) is that erosion is when the band starts to "eat into" and wear away the wall of your stomach. Think of wearing a wristband too tight, or the way a really tight wedding ring eats into your finger or a too-tight collar on a cat or dog will eat into their neck. As far as I know, the major cause is having the band too tight or overeating constantly and putting extra pressure on the band. This is different from slippage, which is where part of the stomach from below the band slips up through it and then swells up, closing your stoma. That is usually caused by the band becoming detached from where it was stitched to your stomach wall, usually from excessive vomiting causing the stiches to tear loose. Apparently erosion often doesn't have that many symptoms until it has progressed quite a way and become quite serious. If it wears all the way through the stomach, it can be very dangerous and often requires having the band removed altogether. Slippage is more easily detected (pain, acid reflux and not being able to swallow water) and is also more easily fixed (if caught early, a liquid diet until the swelling goes down can make it slip back down on its own, or a simple readjustment surgery if it has gone further).

Our Medicare and insurance system is just so different to folk outside of Aus, that I didn't think this was worthwhile asking in the plastic surgery forum. I'm only part way into my journey and have a long way to go, but I know I'm going to need a major boob lift and tummy tuck when I get to goal. I just spoke with my insurance agency on Friday and they've said basically if Medicare accepts the surgery as medically necessary and pays their share, then my insurance covers the balance, no questions asked. This is a darned sight easier than the runaround dramas that our US friends have to go through, but I'm still left wondering how do I go about proving "medical necessity"? If I just go for the pannelectomy, I've heard that I need to be able to establish a history of rashes and infections under the flappy belly, so does that mean I should start going to the doc now and getting that history recorded? It might take a bit of a stretch too, as I used to get lots of them but not so much now that I've stopped trying to prevent them with Nappy Rash powders. I found those powders were the worst ever in inducing the fungus and rashes - should I start using them again to bring on the rashes, so I will get approved? Are rashes enough to warrant the breast lift? Coz I used to get sweat rashes so badly that I have full half moon circles of scarring underneath each boob, but again, now that I've stopped the powders, these don't occur half as much. I'm not sure I could stand to bring those on again, even if it would save the money - they SUCKED!!! What other ways have people used to get Medicare to accept a boob lift as a medical necessity? Or can't it be done? Is the pannelectomy the only one they'll go for, or have some people been able to get the full tummy tuck or lower body lift?

Hi and welcome, Carmen. You'll find that there are quite a few nurses and members of the medical profession in here, so you are not alone. There's also a lot of information and support to be found, so take some time and poke about the different forums and threads. I've been on the journey from first decision to now for almost a year and I have to say, I haven't regretted it for a single instant. You'll find a lot of different and sometimes conflicting advice in here. That's fine, it's just because everyone is different and we all approach our issues in different ways. From my short term perspective, the only advice that I would offer is to relax, don't stress yourself or pressure yourself to be "the biggest loser", learn all you can about the band and how it's meant to work and then just let your body make its natural adjustments downwards as the band restricts your portions and the absence of hunger lets you make healthy choices. It's not the fastest way to get to goal, but it is a pleasant one!

I'm noticing a really curious phenomenon in myself lately. I've never been one to be jealous or envious of other people. I've always been proud of my own accomplishments and easily able to Celebrate other people's achievements. Yet lately, I have heard this bitter little voice in the back of my head making really bitchy comments, when I have heard about other people's successes. For example, I have a really good online friend who is coming to Aus to see me at Xmas. She has been absolutely wonderful in supporting my journey, really positive and encouraging. She is also fairly overweight and in the last month or so, since we decided she should come, has been working hard with diet and exercise to lose weight for the trip. She's doing really well and is losing weight and getting herself fit. I should be happy for her. I AM happy for her! I'm thrilled that she is able to do this for herself! But there is still this tiny voice of resentment in the back of my head that is saying nasty things like "yeah, well she won't keep it off" and so on. What's worse is I can really see myself thinking nasty smug thoughts of "I told you so!" if it turns out that way. I don't understand this. She has done nothing to deserve these horrid thoughts and it seems so unlike me to be thinking those things. I know it is resentment that she is achieving success at something I have failed at, but that's no excuse! I REALLY REALLY don't like this dirty little secret and I can't fathom why it is rearing its ugly head. Have any of you felt differently about hearing your friends talk about their diet efforts, whether successful or not, since banding?

I'm glad you said this because I hadn't seen anywhere where anyone had answered Denise's question about positions. Doggy is by far the easiest when you want a little manual stimulation to go with things (and the combination of the two is why that's my favourite! ). Whether it's him doing the reacharound, you doing it yourself, by hand or with a vibe, that position gives you the easiest access. Try it Denise, I think you'll like it :wink2:.

Yay for you, lellow! :wink2: The journey begins!

Whoohoo lellow! Today is your big day! Wishing you all the very best for an easy time and speedy recovery.

Oh wow, Stephanie! That's an awesome one!! Good for you!

Dolphin, you've lost 24lb in only 2 months, 2 & half if you include the pre-op time. You're doing fabulously - better than I did and you are losing at ABOVE the average rate. Some people will have lost more than 50lb at the 3 month mark but they are very much the exception, not the rule. Your achievement is excellent and well on track. I know it's hard at the beginning, because in spite of the many times we tell ourselves "this isn't a miracle cure", I think deep down we are all secretly hoping that it will be just that. When everything is new, you are really focussed on the daily reward of the scale and when you don't get that every day, it gets frustrating. Try not to let it get you down and just take a longer term view. In a couple more months, that number will have doubled and you could easily be 48lb down, then 60lb, and so on. I felt very much like you for the first 2 to 3 months - frustrated, worried that it wasn't working, unable to give myself credit for the numbers that I was achieving, but as time goes by, I am becoming more and more relaxed about things. I am only losing at around 4-6lb a month at the moment and guess what? I am FINE with that! After 7 months, that has added up to nearly 60lb and that's a BIG chunk! I have confidence now that the losses will continue, slowly but surely, steadily drifting downwards. I think part of the panic at the beginning of the journey is because we are used to doing "quick loss" diets where we aim to shed 10's of pounds as fast as we can. In the back of our minds, we know that the wonderful ride down is only short-lived, so we want to get down as far as we can before it all falls apart and we start the horrible climb upwards again. THAT DOESN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN THIS TIME!! You can lose slowly - if you stick to the rules, the losses will continue! If you are only halfway sticking to them, you won't regain! As long as you use this tool for portion control and don't start stuffing your face with chocolates and icecream, THE JOURNEY DOESN'T STOP TILL YOU GET TO GOAL! Think about it for a while - that is a wonderful feeling of relief when it really sinks in.

The bit about the tubing caught my eye, Chickie, but I don't know the background. Do you have a separate thread with the details? I am interested to see if this is the same problem that I am having (kink in my tubing), and might be going in for surgery sometime in September to correct. I think it will be a fairly minor procedure and it isn't bothering me at the moment (not interfering with fills), so I'm not even sure I'm going to worry about getting it done. Here's a link to my story: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f78/kink-my-tubing-63672/

Thank you Dr Schulman, I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

Dr Schulman I am still in the middle of my weight loss journey but I am looking ahead to the future. I know that I will need a breast lift when I am done, but I am not sure what type of lower body surgery would be best. I have generally carried my weight very evenly and don't have specific problem areas that stand out more than others. I do have a hanging pannis but this is receding as I lose weight. However, I do have two very specific problems that could interfere with surgery results. Firstly, I have a large scar (>10") from fallopian tube surgery performed about 20 years ago. This runs underneath my pannis across the top of the public line and really accentuates the droop of the pannis. For this reason, I'm thinking that a pannelectomy (sp?) would be appropriate. Secondly, I have a large scar (almost 18")that starts to the right of the centre of my spine and about 2-3 inches below my bra line, and goes around the right side of my body to the front, finishing just above the hip bone. This is from a major kidney operation that I had 35 years ago. This accentuates the fold of fat on my waist line, when seen from behind, and makes me lean towards the idea of a lower body lift. Is is possible to have these scars removed or disguised in any way as part of one of the other procedures? Which procedure would be most appropriate to incorporate this into? Or will I end up with THREE scars, no matter which way I go?

I love Pam Ayers!! Her accent really makes the poems too, so if you've ever heard her and can "hear" her voice as you read, it makes the poems that much funnier.

You've (or someone has) already paid for the wedding trip and you said that it was non-refundable (especially if it was someone else!) To me, that would make my decision for me. If the reason you have to wait for a year is because of your surgeon's inflexible calendar, find another surgeon! If it is because you will have just started a new job and don't want to ask for time off up front, talk to them about it and see what you can work out. As someone else suggested, you can get away with a minimum of time off, if you schedule the surgery for a Thursday morning and plan to be back at work on the following Wednesday. That's only 3 days off work but 5 days recovery time. I think you might be uncomfortable and it will be a little tough to go back that quickly but it is do-able, several people in here have done it! If they are good HR people, though, they will tell you to go ahead and do the surgery and take the time you need to recover. In that case, I'd schedule it for a Friday afternoon if you can and just take the following week off, giving yourself both weekends and 9 days total recovery time.

Get thee to a lingerie shop, immediately!! And then, screw up your courage and find a photographer who will take some tastefully sexy glamour photos. Those photos that the doctor took are specifically designed to show up your worst, partly to help you convince your insurance people and probably partly to help convince YOU so that you'll do the surgery anyway, even if you have to self-pay. They might be brutally honest but they are in no way meant to be flattering. I think you'll find that with some nice lingerie, especially a good bra to support the girls and maybe a nice babydoll and penoir set, you'll look fabulous and learn to feel sexy again. Getting a photographer to take the glamour shots might be a scary thought, but seeing yourself in that setting will do wonders for your confidence, even if you never show anyone the pictures and just keep them to show yourself. Don't forget that the doc's pics were taken in the harsh artificial light in his office, probably without any thought of you presenting yourself in a flattering way. It is unlikely (I'd guess) that any possible first time sexual encounter would be under those harsh conditions. It's much more likely that it would be under soft lighting (candles are SO flattering!!), with you looking your best, so the reality will be MUCH closer to the glamour shots than to the doctor's pics.

Thanks Ann. NSV = Non Scale Victory - a celebration of all those little things that come with losing weight, apart from seeing the numbers move on the scale (eg new clothes, being able to tie your shoe laces and breathe at the same time, etc). Size 10 eh? Whoohoo! Congrats! I'm sure that feels WONDERFUL!

I went to update my ticker today but when I clicked on it, it only took me to a graphic image of the ticker in a new window, not to the Ticker Factory update page. I had to go into Edit Signatures, right-click on the ticker in the editing window (not on the display) and choose Open Link. Choosing Open Link from anywhere else, e.g. on a post I've made, just brings up the graphic. Also, I noticed that when I first go into Edit Signatures, the ticker displays in the preview at the right size but after about 1-2 seconds delay, it resizes itself a little bit smaller and the numbers don't display clearly any more. I've noticed in other people's tickers that their numbers aren't showing clearly either. Have you done something to force this resizing? Is it possible that this is why the link isn't working properly?

I tell anyone who seems remotely interested :thumbup: I haven't quite gotten to the point of stopping strangers on the street and telling them, but I've been tempted! LOL! I like educating people about what it means, how it works, why it was necessary for me, plus I'm just so excited about this journey and a very open person anyway, so there's no way I could have kept my big mouth shut :crying:

Well done on your success too - 40kg in 10 months is an awesome achievement!!

Another possibility is that you are in ketosis from going on a high protein/low carb diet. Being in ketosis does cause bad breath and body odour - one reason why I don't follow the high protein/low carb style of dieting. There's no question that the Atkins-like diets work - you do lose weight - but I think there are other problems associated with them, with the odours only being one of many. Still, in the pre-op phase, you are looking to shrink your liver quickly, so as to make the surgery easier for the doctor and reduce the chance of bruising your liver or accidentally nicking it in the op. It's worth the inconvenience in the short term, but for me personally, I prefer a balanced healthy diet in the long term. Weight loss isn't as fast, but it is steady and I know I'm giving my body all the nutrients it needs without requiring supplements or the dangers that I believe are associated with high protein diets.

I absolutely love all the Non-Scale Victory threads around but I'd like to have a scale victory one too - where we can Celebrate the milestone goals that we reach along the way. I'll start! :thumbup: (you knew that was coming, didn't you?) This morning the scales showed me the magic number 99.9kg! That's the first time I've been under 100kg in I honestly don't know how long, but it must be at least 10 years. I have no idea when I went over 100kg, coz I stopped getting on scales somewhere around 80kg in about 1993 and was shocked to my core when I finally stood on one in 2003 and discovered I was about 110kg. I yo-yo dieted my way from there up to 122kg, and once managed to get down to 102kg for a single magical day, but it all crept back on and I started this journey at my highest ever of 125kg. I VOW I will NEVER be over 100kg AGAIN!!

That works for "cat" too...just sayin'...

Just don't look at the turkey neck thing that's happening! :thumbup: I'm loving that I'm losing the triple chin but I'm not so sure that the wrinkled neck is a good substitute - I've never had wrinkles before!! *cries* PS: Ooops, forgot to say thanks for the compliments - appreciated :thumbdown:

I've posted this in the main pics thread, but you did ask, so I thought I'd copy the post here: Ok, I haven't posted pics before because my progress has been slow, but I can finally see a bit of a difference in my face. Before at 275lb: Now at 220lb (orange shirt is my "high visibility construction worker" uniform that I have to wear at work, else you wouldn't catch me dead in that colour!):

Ok, I haven't posted pics before because my progress has been slow, but I can finally see a bit of a difference in my face. Before at 275lb: Now at 220lb (orange shirt is my "high visibility construction worker" uniform that I have to wear at work, else you wouldn't catch me dead in that colour!):