SpecialK

Lynn -- 1 Day to go for your surgery! Good Luck! Angie - your day is coming soon!

Congratulations Sarah on your Big 5-0! and not years...LOL!

I found this posting of information by another veteran bandster that had taken the time to research this and I thought it was so helpful and thorough that I wanted to share it here also. "The importance of adequate Water intake cannot be over-emphasized for Bandsters serious about healthy weight loss. Drinking enough water is more than "a good thing to do" or "kind of important." Adequate water intake is ESSENTIAL to our health and well-being, and especially in any weight-loss attempts. The body interprets HUNGER the same as it interprets THIRST. Many times, when you feel hungry, you really need WATER, not food. First, a few facts about WATER: (taken from a variety of resources) It comprises about 60-70% of the adult body, and 80% of a child’s body. Your lungs are 90% water. Muscles are 75% water. Your brain is 95% water. A water deficit of only 1 quart (32 ounces) greatly slows circulation and impairs brain function. Thirst is a very poor indicator of hydration level. By the time you are noticeably thirsty, you are already fairly dehydrated and your body is struggling. You won’t feel thirsty until you are at least 1-2% dehydrated. A 2% dehydration results in a 15%-20% loss of mental and physical performance. Regular water intake throughout the day is much better than a lot at once. Symptoms of early dehydration include HEADACHE, DIZZINESS, FATIGUE, NAUSEA, VOMITING. An average person loses 80 ounces of water a day simply through breathing, perspiring, and other normal body functions. This DOES NOT take into account extra loss through the extra perspiration, and muscle, and lung work of exercise. This extra loss must be replaced as well. In one hour of light exercise, the body loses more than 1 quart (32 oz) of water. You can live less than a week withou water. You can live many weeks without food. Now, what does water (good hydration) do for ALL people? It lubricates the organs and joints Reduces the risk of colon cancer, especially in women Reduces the risk of urinary tract infections, especially important for women. Keeps skin moist and soft, reduces aging effects, and aids skin in healing Helps maintain muscle tone Helps regulate body temperature Carries essential elements like Potassium, Calcium, and sodium to the cells Helps maintain sinus health – especially important with allergies Is used as fuel by the body (fuel is not just food) Aids digestion in a great number of ways. Suppresses the appetite Aids in breakdown of fat Helps digest Fiber Helps maintain good bowel health and regularity Prevents sagging skin from weight loss Increases metabolism Keeps mucous thin and loose – especially important for Bandsters! Helps maintain kidney function and helps the kidneys excrete broken-down fat Moistens oxygen for breathing Helps decrease menstrual bloating Decreases Fluid retention from various illnesses and dehydration New studies are relating even a slight, ongoing dehydration with increased rates of breast CA Assists in healing from wounds or surgery Cushions the internal organs Reduces the incidence of heart attack and stroke Dilutes stomach acid to reduce GERD HOW MUCH water is ENOUGH WATER ?? As cited earlier, normal body functions (breathing, walking, eating, perspiring, etc) uses up at least 80 ounces a day of bodily fluid. This is the basis for the commonly-stated need of (8) 8-ounce glasses of water a day. This fluid, plus the fluid in normal foods, will equate to the needed 80-100 oz a day adult humans need. BANDSTERS AND WATER Since Bandsters are consuming a lesser volume of food in general, and more of it is SOLID foods with a lower WATER content than the average person, BANDSTERS need to be drinking a lot more water than the average person. ALL fluids count - not just plain water. It was once thought that drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages caused dehydration, but this is since disproven. Bandsters, therefore, need about 80-100 oz a day from the liquids we DRINK. How water particularly benefits Bandsters: Keeps the mucous thin and functional. Especially important if you are "sliming" or . PB’ing ! Maintaining very good hydration helps minimize restriction variations – a very important issue. Helps keep the mucous membranes healthy and able to resist damage if you PB or or expose the membranes to damage from acids (citrus, coffee, soda, etc) or medications Drinking a large glass of water right before eating will moisten your mouth and esophagus, making it easier not to drink with meals. This is called "water-loading" and also decreases your hunger and fills you. Drinking a large glass of water when you think you are feeling "hunger" often resolves the "hunger." (The body feels hunger and thirst the same way) Decreases the risk of the constipation, which can be a problem for Bandsters. Increases the metabolism to assist in burning calories Helps the kidneys excrete all the fat you are breaking down It’s entirely possible to get TOO MUCH WATER. Excesses are NOT needed, and can be harmful for those with diabetes, kidney disease, heart or Blood Pressure problems, or many other illnesses. Never consume more than the above without specific input from your physician. Some illnesses require a LESSER fluid intake. ARE * YOU * GETTING ENOUGH WATER?? The easiest way to tell is looking at your urine color – before it is diluted in the toilet water. An easy trick to do this is to put a thin layer of toilet tissue on top of the toilet bowl water and urinate onto it. Urine from a well-hydrated person in only slightly yellowish, almost CLEAR. Any degree more color means you are dehydrated, unless your urine is dark from kidney or liver disease, or unneeded mega-doses of Vitamins that are being excreted. " Posted by Sandy R. on Obesity Help.com

I'll be the "balloon lady" one more time and bring the balloon to mark our spot so that any newcomers can find us. At the Polaris Mall food court, head toward the Chik-fil -a corner in front of Great Indoors and you'll find us.

Welcome Readytogo! You'll enjoy the good information that they provide at the Mt. Carmel information session on the bariatric options that they hold at Mt. Carmel East. I went to my orientation/free session first part October 2007 and by March 2008 I was banded..about 6 months to get through all the insurance processes. Check out the thread for the Central Ohio get together at Polaris Mall and you can talk with folks who went to Mt. Carmel, Riverside, and OSU in person in an informal setting. Good luck!

Westcoastmom -- I hope you will consider working your lapband tool to its fullest including getting fills as needed but discuss your worries with your doctor and see what they advise. They could go very very conservative on fills for you and space them out weeks and weeks apart to give you time to see how each goes. You've read the countless other posts I'm sure that say go on out for dinner at a restaurant but eat slowly, chew extremely well, and try not to order something that is very dry to eat. My toughest time seems to be very lean chicken - like a grilled chicken breast without any kind of sauce. With a little moisture, and small bites, I'm fine. Same with salad - I need some dressing on it - not much but a little. Good luck.

I got mine from Lauren's Hope web site and I put this on it: Adj. Gastric Lap Band w/Abdominal Port No NG w/o Scope I've also just recently ordered a bracelet for my sister that has some health problems and it also suggested putting the patient's name as the first line and putting an In Case of Emergency # e.g. ICE xxx-xxx-xxxx. The tag holds up to 5 total lines of text with 20 total characters including spaces per line. Mine is decorative and nobody even knows its a medic bracelet as the medic tag stays on the inside of my wrist and I like it that way, they only see the pretty part on top.

Daughters that aren't entranced yet by the food court and going to a Mall?? Must be shoppers-in-training! Seriously, they should be fine - bring some toys.. of course!

Thinner Me--- where are you? Did you get a surgery date yet?

Alot of doctors use the Allergan AP band now, I think its about 50/50 on Realize vs Allergan. The older model Allergan band was replaced with the AP and there is an AP-Large and AP-Small and I have the AP Large and am doing fine. I relied on my surgeon to choose the right band for me.

Tonight was the Mt. Carmel Bariatric Support Group meeting at 6:30 pm and I was going to hang out at work and then go but I got to 5pm after working a full day after the holiday weekend and just couldn't talk myself into staying to work another hour! Wanted to get home and enjoy the sunny evening. Did anyone else go? How was it? I think the topic was on Self Esteem which I sure needed but maybe next month. So far I'm up to 2-5 minutes at a time on the bike I got over the weekend but it really is exercise more than walking and I didn't realize that it was so aerobic - I'm huffing and puffing for breath and my heart is a beating good more so than tiring out my legs or knees. I bet my orthopedic doc who did my April surgery on my knee would be surprised to hear me trying this! Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Hi all. Its sad to have my long holiday weekend rolling to a close here but I bought a new "toy" -- don't know if its up there in the league with Wii Fit but its a new exercise challenge for me. I got a ladies 10 speed bike that was in very good condition (used) for $40 off Craig's List. So far I can ride it for 5 minutes without being too tired. Wow - I really thought I'd be able to start with at least 15 minutes of riding. Now I have a new measure to see progress. It probably doesn't help me to have had knee surgery in mid-April where I need to keep strengthening that but I don't want to give myself excuses. I know I've got to add more exercise. So Water aerobics 2 nights and now at least a few minutes on the bike each day plus some walking is my July exercise plan. I thought I'd pass along the idea of getting a used bike off at a garage sale or off Craig's List or something similar to others who want to give it a try without putting much money into it.

Ajoneen - I also use a tracking website called www.MyFoodDiary.com and it has an ability to also track your activity/exercise in pretty good detail. All kinds of sports, exercise as well as daily activities. By putting your current weight in the user profile, it then says how many calories you burn for what you did and how many minutes. I do not believe the numbers of calories it says different things burn. On days when I do multiple hours of yard work (digging, raking, push lawn mower, etc.), it says I did something like 2800 calories worth of excercise. and says I had a net negative calorie day counting about 1200 calories or so eaten. Not! What is more important to me is to track the number of minutes I did each day and see if I'm getting exercise in consistently... still not enough. I am finding having a scheduled class to go to on Tues/Thurs is a good disciplined way to be sure I get that much in. That said, the same website www.myfooddiary.com then computes how many calories I should be able to eat and maintain, or lose 1 lb a week or lose 2 lbs a week. I have a really slow metabolism apparently and there is no way their estimate of calories eaten and calories burned is translating into the right amount of pounds to lose. I still like the web site, don't get me wrong, it keep me disciplined on awareness of what I'm eating and has nice graphs and reports I can print off of my progress. What often strikes me is how aware I am of eating and exercise and that is a good thing. Keep on tracking!!

Wow, good to write it down now so I can check back to see if I do this! By March 17, 2009 (St. Patrick's Day) 1. Lose 100 lbs (about 60% of my goal total weight loss) 2. Shop in the Non-Plus size section of a women's clothing store! 3. Fly on any airplane without needing a seat belt extender. 4. Just for good measure .... be ready for roller coaster season like the rest of you! Unfortunately I won't have access to Cedar Point until early May to try it out! For those of you who don't know... they have the biggest, baddest and fastest, highest, and most roller coasters in one place, like 20 or more different ones.

I'm surprised I couldn't find a specific thread that highlighted the OSU bariatric program because I know we have a few folks that have gone there. Can you respond and help answer these questions (maybe OHJuli?) What all is included? What all benefits and things are included in your program for lap band ? Do you have a benefit of using the OSU Heart Health Center fitness facility like the Riverside program does for 1 year post surgery? Also pre-surgery if they want you to lose a certain amount before they will give you a surgery date? Nutrition support classes? Monthly combined RNY and Lap Band Support group? Fills for the 1st year included including using fluroscopy if needed? Post op dr. appt for checkups at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year included or do you pay a co-pay as a normal dr. appt for those if you are a person with insurance? What is the program fee for administrative processing of insurance paperwork, etc.? Maybe also post an expanded post here under this thread about the program, surgeons, etc. so that people specifically looking at OSU know we have some others who know the program. I just recently learned that the OSU program is now also on Aetna insurance as a Bariatric Center of Excellence so I could now choose between OSU and Mt. Carmel if someone else from my employer wanted to consider surgery. At the time I went through, only Mt. Carmel was on the in-network insurance plan list.

HeatherA and the other Riverside bandsters -- what all benefits and things are included in your program for lap band ? I think I've heard you mention something about using the McConnell Heart Health Center for 1 year post surgery? Also pre-surgery if they want you to lose a certain amount before they will give you a surgery date? Nutrition support classes? Monthly combined RNY and Lapband Support group? Fills for the 1st year included including using fluroscopy if needed? Post op dr. appt for checkups at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year included or do you pay a co-pay as a normal dr. appt for those if you are a person with insurance? Last I heard the Riverside program fee was about $1500 - can anyone verify if that's still about what it is?

Welcome Amy. Are you going to the orientation sessions that each program offers to see what you like best about which ones? Riverside, Mt. Carmel and OSU have Columbus bandsters that get together at the Polaris mall and I was attending those informal get togethers before I was banded and it really helped to talk with those who had already been down the path. Good luck in selecting a surgeon and program.

I think alot of people see an initial weight gain right after they get home from the hospital because they've had you on IV fluids continuous and medications can sometimes affect things too. Hang in there, you'll see the scale go down soon.

I'm planning to be there! Hope to see lots of you. I know the summer is super busy time and the price of gas makes a long commute tough but hang in there everyone!

Juli - I just recently learned that Aetna added OSU's bariatric surgeons onto their covered list of surgeons at Mt. Carmel but for some reason Riverside still isn't on their approved in-network list. I try to tell everyone to check out all their options and it seems that we all like our surgeons around Central Ohio even if some of us aren't as happy with the paperwork/office end of things. What ultimately was important to me was confidence in my surgeon.

I do String Cheese sometimes as something I can snack on while I drive to work. Also on vacation, my cousins from Germany introduced me to a new thing - they took Frosted Mini-Wheat bite size maybe 1/2 cup and we put plain or flavored yogurt over the top and just a little dab of milk, and cut up part of a banana, peach or apple in small pieces - kind of a high fiber and filling breakfast and still let me enjoy some cereal.

We haven't mentioned it in awhile on here so I thought I'd put out another tickler. HeatherA helps administer a Yahoo Health Group for Central Ohio lapbanders. If you want to participate in that, Personal Message HeatherA. She has several posts under the Ohio area and is the band leader (pun intended) for helping schedule our Polaris mall get togethers too. I hope we'll see some new faces at the mall sometime soon. We have a mixed group of those banded and those working toward it.

I don't know if others have found it in their mailbox yet, but Mt. Carmel just sent me a bariatric program evaluation that asks satisfaction about every aspect of the program. Specifically asks about the surgeons, the office staff, the nutritionist, the bariatric nurse coordinator, the bariatric wing staff, etc. Asks if there is some one thing you'd want improved, what is it, what were you most satisfied with and gives you lines to put in open responses. So, for all those who felt we needed to help the program improve, I hope you'll complete the evaluation Mt. Carmel sent and be honest and provide praise as well as where they need to improve. Mine is going in the mail tomorrow! Wondered if they waited until you were past 90 days post surgery to send it. ?? Who else has received one?

Welcome. This website has a wealth of info on it and you'll be glad you found it. I don't know anybody who went to Mt. Carmel self-pay with Dr. Choban or the other 2 surgeons there but we do know a couple ladies who went to Cincinnati to Dr. Curry and another that went to Detroit for self-pay because they could get a package deal for about $12,000. Another lady I've met named Courtenay is seriously checking out going to Mexico for a total package cost I think in the $9000 range. I couldn't afford either of these options so just had to tough it out through the insurance approvals process but I'm so glad I did. Best wishes in your search for info.

BNLisa and Lynnt1215 -- I am back to my Water aerobics class at the local community pool - this one is outside in the summer and the instructor really runs our butts off in class for a solid hour twice a week. For anyone who is intimidated to go to a water aerobics class, never fear, there are plenty of folks (Men and Women) out there who need to lose alot of weight and they are there exercising to try to do just that so GO! You'll enjoy it.