SpecialK

Ditto to what AJONEEN said! We have over 268 March 2008 Bandsters from what I could put into my little link thread when I was having fun seeing what dates, cities, and user names all were Shrinking Shamrocks. So maybe 3 complications out of 300 in our group-- 1% complications rate. Take care. K

I always enjoy seeing new bandsters joining in and saying they are doing well. Welcome! Since we are a month ahead of you, we'll let you know how to get through initial bandster hell -- when you're healed but have no restriction -- until you get fills done. Did you post an Introduction either on the Ohio thread for that or on the main forum Introduction thread? Are you local to Columbus/Central Ohio? We'd love to have you stop in at the group get togethers we do at Polaris Mall. Look for the May announcement under the Ohio thread.

Greg, I'm so happy for you and your family for the answered prayers!:crying:

Yea Sarah! Maybe we'll see you April 29th too! That's wonderful that they moved it up. They must be hearing the same story from alot of us that is reinforcing that they really need to work with us on fill appts. Even if you are May 6th with Sue, that's still a big improvement over waiting until June!

Okay, got my 1st Fill appt for 1pm on April 29th and I'm supposed to report to the the Testing Center by 12 noon. Woo Hoo!!!!!! Hope to see Greg, Niki and others.

I use My Food Diary :: Online Calorie Counter w/ Diet Journal & Exercise Log it has a huge library of foods and restaurants, a good exercise minutes tracker, a forum for discussion and reports of your progress on calories, protein, carbs, fat, etc. It is $9 /month and I've used it for 2 years.

Sarah - I'd talk with Dr. Choban, Dr. Price or Dr. Miller and ask to get moved up if you really can't wait until June 23 from April something -- I agree that is a long time between fills when you're losing or if you feel you get well into May and know you need a fill if your weight loss is slowing down or you're real hungry. I'm excited like Greg about getting my first fill.

Hey there KTBugg -- can you explain the kinds of consignment rules and fees you've experienced. I haven't ever tried this so maybe it won't be worth the hassle or fees to me either. In that case, I'd definitely rather donate them to another lapbander who can use my sizes of nice things on their way down the scale. Thanks for letting me know that Crissy's isn't there. I think I was talking about the Just Plus consignment store. Got the name wrong. Sorry folks.

Sarah - it was wonderful seeing you for the first time and I'm glad you felt welcome. Darla - you too! Your husband sounds like great support! Congrats - he's a keeper.

Carol - I'm so happy for you. I read your story of your journey through cancer and then on to getting your lapband - such courage. God Bless you and wishing you a great recovery and a thinner healthier body soon!:biggrin:

Yes, I'm thrilled as well with how this is turning out that we are all such a great support to each other. Even for Juli and her friend coming after a cold long bike ride just to be sure she checked in and Debbie coming up from Cincinnati to be sure she could see everyone too after. Let me see if I can count who all we had: Heather and her daughter Thinner Me (Angie) and her sister Darla and her husband Courtenay (from Cleveland !) and her significant other - sorry I didn't find out who the guy with your table was BrandNew Lisa Sarah Melissa Debbie Tyanna - Kathy SpecialK - Kathy Juli Babygrl1234 -- from Michigan! Did I miss mentioning anybody! 16 of us!

I'm going to get there by 1:00 pm as I was told in my doctors' office yesterday at Mt. Carmel that they are expecting a big crowd for this. I'll do the best I can to get us a block of seats. I'll have the Butterfly balloon a flying!

Scrappy -- love that Garfield graphic! Yep, me too on getting hungrier but I did get approval to move up to 1200-1400 calories for the next 2 weeks until I get my fill because I was really struggling to stay close to 1000 plus get at least 30 minutes of exercise in several days which was burning 200-300 calories or so.

I had my post op surgeon check up today and I discussed with his nurse that I was really struggling to stay at about 1000 calories now that 4 weeks will be post op as of Monday and they said I can go to 1200 or even 1400 calories if I am exercising like I have been and burning 200-300 calories until I get my first fill in a couple weeks. So that will help me to not do any 'guilt' eating about going over 1000 calories when I read about other bandsters eating such small portions. I'm really pleased with how my incisions are healing. Hope everyone else is doing well too.

Hi to all! I had my post op check up with Dr. Price today and he was very pleased. Judy his nurse said I'm down 19 lbs by their records.!! I asked about getting my first fill appt the week of April 28th which will be 6 weeks out from surgery and Judy and Dr. Price agreed to put that into the computer to get it lined up. I have my first follow up appt now with Dr. Miller for June 3. These guys sure are busy doctors but I'm doing fine and that gives me a month with a fill to see how the restriction is going at that level so he can advise whether I need a second fill to keep making progress. Last, I gave Dr. Price the LAPBANDTALK.COM website name and told him that he really should be aware that there were some not flattering things posted about the office staff in various aspects and I specifically explained what happened to me with my appt and etc. He said he really appreciated me letting him know that he needs to be on top of these things. He asked if there is anything posted about the surgical care from the surgeons and I said No-- we love our surgeons and are really happy with our recovery from surgery and things. Last, I asked about Melissa being the one doing fills now instead of one of the doctors doing that and if its becoming fairly common practice for the nurses to be trained and perform the fills and he said yes, its very common now for them to train a nurse for the fills and then they are there to back her up if needed. So, I'll be in line with the rest of you to get Melissa to do my fill here in a couple weeks. I really appreciated Dr. Price saying he was going to get on the internet and read for himself what the concerns are, and maybe get his nurse/office manager to check on things??, and that it was important for them to do the office things well as much as the surgical care too. I was thinking about it on the drive home and realized about 80% of our interaction with them is the office staff and nurses and 20% with the doctor themselves. Guess we'll see how it goes.

Hello to the Dayton Area Bandsters from the Columbus group. Wanted to extend an invite to come up to Columbus at Tuttle Mall for a shopping trip and see the bariatric style show being put on by Mt. Carmel Hospital's Bariatric Center and to meet the group of fun loving, hard working (diet and exercise-wise) bandsters in Columbus. The meeting is posted on a separate thread in the Ohio forum thread and we'll have a BIG BUTTERFLY BALLOON marking where we are sitting and we'll put some nametags on so you can translate from our screen names to real names. If you need an excuse to get away for shopping what better excuse that the support of friends! Take care. Kathy

Heather and Tyanna -- I now understand your excitement at being able to put away older bigger size things in a donate box. My first few things in 4X and 30/32s are going in now and if I don't hear any takers, I'll donate them to charity and the good expensive dresses maybe take them to the Chrissy's consignment store out off E. Main St. near Brice Rd. and see how that goes and maybe see if I can find some smaller sizes for me at a bargain too.

:sad_smile::rolleyes2::scared2: Yes, isn't it wonderful to have other lapband friends who understand what you are going through! Hope to see you Saturday. Look for the Butterfly Helium balloon and you'll find the group. Ha Ha...not expecting too many others to have a balloon like that!!

If you go to the top of the thread starting discussion and its about 2 blue bars down, far left a button before the various posts begin that says NEW REPLY - click it and you're off and running.

Well you've definitely gotten over the highest hurdle if your doctor has your Insurance approval!!! You should be doing a dance of celebration. Your surgeon's office should be calling you to schedule you a surgery date and then pre-admission testing about a week before that, and BOOM -- you're in bandster land!

There is an Insurance questions forum thread and I'd say post a question there too. Also this website has a Search capability and its a little hard to find. Look on the far top right of the screen just under the tool bar area for your browser and you should see Bookmark Us! then Site Map, then Advanced Search! the screen is pretty easy to use if you put in the keywords you want to get matches on like Medicaid. Best of luck!

Welcome to our lap band talk forum. You're gonna love the support her. I'd say since you are so newly banded I would call and ask to get in to see my doctor just to have the peace of mind.

Good to have you check in KTBugg -- love that user name as I have a niece and we call her Katie bug! That pretty little girl I diapered as a baby is now at Northern Arizona University finishing up as a freshman and wants to be a doctor - actually she's had her mind made up for maybe 7 years or more that is what she wanted to do with her life and she's never given up her dream. I told her that her Aunt will cover the cost of her textbooks if she gets at least B's and then reviews her grade card with me after a quarter/semester then I reimburse her for her book cost so she can put it toward the next set of books.

Its good to know we're all hitting the same plateau period about the same time as it reinforces we just need to keep working our plan and it will go down soon. I think I'm noticing more in clothes this week than the scale so that's a victory. I've been pretty good about staying off the scale on a daily basis but I have a dr. appt tomorrow a.m. so I should see if that shows progress. I have to tell you, I have connected to a Central Ohio group of other bandsters I met on this web site and we meet once a month in person now at a local mall and they've become such great pals! We have a bariatric style show at the mall this Saturday where I think about 10 patients who've been successful with both RNY and Lapband will be all dressed up in new duds by the mall stores, hair and things all done, and they are going to share their motivational stories of how they got from their Before to After. I hope all of you get connected In Person with another bandster buddy in your area because its great support! P.S. We decided to meet the first time at a mall food Court where we could get coffee and I marked our meeting location by having a Helium Balloon hooked to the chair and we just found each other! We thought meeting in a public place would be less threatening to those who were meeting someone based on the internet introductions but it was wonderful to meet the 'real' people behind their screen names and see they are just wonderful people who have struggled with their weight like me. The second meeting at the mall we even did clothing swaps among some of the people!

Niki - Hang in there-- April 29th is a coming! I was reading elsewhere on the site about what people eat for a normal day and boy, it just sound like so little food. I feel almost normal now with eating 1000 calories a day but with eating mushies I'm finding it hard to stay closer to 800 like many of them said they can do consistently, like 1 egg or 2 turkey bacon slices for Breakfast or 1/2 the packet of Weight Control oatmeal - I can eat the whole packet for now. Its still a mental adjustment to control eating when the band restriction isn't there. I'm doing so much better than how I've lived my life for many years but just not at the level those with restriction seems to have. Can't wait now for my 1st fill too to see how much difference I feel.