NukeChik

Glad to hear that you are doing well. Rest up and get to healing! Welcome to bandland.

Just hang in there. And remember now is the time to let your body heal, not lose weight. Focus on getting your vitamins and protein in and put the scale away. I know its hard, but just wait, it will come off.

Bill would make it illegal to feed the obese - On Deadline - USATODAY.com Above is the link, there are some hyper texts in the article that will take you to the actual bill and so forth. Its an outrage if you ask me. Let see how much more we can ostracize people like us!:smile:

I am so upset after reading an article about a new bill that is before the house that would make it illegal for restaurants to serve obese people in Mississippi. What country do we live in now? I couldn't find the standards of what they would consider obese, but how would they enforce it? Where does it end, monitoring everything that fat people buy from the grocery store too? I'm just shocked and appalled!!!

Another thing that I would look into is Cold and Flu having aspirin in it. That is how I finally found out that I was allergic to aspirin when I ended up in the emergency room after taking it. That has been years ago and they could have changed their formula since then. My doc strongly disagrees with aspirin and NSAID usage and the band!

I second Chrisann, I could tell you my doc's after surgery plan, but everyone has something a little different. Just call the office and find out what they want you to do.

You are about where I was when I got banded (Jan 7). My insurance did not cover my band I was self-pay. I think there is a huge variance in what insurance companies approve. Mine was very specific over 40 bmi you're covered. 35-40 you had to have either obstructive sleep apnea, Type II diabetes, or a first line relative that had died of coronary artery disease prior to age 45 (I think??). Anyways, when I went to the seminar the surgeon that gave the seminar and ultimately did my surgery made the statement "Its time to invest in yourself". I knew that I wasn't sick at the time, but it was in my not too distant future. So I did it. Never looked back. I'm very happy so far but I'm brand new.

Glad to hear your first fill went okay. I actually had a little tiff with my dr's office this morning. I called to confirm my appt on the 5th and first they didn't even have me down:angry:. Then I asked if my surgeon would be doing it and they said "more than likely", well I hit the roof. I will not be getting a fill on the 5th unless its my surgeon. This band is my baby! Backstory- I haven't seen my surgeon since I had surgery on Jan 7, when I had my 1 week followup I only saw him in the hallway. The nurses did my followup. 1 nurse in particular, I guess she's like the head office nurse now is the one that does the followups. She also does all the emergency calls during the week. Well, the phone girl said that she does fills when my doc can't for any reason. I told her that I was a self-pay patient and I was not comfortable with that at all. I choose my surgeon because of HIS reputation, not his office staff. Well, that went over real well. About 10 minutes later said nurse calls me at work, trying to explain to me all the training and such that she has had and how she has specific patients that request her for fills.

Here's a better shot of me. This was taken tonight. I'm down 20 pounds.

Good pic, I can see it, I can see it. BTW I am NOT easily offended. If you make me mad I'll tell ya! I guess we need to get some pics on here without glasses. I definately see what you are talking about though!

I'm a six footer. I wear a lot of "cropped" pants lol. As far as I know I'm an only child:wink2:

My doctor doesn't require waiting prior to eating but I have to wait 45 min to an hour after I eat before I can drink again. I'm actually not having as hard a time with it as I thought..... so far

I would call your docs office. I wouldn't recommend stopping your cpap machine. I've never heard anything about that. Isn't the object of a cpap to force air into your lungs anyway, not your stomach??

I would not being doing banana with the shakes IMHO. I could only have clear liquid protein the week after surgery. Special K Protein water was my friend. Make sure you are not swallowing air when you sip also. Do this by allowing the liquid to touch your lips before drinking. I was inhaling a lot of air by breathing in prior to drinking when I first had surgery.

I'm a healthy person, just overweight, that being said I was very anxious to get home. They wanted to keep me longer, but I was saying what do you need me to do to get out of here. I became anxious after I was sure 1) I could keep liquids down and not get nauseated 2) I didn't have any problems peeing and 3) I could lap the building without assistance. I was out of surgery by 9 am and headed home at 11. Just the way I wanted!

There are a few threads dedicated to this subject. This is the last one I know of and a good one at that. Click on the following link: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/don-t-over-shop-before-surgery-49283/

Okay, here's my before pics. These pics were taken in August of 2007 while on vacation, my weight was the same as it was presurgery. I can post the pics that we took of me on the night before surgery but I have some seriously bad hair and facial expression going on. I should've retook it but oh well.

Actually my surgeon chose the Realize, I didn't get the choice. I wanted to choose, but the girl that did the pre-op class at the office said that he chooses on a case by case basis. I think that he's probably doing them exclusively though due to him also being a proctor.

These are my kitties, Marley (Marlin Firearms) and Mauser (Swedish Mauser). If I got to buy them my dear man got to name them?! I have 2 doggies. For some reason I can't find their pics on my computer and all the camera batteries are dead!!! I'll get them a little later after the batteries recharge!

I just called the ethicon people to get my surgeon's id number. They are supposed to call my surgeon's office and tell them all they need to know to support their patients. Pretty bad that my surgeon is one of the guys doing all the little video snippets on their website and his staff doesn't know their identification code:confused:

I'll have to try calling that number cause I would like to get on the website. I'm not positive about the no stitching thing. Its just what I've gathered from my research. I could eat a lot at a time if I let myself. I get hungry after about 4-6 hours on about a cup to a cup and a half of food. I'm following all the doctors rules. I haven't started exercising regularly yet. I plan on it though. Time to dust off the old treadmill. I do get really, really hungry. I'm trying to hold myself back from snacking right now. I've only actually been full once. I usually just measure out a small portion of food and work on that. If I'm still hungry after about 10 minutes of finishing I'll have a little something else. I'm usually "satisfied" though. Thats how I'm trying to live my life now, eating till I'm "satisfied" not till I'm full.

Thanks for answering the cc mamato. My doc still hasn't figured out what his code is for the website so I haven't gotten into that yet. They gave me a little card when I was at the surgery center but the number on it is 16 digits and the website wants 12. Oh well, maybe they'll figure it out. My surgeon is one of the docs on there doing all the little videos, Jaime Ponce. From everything I've seen, during the surgery they don't stitch the band on like the others. Thats probably the reason I woke up from surgery hungry. I don't think that I had much swelling at all. I have an appt to get my first fill on Feb 5. I think that the amount of time to the first fill is less than the other bands. I think most bands are 6 weeks for first fill. The realize literature says you can get a fill after your first week of solid foods (week 4). I start solids tomorrow. I was banded Jan 7. Oh another fun fact about the Realize band, the port is only 1/2 inch tall. I'm not sure what the other bands stats are, but I'm thinking that is much smaller.

I have the realize band. I don't know that its much different. Do a search and look at a previous thread that was started. I think the biggest difference is the port. On the other bands the port is stiched into the fascia (sheet of tissue/fat over abdominal muscles), in the realize band the port has a self anchoring system, which basically means they kind of rivet it in. At this point in time J&J's research states that there is a lower occurrence complications with the port (flipping and so on). I'm pretty sure that the REalize band also has a low profile port standard. I can feel mine (I don't have much fat in the area they placed my port) and it feels pretty small. My surgeon placed mine so that it shouldn't show up too bad, its kinda hooked to the edge of my ribs.

My account on top toolbar, then edit signature. Copy and paste it in the area at the bottom, then you can even preview it afterwards

Everything I've ever read says that any liquid that doesn't have caffiene in it can be counted against your intake. Examples- Sprite (I know its a no-no due to carbonation, just trying to give examples), decaffinated tea, broths, and so on. Anything that you drink with caffiene in it works against your 64 oz for the day because caffiene is a diuretic.