gkeyt

Robinbird, did you hear that from YOUR insurance? Because mine covered my surgery, even though at the time I was probably about 50-60 lbs overweight. It all depended on what the surgeon submitted to the insurance company, and my PS knew very well whether a BR would be covered or not based on his physical exam of the patient. Just wondering, don't want you to lose hope if you haven't heard that from YOUR insurance yet. If the PS thinks you should wait, then of course that would be best. If there is a lot of fatty tissue there, you'll be happier with your result if you wait, but if not it could be just as good a result to do it before reaching goal. And about waiting for pregnancy, my PS told me not to get pregnant within a year of surgery. He told a friend of mine on whom he also did a BR that breast feeding might be possible, but that it would impair the cosmetic result. That was for BR, not BL, so breastfeeding is probably less impacted by that surgery (since there is less folding of the glandular tissue) but still would probably impair your final result. Of course, the PS is the one to ask that question of. But other than that, pregnancy should be fine after the time period they request for complete healing. With BR, you always have to weigh the two sides: is it better to have the improved quality of life from the BR early on, or wait until after you are done with child bearing? Most people wish they had done it sooner after they have it done. But with BL, I don't know. I think it probably doesn't affect your quality of life quite as much, but since I haven't been there I could just be talking out of my ar$e. LOL. HTH.

Thanks, Gwen. (Feels weird to write that to another Gwen! LOL) I am fine if I don't get to my goal until the end of the year, since I am in anesthesia school now. But I am finding myself more motivated to exercise the more I do it, so maybe it will be by summer. That would be great! As for maintaining, that was the whole reason I got banded in the first place. I thought I might be able to lose about half of the weight without the band, if I worked hard for a very long time, but I knew maintaining is the toughest thing for me (and all of us, I'm sure). I'm hoping that the band makes that different; that's what I am banking on. :drool: You have lost 67 lbs, that is just outstanding. In less than a year! You must be so proud of yourself! :cursing:

We made it, one year! My bandiversary is on the 13th. My goal was to lose at least 1 lb per week, the low average for lap banding. I have always been a very slow loser so I did not expect to lose my whole 74 lbs in the first year. But just a few days ago I reached 52 lbs lost, so I made it to that goal. And I only have 22 lbs to go so I feel pretty great about that! In the past year I have gone from a size 16/18 to a size 10...in another 5 lbs I think I might fit into the size 8 jeans I bought a couple weeks ago. But even better than that.... I lost all my extra chins! My resting heart rate has dropped from 100 to 78-80! I can RUN on the treadmill now...I am up to about 17 minutes of running in a 40 minute session (the rest brisk walking). And my max heartrate is lower than when I first started doing the elliptical, slowly, 2 years ago. It is much harder to get the heart rate up and it recovers quickly. I'm about to resize my wedding ring AGAIN...it keeps falling off. I have no desire to eat 90% of the crap I used to eat on a daily basis...including all the sugary Snacks I loved. Now when I have a taste, that's all I want. No entire pint of Ben & Jerrys. I have energy all the time, and I look forward to exercising every day! So it's been a great year. And unlike spending over a year on WW to lose 35 lbs, there has really been no suffering in this process. It's been a learning process, and I did go through the Bandster Hell phase initially, but since about my 2nd fill I've been able to rely on making sensible choices 90% of the time and eating other things in moderation, and I do not feel deprived at all. In fact, I feel richer, because I know I am caring for my body and being kind to it. 2007 was a difficult year in other ways, but my lap band has truly been a blessing to me. It has been great to find this group online and share experiences! Janine, I hope you do stick around and let us know how things are going. Your goal is totally attainable, and with all the things you've learned since being banded, I'm sure you will get there! Your achievements already are incredible and you should be very proud of yourself. That's a great idea to just carry on as though you still have your band...I'm sure it's very hard but we have to deal with what we're dealt, I guess. Thanks for letting us know about what can happen (what rotten luck! :thumbup:) and being kind enough to share it with us. It's valuable to know that you can do everything right and still end up losing your band, you just never know. But thank god you are healthy and healing. Everybody, happy bandiversary!

Great idea ladies. My info added below... Name....... Start (in)....Now (in).....lbs lost.......lbs to go Foofy ....... 16 ........ 14.5 ......... 31 ........... 86 Zannie ...... 23 ........ 18 .......... 100 ........... 84 Nurseamy..... 15 ......... 9.5 ......... 82 ............ 0 Sweethot..... ? ........ 12&13.5 ....... 81 ........... 26 Jachut....... ? ......... 10.5 ......... ? ............. 0 Luluc........ 15.5 ...... 11.9 ......... 38 ........... 37 Steph_co..... 16 ........ 14.5 ......... 45 ........... 58 JulieNYC .... 19.5 ....... 9.75*....... 217 ............ 5 xxlaneyxx.... 17 ........ ? ............ ? ........... 127.9 Shalee04..... ? ......... 15 ........... 43 ........... 60 wombat712.... ? ......... 13 ........... 62 ........... 24 Gkeyt (Gwen). 16.5 .......13.5 ......... 52 ........... 22 *after brach

I agree with Jachut. I will add that you should think carefully about when you might want to have kids before being banded, and take any plastics you might want into consideration. I'm sure you've thought about all of that, just wanted to add it. Most surgeons recommend waiting at least 12 to 18 months after banding before becoming pregnant...but losing weight dramatically increases a lot of women's fertility, and they often become pregnant unintentionally after losing some weight. I heard in Europe some docs call the lap band the "Fertility Band" because of its effect on the ability to become pregnant. Make sure you use good birth control after banding! I expect that I will eventually get a TT after I am at goal, but I want to have a baby in a couple of years (after I am finished with grad school). My timeline (for pregnancy) is a little short because I will be almost 37 by then, so I am not going to have any plastics until after a pregnancy, if I am able to become pregnant by then. I can wait 4 years (or longer) for plastics, especially if I am preoccupied by a new career and a baby. :thumbup: I guess all of this is just to say if you think it will be a while (some years) before you want to have kids, I'd have your TT, and just factor in the amount of time after the TT before planning any pregnancies. If you might want kids sooner, I'd hold off. But all of that might not matter, as sometimes these things have a way of happening on their own schedule. I never planned on waiting as long as I have to start a family, but my first marriage ended around the time I wanted to start a family, so...here I am, remarried after several years single/divorced, in grad school, taking life as it comes to me. Others find themselves parents when they didn't expect it. LOL. Who knows what can happen?

I had my breast reduction 6 years ago, long before I was banded. As one poster said, it totally depends on whether you have a lot of fatty tissue in your breasts or not. Before my surgery, my breasts got larger whether I lost or gained weight. After the surgery my surgeon confirmed that there was almost no fat tissue in my breasts, and they never would have gotten smaller. I never regretted having the reduction when I did. It made exercise a possibility for me again. I started out a 38H (that was my last fitting about a year prior to surgery, my cup size was probably a little larger than that by then) and ended up a 38C, and now I'm a 34D. No one can help you make this decision better than a PS. Truly, they know breasts, and can tell you if YOU would do best having the BR after being at goal or if you should have it before. Like you said, it makes exercising so much easier, and therefore makes it easier/more possible to GET to goal. You will see a PS at some point anyway, so you may as well have the consult now. If you have to wait to have surgery, you'll already have your records started there and it will be pretty quick and easy to move forward. Since losing 52 lbs, I am sad to learn that in the 6+ years since having my breast reduction, some fat did end up forming in my breast (damn aging!) and my breasts are a tad deflated now. Not a lot, but I suspect by the time I reach goal I might be looking to have them fixed a bit. Still, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing except maybe having the BR a year or two before I did. My life since the BR improved SO much, I don't even care if I have to have them lifted again when I reach goal. I can't even tell you how great it is to be able to run and be active. Also not having people stare at my chest constantly is great--it still happens, but not like I'm a circus freak anymore. :thumbup: It goes without saying that you should research a PS a lot first, but when you do make sure your surgeon is very good at BR, not just breast surgery in general (i.e. BA). A lot of BRs are over-reduced and look a little strange. I am very pleased with the job my surgeon did. He left me exactly as he planned to--as a "full C". The only reason I ended up in a D was that my band size got smaller but my breasts stayed essentially the same. Good luck with your decision!

All of this sounds so good! Gibson: Your spinach salad sounds delish, I'm going to try it sometime! Sushi lovers, I am right there with you. That's my favorite eating-out meal. I can tolerate rice just fine, but I only eat one or two pieces of nigiri sushi with rice. The rest I either eat sashimi or I take the fish off the nigiri. I don't eat a lot of rolls anyway, but when I do the only thing I have trouble with is the seaweed--too tough. BergdorfBlonde, my husband and I just love Morningstar Farms veggie sausage. In Portland we could get it at most restaurants we went out for Breakfast at, but not in Spokane. I do have it at home, though, and it's a great Protein boost. You guys are making me hungry! :thumbup:

All the bariatric surgeries have risks of complications, but to me the "rearranging" ones have the worst ones. Not just things like leakage of staple lines (which I think is pretty rare now) but things like reactive hypoglycemia, where after you've lost weight your blood sugar dips really low after you eat, like into the 30s. People lose consciousness, crash their cars, even have seizures. That isn't a very common complication but it is becoming more common as more people have the surgery. It seems like it happens mostly to people who were not diabetic preop, and their pancreas sort of overreacts. And it's just one example of many things that happen when you can't take in adequate nutrition. Good for you for sticking to your gut (lol) instinct on this! Just make sure that this doc is going to give you the support you need after you are banded--willing to give fills when needed, able to tell when you shouldn't have any more fill, and is open and available on a reasonable schedule. Some docs who push the RnY don't like how involved they have to be post op with the band. With RnY, once they do the surgery they are for the most part done having to deal with you. Best of luck and keep us updated on your progress!

1. Girdle: I'd ask your doc about that. My incisions had steristrips and were covered with opsite (clear dressing) so they wouldn't have gotten stuck to the girdle. But I don't know if it will be too sore. 2. You will be stiff and sore for a few days after surgery. Hard to say if it will be similar to your C section, but the incisions are a lot smaller and you won't have given birth this time. :eek: So it should be a little better...but again, hard to predict. 3. You won't have to get naked in front of everyone. You will be wearing a gown until you go to sleep. Then they will prep you, they will take off your gown but they will cover all of you with drapes except the surgical field (your belly) which will be cleaned with surgical prep solution. You'll be wearing your gown again when you wake up, and you won't be exposed during your surgery except where absolutely necessary. 4. You probably won't have a catheter. Most people don't, the surgery is only 45 min-1hour usually. If you do have a catheter, they will put it in after you go to sleep and take it out later when you are ready to get up out of bed after surgery. Ask your surgeon whether he has his patients catheterized. The worst part of it is usually having it inserted, and you will be asleep for that anyway. Hope this helps!

I've been eating a lot of spinach salads lately. I usually start with a piece of grilled fish, then eat a spinach salad with some dried cranberries, a sprinkle of blue cheese and a couple of pine nuts, and vinagrette dressing. Yum.

This is an excellent post! Thanks for sharing this. It helps to stop and think before making that impulsive decision. Yes, Jachut's sig is Shut yer Gob and Move Yer A$$, and that's a great motto. WLS is a lot of work, especially banding. So much depends on what WE do and the choices we make every day. That said, one of the things I have worked on over the last year is trying not to think of eating "bad things" as that--food is just food, not good or bad. Our choices are good or bad, but I do have treats and I don't consider them "bad" or cheating. Life is about moderation, people who don't have weight problems know this. They don't eat a whole package of Oreo's in a day (like I might have before I was banded)...they eat 2 and are done. I steer clear of things that I am afraid will trigger past behaviors, but mostly I try to learn moderation and the concept of the "occasional" treat (not daily, or not with each meal). I might have lost weight more quickly if I had never had an occasional treat. Or I might have gone completely off the wagon and lost less weight than I have. Who knows? This way of living works for me, and supports my weight loss. Thanks for the insightful post. There will always be the people who expect the band to be "Magic" and to turn them into Beautiful Butterflies without any effort on their parts. Then there will also be the people who "get it." You clearly "get it". :eek:

I'd like to second what Shortgal said. If you are so tight that you can only take liquids, you are too tight. And liquids will never make you feel full, your band only works with solid foods. It's dangerous to go too long with a too-tight fill, and can lead to problems with your band down the road. Have you had an upper GI to look at your band and your restriction? You might talk to your doctor about that. The band isn't intended to forcibly prevent us from eating food. It is supposed to work to curb our hunger, so we can eat small, sensible meals and not be hungry for 3-4 hours in between. It's easy to get into the trap of wanting lots of "restriction" to keep us from overeating, but this isn't good for your stomach in the long run if you want to keep your band for more than a couple of years. I would meet with your doctor to discuss all of this and determine if you need a little bit of an unfill. (I know your other thread said you have the nurse give your fills, no questions asked. I'm not saying the nurse isn't capable...I'm a RN myself...but she should be asking questions about what you are able to eat, whether you ever vomit, slime etc, and so on to determine if a fill is appropriate. Not doing so is at least irresponsible, at worst malpractice.) You should be able to eat solid food to meet your nutritional needs, period. The occasional day of liquids is fine, and of course after a fill, but if that is how you are getting your nutrition every day, there's a problem. good luck!

Exercise is the only thing that started giving me energy. It doesn't seem to make sense, especially when you feel too tired to exercise. But try it out. If you can get through the before-exercise thoughts of "I'm too tired to do this" you will feel better WHILE you do it, and a lot better AFTER you do it. Believe me, I've been there, and the only thing that helped was exercising. It gets easier the more you do it. There are tons of suggestions on how to get started in the Exercise forum.

That's a great post, BB. It's so true that you have to deal with your emotions more when you can't avoid them by eating. Also with our bodies changing and reshaping, a lot of hormones are released from the fat (as mentioned above) and just the metabolic changes themselves make us kinda wonky. Then we also have to deal with WHY we were fat...and deal with people treating us differently as we get thinner. There are so many reasons for the emotions. Thanks for the "food" for thought! :eek:

So excited for you! I'm glad everything is going well for you--best wishes for a speedy recovery to you.

I personally chose the band over RnY because I didn't want to deal with long term nutritional deficiencies and other long term complications. They've been doing RnY for a long time but they still don't know what happens to a 30 year post op, and since I was 33 when I had surgery, I intend to live at least another 60 years! Plus, I was an ICU RN (before starting grad school full time) and I've taken care of too many RnY patients. Some immediately post op, but most were more than a year or two post op, with nutritional and other weird complications. That said, I think RnY can be right for some people, and the band isn't for everyone. If you are committed to changing your eating habits (you MIGHT be able to get those biscuits and cakes past your band, I certainly could if I wanted to, but some bandsters can't) and avoiding those things that sabotage your healthy lifestyle, and committed to doing the work that the band requires, I think it's a great choice. But there are a few people who expect the band to do all the work for them, and they are usually disappointed. We all hear all the talk about "the band is just a tool" but I don't know that everyone takes it to heart before they actually have surgery and find out just what it will and will not do for you. The band is basically a mechanical appetite suppressant--for some people, it also restricts how much they can eat, but a lot of people find they can eat quite a bit of food if they don't learn when to stop. So if you can think about it that way--it's just there to help you feel satisfied sooner, and keep you from being hungry for 3-4 hours before your next meal--and do all the other things to keep up your weight loss, then you are all set. I'm sure you will make the decision that is right for you! Good luck.

It's okay not to lose weight at this stage, even if you are only on liquids. You might find that you end up losing weight while you are on the liquid phase, only to gain it back in later phases...and then when you are eating food and you don't have any fill yet....Some people worry when their weight loss doesn't take off right away, but try not to. Your doctor probably told you this, but the post op phase is not a weight loss phase, it is a time for your stomach to heal and settle in with your band. Make sure you follow the diet as prescribed so your stomach can heal properly and become secure, and don't worry if weight loss stalls or if you even gain a little before you get a fill. All along this journey, you will find times that your body just plain FREAKS OUT that it is losing weight and adjusting. And it will stop. But it will start up again, don't worry! You are doing great. Congrats and I hope you are feeling well after your surgery! Welcome to the loser's bench.:w00t:

The important thing about the liquid then purees then soft food stages....is to let your stomach rest and heal, without churning like it does to process real food. Even if you chew a billionteen times, it's not the same. I went through this same things, and had a few moments where I went, "But if I chew it really really really well?" But no. The sutures in your stomach need to completely heal, and the band needs to settle into its "groove" in your stomach, BEFORE it starts grinding and churning to process food. Otherwise you set yourself up for possible slips later down the road. Follow the diet as your doctor ordered it...it IS hard. But it's what we signed up for, and it's there for a reason. And don't worry about losing weight at this point...drink as many Protein shakes as you need to, or eat as much pureed whatever as you need, to try to keep the hunger away. This is the time for your stomach to heal. Be kind to yourself, you just had surgery and your stomach needs this rest. You can do it! Good luck!

I felt the same way about full body pics, but I did take them and I'm glad I did. I didn't have any otherwise...of course! I'd been avoiding the camera like the plague! In fact, in December 06 my hubby and I took pics in front of our Christmas tree, thinking maybe we'd make a nice little xmas card...until I downloaded them, and holy pannus Batman! No WAY did we make a xmas card...but they make good "before" pics. :Banane34: It was pretty cool today. It will be much better when I feel like I know a little bit. :Banane44: There is SO much to learn...we are cramming in the cellular biology, physiology, pharmacology, chemistry and anesthesia principles, and I just can't believe we'll actually be talking like we know something in a year or so. But I just started in January, the program is 28 months long. So, 26.5 months left? I have to say, I do kind of hope I work in a facility that does bariatric surgery eventually. Usually it is (we are), I hate to say it, an anesthesia provider's nightmare, because it can be so difficult to intubate and ventilate bariatric patients. (We all know this! That's why we had CPAP, and, um, surgery.) But I'd like to be able to get good at managing "difficult airways" (i.e. like mine was last year) and be able to put patients a little more at ease having had the surgery myself. I'd feel like I was "giving back" a little bit. Does that make sense? The hospital where we do our training and clinicals is a Center of Excellence so I should get some experience with anesthesia for bariatric surgery before I finish my program. :party:

Hi everyone, I've been away...grad school has been kicking my butt! It's hard to learn how to be a student again 11 years after graduating. Things are going pretty well though. The weight loss is going well, I've been holding for about a week since my last drop. I believe this is partly because TOM should be like, now, and partly because I'm rebuilding muscle. For some reason I stopped resistance training about 3 months before I had surgery, when I switched gyms...wtf was I thinking?? I just never got around to signing up with a trainer at the new gym to get me hooked up. Totally lame excuse. I'm sort of paying for it now, I've been back to training for a couple of months and have been sort of reshaping and definitely putting on some muscle, so I'm pretty pleased. Not recommended, though! Doh! Juli, I'm totally impressed that you ran a 5k! That must have felt like such a great accomplishment. It's amazing to go from having this surgery to running in an event like that less than a year later! Kudos to you. I have started running intervals a bit. It's not much, I can only run about 3-4 minutes at a time so far before I have to walk for a while. But I'm working my endurance and fitness up pretty well, I can tell a difference from one session to the next. Mind you, I am NOT a runner, never have been. I have never enjoyed running, although this time I don't HATE it. But it's such an efficient way to kick up the workout, and I'm finally at a weight where I don't think I'm going to totally wreck my joints running (on a treadmill!). Although I know a lot of people are fine at heavier weights running, maybe that was just an excuse? LOL. Anyway, I'm totally impressed, WTG! Today was our first day in the operating room (I'm studying to be a nurse anesthetist) and I spent 6 hours in a room with my CRNA watching him do 3 cases...before I started finally getting hungry. My last fill was 1/3 and it's been doing the trick. I'm good to go for probably at least another month, maybe longer? Jeni, you look great! Congrats on getting your neck back! You have totally kicked a$$ this year, wtg! Hey, anyone showshoe? I'm going for the first time this Saturday. I took a beginner's intro class tonight and I'm pretty excited. Any tips? They told us not to dress too warm, as it's a pretty aerobic workout. Ok, off to study...

That's the vagus nerve he was talking about. It runs from the brain to many organs in the body, including the stomach, and does many things, including having a part in signalling hungar and fullness. There's another procedure that places a nerve stimulator over the vagus nerve in the stomach (it's called VBLOC) to stimulate that nerve and tell your brain it's full--I believe that one is still experimental. But it's the same principle--the fullness at the top of our stomachs, which as you said we didn't used to reach unless we ate a giant meal, stimulates the vagus nerve and the stretch receptors in our stomachs and tells our brains we are full. Unfortunately, a lot of us who were used to eating like it's Thanksgiving ALL the time learned to get past that earlier full feeling, and keep eating until we were stuffed. That's eating PAST what your vagus nerve is trying to tell you! And we have to learn a new kind of full--one that's more subtle than eating until you can't fit another bite in. I think a lot of people look to the band to tell us we can't fit another bite in, instead of being "satisfied" and stopping. That's why this explanation of the Sweet Spot was helpful to me. :biggrin2:

Soup and Protein drinks go right through your band, just like Water through a funnel. They don't stay in your pouch, that is why you are hungry again so soon, and can eat a big bowl of soup. The band only works with solid foods, that is why we are supposed to avoid liquid calories. If you can get your Protein from solid food instead of Protein shakes and Soups you should find you are able to eat fewer calories and lose weight better. Also as another poster said, you need fewer calories when you lose weight so be sure to adjust there too, and make sure you are increasing your exercise. HTH

I didn't say your stomach was cut or stapled. But some of the instruments used staple the sides of the tissue that is cut AWAY from the stomach. Not all of them. But usually/often the tissue around the stomach that is near where the band is going to go has to be cut away. If that tissue is exceptionally vascular, they could use the cutting tool that staples the edges so it doesn't bleed. You may or may not have tiny tiny staples in that way--I don't think they usually do that, but my understanding is that using that tool can happen in any laproscopic belly surgery, IF it is needed. But they don't cut our stomachs or staple them, that's the point of lap band surgery. Does that make more sense?

Janine, I totally hear you with the snow driving you crazy. I just moved to Spokane WA this winter, I've always lived near the coast so I am a total wimp about the cold and the snow. I really admire you people in places like Michigan who get snow every year and all kinds of nasty winter weather. We got a lot more snow this year than Spokane usually gets apparently, and it was too much for the snow plows and all to handle so we spent some days cooped up as well. I think last week we got 14 inches one day and another 4 or 5 over the next few days...now it's melting, yuck...I'm such a weenie! :thumbup: I just can't wait for springtime... I had some scale movement after a long plateau, then gained a couple pounds of it back. But this is what my body has been doing whenever it loses some weight now: I have a long plateau where the weight is EXACTLY the same day after day, down to the 0.1/lb (how is that possible?) Then I finally DROP 3 lbs or so, gain a couple back, and over the next week or so settle back down to that drop level. Then I hang there for a few weeks and repeat the process. It's sort of weird. I guess this is how my body is handling being at this weight--it's the lowest I've been for 15 years! I guess the whole system doesn't really know what to make of it. Nighttime eating? I think so many of us have that problem. The only things I've found that help are to brush my teeth when I'm done eating for the day, and if I'm going to still be up for a while, drink tea. I know, nothing earth shattering. It doesn't always work, but usually it does. Sometimes I just have to GO TO BED, if I can. Also if I have idle time for some reason (ha!) doing something that involves my hands helps. Sometimes I knit, can't eat when you do that. I used to make glass beads at my torch (can't eat then either) but since I've moved I haven't set up the studio again, and I have schoolwork to do anyway. I'd really like to get to 180 by my bandiversary...I will try! I lose weight so slowly...but I have about a month to do it, so it's possible. Let's hope!

I don't think he was really referring to LBT as having all the drama...there is another "Well-Known Website" with forums for all kinds of bariatric surgeries, and their lap band forum is famous for its "drama" and negativity...I recognize Ron from there, and he's a good guy, he wouldn't post this here if he didn't think people would be genuinely interested. Personally, I think it's great that there are lots of different options out there for people. The more info, the better. Of course, not all of the info you get on forums like this is really accurate or necessarily even helpful, but if you can pick through it all and find the gems, I think these places help people a lot. Good luck on the new forum, Ron!