sleepyjean

They decide once they get inside and can see your stomach. Bigger stomach=bigger band (and vice versa). There should not be a difference in restriction if the doctor gives you the right size band.

I just stumbled across this auction http://cgi.ebay.com/LAP-BAND-SUPPORT-I-CAN-HELP-YOU-I-WANT-TO-HELP-YOU_W0QQitemZ280019342738QQihZ018QQcategoryZ36460QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem There's a buy it now price of $5. Is it me, or is this bizarre? The seller has good feedback, so maybe it's legit, but there's something weird about screaming in all caps and the $5 price tag. You'd think this person would post a couple of photos of herself or at least write about her own experience as a bandster. Otherwise, it comes across as somewhat random. It's like me posting an auction like "WERE YOU BORN WITH CURLY HAIR? DO YOU WISH IT WAS STRAIGHT? I STRAIGHTENED MY HAIR LAST YEAR AND CAN HELP YOU THROUGH THIS. BID WITH CONFIDENCE."

I agree. It sounds like you've got adware or spyware. There are some good free programs out there that can take care of that for you - though heck if any of the names come to mind right now. What browser are you using? I used to use IE and was constantly getting adware, spyware, trojans, and pop-ups. I switched to mozilla firefox about 6 weeks ago and it is much better than IE and Netscape in that respect. And it's free.

I agree. Also, it seems to me like it would be pretty easy to make a fake card and it's not like they have the staff to monitor you. From a business perspective, I can't see that it makes a lot of sense for restaurants to honor the cards.

am i the only one who has no idea what a mini-emmi is?

RNY pro: you're just about guar-on-teed to get all of your excess weight off. It's practically fool-proof. This surgery has been performed for many more years in the US than the band so surgeons in general are more proficient at it. Plus, there's not much follow-up. You can chew like a normal person and have liquids with your meals if you want to. con: DUMPING. The weight comes off really fast, which increases the likelihood that you will have excess skin. The surgery is more invasive, more difficult to reverse, and as we've recently learned - your "pouch" will stretch to accomodate more food. You'll be dependent on Vitamins for the rest of your life and have to deal with things like dumping. Besides that, you are in danger of winding up with a dispropotionately large head. I don't know why that happens. I just know that it does happen to some people. Band pro: faster recovery time. less invasive, less expensive, weight loss is more gradual (yes- that's a pro for me!). It's easily reversible. You can have the band adjusted if you find yourself gaining or eating more than you should. Adjustments are no big deal. You'll have an easier time convincing your loved ones that the surgery isn't that dangerous. con: You may not start losing until your first fill, or you may require several fills to start your weight loss. You'll have a medical implant inside of your body for the rest of your life, so you may have to deal with things like erosion, leaks, or replacement. You also have to deal with PBing, sliming, gas, food getting stuck, and lots of other fun things.

That's my birthday! Good luck - it will be a great day for you :-)

There are two kinds of people who lose weight: those who want other people to notice and those who don't. However, there seem to be a lot more people in column A than column B! In fact, I think there are only three of us in column B: me, myself, and I. LOL! If it gives you warm fuzzies to have people notice, then that's awesome. I know you'll get lots and lots of positive comments as the weight comes off. For my part, I'm way too self concious to like it when people comment on my weight loss. It feels weird to know that there are people looking at my body and evaluating. And I can't help but think that if they've noticed I'm on the way down, they sure as hell noticed when I was on the way up. I guess I was the only one who was "surprised" to find out how much I really weighed before surgery.

As far as I'm concerned, getting more attention from guys is the only down-side of losing weight. When everyone else in jr. high was learning how to flirt and talk to boys, I was at home reading a book. I don't date, I never have. Nobody bothers me, and I'm comfortable with that. When guys start talking to me, as they have when I've been thin in the past, I don't like it. It makes me uncomfortable because it feels like all of a sudden these new expectations have been placed on me. And of course it bugs the hell out of me that all of a sudden I seem so much more "worthy" of other people's time. It creates such a tremendous discomfort inside me, that it has always contributed to regaining the weight. That's why I found myself a good therapist before I got into this whole thing. I'm not sure how life is going to be after I've lost the weight. I just hope I can deal with it better than I have in the past.

I've never heard of this policy before! Do a lot of restaurants give you a discount if you've had WLS?

I was banded on a Monday. I could've returned to work the following Monday, I felt well enough, physically. But I took one more day to rest up before going back to work on Tuesday.

I understand the reluctance. I felt it before my first fill. I think when many people first get banded, the weight comes off relatively easily. You gain momentum and feel kind of proud. Once you reach a point where you're not losing so easily and it's time to get a fill, it can make you feel a little bad because - what happened? Two weeks ago, the weight was falling off your body, and now nothing at all is happening. It can make you feel disappointed or even a little ashamed. It reminds you of all the times you've gone on a diet and failed. What is wrong with me? Why can't I just do this? Getting a fill means admitting and accepting that you can't do this all on your own. And even though we all realize that (otherwise we wouldn't be here) it can take time for that to really sink in. You have to reprogram your brain to know that this is different. It's not a diet. It's less about willpower (or lack thereof) than it's about using the tool. Embrace it. Get that fill and don't look back.

I noticed last month that about a week before T.O.M., I had 3-5 days where I felt out of control. My brain was screaming carbs! carbs! carbs! I couldn't seem to help myself and I was deathly afraid that I'd start bingeing and never stop. Just like the good old days. (NOT). But once Aunt Flo's train arrived at the station, the urge went away completely. Now I've accepted that every month, there are going to be a few days when I struggle and during that time I focus not on losing, but on maintaining. $%^&$# hormones!

I can WALK! I used to have pains in my legs so bad that I couldn't go even one block. Now I go on 45 minute walks around my neighborhood.

The other thing that's new is hunger pains. I get them every day now because I don't eat until my stomach tells me it's time. Prior to this, I'd say it'd been years since I felt actual physical hunger!

It will get better. For the first 5 days after I got banded, it was really painful. Whenever I moved, it felt like a red-hot poker jabbing into my gut. I literally wanted to scream out loud it hurt so bad. I sleep on my stomach so I was pretty miserable. I wound up taking drugs that knocked me out for most of that time. Lortab, I think it was called. Great stuff! A week after banding, I stopped taking the Lortab. it still hurt a little bit to lie down and stand back up, but it was tolerable. And for about a month after that, I'd get the odd unexpected twinge that made me catch my breath all of a sudden. It will get better gradually. Just make sure you're getting plenty of rest and doing as little as possible to strain your tummy muscles.

If you ask me, the best thing you can do is forget you ever heard that. This journey is tough enough without someone telling you from the get-go that you'll never lose all the weight you want to lose.

I asked my doctor about this. He said if I ever get to the point where you can actuall see the port sticking out from my stomach (as if!) he could switch me to a low profile port. He said it's something the doctor can do for you with an anesthetic. They don't have to put me under and operate again. Although the thought of lying there while the dude slices my stomach open and pokes around in there, makes me want to gag.

Hi Sunflower, I take 300mg as well, but I don't take it alone - I'm also on effexor and prozac. (which scares me a little bit to say out loud. 3 meds, I must be reeeealllly crazy!). Please don't feel discouraged. Every med doesn't work for every person. Sometimes you have to try different meds, different dosages, or different combinations to hit the right medication for you. I tried Lexapro, Provigil, and Strattera and none of them did a thing for me. It was a hard time, because you have to gradually start taking the new stuff and stop taking the old stuff and then you have to wait and see if it works. It's a long process, and it's hard to stick with it when you're depressed and feeling hopeless. Please don't do what I did - when I first started taking meds a few years ago, it was prozac alone. It helped a little bit, but it didn't really do the trick. I figured that I was beyond help and gave up taking it altogether for about five months. I avoided my doctor and convinced myself that I was somehow defective and nothing would ever work for me. I fell further into depression. It finally got so bad that desperation drove me back to the doctor, who put me back on prozac. Unfortunately, the prozac no longer did anything for me. I've since discovered that if I stop taking my meds for more than a couple of weeks, I can't go back to them. For whatever reason, they no longer work for me and I have to try something else. It's frustrating. I've done that three times, and it finally sunk in that when I find something that works, I have to stick with it no matter what or else I'll lose another 6 months or a year to depression. It took about year for my doctor to hit on the right cocktail of stuff for me and now I take it religiously. The best thing you can do is give yourself a month or so, to see if it's really working and then if it still isn't, scrap it and move on. In my experience, if I have to ask myself if it's working, then it's NOT working. Or not working well enough anyway - and it's not your fault. So if the Wellbutrin still isn't working well, ask your doctor if you can try something else. Don't settle for feeling just "a little bit better" than you did before. The goal isn't LESS depressed, the goal is NOT depressed. Sorry for going on and on, but I've totally been where you are - several times - and I understand how hard it is. Don't give up. Depression meds are just like the band. So many of us go into this, afraid that the band won't work for us. But after you're banded, you discover that if you get stubborn about it and hang in there, you will reach your goal. Hang in there. And please feel free to PM me if you ever need to let it all out to someone who can relate. ((((hugs))))

PB = productive burp It's when your food comes back up, looking very similar to the way it went down, so it's not quite as gross as vomiting. Unfortunately, PBing is usually preceded by sliming, which for me is the worse of the two

my doctor's orders: no food after midnight the day before the fill and two days of liquids afterward

The last time I got down to a healthy weight, I freaked out. Actually, I freaked out for a number of different reasons, but the shopping experience was one of those reasons. Right now, I hate to shop. Besides the whole size issue, I never know what I should be wearing or what looks good on me. It's not a big deal though because I only buy my clothes at Lane Bryant, the one store guaranteed to have my size every single time. When I got down to a 12, I realized that the other 95% of the mall was now an option for me. I never really noticed how many clothing stores are in a shopping mall. I had too many choices and didn't know what to do. So even though I hate the clothes I'm wearing now, I'll probably be wearing them until they literally will not stay on my body.

Oh if only that were true for all of us. I have a D cup, and they've gotten a bit smaller. I'm the kind of person whose weight gain/loss is spread pretty evenly all over my body. But I know that when I reach my goal weight, I will probably still be a D or a very full C. I would LOVE to be a B cup, but I think I'd have to get down around 115 for that to happen. I'm 5'7" so I don't know if that would even be possible.

I have been on Wellbutrin XL for over a year now. With all of these sorts of medications, there's a "breaking in" period. It can often take 3 - 4 weeks to tell if the meds are really doing their job, and your body can go through all sorts of changes during that time. Trust me, your wife doesn't have to worry about having zero appetite for the rest of her life. Just tell her to enjoy the freedom from food obsession for now, because her appetite will return sooner than she thinks.