Wheetsin

Excessive fat can impact the surgery in so many ways that aren't terribly obvious. Pulmonary complications, tissue necorsis (a RNY friend of mine had a horrible time with this - the harder they had to push, the more damage was done), even things as every day as mobility and hygiene for post-op care. It's a LONG list. Really - we can speculate and guess, but if you want to know for sure, just call your surgeon and ask.

What baffles me is people who get this operation, and don't know a single thing about it. HOW can someone submit to a surgical procedure, and potentially a very large price tag, and not know what they're getting? And have NO CLUE how it works, what to expect, etc? Boggles my mind. One of my pet peeves is when people report their own personal experiences with the band as absolute fact, and tell other people who aren't even banded yet "you will experience this" or "you will not experience this." Is someone going to experience a PB at some point? Yeah, probably. Is someone going to have to avoid turkey, radishes, and mustard for the rest of their lives because you can't get them down? Not so much. Really, our world of band facts is very small, and most of them are based in much more general concepts.

I felt like he was trying to change my mind from lapband to RNY. I have around 200 lbs to lose and he said that he didn't want me to get discouraged. IMO a good/responsible surgeon will encourage the choice they feel will give the candidate the most success, but will utlimately respect the wishes of the patient. There are compliance issues and other factors the surgeon could be looking at. I had almost exactly 200 lbs to lose when I was banded. I have 40 or 50 left to go. Pre-op I was wearing a 30/32 and even that sometimes didn't fit. Now I'm in a 1x - 18/20. Search for "startng BMI over 50" or something like that. A while ago I started a thread for super-sized bandsters with starting BMIs 50+, and it is still going strong. That with RNY, the pounds "melt off" people. I told him that I wasn't interested in RNY, I don't care about the pounds melting off, I just want consistent weight loss for once in my life. On the other hand, the nurse that runs the program told me that after two years people that did RNY didn't lose any more weight than people that do the lap band. I don't know what the current averages are, but I know that at roughly 18 months out, I've lost a greater percentage of my excess weight than my friends with RnY had at the same time. I also know that by this time, most of them had seen a gain of at least 20 lbs, and I've yet to gain anything other than Fluid pounds that come and go. This doesn't necessarily mean anything, it's just my experience. His words keep ringing in my ears and I'm starting to wonder if I should just have the RNY. I know most people that get banded don't need to lose as much as me, but maybe if more of us bigger loosers chose the band instead of RNY, opinions would change. Just wanted some opinions. My opinion is that you should go with the procedure that you are most comfortable with. Research both (and other, if need be) options. If it helps, literally make a list of the pros and cons that you can find with each procedure, and then look at which list appeals to you the most. I am definitely nn advocate for the band, and for understanding how it works before you get it. That being said, there are some people and some circumstances for whom I believe the band is not the right choice. I'm also worried that I'll still be ravenous after surgery. I read so many posts with people talking about still being so hungry. I have a thread currently going called something like "expectation vs. reality". Poke around and see if you can find it. I, too, assumed I would have a lot of hunger because everything I read from others reported this. SOOOO not the case. I rarely, and I mean RARELY, feel hungry. As in - a handful of times in the last 18 months. This makes me really concerned, I know at the beginning I probably won't have much of an appetite, and I understand that as time goes on the feeling of satisfaction won't be as strong, I don't think this is necessarily going to happen. As your restriction loosens it takes more to feel satiated until you get another fill, but I know bandsters 6+ years out who are still illed up with bandster portions. but I certainly want to notice a change over what I have now, or what's the point? Or, am I missing the point? The only point is that - the banding experience is very individual. What you read doesn't indicate what you will experience.

You can buy OTC anti-emitics. I also have a Rx one that I asked my regular doc to give me - I explained why I needed it. I get ocular migraines, but never ful-blown migraines. So basically I get the visual distortions & "dancing fluoroscent worms," tunnel vision, starts, etc. that might precede a migraine, but it stops there and never progresses to the pain or other issues. Have you tried any of the Rx treatments for migraines?

I really do wish my butt would go down. Picture the profile of a rubber ducky. Now replace that big old ducky chest with small boobs and a flatish abdominal profile. That's me. Speaking of butts, does anyone else have "the shelf"? AKA the place where the butt actually exits the rest of the body. (My theory is that "the shelf" comes from sitting down, as in desk job. The fat is gradually reshaped upward.) Pre-op you could pretty much actually set things on my butt shelf and they woulda stayed. OMG, looking for a graphic to help describe this, shy of slapping (no pun intended) my own derriere up on here, I found out this is an actual thing. Shelf Butt. Of course the whole "an otherwise not large woman" doesn't really apply to me.

paSt, not part

During his info seminars my surgeon has part patients come up and share their story. No shit, this is what a bandster shared with us the night I attended: When asked how much weight she had lost:

That's where context comes in. I'm thinking of one of my friends who happens to be black. She and I will joke about each other's etnicities in ways that we wouldn't with just anyone. That's because we know each other, understand the intent, etc. I think Laurend is referring to a situation where you don't inherently or automatically have the context of friendship, mutual understanding, etc. For example, when I first met this friend, I would not have said the things to her that I would say now, because we didn't have that comfort with each other. Out of respect for her and not knowing if she would take things the way I meant them or not, I refrained from anything "off color" until that comfort had been established. Saying things to a close friend, and saying things to a literal or virtual stranger - apples and oranges.

Hi, you might want to try this thread, an area dedicated to our Northern neighbors.

Honestly, my advice would be to stay away from a number. Numbers are arbitrary, especially since so many people here have been overweight their entire lives. Maybe the last time they were at whatever size was when they were 7. I have often told my husband that I could weigh 300 pounds, but if I weighed 300 and wore a size 12, I wouldn't care. That said, I HAD a goal weight based on the adult weight that I was last comfortable with my body. But I quit thinking of it in those terms. I ertainly don't need to set myself up for disappointment, and something like "happy when I look in the mirror" or "X size" is enough to satiate the goal-oriented side of me. If I feel healthy and am happy with myself at a higher weight, I will be ok. If I'm not happy at that weight and want to keep going, I will keep trying to go down.

With the things people share here sometimes, I sooo had to debate with myself whether or not to open this thread. I've not noticed much difference in my bottom, but even at a normal weight I had junk in my trunk. I've noticed it in other areas, tho. E.g. I drive with my legs splayed, and my left knee used to sit comfortably against the door panel, and know if I do it my knee bones make uncomfortable contact.

I think you mean soft stop. A soft stop is an indicator from your body that it's time to stop eating, or else. You may or may not have one. For those that have them, common soft stops are hiccuping, burping, runny nose, sneezing, a sort of little gasp/sigh, etc. If you're in the middle of chewing, and get to your soft stop, it's time to spit out the food in your mouth. Sweet spot is the point where your band is neither over filled nor underfilled, but filled just right. Many people find that at their sweet spot, they see the most consistent and reliable weightloss.

I did not have a catheter during my banding nor my recent gallbladder-ectomy (done by the same surgeon, in a very similar procedure). I doubt you would need one. It's such a quick procedure, and they'll ask you to tinkle (and perhaps require a urine sample - they did with my GB but not banding) prior to wheeling you out of the prep area.

I think sometimes taking the effort to make it clear "this is just a joke" is worth its weight in gold. A big fault of mine in the virtual world is that I tend to read things very literally -- take them very much at face value, even though IRL I'm a very sarcastic/dry humor person and don't often take things for face value. To my dismay, this can often be seen as antagonism or a mediocre job of hiding some finger wagging in the virtual world. Early on, I was often told "A smiley will go far." Unfortunately we all know that a 20/20 hindsight "I was just kidding" is little more than a CYA move, moreso than a real explanation. I think being overt in your intentions, if you at all doubt how they will be received, can only be a good thing.

I don't pay for fills, but once I required a fill, and an unfill 4 days later. Both were processed by my insurance company. Had I been self pay, I'm assuming I would have been charged for both. This kinda sucks when you have a surgeon like mine who doesn't use fluoroscopy and "guesses" (allbeit an educated guess) how much fill you need. I understand that it's the surgeon's time either way, but you think they'd also accept some responsibility for it. *shrug*

Now - on the flip side of that. I assumed that I would still be hungry, and that it would just take less food to fill me up. WRONG! I'm NEVER hungry. Even when I'm sitting here and my stomach is growling loud enough that others can hear it, I don't feel hungry. This is what I describe as my "two stomach syndrome" - it feels like I have a top stomach and a bottom stomach, and that even though the bottom stomach is hungry, the top stomach is full and keeps me from feeling hunger. Hard to explain, one of those "Just gotta experience it" things. I lost my appetite during my pre-op diet. Completely. I assumed I would hit a point post-op where I'd be starving (what's most of what you read), but it never came, and it never has almost 18 months after the fact. It is WAY too easy for me to sit at work and go through the entire day without eating anything. I've had to put little pop-up reminders to "eat something" on my calendar. If I ate according to when I was hungry, I'd get maybe 200 - 300 calories per day. As it is, I'm doing good to pull 800 - 900. To go higher than that, I really need to eat a higher calorie food OR make a concentrated effort to eat more frequently throughout the day.

I assumed I would be thin again. Even when I was just banded. For a while I was afraid to believe it might actually work, because how disappointing if it won't... but that was the time when the weight was flying off, so I started to think -- hey, I might really be able to do it this time! Then I hit the stage where the weight quit flying off, and there I still sit, and I'm beginning to wonder whether I'll get where I want to be, or stay here. I've explained this before as an unwated since of complacency. A normal fat where yeah, I'm still fat, but not so much that it's going to stand out. It's NICE to be here after spending 8 years as the person who was so fat that people would do double-takes. It's REALLY nice. But it's not where I want to be. I just gotta get my shit figured out. In the meantime, I haven't gained. I'm still dropping... s-l-o-w-l-y. Like 30 lbs this year. My jeans I wore this time last year are about 1 size too big. That's not what I wanted to accomplish in the last year, but it beats the living daylights out of gaining anything. Sop I guess all that boils down to -- I sort of assumed my loss would be more consistent and steady. Not at all the case. For the first 6 months the weight literally fell off, I was going thrugh a size every 2 weeks or so. And then *bam* it stopped, and has been an uphill battle ever since.

Doesn't have to be a cream of X soup, just about anything whizzed up or thinned out enough can be a thick liquid. I used to grab my favorite clam chowder carry out and stick it in my Magic Bullet. Refried Beans watered down with sour cream, red sauce, and Chohula were also a staple. Put a little extra milk into pudding. My surgeon permitted watery mushies (oatmeal, mashed potatoes, etc.) during the thick liquids phase, since it was more watery than mushy. (Hint: don't put just anything in the blender and think it will taste the same as when you chew it. I tried a Chipotle bol whizzed up with a little extra sour cream, and it tasted horrible.) Get creative with Soups. Most soups mixed together just make a better soup. Golden Mushroom is yummy, just strain out the mushroom chunks. I mix it with cream of chicken, sour cream, mayo and cheddar cheese. NMormally this becomes a topping for baked chicken, but I've been known to sip small amounts as a soup. Granted it's not exactly low fat (tho I've used low fat/fat free versions of all the above and it still tastes ok), but you're not eating a lot either.

I have not tried Shapewear. I have tried (and love) Spanx, but I don't like the "hose" Spanx with leg parts, I like the "Higher Power" hi-waist panties (that I wear OVER real panties). If I put on slacks that are snug (snug enough I wouldn't normally wear them) with Spanx, they will fit well, so I guess it makes about a half-size difference. One of my favorite things these garments do is keep the back of your pants smooth. You get a perfectly smooth butt area - no worries about whether or not it looks like your butt is eating your pants. As a tall, high-waisted woman in a fashion season that favors the low rise, THAT is a definite perk!

My husband is on his LASIK kick again (he has wanted it for a long time, but the degree to which he pursues it comes and goes). He has a consultation tomorrow at LasikPlus. Wondering if anyone out there has used them...? I think the number of procedures places like this can do is great, builds famiilarity with the equipment, etc. -- but I'm hesitant to put trust into any medical-related (chain) company that puts its product "on sale." I mean - it's my husband's vision, not a sweater.

Sorry looks like I was a little slow.

When you scroll to the bottom of a thread, you have the quick reply option. Click "Go Advanced", and another reply option will show up with the smilies:

Common smilies will also pull from their ASCII equivalents... e.g. and You can also enter the title of the smilie between two colons like this: :pound: ...to produce this: :pound:

If I suddenly lost my restriction, and could not account for it in some way (e.g. was tight because of some swelling from a recent fill, but am now wide open), I would call my surgeon ASAP. Instantaneous loss of restriction is not SOP for the band, so you'll want his/her input.

Short for fluoroscopy, a method used to see what's going on in the body. Like my extremely non-technical explanation? :eek: Think of it like xrays, only real time -- like filming someone with an xray camera so that you can see through their skin into their insides. Filling under a fluroscope - I've never had it done, but I would assume they use barium (some tissues won't show well on the fluoroscope so barium is used as a visual aid to show what's going on -- e.g. the esophagus isn't terribly clear, but you can see the barium that's sitting inside of it) and either fill to the point that the barium can't get by, then release until it trickles through OR fill gradually as the barium flows until restriction is acheived. They would also be able to see the hardware on the fluoroscope image (...think of an xray of a hand, and how it can be really hard to see what's going on with it, but if there are pins or other devices that show opaque, you have no trouble making them out.) Here's a description of a fill done with fluoroscopy.