Wheetsin

That's never been required at my fills, so I can't say for sure why. I would guess it's precautionary. Some people experience swelling after a fill, and the liquid period would ensure the swelling is gone before you resume eating.

Since losing weight my bellybutton has become a bottomless hole. From the outside it looks like a ^. I can stick an entire pencil into the bellybutton hole and never feel it reach skin. Creepy, eh? Well, as my belly button has collapsed, I've been getting random, temporary infections. Most likely because I can't do much to clean it out well. Before I could just soap/water it, but now, it's like trying to clean a well. In fact, sticking a pencil in there wasn't something I did for fun, it had swab and peroxide on the end, and I was trying to clean it out, and couldn't find a qtip long enough. ANYWAY, I've never gone to the doctor for it. It's not major, but is a sort of major self conscious thing for me. I mean, it stinks, right? And the first thing my doctor's going to do is stick her nose down there. I know, get over it -- I'm trying. ANYWAY again, I've been treating it with a wash and cloating of either triple antibioatic like Neosporin, or Hydrocortizone. Either seem to work equally well, and it never seems to last longer than a day or two.

Might want to check the pregnacy forum. I'm guessing most of our nursing mothers are still hanging out in that area. I'm only in my 2nd trimester but I know others have delivered and are still on the board.

You can bring shakes in checked luggage, or make a detour to a store once you're there. Also call the airlines and see if they would give you a medical exception for the carry-on, perhaps if you had doctor's note. Probably not, but worth asking. For travelling, Jerky, meat sticks like slim jims or similar cheese sticks, or the cheese/cracker snack packs if you do ok with crackers. Punch tuna with condiment mayo/relish/onion/whatever - instant tuna salad. Protein bars (you can carry these on). Cooked turkey pepperoni is one of my stand-bys, as 100 calorie snack packs are becoming. Applesauce cups. I've seen healthier snack alternatives at stores like carrot sticks and ranch or hummus and pita sticks instead of cheese & crackers. You can carry on fruit for domestic travel. Even at the worst (foodwise) conference I can think of, which hands down has to be Las Vegas, there are still healthy choices like fruit, usually some kind of deli meat, vegetables, etc. HTH

Refried beans, hummus, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with sugar & cinnamon, pudding, cream cheese with salsa mixed in or meatless chili and nuked (great with the beans or alone), any of the fruit -sauces - applesauce, pineapple sauce, etc. Yogurt... the list goes on, hope this helps.

I remember that show. Cripes, I remember part of the theme song. "We're kids incorporated... K-I-D-S" or something like that.

Honestly, I was 7 or 8 when Punky Brewster came out and I couldn't stand her. I wanted to slap her. Every episode, she wouldn't get her way about something, and instead of just dealing with it she's go off and pout or try to runaway because she was an orphan and no one loved her. I could not stand her whiny orphan butt. The 80s had the best commercials... far better than tv shows. Remember the Honeycomb Hideout? Max Headroom? The California Raisins? The Crest fighters and Toothopolis? Spuds Mackenzie?

The Hoff is so nasty. But for that matter, I think Patrick Dempsey is nasty too, young and older, but lots of people seem into him. So maybe there are Hoffamaniacs out there somewhere. You never know. When I was maybe 5 or 6 my dad and I would watch a Saturday morning wrestling show called "GLOW" or Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Anyone remember this? All their characters were extreme stereotypes - you had the clueless rich blond, the naive sexy country girl, the fat Polynesian who was always eating pineapple, etc. This was back before the days when Hulk body slammed Andre. Hehe. You couldn't pay me to watch wrestling now, but I used to love watching it with my dad on Saturday mornings.

Hehe, I tried some spinning classes at about 350 lbs and I'd have to just sit on my bike without moving, trying not to die, whilst the others continued their frantic pedaling. It was never an issue. I told the instructor after the class that I was sorry if I'd been an interruption, but it wasn't a necessary apology. They can't expect a first-timer, and an out-of-shape first-timer to be able to complete the entire workout.

Ask our Canadians. We have several of them here. Theye ven have their own forum, though they graciously mingle with us South Americans.

Holy crap that's a big font. My eyes are burning. No way I could tell you what it is, I'm not a doctor, nor have I examined you. Where in your side does it hurt? Does it feel like anything you've felt before? What did your surgeon say when you called them to discuss?

Mmmm moose munch... honey roasted chashews... choco fruits... this thread is making me hungry!

Gas-X won't help with the operational gas, so if that's what you have, save your money. If you're having intestinal gas it may do some good, people report mixed results with it. It's a misunderstanding that it will help with surgical gas. All gas is not created equal. :biggrin: Even on their website it's clear that it will not. It's designed to work inside your intestinal tract. Surgical gas is outside of that, in your body's "free space"... and unfortunately the best you can do for it is move around, see if heat/cold will bring any relief and wait for it to dissipate/be absorbed. Pain in the port area - not sure. But is the pain actually in the port area, or is it near the largest incision? Most people's ports are not directly at the incision site, they're located off to the side, lower, higher. So does it hurt "around" the incision area, or directly under the incision? Typically fills are not given at the time if surgery, and I believe the manufacturer's guidelines advise against it. This is because of the swelling and bloating with surgery, add a fill to that and it would be easy to get someone way too restricted way too fast. Then again, maybe your surgeon noticed there was a lot of extra room when the band was placed, opted not to use a smaller band, so used some fill to compensate. Who knows? But it's not standard procedure.

See this thread: Lap Band Talk Forum - The largest forum for Lap Band Surgery Discussion and Lap Band Surgery Support - FAQ: Lap Band Abbreviations

If this is the pre-op for shrinking the liver, choices usually include beef, chicken, vegetable broth, sugar free popsicles, sugar free Jello, sugar free drinks (tea, crystal light, etc.) Draining the chunks from soup will basically give you broth, so make it easy and just go that way. And make sure you're sugar free. Protein Shakes are technically a clear liquid, but their inclusion would be at your surgeon's discretion. Your surgeon should have provided you with a list of acceptable things to have on the pre-op diet. Examples of what to eat. Request this from them going forward, especially post-op.

My answers below in blue. First, for those of you that have lost the weight, is the port identifiable under your skin? I have a mental image of seeing a small circle protruding from some part of the body where the fill port is pushing from the inside out onto the skin. Hopefully this is just a crazy, paranoid question but I might as well ask. I'm down about 175 - 180, still have 30 - 50 lbs to go. So far my port is not visible, but I can easily find it by touch. Where mine is placed, I'm not sure it would be visible unless I actually became underweight. The boxing class does not allow blows to the head but body-blows are acceptable. Same for the martial arts classes. Considering I'll have a port near/at the surface of my skin, should I rethink my exercise choices and take up Yoga instead? I was an avid Aikidoer pre-op, but gave it up post-op. For one, the port area is sensitive to the touch, even when you're healed. Not to the everyday touch, but direct pressure smarts a bit. I talked to my surgeon's nurse about this and she thought I was crazy for even thinking about it. It amkes sense, a direct hit could do some damage. I'm not thinking of trying to do this in the next week or two after surgery - more like six months or so (or what ever the doctor recommends). I'm just wondering if anything changes as a result of having a port... Women mostly find that some sexual positions become uncomfortable. I take it "Mike" is not used in a female way. :biggrin: Some people have their port placed in an area where it does show, so they either deal with it (I have seen them to where they show through clothing), or seek revisions to low profile ports. If it's something you're concerned with, maybe talk to your surgeon now about a low profile port. Can't think of any other times that my port is even something I remember I have... Hope this helps.

Have you looked for someone closer to do your fills? That may be a way to go.

Hehe, sorry, I focused on on the whole pb/vomit thing. If you can't keep liquids down for more than a day, you need to get an unfill. Sometimes I can't keep liquids down and it's nothing more than being too tight in the a.m., hence the "more than a day". Sometimes we'll just get that tight, but we shouldn't stay that tight. Iwould suggset going back to your previous fill level for a few weeks, say 2, to give your band area a chance to heal and lose the swelling. Then if you still feel you need more fill, perhaps start by quartering the difference and go up a quarter each time from there. It's much more convenient to need more fill, than have to much.

It depends on what you're referring to when you say "pre surgery diet". Most surgeons require you to follow a diet before surgery, lasting between 1 - 14 days, usually. This diet is the surgeon's requirement and based on what needs to happen for the easiest/safest surgery possible. It's not linked to anything else. The purpose of the diet is to purge sugar stores from the liver, decreasing its size, and allowing easier access to the area the surgeon will need to access. Some insurance companies require pre-op diets for X time or that result in X loss. I believe the companies that require this require it across the board, so it's not really based on any body metric. Some surgeons require pre-op diets. I've seen this happen two ways. One is of the patient is so obese that it compromises the surgeons' comfort level. I think the threshold for this is BMI of 60+. The surgeons may then require weightloss to a certain BMI as a qualifier for the surgery. Some surgeons also like to see X percent of weightloss in patients before they will do the procedure, but most often it's an insurance requirement. Few surgeons are going to tell a sure-thing self pay that they have to complete a diet first. Hope this helps.

Moving to the proper forum, will answer over there.

Ack, I hate that I'm compelled to do this. Just one suggestion. "Lap-Band" is actually a registered trademark of Allergan, even though we use it as a generic term. I would either include the ® or whatever CYA is required, or change it to a generic term like adjustable gastric banding. Just to keep everyone out of hot water. :biggrin:

Drinking too fast caused me significant pain. I was very, very careful to sip but a few times I would tip back too much, and what do you do? Nowadays it's more a matter of drinking too soon, than the speed at which I drink.

Oh, I should have thought of this earlier, but one other point on the gum. It makes you salivate much, much more than normal. If you're like me and tend to be tighter earlier in the day, the extra salivation from chewing gum can lead to some discomfort. Just keep your fingers crossed, I guess. No one's going to tell you not to do it, but everyone has never swallowed gum, until that one time it happens.

My surgeon did not include cream of soups in the liquids phase, they were in a separate phase he called "thick liquids" - along with yogurts, purees, etc. If they were on my list, and I was still afraid of them, I would just blend them down with some Water or milk. Then you can decrease the fluids you're blending them with as you go. BTW, some are condensed, and some are not. If you buy condensed you will need to cut it or it won't be "cream of" Soup, it will be a congealed concentrate. So just watch what you're buying and be sure to read the directions.

And another: