Wheetsin

Sometimes I hate being right. BTW, I don't know any skinny people who had the lap-band. A fat person, telling fat (and not so fat) people they need to get off the internet. Love it! What it boils down to is -- keep trying to incite anger with your little "name calling" and you will be off this site, your choice or not. You posted something inflammatory. It's not rational to expect people to not vocalize their own opinions about it. Disagree with those opinions -- great -- but don't be mad because it happens. If you disagree with what people say, argue the point. But surely you can do better than first grade name calling to try and push people's buttons. Come on, use that wit... we like that around here.

Early miscarriages are often the result of chromosomal abnormalities. I've seen no literature to correlate miscarriage to the band.

I typed a bog long response to this, then accidentally clicked "back" on my mouse instead of the button to submit *sigh* Long story short, I involved the school district about 10 seconds after submitting my msg yesterday. On the outside you wouldn't expect our neighborhood to have crime, we're a mid-class subdivision on city outskirts. But the kids here (obvous outside of this incident) are under-parented. And my husband and I in particular have had problems before. Our neighborhood is saturated with patrons of a near-by mega warehouse type church, I need say no more. (see this post for an example of what we deal with). We were the only ones who didn't have a "Bush" sign in our yard... and got comments on that too... and didn't fly a flag after 9.11... got lots of comments on that one... and refused to sign a petition designed to prevent section 8 housing from being put up within 3 miles of our neighborhood... and had repercussions from that too... etc. etc. nuff said. Our neighborhood pretty much hates us already. :thumbup:

See image below. Needle pierces the skin and enters the self-closing port. Saline travels through the tubing and into the band. The band is lined with a "balloon" that can be blown up or deflated with saline, hence adjustable gastric band.

A fill is when saline is inserted through a port into the band, causing it to tighten around the esophagus, hence "fill"ing the band.

Ok, that's insane.

stefgray, I'm taller than you and a range of about 175 - 183 is my goal weight based on the fact that it puts be into a "normal" BMI. Anything more than that and I'm still classified as overweight. if you're happy with where you're at, then stop. But if numbers, sizes, medical classifications, etc. are a concern to you, pick the one you like and go for it.

Thank you for posting this. I posted something similar just the other day, only you can't see it. Common sense goes far. And I realize that one man's common sense is not another's, necessarily, but because we're all still alive there has to be some common thread of it. It's not just thep ressing medical issues, although those certainly are up there. :huh2:

Depends on where you go, what surgeon, etc. Seems to run about 8k in Mexico and about 10k - 12k stateside. Of course there are sums above and below this. I don't know what actual averages are.

Mine doesn't protrude. The ones I have seen just looked like a bump under the skin. If it concerns you, request a low profile port.

Ok I'm confused. You can eat other stuff AND 9oz meat but only 9oz, or the only thing you are allowed to eat period is 9oz of meat?

Hasn't bothered mine one bit. I still go to restaurants, I just order a small meal or sometimes just a drink. Not eating just means I can talk more. I still go to bars and get drinks, but I did give up carbonation when I had my surgery - no biggie, I never ordered a carbonated drink anyway. Family holidays still happen just as they always did, I'm just eating a lot less. There's no reason that a smaller portion would make the holiday any less special with your family/friends.

I had full insurance approval so I can't speak from my personal experience, but I know a few who were self-pay and complications were NOT covered at all. Not for any of them. I don't know if it's lumped into a "pre-existing condition" (and therefore exlcudable) or not, you'd have to ask your insurance company.

Call your surgeon and ask, s/he is the only one who could tell you their reasoning. I've not heard of it.

You might want to ask this in the guy's area. I think many of our guys tend to hang out there and not venture much into Estrogenland.

You really just have to feel it's right for you. There's not a list that any of us can give you where if half + is checked, it means it's the right decision for YOU. All we can do indivudally is know if something is right for US. I think "gut" is a good thing to trust in this case.

momof1 - it doesn't happen that often. In my case I needed an emergency unfill and the on-call surgeon had never done a fill before. He kept thinking he had hit the port, but missing it, so instead of pulling the needle out and repoking, he'd kind of push the needle (in me) one way, and pull my body the other, like he was trying to force it to go a different direction. I've never had a fill experience like that before, and doubt I'll have another.

It would if you'd post the doctor's name (so you don't get a bunch of replies recommending the same person) but I've heard that Dr. Malley takes on MX patients. I know my surgeon does not, and I've not heard of any other local surgeons who do.

There are devices for trapping gas. They use them in studies. They have 2 options - either a tube/bulb (to lock it tight, like a foley - kinda) that goes into the bum, or panties that are sealed to your skin. Then there's a camelhump type bag (like a thin backpack) you wear under your clothes that holds all the gas. If you're desperate enough for charcoal suppositories -- hmm, maybe I should find the supplier of these backpacks and set up a retail shop...

I don't remember the numbers, both both brands had values that fit within my surgeon's carbs/protein/cal requirements.

For pre-mixed I prefer the EAS Carbadvantage shakes, either of the three flavors, but I have to have them VERY cold. Vanilla is probably my least favorite. Most os probably strawberry, which is a surprise. Warm at all and they suck. They're the ones that come in 4-packs and are in shiny silver packaging. For powders I prefer Six Star chocolate but can do the vanilla in a pinch. I usually add something to the shakes, so I don't have much experience with their raw flavors, but I know that their chocolate, on its own, was IMO the best chocolate.

We're within 5 lbs of each other and based on your BMI I'm going to guess we're similar height as well. But I'm shaped differently. I don't know my measurements but my waist is much smaller than my hips (the largest part of my still). In shirts I'm usually 14/16, waist probably 16, but hips 18 or 20. So I get the thing where my waist band floats on something with tight hips, and I have to avoid most longer shirts (e.g. tunics that would go over the hips) because they either fit my top and are way too tight on hips, or fit hips and are sloppy on my top. Have you trie the new LB sizes? They're far from perfect, but a little better than most things out there. And as much as I hate stretchy clothes, I've been buying stretchy jeans because I can get an all-over fit out of them.

You're supposed to wait until they fall off. With my band surgery they never did and had to be pulled off when I had my staples removed. With my last surgery, I started taking them off myself around day 4 or 5. They were on loose and not really holding anything anyway, and several of them were half off, and I couldn't stand the itching. So off came the steristrips, and I went with bandaids, gauze and neosporin for a few days.

I would suggest posting in the complications area, or even life after removal. We've seen our share of slips and most of the information will be in one of those two places, I'd think.

Yes, some of our older users were in excess of 300 lbs. I don't think they're around much anymore. I was banded at 382 and currently at 224, still losing, just very slowly.