JRT Mom

Oh, you'll be still be buzzing for sure, but doing the things you enjoy, because you'll have all this new-found energy after your weight drops! Things that hurt before won't, so you'll be able to do more with less pain. Even a thirty pound drop will give your knees a HUGE sigh of relief! Ha when I read your thread title in the "recent topics" side bar I thought it was going to be about having to give up coffee...?

Yes, I was definitely in a room by myself. There wouldn't have been room in there for a second bed! There was a nice recliner chair that your husband can probably sleep in, if you want him there. I wouldn't let mine come--we live 5 hours away and someone had to stay home with the dogs. Besides, when I'm under the weather I HATE having people hanging over me. So I rode the train up, and then stayed in a motel for an additional night before taking the train home. Worked out great, thanks to Amtrak, Metro and Uber! Although I had to argue with the hospital about being released to an Uber to get to my motel, but when I threatened to walk instead, they relented...

I had my surgery at Reston Hospital Center and was very happy with my care. They use a team approach so there were a lot of people looking after me, and they all were good and almost too attentive! Of course I can't comment on the hospital's food since all I was allowed was water, diluted fruit juice and broth... ? My surgeon was different, it was Dr Fitzer of Virginia Bariatric Surgery. He and his staff also are wonderful. There seems to be no shortage of excellent bariatric surgeons in NoVa...it sounds like you will be in good hands!

Are you an HCA employee? I am too, or I was until I sorta retired. I still work PRN. So you have to use an HCA facility, don't you? I started the process while I still was full time but by the time I got through everything I was old enough for Medicare, but I still went where I started, even though it is 5 hours away and I could have gone to one an hour away. But you don't change horses in the middle of the stream, as long as you like those horses!??? (I got the horses in the back, horse tack is attached...)

Click on your user name in the tool bar at the top. It should give you a drop down menu. Under settings there are options for your account. If you want to share info about your weight loss you can select "my tickers" and customize it and share your success with all of us...good luck!

I'd be more afraid of NOT having the surgery. I don't know your weight, but if you are like the rest of us here, we were all ticking time bombs waiting to go off with a host of obesity related issues. I can't add anything better than what everyone has already said so well! We are all rooting for you.

The Lady in Red--looking good!

Hey november11, this is a great forum, but I thought it was for sleeves, and I had a bypass so I thought I'd start one on the bypass forum. Hey, I can tell by your stats that we've lost the same amount of weight! Yay for us!?

Sounds like y'all are going to have to "agree to disagree" but support each other nonetheless. You might want to see if she'll watch any of Dr Vuong's youtube videos. He uses "colorful" language but always presents them in a manner that is entertaining but explains everything well. Maybe this would help. He does a great one on why diets don't work--she should at least watch that one!

Yay! Come join us on the other side...?

HI guys--any other November Gobblers here? How are you doing? Figured we needed a thread! And I guess we're Gobblers no more, right?

My lap band had slipped and a large hiatal hernia resulted. Rather than to try to reposition the band my surgeon suggested a revision to RNY. I'm glad I took his suggestion--I'm not quite three months out and am already down 36 pounds!

You are truly lucky! Most bandsters struggle to find the "sweet spot" and some never do. The band can be a great tool if you have the fortune be able to live with it--I wish continued success for you.

I had a total blockage about 5 years ago. They confirmed it with a barium swallow and even that couldn't go through. They pulled out all the saline while I was still in the fluoroscope and you shoulda seen the barium drop like a rock into my stomach! It looked like a Drano commercial! The doctor said that sometimes a little bit of irritating, usually pointy hard food like a bit of a nacho chip can get wedged in the band stoma and the stomach swells around it in response. After waiting a while to let your stomach settle down you should be able to get a fill. Good luck!

It's amazing how a good office staff can make or break a practice. When I first started exploring getting my lap band out, I went to the closest bariatric office, three hours away, I liked the surgeon and his PA, but the office staff was a DISASTER. You could never get hold of anyone on the phone, and they gave me a lot of incorrect info about Medicare benefits. So I started seeing the next closest surgeon, 5 hours away. The difference was like night and day! The office always answers your questions, and if they can't, they get you an answer the same day. There are a lot of good surgeons out there, so if the office staff is bad "shop around" if there are other options where you live.

Hi, I had a slipped lap band that needed to come out. I thought I wanted a sleeve until my doc explained that it was easier to revise a lap band to a bypass because of the scar tissue the lap band causes. Then he explained about the GERD the sleeve can cause and that clinched it, because before I got the band I had TERRIBLE GERD. So I went with the bypass. I stayed two nights in the hospital. They were willing to let me go late in the day after the first night, but I live five hours away by train, and was afraid of something popping up on the way back home, so they (and my insurance!) let me stay an extra night to make sure everything was OK.

I am a 65 year old married female, but as I get older I hate the use of labels for myself. I platonically love ALL nice people regardless of whatever labels they use for themselves! If I HAD to use a label I would call myself mostly gender neutral pansexual monogamist.

You look great! Glad to see you are doing so well. Bobby is such a sweetie! And he fits in with your decor so well!? My JRTs aren't bothered by a blow dryer, but the vacuum cleaner--that's another story...

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I was having such problems with my lap band having slipped that I wasn't able to binge much before my revision surgery. I DID manage to eat a nice piece (or two) of cheesecake, which promptly made me barf, but it was worth it!

I don't think it matters if your BP is under control with medication. You have been diagnosed with high BP, which makes it a comorbidity even if it's responding to medicine. Just the same as if you had diabetes and metformin was controlling it, it's there regardless of what the medicine is doing for it. You shouldn't have a problem with it being accepted as a comorbidity.

I'm 65 and have world-class granny flaps. Seriously, I could kill someone if I whacked him upside the head with them. I never go sleeveless. If you are young enough your skin could tone up, but like kristieshannon said, sometimes surgery is the only solution.

Wow you looked so sad on your surgery day picture...you have the look of "what the hell did I just do to myself?" But then look how happy and trim you looked in October! Success!

Ha! That is the biggest understatement I have ever read on these boards!? It's amazing that there is NO consensus on what these bariatric doctors recommend. Toodlerue is right--follow what your doctor recommends.

Of course you aren't a horrible person! You care enough about your health that you will be undergoing WLS. If you mean are you horrible for worrying about whether or not you'll reach your high school weight, well, that's not horrible either, but I think you'll find after your surgery that you won't obsess about your final weight, especially since you won't have to lose much until you feel much better, and your diabetes should ease up dramatically! After your surgery you'll have other things to worry about, like all the cute new clothes you'll have to buy!

Fish balls? I didn't know fish had balls. I've heard of mountain oysters, but not fish balls. (Sorry couldn't resist!) I didn't know that I was going to become so obsessed with food and drink. Not obsessed like wanting to eat things I can't have, but making myself eat three times a day, measuring everything, and force myself to drink liquids I don't want. Before my surgery I only ate when I was hungry, and just grabbed stuff and chowed it down. Now I have to practice "mindful eating", and I feel like I have become a slave to food more than I ever did when I was really obese!