*Love*

NSV? Is there a list of abbreviations somewhere?

That is great to hear. I am still 'pencilled' in & will be paying my deposit & be 'inked' in just as soon as I get confirmation that my test results were good. :biggrin2:

With all this poking, isn't there a danger of poking a hole in the tube??

If I am on my own, I find earplugs work too. :biggrin2:

My DH has to book all of his holidays for the entire year at the beginning of the year. So I picked a date during the week of his next week of holidays. How did other pick their dates? Just the next available spot?

newhop4me: I saw another one that was a bit like that & yet another which was completed in 8 seconds flat. I think location of the port, flat or flipped, & person doing the fill, effect the result. It's amazing how many people document every phase of their Lap Band experience on www.YouTubecom. Some are really quite informative.

I can't say I think much about the Polygamy lifestyles or belief systems, BUT I do find the show "Big Love" informative & somewhat entertaining.

But how do you know that you haven't stretched your pouch already? You can't know. I wouldn't risk it for pop, beer etc...there are soooo many tastier & safer things to cheat with.

See video, about half way through: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3tYliTpDiY]YouTube - Third Fill Appointment - Part C - Lap Band[/ame]

Then why are you posting? :thumbup: It's by Megagenics. (I think I spelled that right.)

Anyone drink this? What is it like? Where do you get it?

The stitching in the second one is a little rougher to see than in the first. I can see now why people hurt. The stitches look brutal.

Video of actual surgery: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds_nwlgQztE]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds_nwlgQztE[/ame] and Google Image Result for http://www.obesitycontrolindia.com/Images/LapBandPorts.jpg

I don't know if this will work once banded, but I have a no fail cure for regular hiccups. For those that can drink liquids easily, have someone put their hands over your ears to seal them while you guzzle a glass of water. Can you guzzle once banded? Drinking slower may work too, as long as the seal is good.

How big is the entire port end of the lap-band?

I am cashing out my RRSPs (retirement fund). When my mortgage comes due next November, I will add that amount to it & replace my RRSPs, ...hopefully. The mortgage part was actually my husband's idea, because I was stressing so much about spending the last of my returement fund.

Anyone use it??? :biggrin:

The band is around the bottom of the esophagus, at the top of the stomach, under the muscle. Where is the hose, under the skin on the fat (visible) or under the muscle? Where is the port, under the skin on the fat (visible) or under the muscle, or under the muscle with a cut out for it to poke through the muscle, for easier needle depth access?

I am hoping to have my port put under a small tattoo I have in my bikini area. I figure this will make it really easy to find for filling. Has anyone else done this?

I tend to inhale food in front of the tv & not taste what I am eating. Is anyone else trying to slow down how fast they eat & reduce the amount they put in their mouth at one time, before surgery? I have started cutting my food very small & eating it with chop sticks. What I am having trouble with is not taking a sip of liquid after almost every bite.

This website is great! It is just loaded with information. :huh2: I know I don’t have as much to lose as most & hope to prevent getting to that point. Here’s my story: After high shool, …after moving out & starting to work, I started putting on weight. I think that is probably pretty common. No rules, you could eat what you wanted. I yo-yo’d from 125 to 135 –157 (back & fourth) - 182 at the end of my 1st marriage. I became a chronic insomniac & to this day need medication to sleep at night. I inherited migraines from my grama & have had pretty much one form of headache daily or another for the last 20 years. (That is a lot of Advil.) This makes it really hard to have the energy to exercise. For me 157lbs was the magic number. If I hit it, I would start to have trouble breathing. I would usually start dieting at that point. Nutri-System worked really well for me, twice. By the time I was widowed by my 2nd husband at 29 years of age, I was a Weightwatchers Lifetime member. I would usually stick to a program for at least 3 months. The more I lost, the longer I stuck with it & the better I did. I drank a lot of Water, did not exercise & still did well. I had a couple more bad relationships with really angry men, plus 2 more failed marriages to more angry men. I am an emotional eater. I have had a lot to be emotional about. I had a Tubal Ligation just before my 35th bday. It was a laproscopic surgery. Other than several hours of wicked cramping & nausea, it was a breeze. My doctor’s bed side manner left something to be desired. After the surgery he popped in & told me the surgery went well & by the way I have 3 fibroids & then he disappeared. What?! What`s a fibroid?! Three years ago, I had a chest cold just after my 38th bday. I went on a scuba diving trip to Roatan, still sick. After the 1st night there, the symptoms pretyy much disappeared (weird) & I had a great vacation. When I took my 1st step out of the airport door after landing back home, I suddenly had trouble breathing again. I became & remained very ill for 3 months. I couldn’t even sit up in bed. It was like I had a bad chest cold, PLUS the flu, PLUS an ear infection PLUS severe stomach pains. Several hospital visits & no one could figure out what was wrong. They were able to eliminate all the nasty options. It was decided that the stomach thing was an ulcer. I realized the pain started within hours of taking Tylenol for my fever. Apparently, Tylenol hurts me. I lost a lot of muscle mass being flat on my back. Not that I really had any to begin with. I continued to have dizzy spells for some time. It is as if my body has gone into hibernation. No metabolism. I am naturally mellow, laid back & low energy, so this is not helping. I had a sleep study in early 2006, which confirmed my chronic insomnia. In November 2006, after years of super heavy periods & major cramping 2 days per month, I had Uterine Fibroid Embolization surgery. That is where small beads are pumped into the fibroid blood supply through the artery in your leg. They block the blood supply & the fibroids die in place. The worst cramps of my life (I have not had children) started half way into the surgery & lasted for hours. I was almost good as new 24 hours later. My periods are soooo mild now. I am glad I had the surgery. Considering everything I have been through, it`s amazing that I actually have my head on straight. J I don`t smoke (anything). I rarely drink. I don`t drink coffee. I don`t go out to the bars. We may eat out once a month. (We snack at night.) I keep low fat foods in the house. I climb up & down the 74 stairs in the work parking lot every week day, huffing & puffing with blood pulsing in my head. I have a great gym set-up in the basement. When my husband is on days, we exercise together 5-6 nights a week. I have zero interest in doing it, but I know I have to for the rest of my life… so if he changes into his workout clothes, I do too. He has enough motivation for both of us. He is very supportive of me & takes great care of me. I don`t know what I would do without him. It took me 20 years to find him. It doesn’t matter what I do, the weight won’t budge. I have gone back to the old programs more than 3 times over the last 3 years & no matter how good I am…even with the exercise, I may lose .25 of a lb the odd week. I have tried the Soup diet, grapefruit diet, …fat blockers, appetite suppressants…fasting, flushes………………………… Struggling constantly to keep my weight down, while sleep deprived, having trouble breathing & with headache pain, has become more than exhausting. At the rate I am gaining 10 lbs per year… I will be in serious danger in no time. I need to get control of this now. I am happy with what is on the inside, but not the outside. I am very happily married this time. I want to be able to leave the house (not hide anymore), ride my motorcycle comfortably, breath, fit into my wetsuit so I can enjoy the peace in scuba diving. I want to be able to enjoy my life again. I want to get joy out of it the way my husband does. I am hoping that the lap-band is just the tool I need to help me nudge the scale in the downward direction for a change, as well as help me with my asthma, headaches & insomnia. My doctor asks me if I am losing weight yet every time I see her. She thinks it`s all related. I am 'out of town' for the clinic I have contacted. I faxed in my medical / personal history questionnaire last Tuesday night & had a short phone consultation the next day, at the end of which I picked a date for next month & was asked how I would like to make my non-rufundable deposit. Today (Monday), I got a package with the forms for the lab work & ECG (which has to be done 30 days before the surgery) + surgery info. I would have though they would want to see the test results before taking a booking. I had the lawork & ECG done this afternoon. NOW, I can start getting excited - My surgery is on May 22, 2008. (It's the best time for us, since my husband already has vacation booked for that week.) (I apologize for the long intro. I am typically an internet one word or one sentence kinda gal.)