dawg

I checked and there seems to be no pill, patch, or gum products available for DeLarla addiction. I suppose we're just gonna have to keep her around. I half expect emails from someone in Japan saying: BUY VI-G-RA $1.50 a pill! Buy PROS-A-C $1.75 a pill! Buy DELARLA-PHEN $327 a pill!

You left out Delerium and Conjure One dear Now if I could just get her to leave the damn Elton John out of her playlist, I'd be a happy dawg. For everyone else. My tastes mirrow P'Nuts (I know, you are all surprised). I also prefer more hardcore tunes from Front Line Assembly, Prodigy, Drum N' Base (Dieselboy, AK1200). Basically, if it moves a glass over my desk by pure sound waves, it works.

Considering Obesity is now ranked next to cigarettes as the leading cause of premature death in the US, I think cheating sounds DAMN fine to me. I'd rather be a live cheat who took 'the easy way out' than a corpse!

Monday weight was 273 but I am holding this out until my official weigh in. Also saw 272. I am going to increase my protein. I think I am losing too fast.

Monday weight was 273 but I am holding this out until my official weigh in. Also saw 272. I am going to increase my protein. I think I am losing too fast.

As someone nominally doing the diet 'the hard way', I don't think any WLS surgery is the 'easy' way out. Most people who go for WLS have done the 'hard way' to the max and it just doesn't work for them. Maybe its weakness, temptation, a society that is not accomodating to a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of that, of all the WLS surgeries out there, the band is the easiest one to cheat. Watching my wife be monumentally careful in all her food choices, and the mthod of eating, convinces me that the band is a powerful motivator to 'do the diet the hard way'. Don't wanna PB? Feel pain? Walk around gasping and stretching to move that lodged bit of food? If the answer is "hell no I don't wanna do those things!" you have to diet 'the hard way'. In summary, I think the band is a simple tool to help you do it on your own. It provides negative reinforcement if you don't do it right. The band IS accountability. If that means easy... sure its easy. If it was truly easy, you wouldn't see threads with the word "PLATEAU" or "Slow losers - UNITE!" in the subject line.

The Protein is important - it is a build up to help you heal and maintain muscle mass. Be sure to get that protein. The doctor has to make his own judgement call. My thought though is the smaller you can make the liver, the more room the Doc. is going to have to work in. I am quietly amused though at the varying 'recommendations' that we see here. If every doctor does the process the same... why the heck can't they agree on a 'standard' procedure??

1. It shouldn't suck at all 2. If you are going to report other folks, can I get the data in the following format? Username: Date Banded: Country: Surgeon: Eroded (or other band complication requiring band removal)?: Y/N I can add it all in then. I will also probably start recording date the band was removed. Just so we can get an average time the band was in place before it eroded. Ta!

Anyone of any time period - so long as the procedure has been done. I intend to make this a long standing (VERY long standing) post that I will continue to update as time goes by. If people have problems in the future, I expect them to notify the board (and thereby me) of erosions etc. so that we can change the stats and update them. If I get enough data points I can extrapolate all sorts of metrics highlighting if there was a certain period of time, or length of time the band has been in - all manner of things. So - anyone, of any duration, is welcome to jump on board the statistic train. Those only banded 1 week now, will have been banded a year... next year As for the fact that erosions may go undiagnosed and you may not know this, sooner or later it will be found and action taken.

I have to say, if anyone made the "American Idol" joke to me, I'd have probably served that person for supper, with a nice bottle of chianti. FfFfFfFfFf Of course one of the major problems with fat jokes, is that we the obese, tend to be the biggest creators and users of this humor. As a result people see it as somehow acceptable.

Extreme temperatures just aren't so good for any stomach, banded or not. As P'Nut said, we only ever drink our water cool at best, frequently room temperature. When I work out I always drink room temperature water because its less of a shock to the system. Remeber that the water is there for hydration, not to reduce your temperature! (also, its a little known fact that cold drinks can raise your body temperature. Your metabolism has to step up to try and raise the heat of your stomach back to normal operating temperature. This is one of the prime reasons why hot countries drink a lot of tea )

NO Dawg-Nut for you! You shall have to live vicariously through our shared insanity instead.

I'll need a specific date and a username. I don't want to go 'outside' of LBT and want to trace on a user by user basis. If you can supply her username (in a PM is fine if she wants to keep it private) thats fine. I won't be adding folks who aren't board members, so if they don't have a username, I'm not counting them. This is important for tracing data. Thanks!

Hey there Julia, welcome to the board. Different doctors have different restrictions. A lot depends on co-morbidities and BMI. There are likely seminars in your local area, check them out - they are a wealth of information and you'll likely meet the people you can work with (the surgeons). Best of luck!

You know what you are eating, and you know whether you are exercising. As most of the surgeons, nurses and dieticians say: Weight loss is a simple balance of getting a calorie deficit. If you aren't losing weight, all sorts of things can be happening, like: 1. Weight redistribution. Exercise changes fat to muscle. If you are working yourself nuts at the gym, look for NSV's rather than the scale. 2. If you look at your diet and find it primarily made up of fat and sugar, you've found your culprit. 3. If when you sit down to eat, you chug Water at the same time, there again could be your answer. What are you eating? Give an honest breakdown of your daily average intake. What exercise are you doing? There will be an answer somewhere in your equation, you just have to gather all the bits together :puke:

Welcome :puke: I hope your adventure into a new world goes splendidly We will be happy to be here for ya.

I think this could ease the mind of all and frankly, its for my personal curiosity too. The deletion thing may well prove a good idea. I'll drop you a line.

Actually I can easily add that to this one. I'll need to compile the data into classifications before I can produce easy numbers. I think our prime focus here though is on the 'hot topic'. Feel free to report any other complications, and I'll add it to my data as anecdotal info. If I can then draw good data from that, I'll do it :puke:

Can I have the Dr. full name please? I don't wanna skew the figures by giving a success to the wrong geezer :puke:

The more data the better. :puke: Who was your Doctor? Just so I can add you in.

Fabulous Idea! If we could collect that data too, it would be wonderful.

It seems to me that we have an excellent opportunity to answer our own question regarding erosions. We have a superb sampling of banded folks from all regions. I will be collating data to try and help us all see a snapshot of what is happening and where. If you want to take part in this very unofficial study, Throw on a post (or PM Me) and I'll start collating. RULES!! Please only report your data. If you report data for another LBT'er I need their username as well as their stats. I won't accept spouses or friends unless they have a user account. Remember, this is LBT statistics, not LBT, plus everyone I know who has a band! :heh: Format for Submission of Data: Date Banded: Country: Doctor: Erodoed: Y/N If Eroded Date Removed: If you don't give me all the information I can NOT add you to the data. If you don't supply data, I will try and PM you to request missing data. PERMANENT DISCLAIMER!!! This study is not intended to impugn, malign, or misrepresent surgeons and their ability to perform. This is a simple collection of numbers. So, if you see items like: Lopez 100% next to number of erosions, be sure to look and see just how many have reported. If 1 person reports, and 1 person erodes, thats 100%. The more people take part, the better the data becomes! Privacy Anyone who wishes to submit their information by personal message will have their identity kept confidential. I will not reveal to anyone on LBT (or outside of LBT) their usernames or any other personal information provided to me. TEMPORARY DISCLAIMER!!! These figures show an INCREDIBLY high erosion rate due to the very small sampling of folks in the study. Don't Panic! ================================ This data is updated daily by midnight US. EST. ================================ ***** Apologies Folks, it appears when the thread moved formatting was lost and can not be put back in. I'll ask Alex if it can be 'fixed' but we may not be able to host these stats anymore **** Stuff happens. :puke:

I think the $4200 thing comes in when no two states are even close to the same. Hence why we ended up Self Paying about $26,000 dollars for the wife's LapBand, when most anywhere else is $15,000 to $17,000. (the initial price quoted was somewhere around $19,500, but it seems that this is a mere... ballpark figure as the bills, even though we payed up front, keep rolling in). Thanks for sticking around Dr. P. Many harsh words have been spoken on both sides of the fence. With luck we can all place those behind us.

Here is an unpleasantly skanky workaround. 1. When you see that you have a Pager Message. Click on Pager Message. 2. If any pager messages exist in the Dialogue that opens, Select them all and delete them. 3. Click on the Download dropbox and click on any of the options (TXT, XML, or CSV). 4. The window will change to a vBulletin window and your pages will now start appearing. Tested in IE and FireFox. Both worked. I suspect somehow the vBulletin can't properly allocate them to a space (like the Inbox) and they sort of hang in Limbo until you actuall connect to the vBulletin interface directly.

NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! No tasty food in the house!! I'm dooomed!