2muchfun

I lost 12 lbs the first 4 months and then with my 3rd fill I started to feel satiety and the weight started to shed over the next 4 months. 30 lbs is awesome and you should hope it keeps up that pace. tmf

Here's a link to a thread started years ago for TLBC. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/57768-tlbc-clinic-toronto-ontario-canada/ If you know some of the doctors name use your PC to search for surgeons at the top of this page to find others who might share your experience?

Bad news is, I don't think there's much we can do about the sagging skin issue. Maybe someone else has a better idea?

If you search surgeons at the top of this page, he's done about 210 here. Click on this link to see other patients. http://www.bariatricpal.com/surgeons/1239-richard-benavides/

how do I start a new thread? It depends on what you use to access this site? I use a PC so if you just go to forums at the top of the page and click on any forum and then click on "Start a new topic".

Lapbandchic, my doctor took it very slow and it took me 3 fills to feel some satiety and 6 to get to the green zone. A good doctor will know his patient's limits and some of us need a little more time to acclimate to our new lifestyle. I know I wanted more restriction after fills 1 & 2 but I wasn't really ready for the lapband life yet. And even after I got to the green zone, I struggled to eat like a Bandster. I ate healthy food but the excessive chewing and small bite size kept evading me. Sometimes it's best to sneak up on the green zone. It was for me. tmf

I eat steak. Sirloin is difficult to eat but tenderloin goes down easy.

I had no pre-op diet and I did fine! Trust your doctor to know whats best.

Wekll obviously if you aren't eating.its just Water weight and will come off soon.

Is he not practicing any surgeries anymore?

If Dr. Johnell is your doc, he used to have privileges at McKee, Good Samaritan(Lafayette) and Aspen Med Center.

I can understand your frustration. But this is a temporary setback. You have many other options such as Poudre Valley Hospital, McKee in Loveland and North Suburban Med Center. Has your doctor offered to re-schedule with another surgical center. You may have to wait a few extra days but it's so worth it. As far as Karma or( I can't but feel like maybe this is a sign that I shouldn't do this), I'm not much on fate. It could be it's good you're not having surgery in this Hospital as this could be a sign of other internal problems you'll probably never know. Chin up and good luck. Who is your doc? tmf

I'm thinking someone must have injected some contaminated saline into your band? I doubt anyone will ever fess up to a mistake like this since you could sue the clinic if it could be proven.

I didn't feel any restriction til my 3rd fill. Some take even longer!

Highly unlikely this could happen again and nothing you did could have caused this. The tube and band are completely isolated from any fluids in your body. You must have received a defective band or somehow the saline was defective or not saline for your fills?

Deli turkey, refried beans, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, well cooked veggies, cottage cheese, applesauce, tuna salad, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, squash.

I could have written your topic 2 years ago. And it's a very common topic and I would venture to say more than 50% of WLS patients experience the same. No one told me about this period, or, if they did, I was daydreaming. Here's how this works for many of us: Irish is right. Your swelling is down now and you won't start to feel any restriction until you get one or more fills. Even then it could take up to 6 fills before this works for you. The stoma(band opening) is usually left open after surgery. Some docs put a few CCs in but many don't. So, this is just like it was before surgery. For me, I did feel like I could eat less and I did. I only lost 12 lbs the first 2 weeks and then nothing for the next 3.5 months. You're in what we call "Bandster Hell". You feel like you could eat an entire buffet all the time and feel no restriction to stop you. B-52(forum member) has a saying: Until there's restriction, it's just another diet. So, hold on and get those fills asap. tmf

Honesty comes easy here. We're all anonymous so why beat around the bush? If you love meat/proteins, and can't get them down, you're probably a little too tight. Or, you don't eat small and chew big? Only you can know this? A very small unfill(.25 or less) can make all the difference in allowing some of those troublesome foods to go down. Jenn is right. I too coat some foods with a sauce. Ketchup, hollandaise sauce(lowfat), salsa, gravy can all be low fat/cal. One more suggestion? Try sipping Water between meals. Wait about 30 seconds after you bite and chew and let the water keep the pouch moist. Don't use it to wash the food down, use it to grease the wheels. I eat everything in moderation. Of course, I fell off the wagon over the Holidays but I never really sweat it because it will all(7lbs) come off this month. I eat a lot of Salmon. Just baked. I eat salads, vegetables, chicken, tenderloin steak(the only kind that goes down and it's lower fat but expensive), low fat burgers, turkey sausage, eggs, deli turkey slices and some Soups. I steer clear of pizza, Pasta, most breads(I allow flatbreads), high glycemic fruits, potatoes, tacos, enchiladas. I can eat all that stuff and I treat myself occasionally to the naughty list, but I try to eat healthy, nutritious foods. Some doctors insist you adhere strictly to their diet protocol, but let's be honest. We're not all the same are we. So mix it up and make it work. tmf

I guess people can always lie about stuff, but in this case I don't know why they would or would want to. Hopefully not too many people would want to mess it up by supplying bogus answers, but they probably have statisticians involved to factor that in. Just my guess. If participants are all WLS patients it would be to the benefit of everyone to provide honest answers. Something like this has to go through a bunch of approvals to even make it this far. If there wasn't the potential for it to benefit patients in some way, it most likely would not have been approved. That's a good point though. I wonder if/how they factor that in. You don't know the patient population very well it seems? I don't think many people actually lie but many are in denial or completely unaware of what their dietary actions do to their band(WLS). I've seen many people claim that they felt they could have lost the weight without the band and even more who never lost or gained weight and claimed no fault of their own. Also, a larger population of failures will provide answers to these types of studies since they're angry over the cost, pain and time spent.

"if you do investigation on it it fails 60% of the time within 5 years and has to be removed!! " 60% failure rate? I'd like to see those stats Christian? So not true. Please try to keep to the facts? tmf

Hi do you know where I can get the 5 day pouch test from ? Thx Go here. It's free. http://5daypouchtest.com/

I seem to have mitigated a lot of the excess over the holidays but I'm going for the 5 Day Pouch Test starting Monday. Not looking forward to it but it needs to be done.

What's an I-Band?

Pepper. You should sit down with your doctor and nutritionist and discuss how this works. You shouldn't be stuck w/ slime and the band should be giving you a little satiety by now.

Seek out your nutritionist. They can help you.