momcof3

Well I guess I am a success too and I doubt they would do a revision unless I had a problem. My band hasn't loosened up at all and I have lost over 15 lbs since I had my last fill - Dr. Im does his fills differently so I never felt it loosen up in between fills - they were big fills and less of them. I'm kind of scared to ask for a slight unfill as I will have to tell them why and once they find out I am in the medical weight loss program they are probably not going to be happy with me - guess I will have to take my chances - I don't want to lie and just say I am too tight - oh I don't know what to tell them. Hang in there Reggie - we are here for you - and don't worry none of us are perfect - a lot of us are struggling so come back and hang with us and we can get through it together.

Good Luck tomorrow Sherri - it'll be over before you know it. Christine - I would think they would have to provide service for our bands for as long as we need it - they put it in - same as when someone gets a pacemaker - they can't decide not to take care of it if they decide not to use pacemakers anymore. Tina - how did Dr Baggs say you differ from the norm? Losing slow is the norm for the band after the first six months or so - what is the norm supposed to be? Just took a nice swim in my pool - water was 86 - felt so good but now I have crinkled fingers. :thumbup:

Or maybe Dr. Park is not in the office? I would give it a day or so more and then send another e-mail as a follow up. I just got home from my daughter's awards ceremony and put some ice cream in a bowl with a little piece of cake - I ate one bite and thought what am I doing and made my son eat it - if he didn't want it I was going to put it down the disposal. My resistance muscle was screaming at me. Boy I wish this wasn't so hard but I know it is a lifelong process for me.

Cole - yes you can bring your daughter on Saturday - just bring something quiet for her to do. Others have brought children before. I am not sure I would get a revision to a sleeve if they let me at this point - Kaiser has not been doing them very long and I want to see what issues occur further out. I said the same thing to Kaiser - why is it they will cover bariatric surgery fairly easily, but they won't cover a program that promotes behavior modification? Optifast is not a magic cure - they only provide that so people will join the program - it is all about behavior changes and mind set changes - none of the bariatric surgeries or even Optifast will prevent regaining the weight - that is up to us. I have seen a lot of people regain their weight who have had RNY and LapBand and you can regain it with the Sleeve too. Kaiser lets us know that from the get go - we all want to think that won't happen to us but it can. Tamra - you are confusing your body by yo-yoing - starve, eat, starve, eat. Our bodies need food to burn calories, just needs to be the right foods and amount of calories. Please be careful so you stay healthy. Our bands are not magical.

I think I am the only one on Optifast at the moment. I am in the Kaiser Medical Weight Loss Program here in Elk Grove - it is not covered by our Kaiser insurance and they said I am the only person they have had that has already had bariatric surgery. I joined the program after losing 65 lbs but was stuck for over 6 mths. I need more accountability and group support - the Optifast is just for the weeks 2-16 - we have to attend through week 30 but the program lasts 82 weeks and we can keep coming for as long as we want after that. The bariatrics program probably wouldn't approve, but it is working for me - I am up to 79 lbs lost now.

They have been doing the LapBand at Kaiser longer than 2 yrs - and if they are phasing it out now it is probably because of the cost of all the fills. I still doubt I would have gotten the sleeve if it was an option when I had surgery - wonder if they will cover revisions later on? Glad to hear you are back in CA John - 1-2 lbs a week is good - it all adds up. Sorry to hear you have to have another procedure Chrissy - doesn't seem fair huh?

If you can get water down and the other pills you mentioned, you are not too tight. Once you get back to regular food, make sure you chew good. Then if you pb at least once everyday I would be concerned. The one time I had to have the unfill it started with pb episodes and then all of a sudden water was coming back up too. Be careful with staying on a liquid diet Tamra - although you may lose a lot of weight, you can become malnourished and eventually you will have to eat again and the weight will come back on. Better to eat now and be healthy. I just finished making potato salad - my parents are coming over for Father's Day - gonna bbq hamburgers for them too - me I am going to have my Optifast bar. My bloodwork came back normal and I see the dr. this Tuesday - we are going to start transitioning back to regular food on Aug 3 and will be off the Optifast products by the end of August. I have learned alot about nutrition and other stuff and I am working on the head hunger.

I am going to be at the support meeting on the 26th at Point West but not going to the workshop afterwards.

Cole - you can lose more than he said with LapBand if you follow the rules and exercise. I started at 285 - lost 30 before surgery and am now 206 1 yr 10 mths later. It may take a while to lose what you need to lose, but this isn't a race it is a lifetime of behavior modification. If the eating behavior and stuff in our heads don't change, the weight will come back on - even if we lose a lot of weight in a short period of time. We have talked about this before but there are a lot of new people on here now. No matter what surgery you have, the weight loss is fast at the beginning, but they all slow down and plateau - that is when we get frustrated and have a tendency to fall off program - me included. For me at least losing alot of weight was great, but it only exposed some of my actual issues - I was using food to suppress them. That has been scary for me - having to deal with the real issues, but I am working on it.

Tamra - don't worry if the surgeons can tell by how it feels when they put the fill in if it is going in right. You should feel restriction and yes you probably will gain a little after being on liquids for a week - sort of like at the beginning when we go from liquids to solids. But it should stabilize and start going down again if you eat your protein and don't starve yourself. Remember if we don't get enough calories after a while our bodies think we are starving and hold on to the calories we do eat. I was at 206 this morning - can't wait to lose 7 more to get under 200 - which I haven't been for at least 20 years. Glad to see you back on here Heather. Have things settled down with the house?

Glad to hear you are out and everything went well Chrissy. A guy I work near stopped me today and said I look good and that he can tell I am losing weight. I've only lost 17 lbs over the last month and a half but I am also wearing better fitting clothes. Made me feel good. I have some clothes to bring to the meeting on the 26th - have to give up the diaper butt pants - I can hear Candra in my head everytime I wear them.

Welcome back Christine - Dex is so cute and Sophie has gotten so big. It will be hard at first getting back on band friendly diet, but you can do it - don't let Dr. Baggs give you too big of a fill at once.

Nicole - so glad to hear everything is going great in WA. Why don't you try to start a support group yourself - even if it is only a handful of people?

cukiemunster? I think most of us are going through Richmond but there are some SSF people too. From what other people have posted both facilities are good - I liked Richmond but then I don't have anything to compare it to.

Here is a link to a good article about weight loss and yo yo dieting etc. When you lose weight — and gain it all back - Diet and nutrition- msnbc.com

At my case manager appointment I got my surgery date and she went over the labwork I needed to get and the preop nutrition and postop classes I needed to take. How exciting - we have a few people getting ready to have surgery this summer. I found out I do have a resistance muscle after all - I made a quick trip to Target at lunch today and looked at the candy at the register - I even had a small bag of M&Ms in my hand and then I put it back and then I looked at the little box of sugar free Werthers hard candies and saw each candy was 40 calories and put it back. I really wanted some candy but decided it was not worth it. I'm still working on the mental struggle of this process - probably will be a lifelong thing.

what cute dogs Jes - are they Bichon Frise? I wanna go on vacation - the closest I'm going to get is camping over the 4th of July. My band seems to always tighten up when I go camping - maybe it is stress. I need to make a 2 yr follow up appt with Dr. Im for sometime in Sept or Oct - I'll see how I feel, but I may ask for a small .5 unfill so I can maybe eat salad at least. He'll probably think I'm odd in that everyone else is begging for fills, but since I am in this for the long haul I can't be pbing regularly.

I am at work too - or did you mean why are you the only one at work in your office? I was here at work at 5:40 am this morning after taking my son to the airport at 4:30 - been up since 3 am - but I am leaving at 12:30 as my daughter gets out of school today at 1:20 - not sure when it will hit me that I am tired - so far so good. I just ate my nutrition bar for lunch - gonna have to stay busy this weekend to avoid boredom eating and kitchen cruising.

Tamra - so did you take the June 15th one? Can they put you on a cancellation list? If not, I would try calling back next week to see if they have any.

What thrift shop do you go to that the pants are only $1? We don't have that great of thrift shops in the Elk Grove area. I have a bunch of hand me downs from my neighbor and a friend at work. If the weather would ever warm up again I have some capris I can fit into now.

John - 40 lbs in three months - that is great. At least you didn't gain while you were gone - 5.5 is still good - especially since you were eating out. Has anyone heard of someone getting a port revision to the the low profile port before at Richmond Kaiser? My port pokes out and is kind of turned sideways which makes it worse. Sometimes I still get port pain depending on which way I bend or turn.

Good news Ash! Is shrimp and chicken considered soft foods for the sleeve? If so wow you're lucky cause it wasn't for the band. If I recall soft foods for me was things like scrambled eggs, tuna w/ mayo. Is that the stage after pureed foods? Glad to hear you are feeling good being back at work. I was off for two weeks and found going back to work helped distract me. Riley - gosh after hearing you talk about a tummy tuck I took a look at my tummy and it looks pretty scary - decided I won't be doing that again any time soon. :biggrin:

Thanks for the info Riley - I think I might just be interested in the tummy tuck - gotta lose the rest of my weight first. I assume if I go through Kaiser here it would a surgeon in Sacramento or close to it? Picked my son up - said they had fun even though the water was on the cold side. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow morning Ash - it'll be over before you know it. Yep they weigh you at every appointment - keeps us on our toes.

Glad to see you back on here Riley - did they break it down between the two surgeries? If so how much was just the tummy tuck? I couldn't save $12k in a million years as I am going further in debt with the furlough days and then who knows what will happen starting in July. That's great to hear Ash that you are still a go for tomorrow. Do you have to drink the yucky Milk of Magnesia? That stuff is horrible - and it didn't even work for me. What is with this weather? My son went on an 8th grade field trip to Raging Waters today - brrr. Someone's lunch smells seriously good here at work - sure isn't mine.

Sorry to hear you are struggling Reggie - a lot of us are. Is it emotional eating - try talking to someone at Kaiser - it helps me. I was going every two weeks for a few months last year and went for a visit the end of March - helps to talk to someone who is not personally involved in my life. Also could you maybe not have the cookies, bagels etc in the house at all for a while? I have been slowly removing unhealthy snacks and foods from my house and my kids are okay with it - I told them we all need to eat healthier. They do get soda and other junk occasionally so they don't feel deprived because I can't eat it. Please keep posting on here so we can help you - you are not in this alone.