Goannabanda

Susannah, I can't add much to what the previous posters have said, except that keep in mind that people are often more inclined to post when they're having problems, and when things are going well, they're off busily getting on with their lives... I felt like you before having surgery. It's good to think through these things and ask these questions. Hope that your thread responses have helped you. See if you can come along to a support group - there's a few around Melbourne. Hope to see you at ours! oh, yeah no problems with this newbie bandster - I'd do it again in a heart beat!

Glad to hear you have settled down a bit with your fill now Mark. Mine feels like it's gone completely - until I try and eat too much in one bite or too quickly. I've been eating more, and getting hungrier than I've been since surgery. I'm due to go for another fill in late Jan - but I think I might try and get in for another fill before Christmas.

Hi Anne, Yep - I had to have liquid / mushy for the next 3 meals afterwards. I had a few extra as well, as I was feeling pretty swollen for a few days after the fill. Glad to hear from your other posts that you fill went well. Well done with the weight loss! You are a champion!

We had a nice quiet lunch - just my DH, DS, Tarajane and I. Next to Judy, I felt like a hog with the amount I can still eat. LOL!! The PMT appetite isn't helping at the moment either. Doh! Since yesterday, I am hungry ALL the time. Oh well, it should go away in a day or two. I can't make it on Tuesday night - we have the kinder concert on. Have a great time all, and I'll catch up with you IRL after Christmas.

I found out today that Tarajane (Judy) has the new AP band too. That makes five of us. oh, and having perky boobs for the first time in my life - that would be nice! hehehe! BTW - Aren't you heading off to the Maldives soon?? I am soooo jealous! We're going on an overseas holiday too after Christmas - to PHILLIP ISLAND!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I wish my port incision looked as nice as that.

The power that "a mom" and "a dad" can have. Bless you for being financially able, and also for choosing, to save a life in this way. Good luck to you and your chosen recipient.

I had two do it for 2 weeks prior to surgery. Yuck! What made it easier was that we were allowed any of the Optifast products, plus 2 cups of non-starch vegetables and 1 pc fruit per day. We also were given an extensive condiments list to add for flavour. The bars were good, and the choc mousse dessert made a reasonable change. As for the vegetables, think "filling" veg like eggplant, mushrooms and sprouted mung Beans. A favourite Optifast phase meal of mine was a "stirfry" mix of chopped mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, capsicum, onion, mung bean sprouts, seasoned with a little herbs ad a dash of olive oil, cooked on the BBQ hotplate (to pick up the meaty flavours from the BBQ). mmm! yummy! HOWEVER - If I never eat Optifast or mung beans again in my life, I can honestly say that I will die happy! LOL!!!

Hi Kathy, nice to meet you. Thanks for the Water tip - the surgery centre that Oldspark & I go to gives you a cup of water and makes sure that you can drink it before they let you leave. How are you going with your band? There are a few Sydney bandsters around here, so you should feel right at home.

Hi Jess! That makes three of us that I know of with AP bands - me, you and Oldspark (Mark). I started a thread about it in the general pages a while ago, to try and find out more about them. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?p=337812#post337812 It's great to hear that you are doing well with your new band, and that your TT went well too. The thought of a TT and plastics still scares me, but I think that hygeine and vanity will win out one day... LOL!

Update: I found out that the AP band is made by Inamed, I have the APL (large) band, which holds 14ml. I had 4ml put in for my first fill (25 Nov). There are a few other Aussies who have just got the AP bands. No paperwork or cards were issued to me following surgery, but apparently a surgery card may come soon.

Hi Mark - how do you feel now? Glad you got yourself right back to the doc for a part unfill. Funny how differently we all react - I have the same AP Large band and also had 4ml put in. For the first few days I felt a bit swollen and slightly nauseous like the post-surgery feeling, but no need for an unfill as I could still eat. It feels a bit looser for me today - I ate more than my hubby for lunch! YIKES!

Hi Judy and Jenny, Sorry for MY seniors moment - the picnic is on this SUNDAY the 3rd. It's been a long week, sorry! Hope that you can make it too Jenny - it would be terrific to catch up with you again. It looks like it will be just a few of us, but should be good fun nonetheless. At this stage, we're going at 11am for a bike ride, and will be back at the picnic area by about 1pm for lunch. We're going to try for a spot near the playground (the south east corner, or in other words, the opposite end of the playground to the visitors centre / toilets). Hope it won't be too hard to find everyone.

The love you obviously have for your wife, and the struggles you are trying to help her with touched my heart. God bless the both of you, and I pray that you are able to make progress together. I agree with many of the previous posters have suggested, especially those that have said that some sort of intervention is needed to let your wife know how much you are worried about her, that you love her unconditionally, and how much you and your family need and depend upon her. I also agree that having your wife's medications and counselling reviwed should be high on your list of priorites - I hope that you are able to find a way to achieve this with her consent. The counsellor I saw pre-band said that depression / weight issues are often due to an energy or well-being imbalance - you have to keep topping up the positive energy "bucket" (in the words of a previous poster) to be able to level out the negative. Often if you deal with the depression, the weight issues will begin to address themselves, or at least be much more manageable with tools like a lap band around to help. Most of us are pretty much self-sufficient at keeping our buckets topped up, but we all need external inputs from those around us as well. Those of us who have suffered depression make concious decisions every day to get up and do things for ourselves, which in effect helps to fill the bucket. Many need medications to help keep the bucket filled up enough to allow them to get on with life. Some of us, like your wife is now, sometimes find ourselves in a place where getting up to fill our buckets is just too hard, even with medications in the mix that are supposed to help. I pray that you are able to find little ways to start topping up her "bucket" until she is able to manage it better for herself. I also agree that some sort of readjustment to your family team may be useful. Itmight take a while to get her to this sort of a place, judging from your posts, but having her involvement needed in a real and meaningful way in your business could work wonders, providing that there is a similar teamwork approach at home too. It may help to give her a sense of purpose and responsibility, and help her to move on from this "checked out" place she's in now. Maybe you can share the family responsibilities differently between you. No doubt there could be enough flexibility in your lives to allow for a reorganisation of the family routine and responsibilities. Who knows, in time you may find yourself running to keep up with her, or the one who stays behind to do the school run while she travels! I wish you and your wife love, power and strength to get through this period of trial and into a better place. I look forward to reading of positive progress for the both of you in future. All the best.

Okay, so far I've got myself, tarajane and shaky on the list for Saturday. Looks like it's going to be great weather. Jenny and tolmc are you going to be able to make it? Anyone else??

Hi Mark, The fill itself was without incident. Just lie flat on the table, raise your legs straight up in the air on cue (to tighten the muscles under the port), and then a little sting from the needle. It took about 2 seconds flat. I felt a little swollen and nauseous for a couple of days afterwards while I got used to it. Before the fill I was eating about 70% - 80% of pre-surgery meal, and just a bit smaller bites, and a bit slower than pre-surgery. With the fill I am eating much less (about 50% - 60% of pre-surgery meal), and have to slow down much more, and eat much smaller bites at a time. I feel that I have a reasonable amount of restriction, but that the band could still go a bit tighter - but we'll wait and see how it pans out by my next fill in mid-January. So far, I have eaten everything I've tried, including bread, but got stuck a couple of times in the first couple of days on different things when I swallowed to much at once, or didn't chew well enough. (I am an idiot, slow learner, or both. LOL!!). Hopefully I have worked out the level of restirction now, and learned my lesson, but I haven't tried steak yet. LOL! Between the surgery and the first fill I was feeling full for a long time after a meal, but this now lasts right through to at least to the next mealtime, if not longer. Hope that this helps. Good luck for the 29th! Let us know how you get on. Cheers, Anna.

ooops - have the party in January and hope nobody notices. LOL!!! Anyway, I think you should be forgiven - you do have a lot on your plate right now!

The rules are different for permanent Australian residents and others, so exactly what happens in your case would also depend upon your residency status. Australians enjoy a government subsidised health care system. Australian taxpayers pay a Medicare Levy as part of their income tax assessment. It is means tested, and usually works out at 1.5% for most average wage earners. A higher levy is charged if you don't have private health cover. For people who do have private health insurance, 30% of the premium is tax-rebateable. There is also a Medicare "Safety Net" when medical expenses are over a certain amount per year ($1250??). I am not sure of the details, but understand that this year we will qualify for this, and as a result have an additional rebate or a reduced Medicare Levy in our tax return at the end of this financial year. It pays to check what your policy covers, as they do differ. However, generally the story is that once you have qualified for the waiting time on the policy, and the surgeon says you need the procedure, you are covered. End of story. I think without insurance, and without waiting on the public list, the lapbanding would cost between $15,000 - $20,000. I am not aware of any Aussies who have done this, but there must be someone somewhere. I went through the same surgical centre as Oldspark (Mark), and had similar out-of-pocket costs (just over $4,000), including all consultations, procedures etc, pre-surgery diet products, and some exercise equipment that I decided to also buy as part of my "new life". We have Medibank Private AdvantagePlus cover, which is a packaged hospital & extras cover, costing around $220 per month for family cover. It gives you full hospital cover, and also covers the full range of extras, but at slightly lower levels of cover for some procedures when compared against "Blue Ribbon" cover. Waiting periods vary from 3 to 12 months, with 12 months being the norm for most procedures. The product allows us to earn a package bonus, up to a maximum of $1000. It accrues at about $200 per year, and can be spent on any medical or health related service or product, up to a maximum of $500 per person per policy year. I used it to cover the hospital excess ($200) and out-of-pocket expenses for the dietician ($300). The hospital excess is something that we have elected to pay, in favour of a reduced monthly premium. It's capped per policy year, to $500 per person and $1,000 per policy (for family cover). The excess is $200 for the first and second hospital admissions, and $100 for the third, up to the cap level. I don't work for Medibank Private, and am not endorsing their products or anything, I am just outlining how our cover works to try and help you understand how some of the health insurance products work in Australia. There are many other companies that offer health insurance, including some coprorate plans. However, as Medibank Private is part government owned, they are generally the best in terms of value for money.

Bumping is when someone makes a post into an old thread to move it back up to the top of the new posts listings, and back up to the top of the index pages. It's sometimes used when you want to obtain further input to a thread that's gone quiet, or like I did to promote an event. While I'm here - any more takers??? Sorry you can't make it Mark. See you before Christmas anyway...

I think the balloons have been around for a while (maybe not in Australia all that long), although they are not widely used. Like Jacqui said, I believe that they are usually used to reduce weight to a safe surgery range before a more permanent procedure.

G'day to all new Aussies who have checked in here, and welcome to our little family. And a hi to those who have been around the traps already for a while. Not much news from me, other than I had my first fill last Friday - 4ml into my 14ml AP band. I can feel it! I can feel it! Hooray!!! Hope all is going well for all. Cheers.

Hi Lisa, Just thought I'd check in with you and send you a virtual hug! Great to see you (TWICE!) this week, and looking forward to the next time. Hope the new meds do the trick - it's your turn to be our next loser!!! (in the nicest possible way of course! hehehe!) LOL! Hugs, Goanna.

I hear what you're saying too!! I imagine that it will feel like completing any other major life "project" does - once the event has past, all is great for a while, but then the celebrations die down, and life moves on. For example, I felt a bit lost after our wedding, birth of our son, and most recently after our last move into our current (and lifetime!) home. For now I've turned myself into my "project", and when I'm done, I'll find new, positive, things to do. I am enjoying planning what I'm going to do next. I don't know what it will be, but think that at least if I've got a plan, that I'll have a good chance of turning my energy to good use. I've got a list as long as my arm of all of the things I want to do - I imagine that I'll be busy enjoying an active life with my family, hopefully will have more kiddies to chase around, and hope to find opportunity to try out new "extreme" activities and adventures - but who knows?? Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

Lee-sahhh! I'm ALWAYS GOOD!!!! ...well almost always! LOL! Only 9 more days until you're back at the grindstone - maybe we should have a wake for you instead of a Christmas party! LOL!!! Unless Cam was there last month or in August, we haven't met yet. Mark, better the crappy gift you know than the one you don't... LOL!!!

:bump: Any more for our picnic?