marjon9

I agree completely that this information would be useful. The problem is, the band has not been around long enough to get that information, especially in the U.S. The Aussie's have been doing the lap band for about 10 years now, as I understand it. Some of the Aussies on this forum have had the band over five years. That may be the most long term information that is out there.

My surgeon is Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver. He's a very experienced laparoscopic surgeon in general, with about 75 or 80 lap bands done by now. He charges $9950 total for everything. If you want some information on him do a search for Kirshenbaum and you'll hear a lot of positive reports. The link to his web site is at the bottom of my post. The surgery is also about $25,000 plus in my area (Washington D.C.). I agree that is completely outrageous. But you don't need to pay it. Things worked out really well for me going to Denver.

Remember, gastric bypass is about rearranging the plumbing. Just intuitively it seems so likely that this would eventually cause problems. The lap band is not a permanent change of the human anatomy. It is nothing more than a belt. It may turn out that this causes some unforseen problems, but the logic of it would seem to indicate that this procedure is so much less risky.

What happened with me is first I called the doc's office (www.lapbandrockies) to set up a phone consultation with Dr. K. I lined up my consult for about a month later. When the time came to talk with the doc I had pretty much made up my mind at that point so there was not a great need to talk at length. I had already done a lot of reading on this forum and I had a pretty good idea what it was about. I spoke to Dr. K for about 20 minutes. I then talked to the office manager to set up a date for surgery. In the meantime I was contacted by the nutritionist who sent me some information by e-mail. After I reviewed this information I had a consultation with the nutritionist. Next I made my plane reservations and hotel reservations. I sent payment to the docs office about a week before the surgery date, and a week later I was a banded man. Once you have the band you can either go back to Dr. K for "fills" for the band, or you can find a local doctor for that. As you can see the process itself is simple. The complicated part is dealing with all the doubts and second-guessing that naturally goes along with having surgery. Most people usually have episodes where they "change their mind" and decide that they really don't need the surgery. This usually does not last long because the truth is, it's almost impossible for most of us to tackle a major obesity problem through diet and exercise. The next phase comes after surgery. When the surgery is over many people have times where they wonder "Oh, my god, what have I done to myself. I'll never be able to eat [XX] again!!!" All of that is common, and natural. For some people these issues are really difficult. But again, you get through that pretty quickly because you can still enjoy food when you have the band. You usually find that your preferences naturally change, but for most people living with the band is not a deprived life. So, all that type of stuff can be quite complicated. But the process itself is pretty simple. Dr. K and his crew really are a good team. He's a very fine, experienced surgeon. The surgery facilities are excellent. And besides that you can't beat the price. He may not stay so affordable forever. But for now he's got about the best price in the US. Best of luck getting your plans worked out.

Congratulations skyeblu! You have now crossed over to the Light Side. It sounds like you are going to be one of those quick healers. I was not that type, I was more the whining baby sort for at least a couple weeks. Not being hungry is pretty normal. Ride that pony for as far as it will take you. You'll be hungry soon enough. Hi there Drew and Kirsten, seems like everyone is doing well in Bandsterland. Shesha, I don't think I'm on a swelling cycle with the PBing, because it seems like I am able to eat pretty normally at lunch time. Just not in the morning or at night. Now that I am getting the feeling for the band I'm PBing less now. I still engage in recreational PBing pretty regularly, but it's not because I have to. :heh: I think it's going to be OK. If I can avoid fills for a while longer, I'll be fine with that. One big problem I've had with the band so far is figuring out how to deal with all the little get togethers at work. We've been having some personnel transitions lately and thus a lot of happy hours and farewell parties, etc. In the past I've never been hesitant to partake of the goods, so I think people are wondering what's going on. I really don't want to tell people about the band yet. So far I've just been saying that I've developed quite a crack habit, and it tends diminish my appetite. I just got an e-mail from work asking if anyone has the keys to our reception desk. Hmm, not a good sign. I guess I picked the wrong week to stop smoking crack. See yousse later. Mark

When I get stuck it almost always turns into a PB. When food gets stuck my body immediately starts to generate the slime. I imagine this is true for everyone since I have no amphibian in my heredity as far as I know. Pretty soon my poor little golf ball-sized pouch is filled to the brim with both the food and the slime. And it just keeps getting more and more full as the slime continues to form. At that point there is no way the food and slime is ever going to make it through my restricted little hour glass opening. The only way out for me is up. Fortunately for me this experience is not all that unpleasant. I don't really mind the PB experience. And the good thing is the pain and discomfort is over almost immediately. The only reason it bothers me at all to PB is because people say it can cause a slip.

You have a much more difficult situation compared to me, and you have my sympathy, but in a sense I am also somewhat relieved to read your post. I was banded on 1/17 and I still have so much restriction I can only drink liquids on the morning and, for some reason, in the evening. I am usually able to eat solid foods at lunch time. Like you I have never had a fill. I was starting to get worried that there was something wrong with my band. I know I can't rely in any way on the diagnosis given to you that your band is OK even though you are totally restricted, but at least it is good to know that this is possible for a person to be restricted to that degree who has never had any fills. I know that you did not post about your situation so you could provide comfort for others with significant restriction, but it turns out that your story did bring me a little peace of mind. Good luck to you in getting it sorted out. And it's great to hear that at least you are having totally amazing weight loss right now. In a few weeks or months you'll be under 300! I'm just 14 pounds away from that now myself. Good luck to you!

They did have a bulletin on Amazon about someone named Missy being blocked from the site. Could that be you?

Hi Kirsten, glad to hear you have the restriction you have been seeking. That's great news. I hope it lasts a while for you. I still have the same really tight restriction. Sometimes things open up so I can eat solid food. But it's unpredictable. Sometimes I eat solid food and find that it won't go down. This causes a PB, swelling, and even further tightening so I end up having trouble even drinking liquids for a half a day or so. The other day I tried to eat a couple dried apricots. I chewed them really well and all that but, let me tell you, I got plugged up like a teenager without Clearasil. Dried fruits are off my list for the foreseeable future. To tell you the truth I am perfectly happy with the level of restriction I have right now. The only problem is that I still PB too much. This does not bother me at all. I really don't find it particularly unpleasant to PB. To me it is nothing at all like vomiting. But, when I do it too much I worry because, you know what they say, it's supposed to be bad for the band. So, I think in a perfect world I would like my restriction to loosen up a bit so I could eat solid food predictably. In the meantime, I need to keep working at managing the restriction I have so I don't get stuck so often. I had an appointment for my first fill but I cancelled it, for obvious reasons. Well, I hope everyone is doing well. Talk to you later.

I just thought I'd pass along my story on this in case it might be useful to someone else. I had my surgery about three weeks ago. After about 10 days the steri-strips came off. The port incision was still a bit open/unsealed, and draining a thin, pink, clear liquid. There was no sign of infection so I figured I'd just put some Neosporin on it, cover it with gauze, and go on my merry way. Well, the darn thing never would close, even though I kept dressing it and changing the gauze twice a day. The draining actually started to get a little worse. So, I called my doc and asked what was going on. He said that the Neosporin was my problem. He said that stuff is great for an abrasion or some other surface injury, but a surgery incision is deep, and Neosporin is not the right thing at all. He said it gets in the wound and makes it into a swampy thing that will never close. He said stop the Neosporin, cover it with gauze, and see if it will dry up and close. Well, I cleaned off the Neosporin and covered it with dry gauze. The draining stopped in about 3 hours, and the wound sealed in a day. It looks great now and I am no longer worried about a port infection. Moral of the story: Neosporin is great for healing a port incision - NOT!!

As the original poster recognizes, figuring out when you are full is a) different when you have the band, and important if you want to avoid some serious pain/ PBing/ potential health problems. This issue has been quite interesting for me because I have struggled with it so far. You know the saying, "the definition of insanity is when you continue to do the same thing but expect a different result." By this standard, apparently I am insane, because I have eaten past the point when I knew I was full on quite a number of occassions, each time somehow expecting that I would not suffer the usual result. :loco: Before banding I always used to wolf my food. It's hard to get out of the habit. When I come home from work now I am often quite hungry. I just dont feel like using a baby spoon to eat a small piece of something in 22 bites over a 30 minute period. I still sometimes just start eating like I did before: big bites, minimal chewing. The first bite or two usually goes down OK, and then by the fourth or fifth bite I feel the golf ball in my chest and there is no turning back: pain is in my immediate future. :doh: Well, I am happy to report that, much like the worm in the "T" maze, I am finally beginning to alter my behavior in response to pain. Maybe there is hope for me after all. :flypig: You know how that song goes: :music: :note2: "I fought the band and the ... band won! I fought the band and the ... band won!" :note2:

janiee, I'm just curious, are there some good times with your husband as well? How long have you been married?

I don't mean to hijact the thread but I'm just wondering about these Campbells soups. To be honest, I don't like regular Campbells soup much at all, or even "Campbell's Select". I find the Progresso and other brands much better. Yes, Progresso and other brands are a little more expensive, but since I now eat so little it seems OK. Are these Campbells Soups you are mentioning better than regular Campbells? Should I give them a try? (Soup at Hand, Restaurant Quality? etc) Thanks

I disagree with this to some degree in the context of having the band. Before being banded I used to drink a lot of water because I felt thirsty and wanted to drink it. Now, I find that it is very hard work to drink any significant amount of water because I have a lot of restriction. Sometimes at the end of the day I think back on how much water I had that day and it is very little. Yet I don't remember feeling thirsty. When I felt thirsty during the day I had a few sips of water and then I didn't feel thirsty anymore. But at the end of the day, on days when I did not pay attention, my total was like 6 or 8 ounces. I think this can be a problem for a lot of reasons, including the risk of kidneys stones. I also disagree that water does not flush anything from your system. Urine is a bodily waste that contains items that are "flushed from your system." And the transportation system in your body for these kinds of wastes is water. If you don't drink enough, you can definitely have problems eliminating harmful wastes. I don't think that drinking a lot of water is necessarily a miracle diet solution for losing weight. But I do think it can be a little dangerous to tell people who have the lap band that they should just drink when they are thirsty and not worry about it. I think when you are banded you need to really pay attention to your water intake and drink enough to avoid dehydration.

To me this is a total no-brainer. Get the fill AFTER the cruise. Fills are unpredictable and being overfilled can be a medical issue that needs attention. Unexpectedly extreme restriction can pop up a couple weeks after the fill. The risks are probably small that it would be a serious problem, but why risk it? In the future you may want to plan fewer (food orgies/cruises) for your vacations. But since you have this one planned I say enjoy it and then deal with the fill later. You're only talking about a few weeks.

You had two eggs and 10 olives and you were still hungry?? Wow, how much can one person eat? Just kidding, of course. We were banded the same day. I am one of the "lucky" ones, and I still do have a lot of restriction. This has caused other issues, like a dangerous number of PB episodes, which is not good. But I do know I'm not yet ready for a fill. Try not to worry too much. Just keep getting fills and adjusting the band until you get it right. Then you'll be well on your way. It won't be long now.

In the past when I was a lot thinner I got a lot of attention from the opposite sex. I was better looking than I wanted to be. I'm not bragging, it's just how it was. It did not feel like an asset to me. All the attention always made me very uncomfortable, as I'm basically quite a shy person. I really think this is the main reason I got fat, just to avoid all the attention. (And believe me, it works. As a fat man I find that women do pretty much leave me alone.) To tell you the truth, I'm not sure which version of me I view as the "real" me. In some ways I'm more comfortable as a fat man. But yet when I see photos of myself I look about twice as fat as I thought I was. So I just don't know which me is the "real" me from my own point of view. I don't know whether I will feel like I need to "find myself" as a thinner person. It's entirely possible, I just don't know. If I do get down around 200 pounds again I'm sure I'll start getting too much attention again. But I'm married now and I feel more like part of a team rather than just being out there on my own. So I don't think it will bother me anymore.

Bruce, that drug is Xenical. Did you happen to notice that this very week they are starting to sell this drug, at half strength, over the counter? They call it Alli (pronounced ally). I'm sure that the next big marketing plan will be to sell it in a combo pack with Clorox. It's sad now people will do anything to lose weight even if it doesn't work. Lord knows, I did the same. I think the lap band is going to become incredibly popular over the next 5 years.

I agree with what everyone is saying, but I'd still check with your doctor first. It's really key to get the incisions healed properly without infection. If you have steri-strips you might have a different answer to the shower question than someone who has staples.

I'm about a month post-op, and for me, it would have been a little too early to eat salad at 2 weeks. But everyone is different. If it is OK with your doctor, give it a try. Just be careful and slow and chew a lot. It is true that raw fruits and vegies do have a tendency to get stuck more than other foods. One thing I did when I was craving raw fruits and vegies is chew them up and spit out the "roughage." I'm not necessariyl recommending this to you, but it did work for me. It works better with fruits and vegies than it does for, say, steak or Cookies. That's because there is so much juice in fruits and vegies. Just yesterday I took half a dozen stalks of celery and some carrots, dipped them into some dressing and chewed them up, then spit out the Fiber. It's a little gross but it is quite satisfying. I felt like I had become my own, personal human "Juice Man." And no machinery to clean when you're done!! I'd just be a little cautious about actually swallowing all that fiber stuff at two weeks post op. But the bottom line is, ask you doc.

From reading this forum I get the impression that 90% of the people here had the exact same feelings you are describing. And then after the surgery, if you do it, you'll undoubtedly go through a few days thinking "Oh, no, what have I done to myself?!?" All of that is very normal. But the fact is almost everyone is eventually glad they did it. And as for making a mistake, remember, the band is reversible. If for some reason it does not work for you, you can take it out. The risk of any serious medical complications from the surgery is very small. The decision is yours. At your age especially there is no hurry. If you need more time take it. There is no need to rush into things if you are not ready. But I can tell you this. If you postpone your surgery, you will almost certainly have these exact same feelings again the next time you are 4 days from having your surgery. It just goes with the territory. cj, ask yourself, are you going to lose 137 pounds with diet and exercise?

I also like the types of foods you mention, and I believe that's a really healthy way to eat. From bandster viewpoint, though, it seems like a lot of people have trouble eating a lot of raw fruits, vegetables and salads. It seems that these items, especially skins of things like apples, tend to get stuck. It might be easier to eat these things if you chop them up really small first, and then chew them a lot. Another problem with this diet, as I understand it, is that if you fill up on fruits and vegetables, which is easy to do with our small stomach capacity after banding, then it is not possible to get enough Protein. I'm not sure I understand why we need so much protein, but it seems that the nutritionists and doctors are pretty unanimous on that point. So, I would say that it should be possible to eat raw fruits, vegies and salads quite often, but just make sure you can tolerate them OK and try to get in your protein other ways. Of course, I am no expert. I'm just commenting based on what I've seen people say here on the forum.

I ain't no doctor but I do have to say that for me Neosporin was not such a good thing. When I talked to my doc about my slow-healing port incision he said that Neosporin was part of the problem. He said it was good for surface abrasions, etc., but for deep cuts like a surgery incision it can actually make things worse. He told me to stop with the Neosporin and just keep it clean and dry. Once I did that it closed up pretty quick. Just wanted to pass that along.

If you need to stay on the liquid diet per doctor's orders I would see if there is a way you can at least add the Protein powder or protein shakes. This really helps with the hunger. Even though the protein helps with the hunger, it does not help with the problem of lack of variety. For that I did use the method of chewing it up and spitting it out. It is a bit gross but it's also fairly effective. Just be careful, it's pretty easy to swallow a bit of solid food that way and that's not a good idea at this point.

That's great news. In addition to my papaya enzyme I'm going to get some pineapple juice in those little cans and keep it around. I am sick to death of getting stuck and I want to have all the options I can to deal with it.