marjon9

Iagree that you have a right to do what you want. But I do not agree that a person who has another point of view should not post at all in this thread if they don't agree that taking diet pills is a good thing. This is a thread about taking appetite suppressants while having the band. A person opposing that idea has every right to post here (and in my opinion, it would be irresponsible to fail to point out that taking diet pills is not a good thing to be doing when you have the band.) The purpose of the band is to find a place where your appetite is under control by using the restriction of the band. If you need phentermine to control your appetite then the band is not adjusted properly. It's fine if you want to take phentermine, but this is a forum about the lap band. I think it is important to provide correct information about the lap band to the people coming here for information and support. The fact is, if you are using diet pills to control your appetite, your band is failing. You say that you never expected that the band would be the last diet tool you would ever use. But I certainly have that expectation, and I think most people do. That's the whole point. Giving people the impression that it is normal to use diet pills at the same time you have the band is bad information.

I'm no expert but this is what I understand. Right after surgery the stomach is swollen so no additional restriction is necessary. As the stomach heals and the swelling goes down the restriction related to the surgery disappears. That is the time when people start to get fills. The band is sort of like an inner tube that goes around the stomach. As you fill the inside of the inner tube it gets tighter and tighter around the stomach. The saline stays on the inside of the band. Whatever type of band you have the first fill is usually a small percentage of the available space inside the "inner tube." That is sometimes enough for the person to feel adequate restriction. If that is not enough, you get another fill. Sometimes people need 6 or 8 fills to get where they want. Sometimes a person has adequate restriction with no fills, or one fill. You keep getting fills until you feel the restriction you need. Another issue is that sometimes the restriction from the fill does not show up right away, and a person can then sometimes find that they have too much restriction a week later, when they did not feel that amount of restriction right after the fill. Then the person may even need to get partially unfilled. So it is a process of adjustment until you find the "sweet spot," where you have good restriction, but not too much restriction. The process is different for each person. Also, fills are done in different ways. Sometimes it's just a matter of adding a little at a time until you get the restriction you want. Other doctors do fills under a flouroscope which lets them see inside and attempt to get close to the exactly the right amount of fill the first time. That may not be exactly right, but from reading this forum for a while I think that's close.

vannav12, I'm also about a week from surgery, so I am also feeling my head spin with questions and concerns. As a pre-bander I'm no expert on anything, but I have spent a good bit of time reading on this forum, and I'll pass on what others have said about your questions. Most people seem to say that they don't get hungry for a while after surgery. It appears that the first week after surgery hunger is usually not that great. But then it kicks in it can be quite a struggle to stay on a liquid diet during the healing stage when, medically speaking, you are not ready for anything more than liquids, but you are hungry anyway. Doctors seem to have different plans for post-op diets, and these plans can also vary from patient to patient with the same doctor. I think doctors are generally willing to let you go on to "mushies" sooner if you are healing well and struggling with a liquid diet. I understand that hunger becomes much less of an issue once you get to mushies. Regarding phentermine, I've used it before in one of my diet phases and it can help take the appetite away for a while, although it loses its effectiveness pretty quickly for most people. My own personal opinion is that the lap band is a system that is designed to control hunger permanently (once you get past the healing stage). In my opinion it does not really make sense to take diet pills while you have the band. I think if you are going to make such a dramatic move as to have lap band surgery, you should try and let the system work for you and learn how to use the tool, and not avoid learning how to use the tool by taking phentermine. But that, of course, is just my own personal opinion. Anyway, if you do use phentermine, you'll probably find that it is not effective as an appetite suppresant after about 6 weeks. I don't know why that is, but it seems to be that way for almost everyone. Regarding kidney stones, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who have had them, and those who have not. I'm one of those who have not, so I can't possibly understand what it is like. I can just tell you that some people on this forum say that you are at greater risk for kidney stones if you get dehydrated. Dehydration is often a problem after lap band surgery because it's hard to drink larger volumes of liquids quickly, especially at first. But you have already had kidney stones in your life, so you may have other reasons for getting them. Obviously I can't tell you much about that. There is one thing I would recommend. If you are getting surgery in a week then you are a January Bandster. You would probably find that it would be useful for you to find that January Bandsters thread and start to read the thread and post on there if you have questions. There is a lot of good information just on that one thrread, and a lot of people happy to help. You'll probably find people having surgery the same day as you and they can be good to talk to. It can also be useful to run searches in this forum. We've all had these same questions and most things have been discussed in the past. Good luck.

I order on line. I find it much more convenient that way. The first thing to do is decide what you like in Protein drinks and powders. Then, in my opinion, order it on line. You can find options besides slim fast in health food stores. Try these and see what you like. From there it will usually be a good bit cheaper to order on line. There are also a lot of posts on here about what people like in this area. You can run some searches for "protein drinks" and "protein powder" etc, and get lots of info pretty quickly.

Most of the time I think this is an insurance requirement. It's not about whether anyone thinks we can lose the weight with diet and exercise, it's about whether the insurance company can avoid paying for the surgery for as long as human creativity can devise. If you have any way of paying for this yourself or financing it there are options to get all the way to band-land in a couple months or less. And there are some relatively affordable options to get there, in the 10,000 dollar range for self-payers. If you able to consider this there is a lot of information in this forum you can search for, and if you post questions you will get lots of info. Good luck.

Wheetsin, in this thread, for example, there are three posts, four with mine. Right at the top of these is a function bar. At the left corner is the "View First Unread" button. From what others are saying it apparently once allowed a person to go to the place in the thread that contains the first post that is new since the last time the person visited the thread.

Yeah, it's 63 degrees today in Washington D.C., in January. (Hum Twilight Zone theme song).

That sucks, and for me it's personal. I'm supposed to head out there in a little over a week to get sliced and diced. I will be watching the weather reports very closely now. I guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

You keep trying to fight with me when I'm not fighting at all. I'm not sure I understand why, but, oh well. I think sometimes it's hard for a person to explain what they really mean in an e-mail. When you can't see or hear the other person, I think sometimes e-mails can be taken in a lot of different ways. It seems to me that my comments are a bit irritating to you, but I don't intend them to be.

Sheila, as far as I'm concerned you are not being defensive. I'm really glad you are feeling strong about what you are doing. I agree you did not ask anyone to predict your future success. But I did it anyway because I think it is significant when someone is not willing/able to follow the doctor's pre-op instructions. To me it seems likely that people who do not follow pre-op instructions often have problems with the band. I think it is a matter of concern when a person does not follow the pre-op instructions. It's not the end of the world, but it is something to think about. So, I voiced my opinion. I agree you did not ask for it. And I say again, I'm really glad you disagree with me. I hope you get the band and I wish you the best.

I'm also heading for surgery on the 16th, so of course I can't tell you a lot about life with the band. But I do know from reading this forum that your issues are experienced by most people here. One good place to start is the January Bandsters thread. If you are not on there yet you might want to consider getting on the list of people with surgery in January. Many of these issues have been discussed on just that thread alone, not to mention many others. If you join that January group, you will find that there are plenty of people there to answer your questions and point you in the right direction. In my opinion, both loweryrowan and sula should join the January list if either of you have not yet done so. Start by reading just that thread and then you'll be off and running.

You are so correct. That was just my opinion. And I'd love to be wrong, and I'd love for you to disagree. I hope you get the band. I just think that once you do, it's probably a good idea to follow the rules pretty closely if you want results. You can't argue with that. There are a good number of people on this forum who say they don't have good results, and it usually seems to be due to not following the rules. I'm not saying they are bad people, but it does seem kind of pointless to get the band and then drink McDonalds shakes all day. if you see already that you are not following the rules before you even have the surgery, that's something to think about. I know you agree because you posted about it. But if you look at the whole situation and decide you are ready to go for it, then that's great. That makes me happy. I hope you do. Good luck on your journey.

Same experience with phentermine here. I saw a doctor for a while who claimed he had a safe drug combination with phentermine (unlike phen-fen, which obviously turned out to be very unsafe) that would extend phentermine's effectiveness. His name is Dr. Anchors, you can check out his book here if interested: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Safer-Than-Phen-Fen-Michael-Anchors/dp/0761511490]Amazon.com: Safer Than Phen-Fen!: Michael Md Phd Anchors: Books[/ame] He also has a website. I must say quite a lot of people say this drug combo has worked for them. My experience was after six weeks or so the phentermine became much less effective. So I stopped doing it. It's great while it works, though.

http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/30/fighting_fat Looks like a "ton" of stuff (so to speak) to think about, get angry about, argue about, etc. :hungry:

I've followed this thread for a while and I do have to say I think it is unfortunate that the discussion has morphed from an analysis of one man's bad behavior to a discussion of how bad men are in general. To the extent that has happened it is misguided and unfair, in my opinion. I could certainly take exception to much of what has been said about "men in general," but I won't. I also have to say that I have come to a point in my life where I am very reluctant to judge anyone. No matter how bad this one individual man's behavior is or seems to be, we are just not in a position to judge. As green points out above, he may be dealing with a lenthy catalogue of demons, fears, insanities and confusions of his own. We just don't really know. In light of how important this man and his wife have been in your lives in the past, and how significant the issue continues to be in your own family, I agree with green that it could be very valuable to "corner this guy, tell him what you think, and open the door for him to say anything that he might wish to get off his chest." Unless that conversation takes place, and takes place with an open heart an mind, there is no basis for judging anything or anybody, no matter how things may "seem."

Sheila, it sounds like you are struggling with this thing quite a bit, sorry to hear that, good luck working it all out. In my opinion you do want to tell your doctor what's going on. In general I would say it is not a good idea for your surgeon to discover surprises after the surgery begins. The doctor may feel like your diet has medical significance. I would say you should tell the doctor all the facts. I've noticed in your posts that you've gone back and forth on this whole thing a couple times. Now that you are ready to proceed you are having big struggles with the pre-op diet. I don't need to tell you that this is a situation that could lead to a not-so-successful result. Many posts on this forum show that it is possible to make the band fail by "eating around it." The band won't be able to protect you from yourself if you are determined to eat a lot of calories. I don't mean to be lecturing you and I know you know all this. But you asked, so I'm answering. It sounds to me like it might be a good idea to work out some issues before putting the band in. You don't want to go through this expense and recovery when you know you are not going let the band work for you. From what you've told us here it sounds like you are not ready. This is obviously your decision, and I could see the logic to just going for it. But if you do, don't set yourself up to fail. Dig in and make it work. Otherwise, what's the point?

In the interest of supporting my tendency to be "retentive," I would also add that some bandsters seem to insist that PBing is not "exactly" like vomiting. Vomiting comes from the stomach, whereas a PB ("productive burp") is more of a rebound of food that does not make it past the band to get to the stomach in the first place. But then, what do I know. I'm still on the outside, looking in, dreaming of someday becoming part of the "In"(amed) Crowd (Surgery date 1/16).

Regarding the AP Band, I'm sure you all know Dr. C, the bariatric surgeon who so generously answers questions from time to time that are posted to him on the board. A few days ago someone asked him about the AP Band, and this was his response: "This band hasn't been released in the US yet so I don't know anything about it. I'm sure it's a good band but the most important thing is that you have a band--whether it's an AP band, Swedish band, Midband, whatever. The differences between them in weight loss will be minimal. Good luck, Dr. C Cincinnati, Ohio"

Hi Rachel, congratulations on seeing it through. I'm 53 and my band goes in 1/16. I can't wait. By the way, my family and I love coastal Maine and New Hampshire. We spent our vacation in Maine last summer. Went to some of the usual coastal towns, which are fabulours, but the best part of all was our day of hiking and picnicing on Isle au Haut with our two doggies. Barely saw a soul all day. It was downright prehistoric. I'll never forget that day. As it turns out that trip will be my Lobster Farewell Tour. But it was a worthy tour. So anyway, congratulations on your new journey. See you on the forum.

On my Doctor's web site he provides an answer to this question in the FAQs. So this is what one doctor says. Q: Will I need plastic surgery for the surplus skin when I have lost a lot of weight? A: That is not always the case. As a rule, plastic surgery will not be considered for at least a year or two after the operation. Sometimes the skin will mold itself around the new body tissue. You should give the skin the time it needs to adjust before you decide to have more surgery.

I live in a clue-free environment when it comes to fashion. I never have to decide what to wear because I always wear the same thing: whatever is closest to me at the time I'm getting dressed. If ignorance is bliss I live in a state of fashion-induced ecstacy.:hippie: My wife might describe it differently. :cry

So which is it? On the one hand you say that this "you did it to yourself" point of view is "crud." Next you acknowledge that "sure, they really did do it to themselves." So, I'm confused. All I'm saying is, they really did do it to themselves. And who said anything about mocking anyone for being fat, for smoking, or anything else? My point of view is not about mocking or blaming others. It is about being honest with myself. I think it makes sense to take personal responsibility for what happens to you in your own life. In my opinion if you view yourself as a victim of circumstances you will have a tendency to remain stuck in self-pity instead of taking action. Yes, it is hard to avoid obesity in America. But it's not impossible, and it is the responsibility of each of us to do what it takes to solve this problem. If we are fat it is not because of McDonalds, it is not because other people are flawed for failing to "accept" us. If we are fat it's because we have not yet found a solution for ourselves to this very difficult problem. I just refuse to feel like a victim. This is my life. It's my responsibility. This is true whether some calls me "tubby" or whether McDonalds sells me a Big Mac. The things that happen to me in my life are not somebody else's fault.

DevilMayKare, everyone has their own path to follow. As I said, I'm not trying to change anyone else. All I'm doing is describing the way the world looks to me. I feel responsible for myself and my own actions. I feel especially responsible for myself as a modern citizen of the United States, where I have ten times the wealth and ten times the freedom of almost everyone else who lives in the world now, or who ever has lived in the world. I am simply not able to form the concept in my mind that others are to blame for my own choices. I'm fat and I know I did it to myself. If this causes problems for me in my life, I accept total responsibility for that. My problems in life are not caused by everyone else's flaws and everyone else's inability to "accept" me. None of this is directed at you or anyone else in particular. I don't mean to make anyone angry or hurt anyone's feelings when I say these things. I'm just describing how it looks to me.

Even though I am not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV), I would say it's very likely you have sleep apnea from reading that list of symptoms. Since you say you "stop breathing a little at times," then it sounds to me like your apnea is not as bad as mine was. I would stop breathing for extended periods, like 30 seconds, and wake up gasping. Can you imagine what a strain that puts on your heart? I did it for years. I really think it would have killed me. But even if your apnea is milder, the cpap should definitely still help. You will probably sleep much better and no longer feel tired all the time. This was a really noticeable change with me. I had forgotten what it felt like to be normal. Instead of being extremely sleepy every day, especially in the afternoons, I felt awake and energetic all day. It was an amazing change. And, here's the big news: YES! You will very likely stop snoring completely. Before the cpap my snoring was awful. I told my wife that I was practicing my "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" impression, but that joke stopped being funny after about, oh, say, five years. Anyway, you get the idea: CPAP - GOOD.

Yes, I've had a couple sleep studies. I have apnea and use a cpap now. When I had the studies I had everything (wires and mask). I'm pretty sure you will as well if it's a test for apnea. Keep in mind that the masks they use in these studies can be somewhat medieval. They made me use one of these huge honking masks. I felt a bit like Leonardo de Caprio in The Man In The Iron Mask. In contrast, the mask I use at home is quite light on the face and not claustrophobic at all. It just brings the air stream to your nose with almost nothing on your face. I have a tendency to get on a soap box regarding sleep apnea, but I'll keep the sermon short. Sleep apnea is serious, and can really damage your health, especially your heart. I had no idea how much my life was affected by it until I started using a cpap. I urge anyone with apnea to get the cpap if they need it. It's a scary looking thing but it will become your friend very quickly once you realize how much better you feel. OK, done with sermon. When I lose all the weight with the band I expect that I will need the cpap much less, if at all. That will be good, too. But if that happens it will be tough saying good bye to my old friend, the cpap. I'll probably take mine out to dinner and break the news very gently. At dinner I'll take small bites and chew very well, of course.