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I did. I bought a necklace from sticky j jewelry online. They use medical grade stainless steel. I like mine. One funny thing...the chain it was on seemed too short and I mentioned it to a friend of mine who had had gastric bypass surgery and lost over 100 pounds. She told me to keep that chain because it would get longer as I lost weight. Sure enough, it is a looong chain now! sticky j also has a variety of bracelets including some beaded ones that look pretty. My doctor does not recommend a medical ID, but I felt better having one. I live in a rural area and he is the only doctor who does lap band. I have my name, his name and phone number, and LAP BAND on it. hiddn

I'm 11 weeks now. I've lost 106lbs since surgery last November. I've only gained 1lb back so far, but also gained a couple inches in my waist! I'm showing so fast!! Is anytime else pregnant and look huge already???? I swear my belly is sticking out and I'm not even out of my first trimester yet!!!

I am going back to Dr. Almanza on Feb 27th for a resleeve and poss. duodenal switch. My coordinator told me that when Dr. Almanza did the gastric bypass and duodenal switch he was always assisted by Dr. Ponce de Leon. I saw his name a couple of times on here last year when I was first researching the gastric sleeve, but I didn't pay much attention because he wasn't the doctor that I had chosen to do my surgery. Any information that any of his previous patients could give me would be great because my surgery date is coming up soon and I want to know how is going to be helping with my surgery if I chose that route.

Hi all! I have a question that I just need input on until I’m able to reach out to my nutritionist or surgeon. I think I messed up!!!! I’m on day 5 of my 7day pre-op diet. The first 5 days consists of tons of water and SF electrolytes, 3 protein shakes , 1-2 boiled eggs, cottage cheese or low-fat string cheese, a lean protein meal with non-starchy veg and non- starchy veggies, SF jello, SF popsicles and broth as snacks or to quell hunger pangs. Think Keto and in fact I have reached ketosis (i have that telltale fruity, albeit, rotten apple flavor in my mouth for 2 days and I have test strips that confirm because I once tried to follow the keto diet). The last two days are protein and then clear liquids. So here’s the thing my mind was set on “keto, keto, keto” and I completely flubbed and ate some raspberries this morning!!!! Raspberries are keto approved but….. I don’t know if they are pre-op gastric bypass approved!! I’m tail spinning. I think I totally messed up! Input please! Thank you!!

Hello Daniel, Patti in Saint Louis, Mo., area had my surgery Nov 8 and doing good. Down 10 lbs. I have been trying to get someone to tell me what I am experiencing since a lap-band was placed Feb 15, 2009. Waking up all night long with heavy thick mucous in my mouth, gargling with Water and spitting out mucous. Primary doc refers me to gastroenterologist and she tells me it is a sinus issue and referred me to an ENT. ENT explained that since I was using a lot of strawberries for my Protein shakes, I was allergic to strawberries. Talked to my lap band doctor and he was just straight up baffled or just didn't believe me. So I am still experiencing this issue long after lap band was removed and an RNY gastric bypass was performed. New surgeon says yes it is something that happens with all the adjusting of the stomach, it's called "Frothing". I am still far from believing anybody. Can you tell me if you have any knowledge of this ? Thanks from the Lou, Patti Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

I also have Aetna and I live in MA. My surgeon's office sent the request in 3 weeks ago and I am still waiting. I want the band and not the bypass but I fear that Aetna will not cover it. How long ago did you request it?

Hi Helen, Just 3 lb off 4 stone in less than 7 months is brilliant. Well done :rose: I too struggled over xmas with all the chocs around but at least we are not putting weight on and must be excused for the odd hiccup or two. I didnt lose weight for 6 weeks and was getting realy dispondent but as it took me 25 years to put this weight on I guess its not going to dissapear overnight. I went back to the beginning and dug out all my old food records from November to see what I was eating then and gave myself a good talking too.This last fill has definately made a difference. Perhaps you need to review your food choices to get back on track. Good luck to you. Julie

I have tried to keep upbeat during my journey even though it has been through it all. Band 2009 revised to sleeve 2014 and revising to bypass in April. One thing that I do know, is if I hadn't been through this journey, I would still be diabetic. I take the good with the bad and being diabetic for me was the really really bad. My family has had both my maternal great grandmother and grandmother losing legs to diabetes, my mother is diabetic and when I was diagnosed in my 30s I wasn't having any of that. Yes I have had so many complications, but I also have my life and I am thankful for that. I am concerned that someone on this page is so adamant on not getting revised that they are trying to scare people into making decisions that are only their own to make, not their families, not truly their spouses, this decision is truly only between that person and their doctor. My spouse is supportive, my mother is not. I don't really care. I have not been diabetic since 2009 and that was my main goal!

WTF is wrong with me??? I am just eating all the time, because I'm hungry all the time. Should I have gotten Gastric Bypass instead of the band??? I am going for like my 10th fill on Thursday. I'm at 2.6cc in my band, and I just can't really tell I've even got a band. I'm seriously worried. I think when I go to the Dr. on Thursday, I'm gonna ask him for a diet pill perscription. Ain't that freakin stupid!!!! Just really bummed out. I have 2 bad hips and am supposed to be having surgery in the very near future on my left hip and maybe then I will be able to start some form of walking or excercising. My dr. only likes to give .2 cc's at a time, but it's just not working for me. I had such high hopes. And I hate it when people come up to me and ask, so how much weight have you lost? Im like, wtf???? It's like they are more dissapointed in me than I am. Will I eventually get to where I can't eat much? Or is this as good as it gets?:rolleyes So very sad, Tgirl:help:

Wow! Where did the year go! I can't believe that it is almost my 2 year band anniversary!!! Lord! But I thank God that I have not had any problems!! I am really trying hard to meet my goal by 1/11/09 without RESTRICTION:angry_smile:!!!! But I have been in range of it....so I will see! Anyway I hope all is well with everyone! God Bless! Oh yeah my birthday was on November 4th! And my present was OBAMA's victory!!! Thank you Jesus!! What a GREAT birthday present!!!

I always find it interesting when they tout how unsuccessful the Lapband is yet they ignore the statistic that at 5 years the average weight loss with the RNY is 50% of excess weight loss. Yep, 50%. There are plenty of RNYers who are thrilled with the band as a choice but for their own reasons decided against is. Not a biggie. But there are others out there who are poorly educated and refuse to acnknowledge that they have no real information about banding, only hearsay and conjecture. It's a very american attitude to sway towards the solution offering instant gratification. Myself, I prefer to look 5, 10, 15 years down the road at where I could end up with either surgery. I personally chose the less invasive route that was not going to compromise my absorption over the long term and that is ADJUSTABLE. The majority of RNYers screaming that loudly are either preop, newly postop or under 2 years postop (really--take a good look at who is spewing this stuff). The FACTS are you can gain ALL YOUR WEIGHT back with ANY bariatric surgery if you're motivated enough. There are groups on yahoogroups with several thousand people who are struggling with this post-RNY issue. Groups like OSSG-hungry come to mind. With all of the surgeries permanent behavioral changes are neccessary to sustain success. There is no magical solution. And honestly? I think for some people it makes them angry to have struggled so hard to come to terms with the RNY--the risks, the extremeness of it, and then to learn about banding. It's a much safer mental place to be in to convince yourself it "doesn't work". Therefore you don't have to acknowledge that you could have made a different decision. Insurances are coming around to covering banding, but for goodness sakes it was only just approved by the FDA two years ago! It's a relatively new procedure and it takes time to convince insurance companies to cover it. How quickly people forget that roughly five years ago it was almost impossible to ge them to cover bypasses. Use your common sense and do your own research. And most importantly--when you read an OPINION take into the consideration where the poster is in their journey and that they may have personal biases. Oh--and by the way I was very successful with the band .

So do you think bypass may be better? My Doctor is giving me the option of either

Not everyone has "damn complications." I'm doing very well after gastric bypass, and I say that even though I developed an internal hernia nine months later. This is a SERIOUS complication but I caught it on time, had outpatient surgery and am doing great. I am grateful I was able to have surgery and I don't regret it one bit.

So I told my boss this morning that I am planning on bariatric surgery and that date will be in October or November. I don't have a date yet. She asked me to wait until December since it's elective. I really don't want to wait until the holidays dang it. I want this done ASAP. Not wait a month and half after my last dr appt. tempted to just hit fmla up and do it sooner anyways since they can't stop fmla. But is it worth it to piss off my boss? I work for a large hospital and the October/November months are our inspection window this year. What do you all think? Should I discuss this with the HR dept?

@@JacksdadShane -- I'm a writer, work at home, so I do have a desk job - I had bypass surgery on a Thursday morning, home from hospital Saturday - on Monday, I was okay to check emails, etc., and I'd say working light and part time later that week, full-time by week 3. Of course, it helps I work at home - but, barring complications, (and everyone's different...), a couple of weeks off probably is fine -- search on here, there have been threads before about this very topic with lots of responses -- best of luck!

Can’t wait for that! I remember with the gastric band (which I just revised to a bypass) I went from a 18DD to a 14DD pretty much exactly when I crossed the BMI ‘obese’ down to BMI ‘overweight’. A month to six weeks away, I reckon... YAY! Good breasts are a wonderful thing, but I like mine better when they don’t feel like a matron bossom!

My Name is Brianna, and I reside in SW FL with my family of five. I'm 17 and a junior, my current weight is 336lbs, My BMI (according to the weight over height calculator) is 54 and though I know and see myself as a fearfully and wonderfully made young woman who is everything and more in god's eyes, I know that I am unhealthy, and am aware that changes need to be made. I have never had the extreme "Yo-Yo" sydrome as many have had, I have tried dieting in the past, but they have not been successfull to the point that they should be. It is not eating healthy that I have an issue with, I enjoy good food that is good for me, but as with all things, too much of anything (even a good thing) is a bad thing. Quantity is my main problem. This is what led me to the lap band, I have been diligently researching and reading testimonials of other bandsters, and I realize that though my age is a bit of a hassle, the only way I could be able to get this surgery is if it was before my 18th birthday, I am on medicaid and it is rendereed null and void after said date. I absolutely want this lifestyle change, and full well do I realize it is going to be such, I am never going to eat like (or how much) I have before, and I am content with that, ecstatic even. I only hope and pray that I am givin this chance to start over, to take and hold precious what little I have of my adolescent life left, and use it to it's fullest. One major thing spurring me on is that in the spring of 2011, I plan upon taking a week in paris, and with the average of 13.5 miles of walking on a trip to be done, my current weight does not make that prospect a good one. Onto doctor matters. If all goes as it should, Dr. Renkhe of Palms of Pasadina in St. Petersburg FL. He has been the surgeon to both my mother and my aunts Gastric Bypass surgery. He is now (to my belief) exclusive in band surgeries, and though I have met him only a handfull of times, I trust the man with my life. If anyone else on here has had him as a surgeon I would greatly appreciate any insight onto him and his banding schedule/regimine Pre and Post Op. As of now I am working on my diet because I know that insurance requires such, to know wether or not you are able to do such, or whatever. My goal weight in the end is going to be around 150 to 160. Other than that, HI! :smile:

Hi there I'm 7 mos post op & have my port site is quite painful all the time. So bad that I am looking to have my band removed. Very disappointed. I have not lost any weight & the port has been placed in what I think is a bad place. Up real high just above my left boob. I have spent more on trying to find a bra that didnt kill me than I did the surgery itself (insurance paid all but $100). I am looking for a new surgeon that will remove the band & do gastric bypass. Hopefully that will work. Good luck on the port site, I hear it can be "tender" for years. Its not for me

I was way less afraid of those things, which, afterall are easily rectified by removing the band, than I was of major major surgery and having my insides re-routed. Being a relatively modest BMI of 35 meant that that option would probably not be available to me anyway, if they did gastric bypass in Australia anymore. I also dont care to lose a ton of weight in a very short amount of time, look like a corpse and have a problem with loose skin. I love love love my band. I am living a completely normal life, just one in which I eat a bit less. I eat way less junk, but I eat out, I eat with family, I sometimes eat yummy things for a treat, I can exercise (I've started running again, a MAJOR NSV for me), its simply the best thing I ever did. If I should lose it one day due to a complication, well I guess I'll face that when I come to it. I think I would see how I went without it for a while - I only have 1.3 ml in my band and no real restriction, much of what I've achieved has come from conscious behaviour modifcation. I'd have to say the band's major influence on my has been psychological - I dont expect to fail, therefore I dont.

I went through that stage. Man, the week before I started my pre-op liquid diet i probably gained 10 pounds just on my "goodbye food" tour. I had no idea what i would or wouldn't be able to eat. I remember sitting in McDonalds a year ago, eating a bacon egg and cheese McGriddle with tears streaming down my face as I mentally said goodbye to bacon egg and cheese McGriddles FOREVER. well, almost a year has passed, about 11 months actually, since my surgery and I am down about 90 pounds with NO FILLS and I can eat any type of food that I want to eat. the thing that has changed is the head hunger. I just don't feel it the way I did before surgery. before, food consumed pretty much every waking moment of my day. what will i eat next? what will i eat after that? what is the next meal? when is the next meal? i can honestly say i do not think that way any more. it's like a switch was turned off in my head and it really quieted that voice. sometimes i don't even think about food until my stomach makes a noise and i realize that i haven't eaten and i need to eat! can you imagine??? i certainly couldn't have imagined that *gasp* i wouldn't want to eat unless i was actually feeling hunger. so, although i can eat any type of food i want to eat, including bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddles, i rarely eat things that aren't serving a purpose. that means, i eat proteins first, as they fill me up, then veggies, then if i have it whatever starches there are. i can eat bread, but i don't eat a lot of it. every once in a while i will have a mcdonald's (or wendy's or burger king) hamburger with the bun...the difference is, I don't have the whopper or the big mac, i just have the regular size and it really is enough. i get the taste of whatever i am craving and then i move on with my day. if i have fries, i order the small instead of the super size. i also wait the 20 minutes after eating a meal to take a drink (like my doctor suggested) i still eat chocolate and cookies and cakes and sweets and things that aren't super duper healthy, but i don't have them every day. i usually have a cheat day or a special event that i save those things for. really, i don't think about sweets and starch and stuff like that in the way that i used to anyway. Holidays are really the only time where i indulge in sweets. can you say Cadbury eggs??? I'm so glad Easter is over and they have stopped selling these little eggs of evil anywho, i said all of that to say that what you are feeling is perfectly normal, at least it was for me. do what you need to do to mourn, but also know that if you chew long enough you can eat pretty much anything. the good thing about chewing is that once something spends a lot of time in your mouth and you really taste it for the first time, you realize that it wasn't a fantastic taste in the first place and you don't really want to eat it again. really, things don't taste the same to me anymore and i've lost the desire to have a lot of things that i once thought i loved. do i miss taking huge bites of delicious huge burgers? yes i do. sometimes, usually when it's that time of the month, but for the most part, i have competely changed my eating habits. i don't count calories or weigh foods or do any of that stuff. i think that now i eat like a normal person would eat. I have been watching my co-workers (who are all thin) and their eating habits this past year and i have discovered that we tend to now get hungry at the same time of day and eat roughly the same amount of foods and be full with the same serving size. this has given me joy to know that for the first time in my life there is something normal about me. i am eating like a normal person. not vacuuming the food down, not eating until i feel pain, not stuffing myself silly with supersized portions, but really eating and enjoying the tastes of food, all kinds of food. this band has actually opened up a world of food choices for me. i have discovered new flavors that i never knew existed or never paid attention to because i used to just bypass the chew stage. in the mouth and down the throat it went. no longer. now i spend time with food and since i'm spending time with food in my mouth, i want only delicious tasting things to go into my mouth. anyway, i could go on and on and on and on, but i will stop there and just say good luck to you and maybe give you hope that this isn't the end. you will be able to eat foods you like and love and you will be able to enjoy eating. just take it one day at a time and don't be discouraged. you will be just fine.

I've been thinking about Weight Loss Surgery for a long time, but could not seriously pursue it until my husband concurred, which was last fall. We attended an informational seminar in Palm Springs CA over the winter and began looking for a surgeon then. We were in CA for the winter, but moving to WA state at the end of April. My medical insurance is Medicare/Tricare for Life, so I had to use a "Center of Excellence". I was able to make an appointment with Dr. Jeffrey Hunter at Virginia Mason Clinic in Federal Way WA. We met with him on May 3, 2007 and he thoroughly discussed the pros and cons of both bypass and lapband surgery. He told me that he would want me to lose 10% of my body weight prior to surgery. I weighed in at 325 that day. I started a 1000-1200 calorie diet the next day. I lost about 2 lb. a week for the first three weeks. Then the weight loss stalled and so did my enthusiasm. In a short time, I had regained the 7 lb. I was supposed to have a second appointment with Dr. Hunter in early June, but his nurse, Stephen called me early that week and told me that I didn't need to come in until I'd lost the weight. So the next day I started on a 350-500 calorie diet. Its been three weeks and I've now lost 20 lb. Last week, after several phone calls to report my weight loss thus far, Stephen called me back with a surgery date of July 20. I will have to go in about 10 days prior to that for pre-op appointments with Dr. Hunter, the dietician and the anesthesia department. :ranger:

Pasta, red meat, or rice. Some ppl can and others cant. There's no guarantees which one you will fall into. I will lose weight. But I won't be able to eat like a normal person ever again even in moderation. 2) Acid reflux is a serious issue with the sleeve. I never ever had an issue with the band. I am dealing with rather bad GERD even though I am taking prescription meds. I have chatted with folks that it got so bad over the yrs that they had to revise to gastric bypass. 3) Vitamins! You can't live without them. Daily intake or I will develop issues. Are committed to do that? 4) NSAIDS! Even if your surgeon tells you that you can take them. There's significant debate on whether sleeved folks should take them or not. These meds are very hard on a normal stomach let alone a thin sleeve! Continous use will most likely lead ulcers which are very dangerous with little or no stomach left.Think about aging and the lack of NSAIDS. 5) You can still get stuck! I just had to vomit food yesterday. You still experience that nasty slime....eww! I cried the first time it happened cause I lived with that for 8 yrs. Please feel free to message me. Think about life beyond weight loss cause there's no turning back with the sleeve

@bearhugs1975......so you had a journey filled with complications post op from your initial revision and yet you recommend the revisions! Lool. So you're a triple threat in the world of WLS! Please be honest, your complications are due to your revision! These ppl are asking questions to seek advice and not hear meaningless platitudes. They want to avoid our mistakes! There's no shame in admitting your revision from the band to the sleeve led to so many complications you needed to be revised to the bypass. That the revision may have staved of diabetes but led to more surgeries and other issues

I have tried to keep upbeat during my journey even though it has been through it all. Band 2009 revised to sleeve 2014 and revising to bypass in April. One thing that I do know, is if I hadn't been through this journey, I would still be diabetic. I take the good with the bad and being diabetic for me was the really really bad. My family has had both my maternal great grandmother and grandmother losing legs to diabetes, my mother is diabetic and when I was diagnosed in my 30s I wasn't having any of that. Yes I have had so many complications, but I also have my life and I am thankful for that. I am concerned that someone on this page is so adamant on not getting revised that they are trying to scare people into making decisions that are only their own to make, not their families, not truly their spouses, this decision is truly only between that person and their doctor. My spouse is supportive, my mother is not. I don't really care. I have not been diabetic since 2009 and that was my main goal!

Had my surgery and went home the next day. The guy in my room next to me had gastric bypass and he had to stay at least 1 more night. Like stated it sounds like they have the two surgeries confused.