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I am glad I caught this thread. Cc is an option under my insurance but I am in another state. Having my band removed after 10 years and I am not getting a good feeling about the locals in Chicago. I just think I need to be in the BEST hands, I was thinking that CC would be an option that I would feel comfortable with. Did any of you also have a band removed? Is there reason to NOT go toCC?

I didn't have the same experience, though I was able to find Dr Ben- Meir at Lake health ( lake west and Tripoint hospitals). I actually went through to the end at st Vincent's and had my surgery date if 08/12 when I found him and decided to switch. My new date is 10/14 and I'm so happy to have found him- he had great stats- over 4000 surgeries and never a leak! He left at the end of may and Lake Health was late in getting out his info on the Internet. He wouldn't have been able to take any patient info with him and they were not able to tell us where he went! Hope things are going well for you at CC. Did you get a date yet?

I have the very same pain. I was banded on 10/29/08 and I'm still having the pain. My surgeon said it was the stitches pulling. They stitch the port down and in doing to much to soon I either pulled the stitches or tore them a little. He advised me to take it easy and perscribed mucle relaxers. It is getting a lot better but in the beginning it was very painful. My port is right at my waistline so when I bend the stitches pull. He assured me it was not an infection because I did not have a fever, swelling, drainage or redness.

I so needed to read these right now. I had surgery 2/20/12 and doing great band wise. Mentally I am really struggling with "have I done the right thing"!? I know that I am healthier... just wishing I had a healthier mind... and I have always been the positive one...LOL Here are my nsv... Loving the clothes I once hated Being able to run with my kids Being able to lay on the couch with the hubby No more exhaustion from sleep apnea... a nap is now just a nap... 10 min and I am refreshed Painting my toenails easier My 9 year old loves being able to wrap her arms around me and they touch I can handle the heat a lot better Thanks for posting this, helped me remember why I did this and that I am getting healthier (someday my mind will catch up

Yowzer, good luck. I also have surgery tomorrow at 10. Make sure you have your charger and maybe an extension cord just in case the plug is not close. Good luck, see you on the losers bench

I never really had a weight issues till I was pregnant with my son at the age of 18 I had gone from 110lbs to 220 lbs in that time. He was trying to come at 5 months a long and I started to get steriod shots a lot and my wieght went up. I struggled for years to try and get the wieght off. I did everything the doctor asked of me and after 10 years I went with this option. I wont lie either, I went with this surgry because they said the weight came off faster. I really wish I didnt go with this option. I had it done Sept 2008 by Dec 2008 I was in the er I had lost over 70% of the blood in my body. I had a tear in my intestine and was bleeding out, so I started throwing up all the blood. I woke up a few days later in an CCU room. After that I struggled with vomiting everyday all the time, I never could even get through a yougort for the whole day. I was in so much pain all the time and cried all the time. 2009 I went in to the er and had to have my gallbladder taking out. in 2010 I went to er again with pain and was flown off to a hosiptal to have emergancy surgry my large instine was twisted and dying and that is th e reason I had been throwing up for almost two years at this poing. I spent three weeks in the hopital and was out of work for 3 more months. My life has been more downs then ups since I have done it. I get blockages all the time, my teeth are falling out. I lack viatims, and to this day i still do not eat much. I do not like oign out with people becusae they do no understand the struglle I have. because other people they dknow dont struggle like me. My sugar drops so low i almost pass out. Everyday is something new and more of a reason I wish I never did this.

I was banded last Monday, so 5 days ago. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. My mother took two weeks off of work to be with me during the day, when hubby is not home. I am so thankful! My surgeon said no lifting over 10 lbs. for 2 weeks. 5 days post-op and I am just now starting to feel better . . . soreness wise! I still can't bend down without some real discomfort. You will definately want help! Good luck to you!

Hi! My name is Lissy, and I am overweight......lol, thought I could start out funny. I am in a waiting pattern right now because I am awaiting my surgery date and am getting antsy. I am scheduled to go in on May 19th and can not wait for the day to get here faster. I have been battling the weight I put on over a 10 year period. I put most of the weight on in a 2 year period and can't get rid of it. I have tried to lose the weight naturally but can't keep it off. i recently married my second husband and he is against the surgery. He thinks that I could lose the weight if I tried. He doesn't understand the weight difficulties, but then again he is 130 lbs and is trying to gain weight. I came on here because it looks like a great site for help and support both before and after the surgery. I am hoping to get insight into what it is I am doing. Off topic, how can I get those nifty weight trackers? Thanks in advance for your thoughts, support and help.

Yep. Not much fun, but once you're sleep It obviously passes by quickly. Had one 10 years ago. Determined I have sleep apnea, and have been sleeping with CPAP every since.

Hey Nicolle, I will be going pretty regularly to the meetings. We'll probably bump into one another. He is a really nice guys. His staff is wonderful and his wife is a doll! I am extremely happy with them all. For me, the delay has been the time of year I decided to look into things. Because of the school year (teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers etc) all schedule there procedures over the summer - even if they started with Dr. Ahmad in January. I am completely done with everything that is required except the upper endoscopy and losing the 10 pounds (I've lost 5). I should have insurance approval this coming week. However, I'm looking at mid-Sept. for the procedure. I could get in first week of September, but I work at a university and need to get past the first two weeks of the semester when it is craziest before I take a week or so off... I hope that helps. Keep in touch.

Wow!! You look beautiful and a medium in six months- that's impressive! I'm reassessing my original goal also. I was going to lose 27 more but I am actually just going to shoot for a size 10 (I'm a 12 now). You look absolutely amazing, congratulations on your success and hard work.

I don't have anywhere near your stats but my goal weight is definitely overweight for the BMI chart, and it is 10 pounds lower than the weight discussed with the surgeon. I am so early in the process that I'm just going to see how it all goes. But I am not (so far) hung up on that dumb chart. :-)

My husband works out of state 48 of the 52 weeks a year. We normally try and plan things like this. But this all happened so fast, that he'd already had his schedule / flights/ ...... booked 3 weeks out. I told him to go on and go b/c I had a girlfriend that was taking the day off to come be with me. Well.......I just found out that she will be leaving shortly before noon to go take her son to Sophmore orientation. They won't even take me back until 10:30 ish.... So I won't even be out of surgery before she leaves!!! this was one of the main reasons for her being there, so someone would be with me during surgery and then they could call my hubby with the report afterwards. I am so bummed. Our oldest daughter lives an hour away and has our 16 mo GS, so a hosptial for hours is no place for her/him to be. Our youngest daughter is 23 & still lives at home b/c she has multiple health probelms. She isn't even staying at home alone while I am in the hosptial and until hubby get home Friday afternoon, she is going over to a friends house. I am at a loss as to what to do. Suggestions?

I had my surgery on October 18th 2012. Before my surgery I had lapband, It did not work I actually gained weight so I had it removed in August. When my Doctor performed my surgery he started out doing it Laproscopic, However he couldn't see so he had to go in zipper style, so they said it was as though I had 2 surgerys in one. After my surgery I stayed in ICU for 3 days, when I was moved to a room I was doing pretty well untill my white blood count was low, and they fixed that, gave me incilin every day although i'm not diabetic, (that was torture) next someone on my floor had the infection C-Diff, and then I got it. I was in isolation for 2 weeks in the hospital it was horrible, I then had to get 2 blood transfusions, and I finally began feeling better, the infection subsided and I went home. After a few days of being home the infection started back up the diahhrea was unbearable, I got dehydrated, and had to return to the hospital where they gave me horrible antibiotics in liquid form, which was hard to tolerate, and they gave me an IV to rehydrate me. After being back in the hospital for 1 day I took the antibiotics for 10 days and began to feel better. Since then I have had a very hard time eating just too weak to do anything, but now I've got my energy back and I am doing so much better. I had a horrible experience, long hospital stay 2 1/2 weeks, but hopefully the outcome will make up for it. Its been a long painful journey but i'm getting there! Now I am on the restricted solid diet and I still only eat applesauce, and pudding, I hate it!!! I tried to eat a little chili my husband brought home because he thought I was starving BIG MISTAKE!!! I now know It gave me what is called the "dumping syndrome", now i'm afraid to try any solid foods or anything else for that matter......

December 10!!!

Yes! I have a pair of "goal jeans" from 2002, that are a size 15. I can't quite zip them yet. I am now buying newer pants in size 10 - 14. It's weird, I keep taking the wrong size to the dressing room.

I hate shopping for this reason. When I was plus sized I was a 22 across the board, some brands fit a bit snugger than others but I was still a 22 and a 1X on top, I could go into any of the very limited options we had for plus size clothing and buy a 22 without having to try it on. Now when I go in a store I have to take 10-14 into the dressing room with me. Right now I currently have 2 pairs of 14 dress pants (one fits perfectly, one is huge) and 3 pair of size 12 dress pants (2 fit perfect, one is snug) 2 pairs of size 14 jeans (one fits perfect, one is large), 3 pairs of size 12s (2 are huge and 1 fits okay but sags in the butt) and 1 pair of size 10s that fit perfect unless out of the dryer. I bought them at Sear, Boscovs, Dress Barn, American Eagle and Marshalls and all fit completely differently. So far I've found dress barn to have the best fit to my measurements. I can wear small or medium tops or XL in juniors and Im a size 12 dress.

It's a device you wear on your arm that tells you how many calories you burn up in a day - they use them on the Biggest Loser.. There is a tread on the main board - that says "bodybugg report here" or something like that. you also log your food in on their website - example you ate 1000 calories and from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. - you burned 2000 calories - got to bodybugg.com and the site will tell you what it's all about - you can get them cheaper if you but it from 24 hr fitness i am told - there are a couple people in the Lucky #7 (july 07 banders) that have them. I might get one for xmas...

selbradey DOS 11/19 easy to tolerate food, liquids??? sounds like your sleeve is being a good sleeve, and allowing you to drink what you are supposed to - broth, liquids - doesn't sound like you are overdueing anything your dr. said ok to - eat yogurt, pudding, Jello et al - couple of spoonfulls sounds like you are doing fine, don't look for trouble many many people don't start to feel the restriction of the sleeve until they start on solids take care speedy recovery

Now I completed the Options program which is a prerequisite for Kaiser Habor City Bariatrics.....also your required to lose 10% of your body wt by time you meet the surgeon...Have I lost 10% not even close maybe 4%....but I'm just curious about what happens...Has anyone had this experience? I'm not worried because it is what it ...but looking for some feedback?

I am having surgery on October 29th. I also am going thru the Park Nic team which seams wonderful. How did your 10 days of liquids go before surgery? Any suggestions?

I looked into WLS a few years ago, but my insurance didn't cover it, so that was that. A couple weeks ago, my wife told me that someone at her work is having WLS and that her insurance covers it. I've always had her insurance as my secondary insurance, but it never occured to me that they would cover it even if mine didn't. I called the clinic that her co-worker had hers done at, and inquired about my insurance situation. Sure enough, if my primary insurance doesn't cover, the secondary will. That clinic is out of network, but told me that they will bill as out of network, but then for my co-pay they will only charge me as much as if I was in-network. I made an appointment. I completed my paperwork and faxed it in a few days ago. I was scheduled to have a phone appointment tomorrow, and then a meeting with the surgeon a week from tomorrow. The clinic called me today and said they had a cancellation tomorrow and wanted to know if I wanted to move my meeting with the surgeon to then. I'm super excited to meet with the surgeon tomorrow and get my process started. I'm hoping that my secondary insurance doesn't have a 6 month process the way a lot of them do. As for my story, I've been overweight a good portion of my life. When I was 17, I was helping my dad move an 1800 pound safe off a truck and it fell off the truck and onto my foot. It resulted in a 10 day hospital stay and amputation of my foot. Even with that, I've always been active but a few years later was north of 300 pounds. A few years ago I was diagnosed with diabetes and also borderline high blood pressure. I've been trying, without success, to get some weght off to keep my diabetes in check. A year and a half ago, I woke one morning with incredible pain in my back. I went to my PCP, who told me essentially to quit being a baby and go home and walk it off, and if I wasn't feeling better in a few days to a week, then come back and see him. Later that afternoon, I went to my chiropractor, who advised me that with my symptoms I should go to the ER. I did and was diagnosed with cauda equina, which is essentially when a disc ruptures and presses into the nerves in your back. I was immediately transported to Swedish in Seattle (about an hour and a half away) and that night had surgery on my back. My neurosurgen told me that if I hadn't had surgery within 72 hours, she is pretty confident I would have been paralyzed. I ended up with some significant nerve damage in my legs, but I was lucky because I seeked out prompt medical attention so I can still walk and have use of my lower extremities. I do still have a lot of nerve pain in my legs, and right now my neurosurgen is trying to address that. Every day that I have to be able to walk and play with my kids is a blessing however. Now I'm hoping to get rid of this weight so I can be even more active and involved in their lives. Wish me luck at my meeting with my neurosurgen tomorrow! I do have my reservations however, because I'm going to Puget Sound Surgical Center, which, for those of you who have been following, is where iggychick got her sleeve done. However, her doctor was Dr. Billing and I'm meeting with Dr. Crouthamel. It will be interesting knowing iggychick's story, how forthcoming he is when I ask about complications, not only his, but of the clinic as a whole. It will show me how trustworthy Dr. Crouthamel is.

Had my band fitted 10 yrs ago done well with it was 18stone [emoji33] got down to 11st I was happy with that but past 3 yrs have been a nightmare:( .. I have a slipped band ( have done for few years ) but now it band coming out next week as my health is suffering bad cannot eat solids at all so I living off milkshakes!!! N yes putting the weight back in so now I am 13 st it gonna take some hard work to lose weight without the band but I think tbh better than being [emoji40] everyday ,, anyone else had there’s removed and if so how did you find eating n keeping weight off ? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@@FrankiesGirl - One of my gripes with Big Pharma is nicotine is OK in gum and patches, but not in vaping. Nicotine is an interesting drug, it is simultaneously calming and an amphetamine. The number of receptors seems to increase if you start before 25 (which is why I've always pushed my kids to not use a h*okas, or cigars until they are at least 25). For whatever reason, I'm self medicating on and do not function well without nicotine. I went three weeks cold turkey and my productivity was nil. I pulled out the vaping as a 'Hail Mary' trying not to go back to smoking and after doing it had almost instant clarity of thought again. But the nicotine as insecticide thing is pure propaganda. Sorry it is. Polypropylene glycerol is damn safe as an inhalant and everyone knows it. Dr. Wu's study was with cells from dead kids. "In the lab, the vapor triggered a strong immune response in the epithelial cells of tissue samples donated by deceased children and the exposed cells appeared to be more vulnerable to infection by cold-causing rhinovirus" All he could conclusively say was "if dead kids use this they may be at greater risk of the common cold." Come on. Don't give into alarmism. Especially in context of smoking/not smoking. It's not even close. All I have seen is a bunch of "we don't like it because it looks like smoking." All the while I saw all signs of my COPD go away, and no increase in anything bad in three years of follow up with my doctor before I had my WLS surgery...and there is no smell, I have never had a girl friend complain. There is a huge difference between burning vegies and vaping. 25-30% of American adults are completely addicted to nicotine. They still smoked even though they KNEW its dangerous. Yet since vaping came on the scene, nearly one in 10 of all Americans now vape, reducing the smoking rate to 17%. That is a good thing. It shouldn't be maligned by "maybe it does something." SMOKING DOES BAD THINGS. No if and's or butts. The junk science against vaping is as bad as the crap that getting WLS makes you 4 times more likely to kill yourself. Total BS and when pressed the doctor who wrote the study admitted it to me via email today. In short, please give me real facts and don't pee on me and tell me it's raining. I'm open to real facts. That's why I had WLS. My initial reaction to finding out how effective WLS was vs. Behavioral modification was "Oh BS." But after research, I had to agree, 80% chance vs less than 8%...yep it's worth the money. I am open to changing my mind. But not to non-sequesters.