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I am in the process of making my final plans to have my gastric sleeve done in Mexico on 01/10/11, by Dr. Kelly or Almanza depending on the final cost. If I develop a leak while I am in Mexico after the initial sleeve surgery will I be out additional expenses or is that covered because it happended immediately after surgery. After I get home if I were to develop a leak in the first few weeks and/or months after surgery what would the cost of the leak repair be if I return to the doctor in Mexico.

Subject: One year and 85 lbs later The time has come for me to post my long awaited 1st year bandversary entry. What has my band meant to me? I have asked myself this question many times over the last 12 months. I’ve come up with a laundry list of ramblings. Preband – it represented HOPE, Anxiety, and the What if’s of life after WLS Early Post Band – the what the heck did I do? And WHERE THE HELL IS MY RESTRICTION? 1st Fill anticipation – I AM HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where the hell is my restriction???? 2nd Fill anticipation – I am hungry but not AS MUCH or as often 3rd Fill anticipation – Restriction lasts for about 3 weeks 4th Fill anticipation – OK lets clamp this puppy down!!!!!!! 5th Fill anticipation – HOLY CRAP .3 cc’s was too much fill! I am only able to smell foods and sip soup 1’st UNFILL – removal of the .3cc’s was the difference between soup and FOOD……. And is where I’m maintaining at since January 2008. Also…. Getting an unfill and eating real food is what started the scale moving again. Things that have amazed me: I have POWER over my hunger. I have actually FORGOTTEN to eat. I CAN eat without drinking I CAN be full on very little food. Things that I have realized about myself: Restriction Wise I swell (get tighter) when I’m on my period or when I’m stressed I am tighter in the mornings and more open in the evenings. Foods that worked last week, might not work so well this week. I can raise my hands and do a little shimmy to pop up a stuck item of food Things that I have realized about myself: Non band I am a stress and emotional eater. I crave sweets around my cycle I am pretty happy and comfy in a size 12 It scares me to HOPE for a size 8 or 10 (because it is unknown to me) If I COULD eat pizza…….. I WOULD, so keeping a decent amount of fill is what is needed for ME not to be able to. Dairy Queen has become my go to place for stress eating (and this is NOT a good thing) Things that I had to overcome once banded: Realizing that you don’t HAVE to eat multiple plates of food at a buffet in order to “get your money’s worth” Realizing that people REALLY aren’t LOOKING at how much or how little you eat! Realizing that you CAN keep your band a secret if you want! Realizing that fast food joints don’t really offer much choice, Its cheaper to order an appetizer or alacarte, or split a meal with my 4 year old. Being banded is NOT rocket science, and for me it has worked well because I knew going in that FOR ME and MY GOALS I needed to be in diet mode, and truth be told the scale moves when I am IN MOTIVATED DIET MODE. It stalls when I Go to dairy queen for a small blizzard… but I don’t gain I chose the band for its adjustability and the hopes that I will for once in my life MAINTAIN a loss! Would I do it again? In a heartbeat Will I be rebanded if needed in the future? In HALF a heartbeat! My band has really given me the power over my appetite and that is priceless. Journey with me as I enter YEAR TWO of my Banding Experience

Varies by doctor. Mine has given me a very specific packet detailing week by week for 6-8 weeks.

I wish I were more persistent. I felt bad too. I found thd more I called the more foliar they became with me. When I had my 1 week checkup, they all hugged me and the compliments were so awesome. It felt good.

Hi Lemondrop, I've heard really good things about Dr. Baggs. I'm not one of his patients though. My psy. appt in Richmond was scheduled two weeks after orientation and then my surgeon appt was scheduled two weeks after that. Once the ball starts rolling it picks up speed. It appears that the weight loss varies from doctor to doctor. My total weight loss will be 30 pounds, and for some it's only 20. I'll be weighing in with my family physician every two weeks and Dr. Fisher will be checking. As soon as I hit my goal weight, I'm to notify his office or email him and he will schedule my appt with the Case Manager. So from this point forward the timing is in my control. If I can lose 14 pounds by the end of October, I could be scheduled for either late November or December. Let us know how your appointment went with Dr. Baggs - Good luck!!!!:drool:

I dont really teach much other than basics (numbers, alphabet, animals, basic spanish/ASL, attempt manners lol) things to the younger classes and my a/s class is more for homework/relaxing activities. I talked with my bosses and they said that the wl is from eating right and working out, which is a great idea. However, I KNOW theyre going to ask about being out 2 weeks. Bosses said vacation, but do I lie to them and make up stories or...? Like I said, my kids are NOSEYYYYYY! Plus, parents will probably put 2 and 2 together between the drinks, being out, and wl and the kids will find out. Is there a 'kid friendly' version without it sounding like hey Im fat, but I shlopped my stomach and now Im better, then they get all "omg Im fat" lol I know it sounds weird but the way my aunt and uncle treated peoples weight made their (now 10 y/o, but its been for a few years now) daughter think shes fat and she obsesses over what she eats and her version of working out.. Perk though on a random note, EXCITED that after all this, the kids will stop asking "Miss Ashlee, why is your tushy so big?" Children really do say the darndest things lol!

I see my surgeon for my 2 week post op appointment next Monday. He has assured me that he does all the fills himself.

I think I had the worst of sabotagers, my own family including my mother. Im three years out from surgery and have gained back 30 lbs. Im still very happy with my weight loss but upset at the fact that when I was thinner they constantly told me that they thought that I had lost too much weight and that my face was too skinny and that I just didnt look right. Now that I have put back on some weight they comment on the fact that Im gaining my weight back. Now its a fight for me to get back the motivation that I once had. Dont let haters get to you.

So true about the part that food is connected with so many social things. I'm from the deep South and it seems that every time I turn around food is the centerpiece of all social gatherings. Just a week after being banded, I had a dinner meeting. I was on liquids then and stuck to drinking water while everyone ate! We were at a Thai restaurant and there was nothing (no soups at all) that I could have. I didn't want the group to have change their plans to meet my needs. It wasn't that bad. Someone asked me if I was going to eat and I just said, "I had surgery last week and I can't eat spicy foods yet." So, I felt that I was faced with my first challenge and passed with flying colors.

Hi Sleevers! I'm 8 weeks out and I need advice on vitamins. I prefer not to chew a vitamin if I can help it and really don't want to take a multivitamin 5-6 times a day (ain't nobody got time for that!). Does anybody have any suggestions and are there any concerns I should know about absorption? Can I take them all at one time etc?

Thank you!!! My paperwork was submitted on this past Monday. I hope I hear something by next week. Do you have any regrets about having the surgery and have you been able to keep the weight off? Sent from my SM-N920T using the BariatricPal App I don't have a single regret and am Maintaining a 125lb loss Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App I didn't have a six month loss requirement with Anthem. Sorry I have no suggestions Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I had anthem when I was approved for my sleeve in April 2014. It took less than a week from the time my paperwork was submitted. Good luck! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Look how much better you feel, and how much happier you are than you were yesterday. If the whole thing went as badly as the first two or three days I think we'd all regret it. I'm so glad that you are doing better.

Thank you so much I’ve been using biotin 10000 mcg for three or so months and no change but I’ll add collagen and switch to the barimelts instead of the biotin I’m using now

Venting is good, and we're good at it here. Maybe I can help make sense of some of the things you're experiencing. Doesn't it seem like we lose weight at a snails pace compared to everyone else? By we do you mean people with the band, or just people who are significantly overweight? Even worse, it seems like we GAIN weight faster than everyone else. This I have noticed. Gain on the tail end of loss is predictable. I think rate of gain also has to do with the extent to which we overeat. E.g. take a "normal" person who has lost 10 lbs, and may gain back 2. And a "fat" person who has lost 50 lbs, and may gain 15. Two things working against the fat ones - the amount they lost (which usually has a strong correlation to the amount that is gained), and the way in which the weight is gained. The "normal" person doesn't have an eating problem, the "fat" person does. Chances are the fat person is consuming a helluva lot more calories, hence the quicker weight gain. Have you ever been on a diet, stuck to every single little rule and didn't cheat even just a little bit - then, one day you have a morsel of something "bad" and gain 2 pounds?? This experience is exactly what kills so many diets before they even have a chance to kick in. People defeat themselves way too quickly. If you've been around a while you've seen me say it more than once - weight does not equal fat. Weight is your skin, everything on it, and everything in it. Fat is fat. During the first 7 - 10 days of a diet, especially a full omission diet (where some thing or things are excluded, e.g. low fat, low carb -- as opposed to a redcuded calorie diet where the overall calories are viewed rather than individual types of foods), your body is fighting like mad to keep the fat on. I won't go into the sordid details, but one byproduct of that battle is to retain things like Water and glycogen. What happens most of the time is that -- maybe some fat is lost, meube it's not, but it certainly isn't gained. However, the body is being greedy with all the things it's trying to hold on to, and not releasing the way it does when you're in a dietary equilibrium. This means you weigh more than you did a week ago, even if you have less fat on your body. People see that jump in the scale and say, "F it, I'm 2# heavier, this diet isn't working" when - if they could have just given it a little while longer - their body would have adjusted and they would have started to see the difference. And then there's the specific restriction leaps and bounds. Take low carb diets for example. While in a state of ketosis, the body uses a lot of water. Most people don't adequately increase their intake, so their body is continuously in a state of mild dehydration (that's on TOP of the dehydration most people are always in). When you break ketosis, you will gain water weight. It's pretty much a guaranteed thing. It can be as little as a pound, or as much as 18+ pounds. People on low carb diets in ketosis will "cheat", break their ketosis, see they've gained 10 lbs overnight, NOT make the distinction between "gain" and "fat gain" and give up because all of their sacrifice has been for nothing. This is why scale's aren't the way to go. I'm so frustrated I could scream! I'm on my pre-op liquid diet, been good as gold for 8 days and I've lost 5 measly pounds! GRRRRRR! I remember when I could lose 5 pounds in 2 days, now it takes me 8 whole days of nothing but liquid??!! Liquid diets usually aren't for weightloss, they're usually for a specific outcome, e.g. shrinking the liver, giving intestinal issues time to "take it easy," flushing some part of the body, etc. Try not to let yourself be frustrated by this. Part of it could be your age (you mention remembering the day -- also remember that your body has changed since then), part of it could be the liquids... there are SO many variables here. So frustrating. I really think that years of yo-yo dieting has messed with my metabolism. No worries here, it can't happen. Your body - if subjected to extreme dieting - becomes more efficient at storing fat. This "unexplained" weight gain, coupled with the additional challenges in weightloss that can come with age, hormonal changes, etc., and the body's natural tendency to change its own composition (which yoyo dieting can add to - remember, the body always tries to hold on to the fat it has... yo-yo dieting can make your body, well, to make a long story short, your body can become less sure of where its next meal is coming from, and want to hold on to even more fat, just in case... hence your equilibrium state is now fatter than it used to be). I know I didn't gain this weight over night, and I know it'll take a long-long-LONG time to lose it... but 5 pounds?? Come on! And I would say to you, 5 pounds in 8 days?? Come on, what more do you want!?!? :cool: Of course now I'm concerned with what will happen when I'm banded (this Friday). I know I'll go crazy when I see the scale creeping along, or even stopping after surgery. It's just so frustrating. The ideal thing would be to hide the scale - been there, done that. I always talk myself into stepping on it. I try not to be obsessive with the numbers, but, how can you not be? It's not that hard to get away from. It really does work to get rid of the scale. Just throw it away. It doesn't tell you what you need to know. If you want to do something compulsively, invest in a body fat meter, or hell - a $4 tape measure. Those will give you a much better idea of the changes in your body than a scale will. I'm really discouraged and really just plain bummed out. I know it'll take a while, but, I'm literally starving on this #$#%$ pre-op diet and so disappointed. I know we've all felt like this - I just needed to vent. And vent away. It's good for you. And understanding why some of these things may help.

Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to continue to lose at that rate? Unfortunately, it can't and shouldn't be done. The goal with the lapband once you are healed and all that is 1-2 lbs a week. Some weeks you wont lose anything at all, some weeks you will fall. Don't get discouraged, it will come, just follow your doctors advise, watch what and how much you eat and you will get there, but it is a slowwwww process for most.

I just think its your body healing from surgery, everyone heals differently and maybe you went back to school or work to soon. Also, the exhaustion is because you are not eating the same anymore so its only natural that you will feel that way, but you should trying taking the chewable multi vitamins and calcium. It took me about 4 weeks to go back to school and work because I was in alot of pain, but I do have a low tolerance for pain. Just try to take it easy and don't over do it, your body needs time to heal and adjust to the band. But if you notice any changes to your wounds/ incisions, then you should talk to your doctor incase of an infection. Good luck!

I have been dealing with Alma too. I am thinking maybe sometime in March. I am ready to do it today. I will figure out what day sometime this week. I just pray my revision Is an easy one.

they are not good at all and it is mostly collegen and is not beneficial as a protein supplement, they might state 42 grams of protein but it is not If you look at the ingredients you will see that they are made primarily from collagen protein. Not only is this a significantly inferior form of protein to begin with (compared to whey or whey isolate), but -- more importantly -- they do not have the necessary amino acids to enable your body to absorb even the crappy protein that they do have very little protein and a lot of collagen. With that said I used them for the first 2 weeks and then stopped. Collagen protein does not benefit sleeve patients. We need whey protein.

Hi I am type 1 diabetic and my BS stayed in the upper 200's for several weeks. My doc also told me it was due to the surgery and it takes a while to even out.

When we are first getting started, we tend to shoot for high Protein numbers daily. For most of us, we aim for 60-100+ grams, and there seems to be an attitude that more is better. As we reach normal weights, do our protein requirements go down? I would assume yes but I'm not sure. The reason I ask is because I am in a 5-week (so far) stall that coincides with finding a Protein shake I like and finally reaching protein numbers over 60. I've been getting 90-100, which I felt was awesome and was totally going to make my weight loss better. Instead, I have stalled. I wonder if it is because I'm getting way more protein than my body needs at this lower weight, and I would be better off aiming for 60 again and skipping the daily protein shake. Disclaimer, I am in my first real stall at 8.5 months and I'm not particularly stressed about it. I understand stalls and I'm not worried that I am stuck here forever.

Hi all , Im Sue and 2/16/2011 is my day as with all, Im second guessing myself, but keeping in mind, that this is what needs to be done and gonna do it. My concern is this, since Ive been on this wonderful liquid diet, I drink and 15 minutes head to the bathroom for an explosion is/has anyone experience this, is it normal or should I be concerned, I feel Im not absorbing, if its always coming out....and that cant be good, were suppose to be pumping up with vitimins and Proteins, not flushing out.....any and all suggestions/advice/past experience would be greatly appreciated Thanx Sue

Hey Team BP, Macronutrients are the theme for the next two weeks. Have been working on a lot: Wednesday's class—the counselor actually had me speak about Bariatric Pal, and the support network/informational opportunities that I've see so far. Maybe some of my class members will join in the future! Kitchen overhaul happened on Friday night; tossed everything that was even remotely unhealthy, and totally cleaned out the cupboards. All alcohol was also dumped down the drain. I'm not a big drinker by any means, but people gift lots of liquor and wine to me...it is something I would love to move away from. The six month program has a VERY specific list of foods recommended for consumption, so I bought my groceries online for delivery with Von's. Didn't want to have any bright ideas in the store and add non-recommended foods to my cart. Made my hearty vegan crockpot chili, and meal prepped through Tuesday—I'm a lily when it comes to food, so my leftovers have to be relatively fresh. I can't prep for more than 3 days at a time. This morning double fueled because I just got back from an awesome hike, and it was incredibly smart...burned off everything I consumed and then some. (2) GF everything bagel with avocado, uncured turkey bacon, whipped cream cheese; 1/4c. cottage cheese with fresh blueberries. The trail I discovered today is a little gem! They have signs everywhere that talk about the benefits of exercise hidden around, little reading nooks, playgrounds, AND it's on a lake. This week, my goal is to climb all over the playground bars and such. Misfit had their Shine activity trackers on sale for only $39.99, so I purchased one. It syncs with My Fitness Pal, and doesn't need to be recharged so I can wear it 24/7 for six months. I don't carry the phone with me everywhere, so really needed a solution for food to activity ratios. Onward! ❤️ —FGS Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I am almost 4 weeks post op and have never had nausea until last couple days. Is that weird? It’s not while I’m eating or shortly before or after - could it be dehydration?

Has anyone tried fat free frozen yogurt and blended it with the protein? I was going to try that and see if that was better. I bought the whey protein egg white protein. I'd have to have three shakes of it a day to get in enough protein with what I am drinking. I'll get more if I had some skim milk with it too. I am also having a hard time getting that many liquids down during the day. Just banded yesterday.