Let me know so we can talk about any issues related to banding...

Thanks,

GiGi:kiss2:

I haven't been diving since my banding, but I imagine the pressure would reduce the volume of air pockets in your abdomen.

Would it even effect the saline? I wouldn't think it a big issue unless you decide to dine down under.

Let's brainstorm away. I think I remember reading that Wheetsin is a diver too...

Me me!!

I've been diving once since I've been banded, and I am going again next month. The diving doesn't appear to cause me any issues, but the flying seems to. Now, I'm not sure if it's the actual flying (cabin pressure, altitude changes, dehydration), or just the general stress of traveling.

Diving in hawaii, I was able to eat the fresh pinapple they give you in between dives. yummy!

I'm a diver. I asked Inamed pre-op and they said it was OK within recreational depths. Since then I've heard that below 60 requires an unfill. I actually emailed Inamed again this weekend and am waiting to hear back. I asked them specifically about what depths, if any, require unfills.

Thanks for the responses. Who is "Inamed?" I'm new to the site, so I'm just getting to know the lingo. I'm happy to hear there are some fellow bander-divers out there (although I'm not banded yet). I'm even more happy to hear that we can still dive recreationally. Although, on occasion I have dived in depths of 100ft (usually not planned, but when on vacation sometimes the opportunity to do a wreck dive pops up. And wrecks are usually at greater depths). I guess I just won't be able to be spontaneous anymore. Any more info would be greatly apprectiated, especially as I consider the proceedure and how it would effect my everyday life.

Thanks

Gigi:kiss2:

I don't think I've been below 60 feet since I got my band. Generally we do decently shallow reef dives and go slow and look at all the little tiny stuff.

Who wants to share their best dive ever?

I took classes locally, during my third open water dive I lost my buddy. It was slack tide under a bridge. Visibility was not so great. I was looking around for Greg's hot pink dive fins when I came up against the bridge stanchion.

No barnacles, no kelp, none of those really vicious spider crabs...

I could barely see my hand pressed against the pillar when the pillar moved up and to the left. I turned and swam real hard and popped up a good deal away. There was Greg smiling and pointing behind me. He asked if I had seen the gray whale...

:eek: :faint:

Inamed is the company that makes the bands that most of us have. I have advanced certification with deep diving and night diving specialties, we usually hang out around 120 ft... not since banding though. Still haven't heard back from Inamed.

I've been certified 18 years. I have been diving once in Cozumel since I was banded in August. I didn't have any problems. I don't remember the depths but it was more than 60 ft. We did 9 dives (one night dive) over 3 days. I will pull my dive log this weekend and look. Neither my surgeon nor my fill Dr. have ever felt it would be a problem. In fact, the Dr. who did my Lasik surgery on my eyes a few years ago was more concerned about diving being a problem than anyone has been with the band.

I am planning on doing a morning dive in Florida next month. I talked my co-worker into staying over an extra night with me so I could do a morning and get 2 dives in. She doesn't dive so I will be w/o a buddy. My husband and I are going on a cruise in November and will get at least 2 dives in hopefully more. I should be at my goal when we go on the cruise in November (I hope anyway).

I will be interested to see what everyone has been told regarding the unfill and what Inamed tells Wheetsin. I have had two fills and don't have any plans for a fill or unfill right now. I am at 7cc. and my band "officially" holds 11cc., but my fill Dr. said he could easily go to 14cc. beacuse of the tubing. It is an Inamed band but not a VG; I haven't found but a couple of other people who have this band.

I don't have too many interesting stories. A dive friend of mine runs a small salvage dive shop. He got called in once to help with a body recovery dive and asked me if I wanted to come along. I did, but the story that follows isn't interesting so much as disturbing, so I'll keep quiet. Hmm... another disturbing event I witnessed involving a cave diver who got narced at about 140 ft, and separated from his buddy... inflated his BC instead of deflated, and ended up rocketing about 12 feet straight up out of the Water. Needless to say he didn't survive... so ok, another morbid story so I'll not share it either. Hmm, I'm seeing a trend...

The salvage shop friend was diving a local lake with his metal detector, just seeing what he could find... I think he was actually looking for someone's watch or something, and ended up finding a 5ct diamond ring, 3ct center stone and 1ct side stones, in a "finders, keepers" state. It appraised over 50k. I was there, but not on the actual dive. Very few times in my life have I heard a grown man shriek like a schoolgirl, but that was one of them.

While snorkeling out to a dive site once, in Belize, I was just snorkeling along and next thing I knew I was laying on my back, my face hurt, and I had no idea what had happened. I'd had my underwater camera with me. What had happened was a manatee had swam up right under me and hit me in the face with its tail as it was swimming by, knocking my mask/tube off, and apparently knocking me out for a few seconds too. No one knew, though, what had really happened until I got my film developed. Apparently as I got hit, out of reflex my finger pressed down on the shutter release, because I ended up with a series of pictures... the first one is just the manatee's nose and a little bit of head, then head and shoulders, then shoulders and part of the body, then middle of the back, then butt end and the tail, then a bunch of bubbles and "commotion"... and tail.

Great thread!! I have never been diving, but since I was in high school I have wanted to go. My parents are in the process of sailing to Mexico to live, and we are going down in December for Christmas, and one of the things I want to do is go snorkeling while there. One of my future rewards, once I hit goal, is to get scuba certified so I can go! I can't wait!

BTW, good timing, I just got a call back from the guy I'd been talking to at Inamed. He was just checking in and wanted to let me know he's still researching. What he did tell me so far is that for shallow dives the band shouldn't be a worry, but for deeper diving he couldn't say for sure.

I've heard a lot of different stories from a lot of different people, including before I got banded and asked the surgeon I was looking at (not the one I ended up going to), who told me nothing below 30 ft and no fills over 1cc, per Inamed. So who knows at this point.

i've been diving 3 times since my banding 19 months ago. a few of those i got down to around 100-110 feet.....this all with a REALLY tight fill of 3.5 in a 4 band. zero problems. but i also never have varying restiction---its stays the same not matter what.....doesn't change for flying, periods or anything.

jessica

What's involved for a newbie looking to learn to scuba dive?

Do you have to be certified, take classes, can you rent equipment etc?

My dives ever were on our honeymoon. We went to the FP. In Bora Bora we saw manta rays gliding around us with probably 10 foot wing spans...They were so majestic. Then in Moorea it was diving with a 12 foot lemon shark. I never thought in my life I would dive with sharks, but it is really cool. We also dove with plenty of frindly black tip sharks. I would encourage people to dive even if they were not at their goal weight. It's the one place you feel weightless...It's definately a sport large people can do. If you want to learn to scuba dive, look up a local dive shop, most offer classes for a certification. Most folks get the 60ft certification. You can rent equipment. You can also take recreation classes at resorts in exotic locals. I believe you can dive with dive master w/out an actually certification, they just teach you a few things before you go. Wheetsin, thx for checking w/ Inamed....I guess like everything else with the Lapband it depends on the individual how the depth will effect the individual....

BPM,

You do need to be certified to dive. Search around for a local dive place, or Sport Chalet or something. Don't pay more than $200 for the classes, lol.

Learning to dive is not nearly as fun as actually going to dive, so don't let the classes, and the pool work, or even your first four dives (certification dives) throw you off.

My best story is going to Hawaii and doing the Manta Ray dives they have there. At night, everyone gets together in one place and they lay out this big light crates, and then everyone also points their dive lights upward. The mantas can then see all of the plankton floating around and come swooping in to take advantage of the feast you've gathered for them. You aren't supposed to reach out and touch them, but that's okay, because they'll swipe their wings over you a bunch of times. The biggest one that is a 'regular' there is either 14 or 16 feet across the wing span, and he was there on one of the nights we went. They have pictures and names for all of them in a book so you can see who you 'met' that night.

My first 'real' dive after being certified was off of the Florida Keys. We saw a nurse shark during that dive, which was cool, but what really freaked me out was all of the baracuda! They were EVERYWHERE!! On that same trip, I also got to go snorkeling with manatees. I didn't get knocked around like wheetsin, so I think it was more fun for me, lol.

I have an advanced open Water certification, and I've been thinking about becoming a master diver. It only takes a few more specialty courses to get, 5 or something.