I've Been Reading For A Month Now And I Now Have My Band Date Of 8-21-06. I'm So Excited To Be Here And To Start My New Life. My Dr Is Spivak In Houston. First Visit Was 317 And My Heaviest Was 348. I Do Not Have A Web Site Nor Do I Know How To Create A Ticker Tape. PLEASE HELP! LADYDI

Congratulations and welcome to LBT.

Ticker instructions can be found on this thread.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=16218

Lots of Texas folks here.

Myra

Hi Myra

Thanks for the reply! I have gotten as far as highlighting the bbcode and clicking on the Quick links button. I am in my signature box and have typed ctrl+v to paste it in but nothing has happened.

I'm not good at this, help!!!!!! Ladydi

Ladydi I am pretty computer illiterate also but this is what I do to copy.

I put my mouse pointer at the beginning of what I want to copy. Then I left click and continue to hold down the left side of the mouse down and drag my mouse pointer to the end of what I want to copy. This will highlight the whole area blue. Then I put my mouse point in the blue area and right click. This will give me a little menu where I go to the copy function and click on it.

Now at this point you can pull up your signature box and you don't lose the information that you copied. Once I get the signature box up then I put the mouse arrow in the blank box and right click again. You will get another menu that has a paste function on it. Click on that and it will automatically copy everything you previously highlighted into the signature box.

I hope this isn't too basic or redundant.

Myra

Ladydi,

Hello Welcome to LBT! Dr Spivak was my surgeon as well! And, 8/21 is my birthday - so, I'll be thinking of you on that day!

I hope you have a speedy recovery, and all the best with your recovery.

Karla

Mrya.....thank you! I think I have done it. We'll see!

Karla....Happy Birthday! Were you able to lose anything before surgery and did the Dr say anything if you did not?

Ladydi

Yeah! I did it! Only, how do I get rid of the x at the bottom?

Ladydi

Hi!

I first started researching the Lapband in March 2005, back then I attended Dr Spiegel's seminar. After much waiting and finding out they never submitted my paperwork to the insurance co, I decided to check into Dr Spivak since I heard here that many people loved him! In May 2005 I went to his seminar and a few weeks later to an appt at his office.

Turns out my employer has WLS exclusion on our policy, so it took me a while to make the decision to self pay. But, Dr Spivaks office did give me a bunch of info about a diet plan to follow to try to lose as much as possible before the surgery. I was able to lose 21 lbs from my 1st appt in May (255 lbs) to surgery date in Oct (234 lbs). Most of this I believe came off because approx 8 days prior to my surgery I did high protein/low carbs to shrink my liver - I've heard it helps give the docs more room, so the liver is not in the way... and, it's supposed to make recovery a bit easier.

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Karla

Thats a bummer about the exclusion in the policy. On that hi Protein diet, did you have a lot of cheese and meat for protein, no carbs or low carbs. Can you please give me an idea of what you ate during the last 8 days?

thanks, Ladydi

ugh... I guess I took too long typing, when I went to post my reply I was logged out and lost it all!! Let me try again:

Ladydi, yes - I did a LOT of meat (pork, beef, chicken) and cheeses. I would buy the flash frozen bags of chicken, so you can take out only 1 or 2 at a time to thaw.

For Breakfast I usually ate eggs and bacon or sausage. I would vary the way I cooked the eggs (scrambled, soft fried, boiled) and for convenience I bought the fully cooked bacon and frozen cooked sausage patties or links - which don't take too long to heat up.

For lunch I took a lot of the South Beach wraps to work, or a few different types of rolled up lunch meats and ate it cold. I'd bring cubed cheese or a boiled egg to either eat with it or a snack for later.

For supper with my pork/beef/chicken I did mainly frozen green vegetables (italian green Beans, broccoli) and cauliflower is good too. I used stick margarine to make it yummy.

My son loves spaghetti and one night for supper I made low carb Dreamfields Pasta and used a jar of Ragu Parmesan Alfredo sauce (the cheese based sauces have less carbs than the tomato based ones). I tried to stay at 20 carbs/day or less.

Also, shrimp has NO CARBS! I buy the 1lb bags of Kroger frozen cocktail shrimp (on sale it's usually $5-6), put 15-20 in a bowl - cover with Water - and let sit 30 minutes in refrigerator to thaw. 10 months out, and this is still my favorite snack/meal! I was born in Louisiana, moved to Houston at 5 y/o, still visit family in LA often and I have never lost my love for some good seafood! And rice, but alas, 'tis not to be - I can't have more than a small spoonful of rice without being sick.

For snacking - beef Jerky is great (just be careful not to buy the "flavored" kind that just adds sugar). Also, they have No Sugar Added bread/butter pickles now!!! I love the sweet gherkins baby dills (sweetened with Splenda) - 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 carbs! 100 mg of sodium, though, so if you have HBP you might need to be cautious.

I have to say, grocery shopping takes me FOREVER! I analyze everything and if I'm buying a snack item for my son, I have to ask myself who's more likely to eat it? me or him? And, I find I'm putting things back on the shelf!

I'll try to think of other things I did, if you have any questions - feel free to PM me, or email me at karlaemti@yahoo.com

All the best,

Karla

Thank you for all that typing and info! Someone else getting their sx on Friday stated that on the sheet from Dr S. said to eat veggies only. I'm not at home now but will go over that sheet he gave me. I like yours better for I am not too fond of veggies. Thanks again Karla.

Ladydi