Good morning! How are you all? I've been lurking for a while and decided that I should probably introduce myself. I live near Beatrice and was banded 3 weeks ago by Dr. Taddeucci in Lincoln. I am doing great and am excited about what the future holds. I look forward to meeting you all! Good luck!

Congrats Jessi and welcome to the band. I was banded 1 year ago and am feeling great. I am on the "slow" loss plan, but I couldn't be happier. I only have about 39 lbs to reach goal and if I get there by summers end, I will be pleased.

Hi there...Kim from lincoln. I'm having my surgery on May 21 and looking forward to it. Any words of wisdom during the liquid diet phase?

Hi Kim! What are the requirements of the liquid diet? I had to have 2 shakes per day and one sensible meal. I don't have much good advice to pass along, other than keeping your ultimate goal in mind. It's only 2 weeks and you're doing it so that you can have surgery. It will help prepare you better for life after banding. It's nice to meet you and I wish you the best of luck! If you have any questions be sure to ask and feel free to visit the chat room...lots of banders happy to help out!

Hello fellow Nebraskans! I was banded on Wednesday, 4/30/08 at UNMC with Dr. McBride. Surgery went great, and other than a little reaction to the pain meds, I'm feeling pretty good. I do have some port pain and a little heart burn, but the office said that should work itself out in a few more days.

I was lucky that I started the process with my insurance carrier (UHC) in December, since that locked me in and I could choose a Doctor. Beginning in '08 they want you to go to a "Center of Excellence", of which there aren't to many in the area (they wanted me to go to Kansas City". It seems like I didn't get attention I could have to setup all of the appointments and surgery date, since I'd done all of the prework on my own and was able to walk into the seminar with everything in hand. I took 3 months to get this put in! Dr McBride and the bariatric center at UNMC are working on getting certified as a Center of Excellence.

I'm nervous about the 3rd & 4th weeks on pureed foods and woul love any suggestion anyone may have.

Good for you Altman! For the pureed food, i would try normal foods, just pureed. chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes goes down really well. That way you can get some variety in your diet. It becomes boring really quickly. Good luck!

Also, Dr.'s Taddeucci and Hung at Surgical Associates in Lincoln are working to become certified as a "center of excellence" as well.