enterprise01

Pretty harsh and judgmental. I think I like it here much better.

Puddin uses it and seems to like it. Here's her post from another thread:

I thought the autopsy doc said there was no evidence of WLS. Anyone hear anything different? And I don't think they can rupture. They aren't like breast implants. If your scars don't fade on their own, you can have them lasered. I have one under my chin that I'm planning on doing next year.

I've notice since surgery that my "head hunger" is no where near as bad as it was on any of the zillion diets I tried in the past 25 years. My interest in food, as well as my obsessive-compulsive behavior regarding food, has drastically decreased. Is it like that for most bandsters? I wonder if it has anything to do with ghrelin production. (Ghrelin is a hormone produced by the stomach that stimulates hunger.) Maybe the band kind of shuts down the stomach and decreases the amount of ghrelin we produce. Without that ghrelin working on our brains, maybe we no longer suffer from horrible cravings and constant head hunger. Just a thought. Any other bandsters notice this change?

I had surgery on a Wednesday and planned on going back the following Monday. I ended up taking Monday off, too, because I was still feeling so awful. I wish I had had surgery on a Monday and taken the whole week off. The first week back at work was hell and I have a desk job. Even at 6 and 1/2 weeks, I have a lot of discomfort from sitting all day -- the waistband of my pants irritates my large incision. Maybe that's just because I'm both short and short-waisted. Taller people probably aren't bothered by the waistband as much. I've noticed in the pics of the scar stages that everyone seems to have incisions much higher than mine. If you can, you might want to schedule a couple more days off, just in case.

I attended the seminar on Wednesday, January 10th, and, Ferdita (?) was wonderful. My friend's husband was really freaked out by the list of things those girls on Saturday said they couldn't eat. I think he got the impression that his whole world would be turned upside down and life would be miserable. I told my friend to have her husband call me, so we'll see if he pursues it or not. So far, there's nothing I haven't been able to eat. I don't have a very sensitive stomach, so I'm hoping that as long as I chew well and eat slowly I'll still be able to eat anything even after I find proper restriction.

I just talked with a friend here at work who attended Dr. Spivak's seminar last Saturday with her husband. The surgery would be for her husband, not her. She said that he had 2 successful band patients there talking to all the potential bandsters. They basically scared her husband away from the surgery. Did any of you have a similar experience? I attended the Wednesday night seminar, not the Saturday one. We had a very beautiful black woman (I can't remember her name) talk to us, and she was very encouraging. Just wondering what everyone else's experience was.

Well, if it's a hernia, that could be good news since hernias can be fixed, sometimes fairly easily. IBS can be a little trickier to treat, though. I was hoping you would have had your results by now. I'm sure you were, too. Keep us posted. We're all hoping for the best for you.

Sunta, what's going on with your band? Is everything OK?

That's funny. I'm a 38DDD and the first thing I asked the nurse after I woke up was if she could help me get my bra back on. I can't stand to be without it. The boobs are too heavy and it gets painful if I don't have the support of the bra. And in the hospital bed, because I was laying on my back, the boobs had flopped over on top of my upper arms and the weight of them was making my arms numb. It was also painful when I sat up because the left boob was sagging enough that it was resting on one of the incisions. If you don't wear a bra, you may need to hold the left one up the ride home to keep it off your incision.

I buy my bras from www.herroom.com. I absolutely love Lunaire's sport bra: http://www.herroom.com/Lunaire-Coolmax-Underwire-Sports-Bra,Lun001-11111,4.html

Turbinates are the bones that sit under the mucus membrane of the nasal passage. They are divided into 3 sections -- upper, middle, and lower turbinates. The turbinates cause the mucus membrane in the nasal passage to be bumpy, thus increasing the surface area of the air flow and better cleansing the air before it gets to the lungs. For people with severe allergies, removal of the turbinates and the surrounding soft tissue can lessen the swelling that they experience during an allergic response. The upper turbinate area is close to the brain, so they do not remove turbinates in that area. I've had 4 turbinoplasties and 2 turbinectomies. Don't expect it to be a miracle cure for allergies. While the actual bones won't grow back, the soft tissue can regenerate and grow. And you can develop scar tissue that will require correction. The surgery itself is not that bad, but you'll wake up feeling like someone hit you in the head with a baseball bat. That headache lasts for a good 3 weeks. Despite the turbinoplasties, turbinectomies, ethmoidectomy, and 2 septoplasties that I've had, I was still congested almost constantly. For years I was on decongestants, antihistamines, and steroids, which gave me minimal relief. I finally discovered Singulair, which has been a miracle cure for me.

I was told to bring nothing with me to the hospital except my ID. I wore a pair of work-out pants with a draw string waistband, a loose fitting pull-over sweater, a comfortable sports bra, and slip on shoes. Your belly will be swollen after the surgery, so make sure you have loose fitting pants to wear. With the exception of my work-out pants, none of my pants fit me for about 4 weeks. Even my "fat" pants were too tight in the waist from the post-op swelling.

Julie, congratulations on all your success. I'm looking forward to reading your updates. I LOVE plastic surgery and want to hear all the details -- good and bad.

I've read posts from Britons who have been on waiting lists for years to get this surgery. And I've read posts from Canadians who have experienced similar obstacles. One woman from Canada was denied her surgery because the area in which she lived was only alloted x number of lap-band procedures for the year. Since that number of procedures had already been done, she was out of luck, at least for that year. I find it very alarming that patients would be put on a waiting list for surgery when there's no shortage of surgeons. Take a look at this thread: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/anyone-else-same-t30440.html?p=401888. I'll take U.S. health care problems any day over these problems. It's not about personal info, it's about the government having the authority to set policy about medical procedures or treatments. (See my above rant about waiting lists!) When insurance companies do this, there is recourse (appeals, lawsuits, punitive damages). When government does it, there's very little recourse. Anyone who's handled a case in an administrative court of law knows what a joke the whole process is for appealing the decision of a governmental body.

I'm very curious about that, too. Please let us know the answer when you find out. I've also wondered how much saline the tubing actually holds. I would think it would be at least a couple ccs. Kbattal, you're good with this technical stuff. Any idea how much saline the tubing holds?

I'm OK with government regulating businesses. I'm not OK with government regulating the lives of its private citizens. As to how to regulate insurance companies, that's very complex and I don't feel like writing an essay at the moment. But as an example, insurance companies should not be allowed to declare a procedure, device, or drug "experimental" if it has been used in standard care for more than 2 years. A friend with cancer was denied a bone marrow transplant because her insurance company claimed that was still experimental. Never mind the fact that it's been done for decades now! Insurance companies operate on the principle of throwing up roadblocks in order to avoid paying what they are required to pay under the terms of the policy. They play a numbers game. Wrongfully deny 500 claims and 450 of those people will not have the time, energy, or patience to fight their ruling. So in the end, they only have to pay 50 instead of 500 claims. That's unethical behavior that should be made illegal.

I think it might be cultural. I very much distrust the government. It's already too big and has its fingers in too many aspects of our lives.

I agree with everything you just said. I don't want the U.S. government to have any input on my health care. I believe the solution is to regulate insurance companies better and not let them get away with all the crap they do. And the U.S. needs to stop subsidizing drugs for 3rd world countries -- that's one of the main reasons our drug costs are so high.

Yes, get a second opinion. Like Terry, I had really awful reflux and it was almost constant. I took Prilosec OTC and 4 extra strength Zantac every day to keep it under control. Since being banded, I'm off medication and have not had a single episode of even mild heartburn.

Yes, I also have a 10 day span when I'm terrified to weigh myself for the same reason as you. Damn PMS. I was at 218 according to Dr. Spivak's office scale one week before surgery. According to the hospital scale, I was at 212 on the day of surgery. At my first fill exactly 4 weeks post-op, the scale at the fill center said I was at 203, so I'm counting my weight loss as 15 lbs. My scale at home has only gone down about 1 lb since my fill 2 weeks ago. I don't seem to have any restriction. I can even swallow large pills and they go right down. I'm not keeping a food journal but do keep track in my head every day. I eat Nutrisystem meals for Breakfast and lunch, and then dinner is always meat and vegetables. Every meal is under 300 calories and I allow one snack a day of less than 100 calories. It might be a good idea to write it down as a way to double check myself. Evenings are the worst for me. Dinner is usually around 8:00 pm, but I don't go to bed until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., so I'm ravenous by midnight. Let's hope another fill helps. And ditto on the recovery. This surgery knocked me on my ass. I wasn't feeling anywhere close to normal until week 4. When are you scheduled for a fill? Are you going to attend any of the support group meetings at Dr. Spivak's office? The first one is only a couple of weeks away.

Hey, Kimmie -- I'm doing all right but am getting discouraged by the lack of weight loss. I'm being very careful with my eating and staying between 900-1100 calories a day, but the scale is not budging. I need to start exercising, but I work 10-12 hour days and then spend an hour every night giving sub-q fluids to my geriatric cat with kidney disease. How is it that 3 months ago I was eating more than 3000 calories a day and slowly gaining weight, but at 1000 calories I'm not losing a thing? It just doesn't make sense. I'm going back to Dr. Spivak next week for another fill. Maybe I just need to cut my calories down even further. Ugh. How's your weight loss coming along?

There's a thread just for Dr. Spivak's patients if you're interested. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/dr-spivaks-patients-t29122.html

There's a thread just for Dr. Spivak's patients. Check out http://www.lapbandtalk.com/dr-spivaks-patients-t29122.html.

Yes, he takes credit cards. I put the cost of my surgery on my Discover card for that cash back bonus.