Alexandra

I swear, sometimes I think I have no band at all. Can anyone else guzzle Water? I've been told that should be impossible with good restriction, but sometimes I have absolutely no problem guzzling up to 12 or 16 ozs at a time. Is it just me?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Oh, my, I'm dying...wait, let me catch my breath...is it gone? Nope, there it is again, right there: "bikini" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Aaahhhh, thanks for the laugh!! I feel better now. :D

Hi Kyleigh, As you'll hear, everyone's "rules" are different. I wasn't given any instructions about foods to avoid--carrots and corn are things I eat regularly. It doesn't take much corn to be enough, and that's a good thing. The straw advice is also variable. I think it isn't necessarily true that one takes in more air with a straw, especially if one takes care to avoid it. But again, if you are taking in air you'd know it pretty quickly by a feeling of discomfort and need to belch. You'll discover what works for you and what doesn't along the way. Nothing is hard and fast and everyone's experience is different.

Are you talking about the stomach scars? Those are not the stoma--the stoma is the opening created by the band itself inside your stomach. No one can see that. The scars you may have seen in various photos here are all pretty recent. My scars are virtually invisible now, 9 months down the line. (That doesn't mean I'd wear just a bra in public, but that's not because of my scars. ) From the outside, we banded types look just like everyone else. Except for that self-satisfied smile on our faces.

Magnolia, what you're going through is perfectly normal and natural. Your body has been losing weight pretty quickly for the last few weeks, and it just naturally puts the breaks on sometimes. You may need a fill, sure, but I'd suggest giving the one you have another couple of weeks to "settle" -- sometimes you get restriction when you least expect it. Not to worry! You're doing great and your weight loss will start again. Relax!! :D

Dee, a lot of people think their PCPs won't support them and then are pleasantly surprised. In most cases the biggest problem is that the PCP just isn't familiar with the band; they bypass is the known thing so that's what they recommend. I even had a doc recommend the VBG (vertical banded gastroplasty), an operation that's unsafe and ineffective so it's RARELY performed anymore, but this particular endocrinologist wasn't up on recent developments and didn't know that. Stick to your guns!! Tell your PCP that you agree weight loss surgery is indicated, but YOU feel for your health that banding and not RNY is the way to go for you. Tell him you understand all that's involved in the two operations, and that you've made your educated choice. It's not his place to dictate to you, and I think he'll be impressed that you've done your homework and know so much. If he doesn't know anything about the band, bring him the Inamed patient handbook (print it out from www.Inamed.com). That's what I did and my PCP was very interested--she'd never heard of it before. I think you'll do fine. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Debra, yikes, 2 weeks of camping?? I sure hope it wasn't the roughing-it kind where you have to pee in the woods. I can do that for, well, one night (maybe) but that's about it. What a great time to take a vacation--you get back and the whole summer is still ahead of you. And what a summer this will be! :D

Cindy, sweetie, you've gotten some great advice here. I'd only like to add my voice to those saying that you have come a long way and there's no reason to assume it's the end! I've lost about the same amount you have and it sometimes seems like I'll never lose another pound. A lot of the time I know perfectly well why that is--my own behavior and tendencies. It's hard not to be hard on yourself, but please try. 55 lbs is a LOT of weight to leave behind you, and what a blessing to have it off!! Try to remember how you felt 55 lbs ago, and focus on what has changed for the better. The band is there, ready for you to take up the challenge again. When you feel like trying, it really is true that avoiding sweets greatly lessens one's desire for them. (Wish I could make myself do that!!) Please keep coming back and posting. We need one another especially at times like the one you're having.

Congratulations, Teresa!! That's wonderful and you're on a terrific roll now. Remember how you feel now when you do plateau (because it WILL happen, eventually) and you're starting to fret. You're WAY ahead of the game, lady, and will do wonderfully on your journey. :D

Oh, Marie, I'm so sorry!! What a crappy thing to do. I was once dumped by a guy for reasons of religion--I wasn't Catholic and since he'd never consider marrying someone who wasn't he saw no point in continuing to date. Of course he didn't mind breaking all the "rules" with me prior to dropping me like a hot potato! Charming. :rolleyes You're so young, and you know that as hard as this is it was probably for the best. When I left my ex I was 30 and absolutely convinced I'd be single forever. I figured I might as well get on with finding fun things to do on my own, so I joined a local ski club -- not for the skiing, but I do play volleyball and they had a team. Fast forward six months and I'm dating the coordinator of the volleyball program. Last month we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. I'm a big believer in serendipity. Go out and find your joy and he'll be there waiting for you!! :D

Megan, I agree that calorie goal thing is cool, but I think it's flawed. It bases its calculations on your current weight and height, but that seems to come up with inflated figures compared to other calculators I've used. I asked a nutritionist I know why that should be, and she said that fat is not metabolically active like the rest of the body. To get a better calculation of our BMR we should use a weight closer to our "ideal" weight. Fitday assumes our bodies are (I guess) some average mix of fat to muscle no matter what we weigh. When I use Fitday's calculator with my current weight, I come up with a BMR of over 3000 calories a day and a weight-loss calorie allowance of something like 2400 a day. But when I use a different one it comes out to more like 1600, which sounds more reasonable to me.

Well, I agree that it needs coverage, but what I'd like to see is serious coverage on the news or health shows rather than Oprah. Doctors are the market segment who need to be educated, and I'm afraid it's only a small segment of doctors who willingly accept education from their patients. I'll bet that when Johnson & Johnson get approval for their band there will be a HUGE marketing push. It's going to be a lot easier to market than RNY once the medical infrastructure is in place. But part of the problem is that doctors need to be educated in the use of the band, and it is so care-intensive relative to what surgeons are accustomed to. But I think there will be, given time, a whole new area for PAs and NPs to specialize in: band management.

LOL!!! cheese is my favorite form of modified fat. Well I'm glad to know I'm not alone in my guzzling. Once in a while I can clearly tell it's not going down, but most of the time I have no problem.

Tangerine, you da bomb. Send some of those weight-loss vibes up here to the North of the Garden State, wouldja?? Amazing, lady!! :D :D

Congratulations, Grandma!! :banana We want pictures!!! :D

Yikes, that's not something I've heard. But when I'm completely closed off at the doctor's office during a fill, it takes only a few sips to have the water back up in my throat. Barium, too. So how is it that the pouch isn't stretched in that situation? Hmmmm.....

I have to be honest and say I don't really feel the zeal that a lot of other people feel about "spreading the word." I think there's a big downside to a lot of people jumping on the "band" wagon. Enticing the public doesn't seem to me to be the way to go about increasing acceptance of the band. Insurance companies need to be convinced to cover it, and they'll be ever less inclined as more and more people ask their doctors about what they think will be quick and easy fix. And if it gets a good airing on a show like Oprah's, that's what will happen. It's a medical device and the medical community needs to embrace it and prescribe it to appropriate patients, confident that the health insurance carriers will cover it as medically necessary. I don't see how Oprah can help that happen.

Hey ladies, shhhhh. I mentioned this get-together to my husband, casually, and asked him if he ever wanted to see Vegas. He said "maybe." Hey, it's not a NO!! Does anyone know how long a drive it is from San Diego? Maybe I can piggyback a visit to my brother...

Hi Marie, thanks for asking! Yup, the bloodwork came back negative and I've just finished my course of antibiotics. The inflammation started to go down almost immediately when I started taking the pills and now all that's left is a little subcutaneous bump that itches now and then. Thank goodness! That was no fun, and I'm really glad it cleared up so readily with the antibiotics. We hear so much about resistant infections that I was a little worried. Thanks again for asking.

...several days ago, and it's now getting so sore and swollen I'm getting worried. I first noticed it last Sunday and thought it was a mosquito bite, of which I always have several at the end of the weekend. I hadn't noticed getting bitten at all. Two or three days later, I realized it wasn't going away but getting larger. The skin doesn't itch, and the central area is now about the size of a quarter. Yesterday I called my health insurance carrier's 24-hour nurse line, to see if they thought I needed to go to the doctor. I mean, if my doc would just look at it and say wow that looks bad but it's going to go away on its own, I figured I should save the $20. The nurse and I decided I wasn't having an allergic reaction, since that would have come on suddenly and been severe, but I'm not convinced there isn't something unpleasant going on. The whole area (it's on my hipbone) is red, angry, swollen, and consistently painful even if I don't move it or hit it. The focal point is now turning a dull purple color, whereas earlier in the week it was red. The irritation around it has been spreading, and is now about the size of my hand, with my fingers straight but together. Someone suggested it might be a spider bite. So what do you all think? Am I dying? I have no other symptoms except that tonight I'm tired and have a headache, but I think that may just be from the constant pain. I can see my doctor in the morning, but if there's nothing to be done but wait for it to pass I don't want to waste the time and money. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing?

Lisa, a good resource might be Inamed themselves. They can get you a list of doctors in any given location, and of course any doctor will be able to quote you their self-pay price (which is going to be different than what they charge insurers). You are asking for information from what is probably the smallest percentage of banded patients out there: self-pay patients using U.S. doctors. You will get lots of feedback from patients who have been to Mexico, but less from U.S. self-pays.

Megan, the pay version of Fitday does give you what you're asking for, I'm pretty sure. It lets you create custom foods by listing ingredients, and it shows nutrient breakdowns for each ingredient and the food as a whole. It's pretty amazing, actually. Get it by going to Fitday.com and clicking on the big ad on the home page for Fitday For the PC. It's only $20 at the moment and well worth it, I think.

Donali, you sexy thing, that is indeed a waist!! I agree with Penni, accumulated Fluid can weigh an enormous amount. You watch that scale, it's going down again as we speak.

Nanny by now you're banded and, we hope, resting up for the journey to come. Congratulations!! :D

I'd like to make a gentle suggestion that when discussions veer off on to areas unrelated from the topic heading, we start new threads in the lounge to continue the conversation. Just a mild suggestion. Carry on.