GeezerSue

Thanks, Alex. Now Penni will never know if I really like her or if I'm just following the rules!!!

Hootiebelle, The first thing that would scare me is the telephone chick. I don't trust people who--when they should be telling me how good they are--try to accomplish that by telling how bad someone else is. The next thing is that I don't know of Atkins or whether he's the best place in town or not...but I CAN tell you that three years ago or so, there were NO banding doctors in Las Vegas. so how experienced is he and how experienced are any other Las Vegas-based band doctors? The highest percentage of band complications come from doctors doing their first thirty to fifty bands. What I think is dangerous about the band these days is how many blind-leading the-blind situations are going on. There are way too many doctors who have done just enough bands to be really piss poor at it. They may pull off the surgery okay, but they have no idea about the post-op management and that is the entire key to band success.

What was this thread about?

Yes, I'm hopeless about the food-head-issues. I'm old. I'm set in my ways. That's why I didn't NOT go for RnY. I don't want to have to relearn or rethink or go to boot camp or reedudcate myself to ANYTHING. I, ladies and gentlemen, took the easy way out. Yes, steriods...I just finished 12 days. After two steroid injections. Being famished is a side effect. My doctor told me not to worry...just to keep in mind that I wouldn't be seeing any big weight losses while on it.

No, not two scoops! I'm a DS'er now, we do big things in a little way. I'm just SO miserable with the side effects of Prednisone. I took my last pill yesterday and, of course, the side effects, are going to linger for a few days. I HOPE only a few days. So I am famished. I had breakfast, then second breakfast, then early lunch, then lunch, then...I just EAT. I wan this to go away NOW!!! Not even a whole scoop. I'm going to empty this puppy with my ICE TEA spoon and it won't happen today. Penni--we could meet half-way. But then it might be too mooshie. You are doing well...I have some books for you....if you want them. About food and head issues. I decided that I'm hopeless and that I need space on my bookshelves, so I'm willing to part with a couple of these. Interested?

Much, much better... :clap2: Now, for the ice cream... :hungry:

:::withholding response until greeting becomes more animated...and, not incidentally, going out to buy some ice cream because I'm also looking into the depths of THAT hole:::

Fear not...I'm merely observing the human condition.

There's an old German saying that goes something like: "When you get to the bottom of the hole, it's best to stop digging." I guess it's not well-known in English. :::"Maybe it's 'When you find yourself at the bottom of a hole... Whatever,' she mutters, looking into the depths at the determined little worker, who continues shoveling madly::: ::::I'm pretty sure that this post could mean most anything you want it to::::

Point me to it? I have caregivers in for her four days a week now and she's on a waiting list to get into assisted living...NOT a nursing home or convalescent hospital...but an apartment without a kitchen--but with plenty of on site staff to help with everything--kind of thing. When I retired I was too fat to qualify for long term care insurance...but SHE qualified through my retirement plan...in spite of cancer surgery and diabetes and spinal column surgery issues. So she has that policy and we are going to use it for a few years!!

Up for a weird solution? There is a product called "TYLENOL® Sore Throat Daytime Liquid with Cool Burst." (Actually, there are THREE, but there is only once that contains nothing but the Acetaminophen in the active ingredients, the others have cough stuff in them.) It's an adult liquid...and maybe there is a similar generic in you area.

A really big post-op treat for me was a trip to my local Jamba Juice store...you may have a similar place near you. They have since discontinued my favorites, but they still have drinks with protein that can be added. They ARE NOT a good habit to get into, because they are liquid calories. But they are an okay treat in those "liquids only" days. And after having had TWO wls's I'm pretty sure that most post-op hunger issues can be resolved with an increass in protein. OOPS!! I just called!! They brought back my favorite. So, again, it is a TERRIBLE habit to form...but if a recent post-op on full liquids nurses one of the 16 ounce drinks--with the free protein boost and a second protein boost (a total of 28 grams of protein from this beverage)--all day long, I think there wil be some happier post-ops. http://jambajuice.com/menuguide/peanutbuttermood.html

What he said.

Our grandfather visited his grandkids at least once a week. And he always had a bag of Cookies. Our name for him (from Spanish) was "Tata." My mom says that before I could form sentences, I'd see him and be standing at that door sayng, "Cookie, Tata, cookie." A toddler's mind at work: Tata = good Tata = cookie cookie = good

Hey, BOH...I hear you on the-mom-thing. Mine is ONLY 83 and I've been on steriods for a month or so after hurting my back taking care of her. Luckily , it was about five months after my revision!!! (And my Volvo worked well, but their SUV might have been even better. LOL)

The problem with NSAID's (Advil, ibuprofen, Motril,Aleve, etc.) is NOT their physical form and getting them down, even though some have had problems with that. The problem is their chemical compositon. The chemistry that makes them work is bad for EVERYONE's stomach--which explains why, since the development of those meds, there has been a need for things like Nexium, Prevacid, Aciphex...the proton pump inhibitors you see all over the tv ads. What they do, along with relieving pain, is to thin the mucosal lining of the stomach. It's just the "bad news" part of the good news that whatever was hurting isn't hurting so much. But, after very little time, that thinned stomach lining can need help of its own. A banded person who takes NSAID's on a fairly regular basis has a thinned mucosal lining, too. The "pouch" area (I prefer to think of it an "an upper stomach") holds food for longer than the rest of the stomach. If the lining of the pouch is thinned, the food sitting there longer can cause more irritation and ulceration. BTW, I didn't learn this until AFTER I had purchased a cabinet full of liquids and chewables...

I think my TRAINING bra was a "D" cup...and I was probably 11 years old! But our daughter--not MO--took the first step and got her size 36-J's reduced to a dainty little 36-C. One of her friends summed up the results, "I know what kind of surgery you had and I still don't see it...you just look slimmer or something." For the first time in her life, she was able to wear pretty tops. She's a swimmer, so the biggest change was at her first post-op swim workout. I asked how it went and she said that, until the first flip turn all was well. And then, after swimming competitively for over 20 years, she FINALLY "got" the point of the flip turn. Because using the same force she had always used to pull off a flip turn but without all that ballast, "...I did two complete somersaults and about drilled my ass through the bottom of the pool. So THAT's how a flip turn is easier..." I had the same PS do my breast reduction two years later, while I was still MO. We agree that it was one of the best moves we ever made. The grooves and ridges on the shoulders are gone. No summertime under-boob rash. In case of earthquake (we're in So. Calif.), a bra isn't the first thing we look for. I can actually throw on a t-shirt and go get something out of the car. And for both of us, not only did insurance pay for it, but--except for the under-arm lipo area--it was pretty much painless! I'm popping in with this info because it IS a kind of scary concept. But neither of us wanted dainty boobs post reduction and I don't think we got them. We just got rid of huge, pendulous, asymmetrical, out-of-proportion things that are now normal. And perky.

Did you find any fellow vegetarians? I know of a couple on another board...

Medicare DOES pay for bariatric surgery...but there are often waiting lists for that service because Medicare pays so little. At my DS surgeon's office right now there is a one-year wait for--I THINK it's Medicare, but it could be MediCal, to get into the first appointment. But that's no reason to not get started. Figure out what you want to do and then start asking around for others who have already done it. The path will become visible. (But don't let your depression swallow you up...it's hard to see the future from inside a dark hole!)

Okay...about the "you get what you pay for" thing. Not always. Insurance sets the fees for most US banded patients...and whether it's Joe Blow, MD doing his FIRST unproctored band placement or George Fielding doing his several thousandth placement, the price is the same. For sure, Fielding is a good deal. But Joe Blow, MD coming out the gate? Not on MY body. Give me Rumbaut (my surgeon) at the hospital in Monterrey, MX. Boo, I have met Dr. Rumbaut, he did my surgery at the hospital in Monterrey, and I returned to Monterrey for follow-up. I ALSO went to Kuri's old place--about eight rooms; a birthing center, really; the price listed on the board was $47/night...talk about getting what you pay for! In that case, Kuri was a bargain, but the facility was just not (yes, I'm a snob) good enough for ME. I'm just not a share-the-restoom with the other FOUR patients in your room kind of girl. Some people are fine with that. But for anyone who hasn't visited outside the US to go there without understanding that "hospital" means something different there...more like a kind of rustic urgent care center or something...with a FEW doctors who work out of the place...maybe three or five. And, I see you are an Ortiz patient. He uses a much better equipped Radiological Center--I've been there several times--than Kuri's x-ray place. But there is no hospital in Tijuana that is on a par, in terms of staff size and training and equipment, with the even the most modest community hospital available in most areas of the US. Mexico City is different and there are banding doctors there in big ol' hospitals just like in Monterrey..and just like every US city of any size has. I'm not fond of Mexico-bashing. But I'm not fond of Tijuana hospitals, either. Many, many people ARE okay with them, and I'd never say, "Oh! Don't go there!" I just hate to see someone go by what they read online and travel there and then panic when they encounter a four-doctor hosptial or the like.

Hey! I'M the Geezer around here! LOL And I wrote a check...is how I'd paid for it.

ROFLMAO!!! Thanks for the entertainment.

If so, someone ought to consider asking for a refund.

I just "gave this lecture" yesterday, so perhaps you deserve the shorter version: The PRE-op liquid diet is the FIRST of MANY liquid diets you will have to endure. Pre-op "cheating" (and I hate using that term because it seems like it's kind of a game, that way) might not only make your surgery more difficult, it might also convince you that you can continue to "cheat" post-op...and THAT could cause physical damage to your newly banded stomach. So..the big question...are you READY to make changes...or not? If you are ready, bite the bullet (but don't chew and don't swallow) and get on with it!!! If you are NOT ready, postpone your surgery until you ARE. You won't be having brain surgery...and you WILL have liquid diets prescribed post-op and with some surgeons, with fills, and sometimes for irritations or swelling. And you will need--in just a couple of weeks--a way to deal with this very issue. So, make a committment or make a call to postpone, but don't try to play the old games (not that ANY of us here would recognize the games obese people play about food issues) on a newly post-op body...you'll physically hurt yourself. good luck.

Thus lowering the average overall IQ of internet BB's in general? Please reconsider. YOU are, after all, banded and this is a place that is designed to support people in your situation. Stick around.