GeezerSue

For the record, I didn't set out to become MO again. I lost about 50 pounds in six or eight months after banding surgery (I had lost weight prior to deciding to have surgery), and regained most of it over the next two years.

I don't think anyone here has been in that situation. I know that I had regained sufficient weight that I was MO when I had the DS.

Be VERY careful with what you take for constipation when you have a band: 1: Obes Surg. 2004 Aug;14(7):1022-4. Bolus obstruction of pouch outlet by a granular bulk laxative after gastric banding. Herrle F, Peters T, Lang C, von Fluee M, Kern B, Peterli R. Department of Surgery, St. Claraspital, Basel, Switzerland. BACKGROUND: Constipation is an occasional problem after gastric banding and is often caused by insufficient liquid intake. As a result, the use of laxatives is widespread in such patients. Depending on the laxative, improper use can lead to bolus obstruction above the band, as occurred in this case. Case Report: A 59-year-old female with uncomplicated laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding presented 2 months after surgery with food and liquid intolerance and dysphagia after ingestion of a granular bulking laxative. Despite deflating the band, the bolus could not be washed out. Endoscopic extraction was required, revealing a 4x2 cm bolus of the laxative and a small compression ulcer. DISCUSSION: Patients not complying with nutritional recommendations after gastric banding may have insufficient liquid intake and, consequently, constipation. Under these conditions, the use of a granular bulking laxative entails the risk of esophageal obstruction above the band. CONCLUSION: Nutritional counseling after gastric banding should include the recommendation of liquid intake of at least 1.5 l/day. If constipation occurs, osmotic or paraffin oil laxatives should be used instead of bulking laxatives. Publication Types: * Case Reports PMID: 15329197 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] And drink MORE water! Everyone!

There is no such current information and it would be subjective anyway...because some people faint from the pain of a flu shot and others can endure horrific trauma. Generally speaking, if you consider the results shared by the overall group of people who have had the band, you can expect to lose around 62% of your excess weight. What that REALLY means is that some people lose ALL of their excess weight and some lose NONE of their excess weight. And most people lose in between. Also, there are "happy banded people" who are morbidly obese. I know of someone who weighed close to 400 pounds who is DELIGHTED with the band even though she still weighs in excess of 250 and is still MO. But, no matter how much she has lost, all the obesity-related stuff that was killing her before her band is still doing its thing...maybe just slower...and in spite of HER happiness, she would be considered a failure by many because she is still MO. Others would say that because she has lost half of her excess weight, she is a success. Go figure. Learn about all the options and pick the one that is best for YOU!

I just ate Breakfast. A (one egg) ham and cheese omelette, toast with butter and Peanut Butter and two cups of coffee with half-and-half. (OKAY! I confess! I had a little sugar in the coffee, too. Should probably NOT have done that. But there will be no "dumping," as a RnY person might have.) And (LOL) I have an 82-year-old mother who called me this morning to discuss her diarrhea so I know my bowels are working better than hers are. My poop looks very different and it DOES stink. And I have probably three BM's every morning before I get in the shower and start my day. No doubt about it, it's different. But I do NOT poop all day and strangers sit next to me in waiting rooms and restaurants, and the bra-fitter at Nordstom's didn't rush out of the room, so...? (And I have an impaired sense of smell, so it's a real psychological issue for me because most of the time I don't KNOW if it's smelly in my bathroom.) To tell you the truth, that rumor is one of the reasons we (my husband and I) moved to a two-bathroom condo last June. But there ARE ways to deal with that issue. If I avoid wheat flour and too much baked potato with butter and sour cream, I have more socially acceptable (?) poop. There is a product called Devrom (a pill) that ostomy patients use which is called an "internal deodorant." I have some, but--again--I don't detect much smell, so I haven't used it. I installed a little bidet attachment (< $100), called Biffy ( http://biffy.com/ ) to keep clean while using the toilet, and I stocked up on Oust! and Ozium. I choose the DS for a couple of reasons. I'm older. VERY long term issues don't concern me the way they might concern a younger woman. (I'm not asking myself how this will impact my health 50 years from now.) I had been in touch with band, RnY and DS patients for over three years, and I knew that I did not respond well to all of the restrictions required by the band and would likely get crazier with RnY restrictions. I figured I'd take up compulsive drinking or gambling or even complusive origami..I dunno. And, I wanted a procedure that let me eat what I want to eat. With the band, one "wrong" bite could send me to the restaurant's restroom or parking lot with sliming or barfing or whatever. My RnY friends wait until other people order something and then taste it to see if it's too sweet for them and might cause a dumping episode. My DS friends pretty much eat what they want, but sometimes say stuff like, "Wanna split a ___? If I eat the whole thing I'll be sorry tomorrow!" And...I needed rapid weight loss. My knees were acting up. My orthopedic surgeon wanted me to limit walking and avoid treadmills, stairs and low chairs until I lost a significant amount of weight. And he told me that every step I took with the excess weight on my frame was a step toward a knee surgery that was only about 60% successful. My PCP read up on DS and liked it better than RnY. My cardiologist was excited about it and wants me to keep him informed so that he can tell other patients how I'm doing. My husband THANKS ME for not giving up when the band had to come out and for giving him his old playmate back! I am 5.5 months post-op. I weigh twenty pounds less than I did at my lowest post-banding weight and figure I have the opportunity to lose more. I had the same hair loss issues--only more so--that I did post banding and post PS...but I think that's slowing down. My nails (says my manicurist) are thinner toward the cuticle. I don't know if that's from the malabsorption immediately post op (I lost 54 pounds in two months) and is already correcting itself or if I have a problem I need to supplement. I'll find out in two weeks at my six-month check-up. I think I covered it all. (Except to mention that if Rachele can work on an assembly line, she must not be having major bowel issues either.)

Penni-- We are all so different yet so much the same!!! I subscribe to the "the-best-predictor-of-future-performance-is-past-performance" school of decision-making. So, while I wouldn't have gone back to retry something that had hurt me in the past, I WAS up for trying something else. But, you are a health care professional and have seen more than I have. So, although we are dealing with the same stats about the various choices, we are not dealing with the same experiences. You'll figure out what is best for YOU. My sister--whose comment when I got the band, over three-and-a-half years ago,was "Well I haven't given up yet"--is convinced that the ten or fifteen pounds she regained "over the holidays," (meaning six months ago, now) can be lost again along with the additional 80 or so pounds she needs to lose by ordering and eating NutriSystem food and going to Curves and Weight Watchers. I know the odds of her doing that and then KEEPING IT OFF are stacked against her...but that is not how she perceives the situation and I couldn't change HER perceptions if I tried. Meanwhile, she'll never convince me that my having wls twice is somehow "giving up." I know there are those--probably a LOT of them here--who believe that the DS is pretty much suicide. But for ME, at my age, with my history of weight loss "successes," NOT going for something else when the band had to come out was just not an option. I was not going to even be ambulatory if I didn't do something. And I knew that I couldn't handle a new set of dietary restrictions as required by the RnY. That didn't leave many other choices for me. But again, just as you haven't been as old and as almost non-ambulatory as I have been, I haven't seen what you have seen. One day, you will just know. Our conclusions may not be the same...but we're fighting the same battle and aiming for the same goals and we're intelligent women (except for the food issues, of course) each of whom will find what is right for her. Sue

Most all of the band removals you'll read about have been due to complications of one kind or another.

DeeDee, Dr. Gary Anthone is in Omaha and is a VERY HIGHLY RESPECTED bariatric surgeon. He doesn't do the RnY surgery as far as I know. He does the DS, which is the surgery that Rachele and I "revised to." http://www.bestcare.org/site.asp?dept=A1CFD15A73F7473987179AE161A3C086 Sue

Are you having complications or was it just the wrong surgery choice for you? Are you thinking about a revision to another surgery?

In the past two weeks, my mother has ended up in the ER three times, was admitted to the acute care hospital once (blood sugar was 34), and was admitted to and discharged from the convalescent hospital in the time it took me to go home, change into my jammies, exhale whining and eat the 3-cup Reese's I got from the hospital vending machine. Therefore, I have NO idea what this thread is about but I still feel vaguely guilty. (Catholic school in the 1950's and all.) Will someone who has stayed abreast of this entire mess please pm me and fill me in on all the dirt, because for crap's sake, I need a laugh. (Also, if I'm on one side or the other of some argument, will someone please provide a synopsis of the issue and tell me which side I'm on?) Thank you for your understanding and I'm very sorry...about something...I think.

I had the band for three years and was REALLY hungry most of the time. A lot of that hunger was because I had trouble eating decent meals. But, no. The band did not make hunger disappear FOR ME.

My removal was open and done as part of the DS surgery. The DS can take three hours or more, but my entire revision surgery was less than two hours.

I hope you find a way to get where you need to be. Once I knew my band was on its way out, I REALLY wanted it out. And I'm glad I was revised to DS...but we're all different. So, I hope you get what YOU need.

I think there are only two of us on this board who were "switched" after--actually at the time of--dis-banding.

My problem will start today. We don't celebrate holidays, so yesterday was easy. But all that unsold candy will be on clearance at the stores starting today...half-price Cadbury eggs are a REAL temptation!

Hmmm...I dunno. I hope someone does.

NO~I don't. I want my surgery to help me get to a "NORMAL" BMI. I did not have surgery to get down to the low end of MO...or the high end of Obesity. Some people are happy with that, which is good for them. But, MY honest answer to your question is: NO. "Any weight loss" just isn't enough for me. I hope you have a better journey than I did...good luck with your surgery.

The "How long have you believed..." or "What lead you to believe..." opener is called for. How long have you believed that perfect strangers were interested in your opinion? OR How long have you believed that what you have to say would be of interest to anyone?

Where do you live, Amy? Mexico is a pretty big place and, unless money is no object...it could make a difference. Oh, THAT Cantú! He is someone who has sent some "marketer" (who is not MO and who does not have a band) here to hang around and be friendly and drum up business and for that reason alone, I think I'd find me another doctor. If you want a hospital on a par with those you find stateside (and I don't mean how nice it looks, but how much state-of-the-art stuff it has and how many physicians, in how many specialties, are available in case of any problems), you will find those most of those facilities in Mexico City and in Monterrey. The border towns--Tijuana, Ciudad Acuña and Reynosa--have smaller, sometimes two-or-three-doctor hospitals, that seem to be able to handle most of what they take on...but where I would not voluntarily have surgery. Interestingly enough...in Monterrey and Mexico City, the doctors who charge the same as those in the border towns actually POCKET less money themselves, because the hospitals are far more expensive. For example, a few years back, the hospital in Monterrey where I had my band place charged about $2000, for the whole package. A hospital in Tijuana, where I went with another banded person, charged $47/night...plus the fees for the OR. Big difference. HUGE difference...both in the cost and the facilities. I'm all about saving money...but, for me, there are only so many corners I'm willing to cut. Sue

It has been so long since I wore anything in "regular" sizes...and in the interim, the vanity sizing has caused a HUGE difference in sizes, so I'm clueless...and goal-less. I know that, back in the day, what was a size 12 for Marilyn Monroe would be about a 6 now. I read about people (about my height) who are wearing a 12 or 14 but who are FAAAAAAR heavier than I was back when I wore those sizes...and my first instinct is to wonder why they would lie about their clothing sizes, since they OBVIOUSLY are larger than that. But they aren't. The sizes have just REALLY changed. So I have no goal...how sad.

(Potentially the wrong forum, but I wanted visibility.) --We have a practice here wherein the moderators don't edit posts. --And we have a policy that no advertising is allowed. --And we also have a member who has identified herself as NOT banded and has NOT mentioned being MO or attempting to acquire a band for herself, whose posts are almost exclusively for the purpose of recruiting patients for the doctor she works for. Some members and moderators have posted that advertising is not welcome or allowed. But the original posts are still there. So the advertising is still in progress. Just out of curiosity, how do y'all feel about moderators removing posts that contain advertising? I'm not talking about the my-doctor-is-cuter/smarter/richer than your doctor stuff that goes on. And I'm not talking about the participation (not that it looks like it will be happening much any more) of surgeons, such as Ortiz and Pleatman...but blatant advertising that is being posted by someone who visits here solely to drum up business. And, let me be quite clear that NONE of the moderators have asked me to open this conversation and that they are all capable of asking their own questions, if they have any... But...what do you think? Should posts which contain advertising and which are part of an ongoing recruitment process for a particular surgeon be edited or pulled, or should they be ignored or warned, but allowed to stand?

HERE'S the REAL dope on a sleep study... --yeah, you probably will fall asleep, and --no, that stuff will NEVER come out of your hair Hey! I've done a couple and they are irritating, but so are my upstairs neighbors. Can't do much about either one! There are some pulmonolgists who will insist that you have a pulmonologist involved--and that you wear a CPAP or Bi-PAP machine to cut down on the number of times you stop breathing--while you are in the hospital, until all the sedatives are out of your system. BTW, I was absolutely sure that I DID NOT have sleep apnea. The highest setting on the machine I ended up with was 20...I needed a setting of 18...so I had pretty severe sleep apnea. So much for knowing your body! Sue

But MY doctor IS the cutest...

I understand that you are on top of it. But, the fact that the advertising is still THERE makes me wonder if I'm the only one who thinks someone is "working the system."

Sunflower, it is a far more invasive and you end up more rearranged. But there is no dumping syndrome, you have a larger stomach than RnY, an extremely high Diabetes CURE Rate, there are no foods you cannot eat and the long-term excess weight loss is usually cited as 70% or higher. (Because there are those who don't believe there is a CURE for diabetes, I'm adding this link: http://www.webmd.com/content/article/95/103237.htm It doesn't show the whole breakdown in this article, but the last one I recall, the DS had a 90-something-% diabetes cure rate. I don't HAVE diabetes, but I was headed there.) There ARE problems. There is a higher mortality rate...but a lot of that is due to "saving" this surgery for very, very MO people, who have a higher mortality rate in ANY surgery. My recovery was quite long. And--instead of dumping or PB'ing--the DS ugly-bodily-reaction is unpleasant poop. If my RnY friends eat a box of Krispy Kremes, they dump. If my bandster friends (or many of them) eat a box of Krispy Kremes, they PB and/or barf up slime. If I eat a box of Krispy Kremes, many hours late or the next morning, I'll have odiferous poop and probaby four or five trips to the bathroom as I eliminate that disaster. [Editing to add: No, you don't absorb all the nutrients...or all the fat. The saeme mechanism that makes it possible to eat bacon and eggs an lose weight and STILL cause the cholesterol level to drop, ALSO causes you to not absorb some of the good stuff. Just like RnY, you HAVE TO take supplements FOREVER!! (Right now, I take my three Bariatric Advantage Chewable Multi Vitamins and four of their Calcium Citrate. BUT, I was taking vitamins and calcium before I had any surgery, so not a biggie. I'll have my six month labs in a few weeks and find out how I'm doing.)] Here's the most informative site: http://www.duodenalswitch.com/