GeezerSue

Kelli, The band DOES help. But it is a drastic step. Right now, what do you do when your husband offers to walk/exercise with you?

You doctor is VERY ill-informed.

Angeleyes, I think most banded people would tell you that they don't diet and never will again. It's a way bigger change than that. And again, there probably aren't many doctors in this country who place the LapBand in anyone with a BMI of less than 35 with comorbidities. That makes me wonder if you will find aftercare nearby. Make sure you have that all lined up.

Hi, Sue3. Welcome. Mine will problably be the most "negative" response you get, so don't get discouraged. Others will be nicer! But let's look at some numbers. A person who is 5' 5" and weighs 180 pounds has a BMI of 30. That person would, at the middle of the normal range, with a BMI of 21.8, weigh 131 pounds. Which means that this person has 49 pounds of excess weight to lose. The AVERAGE banded patient, at two years post-op, has lost 62% of his or her excess weight. In the case of the above example, the AVERAGE person with those numbers would, two years after surgery, weigh 150.6 pounds. That is, after many thousands of dollars, and gobs of effort, the weight loss would average less than thirty pounds. Weight loss surgery is a drastic step...even the band. There are risks to every surgery. We've had people here who have had to have the band removed. We have others who have had ongoing infections and other problems. These are reasonable risks to take if one is morbidly obese and his or her life is in danger. But the less overweight you are, the more unreasonable those risks become. And there are absolutely NO guarantees. I've had my band unfilled because of reflux and for other reasons, and now, almost two years post-op, I've regained about half of my lost weight and have to start over. I've met people who have spent ten of thousands of dollars getting banded and have lost ten pounds because they were not able to make the lifestyle changes. Also, you say that you don't feel less pain than someone with a BMI of 40+. Sorry, but I think that only someone who has never had a BMI of 40+ would say such a thing. Those of us who are 40+ (and 50+) have problems you can only imagine. And pains, physical and mental, you cannot imagine. If you can fit in an airline seat, if you don't have an oozing fungal rash under your pendulous abdomen, if you can wipe your own butt without defying the laws of physics, you cannot imagine how NOT being able to do those things--and so many more--can impact your life. Granted, you are disturbed about your weight and want/need to do something, and you are only a few pounds away from being classified obese. But did you know that most of us would give our eye teeth to be at a BMI of 30? Anyway, read all over this site and other sites about how hard it is to lose weight WITH the band (and how easy it is to regain lost weight with the gastric bypass) and think about whether you are really sick enough to take such a drastic step, when it requires so much effort and costs so much money and provides no guarantees. From what I understand about the FDA guidlines, you would not be considered that sick in this country. And I hope you don't get that sick. And I wish you health. Sue

I am SOOOO outnumbered by....believers. Skepticism is a lonely zip code, boys and girls.

Yo, Wheeler! Welcome. And, what they said.

Oprah once said something like: Motivation doesn't come before you exercise...it comes from having exercised. Doing it once--and feeling the way you feel when it's done--is what makes you want to do it more. I kind of get it. When I was young, I used to think that I needed to get motivated to do the dishes. Well, actually, a clean sink is what motivates me to do the dishes. I never have developed a desire to complete the act of doing the dishes. I HAVE developed a desire to have the peace and serenity I experience when I don't live in a pig sty. And I got that feeling the last time I washed the dishes. So, what motivates me to do the dishes? Nothing. But I AM motivated to have the serene feeling I get when I have a clean kitchen, so I wash the damned things. Does that make sense?

Any chance you've lost inches in the measurement nearest your port? Most of the time, people notice the port because there is less fat there. Sometimes, when people get very near goal, they even consider having the port replaced because it starts being in the way...you know...it shows when they wear their teeny bikinis.

Ya know...I'm gonna be odd man out. I think you have to be emotionally ready for any elective surgery. Our daughter was a certifiable candyass when it came to even getting a shot. So you can imagine how amazed we were that she wanted breast reduction surgery. I asked her what made her want to go through something that would normally have scared her half to death. She said that when living with the problem becomes a bigger hassle than doing whatever it takes to get rid of the problem, it's time for surgery. She's a wise woman. When you find that living your life, as it is, becomes so problematic that you'll do almost anything to change your life, you'll be ready. If you're not there yet, don't push yourself. Sue

What they said.

For some of us. One day, when our daughter was just a couple of months old, I was at a mom-baby-thing and was changing her diaper on her blanket, on the floor. The housekeeper of the woman who was hosting the event came over, looked at my NAKED baby and said, "How lovely. Is your baby a boy or a girl?" I stared for a moment at my naked child and said, "Looks like a girl to me!" She was naked. Nude. Sunny side up. I mean...???

Yeah, one day, on another board, he just wrote something like, "Oh? You want a LapBand board? I can do that." And he did.

Bright, I, too, went to Curves...but only for a month. It was good to get me up and out of the house, but not very challenging (and I'm 57 years old), and very limited in terms of hours and services. Curves in my area had a circuit, a restroom, small towels and lotions. The full service place had a new member promotion, which--for $10 more per month--included WAY more stuff. They had far more equipment and they offered classes, everything from stretching and yoga to high impact, and a couple of hours with a trainer were included in the package. The facility includes the towels (large ones, too) and a shower and a jacuzzi pool. And they opened a lot earlier and closed a lot later and were open seven days per week. HOWEVER, the new reason I won't go is that since January of this year, Diane Heavin (Mrs. Curves Co-founder) has already contributed at least $50,000 to the Republican National Committee for the reelection of our idiot president. I wouldn't care if they were saving drowning puppies at Curves, I avoid supporting this president in any way I can and won't give them a penny.

Welcome aboard... I've read your posts in various threads. I just wanted to mention that all the literature shows that the complication rate for the band drops exponentially once the surgeon has placed about 50 bands. The other benchmark is at about 30. So in your situation, I'd probably want the surgeon to have done AT LEAST thirty bands, preferably 50. The fill price seems very generously under the average. (Your $78 vs $700-1100 in my neighborhood.) Does that include flouro, or is he planning office fills done blindly? (Both are doable.) BTW, I was self pay, but my insurance (we think) will be paying for some of the follow up...so sometimes there is good news. Good luck in researching your doctor. As a self-pay, you have more options, but also financial considerations. It's a balancing act for sure. Sue

Another reason I have slow weight loss is that I'm crazy. (Obvious, but worth mentioning for newcomers.)

Proteins are hard to eat because _______. ? (Eating too fast, not chewing well enough, OR....?) This makes me wonder if you might be filled a little too tight. I mention this because when I am filled too tight, I live off of things that won't get hung up...in other words, pureed, mushy, liquid foods. The band has almost no effect on that kind of food, so there is almost no weight loss. Eventually, I get reflux and have to get unfilled. And then I start over. But I think I keep getting tighter after the fill...so that I need to be "not quite tight enough" in the office. I am getting an adjustment in two weeks. (When I do, the band will have been empty for three months. Ugh.) It appears that my new insurance will actually pay for this. So, I know what the fill level was when I developed pretty bad reflux within a month. And I know what it was when it took me about three months to get reflux. And, so, we're aiming for a little teensy fill.

Yeah...I went to their smoking place...on LaCienega...back around 1970. It must have worked because I stopped smoking...in 2000. They told us to drink Water instead of alcohol and chew a clove instead of lighting up. I announced that I was going to be the only girl in town who wanted a glass of water before and a clove after. ( A rather "spirited" comment for 1970.)

.

Never mind.... (Sorry, Lisa, the devil made me do it.)

Are you using fitday? I hate having to be that accountable, but it sure does make a difference. Can you tell us what you eat?

Teresa.. I think that the old-timer wisdom is that a plateau is something that lasts for many weeks, sometimes months. If you expect to lose weight every week, you will eventually be disappointed. Go for a monthly average...something not so demanding of short-term performance. If you have gone a week without losing weight, you are just normal and may be doing nothing wrong. Sue

OMG, tell her to tell her doctor to read some literature from the past couple of years. Geeze. Yes, the first American trials were pretty bad. That's because it was American doctors who think they know better than everyone else. Now that the real losers have bailed, the remaining doctors are getting pretty good. That 35% "complication rate" includes such staggering complications as "nausea." My plastic surgeon told me that the band was NOT a very good product. Then, on the morning of my plastic surgery, he said, "By the way, I had dinner with a surgeon friend who told me I was behind the curve on the band. He's moving more an more patients in that direction." I love my PS. Finally, I don't think the FDA would have let a second band go into clinical trials if the first one was such a failure...and there is a second brand in clinical trials.

Yup...that's what they SAY. And they've been saying that for some time. But I'm one of those people who opens the oven door while baking unless I know WHY....so I kept asking. Seems that the New Zealand doctors were sure that an all liquid diet two weeks pre-op would shrink the liver. I wrote to them. They answered. They decided to conduct a clinical trial. That was two years ago and I have been unable to find any published report of IF they were right. But meanwhile, many surgeons have bought into the theory. Ya know, it's the same with the cranberry juice for urinary tract infections legends. The only tests that I could find were conducted on a group of people who did not have an infection to see if drinking cranberry juice would keep them from developing an infection. And it seemed to. But the last time I looked this up, there was absolutely nothing but urban legend saying that cranberry juice could help an infection once it had started. Yet when my mom calls the doctor's office, they tell her to drink cranberry juice while they wait for the lab results. Tangent..tangent..anyway, post-op, I asked Rumbaut--who doesn't have a pre-op diet except for a day or so before the surgery--about my liver. He said it would not have mattered, because my liver went this-a-way instead of that-a-way, and was not in his way during surgery at all.

edistogirl... These days, savings from travel and lower fill costs can add up. When I got my band, the local prices were $30,000 and Rumbaut was $10,000. For $20,000, you can take a lot of trips (air fare, hotel, meals) to Mexico. But now that the US prices are coming down, the $3800 difference doesn't pay for as many trips. How does Ponce (and for lurkers, again, we are talking about Ponce in Dalton, GA, not ponce de leon who is somewhere else) handle the fills for his patients? Do you get his services free for a while and only pay for flouro? I ask because some doctors include their services for a certain time (such as six months or a year) and others include a certain number of fills (usually one to three) in their price. I know the Mexican doctors tend to include their services for free until the end of time and their surgery patients pay only for flouro...but then there are the other costs.

Okay, then I'm not completely nuts. (Mostly nuts, but not completely.) I thought I had read that price somewhere. Anyway, I've been reading about the LapBand for over two years and I don't think I've heard any complaints about Ponce in GA. If it were a ONE HOUR drive and a less-experienced surgeon, my inital reaction would be to keep looking. But Ponce is very experienced. And if you can get to him in four hours and it would take you a lot longer to get to Mexico...I'd really consider it. (I phrased it that way, because sometimes I think it takes me longer to get across the Los Angeles Basin in traffic than it does to cross the border into Mexico.) Sue