GeezerSue

Bob, When Donali notices your post, she will likely participate. She's a Dr. Lopez patient and so she is most likely to be able to answer many of your questions. (I've met him, once or twice, I think.) Good luck, Sue

There are two events this year, right? The oniginal Dr. Kuri Bandster Bash has moved to Rosarito (on the beach), and moved to a week or two after Labor Day, and this new Dr. Ortiz event has moved into the locale in Tijuana and the same holiday weekend that the original bash used to occupy. A bit confusing, perhaps, but at least there are options.

I went to Curves, on my sister's recommendation, because she loves her Curves. The sign-up was $150 (they have frequent 50% off specials), and then $39 per month for a one-year contract. I opted for one month only and did not like it. The hours were very limited and I spent a lot of time looking at the rear end of the woman who signed me up...as she went around the circle talking to friends/older customers, and was not helpful at all. I have sinced joined a real gym. It costs LESS than Curves, is open seven days a week, is also women only, has showers, is open from early mornng until night, has a jacuzzi and a sauna, and offers Pilates, yoga, and other classes in am and pm at no charge. Also on staff, but for an extra charge, are a massage therapist and a certified trainer. For less than Curves. Any exercise is good. I think Curves is a good starting place, to get you out of the house and in the mood for physical training. But I think that anyone who actually goes will--within a year--feel that they need a more challenging environment.

Sam, Dr. Kuri (in Spanish-language cultures, it goes "First Name...Dad's Last...Mom's Last" so that he is Dr. Kuri, whose mother's maiden name is Santiago and that Roberto Rumbaut Diaz you've been reading about is Dr. Rumbaut) is one of the LapBand pioneers. He is where problems are sent by Inamed, the manufacturer. And, while other Mexican doctors proctor US doctors as they learn how to place the band, Kuri prefers to stay home. So, if you have complications of any kind, it is HIGHLY likely he will be available by phone as opposed to on an airplane somewhere. Now, here's where I get in trouble. One of his facilities (he now has two) is very bare-bones. Very. (When I was last there, the daily rate for a room there was $47.00. And it looked like a $47.00 room to me.) Now, before I am (again) assaulted, I have NO BASIS to judge what makes a good hospital. And I never saw the OR. And many nurses have been there for surgery and swear by the place. But, had I "signed up" for surgery and walked in without a warning, I'd have walked out. (Yeah, I know. My loss.) I go to Dr. Kuri for adjustments. I trust him implicitly. Inamed trusts him to fix messes. But I'm a spolied, big city girl and Monterrey had big city (teaching) hospitals, whereas the typical Tijuana hospital is very small and has very few doctors who work there. When I go under, I want to know there's a cardiologist down the hall and a pulmonologist on the next floor and that kind of thing. You can't go wrong with Kuri. Sue One other thing: the first time I stayed at the Palacio Azteca, all went well. The next time, it was okay. The third time, my friend and I had to check out and go elsewhere, as there were REAL plumbing problems and it was a tad icky.

So...50% of excess weight lost at five months? Talk about being ahead of the curve! Congrats!

Little Miss Reflux, reporting in for duty! I tried all the Rx's and then, all of a sudden, couldn't deal with one more day in that condition. I had the band emptied. Dr. Kuri offered to remove MOST of the saline, leaving me with some restriction, but I decided I wanted relief. I had the band emptied. The reflux ended IMMEDIATELY! And I gained 20 pounds. Now, I'm working on finding the right place. He filled me again, but it may still be a bit much. My understanding (always subject to error) is that pre-op reflux is usually improved by the band...but, post-op reflux is because the band is too tight. BTW, the reason I couldn't deal with one more day was that i found some online photos of what reflux looks like. I'll see if I can find them again. Sue To anyone who is having reflux symptoms and is reluctant to have an unfill...this MAY be what you've got going on inside: http://www.endoskopischer-atlas.de/o09e.htm

Julie, Yes, bypass patients can become pregnant. Many do and surprise themselves. The health issues are nourishment for the fetus (which depends on the level of malabsorption going on), and then, for the patient, the bypass is a much more invasive procedure, so there should be plenty of down time between the surgery and the blessed event, to allow complete healing to happen. Sue

Hanvan, You've already made up your mind and I know that. But...let me mention the statistics to you, IN CASE you haven't encountered them. You are, according to the charts, about 60 pounds overweight. The average band patient loses about 62% of his or her excess weight by the two-year mark. That means that the average 5'5", 210# patient will, two years after surgery, weigh 180. You may do better, you may not do as well, and you won't know until after the fact. The reason I mention it at all is that you are not morbidly obese and you need to know that sometimes, "lightweight" patients think that because they have less to lose, they will get to goal in a hurry. But that isn't how it works. The lightweight patients have the same success rates as everyone else. I guess I want you to not make too many demands on yourself once you've had the surgery and expect to--and get frustrated when you don't--lose as fast as someone who has two hundred pounds to lose. Buena suerte! Sue

Therapy. And I'm not kidding. And I'm going myself. (And I'm probably older than your mother.) I am probably WAY off base, but here's what I read in what you wrote: My mother and I have always battled over control issues. She knows I want her approval, so she withholds it when I'm not doing everything her way. I know that one of things she wants to control is my weight, so I eat whatever I want, even to my own disadvantage, just to show her which of us in charge. It appears to me that as long as she tries to control you, and as long as you crave her approval, things may not change much even with surgery. She needs to be able to say--and really mean, "While I care about your health, I adore you just the way you are." And you need to be able to say, "I love you, but I am a whole person, with or without your approval." Therapy will probably help. Sue

Guessing here...but it can take 20 minutes for swallowed food to get to the banded area...depending, of course, on how much is stacked up in the esophagus waiting to go through. But that wouldn't match with a pain that wakes you up. (Unless you eat and then crash, which can be done.)

P, I was 55 when I had my LapBand surgery. My surgeon had already placed a band in a 70-year-old, so he had no problems with my age. Sue

Good deal. Now don't choose the surgeon based on cost alone. The learning curve requires about 50 LapBand placements. (All LapBand surgeons are experienced at laporoscopic surgery, which is nice, but doesn't cut it. Kinda like saying, "Sure! He's parallel parked his MiniCooper thousands of times, so I'm sure he'll be just fine parallel parking that set of doubles." The experience with the specific surgery at hand is what counts.) Good luck on your doctor-hunt!

As a six-figure parent of an adult child, I applaud your independent spirit. Is your husband a public school employee? Does his employer have Section 125 accounts available? (Almost all do.) If you don't know how that works, I can 'splain it to ya...but I don't want to bother with it if you already know. A little financed via Section 125 and little via an additional student loan for medical expenses (and a ten year payback at about 4%) ought to do it. Good luck! Sue

P-38 like the can opener? Just wondering, Sue Oh, yeah...welcome!

1--I know zip about financing. 2--Your husband probably has--or can set up--a Section 125 account at work. (You may have to wait until the new school- or calendar-year, but it could be worth it.) Once the first payment is withheld, he can take it all out. 3--You can get student loans--PLUS loans, even, that will let you spread the payments out over 20 years, and at a low interest rate. Exceptional medical expenses are exceptional medical expenses. 4--From Atlanta, consider going to Monterrey, Mexico (via Houston) to have surgery with one of the doctors who actually taught the US doctors how to do it...and for about $10,000, not $15,000. I can probably come up with more, but stop crying and get to work, Girl! There's always a way! Sue

Carmen, If you're as crazy as some of us (I'm not talking about Donali, really I'm not), even with more restriction, you will find ways to eat around the band. There are times we run into a brick wall and have to deal with the motivating factors and eating habits and patterns themselves. I know from personal experience that this process can take a long, long time. If I get a tighter fill, I'll just eat more food that melts on the way down. ("My lunch order? I'll take a box of meringue Cookies and a side of a half gallon of Dreyer's Girl Scout Tagalong Ice Cream, please.") And I'll probably get a massive case of reflux in the process. I need to work on the "other things to do instead of shoveling food down my throat" issue. And I'm 57, so I've got many. many years of habits to deal with. So, you didn't make the wisest choices for someone who wishes to consume a healthy diet. But have you crunched those foods into fitday.com to check on what you really consumed? It may be massive in terms of your first few solid-food meals, but not as horrible as you think overall. You are allowed to have a "less than perfect choices" day. Or even a "less than perfect choices" week. I seem to be in the middle of a "less than perfect choice" fiscal year, and I'm about ready to move on. But... WE EACH NEED THE TIME WE NEED TO LEARN THE THINGS WE NEED TO LEARN. Feel free to cross stitch those those words of wisdom onto a few pillows. (Then send them to me to tie to my head while pound it into the wall in frustration.) Just keep on keeping on, and remember that if you mostly eat, what you mostly should, when you mostly should, you will mostly be healthy. The only thing you can fail is "a diet," and we're not on one of those! Sue

You have lost an average of 2.21 pounds per week for 16 weeks. Most banded people would KILL for stats like that. Just putting things into perspective, Sue

All Right! Let's settle this! In the interest of public service, I ordered a Bailey's on the rocks after dinner. Here is what I learned: It burns a little. I shoulda had the booze before the meal (see above). I am even more convinced that sex is a really good plan. Husband is wondering if he can buy me yet another band. Gotta go...I have some...er, uh...plans. Sue

You could try sex. It isn't fattening and it's pretty good exercise. That's where I'm headed next, excessive sex*. ;-D (*which explains the wink and the smile, now, doesn't it?)

Well, of course we all KNEW that, right? (This is where everybody else is supposed to say, "Sure, we knew that."

Some insurances pay for a panniculectomy when there is a medical reason. (I'll look for an example to hook you up.) Then, no insurance (I think I can safely say that) pays for an "I lost weight and now my boobs droop" surgery, HOWEVER...there are policies which pay for medically necessary breast reductions, which--interestingly enough--have a side effect of a lift...and there are those policies which pay for "reconstructive" surgeries. Start with researching YOUR policy. Sue Hee's Aetna's. See how close you are...and don't consider it written in stone. http://www.aetna.com/cpb/data/CPBA0017.html

...and sometimes it's because a reader is sitting here thinking "Hmmmm. Now that you mention it, I wonder, too...."

Renata, I tend to think it's a relatively rare complication that is seen more because more and more bands are being done...you know, a "law of large numbers" thing. Here's a study on port placement and complications. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14738680 I would hope that my doctor read it before s/he tried to replace the port. Good luck, Sue

Jean, The "How Much" is secondary to "What" I'm eating. I just fixed stuffed zucchini for tonight's dinner...but it has no rice or breading in it. I'll probably end up eating my portion tomorrow. Last night, we were out, so we stopped for a very early dinner at a local restaurant chain. Husband ordered the (huge) 1/2 chicken and a mini-slab of ribs dinner. I ordered my own cup of Soup. They had three selections, and I decided against the chicken tortilla, because the tortilla can turn into glue once inside me. I debated between the tomato basil artichoke soup and the garden veggie soup...opted for the far more fattening tomato soup, because I had (yet again) been having a little reflux and wanted little to chew. My husband ate his soup and the chicken breast and a little of the ribs...and the veggies and his potato whilst I diddled with my soup. Just about the time we were ready to leave, my stoma opened itself and I nibbled on a very little meat. When we got home, I had a little more meat. Breakfast this am was half of an organic instant oatmeal packet. I put in about a teaspoon of Peanut Butter and some soy milk...and, of course, real maple syrup to sweeten it. lunch was a few bites out of a Del Taco beef burrito. I brought it home and ate SOME of the meat filling and no tortilla. I just finished a little more chicken (I think it was my dinner) and feeling like THAT was a bargain meal, as the bread and one veggie are still in the fridge. I don't think I'm too tight. I think I'm too old. (On a number of levels.) My brain does not get the "That's enough! Stop right there!" message. My brain gets the "Now you've done it...you've already eaten too much!" message. Esophageal motility--how fast the esophagus processes the food, moving it where it needs to go--slows with age. So, I think what happens is that it takes so long for the food to get to where it's going that I keep eating too much, too fast. The other part of the age thing is, of course, that we old dogs sometimes take a tad longer to learn new tricks. I can eat lots of stuff. But things that get in the esophagus and sit there and start to absorb liquids and swell (breads, pastas, rice, dry meats, etc.) will make me miserable. Some banded can eat anything, but many have issues with the same foods. It's all a matter of learning what YOU can eat. Sue

Just 50 bands. there appears to be a great improvement after 30, but they keep getting better until about 50...when they kind of max-out. Here's one study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14625767 I'll gather more. Here's one that says they needed to do 100 before they were really good... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12582760