GeezerSue

Where are you? Are you okay? Are you all skinny and leading a happy, active life and too busy for internet bulletin boards? Keep in touch!

I'm fine; thanks for asking. I just sent you an email. I've been her for months and don't have any idea what these symbols all mean, but they're cute!

Anne, I hate real world choices, don't you? Okay, in response to your question, some thoughts: •Call me selfish (and you'd be right), but I'm not willing to be part of someone's learning curve just for the benefit of others. I am glad that others are sufficiently altruistic, because I enjoy the benefits. But I'm not going to join the line-up. •How did a band-unfriendly surgeon get that much experience? A wonderment to be sure! •There is a VERY experienced surgeon in the midwest, who does beautiful surgeries and apparently has the bedside manner of Atilla the Hun, and an office staff of ex-drill sergeants. But his work is good. So that's probably where I'd go. (On the other hand, we'd probably argue later and part company and I'd be sorry about my decision.) •Please note, that nobody died in either group. And, that even the more experienced surgeons had complications. So there are no guarantees, either way. •I'm not a particularly lucky gambler, so I like the odds on my side to begin with. Not everybody feels that way. •I'd rather be patient #1, #2, or #3, than patient #9 or #17. That's because the first three surgeries are proctored, with a thoroughly experienced LapBand surgeon in the room. My preferences are not better-informed than anyone else's, they're just mine. We have to do what we have to do to save our lives. Remember, I just said we should ask the question...I didn't mean to make your decision for you. Sue

The authors (I imagine) did the surgeries and the study. Now the questions are: •which group were you in; and, •did you have any problems?

A recent study showed that there are five times as many complications in patients whose doctors are new at the LapBand. (All LapBand doctors are experienced at laporoscopic surgery, but experience with the LapBand makes a difference.)

Eat Weight Disord. 2003 Sep;8(3):218-24. Links Therapeutic outcome of adjustable gastric banding in morbid obese patients. Hotter A, Mangweth B, Kemmler G, Fiala M, Kinzl J, Biebl W. Department of Psychosomatics, University Clinic of Psychiatry, Innsbruck, Austria. alexandra.hotter@tilak.or.at We examined 77 obese patients treated with bariatric surgery in order to analyse treatment success, and compare those with a good or a poor outcome. The subjects, who were recruited one year after undergoing adjustable gastric banding, were asked questions concerning their sociodemographic status, postoperative course, past and present weight status, eating behaviours and difficulties in changing eating habits. Furthermore, we also used two body image questionnaires, and considered the patients' evaluations of positive and negative changes, as well as their wishes for the future. There were no preoperative differences between the 71% of patients in the good outcome group and the 29% in the poor outcome group. With regard to the postoperative course, the poor outcome group had more problems in adapting to new eating behaviours, experienced significantly more post-surgical complications, and had a persistently negative body evaluation. Both groups were satisfied with their achieved weight loss achieved, and their improved self-esteem and mobility. Adjustable gastric banding seems to be successful in inducing weight loss and allowing a better quality of life. However, factors such as postoperative complications, the ability and willingness to adopt new eating attitudes, and an improved body image seem to be crucial for therapeutic outcome. PMID: 14649786 [PubMed - in process]

In southern California, the clinical trials for the Obtech Band were conducted at Scripps (La Jolla, I think). I'd start there, in the bariatric surgery department. Try (858) 554-5522, Dr. Brunson. My guess is that other than those doctors who were in the clincal trials, US doctors will have almost no experience in this department.

Janel, Do you know how many LapBands she has placed? I ask because many surgeons have lots of Lap-experience, but if they haven't done at least fifty bands, they are still in the "learning curve" phase. Sue

How's 2004 so far? Is it a big party? :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny :banana :Bunny

Also, have hubby go here: Jamba juice - Whole Foods/Philadelphia 929 South Street PHILADELPHIA PA 19147 (215) 733-9788 to get you a Peanut Butter Moo'd. (Or a chocolate one.) Get the free Protein boost. If you get the large one, it has about a billion calories, (actually about 1300) but you don't care right now, and most of the protein you need (42g) to get through a day. Make the shake last all day if you can. They are really good. Sue http://www.jambajuice.com

Sultana, You didn't ask me, but that never stops me! So here I am. You are, IMHO, working the general anesthesia out of your system. That takes AT LEAST three days, during which your emotions should be all over the map. You may need weeks! Our daughter's worst time post-op (for PS) was week three, during which she was just generally not fit to be around any life forms! Meanwhile, three days post-op, almost all doctors have you on clear liquids...the more liberal allow "full liquids." No egg...maybe some of the yolk from a soft boiled egg. No purees. No cottage cheese, yet. Your stomach needs to let the band heal in place before it takes any chances. Slow down! You were under a general and had a appliance implanted. Just drink liquids and be grumpy and sad and know that this is really normal! Sue

Had lunch a few days ago with some friends/former co-workers. One of the five of us is underweight, one is pretty much on target, two of us are wls patients (both still overweight, but nothing like pre-op) and then there's the other one. She is the nicest, smartest woman. But she is SO deep in denial. She actually said that her weight problems are not the result of overeating, because she doesn't eat very much. I used to have lunch with this woman on a daily basis. She eats much. Really much. And, as she was explaining that she doesn't eat much, she was finishing a HUGE beef-dip sandwich and fries. This is NOT a woman of limited intelligence. She is a bright woman, a professional, has multiple degrees, and has professional siblings. (She also has a husband with food-related medical problems and some kids at normal weight and other who are obese.) But, her BMI has got to be well, well over 50. She is really big, but says she's healthy and athletic. Question: Now that YOU have had surgery or are considering it, how do you handle conversations with friends like mine? She's still in her 40's and I'd love to see her get healthy while she's relatively young. (I'll be 57 in a couple of weeks...she looks VERY young to me.) Do I pretend that she's right? Do I assume that because portion sizes are so big, she really thinks that she eats reasonable amounts of food? Do I let her think she's convincing me, when I don't believe a word of it? Right now, I just respond with, "Well, you know better than anyone else how you feel." What do y'all do? Sue

She will "admit" to being bigger than she'd like to be. And I know she accepts that she feels lousy, because she mentions how tired she gets. But she also says that she's "large-boned" and that therefore all of the weight charts and BMI calculators are wrong in her case. She asks lots of questions, so I know she's interested...but then she says aloud the justifications she's giving herself. And those are the things that are hard for me to ignore. I don't want to agree with her, and buy into her fantasy. And I also don't want to say anything she's not ready to hear and alienate her...so I don't. She asks a lot of questions and then "terminates" the discussion with "Well, I'm glad you're doing better. But I need to find another answer for me, because my weight isn't from my eating too much, and those charts are for people with tiny bones." Then I say something like, "Well, those charts sure don't know how you feel. Your'e the only expert. You have to trust yourself. " And that's where I end it, because I'm not ready to lie to her. So I say things that can be interpreted two ways. I'm just wondering how the rest of you deal with those friends.

Sultana, I think you are absolutely on-target normal. This is the first time you have had to consider losing the "tool" you have utilized to deal with happiness, anger, loneliness, fear, isolation, frustration, pain, abandonment, jubilation, whatever... IMHO, I think you'd be a moron to not be a little concerned about on what terms you are going to meet life in the absence of your "tool." Sue

Bob, I don't believe that insurance companies are legally empowered to arbitrarily call a procedure "investigational or experimental" when it is neither. There is an attorney named Walter Lindsttom who writes reasonably-priced, ugly letters to remind them of where the line is drawn. AND, Don Mills at Inamed has written several friendly letters reminding insurance companies that the investigation is over, the experiment is over...it is an FDA-approved procedure. Period. Give Inamed a try and then consider Lindstrom. They've worked for others. (I think the insurance comapnies backed down and said something like, "Oh! THAT LapBand. There was a misunderstanding.") Sue *whose daughter's PS said that the appeal letter I wrote was so good that I should start a business doing just that.

I suspect that they each--in their own way--block your stoma. The bread turns into concrete and the lettuce lays down a little "mesh screen," and then your stomach tells your brain that there's a blockage and the brain starts pumping saliva just when you don't need anything else in that esophagus, and next thing you know, you're a hiccuping, barfing, spitting mess...or at least I am.

It occurred to me--I'm sometimes a little slow on the uptake--that I had been medicating for reflux for nigh onto three months, with only moderate relief. So, I found a few photos of what esophagitis looked like and went running for an unfill. Dr. Kuri was kind enough to do the unfill. He had also done my first fill, a year ago, even though he was not my surgeon. Actually, it was the random, spontaneous trip from hell and occasonally a laugh riot. I started the morning in the Laguna Niguel area, brunching with a family member and then talking to my "eating coach" (?--I just made up that title), and deciding that I needed an unfill NOW. I drove down the coast to the next Amtrak stop--San Juan Capistrano--and got there with five minutes to spare for the next train! I took the train to the end-of-the-line, in San Diego, and then hopped on the San Diego Trolley. So far, so good. Then I got really dumb. Instead of taking the trolley to the end of the line at the border, I decided (why? because I speak just enough Spanish to get into trouble) to follow the locals and get on the MexiCoach bus, a few miles north. WHAT A TRIP! Eventually, the entire bus was telling me how to get to Kuri's office via those red, third-world-cab-co. 70-cent taxis. I told one lady that if I got lost, I'd be staying at her house for the weekend. Another woman, near my age, decided to adopt me and take me with her. I suggested that since it's the time of year to start making tamales for Christmas, she was really trying to find free labor for the tamale venture. By the time we got off the bus, everyone was wishing me a happy career as a tamale-maker. We were all laughing. HOWEVER, she did in fact know where I wanted to go and I walked right across the street and into Kuri's office. Dr. Kuri has always had trouble locating my port, and it happened again. We had both been hoping we could do the adjustment in the office, but no luck. I had to wait until he finished with his other patients, and we went to the flouro place and unfilled me. And there I was...about 7:00 p.m, with my lousy night vision, in a foreign country, without a toothbrush, and my car was in the parking lot of a train station I couldn't get to, and which had had tow-away signs for those who tried overnight parking. I went to the hotel, ate in the dining room, bought a toothbrush and toothpaste and went to my room. By 5:46 this morning, I was on the US side and on the trolley headed north. I got to San Diego around 6:30, caught the 7:05 train headed north and at 8:30 discovered my car where I had left it. (Maybe the handicapped sticker helped?) By 9:15, I was home, after stopping for a Breakfast burrito and actually being able to eat a little bit of tortilla. DONALI, WHY DID I NOT GET YOUR PHONE NUMBER BEFORE I VENTURED OUT? I plan to give my esophagus several weeks to heal itself before addressing the REfill issue. Sue

Kiwigirl, That is EXACTLY what happens when I'm in charge of the vacation. I plan like a maniac, but have three alternates "just in case." By the time I get there, I feel familiar enough with the area to try something altogether different. My family is not amused.

Two previous abdominal surgeries here...c-section and hysterectomy. So know you know where the expression "Believe half of what you read and nothing of what you hear," comes from. Sue

Reflux. It can be a dangerous thing. And it can make you cranky, cuz you get less and less sleep.

Kelly, With nine pounds gone in two weeks, I'd be a little suspicious that I had at least some dehydration going. IF that's the case with you, you might "gain" a few pounds upon rehydration. Don't panic if that happens! I'm rolling around in the ethnic glories of the holidays right now. Lasagne on one side of the family and tamales on the other. I haven't been able to eat either in over a year, so MY current weight gain has a little more to do with food than with rehydrating.:nervous Pasta, masa (the "bread" part of the tamale), enchiladas, tortillas, potatoes and salads and oranges, even celery! So...I'm off to the gym! Sue

Thanks for asking, Michelle! The reflux was gone within days, and I just stopped the meds. I'm planning on a re-fill in the near future, but a minimal one. Sue

Kiwigirl, When I have restriction, there are some foods that just routinely clog up the stoma and cause problems. They are doughy bread, Pasta, rice, raisins (or any dehydrated food that will expand once it gets in the stomach), and potatoes in any form. One restaurant serves stuffed shrimp that contains no breadcrumbs and I love it. But if I order it at the next restaurant, I spend the evening in the restroom with horrific excess salivation happening. Crabcakes can be made with or without breadcrumbs. With proper restriction, I can tell you within a minute or two which it is I just ate. So, in my case, it would not have been that I ate another forkful, but that it was a forkful of potatoes. The band is different for each of us, but when I have ANY saline in my band, those items are regularly problematic. Sue

Yup. First time LAX-MEX-MTY, business class. Next time was a direct, non-stop LAX-MTY flight, in coach and it was ever so much better because we didn't have to go through Mexico City and change planes and all. Rumbaut has a limo guy (taxi, actually) holding a sign with your name at the airport...I imagine Sanchez does the same.

Marcia, Here's something I'm learning 14 months post-op. The band is a tool. It helps, but only so much. I am thoroughly capable of having plenty of restriction and losing nothing. Most people are. So, while Larry is moving along swimmingly right now, there may come a time that weight loss just stops, because the "easy" part of is over and now it's all about making wise choices. I'm glad I got my band. it got me here. But now, in all honestly, I'm closer to where you are than to where Larry is in terms of how hard this is. (I have no saline in my band right now, and can eat a HOST of things I couldn't eat a few weeks ago. So I do eat them.) Here's what I'm working on doing: --I ask myself why I'm going to eat what I'm about to eat. --I think about whether the food in question will meet the need" (boredom, loneliness, frustration) I'm experiencing. --I decide whether to eat it or not. --I remind myself that it is, in fact, not the very last time I can have access to this food, so it's okay to not eat it all right now. --I remind myself that since I have been unable to eat certain foods for over a year, that my acting like I just escaped from Dachau is NORMAL, and WILL PASS. --I tell myself that IF I choose to eat the entire 1.75 qts of ice cream today, it is not necessary for me to eat anything else (you know, the "healthy" stuff, so I can eat what I want)...AND...that tomorrow I will probably make healthier choices. --I remind myself that I'm working on changing to healthier choices. --I try REALLY HARD to love me anyway, just the way I am right now. Sue