faithmd

If you are comfortable with him and are confident in him as a surgeon, then I'd just let him make the judgement when he's in there. The VG and the AP both have the "Omniform" technology that means there are more like little baffles all the way degrees around the inside of the band (I think I've read someting like 280 or 300 degrees for the VG and a full 360 for the AP). A good thing they say. I'm just kind of surprised that he says he's going to start using the VG when it isn't new, the AP is. That's all. Of note, have you gone to the Allegan site (lapband.com) and the ASBS site (asbs.org) and checked to see if he's Allergan approved and a member of the ASBS? Just a couple of things to do. If your ins. is paying for you to go to him, then you may be stuck. P.S. I was my surgical practice's first AP patient, and my surgeon is probably one of the least experienced in that practice at around 50 bands. But I felt VERY comfortable with him placing my band because of how he answered all of my pointed questions about his stats and what surgical technique he uses, etc. I don't think it's so bad to be the "guinea pig" at all! :confused: When I went for my post-op check the nurse told me congrats for being the first AP, things looked good and that the practice is moving to all AP bands in August.

Okay, got a question for you both: Why is it BAD that you can eat anything? Okay, okay, I know it would be nice to not be able to eat junk foods, but for example the OP mentioned shrimp which is not a bad food at all. I got banded specifically BECAUSE I wanted to be able to eat ANYTHING and not be limited in my food choices. But I do know that I will have to make good food choices and not eat the thick crust pizza, burger with bun, sweet rolls, etc... If I want a nice small cut of filet mignon I want to be able to have it, if I want a shrimp cocktail, I want to be able to eat it, if I want a few pieces of sushi, I hope I can eat that, too. Fresh fruit, I had better be able to get it down. I will be devastated if in order to achieve restriction I am limited in my food choices. And I want to be able to eat 2/3-1 cup of food. 1/4 cup of food wouldn't safely sustain a toddler. Will I probably lose slower for this? Maybe. But I REFUSE to hope for so much restriction that I start living on Protein shakes. I could have done that without surgery.

How awesome! Congrats on being banded and :welcomeB:

:welcomeB: Lorien and vamaillady! Lizrbit: I also have the small AP, I haven't had a fill yet, but don't want to just get a measy little 2 cc's in my darned band for my first fill. Was it your surgeon's choice for the 6.5, was it a request of yours, was it based on how much you were filled before you lost your first band, or was it his usual practice to fill that much on the first fill? I know, loads of questions, but I want to go in prepared for my first fill. And CONGRATS!!!! Great NSV and goodonya on your renewed confidence in your ability to work this band.

Anesthesia and narcotics both can cause difficulty in urinating. A suggestion from someone banded not so long ago (so the constipation is FRESH in my mind), get yourself some Gerber baby juice bottles of Apple Prune Juice. They are the perfect size at 4 oz each and are 70 calories apiece. Drink one per day, it helped IMMENSELY. I then started eating one jar of baby food prunes per day (and dropped the juice) when I made it to mushy/pureed foods. Good for you, pretty yummy, and not a pill to swallow.

It's nice to gather recipes, but there is an entire Forum devoted to food and in it is a recipes thread. Several, actually (for the various food stages). I love your chicken salad recipe! I would love to see you guys share your recipes with everyone, though. :confused:

bun1, good for you for taking a proactive approach to your weight! I wish I could have done this years ago.

Granted that muscle weighs more than fat (if you have the same VOLUME of it), but one doesn't usually gain the same volume of muscle that one had in fat, nor doeasfat turn into muscle. And I'd read in many places that it takes quite a while to have an actual weight gain from muscle mass increasing. So I'm unsure what your gain is from, just being human I would guess. We all fluctuate a lot. I'm up about 3 lbs from last week, but that's life. als long as the trend continues to be downward, I'll be okay. Congrats on joining the boot camp!

Actually, the doctor may NOT be the most experienced at fills. It will depend on each individual, of course, but lots of practices have nurses or PA's or NP's who do all the fills (except for the folks that for insurance reasons must have an MD do it). I'd MUCH rather have someone who does maybe five or ten fills a day than a doc if he may only do a couple a week. You will have to ask your surgeon's office staff, and that is sometimes a hard thing to muster the courage to do, but it's the only way to find out who's your best bet. Also, if your surgeon has a Yahoo group or if there is a support group that meets, or look around on here for other patients that may be farther along than you, you could ask the other patients what their experiences have been and who has done their fills. I know in my surgeon's practice who to stay far away from and who is okay to have do it just from talking with a couple folks on here who go to the same practice I do. In my case, you either see this certain NP or you have one certain surgeon do it.

I am sooooooo happy for you! That is just wonderful, I'm very glad it went well. I know that I will need extensive PS eventually (hopefully, I mean) and I'm weighing where I will have it done, Dallas is a possibility as is SF. Thanks for posting about your experience.

Clairabellleee, check out the food Forum here, there's loads of recipes there. For the thick/full liquids stage I started blending anything that sounded good and adding whatever liquid would go with it it make it more soupy. For example, for July 4th I blended a small can of baked Beans and a fat free hot dog, I added some catsup, a little BBQ sauce and some tomato juice to make it more soupy, it was GREAT. I peeled and removed the seeds from some cucumber and blended it with a little Fage (greek strained yogurt, lowfat sour cream would work, though) and some spices (little salt, pepper, dill) and made a cucumber Soup. For the mushy stage I was directed that if you can cut the food or mash the food EASILY with a little pressure on a fork, that's mushy. Good luck!

Congrats on the weight loss!! I am VERY sorry to tell you that NOTHING, NO exercises will tighten loose skin. Absolutely NOTHING will help the skin itself. The only thing you can tighten are your muscles underneath it all. But if the skin has been stretched from years of excess weight, you just can't tighten it up... Which is VERY sad, I know....I've never been a normal weight since I started growing boobs at age 9. I will (hopefully-cause I hope I lose the weight) have LOADS of loose skin. I am already saving my pennies for my plastic surgery.

I've come to the conclusion that hair loss is inevitable for lots of folks. I changed my eating habits in preparation for this surgery back in early February and had lost 44lbs pre-op. I've been faithfully tracking my intake on fitday and have been getting from 80-100 grams of protein every day faithfully (until surgery-since then I've been getting at least 65 grams), I take two MVI's a day and have been getting my calcium. My hair is still falling out and is ridiculously blah looking. I have been a "shedder" since I got my first salon spiral perm when I was about 15, at that time I lost about 1/3 of my hair volume, it never came back. I've also made sure that my MVI has a good amount of biotin in it (I get about 3-4mg/day). It still falls out. I think it will just happen with fat loss. I hope though that it will grow back. My hair is long, as in looong, to my considerable a$$. I will be DEVASTATED if it doesn't grow back, I haven't cut it in years, I don't want to!!!!!!! I don't want to have to because I lose so much!!!!! Okay, trying to control myself here... Whew!

Hello, I haven't done them yet, and I have read quite a few threads where folks quite a while out from banding have said they have never done either one, or have only done it once or twice. Here's a bunch of links that I thought might be helpful: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f76/what-sliming-29072/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f73/pbs-sliming-17625/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f15/how-long-does-sliming-last-18903/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/pbs-slime-inevitable-19383/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f9/what-do-you-do-if-you-slime-get-stuck-12552/

I would absolutely call him on his comments. Respectfully of course. After that conversation I would call your insurance company and get a name and address of who to write a letter to regarding this matter. If he is the only doc they will pay for, they need to know of his practices. I would write a carefully worded, non-accusatory letter stating what was said to you and to your family. If they can give you specific quotes, include them. And if they are willing, I'd have them sign it. It is blatantly unfair that your insurance company should force anyone to go to a non-supportive, uncaring surgeon without the ability to go see someone else.

I also did, and also married him. Kids actually seem to attract some women, I think. It's really wonderful to see a man who is single and a good, involved, devoted father. Women tend to see that as a positive character trait.

If you scroll down tot the bottom of this page, you will find some other threads aout Medicare, I hope one of these threads can help you. I don't know anything about it, but feel fairly certain that your answers are here, somewhere.

Are you in the US? If so, I'm interested that a surgeon would just now be placing VG bands. The newest band released in the US by Allergan (currently the only Band supplier in the US) is the AP band. It was released for use by US surgeon's at the ASBS conference in mid June. Most surgeons are now going to the AP band, the VG band has been out and being placed for quite some time now. Are you certain he didn't mean AP?

There is some variance in surgeon's orders on this, some say do not drink even before eating. I've seen some folks say 30 minutes after, others say 45 minutes after, and plenty of folks say it's 1 hour they have to wait.

What a GREAT NSV!!!

:welcomeB: ! I'm hoping to make it there sooner or later. I'm not certain when that will be, I'm in a gaining mode right now, it seems. It's close to the TOM, so I'm sure a lot of it is water weight. I'm back to exercising now, so hopefully that will help.

Thyroid or a strange esophageal spasm is about all I could think of, I'm sorry I can't be of anymore help. I'll keep thinking, though.

I should add that I am an open book about just about everything and share all of my trials and tribulations with my co-workers, so my boss was floored when I told her I was keeping my "surgery" private, but she never asked any more about what I was having surgery on.

I did not tell my boss or anyone at work what I was having done. I merely told my boss I was having surgery and I was choosing not to share what was going on with anyone, I told her that to me it was a "private procedure." She could deduce what she wanted from that. She was very supportive and said that anything I needed and if I wanted to discuss anything with her, she'd glady support me. I chose to tell none of my co-workers, either. One day I was just gone. It is simply no one's business but your own.

I'm dragging my husband out for rifle season for the first time in his life this year, God willing. He can spot a deer anywhere, he's got eagle eyes. He doesn't really care for the cold much, so I guess I'll have to break down and get a bigger heater for the blind. I have never had problems with the cold, but who knows this year? Maybe with losing mroe weight it will start to bug me.