Shellyac

Make sure you try all of the different cuts at Old Navy, it really makes a difference. I think they have a description on how each cut fits and I'm pretty sure that there is one that is looser on the thighs

Since the iband is relatively new and there aren't that many doctors that preform it yet, I would like this thread to be a resource for people to find a doctor near them that preforms the iband. Please list your doctors information (Name, location, and contact number) below and I will try to compile the list. If you happen to know of another office feel free to add that info as well FLORIDA Dr Brett Cohen Hollywood Bariatrics 1150 N 35th Ave Hollywood, FL 33021 954-966-8559 GEORGIA Peachtree Surgical & Bariatrics 285 Blvd. NE, Suite 120 Atlanta, GA 30312 404-881-8020

You may want to look into the iband also called the band with plication. With the iband your stomach is folded and sutured to form a sleeve in addition to getting the band. Like the band alone, this procedure is reversible. The benefits are that plication is shown to help prevent some of the complications of the band like slippage and erosion, you don't have to have fills as often (I haven't had a fill yet and I'm hoping to go without ever getting one), for some people their weight loss rate is faster than the average band alone patient. Also the plication serves as a back up to the band, for example I have had restriction from the start, I have never gone through "banster's hell" which is the period of time between getting the band and starting to feel restriction which can last several months. Since being banded I have rarely felt hungry, I get full from small amounts of food, I have never had a getting stuck episode, I haven't pb'd or thrown up after eating (I've only thrown up once since surgery and that was a few days after surgery and it was on an empty stomach). The only negative I would say right now is that because I haven't had a fill yet, I still have a tendency to eat too fast which can cause me to get that over stuffed feeling, I'm sure if I started getting fills the band would help to stop that but I feel that it is a habit that I can work to break on my own.

If you decide that you really want the band with plication you may need to travel, I ended up going to Florida from Maryland to get the iband. You may not need to travel as far because it seems that more doctors are starting to preform plications but it may be a while, if at all, before your doctor does it. If you do have to go to another doctor's office to get the plication, it shouldn't be hard to transfer your paperwork and records to the new office My doctor did not leave any fluid in my band (flushing the band and leaving some fluid in the band is the usual practice of most doctors and that leftover fluid could be considered the first fill, but I'm not sure if it is a standard amount). The reason my doctor didn't leave any fluid is that he feels that if for any reason there is too much pressure in my stomach early on it wanted there to be an easy way out (I assume throwing up) instead of pressure on both ends.

I also became addicted to the scale after surgery. I was on mine almost every time I was near yet, plus they have medical scales in most of the bathrooms in my office building so I was also tempted to weigh in there. I decided to give up weighing myself for Lent so it's been two weeks since my last weigh in, I've got a doctor's appoinment tomorrow so I'll find out if the lack of constant checking helped or hurt

I would say that by getting the iband you will have less of a chance of having a problem eating bread. I'm not sure about the diet soda, I haven't had any soda since surgery but I did have a carbonated malt beverage and it went down ok. Generally the biggest benefit of the iband is that it helps to prevent complications like slippage and erosion. Also you don't need to have fills as otten, or possibly at all. You also have the beneit of having restriction right away, personally I have not felt hunger since weeks 2 and 3 after surgery and it is possible that "hunger" may have been caused by excess stomach acid. Another beneit of the iband is that the plication serves as a back up to the band, even though I don't have any Fluid in the band I can only eat a small amount at a time, even slider foods. I have never had a stuck episode or pb'd, I haven't had any trouble with any food that I have eaten. The only negatives I have experienced would have happened with the band and probably have been worse, so far that is I have a tendency to eat too fast so I pretty much go from 0 to holiday dinner stuffed with some meals, it's possible that getting filled will help to cure me of this problem but I'd rather work on that problem on my own for now.

Have you recently starting taking an iron supplement? I get nasty burps after taking one and I've read about others that get the same reaction.

I don't have any problems with bread but that may be because I haven't gotten a fill yet. I am hoping to do this without getting a fill because I feel that the plication gives me plenty of restriction. The only carbonated drink that I've had since surgery was a malt beverage about a week ago. For the most part it was fine but I was at a club where the not only stop serving drinks at 2 am they take your drink away from you so I decided to chug about half the 12 oz bottle and that took a little effort but it wasn't painful

Here is the info to get it for the iphone http://www.myfitnesspal.com/iphone

I've only been banded about 2 months but I became obsessed with getting on the scale, as in several times a day both morning an evening. I decided to give up weighing myself during Lent, the only times I will get on the scale will be at doctor appointments. I've got my first one scheduled this Thursday and I'm anxious since it will have been two weeks since I had a weigh in

You might be able to do toast, especially if you haven't had a fill yet. I've even seen some people say that they can do toast but they can't do regular bread.

I'm shellyac_1 feel free to add me

People often gain weight immediately after surgery because of the IV fluids that they give you for surgery

I've used them on occasion mainly because I've read on these sites about not using them. I am careful to drink slowly through them as I don't want to suck down too much air but I haven't felt any negative effects from using them.

From what I've heard it's best to wait

If you suffer from acid reflux and you are willing to go with the gastric sleeve plication, you may be able to have your surgery covered by insurance. The sleeve plication is a procedure based on the Nissen fundoplication which is used to treat acid reflux. My sister was unsure of having the band but was interested in plication as a stand alone WLS procedure. While plication on it's own isn't usually covered by insurance, the Nissen fundoplication is covered so her doctor will give her both at the same time and it will be covered by her insurance. While plication as a WLS is relatively new it does show some promise, especially since one of the side effects of the fundoplication was weight loss. Plication is also being preformed with lap bands so far the majority of us that have had the band with plication done are happy with the results. If you do decide to consider the plication be aware that not all doctors will bill it as a treatment for acid reflux, the doctor that my sister is using is in Miami so you may need to travel. One important benefit is if you do go this way, you won't have to jump through the usual insurance hoops and can pretty much have the surgery right away. Another option you may have is to see if you have a hernia, if you do you could have the surgery to repair the hernia and then self pay to have the band put in which could save you thousands over paying for the band surgery on its own

I have gone out drinking a few times recently and generally I do get drunk of fewer drinks, it also differs by who makes them because if you are at a place where they don't go by standard amounts you can get in trouble

I don't think that it is really fair to compare regular banders and ibanders because those with the iband have two ways to feel restriction (the band and the plication) whereas those without plication are only dependent on the band. Generally it seems everyone gets that full feeling in the first few weeks because of the swelling associated with getting the band. However after the swelling goes down, those without plication may not feel any restriction because they don't have that much (if any) Fluid in their bands and that is where the restriction comes from. Once the band starts getting filled, food has a harder time getting past the band and if you continue to eat the food with then start piling up and that is what causes most of the complications (PBing, throwing up, slippage) Also during the fill process if you haven't gotten restriction food is going into a regular sized stomach, so you aren't really going to feel full on a tiny portion. Also slider foods will be a problem even if you have restriction because they are also going into the full sized stomach. However with addition with the plication, even without having the band filled you will feel full on a small meal because the stomach is now much smaller so even without band restriction, there is only so much you can eat before you feel full. The one problem i have is that since I don't have any fluid in the band I can eat faster than I probably should which means that while I don't eat near as much as I did before surgery, by the time the "you're full" signal gets to my brain I'm way past satisfied to post Thanksgiving dinner full and I'm uncomfortable for about an hour or so, and if I try to drink anything in that state it can get painful. I know I need to work on eating the right amount from the start, this usually happens when I eat out and order a regular meal

My band is currently empty and I flew for the first time two weeks after surgery and again about a month later and I didn't have any problems either time. My flights were about 2 and a half hours each way

You should also ask someone else if they think the clothes you were wearing are too big for you. I was wearing the same pants that I wore before surgery for about a month afterwards even though I was down about 20 lbs. I did have to hitch them up every so often but to my eye they were still wearable. I had a few people that knew that I had surgey tell me that it was time to buy some new clothes. I went to Old Navy and at first I was trying on size 20 figuring between the vanity sizing and the fact that I was wearing their 24's before that should be where I was but surprisingly I was able to get into their 18's and even those are starting to get a little loose. I think that we are just prone to not always being a good judge on how clothes look on our changing bodies. Also I wouldn't worry about people not saying anything, I think at times people are afraid to say something early on. And there are times when the opposite is true, I had friends say they could see a difference and I thought I looked the same. I'm only now seeing a slight difference in my face

The same thing happened to me. About a week after surgery I was down from 269 to 253 and few days later I had my follow-up (about 10 days out) and was at 259 which the doctor was happy about. Over the next few weeks I had gotten close to surgey weight and I had my 1 month visit coming up. By the time the one month visit came around I was up about a pound. I was afraid that they were going to recommend that I get a fill but I didn't want one because I have good restriction and don't feel hunger from the plication. I did get some advice on how much Protein and carbs I should have daily and in the week and a half since that appointment I'm down about 6 or 7 pounds. Give your body time to adjust. I'm not sure how nomal it is but it happens. Also I found that in that time that the weight weight went up and slowly game back down, I must have lost inches because my clothes became too big and others noticed the weight loss on me

What's even worse is their previous spokesman a 575 lbs 29 year old man died last year from complications from pneumonia. That place just has some bad karma

I just looked at your profile and ans saw that Dr. Singh is you're doctor. The funny thing is that I will probably be transferring to his office because according to his website he preforms the plication which is part of the iBand. I had mine done in Miami because I couldn't find any doctors that did it in the DC area and he is the first one I have seen that does plication. I'm going back to Miami for my first few follow-up but eventually I need to find a doctor up here. My sister has an appointment next week to find out about getting the plication, so far I don't think the plication alone is covered by insurance and I think it costs about 10K out of pocket. Another advantage of the iBand is that it is covered by insurance.

I would recommend looking into the iBand. I had it done about 6 weeks ago and I'm pretty happy with the results. I generally feel little to no hunger and I have no limitations in what I can eat, just in how much I can eat. Currently my band doesn't have any Fluid in it and I hope to keep it that way but I like knowing that if needed it can be filled to help me get more restriction if needed. I do go back and forth about how I feel about my rate of weight loss, I know that generally the band as a lower rate and I am OK with that but I also know that plication can help you lose faster, almost at the same rate of the sleeve.

I agree, it sounds like you need more protein. Also even though you aren't feeling hungry doesn't mean you shouldn't eat. Just plan your meals for the day and the times that you should eat them. The thing about the band is that in addition to not being able to eat as much you shouldn't be getting hungry between meals which it sounds like is happening for you since you weren't hungry in the evening. You should shoot to get the 60-70g of protein a much as possible also I was told to stay around 800-1000 calories a day. It might be useful to use a program like my fitness pal to help you keep track, Also you don't want to fall in the trap of eating too little because you can. Your body can start to hold onto fat if you don't get enough calories in