Bright

hi everyone, I am still in the researching stage of banding, but really looking forward to having surgery before the end of this year. I am avidly reading as much of the posts as I can, and am getting worried about all the talk about exercise! I am currently about 310 lbs (5'8") and am so exhausted all the time. By the time I have cleaned up around the house, taken care of the kids, cooking etc, I am ready for bed again! My question is, how do you all find the energy, just after surgery, surviving only on liquids, and then mushy food, to go for mile long walks, and swimming and all the other things I am reading about? I am scared that I'll be shattered after the op and practically WEAK from just living on liquids that i won't be able to exercise and will miss out on essential weight loss. I can see being able to lose weight when I have gotten rid of maybe 25% of my excess fat but what will I do until then to speed up the weight loss? Sorry this is so long but I can't seem to find any information on this miraculous energy surge?! Maybe its just pure enthusiasm and "Band High"????!!!! I'd be so grateful for any of your comments thanks

hi babs I've had a chance to read thru the info from Sharon at DMC - sounds great so far - yes you can have a "buddy" go with you to france but it costs from 500 euro! Fills aren't included either but I'm hoping to have those in the uk - apparently this surgeon has done 3600 bands and is considered the world expert! doesn't say anything about airport pick up but i've been to Paris a good few times and am familliar with the metro etc so I don't think that'd be a problem. Also she says france has the best healthcare system in the world according to W.H.O. which is pretty cool too. I need to talk to her in detail to find out what exactly she does offer - heres an excerpt from the mail she sent me: Should you decide to go the ‘French route’ then the cost does not change and I will not present you with a bill but wil arrange it all for you including sending you a medical questionnaire in preparation which I triage in conjunction with Dr Frering. sounds good - I'm so grateful to you babs for finding this website for me - how are you feeling today? Must be tough waiting almost two weeks for a weight loss - I know I always drop a few pounds even now (!) when i get bloated etc once a month so I'll bet that's what it is! take care - chin up xx:)

Hi guys just got a bunch of stuff through email from the De Montagnac people - well namely that nurse/ceo! Sharon - she sounds great - guess what - looks like it will cost 6500 euro (euro are pretty much the same value as $$$'s these days!) which is great! Doesn't include flights but that's not a problem - ryanair are really good value and my husband travels so much we have a few airmiles too! yay! this is moving along so well! talk soon xx

thanks Kathe, those were exactly my worries too - that problems can be dealt with by surgery - but your suggestion is perfect. As soon as I have a surgery date, i'm going to sit them down and tell them that - thanks a million take care

brill Sarah - i'll try there too - this is becoming so REAL! I got a weird email from that nurse Sharon at the Di Montinac Consultants - hold on - I'm going to try to paste it in here: Dear.xxxxx (I xxxxed out my name for a bit of privacy!) I.am.so.sorry.aout.the.weird.punctuation.in.this.email.but.I.am.using.a.foreign.key.board. I.willspeak.to.you.as.soon.as.I.can.-.you.can.try.00.44.1395519285.and.see.if.my.colleague.is.at.the.land.line.I.will.be.in.Dublin.in.October-hoping.to.encourage.some.Irish.surgeons!..Meanwhile.as.soon.as.I.can.send.you.some.sensible.details.I.will.so.please.do.not.be.downe=heartened.this.contatinas.none. Kind.regards Sharon.Bates MSc.RN.RM.DipCo de.Montagnac.Consultants.Ltd I get the foreign keyboard bit but why should i be downhearted???!!! Cos i've to wait til october? Great news about her coming to dublin though! Honey I know about the strange/stranger joke thingy - it's so hard to get what you actually mean across on this medium! By the way I sent you a personal message on this board and i see you haven't read it yet - click on the "user cp" button on the top of the page and you can find any personal messages!!

by the way does anyone know what the difference is between a lap band and the Mid Band? The gastric band service offers the mid band and the picture of the device looks different to the pictures of the ones i'm used to looking at:confused:

Babs/Sarah ~ I agree with you Babs, for the peace of mind alone, of being able to talk with someone in my first language, an increase in cost would be worth it! If you reckon, Sarah, that the op in France would be 4000 euro and the surgeons in the UK have quoted me st£6,600 and £7,750 which works out at 10,500 & 12,300 euro, somewhere inbetween would be great. We had budgeted for about 10,000 - the first (cheaper!) surgeon seems really nice - he's belgian (you'd love him Sarah!!) (Michael Van Den Bossche) and includes in the price, the first follow up and fill, subsequent visits st£100 - the other guy John Rogers, already has 6 - 8 patients in Ireland and has done 250 lap bands - apparently the most of any surgeon in the UK. But these guys pale in comparison to the surgeon on Babs recommended website who has done 3000! So I guess I'll just wait to hear back from them and see if they'll accept a patient from Ireland! By the way Sarah, it's great your boys are bilingual (sp?) - what a gift to give them - it will open many doors in the future for them i'll bet. How are u feeling these days Babs? Still happy with the op and the band and everything? talk soon guys

hi Sarah sorry I didn't mean it like that about the strangers!!! It just feels so great to get all this help from people I have never met! Yeah - I'll wait to see what happens with the other UK based company, but I will try ringing Dr Marre too - Probably on wednesday when I will have some time to myself! I'll send you an email asap with my details, if nothing else but for future friendship! thanks again

sarah - just reread your post above and saw your offer to come with me! Thank you so much - I'm overwhelmed with the kindness of strangers! I would really love that if you wouldn't mind - i'll see how it all pans out with the other uk based company and try to call Dr Marre in the meantime. Thanks a million - you're a pet xx

hey Sarah I was an early starter! My boys are thirteen and nine! My nine year old went back to school today - summer hols over! I really miss him! My other son goes to secondary school and won't be back until wednesday - I'll be heartbroken! It's sunny but cold here today - a real back-to-school-september morning! Glad your barium thing went ok - god isn't that brilliant about your weight loss? You've been battling hunger all by yourself for the past few weeks - well done! Thanks for asking about Dr Marre, I think I have read so much about the surgery at this point that I may just do it myself! I reckon I could muddle through with the french - I went onto the French bandsters yahoo page last night and tried to pick up relevant vocab! Did you see babs message to me above? I sent off my info to the uk based organisation she recommended to me so hopefully, between you, me, babs and a surgeon I will be sipping a turkey and stuffing flavoured Protein shake by christmas! take care & keep in touch xx

hey Babs that website looks great! I sent them off all my info and hopefully they will accept me - seem like the perfect solution - get to have the surgery done in France by an expert, and get fills/follow ups done in England where I can have questions answered and receive support in english! Incidently I went onto one of the Yahoo french support groups last night, and even though my french is a bit rusty, it broke my heart to read how lonely and unsupported most of the women seem to be. Some of them didn't even know another overweight person. Really sad. I only know one other obese person, but we are great support to one another, and I don't know what i'd do with out this support site - thanks so much for all the trouble you went to Babs - you're the best xx:D

Babs - you're brilliant! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much - sounds amazing - heading to the website now - i'll let you know how i get on! Sarah - hope your barium thingy went ok - god help u!!!! Think you're rignt about telling people. I will tell the people who never cared whether i was fat or thin and drive the rest mad trying to figure out how i did it!! I know it's not an easy way out - i will be forced into making better choices despite myself! Take care guys xx

thanks Tonia, that's a great point about letting them know that the change will be gradual. My sons hate when I say i'm trying to lose weight - they want me to stay the same too. I know my older son will be aware of the ramifications of surgery, and will be worried. I have thought about not telling them at all - I am planning to fly to London (or somewhere in Europe!) to have the operation, and they could just think my husband and I were having a weekend away, which we do occasionally. But god forbid, if anything did happen...... I dunno... not an easy one!

Larry ~ thanks for that - i wasn't really scared - more worried about all the flights i'd have to take to get fills! I'm going to my regular gp this week and ask her if she knows anything about the lap band - maybe someone here can do them for me.....sounds like Babs had to train her guy in anyway - maybe I can do that! Sarah ~ thanks a mil for the offer of help with my french - I may need you to! I sent off an email to some surgeons in Brussels too after you set me thinking about Europe - seem Belgium is where a lot of the lap band surgery was perfected and they are more english speaking than france! Have you guys told people about the surgery? At this moment I haven't told anyone - i will prob tell my best friend and my husband of course (since he'll be writing the cheque!!! ). I don't think i'm going to tell my family - can't see them being very supportive and i guess i'm pretty ashamed of my self that I don't have massive will power and need surgery to make me stop eating! anyway - take care everyone

me again! Sorry! just reading you guys talking about clothes - there is a brilliant german store called Ulla Popken at www.ullapopken.de which does large size clothes - miraculously they have not one but TWO stores in Ireland and it's where i get most of my clothes - even tho the store is near me i still get most of the clothes from the website - they deliver any where quite reasonably and the clothes are of great quality and pretty cool too sometimes - they have lots of stores in france and the states too - you can pick your country on the website!

Sarah ~ I can't thank you enough - what brilliant information! I'm going to look up that website asap - better brush up on french! And yeah, i guess, weetabix is a carb - better rethink that - ryvita sounds good. I am so fed up with being exhausted and sluggish all the time - i don't just want to be thin - i really want to be strong and healthy too and live til i'm 100! Larry ~ gosh i didn't think it could be up to seven fills! I'm shocked! I'm sorry you're still hungry and feeling frustrated - I guess it takes a while to settle down but from reading most of the other posts here, i have no doubt that you will find your correct magical fill level and begin to see results. Oh and you and Marcia are definitely invited to visit me too! Did i mention I live only a few miles from the beautiful Tara? And the famous megalithic tomb Newgrange? http://www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm (check it out here!) Not to mention the amazing city of Dublin a few miles the other way! (the advantage of living in a country only 300 miles long!) Anyway enough of my bit for the tourist office! Babs ~ I almost cried when i read your post! It's been so long since anyone complemented me! My mother died this year at a young age (57), and she used to constantly tut tut at me and give me the "you could be so lovely" line - I really regret not getting my weight down while she was alive so this is what motivated me to go for the lap band.... thank you so much - you're a pet xx (god sorry for the length of this everyone! No more pages of waffle i promise!) :D

hey Sarah thanks so much for your post - it's so brilliant reading and hearing from everyone on this board but sometimes it's a little overwhelming not to "speak" american - as in knowing the brand names and dealing with imperial measures instead of metric - great to hear from a european! Having the sugery in Paris is a brilliant idea - i hadn't thought of that - would you be able to send me your surgeons web page (or email address or phone number?) I would be so grateful - i must start looking it up on the web... The diet sheet on my surgeons web page also doesn't mention protein shakes or meal replacement - and suggests porridge or ready-brek for breakfast after two weeks - I have already trying to stick to a post-op diet and think one weetabix with warm skim milk and a light baby-bel would be both nutritious, low fat and protein-full - what do you think? I don't want to live my life drinking shakes and/or potions but i guess for the first few weeks they are necessary for helping with healing and nutritious too. I was in Boots today, and found a "Sanatagen" powder - used for recovery from illness etc, and it's very high in protein/low in carbs so i thought I'd try that - it can be made into a warm drink or put into soups etc. I'm going to eat lots of yogurt too which i love! Your weight loss is fantastic - you must be thrilled! Was the sugery ok? thanks for getting in touch - take care!

As far as I know there isn't anyone in Ireland who does - when I have a surgery date I am going to see my GP (family doctor) and see if she know's anything about it. I have printed out loads of stuff for her, so if there ever is an emergency at least she will have an idea what could be up! I have no intention of getting filled too soon - at the moment I am talking to two surgeons and haven't decided which one to go with and am taking my time researching them. England isn't too far away and flights aren't too expensive - my husband travels a lot for work so we have tons of air miles - and I intend to use them - being healthy with this band is going to be very important to me. Even if someone here in Dublin offered to do the fills, I don't think I'd trust them - i presume I won't need more than three (if even???) and i'd prefer an expert to do it. The surgeons include in the price package the first follow up visit and first fill AND any surgery that may arise from twisted or slipped port or whatever! However, I am relying very heavily on talking to people like yourself online for how things really are - I print every thing out and read it before going to be! I have quite the band bible here already! thanks for your kind interest Babs, hope you're over your traumatic fill experience by now - must feel great to have lost almost forty pounds! wow! take care

Hey it'd be great to meet you! Oh don't even mention the seat belt extenders! I'm going to have to fly to London to have my op and I'm dreading the flight. There are no surgeons here in Ireland that can do the lap band AND i'm going to have to fly back and forth to get fills etc. Incidently, one of the surgeons I emailed about doing the surgery mailed me back last night and refused to take a patient from Ireland as he has had "problems with adequate follow up care" - this kind of spooked me - even tho two surgeons are willing to do it - one even said he fills patients from Ireland tighter to save on travel expenses - I dunno - sometimes this whole idea seems nuts - what if I have some kind of emergency and nobody in this little island can help me? anyhoooo take care Babs

Congratulations Nancy! So glad it all went so well for you - and that so far it's sunny on the *other side* !!:banana Take care of yourself

Babs ~ Wow u lucky thing - you really have travelled - I love Amsterdam - have stayed there a few times. And we mostly holiday in France. Kids here are taught french from the age of 13 as a second language and can choose german and spanish too. I can speak french and german too, not to mention Irish which is our official language! They're all a bit rusty now except for ordering croissants in Paris and "du vin" in Bordeaux which got me into this mess in the first place!! Of course you haven't really been anywhere until you've been to Ireland! You are hereby officially invited to stay with us anytime Thanks for all your advice about the exercise tho, was really worrying me - i won't feel so bad hibernating for a while after the surgery so. Lisa ~ thought Slim Fast was to good and handy to be true! I didn't realise until I started looking at my prospective high Protein, low carb diet, just how much carbs I eat! Ok basically that's all I eat! I'm not very fond of meat and chicken unless they're in a bun covered with cheese and mayo or stir fried with noodles..... thanks for the tips tho....

thanks Jeanie, I really want to get started now because my doc says he can schedule my op two weeks after the initial consultation. I figure I'll need more than just those two weeks to "get ready" diet-wise, and should really have a month or so of preparation. Thanks so much for your advice. Hope you're doing well and feeling good!

hi Alexandra, I have read many of the posts on this forum, (I'm not used to message board thingys or what ever these are properly called!) but "Slim Fast" is the only brand name I recognised as we don't have many diet products in ireland except for Weight Watchers stuff. Yeah, I have to pay for the surgery - about £7,000 sterling, which will be about 11,000 euro (dollars and euro are about the same value these days!) Not everyone in ireland has health insurance - it is way cheaper than in the USA - we pay about $1000 a year for standard health insurance. But then, the insurance only pays for most "normal" illness - for example maternity care cost me about $1000 extra - you can choose to go"public" as we call it, but it will have long waiting times. Someone I know had to wait almost a year for their child to have his tonsils out! As for elective or cosmetic surgery - you have to pay! The Lap Band surgery isn't even done in Ireland - I will have to go to London which is kinda scary - hope the plane ride home doesn't hurt - it's only an hour and a half away anyway hope this answers any questions! by the way i have protein powder and it tastes foul! I guess i must try another type......

thanks Alexandra & Lisa... I guess eating junk food and chocolate all the time isn't going to help my energy levels - I'm so tired all the time!! The surgeon who i hope will do the operation emailed me today to let me know there is no waiting list, and i can have the surgery two weeks after the initial consultation. I just have to sort out the money which should take a week or so and then I guess I will have a surgery date for about a month's time! does anyone have any advice about what i should try to do diet wise for the the next month? I read something about Protein shakes decreasing the size of your liver?? Is "Slim Fast" a Protein shake by the way???!!! sorry for all these questions - seems like i am the only person in Ireland waiting for this surgery! Actually I think I am! thanks folks

hey thanks - like you, I am just starting on this journey - I am talking to two surgeons at the moment, and trying to raise the money for the surgery - it will be about $12,000 not including flights to England! At the moment, being banded seems like a dream, an answer to a really enduring problem. I wish you lots of luck with your journey too take care xx:)