WASaBubbleButt

Ditto. Seems as though it's a much easier process in Mexico vs. the US.

Atkins is a way of life for me. I don't eat many white carbs for the most part and I don't count carbs I do eat. It makes no difference to me and I'm usually in ketosis just from avoiding white carbs. Ketoacidosis is what is dangerous, ketosis is when you burn fat and one of the chemicals burned fat becomes is keytones. Thus, ketosis.

Matrix 5.0 w/water or Whey Gourmet Choco/PB w/water and not milk. Yummy

I'm hooked on shrimp for the time being. My freezer went out the other day and the only thing in there was a two pound bag of shrimp. My dog and I ate the whole thing throughout the day.

If the liver was that large and slippery, the doc would not likely complete the surgery so it would be a non issue. It's not a matter of fewer lacerations, it's a matter no lacerations in the liver. The bruising and pain comes from the gas they use to blow up your belly so they can see what they are doing. That's what pushes and pulls on things as well as irritating the nerve that causes shoulder pain.

I don't think anyone needs to be obsessive about counting calories just because they do count them. I count calories and Protein grams. Takes me about 5 minutes daily. Doesn't sound obsessive to me and it keeps me accountable. I have found that the greater majority of people who are not losing weight really have no clue how many calories they are consuming. Then when they don't lose weight they have no idea why that is. My doc keeps us at 800 calories daily during weight loss and that doesn't leave a lot of room for cheating or wasted calories. It worked for me.

Yep, I was just going to ask that. Sounds like blood pressure issues but this is something you'd need to talk to your doc about.

Mona... It was good talking to you today. Now GET UP and get out of that bed. You aren't sick, your surgery was not major, get up, walk, do laps up and down the hallway. No excuses!

There are quite a few examples out there of people who didn't think the doc would know the difference if they followed a pre op diet or not. They ended up going into surgery, the doc would take a look at the liver and close them up, no band. They were sent home to follow the diet and told not to return until it was done. I was reading one of Dr. Ortiz patients who related a conversation between Dr. Ortiz and his nutritionist. The nutritionist was not big on making people stick to the diet. One day he called her into OR to see what he was looking at. A fatty, slimy, difficult to manage liver. He told her she was making his job too hard. From that day on she changed her tune about people following the pre op diet. She learned her lesson when she saw it with her own two eyes. It makes a huge difference, it can mean the difference between complications or no complications as well as getting a band or being sent home to do it the right way. It can also mean having to resort to an open procedure vs. lap so recovery is months vs. days. If people want a band and weight loss enough, they'll do anything it takes.

I can guzzle a 16 oz bottle of water in a couple of minutes.

The idea of a pre op diet is not so that you recover faster, it doesn't make a difference in that aspect. The issue is the danger involved. If your liver is too slippery and difficult to manage you stand a much greater chance of liver lacerations and damage. But the pre op diet doesn't have a thing in the world to do with how you recover. It makes the surgery much easier for your surgeon which means it is safer for you.

You do realize, of course, this means that someone who really DOES have shortness of breath will have to wait for the faker to finish, right?

I know one had 7 IDs, then there is another that has a slew of them but she's always done that. When she gets caught she creates all new IDs.

OMG, I am so sick of patient coordinators. They post here under so many IDs one would swear they change their underwear less often than they change their IDs. When we catch them red handed with various IDs they just stop using those IDs and create more! I even received a PM from one of them asking me not to post her doc's stats. I suppose it makes him look bad but 4% erosion will do that considering global stats are 1.3%. This same doc claims to "cure" erosion with Proton Pump Inhibitors and he backs his claims up with a self funded study. That's like putting antibiotic cream on your nose to cure a toothache. Nexium, Protonix, and those types of drugs are NOT going to cure erosion but it can put off treatment until there is enough damage done to the stomach to harm the patient. It can't work and it doesn't work. These people have no problems faking posts, pretending to be unhappy patients of other doctors, spreading links around with half truths and misinformation, but if one dares to post the FACTS of their own employer, you'd think the world was coming to an end. Ever since Lauren and I did the "Researching Mexican Doctors 101" thread they chase me around like a neurotic yapping 4# Poodle stuck to my ankle. Sometimes it's annoying but other times I know we did a good job on that thread and it makes me smile to see how they have responded. It irritates them to see people learning what questions to ask, how to see who is dodging information, and how to research. What really blows my mind above and beyond all is why in the world would anyone work for a doc, or why would any patient refer another person to a doc with horrible stats? Why would anyone NOT want people to research and find the best doc for them? I don't get it. Where is the bond fat people have to take good care of one another? To specifically ask me not to post the stats of a doc because it makes him look bad, how horrible is that? What kind of a jackass does it take to want to hide information like that from potential patients? Yet these same people do anything they can to trash the good docs. I suppose if they worked for a quality surgeon with actual experience vs. the "claimed" experience, they wouldn't have to trash the good docs to make their silly, 4% erosion stat doc look good. I guess the almighty dollar speaks loud and clear and certainly carries more weight than someone getting a safe surgery. It just seems like here, above and beyond any other place, we should be supporting people and helping them to find good docs. Not worrying about $$. These people even started a new thread when I posted their doc's stats because they claimed I "ruined" it by posting FACTS. Is it $$? Is it denial? Is it shame for not doing their own research before their own surgery? WTH? People still continue to amaze me. I hate patient coordinators. They make used car salesmen named Honest Ernie look like Gods in comparison.

Mona... When you get home give me a call. I don't want to call you because I don't want to wake you up. Between your sleep schedule due to your job and just having had surgery I don't want to call and bug you.

First thing you need to do is to really stop and think if you are honestly hungry or if you just want to eat. If you are hungry your stomach will almost hurt. With head hunger that chocolate cake is calling your name. The band won't do a darn thing for head hunger, just stomach. You also need to realize that with a band we aren't looking for full. We are looking for satisfied. Every couple of bites stop and ask yourself if you are really hungry or if you just like doing what you are doing, eating. Normal size people do not eat until they are so full they feel like they'll pop. That's an uncomfortable feeling. There is no reason to eat beyond the satisfied stage. That is merely a bad habit that we all need to break. Go to the grocery store and buy a small peach. At every meal put that peach on your plate. When you serve yourself your meal keep in mind that your pouch is about the same size as a small peach so there is little value in piling food on your plate. You need to push to get your fill done before a full month has gone by. I can see having you wait for a full two weeks between fills but if you don't have any difference in restriction after your last fill then it needs to be adjusted again. Your doc made a tidy sum on your surgery. It's time to motivate him and get to your sweet spot.

Ace... Honestly, you need to go to your doc and insist on a barium swallow. Your symptoms are that of being too tight and they are also the same as slip. This needs to be diagnosed and taken care of. Which band did you get? One of the newer bands is too big for everyone and they put just enough saline in it during your banding surgery so it fits well. If you got that kind of a band they can always remove a bit of the saline.

This is incorrect. The most common way to fix a slip is to unfill the person and put them on liquids again for 2-3 weeks. This is how slips are fixed 80% of the time. The other 20% will likely need surgery to either fix the slip or do a different WLS. I realize the above is not something you wrote, I just wanted to point out for the sake of newbies that not all slips require surgical repair.

Yep, same with Lizrbit. But I have a hunch she has other IDs and if she doesn't, she'll create them soon enough. At least her writing style is pretty unique and it's easy to see when it is her. She can only maintain appropriate behavior for so long before she blows.

I have a hunch she was going for the humor aspect of stoma spewing.

A friend and I went to Mexico a couple of weeks ago and there is this GREAT Italian restaurant in an extremely old building. We went there for lunch and of course, since I was in public and eating I got stuck. The first thing I do when I go to a restaurant is to know where the bathrooms are. So I go in the bathroom cuz I think I'm gonna hurl and I discover there is no door. Instead it's really a short winding hallway. You can't see anything but damn sure you can hear it. Here I am barfing, sliming, and foaming and trying to do it quietly. I'm pretty sure I didn't as when I came out of the bathroom everyone was looking at me. How embarrassing. I'd be afraid to do that. Example, if you slip then 80% of the time an unfill and going on liquids will fix the slip. The only way I would ever be able to tweak the fill is surgically. $1500 for a fill is a bit much! HA!

Many times fills cause people to have nausea. Just do everything you can to prevent barfing.

I can relate to this. I realized one day that I got old while I was fat The rooster thing going on under my chin, the fine wrinkles around my eyes... it's awful. My gut is the worst, yuck! Before I got fat I was pretty nice looking if I do say so myself.

If you are hungry within 30 minutes of a meal than you need a fill. If you CAN eat another entire meal and not barf then you may not have good restriction. If your pouch is empty in 30 minutes, your fill is not adequate. Are you actually hungry after eating a meal or is it just that the chocolate cake is calling your name? You aren't really hungry but you want to eat anyway?

I don't donate to charity anymore. One day it dawned on me that I personally know people that need help so I work with those folks. When I ran a care facility is when I finally realized it was a little stupid to give to charity when I had patients that needed things. My neighbors had a bad year a few years ago so I put gifts on their doorstep at xmas and never said a word. To this day they have no idea who left the stuff there. I don't want charities deciding where my money goes. I prefer to give it directly to those who need it.