WASaBubbleButt

You have to chew like crazy, count 30 chews for each bite of meat. Don't swallow until it has become a paste in your mouth. Take one bite, chew it to a paste, wait a few minutes and do it again. Not all meats work for everyone, try some extra moist roasted chicken or tuna salad with lots of mayo. Eat so slowly you think you'll explode in sheer frustration. You get used to it and as you learn to deal with your band it will go faster. If you are chewing to a paste it shouldn't be any different from nachos in how it goes down. If you take a nacho and put it in Water it turns into liquid or a paste, same as the meat you chew. You have to make the good food choices, nobody can do that for you. Instead of nachos try veggie chips and NOT from Walmart, those are just colored potato chips but REAL veggie chips (look up J&D Fine Foods on line). Instead of pizza have some roasted chicken. You can do this.

Well said. The band doesn't choose food for us, we do that. I agree that once in a while various other foods are okay but in my case, I do that about once a month. This is a lifestyle change, not a diet.

There is a person that posts here that had a band but I don't recall how old she was when she was banded, 16? She's from Canada. I know of another that was 14-16??? She got hers in Mexico. I honestly don't know if the US docs would band you or not. How much have you researched banding? There is sooooo much information you need to know. There is a huge amount to learn. It takes months of reading, asking questions, participating in discussions, etc. before you can even begin to know if banding is for you. More so at your age as there isn't a huge amount of clinical data out there. What do your parents think? Are they supportive of this? As for insurance, it totally depends on the policy. If your parents get their insurance through an employer the employer has to actually purchase a WLS part of the policy. It's extra money so many employers don't do it as it can get expensive. It's one of those things that you really can't depend on the insurance company to tell you. Many people when calling their insurance carrier were told that this was not a covered procedure but upon reading the actual policy it turns out it is covered. I would start off with researching this a great deal. Then talk to your parents, see how they feel. Then call your insurance company and see if it is covered. If they say it is not then ask them where you would find the exclusion in your insurance policy. Then research the policy and verify for yourself that it is not covered. If they claim it is covered then ask where you will find that in your policy and verify that too. That's a start. Good luck to you!

Lots of doctors claim they have never heard of this but there are so many people that have it, I don't understand that. I guess I'm lucky, I never even had this pain after surgery. There was no appropriate option for me to vote. No shoulder pain.

I was a fast food junkie and I no longer tolerate fast foods. They just don't go down. It's forced me to choose better foods and best yet, I prefer better foods now. And not in huge quantities.

There are many good docs in Mexico and the US. Just do your research, verify everything you are told by anyone and things will be fine. The majority of docs are great, there is no reason to put off banding if that is what you want. Good luck to you!

Have you moved here yet, Grace? AZ is great!

It ranges but AZ is not the cheapest, Denver is. If you need to stay in the US I'd check out Dr. Kirshenbaum. I haven't heard anything negative about him. He now has the experience in banding and it's a pretty good option. It's $9950 then travel, hotel, etc. I think Mona was looking at $12K total. It would actually be closer for you to go to Mexico. And cheaper. But if you are looking at US then Denver would be my vote.

Clara... In the beginning of my banding days it was a real challenge due to some band problems but after that was fixed and I realized that I could eat... I did!! I ate everything in sight. For two days I should add. The idea is to not put it off. Not tomorrow, not after one more meal, but now. Start back now. I'm not so sure it's a bad thing to eat normal holiday food, but one meal then back on track. That's just my thinking, YMMV.

The care in Mexico is often times more superior than the care in the US. In the US most docs send you home when you wake up from banding. In Mexico they keep you for one to two nights in the hospital. And this is for half the cost most times. Even the cheapest doc in the US is still about $2K more than the average Mexican surgeon and the Mexican surgeons have far more experience than most US docs. After care is important, that needs to be lined up before surgery. There are two docs within 10 miles of my house that I could go to in a pinch but I prefer to go back to Mexico for aftercare, it's a three hour drive. If you look around the boards MANY people who had surgery in the US still have to drive 3 hours to see their surgeon. Six of one, half dozen of another.

HA! I was thinking about this today. I woke up from sleeping on my side. You know how when you lay on your back and your boobs end up under your armpits? Well, for me when I lay on my side my gut looks like someone poured pancake batter on the bed from stomach skin. If I am laying on my left side my right hip bone is sticking out. My gut is poured onto the bed. It's freakish. It's all skin. Quite sexy too, if I do say so myself! HA! There is a huge mirror facing the shower. As I get out of the shower I actually cover my eyes so I don't catch my reflection in the mirror. OMG plastic surgery cannot get here fast enough!

Congrats to you!!! You are one of us now! Now comes the initiation.... Heh cackle gasp!

Great post, Jacqui, I agree with everything you have written. Doesn't it really come down to when you want it bad enough, you'll get it?

HA! So it is YOUR fault we are all fat?? (snark) Sorry, couldn't resist.

Darl'en... When you get banded I am going to help you. You live soooo close to me that we are going to have BubbleButt's boot camp every single weekend!! You are going to be soooo thin that next time you go to those places they won't even realize it is you so you don't need to worry about embarrassment! You and I have talked on the phone and I know you well enough to know that you have the right attitude about banding and weight loss. You are going to do this! I'll bet you money that in 6 months you will have lost a HUGE amount of weight and none of those things will ever happen again. When you are banded and have your attitude, as you lose pounds - those are pounds that will never ever come back again! For anyone that hasn't realized it yet or read enough of Mona's posts, she is an absolute gem! I love talking to her on the phone because I'm laughing so hard my side hurts. She's great, a true lady.

Are you trying to tell me a band cannot exit via the vagina after eating steak 4 days post op? Nawww, I just don't believe it!

I have to be honest here. If a doctor is going to upset and depress you to this point merely by suggesting that you will look better after surgery, are you sure you are ready for surgery? I don't think any of us are in this to be skinny super models but quite frankly, many of us are in this to look better. Some are in it for appearance, some for health, some for necessity. Before surgery we all have a lot of doubts and wonder if this is right for us. That's normal. Others are looking for a reason to put it off. I'm not suggesting you are one of these people, I don't know one way or another. But if something like that is going to depress you to this degree you better get ready for a WHOLE lot more of it after you have surgery. People you haven't spoken to in years will be making comments. What your doc said was probably meant to be supportive. If you can't handle that you won't be able to come close to handling the negative comments after surgery such as: How much do you weigh now? How much did you weigh at your fattest? Why aren't you losing faster? Why did you take the "easy" way out? (Easy my butt!) Most try to be quite supportive but some people are just stupid. If your doc suggesting that you will look better after surgery is going to depress you, perhaps you need to reconsider if you have what it takes to do this. Sorry, just some old timer tough love here.

Just ask them. There are some coordinators that are decent, honest, and don't BS you. They will tell you the truth. If you don't want to deal with a 3rd party coordinator because you aren't getting what you need, then call the office directly and speak to your MD's staff. My problem with coordinators are the people that post HERE and don't TELL you they are coordinators. They get a commission for referring you to any given doc. Those are the people that have less value than dog drool in my mind. They don't tell you they are coordinators. No, it doesn't change the price to patients. I don't know how it all works but I know there is no additional fee for this. There used to be. There used to be a place called Belightweight (vs. belite) that did charge between $1500-$3000 for the honor of referring you to a doc, doing your fills, giving you infections, and allowing you to lose your band but she went out of business. Belite is different, they don't do fills, they don't give you infections, etc. But it is their job to sell you one of their docs. See the following links for more info if you desire: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f11/researching-mexican-doctors-101-a-43575/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f80/skany-evil-repulsive-patient-coordinators-45630/

Ohhhh, I don't know how you can get that stuff down. I can't. I was such a good newbie in the beginning. Bought a bunch of Isopuke and was alllll ready for post op. Isopuke was the first thing that made me barf after surgery. I was a virgin PBer until Isopuke. The taste was so horrible and the pond scum for texture did it to me. I'll never forget that for the rest of my days. A long time ago on my doc's board we were all ready to hunt down the makers of Isopuke like a mad dog and shoot him.

HA! You always make me laugh! I have visions of working in an ER again someday with some lady walking funny as she enters ER and a port hanging out of her vagina due to eating steak. :eek: Snowbird: I've gotten pissier than before about these people since reaching goal. Now that I have finally lost weight I want everyone to experience buying normal size clothes at Dillards. I just want to smack them and ask how serious they are about weight loss??? LosingJusMe: It's always someone else's fault. I'm not buying into that BS anymore (not that I ever did) but I'm going to start calling people out on it. Bandpal: Glad my temper tantrum could help as well as our overall whining and feetie stomping. Before I was amused at the whining about old timers. Yesterday was a weird day and I was really angry and in need of an old fashioned temper tantrum.

My doc was explaining that the act of reaming out that little hole in the back so the band can slip around the stomach might be one cause of erosion. They might scratch the back of the stomach. Nothing proven, just another theory. It does help to explain why some docs have a 0.0016% erosion rate and I just discovered a doc that has an 18% erosion stat. Both are from Mexico. They both use the same bands, both get general population Americans, and both have around 1600-1700 bands done. I read that post too. Couldn't believe what I was reading. Sometimes people try to 'one up' their doc compared to another and I questioned if the person was just trying to show her doc was better or if she was actually told that load of crap. I have to admit, I *do* understand the concept of "If I could diet I wouldn't need a band." It's true. If I could have done it and kept it off I wouldn't have needed a band. That does not mean there were not a few "white knuckle" moments where it simply took a bit of critical thinking skills and will power. It's a short time, not a life time. So all in all, I agree with you. Tishbite2: Try reading that daily and try spending time with these people explaining why and how this is bad for their band/healing and then see how you feel when they tell you that you don't know what you are talking about. HA! And tuna/eggs... those are foods that are pretty hard to eat with swelling from surgery. You have to work at those. People think eggs would be easy to eat. Many experienced bandsters can't eat eggs at all and newbies are eating them? Sheesh.... Maybe that is part of my problem with all this. I see so many that are struggling to pay for surgery. They are actually digging through garbage dumpsters looking for things to sell to earn money for the surgery. Then some dumb ass that gets surgery paid for with insurance doesn't see the benefit in following the rules. I am not bellyaching that my insurance didn't pay for my surgery, I have WLS coverage. The way things ended up being, had I gone through my insurance about the time I'd be getting my first fill under insurance, I was actually at goal instead because I opted to go to Mexico. So I had a choice. Many don't. They don't have a choice and they have to scrimp and save for years to get surgery or they put themselves in debt trying to get surgery. Just my experience on the boards but it seems as though the folks that had to pay for their surgery themselves seem to value it more and they FIND a way to deal with post op hunger.

During surgery they fill your gut with gas so the docs can see what they are doing during surgery. This pushes your diaphragm up and out of the way. There is a nerve in your diaphragm and after surgery sometimes this nerve is irritated and it hurts up your shoulder. In Mexico most docs will automatically fix a hernia or wide hiatus, no extra charge. In the US most docs charge quite a bit for those one or two sutures, about $1800. When that hernia or wide hiatus is repaired it can add a couple of days of shoulder pain and sometimes pain up the side of your neck. Those commercials are not always very accurate. They don't tell the whole story. They give a general overview of best case scenarios. Hunger happens before you have restriction. The band does not work well without solid food and restriction. During healing you have no added restriction and no solid food, liquids only during healing. So you have to knock out all carbs and focus on Protein. That kills stomach hunger, head hunger is up to us to deal with. You know, when that chocolate cake is calling your name? You aren't really hungry but you want to eat anyway.

I just asked this question recently and the way I understand it... advertising on places like OH is verrry expensive. If they go through a 3rd party and advertise they get group discounts or some such thing. Some docs hire coordinators to do more, to handle the patients and essentially, the 3rd party coordintors tell the docs what surgery they will be performing and when. Other docs don't like that and prefer to have their own staff deal with patients before, during, and after surgery.

No, I think you are missing info on the protein thing. The carbs from the milk will undo the effects of the protein and you'll be verrrry hungry. The idea of protein is to knock out all carbs. The carbs from the milk will bump up your blood sugar. Your pancreas will kick out insulin to drop your blood sugar and that's when you get hungry again. You have to start off the day carb free. Then and only then does the protein concept work. Keep your carbs at NO MORE than 25gms daily. Check your milk, you are getting too many there. I'm not saying milk is a bad thing but it won't help you in this stage, not even a little. Once you start consuming carbs you'll be toast for the entire day. I like two protein products mixed with Water. Matrix 5.0 (chocolate, NOT Vanilla.... gahhhh) and whey Gourmet Choco/PB (NOT plain Chocolate, gahhhh) Either of these products can be mixed with water, 120 calories, 22gms protein, 2gm carbs. Cut out the milk and ALL other carbs and you can do this much easier. Believe it or not, a few months from now if someone tells you that you have to go on an all liquid diet for a month you won't even bat an eye at it. food issues get so much better.

Congrats on just being simply fat! Amazing feeling, eh? Especially when you know that "normal" is around the corner!