WASaBubbleButt

A bougie is just a tube they put down your throat during surgery and into your stomach. They kinda measure around it when they cut. The only thing left in your body that wasn't there to begin with are staples. I think you aren't even getting a kiss with this one. ;o))))

Very true, Mac and I do this all the time. It is in fun, honest. BTW Mac, I received the box yesterday! THANK YOU! The only question I have is... what are the little chocolate looking round things? There are two of them, I have no idea what they are? I'll send yours out on Monday. I have all kinds of stuff for you. I have a large bottle of Flax Seed Oil, unopened, do you want it? I do not. Actually, I'll send you a list of what is in there and tell me if there is anything else you think you might want that I've discussed before.

YOU need therapy? HA! Why? Because you aren't a mindless drone that posts what you are paid to post? ;o) I don't think they realize what a turn off they are for their doctors. There are only a couple of doctors that use them (at least lately) but damn, they are annoying. The more they post the more they hang themselves. Remember when they were cyberstalking me and threatening my health and my privacy if I didn't quit being so "vocal" about their doctor? HAHA!!!! That one was priceless, they thought they had my contact info and it wasn't even me, it was a totally different person.

That, and.... People who are banded and having problems tend to resent those that aren't and are at goal. People hang on to the concept that less invasive is safer. It isn't, plain and simple. Being banded is hard, very hard. I was prepared to work hard with the band, I was prepared to change my eating habits, but banding is hard in a way you just can't imagine unless you experience it. It's not the kind of hard I was prepared for. Now new data is coming out showing that it really isn't going to last a lifetime. People are frustrated and fearful of gaining weight so they attack others who went for different options. Maybe I felt the same way - way back when, I don't remember.

We get a lot of slack on LBT for daring to mention a sleeve but this is why we do it. ;o) I don't go over there and start threads about the sleeve, I don't tell everyone to get a sleeve, but I do post the stats when it seems reasonable. Heh... post the stats and show the difference between bands and sleeves and it puts a few of them in an uproar. I post about it because people do not know the sleeve even exists. The difference in quality of life for me is like night and day with a band vs. sleeve. I never see anyone that is unhappy with their sleeves except newbies. It's a big head thing getting used to small quantities. Well, I take that back, I have run across a few folks who have mega big sleeves and they aren't losing well. But they don't have a proper tool to work with. If I could eat as much as they can I wouldn't be able to maintain well at all.

There are but the problem is they don't have a great deal of experience. Cirangle in CA is probably the best in the US. You really want someone with a LOT of staple line experience, TONS of staple line experience. On the sleeve forum I have another "How to research a Mexican 'Sleeve' Surgeon" in that sig but it is great for researching a doctor in any country. It tells what to look for and what to ask. Bands are easy for surgeons to do. It's the easiest procedure out there. Sleeves and bypass require more experience so you don't want to go to just anyone. Are you thinking about a sleeve?

Thanks for writing this. The biggest lesson I learned about weight loss came after it was done and over. Looking back and seeing the behaviors, the changes, the way I used to think vs. the way I think today. Had I known then what I know now I think weight loss would have been a lot easier. Losing weight is liking going to school, you learn sooo much about yourself and the way you think. Alex, the owner of this forum refers to WLS as taking away your license to eat and it's so true. When your license to eat is taken away it's shocking to watch ourselves as we react to it. That's where the head stuff comes in as well as the realization of how we got fat to begin with. Good luck on your journey!

I think the heliogast band is only available in Mexico?? Not sure about that one. It is a very different band from the mid band. Heliogast is the lowest quality band out there. If I were to ever be banded again (and I wouldn't, they just aren't for me) I would only get the Mid band.

I am doing neither. Agnes had a heart attack at age 26, she has high blood pressure, and something else, I forget. She wants to take control of her life and health. When you have someone following her around telling her she needs therapy and a diet, telling her she is lying and doesn't weigh much... THAT is not healthy and THAT is ranting. If someone wants WLS and they are obese, I am going to stand up for them.

The nurse is half right and half not. ;o) Bypass uses the more elastic portion of the stomach, it starts out quite small after surgery but over time it stretches. The stoma created in bypass (tiny pass through for food to travel to the intestine) also stretches over time so bypass folks can eat more. The quantity we can eat usually depends a great deal on what the food is. If I eat steak I can eat about 2oz and that's it, I'm done. If I eat slider foods I can eat about triple that amount. You can eat it, it's not that it will hurt your stomach but my thinking is that it is white carbs that got us fat to begin with. The way to get thin is to cut out white carbs. We didn't get fat from eating zucchini, we got fat from pasta type foods. Each person has to find what works for them. Sure. I don't have to chew that well. Better than before surgery but nowhere near the same as after a band. I suppose you could, I never have. Your stomach is like a tube and if you didn't chew reasonably well it could be an ouchy. ;o) You are doing the right thing, keep doing that! Nope. My surgeon oversews the staple line with stomach tissue and then scar tissue grows over that. It's very similar to the incisions on your skin in the way it heals.

I wouldn't worry about it, it's just the paid posters trying to find something bad about our forum. Let 'em talk, I just want them to stay over there. ;o)

I think about my diet before surgery and I realize a child wouldn't grow if they ate what I did. ;o) I got fat from white carbs, period. If I drive by Burger King or some similar place I get a craving but all I have to do is walk in there and the stench kills the craving. I think it might be habit more than anything but maybe not since I don't really eat that stuff anymore. I'm so afraid of getting back into the fast food mode that I avoid them like crazy now. I want nothing to do with fast food, that's what got me fat. White carbs and trans fats. NEVER AGAIN! ;o)

But that isn't what you wrote, he is not paid per click. It's just to let people know the forums exist, that's all.

It goes away. Right now your stomach is making enough acid for a whole stomach. Pretty soon things will get better.

There are a TON of paid posters over there, that's the one thing I hate about that board. The board owners are fully aware but do nothing about it because they simply do not care. The more people posting and reading the more they can charge advertisers. So they do absolutely nothing about the problem. I think the threat of the boards is that many see through the paid posters and they know it will not be tolerated over here. It's like the reaction of the paid posters when one of the doctors had a sleeve death. The doctor was claiming the death was due to a hiatal hernia repair, quite unethical. The family suing the doctor disagrees with the cause of death. The doctor just didn't want to admit he had a sleeve death. The paid posters decided it wasn't unethical to lie to future patients, everyone was just picking on him because he's Mexican. What does being Mexican have to do with it? They do back flips trying to defend him. It just gets old after time. I hate that board. Newbies have no way of knowing who is for real and who is just another paid poster pimping the boards for business.

Hello Mark..... Welcome to the forum! Hopefully you'll find a wealth of information here. If you have questions, ask away!

Hello Purdy... welcome to the forum! Bypass is reversible theoretically but if you have bypass you have to assume it will be permanent. It is a very difficult procedure to reverse bypass and many times it cannot be done. I'd say most times it should not be done. Your BMI is 41, it's really not all that high. When I think of a high BMIer I'm thinking 70+BMI. I was banded with a BMI of 41 (hardest surgery to lose weight) and I lost 100% of my excess weight. Bypass is a harder surgery. Harder recovery, harder maintenance, harder on your body, and a lifetime of aftercare. It's great for some people but it's not my cup of tea. There are many sleeved folks that are higher BMI folks and they are doing very well with a sleeve alone. If you get bypass and fail (as one in five do) your options for a revision are poor. If you fail with a sleeve your options for a revision are wide open.

I just emailed Alex, I will let you know what he says. I'm not a software person, I have no clue. Sorry! But I will find out!

Did you ever do the cottage cheese test we did on the other board?

You know, I just tried the lychees or whatever they are yesterday. I have to say, not bad! They are $5.00/pound so I won't be buying them in huge quantities but it's fun to try something new. If I don't like it, it goes in the trash. If I like it, I buy more. ;o)

No, he doesn't make any money for clicking, it goes to his own forums. ;o) It was my idea, I get the blame. I wanted him to put links on the band forum to the sleeve forum. So many newbies looking at the band do not even know the sleeve exists. I asked him if there was a way that if someone brought up key words in the band forum such as sleeve, VSG, etc., that it would provide a link to OUR forum. Little did I know he'd do links to the band forum over here. HA! It was supposed to be on the BAND forum. But you know... if it prevents people from getting banded because they do not know the sleeve exists until after surgery, it's kinda worth it.

Give her a hug from us!

I forwarded this to Alex, the software God. ;o) He can fix it! Those ads are done by robots, not real people. It's basically a software program that spams all message boards with that stuff. He's the software guru, he can fix it!

Welcome to the forum! Most of all, Congrats on your surgery!

I heard about Jackson in the car this afternoon. If he was ill I hadn't heard. Farrah I felt very sorry for, she had a long haul with her illness. :biggrin0:(