WASaBubbleButt

HA! Not saying a word.... not a word! But if I did it would be BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Mindy... Agreed. I think the daughter needs to spend an hour a day reading here, the new posts as well as old. Especially complications, support, and general. After a month if she still wants the band, all the power to her!

Nope, I tried that too. Made no difference.

A lot of it has to do with financial gain. The more followers and the more that are duped, the more she can spam them with requests to buy her CDs.

Agreed. I busted my back side doing research and digging up dirt on every possibly doc I had on my list. For banding the very two best surgeons are Aceves and Rumbaut. I'd go to either for bariatric surgery.

I am SOOOO jealous that I didn't think of a similar avatar. And to think... I was just gonna use her mug shot!

When you burn fat it turns into various chemicals that are released from your body through (mostly) urine, saliva, sweat, and breath. That's why during weight loss you want to bump up the Water to flush the chemicals from your renal system. That's why you have stinky breath during weight loss as well. Jello... yep, I saw the same thing too. I suspect most notice the same thing.

Yep, you are wrong. The topic is about people from another banding forum, not you. Honest.

You do realize, of course, that you were not the topic of discussion in all but one of those links?

Wheetsin.... I'm ultra familiar with ebay issues and those places that sell on your behalf, I wouldn't do it. You'd be lucky to get a buck per item. What if you did this, what if you take 10 size "X" shirts, put them together and sell as a lot. Just group them by size. Who wouldn't want to bid on 10 reasonably priced shirts that are the size they need? You will typically get more lookers for small lots vs. a single outfit unless it is a really special outfit. Something designer, in fashion, current trends, etc. Then do that one individually. I think you'd make more money and shipping... flat rate priority mail. Print the label from your own printer, charge the shipping to your PayPal account, throw 'em in a box, tape it up, the mailman will pick it from from your house. You don't even have to take it to the post office. Priority Mail will be picked up. You don't even have to come up with a box, order them for free from the PO and they will deliver them to your home. Couldn't be easier.

It depends, if I go to creepy doc yes. If I go to someone else it might be more or less, don't know yet.

(emphasis my own) LaraNicole, I think there is a little more to it than that. While I do value and appreciate your honesty and I commend you for writing the post, there is a bit more. Nobody is upset that Sandy stole a coat. That isn't the issue here. Yes, you acknowledge the "Wendell/PM/Dr. Neal" issue and that is a huge factor in this but Sandy isn't quite an innocent as you make it sound. She's claimed she does fills w/Dr. Kuri... NOT TRUE She's claimed she helped write scientific papers with Dr. Kuri... NOT TRUE She's claimed she is a licensed nurse... NOT TRUE She's claimed she is a licensed nurse practitioner... NOT TRUE She's claimed alllll these docs use her band booklet... NOT TRUE This is an itty bitty teeny list of the things she has lied about time and time again. If it comes from her keyboard I know it has to be a flat out lie. For goodness sakes, she had to start her own Yahoo e-group just so there would be ONE forum other than OH that she couldn't be banned. Do you know one time she emailed a friend of mine (this was some time back) thinking that "Michelle" worked for Dr. Aceves (Michelle does not work for Dr. Aceves) not realizing KabukiCoyote *IS* Michelle. She had no clue she was talking about me. She claimed to have lunch with Nina and Michelle about working for Dr. Aceves in Tucson, Arizona. Can you imagine my laughter when that email was forwarded to me? Can you imagine how she felt when she discovered *I* am Michelle? Her nemesis? Nina got a bigger laugh out of it. She had no idea she was in Tucson. She thought she was in Mexico. I'm in Phoenix, not Tucson. Yes, we all apparently had lunch together, me, Sandy, and Nina. We asked her if she would like to come and work for Dr. Aceves. (Okay, I still giggle a lot when I think of how she must have felt when she discovered who Michelle is... heh.) If all she did was steal a coat... you'd be right. No big deal. We ALL have something in our history we'd prefer not be posted on the internet. But that is the least of what she has done. So she tried to steal a $1200 coat. It was years ago. She's apparently paid her debt to society. But that really is the least of the horrors she has done. I honestly don't believe she could tell the truth about any given issue if her life depended on it. She will lie, cheat, deceive, manipulate, and trash anyone that attempts to disagree with her. She does this to gain credibility she simply has not earned. She also does it for financial gain. I'll bet if there was a blue light special she'd run over people in a cross walk if she thought she could sell a bandster CD at K-Mart. The world revolves around Sandy in her mind. Anyone that challenges that is considered "mean". I have personally seen her give clearly wrong and bad advice to someone just to discredit me. When the patient called her doc at 10PM the doc told the patient the same thing I did so she told the patient the doc was wrong. What right does she have to do that? The key should be to arm the bandster with facts so they can research and talk to their doc and from there it is between the patient and their doctor. What kind of "nurse" would give blatantly wrong information just so she could look better? What kind of person does those things? While I recognize and appreciate that you are clear about how you feel regarding the Wendell, Sandy, Dr. Neal issue, it is hardly "just" a stolen coat and that is how I perceive your above paragraph. The rest of your post was heart warming, honest, and how I believe you truly feel. But I did have to take issue with that one section. Congrats to you and the baby!

:::: I did not claim you said that, here is what I wrote: (emphasis added)

I agree with this and I still maintain that this might be one reason I feel that OH sucks so bad. There is no place to be bare ass'd honest and tell it like it is without the game playing required by OH rules. On this section we debate, even bicker a little sometimes, discuss the strangest of strange, it's totally acceptable to discuss the two topics of horror, religion and politics. Let's face it, most of the newcomers to any banding site are newbies. I don't mean newbies to the site but newbies to banding. We all answer the same questions over and over and over again. I can list the topics that are posted on a daily basis: I want to get banded, what does banded mean? What can I eat? How much of it can I eat? I can't live without bread. I will absolutely DIE A LONG HORRIBLE DEATH if I can't drink Soda. Will I really be full? Does it hurt? I just got a surgery date, YEA! I am having surgery tomorrow, YEA! I had surgery yesterday, I feel gassy. I am in more pain than LABOR pains from the gas! OMG! I'm not losing weight/I'm losing too much weight from clear liquids. I have no restriction, why am I not losing weight? I love/hate my doctor. Do fills hurt? I'm afraid of needles. I needed a fill 6 months ago and haven't gotten one, I'm not losing. Why? I eat ice cream, Chocolate, and pie. I can't figure out why I don't lose. I take big bites, don't chew well, and eat fast. I barf, do I need an unfill? I'm on a plateau. I only eat 137 calories a day, I SWEAR! And I'm gaining, why? I've been banded for a year and can't lose. Do I really need to exercise? Okay, those are all necessary questions and as those that have been there and done that we have a responsibility to provide answers and support. We got it when we were newbies, now we owe it to the future bandies. But, R&R is a free for all. We can discuss all the evils of the world, we can laugh (in FUN!) at one another... the kind of laughing where even the one being teased is laughing because it IS in fun, we poke one another with dull pointy sticks instead of sharp pointy sticks that hurt, it's a hang out place that is multi-functional. The newbie OHer's over here (and I mean new to the site) don't have much of a history here. There is little trust between either side as I see it. I think it's going to take some time before trust develops on both sides. There is bad history on OH. Well, this is LBT. You guys (and I mean newbies from OH) are going to have to spend a little time over here, develop a history... a LBT history just like the rest of us did. Some are not going to like you and some are. You are going to like some of us and not like others. That's life, that's how it is in real time too. Seems to me that you are coming over here and essentially saying, "Okay, I did SOME of that stuff but I am not responsible for what everyone else did." And some here are saying, "You were part of a horrible situation that we don't like." Even if in a passive aggressive style. So all in all I think you need to go through the same stages as the rest of us, develop a history, back off on the defensive behaviors, get to know us OVER HERE as this board does have a vastly different mentality, and if you like us... stick around. If you don't, stick with OH or wherever you choose. That's my take on it, I don't speak for anyone else.

We didn't need three to discuss it. Wendell wasn't interested in responding to you. He asked me if I wanted to. I ultimately said no. I asked Lauren if she wanted to supply you with the info. She didn't either. That's it, no drama, no fun, no glee. Your email just wasn't that special, Nancy. It wasn't full of fun and gossip as you make it sound. It was pretty generic. None of us knew if your email was genuine in the sense that you actually wanted the info or if it was to play games. Since nobody knew we all declined to provide you with what you asked for to avoid drama. So as you can see, it was not as you make it sound.

An upper GI is basically a barium swallow, you've had those.. right?

Poodles, is the doc that wants to remove your band the same one who placed the band? If not, I would send current films to your original band surgeon before doing anything. It's really quite difficult to place the band too high. It almost takes effort to screw it up that bad and the reason is because your stomach is soft and mushy like a piece of cooked fat on a steak. Your esophagus is hard, rubbery, dense, and kinda like the hard part of your ear. In order to sew the band into your esophagus it would be very difficult and take extreme effort. If you stuck a needle in a piece of cooked fat would it feel different than if you stuck it in a book? Sure it would, it would be bloody obvious. It would take effort to get the needle through a book, it would slide through a piece of fat with complete ease. If you were a doctor would you go to the extreme effort to make your esophagus a pouch or would you recognize that something isn't quite right? Sometimes docs just want to make money. Even if your pouch is too high, so what? Why would they remove it? Why not reposition it instead? Why RNY? RNY earns a doc a LOT more money than a simple repositioning of your band. Another reason to have your original surgeon view the films is that sometimes on an xray the images are distorted. Actually, the larger the piece of film the more distorted images are. It isn't always exactly like it is on film vs. in your body. The biggest reason to have your original surgeon view the films is because what typically happens in such a situation is that some surgeons sew the band in place just a tad different than another surgeon. When a doc is expecting it to be one way but your surgeon sews it another way it can appear different than what it is. The new doc is looking for a specific type of view and he doesn't realize that the original surgeon didn't sew the band into place as the new surgeon and it can "appear" to be higher or lower than it actually is. During surgery the doc places the band around your stomach. Then he takes a portion of the lower stomach, brings it UP and over the band and sews it to the upper stomach (or newly formed pouch). Some docs grab a different piece of the lower stomach than other docs and so the final product is going to appear different on film vs. what it really is. Only the original surgeon knows his own technique and if he has an odd or non standard technique it will look differently on film from what the viewer is expecting. Not sure if that makes sense but I hope it offers some insight to potential issues to be aware of.

This is why a post op barium swallow is so important. The doc pretty well knows if the band is in the right position but the patients really need to SEE it with their own two eyes. They need to see barium flowing through the stoma, they need to see the tubing, the port. It really sinks in and it all falls into place. Watch the posts around here. The people that are most upset and worried that they slipped are people that never had the opportunity to see their band and how it works. Every newbie wonders if they slipped, but the folks that didn't have a post op barium swallow are the ones that really seem to stress over it the most. A bariatric center in the US cannot be considered a Center of Excellence without doing a post op barium swallow. If your doc doesn't do this, insist on it. It puts everything in perspective of how the band is working inside your body and it gives you a great deal of peace of mind. It also does provide a second opportunity to be sure of band placement and stoma size. There is one doc in Mexico that I know of that claims he doesn't do a barium swallow after surgery because the barium is too thick and the patient can't handle it after surgery. That's a load. Barium comes in a powder form and it is made as thin or thick as needed. It can be watery or thick like pudding. If it's too thick all they need to do is add more Water. Docs that don't do a post op barium swallow are saving themselves money, that's the bottom line. If the barium was too thick to swallow then then US Bariatric Assn. wouldn't insist on doing one to be a Center of Excellence. You paid for it, get the test.

When was your surgery? Just very recent or months ago? Do you still have swelling? Remember, air in your stomach or intestines is not hunger, that is something you hear. Hunger is something you feel. If you had your surgery long ago and the swelling is gone then you need to talk to your doc about this. You might have a cycle of swelling/barfing creating more inflammation or you might be too tight. So much depends on when you had surgery.

Hearing your stomach make noises is not hunger, that is air in your stomach and intestines moving around and making noise. Hunger is something you FEEL, stomach growling is something you HEAR. They are not the same. Being banded means really seriously going back to the basics. Relearning things that for whatever reason we all never learned or we learned it and forgot. We don't even know what true hunger is because we always ate before it happened. We fed head hunger before we had a chance to FEEL hungry. I think one of the reasons the post op diet is so hard is because it's the first time in years we have actually felt true hunger. For those that have to do two weeks of Clear liquids, they get hungry. Feeding head hunger always prevented stomach hunger and now suddenly they are feeling it and they don't like it one little bit. Keep in mind, hunger is not the same as starving. As my doc says all the time, little children in Africa dying are starving, we have minimal hunger, we just don't deal with it well due to all our various issues that got us fat to begin with. It's all about keeping it in perspective and relearning basic eating habits.

Feeling full feels different banded than it does unbanded for many people. I was writing to someone the other day and I realized that I can't remember what the "old" full feeling feels like anymore, I've forgotten. You have to realize that feeling full might feel different from before and you have to recognize your soft stop and your hard stop. For me my soft stop is a single hiccup. If I don't stop at that point then I get non stop hiccups and I know I'm headed for trouble. One more bite and I barf. There are different soft stops for people. Some it's a single hiccup, some it's a deep sigh, some a runny nose, some coughing, ... you have to really pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you and how it is trying to tell you that it's time to stop eating. Most of all you aren't looking for "full" anymore. After the band you eat like a normal size person. Normal size people don't typically eat until they are Thanksgiving Day full, they eat until they are satisfied. Big huge difference. Every couple of bites (while you are eating slowly) stop and think, are you still hungry or are you satisfied? If you are no longer hungry, stop eating. You are done. Think about head hunger vs. stomach hunger. Stomach hunger is almost painful, head hunger is when you simply like what is on your plate and you want more. Stomach hunger is very difficult to fight, head hunger is rough but much easier to battle. It's easy to tell yourself you are still hungry but if you keep eating beyond your soft stop you are going to barf and if you barf you are risking a slip. This is where the hard part of the banding comes into play. The surgery is a piece of cake, dealing with the head part is the buggar. But, this is why you got a band. This is what you want to change, most of all this is what you need to change so that you can complete your goals. It will happen, but you have to constantly think about your food intake while you are eating.

That's what I do but not because of restriction but by choice. But I can't wait until too late because I'm tight in the AMs and again in the PMs. So my "food window" is about 1PM - 7PM. BTW, I don't do it for weight loss, I do it because I hate cooking or preparing food. I just hate it.

This potentially explains the evil six month plateaus: WeightWatchers.com - Weight-Loss Plateaus - Visitor

Oh yeah, I guess I haven't thought through the details. With all my complications from the filthy Mexican hospital and of course, my impending death... my thinking is clouded. Perhaps a bubble on the lid of the casket is in order to not squishel anything. I don't know, what do you think? Do you know my sis, the one telling everyone I'm dying... she sent me an email the other day congratulating me? For what, dying? I'm still floored over that one.

It's time for clarification. Wendell did share your email with me, just as you guys share emails and PMs (I know you guys have shared my PMs, someone was forwarding them to me as they were flying around from one mailbox to another until I finally said enough, I didn't want to see my own PMs anymore. Considering I wrote them I knew full well what was written and those I didn't write I didn't care about anyway). I asked him if he was going to respond, he said no. I said I would, I suggested he email you and give you my email address. I'd be happy to share it with you. It's all public info anyway, it's no big deal. The licensing issues in multi states, the mug shot, the arrest records, the various laws especially in OR about current actions... all public info. He said if I wanted to respond to you that I was free to do so. After thinking about it I decided probably wouldn't serve a purpose anyway. I asked Lauren if she wanted to. She said no. *I* am the one that made a mistake here. I am the one that was under the impression Wendell didn't care who provided you with the info you were looking for. I should have clarified that first and I did not do that. I really didn't know how sincere you were in requesting the info and I decided that it would really be a waste of time as I had already given someone else the info to find it for herself. I never gave her links, I gave her the info so she could find it for herself. That way there was no question if I was making all this up or if the public info is actually there and available for all to see. And obtain copies of, I might add. That is what happened. Not the least bit different from what you guys did and quite often, I might add.