WASaBubbleButt

Whoa there ..... Please please please remember that if you are sure you will be in pain needing a morphine pump... darl'en, you'll be in some serious pain! Don't plan on it, don't bank on it otherwise you will indeed hurt. My doc doesn't even give narcotics for pain meds out of surgery. The anesthesiologist gives a form of IV Motrin before we wake up and we get it again every six hours for 4 doses. The next day it is liquid Tylenol if it is asked for. The truth is, if you aren't planning on having a great deal of pain and if your surgeon is any good, you won't need narcotic pain meds.

Did you pay via check or credit card? NEVER buy ANYTHING on line without a credit card, otherwise you have no charge back rights. PM isn't always 2-3 days, sometimes it takes much longer.

I completely agree with everything Mari wrote. Those were my thoughts too as I was reading your post. Might want to give the neighbor a chance, not every thin person is critical of we fatties. Sometimes they are the most decent and understanding of all. Sometimes other fatties are jealous of your weight loss, they are all kinds of things. Sometimes they aren't. I think this is a great time to make friends with the neighbor. So something happened that you prefer it didn't. Take advantage of the opportunity and make a really good friend. Ask her about her friend's experiences. If others told her about it, she can't be too critical. Most people don't know anyone who has a band yet she knows more than one. Of my friends the skinny one has been THE most supportive. She doesn't relate to food issues or weight issues. If she gains three pounds, she exercises and loses it. No big deal. She has had a lot of questions but just because she wants to understand. My fat friend is the one that has been telling me from day #1 that I am crazy, going to Mexico is stupid, losing weight quickly is dumb, my health and life are in danger and she honestly isn't jealous. Now that I am losing weight she's floored that it really can happen. Some skinny people are pretty darn cool. She already knows, you can't get the information back. So give her a chance. You might really hit it off. You don't know because you have been intimidated by her due to her size. Give her a chance, you might have just found a great friend.

Bran crackers, 85% bran.

Two nights in the hospital but they are a lot more careful about those things in Mexico vs. the US. Insurance crap and all.

HA! That's what I thought too when I was in the beginning stages. I was thrilled with each pound. Do you know that today I look at the scale and when I've lost another pound I run for the mirror to look at my stomach? How do you spell the name of that wrinkly dog, a Shar pei??? Something like that?? THAT is what my stomach looks like but it looks a whole lot better on the dog. Ever test a dog for dehydration? You gently pull up on the excess skin at the back of their neck. If it stays up by itself the dog is dehydrated. If it snaps back in place the dog is not dehydrated. My gut looks like a dehydrated (tested and true) wrinkly old dog. When you work really hard for something and you bust your back side you kinda expect something a little more pretty. With clothes I'm fine. Without 'em, I 'sceeeer myself.

Well, remember that just because the crackers did that to me does not mean they will do the same for you. They taste a tad like cardboard but they could be good with cheese, peanutbutter, used as a pizza crust, etc. Try them! Just be verrrry careful.

I don't know about all Mormons, I'm referring specifically to those that marry off their little girls to old men and breed like bunnies. Not main stream Mormons.

Ohhhh, I'm not so sure I can agree. If you look at stats it is the folks with multiple spouses collecting the welfare. Instead of one FAMILY getting welfare, each wife of the family is collecting full welfare. Not a bad income. The Colorado City, AZ folks refer to it as bleeding the beast. The rest of their Mormon family are the "beast" as well as the rest of us. We are evil and to be bled financially. They don't need to work, they just need to marry their 12 year old daughters off and breed like bunnies while collecting welfare. They have discovered every loophole available. But even for consenting adults, they are all getting an entire family worth of welfare PER wife. Consenting adults... sure, marry to your little heart's content but damn, pay for it yourself.

I have known some pretty horrible people that are Mormon, but I have known some pretty horrible people that were of all faiths and lack of faith. People are people, there are good and there are bad. Religion has little to do with it. If you look at stats of who is in prison, it isn't the atheists taking up the bunk beds. It is the Christians. Does this mean Christianity has failed? I don't think so. If you look at educational levels between Christians and atheists, atheists win that one hands down. So I'm not sure religion has anything to do with it overall, I really think it is based on education. The more education someone has the less likely they are to do drugs, steal from others, harm others, etc. Atheists have a lower divorce rate than most Christians. I credit a variety of issues to that. I think organized religion puts pressure on people that is simply unrealistic. Their God doesn't put this pressure on them but their churches do. I think many Christians don't know what actual love is. They claim to love everyone. Yet they are divorcing at rates higher than the average. Maybe they are expected to get on with their married lives so they hurry and try to find a spouse, not sure. Maybe education plays a role in this as well. While the atheists are in college Christians are getting married and having a family? Atheists marry later in life? Just a thought. Overall I don't believe religion does society a lot of good. It may do individual people a wealth of good, but not society as a whole. Stats demonstrate this quite well. People talk about charity. Atheists donate money too. During the national day of prayer the atheists had a blood drive. We all do our own thing, some choose to advertise their good deeds so they get some special credit for it. Others don't care if people know or not. People assume all the time since I am not Christian that I don't contribute to my community. I'll put my dollars and volunteer hours up against 95% of the Christian community and I'll win that one. I don't count those hours and chalk it up to religion so for society, it apparently doesn't count. So when people talk about their church donating more money than any others during Katrina, etc., I have to laugh. Honestly... how silly is that? So atheists don't stand up and insist on being counted when we do a good deed... I guess it doesn't count unless we insist on recognition. The world has a lot to learn about atheism. We merely believe in one less God than the Christians. Do the Christians believe in Ra or the Hindu Gods? No? I don't either. I merely believe in one less God than the Christians. I've been slammed by a patient in ICU before for working on a Sunday. It's the Lord's day. The mere notion that I could possibly be a nonbeliever never crossed his mind. He kept telling me all day long I'm a good girl, I have morality, I do a good job, but I work on SUNDAY! Hello? I was taking care of HIM while HE was in ICU! Would I have been a good Christian girl had I left him to fend for himself after his heart attack? I couldn't have won that one. If people only realized that we atheists, the ones that are the outcasts of society, the folks without morality, the folks that let the good Christians do all the work of the world... if they had ANY clue how many of us are in medicine, they might never step foot in a hospital again in fear of demons or some other part of their myth. You can't stand on your tippy toes with arms outstretched at a hospital, spin in circles, and not hit an atheist. Right, we don't contribute to society much.

If it helps any... The stats for anesthesia related death is fewer than 1 in 100,000 patients. A true anesthesia related complication causing death is rare. I have to admit, the fear of my doc doing bypass vs. banding crossed my mind too. But we were talking about the band in OR before I went to sleep so that risk was pretty low. Aren't you a nurse? Ever see a patient getting a BTK amp write with magic marker on the good leg, "DO NOT REMOVE"? Write on your stomach, LAP BAND ONLY. Or, ask how much time they scheduled you for surgery. If it is 1 hour or less, you are good to go. If it is 3 hours or more, jump off that table and run the other way. Removing your heart... impossible. You have to actually be brain dead before they can do that. Lap to open procedure, rare. But it might need to be necessary. It's not the end of the world, it will just feel like it after surgery. That is mostly done if the patient has previous adhesions. If your liver is too big most docs will simply not do the procedure vs. opting for open. Clarify that. If your liver is too big explain they should close the lap incisions and you will do a LSD until it is smaller. Just keep in mind, the rare risk of complications with the band causing death is just that, rare. The risk for morbid obesity isn't rare, it WILL happen. So you have a choice, a rare risk or a certainty. I'd go with rare, and did.

Oh, the one that has done 900 bands. 40 isn't nearly enough to have the technique down well. I wouldn't go to anyone with less than 500. However 250 is okay as well. Doing the procedure on an outpatient basis is the norm in the US. Most who had it done this way have no complaints. It's not my preference but it also isn't techniqually bad or wrong.

Oh oh oh... update. Those bran crackers? Not nice. Not nice at all. For dinner I was eating a bran cracker and cranberry juice. Let me explain how this went. Ate part of a cracker. Waited an hour. Had a drink of cranberry juice. Insteant PB. Before I knew it itty bitty pieces of lumpy bran and burning cranberry juice came shooting out of my nose. It was gross and ouchy. Baaaaaad bran crackers, never again. They went in the garbage. Continued to slime and PB, PBing slime is gross, very very gross. More bits and pieces of bran, tears in eyes from PB'ing so hard. It was just plain icky. Bran crackers and cranberry juice are evil.

Just something to keep in mind. If you have the same patient interviewed in front of 10 docs, you are likely to get 10 different psych diagnoses. Another thought is that when taking these kinds of drugs many times some/most of the side effects will get better within a few weeks. If it does not get better you really need to express this to your doc. If you continue not feeling better go to a new doc. My hubby is a psychiatrist so I have to tell you, I am pretty opinionated on this issue. So take my opinion with a large grain of salt. :fish: I become verrrry frustrated with docs and I become frustrated quickly.

Yeah, what Nancy said. Only thing I want to add is that during the night as you sleep there is a bit of a Fluid shift in your body. This is the reason you are tighter in the AMs. Same thing with women who start their periods. They retain fluids. I have learned that if I run on my treadmill in the AMs suddenly I can drink Water. Yet if I miss the magic moment and continue running it's tight again. I haven't actually figured that one out yet. :fish:

(off topic) Thanks for this. This is the phrase that best describes why I went to Mexico for surgery. I was never able to come up with a term or phrase that explained my problem with US surgeons, this is it. Thank you.

I think your doc might be a bit biased. Considering nobody (including the band manufacturer) even knows why erosion happens, it was misleading at best for him to even make such a comment. Erosion stats are the same regardless of country. It occurs in less than 1% of the population.

Yeah, we are going to have to agree to disagree on your post. It does not take a person that has been banded for a long time to read a VARIETY of studies and research the core of each study. A sleeve takes more OR time than a band, that is a risk. It means cutting more tissue, that is a risk. It is not reversible, that is a risk. There are many more risk potentials with a very INVASIVE procedure. Being banded for a long time does not make one an expert. It just doesn't. You could have been banded your entire life, that does not make you an expert so why you are using that is beyond me. You compared banding to sleeve, the original poster did not. You suggested this for sheer convenience. There is very little that is convenient about any WLS. To suggest a more invasive procedure and one with more potential risk because it isn't convenient to drive for fills is inappropriate in my personal opinion. Further, you infer I made claims I most certainly did not. Please don't do that again. I respect your right to your opinion but that's all it is, just like the rest of us. Cheers.

I have to add something else here.... I disagree with suggesting a very invasive procedure that carries a great deal more surgical risk, is nonreversible and only for convenience? Nawww, I disagree.

I live 220 miles from my doc and I don't mind. I trusted him with my life for surgery, I trust him for my fills. We have several bandsters in my city that go to Mexico for fills and we just ride together and make a day of it. We have fun. The real key is if you trust your surgeon. If you really like and trust him, go to him for fills.

Let me guess, they are gone and your next order is due to arrive Monday?? :cool:

Laura... STOP doing that! Seriously, I don't give a rats back side if you are soaking them in Water first. It's not a soft food, soft foods don't CRUNCH! Others have done as you are and they barf. Now knock it off or I'll come over to wherever you are and smack you upside the head. Ohhhhh, I'll bet you are 'sceeered now, eh? LOL

National stats for erosion are less than 1%. National stats for slips are around 3%. You'll want to ask your doc what HIS individual stats are. He likely has no or 1 erosion and the slips should be under 2%. Mexico has lower erosion/slips than the US but they are 10 years more experienced than docs are here. Experience means everything in the world. DON'T to go to ANYONE with less than 250 bands minimum. Personally, I wouldn't go to anyone that has done less than 500 bands. They haven't even been doing them long enough to HAVE valid stats. Weight loss for bypass vs. band is within 1%. So virtually, there is no difference. Bypass is dangerous, banding is not. Not in comparison.

Keep in mind two things. Everyone has vastly different tastes. What one likes another gags on. My first true barf (vs. PB) was on IsoPuke at 4 days after surgery. I like Matrix 5.0 but your mileage may vary. Also, 50gms is not good. You'd want to do half of that, your body can only absorb about 25gms of Protein at a time. The rest you will have to burn or it turns to fat.

What Wheetsin wrote.