WASaBubbleButt

I use Prilosec and get it in Mexico. It's $9.00 for 120 capsules, or a 4 month supply for most people.

YEA!!!!! We did have a lot of really good info there.

I agree with Elisabeth, no more carbs. The more carbs you eat the hungrier you will be. I'd limit ALL carbs for the time being. Once you have surgery and start eating solids I'd limit WHITE carbs to 20gms daily and unlimited good carbs. If it has flour or sugar in it, don't put it in your mouth. The first three days are hard, it's much easier after that. I hate when doctors make you lose a certain number of pounds before surgery. We are already stressed over the surgery anyway but to put that kind of pressure isn't fair. My doc has a liver shrinking diet of what Elisabeth wrote above. It shrinks your liver, you lose weight, and you can eat until you are full... all day every day. Get away from Slim Fast, it's not a good product. Try something like Atkins Advantage, whey gourmet, EAS, something along those lines. Watch carbs in milk. I use Whey Gourmet because it does not need milk. For shakes that you need to use milk get Hood Calorie Countdown (milk replacement and better!) or Soy Slender, Elisabeth's find. If you use regular milk you are defeating the purpose of these products because of the carbs.

He doesn't have a surgery mill, far from it. A surgery mill is someone who does like 10 bands a day or 10 sleeves a day. He limits his surgeries so he is far from a surgery mill. He has a large staff, they all speak English. I don't have a problem with people in Mexico speaking Spanish, it is us that needs to learn their language when in their country.

Actually they aren't. They are made from boiled cow skin and boiled horse skin. They are the worst quality protein on the market and are not endorsed by the American bariatric...whatever it's called. They are not a complete protein source by any stretch and they are not all whey. Some are part whey and part collagen and some are all collagen.

You know that space under your ID? On mine is says Admin? You should change yours to "Honorary Sleeve Brother" so everyone knows to give you due respect. ;o) And if they don't Elisabeth and me will smack 'em upside the head!

You know, every noob loves their surgery type in the beginning. The real key is how much someone loves their surgery type after a year or so. I am 363 days post op and I love my sleeve. It's carefree, easy, effective, everything good. I love it.

Yes! Alex isn't hiding us in the basement of LBT anymore like hidden fugly children! HAHA Our very own forum!

Yeah, they do. They bleed the ins co's dry.

Zapata and Almanza charge for hiatal hernia repairs. All US docs do if it is under insurance, not sure how much other doctors charge for self pay.

Dr. Aceves' staff speak great English but the floor nurses, some do and some don't. But remember, they are in Mexico, that is their language. ;o) We are in their country, not the other way around.

Congrats! Doesn't it feel good to write those words?

In another thread someone was talking about band problems. It got me to thinking that this might be a good place to discuss the problems of banding we had. When I was banded I'd get stuck on Water some days. Thankfully I live in the desert as walking/heat helped me when I was stuck. I'd have to go outside in 110F temps and walk around the block a few times to get unstuck. I did it so often that I had a routine. I'd go out walking and call a friend of mine and we would chat while I walked. I was thinking recently about those days. Walking, hot temps, IV supplies in my house and calling my RN friend to come and start an IV on me, the drugs I tried to stop stoma spasms, inflammation, stashing plastic bags everywhere so I always had something to barf in, in a pinch... I'm shocked at how it all became so normal. It became a way of life. I just got used to it. I had such a hard time deciding between revision (and the fear I was making my problems permanent) or getting fat again. I knew I couldn't do the band forever. I didn't realize how severely the band impacted my life until I was sleeved and my life returned to normal. It was gradual and in my mind if I wanted thin I could either figure out a way to work the band or become MO again. Being MO was not an option and I didn't want Bypass. Now that I have my life back in looking back some of it is kinda funny but a lot of it was not funny at all. It just makes me realize... the things we do for weight loss. (Slowly shaking head.) A band gone bad affects every single aspect of your life as I wrote previously. It affects your employment, personal relationships, private life, health, everything. Absolutely every part of your life.

What's your advice to sleeve newbies? I was just writing an email to someone and it dawned on me that this might be the start of a good thread. My advice is to take FULL advantage of the first six months. That is the easiest time to lose weight. Your stomach is the size of a cigar, finger, it's small and round. It won't stretch out to a banana size/shape for a few months and this time frame it is easy to lose weight. Since it is easy to lose weight a lot of people just sit around watching pounds melt. If you put forth effort during this time frame you lose faster and get to goal sooner. If you are a band to sleeve and your port site hurts the first two weeks... yeah, I got nothing. It hurts. Consider it initiation to the revision club? HA! :thumbup: Anyone else?

So I got to thinking today that I have gotten by with no exercise for 16 months now. I quit when I started having band problems and was losing a bit more than I wanted to. Well, those days are over! ;o) I have two pounds I need to lose to stay within my permissible 5#'s that I allow myself. My jeans don't fit. Just 5# makes a difference of a size at this point. Ohhh, they fit.. but I almost have to lay on my bed to zip them up. Not acceptable! Today I finally got to the treadmill and I thought it would be harder but it wasn't. I'll work up to running again instead of walking/running/walking/running. It was a piece of cake, not what I expected at all after being a lazy couch slug for 16 care free months! One down side, I remember when I first started this WLJ. I could burn the same number of calories in 15 minutes that it takes in 48 minutes now. That sucks. (BMI/BMR having gone down.) I'd put an exercise ticker in there but alas... no room! HAHAHA

It will go back to normal size in time. Self control and not over eating will prevent it from happening again. Thing is, now full feels like full so you'll have a better idea of when to quit eating.

Why are you so quick to determine the band is too tight? It could be that scarring is growing under the band causing too much restriction, it could be band intolerance, it could be a slip, it could be a lot of things. Hair loss is NOT necessarily from a lack of protein. It happens with weight loss, a change in diet, surgery, a shock to the body, it can happen from a lot of things. I was never short on protein and I lost about half my hair. Everyone has their cures for hair loss, protein, Biotin, extra Vitamins, special shampoos... truth is, it will stop when it stops. It happens with all WLS types, it just doesn't happen with every person. The dental problems could be from PBing all the time. The stomach acid does a real trip on your teeth. Here we agree completely. You are chanting my mantra. ;o) If you can eat bad food you can eat good food. People that are not losing well with a band and blaming it on not being able to make good food choices because of the band... those are probably the people that need malabsorption instead of restriction alone. I had a heck of a time eating food when I was banded but I made good choices so even with all my band problems I still lost quite well and I busted my back side with exercise. Now we are back to disagreeing. Not everyone is band material. Those that have issues with inflammation, those that have band intolerance, etc. Not all band problems are the fault of the patient and to automatically assume so really isn't fair to the person you are responding to. You have to start asking questions, see if they are chewing well, what are they getting stuck on, do they realize "full" feels different banded than unbanded for most (they keep eating looking for the old "full" feeling and it isn't going to happen so they overeat and barf). I guess my point is that it's really common and easy to assume it's all the person but that isn't so. I was the perfect bandster, I did everything the right way and the band about killed me. Considering the number of revisions from band to sleeve and band to bypass... maybe, just maybe it's the band. I'm not comfortable with beating someone over the head playing the blame game the day before they will lose their band. :smile:(

I am a natural born grazer so I eat all day long. ;o) If I just ate three times daily I'd keep losing.

Totally agree.

I have no problem with deposits. I have a problem with deposits over $500 that are non refundable should you change your mind within a reasonable period of time. If you don't show up, I totally get it. They should keep the deposit. But if you cancel say... a couple of weeks ahead of time, do they put it in writing that you get your $500 back?

True, but most people don't want to take the time to make their food into baby food. At first you are all about food and how to do things. Over time you just want to eat the darn stuff, you don't want to have to go to those extremes so you end up avoiding them. Going out to dinner is trippy when there is something you want and there isn't a chance in the world it is going to go down. You'd be surprised about pureed foods. You'd think it goes down with no problem. I never could eat mashed potatoes, got stuck every single time. One would think that one would be easy. The band is really quite ... fickle.

True, once you get beyond a certain size but for the 95% of surgeons who use standard size bougies size is not an issue. It's technique. People get so wrapped up in bougie size and they are looking at the wrong thing here. I'll bet you that Pompa's 32F is bigger than a more experienced doctors 48F.

Mexico. Truth is he learned his trade from his partner. His partner is in Mexico. If it was already being done in Mexico how is he the "pioneer of lap surgery?" This same doc also claims 600 sleeves. Total crap, no way. He's 41 and he's the pioneer of lap surgery with 600 sleeves? He hasn't been in practice long enough to have done 600 sleeves. Those that have been in practice for 25 years don't have that many sleeves. Believe nothing, believe nobody, research and verify everything. Every doctor goes through a learning curve, it's how it is. Don't be part of someone's learning curve. Go to someone with experience.

Do you know one time I was told, "My surgeon got through medical school and that is hard so he must be good!" That was a Huacuz patient. Just because someone got through medical school does not mean the doctor is good. Research, verify. Believe nobody, believe nothing, verify everything.