WASaBubbleButt

HA! Our name is just as silly... we call them a pot pie. Ours our loaded with fat as well! Ours are meat, peas, corn, potatoes, gravy, in a non-sweet crust. Not a lot that is healthy in there. ;o)

Total crap, you haven't been shown the least bit of hostility. I posted my opinions, just like Jane if you prefer to see a difference in opinion as hostility that one is on you and not me. Dragging your family around with you for everything is a wasted expense. That's my opinion. I scheduled my surgery, went by myself, and drove myself home. No big deal. This passive aggressive stuff doesn't wash well. If you want to perceive that as pink flying elephants, that is your choice.

Malabsorptive is something such as RNY or DS. It's where they reroute and bypass intestine so you do not absorb calories consumed. Bands and sleeves are restrictive only. I am one that is good to go with restriction only so when I lost my band I revised to a sleeve. The band was hard, the sleeve is easy. When I revised from band to sleeve the hardest part of recovery was where my port was. That hurt like a buggar for two weeks. Felt like a bon fire going on in there.

That's a lot of unnecessary expenses. Needless trips, etc. Me? I'd just call the doctor, set up a date, and get it done. And that is what I did. No need to pay someone to hand you the name of a doctor. All in all the problem here isn't that others use this needless source of naming a doctor. The point is that advertising is not acceptable on a support board. That's all. That's the problem, the only problem. The company in question is free to pay for advertising but so clearly and obviously using a support board for advertising is not acceptable or ethical. When someone comes here, doesn't even talk about the surgery type but just the company that referred them it's a little weird. Get to know us first, find out what we are like. See our posting styles. Then try to sell us crap.

Excellent point and one that should have been obvious to me. There isn't a doubt that I was severely malnourished by the time I had my band removed. It took about 6 months before I can say I really felt good and healthy again. I felt MUCH better just having the band removed but for overall health it took me about six months. Today I eat all the things I struggled with while banded, veggies. I've never been a fan of fruit. What the heck is a meat pie? You can imagine the visuals here. ;o) I think I asked you this a long time ago but I don't remember what it was? I'm picturing an apple pie with meat added. ;o)

Hi, I'm WASa and I used to have a BubbleButt! HA! My thing has never really been sugar. If it's in front of me I'll eat it but I don't crave it. I just eat anything in front of me. ;o) So today I only keep good foods in front of me. When it comes to trigger foods I learned a long time ago that if I eat it I crave it more. It's all or none for me. If I give myself an inch I take a mile. ;o) Anything with flour in it is a huge trigger food for me. Bread, Pasta, anything. If I take one bite that's it, the carb craving cycle begins. :thumbup:/

And it is anything but free. The dummies of the world do not understand that they will be paying out the nose for this. I view our VA hospitals as small examples of what we would do to medical care on a larger scale. Yeah, I don't think so.

Not sure how to explain it differently than we have. You know the difference between soft slider foods and hard solids, it's still the same thing.

We are changing topics here. I'm referring to technique, you are now referring to actual size. In this procedure 10mm is huge, it's a huge difference. Of course the difference between a 32 and 48 is going to be significant, it's the difference of 5.09mm. Again, we started off communicating about one issue and now it's drifted. Who are you arguing with? Who made this claim?

Question for you, one of the biggest problems we have today in the US regarding emergency rooms are narcotic seekers. There is nothing wrong with these people, they just want narcotics. Some hospitals say that 70% of the patients coming in to their ERs are people wanting narcotics and faking symptoms to get them. How does your health system handle this problem?

There is no such thing as easy, problem free weight loss. The sleeve is easier than banding, yes. But no massive weight loss is easy. Now wait a minute, when I posted accurate stats of banding vs. sleeves you wrote that it was band bashing and balanced needed to be restored. Then you were thrilled when someone posted a lot of outdated inaccurate sleeve information and said that balance was restored. NOW, just one day later, you are writing of all the band problems and complications with unhappy people. I didn't even go that far and you felt I was band bashing. What the heck? I was banded for 18 months and I've been sleeved for a year. I honestly don't have any sleeve problems, just problems leftover from banding. I prefer sleeves because of fewer long term complications, no maintenance, no aftercare, better and easier weight loss. I'm at goal and done for life.

That would work very well for full liquids but not clears. It would bump up the Protein a bit.

Why in the world didn't your doctor use self dissolving sutures? Especially since he wasn't going to be removing them himself? The type of sutures you have leave rail road track scars. They really are easy to remove. Just cut next to the knot and pull the knot side. Might have to tug just a little bit but they should slip right out.

I got all my protein gms. in, took vitamins four times daily, used special shampoos, took biotin, etc. I did it all. I lost about 50% of my hair. But no worries, it really does grow back.

I do have permanent esophageal damage from the band. Most of the problems resolved after removing my band but the rest of the damage is there forever. If the band were to erode or seriously damage your stomach about the worse case scenario is the slim chance of no future WLS revisions. Dental problems from vomiting if you PB a great deal. The long term complications (including death) from obesity are 1000x greater than long term problems with banding. Now, don't get me wrong... there are a lot of complications that come with banding. But the severity of obesity is worse than the problems you'll have with a band. Cathy: Sure there are. There are a great number of long term studies. It hasn't been in the US long but it's been around for many years. It was approved in MX in 1991, it was being used in several countries long before the US.

No, the sleeve is not nearly as invasive as bypass. Might want to research it a bit and you'll see that there is no malabsorption like bypass. No malnutrition issues, no cutting of intestines, etc. It's a great deal less invasive than bypass.

If you have been struggling for 6 years banded and still are not at goal I think the sleeve is not for you. You might need just a bit more than the sleeve can offer. The sleeve is restrictive only like the band. I'm not fond of RNY, the stats are not great at all. People don't really understand how it works, they don't realize you only malabsorb for 6-18 months. If you can't change your eating habits now, how will you do it when you quit malabsorbing? One in five fail with bypass and I think that is why. You could get a sleeve and if that doesn't work (and I don't think it will) then you could finish and get DS. But if I were you I'd just shoot for DS now. Please keep one issue in mind. No surgery type fixes white carbs. If you eat a lot of white carbs there is no surgery type that will help you lose to goal and maintain it. White carbs are what got us fat to begin with. We all have to cut wayyyy back to lose and maintain. But DS has MUCH better long term stats than RNY.

Heh... this thread is 2.5 years old. I'll bet the OP found a surgeon by now. ;o)))))

Sadly, AZ is a VERY expensive state for banding. That clinic in Tempe... I wouldn't go there. That is Orris and Debarros. They seem to have a pretty high erosion stat and they are just amazingly expensive, way out of line. They claim the reason they are so expensive is because they use two surgeons during surgery. Oye veh... ALL bands requires two doctors. There are four instruments going at any given time during surgery and unless the doctor has 4 hands it requires two people but Orris and Debarros charge for two lead surgeons. That is nothing short of unethical. You can't have two lead surgeons in banding. You have a lead and an assistant but they charge for two leads because they get more money out of you that way. I've just heard a lot of bad things about them lately. People are not happy with the aftercare, the attitudes of the staff, the erosions, the band problems, the price, the works. I remember when their patient coordinator pretended to be a patient and wanted to go to our Phoenix bandster lunches we were doing monthly. He didn't realize everyone there was already banded. He was trying to pimp for business. Just very unethical in so many ways. If you stay in AZ I'd suggest Berger and his partner. I don't recall what the cost is but as I remember it was reasonable considering the rest. Or, there is Aceves in Mexicali for $7K. He's about 50 miles west of Yuma.

I was a little gun shy of another WLS as well. I revised to a sleeve. But... Maybe restriction alone isn't your thing? If you lost 40# in under two years with a band maybe a malabsorptive procedure is a better bet for you? We really do not do well losing/maintaining without a tool. Stats show about 3-5% of obese people can lose weight on their own or maintain after losing their WLS tool. You can try to maintain or even lose but don't be too hard on yourself if you can't do it. You might want to start researching other options? You don't have to do any of them but use this time to consider what else is out there.

But Denise, you worry when things are going well! When you could drink liquids you worried about it. When you were healing better than the rest of us, you worried about it. Relax, no need to look for things to fret over. Embrace the good, don't worry about it! Life is too short.

No, it really isn't. The bougie is a guide. There is less than a millimeter of difference in bougie sizes. Not all 32s are alike.. I have a 32F stomach and I can see a difference of people who have a 48F but there is no difference in 32-38 in the non scientific test we did on another board. Everyone can eat about the same. Agreed, between the mega bougie and the lack of technique you CAN tell the difference in someone who hasn't done many sleeves, like Pompa.

You saved me some leg work, thank you!

I *loved* the part when the guy goes outside to wave! HAHAHAHA

I think you are reading quite a bit into something that does not exist. Just because people have a difference of opinion does not mean it is bickering. Honestly, I really have no idea where you are getting all this drama from. I'm not seeing it.