WASaBubbleButt

Many of the people you see posting here got a band and were not happy with it and revised to a sleeve. The band has a significant failure rate and lots of potential complications. There is only one surgery with a sleeve.

Isn't their latest spokes person that lady from ... AAHHH, I can't remember the name of the show. Bill Cosby, the Huxtables. She was Clair. She HAD to have made a lot of money doing that series, why in the world would she be doing Jenny Craig advertisements as the fat lady wanting to lose weight?

The key cities are TJ and Juarez. It's not the entire country, it is key cities.

Very normal. I can't count how many times I picked up the phone to schedule surgery to have the band removed. I did not know what I wanted.

My honest opinion... Tell your friends and family to go to hell. They are not living your life, you are. It's none of their business. Repositioned/replaced bands have a 70% chance of slipping again. I don't know why any good surgeon would reposition or replace a band anyway given the stats. More surgeries? Get the sleeve. Go to a GOOD surgeon, someone who has low leak stats and happy patients. I am a band to sleeve revision and the band sucks. Sleeves rock.

First of all, obesity is a disease, not a character flaw. Do not forget this. Blaming yourself for obesity is like a diabetic blaming herself for high blood sugar. It sounds like you have no restriction. When was your last fill? We ALL hope we will be the one with no fill. Get over that mentality and go to your doc until you get good restriction. Com'on... a band without good restriction is like a fancy car with flat tires. Just how far do you think it will get you? You don't need God here, you need a fill.

Take comfort in knowing her photos are airbrushed. ;o)

Yes, I do remember her name. It was about a year ago.

You can try SLOWLY sipping pineapple juice. Very slowly. Try to keep it down as long as possible. That usually worked for me. If you drink it too fast you'll barf. Now, if you can't get liquids down at all you would be vomiting about every 20 minutes because you wouldn't be able to keep your saliva down. If you are getting some liquids down I would guess swelling? But thing is, it could also be a slip. If you think you have slipped or obstructed you need to go to an ER.

The whole time I was banded I was either able to eat anything and everything or not even Water would go down. I would be drinking water with no problem and all the sudden my stoma clamped shut, right in the middle of drinking. There was no logic to it. It did not matter if there was a fill or not, it was always the same. It wasn't that I was overfilled, the same thing would happen with or without a fill. It was just miserable and I'm so glad that freak thing is out of me now.

I don't know a lot about Ponce de leon but I do know about Verboonan. I can't say I would go to him for a sleeve. Maybe a band but not a sleeve. There was a lady about a year ago that contacted me and she was a revision from band to sleeve. She wasn't really happy with him for her band but I'm not sure that was his fault, the band is hard, period. Slips are not really the fault of the doctor 4 years down the road. One of her concerns is that when she went to him for her band the day she was discharged the nurse came in to clean her room as they had a patient waiting for that room. She didn't change the sheets, she just made up the bed for the next patient as this lady packed her suitcase. She ended up going back to him because he was giving her a $$ break on the revision since she already had surgery by him once. She didn't feel right about it and was concerned but felt she had no choice. Take a chance with Dr. V. or not have surgery at all. She ended up with leaks all the way around the staple line. Not a single leak from a single place but leaks all the way around her staple line. She had to be transported to a Tijuana hospital where she spent the next three weeks. I never understood the reasoning behind this but as an emergency repair they had to do MGB. Then she came home and that is when she called me and she told me what happened. She couldn't talk long because she was too weak. She was later admitted to a hospital in the states for more problems because of the MGB and I talked to her then. She was supposed to call me when she got home. When she didn't I called her. The phone was disconnected, her email account was closed and I had no way to follow up with her. Honestly, I have no idea if she is alive, if she moved... not a clue. Sleeves are nothing to mess with. If you don't go to someone uber experienced you pay the price in the end. The only people I personally, would go to is Aceves, Rumbaut, or Zapata. They have a lot of experience in staple lines, they have excellent reputations, their patients aren't complaining like some that they can eat large quantities of solid Protein at 3 weeks post op, they don't have a gazillion leaks, they work out of hospitals instead of clinics, they are in safe locations, they have good stats, etc. If your sleeve is made too large you are talking a revision surgery. If there is enough stomach to work with they can shave off a bit more but risks increase for leaks and bleeding, etc. THAT is expensive. Ask the people here who are revisions. Revision surgery is more than the original surgery. Usually they have to revise to bypass or DS if you want to lose weight and your sleeve is too large. I don't want malabsorption and if for any reason I would have had a botched sleeve I think I would have just left well enough alone. I don't want RNY or DS. But, I didn't worry about it because I went to a good surgeon.

I remember a bandster lunch we had once. We used to do it every month, just local banded people. I had been paying for one of the guys for his lunch because he was having a hard time financially. He finally was able to get ahead a bit and as a thank you for the previous lunches he paid for my lunch that day. First bite I took got stuck. I spent the entire lunch running to the bathroom sliming. It was embarrassing. One bite of food that he paid for. Thankfully he was banded so he totally understood. There were new people at that lunch and I really wanted to get to know them. No such luck that day. I finally left early. All things considered, I am going to start a new thread for band to sleeve people.

Excellent goals! It's going to be really hard to do that as you get closer to goal since your BMR will be decreasing. So don't be too hard on yourself physically and in terms of calories once you get closer to goal.

You made a claim, I was merely interested in the science behind your claim. I never said you have to consume 600 calories a day to lose weight, I'm thrilled you found what works for you. But I was challenging the across the board statement you made. That's all. The only thing I changed while I was losing is carb intake, not caloric. Cheers.

That's fantastic! You know, the 10 days of clears really isn't bad after surgery. You'll struggle to get your 64oz in. We all struggle to get that much Fluid in. You won't want it and you'll put off sipping. So honestly, as well as you are doing with liquids now you'll find it is even easier to "not" want it after surgery. Congrats to you!

Proof? Peer reviewed journal articles, please. Sites, please.

I have a hunch that by the time you have had your band for 8 months or so and when your trip comes around... I think you'll be feeling the same way we do. When you start getting fills you will find that you are forced to look at your food issues in a way you never did before. When your freedom to eat quantity is taken away you will be in for a bit of shock, I think we all are. When you start realizing how much of a role food plays in your life I have a hunch you will run in fear of an unfill before vacation. ;o) It's something we ALL face at one point or another in one form or another. You are a newbie, as we all were at one time. You are going to find your thinking changing a great deal over the next few months and that's a good thing. We've all been through it, going through it, or will go through it. I can understand why a noob asks these kinds of questions. I'd be shocked if a vet asked this, but a noob, most of us have asked the same thing. Just a suggestion, a year from now... or 8 months from now... come back and reread this thread. You'll see just how far you have come. You are not unique in this, we ALL go through this stuff. It's hard to explain but in a year or so you'll be responding to these posts the same way we are. ;o)))

I understand you are saying you would not gorge yourself but... stop and think about something. You are talking about potentially gaining 10-15#. That is 35,000 - 52,500 calories above and beyond your usual food intake for three weeks. When you are talking to a bunch of WLS vets we are programmed to look at the numbers and see things in a way we didn't before. What are you eating currently? With an unfilled band I'm guessing...1200? Is that reasonable? You are suggesting you'll be eating about 3700 calories a day. For *us* that is a massive quantity. For *our* population that is gorging. I think that's where the adjectives are coming from.

Yes, you are restricted for weight training but I don't remember for how long because it was a non issue for me, I never did weight training. ;o) I did hard cardio and lots of it but never weights.

Great, thank you. I just PMed him. Considering he's only posted one time on LBT I'm not sure how often he'll be checking his PMs.

Fine, take out the adjectives. You are still suggesting that if you continue on the path you and your doctor agreed upon for you that this is insulting to your host. It's a bit for us having unfills and such like an alcoholic wanting to drink on vacation. This is a lifestyle change, not something we use only when it's convenient. You can still eat all the same foods, just eat less. What is more important here, your health or eating to satisfy your host? If you are trying to lose weight and your host sees this as insulting, tough. It's your health. One of the problems that I see here is that if you look at the boards... when people get unfilled for various reasons they sometimes have a hard time finding a sweet spot again. It's the nature of the band. Read, you'll see what I am talking about. If you are at your sweet spot now why risk it?

A friend of mine had surgery in Tijuana 2-3 years ago and she had a severe erosion, I don't know if all eroded bands cost the same but hers was $5K by Dr. Aceves. Like I wrote, I don't know if that is a standard price or not. Rumbaut and Zapata are also great choices in safe locations as well.

The person posting about the infection does explain quite clearly that they are on antibiotics and have been for 2.5 months because of having had surgery with Almanza. You can talk this away all you want, it's in black and white. Maybe it wasn't MRSA, but it was an infection from the surgery. Is Almanza doing the sleeves and bypass at Angeles hospital? I do not believe for one minute that corners are not being cut with the prices as they are. Impossible. Unless you guys are donating your time, these costs have to be absorbed for dirt cheap surgery. Considering the overall rep of Betancourt/Emmanual and their very long history on this board and every other I would just hope people really watch what they are doing. Then we have the issue of paid posters. You can't talk your way out of that one either. One of them emailed Elisabeth apologizing for being paid to push your facilities and slam dunk anyone who dared to tell of negative experiences. She couldn't do it anymore and apologized to a mod for this. She's never even BEEN to Emmanual! The paid posters aren't even bright enough to hide what they are doing. They are spamming every WLS board with this nonsense, not just here on LBT. Don't you realize it makes you guys look worse? Seriously, if you guys are going to lower yourself to paid posters at least get some bright ones. Those you have now... well, there are surely brighter crayons in the box, aren't there? If everything is as great as you say it is then why is there a need for paid posters? Other doctors... their patients are posting. Then we have the issue of the email I received from your facility suggesting that if I don't stop posting what I know then they will attack my doctor on the boards. They will come up with fake information and slam dunk him on every WLS board they can find. For God's sakes, where are the professional ethics at Betancourt/Emmanual/Almanza? My doctor has nothing to do with my posting. Why not attack my dentist while you guys are at it? You know, for a short time I really started thinking Andres was trying to clean things up, improve his rep, do things the right way. When one of the paid posters explained that P. L. is no longer associated with you I honestly thought to myself that maybe things are changing. I was clearly wrong. Ethics, they are a GOOD thing.

But Luluc... you weren't getting an unfill so that you could eat large quantities of food as to not insult others by harming yourself. Big difference.

On average people lose about 1-2 pounds a week with a band. But... that's an average. In the beginning you lose weight quickly, I lost 33# in 33 days after my band. But it slows down as you lose weight and in the end it can take you two weeks to lose a pound when you are close to goal. So the 1-2 pounds is an average throughout your weight loss journey. It depends on what you eat and how much you exercise. I lost 108# in 10 months, my friend gained 50# after banding. It's not the band, it's us. If you want to lose faster then work harder.