WASaBubbleButt

I love the Onion. What is best of all is when people swear it's REAL news and they start sending out the link to all their email buddies. Heh...

Total crap. I never once blamed you for a bloody thing. You can slide off that pity pot now. I never said you were overeating but your drama is amusing nonetheless. What I suggested was changing your eating habits for a few days, it would help determine what the problem actually is. I also asked if you needed dental work as perhaps you aren't able to chew properly. Until you are willing to give a little and try new things to determine what IS going on there is no way to determine if it is something you are doing, if it is a band problem, or if it is band intolerance. I am not going to assume that everyone who PBs has band intolerance until all issues are ruled out one way or another. You are completely and totally unwilling to help yourself so there is little I can do for you. You didn't want suggestions, you didn't want anything to help you determine what IS wrong, you refuse to change your eating habits for a week or less to help yourself, you just wanted to complain so you should have made that clear to begin with.

So just get overfilled where you slime on your own saliva and you can experience the same thing.

Infection isn't necessarily the fault of the surgeon. It might be his fault, might not be. Infection is always a risk of any surgery. What concerns me is not diagnosing these fevers and fluid in his gut. That is a problem.

Who supports ILlegal immigration more than most? McDummy. Who did you vote for, Beth? Ohhh yes, I remember now. You voted for McDummy! Aren't you ever bit as much of the problem as the rest? The righty wingnuts started this, they got us to the point it is now, and someone sane and rational will have to fix that huge major mega problem ... too. So many ways the righty wingnuts screwed over this country. Too many to count.

When the freebie welfare dollars, medical care, education dollars, etc. come to an end then you'll hear this strong sucking sound as they all run back to their respective countries. It's not just Mexico, India is pretty much a horror in illegal immigration too. Start punishing the hell out of employers who hire these people and you'll hear that same sucking sound as they go home where they belong. Let them come back... legally.

It doesn't sound like erosion to me, it sounds different. Erosion can happen in a few months, what erosion would not cause is fever after a fill. Not that I am aware of anyway. It's normal to have a low grade fever after surgery, it's the way the body heals itself. But... 102.5 is not low grade. It sounds a lot more like an infection to me. When the band erodes the stomach tissue grows around it. There isn't a hole per se, not before they actually remove the band. I'd be interested to see his labs before surgery, I have a hunch it was an infection. I'd seek out MissMonaAZ, she had something kinda sorta similar in symptoms. What they suspected happened was that during surgery her surgeon scratched the area of the stomach under the band. She ended up in the hospital about a week after banding with a high fever and similar symptoms. She has been told due to the type of injury she will likely erode in the future. She's making the most out of her band while she has it.

One thing I have learned throughout my own weight loss journey is that it's always best to go to a doctor who does all the major procedures, banding, sleeves, bypass. You get a more balanced answer to questions. If you sell Ford cars you sure aren't going to push Toyotas. A band surgeon isn't going to push sleeves. Not every doctor feels comfortable doing a staple line. If that is the case they are right to stick with banding. But it doesn't mean it's a bad procedure, it means they are not comfortable doing staple lines. Doctors are business people like everyone else, they go to work to earn a living. They aren't going to push a procedure they do not do. They are going to push one they do, as I've pointed out above.

Nawww, Beth... now com'on, anything bad is the left's fault and anything good is the right's credit. That mantra grows old and annoying after the gazillionth time you have repeated it. AZ has the problem we do mainly due to your buddy McDummy. 50% of ALL illegals cross through AZ, the other 50% of illegals cross through all other border states combined. Wouldn't AZ be a great state to start working? By zog McDummy did go to work, FOR illegals. When it comes to illegals you can thank the righty right wing nutjobs for that one.

It's not an issue of debate, it is an issue of incorrect information being given out. Here is what Dr. Watkins (the guy who charges over $1,000 for a lap band fill) writes: He claims lap bands are a proven powerful tool. What is powerful? I guess that is subjective as Inamed just came out with their long term stats and they show that at 5 years people have lost an average of 55-60% of their "excess" weight. Sleeves show 80% at five years. Which is a more powerful tool? Adjustability. You have a valve at the bottom of your stomach called the pylorus valve. It controls how fast your stomach empties. The idea behind the band is to copy what the pylorus valve does naturally just higher up in the stomach. It HAS to be adjustable because essentially your band is trying to do what my pylorus valve does naturally. The sleeve is not new, it's been done since the late 1800s, just not for weight loss. It was done for stomach cancer and ulcers and such. We know what happens long term with less of a stomach. What is new is tracking weight loss. It's been tracked about as long as banding. If new is bad, shouldn't the band be bad? Normal anatomy with a band... total crap. Studies are showing that with the band the anatomy changes to the point that many/most banded folks suffer from reflux. There is nothing normal about any WLS, nothing. It's not normal to squeeze the upper portion of your stomach nor is it normal to cut out the elastic portion of your stomach. The one thing he says that I agree with is that many surgeons would disagree with him.

You mean like this one? Escapee from courthouse still on loose Or this one: Illegal alien rapes puppy The hell they don't cause problems! We live with it daily in AZ. Our state is about bankrupt over this issue. The social services, medical care that is never paid, schools, jails, prisons, it's an absolute horror. One in four school children in AZ are either illegals or anchor babies. 1 in 10 employees is an illegal in AZ. Don't tell me they don't cause many problems.

We kinda disagree on this one. There really is one thing that is guaranteed, without some sort of surgery you will stay obese. Some prefer obesity to surgery, some don't. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, just our own answers.

There seems to be a great deal of misinformation out there about sleeves. You do not need a whole stomach for survival. You just don't. I have about 20% of my stomach left, I have a BMI of 20, I eat anything I want, my diet is 10x better than when I was banded, I feel great, my labs are great, I don't take supplements because I don't need them, shall I continue? The sleeve is safer than the band is long term. Weight loss is faster. Weight loss is better (80% with a sleeve compared to 55-60% with a band). There is no maintenance. I can continue with this too. I like the idea of permanent. Is there some reason you would want to regain all your lost weight? I don't. If you don't want a sleeve, kewl Beans. Don't get one but spreading incorrect information about any procedure type isn't productive.

The long term risks with a sleeve are drastically less than that of a band. I'm not sure I understand your point? Since when do you need 100% of your stomach for survival? Mine was killing me, it held too much food. Today with a smaller stomach I am far healthier than I was fat.

You could have also slipped. You need an unfill immediately. Tell the nurse to come here, we'll give her an education in her job.

Nope, the increased Ghrelin (along with other differences) exist BEFORE we get fat. Electrical activity in the brain, types of bacteria in the gut, it's all there before we get fat. Obesity is not a character flaw, it's a disease.

Forgetting to eat is not a typical problem for the obese. ;o) The jury is still out on the production of Ghrelin after a sleeve, I am on the side of those that say it will come back but not at the same levels as prior to surgery. The body has an amazing way to compensate for something that is missing. Ghrelin isn't just produced by the stomach, the intestines produce some as well but not much. You need some Ghrelin, a tiny amount as it does work with growth hormone but what is produced by the intestine is more than enough to work with growth hormone. I have to believe that the triple amount of ghrelin has to lead to some problems, only fat folks seem to over produce the stuff. Coincidence? I doubt it. ;o)

You wouldn't mind being unable to eat or drink a glass of Water in public? You wouldn't mind stomach acid eating away the enamel on your teeth? You wouldn't mind having to carry plastic bags with you each place you go since you don't know when you'll have to barf up your own saliva? You wouldn't mind keeping IV supplies at home and calling your RN friend at 10PM at night to start an IV because it's your 2-3 day of being unable to get water down and you are dehydrated? You wouldn't mind being unable to go to social and work functions with your husband because you can't keep your own spit down? You wouldn't mind waking up at 2AM 4AM and 6AM to barf stomach acid from reflux? Just how long do you think you could keep it up? Do you honestly think this is quality of life? If I wasn't experiencing the above I could eat an entire porterhouse without chewing well. It was quite a treat daily to see if it would be a food and water day or not. I don't think you could do it long. I busted my ass to lose weight, I did hard cardio 1-2 hours a day minimum. That is how I lost weight. You can start doing that today if you wish. Have joint problems? Do 4 hours of swimming daily instead, same difference. Get a Bowflex and lift weights. If you want to lose weight bad enough, you will.

I had to block Pattygreen a long time ago. Life is too short, you know?

Look, I was just offering a suggestion to try and identify the problem. I never suggested this was a way of eating for life. I thought I was pretty clear it was for a few days. If it isn't possible to try this for a few days then I really don't know what to tell you.

Some studies show that obese people tend to produce as much as 3x the ghrelin that a naturally thin person produces. We don't need that much ghrelin, it's not serving a useful purpose. Personally, I don't need ghrelin to tell me I am hungry, how many obese or previously obese people do you know who only eat when they are hungry? We eat when we are not hungry. Head hunger does a job. It's much easier to deal with head hunger when you don't have stomach hunger as well. Considering we all deal with head hunger I guess I am not clear on what it is that you do not understand.

Why don't you try this, instead of 3 meals daily, for a week or so what if you eat three bites every hour? Small bites and THREE ONLY. If you can't help yourself and you eat more than three then you have one answer, you are overeating. If you can't stop at three bites that might be your problem. How is your dental work? Do you need any work done? Could you not be chewing well enough? I'd try the three bites an hour for a few days and see if your reflux and pain go away. You might be one that has to eat several smaller meals vs. 3 meals daily.

Mouthwash!

I didn't realize how many little things I had given up in trade for a band. Just going out to lunch with friends, going out to dinner with friends, everything social in life seems to revolve around food in some manner. You go shopping with friends and then go to lunch. You go to friend's homes for dinner. Everything is about food. Even in a work setting meetings, staff lunches, the works. After I was sleeved my world changed and all for the better. Not carrying plastic bags around with me, going out with friends a lot more than when I was banded. Not having to worry that if I didn't have the picture perfect day I could still drink Water. I don't miss my banded days in the least. Not even a little. I do know exactly what you are talking about. Did it for 18 months. First it was non adjustable bands. Then they came up with adjustable bands. Then they decided that the problem was that they needed bigger bands. Now people aren't getting the restriction needed with bigger bands and they STILL have the same restriction (not enough/too much/no sweet spot) with the bigger bands. What's next?

With all due respect, it does appear that you are looking to be offended to the point of insisting you will be offended one way or another. It's a choice on your part but not the best way to get people to jump in there and help you out with your questions.