WASaBubbleButt

Me... personally... I wouldn't go to anyone with less than 250 sleeves AND 250 bypass procedures. I wanted someone with a LOT of staple line experience. Something you will hear sleeved people discuss a great deal is that if a surgeon isn't skilled enough to do the more difficult bypass staple lines, they won't be doing any staple lines on the majority of us. If they can only do an easy staple line, that's a concern. What if the person has a weird shaped stomach or they find a leak during surgery? I want someone that has already dealt with this previously and knows how to fix it before they wake me up. I know your doc doesn't do any leak tests and while I agree it comes down to personal opinion, I wouldn't go to anyone that doesn't do leak tests. Mine does three leak tests and that's what I wanted. Many of us travel for surgery and some leaks won't show up immediately. I didn't want to get home and THEN discover there was a problem. With three leak tests I knew there was no leak and I was comfortable about going home.

No, actually I was disagreeing with Mac. They used a mesh around the stomach at that time and you can't safely sleeve a person because of that crappy mesh they used way back when on stomachs. The staple line can't be secured where the mesh was. Bypass might be an option if they didn't have to staple along the mesh portion, I don't know for sure one way or another. I'm guessing not. If you think of your stomach like a big piece of cow liver (sorry, best I can compare it to off the top of my head) and you put that crappy mesh stuff all the way around the slice of cow liver... there is no way you can staple from the bottom to the top of that liver without catching some of the mesh and that is where you'd have a strong chance for a leak. I wonder if you couldn't do bypass, I wonder if they could use the portion of stomach that has the mesh, cut that away and suture the intestine there? I still don't see how you could avoid the mesh though but I'm not surgeon. I'm just kinda thinking it through as I type.

If you can eat bad food you can eat good food. Soft food syndrome does exist but it does not mean crap food that doesn't do anything for your body. If you can eat ice cream you can drink a Protein shake. If you can eat dry crunchy things like Cookies and chips you can eat dried crunchy veggies. Whole boxes of ice cream daily has NOTHING to do with the band and everything to do with carb obsessions. You have to get off ALL carbs for a week or so. It's horrible, the cravings suck. But you deal with it. Then you add in veggie carbs. NO bread or any other flour products, Pasta, rice, sugar, or starches such as peas, corn, or potatoes. None of those foods have enough nutritional value to be worth using up your calories per day. You can have soft food syndrome without reaching for bad soft foods. There are plenty of good soft foods too until you either learn to work with the band, get the right restriction, or change procedure types if it is that bad.

Not everyone loses well with a band. Inamed announced recently that the average someone can expect to lose with a band is 55% of their excess weight. If someone is a 50+ BMI by the time they lose half their excess weight they are still obese. I am not in favor of higher BMIs getting banded, far too many revise to a sleeve or bypass. Not saying one can't get to goal from a high BMI to healthy BMI, but it is not the norm.

Not as bad as I thought. The worst part was port location, removing the port is what hurt the most in the following two weeks. I think anyone that has a band removed will tell you that was the worst. Other than that, it's hard to tell. I was pretty sick at the time I had my revision so I don't really know how it would compare in an otherwise healthy person.

Not really, Mac. In the procedures used from the 70s - 90s they used the mesh around the VBG and after the mesh you really can't revise to anything except a band safely, there is a 50/50 chance of a leak. That's just too dangerous. ~~~Edit, changed "sleeve" to band.

Weight loss is better and faster with a sleeve per stats. I had a band and couldn't stand it anymore. I absolutely hated my band. I tried and tried to make it work but after 4 months on liquids I couldn't do it anymore. I was getting very sick and I was getting sick enough that I wouldn't have been safe to have surgery... meaning, to remove the band. So I finally got a sleeve. Now, i was sleeved at goal so I can't tell you personal examples of weight loss with the sleeve but I can tell you that I maintain without any effort whatsoever at a size 4/6. anillacookie: The verdict isn't out on MGB at all. NO good surgeon will even do that surgery, only the money grubbing idiots who have a focus on income vs. patient safety will do that procedure. Only the crap surgeons such as Ruttledge (sp?) will do it. There are a few dirtbags in MX that will do it but honestly, none of the better quality and skilled surgeons with good reps will even discuss the issue.

I think this is a common issue that people just don't get. Surgery does not do it for us. With the band it's probably 20% the band and 80% you. You don't get a band and just wait for weight to melt away, it doesn't work that way. Surgery is the easy part, fixing your head and changing bad habits is the hard part. Surgery is just a tool to help you do your own head work. Regardless of surgery type everyone has to do their part and if it was that easy to do our part we wouldn't have needed surgery to begin with. Surgery just makes it a bit easier to do what we couldn't do before. I guess my point is that it does not suddenly become easy to follow some magical set of rules or guidelines because you had surgery. It just makes it more possible than before. Another thing, I think you'll find that most people fight their surgery type for a bit. You kind of resent the band for a short time. You begin fighting it a bit. Some people fight it more than others. My stage was probably about a month long. But others it takes longer. People need time to sort through issues. If it goes on too long either some therapy or a different surgery type might be in order.

That comes with time. I had WLS 2 years ago and I still have days that I go to the frig 20x a day. I have to stop and think... am I really hungry or do I just want to eat. Most times I shut the door on the frig and go find something more productive to do. ;o) Most of us got fat because we eat when we are not hungry, we eat for something to do, we enjoy the flavor of food, we love the huge bites of food and the full feeling, it's a bit like carbonation. When I used to drink soda pre-WLS I loved guzzling it in the mornings. It hurt so good! HA! Full is the same thing, it hurts so good. Thing is, with a band "full" doesn't feel the same for most. It's a different feeling and if you keep eating until you get that "full-it hurts so good" it's not going to happen. Those days are over. I got that lesson twofold. I battled it banded and then over time I got to the point that I couldn't remember what "full" used to feel like. Then I was sleeved and I got a sharp reminder. Full with a sleeve feels the same as before any WLS. It doesn't hurt so good anymore. ;o) It just hurts. I don't crave that feeling or tolerate it well anymore. It was kind of like... "Ohhhhh! I remember this!" It's no longer a good kind of hurt. It just hurts. Not sure what I found so appealing about it before, I think it was just a way of life.

I think one problem a lot of people have is that they are looking for the old kind of "full" feeling. Most with a band have a new feeling that feels "full" and if you keep eating until you get the old feeling (pre band) you are not going to find that feeling and you'll overeat and barf. But remember, none of are eating to feel full anymore. That's the fat mentality rearing its ugly head. Naturally thin people don't eat until they are full or stuffed, they eat until they are no longer hungry. While you are eating every other bite stop and carefully think: Are you still hungry? Eat two more bites. Are you satisfied? Stop eating. Are you full? You ate too much. It's harder than you think. ;o)

Click on my name, click on "send email."

Very good! I'm thrilled you had a good experience. Mexican medical care is a world of difference from US medical care, eh? ;o)

I must agree. She should have retired before her popularity started on a decline.

It is as though she is a bit too cocky and sure of herself. She no longer has to follow basic journalism rules or rules of society. I think she's a putz.

Sounds like you need a slight unfill. When you are too tight you risk erosion and slips.

Too long to go into here. If you email me I'll send you some studies, descriptions, etc.

And a family practitioner can do some pediatrics too but when it gets to a point you send the patient to the person that can do the job necessary. Plastic surgery is a very specific field of its own with a lot of education necessary and certification. My doc is fully trained in plastics but he doesn't do it and the reason he doesn't is because he isn't certified. It's an issue of ethics. Huacuz has such a long list of horrors in his past. It's just unbelievable what he has done to people and then the way he couldn't be honest about it if his life depended on it. He does not take responsibility for his own errors, he blames others, lies about it, tries to cover it up, claims ZERO complications after infections, leaks, deaths, bands placed incorrectly... he claimed he was a FACS surgeon and when the truth came out on OH the FACS was removed from his profile and he was chastised by the College of Surgeons for making claims that were totally inaccurate. His staff chase around after their patients giving out personal medical info on the boards and it isn't even accurate information. While Huacuz does not have to follow HIPAA laws, his US staff do or they risk a lawsuit. When he almost killed Adrienne he offered her husband $3K if they would not tell what he did on the boards. She came over here and told her story, she's a long time poster on OH. We've caught him red handed posing as his own patient on various boards telling everyone how good looking he is and what a great surgeon he is. We made fun of him for months after he screwed up on MexicanBandsters and forgot he was supposed to be posting as a patient. He fully admits his relationship with Betancourt and Betancourt wasn't the surgeon, Huacuz was and he still blames Betancourt for poor surgical outcomes, infections, filthy clinic, the works. (Molding Clinic, for one example) He acknowledges that the clinic was a filthy place of horror yet he went back daily to operate on even more people in that filthy rat hole. On MexicanBandsters he claimed it wasn't his fault that people had infections and such because Andres Betancourt would not permit him to check on his patients immediately after surgery. ??? Does that make sense to you? Who is the surgeon in those cases? If he wasn't permitted a clean facility to work from and if he wasn't permitted to follow his own patients immediately after surgery, why did he keep going back day after day doing the same thing all over again? About a year ago he put on a seminar in Florida and flat out told people he had never had a complication. NO doctor has no complications, it's impossible. Doctors do not control everything that can potentially happen to a patient. After all his infections, bands placed wrong, deaths, leaks... he claims no complications. How do you expect anyone to respect the man when he couldn't tell the truth if is life depended on it? He banded his own coordinator (now works for Betancourt) and she eroded. Isn't that a complication? His other coordinator that he did a breast job for had a horrible infection, isn't that a complication? I received a PM from someone who just talked to Huacuz in the last few weeks. She asked about his complications with Adrienne, his leak patient. Now, when Catzintj told the story she said she called Huacuz and he told her that Adrienne took a pill HE gave her and that caused the leak the day after surgery. He told the person that PMed me the other day that she was fine, she went home after her surgery, ate something she shouldn't have, came back to TJ and he fixed the leak. Then he went on to claim that Adrienne pulled out her own drains (they are stitched into place) and that is why she became septic and almost died. You'd think he's just pick a lie and stick to it. Even his own coordinators have posted (two of them) when her leak happened (the day after surgery) yet when asked about it he comes up with new lies to cover what he has done. I wouldn't send my worst enemy to him let alone someone for breast implants. Call me silly, I'd only want to go to a plastic surgeon actually certified in plastics. You know, someone formally trained? Yet you... you suggest this man is a good surgeon and others should go to him. Shame on you.

I do not disagree with you in the least. But considering Oprah has more power over the people than your average multi million dollar publishing company she has even more responsibility to make sure the information she is putting out on her own show is accurate. She is in a position of power with her followers. She has tons of followers in every country and she knows it. She's created this power and she has a responsibility to make sure anything she feeds her groupies is accurate. One question I have since I never watch her show... did she address this issue? Did she at least come clean and explain what happened and own up to feeding info to people that was wrong?

I just couldn't deal with band problems anymore. Absolutely nothing fixed it. Pretty much what you are describing. Just from past experience I really question if another band is going to help you. Some people just do not tolerate banding. What causes some minimal restriction such as stress, TOM, food temp, etc., causes obstruction in others. I finally got a sleeve. No more barfing, sliming, foaming, and overall puking in ways I didn't know existed! Be very careful, the bleeding is something I experienced too from vomiting and it really messed with my esophagus. I have esophageal motility problems now. It's MUCH better since getting rid of my band but it's not 100% yet.

True, but she's already been through this once before. You'd think she'd learn from the first time. Especially such an emotionally packed story.

I had tons of band problems as well. Please keep one thing in mind, if you can eat bad food you can eat good food. If you can drink liquid calories you can exchange that for a Protein shake. If you can eat chips and Cookies you can eat dried veggies (they are crunchy). If you eat eat chocolate you can eat soft cooked veggies such as carrots, squash, green Beans, etc. I'd suggest going on liquids for a few days. If you are so irritated that you are vomiting blood you need to notify your doctor, go on liquids, and ease the swelling. It's a cycle, the more you vomit the more you swell, the more you swell the more you vomit. Call your doctor, go on liquids to ease swelling, get rid of the crap food and start eating food that is better for you.

Pssssssssst.... you are responding to a thread that is 3 years old. All the carbs you are suggesting will cause blood sugar spikes and mega hunger. Might want to rethink you sugar routine.

We have known this since the Welsh study. It applies to teens and adults. 85% of the time after GASTRIC BYPASS within 3-10 days type II diabetics go into full remission. With sleeves 85% go into remission within 2-4 months. With bands it comes with weight loss.

Don't the radicals speak for the majority? If those who disagree do not speak up, the radicals speak for them. True? Oprah is still a bloom'en idiot.

Hey guys.... This thread is 1.5 years old. If she wanted surgery she's likely had it already.