La_madam

Girl what are you doing weighing yourself 3 times a day? You will drive yourself batty. I used to do that and I got so discouraged with my weight loss and is why I started the WEEKLY weigh in challenge. I get on the scale once a week and post my weight here and since that day back in June I have lost something every single week. Buit to answer your question I have heard that the Tanita scales are the best. www.tanita.com I believe is their web site. If not do a search for Tanita..lots of sites will come up. I know they sell them at Sportsmart.

Darcy..WOW You look Beautiful!! What an amazing difference. I'm so happy for you

Well Vera it is good you are going to Mexico to your original surgeon. He sounds like he knows just how to fix you ..atleast then you will also have peace of mind and hopefully the restriction you so desire. Good Luck to you .I hope it all goes smoothly.

Meagan sorry to hear you have been under the weather...You handled it beautifully doing what you did. Very smart of you! Phenergan suppositories do work. I have had some on hand ever since banding. My PCP prescribes them for me in the event I get the flu. So far I have been lucky. I was just told by my PCP that he just saw the first real flu victim this past week and that it has officially arrived in Orange County. I am prepared I'm glad you are feeling better...

I agree with many of the people here who say the reason for the lap band is restriction..but we also have to do some of the work. Of course I would like more restriction..alot of us would but on the safe side of this. I would much rather be under filled then over filled and let my head do more of the work. If I had let my head do more work pre band then maybe I would not of ever needed the band so now that I have it I find it to be a great tool to help my head. When my band and head work together..results speak for themselves. I have had 3 fills I have 2.5 cc's in my band. I can still eat bread, rice & pasta no problem..I can still take my pills...I could use more restriction but Iam losing every week and to me that is progress so I know my head is doing some of the work. I have a major sweet tooth right now since my period started today..but instead of reaching for the chocolate like Inormally would of..I m here drinking my 24oz of water w/ a dash of crystal light in it to sweeten it..My body wants chocolate but my head is telling me NO NO NO.. I have heard the bigger the band the more aggressive the fills need to be..I have a 4cc band and it is over halfway filled..I have 23lbs to get to goal wieght..I'm going to try like hell to get there with this current fill level.

No bra with underwire since one of your incisions might rub up against the wire in the bra.

Way to Go Darcy.. You have worked hard to get here.. Great feeling isint it? Congrats to you

LadyG This is a post from another board..it is not meant to scare you or your sister..but its intent isto let you read what happened to another woman who would not call her doctor when she knew things were wrong with her band. I hope this will make her get in touch with her band doctor immediately Dear Fellow Bandsters, I am repeating the post I did below on 1/5/05 with additional information. My friend died this last weekend and I am still in shock. She spent over a month in the hospital and had to have an additional second surgery after she developed a bowel obstruction and they had to remove some of her intestine. She was released from Kaiser @ 1/28. On Wed. last week, she went back to Kaiser for a check up and the doc did not like the way she looked and wanted to hospitalize her again, but she refused. On Friday, she went again to Kaiser and said in passing that she was having "a little shortness of breath." The doc ordered a cat-scan and discovered a huge pulmonary embolism. She was admitted, but died early Sat. morning. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE...be aware that we all must keep in contact with our doctor at the first sign of any trouble and have regular follow up even if there is not a problem. This is a foreign object we have in our bodies and things can happen. We are responsible for our own health. I do believe that my friend would be alive today if she had not waited so long to get medical help in the first place and possibly if she would have agreed to be hospitalized again last week. Kaiser did their best, but they are not educated about the band, like so many other HMO's and doctors. I hope this message will help someone else, since I could not help my friend. Please be careful and take care of yourself!!!! Carolyn 1//5/05 It is with great sadness I am writing this post, but with the hopes that this will help someone else avoid problems that can occur. I am acquainted with a lady who works at Kaiser, like I do, and had band surgery by Dr. Rodriguez in Acuna, Mexico 2/03. To date she has lost @ 100 lbs., still needing to lose @ 75 more. She did not want anyone at her job to know she had band surgery, so therefore did not discuss it and was always very secretive. She has never had any follow up, such as attending support groups, even though I encouraged her many times to do so or attend with me. I had band surgery myself by Dr. Ortiz in Oct. 02. She did go with me twice and had fills with Dr. Ortiz/Martinez in Tijuana. Her last fill she went to Dr. Rodriguez, as she was visiting a friend who lives close by. However, he did not do the fill with fluoro. About a month ago, she started experiencing strong reflux/heartburn and was taking over the counter Pepcid. She did not contact her doctor. This was the first tell tale sign that her band was too tight or something was wrong and she was frequently PBing. Then around 10 days ago, she got the flu (so she says) and was vomiting violently for several days. Again, she did not contact her doctor or seek medical attention. Not until she was vomiting blood, did she finally go to the ER at Kaiser. The first time, they said she had gastritis and sent her home with an RX. She could not even swallow the pills and continued vomiting blood. She returned to the ER the next day and they hospitalized her to determine the cause. I spoke to her on the phone the day after her hospitalization and told her she needed to insist on immediately having the Fluid removed from her band and that Kaiser should refer her to a hospital or someone who had knowledge of the band for her care. I suggested she have her daughter contact her band doctor. She did not do either and said that she didn't see why Kaiser couldn't take care of her. An endoscopy was performed, with negative results. No erosion was detected and they told her the band looked OK. On day 3 of her hospital stay, a GI test was done as they suspected an ulcer, which again was negative. She continued vomiting all this time and was even unable to swallow Water or eat anything. Finally, on day 5 of hospitalization, a doctor removed the fluid from her band. She felt better the next day. The doctor at Kaiser finally consulted with a bariatric doctor at another Kaiser facility who wanted her transferred to that facility (Harbor City) so she could be treated with the experts (???). These bariatric doctors had been proctored by Dr. Ortiz 2 years ago, but Kaiser has never started a band program. Then she got a fever and was in severe abdominal pain, so they did not transfer her. At this point, she had massive abdominal infection and was on morphine for the pain. It was decided that surgery would be performed to remove her band as an emergency procedure, even though the Kaiser surgeon knew nothing about the band. I was told that the Kaiser surgeons were frantically looking up the band on the internet trying to get some information. I called Dr. Ortiz's office to see if he couldn't talk to the Kaiser doctor and give any kind of advice or help. The Kaiser doctor was given Dr. Ortiz's number and asked to call, but he refused. My friend was taken to surgery late yesterday afternoon and opened up. They did find a hole in her stomach and removed her band along with half of her stomach. I understand it was touch and go and she could have died. I do not know if the hole was from band erosion or from an ulcer or what. Of course, all the surgeons at Kaiser are now saying: "Surgery in Mexico is not safe and the band is unsafe." I only know about all this horror story as my best friend works in surgery at Kaiser. She says we can both get in big trouble for repeating any information due to patient confidentiality. The moral to the story is this: if you are experiencing any kind of problem, please contact your doctor. We are responsible for our own care and must have follow up and be knowledgeable about our band and what complications can occur. We must get treatment or ask questions when even the slightest problem arises. If one has insurance that does not cover the band and you cannot get back to your band doctor, I would suggest that you seek treatment from a local medical center or doctor that does have knowledge of the band. Money is not the important thing at this point. Your medical bill can always be fought with your insurance company after the fact. Your life, your health and your band are what is important. I, for one, will never go to my HMO if I have a band emergency as I know they do not know how to treat it or me. I do not ever regret getting my band or helping my daughter to get banded. It has been life saving for me. But, we all must be mindful that things can happen and we must be responsible for ourselves if they do happen. I do wish that I could not have done more to help my friend. Carolyn Dr. Ortiz -103 lbs.

Hey Sue do you have the web site address of that site. I want my 17yr old son to read it. He has got this wild hair up his butt to go to TJ with his buddies and I want him to read it to put some fear into him since he has no photo ID other then last years school ID, no dirvers license. Thanks

Yes Thank You

what made me dicide between the lap band and the bypass was this http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/wlsmemorial.phtml None of them had the lap band surgery.

i'm right there with you..totally relating to your post.

havent heard that one yet about the bloody nose or the vibrating port.. did you call your doctor and ask him about it? thats what i would do.

im sorry to hear of your sisters troubles. may i ask do the doctors think her stroke is band related ? 34 is so young. could it be from all she has gone through with her band. if your sister wont let you help her, intervene like addicts have interventions from their families and friends. her band . sounds like it may have slipped she has classic signs of slippage. they will be able to see it under flouro without havin to do an endoscopy

hi cramped being too tight is not healthy to you and the longevity of your band. don't be foolish. read and learn cuz too tight means possible frequent pb's and frequent pbs can lead to slippage.

did she post this message all over this board? ive seen it on many other posts.

OMG what is wrong with this woman? sick sick sick

Cramped..please get acquainted with reading the posts..becasue great weight loos at the expense of being too tight has its risks. I would hate to see you lose your band due to being too tight. If you feel this is not an easy ride, I am curious to find out why? I hope soon you feel comfortable to share with us so maybe some of us here can offer you some guidance and support through this difficult time you are having

i think delarla has hit the nail on the head. A chorus of voices singing negatives will carry a lot further than a solo one singing its praises will. __ So True So True...she has just ruined herself as far as Iam concerned

Nor has she apologized for anything her company has done in the past even before Kristie was there. Belighter's problems did not just start when Kristie came to work for them. There are several unhappy (ready to sue) belighter patients here and on other boards from long before Kristie. I agree she is a lunatic ..too post here several timeswith the same post but the icing on the cake is the same post is posted in all of the other threads here.

Ann Marie it is my honest opinion...YOU NEED HELP! Do not beleive a word you just typed 6 times What's up with that? How dare you come here and bash Kristie like that and put her personal life here for all of us to read. Belighter will be finished after this post...you just did yourself a huge injustice to yourself and your business, how un professional you are.

my first fill was 1.1 cc's in a 4cc band

Major problems with Pbing and vomiting leads to slippage..and by the sounds of it with her not being able to even keep down liquids, it sounds like her band has slipped. That is a symptom of slippage. Some who have had slippage have not had this symptom but I was tod by my Dr. that if I pb and vomit often I am at a higher rate of slippage and if I can keep down liquids I need to have my band checked for slippage. Have her get her band checked. Please have her call her doctor..

Nice looking site. I'm going to check it out in more depth , but first impression, it looks informative.

Monday 2/7/05 187.25 -1/2 lb which is amazingsince I ate pretty good on the snacks yesterday at the Super Bowl party I was at and the fact my period should be here any second.