La_madam

Isint it great?? Good for you Lisa, Awesome NSV This is the first time in my married life I weigh less then my husband, its a great feeling!

Congratulations to you and welcome to this board. I wish you the best on your upcoming surgery. You have made the best decsion for yourself...it truly is a life changing experience.

Of Course I would come..any excuse to get away from hubby & kids I need a vacation anyways

Melissa I got that exact same pain for 4 moths post op, it felt a side ache pain when you ran too much or too fast. It goes away, I have not had it in months.

Dr. Ortiz who is my surgeon has his patients do 3 days of liquids after a fill. In the event there is swelling caused from the fill he has his patients do liquids so there is lower risk of Pbing. If you are swollen from the fill and then eat you have a higher risk of having a PB episode. His reasoning, so I listen

Count me in

Best of luck to both of you. You are in very experienced hands, I have heard wonderful things about Dr. Kuri. Hope everything goes great for you both tomorrow.

Paula here is anoither excerpt from the book about Reflux and Pbing...after readin your last post, I thought you might find this helpful and interesting. Reflux symptoms are caused by inflammation of the stomach lining and usually occur after a fill or there has been an episode of food dislodging, Pbing and vomiting, Treatment for this is a self imposed liquid diet. Unfortunately after the banded person has reverted back from the liquid diet and returns to eating solids, most will fall victim to the same eating habits that caused the swelling. They ultimately will need band deflation. Otherwise, at the fill level of the band eating solids will continue to irritate the stomach. If the Dr. does not deflate ut , the banded person is condemmed to a liquid diet on which he or she will not lose weight. So deflation is the safest way to go.

Penni, I have not lost an ounce for 2 straight weeks. I know the feeling of frustration you are going through.Matter of fact, there are several of us here struggling right now through this Hoilday Goodies Crap! Hang in there... those 5 lbs will be gone in no time. NO MORE FUDGE OR chocolate FOR ME!!! I've been a bad bad girl :ermm

Yes Congratulations to all of you official bandsters. We can't wait to hear all about all of your surgeries. What a great day, 3 people being banded from LBT! I hope you are all doing great and everything went smoothly for all of you.

Because of that Crab Cake Bene at the Bellagio..We are now going to try our own version of it been bragging about it ever since , just had a rep out to my restaraunt this week sampling all different brands of crab cakes till I found one that would be sufficient ( none compare to the Bellagio) but did find a new steakhouse near by that theirs are out of this world!... I will start serving it on New Years day and run it as a "Hangover Special"

Aww Penni We all can relate..seems we all are sturggling this Hoilday Season with weight gain or no weight loss, the stress of doing all the shopping, wrapping, cooking, decorating..Like I toild lisa when she told me she gained 6 lbs, that if just "fluff " weight. Don't sweat the small stuff. Soon this time of year will behind you and all of us and we can then focus on ourselves and bands again. Oh and Beautiful Tree!

Love the new pic Lisa

Most US docs are very conservative in giving their fills...most will want you to wait 2 weeks before the give another fill ... Mexico Dr's are much more aggressive with their fills. However it can take a week or so for your fillto kick in, my first one took a week but my 2nd fill was instant. Maybe give it another week or few days atleast. Is your cycle near? That affects restriction levels, I can eat like a horse a couple days before mine arrives but when it comes I am tight as a drum.. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Ortiz's new book on fills The standard protocol in the US adopted by most surgeons is a gradual adding of volume. This works well but I prefer to get the restriction level to the correct ammount as soon as possible. This can be achieved more easily with the aid of fluoro One of the advantages of having a fill without fluoro is it can be done in a Dr's office without Fluoro the protocol used in the US right now is 1cc to 1.2 cc in the first fill and then visits every 2 weeks where incriments of .2 ccs are added the desired restriction is attained. Fills preformed outside of the US are usually more aggressive. Hang in there, this is a tough time of year for all of us..I am struggling too these past weeks with all of the Holiday goodies . NO MORE FUDGE FOR ME!

Here is a number to call 949-715-7924 different then the one I posted earlier.

Wow Lauri nice weight loss under the circumstances. How are you feeling? Did you get any answers yet? Let us know what you find out. Hope you are feeling better

This is so strange..I was not overcharged but it was probably becasue I used my credit card that only had enough credit left on it to cover the book LOL I just emailed Sandy at Dr. Ortiz's office again and let her know of this matter and how upset everyone is. Just to let you all know Dr. Ortiz is also upset with this publishing company.

Hi Paula sorry you are experiencing reflux... here is an excerpt for Ortiz's book on reflux If you are experiencing heartburn or reflux after having the band, surely something is not right. Usually it is either a band too tight or something has swollen the pouch and made it too tight. In any case, this is a serious symptom and should be corrected immediately. Your doctor should deflate the band, if your Dr. does not deflate the band the banded patient will not lose wieght since they will be condemmed to a liquid diet. Paula as little as .1 or .2 cc's can make a huge difference getting removed, I know you would rather be on the safe side then risk any damge to yourself or your band right? Do call your Dr.!

Teresa..Sorry to hear about your car accident. I know you must be upset over the loss of your car..but a car is just a car, replaceable..you are not so I am so happy to hear you were not terribly injured. Please be careful , my husband was rear ended and signs of anything wrong did not kick in right away, it was a few weeks down the road where he started having horrible pain and problems in his neck and back. To date he has had 3 neck surgeries becasue of this accident and he is in need of back surgery but refuses on account of the 3 neck surgeries. He will not go through all of that again... Watch yourself carefully and if you notice any thing out of the ordinary , call your Dr. asap Sending you (((hugs)))

Betty, the charge on my credit card was correct. The name of the charge on your card is or should be The Savings Network Inc, here is their phone number 949-394-8741

I remember my first fill and I remember when he repurged my band for all of the air,I was warned about it by a felllow Ortiz bandster what to expect. it was a very strange feeling or sensation very hard to explain the feeling but very unbcomfortable for about 45 seconds to 60 seconds when I asked why he ( Dr. Martinez) was pulling the bottom of the syringe in and out he told me he was getting out all of the air in my tubing. I was told he only does it for your first fill..I did not have it done for my second fill but all of the 1.1cc's was still there from my first fill when I went in for my 2nd fill so there must be some truth to it.

Yes Paula www.lap-bandforlife.com here is an excerpt on what you experienced when you thought you had lost some of your fill. I thought of you when I read it. Here it is Most experienced LAP-BAND surgeons reccommend the repurging of the LAP-BAND at the time of the first fill. Even though the band is purged of the air at the time of surgery, LAP-BAND surgeons usually find air in the band during the first fill. It is vital to understand why.Experienced LAP-BAND specialists have found that if there is air in the system, it will leak and part of the fill will be lost. liquid does not leak from the band normally, but air does. Therefore, if at the first fill the band was inflated with 2cc's of saline solution and an additional 0.5 of air were in the system, the total of 2.5 cc's provided a very good restriction. But in a couple of weeks time, the air leaks out and the acceptable restriction is now aduquate. This could explain why you thought you had more of a fill then you did Paula and why when he pulled out the saline some was gone. You had air in your system

This is an excerpt from Dr. Ortiz's book on the Pors & cons of each technique. Fluoro and No FLuoro Both are satisfactory in the sense the patient will acquire restriction level needed. FLouro is more expensive and requires special equipment, plus the barium that must be swalloed is not the best tasting bevergae on the planet. The advantage of using fluoro is that it provides and objective image for real time evaluation, which can reveal many things about the band besides the fill level. It can show band position, the size of the esophagus and upper pouch and of course the restriction level. In other words there is a much better interval view of the band then simply a fill without visual indications. WIthout fluoro there are advantages, but apart from the cost, I see no advantage of preforming it without direct visualization. Experienced band surgeons use the rule of thirds. A third of the patients will require one fill, a third will need 2 fills and a thrid will need three or more fills. The standard protocol in the US adopted by most surgeons is a gradual adding of volume. This works well but I prefer to get the restriction level to the correct ammount as soon as possible. This can be achieved more easily with the aid of fluoroscopy. One of the advantages of having a fill without fluoro is it can be done in a Dr's office without Fluoro the protocol used in the US right now is 1cc to 1.2 cc in the first fill and then visits every 2 weeks where incriments of .2 ccs are added the desired restriction is attained. Fills preformed outside of the US are usually more aggressive. Hope that helps to answer your question Pat

When there is a will, there is a way.. I decided I wanted this so bad I went to Mexico instead of trying to fight my insurance. I sold my convertible mustang to pay for it, that is how band I wanted it..I have no regrets. I would probably still fighting with my insurance for approval 8 months later. Hang in there and Do not give up!

We all miss her, but I also think part of the reason is her man and her are living together now aren't they? I'm sure that is keeping her busy.