Suz

I was banded on May 1, 2007. To date I have lost 9 pounds. Nine pounds in nearly a year! Iv'e had three fills, I don't remember the exact amounts but the first two were big, the last one was small because my doctor didn't want to put much more in because I was having pain trying to eat meat. I have the inamed band, again I don't remember how much it holds but it's not a lot. I keep a weird schedule, I'm a night owl so I don't eat much during the day. So far two doctors have told me I'm not losing weight because I'm not eating enough. That seems so weird to me but I researched a lot before I got this band and I remember reading that that could happen. So I'm trying to make sure I eat every four hours even if only a protein drink, and still I'm not losing weight, that is until last week. I was feeling so depressed I pigged out on pizza and cookies and a few days later discovered I had lost 4 lbs. What the heck is wrong with my body? I can't say I've ever felt restriction or felt comfortably full since being banded. What happens is some foods I can eat tons of with no consequence and others cause pain. I have adapted to where I can tell when that pain is just barely beginning and so I stop. I was told that after being banded you can only sip water, that you would never be able to gulp it again. I can throw back a glass of ice-water in a few seconds. Does this sound like I need another fill? I know I need to get more exercise, I'm not a complete couch potato but pretty close. I love gardening and other than that and house work and walking 300 ft to the mailbox every day that's about it. I get very depressed when I remember that I fought my insurance company (and paid a lawyer) for THREE YEARS to get this surgery, then went through the first surgery I'd ever had and recovery and all the rest only to lose 9 pounds, I could just cry. What do you make of this. Suz

Brandy II Thank for the heads up about canned chicken! I actually ate pot roast today and yesterday! It was moist and I put some au-jus on it and cut it up into tiny pieces and it went down fine. That's the first time I've gotten beef that wasn't ground down painlessly. I also ate about 2 tablespoons of mashed potatos. I's so hard not to drink after that, potatos make me thirsty. I take ambien and elavil everynight to sleep. I have a prescription for 10mg ambiens but I cut them in half and take 5mg every night to save money. That's been working just fine for several years but now sometimes I have to take 10mg. My Doctor is more worried about the effects of sleep deprivation than of me using ambien every night. Having been an insomniac all my life the doctors have tried all the chemicals they could think of over the years on me. Most of them made me feel like a zombie. After not sleeping for 2 days I felt like a zombie for free, I didn't need a drug to bring it on for me.I also get chronic migraines for which I have fioricet, imitrex, and when it's been going on for two days with no signs of stopping, I take Vicodin. But that only works for about three hours then the migraine comes back. But after three days in that kind of pain you'll do anything for just 3 hours of releif.:huh2: It wasn't so much the mask of the CPAP as the drying out of my throat and the clumsiness. I'm on Paxil (known to make you gain weight) which also dries up all mucous membranes and elavil which does the same, and I think zantac dries up your throat too. Anyway, even with the misting CPAP model my throat got so dry it hurt and I would wake up coughing. I wake up coughing now, I keep a bottle of Water next to my bed. Also we tried several masks and when we finally thought we had the right one, the seal would break just at the point where the air pressure reached the highest point and that would wake me. Plus I sleep on my side, my stomach, my back, that thing just was a hassle. What is PCOS? It's been many moons since I had PMS, i'ts the only perk about being post menopausal. Suz

Thank for the heads up about canned chicken! I actually ate pot roast today and yesterday! It was moist and I put some au-jus on it and cut it up into tiny pieces and it went down fine. That's the first time I've gotten beef that wasn't ground down painlessly. I also ate about 2 tablespoons of mashed potatos. I's so hard not to drink after that, potatos make me thirsty. T

Do I ever have sleep issues! I've had chronic insomnia since puberty. I didn't start putting on weight till I was almost thirty but I've had chronic insomnia ever since I can remember, even when I was skinny. Going 2 or 3 days with no sleep at all is nothing to me, that happens all the time. Yes I do have sleep apnea but the CPAP machine drove me nuts. So I spend most of my life in a state of sleep deprivation and I eat carbs almost exclusively and I have type II diabetes, no wonder I'm such a mess. When I eat cereal I don't measure it, it's probably a cup or so and I might eat 3 or 4 bowls in about sixteen hours unless it's a day when I cook or just cannot stand to look at one more bowl of cereal, or my husband complains too much. I think I need to go back over all the info I collected when I was pre-op and just start over. During the pre-surgery diet I lost 15lbs, at least I haven't gained that back, but I still need to lose over 100lbs. The protein drink I use is Unjury, chocolate of course. One scoop is 100 calories, add skim milk and it's 180 calories. I use these to tame my chocolate cravings. Some days I don't have any, some days I might have three. Being diabetic before I was banded I just ate all day because if you've ever experienced hypoglycemia you'll do anything to avoid it. So my blood sugar was high all the time but I didn't know I was diabetic then, I just knew if I went very long without eating I'd suffer the hellish symptoms I later came to know was hypoglycemia, and my diabetes is not considered to be all that bad, my A1c tests are never much above normal. Thanks for all the suggestions but canned green beans and tuna fish, heated? I don't think so, I can barely stand tuna salad. lol I used to live in a big city, hated it and moved to the country. One of the cool things about that is if I want to eat junk I have to drive an hour to get it. So I never go grocery shopping hungry, never buy sugary stuff and that's been a big help, but in recent depressing times I've just made homemade goodies. There are no support groups anywhere near me, my doctor is a 2 hour drive and not nearly as wonderful as what you all seem to have. In fact I have not seen my surgeon since the surgery, the fills are done at the Bariatric clinic by a Nurse Practioner. I have never been scoped or anything. But when I got the last fill she showed me when the needle was in before she pushed the plunger you could see liquid from my band slowly backing up into the needle. She said that meant I was tight enough, but she put another drop in at my insistance because I was so desperate to lose weight. Well I'm rambling. thanks for all the input.

I really don't count calories because it makes me focus on food too much and then I start eating too much. I know what's fattening and what's not and I know about portion size. I once worked with dieticians in a hospital writing special diets for special needs patients. So I have always cut the fat off of meat and controlled my intake of deep fried foods,etc. My main problem has always been sweets, uncontrolled amounts of chocolate. That's how I got this fat. Like my mother I have a slow metabolism and my resting heart rate is too fast. I am on medication for the heart (high blood pressure too). But the only thing to raise the metabolic rate is exercise, which has to be done gradually because of my heart. As for rewarding a job well done there's my gardening (I could get myself a new rose bush), I make jewelry (I could splurge on some fabulous crystals) and I have my cross stitch... After reading your replys I think my problem is too much carbs. I eat cereal frequently for all three meals. I have irritable bowel syndrome so I have to alternate the good stuff (Live Active, Cheerios) with the average stuff(Special K, Corn Chex). The good stuff aggravates my IBS if I eat it every day. You know the saying you are what you eat? If that's true then I'm a bowl of cereal. I get most of my protein from protein drinks and occasionally chicken which I cut up very tiny and chew to death. Beef (not ground beef) practically gives me a heart attack. I love shrimp but I just can't chew it up enough no matter how long I chew it. The reason for the carb overload is I'm so tired with all this extra weight and slow metabolism and diabetes I just don't want to cook or be bothered with food. For the first 7 months I followed the perfect Bandster diet, it was such a hassle cooking all the time but I wanted to lose the weight so bad I did it. But when nothing came off I began to eat less and less hoping to lose and because I was tired of the hassle for nothing. Now I still don't eat much during the day ( I pretty much sleep all day, I don't usually go to bed until 3:30-4:00am) but I eat too much after the sun goes down and it's mostly carbohydrate. I love most vegetables but only a few fruits, weird, I know. I'd rather eat veggies than meat any time. So it's hard to get all the protein in. I know it's me that's gotta do the work using the band as a tool, but I expected the band to stave off hunger a lot better than it is. Soo...suggestions?

Good question. I was banded May 1st 2007 and got my first fill thursday June 21, just 2 days ago. I don't feel any different. I can eat anything. As an experiment I chugged down a large glass of water, nothing happened. I drank a coke, nothing happened. I had knackwurst and salad for dinner and I didn't drink anything for 30 minutes prior and 60 minutes after like your supposed to, but I think I could eat anything I used to eat. I'm getting pretty frustrated. I'm trying to stick to the band rules to lose weight but I'm not getting any help from the band. I've gone through so much to get here, I'm pretty dissapointed. Suz

I'm fairly close to both of you, I'm just south-west of Tawas. My parents used to live in one of the houses on the old airforce base in Oscoda. I just got banded May 1st, I go back to Hurley to have my staples removed thursday, 2 hours one way is long enough! Do you know of any support groups nearby? Suz

So you're having Wagner do your surgery? When they called me about changing my surgery date because of Dr. Obeid they said it was a family crisis and I could wait for him if I wanted to but they couldn't say whether it would be a week or a month or what. I decided to wait for him. Then someone told me he had a stroke so I just decided whether it was true or not I just needed to get it done already, I've already waited 3 years. So I hope he didn't have a stroke, but whatever it is it doesn't sound like fun. So you think Dr Wagner will do fills for Dr. Farhans' patients? There's no way I can get there in the morning, any morning. It's a 2 hour drive one way not to mention about $30.00 worth of gas. Suz

My surgery is May 1st, too late to change surgeons again. Will they let you switch surgeons after surgery, for fills? What are you doing? Suz

I'm sure by now you've gotten a new surgeon as Dr. Obeid is having a crisis. I heard he had a stroke, but that's just gossip and may or may not be true. I was supposed to be banded by him on March 22. Now I am set for surgery with Dr. Farhan on May 1st. April 19 it will be THREE years since I started this journey. My insurance company apparantly thought I wouldn't tough it out. Fools. I have never met Dr. Farhan and will not meet him until the day of my surgery. That makes me nervous. I also don't know if there's enough of the liquid diet stuff to go for the 3 weeks they want me on it because I was on day 4 or 5 when they called about Dr. Obeid. But after surgery I can find substitutes if I still need to after 2 weeks. I have also heard good and bad about Hurley. It seems people either love it or hate it. I just don't need the extra stress. I don't know my doctor, don't know if the hospital will make things worse or better, hope I can deal with "head hunger", and to top it off I asked my husband not to tell his side of the family because they are are all skinny and just don't get it, but he blabbed. Hurley is a 2 hour drive and there are no support groups anywhere near me. Sorry for all the boo-hoo but that's what these forums are for isn't it? Suz PS: Can anyone tell me anything about Dr. Jamal Farhan?

:kiss2: This is too much fun! You don't have to worry about the gag reflex at all if you use your hand in conjuntion with your mouth. Get some good slobber going so it's slippery and use your hand for the top half and your mouth for the bottom half. Suz

Hi, I'm new here, my name is Suz. When my niece had gastric bypass 3 years ago I began thinking about doing it myself. I changed my mind for and against probably a hundred times. My brother had gastric bypass about 20 years ago and has gained back almost all the weight he lost, he's an idiot. My niece who was just as big as Carnie Wilson is now a size 8 and has not gained any weight in 3 years. My sister-in-law had RNY and looks great after 2 years. I decided to research WLS in earnest about 5 months ago. First my PCP was not on the same page so I found a new one. Where I live there aren't a lot of choices so it took me 2 months to find a new PCP. But this guy is on the ball. I've already had my sleep study, blood work, and first surgical consult. The surgeon said I was a poor candidate for bypass because I have Irritable bowel syndrome. So now I'm looking into lap band. I've read posts on lots of WLS boards. I've heard lots of good stories and lots of bad stories.I went to a RNY seminar when I was thinking about that, and now I am registered for a lap band seminar. I still don't know what to do, risk the RNY and hope my IBS won't object, or have the lap band and lose weight slowly. Please help. Sorry for rambling. Suz

Has anyone on this board used Gary Viscio, he's an attorney who specializes in getting insurance companies to approve weight loss surgeries. He came highly reccomended by the folks at Obesity Help and I thought it would be a good idea to get some legal help on this. So far all he's done is take my money and give me the run around. My insurance co denied my coverage for the surgery three months ago and Gary hasn't done a thing about it. I feel I've been conned out of over $700.00. I'm just going to try the appeal myself. Has anyone had experience (good or bad) with him? Suz

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It's now been 6 months since I was denied by my insurance because of not having proof of doctor-supervised dieting. I guess I have not been obnoxious enough to get Mr Viscio to do anything. He just is not doing a thing. I don't know how many emails I've sent, he usually replies and then does nothing. I called the insurance company and they say they have received no correspondence at all! I'm going to have to do this myself. Does anyone know if there are credible groups like CDC and AMA or anyone my insurance would find credible who don't consider proof of doctor diets neccessary? I will go after Mr Viscio after I'm approved for surgery, I must put all my time into this first, and maybe he'll shock me and come through in the end (yeah, right). If I can't get my insurance to pay for this, I'm going to have to get a home equity loan to do it myself. Anyone have a copy of what you used that I could get ideas from? Suz

I had a nasty case of food poisoning a little while ago, puked my guts up, which made me think, what happens after you're banded and you get really sick, not just the stuff in your pouch, I mean if you had food poisoning or stomach flu. If the food was already through the stoma and in the large part of the stomach. That can get pretty forcefull, believe me. Would it make the band slip? Would the stuff be able to get out through the little stoma and pouch? Suz:confused:

Ah yes! I've seen the little green people of which you speak. They force me to eat their diabolic offerings. Suz

Susan, thanks for responding. I tried protonix, it gave me diarrhea just like all the rest. The irritable bowel syndrome probably has something to do with that. What are GS cookies? Suz

I haven't had the lap band yet but I have GERD. You would not believe how bad the heartburn gets and if I bend over or sometimes just when I laugh or cough my stomach contents comes up my esophagus and burns the hell out of it. I was hoping using the band to lose weight would help this condition, am I wrong? I have tried all the anti-acid pills, the only one that does not give me diarrhea is Zantac which I take 3 times a day, 450 mg per day. I also have irritable bowel syndrome, does anyone know the effects of the band on that? Suz

Hello, I'm in Michigan up near Tawas. I started out with Dr. Deol but found out I have to pay the first year follow-up in cash, $1500.00, above insurance. I was quite impressed with her and especially with Rebecca. But I can't afford $1500.00 cash up front. If I have received faulty information please let me know as I would like to have Dr. D and Rebecca on my case. In the meantime I have discovered Dr. Cudjoe in Alma which is much closer for me. I have heard wonderful things about him and am impatiently waiting for the mandatory seminar on Sept. 16. I have Blue Care Network which I've heard requires an act of God to get approved so I'm looking into an obesity lawyer to help with that. BCN will pay for post op visits and fills if I get a referral from my PCP which will be no problem. I wish Dr. D would work with that.

Actually I don't drink beer. I don't drink any alcohol, it gives me migraines. I have never had a cigarette in my mouth, I'm just a sguare, but it's hip to be square! I did not start putting on weight until I was in my late 20's, that was 20 years ago. When I really get motivated I'm successful at losing weight. Once after a successful diet I weighed 105 and they wouldn't let me donate blood! I was so skinny I was ill, anything under 130 and I get sick. I think it's true that if you've been obese all your life it's much harder to lose the weight. However I weighed 250 the last time I went to the doctor and probably have gained since then. I'm older now so it's a lot harder to lose, that's why I'm looking into wls. I'm babbling again, so sorry.

Hi there fellow Michigander, could you possibly give me Dr. Cudjoe's phone number ? If you'd rather not post it for any reason, email it to me, I'd really appreciate that. Thanks

ok guys, chill. I said I was hoping to lose 120 lbs in a year or so, emphasis on "or so". Meaning I have no set agenda for this just wanted to know if it was possible, relax. In 1966 I lost 66lbs on my own, not a real diet per se, just ate healthier. What lost the weight for me was probably more the exercise. I did that in 6 months. One of the things I like about the lap band is no one will stare and think I have cancer or something because I won't be taking it off so instantly like RNY. I value my privacy. It's just if I could take it off on my own, why get the band. I'll tell you why. Because after my husband kisses all that fat goodbye, it's gone for good, that's the bottom line. I'm thinking if I hoist my fanny off the couch and start exercising again like I used to I maybe could do this in a year, but don't worry, that's just my goal. If it doesn't happen I'm not gonna get the band out and cry in my beer, I'll keep pushing on. All this hassle for nothing? I don't think so. So the last time I looked up the WLS in Alma there was some problem, I don't exactly remember but I think they had just lost their bariatric surgeon, or didn't take my insurance or something, I will definatley give them a call Monday, thanks

It smells like hell's bowels. Have you ever been around when a septic tank was being sucked out, it's like that. You can shower all day and it won't help, it's from the especially pungent gas some RNY patients get. Most of them don't get it or maybe not as bad, but my family's chemistry is such that we get it really, really bad. Since I have IBS on top of that I would be in my own pew all the time! lol So now I turn to plan B: lap band. Leatha: Did it take you the whole year to lose 62 lbs? You're making me nervous, I need to lose 120lbs. I was hoping to lose it in about a year. I'm not getting any younger. Is it possible to lose that much in a year or so?

Yeah I know all about the odor. My niece is slim and trim but no one can stand to be around her, poor thing. My brother who had his bypass 20 years ago could clear a room in a nano-second. In fact shortly after his bypass I hosted the 2 family Christmas bash when we bought our first house. The food was all set up in a buffet downstairs, but if bro was down there everybody cleared out. Then he came upstairs to go to the bathroom and it was like a cattle herd trying to get back downstairs!There are drugs you can take for it but they don't work on some people. Suz