Marimaru

Another biggy is what kind of foods you are eating. Are you eating 2 cups of Soup? or 2 cups of something good and solid? Just remember that the band can't restrict things if they aren't solid. I'm actually about where you are, plateau wise, and I'm at 2cc's fill and will be going in for another one shortly. Best of luck.

If you go for the 7th, wont you have already had the day off? You weren't planning on going back to work the very next day after surgery right?? I would say that even if you were one of the fortunate souls who was up walking around like mad the day after surgery, that you still shouldn't work. Your body is still trying to get rid of the anesthesia n' stuff and you will likely be very tired.... Anywho, I wish you luck with all of this. The idea of a note from your surgeon may help you with your work. On the other hand, there are many bandsters who would just rather that people didn't know what was going on, in which case, you may not want to give them a note telling them what's being done. Let us know how it turns out. I'm sure that it will all come out well in the end one way or another.

From my experience, the big thing about drinking after a meal is that it get's the food moving. The rule is to help you stay fuller longer, not because you might damage yourself (although if you just ate you should be careful not to overfill yourself).

I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a way to bypass the patient coordinator. I don't think they are there for the folks that don't speak spanish... I think mostly they are there so that the surgeons can operate and not need to worry about returning phone calls and answering questions and whatnot. Although I will say that once my surgery was schedule, Dr. Rumbaut called me personally to make sure that I didn't have any questions. These doctors amaze me with the time they take for EACH patient. Dr. Kuri does my fills (I live in southern california and can drive to TJ). Both of them are really amazing guys, and I recommend either one.

The things I've read against NSAIDS say to take acetamenophen (sp), like Tylenol. Also, maybe your surgeon would know of another pain med that you could take if that's not enough. We gots to be careful

Carbonation is a big one, but I've gotten used to it. I sipped on a little less than half a soda last night, and that was it. I can drink lightly carbonated wines, like White Zinfandel. I have trouble with tortillas for some reason. It seams that I can eat a half a sandwich with bread ok sometimes, but I have issues with burritos, no matter how much I chew. Chips don't bother me though. Lessee... I know some people have trouble with noodles, but I don't have that problem yet. I'm hoping to go in for my second fill soon though. I currently have 2cc's in my 4cc band. I've found that I shouldn't eat solid food in the morning, so I'm trying to find a good breakfast drink. I bought a protien powder today that I really don't like, but hopefully I'll find a way to mix it that makes it ok. I guess the only other thing I can think of is that it might wierd you out a little to feel your port. I'm not sure if everyone can or not, but I can if I feel for it. It doesn't really bother me. I am interested in this mini port that I've heard about, but that will wait until I'm much closer to goal.

Hey all, I read about Dr. Billy on this board, and while he's not super close to me, he's closer than driving to TJ for fills. The only thing that's stopping me at this point is that I don't know how much it costs, and I can't get a call back from the 'billing dept'. I've left several messages so far . So, if anyone is self pay and knows how much this is, it would be really appreciated. Thanks!

gack! Nevermind! She just called me.... it's $300!!! Mostly just posting so that others know for future reference.

Man oh man... I'm not married yet, but I am having this problem with my boyfriend. When I told him I was going to have the surgery done, he wouldn't really give me an opinion. He told me he wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do, and he would support what ever I did. Right after the surgery he admitted that he was afraid that I was going to get skinny and want to find someone better than him. I told him that he saw me for who I was with all the fat on me, and the people who didn't talk to me now that would talk to me when I was thinner weren't worth my time. He's still worried about it and it comes up all the time. He recently lost his job, which has just made matters in that department worse. It doesn't help much that my sister told me that my mom thinks I WILL leave him when I get thinner. I know my self esteem isn't what it probably should be, but when I'm with him I don't feel like I'm 'settling' for whatever I can get or anything like that, so I don't feel like I'd have any reason to go anywhere. It's a bit frustrating. He has roller blades he hasn't used in a while, so I want to try and get us doing more active things together, but I'm just not sure how to console him. :straight Darn boys.

Hey there, I don't know anything about the belighter group, but I also was a patient of Dr. Rumbauts, and contacted his office directly. The link posted above is also where I got his information. If you email them with any questions you have, his patient coordinator, Doralisa, will happily answer any of your questions. She's a really helpful and sweet person. Anyhow, if you have any questions, you can also drop me a line, I'd be happy to chat with ya.

Ok, so I'm not completely nuts. I tried a bajillion times to get here yesterday. Even if I don't post all that much, it's nice to read what's going on with other people, and offer help if I can. As for hosting, I actually work for a hosting company. I would venture to guess that yesterday's outage maybe had something to do with all the flooding back East. The hosting company that is hosting this site is in NY. It's just a guess, I don't have anything that tells me this, but lots of things are having issues because of all that Water. As for a 'backup'... if something were to happen, I could probably get a site set up in little time. It would take time to make it pretty like this one, but I could make a functional forum. Domains at my company are $15 a year, and hosting is $6.95 per month. I'm sure that plan would have enough space to host the forum, but it's the bandwidth that might be an issue. Anyhow, it's just an idea if something were to happen to our currently lovely site. ANYHOW, it was nice to come back and find everything up and running this morning .

Heyo, I'm 5' 7", currently at 255/258lbs and a size 20/22/XL pants. I can wear XL shirts, which aren't tight, but I prefer the looserness of 2XL. I'm trying not to buy too many clothes yet because I still have a ways to go. I'm kind of proportionally big... I don't think I really have areas that look super huge as compared to any other place... big thighs, big calves, big tummy, big breasts... so I think I may lose sizes slower than some other body types in the sense that everything gets a little smaller at the same time, instead of someone who is rounder in the middle, and so therefore loses that and drops sizes quicker. :mad:

I also agree with waiting if you are having trouble. I didn't have any trouble like that... What are you moving to from 'full liquids'? I had nothing but broth and tea and Water for the first 3 or 4 days and then moved to soft pudding and yogurt. After that I had some refried Beans (at about 2 weeks), and things of that consistancy... Also, about only losing one pound since surgery, you aren't really trying to lose weight yet. It's all about healing right now, I don't even think you should look at a scale :mad:. Keep us posted, good luck.

Hey there, I'm from California, so I don't really know what options you have up in Canada, but there is a doctor in Mexico, Dr. Kuri, http://www.lapbandsurgery.com/ he has a company that he works with for financing for the surgery. He's also one of the lower cost surgeons out there. It's still up near $10000 (USD), but at least you could make payments instead of trying to front the cost. He's not my surgeon but he does my fills, and seems really nice.

Hey all, I'm new to the boards here and wanted to introduce myself. I was banded on 7/2/04 by Dr. Rumbaut in Mexico (I've already seen him mentioned here). To date I've lost 25 lbs. I have one fill and I'm at 2cc's in my band. After I got my fill I ended up in starvation mode. It hadn't even occurred to me that I might have TOO FEW calories. Holy crap! So, I eat more often in the day, and dropped 4 pounds in the last week. I think I differ from a lot of bandsters in the sense that I don't have a goal weight/time. I figure if I lose like an 'average' bandster I'll probably be around 145 in about a year, but I don't have a date in mind, and the number 145 isn't anything magical to me. I guess I feel like I've beat myself up over so many diets in the past that I don't want to 'set myself up for failure'. Fortunately I haven't yet learned how to 'eat around' my band. So at this point the only way I can go is down, if I keep doing what I'm doing. Anyway, just wanted to give a little background and say hi.

Dr. Rumbaut is a really great guy. I don't know how close you are to surgery, but I scheduled mine, and a couple days later he called me to make sure I didn't have any questions or concerns or anything. His staff is all super fantastic also. He's got 2 assistant surgeons that help him with the surgery, and they are also great. I'm a little cloudy from when I wake up, but at least one of the surgeons was there when I woke up to make sure I was ok. I'm 8 weeks out, so it's still pretty fresh in my head, I'll go through my experience for you; I got to the hospital and filled out a little bit of paperwork. Mostly just emergency contact type stuff since the payment stuff is taken care of by Dr. Rumbaut since we pay him directly. Then they take you into a little room to change into your hospital gown and slippers, then you walk to the prep room (whoever goes with you can be with you for all of this). You lay on a bed and either Mario or Raphael (his assistants) will come talk to you. Then the anesthesiologist comes and explains what he is going to do while the nurse puts in your IV. Then Mario or Raphael come in (whoever it wasn't before) and explain about the gas they put in your stomach and whatnot (my boyfriend told me about this last part, I don't actually remember anything after the anesthesiologist ^^;. Then, you wake up. I think they've already loaded pain medication into you at the time, but the pain is still surprising. At least it was to me, I've never had a surgery like this before. Sitting up a little helped me. Then they wheel you into your recovery room (which is SUPER nice). The nurses check up on you every 2 hours (ish), take your temp and check your pain medication. There was never a time I wanted to ask for pain meds, if I even begun to think about wanting to ask, a nurse was in putting them in my IV already. After they wheeled me into my room, I was able to walk to the bathroom and back to bed. They encourage you to walk as much as you can, but doing so made me a little sick the first day. I slept alot. I would sleep, and then wake up feeling super refreshed and wide awake... for about 15 minutes ... and then I would sleep again. I was able to lay on both of my sides, with a little scootching to get comfortable. The next day all of your surgeons come to see me. They looked at my belly and took the tape with the gause off (they had fun with this for some reason, lol). I didn't have any stitches, just tapes to hold me together. The incisions were pretty small for the most part. One was less than a quarter of an inch. Then three that were about an inch long, and then the one near the port was 2 or 3 inches. Your belly will be yellow for like a week. Whatever it is they use to clean you up with stains pretty bad and doesn't like to come off. lol. I was discharged about 1pm from the hospital. I was walking around alright, but slowly. When you get back to the hotel, Doralisa has a basket of new-bander-friendly foods waiting for you. V8's and broth and all sorts of liquidy stuff. And that's about it. I had my surgery on a Friday, flew home on Monday, and was back at work on Tuesday. I know lots of people take time off of work, but I have the benefit of a cushy computer job, and my boss is my mom, who was adament about me telling her if I felt I needed to go home to nap or anything at all. Oh, also, the pain meds they give you don't make you all woosy or whatever, so if you feel like you want to drive somewhere or something after taking one, you can, which is nice. I hope this helps you. I got super nervous a couple days before my surgery too. I cried like a baby the night before. I'm not even sure why, I just burst into tears all of a sudden. The band takes some getting used to (obviously), but I'm really happy that I got mine, and I'd do it all over again if I had to. If you have any questions, you can email me (mari@mysticmari.com), or I'm almost always on AIM, MysticTaeza. Good luck

I did the refried Beans thing. Also, mac n' cheese was good for me, but I know some people don't do well with Pasta. But I made it extra cheesey (in the sense that I added more milk so the cheese was saucier)... It's funny about bread. I'm sure we all tried the low carb thing at some point and just went nuts over not being able to have bread. Now we just don't have it anymore. Not much anyway.

I guess I'm not quite as different as I thought I was. whippledaddy- I read your prison post. That was really amazing. I really hadn't thought of it that way before, but it really does fit perfectly into how I am today as well. I'm a really lucky person when it comes to my surgery. A little over a year ago I was looking into the Gastric Bypass, but thought that it was a little extreme for me. I was at 280, and I didn't want to stay that way, but it just seemed like too much. Anyhow, I later heard about the band, but dismissed it for lack of funds and insurance. Then I was going on vacation with my mom, and we were talking about a person we know who had the bypass, and I mentioned the band and told her a little bit about it, and she asked how much it costs, and I told her what I'd found, and she told me that she'd pay for it. Just like that. I started crying in the airport. I'm kind of a procrastinator when it comes to doing major things, but not this time. Whilst on vacation using the laptop we'd brought I submitted my profile/application to Dr. Rumbaut's office and got all the info I needed. I talked to my local doc to make sure that she didn't have any major aversion to the surgery, because I didn't want to have to argue with my doc about things like that. Then I scheduled it and was in just a little over a month after mom said she'd pay for it. She said it was the fasted she'd ever seen me do anything. lol... And then, she tells me that I'm her hero. I laughed at her and said "I'm YOUR hero?!?!" She said that she knew alot of people who might have tried to find a reason not to do it, or put it off or whatever. It was a cool thing for her to say. Anyway, I kind of went on a tangent there. Mostly I wanted to thank everyone for the warm welcomes.

Sue3, I'm new to the board and was getting ready to post my intro thingy and came across your post. I'm glad your hubby came around, because I wasn't going to have any good ideas for that... but I wanted to mention an even less evasive option than the lapband. Inamed (creators of the band) also make a balloon for the stomach. They put it in through your mouth and inflate it once it's in the stomach. The goal is to make you feel full after not having much (similar to the band). The difference being that it's not a surgery, and it's temporary. After six months it's removed. The main goal is that you learn new habits etc. If you are already coming down with the 'morbitities' associated with being overweight (high cholesterol, etc as mentioned) then you may want to do the band anyway, but I thought I'd let you know about another option that I'd read about (it is also cheaper). If you end up being self pay, or you are having trouble finding a surgeon because of your 'low' BMI, you should consider some of the surgeons in Mexico. My band was put in by Dr. Rumbaut in Monterrey Mexico, and my fills are done by Dr. Kuri in Tijuana (cuz I can drive there). They were both really great people. Dr. Kuri also works with a company to provide financing, which you may also want to consider if you are self pay. I wish you luck. Keep us posted Sarah