Marimaru

I get such mixed information from fillcenterusa. Supposedly there is a location that is supposed to be opening up right near where I live "soon". It's been "a couple of months" for like 2 years now. I want to find a local fill doctor, but I'm weary of them...

Alot of people have a '3 sticks' rule. If it takes more than three needle pokes, you go under flouro to find the port... in the case that he couldn't find your port even under flouro, I'd honestly be asking for someone else to do my fills...

obesityhelp.com has a section for spouses of weight loss patients. I don't know how much activity it gets tho.

I second the idea of cooking food and freezing it. You can do pans of stuff like lasagna, your hubby can just pop the pan in the oven and bake it for however long and serve it up. You can also freeze things like chili. You could have a few deli sandwich nights, where you buy cold cuts and bread n' stuff and everyone can make their own sandwich.

My best advice for body image issues is to take a before picture and a now picture and look at them side by side. Despite the mirror, you WILL see the difference if you do this. So far I intend to have a tummy tuck, a boob lift, and thigh work. My thighs themselves don't bug me that much, but what bugs me is that the skin catches at my knees and makes them look bad. I don't like to wear shorts because of that..

You can still go out to eat, and you can still enjoy family functions, even if they center around food. You'll just eat less. There will probably be some things that give you trouble that you'll need to give up, but to say you have to give up all of your favorite foods is a stretch. I think that some of the medical providers involved in the process of us getting banded either don't know 100% what is actually going on, or they take it to the way far extreme...

My iron has been slightly low since my surgery. If I take an iron suppliment, it's fine, so I've chalked it up to the idea that I'm eating way less of lots of things that had iron in them..

I would do liquids for a couple of days to see what happens. Ground beef, fruits and veggies with skins, and chicken have all be trouble foods for people. For ground beef, I would be sure to get really lean stuff, because even though it's ground up, the grizzle can cause serious issues. If after 2 or 3 days of liquids, and then maybe a day of mushies you are still having trouble, I would say you are too tight...

What you eat is probably not as important as how much you are eating. It doesn't sound like you are eating all that much. I eat whatever is around, just try to watch portion sizes. I cannot lose weight if I eat above 1300 calories a day. What exersize are you doing? What does your doctor say? If you are exersizing and eating right, demand answers from your doctor. Lookup Vinesqueen on the forums here if you haven't... Also, if you eat the exact same thing every day, mix it up a bit.

From my understanding, the food is gone from the pouch after an hour, but it's been sitting there long enough to give you a full feeling for a few hours. If you drink while you are eating you push it through right away (assuming you don't make yourself sick, like Wheetsin mentioned), and it doesn't sit long enough to keep you feeling satisfied longer.

I'll have had mine for three years in July. I have not had any complications. I'm a little anemic, but if I could remember to take my stupid Iron, that would go away completely. I'm a "slow" loser, but I wouldn't trade my 80lbs for anything, and I would do this all over again.

wavybaby, that link just says file not found for me... My understanding of the bill is that it is extending current hate laws to include gay people, but I have not done much research on this, so please correct me if I am wrong. If that is the case, I think the bill should be passed, since there are already hate crime laws in place. The idea of hate crime laws however, I am against. Murder is murder, and the reason behind it shouldn't really determine the penalty for it. If that means we need to bump up the level of punishment for stuff in general, fine, whatever, but murder is murder, assault is assault, etc. I hope that makes sense, and my idea of what is going on is somewhere remotely close to accurate, lol

I didn't see the special, I don't know who they were talking to or what exactly was said... but it sounds like they picked a few things and blew them out of proportion, but I dunno. I do know, that I am about to marry into a very large mormon family. My fiance doesn't practice the religion, but as he hasn't proclaimed a different one, I guess that makes him still mormon. I've learned alot from him about the religion. I have never been approached by anyone in his family with some necessity that I convert or go to church. I've had some conversations with one of his sisters who came to visit and learned some more from her. I've also learned that even within one family, the degree of rules can vary greatly... and it's all about interpretation. My fiance says that originally there was a rule to not drink hot drinks... somehow that got translated into caffiene... His family for the most part drinks hot chocolate and hot herbal tea, but not coffee, tea, or soda with any caffiene in it. One of his sisters will drink caffeinated soda, others wont drink any soda. One of his brothers' families wont allow their children to read books along the line of Harry Potter, because they believe the idea of magic is evil (I've known Christians like this too). Interpretation of the religion varies by person. My fiance has 2 brothers that don't practice the religion. One of them has his own family, is a great guy like my fiance, his daughter is well behaved, basically he's teaching the values he learned from the religion, without the religion. His other brother is constantly in jail for various things. Sometimes nuture has nothing to do with anything, but the brother who is constantly in trouble could probably call himself technically a morman too, you know? So, there probably ARE "Mormons" who do the things that Sunta has proclaimed, and I'm sure that the mainstream Mormon society doesn't want to have much to do with them, but they are probably doing what they have interpreted for the religion. There are dozens of "Christian" religions out there, and they are all separate for the same reason, they don't agree with eachother on the interpretation, but they're all Christian. I'm more agnostic than anything else, but there are things in lots of religions that I can see why people believe them, and there are things in lots of religions that I can't understand why anyone would believe, but that really doesn't give me the right to say they are "wrong". The whole point of religion is that no one knows. Fear of the unknown drives religion and if religion helps people deal with their fear of what happens after death, so be it... whether one religion is "right" or "wrong" doesn't hold a candle to the people with the faith behind it. *whew*, I hope I said all that the way I wanted to, lol.

I would choose the surgeon who'd done 900 surgeries and stay at a local hotel for the first night or two if you are nervous. Probably the long drive home is a bit much for the same day of surgery anyway. I didn't do *alot* of research on the aftercare of the bypass, but from my understanding, many patients have monthly doctor's visits and blood tests for the first year out of surgery. To me this seemed more time consuming than getting a fill when you needed it (assuming you weren't trying to go every 2 weeks or something). Dr. Rumbaut said to me "The great thing about the band, is if you were to get pregnant tomorrow, it'd be fine". I had no intention of becoming pregnant at the time, but I thought I would pass that along.

If your doctor thinks something is wrong, you should let him do the scope. The fact that you are eating normally probably does mean that nothing is stuck, but that doesn't mean there isn't some other issue. Better safe than sorry!

Marissa, how much did you lose between your fills? It's said that healthy weight loss is 1 to 2 lbs per week, and that's all they want us to lose with the band as well. There are lots of doctors that will act that way about fills. You might think about the reason your doctor is being strict about fills. Or even ask him.

If you are eating the same, but drinking more, that's probably your answer on why you are stuck. Be very careful about replacing food with alcohol, or any other dangerous behavior. There is a thread about this on here somewhere, lots of people discuss having similar issues. Addictive behavior runs in my family, but I used to think it was specifically alcoholism that ran in my family so I've always been really careful about alcohol, if I find I'm drinking more than I should, I don't drink for a couple of weeks, or a month. Regarding exersize, unfortunately it's just something you have to get up off your butt and do. I say it that way, because that's what I had to do. I hadn't been to the gym since June, until 2 weeks ago. Once I get going, a momentum kind of builds up, but GETTING GOING is what is hard for me. You'll just decide one day to get up and go, or even if you don't go to the gym, walk around your neighborhood for a while (assuming it's safe). *hugs*

Here's a thread that has them: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=4642

I think that your neighbor's response can say to you that you wont be under the microscope with her. Since she knows people who've had it, she knows more about it than the average random person, and will be supportive and have realistic expectations for you. Besides (and this is something that occurred to me not too far back), just because she's been a perfect 10 the whole time you've known her, doesn't mean she always was (I don't know how long you've lived near her). I'm moving to Oregon later this year, and no one there will ever know I was a size 24 unless I tell them. For they'll know, I just have a little weight problem to nip in the bud, you know? I do think you should tell your DH you are upset about the whole thing. I'm sure that if you explain your feelings, he'll be right there with you and be sure to not do it again. Also, you might pop over to the neighbor's house and say "hey, I know my husband told you about my surgery, but I'd really appreciate it if you didn't mention it to the other neighbors if you haven't already". *hugs*

My fiance (ONE MONTH TO HUSBAND) My computer and high speed internet (complete with wireless network). I'd almost rather have no internet, than slow internet. (set up by above mentioned future DH) A hair brush, I hate it when my hair is tangly; and along the same vein, my hair straightener, even though sometimes I'm too lazy to use it. My kitties {funny anecdote; I heard this funny noise and I couldn't figure out what it was. I feed my kitties soft food as a treat every few days, and I give it to them on a paper plate. The paper plate from the day before (which had been polished clean, as much as paper can) was still on the floor, and one of my cats was licking it, the noise was her rough tongue against the dry paper.}

Do you know what kind of band you had? Would it be an option to have a smaller band put into place? I know that means another surgery, but it might be something to talk to your doctor about, if he was offering you the option to switch to bypass.

I second Alexandra's opinion. Reflux is a pretty classic symptom of being too tight. Hope you feel better!

My understand of insurance is that they will cover a procedure like this if you can prove that the skin will cause/is causing a medical problem, like rashes or tearing. The panni procedure is only skin removal, where as a tummy tuck includes muscle tightening. Congrats on getting your surgery!

I've lost 80 lbs and my arms have improved signifigantly just from that. I think if I can get some good muscle tone under there, by the time I get to goal, they'll be lookin' pretty decent. To second what Jachut said, my sister was less than half my weight before I got banded and hated her arms more than I hated mine. I thought they looked great! We're both getting better

Wow, I'm so sorry for you. Please keep us updated on how you are doing!