Lucy

Mine was $15,000. What country do you live in?

I've been drinking occasionally with a straw and haven't seemed to have any problems. No one told me to avoid them, but it seems like all of our doctors have different opinions. I also bought a few sippy cups before surgery to get me used to taking small sips and not big gulps. Playtex makes some that don't really look like they belong to a 2 year old, I got them in Target. I don't have anything against Dora the Explorer, but I wanted something a little less juvenille

I wasn't given any instructions re: driving. I just waited until I felt well enough to do it, probably 4 or 5 days. Ice cream shouldn't be bad for the band, just keep it in moderation I've been eating about 4oz of fat free frozen yogurt every day. I can't stand regular yogurt (it's so tangy!) but I love frozen yogurt and it's a good source of protein. I am finally officially onto mushies!!!! Hooray!!!! I was supposed to start on them today, but I was slowly incorporating them into my diet over the last day or so. I made a quiche yesterday and it was SO good...I LOVE to cook and I haven't been cooking at all since the surgery because I couldn't bear to make something delicious that I can't eat! What's great is that I had a teensy slice of the quiche and I was full. It's almost hard to believe that before the band I would have eaten a huge slice in a matter of minutes.

My BMI was 37 when I was banded. I also had multiple ankle and back problems that would not heal with my weight being what it was. My insurance wouldn't cover the surgery, but they wouldn't have covered it under any circumstance, no matter how high my BMI would have been. Every situation is different. Good luck.

My insurance is Aetna through my husband's employer and they did not include bariatric surgery of any kind in the policy. I thought about fighting and appealing, but I have a lower starting BMI and I didn't want to wait 6 months to a year for the slim chance that it would be covered. I also figured that I would be spending so much money on psych evaluations, tests, etc. and there was no guarantee it was going to be worthwhile. I took out a loan and paid for it myself, $15,000.

One of my incisions has some bruising around it but the rest of them don't. I think it really depends on the person. Captain Danbo, I didn't tell my parents about the surgery until the day before. Other than my husband, no one else knows. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to hear their uneducated opinions about my body. Try to keep some distance from her if she continues to be negative. Especially post-op when you are recovering, you are not going to want anything or anyone negative around you. I know that's hard because she's your mom, but you are an adult, too, so just say to her (in a nice way) that you need her support (and only her support) of you need to be alone. Someone asked about having 8oz of liquids at a meal -- I don't know if it's too much or not, but I find that I have been VERY hungry recently and have 8oz of full liquids at lunch and dinner. I don't know if it's bad, but I'm eating VERY slowly, so...I don't know. Yesterday I went out with my husband for lunch. I had a few bites of pate and half a bowl of gazpacho. I think eating out is going to be a challenge -- the bread on the table looked so good! But of course I didn't eat any of it...and the waiter kept asking if my gazpacho was good or not -- I guess because I ate so slow and only half of it. I don't care what the waiter thinks but, dude, leave me the f*&% alone! I guess people are so used to seeing fat people eat a lot that when I eat so little there must be something wrong...

I agree that insurance companies take advantage of everyone. My insurance company wouldn't have paid for my band if I had a BMI of 98, I paid for my surgery out of pocket. You ask very good questions. How do we know something is overpriced? Being that pharmaceutical companies don't publish their accounting records (or at least that I can find) we really don't know for sure. But we can make educated guesses. Everything that we buy is marked up -- e.g. the iPod only costs about $150 to make, but Apple sells it for $300+. As an electronics company, making something that no one needs, they can charge whatever they want. Anyone who wants to pay $5000 for a handbag with a name brand on it can do as they please and I don't care if Prada charges that much for their product since it's a luxury item that we can all live without. But when a phamarceutical company produces, say, a prescription medication for lowering cholesterol that can save your life and they place a 20 year patent on it and charge you hundreds of dollars for it I somehow have a difficult time believing that it cost them that much money to make it. The clearest evidence of this is generic drugs -- why is it that when a patent runs out and the generic is produced, the cost of the drug decreases dramatically? Is the drug made from different materials? I don't think so. Lastly, have you noticed how many name-brand drugs are out there for lowering cholesterol? For helping acid reflux? For depression? For sleep? What's the common thread here? These are all drugs that need to be taken daily, maybe for the rest of your life. When was the last time a pharmaceutical company came out with a new antibiotic? Everyone freaked out about the guy with TB who flew across the world, but the truth is, if pharmaceutical companies spent more time developing new drugs to address temporary illnesses such as TB that have morphed into stronger strains and less time coming up with a new pill to treat erectile dysfunction, maybe they could address some other medical problems in the world. Big Pharma would rather create a "new" name brand drug that barely differs from Lipitor, so that they can make money from people who take it every day than create new drugs to battle occasional sickness. I'll get off my soapbox now. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

I have a VG band, but it's only been in for a little over 2 weeks, so I don't have much to report. This thread certainly makes me happy -- I hadn't heard that there were less problems with VG bands.

Big Pharma has its place and, yes, they make medicine that we all take and need, not to mention the Lapband. But that does not mean that they don't overcharge for that medication and continue to rely on agressive marketing campaigns to promote these often overpriced drugs. Whether we need a product that someone makes or not does not justify the excessive cost. Let's not forget that they are a BUSINESS. I'm not saying that everyone who works for Big Pharma is a money-hungry monster, but to insinuate that their prices are reasonable and that they are out there to solely to save lives isn't really looking at the big picture.

Imagine how the kids must hate them, momma!

Captain Danbo -- I didn't have any problems sleeping in my bed. I wasn't able to sleep on my left side for about a week (that's where the port is) but I was fine on my back and my right side. I don't have a recliner and really didn't want to get one (I collect mid-century modern furniture, so, although recliners ARE incredibly comfortable, I don't think it would have worked very well with my decor ). Good luck!

I love how they compare the oily discharge to "something that looks like the oil on top of a pizza". Is that part of their weight-loss program? Comparing fatty foods to "treatment effects" so that you lose the desire to eat them? MMMMM!!!! Dominoes, anyone?

Hi everyone, No plans for the weekend. Hope to maybe go to the beach and relax at least for a little bit. But I promise -- no swimming! I wasn't going at a Michael Phelps speed, I was going pretty slowly...but I guess that doesn't matter...meh... I've never been to P-Town, but I used to live in Providence and everyone always went there for vacations and loved it. Have fun, girls, and let us know how your trips go! My husband and I are planning to spend a week in Key West this summer, probably towards the end of August since there will be less tourists then. I love it there, it's so peaceful and quaint. You guys really make me miss being in school. I LOVED school...I am hoping to go to grad school one of these days, but I haven't quite figured out what exactly I want to study. Take care everyone and have a good weekend.

The woman who wrote that article is a food EDITOR, not a medical researcher. Yes, she is also a registered nurse and writes a lot of articles about nutrition and health, but the bottom line is that she is writing from a biased point of view, and particularly one that has never been face to face with the need to lose 100 lbs or more. Take everything with a grain of salt -- that includes opinions in favor of bariatric surgery. At the end of the day, you need to do what is best for you. But don't let one article dissuade you when there is plenty of proof, both on this forum and elsewhere, that the LapBand can have an incredible impact on your life.

I've been taking what seems to be a lot of pills since I was banded -- birth control, Prilosec, and the Vicodin that I was given for pain after the surgery. I don't crush any of them and I haven't had any problems at all, even with the Vicodin, which was pretty big. I would still check with your doctor to be sure. Hope that helps, Momma.

Same here -- my husband is my romantic love and best friend. I wouldn't have married him if he was just my best friend and I wouldn't have married him if he was just my romantic love. And of course I wouldn't have married him if he was neither.

Hey Toni, I hope you are feeling better and that everything is okay. I suffer from migraines, too, so I definitely feel your pain. Keep us posted on your health. Last night I convinced my husband to come for a walk with me around the neighborhood. I somehow managed to trip over a curb and did something to my right ankle! Dammit! I am a pro at injuring my ankles -- I've had numerous sprains and 2 surgeries on my left ankle. That is actually the main reason I had the Lapband put in -- all my extra weight has been bad for my ankles, but I haven't been able to exercise enough to lose the weight to help them out. Anyway, I don't think my injury is serious, I'm just going to ice and elevate it and wear a brace for the next few days and see what happens. It's just such a pain in the ass -- here I am trying to do something good for myself like exercise and I have to trip and hurt myself! I hope everyone else is doing well.

This woman is not your friend. A true friend will support you when you make a positive decision to change your life. I think you need to separate yourself from her (and any other negative people in your life) and surround yourself with real friends who support you.

Hazelbunny, I'm with you on that. Fat free cheese is disgusting.

I'm a big fan of eating a reasonable, balanced diet. I try to follow Michael Pollan's way of thinking -- "eat food, mostly plants, not too much". I do eat the protein first, then the vegetables, then the carbs. But my primary goal is to eat natural and organic food that is good forme -- I avoid synthetic "foods", trans fats, and simple carbs. But beyond that, it's really just about eating what I know is good for me.

The primary difference is that fructose is a natural (i.e. REAL) form of sugar and sucralose is a synthetic sweetener. Fructose contains more calories, but sucralose is artificial. There haven't been any long-term studies on the effects of sucralose, so I'm a little wary of it, personally.

I LOVE Toronto! And something tells me it won't be any hotter there than Palm Springs! I hope everyone here is doing well. I had my post-op exam with the doc today and he said everything looked good. He did reprimand me for swimming on Sunday, but siad that I could still walk every day. Maybe I'm a little too eager to get the exercise going...other than that, everything is going well. My throat is mostly healed and I'm just trying to get through the full liquids to the mushie stage...I can't wait until I can have some mushies

Pippz -- It probably takes me 30 minutes to an hour to eat 8 oz of creamy soup. It makes sense that the liquids go down pretty quickly, I just want to make sure I'm not over-doing it.

I'm a little confused on the food portions here --- I've been banded for 12 days and I'm on full liquids, but I can eat 8oz of creamy soup in one sitting. I eat very slowly, but 2 - 4oz doesn't seem to be enough. Am I overdoing it? I have a VG band, if that makes a difference. Any thoughts here?

I don't eat artificial sweetener, either. I've been getting most of my protein drinks and powders from Whole Foods and I've been drinking a lot of water. You don't have to eat jello or crystal light if you don't want to. I'm eating some sugar, but not a lot, and not really worrying about it. I exercise and the amount of sugar that I'm eating is very small.