vixie

You probably used to use food to cope with stress. Now that food has gone "bye bye", you dont have an avenue to reduce your stress. You need to find some other way to unwind, maybe try working out. Dont let yourself get into the habit of unloading on loved ones to reduce your stress. My mother was like that her entire life. She'd be as happy as could be until she got home from work and tore us a all a "new one." Then she'd feel much better, but the rest of us would feel like crap. Nip it in the bud now before it gets out of hand.

are you saying banded folks can never drink alcohol? Or, that it should be avoided initially?

"Yes, paying $20 for your dinner would be a huge waste of money!! Maybe you could make some kind of deal with the manager since you are good customers." My sister, who lives in CA, says that there are cards that your doc can give you that entitle you to order off the kids menu or buy a kids buffet. Any truth to that? Has anyone heard of such a thing?

Hi, Yup, Im single so I eat almost all of my meals out...formally about 6 meals a day. lol I did the math the other day and figured out that the surgery should pay for itself in a few short years based solely on the amount of money I am saving from not eating out anymore.

Hi, My nutritionalist wants me to loose 30 pounds in 5 weeks. Im eatting 800 calories a day. I went to a website that says you must deny yourself or burn 3500 calories to loose 1 pound. Further, their calculator says that I must intake 2600 calories to maintain my current weight. That means, even if I take in zero calories, I would only loose about 22 pounds in that time. If I eat 800 calories a day, I would only loose 17 pounds. Is it possible to loose that much weight that quickly? Im currently at 330. THanks V.

<HR style="COLOR: #e9e9e9" SIZE=1> <!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --><!-- google_ad_section_start -->Well my surgery is scheduled for July 31 and I have to book a flight!. Oh the dread, the dread the dread! The last time I flew I was about 50 pounds lighter and some skinny B!@h gave me the "stink eye" the entire flight. It wasn't enough that I was curled up like a human pretzel, trying to stay in my own seat. I ended up leaning towards the isle trying to give her plenty of room and of course they must have served 100 beverages that flight. The cart kept scraping against my arm. Im thinking of dishing out an extra $500 to travel first class, but I've been told that the seats aren't much larger. I've never traveled first class, have any of you had any experience with it? Is it "fat person" friendly or just a waste of cash? IS one Airline better than another? Any other bright ideas out there?

Hi, Thanks all for the posts. Its so awesome to be able to talk about this kind of stuff somewhere. Faithmd, what a great link. Im thinking of traveling Midwest Premium Economy now. Looks like a good deal. Julie, that is soooo sweet of you to offer. I just bought one on ebay a few days ago, so Im set there. Your ticker rocks! I cant wait to get down to 174! It must be heaven. Laura thats EXACTLY what happened to me. I was 280 then, I will be 300 (if the pre-op diet works) during my flight. Im not the type of person to spend extra cash for a first class ticket. But I don't want to be uncomfortable after surgery. If I cant get the Northwest thing to work out for me, Im going to go for the first class ticket. I dred the flight so much I even looked into taking a train. Its $1600! So, I thought, no thanks. Cant wait till the pounds shed off and I wont have to worry about fitting into spaces....such a massive drag.

I've never heard of DR. FRANCISCO GONZALEZ, so I went to his site. He doesnt even have his credentials posted...whats that all about?

I found that you can find docs in the US for about $10K to $11K. If you cant stand the idea of going to mexico, they are a nice alternative. The hospital in detroit charges only $11k, through belite.

In Mexico the cost seems to range from $7000 to $10000, with most surgeons being somewhere in the middle. In my experience, all of them are flexible with their price. Also, many have several different patient brokers, you will want to keep email people asking for prices. One person might quote you $8K for Dr. X and another will quote you $9K for the same doc. Keep a record of each quote and the docs name. Once you find the lowest cost, call and try to negotiate a better price. Dr. Ortiz, usually charges $9500 but he is having a sale right now for $8500. If you have good credit there are lots of med credit places. Some offer 0% interest for the first year or two. There are all kind of programs out there. You can also choose to itemize your tax returns and write off the entire surgery. The government is now allowing us to charge off any weight loss programs from surgery to jenny Craig. There are a lot of Mexican docs that lye about their experience and credentials, so do your research.

CJUiler, did you drink some kind of low carb shake or where you eatting food? I've done well on the adkins diet in the past, but I was afraid I wouldnt see results fast enough

So many Americans have these crazy stereotype ideas about health care in other countries. Its not like you're going to pull up to a taco stand and have Pedro open you with a greasy kitchen knife. There are some VERY highly respected docs in Mexico. Dr. Ortiz is the one I have chosen. He very well published and even has even published a book on the lap band.. He's taught all over the USA, even at Yale University. He's a member of every important American Professional Organization and he's done over 4000 bands. He's even been featured on the Discover Health Channel. You'd be hard pressed to find a more impressive resume in the USA and he's half the price. The main reason USA docs charge so much more is because the hospitals charge so much for using their equipment. The exact same equipment they use in MX for less. Its all about doing your research. There are good and bad docs everywhere.

You can get a lap band in Mexico, even at a lower BMI. If you know your never going to loose it on your own, why wait till your toppling the scales at 300. Wish I would have save myself the years of futile struggle and just gotten the band when I was thinner, but I just kept telling myself I could do it on my own and I kept getting fatter.

Hi My favorite shake is Equate. It has such a good flavor, that its easier to stick with. I was using Slimfast low carb chocolate shakes, but they taste like washed down elmers glue mixed with chocolate exlax. Yuck!

You know what I do, think of all the reasons you want to loose weight. To be healthier, more attractive, more active. Is there an outfit you would love to see yourself in? Right before I go to sleep I see myself in that cute little black dress that I used to fit into during college, going to parties, meeting men, socializing, showing up to work looking sharp...whatever gets the engines going. As they say, "keep your eyes on the prize." Crowd your mind with positive thought, visualizations of what the new you should be. You'll find that you're thinking of all the negs less and less.

Hi, Houstonwe, I am referring to Dr. Alvarez in Piedras Negras. I dont know if we are referring to the same surgeon or not, but if we are, you should ask him: 1) How he managed to rack up over 1200 patients, when he just graduated a year ago. 2) Why his name doesnt show up as a member on the American College of Surgeons, when he has them listed as a credential? I know lots of Docs fix their numbers and lye about their backgrounds but why settle for one of those when you can get the best for a few hundred more. I am glad that everything went well for you. I've seen posters write that this surgery isn't "rocket science after all." I think that sentiment is fine, but I think the docs should reveal their true stats so patients can decide for themselves.

through out anything that is a temptation. Just get rid of it. It will be so much easier to resist. Im on a 30 day slimfast diet! Ahhhh. I thought I would never make it, but this is day 3 and its not as bad as I thought it would be. I have to fight with myself at night. Thats when I really want to cheat, but I just force myself to go to bed early. I always feel better in the morning. The one thing that helps me is chewing chipped ice. I put it in Water with a little lemon and eat it all day. Good luck, V.

Dr. Ortiz sells it on his site.

I had a bad experiance with Dr. Alvarez and his staff. After being mistreaded by these folks, I switched to Dr. Ortiz. he has one of the best reputaions out there.

I dont know much about band removal. But I had a bad experiance with Dr. Alvarez and his staff. I would avoid him if I were you.

my experiance with Dr. Alvarez was a negative one. I would not got to this doctor. I am going to see Dr. Ortiz instead, he's a little more expensive, but worth every penny.

Dr. Alvarez sucks. I had a bad experience with him and his staff. I personally think his numbers are fixed. Here are a couple of tips when checking out MX doctors. 1)The number of surgeries. This is a hard one to prove or disprove. To me its really more of a common sense one, I'll tell you what I find suspicious and you judge for yourself. Let me use ortiz to demonstrate what I think normal stats look like. Ortiz finished his lacroscopic training in 1998 and has been doing the lap band for about 9 years. In that time he has done about 4000 lap bands. Thats about 450 lap bands per year. If we take into consideration that he goes on vacation, does other type of work and probably has a few days off per week, it probably means that he does surgery several times a week and does 3or 4per day. That sounds pretty normal. Now look at Dr. Alvarez's stats. He only got his diplomas in 2005 and 2006. That means he only had about 1 year since he completed his training, yet he claims to have done 1200 surgeries in that time according to http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/professionals/showdocs-international.php?Country=Latin+AmericaSome Some sites have given him credit for as many as 1800! There are 365 days in a year. Let say Alverez never takes a vacation or has any sick days, lets say he takes two days off per week and has 1 day a week that he does nothing but followups. That leaves him 208 days to perform surgery per year. Are we to believe that he did 1200 surgeries in 208 days? I don't think so. Using the search engine on this board further broadens my case. If indeed, this little known surgeon does 3 times as many surgeries as Dr. Ortiz (one of the best known surgeons) where are his patients? Do a search of his name and you will only find half a page of posts about him. Last I checked he only had 3 patients here. Do a search for Ortiz and you will get 20 full pages. 2) Checking American credentials is easy. Most MX claim a few American credential. The most common seem to be American Society for Bariatric Surgery, American College of Surgeons and a lot claim they have been trained in American Schools. Most of these places have like online search engines where you can just type in the Dr's name and see if they are in fact members or Fellows. I know for sure the ASBS and ACS have these links. The International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity also has a link to check on council members. Most Universities also have these links. Just go to google and type in the name of the association or university. Then look for the link. Sometimes they will read, "see our member list of members" or "find a doctor" or so on. Heres a tip too. Just type in the doctors last names. You dont know where the doc was living when he became member, so just avoid typing in any more information. You will be surprised, even Doc's with VERY common names can be searched in this manner because most of these associations have very few members. Then you just need to match up the first names of the doc to your search. I have found a lot of doctors who claim to be members and ARENT. 3)Inamed certified. A lot of docs are not certified, but claim to be. That means they are placing your band without really knowing how...Ahhhh! Others, where certified but Arnet any more (really scary, probably means they were making too many mistakes). You can email Inamed and they are supposed to respond, but I have found that they are a little flaky. Its best just to call and find out. 4) Claims that the doc trains US doc for Inamed. This is easy to check on. Just call Inamed and ask if they are training for Inamed and if they are training within the USA. Inamed is very open and will give you any FACTS you ask for. Other than that my advice is to make sure your getting the surgeon they advertise, ask it the hospital they practice in has a dedicated emergency wing in case something goes wrong,

what does Optifast taste like? Is it like slim fast? THanks V.

Hi, Yes, its a pre-op diet. They want me to loose 30 pounds before surgery. She says she didnt care how I lost it. I choose slim fast because I know exactly how many calories Im eatting. I have been on the adkins diet before and lost 60 pounds in 4 months. But this is a whole new level of weight loss. I was afraid to do adkins because I didnt think I would loose the weight in time. CJquilter do you mean you only ate 70 calories worth of protien? Am I eatting too many calories? Will I make it on two slim fast shakes and a low cal frozen dinner?

You should call your doctor any time for anything. You paid good money for his services, so use them. Im not banded yet, but I was there when my sister had her hips replaced and her incisions were red. The circumference of the redness was not as large though. If this is a sign of infection, you want to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand. No sense in waiting till your oosing something. Who did you surgery? I was told that the incisions would only be 1". Im shocked to see how large yours is.