JustCallMeKelly

Sue, I couldn't agree with you more about Cywes'...at first I didn't care for his personality but now I adore him, he always knows just what I need to hear. As a matter of fact, I said that to him at my last appt. cos' when I went into the room with him he said sit down cos' I want to talk to you before you get weighed and proceeded to lecture me on how important it is for me to battle the addiction part and not to worry about the scale and that was exactly what I had been struggling with the weeks prior, so it was pretty amazing. He is EXACTLY what I need in a doctor. That is so awesome that you and hubby are doing this together, what a great support team you must make for each other! God speed! Much love, KKG

Susan, I will keep you in my thoughts that all goes well w/your next fill and that you will be able to get what you seek! Congrats Katie on your approval, a month will FLY by so start getting prepared NOW if you haven't already. Dr. Cywes' pre-op diet is VERY LOW CARB, so start now and remember this is the way you will be eating for the rest of your journey so don't approach it as a diet (it's not easy but it is doable). He'll want you on low carb for two weeks prior to shrink your liver (very very very important) and then 2 or 3 days liquid prior to surgery date. He's an awesome Doctor and will be very helpful in getting you started on your journey so don't sweat it too much, but any little changes you can start now will be a huge help when it comes time for the surgery. Feel free to ask us any questions cos' we are here to help you. Take care and be well. KKG

That would be great Paula, I'm a sahm so I have a pretty flexible schedule (as long as you don't mind my 3 yo eating with us)...lmk what your schedule looks like so we can plan something. Take care. KKG

Hey Karen, good to hear back from you. I, too, prefer Dr. Cywes' personality as well, but I just have NEVER heard him "joke" which is why I thought you were talking about Baptista cos' he's always cracking jokes (but he's so hard to understand sometimes with his accent that I don't always get what he's saying). Anyway, I'm glad everything went well for you with your 1st fill and even though mine wasn't as smooth as the first two w/Baptista I would still choose Cywes for my appts. because he sits you down and talks to you about more than what is going on with the scale, he wants you to understand the journey is more about the scale results which is what I need to hear. He's also very thourough and even though he knows he has people waiting for him he still takes his time with you when you are in front of him which I really appreciate (even when I'm the one in the waiting room for 2 hours I try and remember that When is your next appt? Mine is April 8th at 3:30 pm. Maybe I'll see ya there sometime. I'm going to post on your poll as well, thanks for setting that up. Also, can you tell me what I need to do to get a profile picture up on this site cos' I tried it before and was not able to get it. Thanks. TTYS. KKG

Opps, sorry I meant to say St. John's Town Center / Southside area; not Westside. My bad! Still new to the area and am learning the lay of the land. KKG

Hey all you patients of Dr. Cywes/Dr. Baptista's just thought I'd let you know in case you hadn't heard yet that their offices' will be moving in July to a new building somewhere over by St. John's town center/Westside. He mentioned it to me during my fill yesterday and I didn't know so thought I'd spread the word. I'm not sure if it'll be closer for me or not, right now it takes me about 45 mins. from my house to their current location. Just fyi. Peace! KKG

Hey there Sue, I'm out in Oakleaf Plantation in OP and would also LOVE to get together with some fellow Jax bandsters, lmk what days/times work best for you and we'll try to coordinate something soon. Take care and be well. KKG

Hey there Katie, welcome to our little intimate Jax Group, glad you found us! I'm Kelly and I live out in Orange Park (Oakleaf to be exact) and I'm also a patient of Dr. Cywes'. I was banded on 12/26/07 and have had 3 fills to date (3rd was yesterday actually) and have lost a total of 54 lbs. from my highest weight (lost 9 pre-surgery). I want to wish you great success on your journey and remind you that we are ALL here for you. No question is too big or small, so feel free to ask away, we'll help you in anyway we can. A few of us have expressed an interest in getting together in person to meet and get to know each other for support so make sure you check back here often to see when it will be and hopefully you can join us as well. Much peace and joy to you. KKG

Wow Karen, I was at Dr. Cywes' office yesterday (3/11) at 10:30 am for my 3rd fill, would have loved to seen you there (maybe would have recognized you from your little profile picture). Anyway, congrats on your first fill, glad it went well for you. You must have seen Dr. Baptista cos' he has a great sense of humor and is generally much more easy going than Dr. Cywes' (not that I don't love them BOTH). Anyway, I got my 3rd fill but ended up seeing Cywes' cos' Baptista got called to hospital for emergency and that was my 1st time doing a fill with Cywes'. It went fine, but I have to say that Baptista is much more gentle with his injections. Cywes' had to poke me like 4 times before he got the needle in the port (and that's after giving me a numbing injection so he could press harder to locate port) and that NEVER had happened with Baptista the other 2 times...but it ended up fine. He actually gave me a very agressive fill (his words) to really boost my weight loss (I hadn't gotten one in 5 weeks and needed it badly). I had lost an additional 14 lbs. from my previous visit so he was really glad to see that (although he made a huge point in telling me NOT to dwell on the scale at ALL). He gave me a homework assignment as well. A weekly sheet to fill out for daily carb levels and activity output, which I had been doing on my own anyway. He said he wanted to see it when I came in in 3 weeks (April 8th is my next appt.). Well that's about all for now. Hope to meet some of you soon...We REALLY need to get a group together in person!!! I'm available any Tues. or Weds. night, just lmk what ya'll want to do. Peace to all. KKG

Oh, sorry I guess I didn't realize it wasn't something good for us to eat. I don't want it unless it's low carb so never mind. thanks for clarifying. Be well. KKG

Lori, Hello there, great to meet another fellow Jax Bandster! My son is 2 1/2, he'll be 3 in June. Wow, 4 kids, you're brave cos' I can barely keep up with my 1 That's awesome to know that the kids will be welcome at your house as well as mine. I'm eager to get a meeting together since I have not been able to attend any at my surgeon's office due to how far a drive it is for me and since it's on Thurs. and my hubby works till 9:30pm. So I hope we can all get together soon, but in the meantime this board is an awesome support system. Hope to talk to you again soon. Keep up the great work! Be well. KKG

That pudding idea sounds good, do you have a recipe? If so, would you mind sharing. Thanks. KKG

Recently I've been starting to feel like my band isn't really working...not because I'm not losing weight or eating less, cos' I am, but because I'm doing the extreme low carb (under 30 g per diem) and I'm exercising 7 days a week for at least 45 - 60 mins. each day. So for someone that goes from eating fast food 2 -3 times a day and never exercising to eating extreme low carb and lots of exercise the of course I'm going to lose weight and fast too right!!! So what is the band doing for me??? I definitely feel that it is a great motivator to know that it's there if I need it but so far I haven't really needed it I guess. I don't know, it's just some crazy thoughts I've been having and wanted to see if anyone has had the same and if so how and what did you do to get past them! Any help or input would be appreciated. Much love. KKG

Wow, Kelintx, that's awesome and congrats on your incredible weight loss. Care to share any tips with us on how you did it; what worked best, what didn't, etc. Any input from such a big loser would be greatly appreciated seeing how I need to lose 141 lbs. to get to goal. Thanks in advance. Live well/be well. KKG

Thanks, I didn't realize that it was from 2005...opps, guess I'll pay more attention next time! Thanks again for telling me that. Be well. KKG

Very well said OH Juli, and so very very true! Great thread Sonia! Love to hear that these thoughts bumping around in my noggin are not alone KKG

First off, let me just say what a wonderful thread this is and I hope that it will keep getting added too. I know I definitely will be back with more NSV's in the future...but for now here is my first public NSV; like 9 months ago I went to a fellow SAHM's house for a playdate and she invited me out onto her back porch so that we could keep an eye on the kids playing in the back yard. Well to my panic I looked around and noticed that all the patio chairs had "arms" on them and I could tell by just looking that there was no way my rear end was going to fit (even to squeeze - which I can't do due to some nerve damage in my left thigh from a severe car accident 10 years ago). So I just stood there like an idiot as she sat down and sipped her drink. Now it was obvious that something was wrong cos' how stupid does it look when having a conversation while one person is sitting and the other is just standing there! Anyway, she ended up asking me if I'd like to sit and I felt I had to tell her what the problem was, even though it was extremely embarrassing, so she went in to the house and brought me out one of her dining room chairs w/o arms. I was just glad that it was only the two of us. Anyway, my NSV happened last week when I went over to this same friends house and again we went to the back porch...and there where those same patio chairs; but this time without really thinking about it, I sat down!!! And low and behold - I FIT!!! It wasn't a perfect fit but it was comfortable enough that it didn't bother my thigh. I was so elated I even mentioned it to her and she was like "oh yeah, right I remember now...that's awesome!!!" ... So there it is, sorry for the long description but I wanted you to have the whole picture since it was an important moment!!! Peace to all. KKG

Bozzj, I too had the same thing happen to me so I totally know how upset and dissapointed you are feeling right now....But, with that said, I'll tell you that it turned out to be a great thing for me to have to wait the 6 months. First and foremost it gave me plenty of time for me to "wrap my head around" the fact that I would be giving up my old way of life. I had time to read about 14 books on the subject and once i found this website and found out what a terrific source of information it was the time just flew by. The way my surgeon's office handled the 6 months was as follows: 1st Month appt. he explained how it was all going to happen. He told me that he didn't need me to lose weight BUT he didn't want to see me gain not one single pound...or else!!! 2nd month appt. I met with the dietician...3rd month appt. met with the in office Diet Person - got weighed in....4th month appt. met with Pshcyologist for evaluation (mandatory for my insurance)...5th month appt. meet with in office Diet person again - got weighed in again...6th month appt. met with Surgeon for the "liver talk", then got surgery scheduled and came back one last time for pre-surgery talk with Surgeon....then surgery!!! The time flew by and at first I didn't really take it serious and ended up gaining 7 lbs...but then they gave me a strong talking to and explained how if I didn't do as I was told then I could get cancelled at the last minute for the weight gain, due to the enlargement of the liver from the gain. So after that I got serious and ended up losing 9 lbs. then another 6 before surgery. Since surgery I've had 2 fills with a 3rd scheduled for 2nd week in March. I've lost 46 lbs. and have never felt better. Anyway, hope this helps you feel alittle better. Good luck. Live well/Be well. KKG

Hey all, I'm good for either Tues. or Weds. since those are hubby's days off and he'll be able to watch the little guy for me. I've never been able to make it to one of Dr. Cywes' office support groups due to the drive and it being on Thurs. (no one to babysit) so I'm super excited about us locals getting together. I too have plenty of room to host so if you want to switch houses every other month or something that would be fine with me (I live in OP - Oakleaf Plantation). Thanks to those of you that are putting this together for us Jax Bandsters, sounds like we could all use a local support system Hope to hear from you soon. Be well. KKG

Thanks Bloo, I'll see if I can't find them somewhere other than Walmart (which is the only place I've checked so far). Appreciate the response. be well.

When you speak of sliming are you referring to the saliva that builds up in your mouth that can't be swallowed when something is stuck? Or is that something different? B/C I've gotten stuck many times but have not experienced anything that I would consider "slime" just regular saliva that I go and spit in the toliet until the food goes down. Please advise. Thanks!

Bloo - I notice that you drink the Atkins shakes for bkfst which is what I do too, but I want to know where you find all these great flavors (Caramel Latte, etc.) cos' all I can find are the vanilla, chocolate and strawberry at Walmart. Please advice cos' I'd love to mix it up since I'm getting bored with the above 3. Thanks. KKG

Gingerbug, just wanted to share with you my experience cos' I had the same thought as you before getting banded. I'm on an extremely LOWCARB diet, which always makes me lose weight AND i'm exercising everyday so I knew I'd be losing weight wether I had restriction or not so I was worried about the doctor not wanting to give me a fill, but when I met w/him he basically asked me questions about whether I'm getting hungry after meals and how long that is taking, he never even discussed the 14 lbs. I'd lost, other than to say it was a good thing. So far he's given me 2 fills, 4 weeks after each other and I'm seeing him again in 3 weeks for another if needed. I'm still not at the sweet spot but I've been taking it slow with how much I tell him to put in cos' I don't like the feeling I get right after. So really I think that the surgeon will make the decision based on what you tell him, so make sure you are honest and thorough in your discussions with him. Good luck and let us know how it goes for you. Be well. KKG

Hey Susan, yes, I was wondering about Karen as well, I'm sure she's doing great by now! She's in my thoughts too. Dr. Cywes' recommends a liquid diet for 48 hours after each fill and then 48 hours to go from soft/mushy foods and then slowly get back to solids. I've had two so far and don't think I'm close to the sweet spot yet. I don't really get hungry per se, but I can definitely eat too much when I find something that goes down well (i.e. chicken Breast salad from Subway w/all the fixins seems to go down well and I can still eat the entire thing). I'm making better choices now but at first it seemed like everything I tried was getting stuck, but then I realized it was cos' I wasn't chewing well enough and taking to big of bites. Every day is better and better as I experiment and find great choices. Thanks for the advice i appreciate it. BTW - can you tell me how to get my pic up in the left hand corner of my post, by my name like you have it? Thanks. Be well. KKG

Hey all you fellow Jax Bandsters...I live in Orange Park (Oakleaf Plantation to be exact) and would love love love to get together for a Jax Support Group. I'm also a patient of Dr. Cwyes but have yet to attend one of their support groups due to it being so far away (45 min drive each way) and it's on Thurs. which I could only do it on a Tues/Weds. I've had two fills so far and have found it difficult to figure out whyat to eat after each one, but I've lost a total of 40 lbs. so far from my highest so I'm very happy so far. I want to wish everyone a joyous journey and let you know I'm here for you if you need me! Please lmk if anyone forms a local support group cos' I'd love to be a part of it. Thanks and love to all. xoxox KKG