BigT

Having temporary low blood sugar may be the problem. When you eat your starchy or sugary items, if you eat them with some Fiber or protein(to a lesser degree) it will help moderate your blood sugar levels and prevent temporary low blood sugar. The dizziness will usually happen several hours after a sugary/startchy meal or after several hours past your normal meal time if you haven't eaten it that day. Also if you have worked particularly hard without much food intake in the day. Some things to check out at least.... T

Even with the big band 4cc is alot. I had a first fill of 2cc and a second one with 1 cc and have decent restriction. Getting too big of a fill at once can result in stoma inflamation. Perhaps this doctor knew from the surgery her band was really loose? T

Many keloids take a long time to actually go away, some never do. I am a keloid former(not all people form them) and I have had some go away after a month or two and others go away 5 years later. I have found placing Vitamin E and other skin support liquids on them has helped keep the swelling down and speeds up the healing process greatly. Also be sure to take in alot of Protein to supply your body with the building blocks needed for the repairs. I have also seemed to get faster healing during times when I was taking a good food derived vitamin daily. T

Well I started off at 442 day of surgery and now I am in the 40x range--hopefully in a week I will be under the 400's--Yipee. I have a seditary job so I get very little exercise. I am trying to work on that some because I can already see sagging skin some and I do not want that--even though I expect it. I have really little fill at 2.5 cc but my appetite lately has been almost non-existant. In fact for the first time in my life I have to stop and think if I have eaten yet today because I can go till 3 pm and not eat anything all day-without even trying very hard. But by then I am feeling physically tired and need to eat. Its really great to not have hunger pains at all. My goal weight is the 260-270 mark so I have a way to go but then again I am a large framed man at 6'1" and could pass for a football player easily-and moreso as I loose more weight.

As a followup- I have the Vanguard and am at 2.5cc and I feel a good level of restriction, but then again I am very sensitive to any changes in my body. For example I can tell when my doc is injecting the saline for the fills. I can actually feel the band closing in more with the fill. He will have me stuck and then I tell him the exact second he starts injection without looking--he always seems a little surprised when I do that. T

If you had a competitant surgeon he should of matched you up with the correct band at the time of placement. The size is dependant upon the size of your stomach where the band gets placed. All bands take saline to fill them, and the Vanguard band takes more saline volume to have the same size opening formed in the smaller band. However if you got the Vanguard then you probably had a larger stomach and did not require the smaller opening. If you doctor did mis-size the band you can achieve the same results with the Vanguard but it will take more fills and unfortunately --more time. With you at 6cc you should be at a pretty small opening in the band- as many of the Vanguarders top out in the 6-8 cc range. The good news is that you should- at your next fill start to get really great restriction-- or you had better start looking to make sure that your band is not loosing its Fluid thru a leak. Also be sure to confirm with your doc the cc you are at as maybe you have mistaken the amount you are truly at or maybe the doctor will then doublecheck the fill amounts himself with a saline removal at the time of your next fill. This will confirm how much saline you ultimately have in your band and will also be the first step in seeing if your band is leaking. Chances are it is not but it is also good to stay on top of the doc to ensure good service. T

Thanks for the info-- I finally chose to go take the plunge and got the 4805 and just hooked it up. I am amazed by how good of a picture it produces and the sound system that I got has made the audio great as well. The only bad thing is now I am going to spend more time sitting-- I guess I will have to take up another hobby that is a bit more strenuous to make for that. T

Well guys I have something akin to share. When I was growing up, my father had a violent temper. He had a very stressful job and did not know how to deal with it when off work. He never drank or did drugs, but his temper could flare with the wind. I remember once when I was maybe 13, with my two brothers, 12 and 11,- we found a pack of matches and were in the concrete basement lighting off a few as we were amazed by them. The smell linger for a few hours and my dad came home and smelled it. Boy did that set him off. We had a small bathroom in the basement that we ran into to hide. We locked the door and had to hold the knob lock button in so he could not unlock it. We waited there for hours with no sounds outside the door-it was now past sundown before we decided to try to make an escape. As soon as the door opened, there was my father swinging it open with an aluminum tennis racket in his hand for his weapon. We ran back into the bathroon before we realized that was a mistake. As we got beaten, we decided to make a run for it and each one of use got a beating as we tried to get by him. I went first and got a huge whack across the back that bent the tennis racket from an oval to a 1/4 sliver of a moon shape. I made a dash up stairs and out of the house and down the road. Following behind me in short intervals were my brothers, with all of us nursing out wounds. It was very,very late before we decided it was safe to go into our bedrooms. Another time while we yet younger still, we were playing in his garden (our lot was 3/4 of an acre and his garden was 1/2 acre with the rest of it being house) and apparently did some damage to some plant or something and he went off. We took off running and he started beating us with metal garden stakes (5 ft high and about 15 pounds) before he started throwing them like javelins at us. Several almost hit there mark,but we were quick runners and made our escape. There are alot of other "little" episodes that went on as well--so many that we became prolific escapers. We could pop the screen out of the window and jump out the window in record time - if need be to save our skins. We also found a great hiding place--hiding out on the roof- we lived in a one story ranch. But one time we were found out and he came up after us--so we ---yes you guessed it-- JUMPED! Not only that but after we jumped we then had to sprint away or we were not safe. My mom sort of let things go on like that till it appeared that we were in danger for our lives then she would step in and try to help. However his rage was something to behold and even with her help we got beaten,spit upon and called lots of degrading names. I can still recall her saying to stop before one of us kids died. One time in particular, when she was uttering that phrase, I was on the floor after being hit down there, with his foot raised up over my head, and all I could see was hit foot print getting larger and larger-then at the last second it came down in my belly. As time went on I finally became bigger than him and could defend myself and would actually grab his fist and hold it towards him, showing that I respected him but would not take his abuse any longer. Fast forward a few years more, my father changed jobs, the stress was better and he worked on controlling his anger some more-but by this time I had moved out and was not really intimately aware of the changes. My brothers would tell me things were better and my sister, who came along few years before I left home, never really got to see any of the carnage firsthand. Today- he is a much different man and for that I am thankful. However it leaves me with what, at times seems mountains of resentment, to be placed on an image of a person that no longer exists. At times it feels like it negates what I went thru, but then conversely I would go thru it again --or worse if I could of helped my brothers more. It makes me watch what I do more carefully now and has made me more aware of what I do and how I do it- so as not to start down that dark path that genetics leads me to, like some predisposition towards a raging monster that is just waiting for the right circumstances to show themselves before a full blown attack surfaces. As I have aged, that monster within has grown hoarse and has lost much of its punch, but can still evoke a dark moment of reflection as I assess what I am feeling and why I am feeling that way. Here is to legends of the good old days and of monsters and there demise - in real life or thru rebirths of types. T

Another thought--- Alot of body wastes and toxins can be stored in your fat. As the fat is processed in your body these wastes and toxins are re-released into your body and blood stream and are expelled thru various means--urine, sweat,breathe. Often these wastes are a delicious food for bacteria and you get a BO that is different and or stronger. Drinking alot of Water and urinating whenever you have the urge will help a little bit. Cutting down on sugar intake can also help some. But I think,other then the suggestions above, thinking of your body cleansing itself of years of bad foods and toxins is going to make the bad "BO" just a touch more tolerable. I noticed a "chemistry" change of my BO for about 2-3 weeks post op before it seemed to normalize some. I do notice that while not as bad as during that 3 week period my BO can become uncontrollable quicker than before i.e. I have to wash well more often. By the way--keep up your Vitamins as that helps your body in the weight loss department. T

I have recently been checking into DLP projectors instead of a new TV for home theater viewing and was wondering what other people who have the systems think of them? What is good? what is bad about them? The model I was thinking of getting in particular is the Infocus 4805- so if anyone is familar with this model I would appreciate any info you could pass on. Thanks, T

clg8579, I just wanted to clarify something---fills don't "take" and getting fills done at one place or another has nothing to do with how much Fluid it is going to take to fill your band and get the amount of restriction you need. In other words if it is gonna take 3cc's of fluid to get a good restriction, it is gonna take that much no matter who is doing the fills. Also the doctors can only put in so much fluid as too much fluid will cause a larger band movement and can result in a larger inflamation in the stomach. To much of a band fill and resulting inflamation and you can have a problem that will result in a swollen band opening area and then the doctor will have to remove all your fluid for you to heal properly. Then you will have to wait months for it to heal before getting fills again. So taking it slowly with only moderate amounts of fills is the proper way to fill for a safe fill. Why risk getting a large fill when the result is months of having no fill while healing up again? Also just to let you know--many people take 2-4 fills before they feel good restriction. Myself- I am at 2 fills now and have decent restriction. I am gonna ride this last fill out before I get my next one as I think I am close to getting really good restriction. I want to give my body time to adjust to restricted eating before it becomes super restricted. I am still losing weight and that is the whole goal. T

Paula, The reverse osmosis system is a good one for getting pure clean Water. Just be sure and check the cost of the filters and how often they will need replaced- as that is often the "gotcha" of many systems. Often hard water areas will increase the frequency of changing those filters- as they clog faster due to the minerals. Also most RO systems require you to leave the faucet dripping (to flush the impurities away) and your overall water usage will be alot higher then the amount produced (in case you pay for your water thru the city)- something like 2 gallons of water flushed for 1 produced . That is something to check also as different systems use various amounts of flush water. Some caviets of drinking distilled and RO water-- you do not get the minerals your body needs that often comes from the water. I have heard that it is good that if you are drinking Distilled or RO water to drink some spring water with it for the minerals. You can either mix some with your water or just drink a bottle of it straight-just be sure and get some in. As these minerals are already dissolved in water they are the most readily available for your body to absorb and use them,whereas, many of the Vitamin type minerals are of a less absorbable variety. Hope this helps some, T