NM Sunshine

BTW I weighed in with more pounds on me than my doctors scale says. So don't be disappointed if it happens to you.

I'm back from surgery and am completely happy that I choose Dr. Gonzales to do my surgery. He and his team really take care of you right and the aftercare is great. I'd warn anyone getting the lapband to check up on aftercare. It is as important and getting the band itself. Laura (you will love her) picked me up at the airport and helped me register into the swanky Camino Real Hotel. Then we went to Dr.G's office in his surgery clinic. He explained the whole process to me and answered all my questions. Dr. Veronica also there, (the nutritionist) weighed me, took my measurements and height and talked to me about diet and my weight goals. At 8am the next morning I was checked into the hospital. Hospital Angeles is way beyond any hospital I have ever been in. Next the cardiologist took my EKG and wanted a treadmill one done. If I didn't pass it, I wouldn't get the surgery. I passed it!!!!! :clap2: Dr. V stopped by to talk to me as did Dr. G. Then they brought the surgery team in and introduced me. I'n surgery I had Dr.G, another surgeon, Dr. V, an anesthesiologist and 3 nurses. All went very smooth. Dr. G. said my liver was so small that the surgery only took 25 minutes. Laura stopped by later. The nurses were great. The next day Dr. G stopped by as did Dr.V. Dr. Veronica gave me paperwork, telling me all sorts of stuff as to my ideal weight range and body fat % so on. She will be working with me through email on my weight loss. The next day I was released and Dr. V and Dr. G stopped by again givng me prescriptions and more instructions. Laura drove me to airport. The border crossing into the USA takes an hour!!! I flew to Tuscon last night and got home today. I had such a good experience, the doctors and Laura feel like family. I will be going back for my fills. I don't think I would have had a better experience anywhere, else. On Thursday Laura passed a message to me from Lapbandit. Her surgery is today. There was another women in the hospital who had the lap band by a different surgeon and she was miserable with pain. I didn't have any pain. My lungs hurt after surgery because I have asthma. My stomach bloated up and I had some gas pain. There's no hunger pains. You're surpose to walk to relieve the gas pain. Today all that gas is coming out. Stomach is still bloated. The worse part of it all was taking my medicines crushed up in Water. I take a lot of meds and UGHHH:cry Here's a hint save a bit of the applejuice to put the meds in and get those Listerine breath strips. Drink the meds and stick a strip in your mouth right away. CHUBBYONE The diet journal is something you'll be getting in a habit of doing so you learn to take control of your eating. She didn't look at mine but she WANTS YOU to keep one after surgery.

ATKINS DIET I've been on it many times. Heres a few hints all meats & fish are carbo free Cheese check the lable to see if there is carbo in it. Veggies be very careful with what you eat as some are carbo loaded, good ones are salad (carbo free dressing) broccoli, stay away from fruit. You can eat pickled pigfeet. & fried pork rymns careful with hotdogs, lunch meat, sausage so on. Some of it has sugar in it. try turkey or chicken lunch meat wrapped up in lettuce. It's hard but if you keep the carbs way down you will lose your hunger and your cravings. It really works...takes a few days to click you into that mode.

maddy still packing up to leave. will stay at a campground tonight. the 5pds could have been some water. Don't know how much of it is. I like cottage cheese cause it's about the only thing wwe are allowed to have that feels a bit filling. Also it is easy to grab on the go.

Calorado doc is Dr. Kirshenbaum, and there is a great thread on him. His fee is something like 9,500 and the MX docs run around 7,500.

pwhitecloud How I wish I could have done this at 52. Once I hit my 60's all sorts of weight caused co-morbities set in. That's scary. But doc feels that the lapband will make a major difference in decreasing or healing them. Most of us who are self pay go to the Mexican doctors. Some of them are VERY good. Check out the threads on the doc.s. Also check out the thread on DR K (i'll get his name) ub Colorado. My doc is Dr. Gonzales in TJ, MX

tarheel The research says you will live 40% longer with the band than without. Yes it makes a big difference. As soon as I committed myself to a doc and a date, I felt like I was doing something for me. Therapist has been telling me to do something for me, but couldn't get to that place until then Leaving today, be bac Friday.

tarheelladybug this is FatAttack, I changed my handle to something more positive. Guess what I get banded this Tuesday! I have been on my pre-op diet and me,dog &DH are taking our camping van to Tuscon so I can get my flight (it's an early one & Tuscon is 3 hours from us) I will be banded by Dr. Gonzalez in TJ, MX Course I know what that nervous/excited feeling is about.

Want to be You're dad may be the one who has the unhealthy diet. Recently they've discovered that we do need fat in our diet, it's very important. Just the right kind of fat though. Your olive oil is great and so is canola oil. Those area the only two I will use. Thin athletic people have some super prejudice attitudes about overweight people. It's like once white people were prejudice about people of color, or prejudice about women in the work field, or even the right to vote. Someday they will find out (hopefully) that their attitudes are pure prejudice.

That is interesting what your nutritionist said. I didn't realize that. I both broth in the carton at the store. Heated myself a cup and it like to have made me puke. Had a funny taste and smell. So I didn't try broth again. Drinking a lot of no fat milk stuff. Yea, Atkins diet would be easy to cheat on considering that some of those Atkin bars are yummy. I have no idea if the sugar effects the liver. I do know that a heavy drinker has a large liver and so do we people who are heavy enough to get the lap band. The liver gets a lot of fat stored in it. Perhaps a lot of the fat we lose when we are on the pre-op diet is fat from liver first???? I've been drinking diet coke most of my life, started with Tab. Taqb was ugh but over the years I got use to the fake sugar I guess and when something is heavily sweetened with real sugar I can't take it....that's my ugh these days. When the band is in with restriction, that sugar shouldn't mater especially since You're a healthy eater. Good luck over the next few days.:hungry:

Maddy1969 The pre-op diet was real hard for me. Then the last 2 days have been loaded with to-do's, running around. I found it was very easy to eat a couple bites of cottage cheese and nothing else til late evening...this morning, I weighed myself and I have lost 5 pounds!!!!!!!!! mostly over the last few dAYS. TUESDAY IS BAND DAY. WON'T BE BACK ON NET UNTIL FRIDAY OR LATER.

wanttobemeagain and all It does sound very much like Dr K wants you on a low carbohydrate and low glycemic diet. Especially the low glycemic. All starches like white flour, white rice, white bread are very high glycemic. So are chips and cracker AND SUGAR. Glycemic means how long it takes the body to convert the food to sugar. High glycemic foods raises your blood sugar very fast and in turn the pancreas start pumping out insulin and you feel hungry again. Low glycmic is slow to turn to sugar so it's the reverse. I wish I could eat a bite of meat or cheese. My doc put me on a liquid diet for 8 days and I get my surgery this Tue.

NICNAK I know that without this forum, I would not have gotten the surgery.

WHOOPS there's a confidentuality notice on the email. I hope I didn't screw up. I was a little concerned about the new folks and hope they are not influenced by Food4less.

HEY ALL, I wrote Dr.V about the crazy person and told him everyone booood him/her. I asked about those erosion figures. He wrote me back and here is what he said. Someone sent you erroneous information. We’ve been getting reports of someone doing that. It is sad that competing doctors or who knows what individuals have to resort to such measures to try to discredit Dr. Gonzalez spotless record. My recommendation to you is simply to ignore them. Our total complication rate including infection, slippage, body rejection, erosion, reflux and all other minor complications is less than 3%. That is an extraordinary number. Our patients referrals and track record speaks for itself. Doctor Gonzalez began using the new technique more than seven years ago and has not used any other since. Thank you for your confidence in our team, and please contact me should you have any other questions. Sincerely, Dr. Valenzuela Hows that food4less:wacko:

WANT2BEME I took for granted the diet was Atkins,because that is what it is cheese, eggs, meat and some veggies. It must be a low carbo diet. If you keep your carbo's low your appitite goes away. And it is a quick way to lose some weight. Some of the no sugar popsycle have Splenda in. Sweet & Low about gags me to. But, I am used to the fake sugar taste. I also use Stevia and it is good,but Splenda is the best. About the sugar, I guess it depends on whether you are a carbo addict or not. I know I am one and I need to be careful. But once the band and restrictions are in it may not make a difference cause the band will rule. NICNAC Today i discovered no sugar fruit popcycles. They have a few extra calories but are made with real fruit. yummy

BA LOSER today I only ate a few bites of no fat cottage cheese. Then at diner I made lemon diet pudding W/super skim milk and ate the whole thing. Surely it's not that many calories. How R U doing? I see that soon you will be one month banded. CHRISTINE Great encouragement. Thanks. Guess the doc is just going to have to deal with more liver,..LOL

:clap2: Notice how food 4 less answered my reply to him. Tells me he is a d--k. And doesn't know what he is talking about.

Food4less, There are other types of lapbands. Perhaps Dr. Gonzales used them, especially before INAMED . I remember reading about other types of bands, some that the Swiss were making. What was the number INAMED gave you? Doctors in Mexico and Europe were doing this surgery a good 10 years before the FDA approved it here (in 2001). I think that is the same time that the INAMED band came out. I am to be banded next Tue. by Dr G. and I will be in the hospital. It's Hospital Angeles. It's 2 years old and is equiped with everything, incuding a state of the art ICU unit. The surgery center is for younger people without co-morbitities. The cost is 7,500 at the surgery center and 8,500 at the hospital. Those going to the surgery center can stay there the whole time if they choose to. I thought the other doctors in TJ were also doing surgery through the surgery clinic. I will check on those erosion and complication figures

Food4less, There are other types of lapbands. Perhaps Dr. Gonzales used them, especially before INAMED . I remember reading about other types of bands, some that the Swiss were making. What was the number INAMED gave you? Doctors in Mexico and Europe were doing this surgery a good 10 years before the FDA approved it here (in 2001). I think that is the same time that the INAMED band came out. I am to be banded next Tue. by Dr G. and I will be in the hospital. It's Hospital Angeles. It's 2 years old and is equiped with everything, incuding a state of the art ICU unit. The surgery center is for younger people without co-morbitities. The cost is 7,500 at the surgery center and 8,500 at the hospital. Those going to the surgery center can stay there the whole time if they choose to. I thought the other doctors in TJ were also doing surgery through the surgery clinic. I will check on those erosion and complication figures

Kat, Yes the doc has told me a lot and I am free to email him with any questions. But I find the info I get on this forum to be the best. I'm finding out everything at the forum. Thanks for explaining that to me.

maddy1969 You pay with a credit card or a debit card unless you are getting a loan for the surgery. I don't think you pay until the day you arrive there. I will be flying in this monday (2 days from now) and haven't paid nor have they asked me to.

Nicnac, I find it real handy to have the no sugar popcycles, lots of them. They are like 10 calories a bar. You can eat those all day and get maybe 100 calories from them. They are helpful for that 'just want to eat something but not hungry' feeling.

Mildre Here's Dr G's web site Lap Band Surgery, more than 2,500 successful procedures. There's info there on how to get in touch with him.

Phyllser I finally gave up and pasted the code into the big square box, and it worked. Now I have a ticker. Linzee, What is your weight loss goal? I'm getting the lapband because I can't lose. I'm on this liquid pre-op diet and I gained a pound!!!!! It must be the thing about our metabolism slows down as we age. Have you tried the Atkins protein drink in a can? Perhaps you could put them in some sort of insulated lunch box? Also there is those diet high protein bars. You mean that vegies and chicken stick to your pouch? I heard someone else say that. Wonder if you put them through a food processer, would that help? Also have you heard of the SouthBeach diet. My doc says that is the one to go on. Thanks for the support. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I approach the deadline.