Ashnurse

Hi all, Congratulations on all of your successes. To the ones who have had their band for quite some time, how did you go within the first 12 months? I went on a holiday a couple of months after my surgery (for about 3 months) and had my band loosened so I wouldn't run into any trouble whilst overseas. Now that I'm back I've found it difficult to get back into a routine and I'm finding myself slipping into old habits. Any suggestions??

Hi all! I'm new to this. I was banded in Aug 07. I weighed 121 kg (265 pounds) and I now weigh 105 kg (230 pounds). So, slowly but surely I'm getting there. I had problems with fills trying to get to my " sweet spot" but I think I'm pretty good now. I've got 5.6 mls/cc in a 10 ml/cc band. I've just joined a gym the other day but have yet to get my butt there. I can pretty much eat what I want (except chicken and steak), but it's a lot smaller portion wise and I have to chew like crazy. My problem is with eating healthily. I still find myself eating crap. I crave junk food! Does anybody know of any lap band friendly recipe books?? Ash

It's been good reading these posts. I had my surgery done, then got 1 ml filled, then 1 more ml and that was far too much...could not eat solids very well at all....got the 1 ml taken out, went overseas, and now im back ive been putting off going back because im scared that i wont be able to eat anymore and will vomit everything back up! BUT ive bitten the bullet and made an appointment for next tues and i'll only be asking for 1/2 ml max! Right now im not really sure what full feels like! Im eating a big plate of food for every meal and im sooo worried that im damaging it. So hopefully this fill will help!

Hey I'm from Brisbane! I got banded in August but have been off holidaying abroad since Nov so the weight loss has been a bit slow to start...lost about 15kg to date but am about to join the gym and have another .5ml put in so I can keep my eating in check.

I was originally going to go with Dr Blair Bowden but I found him a little expensive...so I looked down the road to Dr John Copp at Greenslopes (operates out of St Andrew's Private at Ipswich too) and in total after getting my rebates back I paid about $3800.... I cannot sing the praises enough of Dr John....a very approachable surgeon with a sense of humour (hard to find) and his staff are fantastic. Also all his visits for fills are bulk billed so no out of pocket expenses after.

The pain is from the gas used to inflate the stomach. When the gas pushes on the diaphram it pushes on certain nerves in your spinal cord which then gets referred up to your shoulder. I also find that I get shoulder tip pain when I have a couple of beers or if I've been drinking too much softdrink...You'll find though that a big burp will make the pain disappear instantly!

Mine cost total about $5000 with private health insurance (NIB)...that includes my surgeon, hospital stay, anaesthetist, dietitian, psych before and after, fills and general appointments bulk billed. I then got about $1200 back from both Medicare and NIB combined. Not so bad!

I was meant to be scheduled in to have my surgery on one date and turns out they actually didn't have me scheduled in at all! Needless to say my date was changed very quickly and I didn't have time to do the pre-op diet. My surgeon said that I wouldn't have a problem of my liver being enlarged because of my age so he was fine with skipping the pre-op diet!