Shrinkage

Sorry to quote myself, but on second thought, let me rephrase my question: Regardless of whether or not they use fluoroscopy, who do you guys recommend for fills in the SLC area? S. Valley Surgical? Rocky Mtn. Assoc. Physicicans? Thanks a lot. -Dan

Hi. I need a 2nd fill, and I was wondering which of the SLC-area docs uses fluoroscopy during the fill process. My Chicago surgeon uses a fluoroscope for fills, and I'm much more comfortable that way than "flying blind". Thanks a lot. -Dan

Thanks for the info and for the quick reply, momlambert. Much appreciated! :smile:

Howdy all. I was banded on 10/1/07 in the Chicago area. I was recently relocated to the Salt Lake City area (Bountiful) for my job, and I was wondering how to find a good Lap-Band surgeon here. I wasn't moving very quickly to find out, but I had a pretty bad PB last night, and it occurred to me that if something bad happens, I have no one to turn to in my new city. Can anyone please share any recommendations? Thanks a lot.

My first fill is scheduled for Mon 11/12 - exactly 6 weeks after being banded (10/1).

No scale in my house. My scale, she is an much emotionally manipulative mistress.

The only flavor I like is Cinnamon (though I haven't tried banana yet - any good?), and I have it every morning (still on mushies). I thought the maple flavor overpowered the Maple & Brown sugar variety.

:clap2: I may be fairly new around these parts, but that makes a great deal of sense to me.

I have a few numb spots, too, mostly around the middle of my torso.

I was banded on 10/1, and I'm in the middle of the Full liquids stage. I've seen some conflicting info, and I was wondering if the general consensus is that we can or can't have cottage cheese and/or oatmeal during the full liquid stage. I originally thought that it wasn't allowed, but I saw a few Lap-Band websites (e.g. doctors offices) that included those foods. So I had a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese earlier today. But before continuing, I wanted to make sure it was cool, or wait until Mushies if it isn't. Can anyone end my confusion please? Thanks!

That's good to hear. Do you mean on mushies or just in general (i.e. with restriction)?

I was afraid of that. Not a fan of the fluffy ones - too much like cotton candy. There's no there there.

Crucial question: are you guys referring to the big fluffy matzo balls? Because I'm very partial to the firmer kind, and my wife makes the best ones around. If I chop 'em up and chew really well, is there any way those can work, or does the fact that they're so compact rule it out automatically?

I had my 10-day follow-up today. When they weighed me, I had lost 25 pounds since the end of September, which is nuts, yet understandable, given the type and paltry amount of "food" I've consumed since the day before being banded. So while I realize it isn't indicative of the pace of my future weight loss, it was still pretty cool to see. Everything looked good, and they removed whatever steri-strips were left. My next follow-up is in 3 weeks, and my first fill will be soon after. And the best news besides the 25 pounds? They moved me to mushies today. Scrambled eggs, FTW! -Dan

Thanks, guys. That's what I thought. I was faithfully staying away from both foods until later on, but when I saw the website (I'll post a link if I can find it), I got a little excited.

UPDATE: I was taking Darvocet every 4 hrs per Dr. instructions, and was very nauseous for the past few days. Today, I haven't taken one since about 12 hours ago, and the nausea has been much better (though not completely gone).

Since I got home Tuesday afternoon, I've been on Clear Liquids, specifically Water, chicken broth, sf Jello, sf popsicles, and probably most of all, a 50/50 water/apple juice mix. Starting today, I've moved on to full liquids. I had a little sf chocolate pudding, but after just a few little spoonfuls, I felt like that was enough. I also had a little applesauce, but with all the apple juice I'd been drinking, I needed something in the non-apple family. Luckily, my wife made a delicious potato leek cream soup that she blended the hell out of, to make sure there were no potato chunks or fibrous leek pieces. I didn't have that much, but it was delicious and filled me up for several hours now. Not sure what to have next. Maybe tomato juice. My wife is also going to make a cream of cauliflower soup, cuz she's awesome that way.

Yup. I had a feeling the pain meds had a lot to do with it. While I feel a lot better overall, I still have soreness, especially when I stand straight up. But as for the nausea, I just moved to full liquids and had some pureed potato leek cream soup, and it's freaking amazing...... oh, and so far, no nausea.

I've been pretty nauseous since coming home on Tuesday (had surgery Mon 10/1). I've been on Clear Liquids so far, , but I'm hoping that'll subside as I add full liquids starting today. -Dan

Howdy all. I just got back from the hospital about 1/2 hr ago. I'll share more details later, but everything went well. I was up and walking after a couple hours after yesterday's surgery, and by yesterday evening, I was zooming around the halls. Back with more stuff soon. -Dan

Well, I'm scheduled to check in at the hospital tomorrow morning at 6am, so unless someone in the Eastern time zone (or Europe, etc.) is also getting banded early tomorrow morning, it looks like I get to kick off the October bandster bandwagon. The early morning timing stinks for family scheduling purposes (carpools, etc.), but I'll be glad to get it done as early in the day as possible, and have a better chance of going home the same day. My only pre-op diet was today, and so far, I've had Water, the broth of french onion and chicken Soups, and an Isopure 40g Protein drink (blue raspberry). I'm about to head out to pick up a pizza for my kids, so I'll have to figure out something for dinner. More broth, perhaps? :hungry: -Dan

No pre-op diet for me either. Just instructions for the day before.

October 1st here. Best of luck to everyone.

Howdy all. I was originally scheduled for November 19th, but all of a sudden, my insurance approval came through very quickly. My surgeon gave me the option to bump up my date to October 1, and I took it. So just over a week til "The Banding" :hungry:

Howdy all! I was originally scheduled for a 11/19 banding, and my surgeon's office called me a couple days ago to say that I was approved (yay! - though I'm still in the process of gathering all of the comorbidity letters from other doctors, just to be sure), and that I could move up my surgery to early October. I chose October 1st (to paraphrase Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally, when you finally decide to change your life for the better, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible). So instead of my surgery being 66 days away, now it's only 16. So suddenly, the pace to ask whatever questions I still have isn't as leisurely as it was a couple days ago. So while I've been lurking on the board for weeks, and I probably ran across the answers to one of two of these questions before, please forgive me is I ask questions that are answered somewhere else in the forum. Sorry if they're a little wide-ranging: How long do you usually spend in the hospital? Is it outpatient? Overnight? How many days did you have to take off from work? What are the warning signs that your band is slipping? How do you take pills in general – mash 'em up in apple sauce? Most importantly, has anyone here dealt with Dr. Constantine Frantzides in the Chicago area? The Dr. who referred me called him "gifted with a laparoscope". He mainly does laparoscopic gastric bypasses, but he also does the Lap-Band. His many patients sing his praises on obesityhelp.com, but again, they're mainly bypass patients. That's all for right now, though I may have another question or two soon. Thanks in advance for your help! P.S. I wrote a big multi-paragraph post introducing myself to the board, but it got deleted when I got logged out for taking too long to write it. So here are the basics... 39yrs. old male BMI 43-ish Overweight for approx. 30 years I've tried mant many diets Lost 50+ lbs. 3 times in the last 9 years. Currently at my highest weight ever Decided on banding when it finally dawned on me that if I were capable of maintaining weight loss long-term, I'd damn well have done it by now.