RainyDay

Thank you all for the ideas!

Rainy,

I am also going ot Unity. Everyone there seems nice. I had my first appt. on 1/14 and they told me I need to gain 10 more lbs. to get Medica to pay. So I am doing that now. It's harder than you think!!!

What do you have for insurance?

Christine

I have Medica too. I totally qualify as far as BMI is concerned but I have no co-morbidities so I have to do a 3 month supervised diet. It's tons of fun. But worth it!

They seem like a great group and I've heard good stuff about them. Have you decided on a surgeon yet?

ETA: My first impression was that they push RNY but I didn't get that at all from the nurse I met with. She said lap band might be a great option for me and that I don't have to be 100% sure until the actual surgery.

Bellydance is fun! I also love Shimmy!

I forgot about this thread! I really appreciate all the info here! I was lucky enough not to have any major traveling sickness last time I went overseas but I'm scared about it happening in the future. Luckily most traveling sickness is diarrhea without vomiting. (If you can call diarrhea lucky!)

I talked to my DH and he said it would be pretty easy for us to go to India if need be for treatment so unless it was a dire emergency, we could go to Chennai and get things resolved (guess I have to talk to some folks who've been banded in India!)

Congrats on your 50 pound loss!

Hi folks! I just wanted to say hi. I am going to be banded once I get my BMI to 55 (it's 59 right now, eek!) So I'm just starting the three-month diet required by my insurance. I'm glad to see some bigger bandsters having great success and I can't wait to join you all.

What I hate about WW is that they hype it saying it's not a diet. Uh, yeah, it is too.

And I got a mailing from them today that said those who do WW lose 3x as much as those who go it alone. I read the fine print on that one when I was on WW and it said WW folks lose on average 9 pounds versus 3 lost by dieters on their own! Whoopee!

I saw that Intervention and I really felt for that poor young man. He was sweet and talented but so sad. I hope he is able to have WLS someday.

I'm not a January bandster but I wanted to let you know that I had my daughter via cesarean and then didn't lose any weight for TWO WEEKS. I was still at the weight before I checked into the hospital. I retained a ton of Water and Fluid. After those first couple weeks I dropped like crazy. I think some of us are just more prone to retaining weight after surgery.

Thank you so much! I do have a world phone now so that should be a good option, as it's not always easy to get to a phone in Bangladesh and many don't have home phones (my ILs don't. They have a half dozen cells.)

I appreciate the advice!

I don't know but I will start researching. Amazingly, I did see an obesity clinic in Dhaka, Bangladesh, so it's possible there are band doctors. India has an emerging WLS industry but I don't know if we'd be able to just jaunt on over to Chennai if something serious went wrong. Things just don't move quickly over there, bureaucracy-wise. So that scares me a little! You are right, though, I'll need to make some contacts.

My husband is from a very underdeveloped country (Bangladesh) and we need to visit there for a few weeks every year or two. I'm not yet banded, but I am leaning heavily toward it and hoping to have it done sometime in spring or summer.

When I visited Bangladesh last year, I lost 20 pounds in a month. The food is so different even than the South Asian food I eat here in the US, and I just lost my taste for food. Additionally, there is traveling sickness and extreme heat and accompanying risk of dehydration to deal with.

I do worry about going to Bangladesh and having some band complication that cannot be resolved there. I guess I'm wondering what would be your plan if you had an overseas issue? If I am 6-8 months out from surgery by the time I go, is it likely that any band-related problem I might have could wait a few days at minimum for me to travel back to the US?

I have been reading this forum a lot and it seems like a lot of people have a delayed reaction to fills. If I just made sure not to get a fill for 4-6 weeks before travel, do you think that would be sufficient?

I will ask these questions of the bariatric nurses and surgeon at my clinic but I'd like to hear what you all think and if any of you have experience with fairly extreme travel while banded?

On the plus side, I'm sure climbing in and out of a rickshaw at a smaller size will be a much more pleasant experience than it was last time!

I am looking into banding through the Unity Hospital Bariatric program (Fridley) with either Dr. Jeffrey Baker or Dr. Frederick Johnson. I do think the overall program leans toward RNY more than banding based on the seminar I attended yesterday, but I will still continue pursuing banding as I think it's a better option for me.

At any rate, the nurse running the seminar said they have had no deaths in their lap band patients and they're also a Center of Excellence. I guess that means a high volume and certain other standards. They have pretty good statistics from what I have read, and happy patients, so that is encouraging to me.

Whew! This thread title scared me. No shrimp for life might have been a deal-breaker (I haven't been banded yet.) :smile:

As a former waitress, my experience was that if people did not order a drink with their meal I ALWAYS made sure they had Water

Same here, generally. If people did say no water, I wouldn't bring them anything but to be honest it made me uncomfortable! Now this solves the mystery...perhaps they were banded folks?

Oh no! I am really sorry you went through that. Thanks for posting as a warning and hope you can get another band someday.

Has anyone had to do it? Is it just what your surgeon wants you to do and then you weigh in monthly like some with other insurance did?

I have a BMI over 40 but not sure if they'll consider past BP readings to mean I have hypertension as my BP is good now.

Gwen, let me just say you are already a phenomenal nurse anesthetist. You calmed me down right through the Internet!

My cesarean was unplanned and unwanted and I'd had an epidural in for a few hours when I had it. The epidural really seemed like it "took" and they boosted it up a lot, but after the initial incision, I felt everything for a couple minutes. I'm over the creepy-crawlies and inability to relax in medical environments (I can even watch surgery shows) but I do fear that once I get back in an OR I'll have that panicky helpless feeling again. It's good to know I'll meet with the anesthesia crew beforehand as well. As rotten as my cesarean was, the anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist were very reassuring and calming (it was my OB's total lack of concern about it that really helped plunge me into the abyss.) I am feeling better about it and I'll ask questions at my upcoming seminar as well.

Congrats on your loss! Fantastic.

Mary, so glad to hear your lap band went better than your other bad surgery!

HI there,

I am so very sorry you had to endure that terrifying ordeal.

There is a difference between the meds used in a cesarean and those used in general surgery. From what I understand, in a cesarean, if it is general anesthetic (which is rare), they have to put you under for as little times as possible, as the anesthetic is very harmful to the baby. That might be how you woke up early.

With a regular cesarean they do the epidural and give you (I think) a twilight sleep.... from what I have heard it is normal to feel intense tugging while the baby is being pulled out. Is that what you felt? Apparently they can't numb that pain.

With this lapband surgery it is different and I think the risks are very low as there is no rush to wake you up.

I would definitely talk to your anesthesiologist (spelling?)

Good luck and hugs to you.

As a heavy person, I'm afraid of anesthesia in general but the person who does it for WLS will be used to people of larger size, I have to tell myself that, right?

What I felt in my cesarean was cutting and I didn't have twilight sleep so I actually felt a scalpel cutting into my peritoneum! Augh! It was a lot worse than tugging. It was what they call a "window." At any rate, I will definitely ask if I can consult with the anesthesiologist. I am sure the way I reacted to an epidural is not necessarily indicative of how general anesthesia will be, but I'm just afraid of the idea of surgery in general.

Congrats all on your progress!

I had epidural failure when I had my daughter by cesarean a couple years ago, and I felt some of the cutting before the anesthesiologist sedated me. I ended up with some PTSD symptoms (flashbacks, obsession and depression) and at that time I swore I would never have another surgery unless my life (or my baby's if I were to have another) depended on it.

At this point, I am heavier than I ever have been and could easily be 400 pounds within a few years if I don't get a handle on things. I have prayed about it and worried about it and now come to some peace about the decision, and I am going to the initial seminar in a little over a week.

Has anyone decided to do the lap band after a traumatic prior surgery? Did you have a better experience with this surgery? Do you feel your medical team did a good job of helping you through any fears you might have had?

Thanks all for ideas and support. This is a great board. :eek:

I also like the Weight Watchers scale. I got mine at costco. If you are a Costco member, there is a coupon right now for $10 off in the current coupon book, which makes it about $18, which is very cheap for a scale with high capacity and accuracy. I have tested it by standing on it holding a bag of flour or a can of Soup and the readings are pretty consistent.

Thank you, Gina. I am leaning toward getting the surgery and then TTC a year or so later. It would change my life plan a little, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I am still nursing my toddler, although we're getting toward weaning and I would want to nurse any future babies as long, and I'm not sure getting the surgery while breastfeeding is doable. And I doubt it's wise even if I find a surgeon who would do it. So that's another factor and another reason to maybe purse the surgery now, provided my daughter weans in the next couple months.

So much to think about!

Thank you, dream'n! I think I'll make an appointment with a bariatric surgeon or go to a seminar and then just take it from there. I'm guessing whatever decline in fertility I might experience if I have to wait, say, three years from now to TTC shouldn't be any worse than the decline in fertility I already have from my weight issue. (That sounded awkward but I hope it made sense.)

I have a lot to learn so I'm off to explore the boards. Thanks for the welcome!

I have just started seriously considering lap band surgery. All of the people I know who have had WLS had RNY and many of them had serious complications. After witnessing that and reading some of the stats on banding, it seems like a better option for me.

I'm trying to decide whether to TTC another baby (I have one two-year-old) before starting the process of getting lap band, or whether I should try to have the surgery and lose as much as possible first and then try. I'll be 29 soon, so I'm not super-young TTC-wise but I do probably have a few good years left for it as well. I do have a lot of weight to lose. I'm 5'8 and 359. I had a pretty decent pregnancy with my daughter so I'm not too afraid of having another baby before having surgery, but as most people here probably know, medical pros aren't often supportive of very obese women who are pregnant.

Questions for the ladies:

1. How long did approval for surgery and getting the surgery take?

2. How long did your doctor advise you wait before TTC after banding?

Thank you all and this looks like such a great forum! Can't wait to meet you all.