snowbird

Throw away the ingredients! Do it now! Dump dish detergent in the stuff so you don't dig it back out of the garbage. I'm serious; I have thrown away more peanut butter in the past year than I ever thought I would buy.

The psych evaluation is to see that you are mentally healthy enough to follow the band rules and endure the ups and downs of losing weight with the band without giving up, more than looking for depression or other mental/emotional issue. It is a plus for you that your evaluation didn't uncover any problem. Good luck!

I had a consult with Dr Quiroz last month for a lower body lift and arm reduction. He has a very good reputation, and is highly recommended by my band surgeon. I don't have the money right now to get my LBL, but I think I will probably go to Dr Quiroz when I decide to do it.

You have got to be kidding. I wouldn't want him in the same building where I was getting surgery.

Okay, I'll talk to you Monday. Hey, Denise! I just checked Allegiant airlines, and they have flights from Medford for $29 each way. You have no excuse not to visit us!

I'm retired, so it's ALWAYS the weekend. The only way I can stop from eating stuff between meals is to not have anything appetizing around. It's easier to say no in the grocery store than it is in the refrigerator. You might try examining what tempts you the most, and then stop buying it!

I would be the same, so I don't have any flour, sugar or shortening in the house! I can stare at the cupboard all I want, but there's nothing good there! You are doing better than I could ever do if you can say no when the ingredients are there staring you in the face!

I know doctor's orders differ, but it is best if you don't eat solids for several weeks after surgery anyway. The surgeons who have been doing this the longest require their patients to stick to liquids only for several weeks after surgery. If you have pain when you try to eat, DON'T TRY TO EAT!

We lurk, and read posts, but don't comment that much. There are only so many times you can explain what "pb" means, so we leave it to the young'uns. However, there are usually a number of us around, so if you have a question, ask and someone or two of us will probably respond.

To tell you the truth, i don't have any "after" pictures. I'm afraid I'll look at them and still see a fat girl. And thanks, both of you. Hee hee . . . I'm normal; my scale tells me so!

Tuesday's good; how about 12:30? Denise, the Mesa airport's only about 20 minutes away from Sky Harbor, so it's a great alternative.

Since you are right there in San Diego, I would have to recommend Dr Ortiz in Tijuana. Easy access for you, and tons of experience. He charges around $8000. You might be able to negotiate a lower price as you live near the border, since his price includes three nights at a Tijuana hotel that you probably wouldn't have to use. I would be extremely careful about looking for "a deal" when you are talking about hiring someone to cut into your stomach. It's not going to be a deal if you end up in the emergency room and have to pay unknown amounts to get your band removed, pay for antibiotics for infections, and ruin your general health.

My 23 year old athlete son watched me eating as a bandster for a week and remarked, "I guess I better be careful and not get fat, because eating like that looks awfully hard to me!" Easy my (now considerably smaller) ass!

Well, I've said this before, but I love to repeat myself. What in the world is wrong with the easy way out??? I don't wash my clothes the old fashioned way by banging them on rocks down on the river; I take the easy way out by using my washer and dryer. Why does losing weight have to be a moral issue? It's a health issue, and you should do it whatever way that works. If the health community came up with a surgical way to cure alcoholism, no one would be complaining that it was the easy way out; they would berate those alcoholics who didn't get the surgery and "chose" to remain alcoholics. So why are we MO's supposed to always do things the hard way? No scratch that, the inefficient, usually nonworkable way?

Glad you're feeling better; next week is fine for me. I just started a spanish class on Thursdays, so any day but that (Donde esta el Hospital Almater?) See if you can find a cute policeman for yourself tomorrow night, although I usually prefer firemen.

So Wasa, how's the 5DPT? BBK, how are things going? I've lost track of your cosmetic surgery woes, but hope everything is fine now. Wasa and I went to Mexicali for CS consults, but I have decided I can't afford it right now. With the stock market and everything else, I'm afraid my husband would start crying if I really pushed to take anything from savings right now. Denise, I saw that Southwest was offering $85 flights from Seattle to Phoenix last week on their Ding program. Didn't check the prices from Portland. You should come down for a few days!

I would demand they do a barium swallow to find the position of your port. My doctor routinely does one with every fill.

This isn't so much about willpower as it is about restriction. There is no way you should be able to eat one quarterpounder, let alone 2. Get a fill! I haven't had a fill since last January, and I couldn't eat even a half of a quarterpounder right now. You have to make the band work for you, and right now, it isn't.

I'm surprised; I still have trouble with scrambled eggs a year after surgery, and I don't have a whole lot of restriction right now. Eating too soon can lead to slippage and damage. Sounds like you went in stressed and came out even more stressed. My personal take on all the medical "support" some doctors require is that it is just a way to justify charging you more money. I was banded in Mexico, and while my doctor has a nutritionist I can talk to if I want to, I don't have any requirements for seeing her, and I like it that way just fine. Is it your insurance requiring the aftercare visits, or the surgeon? If it's the surgeon and you don't want to do it, find another doctor for followup care. He really can't MAKE you do anything, but of course he can refuse to treat you if you don't follow his rules. I would be looking elsewhere, I think. Good luck.

Okay, I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. Are you saying you ate eggs the first week after surgery, and you're upset that she got mad at you? If so, you are engaged in harmful behavior; she is a health professional and is trying to impress upon you that you are doing things to hurt your health. My take on it from a brief read is that you are engaged in self-destructive behavior she is trying to stop you.

Okay, i think you need to do some reading on this forum about how the band works. when you are first banded, you don't really have any restriction from the band. The issue isn't whether you CAN get down solids, but that you are injuring your band and risking band failure by doing it too soon. Your band has been stitched into the stomach. If you eat, you make your stomach move, expand and contract. This is going to make the stitches pull and tear if you do it too much, and is why your doctor tells you to have only liquids for several weeks after surgery. If your stitches pull, tear, and loosen you risk having the band slip out of place, which may require additional surgery down the road, plus interfere with weight loss. Please follow your doctor's orders and don't go by what you feel you can and can't eat. There's a really good reason he told you to stick with liquids. And forget the wine for a while!

Well, it was okay, but generally I prefer to eat chicken without using a hacksaw.

Dr Aceves also does his fills with fluoro. Don't know if that makes a difference to you. Hey, Francine. I lived in Gig Harbor for 30 years, and now divide my time between Arizona and Washington. Glad to see another Pierce County area person on here.

Hey, Denise! Thanks! You need to come back down for a visit! I'm sure the weather here is a whole lot better than the weather there.

I don't think you can make any generalizations about the rate of weight loss and have them mean a thing to an individual.