snowbird

Oh, well that makes it sound SO much more appetizing!:tt2:

The general rule is "chew until it's goo." I don't know if I would want to do that to a raw oyster. On second thought, there isn't anything I would want to do to a raw oyster.

Another happy Dr Ortiz bandster here, X 3 as my daughter and husband were also banded by him. Any questions about the experience I will be happy to answer.

I went with my husband, and they hit it the first time and he was done in about 15 seconds. My daughter has never complained about their fills. I've heard good things from several different people who use them.

My daughter, my husband, and I are all banded by Dr Ortiz. I would not recommend that any of my friends go anywhere else. Dr Ortiz's van will pick you up at the San Diego airport and drive you to the clinic; his mother or his van driver will take you between the clinic and the hotel, and the van will take you through customs and back to the SD airport. If you don't want to, you never need to take a step outside of the clinic and the hotel, which is first rate. As far as riskiness goes, Dr O knows his stuff and is one of the best. I would not want anyone I care about going to anyone else. My insurance would have covered my surgery in the US, and I went to Dr Ortiz because he has so much more experience than ANY US surgeon. (My insurance also reimbursed my husband and me for our surgery in Tijuana.) Dr Ortiz proctored many of the lap band surgeons on the west coast, as he was doing the surgery years before it was approved in the US. Aftercare at Ortiz' OCC is great, but you do need to get back to his clinic. He and his assisting surgeon, Dr Martinez, will both give you their cell phone numbers to call them if you have problems, and they will return your calls. All fill adjustments with them are done under fluoroscopy, so they can see exactly what they are doing, not the hit and miss methods that many US surgeons employ. There are some Mexican horror stories, but not with Dr Ortiz that I have seen. By far, the largest number of horror stories I see on this forum arise from treatment by US surgeons, who do not take the time to talk to their patients or find out what problems they are having. And if you are depending on malpractice insurance to insure you are treated well, you are already in trouble! Put "Mexican surgeons" into the search window at the top of the page and you can read a lot of opinions on this subject. Generally speaking, the people most opposed to surgery in Mexico are those who have been talked out of it by their American surgeons. However, if you are not able to return to Tijuana for your fills you should be sure ahead of time there is someone in your area who will take care of your band adjustments. Go on the USA support forums (subforums on this site) for your home state and ask about fills in your area.

I took Redux several years ago, before it was removed from the market. I don't really see any similarities between the drug and the surgery for weight loss, and don't really thing there is any correlation between the two. The drug was an appetite supressant. The band is a physical deterrant from eating too much. Different thing entirely. However, I had some success with Redux, but much more with my band.

If anyone wants to join us, there are three of us meeting at the Landmark restaurant, 809 W Main, Mesa for lunch at 11:30 on Monday Aug 25. Let us know you can meet us there, and we'll save a chair for you.

Stick his name in the search box up at the top of the page. I'm sure you will find out many interesting things about this doctor.

Hey, was it EVERYBODY's birthday this weekend? Mine was Friday. We went to hot hot eastern Washington, met some friends, saw a Tom Petty/Steve Winwood concert, rode jetskis in the Columbia, jumped off the boat in the middle of the river, and ate and drank WAY too much all weekend. Generally acted like we were in our twenties instead of fifties. Back to the grindstone today--did 16 miles on my bike. I way also someone who hated exercise, but I started slow and have been working my way up to another mile every few weeks. Now I miss it like crazy when i can't ride for a day or two. So does that mean it was easy? Heck, no, I had 50 years of hating exercise before I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't going to feel good and lose weight without it.

I've only had two fills, and my last one was in January. I'm doing fine. My husband has had 5 fills. I have a 4 cc band; he has a 10 cc band. I have 1.9 total in mine, and he has 8.6 cc in his. Everyone is different, but you do want to avoid being too tight. If you are doing fine as you are, why mess with it?

I can get something unstuck generally if I just bend over and hold my stomach. This is a last resort, as everyone has already said, and you should try to just wait it out. Sometimes papaya enzymes and pineapple juice helps, but sometimes that just means those are the first thing I pb up. Often after a stuck incident it is best to go on liquids for the next 24 hours to let any swelling go down. Otherwise you increase your chances of getting stuck again. Getting stuck hurts, and the more you do it the more you risk a band slip, but it isn't the end of the world. I consider it a necessary evil of the band, since it really engraves it into my mind that I should not overeat or eat too fast.

Okay, capn crunch is not exactly a great food for anyone to eat . . . ever. Try taking smaller bites and chewing more thoroughly. You should be getting Protein in first. If you have trouble with meat at this point, try some chili or something like that. The secret is very small bites, chewed thoroughly with plenty of time between bites. If you still can't get anything down, you are probably too tight and should go in for an unfill. Since we are eating so much less, we really need to make sure the food we eat is nutritious and good for us. You shouldn't have to drink Protein shakes to get your protein unless your band is too tight.

I'm doing it. Check your pms in a minute or two.

Hey, do we have a date and time yet? I just got back from camping for the last four days, and I've been out of touch.

Yup. I complained a couple months ago that I was going through menopause all over again. My hot flashes had pretty much given up before my surgery, but now they are back with a vengeance. I was told that estrogen is stored in your fat, so when you alter the amount of the fat in your body it sends your hormonal levels crazy again. A younger woman complained a couple of months ago on here that she felt like she was going through puberty all over again. I don't know which would be worse!

Okay, you just got a fill. Don't get excited; it sounds okay to me. You will probably loosen up in a week or so. Eat good, nourishing foods and you should be fine. If you are still unable to eat anything, or are pbing on liquids or ALL foods, get an unfill. Most of us are much tighter in the morning than in the evening. It may end up that you really are too tight, but it is too soon to tell. At this point, relax.

Sometimes I put the plate on the counter, take a bite, go sit down in a chair, chew (and chew and chew) then get up and go back to the counter for a second bite. This isn't how I usually live, but right after a fill or during a time when I'm a bit swollen, it works.

My daughter has lost 127 lb. She started at 318 and is 5'4". I don't know if there is a limit to what size stomach a band will fit around. Does anyone know this? I was told that the surgeons always/often pare away excess fat around the stomach to place the band. My daughter's boyfriend got a 4 cc band (before the 10+ cc bands were common) and he has lost 165 lb without a fill; he is contemplating revising to a larger band as he has some issues with being too tight even with no fill. So I don't have any answers for you, only a couple of observations.

It's the same as going to any doctor's appointment. You never should have to say why you are going to the doctor if you don't want to.

Forum trolls like to sign in with several different ID's to stir things up and cause general havoc. While I understand you are feeling like you are being pursued by Big Brother, there really is a reason the moderators check on multiple ID's from the same computer. We have had problems here with some surgeon's patient coordinators impersonating several different people to pile on endorsements for their employers, as well as just general trolls trying to insult people and cause trouble. I'm no moderator and wouldn't want the job, but I did just want to say there's a reason for their concern.

I was going to bring up dehydration also. I get some bad headaches when I don't have enough fluids. Drinking water takes care of them.

This was a rerun of a show originally aired earlier this year. I thought Oprah herself was fairly nonjudgemental about the various surgeries, but I also thought Dr Oz was an idiot; he kept holding up both hands in a huge circle when he talked about the band, like it is about 6 inched in diameter. The other thing that bothered me was how Oprah had a girl on at the end of the show who had lost weight without surgery, and O encouraged her audience to applaud that girl to the exclusion of the other WLS patients and commented right at the end how that girl was "an inspiration." WTF??? Check back in three years and see who has kept the weight off!

My doctor didn't give me any carb rules other than eating everything else first, which makes me quit eating before I get to them. But when I do count my carbs, I try to stay under 100 too.

I have heard some doctors recommend checking into ps when you are 10 lb short of your goal, because you may have that 10 in extra skin that surgery will remove.

To update your ticker: just double click on your ticker on any of your posts. It should open up a window at the weight loss ticker site. Enter the PIN you already established, and then go down to the box to enter your current weight. You can also change the look of your ticker at the same time. Hope this helps.