snowbird

christine,

I am a Christine also. I live out past Surprise, and I've been banded for a little over two years. Drop me a PM if you would like to get together. I'm down about 100 lb from my highest weight and have maintained for over a year. I don't know that I have any great words of wisdom for you, but I can certainly commiserate on the bandster lifestyle with you!

Debi,

Sent you a pm.

I haven't been on this forum for a couple months and just saw your posts. We spend summers in Birch Bay and I wouldn't mind getting together for lunch with any bandsters in the area. We should be back in Birch Bay around the middle of June.

I've been banded nearly two years and got to goal, but spent the last three and a half months living in our little motorhome and visiting our son in Georgia, and gained a few pounds back-darned southern cooking! I would love to get together to share band stories and support.

It's going to depend on your personal reaction to being banded. I can eat many regular restaurant foods, but I can eat only a quarter to a third of a restaurant serving. Plan on taking some home, whatever it is you order. This can become a real treat, as I often enjoy the leftovers as much as the original meal. We went out to a southern style restaurant the other day, and I ordered BBQ pork. I ended up eating the vegies and taking most of the pork home. I sauteed some green onions and yellow pepper, added a can of pinto Beans and the pork, plus a dollop of salsa and had an improvised yummy chili type meal, which then lasted me for another meal. My husband always says it isn't worth the price to eat out with a band, but I think when you get three or four meals out of your order, it is well worth it.

If you go for the cheapest in Mexico you are going to put your health and perhaps your life at risk.

There are reputable Mexican surgeons that charge around $7500-$8000 the last time I checked. Surgery is not an area to go with the lowest price!

That can be a sign of dehydration. Are you sure you are getting enough liquids, especially when you exercise?

My mother is a little 96 year old lady who occasionally suffers from low blood pressure, like 60/40. It is usually because she is not drinking enough fluids, and she sometimes needs to get an IV going to get her fluids up. Dehydration can be dangerous, so please be sure to keep drinking Water etc.

Is that a single meal or a day's food? I'm confused. If it's a whole day, it's very little--about 500 calories depending on what the meat is and what kind of Protein shake.

If it's for one meal, it's pretty heavy on the calories. I usually tried to stick to about 250-350 calories per meal, and often had a snack or two between.

Do you remember back in the 70's when they had this psychology babble about Parent, Adult, and Child aspects of personality? Basically, it said that we react to other people in one of those aspects. (I usually overdo the Parent part.)

I guess what I am saying is that we should talk to our doctors as Adult to Adult, working logically to find the best way to be healthy. This allows us to be responsible for our own decisions and to work with our doctors to find the best solution to our health problems. If I had a doctor who did not respond appropriately as another Adult, I would find another doctor. But if you go into your appointment with your Child face on, don't expect the doctor to treat you as responsible Adult!

Your doctor is someone you hire to help you with your health. If he or she has a good reason to advise you against WLS, listen and evaluate what they say. But if your doctor simply doesn't like WLS and refuses to consider it, find another doctor. Your doctor is your employee, not your mother or your boss. If they don't want to work with you on your obesity in a way you find satisfactory, hire someone else to do the job.

Most doctors say no shakes because for many people they are not a satisfying meal that will keep you full until the next meal. So you end up drinking a 200 calorie drink and then eating also, which is going to raise your calorie intake and inhibit your weight loss.

The "no shake" rule is a weight loss rule, not a band safety rule. Some rules your doctor gives you are to avoid slippage, pouch stretching, and other damage to your band. Examples would be not drinking with meals and avoiding solids for the first few weeks after banding. Other rules are to help you lose weight and do not affect the health of your band. The "no shake" rule falls under the second category. If you are tight at certain times of the day or feel your Protein intake is too low, there is nothing harmful about having a Protein shake in place of a meal. But if you count your calories and find you can't keep your other food intake low enough to continue to lose while drinking shakes, then cut them out.

And remember I am talking about low fat, low sugar Protein Shakes, not regular milk shakes! A large Jack in the Box milkshake is over 1400 calories, and there is no way anyone is going to lose weight while getting proper nutrition if they are drinking those things.

If anyone is headed to Mexicali from the Phoenix area for a fill before the end of the month, I am looking to share a ride. Please pm me if you are headed down to Dr Aceves.

I chose him to do my banding but a local doc to do the adjustments.

I met a few of his patients and was very impressed by their results. Also met a few while I was there.

Be careful, there are several on here who speak negatively of Dr. Huacuz every time his name comes up. Don't know if it is because they were banded by his competion, maybe they get an incentive for a referral or something...don't know.

And there are a few who claim to know one of Dr. Huacuz's patients who things went terribly wrong with.....so

do your research. But I would use him for everything I needed-if I was going to have more procedures.

No, it's because he has horrible stats and a terrible reputation.

I don't always go to my doctor for fills, and there are several others I would recommend for either surgery or fills. Huacuz is definitely not one of them. "Be careful" is right!

Anyone headed to mexicali for a fill before the end of January? I need one badly but don't feel like driving all the way to my doctor in Tijuana, so I would love to share a ride to Dr Aceves.

My daughter swears by the shots and her doctor showed her how to give them to herself, which she does successfully.

Call BCBS right now and they can tell you exactly what you would have to do to get the surgery covered. You probably still have time to do it before your scheduled surgery date.

I think there's another recent thread along this same line. My husband and I were banded the same day, a little over a year ago. We have each lost close to 80 lb.

It's great when you are on the same page as your spouse. We go out to eat and split an appetizer order, or else order something that makes good leftovers, knowing we are going to be eating the food for at least one more meal! My husband and I were banded the same day in October 2007, and we have each lost about 80 lb. I think it would have been much harder if we hadn't done this together. Good luck to both of you!

I had inpatient surgery in Mexico in 2007 and BCBS federal did not require pre certification. I filed an overseas form and they reimbursed me, but when I called to ask they said there was no pre-certification regardless of where I had it done.

In some ways, pre cert is better than hoping and praying they are going to cover the surgery. Before, they would just say if you met the criteria they would pay, and then you had to worry that you read everything correctly and they accepted your doctor's statement of co morbidities etc.

Not dumb at all. In fact, there is a "ticker tutorial" because so many people have asked. Here's a link to it; it's under LBT Forum Suggestions and Questions.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f5/ticker-tutorial-pictures-41782/

My husband and I were both banded when we were 53. We have each lost about 80 lb.

It's not the number of fills alone that makes a difference; it's how much Fluid the doctor is injecting with each fill, plus the size of your band, plus your own physical characteristics and how you react to the band.

It took my husband five fills. My daughter had even more. The number isn't important (well unless you are paying for the fills, and then it is a pain); just keep going back in until this tool works for you.

Look under the "Doctors and Hospitals" subforum for a lot of advice and information about researching surgeons in Mexico.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f11/researching-mexican-lap-band-doctors-101-a-66635/

And also beware of surgeons and their employees masquerading as patients on this forum, offering endorsements of "their" surgeon.

Like Katy said, yes, you do stay overnight. I did a pre op Atkins diet for several weeks and lost about 19 lb on it. Because I had a long time to do the preop diet, I didn't have to do liquids. OCC's requirement is that you lose 5% of your weight preop to make the surgery go easier by giving the doctors some extra room to work around your stomach by reducing internal abdominal fat. Be sure he understands how important the post op diet is to allow full healing of his stomach and reduce later complications like band slippage.

The clinic is modern and comfortable, the hotel is fun, and the entire experience is a memorable and pleasant one. To help put your son-in-law at ease, tell him my husband and I have insurance that covers the surgery and could have had it done in the US, but when we saw how great my daughter's experience at OCC was, we went there for our own surgery a year after hers. (Our insurance reimbursed us for surgery in Tijuana, by the way.)

Asparagus...really?? I thought that was going to be on my no-no list post-band (because it's so stringy). Good to hear...I'm adding to my file of recipes now...we eat asparagus about once a week now. Thanks!

This sounds great, but I can't eat any part of asparagus other than the flower tip. Like you said, too stringy. I chew the stalk up and end up spitting the remains out, so it is definitely not a party food for me!

Dr Martinez often assists Dr Ortiz, but has been doing surgeries on his own for some time. He assisted on my surgery, my husband's, and my daughter's. From all reports I have heard as well as my own experience, he is capable and caring. I have not needed any significant post op care, but have heard his patients say that he is very good about getting back to you if you call him or need to see him post op.

If you want information on the OCC (which is a clinic, not a hospital) search under Dr Ortiz on this forum as it is his clinic. My experiences there have been great.