Jachut

There's pros and cons of both. Lapbands can be tricky things, true, dangerous complications are a low percentage but many more people find their bands fickle and finicky and hard to get restriction right. But many, like me, find them the perfect tool, trouble free and workign exactly how they are supposed to. And very very successful. The sleeve appears to have less long term complications - it cant slip or erode and there can be less discomfort involved with eating, becuase you dont have a stoma for things to get stuck in. The possible complications after surgery exist though and a sleever would be better able to explain them to you. For a BMI of 30? I'd go a band. I dont know why, I just cant get my head around removing part of your stomach unless you have a REALLY serious weight problem to justify such drastic action. But that's just a feeling, its not based on anything really, and I cant substantiate it. I simply believe I'd try a band first as it actually has extremely good statistics for lower BMI patients (which is why they will band from 30 in Australia). It appears that it is a bit less successful for higher BMI's as people dont tend to get all their weight off. But if you're only just obese and can exercise, and you dont have inches of fat around your actual stomach to muck up your restriction as you lose it, you have a good chance of doing well. However - in Australia, aftercare is very easy. its not costly to have your band filled, you dont have to travel far etc. If you are not confident that you can afford to be filled whenever you need it, that you can see a doctor whenever you want to, then the sleeve is something to think about.

Well, soy contains phytoestrogens, which for females can be a good thing - but not so much for males. Its not something I would panic about, its more speculation than provent fact, but I would just take the view of everything in moderation and not too much of any one food. Also a lot of soy is genetically modified - many people, myself included, care about that. I do buy organic where possible and dont eat GM foods. Nor will I buy things like cage eggs or endangered fish. That's just me though.

To use an Aussie colloquialism, what a wanker! I dont suppose he's changed his name to oh, El Diablo?

Well, we've got a whole country full of non protein counting banded individuals here and by and large, its very successful in Australia. We're not all dropping like flies on a measly 55 grams a day, so I think its safe to say that whilst 100 grams wont hurt you, eating a bit less than that wont either. And who knows, if you make up the extra in fruit and veg, you may actually get quite a healthy, well rounded diet.

I'm not vegetarian but I made stuff like lentil and vegetable Soup and pureed it up, use vegetable stock as your liquid. You can puree anything with a bit of stock or a can of tomatoes once you're on mushies too. liquids might be a bit hard without milk - do you substitute soy milk or anything? My favourite salad during mushies was a can of 4 bean mix, lettuce, skinned tomatoes and cucumber chopped small, an avocado and some chick peas - with salad sprinkles (seeds and tiny bits of nuts basically). Yummy. I'm here to tell the tale that you can surivive without 400 grams of Protein a day and that you can in fact even survive the post op liquids without drinking a single Protein shake. And I have all my hair and I lost weight and I even have muscles. Truly as a vegetarian I think you'll have a very very healthy diet with your band. You'll get the fibre, Vitamins and minerals that everyone who focusses on Protein shakes and chicken is often missing out on because they cant fit them in.

Hmmmm, I get your point but sometimes it feels better to just say stuff, think aloud on here. I post on PS threads all the time, although at this stage I cant afford any plastic surgery! In Australia, its REALLy expensive and not covered by insurance unless you have like enough skin for 3 people and its causing health problems or are hideously deformed. I cant even decide if I want it when I can afford it. But I post all the time, lol. I guess I have a big mouth, I have something to say about everything :-) I get mad at band bashing threads. This is a lap band forum. I know people have complications etc, or have other surgeries, and there are sections to discuss that. But I have a band and I love it and I dont want to hear about how useless they are and how they dont work and how the risk of something going wrong is 200%. Lol, whats the bet this thread will get moved to R&R?

That's interesting Julie, thanks for mentioning that. My port sticks out big time already, if I were to remove any skin in my midsection it would be very visible. But I dont know that it bothers me that much, its just a reminder of where I've come from. It beats having a fat belly, that's for sure. Its interesting to know that the low profile port can still be visible.

Yes, your answer reached me. Technology is amazing!

I think its not really logical to say where are the people who've had bands for 20 years? They've been doing them in Australia for 20 years now. I do actually know someone, in real life, who's had hers for 12, but the thing is, the first generation of bands has been improved upon markedly, the very first ones werent even adjustable, so naturally, as people have had complications, the bands have been improved. An awful lot of people who had bands back in the early 90's have had upgrades - what you want to know is where will you be in 20 years with THIS generation of band. Where are the GBP'ers of 20 years ago? Many have regained. No surgery is guaranteed to get the weight off you and keep it off for a lifetime. Not the bypass, not the sleeve, not the band. Complications can happen with all of them. Some people can work well with a band some cant. Some people are willing to take certain risks - for me, slippage and erosion dont scare me as much as leakage or splitting staples or simply removing half of one of my organs. We can argue about that till we're blue in the face, there's no right or wrong to it, its a personal choice. I like knowing the band is reversible - if it slips, it can come out and I still have a stomach. Others dont care about that. You have to be realistic about it. Its a device placed in your body that CAN fail. The real risk of slippage and erosion is low but of course it happens. The risk of your body doing weird things (like esophagus dilation) is there too however, many many people manage their bands extremely poorly - I dont think a band is a good choice for someone who simply cant control their overeating. More likely however is that one day, part of the band will fail, most likely the balloon and your band will have to come out and be replaced. Realistically, with a band, you should expect a second surgery to replace it one day. To me, its a simple tool that my body has accepted will, it doesnt cause me any particular discomforts or complications, my eating habits were such that I've been able to work well with a band and of course I exercise a lot to keep the weight off. It was perfect for ME and the risks involved were not that offputting for me. Its not perfect for everyone.

Yep, too tight. I'm glad you're having an unfill. Like most people who get too tight, you've found that surprisingly, you dont lose weight. You're right, you need to be able to fuel your body properly to lose weight and you need to keep up your running, because its SO good for you! 75lb is fantastic!

Three years on you can barely see my scars. The port scar is there, but its completely gone back to normal colour and the other four, you cant see them at all. I'm deathly afraid of the tummy tuck for my very minor skin issue becuase of the scarring, the huge red scars you see in all the after photos look way worse than my skin does. But then I look at how well my other scars have faded - and seriously, you can barely see my caesar scar either, you really have to LOOK for it and I think hmmm, perhaps it *would* be worthwhile. The scars from lapband surgery are very very minor and really, you could end up having something like a gall bladder removal out of the blue one day and end up with such scars anyway. Heck, you could fall off a bike and have a worse scar. They really do fade away. Will you lose fast with a lapband? Hmmm, possibly, if you are willing to put in the work. Most likely you will lose more steadily than you ever have but it will probably average the 1/2 to 1kg a week rate. And to keep it coming off you must exercise. A lapband takes a fair bit of work in making good food choices and exercising. Its not a magic fix. I cant help with anything else as I'm in Australia.

A few times during my journey I did Lite n Easy which is just a home delivered 1200 calorie a day diet here in Australia. It ALWAYS works for me, I always lose weight steadily and well. However I have found it much more difficult as a bandster, I can eat bread and things like that but its just too darn heavy on the carbs, even though i dont low carb it. I cant eat toast and Cereal for Breakfast, a roll for lunch AND rice at dinner time! The dinners are also WAY too big, I can eat about 1/2 and at the cost of this plan, that's not on. And I dont really want last nights reheated leftovers every second night. But it definitely works of you stick to it.

I really dont understand how you can say you dont feel too tight when this is happening. This is the very definition of too tight. Sliming or stuck for me would happen maybe once or twice a week, very minor discomfort (as in stop eating for a minute, let it go down and then finish) probably 3/4 of my meals. That's more normal. Getting slimy and stuck every meal isnt how it should be, its too tight. Get an unfill, you'll feel so much better and you'll probably find it doesnt affect your weight loss either.

Mine stays right where it is becuase to maintain my weight now takes the exact same routine of diet and exercise that losing it did. And if something were to go wrong, I would be having replacement surgery.

I didnt vote on the poll because I think the people that have the most problems usually fall into the category of either not having nearby aftercare and thus having big fills, not getting unfills etc or being the ones who believe that the band must choke any ability to eat at all right out of you. They're the people go "oh no I can eat bread, I need to be tighter" and arent happy till they're taking an hour to eat a half cup of mushy foods. They cant work WITH their bands by realising that if you can eat bread and you're eating a cup but you're losing weight with regular exercise, then you're not too tight. The band was never designed to forbid certain foods to you, you only go as tight as you need to to lose and no further.But people in general seem to think that not being able to eat bread or red meat and only fitting in a half cup is a GOOD thing? I dont get that. No wonder they slip, have erosions, dont lose weight (slider foods anyone?).

The biggest factor is what are your breasts like now? If they sag now (heavy, hang over the inframammary fold ie. you can hold a pencil under them, and downward pointing nipples), they still will, they just will be smaller and sag. If you have pert ones without overhang at the fold and with forward or upward pointing nipples, at your age they might recover.

I was fat more through periods of overeating rather than constant, and those periods kind of got more and more and the periods of sensible eating less and less. I'd always had a large appetite, not monstrous but too large for the energy I expended, so I was always heavyish - BMI 28 or so,but never got really fat till I had babies. Started sitting round on my lardy ass breastfeeding and eating Cookies all day, my relaxation was a pot of coffee and a packet of cookies and something I'd taped to watch while the baby was asleep.... etc etc. The weight went on, I started to feel worse and worse about myself and more and more helpless and so I started eating things I'd never in my life eaten regularly, like McDonalds and milkshakes, and more weight went on and then suddenly it didnt matter if the family ate pizza one night and fish and chips the next coz by now I'd had 2 babies an was trying to work and I was too busy to shop or cook properly etc etc. It was all just excuses and lazy behaviour. I'm busier now by a factor of about 100 than I ever was and I find time to exercise, shop and cook, keep the house clean etc. I'd just sank into fat miserable laziness, and yes, watching other people do it grosses me out completely too - probably out of a sense of fear that I had such a near miss with morbid obesity.

Hogsbreath - the steaks are wonderful. I'm not a big fan of a huge hunk of dead animal on my plate, but the way they slow cook it first then char grill - it melts in your mouth. Of course I eat about 1/4 of the smallest, but oh well. Other than that we dont really do chain restaurants, there's many many more independent restaurants in Melbourne and much fewer chains. I like the pub, you cant beat a good counter meal.

Yeah, my doc was always really really pleased whenever I went in with what I'd lost. And I never averaged more than 2lb per week!

Coco Pops are reaaaaaaaallly goooood too..... shhh, dont tell anyone out on the main part of this board, I'll be lynched for carbohydrate consumption. I dont know what it was this morning, i saw the Coco Pops and I thought I WANT THOSE. I have not eaten kiddie Cereal in what, 20 years probably. I'd forgotten how good those boxes of junk masquerading as real food are. I never let the kids have them normally either. Shoot, I want some now. Its been ages since lunch.

That's exactly right - its not as if you will never enjoy food again. In fact you might enjoy it MORE, once it loses its hold over you and you're not terrified of what a little taste of something will do to your willpower and subsequently your body. You can be very successful with a lapband never dieting again, but just practicing portion control and sensible balance between food your body needs and food your head wants. You can have treats, you can go out, you can do all that. You're not losing anything with this surgery, you gain a whole new life.

Lol, a tin of minestrone soup and a piece of toast. I was very excited about my life change, not really in the mood to do the last supper thing. It just wouldnt have made me feel good about myself, and I wasnt really so attached to any particular food anyway. It was food in general.

It's not an issue, not at all. You asked am I wrong and I just said I thought that you cant assume the parent didnt deal with the comment later on. You're not wrong to feel hurt by it, but dont assume that the parent just let it slide. It would be nice however if the parent had the grace to at least apologise to you, wouldnt it? My other comment was directed to Dan. I dont think a child who makes a comment is necessarily a brat. Kids do that. They need to be taught not to. But that doesnt make them brats. I'm sorry your feeling were hurt, you dont deserve it. But I can promise, I would discuss such a comment with my child. My thirteen year old would no longer dream of it, my five year old would still perhaps do it - my point being that it takes years of parenting to produce a socially acceptable little angel, not one episode of telling a child not to say things like that. I just think that if we dont want people to make assumptions about us based on weight and appearance, its quite important not to make assumptions about them in return.

You dont know that they didnt have a chat about it afterwards - embarrassment is usually why people just say shhhh and hurry on not meeting your eye. As soon as they're out of earshot that parent could have said "that was not nice" or "its rude to say things like that and it hurts people's feelings". Sheesh Dan, do you have any kids? Do they always behave exactly the way you want? Parents can never anticipate everything that comes out of a child's mouth and to a child, well someone extremely obese is remarkable, just as some one is who's physically disabled or behaving in a strange manner, or whatever. Children who look and remark aren't brats, they're just children. You've a right to expect parents to deal with it, but they're still children, and the extent of our parenting doesnt really show till they're adults and are open, tolerant, accepting. Until then, they will continue to do what children do and we will continue to correct them in the hope that one day, they WONT be children anymore. Calling them brats is a bit harsh.

Gosh no, a few paracetamol tablets for a day or two is all that's required for many people. I didnt even need that, didnt have any pain relief after the first day.