dan.sm

yes thats normal... honestly i would even stick it out and not take any gas x cause remember you were probably just on narcotics (pain killers) and your gut may be bound up pretty bad still. So, stay near the toilet and when you need to fart just know it may be more than that. However i was banded 12/17 and i dont have the same fears anymore.

Does your left shoulder hurt? Because i had really bad pain there which subsided and was due to gas. It does come back when i eat too much. But 2 weeks is long for gas pains. You should see someone asap if it feels like more than gas pains.

I use this protein called ISOPure and its 50g per 2 scoop. Its not bad stuff and for what my doctor calls for around 60g it works out fine. I looked at the carnation instant stuff and other shakes but this had the most about of protein per serving and didn't taste bad. The package says mix with water but i found that milk tasted better and if im feeling icky i throw a little fat free chocolate milk (only like 15 more cal) in the blender.

You need to make sure you mount it into a celing beam... although depending on the age of your place you may need to reinforce the celing beam. Pretend you are mounting a heavy bag and you should be able to find a lot of google on that.

Stay with it, I am sorry your insurance is a pain. Even if they approved you right away and you were banded tommorow, it would still take time for you to lose all the weight you wanted to. However the good side to this fact is that the time it will take you to lose this weight will be less than all the LIFE that you have spent being overweight and unhappy. If you do get very frustrated and choose to change insurance go Harvard Pilgrim as they don't seem to require as many tests. feel better, Dan

You are making the shakes correctly... I have Isopure vanilla which calls for 2 scoops and 10 oz of Water... so when i use 8 oz of milk they taste thicker. I will say that if you are using milk you can get simply smart milk 1% or Fat Free which tastes like whole and 2% respectfully. These milks really do work and were recommended to me by the Dr. Office. As for more food, I dont know your pre-op diet, my Dr. does not mandate one but says that I can't gain and should try to lose. But most importantly try not to THINK of food, because i suspect that is in fact what is making you hungry. This stuff is like drugs, you have to just quit it and avoid situations in which you previously OD'ed (to run with the metaphor). I am getting cut monday so I can report back post op and I am in the same boat as you, just trying to get healthy. Let me know, i'd be more than happy to share my Dr. handouts with you.

Has anyone with the band gone on a flight since they have been banded? Does the metal backing of the port (it is there so that they can see the port on xray) set off the detector? Do things feel wierd with air pressure (I guess scuba divers could answer this as well)? Lastly since I have previously had knee issues and worry i could have more later on, has anyone had an MRI? I was thinking that with the metal MRIs are ruled out.

This is awesome, cause i both travel and scuba so with the weight off I can do all of this much better. If only there was a surgery to make me shorter for those seats (i'm 6'4"). Pluse if i lose, no more knee issues, i hope.

I am getting banded on Dec. 17 as well at Mass General Hospital with Dr. Hutter. I haven't done the shopping yet but I am kinda excited to do this.

I am on the surgical schedule in December. I wanted to ask the people here if they had any particular things that if they were doing again they would have done from day one. One thing I am concerned about is how to minimize excess skin. I have heard swimming is a good way to fix this (unfortunately those who normally need this fixed are too self-conscious to swim!). Any thoughts on this issue? Any thing else? Thanks and I am sorry to post such a new person post, I have done research, watched surgical videos on youtube (I could probably perform this procedure myself by now), and read every article I can get my hands on. I am in the Boston area if that is helpful for a local resource. Thanks again.

Thanks, this is all good stuff. Fortunately I can use my school's gym and it isn't too far away, so I can start that now. As for the liquid diet, the doctors have not told me about that yet (although I have a nutritionist appointment today). The magic bullet thing sounds good... but regarding the tylenol and the soda stop. How much tylenol do you guys actually take? I have already had 2 knee surgeries and played lacrosse for 5 years, will this be worse in terms of pain or just more of a pressure feeling? As for soda, so I assume that soda post band won't be possible. What about beer or liquor? Has anyone tried it? I am really jazzed to get going on this. Thanks for your support and responses.