divaofsongs

I just watched a commercial for a new product that is supposed to work in less than 4 minutes. It is called Nauzene and it is an anti-nausea product, in chewable and liquid forms, sold OTC. I thought I would let everyone know, since it sure beats the heck out of the sodomizing anti-nausea suppositories that my doctor prescribed for me. I just cannot handle a suppository, no matter how hard I try. I guess that "area" is truly "Exit Only" for me! :biggrin:

Welcome Fatwidow!!!! Before long you will have to change your screen name to skinny widow . I traveled from Phoenix, Az to have my surgery with Dr. K. I drove, which was not very smart, but I am afraid to fly. I will suggest that you schedule your return flight for the 2nd day after surgery, not the next day, because you will feel 1000% better the second day than you did the first. At least that was the case for me. As far as Dr. K is concerned, you are in EXCELLENT hands! He and his staff are amazing! I can tell you that in my 38 years of living, (hope to have 38 more) I have never met a group of more caring individuals. If you have any other questions about Dr. K, you can also PM me. I don't post much because I work 60 hours a week and I am also in college full-time, 6 days a week, taking 18 credit hours this semester. So, I barely have time to breath. Hopefully it will slow down for me in the summer-time.

Bookholder and Mal: Thanks for the advice, I am counting down the days til the fill. Tied2BeFit: Time will fly right by, I know it is really exciting the closer it gets. Brandymom1234: I am standing next to you in bandster hell right now, if you concentrate, you can probably feel me poking your arm. I have heard it can take several fills to get good restriction.It does not hurt to call Dr. K and ask for a boost, the worse that can happen is he will say no, but its worth a try. I hope it gets better. Woofay: Glad to hear everything went well at the doctors and nice to see you are closer to your goal.

I just heard from L.A. and she made it through the surgery just fine. She wanted me to let all of you know. YEAH Dr. Kirshenbaum!

I have certainly not lost near enough weight to worry about deflated skin that bulges. Unfortunately, I am bulging EVERYWHERE and would crawl on crushed glass to be able to fit into anything that zipped up. Instead, I am temporarily held prisoner in my elastic waist pants. I have lost 40 pounds now and have almost 200 more to lose, so I am sure I will be in the same position in the next year or so. I imagine that once I have lost all the weight, every time I look at my stomach I will suddenly get the urge to make a huge loaf of homemade bread. However, my cousin had the RNY a few years ago and she has the same issue. I have another friend who had the band and has the same issue. She refers to her stomach as looking like a dehydrated, Sharpee dog. Anyways, my cousin suggests getting a firm fitting body girdle. She said it makes all the difference in the world. Just thought I would make the suggestion in case any of you would like to try it.

I also have PCOS. I was banded on December 13, 2007 and have lost over 40 pounds since then. I have my first fill on Jan 23rd, so I am hoping the weight loss continues. I can tell you that the very first month, my period returned on its own and I had EWCM for the first time in 5 years. That is definetely a positive sign for me. I have been sticking to a low-carb way of eating and I think that may have a lot to do with it. It is just much easier to eat low-carb when you have the band in to restrict your hunger.

Hello everyone. I am still waiting to hear from L.A. to give you all an update, although I am sure she did just fine. I will let you know as soon as she calls. I have a question..... I was banded on Dec 13th, I have my first fill scheduled for next Wednesday. I was doing great up until about 10 days ago when I was finally healed up, then.......all HELL broke loose!:tt1: I cannot stop eating! I am constantly hungry and have ZERO restriction. I am miserable and feel like I have wasted $10K to have a peice of equipment installed that doesn't work. :mad: Have any of you felt that way before your first fill? If so, how did you get through it? I know after my fill, I will change my tune, but for now, I am OVER IT!

Thanks so much, that is just wonderful. I will tell her and give her your website link. She was so discouraged because of the docs she checked out, (not sure which ones) some of them were charging ridiculous amounts of money to do a fill.

What's up doc? :eek: I have a friend in Cincinnati that was banded in Monterrey Mexico and is in desperate need of a fill. Do you do fills on patients you did not band, and if so, how much do you charge. Also, do you do the fill under flouro?

I also live in Phoenix. I was banded on December 13, 2007 by Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver Colorado, self-pay of $9950 and will be receiving after-care and fills from Dr. Berger in Flagstaff. Does anyone on this board use Dr. Berger and if so, do you like him? There is a group of bandsters that get together once a month in Phoenix. Our monthly meeting is coming up very soon, so if you want to be added to the e-mail list, please PM me and I will have the person that coordinates it to add you to the list.

Just fair warning, it is against federal law to buy prescriptions online. I found this out the hard way when I ordered Phentermine online back in October and received a letter from the Feds telling me that they had my illegal prescription and I could be fined or arrested if I ordered online again without a prescription. Unfortunately, I had prepaid and lost my money too. :angry It is up to you, but please be careful.

I have a Magic Bullet too, but it has nothing to do with cooking! :eyebrows: Ohhhh, you mean the Magic Bullet on TV????? I was going to give you uses for the OTHER Magic Bullet! :heh: Just kidding, I do have the Magic Bullet from the infomercial. I love it and it makes great Protein shakes.

I know what you are going through. I was on the hospital bed, waiting for them to wheel me back for surgery and all of a sudden, I got this wave of fear. I looked at my husband, told him to call the nurse and take out my IV because I KNEW I wasn't going to wake up from the anesthesia. He hit me in the head with a hammer and told me to relax JUST KIDDING!...... He had me call my mom and she prayed with me. When I hung up the phone, the surgeon and team was standing at the end of the bed, ready to take me back. I laid back, the anesthiologist put something in my IV, and the next thing I remember, I woke up in the recovery room. I am so happy I did it. I have lost over 40 pounds since surgery on Dec 13, 2007 and I am NEVER hungry. It is normal to have those feelings. Remember, for many of us, food is like a drug,and when you stop eating, you may experience these feelings. It is like a form of withdrawl. The best to you and stay strong.

I had very similar pain under my left breast, in my rib area, accompanied by a gurgling, growling, burning pain at 2 weeks post-op. After a few days of the pain getting worse, I started running a fever that went over 103 degrees. I ended up in the hospital for 5 days. The doctor did an endoscopy and said my stomach was inflamed and irritated under the band and that is what was causing the pain and fever. They thought they might have to remove my band, I was so scared. They put me on nothing by mouth for 2 days, then Clear liquids for a few days to allow the stomach to heal before I was sent home. I am now 25 days post-op and feeling fantastic. Thankfully I did not lose my band, however, I will warn everyone that there is a reason why we are on post-op diets and it is important to stick to them. I am not sure what caused it but it could be the fact that going to full liquids after 5 days may have caused my stomach to do more "work" and may have aggravated the healing process. I hope you are feeling better soon.

viridescence: You're welcome, if you stay there, I am sure you will be pleased. By the way, I would suggest asking for a room WITHOUT the sleep number bed. they are NOT fat friendly:D I had my room changed the first night and the regular bed was great. Tied2BFit: I am feeling much better now, thanks so much for asking. Sunshine08: Welcome! I had my sugery at Crown Point and everyone was great. The nurse that normally takes care of Dr. K's patients is excellent. As far as losing weight, I have already lost 40 pounds and I had my surgery on Dec 13, 2007, you WILL lose weight, unless you consider cheesecake and french fries full liquids. (I won't even go there, but when you are addicted to carbs, it is amazing what you can fit through a straw! LOL, JK.) The best to you on your surgery. bahotmomma: I am so glad your surgery went well, every day the pain is better. Pretty soon you will be playing volleyball with your daughter.

You are an incredible woman and beautiful too. You and your husband were great as well. It is strange how we had so much in common. I can't wait to get together again. I hope you post the photo we took soon so we can have something to reference a year from now.

Yeah for you! I had my surgery December 13th, 2007 and have lost 40 pounds now, it sure does feel good doesn't it? Keep up the great work.

Hello Viridescence, I would definetely suggest that you wait until Saturday. I had my surgery on Thursday at 12:30 P.M. and I would never have been able to leave the next day. Saturday morning I left and was VERY thankful that I waited. If you have not booked your hotel yet, check out hotels.com, if you book the Radisson Hotel Denver Southeast through hotels.com, you can get the rooms for around $55 a night and they are normally over $100 a night. They are remodeling part of the hotel so they have special pricing on hotels.com. That is where I stayed and it was a gorgeous hotel. The hotel was about 5 minutes from Dr. K's office and about 10 minutes from the hospital. Just a thought, if you are interested.

Brandy, I am so sorry to hear about your daughter, but glad to know she is ok now. What happened? Was it a similar issue as to what happened to me?

I was banded on Dec 13, 2007, but developed a post-surgical complication and was just in the hospital for 4 days. I had been having really bad gurgling, burning, and pain in my upper left quadrant, above my port and under my left breast since a few days after my surgery. It got progressively worse until Sunday night (11 days post-op), I was running a fever of 102.7 and ended up in the emergency room. They admitted me into the hospital and a local doctor here in Phoenix agreed to take my case, even though he did not do the surgery. The first thing he told me when he came into my hospital room is that based on my symptoms, he thought I had a perforation in my stomach and that it could be deadly and would require emergency surgery to remove my band and then repair the perforation. He said it was a very difficult surgery, especially for someone like myself who weighs almost 400 pounds and that it could be fatal. After telling me this grim news, he left my room and went to surgery for 4 hours and left me there thinking that was possibly my last day on earth. Needless to say, I was petrified. Later that afternoon, they took me down for an endoscopy so the doctor could see if there was indeed a perforation somewhere. Fortunately, he did not see any leaks, they did x-rays immediately afterwards to check for leaks of the gas they used during the endoscopy, which would indicate a perforation but they did not find any. The next morning they did a chest x-ray to check for a small or slow leak during the previous night but all was clear. THANK GOD! It ended up being inflamation and irritation around the band in the back where the stitching is done, the area where they sew your bottom stomach to the top of the stomach above the band. They said it was a micro-perforation that would heal with antibiotics. They are not exactly sure what caused it, but they said I should be alright but the doctor that treated me said that because of this, I would likely have band erosion in the future. They are also not sure what caused the fever since my blood tests did not indicate an infection, but they said that inflammation can also cause fever. However, they placed me on antibiotics the day I was admitted and within 24-48 hours the fever began to regress and has since completely disappeared. I was sent home on Friday with a prescription for Augmentin for 2 weeks, just in case. The doctor who did my Lap-band surgery (he is out of state) was in touch with me several times a day throughout the ordeal and was in communication with the doctor that was treating me in the hospital. The local doctor that was treating me said the band was placed in textbook position and that the surgeon that performed my surgery did great cosmetic work, as you can barely even see my incisions and they are almost completely healed. I thank God everyday that I am alive and well. This could have been much worse than it was, although it was very painful, I am feeling much better now and glad to be able to write once again. The most pain will come when I receive the hospital bills since I don't have insurance. I may very well end up losing everything I have trying to pay the bills but at least I have my life, for which I am truly thankful. I would really like to thank one of the members of this board for their support. Wasabubblebutt, whom I have taked to over the phone and look forward to meeting in person soon, called me several times and really went out of her way to help me through this scary situation. I am amazed at how caring people can be when you don't even really know them. Thanks for being there for me and all of the kind words and support that you offered me, you have no idea how much it meant to me. The main point of my post is that if you feel like something is wrong, please get it checked out. It is hard to tell what could have happened if I had not went to the emergency room when I did.

Just wanted to drop in and say hello to everyone on this thread and thank you all for the well wishes. I feel really good today, almost as good as before surgery. I sure wish someone would have warned me about all the gassy explosions! :heh: My stomach sounds like a washing machine about an hour after I eat and then all of a sudden............. KAPOW.....KAPOW.....KAPOW.....KAPOWPOWPOW! If I could filter all this gas into my gas tank, we would never have to buy gas again, LOL. I think I may try it tomorrow, I will just back right up to the tank and fill-er-up. Does anyone else experience this musical phenomenon?

I can't wait to meet everyone, I hope the next get together is soon. I am feeling almost 100% better now. :clap2:

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. For those inquiring about the possibility of erosion, the doctor that took care of me locally is also a bariatric surgeon as well, however, he does more RNY than bands. My band doctor (Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver, Colorado) said that it will likely cause erosion in the future as well. Of course, I am just at higher risk for erosion, it doesn't mean I will erode but the possibility is greatly increased. At this point, I am truly thankful that I am still alive and that it was not a perforation. I really appreciate all of the prayers and I have faith that God will work it out that the band will not erode. In the meantime, I am going to do my best to follow all of the "band rules" and give myself the best chance for a successful outcome. Also, thanks to those with advise on the hospital bills, I will be calling the billing department in a few days to work something out. I appreciate the advise.

I think it would be nice to have a section with recipes in each stage of the post-op diet. By the way, I love this forum.

Hello everyone, sorry I have not been on in a while but unfortunately, I had a post-surgical complication and was just in the hospital for 4 days. I have been having really bad gurgling, burning, and pain in my upper left quadrant, above my port and under my left breast since a few days after my surgery. It got progressively worse until Sunday night (11 days post-op), I was running a fever of 102.7 and ended up in the emergency room. They admitted me into the hospital and a local doctor agreed to take my case, even though he did not do the surgery. The first thing he told me is that he thought I had a perforation in my stomach and that it could be deadly and would require emergency surgery to remove my band and then repair the perforation, which could be fatal. After telling me this grim news, he left my room and went to surgery for 4 hours and left me there thinking that was possibly my last day on earth. Not the best bedside manner! Needless to say, I was petrified. Later that afternoon, they took me down for an endoscopy and did not see any leaks, they did x-rays immediately afterwards to check for leaks of the gas they used during the endo, which would indicate a perforation but they did not find any. The next morning they did a chest x-ray to check for a small or slow leak during the previous night but all was clear. THANK GOD! It ended up being inflamation and irritation around the band in the back where the stitching is done when they sew your bottom stomach to the top of the stomach above the band. They said it was a micro-perforation that would heal with antibiotics. They are not exactly sure what caused it, but they said I should be alright but I have a much higher risk of erosion in the future because of it. They are also not sure what caused the fever since my blood tests did not indicate an infection, but they said that inflammation can also cause fever. However, they placed me on antibiotics the day I was admitted and within 24-48 hours the fever began to regress and has since completely disappeared. I was sent home on Friday with a prescription for Augmentin for 2 weeks, just in case. I have to tell you that Dr. K was in touch with me several times a day throughout the ordeal and was in communication with the doctor that was treating me in the hospital. In my opinion, he is one of the most compassionate physicians I have ever had. He and/or Natalie kept in contact and offered to help in any way they could. I am very lucky to have such a great surgeon and someone who is not just interested in forgetting about you once the surgery is over. The local doctor that was treating me said the band was placed in textbook position and that the surgeon that performed my surgery did great cosmetic work, as you can barely even see my incisions and they are almost completely healed. I thank God everyday that I am alive and well. This could have been much worse than it was, although it was very painful, I am feeling much better now and glad to be able to write once again. The most pain will come when I receive the hospital bills since I don't have insurance. I may very well end up losing everything I have trying to pay the bills but at least I have my life, for which I am truly thankful.