Wheetsin

It would if you'd post the doctor's name (so you don't get a bunch of replies recommending the same person) but I've heard that Dr. Malley takes on MX patients. I know my surgeon does not, and I've not heard of any other local surgeons who do.

There are devices for trapping gas. They use them in studies. They have 2 options - either a tube/bulb (to lock it tight, like a foley - kinda) that goes into the bum, or panties that are sealed to your skin. Then there's a camelhump type bag (like a thin backpack) you wear under your clothes that holds all the gas. If you're desperate enough for charcoal suppositories -- hmm, maybe I should find the supplier of these backpacks and set up a retail shop...

I don't remember the numbers, both both brands had values that fit within my surgeon's carbs/protein/cal requirements.

For pre-mixed I prefer the EAS Carbadvantage shakes, either of the three flavors, but I have to have them VERY cold. Vanilla is probably my least favorite. Most os probably strawberry, which is a surprise. Warm at all and they suck. They're the ones that come in 4-packs and are in shiny silver packaging. For powders I prefer Six Star chocolate but can do the vanilla in a pinch. I usually add something to the shakes, so I don't have much experience with their raw flavors, but I know that their chocolate, on its own, was IMO the best chocolate.

We're within 5 lbs of each other and based on your BMI I'm going to guess we're similar height as well. But I'm shaped differently. I don't know my measurements but my waist is much smaller than my hips (the largest part of my still). In shirts I'm usually 14/16, waist probably 16, but hips 18 or 20. So I get the thing where my waist band floats on something with tight hips, and I have to avoid most longer shirts (e.g. tunics that would go over the hips) because they either fit my top and are way too tight on hips, or fit hips and are sloppy on my top. Have you trie the new LB sizes? They're far from perfect, but a little better than most things out there. And as much as I hate stretchy clothes, I've been buying stretchy jeans because I can get an all-over fit out of them.

You're supposed to wait until they fall off. With my band surgery they never did and had to be pulled off when I had my staples removed. With my last surgery, I started taking them off myself around day 4 or 5. They were on loose and not really holding anything anyway, and several of them were half off, and I couldn't stand the itching. So off came the steristrips, and I went with bandaids, gauze and neosporin for a few days.

I would suggest posting in the complications area, or even life after removal. We've seen our share of slips and most of the information will be in one of those two places, I'd think.

Yes, some of our older users were in excess of 300 lbs. I don't think they're around much anymore. I was banded at 382 and currently at 224, still losing, just very slowly.

Many people chose to keep an Rx antiemitic on hand, just in case. In severe cases, several seek unfills.

Haha, deja vu. The other kicker is when people withhold the whole message in their post. E.g.: "I've had 15 fills in a 4cc band and I don't have any restriction!" "Umm, how much were your fills?" "Like 2cc each but right now I'm completely unfilled."

Productive burping is not something that will come out either end such as gas. At least not as its used normally. It is the forceful expulsion of food/saliva that cannot clear the stoma.

When I assemble a performance program I too always make group work optional. Some shine that way, and some drown. It should never be forced. If we'd had the option to do this project solo, I most certainly would have volunteered to go that route, even with the extra work it would have put on my shoulders (which come to find out is still there anyway, only now they're pulling me down with them). The teach should know better. She's a good learning theorist (learnign psychology, adult learning theory, performance engineering, etc. is the basis of this whole program I'm in) and should know better than to make something like this mandatory. That's why I'm hoping an appeal to her rational side will work. I've had her before, and she knows I do good work, and knows I do not do my best in groups with people who are not high acheivers.

Well here's the thing. I'm pulling a 4.0 in the program right now and this is my last required course. All of my individual work for the class is at 100/100. This group project, which was something like 25% of our grade, has brought me down to a "B" for the course -- some of the others in the group got THAT low on their contributions. I'm trying to appeal to my teacher's sensible side. Everyone had to list who did what part, so she knows who contributed what. She also has the online posting record where - when I reviewed their work (the ones who did any) -- I made recommendations/suggestions for changes. Most of these were not made, and accounted for most of the points that were deducted. My parts received full score. The parts I was responsible for all got full score. The group is supposed to share a grade, and that's the most unfair thing (I know, life isn't fair). So I've sent a note to the teacher asking her -- if I take it on myself to change the others' parts, and get full scores on it, will you change my grade accordingly? Or if I can convince them to make th changes, will you update all our grades accordingly? I'm fighting for a GPA here, and others obviously don't care. I don't think it's "fair" that my GPA may now be knocked because other people chose not to listen to my feedback, or chose not to even participate in the project, when I did 80% of the work and got full points for everything I did. God that makes me sound like such a whiney baby, but this whole situation is really aggravating me. And we have a much larger project due, and I'm having an equally hard time onboarding the others to get moving on it. (I've shared this with the teach).

Moving this to March since you're wanting feedback from such a small audience.

Go to the FAQ section and look at a thread called "abbreviations and what they mean." Or just do a search. I know this has already been answered at least twice just today, so you're sure to find good & current information.

That purple font combined with caps is really hard on the eyes. Just as a side note, please consider (a little bit) not typing in all caps, at least. For our eyes' sake. When I had my unfill I was not given any special directions to follow. I drank some Water right afterward to confirm for them that things were going down. Because I needed the unfill, and in my case I needed it because I couldn't pass anything, I think I stuck with liquids for 2 days to give everything time to rest -- but this was my own choice.

I had my surgery on Jan 14th 2008. In the first 10 days I lost 13 pounds....now that I am 10.5 weeks out I have only lost 12 pounds. So have you now gained 2 pound (was at 13 lost, now only at 12) or have you lost 25 total? If you're 10.5 weeks out and have lost 25 lbs, that's pretty good. Even 13 lbs (looking at your ticker) is close to 20% of your excess weight. I have a 10 CC band and I have 4.5 CCs in it. I am eating hardley 800 calories a day...shouldnt I be loosing A LOT more weight than I have? One would think that at 800 calories weight might be coming off quicker, but this could be impacted by a lot of things. One is hidden calories -- the ones we get without realizing we're eating them. This really skewed my numbers early on, even though I just knew I was being detailed and accurate. Another thing is your activity level and metabolism, bmr, etc. I know people that are doing Jenny Craig that are loosing faster than me and I had surgery!!!!!You really, really can't compare your loss to anyone else's, regardless of how they're doing it. We all lose different amounts at very different rates. Comparing to people doing "better" will just make you feel worse about what you're doing, when you really need to just focus on "you".

When I heard him say 6, I would have asked - 6 what? You'll have to call your surgeon to know what size band you have. It will be in your records. If it ends up you have a 10cm (holds 4cc) band, then ask what your current fill level is.

Prevent or stop? Prevent -- probably can't be done completely. But you can certainly help by small bites, chewing chewing chewing, not swallowing too much at once, not eating too much, not being too tight, etc. But it's still possible to PB even when you're doing these things. As for stopping a PB - some have luck with home remedies like pineapple juice, meat tenderizer, papaya, etc. None of it ever made a lick of difference for me. If I've ever stopped one, it has been pure luck - e.g. I've leaned over the island to try and help with the pain, and maybe that angle aligned things just so...

You'd think, but this is where connection to normal reality stops, I guess. Think back a little while ago when we would be innundated with threads asking *us* whether or not someone should leave their spouse. Who values the opinion of total strangers in that situation? A surprisingly large number of people, I guess!

I would recommend saving your money, not doing 1) unless you're not getting enough Protein, 2) unless you have a Biotin deficiency, and 3) just don't do it all together. Nothing you put on the exterior shaft of the hair will pervent it from falling out. Hair exists in cycles. Dying or falling out is one of the cycles. The best thing you can do is save your money and be patient and wait it out. If any of the above stopped hairloss, we wouldn't have any bald people.

Yep. I had one hard fill, took about 20 minutes of digging around, and for a few days after I felt like I had been kicked. And had some nice bruising, to boot.

Yeah. Click their name and "send a private message" or access you private message area (under "my account") and send that way.

I hven't personally but I know threads have come up with people talking about getting it done. Run a search and see what you find.

Obesity Law and Advocacy Center