BenetP

Hey everbody, I kinda disappeared for a few months, but I thought that I'd say hi. I'm a Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist. I work for a community mental health agency serving indigent patients. I also see a few people for pre-WLS evaluation.

Hey Paul, It's great to have another Y chromosome here at LBT. Where in VA are you? I used to live in Richmond. Benet

Kellie, I have personaly never been on Effexor, but I have succesfully weaned many patients off of the medication. The trick is to do it SLOWLY. It may take several months to get off of the medication. Another trick to getting of of Effexor (or Paxil) is to ask your doctor to put you on an equivalant dose (by functon not the same number of milligrams) of Prozac for a month or two (Prozac will block the Effexor withdrawals), then then come off of the Prozac. Since prozac takes so long to get out of the body most people don't feel any withdrawal to it. I also wanted to say that you hit on a very important point about antidepressants. About the same number of people who gain weight with them lose weight with them. The reason is that some of us eat when we are depressed or anxious, and others starve themselves when depressed or anxious. When the symptoms are gone the person reverts to their non-depressed eating patterns, which causes them to gain or loose weight. As this is a forum for obese people I don't think we will find many people here who reported that they loose weight with medications. BenetP

High 5 to you!!! Benet

Margo, Prozac takes about 55 days to fully clear the system, but most people begin to feet the loss of the medication after about 2 weeks. It sounds to me like your symptoms may be coming back. I would absolutly speak to a psychiatrist about this. The weight gain issue with prozac is not as bad as with some other antidepressants, but it is real for some people. Nevertheless, if the medication was helping you I'd still reccomend it if you were my patient. Other non-psych meds cause weight gain and you wouldn't stop them, also if you have chronic depresion, coming off of the medication may in fact worsen the depresive symptoms (depression gets worse with each successive bout a person has). As for wellbutrin, it is a wonderful medication, but as your depression was responsive to a serotonin based medication, and welbutrin is a norepinephrine based medication (it does not increase serotonin) it might not work for you. Also since we bandsters may not do well with tablets you would not be a candidate for the sustained release varieties of welbutrin. That would mean taking the immediate release pills (crushed) three times daily. What a pain in the butt. I hope that this is helpful. Benet

First, thanks for the support, and keep it coming. As for why the operation with only 29 lb to go... I have lost almost 100 lb. 3 separate times in my life, each time the stars had lined up, and I was able to watch my intake while maintaining physical activity, then something would change and I'd slip back into my old patterns. Three times I regained all that I had lost and then some (getting progressively heavier). I looked at a history of heart attack, stroke, diabetes etc., etc., etc. in my family. Then I looked at my own health history; I made a decision to not follow the same path. I had my initial consultation, in mid February (BMI 42) and for personal reasons had to put off surgery till now. During that time I worked hard on maintaining a consistent diet and exercise regimen, and even though I had the band placed when I had a BMI of 30, I saw (and see it still) as my insurance policy against regaining the weight. I hope that this explanation clarifies why I am banded and that others understand that I did not do this for frivolous or cosmetic reasons. Benet

Hi guys, I could use some help. I'm now 2 weeks post banding, and I'm feeling stressed. I don't seem to get that full feeling, (I know that since I haven't had a fill yet I theoretically don't have any restriction) but I do get pain when I eat. It feels like my chest is going to explode. So I slow down, but still I seem to be eating more than the 1/2-1 cup that we are supposed to eat, especially when I eat mushies. I've been seeing a lot of bad outcomes here on the forums, and I'm begining to have doubts that I should have done this. Even so I'm also worried that since I am eating "too much" I'm ruining my pouch anyway. Thoughts support and advice are all welcome. Benet

Hunzi, would you be willing to share the info that you gather? I was banded about 2 weeks ago, but my sister is about to have bypass (in March). She'd rather get banded, but like you her insurance said that they will pay for the bypass but not the band. I'd really like for her to try and appeal it and any info would be useful. Thanks, Benet

As both a banded patient, and as a Psychiatrist who has done pre surgical evaluations for bariatric surgery I would never disqualify a patient based only on their support system, thats nuts! I do agree that support is important, but I would defintly count LBT as a support system, also don't forget about clubs, church/synagoge/mosque Benet

My insuranse didn't cover a cent, despite meeting ther criteria for medical nessy. I paid $10500 for the hospital, $5050 for the surgeon (including all pre-op testing and psych eval.) and 750 for anaesthesia. The program that I went through makes you prove that you are committed to weight loss before scheduleing the operationso the usual wait for surgery is 10 weeks fro when you do the informational seminar. FYI I was able to pay out of pocket (I had been saving up) but the program did offer financing. Benet

Dano, Hey I'm a type too diabetic also. But as I've lost the weight I came off of all my meds. My last Hb A1c test was less than 5 which is well into the normal range. I really think that the exercize that I've been doing ( 1hr 5-6x weekly) has a lot to do with it since exercize decreases insulin resistance. Benet

I'm new here, but I'd like to meet other bandsters. So let me know where and when & I'll do my best to be there. Benet