MacMadame

I went to a party today and forgot to bring my vitamins and now I'm behind again. Plus I haven't done half the things I needed to do this weekend and the weekend is almost over.

I went to my son's b'day party on Sat. after having sleeve surgery on Wed. (coming home on Thurs.) I just sat around and drank my protein drink. I didn't last a long time but I was glad to put in an appearance.

Welcome to LapBandTalk!

Isn't it great how people who haven't had the surgery and maybe don't even have a weight problem are such experts on it. :tongue_smilie: If you read the various boards here, you'll get a good idea of what post-op lap-band life is like. I have a sleeve myself so I can't really tell you about band life.

You must have missed his naked avatar.

I use The Daily Plate. There's a link in my signature. I track my weight, what I eat every day, and I could track my exercise, but I track that in a spreadsheet. If I track it on TDP, it subtracts the calories it thinks I've burned from what I've eaten and that throws off my stats. There are other sites, but I think TDP has the best database of foods. I hardly ever have to enter a food -- if anything there are too many foods in there. Also, the UI is pretty easy to navigate compared to the others I've tried. Obesity Help lets you track your weight and you can check to share it with your doctor, if you want, and he's on there too. I have no idea if my doctor really gets my weights though. Plus you can't track food and exercise.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! I also had a BMI that would hover around 40 and on the day of my surgery was about 37. It's really frustrating to look at pictures of yourself and realize how HEAVY you are and then have insurance companies try to tell you that you aren't *that* fat.

But if a moron insults you, he's still a moron. It's no different from when someone from the US goes to a speech or press conference and insults the speaker. They may have intended to be insulting, but all they've done is make a fool of themselves.

You made it our business when you tried to use your credentials to make people who disagree with you shut up. This is a support site and people should feel free to post their personal experiences and what their surgeons told them and the results of any research they have done without being told they don't have the credentials to be posting. The only people who need credentials are the ones who are claiming a higher level of expertise than your average patient.

The Realize site reports back to your doctor. You can't get that from Sparkspeople.com. It's a great idea and it's bound to help. Studies have shown that after care make a significant difference in outcomes and that journaling your food and exercise makes a difference too. That's why once J&J came out with Realize My Success, Allergan started working on a similar site ... because they realized what a great idea it was and how it would help their sales.

Well the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons has this to say about VBG: ASBS - American Society for Bariatric Surgery For myself, I don't like the idea of the mesh band they place around the top of the pouch. That kind of mesh often leads to infected tissue and creates a lot of scar tissue that can cause other problems. It also makes it extremely difficult to revise at a later date if you have problems because it can be near impossible to get the band out of the equation.

There are no individual plans that cover weight loss surgery. Even group plans with an employer won't cover it unless there are at least 100 employees. However, some companies like Starbucks offer group health insurance to their part-time employees and cover it. Lots of people get a PT job there for a year or so just to cover their surgery and make a little money for the co-pays.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! Be sure to check out the Pre-op and Post-op support forums. These are the best for giving you an idea of what banded life is like early on and how to prepare for it. I *haunted* them when I first got here.

Um, there is no free speech on the Internet. I saw it at the gym. Over and over and over. No sound. I have to say every time I saw it, I laughed. What a lame thing to do, completely ineffectual, and then all these people all over the world waving around shoes like something MOMENTOUS had happened. It still makes me giggle.

And, really, until you got personal, rockbandster, YOU weren't attacked at all. But your claims were challenged and are still being challenged.

But with surgery, you don't need willpower! That's really the whole point of getting it. It makes you not very hungry and you can be satisfied on very little food. That's why it works and why dieting alone doesn't work. The bread still expands in my stomach. So it's hard to know when I'm done and it's easy to overeat and throw up. I don't like it enough to risk it but I think later one I'll try again. I drink a Protein shake every morning for Breakfast. I was never a big breakfast eater so the shakes work pretty well for me. Then at night I usually have protein hot chocolate. I might have another shake instead, if my protein is very very low. I haven't tried Peanut Butter yet. It's high in fat and I rarely ate it pre-op as it's not my favorite thing. I think it's worth having a lot of calories or a lot of fat if you love something -- I had two bites of a candy at my company Christmas party, for example -- but if it's not your favorite thing, then it's not worth it. If you love PB though there is this great powdered version that has 80% of the fat content and tastes just like PB. If I loved PB like I love chocolate, I'd be all over it. I would think it would be fine though... it's not hard to chew and it doesn't take up a lot of room in the sleeve. The stuff that is hard are things like shrimp, which is very hard to chew slowly and enough, and dry meats. Some people have trouble with salad early out, but I don't.

Go Advanced let's you keep editing with the full editor and all the options. :laugh: I know that the repair of my HH did slow down my recovery (as my doctor predicted) but not having GERD any more made *such* a difference that I didn't care.

I thought you were going to say you were in another country! I love my sleeve. Be sure to look into all the surgeries before deciding though. They all have good points and bad points.

When you first get your sleeve, your stomach is swollen. I could only eat .5 to 1 oz of most things in the beginning. But then the swelling went down. Now I can have about 2 oz. of hard Protein plus some veggies. Or I can have 3 oz. of something not so hard. But I should be able to eat about 4-5 oz. by 1 year out. It varies a lot with the individual too. I know people with sleeves who can eat 7-8 oz of certain kinds of food. They are more than 1 year out and they are a lot taller than me. So their stomach is probably longer. I was on liquids for 2 weeks and then I started doing soft foods, very slowly at first. By about 7 weeks out, my doctor said to start introducing more hard protein and veggies and now I eat pretty much anything that looks good to me. Except bread. I still can't do bread. I assume I'll be able to eat it again some day though.

I have NEVER given medical advice. Unlike you. I have pointed out that the Realize band was released in 1996, not 1994 as you keep saying. That is not medical advice. I have pointed out that there are studies that show the bands perform the same in terms of overall weight loss and have posted links to them. That is not medical advice. I have pointed out that no one has ever posted a picture of a Realize band wrapped around a stomach shaped like a triangle and that surgeons say that doesn't happen. Again, that's not medical advice. I have pointed out that putting a band in with a fill doesn't mean you will get restriction faster compared to someone else with a different band or different doctor and that it doesn't mean you'll have restriction right away and that sometimes putting in fill during surgery causes problems. Again, this is not medical advice. Your problem with me is that when you say things that are misleading or not true, I point that out. Period. I want people to make their decisions based on accurate information not scare tactics and lies. Post accurate information and I won't have a problem with you.

But his ears are SO BIG.

I'm sorry I can't help you but it sure doesn't sound good. Can you get a second opinion or call him back and make him probe more?

I read that something like 50% of morbidly obese patients have a hiatal hernia. Mine was repaired when I had my surgery and I feel *so* much better.

I don't know if they will finance such a small amount. Have you asked in the Financing and Insurance section. There are lots of past threads about financing you can look up too.

I haven't gotten that in particular, but I'm trying to keep my skin moist so it bounces back better and I don't need as much PS. I use Gold Bond Ultimate Healing lotion, with Aloe. It's not as greasy as a lot of them and it really does seem to heal (my cuticles get really dry and cracked and it heals them).