MacMadame

I didn't have a band, but I had wls and lost almost 70 lb. and my bladder is as weak as ever. I'm a bit disappointed, actually. But I suspect my problems were not weight related, but age and having babies related.

The chewables and liquids are only until the swelling does down and you can swallow pills again. Now, I've noticed a lot of people with WLS continue to use chewables for life, but I hate them and got off them as soon as I could. All my Vitamins are pills now.

It actually felt better when I ran. Weird. It's all tight again now.

My grandmother gave me a hard time for eating a piece of cantaloupe for breakfast once. "You don't see the thin people eating cantaloupe, do you?" she said to me. I gave her my "are you batshit crazy, woman" look and she shut up. My sister was getting married and too nervous to eat breakfast and my grandmother never ate in public as far as I could tell. They were the two thin people who obviously got that way from not eating cantaloupe. :thumbup:

Treadmill, 45 min. 3.23 miles. Ran 30 of those minutes.

Man, you are a broken record.

Excellent choice, downsdc! Maybe he looked at ALL the studies? Just a thought. My surgeons are getting 10-20% better excess weight loss on average with their band patients than published studies. They have a great after-care program and it really makes a big difference. Ponce is a great surgeon and probably gets better than average results too. You can't just cherry pick one study. You need to look at them all in order to see trends. But in the end, it's your own surgeon's stats that matter the most because it's his pre-op education, surgical technique, and post-op program you are going to be getting.

Actually, if you put in lots of ice and mix in a blender, they taste much better than when you just shake them up, whether you add milk or not. That's the only way I can take them as doing them straight upsets my stomach.

Just pretending. :sneaky:

I believe you are supposed to use water when you mix the protein powders. I use a combo of water and ice and blend them in the blender. The ice makes the drink have the consistency of a shake.

I've strained a muscle in my calf. :pout:

In my neck of the woods, those are called Italian Charm braclets. I'm not sure why. They don't seem to be from Italy or anything. Bless your heart.

I've been thinking about that too lately. Remember when we had that discussion about how fat people are portrayed in the movies and how none of us are like that. Well, as I get thinner and change my habits, I realize that some of those stereotypes do appear to be true. For example, I no longer am getting food all over my boobies. I bet people on the outside saw me as a big glutton who couldn't slow down eating enough to keep it all in my mouth. I didn't see myself that way, of course. But my boobies aren't full of food any more so there was some truth to how other people saw me. But it's to be expected. It's why I can't quite get into the show. I keep thinking about the future. It could say "shut your gob and move your ass". Except they might have to pay Jachut royalties. :sneaky:

There aren't a lot of band to bypass people on LBT so you aren't going to get a lot of comments. I can comment but I have neither band, nor bypass so take it for what it's worth.... My comment is to look at all four of the surgeries and not just bypass. Weight-Loss Surgeries Compared Oh and as for insurance, I looked into this when I was deciding on my surgery type. My insurance only pays for a revision if there is some sort of medical problem with the original surgery. Like the band slips or leaks or you have esophageal spasms or something. They specifically say they won't pay for a revision if your reason is inadequate weight loss.

skhopp- in response to the "if you can't follow the band rules" question... I would say there are two ways that you might not be able to follow the rules. If you have head issues that cause you to sabotage yourself, then those won't change when your surgery type changes. OTOH, if you had mechanical issues with your band -- it slipped, eroded, leaked -- or if you are one who could never find the sweet spot -- too tight, too loose, too tight, too loose -- then revising to another surgery shouldn't be an issue at all. The same with if you have metabolic issues that caused you to not lose weight even when you followed the rules and now it's clear you need malabsorption. So you just need to be introspective and figure out which is was for you. Then your answer will be clear. If it was head stuff, you can work on the head stuff. If it was mechanical, you can pick a surgery that better fits you. As for RnY forcing you to follow the rules, I have two in-laws that have it and both of them weigh at least 300 lb. They don't follow the rules. So I don't agree that RnY forces you. You can eat around any surgery, if you want to.

I had a hiatal hernia repair too when I had my sleeve and it did really make the recovery slower and more painful. I had this horrible back pain. I didn't have any issues with gas or nausea but that depends a lot on both the person and the surgeon so it's going to vary.

BikiniBeachy - I don't think that other poster was saying it was a dumb question. It's just that rockbandster has made such a fuss about the Realize band being triangular and acted like this was a vital piece of information and it isn't really. All that stuff he says about why it matters is a bunch of bunk, in fact.

I started out thinking I would get a band, but I also thought my only choices were band or bypass. I didn't want bypass because it increased the risk of becoming sicker from having the surgery than I was from being obese. I like the idea of the band because, if I started getting very sick from it, I could take it out. Then, as I did more research, I realized a couple of things. First, all WLS is permanent. The band puts scars on your stomach. You need to keep it in if you want to maintain your weight loss. Second, the only reasons people were getting their bands out is because the band was turning on them... they had slippage or erosion or an infection or esophageal spasms or some other problem that they never would have had if they hadn't had a band. This made me more open to the sleeve even though it is permanent and it's not adjustable. In the end, I decided to get a sleeve. The sleeve fits my food issues better than the band. My big issue has always been hunger due to ghrelin and the sleeve removes the part of the stomach that produces ghrelin. (There is no ghrelin reduction with a band or bypass.) The hunger reduction is more "sure" than that for the band because there is no requirement to get to the sweet spot. It also allows me to eat more types of food because there is no stoma for food to get stuck in. After care is no problem... if I can't get it from my surgeon, I can get if from my PCP. Excess weight loss is better too. The long-term complication rate is much better and that was the thing that sealed the deal for me. If you want to learn more about the sleeve, there is a VSG section on LapBandTalk. Come by and you can hear from several sleevesters. Plus I've got a thread with a bunch of links to research on the VSG that you might be interested in.

It's a scam. Kimkins Scam The Kimkins Diet Scam | Scam Types dot Com Timeline of the Kimkins Diet Scam Story

Ooh, more things for dh to watch me spend money on.

Honestly, I don't think I was beating down on FOG *at all*. It's reality that diets don't work if you are as heavy as you have to be to get a band. Exactly! People who come here and tell us that *they've* found the answer and *we're* stupid to having gotten a band when they haven't even gotten to goal yet are going to get exactly the reaction they deserve. Especially if they've been on a diet for a grand total of TWO months! Everyone is like this when they first go on a diet. Whatever diet they are on -- a commercial program, something they've come up with themselves, whatever -- is the greatest and they've finally cracked the code!. Then the weight starts not coming off so fast and it gets harder to exercise obsessively and they never even get to goal. Or they get to goal and the hunger is too much and they start eating a little bit more here and a little bit more there. The weight creeps back and at first you tell yourself that, hey, 10 lb. isn't so bad. You're still in normal clothes and maybe 10 lb. ago you were a bit gaunt anyway. And then 10 becomes 20 and 20 becomes 30 and the next thing you know, you've gained it all back. I know this because I've lived it. We've *all* lived it. Statistics show it. Scientists can even explain exactly why it happens. So people who tell me they've found the answer and I just wasn't dedicated enough when they aren't at goal and haven't been at goal for at least 5 years have absolutely no credibility with me. Not to mention, you don't tell someone who has beaten the odds (I've been in the 2% that those studies talk about.) that they aren't dedicated. I fought my weight gain like a banshee and I did way better than average because I was dedicated. But I ultimately failed for the same reason we all ultimately failed -- because my body was fighting me and my hunger would not be denied. The other thing is, I came here because I was looking into a band. I made friends here. So when I decided I didn't want a band, I didn't want to leave. I stayed and everyone was very nice. But I didn't run around the boards telling you guys how stupid you were for getting a band and that you should have got a sleeve instead. If I had, I would expect people to be upset with me and I won't blame them.

45 min. on stationary bike. Road 9.13 miles.

Do you live in CA? If you live in CA, the DMHC will make them waive the 6 month diet requirement. But otherwise.... I went to a seminar like that. They claimed to do band, sleeve and bypass but 90% of their practice was bypass and that was their answer to *everything*. I was SO PISSED. I didn't use them either but went to a place that does all four surgeries and doesn't push one over the other.

As you lose weight, you can get less restriction. It just means it's time for another fill, most likely. Yeah, bands can leak but most of the time you just need more fill because you have less fat around your stomach than you used to.

Welcome to LapBandTalk! If you go to the section for your state (or country if you aren't in the US), you should be able to find people who are local to you.