flowers

Iv been told productive burping. i.e. more than gas is coming up I believe. Sounds nasty to me too, but I admit I do have more gas than I had before being banded.

I think the answer depends on how tight you want your fills, as to what the chances are of those things happening. Im not tight yet (to say the least). The only slight problem I had was with some cantelope, a slight choking feeling. Im sure as the fills get tighter this will happen more often if I dont chew things up well. So, far I dont need to.

yes, ok, so its been approved since June 2001 in the U.S. unless you were part of clinical trials. Not every study started the same date the band would have been approved, so if a study takes a year as I said, and its a 5 year study, it makes sense what the nurse who wrote a book and leads the seminars for many Dallas lap band surgeons would say not all 5 year studies have been completed. The band has not been approved in the U.S. for 10 years, 7 years total plus 2 months. Thats why some insurances balk at paying for it. It hasnt been around long enough for really long term studies. I keep saying it has been around more than 5 years but hasnt been around 10 years yet, it hasnt. If you know someone who got theirs in the U.S. 10 years ago, thats unusal. That means they got it 3 years before it was actually approved by the FDA who isnt know for moving very fast on approvals. And the FDA is likely to get worse as there are some drugs approved without really long term studies that have come back to haunt them lately with bad side effects. The lady who gives these seminars had her band a few years and dropped 140 lbs and get really thin, and then she started to have a problem with reflux so bad the band had to be removed (just as a example of a side effect of having the band that can occur years later). Im glad I got my band, and Im sure you are too, but finding 10 year studies or results is difficult.

I dont think one small drink would hurt, but folks say you will feel it more after dieting and being on liquids. If you have one just to be social and carry it around a lot, I cant see harm in that, but I wouldnt make it a habit and drink very sparingly. Put lots of ice in the drink for instance. If this is a special party, be sociable, take a few small sips to be part of the group, but I wouldnt do any serious drinking. If you go to partys a lot, this isnt just a one time occassion, then I might rethink my answer.

yes, but not that much longer. Not long enough that the 5 year trials which often take another year are all out for review. Thats why some insurance says they wouldnt pay for lap band and they will pay for by pass, because there are still some 5 year studies they want to see they claim, per a nurse who gives lapband seminars. I didnt mean to say it had been only 5 years, I said the 5 year studies are just coming in.

My fill doctor uses fluro each and every time and a barium swallow. That being said she way underfilled me. 3 cc. was too tight, the barium wouldnt go thru to my stomach, so she took out all but 1.8 cc, which was way way too low. It might be great, but they might also underfill you and not want you as tight as you want to be. I sure needed more of a fill than I got, and she had all the equipment there.

Almost all the by pass folks I know gained it all back and then some. With the band we can go get another fill and adjust things, they cant. They cant eat rich Desserts without getting sick and cant have certain alchoholic drinks, its no panacea either to have by pass. People do think all weight loss surgeries are the same, I admit I didnt know the difference either until quite recently lol. So, Im one you would be angry with. I had someone ask me when I got to goal, if they take out the lapband then?? Like its all over, once you lose you dont need any help maintaining? .... to be honest, just being on a diet, makes me a little cranky.

Another board Im on a nurse who works with lapbands said you can fill a 4 cc band up to 4.6, because of the tubing. Someone with a 4 cc fill said they are still hungry and she recommended filling it more than 4 cc and said its common where she works. You probably do need another fill.

I woke up from surgery hungry. They only gave me two huge bowls of Jello and tea etc. I could have eaten Mexican the next day after surgery, it was so hard not to when I was in the airport and couldnt eat anything where I was. Some people are swollen after surgery for a couple of weeks and some of us werent and are hungry. Buy cans of Protein shakes and sip them whenver you are so hungry. They may not be wonderful, but at least they will fill you up. Im too lazy to make the shakes in a blender, so I bought cans ready made.

I think once you get filled to your sweet spot, the hunger pains will die down, but the question is, will you stop eating. To me thats harder than it sounds. I have a little hiccup and feel full, but I want to eat more. I think I like the stuffed feeling even. As the saying goes, ice cream slides right down, the band wouldnt stop that. I have the Realize band, and still have fears than if I hit another bumpy part in life I will go back to comfort eating. I think the band will help me some, but Im not sure its going to help me all I need either to be honest. I dont like protein shakes either lol. Im not trying to discourage you, but I think you are going to have to work at it, especially "head hunger" as folks call it here, where you still want to eat because your head wants to eat, not because you are hungry, thats harder to deal with than anything.

With other forms of WLS, you could stretch out the pouch and then regain all the weight back. I know lots of folks who got by pass and are still way too heavy. Some put on all the weight and more and some I dont know where they started, only that they are obviously still way too heavy (heavier than me) and they had by pass. If you are going to sabotage the surgery, maybe you should wait until you are ready to work at it. I assure you its work to lose. By pass is not assured to lose the weight and keep it off.

The band has only been used in the U.S. for about 5 years, so even the 5 year results and tests are still coming in. Add to that the band has been changed over the last 5 years, like the adjustment around the neck now can be adjusted and the older bands could not. (not sure Im using the right words). Like if you lost a lot of weight and the band around the neck of the stomach became too lose, now they can go back in and tighten it without replacing the band. (the band itself costs $2,000 for the doctors to purchase it I was told). Another thing the Realize J&J band is even newer, is it out about a year now? So, when you look back at older style bands and then try to figure out how to apply the stats that are available, the results are only guesses. I may not have all the dates exact, times flies when you are older. lol To find people to talk to that have had the band for much more than 5 years you would have to find bands put in, in foreign countries.

I got one at my local library. Also found 2 very excellent books on low gi eating, that really explained why the diet works and which foods to eat better. (south beach diet is a low gi diet, based on how fast foods digest in your system 100 being sugar itself). I had trouble following the diet until I read the books written on low gi (which I also got at my library).

I went to Juarez, they pick you up at the El Paso airport, so unlike Cancun you are flying into a U.S. country. Its about 20 minutes or 30 over the border, but takes longer coming back as you have to wait in the customs lines. Medicaltourism did it with Dr. Naketa, some misunderstandings have arisen that Im still working out, like Im asking for the Operating Report, some fill doctors require it. I wasted $200 and 5 hours driving to my first fill and didnt know I really should have something in writing and they gave me a teensy fill for a 4 cc band when I knew I had a 10 cc band, waste of $200 and 6 hours of my time. Mine was $6,500 and the surgery went beautifully, no problems, not much gas, I came home a day early in fact, I felt so good, but you will feel like a outcast with fills doctors. Some charge extra, some have a waiting period to see you and most wouldnt see you at all, heard lots of excuses why not. The $200 fill doctor is the cheapest in my area and I have to drive quite a ways to see her and the first fill was a total bust and cant go back for 6 weeks. So, to sum it up, the surgery went fine, but finding a fill doctor and getting fills may be more of a hassle than you expect and higher prices than for U.S. banded patients, which irks me.

I feel like Im hungry a lot, so I have a SF popsicle or something. I do hear once we get filled to our sweet spot the desire to snack will dim. I hope so. (man I hope it gets easier lol) I am telling myself there is no time limit, so it doesnt matter if I lose like a turtle or lose fast, as long as I get to the finish line. We have a saying on my cruise chat board where some of us are trying to lose, "one day, one pound at a time". I need to take that to heart. Im too impatient with everything. sorry, I didnt mean anything by my post either, just frustrated, want the pounds to come off faster.

Are you yelling at me??? Two of us said we never heard of a doctor requiring a 6 lb loss. You are over reacting HUGE. Excuse me, dont say something and then yell in caps because someone replies to you when you said you are having trouble losing the 6 lbs. If you are talking to me about not working on losing weight, you couldnt be more wrong. A bad day I eat a 35 calorie fudgesicle. I set my alarm for 7 am so I have time to walk a mile to two miles in the morning in the Texas heat. I did this thru the 18 days of over 100 degrees we had. Plus I walk another 1 - 2 miles at night. One day I missed, something rubbed and was bleeding, but Iv walked almost without exception for 2 months solid, since before my surgery. Most days Im at the 3 1/2 to 4 miles mark, Im insulin resistant and pushing 60, so it is harder for me to lose than most people. I dont eat any carbs except rarely and watch my sugar levels, dont over do tomatoes and other fruit. You were the one posting you had trouble, and I was trying to encourage you to stick with it even if you were a slow loser like me. I do wish I had some resistance/help from my band, but for you to go off on me saying I expected something to be handed to me and I wasnt working at this, you could not possibly be more wrong. Im moving as much as I can without getting blisters and will keep upping the distance and did some inside gazelle in between my long walks. Oh yea, I am throwing in bits of jogging to get that heart rate and metabolism up. No one yelled at you, we were just surprised at your doctor's requirement, so color me surprised and maybe frustrated I am not losing faster when I am working so darn hard at losing and my fill doctor didnt fill me enough, there was some miscommunication. Im doing my diet 120%, I dont have a inbetween speed. Believe me your comments are miss-placed. You know nothing about me or my efforts. I was trying to sympathize with your slow loss, Im there now too.

Sounds like you are yelling at me because I said everyone is different. I didnt have a pre-opt diet even though on my own I lost 9 lbs. I also was not on liquids for 2 weeks. I was on liquids for 3 days after my surgery. I started mushys like chicken salad 3 days after my surgery. My doctors orders and I had no trouble. My doctor actually said try them and see how you react. I was just saying you cant generalize, every doctor allows something different. I was eating food like she said 3 days after surgery, if she meant putting the crackers into the soup so they were mushy. I did wait as I said until 3 1/2 weeks to do real food, only a few days early. Some people dont swell up like others, some have more pain and my post op diet was liquids for 3 days and then mushys, so I was allowed crackers in soup way before 2 weeks by my doctors orders. You really cant generalize what everyone can and cant do or what they were allowed as a post op diet. There are also some who have a prefill during surgery so they have to be more carefull afterwards than others, its all different for each person.

No, I went to Mexico for my surgery, self pay. I wrote 10 cc on the paper, I knew what I had. But when she put in 3 cc fill, when the barium didnt go into my stomach, she decided I didnt know what I was talking about and must have misunderstood, so she took almost all the fill out, so gave me a usual fill for a 4 cc band. Im sure the fill doctor is a nice person and she only does fills on Saturdays because she knows how it is to get banded in Mexico and have trouble finding a fill doctor. She doesnt take you until after you have been banded for at least 5 weeks and then our schedules didnt match, so Im on my own until sept 27th. She was banded herself in Mexico her husband said. She does the whole thing, fluor and barium swallow, and got worried because 3 cc I was too tight for and its not too tight for most with a 10 cc band. So she decided my surgeon had said the band was 10 cm across in diameter, not a 10 cc band and took out way too much of the fill. My surgeon recommended a 2.5 cc fill for the first fill. Im just in a panic because of the cruise coming up. Will power aint going to cut it and I can eat anything, there isnt any food I cant eat because of my band so far. I was also hoping that my clothes would fit better, they still look too tight to be attractive on my cruise. Im insulin resistant so losing weight is hard enough for me. Just feeling all around frustrated tonight.

Im with you. I have only had one stupid fill of 1.8 cc (pissed me off the fill doctor didnt believe me when I said I had a 10 cc band) and lied to me saying I would feel some restriction and I dont. If she needed to see in writing what size lapband I had, they should have told me to bring it. At least you can go back Sept 5, I cant go back until Sept 27. My fill doctor only does fills on every other saturday in 2 locations, and had a wedding and then I face a cruise (with no restriction, grrr) and the next sat at the office closer to me is sept 27th after I get back from my cruise. My weight isnt dropping hardly, a little over 1 lb since I got my fill. And you know after a cruise Im going to gain. Im also walking a minimum of 3 miles a day, Iv upped the distance a few weeks back trying to move the scales, its not working. I havent dropped a size either, the waist band of my XL shorts seems just as tight now as it was before surgery. Im sure trying with no help from my lapband. Iv lost the easy lbs like most of the rest of you and now they are like glue.

I dont think you can generalize, some people have trouble with soft bread and some dont. So far there isnt anything I have had trouble with and Iv even had a fill (waste of my time and money). Other than once with some cantelope, I can eat anything. I was having part of a subway sub into my 3rd week after surgery, and I waited only because I was told to, I know I could have eaten it a lot sooner.

Im paying $200 each, and driving 5 hours round trip to get this price. So far I only got one fill and it was so tiny, waste of time and money. 1.8 cc and Iv got a 10 cc band. Nothing like feeling like Im throwing money out the window.

I was banded before you, July 9th, and I got nadda. I might just as well have thrown my $200 for a fill out the window and drove 5 hours to get it. They didnt ask me to bring documentation to prove which band I had, or I would have gotten it, so I only got 1.8 cc fill so far. At least you have some restriction. I have none, zero and feeling pissed off about all of this. I have a cruise in a week and a half and cant get back there to throw another $200 at the problem before I leave so Im facing the temptations of a cruise with no help from this expensive band. Im self pay. Im upset tonight and came here, so dont mind me. wouldnt be so bad, but I asked the fill doctor are you SURE 1.8cc will be enough I can feel some restriction and twice she said YES she was sure. Cant trust doctors. Obviously she was wrong.

I had a hard time sticking to mushys, I was supposed to be on them for 4 weeks. I cheated by a few days. I got a huge jar of no sugar added applesauce too, and was into it when I was still supposed to be on liquids and it tasted so good. I would just have a tablespoon when I couldnt stand liquids any more. I noticed the commercials on tv too. Guess what?? Its still hard. I didnt have paperwork to show my fill doctor the size of my band and she didnt believe it was 10 cc, so she only gave me a 1.8 cc fill and I cant go back for 6 weeks, its still all will power baby. I am still so dissapointed in the fill. Had they told me they needed my paperwork I would have brought it. Anyone who says having the band, its going to be easy to lose weight, so far Id say its just like any other diet, and so hard, but Im still sticking to it. Im determined.

Just click on my ticker and it will bring you to the site. Go to user CP and then I pasted the code into the big white space, not the lines to get it to work. Once you paste it in you are set if you bookmark the page for your ticker, just change your ticker on their site and it will change it here.

Im using Dr. Stephanie in Tyler Texas for my fill doctor. I am cash pay, no insurance. Is Tyler East enough to be called East Texas? I saw her last Sat.