SheeShee

I was at my sweet spot for months before I got pregnant but as I started to get morning sickness I was way too tight from the swelling and irritation from the band, I have the large band and need it pretty tight for good restriction 11cc in a 14cc band, I went down to 5ccs and could eat anything ( gained 40lbs fast) as your uterus pushes everything up you may need adjustments throughout your pregnancy, my doctor had no problem with keeping restriction as I was told during pregnancy you only really need an extra 300 calories daily. Im sure it's possible to keep good restriction throughout the pregnancy but you may require lots of adjustments Good luck and happy baby making ; )

I had my surgery with Dr.K about a year and a half and 150lbs ago ... I came from out of the country and was considering Mexico ...the fact that in the USA surgeons are required to have liability insurance was something that set my mind at ease. Not to say its not the same in Mexico but for my peace of mind I chose Dr.K ...The whole experience was great with him, his staff, the hospital, everything. Good luck with it

I have been going through the same thing... I have lost just over 80 lbs since getting my band last Aug. - I saw my doctor because I was concerned .. he tested my blood pressure while I sat and then standing ... turns out that it is just like restless monkey said "orthostatic hypotension" I now have low blood pressure and it really drops if I go from sitting to standing .. he figures that it may be weight loss related .. he says that for every pound lost you lose somewhere near one mile of blood vessels !!! Hope that things get better for you Shee

Since I started to lose weight on the pre-op diet, I have been dealing with my TOM every two weeks !!!! grrrrrrrr Way more cramps, heavier and longer than anything I have had before too. I went to my doctor for some help, birth control pills or something to help me out here. I am just waiting for the results of the bloodwork to come back to see what is going on with me. It may be that there is a rise in estrogen when we lose weight, as it is strored in the fat ... It's great to lose the weight, but it would be nice to do something about this little side effect !!!

I was in quite a bit of pain after the surgery - I had read how great people felt after the surgery, this was not my experience. I thought something might be wrong because the pain was more than I expected, on a scale of 1-10 I would say a 7 and constant !! I refused the additional pain killers when I woke up because I didnt want to feel any worse than I did waking up from the surgery. After some time I did take the pain killers they offered me in the hospital- that helped a lot ! The pain killers made me sick even with all the anti-nauseant I was taking so again I was feeling pretty awful - I started to think that I made a huge mistake, I wondered why I had done this to myself ?!?! And thought I will never feel "normal" again. This has passed .. I am less than one month post-op and feel like my normal self again, except better. I have not had a fill yet, but already love my band. I feel like my band and I got off to a rough start but are friends now :shades_smile: Hopefully you will feel better about your band soon ! SheeShee

For migraines my doctor has given me Maxalt, it comes in a wafer form that melts under your tongue in seconds. And the Maxalt is really effective for me. If I feel a migraine coming on, and take it, I can be rid of the migraine in an hour or so.

Regarding Dr. Kirshenbaum - I was banded on Aug 12th - My incisions/scars look great. He does not use staples but dissolvable stitches and the incisions were covered in second skin which I removed in a week

I have been struggling with weight my whole life. I was a fat kid, a fat teenager, fat twenty-something, now I hope to say that I will not be a fat thirty-something. Sure I have lost 30, 40, even as much as 60 lbs over those years, but it always crept back up. I don’t know why I seemed shocked, it’s not like I woke up one day and “Surprise” it had all returned, like it was back from holiday, but somehow I managed to let things get way out of control. Just 4 years ago I went from weighing 285lbs to 230lbs, the lowest I have seen since I gave birth to my daughter, which, was the last time the scale has read anything under 200lbs. That was 1997. I had managed to avoid a scale since I regained the weight, depressed, defeated, ashamed, broken. The day I booked my appointment …. I was at the doctors at my pre-op assessment for gall-bladder removal and I had to step on the scale … The number… 330lbs … I was stunned …. The nurse asked me if that sounded right? I just stared at her … How on earth could I weight 330lbs and not know?!?!?!? In Psychology there is a phenomenon called Change Blindness, where a person looking at a scene will fail to notice a massive change to that scene. Maybe in a sense that’s what I was experiencing. Or maybe it was a choice. Either way it happened. When I returned home I picked up the phone … Knowing that if I want the surgery it will be a self-pay option, I had done a bit of research, had names of Doctors bookmarked on my computer. I talked with the surgery coordinator on the phone, she of course asked me my BMI, I didn’t know .. “Well how tall are you”? I am 5’5” and “How much do you weigh”? I answered with “a lot”. Obviously she needed the number, I stumbled, I couldn’t spit it out. I finally managed to repeat that number 330. As soon as I said it I broke down, crying to a total stranger on the other end. The shame just flooded over me. She reassured me that everything was going to be okay. She let me know that she has been there, has had the procedure, and everything will be fine for me. I believed her. It was the little bit of hope that I needed, that I couldn’t seem to find for myself. There it was that glimmer of light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel. I would even say at this point I am optimistic. I didn’t think I had it in me to be optimistic again, after failing time and time again, I didn’t think I had the energy to be. But here it is.

I have been struggling with weight my whole life. I was a fat kid, a fat teenager, fat twenty-something, now I hope to say that I will not be a fat thirty-something. Sure I have lost 30, 40, even as much as 60 lbs over those years, but it always crept back up. I don’t know why I seemed shocked, it’s not like I woke up one day and “Surprise” it had all returned, like it was back from holiday, but somehow I managed to let things get way out of control. Just 4 years ago I went from weighing 285lbs to 230lbs, the lowest I have seen since I gave birth to my daughter, which, was the last time the scale has read anything under 200lbs. That was 1997. I had managed to avoid a scale since I regained the weight, depressed, defeated, ashamed, broken. The day I booked my appointment …. I was at the doctors at my pre-op assessment for gall-bladder removal and I had to step on the scale … The number… 330lbs … I was stunned …. The nurse asked me if that sounded right? I just stared at her … How on earth could I weight 330lbs and not know?!?!?!? In Psychology there is a phenomenon called Change Blindness, where a person looking at a scene will fail to notice a massive change to that scene. Maybe in a sense that’s what I was experiencing. Or maybe it was a choice. Either way it happened. When I returned home I picked up the phone … Knowing that if I want the surgery it will be a self-pay option, I had done a bit of research, had names of Doctors bookmarked on my computer. I talked with the surgery coordinator on the phone, she of course asked me my BMI, I didn’t know .. “Well how tall are you”? I am 5’5” and “How much do you weigh”? I answered with “a lot”. Obviously she needed the number, I stumbled, I couldn’t spit it out. I finally managed to repeat that number 330. As soon as I said it I broke down, crying to a total stranger on the other end. The shame just flooded over me. She reassured me that everything was going to be okay. She let me know that she has been there, has had the procedure, and everything will be fine for me. I believed her. It was the little bit of hope that I needed, that I couldn’t seem to find for myself. There it was that glimmer of light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel. I would even say at this point I am optimistic. I didn’t think I had it in me to be optimistic again, after failing time and time again, I didn’t think I had the energy to be. But here it is.

I don't expect this to be a "must read" blog. I do however like the idea of having a place to vent, share and reflect. So surgery is finally going to happen, August 12th 2008. I am from Alberta, Canada but am making my way down to Colorado to have the surgery with Dr.Kirshenbaum. In Alberta Lapband surgery is covered but so few are performed, and after two years of trying to be one of those chosen I have decided on the self pay option, which is not available here at the moment.