2muchfun

Let's hope he does a barium swallow to make sure your band is where it should be.

I have a hard time following the sequence of how fills and heartburn coincide? You didn't say anything about being tight, you just say you have heartburn? Is the heartburn and tightness happening simultaneously? Do you associate heartburn with tightness and is it difficult to drink fluids or eat soupy foods?

Gummy bears and most all food will digest in just a few hours in your pouch or stomach. They're exposed to digestive juices. And if you can swallow Water with no problem maybe it's a sore throat or strep?

Good find skywalker. I've never seen this study.

BTW-Jean and Alex are also WLS magazine authors and have aritcles available if you look to the right under WLS Magazine Articles if you're on a PC.

I know of two. Jean McMillan who is a contributor here has one called Bandwagon. She also has a website to order from: http://www.amazon.com/Bandwagon-Special-Kindle-Jean-McMillan-ebook/dp/B00DSRSJ8M/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393990486&sr=1-2&keywords=bandwagon And the founder and owner of this site is Alex Brecher and his book is also awesome: http://www.amazon.com/The-BIG-Book-Lap-Band-Everything/dp/0988388227/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1393990433&sr=8-3&keywords=alex+brecher

I believe banders have to be nimble to be successful. I think most everyone suffers from symptoms similar to yours. One day we can eat anything and another only Soup. The standard question is always, do you chew your food to a mush and do you allow about 30 seconds between bites so that you're not overloading your pouch? Do you feel the satiety signals your pouch is sending when it's working properly? tmf

Yeah, ask your doctor before doing anything extreme but usually 2 weeks for the incisions to heal and no ab workouts or hard lifting, bending for 30 days. Of course, everyone heals at different rates.

Eastindguy, I hear ya on the weather. I'm a cyclist and the weather here has been terrible except the last few days and I just got back from a short ride. But, it's going to rain turning to snow soon and of course there's always the wind. Ugh. I'm an outdoor workout kindof guy myself. Most of my weight came off as a result of hard workouts. If I'm not burning calories on my bike, recumbent, elliptical or racquetball, I aint losing weight cuz I keep my calorie intake close to 1600-1800.

Wow, 76 lbs in 5 months is incredible.

Are you on Clear liquids only or can you have shakes? When can you start having Soups like tomato, squash, pureed? One of my fav go to was egg drop Soup. It's mostly just broth with some egg blended in while boiling. Goes down real easy and is quite filling.

I didn't go through the pain process but I felt like I had the worst hangover for a week due to so much anesthesia pumped into my body. I felt more trauma from anesthesia than from the surgery itself. And, I didn't take any of the oxycodone they gave me. Time and lots of fluids help it to go away.

In an ever increasing lower income environment for all physicians who are being squeezed by Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare and of course Insurance companies, the phrase "follow the money" is appropriate. Lab Bands are profitable but not as profitable as other surgical techniques. Aftercare with the band can be a heavy financial burden on those physicians who don't charge an arm and leg for it. It's understandable that patients will be steered into more profitable and of course, more effective surgeries now and in the future. The band is a complicated physical and mental procedure and more scrutiny should be applied to candidates who seek this solution. However, it is a viable and effective tool for most who undergo GB as are the sleeve and Bypass. tmf

The creator of this forum Alex Brecher posted this a few months ago for those who want a more informed, balanced and complete study of the different WLS. DO THE MATH 164 Studies, 161,756 Patients Over Nearly 10 Years: What Does This Add Up To? BARIATRIC AND METABOLIC SURGERY IS EVEN MORE EFFECTIVE THAN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED AND GETTING SAFER! A new meta-analysis of studies carried out between 2003 and 2012 shows higher remission rates of diabetes and high blood pressure and a lower mortality rate than previously reported. The study, published online in JAMA Surgery, is an update to a meta-analysis of studies conducted between 1990 and 2003 and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, Buchwald et. al.) back in October 2004. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reviewed outcomes from nearly 162,000 patients in 164 studies (37 randomized clinical trials and 127 observational studies), over almost 10 years. They discovered 92 percent of patients in randomized clinical trials experienced diabetes remission after surgery, slightly higher than the 86 percent remission rate found in observational studies, but significantly higher than the 76.8 percent remission rate found in the 2004 JAMA study. Remission rates for hypertension were about 75 percent in both the randomized clinical trials and observational studies, while the remission rate in 2004 was 61.7 percent. Body Mass Index (BMI) loss five years after surgery ranged from 12 to 17 in the new study. Before surgery, patients had an average BMI of 45.62. "With the 2004 study, we now have 22 years worth of data from over 180,000 patients and 300 studies," said study co-author J. Esteban Varela, MD, MPH, MBA, Fellow of the ASMBS. "The data continues to prove bariatric surgery is not only safe and effective in providing significant and sustainable weight loss, but is the most effective treatment today for diabetes, hypertension and an array of other diseases and conditions in people with obesity." In the new study, 30-day mortality rate was 0.08 percent, down from the 0.3 percent reported in 2004. Complication rates ranged from 10 to 17 percent and the reoperation rate was about 7 percent. Complication and reoperation rates were not reported in the previous meta-analysis. By procedure, gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy resulted in the greatest weight loss, but had a higher rate of complications and mortality than adjustable gastric banding. Gastric banding had the highest reoperation rate (12% in randomized trials), while gastric bypass had the lowest at 3 percent, followed by sleeve gastrectomy, which had a reoperation rate of 9 percent. The new meta-analysis included sleeve gastrectomy, which was not available in the 1990s. Of note, sleeve gastrectomy had comparable weight loss to that of gastric bypass at 5 years. "This is but the latest study to validate the high degree of safety and effectiveness of bariatric surgery," said Ninh T. Nguyen, MD, FACS, President of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and Vice-Chair of the Department of Surgery at UC Irvine School of Medicine. "Today we are performing operations that are as safe or safer than gallbladder and hernia repair surgery." According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 78 million adults were obese in 2011–2012.1 The ASMBS estimates about 24 million people have severe or morbid obesity. Individuals with a BMI greater than 30 have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of premature death compared to healthy weight individuals as well as an increased risk of developing more than 40 obesity-related diseases and conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.2,3

"who says one person's experience is more valid" I'd think someone who's had the experience first of all? Like you for example? Dr-patient? Not so much, unless she's had the band? Maybe a caveat like, I've never been banded but here's my opinion? Or, I was banded and it failed due to a botched surgical procedure? Taking old studies and biased personal opinions and then twisting them to create a biased caricature should be pointed out. imo

Thanks for the feedback and you're right. She's just misinformed and did not intend to deceive. My bad.

Well, if you can't swallow Water, you're probably getting dehydrated? No water, no weight? That could be why you're losing weight. You won't lose 1 lb of fat a day but you can lose 1+ lbs of Fluid. Dehydration is very dangerous and you may need to go to the ER? Most bariatrics docs have emergency lines you can call them? Don't discount calling his answering service just because the office is closed. You may not need to go in but call him today!

Anger issues? Only over band deniers who come here with an obvious agenda. Your post was so lopsided against the band I had to call you out for the obvious deceptive assertions. You're not the first and won't be the last. You should educate yourself before you make such claims. And you should also lose the agenda. If you're truly here to help other forum members, try to show a little balance? Thanks for posting the pro band slides that demonstrate why the band is a good choice for many people. And really, educate yourself, I've read some of your other negative posts regarding the band and you're poorly informed. I'm sure you're a hero to some forum members but to the well informed, you're posting nonsense. tmf

This guy is still using data from 1995. And it's sad that you had to go out of your way to disparage the band with so little to go on? What was your purpose for this post? What do you have to gain from making such outrageous assertions? This is a common tactic coming from the sleeve side of this forum? It's getting old, ya know what I mean? If you have the sleeve, please refrain from disparaging other WLS techniques. Be thankful you're succeeding(and a big FYI, not every sleever does succeed) with your choice of WLS. And obviously this is your extrapolation and opinion from this so called conference. And thanks so much for eliminating the 57 slides"(though many felt he had so many slides to try to really argue his position in favor of the band at this point)".

My opinion is, you should ask for a fill under fluoroscopy so you can get the proper amount since it's so hard for you. It took me 6 fills to finally get to the green zone and I've read where others have taken as much as 13.

It's a running joke from a thread started back in Nov/Dec. Someone asked about what happens to the metal staples(I don't think there are any) that are used to seal the stomach after most of the stomach has been removed and that started a multi page thread about what happens to the staples. It had it's stupid moments and some funny ones too. No, you won't be pooping staples with any WLS.

How did you get your broth down?? I meant protein............... LOL..I didn't worry about it. My own post surgery protocol was liquids for 4 days and then mushies after that. So, if I didn't have Protein for a few days I didn't think it would matter all that much. Neither did my doc or nutritionist. I ate a lot of egg drop Soup, pureed beef pot roast Soups and some others so I never really suffered. Not much pain and not all that hungry the first 30 days.

I love catnaps

Have both knees replaced and get back into tennis. I could have done it this year/summer if I could have pulled the trigger to have my knee surgeries but I chickened out. tmf

Mine sure has. Started the 2nd month after surgery. Now, even if I eat slider foods I can only eat 40% of what I once ate. For example, I can still eat steak, tenderloin steak. 4-6 oz is the max I can eat before the signals start waving the white flag in my face. Before being banded I could eat a 24 oz porterhouse. I'd be so full I was nauseated but for some stupid reason it was comforting(sick huh?) tmf