TheGh0st

Mary - please update - how are you feeling? Did the surgery go well?

***NEWS FLASH*** Just heard a couple minutes ago on NPR radio this morning that Walt Bodine's show today is going to be discussing the "reasons and risks behind surgical weight loss". I hope they give the lapband procedure more than just a mention. I'm at work but am planning on trying to listen to live via the internet and either call or e-mail in. For anyone else that can't listen live. Walts shows are available to listen to free online 1-2 days after it airs at KCUR.org.

If we are truly worried we could call her band doc in TX. I know we don't have her full name but I'm sure they would know who she was if we described her. But I'm a bit reluctant as I don't want to look like a "stalker" type. Still I am getting more and more worried. This isn't like her to not post for over a month.

Same here. Any ideas on how we can access it?

Chantay - I understand the gas prices are beating me up as well. And my husband doesn't like me being away from our son but Wednesdays he goes to a bible study and can take Brian for a children's bible class as well so it works out for me. Mary - I'd love to see you come. No reason to wait until after the surgery. You could pick our brains in person with any last minute questions or worries. I had 3 people show up last week. Including one who was banded 6-1/2 years ago, and one that was only banded 6 weeks ago. We walked at the 6-wk post op gals pace. She stayed in the inside lane and the gal (Jen) that was 6+ years out walked backwards (most of the time) in the outside lane. I was somewhere in the middle of the track. Having other people around really made it easier to walk more than I would have if I'd just been there alone with my thoughts, not to mention my aches and pains.

REMINDER There is another walking date tonight (Wed May 9th) at 7:30pm. We are meeting At the Pioneer Trail Junior High Track. Its on the corner of Blackbob and 127th street in Olathe. For those who haven't met me I'm a short red head with glasses. This isn't be a marathon or foot race, just a walk at your own pace to get us all moving. NOTE: If it decides to rain tonight we will be meeting at the Olathe Great Mall of the Plain inside the Entrance to the South of Burlington Coat Factory. Feel free to call if you have any questions 913-710-3390.

I can't believe it!!! Billie was the heart of that place for me!

Angela & Mary - I can relate its a bit of a drive for me as well but I've been so bad about getting back to exercise that I'm more than willing to commit to the drive if that's what it takes to get me off the couch. I just don't seem to live very close to anyone that I can get interested to workout with me and trying to do it solo just hasn't worked for me yet. (copout - I know) Mary - Sorry, I meant to go but I actually forgot. Things have been so hectic at home lately. I looked at the clock around 9pm and realized what day it was. Chantay - I'm not a good person to ask about staples. I'm a bit alergic to the staples so I was pretty infected around them. Some of them felt a bit like plucking an eyebrow but others were worse for me. Try not too worry, no matter how it feels it's only a few moments of potential discomfort towards your new life of weight loss.

Mary and all other interested parties... Our first walking date is Wednesday at 7:30pm. At the Pioneer Trail Junior high and its on the corner of Blackbob and 127th street in Olathe. Currently I'm meeting up with Machelle who has posted here before and possibly her husband to walk. For those who haven't met me I'm a short red head with glasses and wil be in jeans. Machelle says she has glasses and shoulder-length brown hair and usually wear it in a pony tail. Look forward to seeing as many as possible. This could be the start of something great.

Chantay, It does get better. You say you felt "horrible" what was wrong, Surgery, Pain, Gas Pain, Hunger Pain, Mental Pain over the fear of the loss of food, or All of the above? I've heard of people having bad pains from the gases they blow you up with during surgery though I don't remember experiencing that myself. I'd had my gallbladder removed a few years earlier and had a horrible post surgery experience. So all I can remember about my post surgery pain is that I kept thinking it was so much better than the last gall bladder surgery. On the other side I didn't have a very good time with the hunger pains wether it was real hunger or just the head hunger and sense of what have I done and will I ever enjoy food again? To this day I still have no desire for another serving of Jello. I remember being so excited when I could start in on the cream soups, which I promptly decided included cheese soups right or wrong. They never tasted so good. But now I don't really feel any sense of loss when it comes to food. I really can eat most anything assuming I chew it well enough. Though there certain foods I use to think I liked eating that now I feel are just not worth the chewing effort. You will get through this. Look forward to seeing you again soon.

Mary - Congrats! I'm so excited for you. Chantay - How is it coming? Are you doing all right? When do you start into mushies or solids? All - Anyone out there interested in joining me and a few others to walk once or twice a week? I'm not talking about power walking or marathons. Just a nice slow walk. Let me know.

Congrats Mary, and only two days left Chantay! Amazing! I'll keep the both of you in my prayers. - Diane

Pre-Surgery I was very nervous but my mother was so against the surgery and nervous for me that I was too focused on arguing with her to focus on my own fears. It was an odd blessing in disguise. Even at the time I was fighting with her over this. I remember thinking that knowing my own personality I would have been much more likely to get scared and back out if I wasn't so focused on calming her fears for me. I also remember losing a pretty decent amount of weight during the pre-op diet the few days before surgery and talking to my husband as we walked into the hospital that morning about my temptation to just walk back out and post-pone the surgery and see if I couldn't keep losing without the band. But then I remembered I never had too much trouble losing those first pounds when I'd really try. My problem was always in the losing the last few pounds and keeping any of what I lost off. What the band has really helped me with is not necessarily losing the weight but with not gaining the weight back when I don't feel like working on losing it. Don't get me wrong the band has helped me lose, especially the first 75 pounds. But these last pounds are going to take more work on my part. But until I buckle down and put that work in the band keeps me from worrying about gaining back what I've lost so far. .

Marys Said it MUCH Better than I could/did! Just remember no matter how you behave now or for how long. God will always forgive you when you are ready.

(NOTE: I apologize for any rambling or offenses in advance, I'm writing this between phone calls at work and it probably will not be the most polished or elegant post.) Puddin, I've been a lurker on this thread for the last couple weeks and have read your back posts as well. But after your last couple of comments I feel compelled to respond. There isn't one poster that has responded to you that I would disagree with (That I've read) But if you are anything like me even the most up-beat "you can do it" post can feel like a dagger in the heart when you are personally covinced you just can't do it. I'm not sure I can say I've been exactly where you are but I wanted to share my own past experience in the hopes you might feel just a little less alone. I'm 37 now and married with one son. But I was born and raised in a very traditional non-denominational church (albeit not the LDS) I had also struggled my whole life with weight and self-esteem issues. When I got to college I managed to lose quite a bit of weight and combining that with the new location full of people that didn't know the "old" me. I put on a more foreward outgoing party facade. Though still determined to maintain my virginity until marriage. Then one night I was date-raped by a "friend" I had willingly started kissing in his dorm room. I felt so guilty over the whole incident not even wanting to admit it was a rape but feeling instead it was my own fault for not saying no for the 50th time, for not screaming, for not fighting harder to get out the door, for having gone in the room to begin with. Then in the weeks afterwards I felt so little of myself I managed to "sleep" with 1-2 new friends each week after a few months that tapered off to 1 a month or two. It took nearly 2-3 years for me to finally break free of my self destructive behaviour fueled both by my own feelings of religious guilt and the "in-the moment" thrill I would get but didn't want to admit to. OK I know this all sounds pretty depressing but my point is eventually I was able to work through it. Found a good guy and settled down. I have to admit him and I also had relations before marriage with each other and the fact he is aware that a large percentage of my male "friends" from the past have also "known" me has not always been easy. But I did survive. We've been married for 14 years now and are both active in our church. In the long run I think the struggles I went through have strengthened my walk with Christ. There have been a few times I feel like some of my Christian friends might think less of me if they knew my past but most of them do and do not judge me for it. Most days now I can even look back on those days and laugh at them. After all if I don't laugh the alternative is to cry. And I'm done with that. To be honest my biggest fear with losing the weight I have has been that I might be tempted to relive some of those days of my pre-married youth. But I'm not the same person now I was then. I'm not better!!! just not the same at nearly 40 and more importantly married. I'm sorry for rattling and have no idea if I've been of any help or have just been more depressing. My hope is that wether you give up on your efforts at restraint for now or not that you realize that one day you will overcome this and when that day, month or year comes. That you forgive yourself and move forward with your head held high. Until then try to enjoy this time of discovery as best you can and not judge yourself too harshly. PS - just think of the stories you'll be able to share with your grandchildren. I loved both my grandmothers but one of mine had been a cigar smoking wild child herself back in the 1930's. When I got to be in highschool and early college it meant so much to me to be able to have someone like her I could talk to and know she would understand and not judge even if she did wish better for me.

Just a quick post. (or at least that's the plan) Hope all had a good Easter. I went to the P.S. meeting last week I didn't take nearly as many notes as I expected to but would be glad to answer any questions I can. He had some very interesting pre/post pics of various different surgeries to remove the excess skin around the body. He was very personable and the real shocker for me was that when I read the literature I found he was from my home town of 20,000 in Nebraska. My mom even knew and worked with one of his parents (also a doc). A couple of interesting notes. First he said nearly 95% of people wanting breast reduction are approved for insurance compared to less than 5% wanting excess skin removed in the stomach. He also said his office wouldn't perform the insurance covered stomach surgeries even though they do take insurance for breast reduction. The problem he said was that the insurance companies that would approve the procedures usually only approved the pannis removal not a full body lift or tummy tuck. The aesthetic results of a pannis removal are not nearly as good as the other surgical options. The insurance also only paid out around $600 which he said wasn't nearly enough to cover his overhead much less anything left over for his own salary. On a more postitive note he said for people having more than one procedure even months or years apart he gave a discount for the additional surgeries. But he didn't give exact costs for any of the surgeries. I'm planning on setting up an appointment with him sometime in the next month just to have him give me a professional opinion on how much more he thinks I need to lose before I start with the lifts and tucks.

I'm close to goal but having problems. Lately I've been living in a bit of denial I'll look at the scale and see it says 168 but seconds later I'm thinking "Isn't it cool I'm already down to 186... wait I mean 168!!!" It's like my brain can't accept that I'm in the 160's. By the way, I have no idea where you are on the scale (not that you need to say) but when looking at my weight you have to keep in mind I'm only 5'2" and wearing 12's & 14's. Question, have you been having any problems with guilt over the weight loss? I can't seem to stop beating myself up. One minute it's why can't you buckle down and lose those last 15 pounds. the next minute I'm feeling guilty for even wanting to lose those last pounds when so many other banded friends of mine would be thrilled to even get to a point 20 pounds heavier than I already am. Sometimes I even feel guilty for not having started this whole process at a heavier weight. I guess I feel kind of in the middle. Like my "skinny" relatives and friends still think of me as the overweight girl who is just kidding herself is she thinks she is one of them yet. And my Banded or un-Banded friends that are early stages of the journey are more focused on how far I've come than how far I have left, making me feel like they no longer think of me as one of them that they can relate to any more either. Am I completely crazy, or have any of you felt this too? Any chance any of you know of a thread for people at or nearer goal that are talking about issues like this?

I'm close to goal but having problems. Lately I've been living in a bit of denial I'll look at the scale and see it says 168 but seconds later I'm thinking "Isn't it cool I'm already down to 186... wait I mean 168!!!" It's like my brain can't accept that I'm in the 160's. By the way, I have no idea where you are on the scale (not that you need to say) but when looking at my weight you have to keep in mind I'm only 5'2" and wearing 12's & 14's. Question, have you been having any problems with guilt over the weight loss? I can't seem to stop beating myself up. One minute it's why can't you buckle down and lose those last 15 pounds. the next minute I'm feeling guilty for even wanting to lose those last pounds when so many other banded friends of mine would be thrilled to even get to a point 20 pounds heavier than I already am. Sometimes I even feel guilty for not having started this whole process at a heavier weight. I guess I feel kind of in the middle. Like my "skinny" relatives and friends still think of me as the overweight girl who is just kidding herself is she thinks she is one of them yet. And my Banded or un-Banded friends that are early stages of the journey are more focused on how far I've come than how far I have left, making me feel like they no longer think of me as one of them that they can relate to any more either. Am I completely crazy, or have any of you felt this too? Any chance any of you know of a thread for people at or nearer goal that are talking about issues like this?

Congrats on the fill. I'm glad it went well. Keep us posted on your progress.

IMHO - is that there are several factors that come into play whe adjusting a band, especially a larger band. The first which is true for either band is that the doctor will want to be relatively cautious when giving fills. They would much rather give you too little than too much and risk needing an unfill (in a worst case senario at the ER). Even though they make you drink some water after a fill to make sure its still going down there are those that find they are more restricted a couple days after a fill than they were immediately afterwards. But what I feel to be the bigger factor in that ever-ellusive "sweet-spot" of fills whith the larger band. Is that most of us were given the larger band (myself included) because we had a larger fat pad around the stomach wall. This fat pad will also naturally shrink as you lose weight causing the band to feel looser again. Which is why with the larger band I feel you usually end up finding and losing that sweet spot more often than not needing more tweaks until that fat pad has stopped shrinking. Personally, I ended up with over 12 fills in my first year. But have only had 1 in the last 6 months. And to be honest it probably was a mistake as I think that last fill left me a little too tight for several months. :eek:BTW - Am I reading your ticker right. The last time you posted your ticker said you were down 29 pounds now it reads 37. WOW!!! One bit of advice if you feel you are continuing to lose right now more on good ol' will power rather than "band-power" Make sure to emphasize that with your doc or he's likely to suggest you don't need a fill with such drastic weight loss. My doc refused me on either my first or second fill as he thought the band must be fine considering how much I had lost. But I was starving all the time and only restricting my intake through sheer effort. :ban:But I was so new to the process I didn't think to explain that to him and went away with out a fill. Coming back for one a few weeks later and after an unecessary 2 pound weight gain.

:welcome2: Hey Jonathan! Don't remember seeing you here before. Nice to meet you. Both Malley's & Heartland's are open to all patients. Hitchcock&Hoehn's is closed to just theirs. I believe there is also a open group that meets at the Independence Mall. There is a yahoo group called KCBandsters that lists some of these groups on its calendar page. There use to be a website that listed most of the groups for KC & St. Joe area but the link wasn't working the last time I looked so the site might not exist any longer. Were you banded by Hoehn/Hitchcock? :clap2:BTW GREAT START!!!! :rockon:29 pounds in 29 days! :target:You are BURNING though the pounds right now. How are you feeling? Are you having any problems adjusting? If you have any questions feel free to ask.

I'll be there next week. I'll double check my clothes as well, I might have a top or two but I've already given away most of my early day clothes.

Mary, My husband ended up watching Brian so I didn't need to bring him. I'm a short red-head. I was in group #1 at the front of the room when we split up. I'm also the one who said when Sabobathy comes next month one of the topics he might discuss was the changing dynamics of relationships with those around us. Like my mother-in-law that had been very close and supportive of my surgery but now that I'm approaching a weight near her own seems to be becoming more distant and less supportive.

:faint: Sorry Mary - I meant to ask you to join us as well. Maybe next we can do it again next time.

I just wanted to say I had a great time at Dos Reales with all of you! Chantay - It was good to meet you & your mother. The next 4 weeks and 5 days will go by in a flash. Angela - I now what you mean. I still refer ppl to Dr. H as I also have complete faith in him & Billie. But I've begun to casually suggest to people that they check out both Dr. H's & Malley's office. I have absolutely NO (I REPEAT NO) regrets in using Dr. H and not once have I suggested to anyone that Malley is better, just that he is another good doctor in town and it is always wise to look around before you decide where you are more comfortable. For anyone that might be curious... Here are the pro's I know about Dr H: - My own personal doctor trusted him to perform surgery on her son when he was critically injured a few months before I had my band - A personal friend of mine that is an RN at SMMC who has been known to critisize other docs at SMMC had only praises for Dr H. - He has been doing the lapband since 2004 on over 300 patients - A member of his staff has been actively working to help create the testing and standards for RN's to specialize in Bariatrics. - The SMMC location has just been named a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence. Some of the pro's I know about Dr. M: - I have multiple friends who are his patients and fully support him and his staff. - I regularily attend support groups hosted at his office as well. - several members of his staff have also had the band. - He has been doing the lapband since 2004 on over 600 patients - He is a general surgeon but works exclusively with the Band now. Only performing non-band related surgeries (like Gallbladder removal) on current banded patients of his. - Inamed has certified him as a proctor for training new Lapband surgeons in the Midwest.