KateP

Are you the Toritz from the UK board! If do, this is how Brits docs now teach.

Don't know about Oz, but in the UK, we appear to have a very low slip rate and we are generally allowed carbonated drinks. Our guidelines are the same as the Oz ones. European studies over 15 years show a slip rate of 2.5% ( Stroh snd Manger 2013).

Perhaps she trained in the UK, Europe or Australia. Ŵhat she says is not far from what I was taught. When I was banded in 2006, the guidelines you quote were the ones I was taught but we are now told that research studies have found no link between carbonation and slips, that we need no more Protein than non-bariatric patients and that, unless we find it difficult, we can eat all foods. I am told this, not just by one nutritionist but by all the other UK bandsters I meet from their docs and from our national health service which covers the whole of the UK. I am told (but this is only hearsay) the information given in Australia and New Zealand and in Germany and Belgium is the same. So maybe it is just that as a newly trained nutritionist, she has learned fhe latest theories. In the same way that some docs still tell their patients that food must be held above the band for 20 minutes and neve gell people about the more recent research. Kate

Hi. Jean asked me to look in and answer your thread. I was banded ( a long time ago) at BMI Winchester. I think all the BMI group hospitals do bariatric surgery. My surgeon then transferred to Spire Southampton and I followed him. My care has now been taken over by the NHS. The Hospital Group is a big provider. Is the NHS out of the question? You have to be VERY big and have other medical conditions to qualify. i am not sure of the terms and conditions on here, I probably can't post links to other boards. So I suggest you google gastricsurgeryfriends and read posts on there. We are all Brits! I spent the first five of my banded years on OH and have made great friends like Jean. But it is actually easier to get support from people who talk in stones, use UK dress sizes, know UK foods, not to mention UK hospitals. Going abroad to Belgium or the CR is cheaper, but remember you will need lots of aftercare. Some of the Belgium clinics do set that up in the UK. Not all do! Kate

Hi, I used to post occasionally on here many years ago but spent most of my time on another wls board. That board has taken to transferring threads on to their Facebook site without asking or telling the posters. I don't like that so have left! So hi to any who remember me ( probably very few as I didn't post here much). I am almost six years post op, lost all my excess weight in about 16 months and have maintained every since at below goal. One major blip when I had a leak in the tubing about 18 months ago but it was repaired and all has been fine ever since. Planning on being a regular visitor here so will spend some time working the site out again, updating profiles, signatures etc.. The other site has put me off putting photos on though! Your mods tell me they don't put our stuff on FB but the other site has frightened me off doing that! Even after being banded for so long, the support of a dedicated site is still so very important. Kate

Initial weight loss is glycogen, easily accessible, Water soluble fat. It is designed for the body's quick response to physical danger or, in the case of strict diet, the danger of famine/ malnourishment. After a couple of weeks, the body realises that this is not a short term thing, food intake is not going to increase. So the body needs to replenish the glycogen store, ready for the next danger. We store about 2lbs of glycogen but it requires as much as four times its own weight of water. So your body is busily restoring what amounts to up to 8lbs of water and fat. So stalling is not surprising! Neither is a gain at this stage. Kate

Hi, Jean. Tried to send you a PM to say " fancy seeing you here" but my ipad won't let me! But, hello old friend and fellow refugee! Will now try to learn to use this board! Kate

Not me!

Docs decide. Many believe it is not worth the risks of unnecessary exposure, however small, to radiation. In any case, the tightness of the band varies as the tissue it encircles is living tissue which can swell. For example, many people are tighter when denhydrated, stressed, TOTM, illness etc.. So any XRay just shows a snapshot of tighteness at that particular moment. In my own case, I am much tighter first thing in the morning. So if I had an evening fill which made me " just right" on an XRay, I would be too tight the following morning, and the opposite if I were filled early in the day.

I can! Some can't!

Hi I am new to this site and am being banded in Winchester on the 22nd May. Not NHS, I was told that you have to be VERY large (over 30 stones) for WLS on the NHS and if you are that big you are probably recommended to go for bypass not lapband anyway. I considered Belgium because of lower costs but opted for nearer home because of fills etc.. At the BMI hospital in Winchester it is £5,250 for everything including 2 fills (initial consultation is a separate charge). This seems cheap for UK. I have gained an enormous amount of support and advice from ObesityHelp.com. Would recommend it. It is American and so you need to think in pounds not stone and there are clear differences in approach but there are so many lapbanders out there that there is always someone who has experienced anything you want to discuss. If you go there, go to forums and then make sure you select lapband surgery under surgery type or you will find yourself bogged dwon in bypass patients! Kate

Eleda, £5,250 covers everything except intial consultation. So - consult with dietician, follow up with dietician and consultant, all post and pre-op care, overnight stay, 2 fills. It is the Sarum Road Hospital, Winchester, part of BMI group so may be a BMI nearer you. Mr Bryne has not done hundreds of lapbands but has done a fair number (he is a gastro-enterologist) and trained with Dr Fielding in Australia who invented the current type of lapband. He is an NHS surgeon at Southampton General hospital. Kate

Just calling in to introduce myself as have only just found this site (am a regular on the Obesity Help Lapband Forum but new to this one). Being banded on 22nd May and very excited. WLS is not as common in the UK as it seems to be in the US (although as I am going on dedicated forums I am probably getting a biased sample!) so I don't really have anyone to chat to that is being "done" in England. Kate

Hi Eleda - there aren't many of us Brits getting WLS! In fact, I am beginning to sound like an American because I spend so much time on US messageboards. Can't help with your problem as my husband very supportive but thought would contact you anyway! Am having my lapband fitted 22nd May in Winchester - £5,500 for everything inlc. 2 fills. Have you been on ObesityHelp.com? Excellent messageboard (make sure you go to the lapband forum or you find yourselves with the bypass people! Kate