ParrotheadCathy

WilliamK, the telemetric (or EasyBand) is not available in the United States. I think I've seen two other posts where someone had gotten the EasyBand. Both in England. Since Allergan has bought the company that manufactures the EasyBand I believe the push will be on to have it approved here in the States but it takes time.

I'VE GOT YOUR ANSWER! I just went to www.slimfast.com to print off some coupons. All you have to do is register and you get 3 $2 off coupons. They also have a store locator on their website.

Have you tried drinking hot liquids in the morning, like coffee or tea? I've read where a lot of people say they are very tight in the morning and this helps. I'm a little tight in the AM ... and combine that with rushing around trying to go to work, I just drink a Protein shake. BUT making yourself vomit is NEVER good. Please call your surgeon's office and make an apppoint to go in and discuss all your problems. You need the help and support of your doctor so go get it!

You can buy the SlimFast Low Carb....5 more grams of protein and 25 grams less carbs than the High Protein version, same calories. I know, go figure?!?!? I can buy either one at Target, Walgreens and Kroger. Haven't looked anywhere else because I can always find it. However, I did look on Amazon to see if they offered a better price. You can buy a case on Amazon for the same price as buying the 4 packs at the store and they offer fast shipping.

I lost 5 pounds between surgery and my first fill. I was not a happy camper but I had been warned by my doctor that was likely to be the case. My first fill helped a bit but don't expect that first fill to be a magic act. It's not anywhere near enough restriction to take you past what I call "white knuckling"....pretty much diet and exercise only. But I've now had 4 fills, believe I am at my sweet spot, and am losing steadily. It started getting easier with fill #3. Now 3-1/2 months post surgery and I've lost 60 pounds.

Every morning, I have my "concoction"...a large glass of water (about 24 oz), with my vitamin dissolved in it (Berocca Performance), 2 tablespoons of Benefiber with Calcium, and a package of Crystal Light Natural Citrus Splash. The Berocca I use is slightly citrus flavored but not enough to cover the taste of the vitamins, so that's why I chose the Crystal Light flavor. I'm almost 4 months post-op and haven't had a problem. You won't go as much as you did before surgery because you don't eat nearly as much. For me that meant I went from pretty much once a day to once every 4-5 days. Ask your doctor if, when you get seriously painfully constipated, you can use a Fleet enema rather than laxatives. Fleet enema works pretty much instantly and doesn't have any of the side effects of laxatives (no control over when a laxative decides to work, cramping, etc.). I had one episode of constipation about a week after surgery and I was miserable, so I called my doctor's office and they told me to use the Fleet enema. Worked great!

My internist says that those detox things are not good for you because it's like a enema that kills off an awful lot of good bacteria and that doing that can have some negative impact on you overall. I did not have to do any kind of bowel prep before my surgery, which was fine by me. My only immediate pre-op requirement was nothing to eat or drink after midnight the night before my surgery. Monkey's right. Your doc may agree with a lot of others, like mine, and not want you to do a detox thing.

Your doctor may be sure, but obviously you aren't. Call your insurance company first thing tomorrow and discuss their requirements for approval for LBS so that you KNOW for yourself.

Want3Be, I agree 100% with Restless Monkey. Cassy named some issues that I don't agree with...they may be less widespread than she thinks. I haven't had any problems at all. I'm down 60 pounds (that's almost half of what I want to lose) and I'm less than 4 months post-op. Yeah, I've PB'd a couple of times but it's not the end of the world and IT WAS ALL MY FAULT for eating too fast. Now, as for the amount of problems you read about on here, some of them I attribute directly to whas sounds like some doctors don't provide their patients with enough information to succeed. Check to see that the doctors you are considering offer group support, nutritionist session(s), that sort of thing. If a doctor doesn't offer that, then you should probably look elsewhere. My doctor's staff includes a psych, a nutritionist and several "lap band advocates". The advocate's job consists mostly of helping patients with all their questions both pre- and post-op. They are a lot easier to get to speak with than the surgeon and they have been trained to answer questions. I found that to be the best single thing I had going in the early post-op period. There are many times the number of people who post here who have never been on any online forum but who have moved steadily along with their success. Remember the old adage about the squeaky wheel? Well, that's what you notice, the squeaky wheel. Some of these people look to this group for all their answers and solutions, but the truth is your doctor should always be your best source for information. So in your process of choosing a doctor, be sure to look for support at that level too. Some doctors are very conservative with fills so it may take longer to get to your sweet spot. But that's not true of all of them. I had .6cc in my band after sugery. At 1 month out, I got my first fill and they gave me 4ccs. That was actually too much and about a half-hour later, they took out 1cc. I've had three more fills, am now at 5.6ccs and if this isn't my sweet spot, it is so close I'm having a hard time telling the difference. My surgery was February 10 and my last fill was just slightly over 3 months out from my surgery. Lastly, Cassie was incredibly spot-on on this: THIS IS NOT MAGIC. THIS ISN'T A NO-BRAINER. You have to make the right food choices. The band will most definitely limit how much you can eat, but it cannot prevent you from eating slider food....and that will keep you from being successful. Some of the stuff that goes down the easiest is the stuff you really have to learn to walk away from...ice cream, chips, milk shakes, candy, cookies even. Now that's not to say that I never eat a little bit of a birthday cake, but I do not troll the pasty aisle at the grocery store or stop at the bakery to gaze lovingly at the goodies. You do have to exercise some self-control in your life, and this is one of those times (time after time after time!). When somebody offers you something that is basically empty calories (like desserts, full fat cheese, full fat dressing, and many other things), you have to say NO THANK YOU. The difference between saying NO THANK YOU with the band is that you can be well satisfied without eating all that crap while says NO THANK YOU on just a diet may leave you later wishing you'd eaten it. Sure, there are people this doesn't work for them, but I'll be bold and say that 99.9% of them aren't using the band to the fullest. You can eat around the band. You can eat around gastric bypass. You can probably eat around the gastric sleeve but I don't know enough about that to offer up an opinion.

I've read where a few people were not told to drink protein shakes, just clear liquids .... which just blew my mind totally! How else can you take in nutrition that amounts to anything while on a liquid diet? I was told for the liquid stage of post-op to drink 3 protein shakes per day and after that, I could have as much of anything else on the liquid dietas I wanted. I won't tell you to do that because your doctor may feel differently, but I will say to ask.

ZagaGirl ... how do you KNOW your esophagus is dialated? That's the diagnosis. What symptoms did you have? Vomiting, pain, what? Frankly, I wouldn't get all worried until I talked to my own doc. This colleague seemed more than ready to throw out a diagnosis without any explanations or recommendations for you.

I was self-pay in the US. $15,000 if that helps. If you are self-pay, I have a suggestion for you. If you don't go to Mexico, for your pre-op testing, find out what is required and go back to your PCP and get referrals for those tests. They will more than likely be covered by your insurance even though the surgery isn't. That's what I did. If I had let my surgeon make the referrals, I would have had to pay out-of-pocket for an Upper GI, chest xray, sleep study, EKG, echocardiogram and a stress test. Lots of $$. As it is, it cost me very little.

You might also do well to call your insurance company to verify that lap band surgery is covered. If they say yes, then ask what requirements they have. Like the earlier poster, I believe physically you will qualify with not problem even with co-morbidities. But your insurance company can tell you if you will have to do a supervised diet (some require 3 or 6 months prior to approval for surgery). They can tell you whether you will need to have nutritionists visit(s) or a psych evaluation, too. THEN ask them for the names of surgeons approved by your insurance to perform the procedure. Then, take that list to your PCP and see if he/she knows any of the surgeons or knows anything about them to help you make a choice and do the referral if your insurance requires that. You insurance may require a letter of necessity from your PCP, too. One of the reasons I suggest you ask for yourself is that I've read more than one post on more than one forum where the doc's office got it wrong. If you have the information from the horse's mouth, then you are better prepared to be able to say "I know I'm covered and I know my insurance requires yada yada yada". The whole process will go more smoothly if you are armed with this information. Once you've picked a surgeon, call to see if they do the information seminars and if so, sign up. If not, go ahead and make your appointment for the first consultation, knowing the answers to some of your questions will make it easier to focus on the the procedure and how it should work for you.

The first few days after surgery, you have quite a bit of swelling at the band site and probably won't experience any hunger. It's that period starting with when you start feeling pretty normal but have no restriction at all because you haven't started getting fills -- the time we call bandster hell -- that it's difficult. You can eat pretty much any food without problem but you know you are supposed to try to stick the the eating plan. I felt like it was strictly "white knuckle" time for me. Now, I have plenty of restriction, believe I'm at my sweet spot in fact and all of that seems a long time ago instead of just mid-March!

Bunny, try getting just .2cc removed (not ALL of the last fill). Often a tiny adjustment is all it takes. Stay at the doc's long enough to drink a glass or two of water to see if .2cc was enough.

Not a diver myself, but I've seen this question posted before on at least one forum and saw where others had experienced no problems diving after banded.

I've read where others mentioned that same pain you refer to. As for dizziness, are you taking in enough protein? 60 grams is the minimum I was told to take in per day, even when I was on liquids. Adequate protein and adequate hydration are key to your physical well-being.

Use a heating pad over any area that hurts. Gas-X won't do a thing for gas that isn't in your GI tract. Moving around also helps trememdously. I read a post on one forum where a woman said her doctor suggested she sit in a rocking chair and rock and that she would find that helped as well. I doubt it's lactose-related unless you had lactose intolerance BEFORE surgery. It's more likely just the gas that most of us have suffered from.

I have 5.6ccs -- and can swallow SMALL stuff only. There's no way I could get down a large pill. But you have no restriction right now unless you still have some post-op swelling, so you should be fine.

You've had some significant problems in the past. I'm thinking talking to your surgeon is the best place to get answers. You'll get some suggestions here, but the bottom line is, if you don't call your doctor today, you will be stuck until TUESDAY because of the holiday and my question is, do you want to take the risk of this not getting better and having to wait that long for relief?

You can have the pharmacist add flavoring to the Lortabs Elixir for about $2. Mine recommended watermelon flavor because he said it was the strongest flavoring they had. I never actually took any of the pain meds, but curiosity being what it is, I stuck my finger in it and tasted. Still tasted medicine-y but not gag-me terrible.

I think you've named everything I've heard of. You have to remember that lap band surgery has only been performed in the US for about 7 years. While they are constantly compiling information about patients, there aren't any long term patients (like 10 or 15 years). BUT the band is removable, so if it became an issue 15 years from now or whatever, it could be removed if it was believed it was causing a problem.

Well, I have no personal experience, but you do need to tell the anesthesiologist and doctor about methadone because it may require special attention in the operating room. I don't know if they would have to disclose it to your insurance company, but you seriously don't want to risk your life over this. I applaud your efforts to become AND STAY clean and sober. It's an awesome accomplishment. Perhaps you could investigate it anonymously and go to a seminar with a doctor other than your own and ask if the methadone treatment would prevent them from operating on you. That way, you wouldn't be putting the information out unnecessarily?

IF it were not Friday today, I would say if it's not better by in the morning, go to the doc for a small unfill. BUT it is Friday AND Monday is a holiday. I say call your doc's office when they open and go in for a small unfill. Sometimes as little as .2cc can relieve the problem. What you definitely do not want is for this not to resolve itself and you find yourself unable to drink for three days and until whenever on Tuesday they could get you in the office. It could relax on its own enough to be fine but you cannot predict that and, like I said, you're looking at a 3 day weekend. Caution would make it the very wise choice to go back to your doc.

I ate some sugar free fudgsicles. I discovered by accident that I do not miss hamburgers per se ..... it's that Heinz 57 sauce I always put on mine, LOL. Just like Jimmy Buffet says "I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 ..." So I ate some Heinz 57 on some grilled chicken and got my taste of Heinz 57 AND it helped with the dryness of that particular piece of chicken!