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Sorry you are feeling let down. However I am sure that the surgeon has your best interests at heart. Surgery is dangerous and the higher your BMI the more dangerous it is . A BMI of 68 is extremely high.Far better to lose the weight prior to surgery than to die from complications on the table. It is also normal in the US to have to undergo a 6 month supervised diet prior to undergoing surgery . This proves to the insurance company that you are serious and have tried your best and are not just looking for a quick fix. you are not the first person i have heard of that has to do a 4 week preop diet. The purpose of this part of the process is to help shrink the liver. When you are obese the liver is enlarged and fatty. If it is not reduced in size prior to surgery you run the risk of having to have open as opposed to laparoscopic surgery or of it getting damaged during surgery which is highly dangerous. If your Dr suggested a bypass you need to find out why do not just dismiss his suggestion out of hand.Yes there are some Dr's that push bypass because it is their preferred surgery but your Dr may feel that a band would not suit you. With weight loss surgery there is no one size fits all - different surgeries suit different people depending on their types of eating.Bands are generally recommended for people that eat large quantities but do not have as much of an issue with sweets. bypasses are recommended where it is felt that malabsorption is also required. There is another option - the sleeve.I have even heard of people having a bypass and a band combined. Price should not be your deciding factor when choosing a surgeon. I understand that it is important but it is more important to choose an experienced surgeon that has done lots of the procedure that you choose and that has a good track record. Their are countless horror stories of things going wrong when using a cheap or inexperienced surgeon. That is not to say that all surgeons offering cheap surgery are bad but you do need to be careful. This board is a great place for you to vent, get support and do research.Read some of the threads from people that had revisions from lapband to bypass to help you with your decision as well. Wishing you all the best.

You are too tight. You need some Fluid taken out so that you can eat solid foods as these are the ones that sustain you. They allow your band to work and should keep you not hungry(different to full) for a couple of hours. Being too tight means that you can only eat sliders or drink . These can of foods slide past the band easily, are often high calorie and do not sustain you so you quickly become hungry again. Having just a small amount of fluid out can make a huge difference and is not something to be scared off. Being too tight causes or contributes to may problems such as slips and erosion. Hope you sort this out soon and start losing again.

Its normal not to have any restriction at this stage. It commonally takes a number of fills to reach ideal restriction. In the meantime you can still be hungry which is why it is called bandsters hell! There are lots of threads on the topic - look some of them up and you will see what you are experiencing is perfectly normal. Don't stress if you eat slightly more than you should or even if you gain during this period. It is important though that you stop drinking with meals as if you continue to do that your band WON'T be able to work properly. As others have said it's a habit and they are hard to break but it can be done.The sooner you break it the better

I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of what you ate on an average day prebanding to what you eat on an average day now that you are banded. Here is mine. Pre Banding Before Breakfast 1 cup of tea and 2 - 3 biscuits(cookies) Breakfast Large bowl of Cereal e.g Sultana Bran 1 - 2 slices wholemeal toast with low fat spread and vegemite. Mid Morning Cake or chocolate bar or packet of crisps lunch Sandwich with 2 or 3 slices wholemeal bread, ham, cheese etc Afternoon More biscuits dinner Meat/Chicken or fish Pasta/Rice or potatoes Veg Couple of glasses of wine Sometimes Dessert Evening A couple of squares of chocolate. I also used to be back and fore to the fridge snacking on things such as ham,pickled onions etc. Strangely I was convinced that I didn't eat that much. Now post band. before breakfast 1 cup of tea Breakfast 1 poached or dry fried(whole)egg on 1 slice wholemeal toast with low fat spread and vegemite. Sometimes I add a slice of ham or smoked salmon to this. If I am in a hurry I will have an Up and Go or muesli and greek yogurt instead. Mid morning Usually nothing. If I am hungry a couple of crackers or a 100 cal muesli bar. Lunch Small tin of tuna with a couple of crackers or 1 wrap with ham & salad or 1 toasted sandwich Mid Afternoon Greek yogurt with cinnamon & sweetner or nestle Diet mousse or slice of ham or cheese with a couple of crackers or a very small portion of nuts/seeds Dinner Same as before but much smaller quantities Wine at weekends only Evening Sometimes I will eat yogurt if I didn't eat it earlier in the day. Occaisonally I will eat things like chocolate but certainly not on a daily basis. If I have cake it is a taste rather than a large piece and I have given up my biscuit (cookie) habit. I know that a lot of you are going to look at this and be shocked. Yes I still eat carbs but here in Australia that is what our surgeons encourage us to do - we do not have the same focus on Protein that there is in the US. looking forward to seeing other peoples comparisons.:w00t:

Congratulations on your win. I am sure you are both excited and apprehensive. It will be weird going through the process in the spotlight but it will probably help keep you honest to. Good luck with the op and the the rest of the weight loss journey. When you need help lapbandtalk has heaps of info and a very good support network. All the best.

I eat these foods all the time and very rarely have they given me any trouble. With bread I stick to wholemeal types and I quite often toast it. I eat wraps fairly often. At dinner I will have a small serve of pasta/rice or potato with my meal.By including these foods I probably take in less fat and calories than someone who doesn't.Think about it - lets say you are eating something like curry - you will find it more satisfying and eat less of the high fat curry if you have a small spoon of rice with it.

How long is your flight? I had a 24 hour journey on 3 planes in Dec.I didn't take any food with me. I was considering asking for a special soft diet but in the end didn't. I just ate the normal food that they serve and had no problems. Most of it is fairly soft anyway. It may not be gourmetor low fat but it was fine.

I also think that it could be from a lack of some over vitammin or mineral. When the focus is on eating so much protein a lot of other equally important foods are often missed. A variety of different coloured vegies and/or fruits should also be included in a healthy diet.

Best thing to do is call your Dr and get it checked out.It may be a pulled muscle or it could be something to do with your port. You have only recently had the surgery so you need to be very careful what exercise you do at this stage. Things like walking are fine but strenuous stomach exercises could cause problems with the port. It is usually recommended that you allow a certain time after surgery to allow everything to heal before doing this kind of exercise.

Yep this is perfectly normal. Dr gets me to lie down and when she is ready to inject I have to do a small crunch. Just raising head and shoulders - its not that hard and I don't have to hold it for long. She always gets the port first time.

Sometimes you can just make it come back up. Some people recommend guzzling a fizzy drink really quickly but if you do this you need to make sure you are near a toilet as apparently it comes back up really fast. If I am really stuck and the object isn't moving i find sticking a toothbrush down my throat helps. I know this all sounds gross but its really not that bad. Nothing like vomiting but until you have experienced it for yourself it is difficult to understand.

If you are concerned the best thing to do is call or see your Dr. Probably the discomfort is related to being ill and your oesophagus is probably swollen. The best thing to relieve anything that is swollen is rest and ice(if its external then compression and elevation as well but your throat is internal)! Don't try eating/drinking at the moment, rather suck on icechips. They are cool and soothing and they seem to work wonders with a sore inflamed throat. Hope you feel better soon.

I'd say you are not quite stuck as a stuck episode normally lasts a lot longer than 30 secs. I would take this as a warning that you are probably taking bites that are too big/not chewing well enough and that potentially you could have a real stuck episode soon. Reassess what and how you are eating so that hopefully you don't get stuck as take it from me being stuck is really unpleasant.

Oh of course! Us successful bandsters let strange men play with our boobs all the time. Didn't you know that was part of the process! LOL. Only joking

Its not the Dr Huacuz bit that I have a problem with!

Glad you're OK Laura. This whole situation sounds incredibly strange and somewhat unbelievable to me.

Thanks Mimi

I am about 2lb away from the original goal that I set myself. My surgeon didn't really give me a goal - they seem to regard you as successful once you have a BMI within the normal range so they have been satisfied with my loss for months. If I stay at this weight I will be happy but wouldn't mind if I lost a bit more. I feel so much better than I did when I started this process. I can fit into normal clothes and look OK. I no longer hide behind the camera. I love my band.

I follow my Dr's rules as far as I can. I have been told that although 3 meals is preferred that some people can't cope with this so it is OK to have a healthy snack. I have been told that so long as they don't cause me any discomfort carbonated drinks are fine. I eat a healthy well balanced diet that includes all food groups.I am not restricted to 1 cup or 1/2 cup of food or whatever. Instead I have been told that a meal should fill a side plate rather than a full size dinner plate. I don't measure but can guess fairly accurately.I eat until satisfied not until uncomfortable or stuffed.I don't count calories.I don't drink with meals except for the occassional glass of wine. Or if I can feel the food is too dry and is going down hard I may have a few sips of Water to help smooth the journey. No food is forbidden.(There is a very good book by Dr Rick Kausman - "If not dieting then what" that talks about always foods and sometimes foods instead of good foods and bad foods). If I feel like chocolate or icecream I have it. With the band though instead of eating chocolate every day I may have some once or twice a week.I treat food the same way that a thin person does which is what I was hoping for. I did not want to be on a diet for the rest of my life. The one area where I fall down is exercise. I never have and never will be a gym junkie plus the nearest gym is approx 30km away.I have recently started a Bollywood dancing class and I also try to increase my incidental exercise. For me the best part of the band is that it allows me to live a normal life, not dieting and obsessing about food.

Something else to remember is it is not the number of fills but the total quantity of saline that counts. You don't say how much fill you have in total. It may be a small amount or it could be a comparitively large quantity. I have had far more than 3 - probably closer to 8 but am only at a total of approx 3ml in a 10ml band. It is all about finding the correct level of fill for the individual. Some people that have no fills may in fact have been prefilled at the time of surgery. Some surgeons do this whilst others prefer not to as for many people it causes problems. It is very rare to lose with no saline in the band at all.If it happens it should be looked upon as an unexpected bonus. No one should plan on getting a band and not going for fills as if they are not committed to the entire process they are setting themselves up for failure. And a fill should not be feared. Mine are always done without fluoro and the Dr always gets the port first time. Quick, easy and certainly not painful.

I started off by using a Vitamin E oil on my main scar and aqueous cream on the rest of my stomach.Then I noticed that I was developing stretchmarks. I was horrified as I have never had stretch marks even after 2 pregnancies. I then started using Bio oil and currently my stretch marks are almost gone. Maybe its the oil, maybe its massaging the area, maybe its just luck. I doubt that it is time as it has only been 3 months since they appeared. Its worth a try as it is not going to do you any harm and the vitamin E is good for the skin anyway.

That's a pretty amazing letter. Personally I don't see why you should have to justify your decision to anyone as it is just that a personal decision. It is obvious from your letter that you are doing this for all the right reasons and that you have researched the band well. Excellent. It is also ridiculous for your friend who had 20lb to lose to compare her situation to yours. i am glad that she managed to lose it - hopefully she will manage to maintain it as that is by far the harder part of weight loss. All the best.

That is beacause you are in what is commonly known as bandsters hell. Although you have some fill you have not yet reached the optimum level of restriction as to do this requires a number of fills. Hang on. Do your best and do not stress if you do not lose at this stage.

To decide to forego fills would be stupid as they are what makes the band work. It would be like buying a power tool and trying to use it without plugging it into the power. Fills are an integral part of the process. They are quick easy and painless or they should be with an experienced Dr. I would say that if you are looking at being banded and you do not want to go for regular fills to finetune your instrument then you are looking at the wrong weight loss procedure. You may find that a sleeve or a bypass will suit you better.

That sounds really strange. What is abnormal about your voaal cords?