ItsGottaGo!

I don't know if he will, but you can call his office and ask. Are you near Weston, Florida? I guess if you have to travel to Mexico for a fill, though, you can travel anywhere. Alot of dr.'s won't do other dr.'s fills. The office number is 954-659-5239. You can ask one of the nurses. Ask for Marisol, she is very nice.

I have the VG band also. My first fill was 5.5 cc's and my second fill brought me up to just under 8cc's. I have very good restriction now. My dr. did not tell me up front how aggressive he would be with the fills. He goes by what I tell him when I come in for one and how much I can eat, how hungry I am, etc. He has been very aggressive with my fills and I appreciate it. They all do things differently. My fills are not covered by my insurance and I informed him of this. I asked him to be aggressive. I hope you have luck with your 3rd fill, or maybe you can try and find a dr. who will fill you nearby.

I wish I didn't tell 4 of the 6 people I told. Me and my big mouth! I guess I was just so excited about it. One day recently I had jeans on and heard a comment from one of them "oh, jeans, wow", she did say "you look good", though, but I didn't realize people noticed what I was and was not wearing before. I know, me personally, someone could be wearing the same thing every time I saw them and I wouldn't even notice. I also hate hate hate how everyone looks me up and down and then says nothing!

I don't know, but I had a friend who had a gastric bypass over a year ago and she said she chose the bypass over the lap band because she didn't want an "OPEN PORT". HUH?? The person who told me she said this, I had to explain to that the port was under the skin and you cannot see it. Meanwhile, not one person has noticed that I lost ANY weight at all. I swear one person looks like she is smirking every time she sees me, maybe she isn't and I'm just paranoid, but....Yesterday I ran into her and she says, "well, your makeup looks good." In other words, your makeup looks good but your body is still fat!" The operative word in that compliment was that she started off with "WELL". If she just would have said, Your makeup looks good" the compliment would have had a entirely different tone/meaning. I just wanted to scream "Eat Sh&T, I'll get there". Thanks, but not.

The misconception that drives me crazy the most is that people think this surgery is just like RNY and that I should be skinny already!! I am tired of explaining over and over again how this works and that I have to work it or it doesn't. It's not a guaranteed 60lb loss in 3 months, so stop staring at me already! ::grrrrr:: Also, most people seem to think that it is removed once I lose all the weight. Um, no, it's mine for life.

Thanks Karey. I'm sticking with soft food for the rest of this week I think.

Thanks, Erin. That's great that you have hit your sweet spot! I'm hoping this fill is it for me. I'm hoping, too, that it loosens up a bit in the next day or two, it is a little uncomfortable right now. You're doing great too, keep it up!

Well, ladies and gents, the verdict is in. I am tight, restricted, hopefully on my way to skinnyville! Tried to eat some salmon salad yesterday the day after my fill, was only able to eat a couple of bites. I didn't chew enough of course and ended up PB'ing (not to be gross, but all over myself in the car after picking up my daughter from school), that will teach me to carry bag at all times. I'm not sure if I am too tight yet, I might be, but I'll try harder today with the chewing and see what happens. The PB yesterday wasn't pretty, I really don't want to have that happen again. Also, seems this morning when I took a sip of semi-cold water, it hurt going down, but the hot coffee is working just fine. I'm afraid to eat, I will stick with some protein shakes for the first half of the day and try something later on. I would hate to have to go and get an unfill for fear that I will just loosen up anyway. My first fill only kept me restricted for about a week, so I will give this a week. I lost 4lbs since Monday, which I'm sure is just water, but I'll take it. I'm shocked after all the damage that I did before this second fill with the eating of naughty foods (mostly of the sweet variety) that I didn't gain 10lbs, but, thankfully, that didn't happen. Anyway, just wanted to report that I am tight, tight, tight!

Bjean, Hope you find the sweet spot tomorrow. My dr. doesn't remove the fluid that is in there either, but he does do it under fluro. I asked him to today just to see if any had disappeared and he said (I think this is what he said, he speaks with a heavy accent) that he doesn't go backwards, only forward ::shrug:::guess

Please don't feel ashamed! You need to let the band help you. If you need to be filled to 10 cc's, so be it! I'm probably headed in that direction myself. If I need 10, I'm going for it. You'd be surprised how much difference just 2 cc's can make. You can do it!

I just came back from having my second fill done. My port kept flipping everytime the intern tried to put the needle in. I knew if flipped that day a number of weeks ago when I layed down on my stomach, I felt it. Right now it doesn't feel like it's bugling any more so I guess it's back to regular position. Oh well. Anway, my surgeon came in and did the fill. I told him I need to be put up to 8 cc's, as I don't eat meat, chicken sometimes, but mostly soft foods for protein like soy burgers, bean, tofu, etc. and we all know how those things go right through. He so wonderful my surgeon, I just adore him. So he has me at just under 8 cc's, whatever number that is, I'm not sure. I'll say somewhere around 7.7 cc's. We'll see how this goes. He said if I feel too loose or too tight to come back next Monday and he will adjust me again for no fee, he can include an adjustment within a week for the same fee. Finally, weighed myself this morning. It's been about a month. I had lost 7 lbs the first week after my fill, but I gained 3 or 4 of those back. According to my scale I gained 4, dr.'s scale says 3, which is strange because on my scale I am butt naked first thing in the a.m. and on dr.'s scale I have clothes on. Whatever, a 1lb here or there isn't much in the big scheme of things. Dr. says he wants 10lb loss this month, I said I'm shooting for 20lbs!

I did online dating for about 2 years. At the time, I was in the best shape ever and looked fabulous, but I still didn't post a full-body shot, of course I thought I was fat, wearing a size 6 and all. Dunce. Still I didn't end up meeting the love of my life. I met mostly liars, lots and lost of liars, one or two nice guys, lots of sex feinds, all kinds. Dated some really hot looking men, boy was the fun :Banane17:. I miss the good old days. I did end up meeting the father of my daughter through my ad also, but we didn't end up getting married. Anyway, I always wanted to write a book too!! I actually had saved all of the responses to my ad, but never got around to it. When I moved across country I threw them all away . I know I'm sitting on a bestseller here.

My port has been bulging out actually ever since my last fill, BUT, I came down with bronchitis the day after my fill and was coughing my brains out for 3 weeks, so I think that has something to do with it. Also, I feel my port more if I overeat. But it doesn't hurt.

I hear ya BJ! One of the reasons I am not excerising, which I know will help, is because I have fibromyalgia. I think I will be in less pain once alot of this weight comes off, which will make it easier for me to excersie. Right now, everything in my body hurts, especially my feet. It really really sucks, but what can ya' do, right? Does anyone know how they can tell how many cc's are left in your band when you go for another fill? Do they unfill it and then fill it up again? How do they know if the liquid dissipitated or leaked out? I think I am going to ask him to put me up to 8cc's. I just told my Mother tonight I can eat as much as I could before being banded. While she has been very supportive, some things she says just annoy me. She really doesn't get it. She says "well, you're not, are you? You need to have some kind of restraint." No shit sherlock! Gee if I had some restraint I wouldn't have let myself get so fat now would I have, and I certainly wouldn't have had my stomach cut open and had a belt put around it". She say, I know, but... But but but! Meanwhile, this coming from a woman who has no restraint herself. While I love her dearly and I know she just wants to see me lose the weight, she really has no right to tell me about it. It's just so damn annoying.

Please, don't even give it a second thought. He's probably some old, grotesque looking creature sitting behind his computer stuffing his face with cheetos and oreos and has nothing better to do than troll on-line dating sites and insult people. Ignore him. He won't be the last email you'll receive like that either. There are a lot of jerks out there, LOTS! Hope you find a nice guy, I know you will. Good luck.

I am going for my second fill on Monday. I had good restriction for about a week and that was it. As of today, I can eat as much as I did before being banded and that is frightening, considering I have 5.5cc's in my band. I thought I would get away with having found my sweet spot on the first fill since it was an aggressive one. Ha! Not! I don't understand why we have restriction and then, poof, it's gone. But, indeed, gone it is. I suck too, I have no willpower, none and I'm not excercising. I also have not been on the scale so I have no clue how much I weigh now. On a good note, my jeans that I couldn't squeeze into before surgery fit me once again. I am going to tell the dr. to fill me tight. I don't care if I can only eat 3 bites of food at a sitting, I want this weight off of me! and now!

I JUST CANNOT STAND EVERYONE WATCHING WHAT AND HOW MUCH I EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:yell: SO HERE IS A BIG FU TO ALL OF THEM!:girl_hug: There I feel much better now.:angry

I had two bites of turkey breast and a little mashed sweet potato and it all got stuck. The turkey even had gravy on it. I'm sure I just didn't chew it enough. I slimed and made myself PB a little because I cannot take that stuck feeling, it just hurts to much. The PB itself doen't hurt, it's the stuck feeling that bothers me more. Anyway, I was able to eat the rest of my piece of turkey and some stuffingl later in the day and it went down fine and of course so did the sweets . Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

I've had bronchitis too for the past 3 weeks! I think it is finally going away, but I was afraid I was going to slip my band too, I was coughing so much and violently. I feel like the coughing has made my port pop out, as I can feel it so much more since.

I have restriction, and I know that I can definitely still binge, on certain things anyway, if I wanted too. I am sure I would have no problem downing an entire bag of Peanut Butter Cups if I tried. I don't think I could binge on Ice Cream anymore, it seems that extreme cold tightens me too, as someone upthread mentioned. I also don't think I would be able to eat an entire pizza ever again either! I guess it all depends on what you decide to binge on. I wish I could say the band has taken away all of my cravings, but, alas, it has not. I, too, wish they could band my head!

On my statement from the hospital, there is still a charge of about $2,900 for "Lap Placement of Gastric Band" that apparently Medicare has not covered. Do they not cover the procedure laparscopically? I am confused. I am going to call tomorrow, but just wondering if anyone has this information tonight. Thank you.

Anyone else have this cheese addiction? This is going to put a kink in my weight loss for sure if I don't stop. It is feta cheese. I love to eat it with my boca chicken patties and morningstar farm pizza burgers, acually, I can eat it without anything! I must stop buying it, I must stop buying it....

It would be fine, if I didn't have to eat the whole or half of the 8 oz. block all at once!

I am wide wide open, I mean wide! I can feel TOM coming any day now (about a week early). Why can we eat so darn much at this time of the month??:peep:

Cortisol, huh? Very interesting. Too bad I get so hungry and eat during that time, because isn't Cortisol supposed to reduce belly fat or something like that? Anyway, I am starting to feel my restriction return tonight. Maybe TOM is coming tommorow.