Corliss

Hey all, I am a formerly banded person who now has a sleeve. I do not regret my first LAP-BAND®® as it helped me to get to a normal wt. I had to give it up and gained a lot of my wt back. I had a subsequent band with little success in loosing wt but had major complications which resulted in an emergency removal and revision to a gastric sleeve.:thumbup: I am very familiar with all types of WLS including RNY as my daughter has had that surgery. I just wanted to introduce myself if someone reads this who is not acquainted with me. I hang out in LAP-BAND®® chat and vertical sleeve chat a lot.:sleep: I am making this post because I need your input. I am toying with the idea of setting up a website about my local area, Chattanooga and Southeast TN. I would like to write about things like the local historical and tourist sites. I would also go heavy on the thing I know best, local eating establishments of course! I need to decide whether it should be general with some space devoted to the interests of weight loss surgery patients, like in restaurants which serve WLS friendly foods, the accessibility of the various tourist and historical spots, and information on local WLS providers. Or should my website be WLS specific with the same information, which hopefully would prove interesting to the general public? I also plan to include recipes and a link for readers to make comments. I hope to add a couple of reviews per week of either a place of interest or a restaurant or both. I am just in the early stages of planning on this and would welcome everyones input, maybe some ideas that I haven't thought of yet. A lot of this has come about because I need something meaningful to do while I await this disability process and if it can pick up speed then who knows? Thanks, Corliss Band 1, Nov. 5, 2005-353 lbs Removed Sept. 19, 2008-+/-155 lbs Band 2, June. 16, 2009-214 lbs Removed and sleeved, May 22, 2010-238 lbs Current wt. 208 lbs

Hey all, I am toying with the idea of setting up a website about my local area, Chattanooga and Southeast TN. I would like to write about things like the local historical and tourist sites. I would also go heavy on the thing I know best, local eating establishments of course! I need to decide whether it should be general with some space devoted to the interests of weight loss surgery patients, like in restaurants which serve WLS friendly foods, the accessibility of the various tourist and historical spots, and information on local WLS providers. Or should my website be WLS specific with the same information, which hopefully would prove interesting to the general public? I also plan to include recipes and a link for readers to make comments. I hope to add a couple of reviews per week of either a place of interest or a restaurant or both. I am just in the early stages of planning on this and would welcome everyones input, maybe some ideas that I haven't thought of yet. A lot of this has come about because I need something meaningful to do while I await this disability process and if it can pick up speed then who knows? Corliss 1st band, Nov. 2005, 356 lbs band removal, Sept. 2008, 155 lbs +/- 2nd band, June 16, 2009, 214 lbs band removal, May 22, 2010, 238 lbs current wt, 208 lbs:smile2:

My doc says that it is easy enough to eat most anything you can get in a mexican restaurant except flour tortillas. I have found that this is true. Eat 4 nachos, 3/4 of a taco, a small tamale, some mexican stew, 3/4 of an enchilada, yum, full of good Protein, with Beans you get fibre and with tomatoes, avacado and tomatillos you get antioxidants, high fat true enough but you will be eating very small amounts. chips are sliders, as long as you chew them well they go down easy. If you are okayed for solid foods at 9 wks, I would think that a half or 3/4 of a taco would be a good choice, but chew chew chew! Corliss

Shannon, honey STOP being so mean to yourself. You are over thinking this and I will bet every time you kick yourself in the arse, you want to eat the stuff that hurts you that much more. I would suggest in addition to being kind to yourself that you allow yourself to have the coffee in the morning and invest in some good gluten free bread. The good news is that it is generally crumbly and will go down easy. You will get lots of satisfaction from the bread. My Mother in law is gluten sensitive and she gets some really good breads at whole foods. Now if you go and splurge on some sweets or some wheat product, just move on, and maybe make a deal with yourself that next time you want something like that you can have it but only after you have eaten Protein and produce. I think we get in a whirlwind sometimes because we want it to be all or nothing. We think we have to be perfect or we might as well throw it overboard, and unlike a diet we can't throw this out, once it is done it is done, and we punish ourselves by doing the things that actually hurt physically like trying to eat stuff that doesn't go down easy or stuff that causes pain through reflux. I don't understand why your doc would take you off PPIs. The treatment for pernicious anemia is B-12 injections along with folate and iron. If you can't tolerate the iron orally then discuss the possibility of iron transfusions. I have all these issues and my doc has me on nexium. I drink coffee and have absolutely no problem with GERD as long as I drink coffee only up to 4 hrs before I go to bed. I also don't go to bed within 3 or 4 hours of eating. I drink diet green tea throughout the day and night with no problems. Like yourself, I am an overachiever in that I have very high expectations for myself, and I have been dealing with WLS since 2005 when I had my first of two lapbands. I had my last band removed due to major complications this past May and was given a sleeve. I am learning to love my sleeve and due to my Vitamin deficiencies along with hypoproteinemia I have been cautioned by my surgeon to not even try to loose wt, to try to get my numbers up. I have lost 30 lbs since having my sleeve and I have 38 lbs to go to get to goal. Hope this helps, Corliss

My doc says it is not unusual for sleevers to be nauseous for first few months off and on. It is important to stay hydrated above all. I found that I couldn't handle the Protein supplements sometimes but I could drink a glass of buttermilk or just plain ice cold milk. I also made my own form of egg drop soup using just the yolks and sieving out the solids. I thought I would never get to the point where every thought didnt make me want to upchuck but I got there. I still have some nausea but it is usually if I have over eaten or ate something too fatty. I have a little bit of a dumping syndrome. Not really bad just not fun. I also keep a rx for both phenergan and zofran on hand just in case. I am getting to the point now where I love my sleeve. Good luck, Corliss

I still drink coffee. I don't want nearly as much as I used to though. My doc did not tell me to avoid it. Corliss

It is great not to be ruled by food. When I am really enjoying something it makes me mad when my belly can't eat all my head wants! If I eat really slow it helps me feel better satisfied. Corliss

Early on especially in the creamy liquid phase food was horrible. The only thing I wanted was popsicles and tea. When I got to food it was better but had a horrible time getting enough protein in early on. I still have a hard time with it. I had rather eat bread, and tomatoes. I am just repelled by the idea of eating things i should eat at times. But most days it is much better. Corliss

Eating too fast has been my biggest issue. Even if I don't eat so fast that it comes up, that has only happend a couple of times, I can eat so fast that i don't realize when I have had enough and I get nauseous after eating. This is a bit different than my experience with a well functioning band. I always knew when I had too much and it would just PB if I carried it too far but with the sleeve I find myself nauseous even though the food stays down if I eat too much too fast. Corliss

Hey there, I wouldn't think hypothyroidism would come on suddenly or as the result of the band. Generally what happens is after we loose a large amount of wt (congratulations!) is that our body requires fewer and fewer calories in order to loose. The smaller we are the less fuel we require. For example when I was 356 lbs with my band I could eat 2500 cals per day and loose like crazy. I noticed my wt loss slowing down when I got to about 275. I cut out more carbohydrates and lost more without feeling deprived at all. I cut down to about 2000 initially the 1800 and so on. Now I am 38 lbs from goal and am on a plateau at 38 lbs away from goal. I will probably have to eat between 1000 and 1200 to loose the rest. Not sure that I am ready, LOL! I no long have a band, I have sleeve so no fill is indicated, I just have to do more of the work. Good luck to you.:drool: Corliss

So are you sure you insurance will not pay for your band? I am self pay and have had complications with 2 different bands. Fortunately my insurance paid for emergenc surgery both times though it would not pay for the placement. It wll now however. Good luck to you. Corlss

Hi, I am so sorry about your erosion. You do not need to go on with this. It could lead to peritenitis (sp). If you are in Knoxville, you are within easy driving distance of Chattanooga, TN. I would strongly suggest you contact Dr. Robert Sass, in Chattanooga. He removed my slipped band in 2008 and then in Feb. of this year he did emergency surgery when I had major complications with this second band. He is an amazing compassionate man and will work on charges with you. My insurance paid for both emergency proceedures though it did not pay to have either band placed. Dr. Sass phone number is 423-305-6999. You can set up an apt. with him and get in to see him reasonably fast. My other reccomendation would be to go to Mexico to Dr. Zapata in Monterrey. He will intervene when other doctors patients are having major problems and his prices are very reasonable. His web site is www.Ready4AChange.com. If you need more information on either of these guys let me know. Good luck to you! Corliss

Hi Cara, I had my surgery in Monterrey Mexico. Since I had it out of country and I am not completely fluent in Spanish I introdued my partner as my friend. I believe everyone new as I have been on the boards a lot and never kept it a secret. We were both treated extremely well and she was shown every consideration that an opposite sex spouse would be. Monterrey is a very large city and very cosmopolitan. I always feel a little sheepish about not being totally open. No worries, we do what we feel is best at the time! The US coordinator knew for sure that I was Lesbian and she shared with me that her favorite sister was also and her sisters partner was her favorite sister in law. Corliss

I wish my doc had been trained in the sleeve. I sure do want one. Hope he learns to do it and can undo this tacked stomach and fix me a sleeve someday in the future. I am afraid my band won't do any good I have just had such bad luck with it, though my initial wt. loss was wonderful. Again, good luck to you guys. Corliss

I am in the hospital due to gastroparesis. My band doc is trying to decide the best course of action. I am thinking a lap band removal would be the best course of action for me. I have lost one band and regained half my wt. I am 100 lbs overwt at this time. I am thinking that my safest course of action might be to just ask for it to be removed and then if I can't maintain or loose, go for possible sleeve. This is the pits. My Mexican surgeon who placed the last band, tried very hard to get me to be sleeved instead but since I had lost all my wt with the first band, I felt certain that this would be my best safest route! Well I made the best decision I knew to make at the time. Being 100 lbs overwt is better than being dead. If anyone has had gastroparesis, please reply and let me know anything you can share! Thanks, Corliss

I had two bariatric specialist tell me that they don't believe the band causes the gastroparesis. I had gall bladder surgery 2 wks before the first episode and the surgeon who did it doesn't believe the gallbladder surgery or anesthesia from it could have caused it though all areas are suspect in my opinion. One bariatric specialist said that the gallbladder might not have even been causing me pain that it could have been the gastroparesis all along. I was discharged without exploratory surgery the first time and readmitted the next day. My bariatric surgeon did an exploratory lap and found that indeed my stomach was swollen up and hung over my lap band tubing. He did not think it had been there long because it lifted off so easily. He then tacked my fundus of my stomach to my inner abdominal wall and put in a temporary gastrostomy tube. The tube is out now, but the stomach tacking is no fun. I can feel it when I cough. YUK! Hope all goes well for the two of you. My doc put me on reglan for the gastroparesis. Itcauses lots of stinky stools and cramping. Corliss

So God isn't capable of doing that himself, just the stuff that allows us to be greedy and irresponsible with his creation? The fundy folk who are more than a little bit environmentally aware make a lot more sense to me, they are a whole lot more congruent than those who abstain from responsibility to sustain what God gave us and just use, use, use, only giving to themselves and those whom they deem worthy. Corliss

Yep Patty I would sure rather believe Al Gore than some scornful mean spirited idiot who is such a woman hater that he would blame such a mean vicious thing on God who he has "created" in his image. Thats not my God! I think you would do well to apply your energy to saving Gods whole creation which is what Al Gore is doing. Corliss

Well Talk about a bummer.......................I was scheduled to go for a fill which I hoped would get me to restriction where I could lose Tuesday the 2nd. Well instead I was in agony and admitted to the hospital. I feared I had developed peritonitis. I had gall bladder surgery a couple of weeks ago and was afraid it was due to that. It was probably not, I had gastroparesis. Stomach swelling! Boy was it swollen. They had give me a load of morphine and put down an ng tube the size of a waterhose. They did multiple tests and found that I have no obstructions. Two different lap band docs saw me in addition to my general surgeon and none of them think that it is due ot my band. By Sunday I was a lot better and they pulled the NG tube and I have been able to tolerate first liquids, then fulls and now softs. I went home last night. Was in the hospital almost 8 days. Dr. Sass let all the fluid out of my band, and miracle of all miracles, none of them believe my band has slipped even given all the pressure on it with the swollen stomach. We will see. So far I have no hunger but tolerate food with my medications. Dr. Sass says I will definately be hungary in two weeks. We will see! Anyhow no fill, but I still have my band and am not in pain today. Just thought I would let you all know what is going on. Corliss