kwhenrykerr

I setup my fill with fillcenterusa.com and they sent me to: Kathie A. Gonzales 1955 1st Ave N. St. Petersburg, Florida 33713 phone 727-823-8300 I would call or e-mail fillcenterusa and ask for current info.

My wife stoped when she could no longer take a breath. They sent her home from the hospital saying they could no longer help her. My best friend found her on the floor in the hallway, cold, alone, and dead. What a lousy way to quit. I still cry, years later.

RICE, I love it. Rice is so easy to not chew. It can be a problem if the fill is "right" I just tell myself that must be chewed to mush like any other food.

one of the advantages of using flouro is the abilty to "see" a tilted port. It is like holding a coin up to look at it. If you tilt the coin the shape that you see changes. The needle can be guided into a tilted port without the searching. The needle may enter your body at an angle to allow for a direct hit on the port. It is not the pricking hurt that causes me to be conserned (but I am a big cry baby) it is the idea that a misplaced needle may cause a leak.

Welcome home, now the lessons are put into action. The range of aftercare is large. Some people have no real hard times. I think that I am one of the many lucky ones. The most challanging aspect has been the hunger in my head. I say this is in my head becuse I have had to relearn what feeling full is. My brain did not understand what full feeling was. I felt that I was an adult and knew what feeling full was, wrong. Fifty years of knowing how much to put on my plate to get the full feeling is hard to correct. The best advice that I got from Dr. Ortiz was to chew, chew, and chew. The second best was to take 45 minutes to eat. Chewing allowed me to learn to enjoy the full flavor of the food. The 45 minutes eating time allowed me to learn the "new" feeling of full. It is a struggle to think that you must relearn something so basic as eating. The sooner that you can understand, learn or whatever you call it the better. Wishing you all the best, get the new book form fillcenterusa.com it can help you along the way.

Carol is in control, enjoying life. My goal also...

It aint solid if you chew it to paste. The challange is to chew and not forget. As you reduce your food intake the quality will count more. Our bodies need the quality stuff, our minds want the good stuff. Balance will help keep you on track. I eat anything I want in very small amounts. I love fries but know that their food value is low. I have put fries in the sweets class. When chewed to mush fries are desert.

Go enjoy the food, try to take your friend that gave you the gift. When they see the small amount that you eat they may understand a little more. I find most people "just do not understand". It is something we banders must learn to deal with.

I am very happy with going to TJ, aftercare with fills at fillcenterusa.com I wish some of the US doctors would get their heads out of their butts. The looking down upon Mexico or other countries doctors is cheap. It makes me compair them to ?

Jumping through the insurance hoops is not fun. A check list of what needs to be done would help. The doctors that I have spoken to do not help much. The insurance company does not help much. It seems like doing your own homework is the only way. A form for insurance requirements might help. The insurance companys have so many different requirements with each contract that they write. this is not by chance. The insurance contracts will change to confuse the doctors and insured so that payments do not happen. Doctors write-off the loss and are required to rase rates, the insured gives up or dies. Reality, be self-pay or suffer.

Saying NO to food can be like talking to the wind. The words that you say are gone as fast as you can say them. It has been a constant challange for me. At one point after saying No Thank You to a plate loaded with Good Food for the third time I took the plate to the trash can and droped it in. I told my loved ones that if they did not start hearing the polite No then we would soon be out of plates. Lots of hurt feelings later it is still a problem. How do we get the message across?

Finding the port safely and how much to fill are not the same. Number one I want to feel that the person who is poking around with a needle is guided by a visual picture of my port. Number two I want to feel that there is no way they are going to poke a hole in the tubing. My skin and fat will heal the tubing will not. If my tubing were to be punctured I do not want to be required to pay and suffer the dammages. I have posponed my first fill untill I was able to get it with a flourscope. The people who did my fill used the flourscope to guide the needle. The tubing was easy to see and I never felt any danger. The filling was different from finding the port. The fill was also under the flourscope and with a barrium drink. I thought that the fill might have been a little underfill. The restriction was slight at first. I was told that it may be more restrictive on day 2 or 3. On day 2, 3, 4 & 5 it was more restrictive. Not too uncomfortable, but I am glad that the fill was less than I wished for at first. I am going to have another fill in about 10 days and will report what happens. I am still srinking, almost lost my pants today.

Welcome to the Gang

Sending you love in your tough times.

Enjoy anything, make it mush before you send it to your band

I can eat anything as long as I chew chew chew. I have had the most problems with very soft food. It seems like I forget to chew the soft stuff. Like my mom said "if you are going to be stupid, you had better be tough".

Eat small, eat often. Try not to let your old idea of what it takes to fill up the gut to control you. I have had the most luck with Atkins style diet on the mini side. I quickly feel full, but my eyes keep looking and my mouth wants more. I called it my dragon and it is slowly getting under control. I think a lot of us want the band to do all the work. I have heard the experts talk about the changes we need to make in our ways. I keep reminding myself that the band is a tool to help me and I need to learn to use it. We will keep learning and not give up, the tools work and we will learn to use them. Some of us are not easy learners. We have worked a lifetime to reach this level and now we are moving to another level. I keep reading the post and understand that each of us is challanged. We can do this.

Welcome, the more you look around the more you will learn

you don't hear from the old banders becuse the are enjoying the skinny life

What can I say that is better than "I am happy and would do it over with Dr. Ortiz"

It depends on how you are doing and where you are. I have seen new banders out of the hospital in 6 hours. I was banded late in the day and spent overnight, I was out be 10am the next day.

I want to read the bad stuff, so that I can check it out. If it is Bull Shit that is ok. It has made me do my homework and along the way I feel much better about what I am doing. Just becuse I will read someones ideas does not mean I will follow them. Open minds work better

Feelings are funny things, they are in your head. I have a back problem and it feels like my foot is in ice water sometimes. My foot is fine it is all in my head. I still look at my foot to see if I am stepping on ice (ha, I live in Key West, Florida) You just need to try to get your brain to relearn. Good luck, like I said I still look at my foot.

Suspenders, girls can wear them too Ho,ho,ha,ha ain't it great!

Check out the insurance links on this form Best wishes