Humming Bird

Maybe that's why they gave me a picture of mine. (a before and after pic) I have no insurance and the cost of the surgery was the same no matter if they did a hernia repair or not.

Sorry, I can't help you out with that stuff. I have no insurance. I paid cash up-front with the card I got from HealthOne. I had no pre-op hoops to jump through and no pre-op testing.

Hi Bobbie!! I am so glad to hear from you. I hate the way they changed the site. I can't figure out how to do even simple things on it , like quote. Oh well, at least you found this thread again. Don't stay away so long. We love you no matter what your weight is doing. I have not taken anything like appetite supressants since being banded, but I have kept restriction all this time. I think they would cross my mind if I were in your shoes. I'm sure I would have gained as well over the holidays with no restriction. Can you go back and start getting small fills? I think that would be the best way to go to get those pounds back off and keep them off long term. I have taken appetite supressants over the years and they don't really work that well. It's one of my old yo-yo things of the past.

kinda an old thread, but ok I'll post.... I was not required to have one , so $0. I didn't think I needed one and my surgeon agreed. I think we were both right. It sure saved me time and money. I have no insurance.

I would still go for the fill. Just keep in mind to stick to liquids for a bit and move on to more solid stuff very slow.

I'm glad to hear you are going to give it a chance. Three months is not very long but I do hope you do well and give it another three after that.

Welcome to LBT This is a great place to learn details. As you read here please keep in mind that many bandsters come here for support and advise when they are having some sort of problem. Many people don't post here when things are going great. Some newbies get a little freaked out when reading and think the complication rate is higher than they were told by surgeons. The band has worked really great for me. In the first year I lost 100 pounds and as I get closer to my goal I drop about 1 pound per month. For me the process has been much easier than I thought it would be. I have put in very little effort. Go to another meeting. Go in for a one on one consult with a surgeon. Watch youtube videos. Read here at LBT. I personally have only great things to say about the band. I wish you the best with making up your mind.

I used Health One. Your interest rate will depend on your credit score. I have a very high score and several places told me the very best rate with an unsecured loan like this would be 10%, but that was 1 1/2 years ago. If you already have a lower rate on a credit card you might want to use that.

I also had a hiatal hernia repaired. At my consult with the surgeon he told me that many of his patients have them and that he just repairs them when doing the band surgery. He gave me an 8x10 glossy pic of the hernia...lol. I would have loved a pic of the band in place. I figured I had the hiatal hernia because I had very bad reflux for about a year before getting banded. Many obese people have them. Obesity does bad things to us all. I'm glad you had the repair and got banded!! Things will only get better for you as each day passes. I found that keeping an ice pack high up on my belly for longer than they told me helped a great deal. Ice/cold helps swelling go down. I was also told to stick with ice cold liquids for the first week. I wish you the best in healing and weightloss.

I was self pay and the first 3 months of fills were free. I hit my sweet spot on fill number 2. I had a little problem so I went in for a small unfill and back for a re-fill back to my sweet spot. Those 2 were $25 ea.

I am not in any way encouraging anyone to go against their Dr.'s rules. I am also not saying the way I do things is the best way. I do not claim to be a Dr. or a fitness expert or a lapband expert or even play any of these on TV..........but......... I do not exercise. I lost 100 pounds in 1 year with the lapband. I am now at a normal BMI and feel great about it.

Good Morning, (at least I hope it will be good) I thought it couldn't get any worse with all the job changes and moving most of the stuff from one office to another. Well, it got worse. The existing office we are staying at, but moving the other equipment and patients to, was broken in to. The thugs stole a bunch of expensive stuff and made a mess of the office. They also took a bunch of stuff that will have no value to them. It was clear they know nothing about dentistry because they took some stupid stuff and left things of great value. The stupid thugs took our shoes! The Dr. got us all expensive matching very flashy Nike shoes for Christmas. They had our names on them and the name of the office. We all wear different scrubs, so he thought it would be cool if we all wore the same bright flashy shoes. It just sucks that at the same time we had all been working so hard to combine 2 offices we have to deal with something like this. What a mess.

Counselor, I always just wing it, but I know many bandsters do very well with tracking everything. It sure wouldn't hurt to keep track for at least a couple weeks to see where you're at. It sounds like the band is working for you. I don't know about the tightness changes because mine stays pretty much the same except for the tightness in the morning. Some gals have tightness around that time of the month. ( I have not had TOM in many years, so don't know about that)

No, I would not have waited. I paid $9,950 and almost have it paid off now. In a year or 1 1/2 years I would have only prolonged my obesity and been that much older. I wish I would have done it sooner.

WOW! Thanks for posting this. I am so happy for you! This thing really does work! You have done a great job and your life is better.

I agree with what everyone else has said. I think over time you will get better support from those close to you. When they see 50, 60, 70 pounds come off and see you looking and feeling better they will think, "hey, I guess that thing really does work." I know over the years I have done what many women do ........ always put other people's needs first. From kids and spouses to even our own parents. We put off doing things for ourselves to save money. Well, at some point in life you need to do something for yourself. This surgery was all about me! Me Me Me! I am so happy I did it!!!! Best wishes to you. The support just may be a little delayed. Hang in there and do something for you! You You You!

I have not been told by anyone that it is the easy way out. Everyone knows I got the band and 100% of them have been supportive. (at least to my face) This may sound a bit strange to some, but I myself think it's the easy out to some extent. This is the easiest way I have ever taken off weight in my life. Believe me, over the years I have been on every diet you can think of and managed to get morbidly obese. If something works well and is easy for me to do, why would I want to try it the hard way again? I say thank goodness they found an easy way for me to take off more than 100 pounds and keep it off.

Some people feel back to normal very fast. For me is wasn't that easy. I didn't have much pain, but because I have FMS (fibromyalgia) along with CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) I had very bad fatigue for months after my band surgery. It did get better, but seemed like it took forever. I don't think you are a whimp. It just takes a little time to recover all the way. Just do your best with what you were told to eat and drink and take your vits. I'm sure you will feel better soon and you will be posting about how you have not felt this good in years!

The nice thing about it is that you can watch the scale and play around with a couple pounds instead of 100+. I am only 5 pounds away from my original goal and have pretty much been maintaining for the last few months. I drop about a pound per month, but really don't care if that last 5 comes off. I do eat a little treat now and then or maybe have a glass of wine. I just make sure to step on the scale about every other day so I know where I'm at.

Good Morning, Today starts another week of hell at work, but it can only get better from here..... right? Elcee, I always think of you bandsters down under when I hear of all the rain and flooding down there. It's snow and slick roads for me today. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to drive on winding mountain roads in it. Oh well, it's the price I have to pay if I want to live in the mountians. Has anyone seen Bob around? I guess I'll send him a PM and see if I get him to pop in on the new thread.

abouttime, Are you feeling better about it? Did you talk to your surgeon? I hope things are going better for you.

I disagree with Fluffy Fab. She thinks she has it all figured out and needs to inform everyone who she thinks knows less than the rest of us. Even with her posts, I can skip over and move on. I have been here on LBT for quite awhile and I'm sure many people do not agree with some of the things I post. Sure, some posts are asking the same thing over and over. Sometimes I write a reply and try to help a newbie out. Sometimes I leave it to someone else. I'm not hungry hungry hungry all the time and I don't have all the issues she insists are normal. I do not do any "work" at this. We are all different with how we will react and our success rate will differ. Fluffy, a think you need a little self adjustment with your attitude. As you learn with how the band works for you, you may be able to help others, but the way you say things just rubs people the wrong way. I wish you success out of obesity and I wish you success with maturity. You are not the author of any "bible" and need to learn how to post so this flaming won't continue .... unless you like it.

At one point during my journey the weightloss was rapid. I did get the feeling like it was the same thing as starving. I even felt like I was malnurished. I continued to eat healthy foods and take my vits., but still had that feeling for awhile. Things have leveled out and I slowly stopped feeling that way. I think it took awhile for my body to adjust. I feel much better now. During that time when the weightloss was rapid, I did have hairloss and fatigue. For me, the first 12 months was a healing and learning time ........ and the most important thing in my book, the weightloss time!

I think sometimes you can do too much research and freak yourself out about what could happen. If you look hard enough you can find complications with anything and still be missing the details that are the most important. I will try to give you a couple examples. You do some research and find that some people have very servere problems with weightloss surgery. Along with that research please do some about the complications of staying obese, morbidly obese, or even super obese. Staying obese is much worse for your health than getting lapband. I had family members who died from obesity related conditions. Let's say someone is told they need to get their wisdom teeth extracted. They are told the teeth have decay and are causing an infection in the gum tissue around the teeth. They get on the web to do some research about it and find a case where someone died while having the procedure done at the oral surgeon. They get freaked out about that case. They fear the dentist anyway and this gives them the "out" they were looking for. It gives them a reason to not make a return visit to the dentist. They fail to do the research and find the info about the risks of leaving the infected teeth in their body. They fail to find the info that many more people die from the infection being carried in the bloodstream and to the heart causing a heart attack and death. My own father died from obesity. I chose to end my own obesity and decrease my health risks by getting the lapband. Though this was not my biggest motivation.

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you are giving it another try. I have given up steak. I accept the fact that I just can not eat it and now I don't even miss it. I agree with the above poster about staying busy with a hobby or something. When I'm busy I don't have the urge to graze as much. I hope things start getting better for you and the weight starts dropping. Keep in contact with your surgeon's office even if you are feeling like it's not working. It sounds like he will be there for you. Pop in here LBT and read what other bandsters post. Some of it will be very helpful with little details along the way.