JOANNE M HOLL

Come closer, I want to tell you something. It's kinda cool...but I don't want to jinx it either.
 
I've lost almost 30lbs since my pre-op appt. on September 4. That's way cool...and very exciting!
 
I don't want to tell just anybody, so it's just between you and me right now, OK?
 
Thanks

I've been banded for a little over a year now and I can remember when I attended my first seminar in October 2011 there was so many potential band patients. As time went on and I attended support meetings and gastric patients always far out numbered bandsters but there was still a lot of people. So now my Wife has begun her journey and is using the same center I used but a different Doctor. Doctor who was giving the seminar discussed all three option as they now offer the Sleeve along with the band and bypass. As I was taking in all the information it became quite clear that the band has fallen out of favor with the Doctors in the center. They'll still do Bands if that is what the patient wants. At one point the Doctor said "On average our patients lose 30 pounds in year one where the other surgeries have a higher success rate".
 
Needless to say I disputed those numbers and then privately told the Doctor I believe she was being unfair with her assessment and then I questioned her that out of the number she is using how many were due to non-compliance vs actual complications/failures? Her answer was bluntly "That is why I like to push for the Sleeve over band as it requires less attention". Sounds pretty bias to me!! I then said so what you're saying is getting the Sleeve means it is successful regardless of the effort of the patient? And her reply was "Well there will always be guidelines and good choices to be made in order to be successful". .At that point I had enough and it sounded like she was blowing me off.
 
I continue to follow up with my Doctor and I still attend certain support meetings but I can sadly see band patients being a thing of the past. I attend as a patient advocate in what is called a Panel of Experts which is made up of post op patients with at least more than 9 months of experience. I sit on this panel with bypass and sleeve patients. It is designed for preop to ask anything they want to the post ops without any presence from the Center. Basically a patient to patient candid talk. I will tell you the last one I had been to consisted of about 20 people and 2 were potential bandsters. I think I ended up answering 3 or 4 questions while listening to the Sleeve and Gastric speak.

This morning I had my first follow up appointment in 6 months. I had been struggling the last week or so deciding on whether or not to get a fill. I got some good advice and some suggestions and after talking with the PA today we decided there is no need for one right now. I am eating 3 meals a day with no snacking or cravings. I am going anywhere from 3 to 5 hours without getting hungry and I have found for me I tend to get hungry sooner after having the shake but with real actual food I can go 5 or 6 hours.
 
At the end of the day I do believe I was factoring my fill needs on 1. Getting hungry at times sooner than what I was months ago. 2. Scale is not where I wanted it to be.
 
So....# 1 is OK as I have narrowed it down to why I get hungry sooner and I can adjust.
 
#2 is definitely not a good reason for a fill. Getting a fill certainly has nothing to do with the scale and getting a fill will not help the scale move any faster. Thank you to Missy for reaffirming that for me. I mean I knew in the back of my mind it was not a valid reason for fill but hearing it from someone else just made more sense.
 
I also found this morning that my last fill was not in April it was actually back in January when I got .5cc. I had it written down in a notebook but hadn't actually looked it in a while.
 
Lastly, my PA is going to work on getting insurance approval for a new sleep study. 240lbs later it is obvious an adjustment is need on my CPAP.
 
Other then that I am living the dream and enjoying life. Happy 5th Anniversary to my beautiful wife Kelli (Kelli1016).
 
If you read this then I wish you a happy Friday and I hope you're doing well and rocking your band or preop diet!!

So, let me start with this. I love where I work. It's fantastic. My company is regularly voted as one of the top places to work in the US according to Forbes Magazine. In fact, we were ranked #1 a couple of years ago...twice. Perks here are outstanding: Free onsite healthcare, free gym access with a great cardio/weight room and a pool. You can take yoga and pilates classes on site. We have a hair salon on site (it's not free, but extremely convenient). There are 4 full service cafes on site, including one in the basement of my building. I can go downstairs and get a salad (when I'm back at that stage), a hot meal, deli sandwich or a hot sandwich. Some days we get fresh sushi. We have nice breakrooms on each floor that have various snacks and drinks. My employer is generous with time off and has been great to work with during my recovery period. My HR person even called to make sure I was back at work and doing OK after my scheduled time off.
 
It's a great place to work. Most importantly, though I love my job. I don't take any of it forgranted either. It's special.
 
I've been working here almost 15 years now. And, there is one thing that still makes me laugh. One of the "treats" we have in each break room is a weekly supply of M&Ms. Peanut and plain. There is a great person who comes weekly to refill the candy jars. It's like Pavlov's Dogs...we hear the M&Ms hit the jar and people start making their way to the breakroom.
 
Yesterday I was in the breakroom heating up my mushy lunch and the candy lady was there filling up the jars. The first bag poured in and I said "OH, we know that noise. Watch how quickly people show up." She barely finished pouring the second bag and three people came in to dig out what they wanted. They all looked at me with my little lunch. I didn't even flinch. I'm just glad I'm not one of those people anymore
 
I walked back to my desk and chuckled. And I savored my ability to break that habit and stick with it.
 
Now, I just need to get back to the pool. I miss it. But, I can't go until I've seen the surgeon and he's OK with it. I see him on October 16. Fingers crossed!

Ok none of us is totally perfect. You come on this site and tell us that you were extremely bad and don't want people to comment. If you robbed a bank, killed someone etc. would you still be pissed people commented? Same thing in my eyes. Do something wrong and write about it, people will say something. This is the USA, freedom of speech.
 
That's all folks for tonight.
Arlene

OMG! What did I do! That was the first thing I asked my self day 2 post op! By day 3 I was telling myself this was a big mistake! This is not what I signed up for! What happened to the 3 day recovery and back to normal in a week! What happened to this is the least evasive! 1 out of ten have a problem...hmmm I should have known I would be that 1 in ten that would have a problem! Post op I was on my 5th day not able to take in any liquids without throwing up! OK this is not normal!!!! Let me call my doctor...hhmm OK sip slowly???? I was furios is this women seriously telling me sip slowly! 4 months of appointments and classes and test and research I know to sip SLOWLY!!! Ok forget this off to the ER need to let them know how thirsty I am! Finally someone listening to me so I'm dehydrated weak my lips are so sore and dry and chapped and I'M SO THIRSTY!!! Please just help me drink again!! So they drain the band and give my fluids...awe ice chips they taste as good as a super supreme pizza! I'm now addicted to ice chips and cranberry grape juice ! Nothing has quenched my thirst more than the taste of cran-grape juice!

I love the old cartoons. Warner Bros. use to have retail stores and I bought everything, clothes, gifts, dog toys and art. Yes I have cartoon art all over the house.
About 18-20 years ago I was thinner and purchased a pair of jeans with the Taz, Bugs Bunny and others on them. Today, they FIT!! A super duper NSV for me. I even have the matching 't' shirt. I own a few long sleeved shirts with characters all over them. Like I said. I love the old fashioned cartoons.

​One of my favorite prints is called 'Speechless'. It is a microphone and off to the side are the characters that Mel Blanc did the voices for. It was when he died. That is my all time favorite. Yes I am a 63 year Grammie who is young at heart and I show it off.
 
Do other young at hearts have cartoon people in their life?
Have a great weekend. The weather in Boston is great today. I went to the gym in shorts.

I was bad with my dinner last night. But I loved every bit of it. Today is another day and I will be better. I did not over eat, I just ate the wrong things. I had 3 coconut shrimp, great bread dunked in oil and cheese pizza. The local restaurant has a great football special when the N.E. Patriots play. Yes they won!!!
 
On one of my other WLS groups one person spoke of her friend and by pass. The woman had by pass about 10 years ago and was doing great for a while. She is now in the hospital for revision. She stretched out her pouch and when the doctor went to sew her insides it was like cotton candy, her words not mine. The woman is on ice chips for a few days and in the hospital for at least 10 days. If that doesn't scare the S**T out of you, nothing will.
 
​I never was a drinker. In fact the last frozen Girl Scout cookie I had I broke out into hives and never had a drink since. That was over 15 years ago. So drinking was never anything I was going to miss with my journey. I never liked fast foods and yet I was and am obese. Fast food was always a comfort food but not for me. Give me bread and more bread, ice cream. I now have bread in restaurants and maybe once or twice a month in my own house.
 
I think we all went into this new journey to get healthy, be thinner and move our bodies that were just sitting around. No one forced us but we need to be smarter with choices. Like CG always says, Listen to your doctor!! Listen to your dietitian and finally listen to your body.
 
Have a great week. October is tomorrow and before you know it Halloween. I only buy candy I hate and I hate more candies than I like. I never had a problem with buying candy. Yes, I hate Snickers!!
 
Arlene

To all the “KNOW IT ALL” posters in Bandland!
 
I posted this elsewhere today and I’m adding it to my blog because I just had to get this off my chest!
 
Why is that some people feel they are experts at what is right for anyone but themselves?
When "newbies" or even veterans for that matter ask questions in this forum, it's because we are looking for advice and support.
 
We are not looking for the know it all clipped and often times judgmental comments that are thrown out to refute the actual helpful advice of other bandsters. These comments come in almost exact succession to the postings of certain people who are actually helpful in their comments and advice, and these judgmental postings are really starting to bug me.
 
If you think this comment was about you, then it probably was and I hit my target audience.
 
My advice to you is that perhaps you should take all that you know and apply it personally and then edit the content again before you hit post. Or I'm sure there will be more people who will start refuting your comments and judging you for your tone and countering you on your expertise.
 
Last I checked you were not registered as a Lapband Surgeon, Doctor, PA, or spokesman. It's really all just your opinions that would be better served minus the judgmental tone.
 
Thank you.

Wow September has started pretty interesting for me hasn’t it?
 
Well today I went to see my Doctor and he said he will have to replace my port because it’s infected. So next Tuesday is my surgery date. I am little disappointed with myself because I did everything by the book and I didn’t take care of myself properly. It was like a punch to the stomach when he told me this.
 
So what cause my port to get infected? The term self-inflicted unintentionally comes in mind. I remember some of you guys telling me to take in easy 3 weeks after my surgery. Remember back in May when I was set up and helping out at those many graduation parties. Some of you guys commented Take it easy and be careful. And I did but somewhere down the line something happened and this was the result.
 
I can go on and on about what I may have or may not did right but I am not. It is time for me to get over it and move forward! Am I happy with the band? Hell yeah I am! When I start this journey I was 267 and as of today I am 205! It sucks that I have to get my port replace so soon but so far the band has been taking care of me and now I need to take care of my band.
 
This time around I will definitely take it easy. Meaning I am going to sit my a$$ down and let my incisions heal properly!
 
My only concern is my work outs. I started adding new routines and I wonder how this is going to affect me? I will think of something. Well at least I will have a short work week next week
 
 
Anyway what is going on with my St. Louis Cardinals?
 
 
Thanks for reading

I finally paid my AT&T Uverse bill word of advice check your bill often because they will upgrade your internet without your knowledge. I guess they didn’t get the memo about me being on a budget!
 
Anyway how is everyone? I am okay… I guess. This recovery time is harder than I thought it would be. I guess I can start with the morning of the surgery. Surgery took about 18 minutes and I was discharged around 930am. Once again my amazing daddy took care of me. He made sure that my a$$ sat down and got my meds. And just like last time he went to work that evening! This is why I love my daddy! My coworkers (I don’t know if I told you guys this before but I work with nurses) been checking on me every day especially my partner in crime. It cracks me up when he texts saying how is my patient this morning! (I can’t laugh too much because it hurts) Despite of all the things that been going on with him losing his home and getting his life back on track. He still makes time to check on me and that means a lot to me.
 
My support system has been wonderful to me. They are concerned about me because the first thing they ask me is I hope you’ve been sitting you’re a$$ down! I am but it is hard. I thought I prepared myself mentally for this but I didn’t. I am afraid that I am going to gain some of my weight back when I am so close to One Hundred Land! I was doing so good with my workouts and I really wanted to do my first 5K with Catfish next Saturday but I have to wait and try again. It’s sorta depressing but I am trying to get over it by thinking about how much I accomplish during this journey.
 
So, I am going to put my faith in God and move forward. Besides I will have to do this again in a couple of months because my port has to be put in again. My surgeon let me know this yesterday I will a little disappointed but he told me to continue what I been doing and I will do just fine. Then he removed my packing on my incisions and showed me how to do packing. I just like to say two things: That f*cking hurt! Thank goodness for pain killers and two I am glad my daddy drove me because after all that I wouldn’t been able to drive. So what did my daddy do…. He took me out for some ice cream! I am such a daddy’s girl and a big kid but this actually made me feel better!
 
I haven’t got my appetite back yet but I’ve been eating. I have too because all the pills I’ve been taking and I don’t need to be taking them on an empty stomach. I know I will resume my workouts soon but until then I will continue making healthier choices until I get back on track! I have to remember this is only temporary.
 
Thanks for reading.