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Was banded at cibo clinic in 2012 , lost 50 pounds everything great ..then the clinic closes leaving everyone to fend for themselves unless I would like to pay an extra thousand dollars a year for care that my 18,000 dollars already paid for. They said drs. Anvari and Hong are still our drs. And if there's any issues they are there for us ...load of crap !!! I've been in constant pain for a little over a year ..no longer can I eat anything good for me ..only slider foods here because to eat anything else causes great pain. I have a 14 cc band with 8cc fill ..I have terrible left rib and shoulder pain , sinus issues , vomit all the time , feeling dizzy like vertigo , racing heart , but no one can find anything wrong ... I've tried numerous times as has my family Dr to get ahold of dr anvari ...no one ever calls back ...went to St joes emerge where both anvari and Hong work from ..to try to get un filled ...the emerge Dr says nope can't help you go back to where the band was placed ...explained what happened with cibo clinic and that drs anvari and Hong worked at cibo but emerge Dr still says we are not equipped to do un fills , I'm like seriously this is a bariactric hospital..so after spending 10 hrs on a few occasions in hospital no one will help me but they certainly didn't have a problem taking my 18,000 dollars to put it in .... I'm so sick and fed up with this band ...can anyone please help me or point me in the right direction.

I had two, one September 21 and another November 19 to rule out barretts esophagus. They are a piece of cake. Procedure is literally maybe 10 minutes unless they find polyps or something that need removal. But after Iv and being wheeled down I remember talking to the Dr, nurse etc. He asked if I had any questions, I told him I was nervous bc i had never been knocked out b4. He assured me all would be fine they were giving me propofol (sp?) to knock me out. I must have given him a weird look cause he then said "don't worry Michael Jackson used this", I said well mj died using that so that's not very comforting . It was funny. But I said I was ready, everything faded and I woke up in recovery. Had to stay for an hour in recovery and then went home. Had a bit of a sore throat but nothing terrible. Was more like it was dry. As far as a standard practice, my understanding is if you have reflux or Gerd prior to surgery they do an egd to check the lining of the stomach. Bc some people get reflux/Gerd post op and if you have existing damage some doctors won't do the sleeve then.

What day did the scale go down after surgery???? Im 6 days out, and diet has been perfect, no cheating. I'm still 10 pounds heavier than when I went into the hospital. I just want to see how long is normal.

I was the same way.. 10 pounds heavier when i left the hospital. it took about a week, but then dropped. Good luck!

Update for my dates!!! Yesterday I had my last visit with my dietician. I will be seeing my surgeon on 4/11/17 for my last visit with him before surgery. Seeing my Primary Care for clearance on 4/18/17. Starting my pre op optifast diet on 4/19/17 and then having my surgery on 5/3/17!!! I am so excited I can't stop smiling. My boss knows what's going on so she is already approved all of my dates off. Now the reason why I don't start my pre op diet till 4/19 is because they said it takes about 2 weeks for insurance to review everything to approve the surgery. [emoji847]

10 days

Just remember that restriction and "feeling full" do not necessarily happen together. Sometimes the restriction from the band will not allow a piece of chewed food to pass through as we think it should. When I was in between fills one time, and had no feeling of restriction, I had overeaten and I knew I had ate too much. It is now a miserable "full" feeling. You do not get the satisfaction of that "old full feeling" such as before the band. I have had 9 fills with 8.6 in a 10 cc band 18 months out. I now know that feeling will never happen again. So physically it is better to just step away from that last bite or two left on that plate. let it go!! I will not be worth it. Good luck to all our new bandsters..:biggrin:

...and I Have To Say I Am Sh*ting My Pants! I Am Freaking Out Over Here - Trying Not Chicken Out! Oh Gosh I Hate {pain} Please Any Last Minute Tips/ Reminders/ Prayers I Should Say! I Guess This Is Just The Immature Side Of Me. Oh Well Though Even Though I Am 21 I Am Still 20, 19 , 18 17, ...6,5,4,3,2,1 Underneath So I Am Allow To Act Three Sometimes Right? (we Are All Like A Big Snowball Just Getting Bigger But Inside We Are Still Who We Used To Be Years Ago).

I hired a personal trainer since I was 4 weeks out. I work out 3 days a week. $200 for the first 10 sessions, then 35 dollars per session after that if I buy more than 20. I purchased a 40 session package and referred some friends and got 15 more sessions for free. he's certified and he is great for weight loss. Love him!!

Daisychains FYI. Proving you can loose wt can cause your insurance to deny you. The dr has write that you have failed all other attempts to lose wt. the time to prove your dr wrong is after you get the band. Remember some people have been denied because they were loosening good without the band. I went up and down during the the 6 month dr supervised time only loosing 10 lbs showing I was motivated but still needed help. they set you up you need to fail so you can get the band

My doctor told me that after 10 days the chance of a leak is less than 1% and after 2 weeks it 0%. He said if I had a leak after 2 weeks, he wouldn't even treat it surgically. It's very important to follow the liquids after surgery. I had to do 10 days of clear liquids. My doctor is very conservative, which is fine with me. He also uses a drain. The purpose of a drain is to alert you to a leak even before you get symptoms. The drain stayed in for the first 10 days then was removed in the office.

I am also currently pregnant. Due Sept 19th. I did have a complete unfill at 10 weeks due to horrible all-day sickness. I was very anxious and worried about weight gain, but after getting ahold of myself, really I'm doing all of this for my baby. I can always get filled again and jump back on the weightloss track. To be completely honest I don't really have the ability at this point to even eat as much as I did at my most filled state. The baby is taking up so much room, so I am back to eating small meals/snacks throughout the day. My surgeon wasn't worried about the calorie intake while pregnant he was more worried about calories during breastfeeding. It is your decision maybe just a slight unfill as the months go on will work for you. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!!!

If you ran 19 minutes today, there is absolutely no reason you cannot run 19 minutes tomorrow, then the next day, and so on...then 30 minutes and so forth..... That is how I motivated myself....I built off of previous accomplishments...do it once, can do it again, no reason I cannot.... I now run 5 miles a day in 45 minutes as a routine...I kept telling myself I did it yesterday, I can surely do it today..... .tell myself that everyday and now, it is as natural and routine as can be.....I could do more but I get bored after 45 minutes....so I stop there....but I have been increasing my speed, staying within the 45 minutes = using the speed setting as my new motivation and goals...again, I ran at 8mph yesterday, can do it today...right? And if I do it today, which I will because I know I can, no reason I can't do it tomorrow.... When I was doing the program you are doing, I always had to stop and start over from the beginning if I got interrupted....and if I could not finish the day/session, I would go back and start over at the beginning of the week and work back to the day I had a problem with. I wanted to be sure that when I finished the program, I was actually trained and in shape to do it everyday, not to say I completed it as in a competition....

Get well soon ladies [emoji173]️ 51 year old woman VSG DATE: 10/28/17 5' 5" HW: 259 CW: 249 SW: --- GOAL: 135

Hi everyone, I was banded on 10/9/08 and have been suffering with gas since. I have tried gas-x with no relief. I have also tried some teas. In the last 3 days I have gotten a sharp pain on the side of my left shoulder. I think it is gas. It only seems to come when my stomach is feeling empty. I am eating mushies and it seems to subside after I eat, but whenever I am near the 3 hour mark, it starts. It is driving me crazy, and is very uncomfortable/painful. Any suggestions... Please help:crying:

Hi Alex (wow, *another* alex!)-- I gotta say, if you're 5'9" and are only 15 lbs over your goal, you are THERE, baby! I've heard time and time again that the last few pounds come off slowly, and if I were you I'd rather give it more time instead of running the risk of a too-tight fill. You're how old? 19? IMO you should be concentrating on learning how to eat with the fill you've got, and tweaking your habits rather than tweaking your fill. Congratulations on getting so far! You are normal, honey, and 15 lbs on a 5'9" frame is pocket change. Hell, I'm 5'10" and my "goal" weight is a range of 30 lbs! I certainly won't be worried about the "last" 15. Concentrate on school, and staying healthy!! That's my thinking, and you did ask.

hey guys i need tons of help here!! i'll just start that i am 19 years old and in college living with three other roommates. i am 5ft 9in and started at 207lbs. i am down to 165 which is awesome......but my goal weght is about 150. i have been dealing with a lot of emotional stress the past few years and i will feel finally done with all this when i reach my goal weight! anyway...... i have had 3 fills......and the third one was really tight, which was in september. i continued to lose weight but there was A LOT of food i could not eat. and that made this very hard because i would try to eat a lot of things and PB them. My roommates were kind of curious what was going on and also it stressed me out because i didn't feel like i even had the chance to make "good" or "bad" decisions with food or portion decisions. Which for me is also part of this whole thing...trying to have a moderate normal relationship with food. Now, I have been at the same weight for a good couple of months and I can eat a big variety of foods. Things still get stuck every couple of days or if i eat way too fast. So i am not losing weight and I am frustrated because i feel like I am eating a lot.....i am eating a lot. i work out every day and my metabolism is keeping up, but...... emotionally i just want to reach my goal and be so called normal. i don't know whether to get another fill or not because i don't want to be so restricted again to where I PB every day and i can't eat very many things. that makes me upset as well. i don't want my roommates wondering what's going on as well.( they obviously don't know about my surgery) ADVICE anyone please???? thanks so much- alex*

I have UHC and had already met my $500 deductible so did not have to do that. I started this process on 7/31 and so far the tests, visits and bills for anesthesia and biopsy from endo total $11,300. I have paid around $400.00 out of pocket for co-pays. My insurance cover hospital at 90-10 up to $1,000 out of pocket. The hospital give you a price based on what they estimate the insurance will cover. I have heard and won't know for sure until I have my surgery, that the hospital where I am having my surgery, will keep any money you have paid for procedures based on their estimate and then apply it toward your surgery bill. My endoscopy was over $7,000.00 for the procedure, but I had a bravo chip put in to monitor esophagus acid. There was a $500,00 plus bill for anesthesia, my doctor's fee was about $675 and there was a biopsy charge of about $350.00. I believe that I will have about another $500 out of pocket and then should be good. If I do not have surgery before the end of the year, I get to start over in 2014 with a deductible. Next year it may not be $500 but $1,000 and the coverage might be less. It all depends on the contract my employer works out with the insurance company. I am really hoping that I am able to have surgery in 2013.

Okay so I went to the dr Wednesday dec 6th I wrote him a letter with everything that I have tryed and diets, apps ,and gyms. I put skinny pictures of me and now weight pics of me. He knows I have tryed everything under the sun and he thinks it's time, he told me to go to a seminar which I just enrolled and it's dec 15th in Knoxville TN and then after that one see him and he will do the referral letter to the surgeon and they will make apt for me. I'm 5'11 and weight 246 my bmi is 34.5 I know I have to be 35 and 1 or more health issues I have asthma, siatic nerve issues in back and knee problems but I heard that wasn't going to count my dr said that he can make it happen and put i have more issues if I really want this done which is shocking!! So!! I'm going to have to gain about 10 lbs to get my bmi to 35 but scaried to death he can't make it look good on paper for health issues or I could gain another 47 lbs and be at 40 bmi and not have to have any health issues . What do you all think and any advice is greatly appreciated!! I have blue cross blue shield federal also. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I finally have the green light to eat pureed and soft foods but I'm really struggling. Anything I eat - outside of Protein Drinks - I throw up. I thought maybe I was eating too much or maybe too fast so I weighted out 2 oz of rotisserie chicken and pulsed it in my Ninja. I took 10 minutes to eat it. Still no go. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions on things to try? Is this normal?

I started this process on May 4, and I had my surgery on September 12. In between, I lost 56 pounds. Since the surgery, I'm down another 39. I went from 5'5" and 285 to 5'5" and 190. I've lost 10 inches off my waist and went from a XXXL to a large. I stepped back through my old wardrobe so quickly that things I thought would fit for a while no longer fit at all, and I have to start from scratch on my wardrobe. My glucose is 92, I'm off the CPAP, I'm off the cholesterol drug on a trial basis. I look better than I have since high school. I go hiking multiple times a week, I swim multiple times a week, I just bought a kayak. And I'm still losing weight. The 100-pounds-lost mark is right around the corner. This is successful, but not success. Success is many years away, when I'm on my deathbed having never become obese again. And I expect that to be many, many times more difficult than the last few months have been.

Well i made it through surgery and am now at home. I feel very blessed that my surgery was relatively pain free. No pain from the incisions and no gas pain at all. I have not had to take any pain medication. I'm struggling a little getting my liquid and Protein in. I'm using Isopure for that. I can only take it in small doses. I was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. I slept a little bit in my bed last night but after about three hours I got up and switched to my La-Z-Boy recliner and had a very nice sleep until 7 am this morning. I jumped on the treadmill and did about 10 minutes of slow walking. I'll repeat that process throughout the day. I gained 5 lbs from the IV solution in the hospital but have since dropped that weight and three pounds more. Best of luck to everyone that has had their surgery or is about to have surgery. Dallas

My Dr told me to start taking vitamins and supplements 10 days out. Today is my first day and I got the multivitamin down fine. I tried crushing the others and putting them in my protein drink..... Disgusting!!!!! Any suggestions?

I had my surgery on May 3, 2010 and I started this adventure a year earlier trying to convince my company that this was the right thing to do! I was pretty convincing and they aproved my surgery. On 4/19/2010 I weighed in at 345lbs with a BMI of 49.6. I currenty as of this date weigh 280lbs. I have lost more weight in the last 6 weeks than I had over the past 4 years. My wife said I am loosing it 2 fast but I feel good! This was not without some pain and frustration but that you probably know already. I felt like I had made the mistake of my life the day after surgery but I have since changed my mind. Had I not taken this step I probably would not be here in 3 to 5 years. My wife had a lap band done in 1996 and had great weight loss until 2005 when it broke and damaged her stomach. She had to have an emergency gastric bypass but has had some issues with this surgery. The picture above was from 2006 and I have not had a picture of me taken since. That will be changing! I am having some problems with eating 6 weeks after surgery and I am still having to puree all my food. I have tried multiple times to eat small amounts of food that is not ground up to a pulp and have had no success. I will be seeing my Dr. on Wednesday and this is one issue I want him to talk to me about. I also have a wierd experience when I eat with my nose starts running and I then have to sneeze for about 10 minutes. I thought maybe I had a a food alergie but it happens no matter what I eat. Is this a problem with anybody else? Let me know. I am walking 3.5 miles every day and today I pushed it to 5 miles with no side affects. I plan to step it up a mile a week until I get to the wall! In closing I want to hear from some of you about what issues you are having and maybe we can work together to help each other. Thanks for the support! Jim P.S. the 1SunMoney name is my Poker name.

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