Search the Community

Ontour, there is a veterans forum and perhaps you should post there for some help as the sleevers there are like yourself many months out and the euphoria of the initial loss has passed and they have faced all different issues. Everyone is super helpful too, not that people on other forums aren't , it is just that they seemed to have faced situations that the newly sleeved haven't . Also, is there no one at your doctors office who can take over your care? Or another bariatric surgeon you can approach?

Hello dear friends, Every doctor is different, but after seeing so much (on this website) about it being okay to drink carbonated drinks, I called my doctor's office. The nurse I talked to, who is also a bandster, read a recent quote from the American Institute of Bariatric Surgery on the subject. It stated that carbonated beverages CAN enlarge or stretch the stoma (pouch) because of the gases created. This holds true for overeating (large quantites) even if you can tolerate it. I think I'm going to be very cautious about either. I paid too much $$ and went through too much pain to sabotage my efforts. Brenda (nurse) said this is true for either Lapband or RNY patients. I asked her when you know you need another fill. She said you take measurements weekly of your weight, and body. When you go 3-4 weeks with no change, it is time for another fill. She said that whether or not you "feel" restricted is NOT a determining factor. Just passing on the info. Take it or leave it. Have a great weekend!

Tanya- the only one the spouse is not able to come to is the Psyc. eval. You always need an advocate when dealing with an H M O First meal my wife was given, they had regular jello- and the apple sauce had sugar too... I was on them quickly... Hello- NO SUGAR! also had a PM nurse offer to bring my wife a candy bar around midnight... Bariatric surgery and a good case of the dumps... ALWAYS have an advocate there for you!!! two heads better than one...

Congrats to everyone that has been sleeved and everyone on their way to it! i will be havin it done at univ of chicago... i did my 6 months at st james center for bariatrics in olypia fields but they only do bypass and lapband there so had to get referral... the surgeon suggested i get the DS however im afraid of rerouting so he said i could do it in 2 stages... sleeve first and if i have good weight loss i wont have to do the 2nd part of rerouting... at univ of chicago u have to ho thru a 1 day PREP group class before u can have the surgery... the phych told me it fills up very fast and the next one available is 10/21.... i was hoping to be able to get into the sep class but no such luck... hopefully the time will fly by..

:thumbup: Hi Eeveryone, I was on the LBT forum and took about a year to decide after orientation in Richmond if the bariatric option was for me and I am now ready to make the change. Apparently a lot has changed in a year. i was set on the band and now I am reading stuff saying that Richmond is no longer offering it? Seems like I will be having to research the sleeve now....... I will be going to the Point West meeting next weekend if anyone from this forum will be there.....

I was accepted into SSF Kaiser Bariatrics program the beginning of August 2013 and, after 3 nutrition classes, sleeved on October 3rd 2013. Every doctor there is a little different, but I had no presurgery liquid diet, but did follow their 1200 calorie food plan for 6 weeks before surgery losing 19 lbs. My surgeon was Dr. David Lee. The approval process was very fast and I have been very happy with my surgery and the care provided by Kaiser.

Are you taking little sips and allowing them to go down? Are you on Clear liquids? Did they give you the little one oz measuring cups to help you gauge your intake? Those really helped me. The best thing though, was the bariatric coordinator's advice to change my posture - to put my shoulders back and stick those boobs out, head straight up - and that helps things move smoothly through the new little stomach. Man, I wish I had seen her earlier. That didn't fix everything immediately, but that was the beginning of the end of the terrible pain of day one and two! I am here thinking about you and hoping things will get better. Try the posture thing for sure.

I always take mine at bedtime, never with food. I’ve been taking these for my last two checks and all perfect levels. All Bariatric patients can’t eat or drink at the same time, I doubt they would put it on the market with that assumption. Also, if you have a small sip of water before a meal, that isn’t going to hurt you. It’s the act of eating while drinking that can cause problems. I hate for you to pass on an awesome vitamin for these reasons.

I know other OPs that take Flinstones, but it seems like you have to supplement with other vitamins. I like the ones that I take because, besides calcium, its got it all, plus some. Like I said, I take at bedtime. I get nauseous with vitamins unless I take at night. These are perfect. And you can't beat the price for an actual Bariatric Vitamin. This is the description from the website. It doesn't specify to eat with food. It also specifies that it is easy to digest and absorb. Product description: ProCare Health Bariatric once-a-day Multivitamin 30ct. capsule The ONLY complete once daily multivitamin in the industry! Our vitamin is designed to specifically meet the health needs of those who have undergone bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass, vertical sleeve, Roux-en-Y and Duodenal Switch. This formula was developed in cooperation with Doctors, Dieticians and Nutritionists to make this the most complete once-a-day vitamin in the industry! It is designed to be convenient, small, easy to digest and absorb and cost effect. Convenient. Unlike other products on the market today, which require you to take 3 to 4 tablets per day, ProCare Health’s Bariatric Nutritional Supplement gives you all of the ASMBS and your Doctor’s recommended daily nutrients in a once daily easy to swallow capsule. Affordable. Our competitive pricing makes ProCare Health’s Bariatric Nutritional Supplement affordable to everyone. Over 45% less than other leading brands.

A friend of mine highly recommends Bariatric Advantage. She had bypass surgery a few months back. I do think it’s weird that she’s insisting you order Unjury. I went over my paperwork and it mentions whey protein isolate powders and shakes and listed some brands but in the end I can choose what ever I want as long as it has at least 25 grams of protein. So I’m basically taking the long way to say don’t let them push you around and oh by the way we are surgery twins!

I did go and review the manual and you are absolutely right about this. No one has mentioned this to me and my surgeon said that I shouldn't have any problems getting approved, so we shall see. I have not done any commercial weight loss programs except for Hcg and that doesn't count. It's so frustrating and I am so nervous that I will not be approved for this. Sigh.. They have sent me for so much testing, I have racked up about 7k in tests for the bariatric center so to me, it seems silly that they would deny me after they paid for all of that you know? The way I see it, they should approve all overweight people because they would be paying less for dr visits and CPAPS etc in the long run, you know? Ahh.. oh well.. I guess I'll stress about it for another couple weeks. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!!

I saved like crazy for the surgery. I'm not gonna lie, cost WAS a factor in deciding which doctor to go to, but I didn't just go to the cheapest doctor I could find. If money was no object, I would have gone to Dr. Alvarez... but I realized that there were many well qualified and competent doctors in Tijuana that were about half the price of Alvarez. You'll find that many of the doctors who using the major booking companies (R4C, ALM, MBC, MT) are well qualified and have done a LOT of surgeries before they are accepted by a booking company and begin working on American/Canadian patients. One of the single biggest determining factors of complication rates, is number of bariatric procedures that the surgeon has performed. Higher volume surgeons/hospitals have lower complication rates. (no a point, you don't want a doctor who does 15 surgeries a day, but you don't want one who only does two a week either) on average, a doctor who has done fewer than 200 bariatric procedures has more than twice the complication rate of a doctor who has done more than 1000 procedures.

Best of luck! This is not easy, banish that I couldn't do it on my own self talk! I'm betting you have lost weight lots of times "on your own", but made this decision based on long term success and the strong science that supports bariatric surgery. Safe travels

I agree with Laurend. That sounds like an amazingly bad idea. It would sound as though the patient is trying to go to message boards to trash his rep and honestly, if I was the doc I'd be fighting back against the patient. I damn sure wouldn't be wanting to change my policy for someone doing something like that. But I might warn the other bariatric surgeons in the area about this patient. Nobody will want to see her. The OP has already been given more appropriate methods to deal with the problem. The ball is in her court now.

*Dr. Daniel Huacuz* also messed up on my friend`s band. She had her surgery on December 2007 and since then was having extremelly strong pains. Since I have the band as well I kept on telling her that sometimes we do have pain but she needed to check with her doctor. Before surgery Dr. Huacuz called her many times and answered each and every question she had, however this picture changed after surgery, she could not get a hold of him often and every time she talked to him he was very rude to her. Once I called him and while he talked to me I could hear a beeping sound on the background, sounded like he was in the surgery center at the same time - hopefully not performing a surgery.! Last week, my friend passed out and was taken to the ER with her nails and lips turning purple... when the bariatric surgeon got inside he found an inamed band that was place in the wrong portion of her stomach and on top of that it was an old type of band, one that is not even produced by inamed any longer. My friend said that the day before surgery, Dr. Huacuz showed her small, new band and said that was the style she was getting.... All I know is that my friend is now doing well after the nightmare... she is glad to have that band removed and to be receiving the care of a new doctor.

Re: Dr. Van Wagner-CoolBrez84, if you are in the St. Louis area, check out Dr. Wagner with Heart of America Bariatrics. Annapg, in my consultation with Dr. Wagner and from attending the informational seminar I didn't get the impression that he favors RNY (gastric by-pass) over LapBand, but just the opposite. But he is very candid about the need to exercise, and someone who won't will do better with by-pass.

Hi and welcome. I live in Harford County, Maryland. I don't know who the bariatric people are in Montgomery County, but I had my band done at St. Agnes in Baltimore, a little farther away, but is a Bariatric Center of Excellence. Drs. Singh (my surgeon), Averbach, and Von Reuden(was the head of Bariatrics at GBMC but left to join Singh and Averbach). When I decided to do this I started going to the group support meetings (as of 7/07). I learned a lot there(even had a post-op bandster tell me I didn't look heavy enough to need surgery--but I am 5'7" so it has farther to go). My insurance (Blue Choice) required a 6 month documented diet attempt, so while I was doing that I joined this site and Obesityhelp.com to learn all I could about the procedure. Their current office is in Catonsville at Route 40 and Rolling Road, but they are opening another office farther out into Howard County which might be closer to you if you are interested in using them. While you are waiting for your insurance, you might want to attend the initial seminar that all bariatric centers offer. There is no obligation after the seminar and it is free. If you use that group the seminar is a required first step. I would go to seminars at several locations, to see which is the best fit for you. If you want to check out St. Agnes, call the hospital and they will tell you when the next seminar is and give you a reservation for it. Good luck on your journey. Keep us posted.

I wanted to share that I found myself looking at my August calendar and counting up the days I will be out of town and not able to get my miles in, counting the days I can workout and making sure I can get my miles in to reach my goal. I had to laugh at myself as I would have never done that before. I would definately been hit and miss as far as getting my exercise in. Three of the days I'll miss getting to the gym is for a seminar in Seattle on August 14-15 that i am super excited about. It is sponsored by Realize. (That was the band I chose). There are really great speakers coming, from Dr Garth Davis (Big Medicine) and Mary Jo (Big Medicine) and motivational speakers, exercise specifics for bariatric surgery, bariatric chef for friendly foods, plastic surgery speaker for lower body lifts and so much more. I am stoked about all the information that will be available. Plus a huge clothing exchange then too. Should be alot of fun. My gym is closed for 2 days in August for annual repairs. My anniversary (24 years) is in August and we are going to take a jet boat up the Columbia river to the pacific ocean. It's looking like a busy month....but I WILL get my miles in!!

After many years as a lap band patient, I am at the end of my rope. I had my original surgery in June of 2002. Since then I have been through 3 doctors. One resigned, I fired one, and a new one since I relocated. Additionally I have had 4 surgeries all related to the lap band. Lets see, my first fill resulted in a raging infection that was treated for 6 months unsucessfully. Ultimately,my port had to be removed until the infection cleared up. That took another 2 months. All of this time I've had no restriction! Then we started again and I got up to two cc's and my port flipped. Another surgery. We start again and the tubing disconnects form the port. Another surgery!! Now we move on to a new doctor and he wants to put in a new port because the old one is on a angle and "hitting" the port for a fill is near impossible. Another surgery!!! We start again!!!! I get back up to 1.75cc's and my husband and I hit the road for 6 months. The doctor tells me to see him when I get back, which I did, and even though I had not lost any weight in those 6 months(I wasn't tight enough) he refuses to give me a fill. I get slightly annoyed to say the least and after a few words with him, I ask for my records and never went back!!! Still only 1.75 cc's. We relocated to South Carolina and after searching for a bariatric Dr. I find one that was somewhat reluctant to take me as a patient with all my previous problems, but finally agreed to see me. I really liked him and we arranged for a fluroscopy to see what's happening , and before I can get it done, I get a letter saying that he had resigned and relocated to another office 300 miles away. OH BOY!!! Should I be surprised?? Well. he has a partner and I started seeing him last October. This Dr gave me a fill under fluro in October, I feel nothing and I tell him so. Another fill in Nov....nothing... I tell him I think I have a leak.... I feel nothing! But he says no I don't have a leak. OK, I'm thinking maybe I just haven't hit my sweet spot yet. I get another fill in January of 2.8ccs and actually feel a restriction!!! ALLRIGHT now we're cooking!!! Finally! Well........2 days later...guess what....I FEEL NOTHING! I finally talk him into putting a little contrast in there and under fluro we find out that the inner ballon is leaking. Very slowly, but its leaking!!! YIPEE!!! I'm relieved to know that I'm not losing my mind!! So I ask the DR about a revision. But, because of all my previous surgeries with the lapband, it would be a BIG surgery!! I am not willing to put myself through a major surgery with no guarantee of leaks and flips and infections not happening again, so I'm sure you can understand why I am fed up.....and.....I AM DONE with the lapband and am resigned to live with the appliance sitting in me doing nothing. :cursing: In closing let me say, I do know several people that have been quite successful with their weight loss with the lapband, unfortunately, I am not one of them. Than you for taking the time to read this. Colleen

I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread as well. I'm new to the site, and this, in fact is my first post. Nice to be among brothers and sisters in Christ! With regard to the question about the band and faith, I am reminded of a joke...A man was caught in a massive flood and was perched atop his house, praying fervently for rescue. Along came a man in a small aluminum boat. When the man offered a ride to safety, the man on the roof declined saying he had faith thet God would save him. Anbother boat came by a while later, and he responded the same way. The water was rising, and as he felt his feet in the current, a helicopter came along and offered a line, but agaion the man refused. Shortly thereafter, he drowned. Upon entering the gates of heaven, he asked the Lord what happened???I trusted you, and I had faith in you?? Where were you when I needed you? And the Lord responded, "I sent ya 2 boats and a helicopter...." Seriously, I think we have to remember that our weight problem really isn't so much the issue,. it's the idolatry of the food, and the ongoing battle for the mind. It's our choices. Even after banding, we have to choose to follow the correct diet. The battle is in the mind. We should "take every thought obedient to Christ" and "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind" because that's where the battle exists. The band is a tool, not the answer. It's a help. We'll still need all the faith and obedience we can muster in order to achieve our goals. But, thanks to the support of folks like you all, it doesn't seem so daunting....

Hi all, I am from North Vernon, IN. I had my surgery 1 year ago March 27. My surgery was done at Columbus Regional Hospital by Dr. Lee. The Columbus Bariatric center is wonderful! I have lost 110lbs so far. :biggrin:Angie

I went on an alcohol and eating feast the first two weeks after learning that I was going to have lap-band. It was just to clean out the frig and wet bar -- great that this happen at St. Patrick's Day. Since March 18th, I've been sticking to Protein drinks and one balanced dinner. No alcohol, no sodas, no red meat, almost no bread -- the killer was no ice cream. AND I still have to get down to a BMI of 40 or 327 lbs before Memorial Bariatric Center will perform the lap-band surgery. Stay focused on the goal.

Pre surgery here but I just bought the Bariatric Advantage Multi Vitamin with Iron and a bag of their calcium chewy bites. Hoping to find good alternatives after this first batch.

I've only taken Bariatric Advantage CHEWY multivitamin, calcium, & iron vitamins since my surgery 12/1/16. Do you know of any equivalents that are not as expensive? I don't mind making a switch as long as the quality is there AND they MUST taste good (don't want to feel like I'm eating chalk) Please offer any advice you have. Thank you!

You're welcome. I started the process in January when I was working for another employer and when I got to the end, I found out the insurance would only cover up to 50% or $10,000. I changed employers in June and the new employer offered bariatric surgery at 100%. The new insurance plan was effective August 1st after the waiting period, some of my pre-op stuff was still good except my stress test, chest x-ray, pre-op bloodwork, and my edg. I got all the stress test done and they submitted it to the insurance provider on the 3rd and I got an answer on August 14th. Scheduler called a week later for Sept 22. By me waiting instead of just jumping at the 1st chance I got (the approval at 50%) I saved myself so much money. It's tough but worth it. I was so ready to have it done too. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App