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Dr. Sowemimo, Thanks for this helpful article. We always hope that lap-band slippage won’t happen, but it is so important to know the signs and symptoms just in case it does, so we can get help as soon as possible. Since so many of the symptoms can happen for other reasons, too, I think it is important to also take home the message that it’s best to contact your surgeon or doctor whenever you have doubts, not just when you’re sure you have a serious problem! Thanks also for explaining the possibility of revision to a gastric bypass. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s necessary – but fortunately, it can be quite successful! I think a band can be revised to a sleeve, too.

Dear Blessed Beyond Measure: i am blessed beyond measure too...God made awa y fo rm to have revision surgery ---lapband this time. u go girl, Jesus is the way. i am asking for alot of prayer for my preop diet and reduction in appetite.and that i will survive the surgery---i have too much scar tissue for a laporoscopic procedure so am hvaing open surgery and will be psending 2-3 days in thtehospital,i hope u will stayi in touch with me. i need spiritual support too. thanks

While the lap band (adjustable gastric band surgery) is not as common as it once was, many people battling obesity are still successfully using it as a tool for considerable weight loss and eventual weight management. Slippage is most commonly due to eating too quickly resulting in stomach bloat. Other contributing factors can include vomiting, overeating and even drinking too many carbonated beverages. All of these issues can cause the band to move as a result of over-extension (bloating) of the stomach. Gastric Lap Band Slippage Signs: Food Consumption Changes You may notice a decrease in appetite, being able to eat more than usual, or experiencing an unexplained discomfort during and after eating. Nausea or Vomiting When the band on your stomach slips, it can be difficult for food to pass through. This may make it feel like there is food trapped in your prolapsed stomach. This sensation can cause your body to want to expel that trapped food, leading to vomiting. Acid Reflux Feeling heartburn-like symptoms is a sign that your stomach acids are coming back up your throat from the stomach (esophagus). This can lead to chest pain, bloating, burping, hiccups that won’t stop, and other GI discomfort. Abdominal Pain Some patients with gastric banding slippage have told me they just feel like “something isn’t right” in their stomachs. They are able to complete normal daily tasks but don’t feel close to normal. “I Think I’m Experiencing Lap Band Slippage” If your lap band moves out of place, your lap band surgeon will need to make an adjustment as quickly as possible in order to relieve symptoms so you can resume losing weight. If it’s only a mild slip, your surgeon may be able to deflate the band so that it can re-adjust. However, moderate and severe band slips will typically require a laparoscopic surgical procedure to replace the band or remove it if further complications are present. If you notice any signs or symptoms of what you think could be a lap band slip, you should contact your surgeon right away. Even if you think you’re showing all the signs, only your weight loss surgery doctor will be able to tell you for sure. What if I’m Ready to Replace my Gastric Band with Another Bariatric Procedure? Changing from one bariatric procedure to another is called revision bariatric surgery. For some people, gastric banding, and the ongoing need for office visits and adjustments, no longer fits their lifestyle. Or, they did not achieve the overall weight loss goal they had hoped. Since the lap band’s initial popularity some years ago, the sleeve gastrectomy (“the sleeve”) has become the most popular bariatric weight loss surgery operation. For others, gastric bypass bariatric surgery is the right procedure. If your lap band needs to be removed, by choice or as a result of a complication, a qualified bariatric surgeon can go over other weight loss surgery options with you. There may be another procedure that will work better for you and help achieve your ultimate weight loss goals.

I go in Tuesday for surgery for revision. Had long convo with doctor Yesterday after procedure as well as today when he called me. This should be a blast...

Hi guys, been a busy week or so getting things together for the kids to get back to school. How are you feeling Vick??? MKat - welcome! I wish you the best of Luck with this adventure, it has been a long 2 1/2 years for me but I am on my way to my goal, with a long pleatu that was self induced mostly because I met my Dr's goal and was told how great I looked all the time so I maintained. My words of wisdom: exercise ... even if just walk, park far away from the door when at malls or store... I'm sure you have heard it all before. Don't ever give up. I know you say you are picky eater, look for ways to cook what you like with healthy subs. Throw something at me, I'll revise it for you! ( I LOVE TO COOK) If you every need anything at all, PM me, I would be happy to help. I love sharing what I have learned and even more if it actually helps someone. Hope you all have a great day -I am up way too early and going to get dressed and go for a walk before I get my hair done this morning! Oh still have not made it back to the gym so I've given up at this point, I'm going to do what I have to to finish getting ready for school and next Tuesday morning I will be up, go for my walk at 7:30 when the bus comes and head over to the Y for my light weights. MY PLAN: be ready to walk when the bus picks up ds at 7:30, m-w-f leave for water aerobics when get back from walk, tu-th leave after walk to Y for light weights. Sat & Sun I will walk but maybe the easier walk with my friend just to not be sitting home

Yeah good luck with the surgery!! Terry, the short of it, I(we) think Carson dislocated the tube from the port. When they filled it with 4cc, the immediately only drew back 1cc. Before that they drewback 0cc, and I should have had 3.5cc in it. So that's where they're quoting me to get a contrast study (after just paying for the fluro, when they could have done it then!!). So another $400 for another test, and then I asked her if I could do surgery the next morn and give me a quote. She quoted $14,500. That's the cost of original surgery. So I wrote her back, that my last revision (this annoys me) was $2,500. So she said she was quoting if they had to replace the band. I don't know why they would. And she keeps saying if it's a band defect they would send it off to get reimbursement from Allergan (but I called them 2 weeks ago, they said they have NO warranties). So I dunno. I told her, ok lets not schedule surgery. Schedule the test, and I'm going to go from there... Quotes I've gotten back. Wasa recommends someone for the sleeve (in MX), and his cost isn't bad, something like 7k... but plane tickets are 1k a person. So 9k.. but they wrote me back today, if they are revising from a band they do it in 2 parts for healing. First surgery is 5k (plus 2k flights), then 5 months later 7k (plus 2k flights). So that's not really an option anymore. There's a doctor in TN (not too far from here) that revises to sleeve, waiting to hear back from them. Also sent out to local docs about just fixing the leak, etc. Just shopping around.. so far NOTHING I have heard is realistic. I have looked at loans, there's one (I don't know if I'd qualify and if it's only for MX docs) that is 1 year no interest. I have Carecredit that ironically sent me a letter recently that they have new 'plans' for 1-2-3-4 year no interest if you qualify, but my current limit with them is only 5k, and I have no idea who takes Carecredit (I know my current doc does, but no idea if their hospital does, and frankly right now I'm not happy with them so I don't think I want to go to them again for surgery).

I got the box from my band, as well as a card, showing what the band is, how it works, and the product number on the card----as well as my name, and date it was inserted. I think the plan you have makes perfect sense. A temporary fix, if you will, allowing you to work the band as before, and revise after the next little one. Are you stopping at 2 kids, even if the next one is another boy? LOL Like that is ANY of MY business!!!! Haydee, I so feel your pain with your MIL. Mine can be such a royal PITA, and yet she can be so loving! She has a streak for being petty and mean, and like I say always has to pit me in a contest with my SIL, her DD---so I will NEVER win! I don't want to! She would never win if MY Mom was judging!!! I just wish she would let us each do our thing,and not blame me when my SIL is not doing well! I think Pamela's advice was spot on. After you talk to her, it will either show you that she will do as you ask, or she will ignore your request, THEN you can freely whine to Juan!!! LOL I made our motel reservations today for going to ALBQ----sooooo ready to go. I kinda waited today to see if my OM or the Dr. would mention their actions from yesterday, they acted like nothing happen. I am still frosted over it. I think they know that. Went to dinner tonight with Rick's family for his Mom's birthday. Was nice, but I was so ready just to get my jammies on and veg out! My son was late showing up, and when he did, he had my older grandkids with him. Was so good to have them there. And my son has been cigarette free for 2 days now. He IS a bit grumpy!!! But not sure that was all. When we got there, Connor would not settle down, and so he picked him up so my MIL could get a kiss. He just kinda grabbed him by the elbows and picked him up facing out, for my MIL to kiss, and Connor totally unintentionally kicked backwards, and got him right in the crotch. He managed to sit him down, and doubled over! He held his temper, which surprised me! But he was a grouch!!! Jane---Kinsey loves my lotion, she thinks it makes her reeeeeally soft! Like at 4 she has any skin worries!!! Well I am off to veg with my book, and do NOTHING!!! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.........

it is, I wish I knew some one who knew about this and statistics on revision etc. I am frustrated cause I dont know what to expect

No, i didn't get a fill last time i was there, havent gotten one in over 2 1/2 months. i slipped back in march and had a revision done and have not had heartburn or gotten stuck at all till the last several days and now the last 2-3 days have been bad and i just had yogurt and vomited. I'm gonna try and do liquids for a few days, thats what they usually tell u to do anyway and see how i do. last time i progressed to not being able to swallow liquids or saliva, if that happens, well then i know......hopefully it will settle down. :bolt:

r u feeling better now that they deflated u, cause i did not get any relief at all, but they said my slip was severe. hopefull like i said it is not, but if it is it is way easier than the original surgery. I got a 1 cc fill today, hoff told me 2 weeks ago he gave me 2 cc's but he couldn't have cause barb said there was only 3 cc's not 4, so she gave me 1 cc and said it probably wouldn't be enought cause normal before surgery was 5.5 but she said it was a revision so it may be different. well, im glad she didn't give me any more cause i just tested it and its pretty good right now..talk to ya later, feel better.:bored:

Kat, thank you so much for your card! I LOL'd when I read your note..."I knew you when you were just a Denny's waitress!" Honey, I will always be a Denny's waitress. You can take the girl out of Denny's...you know the rest! I just got the FINAL OK from my chair to send my diss to the editor. I sent her my revisions last Sat...and got the thumbs up that I am completely approved and ready for the editor! WOOHOO! Have a nice night! xoxoxo

So, he recommends revision to RnY? It is so hard to say what I would do. If you decided to have the band because it is less invasive than RnY and you still feel that way, then have your band repositioned. If you are just anxious to get the pounds off, go for the RnY. Is your insurance going to cover it either way? I can say from my own experience that after they repositioned my band after my slip, it made a big difference. I think mine was in a bad spot and that is why I struggled in the first few months so much. I'm really sorry that your band journey has been a struggle. Just know the June Crew is behind your decision 100%. Hugs!

Not to be dense, but by revision for $4000, you mean revising to gastric bypass? From all your posts, I really get the feeling it isn't a good choice for you. You sound really against it. How much will it cost for them to reposition the band, or is that an option? There are some people on here (KarenB for one) who converted to RNY. Maybe you should PM them. Do you have a 4cc band or a 10cc? Maybe a different band would work better for your anatomy. Did your doctor discuss that at all? Have you had any other tests to rule out a medical reason for you having trouble losing weight? Like thyroid, etc.? Sorry if I ask alot of questions. I've just been thinking about you alot and trying my best to put myself in your shoes. Are you still exercising and watching what you eat? I think you need to go get a 90 minute massage like Barb! Then you'll be more relaxed and be better able to make a clear-headed decision. I'm pulling for your success!!

Hey VsgSarah, sry im late been having a hard time with this revision surgery. Thanks for taking over, Plz add me. SW for the 4th was 146.8. My GW is 140. I'll post next weigh in tomorrow, Lord willing. And Happy new year to all:)) gl

I was lucky that my surgeon will do the revision in one surgery. It was nice only having one hospitalization, recovery, etc. My lap band was over 10 years old so I'm not sure the age of the band is a factor as much as the scar tissue is and once it forms it might not get worse the longer it's there. Good luck, y'all! However you do it, it is TOTALLY worth getting that useless band and port out. I can lay on my stomach without the port sticking into me without pain now!

I had banding done in 2001 and revision done in October 2019. I have to say I feel very underinformed about the differences in the surgery. Eating has gone well and I no longer have the acid reflux or vomiting issues I did with the band. SO I consider the surgery a success.

Laura, Dr. Aceves did my banding. The hospital he uses is not a butcher shop, I can assure you of that. It is incredibly clean, and there is constant cleaning going on. There was not an issue of language except for Rick in the cafeteria---he pointed, they cooked, problem solved. Getting TO the hospital, I grew concerned. It is in a rough part of Mexicali. But as my DH pointed out, MANY hospitals are----they are built near the original metro area, and as the city moves, the old parts become slummy. I mean you lived in ABQ----think of where Presbyterian and the Heart Hospital and Lovelace are.....right off Central Avenue. And UNM---pretty slummy! BUT they are good hospitals! So was the hospital Dr. Aceves uses. He was attentive, and informative, and his staff was incredible. IF I could travel to Mexico again, I would use him to do anything I needed. But til I change my name....I am stuck here! I have a question for you----you are discussing with him the revision surgery. But you did well with your band. What would his charge be to repair your band? If finances are an issue, it might get you repaired, at an affordable amount, and you still have the option of your local Dr. for fills/unfills etc. Hell your current Dr. may never even know-----just WOW it works again!!! LOL Just thinking from a financial point. Because you DID lose weight with your band....I know, I saw you! Life sucks here. Loooong very stressful story. Kinsey got injured with her Dad last weekend. DD thought it was handled, and then got the call from daycare today that CPS was involved. They are not being pushy, they seem ok with things, but who knows. I am trying to go on with things as normal...as is she, but it is not as easy. Kinsey is ok.

Hey all--anyone else feeling like this: I am about 11 days post-op. I was having great restriction until about 1-2 days ago. I noticed I could eat (drink) more, and that I could actually burp! Now-today-I am really, really, hungry!! I haven't eaten solid food--but I have blended veg. beef Soup, re-fried Beans, and ckn. noodle soup and still don't feel full after I eat them. Anyone else going through this? Do you think it's just I am finally no longer swollen and have no restriction? AHHHHH---I am just so frustrated! I lost 20 pounds, now I am not losing anymore!!!! Don't get me wrong--20 is great but I wanted to continue to lose!!! Okay--I am revising my weight goal--5 pounds for September!:eek:

I had my lap band done in 2008. Since then I have lost weight, gained it back, lost weight again, and then gained it all back again. I believe the weight loss that I have experienced has been due to me starving myself, not to the band. Starving myself is not sustainable and as soon as I start to eat regularly again, I gain about 30 pounds. I am currently at my highest weight (even pre-band. I was banded at 202 lbs) 206 lbs. I have had some trouble with my band. I can only be filled about half-way before I have trouble getting food down. My band doesn't have much liquid in it and it causes me to vomit/pb frequently. Right now I still vomit a few times a week even though my band isn't filled much. Food gets stuck daily for me. I used to have terrible guilt feeling that I had failed my band. Everyone knew I had the band done, so why hadn't I been able to lose a substaintial amount of weight and keep it off? Why was I such a failure? Well, after doing some research, I have come to the conclusion that I haven't failed the band, THE BAND HAS FAILED ME!!! Surgeons are starting to find that the band isn't as successful as they thought it would be. Many people are having their bands revised to the gastric sleeve and some RNY gastric bypass. My surgeon is at the top of the field, a famous weight loss surgeon. His staff is nice to me, but they make me feel guily when I go in. I need to eat less and less, they say. My surgeon recommends for me to eat 900 calories a day. 900 calories! This is madness!!! I am now in the process of contancting a different surgeon about gastric bypass and gastric sleeve. I have severe obstructive sleep apnea, high LDL cholesterol, and have stopped menstruating (I'm only 32). I believe my weight is a contributing factor in these issues. Ladies, I know that some of you feel you could have done better. You feel you could have followed more of the rules, eaten less, snacked less, starved yourself, whatever. But, I want you to seriously consider this idea that maybe the band isn't all it is cracked up to be. Maybe it works for some and not for others. Maybe, the band has failed you!

A must read. This guy nails it: here is the transcript of the speech, courtesy of the Senator Whitehouse official website Mr. President, we have watched with horror the unfolding disaster in the Gulf. We have seen precious lives lost; hard-earned livelihoods hammered; treasured ways of life imperiled. We have seen the largest deployment of resources ever against an environmental disaster. We have seen astonishing corporate negligence. But we have seen something else too-something that ought to be a lasting lesson from this catastrophe: we have seen the revolting specter of an agency of government subservient to - captive to - the industry it is supposed to regulate. From the Minerals Management Service, supposed to regulate deep sea oil drilling, here's what we have seen: From the 2008 Inspector General's report on MMS's Royalty in Kind program based in Colorado: • Senior executives steering lucrative contracts to an outside company created by the executives; • Staff failing to collect millions of dollars in royalties owed to the American people and allowing oil and gas companies to revise their own multi-million-dollar bids; • Staff accepting gifts and money from oil and gas companies with whom the office was conducting official business; and • Staff participating in social events with industry representatives that included illegal drug use and sex. From the IG report, the Inspector's General's report, released last month on the MMS office in Lake Charles, Louisiana: • The District Manager telling investigators: "obviously we're all oil industry." • Employees accepting numerous gifts from companies doing business with the MMS, including a trip to the 2005 Peach Bowl on a private airplane, skeet shooting contests, hunting and fishing trips, and golf tournaments. • An MMS inspector conducting four inspections of oil drilling platforms while negotiating a job for himself with the company that owned those platforms, and finding (guess what?) no violations during those inspections. And a 2007 Inspector General Report into the MMS' Minerals Revenue Management office cited, and I quote: • "Significant issues worthy of separate investigation, including ethical lapses, program mismanagement, and process failures." As my hometown Providence Journal wrote in a recent editorial, "The Deepwater Horizon accident has made it painfully clear that, in its current form, MMS is a pathetic public guardian. Neither it nor BP was prepared for a disaster of this magnitude, and MMS' cozy relationship with industry is a big reason why." I agree with the Providence Journal. The scope, the extent, the insidious nature of corporate influence in regulatory agencies of government - this question of regulatory capture - is something we should attend to here. It is the lesson. And it raises the question, beyond the Minerals Management Service, how far does this corporate influence reach into our agencies of government? The wealth of the international corporate world is staggering. The five biggest oil companies just this quarter posted profits of $23 billion dollars. That's a 23 with twelve zeros behind it-in just one quarter. The Republican appointees on the Supreme Court just overturned decades of precedent and a hundred years of practice to give these big corporations freedom to spend unlimited funds in our American elections. Put it to scale; consider $23 billion of pure profit, just in one quarter, by Big Oil. And compare: the Obama and McCain campaigns together spent about $1 billion in the last election. Do the math: for 5% of one quarter's profits, Big Oil could outspend both American presidential campaigns. That may be some politicians' idea of a happy day, because that is who they work to please, but it is wrong and needs to be stopped. But think: if that's what corporate influence could do in a national election, think of what those vast powerful tentacles of corporate influence can do to a little government agency like the Minerals Management Service: • Revolving doors to lucrative jobs in the industry so you're set for life; • Sports tickets, gifts, drugs; • Constant, relentless lobby pressure and threats of litigation; • Steadily inserting industry operatives into regulatory positions. Inch by inch, the tentacles of industry reach further and further into the regulator, until it silently and invisibly comes under industry control, and becomes the industry's puppet; until it is serving the special interests, and not the public interest. This is no new phenomenon. Marver Bernstein wrote about regulatory capture 55 years ago. He explained that a regulator tends over time to "become more concerned with the general health of the industry and tries to prevent changes which will adversely affect it," to become "passive toward the public interest." This, he said, "is a problem of ethics and morality as well as administrative method," and he called it "a blow to democratic government and responsible political institutions." Ultimately, this leads to what he called "surrender:" "the commission finally becomes a captive of the regulated groups." If you don't want to go back half a century for a discussion of regulatory capture, look to last week's Wall Street Journal editorial page, where a senior fellow at the Cato Institute writes, "By all accounts, MMS operated as a rubber stamp for BP. It is a striking example of regulatory capture: Agencies tasked with protecting the public interest come to identify with the regulated industry and protect its interests against that of the public. The result: Government fails to protect the public." There is plenty of evidence that the oil and gas industry had captured MMS. And when you have a captured agency, you get what we've seen: • Altering, deleting, or ignoring warnings and recommendations from government scientists. A draft environmental analysis for drilling in the Gulf from May of 2000 included the haunting prediction that "the oil industry's experience base in deep-water well control is limited" and a massive oil spill "could easily turn out to be a potential showstopper for the [outer continental shelf] program if the industry and MMS do not come together as a whole to prevent such an incident." This unwelcome observation was deleted from the final analysis published. • Oil and gas company employees filled out official inspection forms in pencil, for the MMS inspectors to trace over in pen. • Nearly 400 categorical exclusions, shielded even deepwater drilling from thorough environmental review. • Cut-and-paste Environmental Assessments were provided by oil and gas companies. BP's Environmental Assessment listed walruses as a species of concern in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. President, there are not, and never have been, in the memory of man, walruses in the Gulf of Mexico. When they are writing about walruses in the Gulf of Mexico, you know 1) they are cutting and pasting out of documents in Alaska, 2) they are paying no attention to what they write because they know it doesn't matter, and 3) they know perfectly well that MMS will never catch the fact that they've cut and pasted, because they're not looking at it either. • MMS adopted wholesale for its oil and gas drilling "best practices" proposals of the American Petroleum Institute, and then they made most of those best practices only suggestions. • There's been virtually no enforcement: According to the MMS website, between 2000 and 2009, civil penalties averaged less than $130 per well per year on our Outer Continental Shelf; and only three criminal referrals were made to the Department since 1990 in the last twenty years. Add it all up, and there is no real question MMS was a captive regulator. So the question is, after all those years of corporate control of government in the Bush years, how far-reaching is the insinuation of corporate influence? We know big Pharma wrote the Bush pharmacy benefit legislation. We know big oil and big coal sat down in secret with Dick Cheney to write their energy policy. But down below the decks, down in the guts of the administration's agencies, how far were the tentacles of corporate influence allowed to reach? How many industry plants are stealthily embedded in the government, there to serve the industry, not the administration or the public. Well, how is it looking, Mr. President? Well, it is not looking good. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, gave up its watchdog role years ago and became the lap dog of the big Wall Street financiers: raising leverage limits; refusing to investigate Bernie Madoff; and helping to precipitate the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. 29 miners were killed in a West Virginia mine with a safety record that President Obama called troubled." The Mine Safety and Health Administration has been described as a "revolving door" with industry, staffed by people with mining companies' interests at heart, even at the expense of worker safety. The Bush head of MSHA, for instance, oversaw the rewriting of regulations in 2004 that allowed conveyor belt tunnels to double as ventilation shafts, a practice that contributed to a fatal 2006 Massey mine disaster. Who knows how far it leads? Think of the timber rights the taxpayer gives up every year, the grazing rights, the multi-billion dollar contracts to big government contractors, the oil and coal leases on land, the carnival of public wealth at which these big corporations feed. The vital question is this: are these assets of our nation still in the hands of servants of the nation? Or have the servants of the nation quietly and insidiously become the servants of the big private corporations who want to profit from that public wealth-corporations for whom every dollar of a sweet deal, every avoided expense allowed by a cozy regulator, every corner cut in safety or environmental protection, goes straight to their bottom line and right into their pockets? The big, multi-billion dollar corporations - Is this who we want safeguarding our national assets? Is this who we want controlling agencies of the United States government? Mr. President, Winston Churchill once said, in a phrase that I like, that history turns on sharp agate points. What is the sharp agate point on which the history of this Gulf catastrophe should turn? What lesson of history, if left unlearned after this disaster, are we condemned to repeat? I hope that the lesson we learn is this one: that we can never, never, never again let agencies of the government of the United States of America fall so far under the influence of the corporations they are supposed to regulate. This government of ours, founded in a Revolution pledging the lives, fortunes and sacred honor of those early patriots; This government of ours, which has raised for more than two centuries the promise of freedom in human hearts; This government that lifts its lamp aloft to brighten the darkness of chaos and despair in far distant corners of the globe; This government, whose finely tuned balance, crafted by those Founders, has seen us through civil war and world war, through westward expansion and great depression, through the light bulb and the Model T and the Boeing 747 and the iPod. This government, of ours, formed by Washington and Madison, Jefferson and Adams, and led by each of them; and later led by Abraham Lincoln, and by Harry Truman, and by Theodore Roosevelt and by Franklin Roosevelt and by John Fitzgerald Kennedy. This American government of ours should never, never be on its knees before corporate power, no matter how strong. It should never be in the thrall of corporate wealth no matter how vast. This American government of ours should never give the American citizen reason to question whose interests are being served. Never. In this complex world of ours, Mr. President, government must protect us in remote and specialized precincts in the economy. In those remote precincts, few people are watching, but big money is made. We must be able to trust our government, both in plain view in front of us, and in corners far from sight, to be serving always the public interest, not doing the secret bidding of special interests; of corporate interests, because that's where the big money is at stake. Have we now learned, have we now finally learned, from the financial melt-down and the Gulf disaster, the price, the terrible price, of all those quietly cut corners? Have we now learned what price must be paid when the stealthy tentacles of corporate influence are allowed to reach into and capture our agencies of government? I pray, let us have learned this; let us have learned that lesson. I sincerely pray we have learned our lesson, and that this will never happen again. But let's not just pray. In this troubled world God works through our human hands; grows a more perfect union through our human hearts; creates his beloved community through our human thoughts and ideas. So it is not enough to pray. We must act. We must act in defense of the integrity of this great government of ours, which has brought such light to the world, such freedom and equality to our country. We cannot allow this government - that is a model around the world, that inspires people to risk their lives and fortunes to come to our shores - we cannot allow any element of this government to become the tool of corporate power, the avenue of corporate influence, the puppet of corporate tentacles. I propose a simple device, in this country of laws not men - of rule of law - and that is to allow our top national law officer, the Attorney General of the United States, to step in and clean house whenever an agency or element of government is no longer credibly independent of the industry and businesses it is intended to regulate. When a component of government is deemed no longer credibly independent of the corporations or industry it is supposed to regulate, I suggest the Attorney General be allowed to come in and clean up: - To hire and fire and take personnel actions, to assure the integrity of the personnel; - To establish interim regulations and procedures, to assure the integrity of the process; - To audit permits and contracts and assure they were not affected by improper corporate influence; and, if they were, - To rescind them where they are not in the public interest due to that improper corporate influence; - To establish an integrity plan for that component of government; - All subject to appropriate judicial review where private rights are affected; - And then the Attorney General can get back out, with his or her job done: sort of like an ethics trusteeship or receivership. Mr. President, I'll conclude by saying that the damage to America from the corporate takeover of the Securities and Exchange Commission was nothing short of catastrophic - just in my home state, just in Rhode Island, 70,000 Rhode Islanders are unemployed, and many have lost homes, retirement, health insurance. The toll is devastating. The damage from the corporate takeover of the Minerals Management Service has also been catastrophic; and who knows what potentially catastrophic damage lurks in whatever other agencies of government have silently succumbed to corporate takeover, but just have not exploded in disaster? If the financial catastrophe and the Gulf catastrophe, and whatever other catastrophes lurk, if they have any meaning at all, it is that business as usual is no longer enough to stem the tide of corporate influence, insidious, secret corporate influence in agencies of the United States government. It is an institutional problem: relentless, remorseless, constantly grasping and insinuating corporate influence; it will never go away; it will only worsen as corporations get bigger and richer and more global; and there has to be an institutional mechanism in place to resist it, so that it no longer takes a catastrophe to call the failure of governance of an American regulator to proper attention. I think this is the right way. If a colleague has a better idea, I'm more than willing to listen. But, one thing I know: after our economic catastrophe and this environmental catastrophe, this much, at least, is clear: we can no longer wait for catastrophes to root out improper corporate influence in our government, in this government of our United States. We have to at long last address the problem of insidious regulatory capture, of agencies of our government captive to the industries they are suppose to regulate. I thank the Presiding Officer. I yield the floor. America did not revolt against the power of the King of England just to kneel to the power of British Petroleum over 2 centuries later. Or the Banks Or the Military Industrial Complex Or to any Corporate power And amidst all of the shrieking conservatives who shout "Get the guvmint outta my life" while driving on public roads and depending on our tax payer funded military for protection, we have in reality been experiencing the corporate takeover of the US Government. Of course, government has always been dominated by the wealthy and big business interests, but since the passage of NAFTA, The Gramm/Leech/Bliley Act and the Bush/Cheney Administration, the power of Big Business has run amok, and our political process has been enslaved to the whims and campaign financing of the tentacles of Corporate power. This must end. It is legalized bribery. Senator Whitehouse knocked this one out of the park, in a way that I can only discribe as EXPLOSIVE, and not because Senator Whitehouse was as bombastic as Alan Grayson or as witty as Al Franken, but because amidst all the corporate spin, propaganda and PR, such truth as was spoken by the Senator from Rhode Island truly is explosive. Let us hope that the citizens of America are starting to understand the role that Big Business has in the slow motion overthrow of our Democracy to an elitist economic ideology that is unveilied in the words of Joe Barton, Rand Paul and other conservatives who truly think that it is okay to kneel to corporate power. Tentacles indeed. dailykos Regulate, baby, regulate

I had a revision frm band to sleeve @178. Im about 4 weeks out and doing really good! I dont weight my self@ home only when I go to d Dr. and in d first two weeks I lost 18lbs.. I didnt have a pre op diet i only did liquids from 12 midnight before surgery. My diet is a little diff. than others,full liquid out of hospital and I was aloud to drink gatorade, v8 so he wasent to stricked about d sugar free drinks. Ill be 4 weeks Tomorrow and today I tries Some chicken not blended but very good chewed. I almost never blended anything cause im use to chewing very well cause of my hand. He wants me to eat a little more cause my bmi is already @25.I lost 140 on d band and it slipped and I had a liquid removed for 2 months and gain 20 lbs. so d Dr. recomended me d sleeve to help me lose d rest and he said that d sleeve will help me maintain:) d one thing i was worried about was losing too much but d Dr. said that my body will know when to stop and there is ways to gain Some back If I need to....sorry for d Long story.lol

Your plan is so much more progressive than mine. I am still on Clear liquids, right, one week. Then second week "full" liquids, so pretty much Protein shakes and broth and clear liquids. 3rd week, soft foods like thicker Soups. Oh boy! Forth week, mushier foods. C'est la Vie! My surgery however was a 'revision' but I did notice they do this for all of their WLS.Haha! We'll be hitting the soft foods at the same time I think. Here's my whole 30 days lol: ImageUploadedByBariatricPal1454875560.280951.jpgImageUploadedByBariatricPal1454875587.565974.jpg Thanks! If you like cottage cheese, the best I've ever tasted is made by "Kalona". Yes, I am fantasizing about cottage cheese right about now, lol. Lol I'll look for that brand!!

Hi everyone! Well...I had my port revision on Tuesday the 30th and I'm back at work today. The surgeon gave me a 1cc fill during the revision and I'm aggravated because I STILL do not have restriction! It feels like I don't even have a band! Arrrggggg!!!! I'm at 6cc in a 10cc band. I'm calling this morning to set my appointment for my next fill. I want to get on with this weight loss thing! lol! Just wanted everyone to know the revision surgery went well and I'm having very little pain. I haven't been writing my food down since I'm still on soft foods through this weekend, but I'm planning to start writing EVERYTHING down on Monday. Happy New Year! Let's make 2009 the time to shine!!! Elizabeth

Wow, that is amazing. You were one of the first people I came across on this site when I was exploring my desire for the band to sleeve revision and Dr. Aceves. It is so great to continue to hear about your journey and how successful you have been. I am hoping that I can look back a year down the road and have 100 lbs gone. Please continue to keep us posted because you are a motivation to all the youngsters like myself

When I had my revision surgery from band to sleeve I was 182 day of surgery. Don't feel bad for doing what you need to do to take care of yourself.