Hypochondriac alert

[white rabbit 0]

I've just been reading the lapband complications forum and am completely freaked out. I'm now terrified that if I PB I'll get some horrible oesophagus diesease 2-3 years from now. So can I double check something: burping without bringing food back up is OK (i.e. gentle, non-reflux, non lesion inducing) but PB'ing is not so good (irritates the oesophagus and can create future problems). Are there any rule-of-thumb stats on safe levels of PB'ing?

[Diva Girl 3]

That's so funny, white rabbit.....I just did the same thing. I started reading all the complications people are having and decided to keep thinking positive. It is very scary, though.

Getting banded in 10 days and getting nervous, I guess.

[white rabbit 0]

I adopted the 'ignorance is bliss' approach before, during and shortly after being banded. Might not be the best policy in the world, but it gave me enough courage to have the surgery without worrying about 'what ifs'.

[Dody 0]

I'm sure complications are very real things for people, but I try to keep a positive attitute also. I was banded on July 18 and have done fine. There has been no crushing of pills...I've moved onto solids and there is nothing I can't eat...OK no fill yet...that is a biggie, but I refuse to read the scary threads on fills. I don't ever want my dr. to be aggressive. I want him to do things slow like he wants to and I'll never push for more. I don't want to experience a PB, but it will probably happen at some point, but why worry about something that hasen't happened yet?

Keep the positive attitude and you should do fine. I've been through many surgeries, heart by-pass being by far the worse, and lap-banding was a piece of cake with little pain involved and only for a few days. I've had no gas, so I don't relate to those threads either. I think I'm the weirdo on here, but I'm 18 lbs. ligher and 18 lbs. happier without my first fill.

Good luck to all of you.

[L8BloomR 1]

Hi, I'm new to this forum but have been reading the posts for the last month in preparation for band surgery (I am just beginning the process.) Is there a place I can go to on the site to find out what abbreviated words mean? For example, I have figured out that I don't want to "PB", but I don't know what that means! :help:

Can you fill me in?? Thanks for being there!

Karen

[Josette 2]

Weight-loss surgery, band-specific, and general medical terms:

PB: "productive burp" -- what happens when something eaten can't go down due to restriction has to come back up

NSV: Non-scale victory -- a weight-loss achievement that has little to do with numbers

WLS: Weight-loss surgery

MO: Morbid Obesity (or morbidly obese)

BMI: Body Mass Index

GBP: Gastric bypass surgery

RNY: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (the most popular type of bariatric surgery)

DS: Duodenal switch (another type of bariatric surgery)

BP: blood pressure

PCP: Primary care physician

GP: General practitioner

NP: Nurse practitioner

PA: Physician's assistant

BC: Birth control (or BCP: birth-control pills)

OTC: Over the counter (i.e., non-prescription medications)

NSAIDS: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (a class of painkillers--which includes ibuprofen--bandsters should try to avoid because they can add to ulcer risk).

AF: "Aunt Flo" -- menstrual period

GERD: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease

#/#/# in signatures: weight pre-surgery/current weight/goal weight

And some general abbreviations used here and elsewhere on the web, not related to banding or weight loss:

LBT: LapBandTalk.com -- this wonderful place on the web!

OH: Obesityhelp.com -- another support site, with message forums

SH: Spotlighthealth.com -- another support site, with message forums

BIL, SIL, ILs: Brother-in-law, sister-in-law, in-laws

BTW: By the way

DH: darling (or dear, or danged, or use your imagination) husband

DW: darling... wife

DD, DS: darling... daughter, son

IMHO: In my humble opinion (and its cousin, IMNSHO: in my not so humble opinion)

IIRC: If I recall correctly

ISO: In search of

LOL: laugh out loud

OMG: Oh my God

OT: Off-topic

ROTFLMAO: Rolling on the floor laughing my a** off!

TMI: Too much information

WTF: What the f...?

WTG: Way to go!

YMMV: Your mileage may vary

[L8BloomR 1]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Now I feel like "a member of the band" and can follow the posts better. What a help this will be!!

Thanks again,

Karen

[Bettina 0]

I've just been reading the lapband complications forum and am completely freaked out. I'm now terrified that if I PB I'll get some horrible oesophagus diesease 2-3 years from now. So can I double check something: burping without bringing food back up is OK (i.e. gentle, non-reflux, non lesion inducing) but PB'ing is not so good (irritates the oesophagus and can create future problems). Are there any rule-of-thumb stats on safe levels of PB'ing?

I feel the same way. I am thinking i should leave LBT until after my banding. Reading too much scary stuff here....I was so set on having this done but yikes its getting scary. There are a few people who have experienced problems but they also put it in such a way that lets me know its not the end of the world, but then there are others...yikes.

And I think to myself that I hope the bad ones are the drama queen type (i know a few drama queens personally) who are just moaning over stuff that is not as total drama as they put out. (somebody else actually gave me that idea from another thread)

I think the thing to do is talk to your surgeon to get the scoop on how his patients have fared since surgery.

Best Wishes to you!!!

[MerryHearted 20]

You might want to switch to SmartBandsters Yahoo group until banding if the complications threads are freaking you out.

There are tons of bandsters will little to no complications. You should expect to PB at some point in your bandster journey. I'm almost a year out and haven't yet, but I know it's just a matter of time.

The only thing close to a complication I've had is gas. I'm working on finding a way to manage this with probiotics*. In the meantime, Gas-X is my friend and food items that cause me significant distress get crossed off my "OK to eat" list.

*Probiotics: These are a group of dietary supplements which provide various strains of friendly bacteria to encourage a good balance of intestinal microflora.

These bacteria have many important functions including promote digestion, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, boost the immune system, increase the resistance to infections.

The natural balance of intestinal flora can be upset by diets high in animal fats, dairy, produce, sugar, stress, alcohol, antibiotics and other drugs.

[mousecrazy 2]

The best cure for this is to read the "Happy" posts...like the ones for the bandsters who have lost 100+ pounds...that's a long list!

Look for the threads about people who would choose lapband all over again.

Look for the bandiversary threads...those are always inspirational!

Recently, PinkMary has a wonderful bandiversary post....Piercedqt does also.

Use the "search" button at the top of the page and enter "bandiversary"...and remember, more people post their problems than their successes!

Good luck!

Cindy

[libra 13]

I'm getting banded next week and I'm trying to stick to the positive threads until my surgery. I did however, end up reading the thread about the guy who died in Malaysia!!!! DON'T GO THERE!!!!!:omg: No, seriously, just keep reminding yourself the the complications are minimal and the serious complications are few...and most importantly....overall banding's complications are still better than the one's you have being fat!

[Josette 2]

I know the complication thread is scary as all heck but you should be aware of the fact that there's 9,151 members to this site and usually atleast one hundred on at any given time and I've never heard of any of us dying from getting the lapband. We're all taking action to give ourselves a longer healthy life. Any surgery is scary but you're not risking even close to as much with this as most other surgeries. Hang in there. We're all in this together!

[CateyP 0]

Hi all,

I'm getting banded tomorrow morning (oh my gosh!!), so I don't have any real-life PB experience yet, but wanted to let you know that someone told me a PB is not like throwing up as you know it now. There isn't any stomach acid that comes up with it - it's just burping up what was too big to go down. So I don't think there are any worries about esophageal erosion with PB's :clap2:

[gochevy3 0]

Just remember that there are far far more positive experiences than negative. You will typically only hear from the Negative Nellies anytime there is any complications. Just approach it with the expectation that for about 4 days post op you will feel a little uncomfortable. I never hurt at all. I bet if you ask, most people would say there was very little if any gas pain, and very few actually took their prescription pain meds. I took liquid tylenol for 3 days, and that was probably one day too many. after the 4th day, I have to keep reminding myself what I cannot do. having my wife do the heavy lifting is tough, and not getting in the pool for 10 days post op was hard down here in Tx.

[RTWISDALE 0]

I had lots of gas pain, but I never took anything for it. You have to always remember that pain tolerant is different for each person. If you are a person that has a high pain level this will be a piece of cake if you have a low pain level you will wish you had a high. I myself have a very high level... Remember no pain no gain. Good luck you will be in my prayers.