Hi from Ireland!

[Dini 0]

hey everyone!

i got a an emial from LBT to say they missed me i really didn't think it was that long at all since i was on!

So i was in ACS today. they squeezed me. Dr Jan told me he didn't believe i was a Band patient I was chuffed and reassured him i most certainly was a band patient. I had a de-fill of 1/2 a mil and i think it was too much but only time will tell. he wanted to take out a full mil and i was like ''i dont think so'' i asked for 1/4 of a mil so i settled with 1/2. i'm down to 10 stone 9 lbs on my scales and 10stone 10 lbs and 8 oz on ACS but i'll stick with mine!!!

I was talking to Debbie today and the other blond girl that works there and was having a great conversation, about stuff other than the band which was nice. Debbie introduced me to Helina who was there today and i must say she do not look great at all. she need to put on some weight but Debbie told me she so stressed which i can well believe with all thats going on! I must say though Helina left a sour taste in my mouth i found her quite rude and i felt like she turned her nose up at me. not very nice at all. i must admit i was quite shocked.

ok well thats me done!!! are we meeting up any time soon?

hope everyone is keeping well..

night night xxx

[Emerald 0]

Hey Guys,

I'm new to the site..........finding it hard to navigate being the technophobe that I am!!

I was banded with ACS in April this year.......all went well until last weekend.......had a fill on Fri.......then talk about sickkkkk on Sat.......overfill.......be warned.....its NOT pleasant!

To cut a very long story short.....my band is now empty. Dont know whether this is good or bad but at least no more pain or puking!! Anyone had similar experiences?

[bettyboop 0]

Hey everyone ,

as you may remember had a problem with "something" :faint:sticking out between my boob's and had no idea what it was but the mystery has been solved , the tube that is coming from my port and travelling under my left boob and going down to my band is not too deep under my skin so that is why i can feel it there i was told i could have it fixed no bother if it was giving me trouble but as it will do nothing to me to have it there i'd rather not get knocked out again so i've decided to leave it as it is ,i was so relieved that it was only that and nothing serious and the girls in ACS reception were great and i met with the surgeon who was lovely and put my mind at ease ..port site has all healed well but the lowest scar [just above the belly button]is still covered and tis still a bit weepy but coming on nicely ,can't wait to have a fill as i still feel like i can eat too much ,i seem to have lost some weight but as i never weighed myself before i got it done i don't know how much,thanks for all the advice,talk to ye soon :confused:

[Coco 0]

Hey Guys,

I'm new to the site..........finding it hard to navigate being the technophobe that I am!!

I was banded with ACS in April this year.......all went well until last weekend.......had a fill on Fri.......then talk about sickkkkk on Sat.......overfill.......be warned.....its NOT pleasant!

To cut a very long story short.....my band is now empty. Dont know whether this is good or bad but at least no more pain or puking!! Anyone had similar experiences?

Hey Emerald,

Welcome to the site, glad you found us:clap2::clap2:. What's the story with your band did they unfill it completely........... If its just an overfill then a defill of the amount they put in at your last fill is all that happens. If they emptied it completely and not arranged an xray for you then I don't understand whats going on. Anyone who experiences being unable to keep fluids down must get treatment immediately as you can dehydrate so quickly and become very ill. It can be one of two things, an overfill (best scenario) or a band slip (worse scenario), either way seek immediate attention.

Now you've found us keep in touch.:confused:

[Coco 0]

Hi Dini,

Great to hear from you, glad you popped back. :wave: You're doing so well with the weight loss, :welldone2:I'm delighted to hear you got the slight defill. It will make all the difference and now you've done so well you can continue to eat healthily and maintain you weight loss. Do you need to lose more or are you at goal now? If you're not already at goal you must be pretty close. Enjoy that fish now and let us know how you're doing.

No plans for another meet as yet but I'll put the word out.:confused:

[Emerald 0]

Hey Coco,

Thanks for info......I'm glad I've found this site! Apparently my band is empty.......my maths is bad God knows, but only 3mls was taken out, and according to my calculations I should have had about 6mls in there! I did'nt ask the questions that I should have because I was so relieved to be able to keep fluids down again. Im supposed to be on semi-solids now but I did sneak a couple of mashed chips tonight and I feel a restriction..........Maybe ignorance is bliss!

How u doin?

[Dini 0]

Hi Dini,

Great to hear from you, glad you popped back. :wave: You're doing so well with the weight loss, :welldone2:I'm delighted to hear you got the slight defill. It will make all the difference and now you've done so well you can continue to eat healthily and maintain you weight loss. Do you need to lose more or are you at goal now? If you're not already at goal you must be pretty close. Enjoy that fish now and let us know how you're doing.

No plans for another meet as yet but I'll put the word out.:confused:

Hey Coco, i'm doing ok yeah but i'm starting to find it hard now to loose the last stone and half! i wanted to get down to 9 stone but we'll see i dont think i'll go that far. when i get to 91/2 i'll see. so i'm 18lbs away from goal. feels weird writing that. hoping to get there by christmas would be great!!

remember i said i think they took too much out well i actually think they could have taken more out. crazy eh!!! i dont want to go back in just in case they do actually take out too much this time. Did i tell you he was kinda rough with me when he did the de-fill. i could feel my port bounce when the needle came out. I'd rather it when Tara did my fill!

as usual i'm talking about me me me .....how about you how you doing? how much have you lost so far? hats your goal? any fancy holidays planned?

hope your well

Dini

[Marge 0]

hello anyone out there,

It's taken me a week to find the Hi Ireland page again, I'm useless with computers. Anyway, has anyone had a band put in by the new surgeon at acs. I,m tired of dieting and gaining weight back again so I've been reading all I can about lapband. I want to do it but I'm so scared. My biggest fear is alergic reaction to the silicone does anyone know anything aboutthat. Also I've been reading about gastric balloons. If I do this I won't be telling anyone so all the help and encouragement from any of you will be very very welcome . Marge

[Emerald 0]

Hi Marge,

I'm only on here the last couple of days........dont know how much help I can really be......I had the gastric band in April......I dont know of anyone that's had it done with the new surgeon! My only advise would be to do ALL your homework.....research is key!!!!!!!The consultation is free.....go prepared..theres a list of questions on the earlier pages.......How about speaking to your GP first? Be sure to ask about AFTERCARE also......thats a bit of a taboo subject at the mo!

[Coco 0]

Hi Dini,

That's fantastic to be so close to your goal weight. I'm sure you'll get real close by Christmas, maybe stepping up the exercise at this point will help.

I've been having problems with acid since I had my band repositioned and Dr Jan the new surgeon emptied the band and sent me for xrays which came back clear, now I have to have my band filled with small fills spaced apart. I currently have 1.5mls in my band and am thinking of having another small fill maybe .5ml done next week. I have a funny sort of restriction, I can't eat bread, well I can but I get bad cramps in my lower stomach minutes after I've eaten it:wacko:. Anyway I can eat, but not loads, my pouch seems to empty quite quickly so I am eating more often than when I had 5.5mls in my first band.

I am a bit put out about it, but at the same time when the band was emptied and I was eating rings around myself it made me appreciate this wonderful band, so I'm prepared to take my time so as not to mess things up and risk losing the band altogether :eek:. I found the new doctor a bit iffy the first time but the second time he seemed a lot nicer. I worry that he could be having difficulty taking on Jeromes patients, particularly as he uses a different band.:phanvan:phanvan

If your still having difficulty with food I've read on this site on the recipe's page that a lot of women just liquidise their food and have it like that, so put your chicken in the blender with some sauce/milk whatever and have it like that, sort of like a thick Soup. It might work. It also makes it easier if you don't have to cook separate meals for your family and yourself. Just blend up what they are having.:hungry:

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Hi Marge,

:welcome: to the site, this is a fab site for anyone researching the band and this thread in particular if you're planning on having it done in Ireland. My band was done with Jerome but I have dealt with the new Dr and I've been happy with him so far. Its early days but we'll see.

I believe its the best thing I've ever done and wouldn't change it for the world but I understand you wanting to know more about the surgeon. Its easy enough to decide the band might be right for you but how do you check out the surgeon. Other than personal experiences I don't really know. I suppose you could google him. If you decide to go to ACS for a consultation ask them to put you in touch with some of his patients, and make sure they have had the op done by him. It would be nice to speak to a few so that you can get more than one opinion. Good luck with your journey and keep in touch.

[Coco 0]

Hey Coco,

Thanks for info......I'm glad I've found this site! Apparently my band is empty.......my maths is bad God knows, but only 3mls was taken out, and according to my calculations I should have had about 6mls in there! I did'nt ask the questions that I should have because I was so relieved to be able to keep fluids down again. Im supposed to be on semi-solids now but I did sneak a couple of mashed chips tonight and I feel a restriction..........Maybe ignorance is bliss!

How u doin?

Hey Emerald

I would phone and ask what the story is with your band now, if the doc hasn't told you when to come back. You were banded in April and you would have had 2 or 3 mls in your band at the op and usually it 1ml fills after that if you can remember how many fills you've had and add 2 or 3 and then minus 3 you had out you should know how many mls is in now. Either way phone them and find out what your next move is. Glad you're feeling better but you want to keep losing that weight.

[Marge 0]

Coco and Emerald

Thank you both for getting in touch. My God, Coco, you are doing fantastically well, 62 lbs down. Emerald what problems are people having with after care? I did go to acs for a consultation last week but it was the gastric balloon I was interested in (anything to avoid surgery). The man I met was Polish and very nice. however he said that it was a collegue of his that actually did the surgery. The more I read I'm thinking that I will go back and discuss the lapband with him. I believe though that they are not doing any surgery until next year. Marge

[penny2 0]

hey everyone!

my scales and 10stone 10 lbs and 8 oz on ACS but i'll stick with mine!!!

I was talking to Debbie today and the other blond girl that works there and was having a great conversation, about stuff other than the band which was nice. Debbie introduced me to Helina who was there today and i must say she do not look great at all. she need to put on some weight but Debbie told me she so stressed which i can well believe with all thats going on! I must say though Helina left a sour taste in my mouth i found her quite rude and i felt like she turned her nose up at me. not very nice at all. i must admit i was quite shocked.

ok well thats me done!!! are we meeting up any time soon?

hope everyone is keeping well..

night night xxx

perhaps she had seen the photo of herself( looking rough) and the article in the Phoenix(nothing to do with Jerome)and was feeling a little sour!!

[Coco 0]

Hi All,

I was in town with my daughter on Thursday and on the off chance I phoned ACS (well Debbie to be exact) to see if it was possible to see either Dr Jan or Lu the nurse for a fill. Debbie said it was no problem and I arrived down at 12.30pm. I was asked to sit in the waiting area and I had just picked up a magazine when one of the girls from the office came out to tell me I would be seen to very soon and asked if I would like a coffee or anything:faint:well I had to look around to check if I was in the right place. I replied that I was fine and within minutes Dr Jan came to get me. We had a very pleasent chat about my band and he agreed to give me a fill. I had expected him to suggest half a ml at most but he gave me 1ml. When I was leaving his room he walked with me asked me to sit down while he got someone to get me a glass of Water :faint:.

Whats happening in ACS they almost acted like proffessionals.

Anyway I have 2mls in my band according to Jan I think I have 2.25 but we'll see. So far I have had a couple of bouts of heartburn. I'm going to stay on the fluids for more than two days if I can because I really, really, really want to get this band up and running like the last one and get proper restriction where I can eat a little and not have heartburn all the time.

A little warning to anyone with 5mls in their band which was done by Jerome. Make sure that you don't have anymore than .5mls in at any one fill. I was told this by Jerome when I had 5mls in my first band, he said now you're at 5mls it will only be half ml fills from now on and 7mls is the max in the band he used even though its an 8ml band.

In the past two weeks I'v heard of a couple of bandsters who have had to have emergency defills due to over filling. BE WARNED. Sometimes less is more.

Well thats all from the house of Coco. Wishing you all comfortable restriction and shed loads of weight loss.:bananalama:

Have a nice weekend.

[penny2 0]

:clap2::clap2::clap2:

tHANKS SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS SOME TIME AGO-I USED IT RECENTLY AT MY CONSULTATION AND FOUND IT REALLY COMPREHENSIVE. PENNY2:clap2::clap2::clap2:

Here's another list, some of these are duplicates of the one above, but others are not. This is a list I took to the information seminar with me and asked some selectively:

PROCEDURE

How many lapbands has the surgeon performed?

What types of complications have you personally ran into doing this procedure?

What is your policy when a complication occurs during a procedure?

What kind of band will be used?

What size?

Are you Inamed approved for the procedure? If not then who qualified you to

perform the procedure and can you have literature to verify this?

What are the chances of infection? Does an occurrence of infection always mean the band must be removed?

How often do your patients need their band removed (or any other additional surgical procedures)?

Since I carry a lot of weight in my abdomen, does that increase the complexity or risk of complications with a laparoscopic procedure?

Does my abdominal fat increase my chance of needing fat pads removed from my stomach?

Does that have any risks associated with it?

What are the chances I will need my gall bladder removed? Is there anything I can do dietary-wise to reduce the risk of gall stones?

Are sutures always used to place the band? Is there any complications that arise from the "stomach wrap" around the band? Is it true that the sutures are permanent and do not dissolve?

AFTER CARE / RECOVERY

What should I expect during the recovery period? What is normal?

What kinds of self-care could I be doing to help my recovery?

Will my activities be limited during the recovery period? If so, which activities and for how long?

When can I return to work?

What help might I need while I recover? (driving, lifting, etc.)

What symptoms should you call a doctor about?

How will I take my birth control pills and HTN pills? Are they crushable?

What programs do you have pre- and post- surgery to help me succeed?

How much support do you provide during the insurance approval process?

FILLS

What is your fill schedule?

When can I get my first fill?

How is the fill procedure performed? (ie: with or without fluroscopy)

What is the cost for fills? (under fluro and not)

How often will I need to be seen?

Will I have access to a Nutritionist?

How do you handle unfills?

Is there a direct line in case of Emergencies?

Does your doctor have email address?

What Vitamins should I be taking?

Will I need to crush my pills? If so then for how long?

Are there any pills that cannot be crushed? If so then how will I be able to take them?

PREGNANCY

Once pregnant, will I have to get a partial unfill or be completely unfilled?

Should I expect any issues/complications with a pregnancy after being

banded? If there are any what could they be and how will they be addressed?

After being banded, are most babies delivered via c-section or can they be delivered naturally?

If my baby needs to be delivered via c-section could that damage the port and tubing?

Are there additional vitamins I should take while pregnant?