Diet Pills

[lizzy h 0]

Bandy wise words thank you.....My understanding of diet pills is that PhenPen was the potentially lethal combination....most others havebeen around since at least the 50's and are well tolerated if taken in moderation and for a limited course of treatment. They can increase your blood pressure if you are prone to that and they are highly addictive.....Given that I am a foodie I am hypersensitive about addiction.....so far my habits that are had to break are cyclical nail biting and of course food......I like the feeling of being drunk so I only drink a couple of times a year and I have a stop date targeted for the diet pills.......oh yes I also have tend to weigh daily.......so I weighed in today, the 1st time since Thursday woot woot....3 lbs down in the RIGHT direction. So on my errands I left the car at home wlked to bus stop and got moving a bit, yippee this may just work

[brandyII 9]

Lizzyh,

Sounds like you're starting to feel better. I think we go through down times anyway. My husband is a nail biter, mine just break on their own, it sucks! But I hate acrylics, can't type! Anyway good luck to you. We all have stuff that can screw us up a bit but we can deal with it and probably have been for a few years. I went away to school and low and behold there was a pharmacist in the dorm room next to mine and made it easy to lose weight then! I don't think I could put my body through some of the stuff I did at that time of my life now and so it's much harder to lose weight but health is my main focus and getting into my jeans doesn't hurt either. Take care brandyII.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Even though I respect your wisdom MacMadame, I do think it is a bit more drastic to go through the procedure of having WLS even if it's done laproscopically usually as in the lap band . The only medication that my doctors were concerned about was that I had previously taken phenfen (sp) and did an echocardiogram to check the condition of my heart. I had success on Meridia and feel that someone may need an extra tool to jump start her success again on the band.

The band is a tool and has been found to reverse it's success on some people and once you start putting back the weight what toll does that take on one's heart?

The band doesn't reverse success, we reverse our own success. The band stays the same.

Banding is not major surgery, open heart surgery is major surgery. The band is minor in comparison.

[Lunabeane 2]

The band doesn't reverse success, we reverse our own success. The band stays the same.

Banding is not major surgery, open heart surgery is major surgery. The band is minor in comparison.

Just because something is minimally invasive doesn't down grade it to minor surgery. Perhaps WLS was minor in your situation but it isn't minor in every situation. When someone is under general anesthesia and is intubated they are at risk...especially if they have significant co-morbidities. When comparing WLS to open heart surgery you are making a grandiose statement. Each surgical situation is vastly different. Somebody with diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, asthma, and an irregular heart beat is going to be more at risk than someone that's "just" obese. I don't think someone should make generalizations when it comes to a surgery that is addressing multiple variables. It's both untrue and misleading. Just sayin'.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Just because something is minimally invasive doesn't down grade it to minor surgery. Perhaps WLS was minor in your situation but it isn't minor in every situation. When someone is under general anesthesia and is intubated they are at risk...especially if they have significant co-morbidities. When comparing WLS to open heart surgery you are making a grandiose statement. Each surgical situation is vastly different. Somebody with diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, asthma, and an irregular heart beat is going to be more at risk than someone that's "just" obese. I don't think someone should make generalizations when it comes to a surgery that is addressing multiple variables. It's both untrue and misleading. Just sayin'.

I did not write that it is minor surgery, I wrote that it is minor in comparison to a major surgery such as open heart.

If someone is high risk it does not make every surgical procedure major surgery, it means they are high risk for a more minor procedure.

Nobody said there is no risk for banding and a minor procedure does not promise no complications. Removal of a hang nail can have complications.

Banding is not major surgery, very little tissue is cut, very little dissection happens. But this is a good thing! It's one of the benefits of banding in that it is not a major surgical procedure.

Jus' saying....

[Lunabeane 2]

I did not write that it is minor surgery, I wrote that it is minor in comparison to a major surgery such as open heart.

If someone is high risk it does not make every surgical procedure major surgery, it means they are high risk for a more minor procedure.

Nobody said there is no risk for banding and a minor procedure does not promise no complications. Removal of a hang nail can have complications.

Banding is not major surgery, very little tissue is cut, very little dissection happens. But this is a good thing! It's one of the benefits of banding in that it is not a major surgical procedure.

Jus' saying....

Major surgery is defined as any surgical procedure that involves anesthesia or respiratory assistance. It's not comparable to a hang nail and it's not a surgery that should be taken lightly or conveyed as inconsequential. There are a lot of people that have serious medical problems resulting from their surgery.

[MacMadame 81]

I think we are straying from the point... at least from my point.

Lap band surgery is definitely a big step and it is surgery. But it can be done on an outpatient basis and has few life-threatening risks other than the normal risks of surgery, such as infection and blood clots. It is definitely safer than having your gallbladder out or gastric bypass.

On top of that, the rewards are excellent. The majority of people who get it do lose at least 50% of their excess weight and keep it off. That's a big win and it makes the risks worth it to me.

I don't think you can say the same about diet pills. First, it's not clear how safe they actually are. There was a time when doctors would tell you that phenfen is safe. Obviously, they were wrong. Will they be wrong about the new diet pills that are out today? Only time will tell, but Meridia was banned for a while in Italy due to some deaths it caused and the FDA is watching it closely because of deaths it caused in the US. It's definitely one of the riskier of the diet drugs IMO.

When it comes to diet pills, I think the FDA is much too willing to approve things that aren't particularly safe. Their attitude seems to be that nothing is worse than being fat. I don't share that attitude. I don't think it's worth the risk of taking something that raises your blood pressure and increases your risk of heart attack when it only promises a small weight loss and that weight loss is temporary -- unless you want to continue taking diet pills for the rest of your life.

[lizzy h 0]

Thanks MacMadame for your thoughts. They are good cautionary words, and I can comlpetely appreciate why you would avoid them given what you know. Fortunaetly I have not taken this course recklessly (unlike 15 years ago when I did Phenfen throwing all caution to the wind). I have friends that are passionate in their position that they would never do a lap band. They see the risks of a foreign object in my body as desperate and reckless. I can no more change their view, then I believe I can alter your opinion. If one looks they can usually find statistics, and anecdotes to support their agruements......that is what is so great about the internet. We are free to debate and pick and chose what fits for us. Thanks

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Major surgery is defined as any surgical procedure that involves anesthesia or respiratory assistance. It's not comparable to a hang nail and it's not a surgery that should be taken lightly or conveyed as inconsequential. There are a lot of people that have serious medical problems resulting from their surgery.

That's one definition of major surgery but not everyone would agree.

I really wish you would stop changing my words around. In no way did I *ever* compare a hang nail removal to band surgery.

Someone can have every comorbidity in the book, that does not change the surgery type or how invasive it is.

I would think everyone would be thrilled that banding isn't major surgery. Isn't that why many people got a band to begin with? Because it is not as major as the others? Why make it what it isn't? It's a GOOD thing that it isn't major surgery, it's a VERY good thing.

[Daisalana 33]

I don't think you can say the same about diet pills. First, it's not clear how safe they actually are. There was a time when doctors would tell you that phenfen is safe. Obviously, they were wrong. Will they be wrong about the new diet pills that are out today? Only time will tell, but Meridia was banned for a while in Italy due to some deaths it caused and the FDA is watching it closely because of deaths it caused in the US. It's definitely one of the riskier of the diet drugs IMO.

When it comes to diet pills, I think the FDA is much too willing to approve things that aren't particularly safe. Their attitude seems to be that nothing is worse than being fat. I don't share that attitude. I don't think it's worth the risk of taking something that raises your blood pressure and increases your risk of heart attack when it only promises a small weight loss and that weight loss is temporary -- unless you want to continue taking diet pills for the rest of your life.

That's kind of how I feel with the band. 50 years from now (or hell, 10 even), they may say that the band causes.. stomach cancer (just a random example).

I am not opposed to diet pills. I took Metabolife with Ephedra when I did Atkins.. the only time I successfully was able to diet. It kept me from being hungry, so when I did eat- I could stick to low-carb. Eventually my head overcame me and I fell off the low-carb wagon, which goes back to what WasaBubble said. My brain never was 'fixed', but the pills helped. I did gain it all back + some, so there's something to be said about fixing the root of the problem.

Now with the band, before I had a fill my doctor gave me ONE Rx to Phen--The not deemed dangerous one--.. and it didn't do crap for me. Since Ephedra isn't banned anymore, but was, I can only get it online, so I normally don't have it.. but I ended up ordering it, and even though I didn't have good restriction for 6 months-after revision surgery on the port, I still lost weight till that time.

I still forget to order it, so I pick up Stacker 2 at the gas station.. which is no longer sold with Ephedra in stores like I said, so now it's just a HUGE dose of caffein.

I don't necessarily take it for weight loss at this point, it just gives me my get-up-and-go. I'm not a coffee drinker, so I get my caffein via a pill. I like it, and I don't see the harm. If I found out my BP was bad or something was happening now to affect me, I'd be more concerned. Just like the smoker who doesn't stop till they get lung cancer, we're invisible..right? :smile2:

[brandyII 9]

These kinds of discussions remind me of the people who think that people who get WLS are taking the "easy way out". Everyone has their own opinions and some maybe anti drug, some anti band, anti RNY, anti anti. No matter what you do there's going to be someone who can tell you that it's bad for you and give you statistics to back it up.

People get the lap band and gain back the weight, it happens. Same with RNY, we all take these risks for the same reason. No one wants to hear that whatever they choose to do can have bad side effects or possibly fail in some way. It's human nature. Do you think if there was a pill that I thought my daughter could have taken to make life better and not be obese and depressed and have panic attacks that I would have let her go through RNY surgery today, hell no! It's extremely upsetting to me that my 19 year old just put her body through that hell and what will I do if the freakn pouch stretches etc. or it doesn't work out. But I had to do it for her own emotional health and physical health and I can only hope and pray that she will be successful.

Did I hear correctly on the news today that 6 out of every 10 children in the US are overweight? You'd think there could be less drastic measures out there to solve this problem. I'm probably a bit too sensitive today in my own personal life to post in a normal manner but it does anger me. brandyII:frown::eek::sad:

[lizzy h 0]

So Bandy... this is good, this is great.......I have 15 year old son that is 5'9" and 240 lbs...He refuses to take any of my help.......good for your daughter, great that she did not wait until she is 43, super yippeee hoorayyy. Yes it would have been if she did not get the tastebud gene, you know what I mean - but she has other blessings I am sure.......all that out of the way how did her surgery go, and how are you dealing with the stress?

[brandyII 9]

Well my daughter is 6 feet and was 350+ when she started and lost 35 pounds. But the combo of being six foot and a girl and then overweight was just too much for her to handle even though she's a really great person and probably one of the nicest and smartest people I know. Okay I'm her mother what can I say.

But she did well considering. I don't know anyone personally who has gone through this surgery. I knew it would be harder than the lap band but they also have her on more pain meds and treat her differently. She has the pain pump, I never had one, guess I probably didn't need it either. She still has a catheter in, I'm pretty sure mine was remove before recovery. She's been sleeping most of the night and I'm going there first thing in the morning. I was only physically with her from 7 pm to 9 pm but she slept the whole time and I wanted her to get as much as she could and we'll go tomorrow morning first thing and she'll probably start feeling some of the pain then. They'll also have her walking etc... She gets to come home Thursday but tomorrow they give her an upper GI to make sure the staples aren't leaking. Anyway thanks, it's been really scary for me.

I'll tell you that it's really difficult dealing with a teen who has a weight problem. They're usually sad and or angry. You want to help them but whatever you say they usually end up taking it as some kind of attack or something. I really had to let her come to me and when she expressed how important this surgery was and since she was still young enough to be covered under our insurance and old enough for the surgery we had to do it.

She's been in therapy for a few years, high school was not kind to her and if I had it to do over with I probably should have taken her out and home schooled her because of all the stress and anguish she was going through. To be honest I would have rather let her have the surgery then bury a daughter due to suicide. Wow what great choices but in the end hopefully this will work out, I really had no choice.

But I wish you luck with your son, it's really not an easy thing to deal with because kids can be so sensitive at their age and boys as well as girls have body issues now. I don't think there is ever one easy way to deal with it! Take care brandyII.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Did I hear correctly on the news today that 6 out of every 10 children in the US are overweight? You'd think there could be less drastic measures out there to solve this problem. I'm probably a bit too sensitive today in my own personal life to post in a normal manner but it does anger me. brandyII:frown::frown::sad:

I don't know exact stats but I'll throw something out there.

A friend of mine took her grand daughter to some school function the other day. She was floored, she swears that about 90% of the kids (high school) are at least overweight if not obese.

In Australia the obesity issue has become a crisis for their socialized medicine program and according to an article I read a couple of months ago obesity is about to bankrupt their medical program.

It's spooky to say the least.

[Chelle B 0]

I haven't tried diet pills post op - but I sure think about them alot since my unfill. I was addicted for years so I wouldn't take the risk now. I am working my way back up the fill level again, so hopefully I will be back on track soon.