MamaMichelle

Hey guys thanks for the comments!! The type of needle they use for fills is called a Huber Needle and it has a bend at the tip so you can't be stuck too deep it looks like this: I actually made a comment about that and he said that when he does fills he makes sure to go on the top side of the port and that the tubing is connected to the bottom of the port, or maybe he went on the bottom side because the tube is connected at the top, I don't recall but he reassured me that he was always careful to avoid the tubing side. The screen part of the port is only the size of a dime so I guess I can understand how it would be harder to hit the target with out fluro to show you the bullseye! I think I will get the fluro next time just to make sure everything is looking great!! I am feeling well, I have started eating 5 small meals because what I can eat in 3 meals isn't really enough to keep me full for 5hrs... I am fine with that and this doctor actually prefers that for patients who are logging their food and not grazing on the bad stuff! I forgot to weigh yesterday but I was 189.6 in my clothes at the doctors office and 189 at home in my clothes (I always like to see how my scale matches up to the doctors mine looks to be about .6lbs off) and this morning I was 186 in my undies. So I'm loosing a little after my fill!! I will be 4 months post op in 4 days and todays weight puts me at exactly 40lbs lost since surgery, I really can't believe that it has been 4 months that is sooo crazy! vetters- can't wait to go to the river, I got a new digital camera today so I can take some hot pics of us!! I bought a cute baby phat 1-peice swimsuit today also and I might try on a few bikinis tonight so who knows what will happen!! As for you 4th of July worriers I'm not going to get there either but you know we have all made great progress and I know we will keep it up!! I was looking at my monthly weigh ins with the doctor and realized that wasn't a realistic goal since I'm averaging about 8lbs a month (other than the 1st month) the doc said my progress was at just the right pace 1-2lbs per week and that getting there isn't a race... 2/28- 226 (start weight) 3/28- 209 (lost 17lbs in my 1st month) 4/28- 202 (lost 7lbs in my 2nd month) 5/28- 194 (lost 8lbs in my 3rd month) 6/24- 186 (lost 8lbs so far in my 4th month) So if I am 39lbs from my goal and if I can keep up the 8lbs a month I will be at my goal in 5 months! 7/28 178lbs 8/28 170lbs 9/28 162lbs 10/28 154lbs 11/28 146lbs That will be right around Thanksgiving when my cousin is having her wedding, so that would be great but the realistic side of me know it's going to slow down and plateau so I'm thinking I won't be getting to 100lbs lost by the end of the year, but if I could get there by my 1year surgery date I would be happy! Actually I don't care if it's 3 years from now when I reach 100lbs lost- I know that I'll still be happy because with the band I won't be putting the weight back on, that's the best part for me!!

That's GREAT sweetie!! I can honestly say that after 1.5 days on solids after my 3rd fill I am hungry MORE than I was before... Let me explain before I could eat 1/2 to 1 cup of food before I stopped myself because I didn't want to overeat that would keep me full for 5-6 hrs now that I can only eat 1/4 to 1/2 I stay full for 3-4 hours so I am actually hungry more often which is actually kind of annoying...

Hello and welcome, having a supportive husband/family is a big part of being successful!! Congrats on taking the first step to changing your life!!

BUT YOU'RE LOSING WEIGHT RIGHT?? Who cares how many cc's you have it's about what's best for your body right? You were one of the few that had a lot of restriction before even getting a fill right? So how do you know that going to 1.4 (or beyond) isn't too much for you right now? You've made GREAT progress it's silly to feel anything but totally grateful of your band and your progress!!

It is $349 for the first visit, then it goes down to $165 but that is WITHOUT FLURO.. My doc only does fluro appts 1 day per MONTH and it's an additional $185.

Oprah did a show on Teens and Weight loss which featured Dr. Ortiz and Cassie they will be re-airing the show on Aug 11th, I know that's a long time but maybe you can tape it and show it to your parents if they are having a hard time with you considering getting banded. It was the best choice I ever made for myself and hopefully it is just the thing to change your life as well!! Good Luck Sweetie!

I wasn't weighing every day after surgery but by day 7 I was down 6lbs. IT WILL HAPPEN, don't focus on the numbers focus on healing!!

I posted this in my 3rd fill thread but this is what my doctor said about the size of fills: Basically he is a big believer in smaller fills because it does less damage to the esophagus/band in the long run... He said most of his patients find their sweet spot around 3.0 but he said if he gives someone 3.0 on their first fill 2 things might happen: 1. it might shut them off totally or 2.their body may be able to take it but it will harm their progress in the long run. His example was with the first case if he had started at 1.5 and went up .5cc every few months that same person would have great restriction with arriving at 3.0 slowly than in one big fill... In the second example he said that if someone gets that big of a fill and their body can handle it that tight that he's only left with 1cc of potential space for further fills and that the most common cause of slippage is from a band being too tight even if the person is able to still eat. That's why when his patients reach their goal weights he suggests removing 75% of their fill because the less irritation from this foreign object around your stomach the less chances of complications. So it sounds like you may have to tough it out for a little while longer to do what your doc thinks is best for YOU and YOUR band, or as the other ladies said get a 2nd opinion. I think that you are continuing to lose weight even without the perfect restriction so keep it up!! If your weight loss stalls you can talk to him about getting more!

On Saturday I went for my 3rd fill, after what happened with my 2nd fill in TJ I decided to just start getting them done here in Vegas.. For those of you that don't know the story I got my 2nd fill at the OCC and went from 1.6cc to 2.3cc, since you will be leaving Mexico a day or so after the fill they want you to "test" it because if you're too tight and don't realize it till you get home and try solids you can't easily get an unfill. So the night after my 2nd fill I had 5 big bites of salad and PB'd it all up, then the next morning I tried 1/4 of a banana and PB'd that as well so I thought I was too tight so I got a .3cc unfill leaving me at 2.0ccs. After a week I realized that I could eat normally and that I probably ate the salad too fast, which caused the PB and then swelling from the night before caused the PB the next morning. So when we went into the doctor he had all sorts of questions about the 5 page questionnaire they have you fill out... When he asked how much weight I had lost in the past 2 weeks and I said 3 lbs he said that usually he doesn't think people who are losing weight at that rapid of a pace because the more you fill the less space you will have left in the band for a fill when you hit a plateau. I told him the whole TJ 2nd fill story and he agreed to do the fill... He ended up giving me .35cc more because he didn't want me to have the same problem from my last fill so I am now at a total of 2.35ccs (I still had 2.0 exactly in my band from my last fill). The only problem was it took him 9.5 min to get the needle into my port, I swear! This was my first non-fluro fill so I knew it might take longer but he couldn't get to my port, I was afraid it had flipped and he said no but that it was "moving" which he has seen before with other Dr.'s patients but that Dr. O usually adds extra stitches to prevent this... So after trying to "tap around" for the port with the needle in my belly for 3 min I told him he could re-stick me and try again. He said ok took the needle out and got a pen to mark a square around where my port was then tried again he said he was too low or the angle was off but he FINALLY got the needle in the port. Again the best part of the appointment was that he sat and talked with me and my husband for almost an hour about my diet and my progress and everything else band related... He was really impressed with my progress and could tell that I was really working with the band to get to my goals. He said that in his opinion the most successful patients he sees have 2 things in common: 1. They lost weight during the preop phase (he said he had some patients that GAIN 6-8lbs before surgery because the think the band is going to be a miracle cure so what's a few extra lbs before surgery) 2. They find ways to lose weight whether they think that they have good restriction or not. He said that there are 3,500 calories in a pound, so if you consume just 100 calories per day MORE than what you burn you will gain 1lb every 35days (that's about 12lbs a year) and 100 calories isn't that much he said there are that many calories in a glass of SKIM milk... So everyday you should think of little ways to burn those extra calories, park you car farther from the store entrance take the stairs... even if you can only make it up 2 flights then take the elevator the rest of the way those 2 flights may burn 20 calories and if you can bvurn 100 more calories than you eat in a day that's 12 extra lbs you'll be able to LOSE in a year... Very interesting take on some pretty common advice. He was also saying that he is a big believer in smaller fills because it does less damage to the esophagus/band in the long run... He said most of his patients find their sweet spot around 3.0 but he said if he gives someone 3.0 on their first fill 2 things might happen: 1. it might shut them off totally or 2.their body may be able to take it but it will harm their progress in the long run. His example was with the first case if he had started at 1.5 and went up .5cc every few months that same person would have great restriction with arriving at 3.0 slowly than in one big fill... In the second example he said that if someone gets that big of a fill and their body can handle it that tight that he's only left with 1cc of potential space for further fills and that the most common cause of slippage is from a band being too tight even if the person is able to still eat. That's why when his patients reach their goal weights he suggests removing 75% of their fill because the less irritation from this foreign object around your stomach the less chances of complications. He shared a lot more interesting stuff with me but this post is probably long enough!!

I have been tracking my food for the past week on sparkpeople and it is really addictive, and sometimes VERY eye opening... My hubby and I went to a country western bar last night with some of his friends I had 5 drinks because every one bought a round for everyone else and there were 5 of us, this is the first time I have had anything alcoholic (other than 2 glasses of wine) since being banded... So I go in this morning to log them and 5 rum and pineapples equaled like 900 calories, I about fell over in my chair!! I need to bring my crystal lite packets with me the next time we got to a bar... lol Now we did do a lot of dancing about 1.5hrs worth which SP said burned 690 calories so in the future I either need to drink less or dance more, lol.

Similar story on ABC News, this one is a video: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/pop...23&src=news and a longer article on the same subject: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCall/story?...7121&page=1 This seems to be BIG BIG news to the WLS community In the video the guy says that the average patient considering WLS: Has been overweight for 20 years Has been on 24 diets Has been looking into surgery for 3 years Pretty interesting!!

Weight-loss surgery slashes cancer risk Bariatric-surgery patients cut their overall odds of cancer by 80 percent From MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25269713 updated 1:40 p.m. PT, Thurs., June. 19, 2008 Morbidly obese patients who undergo weight-loss surgery greatly reduce their risk of cancer, according to a study providing fresh evidence of health benefits from these increasingly common operations. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal found that the people who underwent bariatric surgery saw reductions in particular in the risk for breast and colon cancer. Many people see dramatic weight loss after such surgery. People who are deemed morbidly obese typically are at least 100 pounds overweight. The researchers tracked 1,035 such patients who had bariatric surgery for five years. They also monitored 5,746 patients who matched the surgery group in age, sex and weight but did not have this surgery. Story continues below ↓advertisement Those who underwent bariatric surgery had about an 80 percent lower risk of developing cancer, the study showed. "The evidence is mounting that weight loss through weight-loss surgery, if you are extremely obese, is extremely beneficial both to your health as well as to your quality of life," Dr. Nicolas Christou, McGill's head of bariatric surgery who led the study, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. In addition to cutting the incidence of breast cancer by about 85 percent and colon cancer by about 70 percent, those who underwent bariatric surgery also saw reductions in the risk for pancreatic cancer, skin cancer, uterine cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the researchers said. Obesity linked to several cancers Obesity raises the risk for several types of cancer, including cancers of the breast, colon, esophagus and kidney, as well as numerous other diseases. The study buttresses findings published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine that obese people who have bariatric surgery have a lower risk of death from heart disease, diabetes as well as cancer compared to obese people who do not have such surgery. Bariatric surgery alters the digestive system's anatomy to cut the volume of food that can be eaten and digested. In Christou's study, presented at a meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, most of the patients had gastric bypass surgery, which leaves the stomach smaller and permits food to bypass part of the small intestine. "There's an old misconception that this is cosmetic surgery. But actually, people who are overweight don't live as long because a lot of them develop weight-related health problems that shorten their lives. What we see in all these studies is that when people lose the weight, their health gets better," said Dr. Daniel Gagne of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh, who presented another study at the meeting. An estimated 205,000 people underwent bariatric surgery in the United States last year. Extra health benefits Other studies unveiled at the meeting also described health benefits in people who lost weight after bariatric surgery. Gagne's study showed that most patients with asthma and arthritis were able to stop taking steroids to treat the conditions within about a year of having bariatric surgery. The study involved 49 morbidly obese patients who were taking steroids and other immunosuppressant medications to treat chronic inflammatory diseases and autoimmune diseases. New York University researchers showed that losing less than half of excess weight within a year of bariatric surgery was enough for patients to see dramatic improvements in type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and sleep apnea.

How amazing for you Amber you are really working that band girl!! Is that a new avatar shot?? You look HOTT!

Here's the link to Dolittle's Post mentioned above: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=4942

At this point, before your first fill your band isn't restricting anything... Post op swelling can give you the feeling of restriction in the early days after being banded. So it's totally normal that you are feeling hungrier and that the liquids are going right through your band!!

Way to go Carrie, congrats on your great progress the 170's seem so far off for me but a girl can dream can't she?? Take some pics so we can see the smokin' hot new you!!

Ok Here's what I've done so far today: Morning: Fluidity Ballet Bar Workout- Intermediate DVD for 35 min Late Morning: Hip Hop Abs - Fat Burning Cardio DVD for 35 min Afternoon: Slim in 6 - Burn it Up Advanced DVD for 50 min I don't know if I'll do anything tonight because my hubby is off work and we are child free so we may go paint the town or something I'll post if I do decide to do another one!!

Way to go Misty, you are looking so super!! What an inspiration!

Here's a link to my sparkpeople page where I have been keeping track of what I have been eating, I've only been doing for about a week but you can use the arrows to scroll through my last few days of meals... http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_tracker....e=6%2F18%2F2008 So far today I did a protein shake for breakfast (yes I know Dr. Miranda says no shakes but that's only if you drink the shake and still feel hungry so you choose to go out an eat ANOTHER breakfast, for me I stay plenty full on my shake to get me through till lunch which I explained to her via email and she said that was fine, many successful bandsters do a shake for breakfast because it's fast easy and when you're trying to get 60-100 grams of protein per day a shake with 20-30 grams really helps meet that goal) For lunch I had this new concoction I created: 1 cup of corn (canned is fine) 1 or 1.5 portabella mushrooms cut up small 1 large package of pre-cooked salmon or tuna (6-7 oz) 1/4 - 1/2 cup of low sodium soy sauce (depending on your tastes, you can use more corn juice and less soy sauce if you need to watch your sodium) I put the corn with some of the juice and mushrooms in a saute/frying pan let them cook for a few min add the soy sauce and then add the salmon, cover cook for 5 min and then divide this into 5 servings... I ate one and refridged the rest!! It's really good and the corn and mushrooms add a crispyness to it that is great you could spoon this into lettuce cups for some good asian lettuce wraps!! Lynnzz- I KNOW you are big into the exercise and have been working super hard so I think you need to be eating more calories, about how many are you averaging a day??

You know I NEVER watched Oprah with any sort of regularity, it comes on about 9am here and after getting my son up and off to school at 6am I'd usually lay back down and sleep from 7:30 till 10am or 11am. But on the morning of Feb 4th for some reason I was up and I flipped it on as it was starting and it was the lap band show, totally changed my life... Wonder where I'd be if I had gone back to sleep that morning? I bet I would be at least 250lbs!! I did go watch a taping of her show when they were in Vegas at Ceasars with Cher and Tina Turner, it was fun and she is a total ham I was very surprised how likeable she is in person... She also has a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig booty, I think Jenn mentioned that when they were on Oprah had special chairs designed to cover her up from the side.. Ahh to have limitless money the things you can get done, lol...

Looking great Nicole, congrats on your progress!! P.S. "vetters" is right you look 10 years younger, HOTT MAMA!!

Hey Guys I am finally here ready to join up, I started off June doing good but life has gotten in the way lately so once again I fell off the exercise bandwagon, well as of today I am back on and going balls to the wall in a 3 week boot camp program I made for myself... You can read the rest of the details about my 3 week challenge in my blog: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?auto...amp;showentry=3 I even posted some before pics in my sports bra and shorts so I can see the changes in my body since I know I will be gaining muscle so I don't want to be mad at the scale numbers... Anyways the basics of my plan is that for the next 3 weeks while my son is out of town and work is slow I am going to be putting in 3-4 work outs per day each lasting 30 min to 1hr each... I started today and there are 13 more days in June which should put me at the Platnium level I guess... I will be logging in each night with the specifics of my work outs so here is what I did today (June 17th) 3 workouts total: Morning: Fluidity Ballet Bar Workout- Intermediate DVD for 35 min Afternoon: Yoga Booty Ballet Workout- 60's a Go Go DVD for 40 min Evening: Turbo Jam Strength Training Workout- 3T Tubular Training DVD for 40 min

Funny you mention this I started my 3 week Boot Camp workout routine today because my son left today for grandma's and he will be gone for 23days and since work is slow right now I need to get my butt in gear, I am going for 3-4 work outs per day over the next 21 days (I will be on vacation with Evette for a few of the days so I'm thinking I'll take those 2 days in the middle of that off) hopefully it will become a habit so that when he gets back I'll stay in the habit of at least 1 workout a day!! You can read the rest of the details about my 3 week challenge in my blog: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?auto...amp;showentry=3

Thanks Chad I set up a blog for myself and posted about the 3 week boot camp I am about to put myself through... Here's a link to my blog: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?auto...p;blogid=2&

Ok so we all know that exercise is a big part of losing inches and reaching our goals and I have been pretty lax about it lately. I was going really hard core back around Easter time and that month did really well with my weight loss and since over the last 2 months I've lost only 7-8lbs (not that those numbers are terrible but if I can achieve that with little or no exercise then I want to see what 3 weeks of hard core working out can do for me!! Plus I've got a goal of 175 by July 4th which seems pretty impossible as of right now with out working out... So why now you ask, besides the goal part my son left this morning to go to his grandparents house in Dallas for 3 weeks and since I'm finished with most of my work projects I've got nothing but time and ZERO excuses for not getting my butt off the couch!! So I am putting myself thought a workout boot camp of sorts- going balls to the wall, biggest loser style for the next 3 weeks.. So what will I be doing? Well to me Boot Camp means 3-4 workouts PER DAY (each one lasting 30 min - 1hr each) I was an infomercial junkie when I was trying to lose the weight on my own so many of the DVD's that I will be doing you might of heard of before but here's my plan: Morning Workout - Lower Energy Stretch/Strength Workout Options: Yoga DVD, Fluidity Ballet Bar Workout DVD, Windsor Pilates DVD etc After Breakfast Workout- High Energy Cardio Workout Tae Bo DVD, Turbo Jam DVD, Step Aerobics DVD etc Mid Day Workout- Dance/Fun Workout Hip Hop Abs DVD, Yoga Booty Ballet DVD, Hula Girl DVD etc Evening Workout- Strengh Training Workout Slim in 6 Advanced DVD, or any version of the other I mentioned that include weights or resistance bands Now I know that working out means adding pounds of muscle so I'm not going to obess too much about the scale I am at 190 as of today (I gained a pound over the weekend from bad eating so that's my start weight I will be taking measurements in the morning so I can count the inches lost and of course for those of you that know me I am a picture junkie so I had to take some "before" shots today So that's where I started from, I know I can stick to it... I may post my workouts daily who knows, but I will be taking pics each monday to track my progress!! Thanks for reading!!