MamaMichelle

For your first fill it is only liquids for 3 days after then back to regular food For your 2nd, 3rd, 4th fills (and beyond) they actually encourage you to eat a real meal about 2 hrs after the fill so if you're too tight you can return to the OCC for an adjustment...

Hey girls, no need to worry your band is far inside your body the only thing you are feeling is your port... I actually had no idea where mine was until I got my fill last week and that is exactly where mine is, an inch below my largest scar and maybe 1/4 in to the left of it!

Thanks girls, here are some more pics hanna took of me getting my fill, please excuse the flab... Dr. R just preped me with the Iodine above me is the fluro machine, (looks like a telescope, lol) Dr. R inserts the needle Then raises the table up (so you're reclining not laying flat) to get a better picture with the fluro.

Lol, well you are very sweet but I carry most of my weight in my stomach, thighs and legs (which you can't see in my avatar) that pic was from about 2 weeks ago and I am still over 200lbs so I have another 55-70lbs to lose!! Here's a full length pic so you can see what I mean:

Thanks for your concern Paula but the only reason that I continue to drink the shakes is because I actually enjoy them! I've never been one to be hungry in the morning or even afternoon; before being banded I would skip those 2 meals and then binge eat at night consuming all of my calories during dinner. Drinking a shake for breakfast and one for lunch is a way for me to keep my metabolism going so I don't feel like binge eating at night... I have spoken to Dr. Miranda about my habits and progress and she tells me to stick with what's working for me! Basically way she explained it to me is that the rule about not drinking protein shakes is because people will drink the shakes and still feel hungry (since the band isn't designed to restrict liquids) so they would be hungry and hour later and eat again basically giving you double the calories. She said that since I'm not feeling hungry during the day that keeping up the shake plan is fine! Usually the main reason for hair loss in relation to losing weight is lack of protein so I am surprised to hear that you still had issues losing hair when you were getting so much. I have been getting 70-90 grams of protien per day and I am taking a multi-vitamin as well so I do hope that will help circumvent that issue! Thanks again for your concern sweetie!

When they send you a DVD of the piece see if you can get Meredith to upload the video to your myspace profile.... that way we can all see it!

While our group was back at the OCC for our fill the topic of eating while drinking came up... I always knew it was bad but I thought it was because the liquids would wash the food through the band making it harder to become full. Dr. Romero kind of put the fear of god into us saying it was one of the worst things you could do for your band and not just because of the reason we thought. He said that when you eat the food rests in the stoma above the band, and when you add liquid to that it builds up a lot of pressure in the stoma because the liquid isn't able to filter past the food so this causes a bulge kind of like in this picture. Dr. R says continuing to do this will stretch your pouch, inch by inch day by day... and a stretched pouch means you can eat more which means the band can't do its job! His explanation really scared us straight!! For me the only time I am tempted to drink while I eat is when I go out to eat, so what I do is just order water (I tried telling servers that I didn't want anything and that just got me weird looks and questions if I was sure and then they would bring me water anyways) so once they bring the water I squeeze the lemon into it (I don't like lemons in anything) so that kind of crushes my desire to drink it... I heard of another bandster who puts salt in her water so she isn't tempted to drink it. I will often move it across the table in front of my husband also so it's not so close to my reach, if you have to lean across the table to grab your water you just might think twice about drinking it!!

Welcome back babe!!

There are quite a few girls that have been banded by Dr. Martinez, Dr. O has to have a few days off lol.. The first one that comes to is KimmieD, she posts here quite often so I'm sure she will pop in and say hello or you can do a search under the patient testimonials for her experience.

You shouldn't worry too much, this is what the band is supposed to do... Force you to take smaller bites and eat slowly!! While you may think you don't have restriction since you're unfilled you must still be a little swollen and that's why you feel the food in a lump sliding down your throat... Slow down and chew well EVERYTIME and you will be fine!

Once you get into the fill room with Dr. Romero the fill process maybe takes 5min if you have questions for him it could take maybe take 10 min... He is also the doctor who helps the surgery patients with their blood work and IV so he does have other duties so you may have to wait a little bit for him to become available but if you have a set appointment he should be available for you within 10 min of your scheduled time...

Hi Dusty!! Welcome to our group, congrats on taking the steps to getting banded! It's great to have another male bandster- we've got a few male members here so hopefully they will be along to welcome you too! :lb9:

Judy- Thanks for the compliments! Hanna-l Thanks for clearing that up, I knew I tried to take a picture of your fluro monitor but I was behind the protection screen so I didn't know if it was a good angle or not! It's such a cool picture!!

It's most likely from swallowing too much air while eating, I do the same thing while drinking except it makes me burp not hiccup... Dr. Romero said I shouldn't use a straw as you take in more air that way and also try not to talk with food in your mouth as talking while eating can cause you to swallow a lot of air.

I posted a longer thread about my first day on solids after the fill and I am not feeling much restriction as on right now... I was working out for like 2 weeks during weeks 3 and 4 but for some reason I can't motivate myself to get back on that treadmill right now!

That thin line is the bra underwire, you can't see the barrium flowing inside the band because it's plastic so you can't see through it.. I'm sure our bandster nurses can explain how xrays work better than I can!!

I borrowed this from Hanna's myspace album, not sure if she took this pic of my fluro or if I took it of her fluro but here it is!! The black left upper part is the esophagus that is filled with barium liquid, The white in between black areas is the band.. it's somewhat opaque in color here The black in the lower part of the picture is the barium flowing into the stomach The two thin dark lines kind of pointing at the esophagus is the the underwire of a bra, lol

Well it's not an original recipe, lol there is this woman who has a show on BBC who's all about healthy detox living... Her name is Gillian McKeith she's like the Simon Cowell of diets you should see her go through these peoples pantry chastising them for having chips and cookies in there. But it's a good way to get all the benefits of fruits and veggies with out having to sit down and eat platefuls of them!!

How exciting sweetie, you guys deserve it!!

75 calories is what it estimates...

I am totally there with ya babe! I think I'm going to be needing a breast lift as well as a small implant!

Don't forget about the dental services, it's like a one stop shop like on that extreme makeover show!

New boobs? I want new boobs too... Maybe we can go together and get a 4 boobs for the price of 3 discount, lol!!

If you want to taste a cucumber so bad why don't you throw a peeled one into a blender or juicer and drink that? Unlike you I hate vegetables, so to get my daily dose I juice 1 cucumber, 10 baby carrots and 3 stalks of celery and drink it in the morning, it doesn't taste that great (I do like the cucumber juice alone however) but it gives me a lot of the vitamins and minerals I need.

At the OCC the fills are always "free" but they charge $100 for the fluro and fluro is always required so it will always cost $100 when you go for a fill! There was no numbing shot, but the pain was so minimal that I think another shot would hurt more than the fill needle did, lol.