CalKev

Cyndi, I just knew when we talked it would be hard to get a flight early that week and was hoping something would open up. That was originally why I asked for that date from Rene because I thought they might be less busy because of the holiday weekend and we are driving as you know. We should have coordinated earlier now I am stuck with the 27th as my wife is taking the day off to come down with me and I already have 5 business appointments set for the 29th. I know that I will need a second fine tuning fill. If you do too lets coordinate so we can ride down together if that sounds good. I'm sorry it didn't work out this time but we can look forward to seeing less of each other on future fills. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to those mashed potatoes. PS - Remember Linda from our band day well she is doing well and has good restriction and is getting her first fill the second week in December. I sent emails to our other B-Day surgery mates (the sisters) and only heard from them the first week after surgery but not since.

Havn't had solids yet. It will be mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving. I can hardly wait. Kevin

Good stuff to remember. Thanks Teri!

do you have alot of saggy skin? This is a question I asked also and was told that many factors determine if you will have saggy skin, age, skin elasticity, genetics, how fast you lose, how much you exercise and others they can't account for. The measure I was given was if you have saggy skin once you lose 50% of your target weight you probably will have it when you lose it all. If not your chances increase of not having unsightly excess skin. Best wishes Kevin

I am very strongly considering getting the lap-band done and im just scared because i ahte pain. I hope you dint mind me asking you a few questions that you have probably been ask a million times! This is my personal experience and does not reflect everyones. I as banded by Dr. Ortiz. - Are you in pain after the surgery? I did not have any real pain from the surgery just some discomfort from gas in my system the following days in recovery. - Have you lost a lot of weight? and was it hard? I have lost 21 lbs. to date from my surgery on 10/16/06. Hard is a relative term. I have plateaued a couple times and then continued to lose. You just take it day by day. If you are willing to spend the time off work, money and decision to have surgery, and commitment to the pre-op diet your chances for successful weight-loss increase. No one is perfect. This is a lifestyle and if you need a coach once you get home find one. A counselor, psychologist or friend that can give you support psychologically when times get tough as you transition to your new life. The mind controls how the band is used and not the other way around. It is not a cure-all for weight-loss without your commitment to the lifestyle. - how often do you have the band ajusted? As directed by your doctor. - are you glad you did the surgery? Yes! If you want a new healthy lifestyle it is the tool to do the job. - is the recovery tough? vomiiting, pain, tired? My suggestion is to take 2 weeks off work and get well. Many I hear take 1 week or more than 2 but it does depend on your job. I believe stress could slow your recovery. Recovery is also different for each individual. I went home the day after surgery and had my toughest days about 1 week out due to the decrease in caloric intake and the bloating associated with how the surgery is performed working its way out of my system. Sipping water and walking off the bloat helped tremendously. I did not experience vomiting or pain closer to discomfort. Fatigue diminished day by day after week 1. - are the scares bad? My scares are healing very well. Dr. Martinez (Obesity Control Center) explained that the incisions were "stitched on the interior and a liquid skin applied exterior". This technique increases healing time and aesthetically decreases scare tissue on the exterior of skin. My wife had laproscopic surgery 10 years ago before this technique was used and the stitching was exterior only. Her scares were minimal but mine are healing faster and will be less noticeable. - can you see the port when you lift up your shirt? No though I have a high BMI as you can see in my ticker below and am just 1/4 of the way to my goal. So I still have a good amount of padding to lose. My mother an RN observed a surgery before mine and said the port is placed in the abdominal muscle. They actually hollow out an area in your muscle and it is stitched in place. So as you lose weight it should not show but there are reports by others of their ports creating a bulge. - do you have alot of saggy skin? This is a question I asked also and was told that many factors determine if you will have saggy skin, age, skin elasticity, genetics, how fast you lose, how much you exercise and others they can't account for. The measure I was given was if you have saggy skin once you lose 50% of your target weight you probably will have it when you lose it all. If not your chances increase of not having unsightly excess skin. My doctors seem to discourage this surgery and push the the bypass but im in willing to get all cut up, hopefully you wont mind answering my questions! thanks alot! Mine also. Ask them for specific reasons why they discourage it. In the states the GB is called the "gold standard" for weight-loss surgery and your insurance may cover it. The lapband is so new here and many surgeons don't have the hands on time doing the procedure. Just ask them. I consulted 5 surgeons and none came close to the approx. 3300 lapband procedures Dr. Ortiz has performed. Most were from 50 to 250 and they would charge at least double. Dr. Ortiz on the day of my surgery asked me why I came to him for the procedure and I told him that my research indicated he was the best in the field. You should consult your Dr. for best surgery for you but for myself I am %110 satisfied with all aspects of how I was taken care of by the team at OCO. I am not a health professional or affiliated with OCO other than being a satisfied patient. When I was in your shoes several months ago I emailed Lori,Patient Coordinator for the Obesity Control Center, at lori@obesitycontrolcenter.com. She is so easy to talk to and had answers to all my questions or she would consult with the Dr.s and get me technical info if needed. Best wishes to you in making your decision. Kevin

Cyndi, My schedule is very flexible during the holiday period so not a problem as long as we can get a same day appointment during that week. My only personal deadline is to firm up details by Wednesday the 15th. I'll wait to hear from you and keep my fingers crossed. Kev

Ninnyed, I know your pass this point in your recovery but thought I would mention that if I drank something cold I would sip it and let the coolness dissipate in my mouth before I swallowed so it was more or less body temperature. Seemed to make it easier to drink. Hope your past the hurts stage! Kevin

Cyndi, I was thinking of possibly rescheduling for the day you come in so we could pick you up and go in together. Kevin

Cyndi - Sorry we are going to miss you. Did you get an apt for the 28th if so what time? and a flight if so what time do you arrve and depart? Let me know if you do asap. I have an idea to save some $$$$$$. Kevin

Greg, I am with you on the eating habits. I truly believe after being banded that consistency of diet is best for your health and the band is a great teacher. My banding was done by Dr. Ortiz and ran almost half the cost of Mr. Morgans. You can contact Lori his Patient Care Coordinator at lori@obesitycontrolcenter.com. She is very knowledgeable and can give you the lowdown on cost and the lapband procedure process. She made it so easy and is always accessible to answer your questions. Best of Luck! Kevin

Here is the link to a great in depth perspective on the Lapband process by Journalist Robert Morgan. Be sure to click through the menu on the top left to read through his journey.Kevin

Jodie, Appreciate you sharing your experience. It is of much help to those of us just getting to fills for our VGs. It sounds like I need to be aggressive in requesting the maximum fill they will do for me or it may just be a matter of adjustment and they do not want to cause complications like you said I'm no doctor I live about 2 hours north of Dr. Ortiz so can get there if I need to. Getting used to eating with constriction is what I am trying to do without it and still get the nutrition I need. The only way I have found to do this is to stay liquid and try to keep my pouch small until restriction occurs. Thanks for the good info. Best of luck on your band journey. Kevin

Nita, Thank you for your reply and the info enclosed. I hope that we see less of each other in future! Like you I am hanging in there with the slow weight loss. Yesterday I increased my exercise to 2 X 30 min sessions (morning and evening) on my redundant bike from just one. My hope is this will kick up my metabolism a notch and burn, burn, burn those calories. Also staying on a liquid diet only is physically and mentally taxing as I will have been on it for 2 months on the 12th. But I am not going to put any weight on. I am getting regular blood test to monitor my organs. I'm determined to act like I am banded calorie wise until the fills give me restriction so I can move to solid food. I go to TJ on the Nov. 27th for first fill. I will talk to Dr. Martinez about getting to the sweet spot sooner than later.Best wishes to you on a successful weight loss.

Roger, Thank you so much for your reply. I get no restriction in fact I have stayed on a liquid diet just so I can continue to lose until restriction is in place. You would think the VG would be engineered so air was not an issue when it is time to fill. Rupturing the diaphragm inside the band would make it impossible to hold restriction and they would all fail. How often is your local office seeing the loss of saline I wonder. As you say replacing air in a band with fluid should just displace the air and not cause it to leak out. So in theory the air and fluid should both stay in the band and commingle. Best of luck on keeping restriction. I am going to do some research and see if I can find out more on the subject. Appreciate the reply Roger! Kevin

Hi Band Fans! I am curious when I had my VG Band procedure I neglected to ask Dr. Ortiz what the initial fill amount is for the VG Band. Specifically when it is placed how much saline is in the band? Is it standardized or does it vary per individual? Also once I receive my first fill I hear rumors I will need at least a 2nd fill to feel restriction. What is the schedule for receiving subsequent fills? Six weeks as for first fill? Thanks in advance for any info you can provide. Kevin

How much weight will I lose? Weight-loss results vary from patient to patient, and the amount of weight you lose depends on several things. The LAP-BAND

Bariatric Surgery Has Potential To Help Improve Brain Function, Avoid Alzheimer's Sat Oct 21, 8:00 AM ET San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 21, 2006 -- A study presented at the Endocrinological Society's meeting in June and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has linked obesity-related insulin resistance with decreased brain function and early Alzheimer's Disease. Although insulin is best known as a regulator of blood glucose levels, the study shows that insulin also acts in the brain to aid memory and thinking. When insulin regulation is disrupted -- as is common in many common medical conditions like obesity and diabetes -- the risk for cognitive impairment increases dramatically."This study demonstrates that insulin resistance and diabetes

Welcome Peter!

Cyndi - Awesome loss of weight. We are losing at the same rate... kinda cool. You know at certain times the dizzies hit me to. I can't nail it down to one thing just happens from time to time.We will be driving to the border parking there, walking across and taking cab to Dr. Ortiz. My appointment is at 11am so we would want to pick you up at around 9:30am from airport. Maybe you can get an early flight out and a return later in day. We are coming from about 2 hours north of the airport. Lots of traffic especially the day after a holiday weekend. Let me know if you are interested and flight schedule and maybe we can get our appointments one after the other depending on which flight you come in on. We are flexible on time of apt as I have dedicated the day to getting the fill. So even if we could get in fore a 1 and 1:30pm fill would be fine on our end. Have fun on your adventures. we will be in Vegas in March and on a cruise in May. Talk to you later. Your Band-day Buddy. Kevin

Greg, Best of luck on your surgery. If you can shoot for more weight loss pre-op. It does make a difference. The more you lose pre-op the better your body is prepared for the procedure. Particularly your liver and it does help the surgeons do the surgery if they have to go through less fat in the abdominal region. I will be down for my first fill on Nov. 27 just missing you by a couple weeks. Also have you done research on the VG band because like me you may be a candidate. I sent my photo to Lori pre-op and she forwarded it to Dr. Ortiz who confirmed I was and thats what I have. Checkout the thread on it in this forum and the info at the Inamed website. I to did a self pay for WLS and it is worth every penny. Success to you on your band journey. Kevin

Marc, Love the table saw analogy. It's right on. Kevin

Clynn, I hope we can say "Hi" when we are there. Look forward to meeting you. Kevin

Cyndi it's Kevin - How are you? Weight loss going well? How about your healing? I am getting ready to start real exercise not just walking this next week. I still get tired and as I lose weight I am feeling the cold air more than I used to. Have you tried solids? If so how did it go? I haven't yet. Waiting until Thanksgiving to do my first test on solids. Going in on Nov. 27 for first fill. Hope about you any plans yet? Can you believe how time is flying. Seems like we were just banded and now its 3 weeks out. Wish I had been able to spend more time with you post-op. Really enjoyed our talk the evening of surgery. By the way we are heading to Prescott to see my wife's parents for Christmas. I know it's not close to you but it is Arizona. Just wanted to say "hi" and hope you are doing well! Kevin

Hello Lori! I wanted to jump in with a suggestion. When I had surgery I was waiting to be released on the 17th of October. Another couple was sitting next to us and we struck up a conversation. The young lady from Arizona had lost a large amount of weight by the the lap band she had placed by Dr. Ortiz. She was coming in for an unfill to moderate her weight. Meeting the women in the lobby gave me a boost as I was just banded and she had lost over 100 lbs. and looked healthy and happy.We need to hear from people like her on the board. In your database is there a way to contact past patients with a survey and an invitation to visit the board. Or an email address where you can contact them and ask them to fill out a survey so you could gather data on past patients. I'm with Cliff hearing some success stories would boost moral on the board and also give you valuable market information. I just saw my first TV commercial for the lapband here in California so it would seem market acceptance is becoming more mainstream and will lead to rapid growth in near future in use of this excellent tool. Cliff, Email Lori - She took me through the process and I have lost 45 lbs as of today thanks to her accurate and knowledgeable guidance. She can do the same for you.We are all in it together here on the board so join us please! Best wishes in moving forward! Kevin

Monday, November 27 anyone? My apt. is 11am. Yours? Kevin