Trav

I had a couple little mishaps. I ate first thing when I woke up...(wait till you're completely awake), I accidentally tried to swallow something that was slightly too big, it passed. Also, never eat while you're distracted, you'll run the risk of falling back on your "habits" and swallow something too big. Luckily it was softer food, so it passed just fine...but it feels like hell when it happens. I've been busy with things so I haven't been on much... At first I wasn't able to chew, because my wisdom tooth's roots were growing, and caused one of them to get out of alignment from not chewing. I had it pulled, because there was some decay below the gumline, and it would've abscessed if I didn't have it dealt with...I'm still only chewing on one side of my mouth...but I did discover a couple strategies to eating that may help 1. If you accidentally take too big of a bite, hold the excess in your cheek, and just chew bits of it off in your mouth, rather than spit it out. Then CAREFULLY swallow a small bit at a time. Don't try to FORCE swallowing, just a little bit and you'll be okay 2. Sandwiches and pizza are the devil. Cut off a little piece at a time and chew that. Your muscle memory remembers taking off a big bite, and that will be TOO big. Until you learn and train your body how to eat again, you'll need to do it in baby steps. 3. Frozen meals are a godsend, because it trains your brain to the fact "This is all you're supposed to eat". It's very easy to take a nibble off that extra piece of pizza. Food availability is something you have to be very careful of. Hope that helps.

For me, it will be medically necessary to have my band forever. In high school, I was extremely active, but I also had to consume copious amounts of food. I played football AND hockey at the same time..(for reference, Hockey is the most calorie burning sport next to cross country running (and that's debatable), so I was consuming 4-5000 calories a day, JUST to maintain. 5'10" large muscular build and only weighed about 156)...at any rate, that caused me to stretch out my stomach, and ever since then, I have to eat enough for THREE PEOPLE to feel full...(and then still be hungry 1/2 an hour later). It finally caught up to me for the last time in my mid 30's, and I said enough is enough. Now, I've been banded for a month. I am going to postpone my 1st fill. Most of you veterans will be shocked, but here's why. I love food, but, this is the first time in my adult life, I've been able to eat a NORMAL sized portion, and FEEL full. I'm very happy with it, and the weight is still coming off. I'm not quite to the 1/3 of my usual consumption, so by those guidelines, it's still okay. I eat about 1 small sandwich, and half a side, and I feel good about it.a couple pieces of pizza instead of the whole pizza. I order off the menu, instead of cleaning out the buffet.

when you restrict your caloric intake too much, your body goes into survival mode and tries to save every calorie it can as fat. You still need to get enough calories to keep your basal metabolic rate up, so you trick your body into thinking it's getting enough, and will burn that stored fat as a result intead of trying to save it.

That's the first time I've seen something that was simple, yet inventive, and wasn't completely tasteless. Good job. You've got yourself a simple idea and turned it into something useful and easy to do. Good job.

K, my take: Not everyone speaks english, but they'll find someone who can. Daniel, Vincento, are the two staff I had the most contact with, and are top notch guys. They do their job well, and are very helpful. Daniel especially so, even though I was being very friendly to him and said it was okay to loosen up, he still kept that aire of "I'm here to serve you to the best of my ability" (butler'esque, I'd call it.)...but as I explained to him, "I'm your guest in your home, you don't have to apologize for me not knowing how things work here." The hotel itself, on par by US standards, clean by any standard. Ice and water were okay to use there. (You can see their filtration system on the outside of the building.) Now granted, it's no Ritz Carlton, but they provide Ritz quality service. The hotel is very similar to some of the nicer "average people" hotels, but the service is on the level of "A List" people hotels.

I've got some Size 42x30's if anyone needs

Thanks, so far I've pretty much been able to eat anything I could before. I'm still going to be eating healthier, but I'm going to eat what I want too, just not as much of it.

I can eat just fine, I just have to keep the hole cleaned. I'm finding that I can eat pretty much anything I did before, I just fill up faster, even without a fill. It's quite nice. Instead of 3 hamburgers, I can eat a small one. Or 1 1/2 to 2 pieces of pizza, instead of a whole pizza. So far I've had no ill effects from anything, I even had a small piece of dessert....and that's mainly what I wanted. To be able to eat the things I'm used to, but in smaller quantities and I think my body will return back to normal, before I stretched my stomach out from all that eating. Although, a little fun fact. I'm still the unbeaten record holder in a pizza eating contest for Kalkaska, Michigan's annual Trout Festival haha. (set it back in 1989, 2min 2 sec. for a whole pizza...but that was back when I was young.) This spring will be the 20 year anniversary, I've been thinking about going up there and making an appearance.

yeah, we pulled that thing today. It had grown out a few mm's, enough to make my bite uneven, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise, the enamel was pretty thin, and broke when she pulled it out. So if I hadn't gotten it pulled when i did, I'd be having some even more serious pain. But I can only chew on one side, and it's even more of a chore combined with being a WLS patient...two things to worry about...ugh.

she'll walk it off.

It all boils down to the surgical team's credentials, their success/fail rate, their complications, and mortality rates, and whether YOU feel comfortable with them. The local surgeon here does roux en-y and lapband. He's had 1 fatality, and that was enough for me to not choose him, not because he's not a skilled surgeon, but because I didn't feel comfortable. Accidents happen, but I'm all for stacking the deck in my favor. While your insurance may not cover surgical procedures performed in a foreign country, I would go to Dr. Ortiz in TJ again at twice the price. (but I'm glad I didn't have to pay twice the price)

I'm chilled, I'm just gruff and to the point, and when I'm right and I know I'm right I'm very blunt to that point. Probably why I'm still single. If I find any credible sources, I'll be sure to forward them to you so you can show your sister...in the meantime, you can tell her I said she doesn't know what she's talking about in that regard. :-)

First real meal was pizza. (1 and 1/2 pieces, my usual was 8 or 9, sometimes a whole pizza). Second meal was two soft tacos.

Last 3 days of post-op were hell. I wanted food SO BAD...not because I was hungry, but because I was craving food. I chewed cloves* and anbesol to deaden that pesky wisdom tooth of mine, and I had some food. (pizza, it was quite good, and I had no problems... also had a blueberry muffin, only because it was made special for me as a "yay you're done" gift....even though I probably shouldn't have, it still went down without issue. Everyone has been very supportive, and even in the small town I live in, many people that were sitting on the fence, are considering scheduling a trip to TJ, even though there's a doc here in town that does Lapband, (So, Dr. Ortiz, maybe you'll need to gimmie a free fill haha). Pre-op, cake. Post op, cake till day 18. One thing I've learned, wait till you are fully awake to eat until you get into the routine of the new way of eating, (small bites, chew it up). I made the mistake of waking up and immediately eating breakfast, and almost PB'd, because I wasn't paying attention, took a big honking bite, chewed and swallowed. Luckily it was soft food and went through after a little water, some walking, and some coughing. That feeling is a horrible feeling, like wanting to burp, hiccup, cough, sneeze, and puke all at the same time. Take it to heart, you have to eat with purpose and be mindful of what you're doing, just like driving a car. Eat to live, don't live to eat. *cloves are a natural anesthetic, fyi.

Well, #1 It's my mouth. Would you like for me to take a picture? I'm very in-tune with my body. #2. My best friend is an endodentist. #3 My childhood friend is also a dentist. #4 It's common knowledge and information that is contained in any dental text book; wisdom teeth, (while not all), are prone to progressive root growth throughout the life of the patient. Either causing the teeth to errupt further into the oral cavity, or cause the roots to grow in irregular patterns. My grandfather's wisdom teeth's roots curled around in the shape of a ram's horn. #5 the dentist I spoke with about getting it pulled also concurs with my diagnosis, and agrees that this is what is causing my pain and bridge misalignment.

the teeth themselves don't grow, it's the roots that keep growing. It's not coincidence, and I have enough medical studies under my belt to know how and where to back this up. I'm afraid I have to disagree with you and refute your claim. My tooth HAS extended beyond its normal resting place, and I have an endodentist who'll back that fact up. I know you're just trying to help, but trust me on this one, there's not too much that I either don't know the answer on, how to find it, or who to ask to find it. The tooth has grown from its usual spot, and as your mouth is not my mouth, and I'm intimately familiar with my mouth, I'll thank you not to tell me what's going on in my mouth.

Thin crust pizza is fine, because it's not all doughy and cooked throughout. (it'll crack up when chewed where I get it. I'm not going to eat the whole piece anyway. ....but I'm having pizza. and some chinese for lunch, and a small homemade burger for dinner...(on a dinner roll) It's my reward to myself for lasting for the last month and a half. If I pay for it, so be it, but it's what I have planned on the agenda. ...but i appreciate the advice.

I don't even have a week, just one more day.

...as the "food day" draws nearer and nearer, I find myself craving food more and more. Not soup, but food that you can actually eat. I got some anesthetic for my tooth earlier, (see Lap Band possible side effect thread) I chewed up a bunch of chips and spit 'em out.... ...like maybe two handfuls, one at a time. I want a pizza, chinese, and a hamburger all at the same time haha. Chinepizzburger

ironically, the wisdom tooth that is growing is the one with a top with it....but I've confirmed it tonight, I can touch my wisdom tooth with my top, before my mouth is closed now. I bought some anbisol and hopefully that will help me get thru it to either push it back down, or be able to eat on the other side.

If you've lost and gained large amounts of weight over the course of your life, start as soon as possible. I only had to lose 19lbs, but because I was a yo-yo loser, my liver was still huge. If this description fits you, start early, and stay off carbs completely.

You're given a bolice of antibiotics thru your IV before surgery, I'm not sure what it is, but I don't think it's in the penicillin family....but be sure to check and ask about that with Carolyn, and she'll get you to the person you need to speak with. They're very thorough.

Now, please don't take this as the end-all of medical advice. While I've had some degree of medical proficiency, and have studied in the medical field, I'm not a doctor, nurse, scientist, or "other". The good news is, this isn't related to the device itself, and you should have no cause for alarm. That being said, I ran into some troubles, and I think I'm going to have to stay on liquids for a while. (beyond the 21 days) Wisdom teeth are a strange tooth, indeed. They grow in strange ways, their roots grow in weird shapes, (making late in life extractions difficult), and they don't always stop growing. However, when you use them, (i.e. eat solid food) all the time, they are restrained to their usual location in the back of your mouth, provided they have something against them (like another wisdom tooth) to keep them from growing. (The roots of your wisdom teeth keep growing) On the liquid phase of the diet you're not chewing....at all. I still have all my wisdom teeth. (only 3, but that's what I was born with)..my back right wisdom tooth has grown a bit, so that now when I try to chew, I get an intense pressure pain. At first I thought it was cracked, but after closer inspection, it seems to have grown by a millimeter or two from the lower mandible, thus causing an uneven bite, on the grinding plane of my molar bridge. So, I'm either going to have to hope that I can apply pressure to it, (by slowly biting on something, which I can tolerate...chewing is right out), or have it pulled. Just a note for those of you who might still have your wisdom teeth.

To revise: Gas Strips: GasX has them, and someone mentioned Bean-o. But I'm a guy, I like to burp and fart. haha....but post-op, and for a couple days, they're not a bad idea. If you're unlucky like me, the CO2 will settle in your teeth, and hurt like hell for a week. juices for liquid phase should be clear the first week. (i.e. white grape, apple) fibre, never had to use it. Crystal light, remember that aspartame reduces your ability to feel full, the method of action is blocking either transmitters or receptoprs (they're not sure which), that tell your brain you're full.) Liquid vitamins, they're actually pretty nasty. Sublingual B vitamins are recommended for sure, Centrum taste like crap but they're palatable..(I don't look forward to it.)

I've yet to use any fiber. I had got some fiber capsules, but the I realized, those may not be what they were talking about, and haven't used them....it's been all liquids.