snowbird

Oh, girl, you were dreaming!

Yeah, well, Dad and I just finished up your peach pie ice cream today. Don't leave that stuff around here!! But it WAS yummy. Dad's going down for a fill tomorrow, so that may have been his last splurge for a while.

Kim, you're more than halfway to your goal! Congratulations. Your photo looks great. We are up in Washington now, and I have a really slow internet connection, so I don't post as often. Also, as time goes on I get a little less obsessive-compulsive about this journey, and there are so many others that post answers to questions that often they have already said what I was going to say. It is an amazing realization that I am at the goal my doctor set for me, and if I never lost another pound I would be fine. Actually, if I lost ONE more pound I am no longer overweight according to the BMI charts--I would be NORMAL!!! Well, at least as far as my weight goes.

Thanks! And strangely enough, I lost two pounds this past week. My neighbor went crabbing this weekend and caught more than she could use, so she gave me three Dungeness crabs yesterday. I am sitting here eating fresh crab salad in a lettuce wrap. Missing good food? Not me!

I have the smaller 4 cc band. I have had two fills at OCC, and do not need another. My husband, banded the same day, has the 10 cc VG band. He has had four fills and still has little restriction. All of our fills have been at OCC, but he is going to a local fill center next week for his fifth fill. Lately all the OCC doctors have been doing for him is telling him he should eat less, which is not particularly helpful. I'm usually pretty rah rah OCC, but their fills have not worked for him. He has only lost 30 lb since his surgery last October, and has been riding his bike 20 miles a day to do that.

What you may not realize at this point in your band journey is that when you approach your weight goal, you can start eating somewhat closer to "normal." I hosted the holiday barbecue this past weekend and had all the usual dishes there for the family, even though there are four bandsters among us. We ate pretty much whatever we wanted (except for my daughter, who just had a fill) but in very small portions. Over the weekend I had sour cream lemon pie (sugar-free), cheesecake, ice cream, cookies, barbecued ribs, baked beans, potato salad, etc . . . but in small portions. I don't keep these foods around the house normally and may not have them for another several months, but I could get a taste and everything tasted much better than it used to, because they were treats rather than my usual diet. I still know I can't buy cookies or ice cream and keep them around the house, because I would eat them all. But I can have a cookie and a small scoop of ice cream when I am in the middle of a party, and it doesn't ruin anything.

I live outside Surprise for half of the year. Welcome. I'm headed back down next week to check on my mom. There is another forum called lapbandtalk.com that has a lot of Arizona contributors and a state by state forum for bandsters from the same geographical area. The Arizona group occasionally get together for lunches too.

Interesting. They did say it was a test area. I just wondered why someone would be asking the doctors how many pairs of undies to take to the clinic?! Sorry, just being cute.

Ummmm.....do we all understand that this section was supposed to be for questions we wanted to ask the OCC doctors, not each other? It seems that its purpose has been thwarted, and I may be as guilty as anyone else, since I think I have posted replies here also. I think it would be really nice to be able to get online answers from the surgeons for questions and problems many of us may have.

Hi, Phoenix. Glad to see you here. Congratulations on sticking with your liquid diet; it will make those solids all the sweeter when you can eat them "legally!"

This is probably a question to ask your surgeon, not us. We all love answering things about our experiences, but anything that is about whether something could potentially cause damage after surgery should be asked of your doctor. Otherwise, you will get replies about what we did and didn't do when you really need a professional opinion. Good luck on your surgery and the beginning of a new and great phase of your life!

I was never told to avoid straws, and I have never had difficulty with them. Guess we are all different, as said before.

You might want to check out lapbandtalk.com. They have a forum for state by state support groups under the heading USA Support Groups and there are a number of people that check it and get their fills in Arizona. There are also a number of people there who drive to Mexicali and get fills with Dr. Aceves. Much shorter than driving to Tijuana, which is actually what we usually do.

Kimmy, you may just surprise yourself! If you had told me I could be a size 6 a few months ago, I would have thought you were dreaming. But I went shopping for my new summer shorts a couple weeks ago, and the 8's were TOO BIG!!!

One more comment on this: I had my teeth cleaned and the Zoom treatment done when my husband went in for a fill. My teeth were pretty badly stained, so she applied the treatment solution four times and it took over 2 hours. I would definitely NOT recommend having this done at the same time of surgery--it is just too much to go through right after surgery. Also, you can't have coffee, tea, red fruit juice, or anything that can restain your teeth for 3 WEEKS after the treatment. The last thing you need right after surgery is further restrictions on what fluids you can drink. The treatment itself worked well and your teeth continue to whiten for three weeks afterwards. I'm pleased with it, but it really was a bit of an ordeal.

You really need to get this checked out. At the very least you are way too tight. You are never supposed to be so restrictedt that you cannot eat solid food. The band is supposed to restrict you to the point that you must eat solids slowly and you are unable to eat large portions. You should always be able to get solids down if you chew well. I have 1.9 in a 4 cc band. I am able to eat chicken, steak, shrimp, and many vegetables (not the super fibrous ones unless cooked very thoroughly). I cannot eat foods that become gummy in the stomach like pasta and bread, but they have little nutrition anyway and should not be eaten by bandsters. You may have suffered a slip or even have eroded. I'm not trying to scare you but you should have it checked out. It will at least give you peace of mind, and may save your band or your health. Being too tight is always tempting, since it often results in good weight loss, although not always. However, it is never healthy for you or your band.Please take care of yourself!

Please watch Dr. Ortiz's youtube video, posted at the bottom section of the main forum page, under Doctor's Corner--Answers. It isn't that you are swollen; it is that the band has just been stitched into the outside of your stomach, and the last thing you want to do is make your stomach expand and contract and move so the stitches tear loose. You won't necessarily feel the damage you are doing, but you are risking slippage and other complications.

Hi, Hanna. I would love to meet you too. Right now I am completely beat; we just got to Birch Bay and spent the afternoon moving our patio furniture and some of my mom's stuff out and getting unpacked. Our motorhome's transmission went out in downtown Portland on Saturday, so we had to limp to Clynn's house in Gig Harbor and spend a couple of days there. We got the RV into the shop yesterday, but they can't fix in for several days, so we had to cram all of our stuff into our little car and truck on home to Birch Bay this afternoon. Anyway, I have just spent over a week on the road up from Phoenix, so the further north we can meet the better for me. Anyway, I'll let you gals figure out a time and place and I'll be there. Send me a pm so it shows up in my email, because life is pretty hectic here right now.

Now, come on, Linda. We all know it NEVER gets hot in Pt. Roberts. I just drove up to Gig Harbor from Arizona, and it is freaking FREEZING here!

Diane and Val, What time are you scheduled for fills? I can meet you anywhere north of Arlington too, since we live in Birch Bay. Chris

Next Thursday? We are on the road from Arizona via Tijuana right now, but I think I can make it. Give me a time and place, and I'll try to be there. You can pm me if you want.

Well, I was all ready to say I could make it until you changed it back to July 5. That's a big holiday weekend for our family, so I won't be there. Maybe another time.

You realize, or course, that everything you just bought will be too big in another month. But it sure is fun, isn't it!

Really, the only reason I like to get a fluoro with a fill is because it gives the doctors a chance to visually check the band position and note any obvious problems. The fill itself doesn't really require it, and from my experience, watching the fluids go down with fluoro to check your tightness isn't any more exact than just going my how it feels to you. I had fluoro with my second fill at OCC and the doctor thought I was fine. I went out in the waiting room and sat for a couple of minutes waiting for my husband, and then asked to go back in because I could tell it was going to be too tight. Even after taking out .2 cc I spent the next two months really too tight and had to be very careful. I think if I had had a blind fill I could have done just as well. I do like to go in every six months or so for a fluoro just to see how things are. You could probably stretch that out to every year if you had someone reliable doing blind fills. Just my opinion.

Are you thirsty at meals, or is your mouth dry? those two aren't the same. Try to drink a glass of water or crystal lite or something before your meal; that should take care of the thirst issue. If your mouth is really dry, take a small sip of water once or twice during the meal only, like half a mouthful. This is no different from eating food with a sauce, and definitely lower in calories. Don't drink several swallows, just a half mouthful, and only onced or twice during the meal. Mostly it comes down to deciding that you are worth the moment of denying yourself the temporary pleasure of the things you shouldn't eat. It takes a while to teach yourself that lesson. When I drive by a fast food place or ice cream joint, I don't tell myself I can't have that; I tell myself I can have it, but I would rather look at the scales and see the pounds come off. It's a choice I make.