Clynn

Do you feel ill or just worried? If you're not experiencing any symptoms or discomforts, you're fine. Just sip don't chug. The 1/2 cup at a time is several times a day, not per meal.

Bad advice abounds on the internet, and as long as doctors have been giving instructions people have been ignoring them.

Your symptoms are not normal and you should get in touch with the doctor who did your surgery for advice and possibly follow-up care.

While hair thinning is not an uncommon sign of protein deficiency, chills, headaches, and body aches are often signs of infection. It's best to call the doctor and get checked out.

Your symptoms sound quite serious and may or may not be band related. Go back to your doctor who diagnosed the sinus infection. Your infection may have come back or moved to another part of your body.

As with any email you receive from someone you don't know, be wary of any links to outside sites both in posts and in pm's. They could send you anywhere - porn, viruses, or sites designed to steal your passwords or credit card numbers. We do what we can to protect you but sometimes it comes down to you and your best judgment. Remember that not everyone on the internet have your best interests at heart.

If you need moderator help the best thing to do is pm me or Dolittle. That sends us an email alerting us quickly that our attention is required somewhere. The account sending the porn messages has been deleted and their IP address has been banned. However, like WillT says, with spam you've got to run as fast as you can to stay exactly where you are.

As with any email you receive from someone you don't know, be wary of any links to outside sites both in posts and in pm's. They could send you anywhere - porn, viruses, or sites designed to steal your passwords or credit card numbers. We do what we can to protect you but sometimes it comes down to you and your best judgment. Remember that not everyone on the internet have your best interests at heart.

I don't see that as an option in the control section. You may have to pm chad and have him change it behind the scenes. Keep in mind once you've changed your name then as far as most of the forum is concerned you are a new person since that's the primary way people recognize each other.

Sounds like you're jumping the gun a bit. While vomiting is a sign of a slipped band the band is fickle and sometimes can just decide to tighten. I had that happen to me a month or two ago. Getting some saline removed took care of it instantly. You've had a lot of fill and so you have more room to work with as far as loosening it down to a comfortable level again.

If it is slipped then depending on the type of slip they can treat it with completely deflating your band or removal, however from what you said I don't think that's the case and you'll be fine with an unfill. However the sooner you can get in to have that happen the better as something like this can lead to a slip. Have you told your doctor it's an urgent situation? My doctor could see me this afternoon to have me unfilled if it was serious. I'm surprised they'd make you wait until Monday.

Where are you looking at? Amazon's got it in stock.

http://www.amazon.com/Lap-Band-Life-Ariel-...8396&sr=8-1

Sounds like it's time to go back to basics. Are you eating well and exercising?

Everything looks the same to me as it always did. Have you been looking through the settings in your profile lately? What web browser are you using?

You have sinned and put yourself and your band in danger. If you're not experiencing any ill effects then you probably haven't caused any damage . . .this time. Your doctor's orders are there for a reason. Your stomach needs time to heal and the movements caused by eating solids at this point can cause a slip as your band has not fully settled in. People can and have lost their bands by not following their post-op diets. Not to mention that if you can't control yourself when your health is immediately concerned how can you ever hope to practice self control when you're only trying to lose the weight?

If you are getting stuck all the time then your stomach is getting irritated and making things worse. Try being on liquids for a few days and give things a chance to settle down. If you're still unable to eat solids after the few days of liquids then you are probably too tight and should get some fill taken out. Being too tight is actually counter productive as your body will go into starvation mode and you will cease to lose and may even gain weight as well as it could cause a host of other medical problems.

If you cannot get liquids down then you are in an emergency situation and need to get fill taken out asap.

Sounds like you're doing fine to me. Wasn't the whole point of getting banded to feel fuller longer?

It depends how busy they are. I made my appointment about a month ahead of time, others have been able to get in sooner. You can give them a call and find out how soon you can get in. Mostly the lead time is driven by the patient being ready.

I went, though I showed up a few minutes late. It started out with Chef Laura talking about cooking for banded folk. She also catered the event and it was yummy. After that Dr Meeks from Bremerton, WA spent some time talking about various skin removal procedures for weight loss patients. He had lots of information regarding risk and recovery, as well as pictures for each of the procedures he talked about. Finally a lady whose name I don't remember from the Stillaguamish athletic club spoke about various exercises on the balance ball we could do for weight loss. She spent a good amount of time in the beginning talking about her own struggles with weight and how she lost 60 lbs before becoming a personal trainer.

All in all a nice evening.

Sounds like you have the larger band. If that's the case then it's going to take a few fills to hit your sweet spot. Call your fill doc and make another appointment.

Fill Management NW in Marysville now has a flouroscopy machine, so if something goes wrong they can have a peek and give you advice. You'll find lots of referrals for them around the forum. The place is Olympia is expensive and because of that I haven't been back since fill #3.

Are you looking for a general physician or are you looking for someone to do fills?

could it be your port?

That was my first thought if it's under the skin around your large incision.

If you poke around your stomach you can feel it but it sits under the skin and in all likeliness people won't even know it was there.

Your stomach may be swollen from irritation. You can try going on liquids for a few days and seeing if it settles down. Also stopping eating for 2-3 hours before you go to bed may help with your restriction in the morning. Don't let it go too far, my fiance just lost his band because it was too tight and slipped. Before he got it removed he had gotten quite thin and sick, actually fainting on the way to the hospital from dehydration and malnutrition.

Sounds like you clearly need some fill taken out. Why the hesitation?

Just had this forwarded to me and thought I should share it with all of you

"Due to my husbands decline in health, we will be working only 4 hours a day, twice a week and 2 Saturdays a month. I appreciate all your prayers and understanding at this difficult time. Be sure and leave your phone numbers or email addresses with Lisa when you schedule your appointment in case of emergent canceling of the schedule. If you are traveling a long distance, please email or call Lisa the day prior to your appointment to be sure we are in. Again, thank you for your understanding.

- Kitty Carmichael, ARNP"