Clynn

hold up Clynn... a fiance!?!?! you can't leave us all hanging, what's the story?

Ok here's the story: Went in last April for a fill. I've lost quite a bit so the skin on my stomach is fairly loose and I have to bend backwards over the table in order to tighten things up or my port moves around and is difficult to hold still for the needle. While the needle's in my belly Robin casually asks me "Are you married? Let me tell you about my son . . " It was kind of a surreal conversation. My first thought afterwards was "May I can get free fills." My second thought was "Wait, if it doesn't work out I can't get fills here anymore." In the end I decided it was just too good of a how we met story to pass up so I gave him a call. Fast forward to Christmas Eve and he's proposing. We're getting married summer of next year.

I'm a happy customer. Walked in looking for a fill walked out with a fiance!

A trick I learned when I got braces is to concentrate on wiggling my toes. It helps take my mind off of what's going on elsewhere.

True but too much restriction = stuck daily. Slow down, chew thoroughly and listen carefully to your body when it's telling you things are going through the band quickly and take a break. Some foods you may not be able to eat while you're trying to lose the weight but that should not be an extensive list. For me it's pretty much bread and pasta. You should still be able to eat enough to reach about 1200 calories per day. If dispute your best efforts you're still getting stuck daily you may need to evaluate if it's time for an unfill.

Can I ask how long he had the symptoms before he had it removed?

I am about 20lbs from being at my goal and so I am sure I will take it out too.

Who took it out for him and how much did that cost?

I paid for my surgery and so if I have it done in the states, it's gonna COST and so I wonder how much it is at OCC.

He'd had some symptoms for a couple of months and the symptoms got progressivly worse before he was able to go back to his surgeon to have it removed. He was not banded by Dr Ortiz. If he'd gone in earlier they may have been able to repair it. He didn't have any permanent damage but I've heard cases where people have had their band cutting off the blood supply to their stomach and it becomes an er visit quickly. One lady on the forum even had to have some of her stomach removed because parts of it had died from lack of blood flow. A story was recently posted to the forum about a woman in the states who ignored her symptoms and died. You're taking your life into your hands if you ignore symptoms.

Sounds like the right type of situation. My fiance had a similar symptoms recently and it was caused by a slip. Since he's at goal he opted to have the band removed and felt loads better immediately. Contact who did your band and get an appointment to have it evaluated asap as dehydration and malnutrition is nothing to fool around with.

( ( ( ( ( ( ( can someboby please help me fill this out. I do not know how. Ido not want people to think i'm being just nosy.My member id is tseilhan. help! I!m new.

We're happy to help but you need to be more specific. What exactly are you trying to do?

Emergency rooms can be expensive and depending on where you live, could be a little scary as well. If you have insurance, is there a walk-in clinic or urgent care in your area you could go to? Can't speak for your insurance but mine treats it as a doctor's visit and just charges office visit copay of $25, as opposed to emergency room copay of $100. I've had good experience with those types of facilities. Today my gyno flipped me some "don't give a damn" attitude but a clinic bent over backwards to get me the help I needed. You just need to keep at it until you get some answers. Good luck.

Without Pm's how exactly would we do that? I dont know anyones email address. Maybe if there was somewhere we could put them, like on our profile. I have not checked to see if there is an option. I will check into that. Thanks

If you go to my profile, or anyone's for that matter, in the lower left hand corner there is an option to send an email. Course the person has to have entered their email into their profile beforehand, which indicates they actually want to be contacted privately.

Potential and current patients of Fill Management NW may be interested in this event next month. I intend to be there. I can say from experience that Laura's cooking is excellent. She's been banded for a few years and last I heard had lost about 250 lbs.

"Fill Management NW is having a NEW YEAR, NEW YOU dinner Saturday Feb

7th. We would like to invite you to come. Cost is $20 per person.

It will be catered by Laura Spafford from Le Garmache Catering in Port

Orchard. She will demonstrate bandster portions and cook bandster

food for us all to enjoy. Speakers include Dr. Meeks, a plastic

surgeon from Bremerton, Connie Foster, trainer, giving tips on those

hard to shape up spots we all want to get rid of, and testimonials

from several successful bandsters.

Time: 5-7pm Doors open at 4mp for clothing exchange set up.

Stillaguamish Pioneer Hall

20722 67th Ave NE

Arlington, WA 98223

call our scheduler at 425-512-4220 to save your spot. Setting is limited.

Robin Martin

Fill Management NW

www.northwestfills. com"

I feel I need to clear up a tiny misconception. Just because the moderators aren't posting, doesn't mean we're not involved in the site. I'm on here everyday there's a computer available to me. Mostly I'm reading new posts 2 or 3 times per day. However I don't post everyday or even every other day anymore, partly because I've answered just about every question out there multiple time already, partly because you guys all provide such great answers without me having to get involved, and partly because this has become a job now and not just for fun. I'll still step in if someone's having an urgent problem or if there's a topic in need of a mod's touch. If anyone needs to get in touch with me on a private matter they're more than welcome to email me.

I've been around for awhile and that's not one I've heard before. Give your surgeon a call and ask.

Happy New Year from all the moderators!

Does this happen with all solid foods or just a few? Do you notice a pattern with what you are eating when this happens? Some foods are just off the menu for bandsters but which foods cause problems will vary from person to person and the only real way to learn is through trial and error. The most common foods which cause problems are breads and pasta. Maybe a pattern with a time of day? Some people are more restricted in the morning after they wake up. If that's the case try stopping eating for an hour or two before you go to bed. Once you fall asleep your digestive system shuts down so anything in your stomach at the time will just sit there and cause irritation. It's also possible that your stomach is having continued irritation from vomiting and has not been allowed to heal before the next episode. Try going on liquids for a couple of days and see if this helps.

It's very important to note that if you can't get fluids down you need to contact a doctor asap as you can easily get dehydrated and become very sick very quickly. Also, do not get a fill until this has been resolved. A fill will only make the situation worse and there's few things in life more miserable than an overfilled band.

Also, you said when you stick to full solids you don't have that problem, which doesn't make sense. Do you mean full liquids?

It looks like two people responded to your Just Scheduled post yesterday. No one has yet responded to your Porterville, CA post probably because you were asking for a response from people meeting a specific criteria which no one meets right now. If you're having trouble viewing the replies to your other post let me know and I'm happy to walk you through it.

She got banned on 4/5 or got banded on 4/5? I don't recall anybody by that handle causing any trouble and we certainly wouldn't ban anybody that new without some warnings.

Any aches or discomforts after you eat are probably due to eating too fast or too much. It's called a soft stop and it's your body's way of telling you to stop eating before it REALLY tells you to stop eating in the form of a pb. However unless you're really working through it, continuing to eat and therefore irritating something I don't see how it can be related to the ongoing ache you're experiencing. The only thing I've experienced that was similar was when I would slouch and cause my loose skin to pull on my port. Proper posture while sitting stopped it pretty quickly.

Keep on Dr O or pm Lori to get an opinion. They're pretty busy down there but they should be able to get you an answer.

Ok I looked into it and apparently "Busy" is just the generic title Google Calendar puts into events with no title. Consider it the hours open and taking patients. I advised them that even putting something simple for the titles such as Open, or Fills would cause less confusion.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to state that OCC and Fill Management NW are in no way related to each other beyond the fact that they both "employ" me.

HOWDY CLYNN, GOOD TO SEE YOUR STILL TOGETHER

JUST A QUESTION ON THEIR CALENDAR, IN DEC I SEE OPEN THEN AN OPENING TIME BUT THEN IT SAYS "BUSY"

CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT "BUSY" FOR US SLOW PEOPLE LOL

Honestly I don't know. I set up the Google calender and showed them how to update it without getting me involved so they wouldn't have to wait on me to make changes. I believe Lissa updates it now. I'll drop Robin a note tomorrow and ask. Perhaps it is the hours they are open, or perhaps it is their busiest hours and an appointment is recommended. I'll find out and let you know.

I come from a computing background. So I find it difficult to trust websites that try to have me install components like the Microsoft Office component. (Chances are the page was made in Word, which is what causes some issues).

I would also update the page to deliver more trust for the patient. I learned so much as their office, but I couldn't see that they have experience until I met with them. I was going into this blind... and if I had not known of a friends success already, I probably would have left when I arrived to see the state of the building. I am sure it will look great soon, but this weekend it looked like something out of a horror movie. And with them moving, I am sure the new location will be better.

Things that could be included on the site to build that trust would include:

• More patient testimonals
  
• Success Photos (happy patients smiling with Kitty)
  
• Up to date information. Kitty's vacation info is still on there from a few weeks back
  
• A google map of the location
  
• A blog sharing some of Kitty and Robin's experiences. They have a wealth of knowledge, and sharing it would show this.
  

This is just my opinion though. If you compare it with many other sites, it lacks a level of polish and professionalism I would expect as a patient. Their actual service speaks otherwise... but new patients won't know that.

YMMV.

Taz.

Thanks much! If I get some time this week I'll work on a few of those. Robin and I are very close and I've kinda inherited the site but it is in need of an overhaul. Speaking of testimonials, mind if we use yours?

What was wrong with the quality of the website? What would you change to make it more appealing to people who had never been a patient or heard so much word of mouth?

If a guy is into you, he really won't care what's wrong with you. The corollary of that is that if he does care, then he really wasn't into you and it's good to know these things early rather than when you're too heavily invested in the relationship.

I've told lots and lots of people about my surgery and the only time anyone suggested I'd done something wrong was before the weight came off. After the results were tangible the response has always been overwhelmingly positive.

My port will ache when I've dropped alot of weight in a short period of time, like 5 pounds in a week or two. I always chalked it up to my skin being a bit looser and pulling on the port. I've found sitting with proper posture to be the best help. I keep a balance ball at work and use it for a chair when this happens. Once the skin on my belly firms up a bit it goes away.

Most people describe this sensation as a "soft stop." It's kind of your body's way of telling you to stop eating before it really tells you to stop eating in the form of a pb. There's many different ways people experience their soft stop, some have a shoulder ache and some get hiccups. It's nothing to be concerned about and you can learn to use it to your advantage.

Most people don't have restriction before their first fill, don't worry.