chopper

Not to be the bearer of bad news but I was told that you had to have your birth cert with you to cross the border or a passport. Happened to me once at the Canadian border by some foreign looking feller. Thought it was kind of ironic. He really did give me a hard time about it and threatened to put me in a little room with a swinging light bulb. Doh... Karen and determination typed faster than me.

That made me laugh. Thanks Lisa, I'm thinking the 40's are now considered the "One foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel era! Doh, not really, my folks are from the 30's and I hope they are around for a long time. Thanks for your support. Not quite a super hero yet but I will keep trying

Hello Everyone, First let me say I think I am addicted to this forum. Can't seem to let a day go by without logging in. My wife and I were banded on Dec. 17th by Dr Ortiz and Dr Martinez. It truly was a great experience and I wish I would have done it years ago. I never have had any REAL pain or nausea and continue to do well. I started out at 284# pre op and weighed in this morning at 253. I lost 15lbs pre op and have lost 16 more since the surgery and this is day 19 post op. :good3: I of course wish I could lose it all overnight and be on maintenance tomorrow but we all know it just doesn't work that way. It takes time to put it on and it takes time to take it off. I am diabetic and was on metformin and glipizide before the pre op diet. About 12 days into the pre op diet my sugar levels were around 82 in the morning and Dr Jimenez had me stop taking the glipizide. The day after surgery I stopped taking the metformin and my sugar levels have been around 110. They do seem to be creeping up on me as I was at 122 this am. Must be that danged frozen yogurt. I was on high blood pressure medicine also and have been able to cut that in about 1/3 also. > I feel a lot better too. My wife ended up getting fitted with the 4cc band. She had a lot of nausea form the begining and starting around day four post op she started vomiting up large amounts of gas and air. She ended up getting in contact with Dr Martinez on the following Monday which was in the morning of day 7 and he had her start adding protein shakes to her diet. He said some people just don't do well with the broth and suggested she do the shakes along with having me pound on her back when she felt nauseaus. It was a scary few days and I felt sure she would slip her band or worse yet have to make another trip back to TJ to get checked out but when she started the shakes it almost all got better right away. As of yesterday she is down 24 lbs form when she started pre op. So all is well with us now and we are looking forward to a healthier and exciting new year. I feel like this surgery has saved my life and am thankful for the OCC, this board and all of you for sharing. Chris

Thanks Pammie !! Probably wont need to see them until around mid march. Just hoping they dont tire of the McCleary thing before that. Chris

I just checked my card and it does not say how much it will hold. It does however say it is a VG band and has the serial number. I'm 99 percent positive it is the 10cc band. I am a guy and was told that most men end up getting the larger band but not always. Was also told it depended on how much of the F word was around your stomach. My wife got the smaller band and had a real hard time with swelling and restriction days 4 and 5 post op. Thought she wasn't going to make it for awhile (vomiting)but she is fine since day 6.

I read on NW fill site that they go to McCleary once a month so that will make it alot easier for me. I think I remember reading that if you went to someone else then they wouldn't touch you. I hope that is wrong as my wife and I plan to go back to the OCC for our first fills to make sure everything is ok and for the peace of mind. Bit more expensive but I could go to Revolucion Ave again. YIPEE !!

Well you dont really have much to offer us then do you. Guess if no one uses this site that would even be alot less maintenance huh. Happy friggin new year! Added in edit, Sorry. I posted this when I was starting my TOM. Oh wait I'm a guy. DOH!! I was just upset we lost the PM's as it was a way for me to communicate with a few others and I looked forward to logging in to see if there were any messages. I'm sure this site will still be a wealth of information for all especially newbies like myself once they are gone.

From what I have read it appears you may be too tight after your last fill. My wife and I had surgery last Wednesday and she started experiencing an exreme amount of gas on day 3 even started vomiting up large amounts of air. She talked to the Dr and he allowed her to have some Tomato soup and a protein drink on day 6. We also started pounding on her back and she slept in the recliner last nite and is feeling much better today. It was a scary couple of days however.

FLGirl-- My wife isn't doing quite as well as I have been. She is alot more gassy with some pain in her back. I don't know if it's because I got the bigger band (VG) or her body is just having a harder time relieving itself of the extra gas. She seems to have it coming out of the north end while I am cursed or blessed to have it coming out of the south. They say it's important for us not to compare our recoveries with others but I know it's hard to do. I am glad to hear you are doing so well on your weight loss so far and since youre excercising I'm sure you will do well. Well it's time to head for the airport so I wish all of you the best. Chris

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have supported me thus far on my journey. It has really helped me. Tomorrow I will be leaving the Lucerna and travelling up to the great white Washington north. If you plan to come down here soon, make sure to bring a jacket. It's been fairly chilly since we've been here. My experience this far has been great. I'm a little hungry but the broth seems to help subside the hunger. It also seems to help with the gas pains. =D> Chris

Coming to you from the hotel Lucerna My wife and I showed up at the OCC clinic yesterday around 9am and had our pre-op tests which went well so' they asked we would like to have the surgery then instead of wait till tomorrow. We figured what the heck "Lets Get er Done" Couple of "Tequla pills" or so they called them and after a quick chat with the Dr.s we were ready. My wife went first and I just barely remember them saying that she had done well and it was my turn. I was pretty much out of it even before I got into the OR so it did"nt take long before it was lights out.l My wife generally had a very hard time coming out of anesthesia but experienced no difficulty whatsoever. I took me awhile to come out of the anesthesia. Was kinda groggy for a few hours. Drifted in and out. I am glad to say we are both doing very well. No real pain to speak of. Little bit of gas pain from time time but to help combat that we caught a cab over to Revolution Ave and did some shopping. Heck I didnt even make it past the first 7 or 8 shops before I ran out of money. I did get a nice piece of stained glass and bought some birthstone earrings for the mrs. The vendors over there are kinda pushy but it was still fun. I would also like to add as everyone else has that the staff at the OCC is awesome and very nice. Especially liked Dr. Miranda and Yose and Carmalita. Dr. Ortiz and Dr Martinez are both extremely knowledgeable and have really confident personalities. I got to meet KatieLady (Hi Katy) amoung others which was nice as well. There was a tall red haired gal there that I thought might have been JazzyJude but I was too chicken to ask. Thats all for now. Chris

That reminds me of a time I was in Algadones (I think) across the border from Yuma anyways and there was these 2 young gentlemen outside of a pharmacy trying to solicit my Dad to go inside. They were telling him that they had Viagra and it was better than Wal mart. Ha Ha... cracked me up. You just gotta ignore them and keep walking kinda like the stripper card pushers in Vegas. Chris

Congrats!!! Thank you for the weather update!!! My wife and I are going down on Weds for surgery on Thursday and I had been wondering how cold it had been. Did you guys make it to Revoulution Ave for some shopping?

Just wanted to say hello to everyone. Been lurking here for 2 or 3 years and finally decided and had the means to get this done. My wife and I are both going to be banded on the 18th with Dr O. Too chicken to do it by myself and besides she needs it worse than I do. LOL Looking forward to the journey and sharing it with you all from time to time. Hope everyone got to spend some time with their families over the holiday and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Chris