cutieKel

Hello both of you. I am glad to hear that you are both doing well. I am down 10 lbs now and I am doing great. I haven't had too much pain, just some discomfort where my port is. I am however getting really sick of liquids and yogurt.

I did the same and fianlly asked someone when I was being banded. The answer was WalMart and sure enough I went there when I got home and found them there. Now I have both and ended up liking the chewable better. The strips just didn't disolve quick enough for me.

I used the SlimFast Optima it tasted good and actually made me full.

Hi Jas, Glad to hear that you made the drive home ok and that your husband and kids are helping you out.

Whew, banded on the 13th and boy was Dr. Ortiz busy that day, I think there were a total of 6 of us. Well I am post op of 3 days now and I am feeling pretty good. I seem to be able to tolerate any clear liquids. My friend brought me some wonton soup from PF Changs and the broth was wonderful. I don't have any pain where my incisions are but down about an inch down from my port incision there is a bit of soreness. Is that common? I would love to hear from the others that were banded that day, how are you doing?

First of all, let me say congratulations on your weight loss. 73lbs is wonderful in two months. I have not had the surgery yet however, I do know that a common issue with people that are over weight is a hormone imbalance. Sometimes menstral cycles are even affected. It could be, that your hormones are now working and maybe that is contributing to your acne. Have you consulted your primary care physician or a dematologist?

Lynn, Good to hear you are doing well. My surgery is on Thursday moved up from Friday. I am starting to get a bit nervous. I am glad to hear your progress. Please keep us posted. I will post as soon as I am home.

So what do you do about antibotics? Those are in capsules usually? They can usually be opened but that seems a bit odd.

I am scheduled to be banded on 4/14 and I am wondering if I will ever be able to take pills ever again? I have looked on the many discussion websites and have never seen this addressed. Take for instance antibiotics, birth control, or another prescription medication. Can anyone address this?

Thanks for the information Julia. I am scheduled to be banded on the 14th of this month and it is nice to hear from others that have done it. Please keep up updated.

Seawright, When you go under the topic heading like Surgery Discussion there is a button to click on the top right area of the screen that states Newtopic. If you click that a new thread will be created. I hope that helps. Kelli

Good luck Lynn, I am being banded a week from tomorrow so I am looking forward to hearing about your experiences. My thoughts will be with you tomorrow.

Hi Lynn, I have not seen the hotel but you can go online and look at the rooms @ www.hotel-lucerna.com. I have heard from a couple people that had the surgry a few weeks ago that the hotel is nice. I however am not scheduled for surgery until 4/14. However with the way that Dr. Ortiz's new surgery center looks, I can't imagine that he would put his patients in a dump. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Good luck Kelli

Are you getting it done by Dr. Ortiz? If so, I bet we will run into each other while recovering. I have to tell you that since I live about 1 1/2 hours from TJ, I went down and toured the facilities. They were beautiful and everyone was so nice. Dr. Ortiz was so friendly and answered all of the questions I had. Good luck to the others, you will be banded in just a few days!!!!!!! You will have to keep us all posted as to how it went.

Tina, I have friends that thought the same thing too when I told them I was going to Mexico to have my surgery. However, I took one of my toughest critics with me to meet Dr. Ortiz and she was so impressed. She works in the medical field so she has really high standards. Needless to say, she told me that it was one of the nicest facilites she has seen. As well, she thought that Dr. Ortiz was so nice and answered all her quesitons honestly. I feel extremely comfortable with having my surgery there. I am going to Europe for 3 weeks about 10 weeks after my surgery. I am going to try to get a fill at 6 weeks in order to give me enough time to adjust to it. However, Dr. Ortiz would be your best bet to answer that quesiton.

I am glad you are going to call Dr. Ortiz. That really isn't something that you should just live with. If there is a problem then you need to take care of it.

I know that it is quite a bit of money and there is really no easy way to pay for it. I kept waiting for a money tree to grow up in my backyard but no luck. There are a couple ways. You can refinance your house, save up, put it on a credit card or of course wait for that money tree.

Have you contacted your doctor to see if this is normal or common? I am guessing this did not happen with your first fill... How long ago did you have your fill?

I have set a surgery date with Dr. Ortiz for April 14th. Is there anyone else that is going to have theirs around the same time with Dr. Ortiz? I have to say that I am getting so excited and wish I could go sooner but my schedule will not permit.

Go to www.fillcenterusa.com It is my understanding that Dr Ortiz and two other doctors are puting this together. It allows you to find a doctor in other states that will do the fills for MX patients. It looks like right now they have about 6 states in which there are doctors willing to do the fills. It is however my understanding that it is new and they are working on getting more physicians on it.

Thanks, I guess the slow and steady win the race. 52lbs in a year would work for me.

I am currently looking into being banded. However, I have noticed on other suport websites that there seems to be a great number of people that have been banded for a year or more and have only lost a small amount of weight. Is this normal? Thanks