Back to Band Business

So this is my second post of the day and by far more band relevant.
Over at Jen is Gonna Lose It she posted about a little rumor about the Realize band being recalled.
Ok.. I am on it Jen .. cause compliance is my thing and I jumped on the FDA website to validate it as a hoax.

But then (as you can tell) my mind started to wonder [do I have ADD.. who knows] and look into what FDA had posted on the Realize Band.

And Voila.. lots of good stuff in their (Endo) device application for FDA approval.
So as I was reading through their literature.. I came across a few morsels of info to share.
(Full Document is here)

The doc says that a 9cc fill is equivalent to 1.8 teaspoon of fluid.

One bit of interesting info was the preparation for band adjustments.
Here is what it states..

Preparing for an adjustment: You will need to have an empty stomach each time you have
a band adjustment. For this reason, you should not eat any soft or solid food for at least two hours before an adjustment.

I don't generally eat before an adjustment only because I usually have an 8:00 am appointment.. but just in case any of you were wondering..

Ok, the next piece of info I sought out was .. am I  on track with clinical expectations for weight loss.

So again, this link helped me validate that I am doing A OK (remember me complaining about being a slow loser)
On page 25 of the above hyperlinked document .. it indicates that the clinical trials reported at the 12 month post surgery that 224 (number of patients) had lost 40% of the excess weight loss, with the mean amount being 50 pounds with a BMI of 36.

Ok.. so lets break this down. 
What is % Excess Weight Loss
here is an excerpt that walks you through how to calculate..

When we conducted the clinical study, the FDA asked us to follow patient weight loss using a method called percent of excess weight loss (% EWL). This method takes actual weight loss and divides by ideal weight loss to get a percentage.

For example, suppose a woman is5'8" and weighs 300 pounds. At 5'8", her ideal weight is 154 pounds. So, her ideal weight loss is 300 minus 154 = 146 pounds. Now, suppose that she has lost 50 pounds since her gastric banding surgery. Her % EWL is 50/146 = 34 percent. If she loses all 146 pounds, then her % EWL is 100 percent. Your ideal weight is based on your height, and this chart can be found at http://www.realizeband.com/.

So I am doing fine, 50 lbs down with a % EWL is 55% with a BMI of  32.. I can live with that ..
What's more .. the clinical study really follwed their subjects for three years..so I am still early in my success cylce.
 
Alright.. gotta get back to work.