MamaMichelle

Lol, what I meant was that airfare always goes UP if your flight is less than 2 weeks away... So as of right now the southwest flights from Vegas to San Diego in the next two weeks are between $99-$159 each. The flights that are later than 2 weeks from now (flights from the 19th and beyond) are $39-$59 each way so while the difference isn't HUGE as of right now I am thinking it makes more $en$e to book my fill/flight for sometime after the 19th for those of us who haven't made airline arrangements yet! I did hear one time on some travel program or website that if you are using an online service like Hotwire/Orbitz/Priceline to book late in the evening / early in the morning, because most airlines release their discounted flights after 2am (not sure what time zone that is in, it may depend on where the home base of the airline is) I would assume this also applies to booking directly with the airline carrier using their online site (like delta.com, aa.com or whatever)... I'll look for the article to see if I can get more specific!

I found this online, and I think it's something that EVERY bandster needs to read, it is a real-world account of what to expect and what life with the lap band will be like. It's called The Rules of the Road By Robin McCoy and while it's pretty long and some of what she says may be a conflicting opinion to what you have heard before but it is still an amazing guideline and I think it is something that every bandster should read... The Rules of the Road By Robin McCoy Robin McCoy was banded on February 3,2004. She has reached her weight loss goal of 110 pounds. When you begin the decision making process to have Weight Loss Surgery (WLS), and specifically LapBand Surgery, it is vital that you fully understand the changes you must make in your lifestyle. WLS is never the magic pill. It is something that you must work at to be successful. There are several rules and circumstances that a "Bandster" must follow and understand to see success and have a high quality banded life. Drinking Before and After Meals By far this is one of the most important things to learn and is vital to your weight loss success. It is also one of the most challenging. You should stop drinking all liquids at least 30 minutes before your meal. This allows all that is in your pouch to drain through to the lower stomach. Therefore your pouch is empty when you eat allowing the food to fill you up properly. During your meal you want to forgo all beverages. This is one of the hardest habits to break. Drinking during your meal simply flushes the food through your band and the band is unable to function properly. For most of us we are used to having 2, 3 or even 4 glasses of a beverage with our meals. Servers in restaurants, trained to keep us happy, will keep our beverage full throughout our meal. As bandsters we need to stand up for ourselves and ignore the strange looks we get when we say, "Nothing to drink for me." You must also not drink for an hour after a meal. The main reason is the same as drinking during your meal. Liquids wash the food through the band defeating its purpose. Another reason not to drink after a meal is if your pouch is full the beverage might not have anywhere to go…except backwards resulting in a spit-up. Suffice it to say that food and liquids making a return visit is not satisfying. Start practicing this new behavior today. Start at your next meal. This will get you ahead of the game and help your success instrumentally. Smaller Bites. More Chewing. Slower Eating. If you watch most Americans eat, including myself pre-band, we don't chew our food, heck we barely taste it. In my case a big bite, 4 cursory chews, and down it went. The next thing you need to start getting your mind around and practicing is what a Bandster Bite is. At your next meal look at your bite size. Look at the amount of food on your fork and remember it. Now, cut that bite in half. This is your bite size after surgery. Now, cut that bite in half. This is the size of your bite after your first fill or adjustment. Each fill your bite size will get smaller until each bit is as if for a toddler. The reason for this is so the bite can be chewed completely to a liquid before swallowing. This brings us to the next point, chewing. It is very important that your food is completely chewed. Before you swallow you want to make sure the food is a liquid. As you progress through this journey the opening from your pouch to the lower stomach will be getting smaller. Therefore you need to chew more thoroughly. If a piece of food is too big to go through the stoma, or opening, it will get "stuck". Let us just say it is painful and you do not want this. Finally with the smaller bites and the more thorough chewing comes the inevitable slower eating. Just slow down. If you eat too fast the bites get too big, you don't chew properly and we are back to the food being stuck. Over a year in and I still find myself falling into this trap. We get excited, chatting with friends and just forget. The quicker you create these habits the happier you will be in your banded life. A Bandster's Eating Order As a bandster you have a specific order in which to eat your food. It is important that we get enough protein in our diet to keep our bodies moving properly. Therefore, you will need to make sure you are eating your protein first. As WLS patients we need 40-60 grams of protein every day. We can get this in a variety of ways. Protein shakes, cheese, fish, beef, chicken, soy. The challenge comes when we can only tolerate certain foods. Also, it is important that we get as much "hard" protein (chicken, beef, and fish) as possible. We shouldn't get it all from protein shakes and cheese. When we sit down to a meal we need to eat our protein food first, vegetables second, and carbohydrates/starches last if there is room. Proteins last longer in the pouch and take longer to process through the band allowing us to feel full sooner and maintaining our satiety longer. As it turns out hard proteins are sometimes the most difficult to work with for a Bandster. The hard proteins need to be more moist, more tender and chewed more completely than any other type of food. Generally, but not exclusively, the proteins are the foods that get stuck the most and cause spit ups. The reason for this is simple. The bite isn't small enough and/or we haven't chewed it to a liquid before swallowing. For the record…Beef is generally the most difficult for bandsters. Beef is one of the most difficult foods for humans to digest. It can take several days for a piece of steak to actually work it's way through the digestive track. And that's on an unbanded person! So, if you eat a piece of steak and you don't chew it up completely, which is difficult as steak is so fibrous, it can sit in your pouch for an extended about of time and your stomach acids are not there to help break it down. Eventually, this piece of food can fall over your stoma and get stuck. This piece of steak that you ate two days ago can still be in your pouch and you can still spit it up at this late date. Remember each and every person is different so you will have to test your own waters. I'm not here to tell you what to eat or what not to eat. Some Bandsters have no trouble with beef whatsoever; others won't go near it. Trust me you will figure out what you can tolerate and what you can't. Trust me too when I say these things change. One day ground beef is fine and the next you realize it isn't any longer. You must be willing and able to adapt to sudden changes. The Constant Quest for Restriction; Not enough vs. too much Restriction. No one can really describe it but everyone wants it. You have restriction when your band is adjusted to the point where you can eat 5-10 bites of well-chewed food and you are full. When this happens you have what is called good restriction. You are too loose, or open, if you don't feel full after just a few bites. You are able to eat more on a consistent basis than before. Maybe your weight loss has slowed or stopped. This is when it is time for a fill, or adjustment, in your band. You are too tight when you can eat very little solid food or worse—none at all. If you are so tight that only liquids go through your band or you are spitting up too often this is too tight. If you can't keep liquids down this is a medical issue and you must get some removed. You run the risk of becoming dehydrated. Being too tight is not a good thing! Not only are you not getting the nutrition your body needs to function properly but it can also bring on a slippage in your band. If this happens you will require minor surgery to repair it. Now that you know a little about what restriction is, let's get a little deeper. There are three points to learn: 1. The first thing to understand is that every banded person feels restriction differently. So to compare yourself to others is difficult. 2. Also the amount of fluid in the band and the stomach's reaction, or restriction, to it is a varied as the Bandsters reading this now. Everyone's stomach is a different size and reacts to the band differently. It is fine to compare fluid levels but don't get too caught up in "I have this and they have that". 3. Finally, your level of restriction can change day to day. It can change meal to meal in some cases. You are now asking, "How in the heck do I deal with that?" My answer is trial and error and learning about your band. A Bandster's Restriction Journey Let us go back to the beginning. Immediately after surgery you will feel restriction. The surgeon usually doesn't put any fluid in your band during the surgery. The restriction you feel is the swelling of your stomach and it's adjustment to the band that has suddenly been wrapped around it. You won't get your first fill until 4-6 weeks after surgery. You will be on clear liquids and they will fill you up quickly for the first few days. Then they will stop filling you up you will begin to feel hungry. About this time you will be allowed to eat mushy foods like mashed potatoes, creamy soups, etc. You will find that you eat just a few bites and you are full. This is great! Who knew a 1/2 of a can of soup would be enough? This is going to be a piece of cake. It isn't going to last. Shortly this won't satisfy and you will be moving on to solid food. That feeling of restriction comes back. A slice of turkey and you are stuffed! This doesn't last either. At about 4 weeks, sometimes earlier, you will start to feel hunger again. You feel like you are eating everything. Your weight loss has slowed or stopped. You start to freak out. "Where is my restriction?!" you cry. This is a difficult time but one that every Bandster gets through. Just be patient and let yourself finish the healing process. Watch what you eat and know that you are not eating anywhere near what you were pre-band. The unfilled band supplies a certain amount of restriction and you won't hurt your progress. Your first fill will bring you back to the restriction point right after surgery. You will eat a few bites and feel full. You will start losing weight pretty quickly. You want to make sure you are eating your protein first, vegetables second and any starches last. This will ensure satiety. This fill will usually last several weeks. Then it starts to loosen up. Your second fill is the one that usually kicks a Bandster in the butt. This is where they learn what not chewing thoroughly and taking bites that are too large can do. And so it goes. Some Bandsters need one fill others need more. I had 4 over the course of the first year. I heard of one woman that lost 80 pounds on her first fill. This is why I stress not comparing yourself to your banded friends. It brings on frustration and we have spent enough time in our lives comparing ourselves to others. Now is the time to stop. I don't know if this satisfies your curiosity of what restriction is or what you are to do with it. I do hope you understand that everyone is different and it is a learning process. You will learn what it feels like for you to have good restriction and when your band is talking to you. Stress and the Band One of the largest environmental factors that make our band feel tighter is stress. I never truly understood what Bandsters were talking about when they said stress was tightening their band. That is until I started the process of buying a house. The stress of the pending inspection and what they might find had my band so tight I was barely eating. My band was so tight I cancelled my fill appointment. Let me say right now that I learned from this experience and you need to make sure you are getting the right vitamins in to ensure your health. I wasn't in any danger but I was very tired and was bruising like crazy! Well, the inspection went well. I got my house and my band opened back up. Food started going through more smoothly and I started eating better. Other environmental factors can be tiredness, excitement, sadness, or just the fact that it is morning. Many Bandsters find they can't eat until after 11 AM every day. Being "stuck"and "spitting up" aka PB'ing As WLS patients we have a few fun words we use. Some are nice and some are not. You will hear "PB" which means "Productive Burp". I prefer the simple term "spit up". What does "stuck" mean? Stuck means that what you have eaten won't go through the opening between your pouch and lower stomach. This is called your "stoma". The bite is too big to go through (meaning you didn't chew it enough), it isn't something that moves smoothly through the band (lettuce), or you just ate too darn much. When a bite of food goes through your esophagus and hits your pouch it has one of two places to go…through the band or back. If all is well it will go through with no problem either now or later. If it can't make it to the pouch or through the stoma it will result in a spit up. Understand that this is something that will happen to you and to every bandster out there. Call it a side-effect or whatever you like but it will happen. The questions are what causes a spit-up, what it feels like, what to do when it happens, and how to avoid them. Remember, things can change day-to-day, heck even meal to meal. This is the nature of the beast. Frustrating? Yes. Small price to pay? I think so. What causes a spit up is easy. The bite it too big, you took one or two too many bites, you didn't chew properly, or it is simply a food that you can't tolerate right now. It is up to you to determine which of the above it true. Trust me… you will learn to determine this. What does if feel like? You will know. The best way I can find to describe the feeling is when you drink a big gulp of water and it goes down with air. You get this pain in your chest that makes you feel like something is going to bust out. That is what it feels like when something is stuck. It can be minor or it can hurt like a son-of-a-gun. Some bandsters say their bodies tell them when they are finished eating and need to stop. Some Bandsters start to salivate which is their body's way of washing the food through. Some, me included, get a heavy sigh or exhale; this tells us we are full. Don't worry; you too will learn to read what your body is telling you…even if you don't now. What should you do when it happens? Stop eating is the first thing. It doesn't matter if it is your first bite or your fifth. A spit up is your body's way of telling you that you are full. This is your band in full-alert. It is telling you that you are done and to put the fork down. Many times you can stop eating and just wait it out. Until you are used to it you might get the "deer in the headlight" look. Soon you will just adjust. If it doesn't go away then you need to deal with it. Dealing with it means excusing yourself and heading to the bathroom. A spit up is just that. I compare it to a baby spit up. It should never be what you classify as vomiting. This is hazardous for a Bandster and should be avoided as it can cause slippage. There is a very large difference in spit ups and vomiting. How to avoid them? Well, that comes with experience and a willingness to acknowledge when your "food police" tells you to stop. Very quickly you should learn when your band tells you to stop. I found that after my 2nd fill my band was at attention and told me when I was full. This is when I experienced my first spit ups and found foods that I could no longer tolerate. One of the most difficult things to get your mind around is just how little you will be eating. Your band tells you that you are full but your brain engages and says, "You haven't eaten nearly enough!" So you take that extra bite or two. Then there it is…the feeling in your chest…your eyes get big…and saliva fills your mouth. The biggest point I want to get across to you is that, while normal, spitting up is not necessarily a good thing. You don't want to be doing it every day and certainly not every meal. If this is happening you need to take a good look at what you are eating, how big your bites are, how much you are eating and to what level you are chewing. Be aware at the beginning and it will become more of a habit soon enough. Surgery Is Not a Magic Pill Surgery is not the magic pill we have all been waiting for. You will not wake up thin. You must be willing to meet the band half way. You will lose weight at a different pace than your friends. You must change your behavior for this to work. It is a "tool" and nothing more. An electric mixer is easier than mixing by hand but you still have to follow the recipe for the cake to taste good. Right now you should be asking yourself one question: "Am I ready to go the distance?"

Well as soon as possible of course, but I am thinking mid to late May!! I still have a credit for a free shuttle ride and free hotel stay (I had a semi-private room but paid the full rate so they gave me a free fill package) but since I stayed in San Diego when I went down for my 1st fill I only used the free fluro part of the package... so all it is really going to cost me is the plane ticket and the $100 fluro fee but the airfare prices don't go down till after the 18th if I book soon!

Here's a link to Dr. Miranda's exact guidelines: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=5220

Wow Brook, Love your pic what a hot mama!!

Helen- Here's a link to Teri's post it's quite a few pages starting in Nov of 2006 and the last post she updated on the 28th of April 2008 - It goes into details about her struggles and her son's refusal to eat properly and get regular fills, it should give you more details on her story: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=987

Ok Everyone is updated through May 3rd!! Sadly I can't use my cute little stars, you're only allowed 5 off-site images per post and every star was counted as an image, so now I'm using smiley faces instead! :D Great Job Ladies!!

Congats Misty, I have total fill envy!!! Lol How long did it take her to find your port with no fluro picture? I ask because I just posted this video where a woman gets a non-fluro fill and it took the doc 1min and 4 seconds to find the center of her port, and the whole time he is poking her with the needle it is not good... I'm thinking that is just a fluke thing with that doctor or maybe it's because of her port placement, I just hate to think of you non-fluro girls having to go through that!!

POST FILL What happens when a fill is too tight. I will keep checking her progress and adding to this list of videos!!

Recovery Teresa shares her experiences in the first week after surgery. Week Two Teresa offers advice for settling into the first two weeks. Post-op Dr. Malley advises Teresa as she transitions to solid foods. CHALLENGES First-month challenges include water intake and a perspective on donuts. FIRST FILL Dr. Malley injects Teresa's first fill. Note from MM- this is a non-fluro fill, watching him prod her with the needle for ONE MIN AND 4 SECONDS (yes I timed it) while he feels for the center of her port is kinda icky (I hope those who got non-fluro fills didn't have to go through that), but this is a live video of a fill. I will also say that her scars are TWICE as big as mine and the ones I have seen from the other girls banded with me. Something else to note her port is on the right side (Dr. O puts his on the left).

Well seeing that this post only had about 60 views in 2 months, I guess most people have no desire to watch a lap band surgery being performed... Totally understandable but since the spokeswoman that had her surgery taped was banded a week after me I wanted to see her updated video blogs. After watching them I really think that her perspective is worth your time to watch (each video is 1-4 min except the surgery which is 45min), she talks about a lot of the struggles that I see asked about on this board daily... I really wish I was able to do the same thing, there are so many more things you can say/express on a video post than you can just typing a blog and you can really see her progress. Again I want to encourage some of you to take some time to watch her video diaries, it's a first hand account of the triumphs and struggles that comes with being a new bandster... TO WATCH THE VIDEOS CLICK ON THE UNDERLINED TITLE NEXT TO THE PICTURE- It should open in a new window. (I can only add 5 pics per post, board limitation but there are 11 videos in total so it will have to be put in 3 different posts) Teresa Get to know Teresa as she embarks on her journey. Preparing Pre-op anticipation and the “Farewell to Food Tour". Pre-Op Dr. Malley describes the procedure and what to expect. Peace Teresa’s fears are dispelled after meeting with Dr. Malley. Surgery Teresa's surgery is broadcast for Dr. Malley's Live Event.

Again one of the worst things you can do for your band is to drink while you're eating ESPECIALLY if you have something stuck, that's when the pressure builds up and you're pretty much guaranteed to PB. Now I have read about people who drink when they are stuck because they WANT to PB so the pain will stop but that's one thing Dr. Miranda warns against, the best thing you can do when you are stuck is to get up and walk around this will help you to move the food through the band (to become unstuck) and hopefully you won't PB at all. I mean if you choose to drink when stuck so you force yourself to PB you may get relief in 1-2 min, if you get up a walk around the food should pass though your band bringing you relief in 5-7 min... So maybe to some people the faster relief is worth it but the more you PB the more you risk damaging the band so for me drinking when stuck isn't worth it!!

I think that since the OCC is careful to ALWAYS use the Fluro for the fill and if there are any issues they can fix it I somewhat understand why he would claim the OCC is better than the Fill Center USA because there Fluro is not required (it's like $150 more) and if they puncture your tubing or some other issue comes up they will not fix it. But if the Fill Center USA is willing to give that much of a fill (and they offer a free readjustment if you are too tight within 72hours) I'm not sure returning to the OCC is as necessary as Dr. O makes it seem. I mean I had a great time going back to TJ for my fill and my experience was great but it does really make you think!! P.S. I posted about my need for a 2nd fill here: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=5972

I have recently developed a new trick to help me with the urge to drink with meals, well really for me I am ok not drinking while I'm eating but once I stop eating I am dying for a sip of something. I know I am plenty hydrated because I am drinking enough water throughout the rest of the day so I really think the reason I want water after a meal is to wash the taste of whatever I just ate out of my mouth. So what I have been using is the Listerine Pocket Pack Strips, if you haven't used them they are great!! I can discreetly pop one in my mouth and it gets the taste out of my mouth... It also helps me to stop picking at my food after I am full, I still have that "clean your plate" mentality so after I have finished 1/2 of my food I put in a breath strip and I am less likely to keep eating.. Try Them (they are calorie free too)!!

Sorry I missed your other post, my mom is in town for the weekend and I haven't been on the board much so I am trying to play catch up, I haven't even made it to the other parts of the forum yet!! Wow 3cc's that's a big fill, congrats for what I've seen the OCC's standard fill schedule seems to be (for a 4cc band): 1st fill level 1.5 - 1.7cc 2nd fill level 2.3 - 2.5 cc 3rd fill level 2.6 - 3.0 cc I'm not really sure why Dr. O makes it a point to tell every patient that they may only need 1 or 2 fills in a lifetime if they return to the OCC for their fills, I mean maybe he's just trying to get people to return so he gets more $$ but I have yet to hear of anyone who only needed 1-2 fills based on the above schedule. Dr. Romero says liquids for 3 days after your first fill, and then any other fills you get he wants you to eat a few hours after in case it's too tight so you can get an unfill before leaving TJ.. what did the Fill Center in Ga tell you?

Just saw on the Calendar that today's your birthday!!! Happy Birthday Babe!! Oh and good luck with your fill on the 6th, I bet you're getting excited!!

I know both of you guys had your first fills scheduled for today, how did things go? How are you feeling? Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Ok so I got my first fill on 4/18 and while I can't eat bread, rolls, tortillas, biscuits, toast or anything that even resembles bread I'm not feeling a ton of restriction when eating other things, salad veggies chicken etc. I had such an AMAZING time with my 2/28 band group when we went for our first fill I would love to repeat the experience. Since I have a pretty flexible schedule and it's somewhat easy for me to get to TJ I would love to schedule my 2nd fill sometime in May during the time when some other bandsters will be getting their fills as well. So if you have a May fill date post it here hopefully we can connect for some fun in TJ... or even some fun in SD with my girl Evette!! MM

Thanks sweetie, onerland here I come!! It took me 2 weeks to lose those last 3 lbs... I mean I'm happy I lost it but I thought the weight would be falling off faster after my fill on 4/18, but I was actually losing more (about 2lbs a week) BEFORE my fill so I think I am ready for another one.

I had salad for my first meal. I'm a Caesar salad junkie lol... I was only able to eat about 1/4-1/2 a cup of salad that day!! Last night I had a Caesar salad at steakhouse and probably ended up eating 2.5-3 cups of salad... I think I need another fill as the band doesn't seem to be restricting salad for me.

You should be able to see it in your own gallery but the rest of us will have to wait for one of the moderators to approve the pic before we can see it in your gallery.

Ok I added the new girls and I put stars next to those who worked out, check the first page to see what I mean... I did the treadmill last night for 45min, so happy to see everyone getting motivated!!

I'm so glad you took some pics and could see some results, isn't it encouraging?? I would love to see them!! Here's a link on how to post pics: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?showtopic=5443 Or you can just upload them to your gallery here and tell people to check them out there using this link: http://www.lapbandforum.com/index.php?auto...&user=11520

the tags actually should be [] not () and the last one needs to be [/img]

Thank you CP you are very sweet but I still have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go before I reach my goal!! P.S. Check out Cassie's story on Dr. O's site she is actually one of the spokespersons for the OCC, she was even on Oprah!!