SamanthaW

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention - my daughter LOVED IT!!!

Just incase you don't often go to the recipe section of this forum, you should go check out the recipe for "green" smoothies that I just posted. I made my first one today and fell in love with them! Fresh veggies in a smoothie, hot dang, I am in heaven!!

I just made my first Green Smoothie today and I have to say that I absolutely loved it and had to come here and post my recipe! I am always looking for ways to add fresh healthy foods into my diet, especially vegetables. I was one of those kids who was raised on chicken nuggets and very rarely had to eat vegetables, so now as an adult I have a terrible taste for them and wish I liked them better. I now have a 1 1/2 year old daughter and it is my goal to make her a veggie lover like her daddy! I have been doing a lot of research lately about clean eating and came across the concept of green smoothies. Basically it is your normal fruit and yogurt smoothie but with spinach or other vegetables mixed in as well. I bought a bag of fresh spinach the other day and decided to give it a "whirl" literally! Recipe (add items to your blender in this order): 1 Liquid Yogurt (any flavor) 3 large handfuls of fresh green spinach (if you are like me you are thinking, EEEWWWW!! TRUST ME - hater of all things green, you CANNOT taste it!!) 2 TBSP ground flax seed (lots of fiber and omega-3!!!) 2 scoops vanilla protein powder BLEND WELL until smooth- I have a Vita-Mix blender and it worked great Then add your fruits (preferably fresh fruits and unsweetened frozen fruits) I used: 1 cup frozen blueberries and raspberries 1 whole fresh banana 4 fresh strawberries 4 slices of frozen peach BLEND AGAIN UNTIL SMOOTH and there you have it, a very yummy, very healthy "green" colored smoothie that tastes nothing like spinach!! I know we are not supposed to do blended foods on the post-op diet but this will be great for those mornings that I can't get solids down!! Enjoy! P.S. Go check out my new blog!! www.fabulesslyfrugalmom.blogspot.com

Ah man, I never even thought about it being my gallbladder! I am going to go have it checked out this week, it most likely is that. My mom was telling me that it is almost a guarantee that I will have problems with it because I am female, overweight, have had a child and it is genetic and all the women in my family have had to have theirs out after their 1st baby. I was really hoping to avoid another operation this year but the pain is unbearable and if that is what it is then out it comes...

I had bad shoulder pain for about a month after my surgery and then it subsided. Since then I might get a bit of shoulder pain if I ate too much or if I ate something really cold like ice cream but it was always managable and not too bad. Well the last 2 weeks my shoulder pain is back and it is bad like I just had surgery all over again. This is so weird to me since I haven't had any bad pains in like 6 months! It has been my TOM so I am wondering if I maybe have some water retention around the nerve damage or something but man it HURTS! And most of the time if I eat something it goes away, I am going to be one miserable puppy if this continues, do you think I should call OCC or something? Nothing else is hurting and I haven't been PB'ing or anything lately. Has this happened to anyone else?

You look awesome! GREAT JOB!!! Congratulations!!

Well I am officially no longer "Morbidly Obese" according to my BMI. Now I am just "Severly Obese" LMAO! According to the calculator I will still be classified as "Overweight" at my goal weight! lolololololol!! Just kinda funny the way the medical world looks at us! Even though I will be at the lowest possible weight for me not to look anorexic; I will still be considered overweight. Oh well at least I will be hot!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I finally broke down, paid the $$ and went in and had a flouro today. I was so nervous when I went in there that I was almost in tears but everything still looks perfect and I am not stretched out at all! NO MUFFIN TOP! WHEW!!!!!!! I can't tell y'all how much sleep I have lost over this the last 5 weeks worrying over this. We finally decided to just spend the money ($250!) and get it checked out so I can be at peace a little bit. I honestly didn't think I had stretched it but now I am sure of it! I decided that I wouldn't get a fill today since I have good restriction right now so we'll just see how it goes and hopefully the next 6 months will show another 40 lbs! Thanks everyone for your replies

My Wedding Ring Fits Again!! I haven't lost a ton of weight but I am finally below my pre-baby weight from TWO years ago and was able to wear my wedding band for the first time yesterday since July of 2007! For 2 years of my 3 year marriage I have been ring-less so my husband was eccstatic yesterday when I surprised him with it! My next goal is to fit into all my pre-baby clothes. Even though I am below pre-pregnancy weight now my body has changed so much and my stomach is a lot more stretched out now since baby. I am hoping that at 200 I may be in a 16 again, I am getting sick of my 3 size 18 outfits! Also, just as an FYI to everyone, I have decided to wait on getting the flouro for a while, even though I am still a little stressed about it, I am just trying to be really careful with my eating and since the scale has finally started moving again I am not going to mess with it until I have another plateau, which will give me some time to save up for the $250 cost. Thanks to everyone who responded to my previous postings...

3 Months post-op and I still get shoulder pain. Mostly it is if I eat something really cold which is weird but I have heard it is common so i don't worry too much about it, definitely a pain in the rear when it happens though!

C-Section was 20 times worse than the recovery for this! I am not looking forward to it with my next baby!

Hello everyone!! So I need to take a poll of sorts! First let me give a bit of background, hopefully won't be too lengthy! I was banded on January 9th. First and second fills got me virtually no restriction so on the 3rd fill I went for a flouroscopy fill and saw my band and that everything looked great. However, I still had very little restriction at 3.0 ccs, so I went in for my 4th and finally at 3.2 I got restriction, not much but I could definitely not eat certain things and I had to chew most things to liquids before they could go down. About a month later I decided to go in for a 5th fill because I was still feeling hungry and was not tight in the morning and was still able to eat more than I thought I should be able too. During my 5th fill I got totally freaked out. Basically I was told that most people do not need to have this many fills and that at this point I have probably stretched my pouch and need to have a flouro if this fill doesn't take and that if I have stretched my pouch they will completely unfill me and that 90% of the people this happens to have to have the band removed. I was FREAKED OUT! 2 months ago my band was fine, I saw it myself! so how come all of a sudden they are saying because I need another fill that I have probably done detrimental damage and am going to loose this band??? Ok so they filled me up to 3.8 and sent me on my way practically in tears. My husband wanted Starbucks so I had him get me a big ice water and started sucking it down but I felt a huge lump in my throat so I went right back and they took out .4 which has me now sitting at 3.4 cc's in my 4 cc band. But she said she still wants me to come back for a flouro to check my band. It has been about a week and I am feeling pretty good restriction, slightly more than before, even lost about 4 lbs but mostly I have been stressed for a week in tears every night thinking, "oh god, another weight loss thing that I have screwed up on and I have waisted $9,000 on!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok so here is where I need your help. Each of my fills have been $150, $250 for the 1 flouro I had. So far that is almost $800. I need to know if I should really agree to go back and spend another $250 (that I don't have!) to get this X-ray done. I kind of feel like they are telling me this just to get more money out of me. Also - I know everyone is going to ask me the usual questions so here is the answer - are you using this band as a tool and not a miracle worker? YES! I am eating healthy foods, 3 small meals a day and 1 snack, over 64 oz of water a day, etc etc etc. I am a good bandster, trust me. However, I am not perfect, I had to get this band for a reason and there have been a few times I have overeaten (not to the point of throwing up but just very stuffed) but I have only PB'd one time and I just don't feel like I have done anything in my eating that would have stretched my pouch. Is this something you have gone through too? Am I the only one? Have any of you actually stretched your pouches? What happened? Do you think I should have a flouro to put my nerves at ease or let it go and just work with what I have right now? If I could afford it I would get on a plane to San Diego tomorrow to go down and see OCC but the fact is I cannot, I just can't.

HI! This is just my personal opinion but if you aren't at your "sweet spot" then definitely go in for another one. No need to wait 4 weeks if you aren't feeling good enough restriction. I just went in for my 5th the other day and have FINALLY after 5 long months figured out what is so great about the band!!

Hi Faith, Are you still around on here? I would love to hear an update on how you are doing. Did the pain get better over the last couple of months? Just curious, hope you respond! Samantha

Hi! I was banded by Dr. Ortiz exactly 5 months ago today on January 9th. I am not going to lie, it has been a really tough 5 months but as of this morning I am down 32.5 lbs. I was on a really tough plateau for about 2 1/2 months where I didn't loose anything but I have finally passed that and I am hoping that with my fill yesterday that I have finally hit my "sweet spot" and the scale will start moving faster. Keeping my fingers crossed! I am heading down to Vegas for an anniversary getaway with my husband in September and am hoping to loose at least 15 more lbs by then to be below 200 for the first time in 7 years!