Smiley

Glad to see another member from KC. Where did you have your surgery? I had mine at Weight Loss Surgical Center. I was allowed to eat soft foods at about the same time you were. I don't remember the taste being a let down, but I do remember being shocked at how little it took to fill me up. I think that eventually you will get your taste buds back so to speak. I do remember the first time I tried a Caffeine Free Diet Coke more than 6 months after my surgery. It tasted nasty to me, but I eventually got over that and am now one of the people that can handle carbonated beverages. I just make sure that I don't do more than one a week - a lot of times I don't even do more than one a month. I also make sure that I sip them and let as much carbonation escape as possible during the drinking process. When I was at the stage you are at I was able to eat scrambled eggs without a problem. But, based on my experience last week, eggs are now on my bad list - I had been told previously that many people have problems with scrambled eggs when they get restriction, but being from Missouri I had to see it for myself. I am now a believer!

I had a completely different doctor and surgery center, but I ate normal food on my pre-op clear up until the day before my surgery, at which point I had 24 hours of clear liquids. So, I don't think you have blown anything, just get back on your pre-op diet and do what you are supposed to for the next four days. You will find after you are banded that there will be times you will slip up, but the key is to acknowledge them, not get discouraged and get back on track immediately. Just think, four days and you will be experiencing your first day of the brand new you - YEAH!!!

You will do great with both your pre-op (which should be over by now) and your surgery scheduled for tomorrow. Let us know how it went as soon as you are able!

I heard 3 or 4 people at my group meeting yesterday say that they were either able to significantlyoe is n reduce their diabetic meds or go off of them completely after losing weight with the band. Losing a toe is not something that she will want to happen. My aunt started out by losing one or two toes a year and two years ago she lost her left leg and needs to lose her right one. Her issues started out as sores on the bottom of her feet also. At one point she had a thumb tac in the bottom of one of her feet and couldn't even feel it because she had lost all feeling in that foot. I seriously doubt my aunt could even have this surgery now as she has such a hard time healing, which is a side effect of diabetes. My Grandma now eats Fiber One (I am pretty sure this it) cereal for breakfast each morning and has seen her blood sugar drop significantly since switching from plain Cheerios to the Fiber One. I had the Fiber One for breakfast at her house a few weeks and it was suprisingly pretty good, but then everything taste better at Grandma's house. You might mention this cereal to your friend as a potential way to help reduce her sugar levels. Both my grandma and aunt are insulin dependent. As I am so much like both of them and my father, I decided to try and ward off a diabetic diagnosis and other issues by having the lap band surgery - so far so good!

This is almost identical to what the Medical Director of the place I had my surgery said at our group meeting last month. In fact, he recommends bacon and eggs for breakfast as he says protein is what it is all about. The lower in fat items such as milk are, the higher they are in carbohydrates and our bodies are not designed for large amounts of carbohydrates. People originally ate meat, fruits and vegetables as they burned more calories trying to get enough grain together to make something than what they would eventually get to consume, yet even then what they ate were whole grains and not processed. That is very different than today when we are able to get grain that has already been processed, thereby removing the burning of calories to process it and we can even get this processed grain pre-made into food items such as loaves of bread, doughnuts, tortillas, etc. Boy do I miss my childhood of growing up on the farm where almost everything was organic and natural. We knew exactly where it came from - our garden and either our pasture or Grandpa's. Milk was one of the things we bought in town - Dad said there wasn't a cow alive that could have produced as much milk as what my brother and I drank and I do have some pretty strong fingernails to show for it.

You won't be getting any flack from me. WW didn't work for me because I would get to stinkin' tired of measuring, counting points, and everything else that goes along with keeping track of every bite that went in my mouth. I work the band, but I also eat and refuse to deny myself things in moderation. The difference is how much of it I have. While shopping at the mall yesterday I didn't want to have a lot of food leftover, so I had two places to choose from, a place that sold pizza by the slice or Sonic. Even though I have been craving a piece of pizza for about 3 weeks now, they would not do a debit card sale for less than $5, so they were out because one piece would have been a stretch and two pieces was out of the question. I went to Sonic and ordered a corn dog and onion rings. I picked about half of the corn stuff off of the corn dog and ate the rest of it. I then had about 2 onion rings and I was full, so I stopped and still ended up with more onion ring leftovers than I wanted to. I finished the onion rings at dinner last night. Now granted, this isn't how I always eat, but if I want something I will eat it. To my knowledge it has worked for me as I lost 70 lbs. in 14 months and have started losing again now that I have returned to working out after getting the approval from my plastic surgeon. Congratulations on reaching your milestone of just being overweight. Before long, especially if you add in the exercise you have forgotten all about hitting the 190's as the 180's will be in sight. Congrats!

Dawn - Thanks for the information on the UNJURY. I would love to be able to put something in my Crystal Light or Tea just to be able to boost my protein intake occasionally, especially when I am on liquids. I will check it out. Andrea

Do you have children? If so, can you "split" the burger with them? When my nephews are around I can usually get one of them to agree to split an adult meal with me - they think they are pretty big stuff when we do this. Honestly, if you only fix half a burger and leave the other half on the tray, the food will probably still be wasted because I seriously doubt anyone will take the other half.

Does anyone use a good unflavored protein powder? I think I have heard people mention them but everything I find seems to be flavored and I have taste and texture issues as with protein powders.

A few months back a couple of women at my surgery center had stretched their pouch because they were guzzling their drinks - so be careful. I am not a super huge fan of water either, so I drink caffeine free tea and also add flavors to my water. Lemonade is typically my flavor of choice. I also have a glass of milk every morning and that counts towards my 64 ounces of fluid intake.

Granted, I have the larger band, but it took me about 9 fills before I really had restriction. Maybe in the future you could ask the person that does your fills to not think out loud unless they are absolutely sure they can prove what they are thinking. Based on the information contained in the "Rule Book" given to me by my surgery center during my consultation, being too tight or overeating are the two main reasons the esophagus or the pouch will dilate. Based on what you said, it doesn't sound like either one of these have been an issue. As was mentioned earlier, it is also being over full due to either one of these issues on a regular basis that causes the pouch to stretch. From what I understand excessive hunger within 3 or 4 hours of eating can be a sign of a stretched pouch or being able to eat more than a cup of food without being satisfied - notice I said satisfied, not full. Has this been an issue for you? Treatment wise, my surgery center will deflate the band and have the patient limit their portions to 1 cup of food 3 times per day and exercise daily. Six weeks later they will do another barium swallow and if at that point the pouch is still stretched then band removal is recommended. If the problem has been resolved then they will gradually start to fill the band again. I seriously doubt you have stretched your pouch, I just think someone needs to stop thinking out loud and scaring the ever livin' daylights out of their patients. If someone else does fills at that office I would schedule my next appointment with them instead. If seeing the band on flouro or doing a barium swallow is what it is going to take to ease your mind, then go for it because stressing out over this is not a good idea either.

I am feeling pretty good. Based on what he said at my last visit, as long as things look good I won't have to wear the binder after my appointment on Wednesday - YIPPEE!!! It is starting to get hot and two to three layers is not fun. I just need my hands to stop hurting and then I will feel great. I think the hand issue is still from what little bit of swelling I have left in my arms, but I am going to ask him on Wed. to make sure. Thanks for asking and I am excited to hear how your surgery goes and excited for you to take this next step in your journey to a new you!

The doctor who did lap band on one of my friends discovered he also had a hiatel hernia during surgerya nd repaired it. The good news for him was that originally he was going to have to pay the entire cost of the surgery, but due to the hernia insurance ended up covering some of the fees so he only had to pay a portion of the surgery. I prayed they would find a hernia in me, but it didn't happen so I had to pay the entire amount myself - oh well, not everyone can be so lucky.

My Grandma wasn't, so I got hers and mine both. My mom is the one that is rather endowed for only being 5' and 120 lbs. - yes, I take after my father and therefore am a daddy's girl in more ways than one. People kept saying my cup size would go down as I lost weight but I knew better because they never had before. The band size went down, but not the cup size.

I don't mind needles as long as I can watch it go in, but I have no intention of putting one into myself. Not only could the port be damaged but infection and such could occur as well. If she truely couldn't get into her doctor, that is a doctor issue. If I wake up too tight or even wake up in the middle of the night with problems, all I have to do is call and someone will meet me 30 minutes later for an unfill or at least talk to me over the phone to determine if it is a true middle of the night emergency or if it can wait until the morning. Either way they will make sure that I have it taken care of within 24 hours.

I did not have an unfill prior to my surgery - it wasn't even a topic of discussion with my surgeon. I had had my last fill 2 months prior to my TT and still had/have very good restriction. My doctor did everything by IV while I was in the hospital, much to the nurses surprise when I got Benedryl at 2 am, but I had made my potential issues with pill sizes very clear to my doctor from the beginning. I am not sure if he wrote the prescription for my antibiotic appropriatly because of this or if it just worked out this way, but my 13 day antibiotic at 3 pills a day was in a capsule form. I probably could have swallowed it, but not wanting to chance it I broke the capsule open and put it in yogurt, pudding, applesauce, oatmeal - whatever was available. My dad okayed this with the pharmacist prior to accepting the prescription - Yeah Daddy! I had no problem with swelling around the band area or restriction after the surgery. My swelling tended to go down my body which was very apparent at times. With the band being up between your breasts I don't see how swelling could be that much of an issue, but then again I am not a doctor. I would suggest discussing it with your surgeon before getting an unfill that you might regret later.

Celebrations are wonderful, but it could be time to find other ways to celebrate. Pamper youself with things like manicures and pedicures or buy a special outfit as a way to celebrate instead of turning to food. If food is going to be a part of the celebration that you cannot help, get that manicure and look at your pretty nails as a reminder to keep your hands off the food, or buy a new top and remember to make good food choices so that you can wear that new top many times over. I keep the bad stuff out of the house. My cravings are typcially crackers of some kind, but after 4 saltines I am satisfied. Sometimes I smear peanut butter on them as a snack. If I do ever crave something sweet like ice cream I will wait at least a week before giving in and if/when I give in I will get an ice cream cone from McDonald's as those are about the best you can find health wise. It is okay to have something like this on occassion, but you have to compensate for it and then get right back on track. The goal I have for myself is to eat a normal diet which allows me a treat on occasion. As for not taking another bite, restriction is key here, which it sounds like you are addressing that issue by getting another fill. The other thing is that I have put a bunch of money into this band and by golly I don't want to do anything to defeat its purpose and potentially stretch out my pouch. I am more fearful of stretching my pouch than slipping my band.

Thanks for your responses! To be honest, there are two reasons I want the lift - vanity and that annoying yeast infection I have been getting under them since I was 12. I typically only get that in the winter, but it has decided to show up this year for the summer as well. As for the reduction, all my doctors and my mom think I should have one, but I am still struggling with it, I mean those and my big toes are pretty much the only things that still look like the old me. I'm not saying I am missing the old me, but a lot has changed in the past 16 months and I am still getting used to it. I have been lurking on a plastic surgery forum and after reading their stories and hearing about BandDiva's GGG's, my DD's don't seem so bad. I could definitely see where I might really need/want the reduction in a few years and just figured if I could get both the lift and reduction with a thigh lift thrown in to evenly distribute the pain that I might as well start thinking about and researching it now. Thanks Again! Andrea

You are a success story, you still have the band and can partner up with it again to get the weight off. As long as you are still living and breathing you will be a success story, the fruits of your success are just taking a little longer to be noticed.

For those of you who have had a breast reduction, did the procedure also include a breast lift without any extra cost? I am not looking at having anything done for another couple of years, but I will get ancy and probably give in and have the procedure before two years are up. Based some comments made by my ob/gyn and every other doctor that sees me, I thought I would start looking into things now. I really only want my inner thighs lifted, but my mom and all the doctors seem to think I need a breast reduction as well. If I could get the two done together, especially since all the doctors are convinced they can get insurance to pay for the breast reduction I would be more apt to have it done. Thanks!

Guess we will chalk this one up to different surgeons, different instructions.

I am with you on this one as death would have been more enjoyable in that moment, and then when it came back up the liquid was still cold - ewww!

I am sorry to hear about your family drama, but unfortunately it is all too common. I think you should stick with liquids or at least very soft foods (mashed potatoes, oatmeal, cottage cheese, etc.) until your band loosens up a little bit. No need to try and force food down only to have it get stuck or come back up. Unfortunately you are a walking testimony to the havoc stress can create for the band. Maybe you could practice your pole dances for hubby and get your mind off of things for a little while.

Good Job! I am glad to hear someone else say they drink milk instead of the supplements. My calories take a hard knock in the mornings, but I refuse to give up my milk and try to compensate for it the rest of the day.

Can you provide us an example of what you are eating each day? What does your exercise routine consist of? I was banded locally and recieved a fill almost every month for the first year. Not to discourage you, but it was 9 fills later before I really felt restriction. However, I knew that I could not wait on restriction to happen, I had to make proper food choices and limit my amounts from the beginning. I was able to eat anything anytime as well, and pretty much still can, even bread. The thing to remember is that just because you "can" eat anything anytime, it doesn't mean you "should" eat anything anytime. Keep your head up, you will succeed!