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I am officially sleeved guys!!! Kinda sore... But VERY happy!! Been walking around the hospital & being drugged up lol I would like to thank Everyone for their suppor!!!

I have not posted in a few weeks and have been reading many of the posts regarding the same questions and the tone of some of the answers. I work in the medical field and researched the band for 2 years and went to all of my preop classes etc... I was fully aware before surgery that the band is only a tool. The best way of thinking about it for me is the band holds me accountable to myself and what I eat!!! It is a tool only ,I have done the work so far. My loss has been very slow but I feel 100% better. I feel the first mistake some make is thinking the band is a cure and an easy way out. I have been stuck for 3 weeks now but will not let that stop me. I was banded 11-8-12 have had 2 fills. At my last fill the NP told me "you get it, you really get it"!!! Its only a tool, they cure for obesity comes from within and the desire to for once in my life do something for me and to become more healthy and active. I don't need to lose as much as some but the battle is the same. For those of you that have met your goal, you are an inspiration to me and gives me hope that I can do this with the HELP of my band. I do no rely on the band but always know its there. I have lost 21 pounds with 30 to go and its any every day decision but the band always reminds me how much and what I can and cannot eat. Looking forward to the green zone and until then I just keep doing the best I can. Not sure why I felt the need to write this but hope this help someone the way others on this post has helped me the last few months. By the way I am a 51 yr old grandmother raising grandkids the works full time so believe me I know the stress of everyday life and how I turn to food for comfort. No more thanks to my lap band, accountablity tool

Well surgery is tomorrow! Im not nervous at all, but i'm sure something may hit me tomorrow. I report to Maryview hospital (portsmouth, VA) at 7 a.m. for check in and surgery will be at 9. I have been on a liquid diet for 7 days now and lost about 7 lbs. Alot of people on here say their DRs are not requiring them to have one. But after the research i've done I do recommend it. It helps shrink the liver. Considering that is in the way of the stomach it prevents injury from them moving it around. Plus it kick starts weightloss and prevents the last meal syndrome. I hated it at first but my calorie intake went from around 3000 to 900 a day. After a few days the hunger isnt as bad. Overall im excited for this next step!

Down 14 since day of surgery almost a month ago. Not even 15 lbs yet. It's coming off. I see the lbs loss and I see some inches. I'm exercising, focusing on protein and liquids. I'm full after mere bites. It's working. But... Can I be underwhelmed and happy at the same time? Meh. If the first couple of months is the 'best' a person will lose, I fear for what month six will look like. I feel like I am ALREADY working for every pound.... just like normal. I don't mind working for it. I expected the sleeve to help a little more. It does seem to be picking up, but what happens is... I'll have a drop and then it'll bounce back up for about 5 days. And then drop. And bounce again. Annoying. I don't want hugs or advice. Don't tell me not to weigh so much. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE if you tell me 'it doesn't come off like it comes on' I will hunt you down and slap you. That isn't what I'm saying at all... don't reduce my experience to that. Just...... venting. And now I'm done. I just had to get that out.

Good Evening all, Just wanted to stop by and give a little up date. I had my final appointment today and everything went well. I got a tour of the floor after surgery, and went over some final information about the procedure. Then I get home and get a phone call from the hospital and they wanted to go over some information that was needed before I get there and once I hung up the phone it hit me. My surgery is really going to happen in 6 day. Can you say excited.com:)

I am watching Wendy Williams and Lisa Lampanelli is on about her sleeve surgery. She is down 102. She wore a size 24 and now is around a 6!! Good for her. She had the surgery in April, I think. She looks great. She said she felt the sleeve was better than the band at her age, 51. I am 62. They keeping bleeping her language. Lisa is saying that it is a tool and you have to work with it. Her husband had the sleeve a few months after her. Good for them. She is very funny and crude but that is what I love about her. She is saying her sex life is better and the stomachs can now touch. We all need people like Lisa to tell the world that surgery is a helper/tool for all of us. Thank you, Lisa.

I think I have a clot in my nose... if I take a picture can you tell me what you think I should do? Also, I ate chips and salsa in my post-op phase, do you think I hurt my band? Can you tell me what to eat? Why is my cat losing more weight than me... We eat the same diet? OMG PEOPLE... GET SERIOUS. This is not a game. I get so depressed reading this crap! I think I will take a mini vacation. I need a tranquilizer to keep this crap from driving me insane. Do these people think we are not working our butts off to do this? Who the F U C K told them it would be easy? Rant off... sorry having a bad morning... hope yours is better!

I am 6 weeks out, trying more and more foods and not really having difficulty with digestion. I have had a poor appetite and my taste buds have been off, everything has tasted bland and not near as good as I seem to remember or believe. I had only lost 19 lbs and was feeling rather disappointed in myself and the process. Then I realized I have been eating, not like a healthy life style but as if I were recuperating from a surgery and just making do waiting for everything to return to normal. I had not been getting in my protein. My water intake was not adequate, my carb ingestion way too high. I had to stop and think duh.......this is not waiting to get back to normal, this is my new normal and this is for life! What the hell did I do this for if I was not going to develop the healthy habits I had planned on. Light bulb moment. For a smart woman I sometimes take awhile to get it. So yesterday and thus far today, made my water requirements, protein is up, carbs down and exercised too!!!!!!! look out baby I am back in the game and I intend to be a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never thought I would find that question so offensive. I am guilty of asking such a question when I was younger to my own Sister. I do believe people have no malicious intent when they ask such a question but yet it can come off so offensive. My Wife and I have tried for three years to get pregnant with no luck. We both went through extensive testing and seen numerous specialists. It was determined I was the problem. I was not producing viable sperm. I under went Surgery last February to determine if I had a blockage and to see if they could extract viable samples to be used in conjunction with IVF. They got a little and we had it frozen until such a time we could move forward with the IVF. We were warned by both my Doctor and My Wife's that we should be prepared for back up options such as a donor as they had little to work with. My wife and I decided donor was not something we wanted. If we could not have them biologically then maybe we would consider possible adoption down the road. My surgery was in February of 2012 and the IVF cycle was in May. Even though we were told the odds were not favorable but yet possible we had very high hopes and less than 24 hours later after the IVF cycle our world came crashing to a halt as we were notified it didn't work. We both cried for two days and I personally took it harder than I expected I ever would. I guess part of it is because even though I did nothing wrong I felt like I failed us both. Now 8 months later we talk about it less but the memories are fresh. I still blame myself and haven't really moved on. This past weekend we were visiting my Wife's cousin who has 16 month old twins who we simply adore and love to spend time with. My Wife posted the below picture on facebook which lead to a lot of "When are you going to have babies of your own?" Naturally, it is our own fault for posting the picture but I cannot help but be annoyed. One of the people who asked is an Aunt who does not have kids herself due to medical complications. One would think she would've been more tactful. Next time you consider asking someone when they are going to have kids take a moment to consider that there maybe more to the story and that it could be a sensitive subject!! I guess this is my payback for asking my Sister and Brother in law many years ago. I am however a proud Uncle of a 22 and 15 year old!

When you are trying to lose weight and you hit a plateau or even go up a little inspite of doing what you are suppose to it is so easy to get frustrated. My weight loss has been painfully slow- 50 lbs in a little over 6 months. I am one of those nuts who opts to weigh daily and chart it to see my patterns in connection with what I eat. I also opt to count calories and have a fitbit to tell me an average of what I burn in day. While I haven't always been the perfect lapband patient I do stick pretty close to doctors orders. The last few weeks I am been doing what I am suppose to - 3 meals 1 cup or less 1 snack eating 1300 or less calories a day and doing cardio for 30 min to an hour 4-5 days a week. Yet, while I am doing this my weight managed to tick up from 195 where it was Saturday back up to 200 by Monday and today back down 197. I know I haven't eaten the calories to cause this so it has to be something else. With past diets I would have taken the flight approuch- this isn't doing any good, forget it I'm eating what I want. However, with the band I choose the fight mode. I am going to keep fight the fight against the fat. One of us will win and I plan on it being me! It is so easy to flee the lapband lifestyle when we don't see results that we want or expect, but we must (I must) stay and fight. Fight through the ups and celebrate the downs in the scales. On the ups it can be from water retention, a cold, not going potty, or muscle gain. All of these reason will eventually level out and the scale number will go down, but only if I keep on keeping on. I hope that you choose the fight approch to! After all our health is worth fight for!