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Just put some masking tape over the number part of the scale. On the tape write down your goal weight. Now EVERY time you step on you will ONLY see your goal weight and are forced to either wait until you see the Dr. or bend over and remove the tape (which you KNOW will be wrong)

Banded Diva Day... LOL I crack myself up sometimes! First I want to thank everyone for the advice and word of encouragement. It is nice to know that I am not alone. I am truly blessed. Thank you so much. Today, I decided to take action and do something fun. So I went to the nail shop and got my toes and eyebrows done. Then I went shopping for week 3 of my post op diet. I felt pretty good and wanted to do more but I need to slow down. Today is my friend Mandy’s Birthday she is having her birthday party at a local club this weekend. I told her I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it or not. I explain to her I may be around to many triggers. Here is a brief history lesson. Before me being banded almost every other weekend I was drinking… a lot. Those nights consisted of shots, shots, and bud lights. Then after club hours a trip to Jack in the Box I usually ordered 2 tacos and Jumbo Jack on sourdough. I know I can’t do that now or anytime soon but Mandy understand my situation. Eventually I will have to learn how to deal with social situation but I do not want to be staying again this weekend. I was thinking about going to the movies this weekend. I never was those types of people who had to buy popcorn or nachos. I usually buy their version of a $6 dollars Icee and maybe a pretzel. Since I can have low fat cheese and crackers I thought about putting them in my purse just in case. I am so glad I have a big purse. Anyway life is good and I have no regrets! Thanks for reading.

My surgery went well. I had some nausea on Day 1 and 2. Mostly, a sour taste in my mouth and spitting up saliva (less than 5 times total). No vomiting, thank goodness. I think it was my body trying to get rid of the anesthesia. By Day 2 night I was feeling pretty ok. No real pain, except for some gas pressure on Day 1 and 2. I would classify that more like discomfort more than pain though. I had no problem walking since Day 1. Day 3 - I was only able to get in about 16 ounces of liquid in. I will try to double that today. It's so hard because you get a tightness in your chest when you drink to fast or often. I'm feeling pretty good, just a little week. My incisions are just a little sore, but no real pain. No bruising whatsoever - really clean looking incisions actually. I weighed in at 199 - so about 5-6 lbs. post-op for a total of about 11 lbs. (with 10 day pre-op diet).

Put re-heated steak on the list of this that Mistress Band will punish me if I try and eat. Worst stuck episode yet, but it is cleared and instead of steak, I had a protein shake for dinner.

May 2nd seems like such a long time ago. When I think of how I was feeling that day and how I feel today, it truly makes me so proud of my body. My body that I've abused with a lifetime of overeating. My body that had to wait patiently for years for my mind to realize it was time to make a change. My body that has recovered so beautifully and allowed me to be as comfortable as possible through every last thing I've put it through. I could cry. For the first time ever, I love my body. The day of surgery, my blood pressure was good. I hadn't been on any bp meds since 8 days prior, per my PCP because my bp was getting too low and I was feeling very faint because of it. I was already so impressed with my heart being able to recover so quickly from hypertension and I had only lost 50lbs. I know that 50lbs is quite an accomplishment, but I'm still in need of losing 200 or more (if I can without skin removal), so it seems like just a post in a very long road. I'm teetering on the brink of the 300s. This morning, my scale went between 399 and 402 before settling on 400.2. I could very well be in Tres Town when I wake up tomorrow! I couldn't believe it when the digital scale went down to 399! It's amazing. I'm so pleased with everything so far. So here's my saga of surgery and recovery to present. This is more for my own reflection later, but I thought it might help someone who's starting their journey soon. I couldn't sleep the night before surgery. Well, I slept, but only for 3 hours. During surgery, my blood pressure went up, so they gave me Labetalol. Immediately after surgery, when I was in recovery, my heart rate dropped to 45. I slept through all of this. In fact, most people spend a couple of hours in recovery, and I slept for 6 hours in recovery instead. My blood pressure was normal and once I woke up, they sent me to my room. Moving from bed to bed was very, very painful. The nurses had to check me for bed sores and roll me around and I didn't even have the energy to cry. AS SOON as they were done, they gave me morphine. I tried to get comfortable but my back was hurting. My parents came to say hello and visit, but I was tired and it was late, so they left to go home. When my nurse came to check on me, I told her my back was hurting, so she called to get me a new bed. This was a blessing and a curse. The new bed was great, but I had to change beds again! It was an air mattress and so comfy I didn't need a pillow under my head. The nurse so kindly helped me brush my teeth and wash my face from bed and got me some mouth swabs because I couldn't have liquids til my upper GI the next morning. I sent a few texts to friends to let them know I was okay, then slept til morning when they came to take me for the GI. That upper GI was painful also. Moving was really hard. My tummy is so big and giggly, every movement was painful and sore. When I went back to my room, they removed my catheter and brought me breakfast - beef broth (gross), coffee (why?), orange juice (again, acidy, why?), and green jello. The nastiest of all the jellos. I was pouting thinking there was nothing that I could eat and then I saw - cherry Italian ice cup. HEAVEN! Granted, it was about 3 baby bites of heaven, but I was so happy. I was sleeping through most of the day when the nurse came in and checked my bp to find that it was 80/40. She walked in while I was sleeping and my heart rate was 40. They put me on a holter monitor and ran an EKG which said I had a grade 1 A-V block and a mild arrhythmia. The on call doc saw me and said he believed it was due to the anethesia and morphine, and that because I was improving, it wasn't a need for major concern. He suggested I follow up with my PCP, who might send me to a cardiologist for an echo, depending on how a repeat EKG goes. I felt dehydrated and a little weak, they tried to take blood but literally could only get drops before my vein would collapse. I was eerily calm through all of this. My parents weren't going to come visit me that day because they live almost 2 hours from Chicago. I had talked to my parents first thing in the morning and all of this took place after the nap I took after I spoke to them. I'd told them they could just come Saturday when I knew I was going to get released. I didn't even think to call them when all of this heart business happened, because in my mind, I felt like I knew it was just anesthesia and the morphine and I just wasn't scared. I got up and walked around more because they took out the catheter, so I HAD to get up to use the bathroom. I walked around my room as best I could and then just slept. I never turned my TV on ONCE while I was there. Not once!! I made myself drink more water. I made myself walk. And later that night, my bp was up. My heart rate was up. I still have a mild arrhythmia, but the nurse said it's benign and my PCP already knows about it. My stay at the hospital was great. The nurses and techs were all really genuinely friendly and kind and helpful. The staff at my surgeons office has been excellent, too. My follow up visit was Friday, 8 days post op, and it was good. I lost 13lbs in 8 days. I'm at 17lbs lost in 10 days now. I'm on soft foods now and I cooked myself some soup yesterday, made some protein pudding, and just felt like I was having a normal weekend. I love making soup on Saturdays and having several cups through the day as it cooks more and more. I was able to have that same experience this weekend, but my total trips to the soup only totalled 1.5 cups of soup for the day. That's exactly what I wanted from the sleeve. Yes, I've made and will continue to make many healthy changes in my life. But if I want to have a lazy day of eating, the sleeve will let me do it and still lose weight. I don't have to lose myself in this surgery. Now the "living the rest of my life" begins, and I'm so, so happy to be here. I'm grateful my body has made it through all of this. I can't wait to see what my body can do when it's lost this weight. It feels nice to love myself again, and the affection will only get better from here!

I'm on day 4 of my preop diet..and decided to make my "Own" tastier Lean Cuisine type meal tonite. I took chicken mixed with Greek yogurt and curry...to be put on top of broccoli with a smidge of cheese and heated up. But while mixing the chicken mixture, I decided to add some fresh ground Himalayan salt The entire lid came off and dumped salt everywhere!! I carefully tried to scoop most of it out and had to vacuumed the rest. I was Soooo hungry I tried to eat it anyway. Alas. It sucked and couldn't finish the chicken. I want some frigging pizza! But fear not...I won't.

I'm not sure why and I'm not sure how, but early on in my life I learned to lie to myself about many things, but most importantly about what I ate. It is one of the things that I am having to unlearn in order for my band to work for me. Today, even though I ate less than anyone at the table, I over ate and I'm not ashamed, I'm not guilty. I made a choice, and went past my soft stop. Yes I was uncomfortable. No, I didn't PB or vomit. No I didn't stretch my pouch or cause my band to slip. But the important part, I am not going to lie to myself about what I did. I am going to log the calories (as best I can), I am going to eat lightly tonight (protein shake) and I am going to go back to my normal eating pattern because if I eat like I did today on a regular basis I won't lose any more weight.

Since November 16th I have met with Dr. Shamsi once a month, kept a food journal on myfitnesspal.com and shared with the doctor. Six months and 60 pounds lighter, is a good start. I've gone through WLS "Is it Right for me" class, which explained all the surgeries, I have sat in group meetings, I have gone through psychological testings and met with their psychologist, I had a previous colonoscopy that they have the records, I had to get a release from my cardiologist, I met with their nutritionist, met with Dr. Stanish twice now and finally received my verbal approval from BCBSIL on Monday and I lucked out....twice a month they do a mandatory two Wednesday class from 1-3. If I didn't get approved until today I would have had to wait another 2 weeks for the next class to begin!! So two days after approval, I got into my first Wed. Class. The program at healthy4life through St. Mary's Hobart/Community Hospital Munster seems different than a lot of the ones I've seen here. They charge you a $600.00 program, out of pocket fee,before surgery. I paid $200.00 during my four month - pre-surgery nutritionist evaluation. Today the second $200.00 was paid, which paid for two weeks worth of protein shakes for the pre-op diet. Another $200.00 will be paid one week before surgery when I meet with the nurses to go over my medications and which meds to continue, stop etc. These fees gives us hotline number to the nurses to be used at any time, free access to meet with the nurses, free nutritionist/dietician access and nurses, and appointments for life. Sounds pretty good to me. Today's meeting was with a group of 5 that will be undergoing surgery with either Dr. Dong or Dr. Stanish. A few are getting gastric bypass the rest are getting sleeved. Dr. Stanish does not do duodenal switch any longer and I'm not positive, but I believe he's moved away from LapBand. We each received a packet and a special envelope that had Dr.'s prescription orders for tests he wanted. I need a mammogram, and an upper GI. I scheduled those the minute I got out of the office lol. Mammogram tomorrow, UpperGI Saturday. There was also a note saying that on April 1st I had an abnormal ekg and she needs to talk to me after the class. For some people that have heard of these places, Dr. Stanish and Healthy4life used to be out of Methodist Hospital. They recently transferred to St. Mary/Community and they are now working out their Center's of Excellence all over again. They were Centers of Excellence but they moved their program to a new hospital so they had to start all over. Though Dr. Stanish has been a surgeon over 13 years, and has done well over 1200 of these surgeries at Methodist, they are now at about 80-100 at St. Mary's and last week they did their second at Community Hospital. I will be their third done at Community Hospital. To become Centers of Excellence Bariatric Clinic like they were at Methodist, they need 125 at each hospital. Unfortunately, on April 1st I woke up and my chest was in pain. Every single breath hurt. I exercised anyhow, and finally realized it wasn't going away on its own, my husband said time to go to the hospital so I hurried and made a meatloaf for the family, took a shower and went to the ER. I was given an EKG, Chest Xray and a CT-Scan. They admitted me for observation. I was visited by my Internist the next morning, and he said that a cardiologist would be and I may end up getting an ultrasound of the heart or another ekg and I will probably be released. One of my Cardiologists' partners showed up and said I was having a complication from Lupus and I had pleurisy and sent me home without an ekg or ultrasound. Nothing was said to me regarding an abnormal ekg, which was taken while I was sitting in the triage. It was probably a lead that wasn't placed right. So, after the two hour meeting today, the nurse contacted my cardiologist, who left for the day but spoke with his nurse to see if he will sign another release or what I am suppose to do. I followed up the call and I pray my doctor just says yes and faxes a release, otherwise this will throw everything off track. My next appt. with cardiologist is July 15th, and I would have to try to get in before next Thursday, which is the day I meet with the surgeon to be given my surgery date. I should hear back tomorrow from the nurse from my surgeons tomorrow and I'll follow-up with my cardiologist tomorrow afternoon! No approval, no surgery. Keeping my finger's crossed. Back to the meeting: She said to quit caffeine now and from here on out, nothing to drink with sugar in it, including Zero Calorie Vitamin Water because it has 3-7 gm of carbs per serving. She gave us a bottle of ISOPure (grape) and truthfully it was quite terrible to me. I don't drink pop, crystal light or anything like it but this was pretty nasty to me. I guess it's going to be my new best friend for two weeks after surgery though. Ugh. I was told the day of surgery (even if it's at 6:30am) I will be allowed nothing by mouth, not even water, even that night until the next day when we will do our barium swallow. I've had surgeries, and I can tell you right now, this is going to be my biggest challenge. I'll want ice chips after surgery, I always have and this will be tough. I received my choice of 42 shakes, puddings, etc. today that will be used for the two week pre-op diet. They use New Direction I grabbed two variety packs to try the cream of chicken soup and different flavored and I decided to stick with chocolate and strawberry for the rest of them. I asked her about unjury chicken broth and she said she had some samples and she gave me the chicken broth to try now, in case I would like to use it during the clear liquid two week after surgery phase. She told us she recommends Optisource (you can purchase from Walgreens) it has all the vitamins and minerals you need and they are chewable vitamins. Must take 4 a day. She explained that the day of surgery we will receive a shot in the tummy and every day while we are there we will get this shot. It's to prevent blood clots. We'll get the IV and then while in surgery we'll get the catheter. She informed me that we'll remain in the hospital 3 nights 4 days as long as there are no complications. We'll be up walking that first day, several times, I'll have a morphine pump and we'll be given not sure if she said Torodal or Tramadol, unfortunately I didn't write it down. She said the next day will be clear liquids. Clear liquids will be two weeks worth. I will have a drain which will remain for at least a week. We will have compression stockings that blow up on their own every time we are in bed and not walking, we will be given antibiotics before and after surgery and we'll be using our spirometer 10 times an hour. Next Wed May 9th. is my second two-hour pre-op meeting and we'll be going over recipes for each stage. She will give us a spirometer and show us how to use it. She will teach us how to deal with the drain we will be going home with and how to clean out the drain. (ugh) As long as I get my cardiologist note clearing me for surgery, I have a meeting with Dr. Paul Stanish on Thursday 10th and we will schedule the surgery. He will tell me when to start my pre-op shakes and i will make an appointment for one week before surgery to meet with a nurse. I'll bring in my prescriptions and they will determine which ones I can take, which ones I need to stop and which ones I will need a new prescription because the size of the pills are too big. After surgery we will be given a one ounce cup and will have to write down each time we have an ounce of liquid, take oral medication, etc. My one week appointment with the surgeon, they will remove the drain. I haven't read anyone here talk about getting a drain, so it gave me the willies, never had one before. However, the good news is I'm less apprehensive about leaks because the drain will be a clue if there is a leak or not for the first week. It seems like this has been a roller coaster of things to do, emotions, worrying whether or not my previous adhesion issues will cause me to be declined, whether or not the Lupus will be an issue, whether or not the pleurisy was going to cause an issue, whether or not insurance will not approve me, it's been a lot of ups and downs. I've lost 60 lbs. on my own, major plus. Getting closer by the day though, and can't wait to be on the other side safely.