Papillon Princess

The crystal light iced tea with lemon is AWESOME! The taste is amazing, I love crystal light in general though.

Ok, well hope it gets better.

I knew they put it around a nerve, I read about the vasovagal attack and it sounded similar to my syncope episodes. Mine is something to do with my blood pressure being too low and my body then tells my heart that my bp is too high and it makes it drop low and that causes the fainting. It's a horrible feeling! But right after I pass out, I usually wake up right away and I feel fine within about 5 minutes. But yes, laying down will help the blood to pump better and having your legs bent as well. I was hoping having the band wasn't going to start causing more episodes! Those are scary!

I'm not trying to scare you, but I was told absolutely NO ibuprofen (motrin) for a while after this surgery due to irritation in the stomach. You may want to speak with your dr about other pain relievers that are not NSAIDS. (I've been on Vicodin for the past 2 weeks and it does help as well as zofran for nausea).

I'm sorry you're feeling like that. I've had excessive pain as well but I don't in any way regret this choice. I KNOW it will be worth it when the pain stops. I hope you're hanging in there and getting through it. I'm 12 days post op and I'm still having pain and needing some pain meds. If you need to talk to someone, message me and I'll try to help if I can! Also, if the pain is really bad, contact your dr! They prescribed me additional meds and it's helped A LOT!

I'm already starting a big bag of winter clothes (it's been in the 90's this week) so I will never need them again! I'm donating all of them except keeping 1 pair of my jeans to look at and hopefully fit into 1 pantleg some day I agree with everyone...donate them, sell them, just get rid of them!

Thanks for sharing all of that. I was a little curious about the vasovagal attack. Did you ever have those prior? I was diagnosed with cardio neurogenic syncope when I was younger because I would have these episodes several times a month. I had to alert all my teachers and friends about it because it would suddenly happen. Usually I could tell people, I'm not feeling well...and by that point I was just about on the ground. So did you ever have problems prior or did they say how you can avoid that in the future??

I was told not to bend over or lift heavy objects for 4-6 weeks. I did have a hernia repair which could be why so long, but try to take it easy on bending over. I've learned to squat a little to pick up things and someone else in the house picks things up off the floor if I need to. My dog has gotten used to jumping into my lap so I can hold him since I can't put the leash on him by bending over anymore. Take your time as much as possible to heal the best you can.

Try caloriecount.com - it gives pretty decent numbers for different things. Doing all those things may reduce the fat, but it's not going to be very drastic.

It's not like you just talk about whatever pops up in your head; there are questions that are asked and they discuss your expectations with the surgery. I think you meant your pre-op appt, so I assume they still want you to complete it before surgery? You may want to check and make sure that "missing it" won't cancel your surgery.

In our nutrition class they said Beans have too much starch and we're not supposed to reincorporate them until we've lost 75% of our excess weight and salsa has tomatoes - we're not allowed tomatoes due to them technically being a fruit. Not allowed any fruit until losing 75% of the excess weight. My dr runs a pretty strict program on the diet until you've lost most of your weight. He says we need to relearn how to eat and by avoiding these things, it will help to avoid cravings. I used to eat LOTS of fruit, but since I haven't been eating it for almost a month now, my cravings and appetite have changed quite a bit. Not allowed milk either due to the carbs (I drink soymilk, and that was not allowed either). To anyone that's reading this - I don't think of my dr poorly for this and I've actually found that it is working (for me at least) and I want to succeed. I've read a lot of people don't like when their dr's have restrictions like this, but I personally think I need it and it's helping me and I think the world of my dr and his entire office!

Well, I personally wouldn't know those words she mentioned and I have not seen any of those movies you listed. BTW, I did pass high school literature. So I also think you're assuming too much.

Thanks for the positive Like I said in my previous post, it's not a simple typo that bothers me, it's the people that just can't spell or the people that write like a teenager (Whatz up...) that kind of thing. That drives me crazy! The education system is something I won't go into...I think kids these days are not being taught properly, spelling OR manners! Parents aren't taking the responsibility for kids that they need to either. So I'll just stop there before I get fired up. (I'm not even that old to be saying "these days", I'm 23)

I think it is a good idea for you to offer a private convo about the weight loss. As far as telling people about the weight loss...I say I'm watching what I eat and going to the gym! It's not a lie, the band is not something that is magically going to drop it off. We have to work with the band so it's nothing that I feel everyone needs to know. If they've truly struggled and need to discuss it, they can talk in private about it. I personally could care less if someone compliments all the time! Say thanks and move on instead of getting upset about it. In the world we live in people normally like for others to recognize their changes (a new haircut, new outfit, OR weight loss!). Nobody means it in a bad way, so say thanks and don't take it poorly. No need to even go into more details. There is no reason to explain anything to anybody unless YOU want to.

I'm not allowed beans or salsa (but I don't like them anyway so I guess that's ok) But if you like this, you might like chicken with the taco seasoning, cheese and fat free sour cream. I'm on pureed and have been putting that in my bullet and it's delicious! Which taco seasoning do you use? I love the el paso taco seasoning!

I think that anyone you live with should know (at a minimum) these are the people you are going to need to help and understand these weird eating patterns (Liquid, mushies, low carb, etc...just not eating like you normally would). As far as anyone else - that's up to you. The people living with you are the ones that are going to notice some differences. I also told a few best friends that I knew I could trust and were supportive. All of them have been AMAZING! I love that I told them and they really have been wonderful. This is a personal choice and depends on the people around you.

While a lot of people think this is BS...some surgeons require it to make sure you are fit to have the surgery mentally. I think a lot of people go into this surgery and either lie through the psych eval or don't take this seriously and may not be over some emotional issues that they have that cause them to eat. Your surgeon may be requiring this and that is normal. If you read about some of the band failures...the band did not fail them, they failed their band. Some people have not worked through their emotional issues with food and learn to eat around their band. My appointment was about 2 hours and it wasn't bad at all. The lady was very pleasant and it was just like talking to someone for a few hours.

I'm not sure if this helps...but I read that it's best to forget "Breakfast, lunch and dinner" as to what you can eat at those times and just call it all meal time. So eat eggs for dinner, eat chicken for breakfast...etc. If you want something quick, try boca burgers, I heat them up in Water in the microwave for 3 minutes (I'm in pureed stage so I have to have them extra moist) they're also good just heated in the microwave for 2 minutes in a wet paper towel for extra moisture. Forget breakfast....eat whatever you want for MEAL time

Keep your head up! Does your dr have the scale that prints off the measurements? My dr has a special scale that documents how much fat mass, Water mass, etc you have and analyzes all kinds of stuff. If you're able to get on one of those scales, I'm sure it would show you're losing fat and gaining muscle! Keep working out and going strong, slow and steady wins the race, right?

I agree with Jack...A lot of people that have weight issues will increase their cravings by adding certain foods. My dr advises new patients to stay away from these foods for the first 6-9 months to help with the cravings and slowly reintroduce the foods. I realize you've had a lot of success and talk about all the food you can eat now, but a lot of us are still dealing with trying to lose weight and stopping cravings. So this is good advice for most new banders...This isn't for a life without carbs but to relearn your eating habits. (Jack sorry if this wasn't what you were thinking...but this is what I've been told and have found that it's true! I haven't had carbs for almost a month now and the cravings are almost gone. The first few days without them, the cravings were horrible!)

I have no answers to your questions...no kids, not planning on any (at least very soon) but there is a forum on here just for these questions! http://www.lapbandtalk.com/forum/122-pregnancy-with-the-lap-band/ Hope this helps!

As the previous posters said, it really varies by the dr. I see a lot of people on here talking about things they can eat but my dr does not allow fruit. It's loaded with carbs and natural sugars but he says until I've lost 75% or more of my excess weight, I need to eliminate carbs, even fruit. I also see a lot of people on here that talk about what they may drink or eat and some don't seem to care what their doctor says. Typically these things are discussed in your nutrition classes pre operatively.

Your lungs get a little "tired" with the rest of you when you have surgery and are put to sleep. I had this as well and had a cough for a day and the next day I was fine. Try deep breathing (I know it hurts but trust me it will get better!) Take really deep breaths and do it 10-15x every hour to strengthen them. That's a good idea to have the dr listen to your lungs to make sure you're not getting sick from it, but it is likely that you just need to do some deep breathing exercises.