trish151

Oceangirl. I don't always have a lot of time to read all of the posts. i usually can hit the top 5 or 6 because I am trying to get in as many steps on my pedomiter as I can. I think we were banded the same day. If I can answer any questions or if you need someone to talk to about anything, look me up on facebook. My name is under Trish Smith and there is a picture of me and my husband on there. I get posts sent to my iphone so I can answer them while I am walking. Good luck girly poo. We are on our way. My pain is mostly gone but I noticed it hurts like heck to drive. Not a good thing since my son gets his driving permit in the morning and is just waiting for me to have a twinge of pain show on my face so he can drive.

giggle....................I love it.

I haven't had that problem with my dog. He's a little pick-ur-knees but since I had surgery, I have been getting complaints from my husband and son about the portions I feed them. They seem to think since I am only eating a small amount that I am cuttting their portions in half of what I used to give them. I guess I am not paying attention and put my little palm size plate next to theirs when I am putting it all together and the amount I put on their plate, looks like a mountain of food. Guess I'll have to watch it and not starve my skinny butt husband and son.

I had the same thing starting day 2. I kept taking my pain meds and I am day 7 today and all is gone. I am eating my thicker soups and stuff and lauging at how great I feel and how little I can eat. I agree, call your doctor and ask for pain meds. My doctor mailed mine to me about a week before surgery. Also, I have heard a lot of people saying they can't take the NSAIDS. My Dr. told me not to take them in the two weeks prior to surgery because it acts as a blood thinner. My post op paperwork says I can take them. I was even having a hard time finding liquid tylenol or ibuprofen so my dr. told me they make a liquid tylenol called Tylenol Blast. I finally found some at one pharmacy but I coudn't find the liquid or chewable tylenol. He told me to get the children's virsion that I would just have to double the dosage. Maybe you can check with your doctors now to see if it is ok to take. My ibuprofen sure works a lot better than Tylenol.

I agree with Mckreegar. Sometimes you just have to kiss a bunch of toads until you find the right frog. It has been my experience as a counselor that most people who look only for perfection in their mates, usually have self esteem issues.................HELLO! When you find the right one, you are so glad you kept looking. I kind of setteled with my first marrage and I paid the price. My first husband was rude and took every opportunity he could to put me down. My husband now is a wonderful man. When I was stuggling with my weight, he encouraged me. When I wanted to have surgery, he got on the band wagon and listened every time I told him something I found out. On the day of my surgery he held my hand and cheered me on the whole way there. This whole time I have been struggling over the past few years, he would call me throughout his day at work and say hello gorgious. You are gorgious too. Go for the guys who think and say so.

I am so thankful you are ok. You know (giggle) God works in mysterious ways. Maybe someone there was needing to have a band and you showing up with some answers will help them make a decision.. I have had so many positive remakrs about mine and a lot of questions. So far, Ihave only heard positive remarks and no negative ones.

I had the same thing and it started on day two. My husband got me some sugar free peperments and that completely got rid of the nausea feeling. My Dr. said that my stomach was swollen and that was the reason for having problems with getting fluids in. I also got some of the thermo care heat wraps. I got the kind for your lower back because it came big enough to wrap around me so I could move it to where the pain in my shoulder moved. I got up and went out to my garage each day with my iphone tunes and raised the door so I could enjoy the sunshine and I just listen to my music and walk around in small circles. I am 6 days post op and feel like a million bucks. I have been logging about 30,000 steps on my pedomiter each day and it seems to be a lot easier to drink my fluids when I am standing up. The music also helps make my heart feel happy.

I think it is easy for all of us to get discouraged if we hit a plateau for a few days or a few weeks. We start thinking something isn't working. For me, in the past. I would start thinking bad thoughts about how I was going to fail again. The thing I forgot to do is to love the journey and to remind myself that our bodies have an amazing ability to heal. A plateau may look discouraging from the standpoint that we aren't seeing the scales move but if we take a second look, it may be our bodies way of protecting us. It may just be that our bodies slow the weight loss to allow the skin to have time to retract. When we loose a lot of weight fast, we know that we stand a chance of having sagging skin. I used to get so mad when I would plateau. Now, I just keep on keeping on and remind myself that my body, mind, or both is processing the changes that are going on inside of me, my skin is tightening up to conform to the weight loss and my mind is adapting to make sure the changes are what I want and that all is safe for me. Since I have had this change of mind and continue to send myself love and acceptance instead of getting mad for not seeing the scales move, I have noticed that my plateaus are fewer and they don't seem to last as long. Keep picturing your end result. Let your mind fully grasp where you are going to end up and then just be full of joy that you are not where you started out. If I start to have a discouraging moment now, I turn on my radio for the day and just dance around and allow myself to feel good, even if I don't understand everything that is going on with me. I am in smaller clothes. My face is smaller. Sometimes it truly is all about how you look at it. Good luck on your journey guys. We are all amazing. Take some time to love where you are today and where you are going. God, thank you today that I am working to get another pound of weight off of my bones and that I am not fighting cancer or another terminal illness. Thank you that what I am losing is weight and not a limb. Thank you for walking with each one of us to give us hope and insperation as we go to places we have never been before in mind, body, and spirit...........and God, thank you for the new image you have given me of my body when I reach the top of this mountain, even if somedays all I can take is a baby step to get there.

You know, the mind is powerful. I don't know what your religious affiliation is, but I too had some of the same worries cross my mind. I say cross, because I chose to only let them be brief. We are told to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We may have little control over what come across our minds but we can use them to pray for the opposite if the thought is of something such as a blood clot that could harm us, and then meditate on the fact that we prayed for help on our weight loss journies and we received it. At the end of the day, when you have done all you can do, just thank God that you are on your way and have his protection to see you through. I had several friends and family members who were a little concerned for me to have this surgery but I feel that God moved a lot of things around to make it happen. It was also the help that I have been praying for all of these years. I know the inability to lose on my own was a stronghold in my mind that I couldn't get past. Each day I have been telling my body thank you for it's ability to renew itself and heal. If you really think about it, someone put holes in your stomache just a few days ago and already your body is healing and changing into the new you that you have accepted. Regardless if you have to take an extra day off from work. Help me celebrate today that we did this. Take a nap, turn on the radio and walk a few steps in place and just allow yourself to giggle and be happy that you took such an important step towards your goal. It can all be down hill from now.

Ok, I am 5 days post op and so far all I have been eating is one or two sugar free popsicles a day and drinking my muscle milk light for the protein plus my water and vitamins. That has been enough until this afternoon, I started feeling hunger. My husband and son made a pizza and the smell was driving me wild. I took about 4 baby spoon bites of some sugar free jello and my husband let me run my baby spoon across his pizza to get a small pea size amount of sauce to taste and I feel like I ate the whole pizza myself. It is so wonderful how just a small amount of flavor can do so much. Before I could have eaten that whole pizza by myself. I love this band so much.

Try adding a squirt of lemon juice to your water. It works wonders.

Slm, I agree, sometimes you have to do research on your own and hear the complaints of others and then research what it is about. For me, I took in the negative comments and asked God to help me through this. There are people who will complain if you handed them a miracle. Some people are just negative and nothing you can say to them will change that. You have to decide what is going on with your body and find out what the band does. I posted yeaterday that I love my band so much and I received several negative comments on how I better enjoy it now because I would soon be in bandster hell and would be hungry all of the time. A lot of the things we go through have a negative or postive effect based on how we choose to look at it. Today is 6 days out for me and yesterday was the first time I have felt hungry. This band is doing exactly so far what I hoped for but the journey continues. Each day is different and I will deal with it as things arise. I am so thankful to have my band and I am so thankful that my insurance paid for all but a small portion. I have struggled with my weight for so many years and to have some help is just amazing. I choose to look at the positive side of my band. I get up and tell it I love it. I still have a few little aches and pains and my port is a little sore. but my surgery went great. I am off my pain meds. My incisions are healing perfectly and I have lost a few pounds. I get up and walk and I feel so good. I guess you have to decide how you are going to look at this on your own, inspire people where you can and then let the nay sayers bitch and moan as they are going to anyway. Best of luck on your decision.

Ocean girl, sorry to hear that. Are you walking much? I turn on my iphone tunes and just walk around in small circles or take small steps in place out in my garage and just giggle as I know this is going to work this time. When I did get a little hungry today, I just kept sipping at my water and took a few bites of a sugar free popsicle. It worked great until I smelled the pizza and then the sugar free jello was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. I got off my pain medicine today and I pulled the waterproof bandaids off my incisions. They still have the steristrips on there and I can see a little dried blood but they are healing beautiful. Celebrate with me. Woo Hoo, we did it. I also looked through the gallery on here last night of some of the before and after pics. I was amazed at how great some of our fellow bandsters have changed. That is going to be us next year. We are going to log our success stories. Just remember, sometimes it's all how you look at it. Say I love my band 3 times out loud. Giggle that you are no longer waiting for approval from insurance and are now waiting on your surgery date, and see if you DON'T JUST LOVE YOUR BAND.....................giggle.

Courtney, I understand what you are going through. Sometimes the whole world will come against you when you are trying to do something to turn your life around. I know this all to well. I have only been banded a few days now but the struggle with my weight has been a long time. I am sorry to hear about your brother but I know how the loss can have an effect on your eating. about 7 years ago my mother committed suicide. My youngest sister then tried to commit suicide. I lost two grandfather's and a grandmother the same year and as the year was coming to an end, my first husband walks in one day and says that he can't take the drama of all the deaths in my life and he wanted a divorce. In addition to my agony, I lost a lot of friends during that time. I didn't know why at the time but now I understand that I had so much come against me that many of my friends just didn't know what to say to me. Some where just worried that they would say the wrong things so they just stayed away. That left me with my unstable emotions and my eating. The stress of it all ended up causing me to have some health problems and I ended up being diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I thought the medicine they gave me would be the magic answer but it wasn't. Long story short, I have spent the last couple of years soul searching and the conclusion is that I have to focus on taking care of me. I took a year to really read and study my bible to find out what it says about me. All my life, I have taken care of other people and what little time was left over, I would do something for myself. Usually I would reward myself with some sort of food treat. That made me feel better until it didn't. It didn't work any more when I couldn't wear the clothes I wanted to wear. It didn't work any more when I couldn't get the job I wanted because I knew they were concerned about my weight. It didn't work any more when I got remarried to a wonderful and supportive husband but sex as an issue for me because I was ashamed of my body. Then I would have the other things that went with that. You know, how you fail to loose a pound even though you have been trying really hard to watch what you eat all week and so once you get on the scales, the day is shot and you are permenantly depressed for the rest of the day and wonder why you even bother. I decided to have the lap band because it is time for me to face the elephant in the room (me). I have to make me a priority no matter what. I posted this on another post but I will repeat it. I have to let joy fill my heart and I have to start celebrating my life instead of being so filled with dread that I wait for the next devastating thing to happen. I take time now to Celebrate everything. I have walked around my house for the past few days just a giggling because I got my band. This was such a blessing for me. I don't care it it takes me 2 months to loose a half a pound. I set my goals short in front of me. My last goal was to weight 252. This morning I was 251.4 and so I celebrated by taking my Vitamins and doing a little "I did it" dance. I am choosing to allow myself to feel good no matter what goes on around me. I celebrate going to bed on time. I celebrated tonight taking a pea size bite of the pizza sauce that was on my husband's pizza. I celebrated today because I got off my pain meds and I walked 30K steps on my pedomiter. I celebrated getting out of the house for the first time since my surgery and going to the grocery store. There are still crazy things going on around me. I just found out last month that my son's father went missing. The police believe he was murdered but cannot find the body yet. I also got a call a few months ago from my oldest sister that her husband is divorcing her after 25 years of marriage and she was newly diagnosed with steriod induced type 1 diabetes. I also miss my mother dearly as I am sure you are grieving your brother. The thing I have to remember every day is that I have to celebrate my victories even as I encourage those around me. I was mad at my mom and other's for dying and leaving me but how can I fault them for going to a place that we are all living to get to one day ourselves. I still my mother's around me from time to time and I am saddened by the things going on in the lives of those I love. All I can do is encourage them to celebrate their victories along their path in life. It's the victories that make it all worth while but if we never celebrate it then we live in a really dark world. Sunshine, I encourage you to take as much time as you need to to grieve the loss of your brother. Then put a smile on your face and celebrate your band and the progress you have made. If you and your brother were close then I am sure that he would want you to get back on this horse and carry on girl. Life is so short. Make your next goal a pound under where you are today and when you reach it sometime later in the week. Put a big smile on your face and do that "yes" dance. Yes, I did it and yes I can keep going. If you have to live from moment to moment, Live from moment to moment. Best of luck to you.

Congratulations. I was banded 5 days ago and the hardest part of the whole journey was the waiting. I did not get nervous before the surgery. I was ready to get the show on the road. I tackeled the pre-op diet even though my surgion siad we could cheat. He told us to go out the night before and have a nice meal. My surgery went fine, it took about 45 minutes. I was in pain that day from the gas in my shoulder but everything else was a breeze besides the waiting before surgery. Now that I have been banded, I get up and walk each day as much as I can. I got a pedomiter to track my steps. The day of surgery I made it a little over 7K steps, the second day I made it 14k, the third I made it 20K and yesterday I made it 30K steps. It really helped to get rid of the gas pains. I also find myself walking around with such hope for my future. I keep giggling to myself because I did it. Best of luck to you guys. Today I got full on 1/2 a sugar free popsicle. This is so worth it.

My husband was quiet while I did the research but once I made up my mind, he was behind me 100%. The closer it got to surgery, the more excited he got. Then when I had my surgery (4 days ago), he has been an angel. He helped me at the hospital, helped me in the car, kept checking on me and kissing me on the forehead when we got home. Helped me out of bed. Did the laundry, vacuumed, went grocery shopping, and cooked his own meals the first few days. Now all he keeps talking about is how he can't wait to buy me a whole new wardrobe when I get to where I want to be. I am also 12 lbs down from when I started my pre-op diet and every pound I tell him I have lost, the more he cheers and tells me what a great job I am doing. Maybe yours will get more on board now that you have made the decission. I know it was hard for my husband to talk to me about the fact that my weight bothered him because he said he loves me so much and didn't want to hurt my feelings. I didn't like the weight on me either but was just sick of trying on my own. Hope that helps.

Sorry to hear that. I have a very supportive husband. I can tell you that from a counselor point of view that sometimes the people closest to us get scared when we start making changes in our lives, especially if they know that it will ultimately impact them. Your husband could fear that he will lose you if you lose the weight. This will just have to be one of those times where you either sit down and talk to him about it and if he is unwilling then you will have to reject the rude and unwanted comments and carry on with what you need to do. It sucks having no support but maybe if you calm his fears that he will be more supportive. On the other hand, some people are just asses and there is nothing you can do but ignore them. Best of luck. You know you always have your on line crew to keep you going.

I was banded on the 23rd too and the gas x strips haven't seemed to be working so I took some liquid mylanta while ago and that seemed to help more. I was getting the hickups and it felt like I needed to burp after even drinking room temperature water. I don't even care. I am so thankful to have this band. Most of my incision pain has gone away and I put 30K steps on my pedomiter today so the gas in my shoulder is all but gone. My neck was a little sore today so I put on a thermo care wrap and it feels better. Woo Hoo people here we go. I can feel myself getting thinner already.

I was itchy all over the past couple of days and called my Dr., He said to get some benedryl that I was most likely having a small reaction to the pain medicine. I am taking hydrocodone and on the information pamplet it says that one of the side effects may be itching. I got some benedryl and it stopped the itching but I agree, tell your doctor.

I took some children's ibuprofen and my dr. also said to take some benedryl. It halped a lot.

Throw your scales in the garbage, lol. I have just really started telling myself positive affirmations. I tell my body how much I love it and how proud I am of letting go of the weight and the scales started moving. I celebrate every pound now because I choose to believe that this time it is going to work and this time, it is not coming back. I am so proud of all of you guys. It took a big leap of faith to believe in ourselves to the point of having the surgery. I have began to celebrate everything. I celebrate my healing from the surgery. I celebrate that I don't have to take as much pain medicine. I got me a pedomiter that counts my steps and I walk as much as I can during the day and then celebrate at night that I did as much as I could. If you are anything like me, I spent years beating myself up that I couldn't do it on my own. I pray that God marks this journey with his own hands and guarantees my success. Each day I look at this as a mountain I am climbing. Sometimes it is hard to imagine looking at the view from the top but if I do what I can each day to imagine how glorious it is going to be to have the view after reaching the top, it makes it a celebration each time I take a step. So far today, I have lost 10 lbs from my preop starting point. I was banded this past Wednesday. My starting weight was 260m and this morning it was 253.4. Now my next goal is 252 and when I reach that goal (however long it takes), I am going to celebrate by allowing myself to be really happy about it. Write you out some affirmations and start telling your body how much you love it and it's ability to change and heal on it's own. Or, how proud you are of yourself and that you love how much it feels to be 8 lbs lighter. Look at what 8 pounds of butter looks like. You were once carrying that around and TaDa! it's gone. Write "I think I can, I think I can" on a sticky note and put it in your pocket or all over your house. Celebrate getting enough sleep and how much easier you can already move since surgery. You are doing great sunshine and every day and in every way, you are getting better, thinner, and stronger.

I had my surgery on Wednesday, Feb 23, and after reading of the placements of some of the ports, I just asked my Dr. if he wouldn't put it at my waistband. i have a naturally high waste and I didn't want to start wearing jeans later on and feel it cutting into the port area. Jeans always seem a little tighter when you first put them on. So, my surgion put mine about 3 inches above my belly button and slightly to the left. I also have a question. For some reason I had the idea that they were only going to put 3 little holes in me plus the port site. I have the port site plus 5 other holes. Does everyone else have this many incision places?

Jennedge, I get up and walk a lot and that has helped get the gas out. I have also been taking the gasX strips and putting one of those thermocare wraps on my back. It's like having a portable heating pad on. If you get some though, get the kind for your lower back and you can put it up higher on your shoulders. The ones that go on your shoulders are smaller and they only have two small sticky pads that don't stay on very well. The ones for your lower back go all the way around your body and have velcro on them.

I was banded 3 days ago and the first day I could drink water with no problems but I started having the sampe problem yesterday afternoon. I noticed that I can get warm coffee down easier and I can get my water down a lot better if I stand up when I am drinking it.

My doctor said I could take liquid ibuprofen but I was having a hard time finding any. He said to get the liquid children's and would be fine to take. they told me to alternate that and the tylenol. He said that the children's version was 100 mg per dose where when you used to take a pill it was 200 mg per dose. So you have to take a little bit more. I was also itchy from the pain medicine so he told me to get the children's liquid benedryl. It has really helped.