hmm33502

This week has been, to say the least, chaotic. It was a very stressfull week at work and a crazy weekend of watching children (4 between the ages of 15 months to 7 years)....while I do not have any of my own! My normal reaction to chaos and stress is to eat.....eat anything and everything...lots and lots of sugar. This time, I was in control. I didn't eat as well as I normally do, but I didn't eat as poorly as I have in the past. I was expecting a gain or maintain when I stepped on the scale this morning and.....low and behold.....a 7 lb loss! I worked really hard to eat combinations of food that yeild balanced blood sugar....lots of protein and good fat and lower carb combinations. Now, I did have my indulgences (I watched children this weekend....they like mac and cheese and ice-cream....I had to try a little! I think this played the biggest part in balancing my blood sugar (I tend to lean to the hypoglycemic side of things) and helping to keep my hunger under control. I also am using an online calorie and nutrient tracker through my iPhone....a huge help. I try to keep my calories between 1000 to 1200 every day, and am successful MOST days. I am 32 lbs down since my surgery on 3/1/2011! This is right on track, a little ahead, of where I was planning to be! The next goal is to get under 270 lbs.....13 more lbs to go!

Is the glass half empty or 1/2 full.....do I continue to dig through the pile of manure to see if there's a pony underneath? Your mind is a battlefield and winning the physical battle is not only physical, but mental too! I look at the total amount that I need to lose to be a healthy BMI and the number is menacing. 168 lbs to lose total....that is the same as losing one, whole overweight adult. I can look at the amount that I have to lose, or I can look at the amount in terms of weeks. If I lose, on average, 2 lbs per week, it will take me 20 months to lose all of the weight that I need to lose. It took me many years to put it on, so losing in 20 months would be AWESOME! I can even, more realistically look at 24 months to lose, plateau's and such, and that really is pretty reasonable too. I was banded 3/1/11 and have had 2 fills: 3/30/11 - 1.6 cc and 4/18/11 - 1 cc. I am 21 lbs down since surgery and am very concious about my calories consumed. I guess the answer is that my waist is getting smaller...so is my booty....FYI! My dad always said..."The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time." This weight loss is like eating an elephant......so.....Grab me a fork and some BBQ sauce.

The gas pain was the worst part for me. It lasted for 5 days and was painfully severe. I was thinking for the first 5 days that the lap band Idea was a horrible idea and I should have never done it. After that, it has been easy and great! The band became a good idea again. Every day get's better and easier!

I don't have a councelor, yet....but I think it's a good idea. I think it is important to talk your feelings over with someone who understands you and can give an "educated" opinion, instead of an uneducated opinion like you would get from friends or family. There are also local support groups for ideas about ways to overcome roadblocks, and groups like Overeaters Anonymous for extra added support. I had 168 lbs to lose originally and have decided to share all of my information through blogs and facebook. The more people that know about my journey, the more I am accountable for being successful. I don't want to have to make a post on facebook about being a failure! Good luck to you! It can be done. There are quite a few people here who have done it, many with psychological support!

YES....they attacked me! Believe it! I only weigh in when I go to my doctor, which is ever 2-4 weeks. I have only been banded a little over a month, so I am still trying to guage how this will work for me and the amount that I can expect to lose. I went in for my first fill and my total loss since banding was ONLY 10 lbs! I knew what was to blame.....it wasn't my effort....my eating.....my band....it was a margarita and a mojito. I decided to go out to dinner the night before my appointment to celebrate with a friend. I am not a bi drinker, but I will have drinks on occasion and this time, I wasn't thinking very clearly. I know that alcohol makes me retain water like CRAZY! BAD IDEA....really bad idea. According to my Endocrinologist, I had lost 20 lbs since January. According to my at home scale, I had lost 25 lbs from my heaviest, so to see a 10 lb loss was deflating to my ego. Any other time, I would have been beside myself to lose 10 lbs in 4 weeks, but I just expected more. WHY IS THAT STUPID NUMBER SO IMPORTANT TO US? My clothes fit better. Everyone I know says I look like I have lost weight, but it's the scale's opinion I trust....WHY? I have another fill on 4/18/2010.....we'll see what happen then. No more margaritas or mojitos....for a really long time! MORAL OF THE STORY.........Don't drink and weigh-in.

I also had NO pre op diet. It was just low fat and lots of Protein. My doctor does this to minimize cheating and eating solid foods after you are banded, which can cause serious complications. If you are prepared to start liquids now and stay on liquids 1-2 weeks after surgery, you can lose quite a bit of weight. I, personally, wouldn't be able to stick with it! Good luck in APRIL!

I love it! I have been bad about tracking for the last couple of days! (hmm33502)

I guess mine was a little more intensive! In addition to weigh-in, checking incisions, vitals, we had a 2 hour post op seminar with a nutritionist on eating for the next few weeks of healing and how to eat after healing. They talked more about fills and how often we should be coming in to get them. This is in addition to the pre-op seminar that we had about what to expect, because your mind isn't as focused on what to eat after, as it is on the actual surgery. I hope it's more than a quick in and out, especially if you are paying for a visit!

You can write off any medical expenses over 7.5% (i think it's 7.5% or maybe 9.5%) of your Gross income. ALL MEDICAL EXPENSES. They include perscriptions, food for specially perscribed diets (like an all liquid diet), surgery, doctor visits, copays, etc. Get all expenses together and check it out!

I was banded almost 4 weeks ago, but I need some help from more "experienced" bandsters. I only weigh in when I go to my doctor's office (which is once per month). I notice that if I weigh every day, I becaome obsessed with a number. I can gain and lose 5 or more pounds of Water weight in a day and seeing a higher number on the scale can discourage me and push me into my old ways of depressed, emotional eating. On the other hand, staying more accountable and weighing more often may be better, so if there is a problem with my loss, I can catch it earlier? Is weekly the optimum weigh-in amount? Opinions and input welcome! (next WI is 3/30/11....according to endo, I've lost at least 20 lbs!)

I attended my initial lap band seminar in September. I was very angry with my boss for the insurance plan that we have...he eliminated weight loss surgery from the BCBS cafeteria plan. I was stuck with self pay, so I contemplated surgery for 3 more months....it was $10K, out of pocket! I eventually decided, at the end of January 2011, to proceed with surgery. Surgery was set for March 1, 2011 and I was excited....just excited, not scared.....READY! My doctor, Dr. Wilkenfeld in Conroe/The Woodlands, TX had a wonderful 3 hour pre-op seminar about eating, medications, exercise...everything to know before and after surgery. I also attended a 2 hour post op seminar about food and nutrition. There are monthly seminars about everything from diferent types of exercise, information from dieticians, plastic surgery...I attend my first one this weekend! My doctor performs this surgery as an outpatient procedure, so ther was no overnight stay for me. I went home after the surgery feeling like I had been hit by a truck. For 4 days, I thought "What have I done to myself? This was a horrible decision." I had problems with nasuea from the liquid vicodin....as soon as I switched from that to Children's Tylenol, I felt much better! I had surgery on Tuesday and was out of the house on Friday! I took it easy through the weekend and was able to return to work on Monday (yoga pants and no underwire until Thursday)....luckily, I didn't have to go see any customers! By Thursday, I was back to almost normal and had my first post op appointment. I was down 8 lbs in 10 days...not too bad! I haven't weighed again since then, so I don't know where I am 23 days out, but I am in pants that I wasn't able to button pre surgery. I only weigh when I go to my doctor's office. Next appointment and first fill is 3/30/2011....I'll have my weight update and the real truth after the first fill! I have some restriction, but I am pretty hungry 2-3 hours after eating. I have had a few problems with eating too much, but PB (productive burping) helped and I haven't made that mistake in a while. There was ALOT of gas pain for the first week....this was the most painful part of the surgery. I have more gas issues now than I did before, but I DID have major surgery to my digestive tract, so that is to be expected. It gets better every day.

I'll be doing that! I'll take all of the Tax Deductions I can get! I have been thinking about if I need to switch to weekly weigh-in, but I don't trust at home scales! I find too much fluctuation in various readings.

A little preface to this blog entry.......I have to post something I wrote back in January. To understand where I'm going, you have to understand where I've been. I have been labeled, by my friends and family, as the "Perfect specimen of everything". They all joke about how I can do everything really well. I'm a Chemical injection pump applications engineer, graduated from Texas A &M with a degree in Industrial Distribution Engineering, play piano, sing, cook, super mechanically minded, volunteer with 4 year olds, lead a young single ladies small group, am starting school to get my estiticans license to become a makeup artist....I can do it all and I have an AWESOME support system in my friends and family. Weight...it's the one thing that I haven't been able to do...ever! Jan 2 2011 Pay no attention to the fact that it is January 2 of yet another year that I am going to try to get healthy. I started writing this in a journal that I had started back in Feb 2006. Let’s keep this imperfection between us…I wouldn’t want my friends and family to really know how imperfect I am, but I am letting you pull back the proverbial “curtain” and see me for who I really am. I weigh 327.4 lbs and am 5’4” tall. Yeah, let’s not even bring up my BMI. I’ll give you a hint, MORBIDLY OBESE……MORBID….that means death. This weight may kill me. That, in itself, should be enough to make me change my eating habits, but this is a struggle I can’t overcome…….at least, not alone. Today, in church, the preacher (a guest preacher, so I don’t know his name) spoke about faith. He told the story about the paralytic man brought to Jesus by his friends. They had faith….the friends and the paralyzed man, had faith that Jesus could heal this man. The preacher talked about the woman plagued by bleeding for 12 years and how her faith brought her to touch the cloak of Jesus. This healed her, not because of Jesus’ magical cloak, but because they had faith that GOD could heal her when numerous others had tried and failed. I’m not saying that I don’t believe that God can heal me of my eating problems, I’m saying that maybe that is somewhere that I haven’t been placing my faith. I have had faith to pray for my doctors. I have prayed that God would give them the wisdom to figure out the problem with my Pituitary tumor, my borderline low growth hormone levels, and my other PCOS related issues. I have been praying that I could find a disease or a problem to blame my weight and health problems on, instead of praying and having the faith it takes to ask GOD to take the problems away, altogether. GOD is the ultimate healer! I have always struggled with my weight and eating. I was 180 lbs in the 6th grade. Weight has fluctuated throughout life, but I was around 200 lbs near the end of college. Do the math and you’ll find that I have gained 127 lbs in the past 8.5 years. THAT’S INSANE. It has to stop. It stops now. I’m not looking at a number, I’m looking at a lifestyle and a quality of life that I want back. GOAL #1: Multipart goal – get under 300 lbs by controlling portions. Get my weight down so that the back pain goes away.

Thanks for the comments! I am currently working in Houston, but my heart is still in College Station! (There just aren't too many chemical and petrochemical plants in CS!)

That's exactly the way it happened with me! I was painfully bloated for 10 days. My abdomen was bloated and I looked bigger than when I went in! lots of burping and other "gasses" continued for the next 2 weeks, but I can say that 4 weeks post-op, i'm almost back to normal. Still really burpy!

OH! I just read the self-pay part.....I was self-pay, banded 3/01/11. It was $9900 and includes 1 year of unlimited fills (wont fill closer than 2 weeks apart) and all of the seminars and a support group that meets on Tuesdays. (haven't done the support group yet!) If you are self pay, you are banded at the TRUE RESULTS surgery center in the medical center. I had my own financing, but I know that they have options for financing. Hope this helps!

Dr Wilkenfeld in conroe/the woodlands is wonderful! He and his staff work closely with self pay or insurance companies. They are very focused on education before and after the surgery. I attended my first monthly seminar this past weekend. It was 2 sessions, one concerning taking the emotion out of eating and proper carbs/protien/fat ratios, and a clinical psychologist who discussed stress management techniques. Once a month, you are invited to an educational workshop on various topics (workouts, tai-chi, nutrition, emotional and stress management, etc) He does a no pressure intro seminar (1 hour) and a 2-3 hour pre-op eating seminar and a 2 hour post op seminar. Lot's of help before and after, and their self-pay program is wonderful!

I am not a medical expert, but this is the explaination that I have been given with some of the same symptoms that you have. I had an occasional pain in my side after exerting myself physically. My doctor said that the scar tissue that is bilding up around your port can "catch" on your ribs causing pain when working out or breathing deeply. I still have the occasional pain twinge at my incision sites (almost 4 weeks out). The swallowing too much air or too big a bite of food feeling has been explained to me as the feeling when your pouch is full. It feels EXACTLY like I ate too much food and stays until the food or drink has filtered through my stoma! I hope this helps. If it feel more severe than what I am describing, definately go and see your doctor!

I saw my ENDO today and, according to them, I have lost 20 lbs sincy my last visit there (in DEC). I got some other info about HYPO and lab band. They said that we need to be on the lookout for the jittery, anxious, fast hear beat, palpatations feeling because it is very easy to fall into the HYPER range for every 15-20 lbs lost. Make sure that you are seeing your endo regularly. Mine won't let me go past 3 months on regulated meds and 1 month on changed meds! I will have the official and post the weight loss count on Wednesday when I see my WLS!

The first week was horrible, but I can say that 3+ weeks out, it's great! I too had to get off of my liquid Vicodin because it was making me sick. Children's Tylenol worked perfectly for the pain! I have no problems sleeping on my stomach, but there is the "catch" from the port on my ribs from time to time! (Dr says it's normal) 4 of my 5 incisions are almost invisible and the 5th was kind of a large one (port incision)! I still have an empty band, but I am experiencing some restriction and definate help with portion control! I know my signature says that I have only lost 8 lbs, but I only weigh when I go to the doctor. Next WI is 3/30/11...I expect the overall loss since surgery to be 15-20 lbs! Good luck all!

My doctor has always said 3 hours to eat anything with calcium...1 hour for everything else...something about the calcium attaching to the meds and rendering it less effective! Definately talk to your endo....I have my first endo appt since surgery tomorrow! Good luck! You'll do great. I wish I would have thought of doing this at 19 instead of 13 years later!

Syntrax Nectar is a WONDERFUL protein drink. They have 100 cals and 23g protein per scoop and come in LOTS of flavors. There are milk based flavors (chocolate, vanilla, etc) and fruit flavors (strawberry kiwi, lemonade, fruit punch)......I drink the Vanilla bean torte and the strawberry kiwi! You can get sample packs for around $15 (online) that have 13 different flavors to try. They have individual serving pouches or the large bulk containers.

I am very newly banded and had the same concerns initially. I have always had a problem with portion control. I find that I can eat 1/4 to 1/2 cup of food per meal, but I eat more frequently than 3 time per day. It is something that is a little tricky to get used to, but it has helped me to change my mindset about portions very quickly. I have had a few instances where I ate too much food and had to PB it up (not as bad as vomiting, don't worry)! I have had small amounts of flour products (1/3 tortilla, 1/3 piece of garlic bread) and have had no problem, but I am very careful to chew them completely! It's something that you must get used to, but it really isn't too difficult. It's amazing how much I don't crave the larger portions or excessive amounts of food. I do have problems with hunger because my band isn't filled yet, but I eat every 2-3 hours! When I go out to eat, I take leftovers home (most of today's portions can last 3-5 meals) or I share with someone (I eat about 1/5 and they eat the rest!) It's been a great experience so far....very life changing. I guess it's a trade off....better health or eating all of the food you used to eat.....notice I don't say "want" to eat because your desire to eat large amounts changes with the band!