marillon

LJM you are doing very well. I am also still swollen up! My plastic surgeon (she is a woman) said to me it is a VERY big wound! Its not just the scars they had to tear all your skin. So its not surprising it swells up... Once the swelling has disappeared you should have your curves back. I am getting a tiny bit myself back as the swelling goes down. After the TT I had gained 22 lbs in liquid! While she cut of more than 12 lbs off me in skin. I upped my protieine intake drastically. Am eating lots of proteine bars and such. I also eliminated salty foods and such. Already lost half what I gained in liquid. Just takes time. I understand how you feel though. When I look in the mirrow I think hmm yeah looks straight then I see my thighs... and think URGH!!!I am going to need the whole works before I can feel normal! But one day of the time. What helps is remembering how bad it was before you lost the weight..

LJM I look the same. Straight treeblock now after the operation. But it is all l liquid. Am sure when we rid of this liquid and healed your get your curves back! It already looks sooo much good. And after you are healed you can do special exercises to get an waist. Nina- I had to pay for everything. Will pay for all else too. Fortunately I have a good job. I also going to loose my job and am getting paid a very nice amount of cash if I stay a few months extra's. I plan to use this money for that. Also in Holland its an taxdeduction so i get 52 perc incometax back on that. It is still a lot of money. Cost more than in the US I think. I have a questions for you guys what do you eat now after the operation(S). Afterall this is now an time to heal not to loose weight. You do need an extra amount of proteines to replace blood and rebuild skin and musles. Its already hard to get an normal amount in. In my case as I have to replace a lot of red bloodcells I need to eat a LOT of proteine. At least 80 GR per day. I still cant eat more than 25 gram of meat. Half an piece of toast and 3 Beans. So even with eating all I want I never get enough proteine in without resorting to supplements. What are you guys eating to speed up your recovery?

LJM you look very good! My stomach looked as bad as yours. It is amazing the change. My stomach is also so swollen as yours.

Thats holland for you... Will be long time before I have my port 'fixed'. What are you guys taking for the pain. I can only take paracetamol because of stomach accid. Does not do much for the pain. I had an morphine pump for an earlier cessarean and those things are GOOD. My recovery goes sloow. Dont feel am making much progress. Its nice to have an kinda flat stomach. But now I see how flappy and horrible my legs look! This was hidden for me and I could fool myself before. Now I see the naked thruth. Can only hope the next plastic operation will go better.

I been feel much better since yesterday. Although still feel I had an car crash. I am surprised I am still alive. It is a good idea though for anyone considering plastic chirugery to choose one who is alligned to an hospital and can take care of you in an emergency. If I would have gone to an private clinic I would be dead now. I did not know I had an belly button hernia. Yes my belly button looked bad but I always though because I was fat. I did not know I had any blood problems and could not receive an bloodtransfusion. I find it strange though this was not discovered Before the operation. Because of the plastic surgeon and private nurses I did survive and am back on road to recovery. He i am every considering having my breast done now! And no in Holland nothing gets paid by insurance. Maybe if you are dragging your belly behind you they woudl consider it. I mean they cut of 5 kg of skin and fat of my stomach and I was not considered extreme enough. I was wondering though. I have gained 20 lbs after operation. All liquid ofcourse. They pumped me up with so much stuff and blood to keep me alive that I feel an little piggie. I got on the scale expecting to see a loss and bam it hit me hard. How can I get rid of this extra liquid? Does it gradually disappear with time? I did not get an fill and was informed also by the plastic surgeon my port had totally dropped now at my pubic area and needs to be fixed. So is good thing I did not go for a fill...Also after loosing so much blood I am anemic and need to eat a lot of healthy food. I expect after I recover I dont need to loose a lot of weight anymore as it is mostly skin left. There is another good part about loosing 4 liter of blood... I stopped smoking the day after.... I had been trying and trying to stop being an chainsmoker... But I lost all graving and have now officiall stopped! I take a lot of vitamine C and arnica montana. This really helps. Most of the bruises I had already disappeared and I am feeling quite good considering all. I also take an multivitamine and Vitamine B 12 complex. I was told no sex for 6 weeks. To take it easy. I asked her to explain because there is an difference to take it easy and having no sex. She said no orgasms as the spasm can hurt your musles. It does depend though I think what kind of tummy tuck they did. No penetration and intercourse for at least 6 weeks. Guess though depends how you feel and how you are healing. You guys are all an inspiration and I have been readying all about your journey into plastic chirurgy. For most of us who have lost so much weight it is very hard to avoid plastic chirurgie.

no It was horrible... I came out of the tummytuck very pleased. They said it went well we cut of an minimum of 5 kg! Quite a lot! Then they said we found an hernia in your belly button and had someone fix it. Then I started to feel very bad. My bloodpressure went down to 60. They tried to regulate it with drugs but had no success and I felt myselfjust dropping off. Until the plastic surgeon decided to open me up again and they found massive bleeding because of the hernia they fixed. They said probably because of the lapbandsurgery. I had 4 liter of blood in my stomach. They they found out I had antibodies so they could not give me an bloodtransfusion and needed to have an special mix made. It was really bad and I am rethinking my plastic surgeries for a while....I came home today sick of hospital and always feel I recover best at home. My tummy looks not bad though. Really flat after removing 5 kg. Strange sitting and actually seeing your umm drains!

it totally blew up in my face! I had my tummy fixed on saturday. During surgery they found i i had an belly button hernia. Another doctor was called in to fix me. After surgery I went very bad. My bloodpressure went lower and lower. They prepped me up for surgery again found out I had 4 liter of bloodin my stomach. Then they found out they could not give me an bloodtransfusion because I had anti-bodies!! I survived until they had fedexed over some speciall prepared blood. Oh yes and my tummy hurts.....

But I went to see an plastic surgeon in Holland and got sheduled for an full tummy tuck the 8th of March. I went for an consultation and wanted to shedule my breast first thinking I had to loose more weight. I lost 70 kg. And as my stomach is still HUGE I thought I had to get more off. Which has turned out very very hard! According to her I should not loose more weight as I have a lOT of excess skins which will be kilo's. And she does not see much fat elsewhere. She convinced me to apply to my insurance for my breasts ( I wanted to have this done first and pay myself then my stomach) as this would save me a lot of money and she complete refused to do both at same day. Too risky she said with my condition. As this doctor came very recommended ( I did an search on internet and dutch forums) and we clicked I said hmm ok go ahead and she said well I can help you on the 8th of March.. I said how much.. She said the price 5350 Euro around 7800 usd. I did a fast calculation and said ok!. I went home called my bank and asked for a short loan in case I lacked 1000 which got approved immediately. I just cant believe it. When I look at my stomach I just cant see they can ever make something decent of that. Its huge and hangs over my legs. I cant see it happening but I guess cant look anyworse than it does now. I am absolutely disgusted with my stomach. I just cant wait till its all done and am also totally freaking out. They have to cut off so much meat and skin to make anything decent out of this... Who knows after all that skin removed I actually hit an acceptable weight..

I am asking this because after 16 months or so I feel the band does not do anything. I dont feel restricted. Can eat bread anything I want. I have no problem at all with any food. I can eat an normal amount of food I think. Because of this I went for a fill. I had 5 CC in an 5 cc band. I told my surgeon that I had no restriction. I did not even know it was there. So he said you want an agressive fill? Sounded good to me.. so I nodded. He put 2 cc in. Did not know you could overfill a band like that. I tried to drink. Completely shut down. So he takes out 1 CC. I was on 6 cc then. I tried to drink. I gulped down 2 glasses. NP I thought. Well when I came home I could not drink anymore. I thought hmm maybe swelling? I could take like little sips and this would trickle down. I thought would maybe be enough. After 4 days I was not feeling ok and decided I really had to take some out.. I was very dizzy and ready to fall down. So off again to the dr. They could not access the port. So I had to wait hours and hours while 6 different drs tried to take some liquid out. (I live in the netherlands... Only one or 2 places where they can help you with a band. So not very experienced drs with lapbands.). At 17.00 a dr and a nurse manages to take 2 cc out. While she had the needle still in me I said should I not drink something? ( I learned everything from this Forum after the band I was told nothing and sent to an dietist who did know anything either). Oh good idea she said. I drink an cup of Water. Runs down smoothly. I am thinking I had no restriction before on 5 CC and she took an extra out. So I said hmm I think you should put an half CC back in. I thought maybe with the swelling and all its not bad to have half CC out. So she puts back the half CC in.(now I wish I had not said that but going there again sigh). I was pretty starved and dehydrated and had visions of Mc.Donalds. No they never thought total dehydration was dangerous apperently. One nurse even said to me after hours of waiting well I would offer you some tea but you cant drink he! I already saw myself unconsiously on the ground before they would even start thinking something was wrong! I came home and we went to an take-out Chinees. I have not eaten in 16 months one normal meal. The lapband was very effectief on me because I had most of my overweight on my stomach and I believe this band was too small for me to start with (only one size in the Netherlands I think). So I pretty much starved for the whole time.(I am soo happy we are in 2008 where we can have plastic surgery and fix up yourself!) I ordered all my favorites went home and ate so much my stomach hurt for 4 hours afterwards...(I realised how dangerous that is and could havet turned out badly - I did learn a very good lesson) I went on the scale and had gained 5 KG from morning till evening! What an shock that was! Anyhow I figured out this morning that the battery of my scale was empty and gave an wrong number. I still have to go buy a new battery to know how much I lost or gained. So I was wondering does the lapband stop being helpful after an time. If the choice is not drinking or no restriction? Is it possible I lost so much fat on my stomach this band is now too big for me and that even with max restriction does not do much? I really wonder how I am supposed to eat now? I eat as much as I want in reason? I count calories? How much I have lived on 500-800 cal per day being very active. I still want to loose 10 more kg.... I went from total overeating (before the lapband) 150 Kg to starvation for 16 months. I am not used to eating normal. I did try with the lapband but when you can eat no meat, no bread, no Pasta, no vegetables and you hate Soups, yogurths, puddings and ice-cream what do you eat? I ate pretty much nothing. Every now and then an proteine shake. Lots and lots of chocolates... lots of crackers and cheese. And like 10 vitamine pills daily. I even de-adiccted of Cola Light. From 2 bottles a day to nothing. ( I had read that aspartane could make you stop loosing and could cause you strange pains, aches and even a tumor). I have to say everytime I eat something now with aspartane I do have bone ache. So there is something of truth in what they say of aspartane. Any experiences how I can keep my weighloss (80 Kg! and I do not want to gain ever again. (Being smaller is fantastic! I am much happier than I ever was before) , loose 10 more kg - if even possible -and start to eat healthy? I had hoped I would keep restriction until I was totally unfill. As my weighloss is very slow now I was not worried I would ever be underweight. I was not unhappy grazing on foods I really liked. But it seems my band does not work anymore.

I was restricted till about an month ago. I went from being unable to eat to being able to eat again. Think because I finally lost enough fat on my stomach. I only have fat left on my stomach unfortunately. Lost my whole butt, never had big legs, and pretty much lost it all over my body. I only have bones left on my butt very uncomfortable to sit down. So the only part of me still big is my stomach. It is very strange. I suddenly got overweight 15 years ago during a pregancy. I gained an enormous amount of weight eating same food. I tried to get help. This was before internet. I was told I must eat like an beast and got no help. After the pregnancy I struggled for 15 years to loose it and went to doctor after doctor. All said the same you eat too much. To be honest I never believed this. I never ate a lot. Still up to this day I believe I got overweight because of something wrong which happened during pregancy. Ofcourse the extra I gained after that was my own fault for getting depressed of being so fat and not moving. *For how long were you able to eat normal amounts? Since about an month. *What are you considering a normal amount? 3 meals a day with being able to actually eat an piece of meat - 100 gram- with vegetables. I used not to be able to eat this. Did not matter how long I chewed or what I tried. I do try now to make an effort to eat healthy. I have been doing this: Breakfast: coffee or tea and an proteine shake made with skimmed milk. Lunch: 2 crackers with something or I take an proteine bar. lots of tea and Water in between Dinner: this is my problem. I never fancy to eat. But been forcing myself to eat whatever I make. I eat one Breakfast plate or one bowl. As I dont have restriction I try to limit this amount. Never eat desert. Rarely I may eat an tiny bag of chips or 1 or 2 Cookies. Sometimes I eat some nuts in between. If I really want to snack I am addicted to creamcrackers with goatcheese and eat some of that. I even managed to eat an bowl of fresh made chickensoup last night. Every 3 weeks I get an chocolade mania and may buy two bars (black ones) and succum to this. *What foods were you eating once you were able to eat something besides chocolate and cheese and crackers? I do cook everyday very healthy mediteranea style as I am spanish. I normally cook meat baked in olive oil, lots of spices, tomatoes etc. Since about a month I have been actually eating what I cook. I eat like an breakfastplate full of it. I tried to include milk. *Did anyone ever say why your port was hard to access? Yes it was turned. It was the intention to have it fixed last time I went but because it was soo bussy they did not do it. Been trying to get it fixed for 7 months now. *Are these fills always done blind? Yes they have never used fluoro. *How many fills had you had before? I have had 4 fills or so each time aggressive ones. They dont do 2 cc fills. Dont know why. . You must eat-----and eating a healthy diet will result in a healthy weight loss! Small steady incremental fills do more for that than sudden aggresive fills that leave you swollen and unable to take in hard Protein again. Yes but unfortunately I dont have a choice. I can only go to this guy who does not give you much time. When I told him I wanted to lose another 10 kg he said thats impossible. You will struggle your whole life to maintain and I dont suggest it. I am still going to aim for it as I dont think that 5.6 feet and 70 kg is too little for me. Would still me or the high side of the BMI. Is not like I am aiming for size zero or something. Have either of you...marillon, or nanaof5 had any kind of scope or fluoroscopy of your band? Sounds to me like it is time to sit down with a Dr. with no fill needle in hand and get a grip on this band, before it erodes your stomach, or causes problems. We all have to work with it---------US, the Dr. and the band combined can do wonders, but each of us has to hold up our end or it won't work at all! Never. I did go with pain stomach but they patted my stomach gave me some pills and sent me on my way. I dont have much confidence in this doctor at all. I go there but they dont do anything. I dont exercise. I know I have to do this. I even have equipment at home. I bought myself an homegym, an magic leg thing, an step machine. But for somereason I never do it. I do walk a LOT. I normally spent saturday shopping and walking for 7 hours. Everyday I walk 30 minutes to work and back. I do try to move a lot. Every week I clean like nuts for 4 hours till I am sweating really hard. I dont really want to go to an gym. I have huge breasts and fill really uncomfortable having other people able to see me. Arobics and jumping things are impossible also because of that. Swimming I love but same problem. I hope after I had plastic chirurgy I wont feel so self consious. Thanks for the tips all of you. I may end up trying visiting a doctor in Belgium. I already decided to have plastic chirurgie in France and not in Holland. Everytime I end up in an Dutch Hospital it all goes wrong. Nor do I think they have the experience with operating on ex-obese woman.

I had the lapband placed on 18th of October 2006. Its an 6 CC band with 5 CC in. I had 2 fills and last one was in October 2007. I was not able to eat any quantity of food and did not feel hungry. I lost like 65 KG. At first I lost fat all over my body except my stomach which was my biggest probleem. Finally it started to come off there. Since a month I can now eat anything I want. Saturday I was able to sit through an 8 course Japanese meal without even having any problems. I can even eat bread and anything I want. I cant eat HUGE quantities but I can easily eat an steak or 1 slice of bread. I have never managed more than a quarter of a slice of bread. I am also starving and feel the need to eat. Could it be that I finally lost enough fat on my stomach that I can actually eat a lot again or is this actually the quantity I am supposed to be eating. I need to loose before August another 15 KG because of plastic surgery. Thursday I have an appointment with my surgeon and will try to get him to give me another fill and fill it up to 7 CC. He told me he could overfill the band? He will also put my port right as it has flipped and it is not reachable. I need to loose another 15 kg as I have made an appointment with an plastic surgeon to fix myself up. After loosing so much weight I look really bad and I want to finally start to feel better after this long struggle. 'Just' another 14 kg sigh. So after the fill I am going to go on an liquid Protein diet as I also am stuck in an plateau for weeks and nothing seems to be happening. Anyone has experience with an liquid proteine diet to break through an plateau or to try to loose the final weight as soon as possible? I am afraid the plastic surgeon wont operate me till I am on my ideal weight although considering I have a lot of excess skin and am big breasted how can I ever hit that point? What do you think?

you said you lost 12 pounts very fast. How long did it take you? Do you realise you have to burn 9.900,- Calories to burn 1 kilo of fat? I think at the start you loose also a lot of water and then when you are loosing weight- burning fat- it does not show on your scale because you are recovering a bit of water. So the scales lie to you. I dont think you should eat any less this will get your metabolism slowed down and makes it more harder later on to loose weight. 6 small meals a day would also do that. You could look at your carb intake like recommended as yes this can help you loose faster weight. You are also exercising which can put on more muscle and you will need that extra bit of food to keep your body burning fat. I think you are doing great. Just hang in there and try to make sensible choices and you will see the scale start to move or throw the scale out - I could never do that - and buy a measure tape.

Just wanted to let you know that it can be done. It will take time and a lot of patience , frustration, and endurance and maybe some hairloss.. I went from 150 kg (303 lbs) plus -not sure what I weighted before- to 84 kg today (169 lbs). Ideally I would like to loose another 14 kg (28 lbs) to be able to have some plastic chirgury done. I was banded in October 2007 so 15 months in total. Before the lapband I never managed to loose even a few lbs in all my attempts to loose weight. During this 14 month with my band I never believed I could loose all the weight. I did pretty much everything wrong. I did not exercise a lot. At least I did not go to a gym. I did start to walk a lot and try to move doing things I enjoyed. Like walking on a shoppingcentre for hours or just cleaning my house. And I did some dance lessons. I plateaued for months on ends or loose weight very very slowly like 2 lbs per month. It would totally despair me as I just did not understand why I could not loose weight. Especially as the first 6 months I lost most of the weight and after that it just sloooowed down. I tried everything from lots of exercise to starving to eating chocolates. Also started weighttraining. To going atking to no meat to only fish. My scale would not budge! Loosing weight is a huge mystery. Calories in and calories out are for sure not the only factors involved. Last week I thought well this must be my weight but no suddenly my scale started to move and I suddenly started to loose again. It is still going down. So as long as you keep trying and keep at it even if you loose weight very slowly or you start thinking omg this is going to take years or never going to happen It will happen. I thought that and now when I think back I think wow I really made it this far so I maybe I can even make it to the end. And if I the worst eater in the world can do it I believe in anyone able with a looong breath to manage it. I have absolutely no discipline and no patience at all! Give me an box of chocolates and I'll eat it! Afterall its the end line that counts not how long it takes you to do it. I believe you can all do it.

I have experienced a LOT of discrimination. Now I live in the Netherlands where there are not so many overweight people so I really used to stand everywhere. Well I used too after loosing 125 LBS I am perceived as more normal. I was fat for 15 years during these years I was discriminated almost anywhere (shops, doctors, work, jobhunting name it) . I have even been declined by a agency as being too fat and so not in the market. Doctors in NL seem to blame everything on your weight and dont take you serious at all. If you have a problem they dont order test no they say its all because of your weight. Then when they fuck up they say diagnosing you is soo difficult with all this FAT. People, collegeaus will treat you differently. You are perceived as lazy, prone to diseases so a risk for an company. Men look at you different. Since i have lost so much weight it is like I have gone from an non-entity to an human being. I am shocked how differently you are treated being smaller. Also I find it is much more accepted in society for a men to be overweight but for a woman to be overweight is disaster. You are suddenly not desireable so not interesting. The whole society is pretty shallow as a lot of people only seem to care about their looks. So yes you are pretty much discriminated if you are obese.

Every operation has a risk. You need to realise things can go wrong but thats something you have to decide for yourself. Being very obese is a very high risk also. You have to decide if you want to go on like you are now or take a risk. I for sure would never have lost so much weight on my own. I had an bmi of 50 when I had my lapband placed. I was desperate and very depressed and frankly did not care anymore if something went wrong or not. I was one of this 1 perc of which things did go wrong during the operation. I died during the operation and they had to reanimate me. I was in operation for 6 hours and woke up in intensive care after. That was a big shock but if you ask me now would you do it again I would say yes. Thats my personal decision. I weighted over 150 kg with 1.68 meter. I could not walk had enormoush bloodpressure and did not see how I was ever going to get out of that. The enormousity of losing all that weight seemed impossible to me. Now one year later I weight 90 Kg. I still have a long way to go but I can fit in a airplane, I can move and walk and my bloodpressure went back to normal. I can actually buy clothes in an normal shop. I feel so much better. I dont feel like I am so gross anymore. People used to stare at me on the street. Kids would point at me and men used to look at me in disgust. Now I am feeling more normal. It is a risk you take and only you can decide if it is worth that risk.

Hi, I have a lapband since 18 october 2006 and since then I managed to loose 62 lbs and weight is dropping off. Sometimes I feel i am the evil with in oz shouting I am melting melting.. But although I am pleased I am loosing weigt so fast its not so strange. I can not eat anything at all. After the operation i went 2 weeks on liquids and then semi hard foods. I had no problems with eating then. I never felt full and thought hmm not much change in what I can eat. Since 4 weeks I can not tolerate any food. Anything I eat I vomit up. The only thing I have been living on is warm tea. I keep trying to eat even some semi Fluid things but after one bite It wont go down.Sometimes I manage to eat 1 tiny piece of food. I make sure to eat very slowly and chew a LOT. No results. After throwing up a few times per day I have kinda giving up and have to force myself to even try to eat. After 4 weeks of practically no eating and having actually no appetite at all I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. It is wonderful my weight is finally dropping so fast but I am afraid that I have some complication and they have to remove the band. For me the band is such a wonderful tool and my weight is finally coming off that I dont want to loose it. I do exercise not a lot though more like taking nice walks and lots and lots of shopping trips and I try to move a lot by doing a lot of heavy cleaning. Anyone any ideas or advice what I should do?