NWgirl

Just as others said, sleep test is no biggie. Plus it looks like you have 3 or 4 months left til you submit anyways, so you should be okay. I found it was easier to go to a clinic that specialized in sleep studies than to go to the hospital (2+ month wait for hospital, two week wait for clinic).

You need to find out your surgeon's specific plan. Some call for a week of clear liquids, which would be broth, SF Jello, SF popsicles. Others (mine) let you do full liquids, which consist of pureed soups that can go through a sieve, tomato soups, yogurt without chunks or seeds, Protein shakes, SF pudding. I've included the list from my blog of things I would get if I were to do it again. Also, like you said, don't buy too much stuff. I ended up buying a lot of broths but never drank them because I was allowed full liquids and I ended up freezing a majority of the yogurt I bought because I way overestimated the amount I would eat. If I were to do it again, this is what I would buy: General Meds: - sublingual B-12 - Biotin - O-purity Band Multivitamin or Centrum Chewables - Calcium + Vit D & K chews - Chewable or dissolveable Iron supplement - Liquid adult Tylenol - Probiotic Pearls - Milk of Magnesia - Scarzone to put on incision sites after they have fully closed and the steri strips have come off. Stage One: - Peewee Pillowpet to hold against stomach. - Lipton cup-a-soup Cream of chicken - Soups that can be pureed and put through a sieve. - Peppermint tea - Protein powder- Body Fortress chocolate, Vanilla - 3 Protein mix shakers - Yogurt without seeds or chunks. Only two or three cases = 8 to 12 yogurts. - SF syrups - Pillow "chair" Stage Two: - Mashed Potatoes - food processor. I bought a Ninja Kitchen Pulse so I can get rid of some of my other appliances. - Applesauce - Cottage cheese - Oatmeal - Refried Beans - Soups that can be pureed to consistency of cottage cheese.

taking everything out of the band made the band ineffective, bandster hell all over again. Go in for a fill- it won't be the first time he's seen weight regain. Why didn't you start Getting fills again after he emptied your band?

Ask your surgeon where they position the port- mine is about two inches above my belly button to the right. Some surgeon's prefer to place lower or higher.

I was very mature at 17 (lived on my own, full time job, college, etc) but I am not sure my head was in the right spot for this particular surgery. We of course don't know you, but you really need to think about what this type of change entails and if you are ready to 100% commit to it. I am 23 and just got banded, and can say that I feel as if I really exercised all of my options prior to settling on WLS. Just make sure to have a good support network around you for this.

Also remember you are probably not at restriction yet either. Keep trucking along and making good decisions and I'm sure you can be successful.

http://www.fitbit.com/user/224BW9/sleep If you look at the link, it is showing my sleep for last night. You can set the device to either sensitive or normal, and then it will tell you the sleep efficiency and show you how many times you wake up/move a lot at night. I found I could not use the wrist strap to accurately record because I move a lot at night and it would show me as awake a lot. I use the little holder that came with it and clip it directly to my shirt. Pretty painless and a good indicator for me to see how much and the quality of the sleep I'm getting.

Try to look on the New York board, they may be a bit more help to you

I still havent tried oatmeal yet. I have been really focused on proteins and want to make sure I use the calories I have to eat the foods I need.

If I eat a healthy meal with a lot of protein, I am satisfied for 3 or 4 hours as far as real hunger goes. Mental hunger is another thing that you will have to work on.

I heard pineapple juice may help. Have no idea if that has any merit or not

Mine is on my right side. Look for your largest incision to the right or left of the belly button and that is likely where the port is located. Now that my incisions are closed up and not tender, I can press down and feel the top of my port.

I ran across an article today and thought of your post: http://wlsfa.org/4157/wlsfa-funds-its-6th-grant-surgery-is-this-week/ The Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America is apparently awarding grants for WLS. Not sure what the specifications are or how you can qualify, but I thought I'd pass it along so you can take a look.

The fitbit is something worn throughout the day to track total calories... I looked at the website for the Moto Actv, but couldn't seem to find where it says it's waterproof? It also looks like it's more of a exercise/runners watch and not an all day tracker...

I purchased the Ninja pulse recently, and even though I have not tried it for its complete juicing component, it is suppposed to do the same thing. I like the Ninja because it's a blender, juicer, and dough mixer all in one.

My insurance required a center of excellence and would pay 80%. My cap on yearly out of pocket is $3000, so combined with all appointments this year I will only pay $3000 for healthcare. Actual surgery costs look like approx $800.

At 255 my dietician said a good amount of protein would be 75g. Now that I'm down to 235ish, I can have 70g. The point of eating enough protein is so your muscles are fed properly and that your lean body mass does not decrease drastically as you lose. If you don't eat enough protein, you will still lose weight, but a lot more will be from lean body mass vs fat mass, which you don't want.

I have read that some people start all over again- they get a complete unfill and start periodic fills like in the beginning.

I would ask the office you are trying to go through what their self pay cost is- this is usually about half the cost of what is billed to insurance. If they say the same price, consider finding a new surgeon.

I have heard it suggested when you get off track to go ahead and do the 5 day pouch test to get your head straight again.

I have heard the prick of the needle is like a little bee sting and it's over. Keep calm and don't worry too much or else your anticipation will amp your stress. I hope all goes well for you!

I had a really hard time drinking all of the water for the first week or so. Sounds like you are on the right track

AVERAGE weight loss for a band patient is 40-60% of excess weight (depends on age). This includes the people who never followed through with the aftercare or who the band did not work for/they did not work with it. Some surgeries are better for different types of people- sleeve and gastric are kind of a one-stop shop, where you go for surgery and immediately feel the effect of surgery. Lapband is progressive restriction and requires constant maintenance. I like that the band is removable if problems arise and that I still keep my stomach/intestines. The band is usually slower weight loss, but the five year outlook shows that the band is comparable with other WLS in terms of weight lost. If the band doesn't work, then I can consider more drastic options. The only real concern for me about other WLS would be that after a couple years, the stomach may relax and stretch, causing weight gain due to eating more. There is nothing else to be done if this happens except consider banding. I guess this means you need to eat right mentally from the start, even though for the first couple years you could eat crap and lose weight anyways due to the malabsorptive nature of the procedure. You must decide what kind of aftercare you want and what types of pros/cons you are willing to accept. Best of luck.

Congrats and welcome! I found that the gas lasted for about 10 days after surgery (started about day 4 post-op). I also had a lot of burping, and after reading your post, realize I have not been crazily burping for the last few days woohoo!

I would also advocate staying on the post-op diet given to you by your surgeon. Make sure you are getting plenty of protein. When you eat normal foods, the stomach churns to get it through. For the first couple weeks, the stomach needs to be healing and churning may do harm.