debbiek1

check out the n e 1 banded at mt carmel thread over in the Ohio forum. two of us have already been banded by dr choban.

Lady QT--i am exactly the same way. and i, too, have worried that i have stretched out my pouch or that maybe my band has slipped down. I think i can eat way too much, too. especially when you look at the pictures in the brochures--in them it looks like that band sits at the very top of your stomach and so the food would have no where to go but up your esophagus. but it must just be bigger than the picture. and if you think about it, a fill doesnt reduce the size of your stomach pouch. it just makes the hole smaller and so the food sits in the pouch part longer making you feel full longer. at least that is what i think. but as long as i keep losing weight i am not going to worry too much about it. like they say it is just a tool. we still have to make good food decisions. if we choose to fill up on cake and ice cream it wont work. i am trying to eat more vegetables and stick to fish and chicken and turkey. i find yogurt and pudding help--they are nice and thick and dont go thru the hole fast. that light and fit yogurt is only 60 calories. and the sugar free pudding is about the same. and they taste pretty good too. it seems like a gain a couple pounds every weekend when i eat out a lot. so i have to try and get a grip on that. but other than that i think i am right on track. as of this morning i only have to lose a half a pound and i will be at the 50 pound mark. but from one worrier to another--dont worry--you are doing fine.

Oh, my Lady QT it sounds like you had quite an adventure at your first fill!!! I had to quote myself from back when i had my first one. And you can see where i wrote that i could "easily see someone fainting"!!!! It is the position they put you in plus the fact that you know there is a needle going in your stomach. I am sure you arent the first one to faint.

that is an excellent suggestion about the toddler spoon and fork. i have always eaten really fast and literally shovel the stuff in. i am struggling with that and the toddler spoon may help. about the protein---i probably dont get the recommended daily 70 grams. i got sick of those retched protein drinks after the first 2 weeks. I just can not drink them. The Nectar brand was the most palatable i tried but it sucked too. People love the Unjury chicken broth but it is out of stock frequently. so I try to eat a lot of meat. Most meats have 7 grams of protein per ounce. a 6 oz of tuna has 40 grams so if you eat that you are halfway there!!! I also eat a protein bar everyday. most of those have 14-20 grams. i hate eggs, so those are out, but i love to eat salmon for breakfast. once you keep an eye out, you will see all kinds of stuff in the grocery store that has added protein. Special K cereal. Slimfast makes a protein version. i add a spoonful of powder to my sugar free pudding and yogurt, too.

at walmarts they have this display of $1 DVDs. there are a couple workout videos. one is for upper body. she does exercises with weights which would be good for our upper arms. everyone lives near a walmart and you cant beat 1 dollar!!

i never heard of omnipaque. i pretty sure i just got plain ole saline. i will have to look it up. if they say it lasts longer, what does that mean? were does the saline go? dont women have saline breast implants and that saline doesnt absorb or go anywhere, does it like i said--i gotta look this up. i didnt go shopping. i went to the Greek festival with my son and DIL. the meatballs were good!!

if this doesnt work, i promise i will just give up

eventhough i had to work yesterday, i am off today. i dont have any plans either. i may go to catherines, they are having a sale. i am loving buying all these new clothes. on saturday i bought 6 pairs of shoes down at jeffersonville mall. I have really big feet (size 12) and when i see shoes i have to buy them. and for the last year all i could wear were clogs. my feet were swelling so bad. now my feet arent swelling and i am hoping i can wear regular shoes!!! LadyQT--you asked about fills. I think they only gave me half a cc, because i was steadily losing weight. at first i noticed a difference but now i dont. i go back on the 20th. I am not sure i want any more right now. as long as i am consistently losing a pound or two a week, i am happy. i can eat whatever i want and i have no problems. i talked to charlene and she transferred me to someone in billing. that person said it was resubmitted to the insurance. so i gotta call them again.

i dont know, it seems to past okay in the "quick reply" box but it changes to a website when i make the post. oh well, i guess i am just doomed to be tickerless.

well, that didnt work!!! i feel like a real technoboob!!!

for some reason i dont get notified when there is a new post. so you guys have been quite active lately. i have to catch up. i see you figured out the ticker!!! now i will really be embarrassed if i cant figure it out.

i hate admit it but i agree about charlene. she always sounds so overworked. i think they need to hire someone to help her. i hope she doesnt read these boards. i dont want her messing up my insurance papers any more than they are already.

sue, i know exactly how you feel. during the 6 months it took for all the paperwork to get done, there were times when i just wanted to scream. i wanted the surgery done and i wanted it NOW! there were so many stumbling blocks and delays. but in the end, it all worked out. right now i am also playing phone tag with charlene too. as of yet, my insurance has not paid a dime. they send each bill back saying they need more information. so i am trying to get hold of her to find out if they have sent the info. I hate dealing with this stuff. I prefer being an ostrich and sticking my head in the sand. but i guess i have to get proactive and start doing something. i dont understand why the insurance wants more info when they approved the surgery. but they will do anything to delay parting with the money. i lost 2 more pounds. for a total of 43. yesterday i was afraid something may have gotten "stuck" but it seems like it went down today. sunday night i ate a bunch of soycrisps before going to bed. something felt funny. i know we cant eat bread and i was afraid that maybe the soycrisps turned into a ball in my stomach like bread would. i bought some papaya enzyme to see if it would dissolve it. maybe it worked. does anyone know how to use those tickers people use to chart their weightloss? i have tried but cant figure out how to attach it to these posts.

of course---welcome!!! when are you getting banded? life has been so great since i got banded two months ago. i started at 300 and am down to 259. i feel like a featherweight. i move like a different person. i am 57 and was really getting old and unstable fast. but now i am moving like i did when i was 35. i cant imagine what life will be like when i am down to 175. i will probably have to wear ankle weights or a strong will will blow me away!!!! so, Thinner Me, tell us about yourself.

we can eat sweets. it is the people who get the bypass that cant eat sweets. that is one reason i would never get a bypass. life just wouldnt be worth living if i couldnt eat something sweet every once in awhile. but it is best to stick to sugar free stuff for now. i have done better this week. no more Cookies. i lost the the pounds i gained last week plus a couple less. so far 39 pounds all together. sue--you will do fine once you get the band. i dont have any willpower either. as evidenced by my cookie failure last week. but the band frees me up from that constant craving because i feel full more. and it is giving me the chance to forget thinking about food all the time. i am beginning to think like a "normal" person who isnt obsessed with food. and i get a high from the weight loss that no food can match. i love riding my bike. now i have to get a bike rack so i can expand my horizons. but that might have to wait till next spring. yes, i always called charlene to check on my paperwork. did you find her number?

Yes, i have been wondering how Lady QT is, too. She must be doing so great she doesnt have time to write. i am fine. the first week after my fill i lost 5 pounds. but i must confess i gained some back last week. I usually do a weekly weigh in on sunday morning. but i officially cancelled that this week because i forgot to take my BPmed/water pill yesterday. so that way, i can give myself a day or two to recover the ground i lost. at worst i think i gained 3 pounds back. and i know where i went wrong i bought a cookies and crackers last week and ate them all. but i have gotten that out of my system. and i just keep telling myself nothing tastes as good as skinny. I can still eat a lot, though. if i stay busy, i dont think about eating. but once i say to myself--"hey, you havent eaten lately" then i get hungry. so i know it is mostly in my head and not in my stomach. so like they say the band is just a "tool" not a cure. now if they could just come up with some kind of band i could put around that part of my brain that craves chocolate covered donuts!!

Sue---Congratulations!!! you will be banded before you know it!! one word of advice---call your insurance company in a couple weeks to make sure they have gotten the request. i waited and waited before i finally called only to find out they had never gotten it. so it had to be resubmitted and then i had to wait and wait some more.

my doctor told me not to swallow anything bigger than an m&m. so i swallow pills if i want and they all go down. but i do use a chewable vitamin and chewable calcium.

i never had even the slightest pain till the day after my adjustment. i can definitely tell there is a difference. the lady at sams club was handing out teeny, tiny cups of rotisserie chicken (still cant pass up a freebie!!!) and i ate two bites and it didnt want to go down. it was kind of stuck in my chest. maybe it was on top of my morning cereal, i dont know. but i had to throw away the rest of the chicken in the teeny, tiny cup. that is so unlike Debbie!!!! after a few minutes it passed. there was no PBing, sliming, or throwing up. it was just a not pleasant feeling that if i ate more something bad was going to happen in the middle of sams club!!!

sue---lets see you start solid food at 6 weeks. it is liquids for two weeks, pureed for two weeks, soft food for one week, and then regular food. although i must admit i kind of cheated and sometimes considered chewing my food REALL well to be the same as pureeing it!! the only time i feel the band or the port is when i sleep on either side. then i can feel pressure. if you push hard enough you can feel the port but it is not easily felt. still too much belly fat! the flouroscopy was more like live tv vs xray which is a picture that has to be developed. they could watch the needle and saline go in. and they could see the barium i was drinking going down. i am able to eat a lot less since the band adjustment. that is great. because before, eventhough i was losing weight I could eat a LOT. i had to hold myself back. now, I literally cant eat for hours.

i got a band adjustment today. piece of cake. i am not sure how much they put in. not much, i dont think. they did it in xray using flouroscopy. the shot to numb the area hurt but after that i didnt feel a thing. they do it while you are standing up. i just wonder if anyone has ever fainted. a lot of people are very squeamish about needles and shots and i can easily see someone fainting. i just kept my eyes closes and didnt look. today i weighed 267 which means 33.5 pounds. for the first time my boyfriend of 10 years expressed thoughts that i might want to trade him in when i get hot!!! he is NOT the jealous type at all. I reassured him that if he stuck with me when i was HUGE that i would never trade him in. he is so sweet. and he hardly ever complained about my weight but i hated that he is 10 years older than me, but yet i was the one turning into an old lady.

Julie; I had my surgery done at mt carmel. and i go for my first fill tomorrow. that saturday bike ride from hilliard to plain city for the belly buster breakfast sounds neat. i got an email tonight from the loveland bike rental place. they are having something this saturday which sounds like a lot of fun. it is called the pedal-paddle-porch party. from loveland you pedal to Foster. then you paddle a kayak back. then once back they have have a fire and dinner. I want to go, but may not be able to make it.

oops, i read my post and i put down the wrong surgery date. it was really 6/13/07!!!! actually i live in columbus, ohio too. i ride the trail from easton soccer fields that goes all the way to schrock road (so i am told) i havent actually made it that far. Loveland is down near cincinnati and it was the the Little Miami Trail we were on last week. it is like Bike Central down there!!! i have never seen so many bikes in one town! and the trail is great!!! all tree covered and runs along the river. The brochure says it is 72 miles long. eventually it will be part of the ohio to erie trail which will connect cincinnati--columbus--cleveland. I hope it is finished in my lifetime. i would love to do the whole thing. i always wanted to hike the appalachian trail, but this might be more practical.

13 pounds that is great!!!! isnt it sweet? too bad you have to go back to work tomorrow. i did my weekly weigh in this morning and i have lost 31.5 pounds. today i wore a blouse that was too tight across the tummy just two weeks ago!! yesterday i bought a bike. i havent really ridden a bike in 30 years. I took it for a spin last night and this morning. i am rather wobbly but surely with time i will improve. as long as i am coasting i can go straight but as soon as i pedal i start weaving!! i got it because there is a very long bike trail practically in my back yard. i can pedal all the way from the easton soccer fields to schrock road. and eventually it is supposed to go further. first night i went up past 161 and this morning i went the opposite way towards morse. i love it!!! i got a Revive DX which is nice because it is sort of a recumbent and the seat has a back for lumbar support. I feel like i have really gotten the old Debbie back! and things are only going to get better with each pound i lose.

i finally got a bike yesterday. I got a Giant Revive DX. Giant is the manufacturer--not the size!! i wanted a recumbent but was afraid i would not be able to balance. so the Revive is a compromise. it has a back which acts as a lumbar support. it took it for a spin last night. i hadnt been on a bike for 30 years, so i was a bit wobbly. and i have a hard time with curves and corners, but i will improve. i only wiped out once yesterday, but i did not get hurt. last week my BF and i rented recumbent trikes down in Loveland OH, and that made me determined to get a bike. there are so many paths right near me that it would be a shame not to use them. Debbie surgery date 7/13/07 300.5/268.5/175