Jim1967

Congrats and good luck to you all. Pre-op anxiety is quite normal indeed...

Thanks all. I guess an occasional caffeine drink will not kill me. I was also told to avoid carbonation.

Hi Wendy, Welcome to the forum and best of luck on your journey. I am from Salem, NH and go through the Center of Excellence through Lowell General. Good Luck on your journey

Oddly enough my cravings and appetite disappeared after surgery...pretty strange feeling for a life long binge eater. After my last fill I just simply have no interest in food.

Sometimes your body has to get used to the weight loss and it goes into survival mode. Stick with it and try not to let it frustrate you to much. My Wife hid the scale on me because I became to obsessed with it. I was weighing in daily for a very long time.

Walking, walking and more walking is really the only thing that helps. Gas pain especially in the left shoulder is pretty common. I had it in the shoulder and my lower stomach area. Walking and drinking plenty of fluid is all that helped me get by.

My Wife was considering the Band as well but when we went to the seminar they said if anyone wants to have a baby they expect you to wait 1 year post op before doing so. She passed on the band at this time. Being 34 she didn't want to wait.

Hey Lady,,, Wow such a great achievement in such a short amount of time. Great job!! Sorry it took me so long to post. Between vacation and then finding out about my father's cancer returning I haven't been on here much. You're really doing awesome and you may not know this but you are among the few who really do inspire me to try harder and really work the band. Your numbers along with the shortness of time are absolutely incredible. - Jim

Cigna has definitely changed because I did the 6 months and was denied on day 1 for lack of information and they had my birth year wrong. They said I was under 18. As soon as that all got corrected I approved on day 3,

Doctors and Insurance companies want to make sure you're educated and mentally and physically ready for a life long commitment. This is not like going to the Dentist for a cleaning.

Awesome, Congrats!!

Strange tightness is not very noticeable to me....

Since my last fill I don't have much of an appetite and I don't get hungry for a good 4.5 hours. This past weekend my wife and I had breakfast and then went about our day then around 1pm as I was driving she looks at me and says "I'm getting hungry". And I turned at her and said "really?" and I must have made a weird face at her because she laughed at me and said "I don't want to hear it band boy" LOL...it was quite funny.

For me I appreciate it most when I feel like I've lost some weight even though I didn't step on a scale to confirm. Kind of like that empty feeling in your stomach but not like hunger. Not sure if that makes sense.

I was told to let them fall off on there own but by the time I went to my post op appointment all but one were gone so the Doc took it off so he could see how all the incisions were healing up.

Sasha has a point but first you need to determine if these stuck episodes are being caused by you or the band. I have had a couple of stuck episodes as well and when it happens it's because I either eat to fast or don't chew enough. Had that problem once with eggs and it was because I ate fast. New eating habits take time to form. At the same token the band should not prevent you from eating foods.

I go to a center of excellence and among the various staff is two Nutritionist. I saw them a couple of times prior to surgery and saw her again last Friday. She was very happy with my progress and recommended I change nothing.

So you cheated on the 6 month diet...no biggie. Important thing is not to cheat during that liquid preop diet. If you don't shrink that liver you could very well wake up and find you were not banded. I am not trying to scare you but simply motivate you. You need to shrink that liver for safety sake.

Welcome and congratulations on your surgery date. Very exciting but at the same anxious time.

I have two good articles on restriction in my signature that I keep handy to re-read once in a while to make sure I stay fresh. One of them was written by the lovely Jean McMillian and the other is on drsimpson.net both great articles.

I have it in both legs but the left is the worse of the two. I broke my left leg so it swells up pretty good through out the day. I tried diuretics for about 6 months and didn't help. As I lose weight the swelling is not as bad but I have a long way to go yet to see if any positive effects last.

What else needs to be said? Cancer affects everyone and it is not prejudice. It will go after whoever it wants and whenever it wants. It doesn't matter who you are, what color you are, what religion you are. It does not care if you are an infant or an 80 year old senior. It will take you. Stating the obvious? I suppose..... Three years ago my Father was diagnosed with lung cancer. While he was preparing for lung surgery they performed a full body diagnoses and found he had bladder and prostate cancer. October 2009 he had his lower lobe of the left lung removed. He then did 12 weeks of chemo. He needed the chemo for the lung and they hoped it would shrink the tumors on the bladder but it did not. August 2010 (on his birthday actually) he under went major surgery and had his bladder removed. He came through the surgery fine but recovery was long and tough. Because of heart disease (heart attack, triple bypass in 2004) they kept him sedated for 5 days and slowly brought him out of it. Pain meds they given him had a done a number on him. He had awful nightmares of war. Six months ago my father was pronounced cancer free...then within the next 3 weeks he developed a cough a bad nasty cough and no one could tell him what it was. He started coughing up blood and then they found the cancer had returned but this time in the top stem of the left lung and also in the lymph node. He is currently undergoing testing to see if the right lung can sustain him with or without oxygen full time. He is on the fence about surgery and the testing they are doing will be his deciding factor. Either way he is facing another 12 weeks of chemo with or without surgery. In the last 8 years my father has endured a heart attack, triple bypass and his 3rd bout with cancer is about to get under way. He is a fighter and I can only hope when I encounter such adversity that I can attack it with same tenacity. I haven't been around much and I have only managed to drop a pound but hey its better then nothing and right now it's not about me....