KristyT

pcos, a terrible thing it is but it has become a part of me that i try to learn to deal with the best way i can. let me see how i can help you with this nasty thing you are referring to. first all, im 38 almost 39 yrs old. I have been fairly heavy most of my life averaged about 200, 205 from the time i was 18 until i was 30. i never really exercised and i pretty much ate what i wanted to and always stayed the same weight. well when i was about 30 yrs old, i started having these horrible periods, mood swings, hot flashes, grouchy, i mean all kinds of strange stuff started happening and I also low and behold started putting on serious pounds despite the fact that i was not eating any different. i gained 50 pounds in about 1 year. i got up to 252 and said lordy lordy i gotta go to the dr, so off i went to a gynocologist and what do you know. I have pcos. so in turn, they tell me that my weight is going to be very hard to control and they give me some antidepressants , metformin and some progestrin, well, me being me, i took the meds for a bit and they didnt help and i just faught threw it and kept doing what i always do and kept eating what i always eat until i started getting dizzy, sweaty, sick feeling and yada yada yada, i go to my primary dr and this is about when i was 34 now at 265 lbs and he says well kristy you have diabetes and my hgb a1c was like 7.4, so he tells me take the metformin and if its not better in 4 months we start insulin unless you can control by diet. well, i didnt take the meds and i didnt really try to diet and i really didnt go back to the dr. and Im a registered nurse, so yeah, im pretty stubborn. LOL well in 2010, i had enough, i couldnt walk, couldnt do anything, im 5'3 and i was 272 lbs and my blood sugars were ranging from 325-400 a day. so, i went to a seminar for lab band. decided it was what i wanted to do, turned in my papers and had to see my dr for 6 months on a supervised diet. dec of 2010 i weighed 272, seen my dr once a month for 6 months and some how got back down to 254 in like july of 2011 and i really think it was because i was taking the metformin and insulin injections because my blood sugars were still so crazy and they told me they would not operate unless i had my blood sugars under control. i got approved for the lap band, i did one week pre op diet and day of surgery which was aug. 31 2011 i weighed 249. 7 months ago i was banded and i am now down to 225. now during that 7 months, i didnt not exercise nor did i count calories but i did make better choices of food. i started exercising 2 weeks ago and i also joined weight watchers to keep myself more accountable of what i eat and i have lost 3 lbs a week for the past 2 weeks as to where i was only losing about 1 lb or .8 of a lb prior to exercising and weight watchers. now during the times that i have my menstrual cycle i dont weigh because for 2 weeks i hold about 4-6 lbs from the pcos. but after it settles my weight goes back down. i also now have blood sugars from 85-130 so my diabetes is very well controlled and i feel 100 percent better. i even mowed grass yesterday. so the bottom line is. yes the lap band will work with pcos if you work with it. now it might be slow but hey, the turtle still finishes the race. if you have any other questions, pls feel free to email me and im sorry i wrote a book but i wanted you to understand how much this lap band surgery has been good for me with diabetes and pcos, for 8 yrs i couldnt lose a pound, couldnt exercise or even walk around in walmart, couldnt get my blood sugar under control without medicine and insullin, now im doing all those activities, still slowly losing weight and im not on any medications except for antidepressant. good luck to you and i hope you make the best choice for yourself. Kristy

way to go ladies , keep up the good work, im still like the turtle that loses 1 a week and sometimes none, but the turtle will win the race just at a slower pace -wink- good job everyone

you have to mix your exercise up, doing the same thing everyday allows your muscles to adapt and then the weight loss slows, what i have found that is good for me because I am not able to run or jog yet is, i do strength training every other day with tony little and then the days that i dont do strength training I walk for 30 minutes or do zumba fitness. exercise all depends on you and what you can handle. good luck to you

i got a fill at 4 wks of 3 cc, didnt really feel much from that, then i got second fill about 8 weeks out of 1 cc and still didnt feel much but i was losing like a pound a week so he told me to come back in 2 months which was through the holidays and i ended up gaining some so in jan which was 5months post op he gave me another 1.5 cc fill which was a total of 5.5 cc and now i have good restriction. so to answer your question it took about 5 months to get me in the green zone. good luck to you

i too often make bad choices, you just have to learn to say NO. what i did was make myself get everything out of the house that could sabotage me. no more chips, no more sweets, no more ice cream, everything healthy and all good choices in my house for food. once you say NO to that stuff, you start to continue to say no and then you stop craving it. I call those "trigger" foods, if i eat one chip, one icecream cone, one sweet cookie, its all over, i continue to eat that stuff all day and all week. get it out of your house, ask the people you live with or hang out with to respect you and not eat that stuff in front of you and you will see that after you rid your body of those foods you will stop craving them. carry smart food choices with you in your car for snacks like protein bars, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip and when you fill the need to get an icecream, eat a healthy snack and drive past that dairy queen. you can do it. good luck to you

i ate like a pig after 2 weeks out, they dont fill the band during surgery and after it heals you will go right back to eating like you did before. you wont feel any effects of the band until they start to fill it up with saline. it took me 3 fills to get some restriction. i have a 10 cc band and i have 5.5 cc in my band and I am at good restriction. the first 4-6 months is slow process until you get the band in the green zone. good luck to you

very nice and uplifting, we often beat ourselves up and succumb to jealousy and envy over what other people have or their success being greating than ours, instead we should focus more on what god has blessed us with and be thankful we were even able to take this great journey rather it be slow or fast. god bless and thanks again for the uplifting message

restriction is different for everyone but the lap band is not just about restriction. you could be in the green zone and still eat a box of cheeze its or an entire xl portion of a vegetable depending on how you eat it. if you chew chew chew and take your time then you can eat just about anything you want. and cheeze its and cooked vegetables always go down easier than meat or bread. you have to learn to utilize your restriction through proper eating and the techniques you were taught. you should not chew chew chew tiny tiny bites because this just allows you to eat more. you should not eat for more than 20 - 30 minutes, my surgeon says 20 minutes. if you are taking longer than 20 minutes to eat, you are out eating your band. you should choose foods that are more satisfying and stick with you longer like lean meats and things that will fill up your pouch. cheeze its and chips, ice creams and soggy foods go right down and restriction is no longer a tool when eating that stuff. i have great restriction but sometimes I dont use it the way i should. I know that i can eat an entire salad with dressing on it because it slides down but i also know that a half of piece of chicken will fill me up and my pouch will restrict the portion size unless i eat slider foods with it. i also know that if i drink when i eat i can eat more which again takes away from what my restriction is suppose to do. if i dont wait 30 minutes after i eat to drink liquids or drink with my meals im hungry way sooner than i would be if i dont drink. so get your rules out and follow them to see if you have true restriction. good luck to you.

As I type this, tears fill my eyes. I am so frustrated with my weight loss. I was seen in december of 2010 and was 272, I had to go to my primary dr for 6 months with supervised diet which I did and got down to 254 in august of 2011, I did preop diet for one week and lost 5 lbs putting me at 249 day of my surgery which was aug. 31 2011, thats 6 1/2 months ago and I am down to 229. I cant seem to budge, I eat so much less than i did before but nothing seems to happen. one week i weigh 229, then i weigh 233 then back down to 230 then to 229 its like a yo yo. I have had 4 fills with a total of 6 cc in my band and i have restriction. I dont pb much and I dont eat much but something is not working for me. I have a difficult time exercising because I have muscle weakness and pain, went to my primary dr today and he is testing me for rhematoid arthritis and says i could have fibromyalgia or myastenia gravis. my surgeon says that i shouldnt have to exercise to lose my weight and im eating correctly or atleast i think I am but im not losing. very very frustrated and my surgeon is not very nice anyhow and all he says is what are you doing wrong and I explain to him what im doing and he says well you habve plenty of restriction you need to learn to work with the restriction you have and im like wtf does that mean? I am working with it. I also joined weight watchers thinking that would help keep my on track and track my food better but still nothing, not really gaining but not losing either. and I know we are NEVER suppose to compare ourselves with other WLS patients, but when i read all these blogs and profiles and see how so many have lost 80 lbs in 6 months it just makes me cry even more. guess Im just destined to be the fat chic forever.

im almost 7 months out and I have only lost 20 lbs, i get discouraged and frustrated but we need to realize that we are all different and we all lose weight differently. 48lbs is great, i lost 25 before surgery but only 20 since surgery, maybe there is something with a plateu after closing in on that 50 lb marker, keep your head up as i am trying to do myself and remember 48lbs is a small child that you are no longer carrying around. god bless and good luck

thank you all for the positive comments, i truly do believe that exercise is my downfall, I need to do something even if it is just walking for a bit a day. I just feel so frustrated because of reading how successful everyone is and no matter how you look at it , i still feel like a failure because my weight loss is so slow, today was my weigh in day and i lost 1 lb. guess that is better than nothing. I am going to try the walking and I have a swimming pool but cant use that right now, but i do remember last year when i was alot heavier that it was easy on my joints being in the pool, so i do have that to look forward to. thanks again for all the positive comments its good to know you can vent here and not be judged. god bless

I feel your pain, but to me you are doing great, I would love to see 30 lb weight loss in 3 months, I was seen in december of 2010 and was 272, I had to go to my primary dr for 6 months with supervised diet which I did and got down to 254 in august of 2011, I did preop diet for one week and lost 5 lbs putting me at 249 day of my surgery which was aug. 31 2011, thats 6 1/2 months ago and I am down to 229. I cant seem to budge, I eat so much less than i did before but nothing seems to happen. one week i weigh 229, then i weigh 233 then back down to 230 then to 229 its like a yo yo. I have had 4 fills with a total of 6 cc in my band and i have restriction. I dont pb much and I dont eat much but something is not working for me. it is hard to read these post and blogs sometimes and see the ones that have lost 80 lbs in 4 months, I know we are not suppose to compare ourselves but it makes me sad sometimes. guess we should be happy with the weight loss we have and not worry about what we havent lost yet. good luck

what alot of people dont understand is there is a difference between a laxative and a stool softener. laxative will make you go to the bathroom, thus thinning your stool out and causing bloating, gas and the diarrhea you mentioned, stool softener will help soften the stool to keep you from straing, thus bleeding like you mentioned. another big thing with constipation is figuring out what is making you constipated. myself, I know i cannot eat cheese or dairy products, everytime I eat cheese, I am in the bathroom straining as you mentioned. keep a log of your foods and recall what you eat the days you are most constipated. increase your fluid intake, water helps with constipation, check what medications you are taking as narcotics and other meds will slow your peristalsis down and constipate you, fiber is your best choice, daily increase in fiber and water should help regulate you, if you get gas, take gas x, it helps. if this doesnt subside, you should consult with a GI dr. to get to the root of the problem, DO NOT become dependent on laxatives, those are more for if you are impacted, try to increase fiber in your diet, water in your diet, add benefiber and check your side effects on your medication labels, log your food and check for which ones make you constipated. if no help, see a gastrointestinal specialist. good luck

i dont pb very much and when i do it is my fault, i dont think we acutally pb enough to take off anyway LOL I track all my points, Im allowed 33 points a day and I usually stick to around that amount of points, usually 30, sometimes I use my extra weekly points for a treat but not usually. congrats on all your weight losses and Im glad you feel better after your unfill, you might actually see a kick off with weight loss when you switch to solid foods, sometimes changing things up with our bodies trigger a weight loss. good luck

hiccups is another way to tell that your pouch is full.

you should know your pouch is full based on how much it is meant to hold which is about 6-8 ounces. the way i tell is by listening to myself for clues, like a runny nose, a burp, a sigh, a hard lump in the back of my throat, pressure between my breast bone. this usually means I have had enough, even though at that point i can usually cram a few more bites in but I try to stop at those signs to prevent myself from p'bing. if you eat slider foods or chew chew chew, you can always get more down than you need to but if you eat normally and stick to around 6-8 ounces of food your pouch will be full if you have the right amount of restriction. good luck

Im not sure when you were banded and how much you have lost prior to and after your surgery but dont get discouraged, we are all very different. I too have pcos and I also have diabetes. some of us just lose slower than others. my high weight was 272, I got down to 254 on my own before surgery and then I lost 5 lbs with 1 week preop diet putting me at 249 day of surgery. My surgery was 8/31/11 so thats what say a lil over 6 months ago and I am down to 229. so only 20 lbs in 6 months, my dr does things slowly and I just finally got restriction last month on my 4th fill so give it time. I also could eat all the stuff you were eating until that 4th fill, I didnt even know what a "stuck" episode or "pb'ing" was until 5 months after surgery. so pls dont get discouraged, just focus on yourself and the good that is going to come and DO NOT compare yourself to others, everyone loses different and everyone has different metabolisms and chemical make up. good luck to you

marci, thank you for posting this, I was reading and reading those posts and I was thinking "good gawd, Im a failure" because im 6 months in and I have only lost 20 lbs since surgery, I did lose 25 lbs before surgery but not that much since surgery and I was also like you, I didnt have much restriction until about a month ago, my dr does things very very slowly. I was so glad to read your post and find some comforting in what you posted, I think its great that you have lost what you did and Im glad to know im not the only one to lose so slowly in first 6 months. kinda wish people would focus on losing and being more healthy rather than how much did you lose. even though I havent lost that much, I am thankful for what I have lost and how much healthier I do feel. god bless and thanks for your post

find a surgeon that specializes in the lap band, good luck

the abdominal distension will go away, may take a week or 2 but it will subside, my hardest problem was the dam gas.. LOL didnt think that was ever going to leave my body. it was so bad I told my hubby day 3 after surgery to take me to the ER so they can get this stupid band outta me. LOL I hope you learn to love the band and enjoy your new life. congrats

i tend to drink a cup of coffee at a restaurant before my meal, this A, helps the stoma open up to prevent food from getting stuck and B, helps feel me up a bit, then I order a salad with dressing because that goes down well for me but no broccoli on it and I always get some sort of chicken and steamed veggies, chew slow, small bites ask for a take home bag. chinese i find that the pepper steak goes down well and it is alot of protein. good luck

not going to the gym, not doing much of anything active other than work and stuff around the house, im sure that has alot to do with it but if that is what is stopping me , I guess I will have to deal with the slow weight loss. I do not like to exercise, I just have never had the motivation for it. terrible to say I know but I just dont , makes me sad, i need to find a way to like exercise so I might get motivated to do it more.