faithmd

Not every nutritionist and surgeon has you counting calories, in fact many do not. Loads of us do count them, but not so much to stop ourselves from eating over a certain number, but so that we can see what is going in our mouths. Sure there are some surgeons who want you to eat X # or calories per day, and that's fine. But remember, once you reach your sweet spot with restriction you won't be able to eat a lot of food. And as long as you make the right choices or what to eat, then you shouldn't be consuming loads and loads of calories. Is it easy? NO! Is it hard? Sure it is. But is anything worth having really simple? Can you eat through the band? Yes you can, chips and ice cream and Oreos go down really well. But you have to be ready in your mind and in your heart to make the changes that will improve your life. I agree, I will NOT NOT NOT live on Protein shakes for the rest of my life. I will NOT eat only certain foods, if I want a piece of cheesecake, I'm GOING to have it, but it will be a tiny piece instead of a wedge of it. If I want a steak, I won't buy the cheap tough 1lb cut anymore, I'll buy a 3 or 4oz Filet and savor it. I want to be able to eat normally (normally meaning well, not crappy), just smaller portions and that is how I view the band. I log every drink and every bite on fitday.com. I do not count calories, I do it to see what I am consuming. I stay away from things that say enriched flour or high fructose corn syrup on the label. I chose good foods now and eat chicken or beef or cheese first, then eat 1/2-1 cup of vegetables and then if I have any room, I'll eat the carbs. But I'll eat the complex carbs most of the time. Occasionally I'll have an Oreo. But I'll put it in the computer. I could never have had the bypass, I'd figure a way to eat around that, too. I'd much rather really learn good food behaviors and establish eating habits for life than eat crap and let the dumping and cramping try to keep me honest.

Follow this link: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f73/abbreviations-what-they-mean-7959/ And welcome to bandland, the burping is your official badge of entry, me thinks. I burp constantly now.

I LOVE your mindset, wish I was half as strong as you! I prevent yeast infections by eating yogurt, too. A tip on the yogurt, you can get acidophillus chewables at most health food stores, or if you live in an area where there are Kroger's grocery stores, they sell a Kroger Brand Carb Master Yogurt that is 80 calories, 4 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber and 12 grams of protein per 6 oz cup...and it tastes REALLY good. Not like those other icky low carb yogurts. Or go get some Fage or other brand of greek strained yogurt. One cup of the fat free is 100 calories, 5g of carbs and 20g of protein I resent it, hunny bunny.

Dagnabit, you are NOT making me go. I will go if I can because I want to be there for you if you feel you need that. And you are soooo right, sometimes I miss things when I go to see a physician. And that's who I interact with three days a week...

Brandy, Did you read your PM from a few days ago? Wait, you're sick. Never mind. Sickness can wreak havoc from anyone. Yep, my rehab is at Dominos Farms. And unless I'm working that day (I'll know soon), I can certainly be there for ya!

I totally agree, fitday is what I use as well. There are many others such as sparkpeople.com, thedailyplate.com, calorieking.com, etc. It helps sooooooo much to really see what you are ingesting. I religiously put my food and drink into fitday.

I cannot imagine that this would be an alternative to a tummy tuck. The tummy tuck is for loose skin, lipo takes away fat. If you don't have any loose skin and all you have is fat, then sure, this may work well.

Congrats on getting your surgery moved up! That's wonderful. So suddenly, the pace to ask whatever questions I still have isn't as leisurely as it was a couple days ago. So while I've been lurking on the board for weeks, and I probably ran across the answers to one of two of these questions before, please forgive me is I ask questions that are answered somewhere else in the forum. Sorry if they're a little wide-ranging: No problem, yes there are loads of answers out there, but you sort of need to know now. The search function here is good, but I'll try to help you out below. How long do you usually spend in the hospital? Is it outpatient? Overnight?Totally depends on your doc. CALL and ask, that's the only way to know for sure what your surgeon does. My surgeon required an overnight stay, many folks here had their surgery outpatient, and quite a few stayed overnight as I did. How many days did you have to take off from work?Again, it depends. There are LOADS of threads here asking how long we took off work, but unfortunately I can't predict what your doc will want you to do. My doc required me to be off four weeks. Was that overkill? Maybe, but I do do a lot of physical stuff, though I thought I could have gone back in two. If I had had a desk job, I think I'd have been okay after a week or so. What are the warning signs that your band is slipping?I'm not going to answer this one, A) because I haven't experienced it myself and because it does no good to start off in a fatalistic mood. There is a forum here for LapBand Complications, you may wish to check in there. I don't think it's the exact same for everyone. The biggest thing is to follow your doc's orders, especially on the post-op diet. The post-op period is for healing, not weight loss, the idea is to rest your stimach as much as possible so the band gets "seated" into place with scar tissue formed around it to hold it there. If you eat real food too early, you risk it not healing in the proper place. That then may contribute to slips later down the road. How do you take pills in general – mash 'em up in apple sauce?Depends, again your doc should have post-op instructions for what he wants you to do. My doc's office says that if it is larger than birth control pill-size it needs to be cut. In the immediate post-op period they wanted us to mash them and take then with applesauce or pudding or yogurt. My doc also says no more extended release meds, ever. You can't cut them, you can't smash them, and when you get to the point you can take them whole (as long a the pill/capsule isn't too big), then you still don't want them sitting in your pouch. That's not where they are absorbed from. Most importantly, has anyone here dealt with Dr. Constantine Frantzides in the Chicago area? The Dr. who referred me called him "gifted with a laparoscope". He mainly does laparoscopic gastric bypasses, but he also does the Lap-Band. His many patients sing his praises on obesityhelp.com, but again, they're mainly bypass patients.Sorry, I don't know anything about him, either. Is there anyone on the Doctors and Hospitals thread or in the Illinois thread that has him listed? Use the search function and put in his last name. Then try searching with his first name only in case someone spelled his last name wrong. You might get some hits. Good luck! That's all for right now, though I may have another question or two soon. Ask anytime, and best wishes for a quick and easy surgery! Be sure to check out the FAQ and references Forum, it has a list of things to have ready for after surgery.

Getting filled under fluoro allows the doc to actually SEE how restricted a patient is. Does your doc offer fluoro (sort of an xray image)? Many patients who are filled under fluoro seem to have better restriction earlier and have less fills to get to their "sweet spot" and also seem to have less unfills.

I hope Wendel chimes in here and attaches his bit about fills, it is very informative. But basically, everyone's anatomy is different, our stomac walls are not the same thickness. For example you and I would absolutely not have the exact same feeling of restriction at say 7cc's of fill. Perhaps your stomach wall is thicker than mine, maybe I'd need 7.5cc's to feel restriction. So while the band holds a defined amount of Fluid, what the band is restricting (your stomach) is not always the same thickness. And that thickness changes as you lose weight. There is a fat pad on your stomach that shrinks as the rest of you shrinks and you lose some restriction along the way. RARELY does anyone hit their "sweet spot" of restriction the first fill. Most posts here and on other boards seem to indicate it takes at least three fills and quite often four or five to reach that good level of restriction. More often than not, most people don't get much of anything from their first fill. If they get any restriction it is only for a few days. Occasionally people don't get the restriction form a fill until 10 days to 2 weeks after the fill, and no one really knows why that is, it just seems to happen for some people. That usually occurs in later fills, though. Not the first one.

You are both very welcome. Let me know what you think of the Back To Basics, okay? I am thinking of getting it to use in addition to my regular Oster as it is smaller and would travel well.

Do you have a number of pounds that you have to lose to be approved? If you do, you HAVE to get on the bandwagon. I read that you have cut out soda, fast food, etc, but you are obviously substituting that with something else. In general less calories=weight lost. I'm not trying to badger you, merely trying to help. One thing that worked for me (I gained almost 30 pounds in my ONE YEAR medically supervised diet requirement and was denied once, I stepped it up and was approved the next month) was to cut out all white or refined carbs. Anything that said high fructose corn syrup or enriched flour on the label didn't go in my mouth. It makes you hungrier. So I went out and bought Slim Fast Low Carb Diet (not Optima, not High Protein-Low Carb Diet is richer and has lower carbs and higher Protein that even the High Protein) and drank two or three of those a day along with a huge salad and snacked on an ounce or so of nuts per day. I lost about 15 pounds in two weeks (but everyone is different). I wish you luck!

Finally at 70lbs people are saying they notice it. But at 40 and 50 lbs when they other girls at work who had lost 10 and 20 lbs were getting lots of compliments, I was getting bupkiss.

Glad you are feeling better (some better, that is). I know you can go alone, you really can. I did all of my appts at Hurley alone and would have done surgery alone if they had let me drive myself. I guess I'm just a loner, but yet I'm all warm and fuzzy and love people, weird, huh? If I am off and you do decide you want someone to go, I would gladly come join you in the office. After all, I may be working out next door at that time.

I know many are fond of the Magic Bullet, but I am just not impressed with it's power (or lack of) compared to other blenders out there. Plus it's pretty expensive at $50-$60, the cheapest I've seen it was at Kohl's at Xmas and that was a four hour day after Thanksgiving sale price for $36. The Magic Bullet has *only* 225W of power. There is a personal sized blender at Walmart that you can get online that is 350W and is only $18ish, here's the link: Back to Basics 3-Speed Brushed Chrome Personal Blender Express, BPE3BR - Wal-Mart I can't find it in the stores, but I did find it online at Walmart and if you're not a Wallyworld fan, here's an msn link with more estores that carry it: Back to Basics 350-Watt Personal Blender Express price comparison I just ended up buying a new blender (I needed one anyway) from Walmart, it's an Oster that came with a food processer attachment and a free personal size mix mug (not all the boxes had that, but they do sell those for about $13 or so) and it was $40. It has 450 watts. I do really like it. This is it: Oster 12-Speed Blender and Food Processor, 6889-015 - Wal-Mart Here's the link to the personal mixer cup: Oster Blend-n-Go Cup - Wal-Mart But did you know that if you have a blender that has the screw-off base with the removable blades (screw the base off the jar and take the blade assembly and a gasket ring out for cleaning) that that ring actually fits on canning jars? Talk about nice and small, you could use half pint or pint size jars and not have to worry about buying another blender/mixer at all. I have a bunch of those old glass canning jars with the handle on them they used to sell in the dollar stores, those work great.

September Challenge Name...................... Starting......Loss.....Current......Goal......To Go losingjusme.(Christine).. 273..........-4...........269.........252........17 faithmd...................... 302.........-2............300........290.........10 ridinmyhddream (Carol)...262..........+1..........263. .......250........13 insubordination..............300........-2.2.........297.8.......292........5.8 Kimmie.........................314........-12. ........302..........290........12 Tinkerbell77..................317..........2.6.... . ...314.4.......299.......14.4 Rainer (Lorraine)............298.........-9...........289..........275.......14 Chiefsfankatie...............305...........0...... .....305..........290.......15 jbtullis ........................300..........-2..........298..........285........13 Elisabethsew.................278..........0....... ....278..........269........9

No, you should NOT wear makeup. If you are intubated (breathing tube) they need to tape that in place, so if you were wearing a lot of makeup, the tape won't stick and I can't guarantee that what they use to take your make up off will be kind to your skin. Or if the tape desn't stick because of makeup, they may put something on your skin to make it sticky and that's no fun, either. Almost always your eyes are taped shut because of the paralytic you get during the surgery, they don't want your eyes to be open and get dry, so they get taped shut. There goes your eye make up and if your mascara isn't waterproof... Also, with a lot of makeup, sometimes it can cause issues because of the electrical activity used in cutting and cauterization. I've seen pics of people with interesting burns (RARE) that had heavy make up on before surgery. And to top it all off, you're probably not going to feel too much like washing it off after surgery, anyway.

Jacqui, have I told you lately that I LOVE you?????? I thank you soooooo much for your no-nonsense approach to all of this.

:car::hippie::peace::humble::wave::hug:

What a wonderful plastic surgeon. Wish all docs were like him! Seriously, as soon as you are feeling better, I would encourage you to report the conduct of the ER doc to the risk management dept at that hospital. Thanks goodnes you were seen elsewhere and it was caught in time. I hope you continue to heal and feel better and better everyday! So about why you are puffy: In simple easy to understand terms, when someone has a blood infection like a Staph infection it causes the blood vessels to become "leaky" like little tubes of swiss cheese. The body, in an overwhelming infected state, wants the white bloods cells to come and eat up the infection, but it's everywhere. So the Fluid part of your blood seeps out of your blood vessels and into your tissues. We call it third spacing. Silly term, I know. Basically you are intravascularly (in your blood vessels) depleted or dry. You are dehydrated in your blood system, but you look like the Pillsbury dough boy. It is because you are extravascularly (out of your blood vessels) wet. The antibiotics help fight that infection and the little holes in your vessels that let the fluid out of your blood system over time get sealed back up. Usually with a bad infection your kidneys may be a little sluggish to get that fluid back into your blood system and get it peed off. Don't worry, it takes a little while, but it will happen.

Hi Cherrybomb, this has been asked a couple times, so I wanted to give you links to the other threads so you could compare then to now. I think it's good to ask the questions again from time to time as things do change for people. Just wnated you to have access to how the question has been answered in the past, too. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f81/exercise-frequency-36350/ http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/how-often-do-you-exercise-28549/

That's the way they use the band in Australia (or at least that's what I've gathered from lots of posts that I've read from Australians). I have to agree, an ounce of prevention! It is sad that we have to get so far gone with our weight before it becomes acceptable to do something perceived as "drastic." If you have tried and tried and lost and regained the same weight over and over again, I think the band is a good choice, perhaps it will stay off for good this time. And again, congrats on making over 1/3 of the way to goal!

Happy Bandiversary!!!! You have done very well, and what adorable kiddos!

Staph infections are sadly becoming common. They are not always caused by a surgeon or a hospital, Staph lives on many surfaces and once it gets in your system, it can wreak havoc. I am REALLY glad to hear you DO have one that can be cured with most common antibiotics. Though the other one (MRSA) can still be treated, it is just a lot tougher. Goodonya for insisting to go to another institution. I would absolutely make an appointment to speak with someone in Risk Management at the hospital where you went to the original ER. You hit the nail on the head with the Water weight. When someone is septic (has a blood infection) and that sepsis becomes more overwhelming, they gain LOADS of Fluid. I have to go get the cat from the vet right now, but when I get back I'll write about why that is, but suffice it to say, you will pee it all out once your vessels are not as leaky from the bacteria (and you are on antibiotics) and your kidneys start kicking into gear.

That is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!