Fenton

Congratulations, CP! I didn't have problems peeing, other than smaller volumes because I was taking less liquid in. Are you keeping up your intake? It's hard at first.

Scrappy! Nice to hear you're still with us! Congrats on your fantastic success!

Is it just me, or have we not heard from a few bandsters for a while. Christine? Scrappy? I worry that when people fall silent, they are dead. At least, dead to the band... I'm probably just being neurotic, but even if it's not going well, chime in and say so, so we can give you encouragement, and, like, support and whatnot... And if it is going well, don't hide your light under a bushel!

Special K - thanks for the cartoons - always nice to have a quick grin on this board. Although I have to say, I grin quite a lot while reading this - we have a pretty funny bunch! I wonder if that's just a random thing, or if fat people learn to use humor as a defensive weapon. Yay on yr dog, Lisa! That's great news! I had an NSV yesterday: I'm now wearing pants that are 6" smaller in the waist than the ones I was wearing for my initial weigh-in in January. On the minus side, my hips are sore - I think it's the joints rather than the muscles, although I feel it in the muscles. I'm going to take it easy on walking for the next couple of days. Last night, I had a nice indulgence, something I'd been looking forward to for the last few days: I had Soup for dinner, then went out to the Dessert Truck (a mobile high-end dessert truck that magically appears every night from six to midnight a half mile from my house) and had a chocolate bread pudding. I ate it in the park in the light rain, and then I got up and walked for an hour by way of penance/exercise.

Ghost! What a pain in the ass! (Can we say that? Perhaps I should have typed @$$?) You seem very rational, which is completely appropriate - you'll be absolutely fine. Because of the position of the pituitary gland (behind and between the eyes, just above the top of the nose), it's the easiest type of tumor for the surgeons to reach - a nose job would be a far more unpleasant surgery to have! You probably will have to have replacement hormone therapy, but it shouldn't be too bad at all; and don't worry about your thyroid: your endocrinologist will keep up on it, particularly if you keep up on him or her! Because you have only a small amount of visual field problems, it's likely that the tumor is still pretty small, but it's big enough that they feel that you'll be better off with it out than in. And since you've been having the hormonal problem for a couple of years, and it's STILL pretty small, you know that the tumor is growing very slowly. So, you'll be fine, and you're right that your major concern should be that you don't have to delay your trip to Vegas!

Completely normal! There's a few threads on just this topic here - I think the longest one is called "Nervous". You'll be fine! And later you'll be even more fine!

No, wait, I'm just guessing! I think that for every time food gets stuck and the gullet gets blocked (what usually results is bringing up a chunk of food and frothy slime, referred to round these here parts as a "productive belch", or PB), the pouch gets stretched a little - that's why it hurts! But your stomach is elastic, as you know from past experiences of really overeating - the thing is made to stretch to accommodate food. Now, obviously, with the surgery, that's one of the things they try to fight against; they try to rein in the stomach so that we feel full with less food. The way the band is stitched to the stomach "traps" the stomach a bit, makes it harder to stretch. Brief episodes like the ones we had will stretch the stomach for a little while, but eventually it'll shrink back to where it was. However, if you keep on stretching the pouch, if you keep on eating too much food too quickly, you run the risk of stretching the pouch severely, which can make it harder to feel full on a tiny amount of food, even with the band being full. For this reason, after you have a PB - or an episode like you had - it's a good idea to go back to liquids for a day or two to let the stomach contract again. Harleygirl posted somewhere in the Master Thread some dietary guidlines for concentrating on helping your pouch shrink back down again, but they're pretty obvious: you want to put a smaller volume of food through, and you don't want that food accumulating in the pouch and stretching it, so you go back to fluids for a few days (which slip out of the pouch quickly, so don't stretch it) then to mushies, then back to soft food, etc. I think the important thing is that when the thing starts hurting you, it's telling you you've overstuffed it, and that it's time to stop eating for a while - and even get rid of it if the pain continues. But you'll learn to recognize the signals your stomach is giving you about how full it is. Just LISTEN to them!

WAIT!!! What am I, NUTS??? I shall get it in another 39 pounds, when I hit 100 pounds lost! D'oh!

Congrats, you fillers! I'm still trundling along without a fill. I'm beginning to think that maybe my stomach was so big that even a large band was still enough to create restriction. I'm still fascinated by my PB last week - I did NOT see that coming! I've had pretty good and steady weight loss, due largely to a combination of my absurd starting weight and the fact that I've been very aggressive in terms of making myself move more. Another 37 pounds and I'm going to join the gym. And I'm rethinking my rewards chart. I think I'm going to get my next tattoo after another 37 pounds.

If the pain was bad, it was about something getting stuck, not about being full. It sounds like you stretched the pouch a bit, and the gullet was trying to pump past the blockage to get food down through the belt and into the stomach. From what you're describing, there were probably two factors - many bandsters have trouble with lettuce, which is kind of stiff and not very squeezable, so is more likely to get stuck, and the other is that you might have been eating a little fast, causing stretching of the pouch. Don't worry - you're not going to have to eat until you've got chest pain to feel full! Try to slow down, choose your food carefully, chew your food thoroughly. And that sequence is important: Protein first, then vegetables, then any starches. Chew each bite at least 20 times. After you've put the food in your mouth, put the fork or spoon down while you chew. After you swallow, wait 30 seconds or so before picking up the fork or spoon again. Before you continue to eat, always ask yourself if you're hungry - you may not need to eat any more. And, finally, try not to drink for at least 20 minutes after eating (some MDs say as much as 2 hours, but that's just crazy talk!) (All this stuff is from the Golden Rules from the place where I got my band, plus the conventional wisdom of this group.) I think we all face a period of acclimatization before we get the hang of this process!

Ice cream is a huge pitfall for the unwary bandster - you guys completely ROCK for resisting temptation!!! WELL DONE!!!

So, let me get this straight: you're planning one of the most important days of your life, when your friends and family will gather from all over the place to Celebrate you, where there'll be hundreds - maybe thousands - of photographs taken of you that will be kept and treasured until after you've shuffled off to heaven, and you're thinking that you WANT to go into it morbidly obese? That doesn't seem right to me. Take the step, lose the weight, and blow away all those people who haven't seen you for ages!

I think we all like scale victories because they're measurable and seem absolute. But the fact is that a number of things go into making up weight, and many of them have nothing to do with the amount of fat we're burning. You know the old joke where the patient goes to the doctor and complains Patient: Doctor! It hurts when I do this! Doctor: Well don't do that, then! ? Well, the scales are the same way. If you're eating right, and exercising, then you're burning fat, pure and simple. And as most of you are chicks who have hormonal changes sweeping in and out throughout the month, some of which are going to cause you to hold on to Water, which will affect your scale weight, you KNOW that sometimes the scale is going to rise, even though you're actually burning fat. So if you keep looking at the scales, and the needle isn't moving, STOP LOOKING AT THE SCALES! Once a week is fine, once every two weeks might be better! It's physically impossible for you to keep a low calorie intake with adequate Protein, and to be exercising and burning calories without losing fat! So stop monitoring yourself by the scale number, focus on living right, focus on the clothes that fit you better, the way your energy is gradually increasing, the way you don't tire like you used to etc. Because at the end of the day, SUCCESS in this process ISN'T the number on the scale, is it? It's how you feel in your body, how your health has improved, how your self-confidence has improved, how you can buy clothes you'd never have fit in before the weight loss - it's about embracing LIFE, not about scoring a good number on the scale. I have a friend at work who likes to joke about people's obsession with the numbers in weight loss. She comes up to me and starts this stream of questions: "So, Fenton, how much have you lost? Great! How much have you lost... NOW? And now how much have you lost.... Now how much? Great! And how much have you lost..... ...... NOW!" etc. It sounds idiotic, but it's pretty funny. Anyway, I think we (certainly *I* do!) have to keep our mind on the longterm goals, and do the right thing, and stop sweating the times when the needle gets stuck. And you, Harley! You in particular know better! So, let's keep watching how much we eat, and try to keep our exercise up. Because, as we all know very well, THAT is how we lose weight.

Welcome, BB. And relax - you can eat after banding, just not so much, and a bit carefully... I can't advise you on the other, but the band will do nothing to slow the booze from going down. The problem with alcohol is that it packs some calories of its own, but also being disinhibited might make you more likely to slip up... But hopefully you'll find out for yourself in a little, after the insurance permissions come through!

Oh, God how horrible Lisa! Hang in there, and I hope you can keep your dog - he looks like a decent sort...

Yay to everyone! SpecialK, your story made ME smile real big, too - in a very manly way, of course. I love that Busy can wear her mother's ring again! And Bratz, your daughter sound like a keeper... I've had such a busy week that I can't remember whether or not I posted about it, but I had an NSV, too: my pants and belt were loose, and I went to tighten the belt to prevent flashing the passersby (not actually a HUGE issue in NYC, to be frank) - and discovered that my belt has run out of notches and can't be tightened any more! I shall now make a Walk of Pride to the cobblers, and have them trim the belt and put in new notches. I'm going to ride this belt down until it's just a little nubbin!

My friend, I got my bill from the insurance company - $24,000. I guess it's more a statement than a bill - I only had to pay $250, but still! Hang in there, it's worth it! Can your doc's office follow up on it? Are they any help?

Congratulations, Mickers! My NSV: I've burned through the notches on my belt, and now either need a new one, or to take it to the cobblers and have more notches punched into it...

Bratz, did the surgeon's office advise you to switch to liquids? I'm wondering if I should have done that after my horrifying and exhilarating PB.

I have to say that I LOVE my new burping skills! Sometimes I can lean forward and emit a low, gurgling growl that lasts five or six seconds. It's hugely satisfying!

Speaking of the bodybugg, Seiko has just released a kind of similar product in Japan for a lot less money: seiko slimstick tracks your every move on [technabob] I'd wager they'll be available in the US in about 6 months.

JDub - where did you get your bugg at that price? I see that they have them for $50 off at 24hourfitness.com for the rest of the month. Christine, you can handle it. You understand your options, you'll make the right decision.

Yeah, Amanda - enjoy that sports bar! I'd be careful about where you get your shamrock; with a lot of weight loss, you might want a tummy tuck, and if you get a tummy tuck that will change the location of your port relative to your shamrock. Chica, I'm not sure about those studies. My impression was that people who don't eat breakfast eat more during the day, but I thought that might relate to satiety levels, which are completely different once the band's in play. I don't think I feel much difference without breakfast; indeed, on a couple of occasions I've forgotten to eat breakfast, only realizing it when lunch time comes along. I have to say, "forgetting" a meal is new to me. Particularly breakfast, which is, gastronomically, my favourite meal of the day.

I probably eat what you do, Rosie, assuming you eat pork cheeks and sweetbreads. No, I joke! But only a little. I'm a complete cheat, because I started at 473 pounds, and so have fairly high muscle mass, and a large weight to move around, so exercise, even just walking, is pretty efficient for me. Generally, I've been keeping at about 1500 calories a day. I wasn't really having Breakfast, but chica yelled at me, so now I have something small, usually about 200 calories worth - a small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with 1/2 cup of 1% milk, or a nonfat greek yogurt with a sprinkling of granola (which is great, actually, because there's a good hit of Calcium in the yogurt, plus the small container packs about 12g of protein). I try to make lunch my main meal, because I know that I"ll be walking it off for the rest of the day. I aim for about 700 calories, but don't usually make it. I go up to the gourmet shop near my office and get a 1/4 lb of their chicken salad and a chewy mini roll. Occasionally I go to the cart in front of the office that sells mystery meat and pita, and get some of that; I don't tend to do that often, though, because I think I eat too much of the pita. For dinner, I have a 200 calorie serving of clam chowder, or something similar on the small side. I may scramble some eggs and microwave some carnitas and have them with a little salsa or low fat black bean spread. Quite frequently I'll have a shake with Vanilla SLimfast Optima, banana, Peanut Butter and Protein powder. And then occasionally I have blowouts like I did yesterday evening. My band is unfilled, but I have decent restriction from it - as I learned yesterday when I had my first PB. I don't really feel hungry. Or, rather, I rarely feel hungry. Indeed, I was looking at my paperwork from Dr. Fielding's office yesterday, and saw that they recommend just 1 or 2 meals a day for some people; I know Fielding himself has just coffee for breakfast. I'm wondering if I might start skipping chica's Breakfast Rule, and just eat at lunch when my appetite kicks back in. I just don't want to have to face the Wrath of Chica... If it's any consolation, while it's easy for me now, it's going to take me a LONG time to get to goal, whereas you guys'll get there pretty soon. And I know weight loss will just get harder and harder for me. I'm trying to prepare for that by getting up to speed in terms of exercise; we shall see. What I'm worried about is the gradual erosion of my motivation. At my current size, it's easy to be motivated to stick to the eating plan and nail my exercise goals. As I slim down, though, that motivation will ease up, as it becomes less and less urgent that I lose weight. But we shall see...