Fenton

Yay! It's a good day for the Shamrocks! And, as you say: get in early, get out early...

POD 11 Well, I'm back from my check-up - everything's fine. I lost 11 lbs in the last week, a little to my surprise, much to my satisfaction. We talked about foods, and the doc suggested I try starting pureed foods. On the one hand, Oh yeah!!!! On the other: I've done so well on liquids that I'm a bit worried about going back to, y'know, *food*. I think I'm going to slowly transition - I've already been having yogurt, so I guess I'm already transitioning. In the next week I'm going to enjoy two dishes I've been almost DREAMING about recently: 1. A raviolo with butternut squash and apple, with brown butter 2. Creamy polenta with poached eggs and mushrooms They're appetizers at two restaurants I like; I probably won't eat them all, but I'm so happy that I actually CAN have them. Even as I transition, I thnk I'm going to drink at least one Isopure a day. I think I do have some restriction due to the swelling and healing, but that's easing - and I kind of don't want it to! I want to try and ride this as long as I can without restriction, and build up restriction as I start to have problems with hunger. Anyway, my tom yam goong awaits. Which reminds me... Whimsy? Where did you go?

Rhonda and Special K - we'll seen you soon, when you're well and truly bandsters! I hope your ride is nice and smooth.

Hey, Rick - good to hear things are progressing towards your winning that band! I'm pretty good. I have my follow-up today, so I'll be weighed. I'm not expecting to have lost a lot, though - while my intake since banding has been of the order of 1000 calories a day, I've been more sedentary than I should have been. I've gone out every day, but I've been a bit of a wuss, haven't felt like dealing with bundling up to go into the cold, or walking long distances once I'm out there. There's no pain; I can even bend pretty comfortably - although I do it gingerly, with visions in my head of sutures tearing out or some damn thing! So far, the only one of my wounds I can see is my port incision, which looks clean and pink and flaky - the others are all still hidden with steristrips, which I suspect will be rudely yanked off today by the doc. I'm still not 100% used to the Alien in my belly, but getting there. I'm not as low grade queasy as I used to be. The only thing is that I wake up each morning feeling pretty inflated, and have to let off a salvo before I get up.... :mad2: And that's me. I'm glad I took the time off - I've taken almost two weeks. It's a slightly luxurious convalescence, but I've found I spent it... convalescing. I'd hoped to get some things done around the house, catch up on some stuff that I'd been meaning to do, but I found myself a bit bushed, and grateful for an opportunity to just relax. I did, however, make it to the movies last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which was great. Back to work Wednesday - my face lighs up with naked joy! Uh :cool: And there you have it: my first and last post with emoticons... Good luck with the hoop-jumping, Rick - it's really worth it, as I'm sure you know.

Have we had any word from NadiaN? I hope she's doing better. Christine: I'm sure the cardio people will polish you up pronto. It sounds like you needed to have a serious talk with the cardiologist to get a clear sense of what's going on, although he or she may need to do a couple more tests to give you clearer answers. No matter what the diagnosis, weight loss is sure to help. I've never tried unjury - what's the big deal about it. I get my main Protein Drink fixes - iSopure and the ProSlam concentrated Protein shots - from GNC. I like the iSopure - it doesn't taste too protein-y. The ProSlams are so concentrated that they can be a bit hard to get down. Also, about 15 minutes after I pound down a ProSlam, I get a weird prickly feeling in my face. And how great that tomorrow we'll have two new bandsters!

Great weight loss, Harley! It'll be good to have you in the post-band camp...!!! A massage sounds like a GREAT idea, too.

Yay Special K! If you run around a lot buying stuff and washing stuff and tidying in preparation, by the time your head hits the pillow, you'll pass right out. I had no problems sleeping the night before my banding. I brought pyjamas and a robe, but never used them. Bariatric facilities have extra large gowns that will fit you fine. I had one on the normal way, another on backwards, so at no point were my privates infringed.... In fact, I regret bringing just about everything except my mobile phone and a laptop loaded with videos; of course, if you're not staying over night, the laptop is unnecessary.

I've been thinking more about food, and about how I'm going to work it into my life now that I'm banded. I've worked in the restaurant industry for the last decade or so, and am passionate about the stuff. I don't think that was what made me fat: I got fat because I'm a binge eater - if I had a rough day, I'd load up with Twixes, and then go get ice cream later, and maybe some Twinkies, easily taking in 2,000 or 3,000 extra calories in sweet junk. I still don't understand how I am not diabetic. At the moment, I can't eat much; I assume that will change. But I also don't WANT to eat much. I went out with my girlfriend tonight, and had a hot chocolate - a real one, with chocolate melted into milk, none of this powdered cocoa mix crap. I was fine with the calories - I'm a bit worried that I haven't hit 1,000 calories of daily intake since banding (at my size, just to maintain my weight, I should be taking in over 4,000 a day). But I found that after 1/3 of a cup, I was fine. I took the rest in a paper cup to go, and will have it for Breakfast tomorrow morning, after I've choked down 20 ounces of Isopure for my 40 g Protein. And I think that's how this process will work for me. I'll order many things I used to love, but I'll only eat a little of them. At restaurants, I'll only have an appetizer, and even that will probably be too much for me. For the first time, I think I'll be able to leave food I love on my plate. There will obviously be serious limitations - about once a month, I enjoy a great steak - but I think it'll be fun. I actually like this kind of challenge. And luckily, at this point in restaurant history, there's a big vogue towards small plate dining. So at this point, I believe I can have my cake, and eat it too. I can still enjoy foods I love, just not in the volumes I used to, nor even in the volumes normal people do. And I'm OK with that. But next week I start on pureed foods, and I know two dishes I'm going to have during that time, and I"m looking forward to them tremendously.

As far as the movies go, I saw HORTON HEARS A WHO yesterday, making me three for three. I like popcorn OK, but only real popcorn with real butter. The smell of the movie theater stuff doesn't derail me. It didn't even occur to me to pick up the chocolate that has always accompanied me to the movies in lo these 40 or so years as an avid movie-goer. Which is interesting and kind of cool.

Hey, Amanda. Yes, I do work around medical people, and am familiar with the principles and the jargon etc. I'm sure the people at NYU would be happy to see bandsters they didn't band themselves - it's a center of bariatric excellence, and they are extremely experienced. My feeling, though, is that they're a bit overloaded - they have such an excellent reputation, that they're always jammed. The waiting rooms are always full, etc. But if you're looking for a superb lap band team, I don't think there are any better.

POD 9 Still have 90% of my steri-strips attached. There's no incisional pain now, so I'm going to be more generous with soaping them up in the shower, see if that might help them on their way - since I have my checkup on Monday, I don't want them to be tearing off chunks of flesh with the steri-strips when they're inspecting the wounds. The xposed part of my port incision looks fine - pink, a little flaky, a small crusted nodule on one pole, but no oozing or tenderness or swelling. Not much else to report. I'm not really hungry, but I have a desire to eat. But I don't want liquids, though - I am SICK of liquids. But liquids are what I shall have. I'm beginning to believe that much of the early weight loss is due to the fact that the liquid diet is just so not fun. You don't want the food, you don't eat the food. You don't eat the food, you lose weight...

Congratulations, BigDaddy!

The pre-admission testing for me didn't take long - maybe an hour for blood drawing, an EKG and a chest X-ray. There was no barium swallow/upper GI series, which streamlined things. The supervisor who was running my testing wasn't sure if I needed stress testing; she said it was automatic for any bandster with a BMI over 60, and when I entered the tunnel, mine was 60.1. But dieting and liquids since I first enrolled in the National Band Academy had dropped my BMI to 58 by the time of my pre-admission testing. Since there was hand-wringing going on about whether I should or shouldn't have a stress test, I decided to get a cardiology consult, which went smoothly. Have we heard any further word on Christine? Do you know what they're going to do yet? Busywoman, sorry to hear it took four hours - I know you are, like, busy...

Teri - good to hear you've made it onto the runway! The hard part will be over before you know it. Hope! Thanks for the recipes! I'm trying to force myself to drink my SLimfast Optima, which I shall try and adulterate in the pattern of your recipes... Harleygirl: I hope you feel better for blowing off that steam!

Mom! Congratulations! You might not feel like celebrating right now, but you know very well that there's a handful of upcoming bandsters who'd happily swap places with you - now that you've gone home! What WERE you thinking, woman? It's not major surgery, but it's surgery, and big people feel it more than little people. I'm impressed by your courage, but I'm absolutely thrilled that you're going home to relax and take it easy for the weekend. I've worked pretty hard in the last year or so, so I had enough sick leave banked to be able to take off almost two weeks. It's a luxurious stretch, but I'm so hopeless at organizing that everything - eg abdominal surgery - completely interrupts my smoothly functioning life. I needed the recovery time - and now I'll need recovery time to recover from the recovery!

POD 8 Well, I think I'm almost back to normal. My stomach still feels unusual, but I'm basically fine. THe bruising is nearly invisible. Half of the steristrip dressing came off my port incision; the incision is a fine pink line, with a little bit of crusting, but I'll be damned if I'm going to yank the steristrips off the others quite yet! My guts are... OK. Sometimes a trip to the toilet is an adventure in wind, but it's been basically fine. I'm doing OK on the eating - well, drinking, to be more precise. I'm occasionally even feeling hungry! I've not had enough to eat/drink today - I had my esophagram this morning, and that paste I slurped down is probaby leeching all the Water out of my system even as I type. I've managed a cup of sugar free hot chocolate, and some white bean Soup, about a cup. I'm going to spend the rest of the day sipping Isopure to boost my Protein and Fluid intake. My sleeping remains a problem, but that's because yesterday I crashed for a couple of hours in the afternoon, then couldn't get to sleep until after 2AM, then was woken at 6:45AM by my battling cats. I expect to sleep well tonight - I'm going to be putting up a sign saying No Cats Allowed In Fenton's Sleep Chamber, which ought to take care of things nicely.

BigUNC, can you get any relief from rinsing your mouth, or maybe from chewing sugarfree gum? That dry mouth is a horrible feeling. I'm in the Two Hours = One Hour Too Many camp, too. I'm still on liquids, then I graduate to pureed food. I assume I'll be given the same instructions when I'm finally let loose on the world of solids again...

Out with it, Hope! What's the recipe for Skinny Monkey? I've not been able to restart with the Slimfast Optima since my surgery, and I have cases to consume...

And Amanda, I'm not worried about you - you have GOAL written all over your face.

jencys - lucky you! You were cutting it a wee bit close there - you almost missed being a Shamrock!

kljared - nice to have you gagging along with the rest of us...

Cocolossel: I think Annie's got great advice there. But if *I* were having excruciating pain for 2 weeks, I wouldn't be waiting until Monday; I'd go in and see my surgeon tomorrow, have someone look at my wound, make sure it's not infected. I may have been lucky, as I've had, essentially, no pain - I didn't even fill my painkiller prescription. I think the pain you're describing, while it may be nothing, warrants getting checked out as soon as possible - ideally a week ago! Good luck!

Christine - what a pain about the stress test! But that's what they're there for. They'll polish you up, get you in tip-top shape for your surgery. I'm really glad that you had it done, and that they're going to sort you out. And you're right - even if they have to delay the surgery a little, this is EXACTLY why we're doing it. I know we'll be cuter, have more energy, maybe move ahead in our jobs, find a new lover, have better sex, have any sex at all et cetera et cetera et cetera. But what's most important - and the reason some of us have health insurance companies paying for our expensive surgery - is that this is about getting healthy. It's not about shaving pounds, it's about adding years... Hang in there! And yay for good cardiologists!

Thanks, guys! I'm 6'2". It sounds as if I'm going to need to get seriously under 300 to feel comfortable even trying most of these places... I would be SO humiliated if I didn't fit! snaps - thanks for the Dorney Park recommendation. And Elsie - if you find that site, please share it!

Also: Amanda: are you sure you're getting enough food? I'm wondering if part of your momentary despair might be related to insufficient calories or protein...