ShanaMarie

I just want to say way to go! It's awesome that you have the discipline to exercise that often. Though gaining that muscle may mean gaining some weight at first, the cool thing about gaining some muscle is that you'll burn more calories throughout the day now. Of course I'm not an expert, but I don't think you need to worry that you're working out too much, especially since you're doing weights only 3x week and the other days are just aerobic - most "experts" have been saying lately that you should get some kind of aerobic exercise for 30 min/day most days of the week. I agree with Mary that your restriction might not be right yet. I think I'm going through the same thing, but I just can't get a day off school to go for another fill before the end of the semester, unfortunately. When was your 2nd fill? What keeps you motivated to exercise? I'll exercise 3 or 4 times a week for a few weeks and then I skip once, then twice, then I just get out of the habit. Any tips on how to keep on trucking?

I knew it couldn't be just me who gained a ton of weight in law school! It's my first year and I've gained probably 30 pounds, ridiculous...I decided not to come back next year!

Hey Babs, you know what? Normally I love this board and I think its members are truly supportive and good-hearted. But this was a little harsh. My immediate reaction was wanting to yell something not very nice in your direction. It's not like I'm sitting around drinking nonstop all weekend; yes, being healthy is important to me, but the reason it's important to me is so that I can live my life the way I want. And I don't want to (or need to, in my opinion) completely give up alcohol in order to be healthy. I resent the fact that you are throwing alcohol consumption in my face as proof that the band doesn't mean enough to me. Where do you get off? Do you really think telling me how successful others are being and suggesting I "keep my eye on the prize" because I don't want this enough, or whatever other judgmental comment you're not so subtly making, is an effective way to help me reach my goals? Just because I have a drink or two on the weekends does not mean that I'm a couch potato sitting on my ass eating bon-bons. And let me help you out since your reading and math skills seem to be limited: I was banded January 5th, which means I've been banded less than 3 months. My doctor does not even allow a fill until 2 months post op. And yes, I am having problems with my restriction; namely, I don't have any. Think twice before you publicly call someone's motivations into question next time.

Ok, maybe I'll get a lot of crap for this, but... I'm 23 years old. I'm still in school. The weekends are always when I kick back with friends and that often involves drinking. Sure, sure, I bet you're all thinking, 'why can't you have a good time without alcohol?', but honestly, in the safety of my own home, there's nothing better than having a whisky or a martini and watching movies with my boyfriend. Alcohol is definitely a munchie-inducer, but it's something I can avoid if I concentrate just a little. So basically, my answer to the original question is that I waited until probably 3-4 weeks post-op before I tried drinking, and since then I haven't had a problem. As long as you're not getting drunk to the point of throwing up, I don't really see the problem with a couple cocktails. If you're worried about the 'empty calories', cut down on the high-sugar alcohols like schnapp's or pucker, and skip the juice mixers. Mix some whisky with some lemonade crystal light for a whisky sour, or drink it straight!

Congratulations on being banded Mary! I love the board too, the people here are so great. I hope everything is going well for you post-op =)

Ok, I had my first fill this afternoon. I got there and the Dr. was like, "What happened?" because my weight was up 6 lbs. from what my pre-op weight was. That made me feel like shit and want to cry. Well, first off, I swear to everything high and holy that the day of my surgery when they weighed me the weight was 257, and today when they weighed me it was 256. I think what may have happened is that they were looking at what my weight was when I applied for the surgery, which was 250. Plus, I'm on my period, so there's a few extra lbs. right there. I didn't know what to tell him. I've been working out 3x/week and trying to make the right food choices. But besides all that, I thought it was pretty common to not start losing until you've had a fill and start eating solids. I'm 7 weeks post-op and for the past 3 or 4 weeks I've been able to eat whatever the heck I want and as much of it as I want. Obviously I had no restriction so why would I be losing? My Dr. made a huge point of saying how "of all the patient's I've had, you're the only one who's gained post-op" Gee, thanks for the insight, doc. So he put in 1cc. I'm on liquids for the rest of tonight, but tomorrow I'm supposed to go back to eating as normal. I'm supposed to go back in 4 weeks for another fill since he said it's common to lose some of the liquid from your first fill. The only problem is, I have to miss class and drive 2 hours there and 2 hours back to get fills. According the the ABA, I can only miss a certain number of law school classes or else I'm not allowed to take the final exam. My point is, my spring break is in 2 weeks. If I'm eating solids for the next 2 weeks and I don't have any restriction, I'm thinking of seeing if he will let me come in then so I don't have to miss a class for my 2nd fill. Does 2nd fill after 2 weeks seem unreasonable to anybody out there? I know everybody's different, etc., I just wanted to rant and get some of your opinions.

Lol, thanks for the support! I go in tomorrow for my second fill, so hopefully I'll notice some kind of difference after that!

I just had to share this, it's my boyfriend's take on the situation after I told him I just ate a whole veggie wrap and don't feel full yet: "i'm really pissed at your doctor, i'm tempted to find him over spring break and kick him in the balls and ask him if he feels full cause his balls are in his stomach"

You know, the more I think about what happend at that appointment on Tuesday, the more upset I get. It's not that I felt Boutt rushed through my appointment or anything, that's not it at all. It was the attitude he gave me that reallly bothered me. The "you'd better work something out, you need to be available in case we need to unfill you, blah blah blah." Ok, know what? YOU need to be available more than 2 hours per week. I can only work around so much, man. And after reading Sue's post on the psychological fill, I'm starting to really doubt that I'm the only one who didn't lose before their first fill. And if I am, then wow. Boutt's been really lucky with his patients. Actually, while I was in the waiting room on Tuesday all the people I talked to had lost weight before their first fill, but there's an important difference - their starting weight was much higher than mine. I think it's pretty common that the more weight you have to lose, the faster it comes off initially. I realized something last night: I'm PAYING him for his services. It's 2 days after the fill and I feel NO restriction. So unless a miracle happens and I suddenly get tighter in the next week, I'm giving Michelle a call and requesting that she give me that appointment over my spring break. I pay them to help me make the band work, not to screw me around and make me feel like shit. Obviously I don't want to get sick, but I want some kind of restriction, otherwise the band is useless. I don't think I should have to feel guilty about wanting that. I don't think I should have to feel out of line for asking for another fill so soon. If he wants to see me lose some weight then he has to work with me to get to someplace where I can't eat as much as I can right now. I love this board, I don't know what I'd do without having this forum to vent my frustrations!! And p.s., Quakergirl: Congratulations on your awesome weight loss!

It makes me so livid that doctors actually think they can treat patients like this! Ok, I'm fat, but I also happen to be pretty smart, and I've taken a few psychology classes myself. I cannot understand why doctors, not to mention the rest of the general public, make such ridiculous generalizations about overweight people.

You know what really gets me? Assuming Boutt and Behsania really have done 600+ lapbands, that means each of them have a pretty high number of patients. Yet Boutt's only office hours for fills are from 1pm to 3pm on Tuesdays. How the f&$% does he think that's convenient for anybody, let alone enough time to see everybody who needs to be seen?! Personally I know I have to jump through hoops to make it during that time period, and that's just with school. I shudder to think what happens to people with actual jobs where they can't just up and take a 1/2 day off to drive over to Port Huron. Ridiculous....

Thanks! Keeping a food journal for him is a really good idea =)

You know, it's wierd, I loved him up until today! He's normally a very nice guy and he and the other surgeon he works with have done aroung 600 lap bands to date...but I don't know what was up with him today. That's exactly what I felt like saying to him - "Do you think that kind of comment is going to motivate me towards my goals?!?!" Thanks for the support!

Thanks!

I know everybody's different...but I was wondering how many cc's you all got for your first fills. I go for my first fill on Tuesday and of course I don't want to get sick or anything, but my Dr. only does fills on Tuesdays so I have to skip classes and drive 2 hours there and 2 hours back just to do it so it's kinda hard to work around. My point is, I want enough of a fill that I won't have to go back in a few weeks. I'm planning on telling all of this to my Dr., I just wanted to get a good idea of what a reasonable first fill amount would be.

I called and scheduled my first fill yesterday! Normally my Dr. doesn't do fills until 8 weeks post-op, but mine will be about 7 weeks post-op. I don't know if the lady who made the appointment realized that or not, but I'm not leaving without a fill! I have to skip class for this! =) I'm so excited to finally be getting filled. For the past few weeks I've pretty much been able to eat whatever I want, as much as I want. I keep gaining and losing the same 6 lbs. over and over. I'm ready for a little restriction!

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I spend way too much time online and I love to have new boards or journals or whatever to check in at. So if you're craving something else to read, here's a link to my livejournal, which I mainly update when I'm in boring law school classes trying to stay awake =): http://www.livejournal.com/users/shana_marie/

Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better, thank you so much for thinking of me! I can't wait until spring, I'm ready for sunshine and warm(er) weather!

After your surgery, did any of you feel depressed for a while? I'm almost 4 weeks post-op and I just feel so out of it still. Maybe it's the crappy weather (damn you, Michigan!), maybe it's mourning for the binges I used to have, maybe it's just that I hate school, I don't know. I haven't really felt like myself since the surgery. I just want to sleep all the time... I started using the Unjury protein powder to see if it would help boost my energy, but it's only been a week and I haven't noticed a difference yet. Just wanted to vent! Any stories or suggestions are appreciated.

I'm about a month post-op and since my Dr. doesn't do fills until 2 months out, I'm really struggling with trying not to gain a bunch of weight before that fill. I signed up at fitday.com to track my foods and activities, but I have a question about the basal calories burned. Between the basal calories and my lifestyle calories, it's over 2,800 calories per day, not including calories I burn when I work out. Some of you have posted that you should try to eat a few more calories per day than you're using, but how am I supposed to eat close to 3,000 calories per day, especially if I'm supposed to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. That just seems wrong to me. Any suggestions or clarifications for me? Thanks =)

Thanks, Donali!

I got that dizzy shaky feeling for a few days after my surgery. Even though it didn't taste very good, drinking some Pedialyte helped so much. Keeping hydrated kept me from feeling so weak. Hope that helps! And congratulations on being banded!!

Thanks for the adivce, Donali! I take Paxil for anxiety, etc. I think just typing out my original post helped me realise what the problem is. I had my surgery over winter break, two days after my boyfriend's mother passed away, and now I'm back at law school (which I hate), where I have to study and clean and shovel snow. I need some warm weather and a vacation!!

On the post-op diet sheets my Dr. gave me, it mentions leaf lettuces in the "soft foods" portion of the diet. I was wondering if anybody else was told that lettuce is a soft food?

I had diarrhea for DAYS after my surgery, it was awful! I thought I was the only one! I called my Dr.'s office and the nurse told me to eat some yogurt, which helped slightly but not too much, and also to drink gatorade or something like pedialyte. Even though it tasted nasty I drank some pedialyte, which really helped with the dehydrated feeling. I felt a lot less weak after drinking it. Unfortunately the diarrhea didn't go away until I could eat more substantial Soups =( Good luck, you'll get through it!!! Just get some baby wipes!