WASaBubbleButt

I'm guessing that what might be happening is the food choices you have now. Probably a lot of sugar and carbs. That really messes with your blood sugar. When you eat a load of carbs your blood sugar goes up. Your pancreas responds by kicking out more insulin. Soon your blood sugar goes too low and that sends a hormone chain reaction that ends up meaning your body tells you that you are hungry. The more you eat the more you want. With the band your food choices start out with solid Protein. Protein tends to even out blood sugar issues, it does not cause the spikes that sugar/carbs do and you don't feel hungry all the time. If you don't eat a load of carbs your blood sugar won't drop and you won't feel faint. Next time you feel that way cut out carbs for the rest of the day and stick to protein. I'll bet it helps a great deal.

How do you know when to use soft, firm, or extra firm tofu? Does it matter? Would firm tofu be harder to use vs. soft for a bandster who gets stuck a lot? Which would be best for a salad, or does it matter?

One issue I have noticed that is a huge change for me is my focus on food, or lack of. It used to be that at Breakfast I was wondering what to have for a snack. At the snack I was wondering what I would have for lunch, etc. Today I don't even think about it, it's a non issue. I used to pick restaurants by their serving size. Today I don't even think about serving size, it makes no difference. I used to order off the menu according to which items had the most food. Now I look to see what has the least food. Thin people don't even think about what they will have at a restaurant until they are looking at the menu. Fat people focus on it before they even get there. I got fat eating burgers and soda. Today once in a great while I wish I could have Diet Coke and that lasts about 1 minute or less and I forget about it. I do miss burgers and bread but it's not a huge issue for me. I probably think about it once a week and after a minute or two it's history, I forget. It's more of a passing thought than anything. This does not happen with effort, in my opinion. It happens with time. You get to the point that you finally realize you just can't gorge on huge quantities of food anymore and you come to terms with it. When you come to terms it becomes a non issue. Look at the difference between newbies and old timers in their posting. The newbies posts are all about... what can I eat and how much of it can I have? The old timers have to stop and think about it because it's a non issue. The thing about the band vs. traditional dieting is that with traditional dieting you get sick of low fat, low calorie, low flavor foods and you cave and binge. The band won't cave, you *can't* binge, there is no room. If you do (and you will) binge you'll hurt, you'll slime, and you'll barf. It takes away ALL the good feelings of consuming huge quantities of food. If it isn't enjoyable to do anymore, you lose the desire to do it. And I'm here to tell you that binging is NOT enjoyable in the least. It's too bad we can't take away the hyperfocusing on food aspect of the post op diet. I really think that is what makes it so much harder. You think about food then you want food. On the post op diet you are so focused on what you can have and how much, especially after the swelling goes down and you are hungry. If we could somehow take away that hyperfocus on food the post op diet would be so much easier. But I don't think that is possible, it's something that comes with time.

You'll do great. I honestly believe that the two best docs in Mexico are Rumbaut and Aceves. They both have the best track records on infection, erosion, and slips, they both work out of a hospital instead of a clinic, they both have extensive experience, they are both well respected in Mexico, they both do a great job. You'll be fine! BTW, Dr. R is also banded himself, that's a HUGE plus in my book.

Darr... Sorry for the off topic post, but why does it take so long to get a book published? A whole year? How does that work?

I was at an Asian store the other day and saw little itty bitty plastic silverware. They are just like regular plastic spoons and forks but tiny. They are bandster size. I bought all they had and each time I meet a newbie I give them a package of them. They were less than a dollar each for a bag of about 20. I would have hubby go hunt for those. By the time he finds them you WILL be 130lbs! Might give you a bit of peace for a while since it is unlikely he will find them. Heh. As for the amount of food that makes you full, just get used to it. People are amazed at the quantities of food we eat... or don't eat. It will happen today and 6 months from today. The only thing I won't EVER do again is have dinner with a bunch of newbies that will be banded the next day. Learned my lesson on THAT one! They don't eat their own food, they just sat and stared at me eating mine. They hyperfocus on what I order, how big my bites are, how many times I chew... kinda like a fish in a glass bowl sort of feeling. Yeah, I'll never put myself in that position again. When I am nervous or stressed I can't eat. The last place I want to get stuck, slime, and barf is in front of a group of people having surgery the following day.

Don't worry about weight during the post op phase. This IS for healing, it is NOT designed for weight loss, never was. Focus on choosing good quality foods, chewing to a paste, small bites, slow eating. Don't even worry about the scale now. You have months ahead of you where the scale will bounce back and forth. It's all good, it will all be okay. Most of the time it will go down but there will be times where it bounces around a bit and sometimes it will go up. Don't worry about it, focus on the long term goal, not the daily weigh ins.

The only thing I have found that helps is to get realistic about this. Get a photo of a thin person and a photo of ice cream. Which do you want more?

I can't gulp Water but I can gulp water if it has Crystal Lite or S/F Hawaiian Punch in it. Or Propel. But plain water makes me barf if I gulp it. Weird, I know.

These are two different kinds of gas pain. A C-Section does not require CO2 like a lap band. Gas pains from a band are from the doc keeping gas in your gut to inflate it like a Buddha belly so he can see what he's doing. It can sometimes irritate a nerve from your diaphragm up to your shoulder. Some have that pain, some don't. I never had that pain and I had a hernia repair at the same time. Gas pains from a C-Section are due to a totally different issue and hurt in a completely different place. A C-Section is huge and major with a long recovery. Banding is quite simple and nothing in comparison.

I can't do potatoes either, the starch maybe?? Bread... it's evil as are eggs. Soda... It hurts, I don't bother and I don't miss it much. Pineapple... My guess is that is that it is stringy like celery. Try chopping it up verrrry fine so there are not long strings and that might help. Pineapple juice is great if you are stuck.

pineapple juice has saved me pain more than once. Matter of fact, just tonight. Pineapple juice, those small 6oz cans, unsweetened, slowly sip... I keep them on hand ALL the time. I'm sure it's happened but I've never met a person that had to have any food removed from their stoma but LOTS of people have to have food removed if their esophagus has a stricture, nothing to do with banding though.

I've always had loads of energy and I'm always on the go, moving, doing something. So I can't say that I have more energy now that I'm less 90lbs.

Some drugs are time released and you can't break/crush/chew them. Get as many meds as you can in liquid form and DO NOT break others down without talking to your doc. Example, some drugs are designed to last over 24 hours. If you break it you get the whole 24 hours worth of medicine in one sitting, it could potentially be fatal. So just check with your RPh before breaking anything. I can't stand most liquid drugs so when possible, I break mine up in small pieces and swallow that way.

Whatever your doc suggests is what you should stick to. Don't pay any attention to the instructions other docs give their patients, each doc has their own reasons for their post op diet.

BJean... Terri is right, selling on ebay is a lot harder than buying. It's easy to get scammed, VERY easy. If you decide to sell please let me know and I'll give you a link to a section of ebay that helps you not get scammed. I used to post there a lot. Only sell there (or buy if you are a newbie) after you have spent at least 20 hours or so reading that board. I used to sell antiquarian books, that's a low fraud area. Antiques are a HIGH fraud area. You couldn't pay me to sell on ebay anymore, not in a high fraud catagory and actually, not anywhere on ebay. I know too much now and ebay is too frustrating, annoying, and they are just plain stupid in their policies. Ebay will protect themselves and NOT you.

Upper Gastrointestinal (UGI) Series

Julie... Not sure I can agree with you. Irresponsibility is being fat, knowing it, knowing the answer, and doing nothing about it if you can. Buying new clothes and feeling good doesn't sound all that bad to me. I say GO SHOPPING! If you aren't going into debt, you can still pay your bills and sock away a few dollars, go for it.

Ohhh yeah, Hormel! Aren't those the kind with the gobs of fat goo? Yes, disgusting. I agree.

I don't know much about tofu. All I have read is that some is soft and some is hard. Can you get it in flavors? What does it taste like? Do you have any idea what the calorie/carb count is? Thanks!

I love love love your post! I couldn't agree more.

Update... I finally took the plunge and cut off my hair. It used to be down to my butt and now it is shoulder length. This is something I should have done a long time ago. I don't know if it is the weight that has been removed or what the deal is but hair loss has pretty well come to a dead stop. I'm also not having to put it up daily to prevent shedding like a Lhasa Apso. I don't have anything pulling on my hair by putting it up anymore. One very interesting note, I asked the lady who did my hair if there was any regrowth. She said yes, it looks like it is about 3 months old but nothing new. I knew I had stray short hairs but I thought it was hair that had broken off. Wrong, it was from three months ago when I stopped losing weight for a month. I was going to get a breast lift and implants early (before weight loss was done) and my plastic surgeon said to stop losing weight for one month. So I did, I maintained vs. losing or gaining. THAT is the month my hair started growing back in. When I started losing weight again it started falling out and regrowth stopped. So, last week I changed the color from brown and stray grays to a softer brown with light caramel highlights, it's shoulder length and quite frankly, it's a much better look for my age. It's much nicer looking, softer, and far more feminine. All in all I wish I would have done it months ago.

I know this isn't going to help but please know, we ALL go through that. There is nothing anyone can say or do that will make you feel better about this decision until you start seeing the scale move down for yourself. The only reason I didn't tell everyone and their brother about my own surgery at first is because I was afraid that going to Mexico, having surgery, spending $8K, and doing everything *I* could do (which I thought was pretty limited) wouldn't even work. People would really think I was a fat and lazy freak at that point. Once I saw the scale starting to move I thought maybe there was a chance this might work. Then I saw it flying down in numbers and I started telling people. Look at this from my point of view for just a moment, I went from feeling exactly like you and now I am researching plastic surgeons for a boob job and tummy tuck. My current delimma is that I will only do two plastics procedures, no more. (I don't care for the Michael Jackson look, HA!) Instead of worrying if this will work I'm trying to decide if I want a tummy tuck and boob job or tummy tuck and face lift. A pretty drastic change of my own tune. The lap band is the least invasive procedure out there. Unlike bypass it is reversible if there is a huge problem. Huge problems are not the norm unlike bypass. Your job is to determine if weight loss surgery is right for you and if you decide it is, your next job is to research every bloody thing you can to find the doc that is right for you. You need to decide if you care if surgery is performed in a clinic or hospital, close to the border or more of a vacation spot, how much experience you require from your doctor. That narrows the list down to a managable few. You cannot research too much, you need to know everything about your doc, absolutely everything. Most of all just know that what you are feeling is very normal, we ALL go through the same thing.

Nope, I see no value in not drinking for 45 minutes before a meal. The liquids pass through immediately so there is no reason to wait. I drink right up to the first bite then I stop drinking for 2 hours after a meal. The sooner you start drinking fluids after a meal the sooner it turns to slush and you are hungry again.

If people have a serious slip or if they erode, isn't their weight loss (or lack of) still included in the stats? Meaning, their band will be removed, they won't lose weight, yet their lack of weight loss will still be included. If people had much much greater risk of slips and erosion way back when vs. today, how can you use those stats considering they should be considered part of the study. Seriously, how can you use those stats? I'm not reading anymore studies on how things WERE done, I'm happy to read studies on how things ARE done. Again, we can't make a good determination on the study without all the facts. If you want to look for only negatives, you'll find them. I prefer a balance myself.