Daisalana

What a clever idea Edie! And Slim- I feel your pain.. we have a Bruster's Ice Cream down the road with Birthday Cake Icecream that is worth getting fat for LOL!! I know it would be great right now, and during mushies.. but I've just told myself NO-and don't get it. Don't buy anymore ice cream! There ARE some low-sugar, low-carb etc ice creams that really are worth trying out there, if you feel you have to have it.. but really, if you feel like you HAVE to have it that much, why not cut yourself off. Empower yourself That's what I did with cokes! NO MORE COKES! EVAH! Hehehe

Exactly!! I have a .5% chance of something going wrong with the band, and 100% chance of things going wrong without it (health problems). So.. it was a no-brainer!

What a sad situation.. any family that could help you? I would say a loan, but I don't think they give loans without a job. You can't even get a job with like wal-mart, mcdonalds, etc.? I've seen extra large people working there.. I worked at Cracker Barrel a few years ago and there was a woman who weighed 600lbs working with me.. If you have anything you can sell for $$..?

I noticed this about a week ago I guess, when you put in fitness on Myplate, every excercise is 0/cal burned now. When I first started Myplate, it would have a formula and plug in what you've burned in calories. It stopped working and still isn't. Is this happening for everyone or is mine broken?

I add food and water, and normally my exercise is end of day, so I go to the exercise part, and everything on the drop-down menu says '0 Calories/hour' or whatever it says, but they all say 0.. it use to have values, but they're all gone now. It use to work for me, about a week ago all the values turned to 0, I don't know what happened.. hrm.

Mdrai- I know cancer is a scary word, but if you look at what it means.. it's cells that are damaged and abnormal. That happens all the time in our body due to stress, injury, etc. So, if its from acid reflux, it's VERY easy to see how it happened! And it should be treatable and fixable and you'll be back on your way to lap-band! I know it sounds devastating right now, but it's not unusual that if you have untreated heartburn, the cells have become abnormal in your esophagus (((HUGS))) Chin up, go get Prilosec OTC pronto and keeps tums in your purse

LOL yea.. I work at a company that has graphic artists, so I took a couple classes and know how to do some basic piddling around. If anyone wants one, just PM me what you want and stats you want on it..

Oh and no one ever scared me with the band.. I avoided the 'complications' folder here until post-op. I didn't want to psych myself out. I was 110% sure I was doing this, so I didn't need the stress. I knew of the complication possibilities of any surgery, and lap-band surgery... but beyond that I didn't want testimonials. Now I browse it fine. My doctor never said anything to me to scare me from getting it, he just told me RNY would lose weight quicker and he felt the statistics were better (I disagreed) and that's another long story.

Carey... I'm not sure where all that comes from.. I haven't had a fill yet.. But I have read that some people go the Atkins route to boost weight loss, but lap-band does NOT = Atkins for the rest of your life. I don't plan on doing Atkins unless I get stuck on a plateau, just to jump-start (because I know Atkins worked well for me to lose just not maintain). I get my first fill tomorrow, so maybe I'll be singing a different tune, but so far I have not had a problem eating anything I ate from pre-band.. just a lot less! I tried a grilled chicken sandwhich for lunch, I could only eat 1.5 bites.. bread, condiments, lettuce, onion, tomato, horribly dry chicken (I hate chicken btw). I chewed it a lot and the bites were extremely small, but I had no problems. Just an example! If you read around on foods, people talk about the foods they can or can not eat.. and everyone is different. But I don't see many people going for the 0 carbs (yes there are some). Low-carb is just a health issue in general, there are bad carbs that everyone (banded or not) aren't suppose to have a lot of.

I'm confused about the questions asked too, because it seems like it would be higher BMI asking lower BMI those questions.. if a lower BMI has that, certainly a higher BMI does, right? I'm not sure what category I fall in.. But When I see some people's starting weight is my GOAL.. I do go 'damn it' in envy. But I also know it has to do with my height, and someone who is 5'0 180lbs probably is struggling. I have been overweight my entire life, so I've never known what it was like to 'just be xxx overweight'.. It's always been an obese number (that I can remember of course). But I know it's hell and a half for me to lose any weight, much less saying that its 'only 60lbs' to lose. For someone with a smaller BMI, I still sympathize because if I 'only had 60lbs' to lose, I would still be in the same boat and needing help. Just like I could be 500lbs..I'm not.. but it may as well be ANY number for the work that has to go into it. Not sure if I wrote this right to explain my thought on it.. oh well.

My intentions are to keep it for life. When I get to a goal I'm happy with, I know if I take it off, I'll go back to old habits. That's why I yo-yo dieted. I have a problem! (Hi I'm Bill! ) Anyway, wheet is right, statistics show very few complications.. but the people who are on the internet talking about all the complications (in a folder ENTITLED 'complications'), may seem like more.. just because there they all are.. But for every one of them, is xxx amount of people without problems.. There are complications that you should be aware of, but I wouldn't bet my money that I'd get one based off of the statistics. That being said, IF something should happen, I would likely get it 'fixed'.

Just so you guys know, I've been back on my Prilosec OTC since last Monday.. no problems getting the pills down. I drink an insane amount of water with it, just to make sure it 'gets through'..but I think I do overkill. I wait till I know my stomach is empty and take the OTC with my BCP, and then a whole bottle of water.

Not sure what you're allowed to eat then.. I assume mushies.. If it's mushies, Bring those tuna salad packs. They come with a foil pouch of tuna, the relish and mayo (and crackers). You don't have to refrigerate them, they come off the shelf in the stores. Also don't have to heat it. Or, maybe a can of soup, take the wrapper off and put the soup on a grill.. might not be the best thing in the world, but its food. Lots of water of course! I think the tuna salad packs is the best option really. Can't think of anything more convenient off the top of my head.

I can't chug after I've eaten. I do get thirsty a lot lately and crave water (if you knew me before, this is a miracle.. I hated water). Once in a while after I've eaten and I'm thirsty, I'll try to chug, and it hurts and I have to hold some of the water in my mouth, and then no more chugging. However, during the day when I'm drinking, I can chug and chug. Especially at night. When I lay in bed watching tv, I have a liter of water by the bed, and I can drink the liter in 30 minutes. I still don't think I'm getting the 64oz recommended by my doctor, but I drink all day long.

I just wanted to point out what you said, being very depressed is an extreme low. And if you acknowledge you have extreme highs, BP is not far fetched. Getting a second opinion would be great, but if the 2nd opinion agrees, you need to follow their advice before you do more destructive behaviors..

Definitely call and ask them. It could be different from anything someone could tell you here, and you don't want to put it off because you were wrong.. or stress and find out you didn't have to lose weight.

Congrats!! Sounds like you've done great, and all that exercise.. whew... I wish I could do one of those things LOL!! My 'quick fix' way to lose weight for any special occasion was to fall back on Atkins. If I do 0 carb, I lose weight rapidly. Not sure how it would work out in your lifestyle or how quick it would be if you're only 25lbs above goal. But thought I'd throw it out there! Congrats again!

My PB isn't similar to what I read about so far.. I'm wondering if it has to do with being filled.. When I do my own version of PBing, it's because I've eaten too fast.. And it's within a few seconds, I feel a knot and feel 'stuck'. So each time (i've said this before, I'm like the kid that doesn't learn from my mistakes), I take a big gulp of water in panic.. which makes it worse, and I start to burp up water, and then whatever was stuck.. this all happens within 60 seconds. I haven't had a saliva thing.. maybe because I always drink water so it covers it up.. And I've never eaten something that starts to bother me 'later'.. which I've heard people mention.

But for what it's worth, I talked to my surgeon about all of this pre-op, because I am planning to have kids in about 2 years. He gave me the rundown on what to expect.. told me right off I'd need to work closely with OBGYN and him to get the proper nutrients to the baby, and after that it's pretty much like any other pregnancy. He also emphasized, of all his patients, women get more fertile as they lose weight, and he's had women who got pregnant in the first 6 months because they were convinced they were infertile and ended up being fertile after shedding some weight.. So he kept telling me.. USE PROTECTION FOR AT LEAST 18Months! Said it's complicated to be pregnant and early in the surgery because you're still adjusting yourself, not needing the stress of adjusting with another person inside of you. Makes sense!

I don't know the location of the thread, but I know there is at least 1 bandster on the forum who is currently banded and pregnant. Maybe 2.. I can think of someone talking about infection with the port and not being able to take antibiotics because they're pregnant.. and then someone else I don't remember complications. Hopefully, if you can't find the thread, they'll pop in here

Kat- that's a great point about emberassing the spouse when being introduced. There as a point a while ago where I felt like he was emberassed introducing me to new friends.. because I'm big! I didn't care much about it as to my self-esteem because I just figured they were a bunch of jackasses anyway.. but when I'd ask fiance about it later, we'd end up getting into fights.. that was years ago.. I guess he became numb to it at some point like me! LOL He no longer cares, but it would be nice to be that hot girl he introduces to people.. ho hum.

Just for the record, didn't mean to mess the post up, did edit to it to add about gas-x and it reformatted and made it all funky

<p>A couple things about that list, I printed it, memorized it, got everything on it (except BBQ tongs.. and thank god I didn't need them.. I don't think I could have done that LOL), and then I packed my overnight bag for the surgery.. a big bag with lots of compartments... put gas-x strips, pain meds, gauze, change of clothes, etc.. and I honestly, once I got there (woke up from surgery), I didn't need anything. I over-packed myself. I brought a nightgown and change of undies,but they took all my stuff off of me and I started my period during surgery so I woke up with a contraption wrapped around my butt. So I asked the nurse for pads and put on my 1 pair of undies, and I didn't change until time to go home, and I put on the dress I came in wearing (a nice flowy sundress and flipflops). Only thing I ended up using out of my overnight bag was a hair scrunchie, deoderant, and hair brush.. since they made me take my hair down and you can't wear deoderant going in there.. and I go nuts without froofy smelly stuff on me.</p> <p> </p> <p>A week before my official pre-op diet (3 weeks out), they said I was borderline with having to do an open surgery due to the size of my liver. So THAT DAY I started my own shrink-the-liver-pre-op-diet.</p> <p>I cut out sugar, salt, and fried stuff. I still HAD sugar, and stuff that had salt in it.. But I made a point not to eat something with a lot of sugar.. or add salt to things...and didn't eat anything fried (still haven't-woohoo). 2 days before surgery I was stupid and had a burger from Ruby Tuesday's. I was only going to eat half and then fiance told me to finish it and not take it home so I wouldn't eat it when I'm suppose to be on Clear Liquids.. I did, and I got so sick that night. I don't know if it's because I overate (which I did), or if it's because I wasn't use to all the grease anymore. I threw up most of it, lucky me.</p> <p>I was told to drink gatorade during post-op. I don't like gatorade, but even now in front of my computer I have one of those small bottles and I finish about 1/3 a day. Water is really best. Lots and lots of water.. and Protein. And I recommend getting the IDS New Whey protein test tubes, 42g of protein in 3oz, but only do 1/2 at a time since you can't absorb more than 25g at a time (all things I learned on the board!!). I drink a test tube a day at 2 different times. Protein shakes don't agree with me. </p> <p>You'll probably want to cut down the sugar items after surgery because you want to lose weight right? <img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/happy.gif" border="0" alt="" title="" smilieid="60" class="inlineimg" /></p> <p>I stocked up on sugar-free and fat-free puddings.. I have caramel vanilla sundae, devil's food chocolate, chocolate&vanilla, caramel (tastes like butterscotch).. and they're all 60c a cup, and 0 sugar. They are wonderful.. really are. I was skeptical but I would actually eat these without knowing it's diet if I hadn't bought it myself. I got the mocha chocolate one too, just for the record, and it's really nasty. Not sure why. Gosh this is long, but I had a lot to say LOL. Also, about gas-x strips, I am the only one I've noticed who felt this way, so I would definitely get them to try, seems majority of people like them. But for me, they made me gag, I got peppermint and cinnamon (only ones available here), and both of them were bad to me. And the taste lingered in my mouth making me feel gross for a while. I ended up buying the gas-x chewables which are flavor PINK? lol I don't know the flavor, but I like them a LOT better. My doctor said to start chewable Vitamins the day after surgery, so I figured I could have chewable gas-x. So if you have a problem like I did (which seems rare) and the strips aren't good to you, the pink chewables are a lot easier. </p>

Exactly! I don't have anything to hide, and I talk to him about this place, but if I'm going off on a tangent, I don't want him reading it and giving me his 2 cents. This is my forum! Hehe.

Well since my doctor also does GB, he was going on and on about B-12 deficiency for GB patients, and maybe I misunderstood this part.. he said you HAVE to have it injected or under the tongue things. Said your body doesn't digest it if you 'eat' it. This would just be GB people right? If (and I don't think the clinic was right, he eats tons of meat.. which I read is where a good source of B-12 comes from), he was deficient, the liquid form would work? I have been researching B-12 deficiency, and it does not sound like that's what he has. He has the numbness, that's all. And there's an extensive list of symptoms.. that he has not had an inkling of. He also isn't in pain, so it doesn't really sound like carpal tunnel. He's a pain in the butt to get to go to the doctor, so I just have to hear him complain all the time. Thanks for the input! If this injection ends up helping his numbness, we'll go get the liquid.