bsmith

I did it! I found an alternative to PB2 that doesn't need to be shipped. If you love peanut butter like I do but hate the calories, give this powdered peanut butter a try. It's called Betty Lou's Just Good Stuff Organic Powdered Peanut Butter. Its sold at Hi Health and costs $7.99. A little bit more than PB2 from Bell Plantation but after you figure shipping cost it's comes out to about the same price. I just got this yesterday and I love it! Only 45 calories for 2 tbsp vs. 190 Calories for the regular stuff. I'm mixing it with my Unjury protein powder for my breakfast shake. It's sooo good! Just thought I'd share my great find with you all.

Amazing transformation!!! A whole new you!!! Congrats!!

I just got a quote from Dr Sauceda in Mexico for a lower body lift and breast lift/ augmentation for $11,200 includes all lab work 3 day hospital stay and 8 days at a recovery hotel nearby plus travel back and forth across the border and up to $600 reimbursement for airfare. I inquired how much just a lower body lift would be and it will be 7,200. I'm still doing research but I will keep you all posted of any additional info I come across.

You look freaking AMAZING!!!! what a transformation!

They frown upon leaving the room. People really get upset and you WILL get scolded for it!

I love hot yoga but unfortunately it is just too expensive. I did a 2 week trial and would highly recommend it. As mentioned before, make sure you and get plenty of liquids in because you really do dehydrate rather quickly. I recommend beginning your hydrating the day before just to be safe. The results from hot yoga are incredible!!!

Guys, let's all take a minute to regroup here! This is a bit out of sorts for this forum. First off, i dont believe Butterthebean was trying to be mean spirited. He has been on this site for awhile and always seems to have great advice. I know it's nerve wracking during the first few months and there are lots of questions and uncertainties that we all seek answers to. If the anger stems from the "ledge" comment then let's just move past it. We are here to support each other not tear each other apart. Second, for the person who says we are on "easy street"...I think you are just as guilty of using a play on words as butter was by saying step back from the ledge. Lets not throw stones. I'm a bit bothered that you assume that because I am 8 months out of surgery and have experienced many things, that my weight loss journey is somehow an easy task! Every day presents a new challenge. My body reacts and changes DAILY and there are many days that I'm emotionally drained and I come to this site for support and advice. I certainly hope that when you reach 8 months or a year out you can consider yourself on "easy street." i find that my life is 10x the struggle it was when i was a month or so out. As a user of this site I have to realize that not all the feedback I get will be what I need at that exact moment but I certainly wouldn't start a tirade over it and exile myself or others from returning to this site. You have a choice to either say thank you for the advice and use it or to ignore what's not useful and move on. We say we are educated but yet we ask questions that, had we really educated ourselves, we would know there is no easy answer to. I am guilty of this too! The answer to most of the questions posted by newbies and old timers alike is this, "there is no real answer." everyones journey is different. Take this response for what you will. I want to wish each of you luck and success on your journey. Have a great day everyone!

Hi everyone, my name is Becky and I have been on this site for about a month now and I can't say enough good things about the people on this site. I have not shared my story yet because 1.) it's not the normal journey 2.) I never wanted to scare anyone who was preparing for surgery and 3) it's still very difficult to talk about. So here goes nothin! I was banded back in 2007 and had the typical problems with vomiting and terrible heartburn/reflux. I started my journey at 245 lbs and after my first year with the band I got down to 170...not bad! Unfortunately, I misused the band and ate whatever I wanted and then threw it up. I did this every day after almost every meal. Needless to say I ended up having a major slip in 2010 and had to have the band removed. I gained a lot of my weight back and was devastated! I was originally a self pay so my doctor told me to take a few months to heal and he would help me get the band put back in. A few months later, I saved up enough money to cover the discounted cost of having another band put back in. I was rebanded in October of 2010 and I really worked the band. I dropped 30 lbs (the right way) and then I got pregnant. I had a healthy pregnancy except that I had gallstones so I hardy ate anything and only gained 23 lbs during the pregnancy. I had to have my daughter a month early so they could remove my gallbladder and the operation went smoothly. Life was good. I was back to my pre baby weight of 187 within 2 weeks of having my baby. I was working it! Slowly, I began to gain weight. Within a year of having my baby, I was back up to 223. I was doing everything right so what was wrong? I still don't understand but I every so often I would get the flu. Well, I thought it was the flu anyway. I got it about every 6 months until Feb of 2012 when i got it 3 times. I kept thinking, the flu must be rampant. My daughter even had it the first time I was sick in Feb so in my mind, I knew it was flu related. On March 8, 2012 I went to work and had a really back pain near my kidneys not near my stomach. I began vomiting uncontrollably and took myself to the urgent care. They sent me to the ER with kidney stones. Based on where the pain was located, it made sense. The hospital gave my a shot of pain med and sent me home. I went back 3 times over the next two days and they just kept sending me home. I was vomiting ever 3-4 minutes by the end of the second day. I couldn't even stand in my own. I remember thinking...I'm going to just kill myself. I'm dying and no one will help me. Finally I called my bariatric doctor to see if he could unfill my band because it hurt so bad to vomit. He got me right in, scolded me for not calling him first and unfilled me. I remember the feeling of instant relief after he unfilled me. I went home and slept for 6 hrs. I hadn't slept in days and I was so exhausted. I woke up at 6:30 that friday puking my guts out again. I was so sick that I broke the ceramic toilet seat with the sheer force of my chest hitting it whet I got sick. The vomiting was non stop now. I barely had time to take a breath between. My boyfriend had just walked in the door from work and I crawled to him, grabbed his leg and said, I'm dying! I knew something was terribly wrong and I knew I was dying. He rushed me to my bariatric doctors hospital and they rushed me in to surgery to unhook the band. It took close to 3 hours to get an IV in because my veins had collapsed. There were so many nurses around me trying to get IV's in me and I grabbed one and pulled him close to me and I told him to please "kill me now." That's all I remember really except for the fact that I died on the table. I saw the light. It's so vivid what I saw. I won't share that part with you because it's just for me to know and you'd probably think i was crazy. Anyway, I woke up 5 days later from my coma, hooked up to every machine you can imagine. Tubes down my throat, central IV line in my neck, arterial lines, pic lines, 16 different IV's, you name it I was hooked to it. Turns out my band had slipped. The sutures stayed in tact and as I vomited it ripped my stomach apart from top to bottom. They were only able to save about 10% of my stomach and pieced it together with mesh so that I wouldn't have to live with a feeding tube for the rest of my life. I'm categorized as a full gastrectomy which is usually done on patients suffering from stomach cancer. I don't have the typical sleeve but I do call myself a sleever. My story isn't over yet, sorry it's so long!! Things were going as good as can be expected. A day after waking from my coma they pulled the tube from my throat and had me start walking a few hrs later. I spent 10 days in ICU unable to see my kids before they sent me home. I was home for 2 days before I got a fever. It spiked to 105.6 and I went back to the hospital. They ran tests and found that I had major abscesses in my abdomin. I got infections from all the stomach bacteria. I ended up having 2 JP drains put in and stayed in the hospital for another 3 weeks. When I finally got to go home, I had to have at home nursing care. I had to give myself IV antibiotics every 6 hrs. I also developed blood clots fromy pic line...which by the way sucks. Coumadin made my hair fall out (along with lack of protein). I was so sick that I refused to eat. My weight loss actually scared me. I was losing between 2-3 lbs a day. Granted I had gotten up to 233 from all the fluids but still, losing 3 lbs a day for weeks at a time is scary!! I returned to the hospital 2 more times from abscesses and had to have another JP drain put in and have the Fluid around my lungs drained ( my total hospital stay was aprox 2.5 months total). I also became addicted to the painkillers and had to seek treatment to get off the percoset. I suffered severe dumping up until August and am still lactose intolerant! I can live with that though! The dumping...not so much! Dumping is terrible!!!! To sum up my wls journey...it effin sucked! I love my "sleeve" now but my journey has been tough none the less. I was finally able to start moving and walking around in June and have since slowly picked up jogging. I love my new life and if I scared anyone I am truly sorry. My story is not the norm but it is my story. Had I known about the sleeve before I got my band, I would have chosen the sleeve. Hindsight is 20/20, right? Thank you to all of you who have been my support and my inspiration. I love this site!!!! Beginning stats- 5'6" 233 lbs after initial surgery Current stats- 160lbs Surgery date 3/11/12

Hi everyone, my name is Becky and I have been on this site for about a month now and I can't say enough good things about the people on this site. I have not shared my story yet because 1.) it's not the normal journey 2.) I never wanted to scare anyone who was preparing for surgery and 3) it's still very difficult to talk about. So here goes nothin! I was banded back in 2007 and had the typical problems with vomiting and terrible heartburn/reflux. I started my journey at 245 lbs and after my first year with the band I got down to 170...not bad! Unfortunately, I misused the band and ate whatever I wanted and then threw it up. I did this every day after almost every meal. Needless to say I ended up having a major slip in 2010 and had to have the band removed. I gained a lot of my weight back and was devastated! I was originally a self pay so my doctor told me to take a few months to heal and he would help me get the band put back in. A few months later, I saved up enough money to cover the discounted cost of having another band put back in. I was rebanded in October of 2010 and I really worked the band. I dropped 30 lbs (the right way) and then I got pregnant. I had a healthy pregnancy except that I had gallstones so I hardy ate anything and only gained 23 lbs during the pregnancy. I had to have my daughter a month early so they could remove my gallbladder and the operation went smoothly. Life was good. I was back to my pre baby weight of 187 within 2 weeks of having my baby. I was working it! Slowly, I began to gain weight. Within a year of having my baby, I was back up to 223. I was doing everything right so what was wrong? I still don't understand but I every so often I would get the flu. Well, I thought it was the flu anyway. I got it about every 6 months until Feb of 2012 when i got it 3 times. I kept thinking, the flu must be rampant. My daughter even had it the first time I was sick in Feb so in my mind, I knew it was flu related. On March 8, 2012 I went to work and had a really back pain near my kidneys not near my stomach. I began vomiting uncontrollably and took myself to the urgent care. They sent me to the ER with kidney stones. Based on where the pain was located, it made sense. The hospital gave my a shot of pain med and sent me home. I went back 3 times over the next two days and they just kept sending me home. I was vomiting ever 3-4 minutes by the end of the second day. I couldn't even stand in my own. I remember thinking...I'm going to just kill myself. I'm dying and no one will help me. Finally I called my bariatric doctor to see if he could unfill my band because it hurt so bad to vomit. He got me right in, scolded me for not calling him first and unfilled me. I remember the feeling of instant relief after he unfilled me. I went home and slept for 6 hrs. I hadn't slept in days and I was so exhausted. I woke up at 6:30 that friday puking my guts out again. I was so sick that I broke the ceramic toilet seat with the sheer force of my chest hitting it whet I got sick. The vomiting was non stop now. I barely had time to take a breath between. My boyfriend had just walked in the door from work and I crawled to him, grabbed his leg and said, I'm dying! I knew something was terribly wrong and I knew I was dying. He rushed me to my bariatric doctors hospital and they rushed me in to surgery to unhook the band. It took close to 3 hours to get an IV in because my veins had collapsed. There were so many nurses around me trying to get IV's in me and I grabbed one and pulled him close to me and I told him to please "kill me now." That's all I remember really except for the fact that I died on the table. I saw the light. It's so vivid what I saw. I won't share that part with you because it's just for me to know and you'd probably think i was crazy. Anyway, I woke up 5 days later from my coma, hooked up to every machine you can imagine. Tubes down my throat, central IV line in my neck, arterial lines, pic lines, 16 different IV's, you name it I was hooked to it. Turns out my band had slipped. The sutures stayed in tact and as I vomited it ripped my stomach apart from top to bottom. They were only able to save about 10% of my stomach and pieced it together with mesh so that I wouldn't have to live with a feeding tube for the rest of my life. I'm categorized as a full gastrectomy which is usually done on patients suffering from stomach cancer. I don't have the typical sleeve but I do call myself a sleever. My story isn't over yet, sorry it's so long!! Things were going as good as can be expected. A day after waking from my coma they pulled the tube from my throat and had me start walking a few hrs later. I spent 10 days in ICU unable to see my kids before they sent me home. I was home for 2 days before I got a fever. It spiked to 105.6 and I went back to the hospital. They ran tests and found that I had major abscesses in my abdomin. I got infections from all the stomach bacteria. I ended up having 2 JP drains put in and stayed in the hospital for another 3 weeks. When I finally got to go home, I had to have at home nursing care. I had to give myself IV antibiotics every 6 hrs. I also developed blood clots fromy pic line...which by the way sucks. Coumadin made my hair fall out (along with lack of protein). I was so sick that I refused to eat. My weight loss actually scared me. I was losing between 2-3 lbs a day. Granted I had gotten up to 233 from all the fluids but still, losing 3 lbs a day for weeks at a time is scary!! I returned to the hospital 2 more times from abscesses and had to have another JP drain put in and have the Fluid around my lungs drained ( my total hospital stay was aprox 2.5 months total). I also became addicted to the painkillers and had to seek treatment to get off the percoset. I suffered severe dumping up until August and am still lactose intolerant! I can live with that though! The dumping...not so much! Dumping is terrible!!!! To sum up my wls journey...it effin sucked! I love my "sleeve" now but my journey has been tough none the less. I was finally able to start moving and walking around in June and have since slowly picked up jogging. I love my new life and if I scared anyone I am truly sorry. My story is not the norm but it is my story. Had I known about the sleeve before I got my band, I would have chosen the sleeve. Hindsight is 20/20, right? Thank you to all of you who have been my support and my inspiration. I love this site!!!! Beginning stats- 5'6" 233 lbs after initial surgery Current stats- 160lbs Surgery date 3/11/12

Rosehips, it was awful trying to get off the pain meds. My detox was what led to my last hospital stay...they found another absess and I ended up staying another week and a half and getting pumped back up on pain meds. It sucked to have to start all over with my detox. What I did was tried to ween myself off. I was only able to get to 1/2 pill in am and 1/2 pull in evening. I went to my bariatirc dr and he sent me to my PCP and he then sent me to a sports/ pain management doctor. The pain doc put me on tramidol (ultram) which is a non narcotic pain med to help ween me off the percs. He also gave me clonodine to help me get through the anxiety and insomnia I was experiencing. It worked! I immediately stopped taking the percs and began the tramidol. Never took another perc. As smarter of fact I ended up staying another 3 days in the hospital for an unrelated problem and I demanded that they not give me any narcotics and give me tramidol and they had no problems doing so. My suggestion would be to get with your PCP and tell him you need help. He should refer you to pain management specialist. My PCP said it wasn't his field of expertise which was frustrating to hear sense it was the same thing my bariatric doctor said. At any rate, a pain mgmt doc is your best bet. I wish you luck in getting help! I know how hard it is but it is possible and quite painless to get off them. Keep me posted and feel free to message me if you need some moral support!

Thank you everyone for your kind words. And to Mdbrowneyes, I have heard nothing but great things about the docs and care received in Mexico. You will be fine! Best wishes everyone!

I'm actually 8 months out and still have not had a solid BM. It's liquid every day. I think as long as things are passing you are ok. Besides, you are on purée so there's really nothing solid for you to pass. I wouldn't worry about it for now, wait until you are on solids and then see what your body does.

Well Sandy, if I could do it all over again I probably would have at least done more research. I was just so gungho to get a WLS done that I failed to look into the dark side of it. To me, at the time, it was all rainbows and roses. What could go wrong? It's reversible right? I actually have nothing bad to say about the band or my doctor or the support group. The fault was with me and I take full responsibility for it. I ate what wanted and never measured my food. I threw up after every meal. I took antacids by the fistfull for months at a time because I simply didn't have the money to go get filled or unfilled. After my fills, I did not stick to the 24 hr liquid plan. You name it, I broke the rule. I think the band is a tool and if you ate not emotionally ready to step up to the plate to make changes in your habits then you are just asking for trouble. The band does help you lose weight but for me, it was clearly not the right choice. I wasn't ready and I almost paid with my life. I never thought anything bad would happen to me but... I'm not trying to scare anyone. If you read this and are continplating getting the band, please do your research and make the educated decision for yourself. The decision that's right for you. Ask the difficult questions! And most importantly, be prepared to make changes in your eating habits the same as you would for any other surgery. The same rules apply! Healthy choices healthy portions!

Omg I'm in the same boat. Been bouncing around 160 since July and I have about 10-15 lbs to go. I eat tons of protein but I do still eat 3 meals and then 2-3 snacks like I did in the beginning. Should I cut out the snacks??? I thought we were supposed to eat 5-6 times a day??

I'm hbic40 please add me!

Okay, I did it! I posted it under the complications forum.

@iggychic so you mean I should post to the band to sleeve forum? Is there a band only forum? Thank you to everyone. I wasnt sure of the response I would get but I must say I'm overwhelmed by the kind words and support. I am still trying to deal with the fact that I was able to put my ordeal into words without breaking down. I have tried to write my story so many times only to delete it because I just wasn't ready to relive everything. Today it just kind of poured out of me. As for those who would like to hear my other story about what I saw...I think I will share with you all. I'm just not ready to yet. I'm still trying to deal with the fact that it happened.

See this is what I love about this site, the support! You guys are so amazing! Thank You all for the kind words and prayers. @butterthebean: I do have a wonderful attitude! I love life, it's sort of a newfound lease on life. I don't want to take anything for granted. When I catch myself taking things for granted (& it does happen more than I'd care to admit) I force myself to remember and then I cry, a lot! @ms Anitband I didn't even mention all of the blood transfusions I had. I still see my hematologist/ encologist every month as well as my infectious disease doctor. It's a process coming to terms with a lot of this but one that I welcome with open arms. This is my life now. There's new rules and new obstacles but I'm gonna make it! WE are gonna make it!!

You look amazing and so happy!! Good for you!!!!

Yesterday I ate the worst thing I have ever eaten both pre and post op. I went to the fair and ate 1/3 of a piece of deep fried cheesecake. I don't know why I wanted it so bad but I did. I paid dearly for it. I got the worst headache I have ever had and I felt faint and nauseous for a good half hour after words. I will never do it again but man was it yummy!!!!

I'm 8 months out and still gurgle! My kids laugh at me because they can hear my stomach from across the room!

Do not weigh every day! I am 8 months out and am obsessed with the scale! It defines my mood for the day and it sucks! I try not to do it all the time but I can't stop! Many people on this site only weigh once a month and if you can do it I would recommend it. I don't have the willpower to pull off a monthly weigh-in.

You look amazing! Congratulations!!!

I didn't say you couldn't eat as much as you wanted...I just wouldn't recommend it, lol! I have to watch myself when I buy Jacks Links carne seca jerky...I can eat the entire bag in no time flat and then I retain water like no bodies business!!!