DeLarla

How long have you been banded? May 5 will be one year. What do you eat each day? Usually a Protein shake for Breakfast, any dinner leftovers or tuna salad with crackers for lunch. For dinner, whatever hubby cooks on a dinner-salad plate, though my portions have gotten too large. Then I snack at night, which is something I'm working on not doing. How much do you eat? About a cup to 1 1/2 cups. Do you eat sweets? YES, TOO MANY.... but I know I need to stop. How much have you lost? 70 pounds Do you feel its worth it? YES

The psyche eval isn't a big deal. I don't know anyone that hasn't passed it. They just want to make sure you are mentally prepared to change your entire lifestyle. If they find out you are an alcoholic, for example, that's a problem since intoxicated people don't have good eating judgment or make wise choices (drunk folk often chow down cheeseburgers at 3:00 a.m.) Or if you tell them, "there's no way on earth I can eat slow" or "I'm not quitting my Saturday large cheese pizza" then you aren't psychologically ready to undergo weight loss surgery. You have to be willing to let go of old ways, which is why they do the psyche eval.

Maybe your spouse has deeper fears. I recently told my husband I need to lose 70 more pounds, but he doesn't want me losing any more than the 70 I already lost. Some spouses feel better with heavy husbands/wives because they don't like other people hitting on us. My husband was at least man enough to admit that he doesn't like other guys checking me out, but I won't let his fears get in the way of my dreams. Make sure your spouse knows that you are doing this for you, not for them. Tell spouse, "there's one person I love more than you - and that's me." As far as eating in restaurants, I have a problem because my husband eats so much faster than me, so I end up eating alone. Now I just nibble on what I can and take the rest home for later. It doesn't have to affect your good time though.

Wow, I was planning on using the WISH Center one day in the future when I actually had a port. But I won't go back to Mexico. I'd rather go to Ventura to see Dr. Billy, or I'd even travel to Texas at this point since it seems there are so many Texas girls that are thrilled with their surgeons. Or Portland for that matter! Or Utah. OR ALASKA!

The local band doctors in Vegas hold regular seminars. Their WLS center offers both Lap Band and Bypass, and the seminar discusses the pros and cons of each surgery. You might want to ask your local surgeons if they can recommend a seminar in your area (I understand most surgeons offer some type of seminar.) Here's my personal opinion after being banded a year: True or False? --- banding is better for large eaters, by-pass for those who eat normal amounts of junk food or sweet tooths. NEITHER. Once you have the band you can't eat large any more. Also, once you have the bypass you can't eat certain foods anymore, like chocolate for example, because your body isn't equipt to digest it, so you go into "dumping syndrome" where you get really sick and the offensive food comes out either end. After a period of time, you can retrain your body to eat certain foods. With the band, your intestines aren't changed so you digest just like before. True or False? --- banding has a higher long-term success due to the ability to re-fill versus a weight loss window. TRUE. The bypass cuts and changes your anatomy and leaves you with a small pouch. That pouch can't be adjusted. With the band, you can have a "fill" where additional saline is added to tighten the pouch. True or False? ---- you do not lose your hair with banding. FALSE: In the beginning, I lost a huge amount of hair but it grew back. They said the hair loss was from a sudden drop in weight (hormonal.) I'm not sure why bypass patients lose their hair (maybe from malnutrition.) With bypass, you absorb all your nutrients. With the bypass, the normal digestion process has been altered so you don't get all your nutrients since they don't get absorbed. True or false? --- banding requires much more will power and ability to avoid fattening high calory foods like chips, sweets, carbs. which could prevent any weight loss. FALSE: Both procedure require an enormous amount of willpower. These are just tools. They change the way our stomach feels, but we still need to use willpower to make better, healthy choices. True or False? ---- if you don't lose the weight within your 13-15 month period with by-pass, you are stuck since your body will have become efficient at working on less caloriesand make it near impossible to lose more. NOT SURE. I know people who have gained back all their weight after bypass. One girl told me she stretched her now pouch out so much that it could hold the same amount of food as before surgery. True or False? --- many people with banding only lose a small amout of weight in the first two years and often require up to four years to lose 100 or more pounds? TRUE: Most people lose most weight in the beginning, then it could take much more time to lose the rest. With the bypass, you lose a huge amount within the first year because the bypass is two surgeries in one: First they make a small pouch, but they also "re-wire" your intestines so that you don't digest the food and it passes out quickly. With the band you are absorbing all the nutrients from the foods you eat. With the band you can eat almost any type of food without having "dumping syndrome" but if you eat too fast or take a big bite it could cause a problem. Keep in mind, this is only one person's opinion. Good luck making a wise choice.

Wow, gone for a few days & there are 10 pages of new posts & no way I can read them all, but glad I found "Just Checking In." I'm alive but can't say much more than that. I'll be suffering "fun-overdose" from the Laughlin River Run for a month. I met Daisydoodle when I got back from Laughlin & was supposed to hook up again but I haven't heard from her. She's got bouncy hair - wrong, wrong, wrong (mine is straw.) Hi Penni, hi all.

Monica, Princess&The_Pea mentioned the Wish Center. Try using the "Search" button at the top of the page with the word, "Wish" and you might find some info. Let me know, I might want to use them one day. Thanks.

Don't do it! You are supposed to be on liquids or mushies for a few days! I think all docs have different rules, but most docs want you to take it easy for a few days. Good luck with your new fill. Hope it helps you shrinky dink a bunch.

I personally love Anwar - he makes me so calm & peaceful, but I think he's got an old soul. I never connected with any of the songs he chose so I expected him to be gone, but not before Scott. I adore Anwar's gentle nature. Even MSN wonders why Scott is still around. Here's a whole write up. http://g.msn.com/0MNBUS00/2?http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7578733&&CM=EmailThis&CE=1

I think there is a huge difference in taste. I adore sour cream, so plain yogurt doesn't even come close. However, I also love plain yogurt, which requires a more grow-up palet. If you can get used to the yogurt taste, then you probably won't miss the sour cream. Or mix both of them together for awhile to ease into yogurt, then eventually nix the sour cream altogether.

Sometimes it's almost like you have to suck on your food for it to totally liquify before swallowing. PBing on Jello and liquids isn't good. I almost PBd on a banana, but I didn't think I had to chew the banana as well as other foods. Are you sure you aren't swallowing even little bits of food? My surgeon said everything has to be a liquid consistency to get through, so even the smallest bits can cause problems. Other than that, I wish I had more help. But your weight loss must be remarkable if you can't eat anything, right? To me, restriction doesn't mean a full pouch, it means not being able to swallow because I feel too tight in my throat - like a near-PB.

"And it makes me mad when, we are watching tv and you see a movie star that has gained a couple of pounds and are a bit heavier and he makes a comment like "Wow, she's gotten really fat" OH I HATE THIS!!!! Howard Stearn calls Drew Barrymore, "Tubby." Damn, if I could be so fat as Drew. And Ryan Seacrest just last week on American Idol made a horrible fat joke about Kirsty Alley. What the F is wrong with the world? People are so judgemental, yet every single one of us has flaws and ugly habits. Bastards.

Trish, I'm here, too, and I think about you all the time because my clothing exchange closet is completely out of control and NEEDS you to take it home! Can't wait to see you banded, but especially can't wait to see you in Las Vegas. Relax & say hi to the cutie from his gramma's neighbor!

Penni, why don't you stop staying in fancy hotels and spend that money on a Bandster Tour Bus? This way you can pick up bandsters and take them on tours to meet the rest of us. Geeze, do I have to think of everything? Trish, isn't she fun?

Always trying to look at the bright side here, but how many moms are lucky enough to have a caring daughter at their bedside? I hope she's better soon, but next time you better give me more notice to plan a getaway so you don't have to take on the burden of the world alone. She's a lucky mom.

Relationships are all about give-and-take on one hand, which goes along with making sacrifices. On the other hand, each person needs to maintain their own identity. I don't feel that you should be forced to tolerate the associate. Let your SO know that you love and care for him, but the associate is "toxic" to you. He wouldn't force you to drink poison, so why should you be exposed to something that will harm you (either physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually?) Sounds to me like the associate might even know he's torturing you to some degree. Maybe he's even holding something over your SO because he enjoys the friction he's creating?

I paid way too much money for several visits with a hypno-therapist. As far as the "hypno" part, I was never hypnotized or "put under." But he was an amazing therapist, and I wish I had thousands of dollars to see him on a regular basis. He did a lot of visual imagery. I'd sit back in the dark room in a relaxed state, and he'd take me on these adventures. One session he had me walking through my dream house, happy, confident, totally at peace. Then I had to look in a mirror and drop my robe, and while looking in the mirror he had me unzip my "fat suit" and step out of it. Then I had to carry the fat suit, then put it down and walk away from it lovingly. Naturally I walked away lighter than air and on Cloud 9. Then I woke up! DOH! But I wanted to share this story since it kinda fits in here. Second: What's worse, being fat and ugly, or "having such a pretty face?" Till this day I HATE that phrase. People think they are complimenting me, but when I hear what a pretty face I have, it just reminds me what a fat body I have.

I'm a biggun (5' 10") so I'd be happy at 200. I'd look like Calista Flockhart at 150, which would also be fine by me!

P.S. I just remembered something. The girl, Emily, ended up going home a day early. Once the nausea subsided, she felt remarkably better than the rest of us and decided to check out and go home early. I hope you speed along like she did.

There was one girl in the hospital with me that had the same nausea and dry heaving. She looked absolutely miserable, but the hospital staff said it's fairly common after surgery, and most likely from the anesthesia. If you are still in the hospital, they may be able to give you something.

Jenna, last night I was sick in bed sending you telepathic messages to call me. I had a fever and didn't want to go across the cold house to turn on my puter for your number, so I was willing you to call me. I guess our ESP is out of tune. May 7 is just around the corner, so you may as well enjoy life till then. Don't fret, restriction is on the way!

Wow. It's been too long since I visited this thread. These stories really tug at my heart. Nykee, I can relate to you. My mom never did drugs, but she went through her wino phase. But the dysfunction was similar. She took us to the grocery store once every couple months and stocked up on frozen chicken, liver, powdered milk, dried Beans and yogurt. As an adult, I could make a nice stew or pot of delicious beans, but small kids didn't know what to do with that stuff. She was never home. We woke up alone, came home from school alone, put ourselves to bed alone. About once a month she'd cook something horrifying and force us to eat, so we gagged a lot. Example, she'd take a frozen bucket of liver and drop it in a pan of steaming Water then serve it rubbery with no salt, no bacon, no onions. Just boiled liver. Or she'd put 5 different dried beans & grains in a pressure cooker with no flavors, no garlic, no onion and cook them till crunchy (she believes cooking things removes the Vitamins so she fed us uncooked raw things.) We had healthstore Peanut Butter, but no jelly so she'd make it with rubber celery that was near molding. On birthdays she'd splurge on a pizza, and we'd have huge eyes and drooling mouths, but then she piled on raw zucchin and raw garlic till it was 4 inches high, and we couldn't eat the pizza without the raw stuff. Kids can't eat that kinda stuff, they gag. Takes years to develop a grown up palet. Now I love fresh veggies. Midnight showers were the worst. Three kids asleep, and she'd dump water over us at 3:00 a.m. cackling "midnight showers" like a luney loose from her straight jacket. I wish I could say she resolved her "issues" but she's much worse now. My mother made millionaire status 10 years ago, but she's a bag lady. She doesn't bathe, and when she does it's from a kiddy wading pool in the front yard. She smells of rancid garlic and mold, and she blames her odors on the IRS. She says they force her to spend her life fighting them from their evil ways so they take away the time she should be spending on personal hygiene. She eats dandalion greens from the yard and brown rice and is known as the screaming crazy lady in her small town. Cops are there all the time, but nobody bugs her because they don't want to deal with her. Her shoes are piled high with pigeon poop, and she blames my brother since he built some kind of overhang where pigeons now practically live, and it just happens to be over where she wants to keep her shoes on the porch. So instead of moving her shoes, the pigeon poop gets higher and higher as she screams at my brother. World's biggest martyr.

I don't understand what the heck is going on with me. I never drank Pepsi before the band, but sometime last month I got in the habit of sipping on one in the afternoon as a treat. Now I'm hooked. I guess just shoot me.

I've heard several people complain about heartburn. Doctors often prescribe some type of antacid. You should ask your surgeon. As far as feeling bad after only a few days, that's totally normal. Some of us take longer to heal, so give yourself a couple weeks before you expect to feel great again.

I tend to get them more frequently, too, but not as much as you. I think it's common for newly banded people. Everyone has their own remedy but mine never fails me: Hold your breath & count to 10, swallow, cough then breathe normal. Sounds stupid, but it really does work for me.