cat whisperer

Let's share the cuteness - post your pet photos here! Three of my four cats chillaxing on the couch.

LOL I am never first for anything... but looks like I may be the only one so far looking ahead to May. I thought initially I would be scheduling for April, but I hadn't taken into account the two week pre-op diet. So... I will be booking tomorrow for the first week of May. Hope to see more people join me!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130326-animals-medieval-manuscript-books-cats-history/

As May rapidly draws to a close (the time went so fast!) I thought I would start a thread to see how my fellow May buddies are doing after being banded! (and hopefully those who are banded in the next week will also post their updates too) It has been a little over a week for me... generally things are going very well but struggling with a bit of fatigue. Still a little bit of pain/swelling but every day it improves. I was very fortunate in that I was able to take a long time off to recuperate - how are those of you who are back at work? I hope everyone is doing well - healing up nicely and getting back to feeling like your old self - with a new motivation and lifestyle, of course Let's hear how you're doing!

wow... 6ccs is a lot! No wonder indeed you weren't hungry for a long time!! sounds like you made the right choice to keep things as they are for now

My story is identical to Leanne's - with the multiple pokes etc. even funnier as we were there at the same time except for the fact that because I had no fluid in the band (they had taken out 4ccs during my "emergency" the first week) they put in 2ccs. I was worried enough to stay in a hotel (I live two hours away) tonight to make sure I'm fine after the fill, but so far, so good... just hard to find something to eat in a restaurant!!

haha I guess I'm another member of the club for tomorrow... I'm not nervous about the procedure itself as I have already been poked in my port a couple of times during the first week... I am more nervous about having a repeat of my post op complications, not being able to swallow anything... although I'm sure they won't be too aggressive with the fill, hopefullly....

Great news!

Hey everyone- just for fun (and to post about something different once in a while) I started a Pet Owner's group. I love seeing people's pet photos so thought it would be fun to have a group to share pet photos, stories, etc. Come and join the group if you are interested I think the easiest way is to click on the group title under my name and photo. look forward to seeing you there!

Yup - they already had a section in the "groups" part of this site for all kinds of different topics, and one of them was pets... they have all kinds of topics. I think the idea was to socialize in other ways as well as talking about the lap band... but it doesn't seem to be very successful.

Great job - congrats on your success, and you look great. I love hearing success stories!

I actually had a couple of comments like that from my lapband "team" of professionals... the psychologist told me that I should be prepared that the weight may come off more slowly for me as I am such a "small" woman!! LOL have not associated the word "small" with myself for a very long time... also one of the nurses said something similar... but at the same time, I am having health problems because I am carrying around a lot of extra weight!! and the rest of the world certainly doesn't think I'm small!! In any case, here I am and I got the surgery good luck to you

Actually that is the one thing about which they never specifically stated a time frame... for myself, though, I'm going to hang easy and wait as long as I can... it's tough because I enjoy a drink in the summer months especially. Mrsinto, your old routine for Fridays sounds a lot like ours... we would pick some very rich gourmet recipe and cook it while drinking lots of wine. Same results as you, too... weight gain and fatigue the next day!! I love my red AND white wines but I will be cautious as I don't want to sabotage my efforts... at the same time, I will probably plan some special events like you have.

I have worries about how easily the wine will flow for me when I "get back to" (!!) having some... probably in a couple of months. I'm going to have to watch that!!

Yup, I can relate to your thoughts/situation - intellectually we know that way of thinking is wrong, yet it has been ingrained in us that the "only way to lose weight is to eat less" - we hear it every day. I ate close to 1000 calories yesterday and I felt guilty!! never mind that I probably used to eat three times that. I decided to put my scale away (I had been weighing myself every day) as I know now the weight is not going to fly off like it did pre-op and right after surgery and I don't want to get discouraged. anyway, know that your thoughts are understood (by many people, I suspect ) We can do this!!

I lived in Webster for three years... only moved because we had too. I miss it quite a bit. which 'burb are you from?

Saskatchewan, Canada...

Hey, it took me a while to figure out it was something related to bringing up food - don't worry, i saw it used by many other people too but was too embarrassed to ask until today when I finally decided what the heck Wheelcrazy, I can totally see how you thought that it was peanut butter, though!! LOL

Yeah, I have decided not to weigh myself - I had been doing it every day which maybe was appropriate during the fast lost of the pre-op, but of course way too often for "normal" time! Things are going pretty well with me, thanks for asking! Still a small amount of pain, esp. on the port side - at my check up they said that it was quite usual to feel some pain there for up to 8 weeks!! I'm getting anxious to start exercising in earnest... another couple of weeks.

AHA!! LOL - I just couldn't figure it out!!! I knew it was something like that... thanks!

OK... maybe I am going to sound incredibly stupid here, but I keep seeing the acronym "PB" used on the forums - what does it mean? I gather it is vomiting??

The doctor when I went into the ER post op with my complications told me about the ghrelin so that's where I got the info from... If I'm wrong blame him I do find that doctors not specifically trained in lap band surgery(which he wasn't) don't always know what they are talking about!

I believe they may have been referring to the part of your stomach, the fundus, that secretes "ghrelin" which is a hormone that makes you hungry. From what I understand, the secretion of this hormone is greatly dulled by the placement of the band and therefore you do not feel as hungry. I hope this helps a little... you can probably google the above terms and find out a bit more!

I know, so frustrating, isn't it... you can do it... it will pass by more quickly than you think. Try to look forward to "mushy" foods as you can add quite a lot that is tasty to your diet at that point. I don't think your one slip-up will hurt you, but I believe the purpose of this is that other foods are heavier and can stretch the pouch or dislodge stitches or the band while you are healing (anyone, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this). Hang in there... another week and you can have the very tasty "lasagna bowl" (recipe is on the forums here) which is purely soft foods. Right now, as rkimom mentioned, some savory soups might help - I found a very tasty potato and leek soup which I diluted and pureed to liquid and I enjoyed it.

I am finding that I do not have any restriction at the moment. I have zero fluid in my band right now as I had been overfilled during surgery and had to get 4cc taken out two days later. I am a little over two weeks post-op and just starting to feel hunger - and I am being very careful as I think I could easily overeat with no ill effects.