Marimaru

* You want to hug everyone fat and hand him or her your surgeon’s card. Totally there. This is great stuff.

You guys are too funny! I had steak for dinner last night, protien before carbs, and managed to not have one single piece of halloween candy yesterday. Holy crap. I didn't even realize. Not that I didn't have some before yesterday. And there's still a little left. But to handle the candy to hand it out to the childrens and not have any for myself? Out of sight out of mind is one thing, but how the heck did I do that? That's the worst... doing something great and not knowing how you did it. *sigh* the secrets of life.

I'm with Zoe. What a b####. Why doesn't it help to think to ourselves "she doesn't know me. She doesn't know what I've been through". Why do we care so much what other people think? I found that recently again about my self. I did a lot of work to not care what other people think about me. I got my band and all of the sudden I care again. It's the strangest thing. Anyhow, I also imagine that people who were born with the willpower to eat less, or excersize more, or whatever, have no freaking clue what's it's like to have to create that on your own. Also, I wonder what willpower she was born without? Obviously it has something to do with being nice to people... Stupid Craig.

I'm on Depo, so I don't get my monthly little friend, but I've read that it creates alot of restriction creating Water retention. You might go to soupy stuff (as suggested above) for a few days and see if it doesn't back down. Then if your restriction goes back to normal maybe wait until your cycle again and see if it's just as bad the 2nd time around. If you *can't* get solid food down, that's totally different than eating soupy stuff because it's easier, just make sure you know which one you are.

nuffin lost here. I'll be glad for my fill on Thursday. 255 and holding. lol

This one is a little different. It comes from the inside. I was making up a little bowl of nachos with some veggie chips as an experiment, and I was chopping up my cheese and had cut a bit off the main block and thought "This wont be enough, but I'll get more after I chop this up". Well, I was chopping up my cheese and it dawned on me. I had too much. AND SO I PUT IT BACK. There was a time when I would have said "oh well, extra gooey nachos". Anyway, it sounds kind of silly now that I'm typing it out, but it made me happy at the time, so I'm sharing. I'm waiting for the NSV's where someone says something, or I'm able to do something physically that I haven't done in a while, but I think mental growth NSV's are good too.

hehe, Greg- There's too many of those things huh? PB, NSV etc etc...I had to look them all up or ask too. NSV means Non scale Victory. Something that happened because of weight loss that doesn't have to do with numbers.

Yay!!! That is SO awesome. I don't even wrap towels around me any more because I know they wont fit, I just dry off and move on... maybe I should change my habits again...

I like this. And I like the idea of a prize. I've been on a plateau for a while and I've really been wanting one of those cute sweater poncho things. When the freaking needle on the scale moves I'm gonna go buy one. Step 1 is to partake in this challenge. Some days I only really want one piece of the candy. Other days it's crazy and I just gobble it all up. Stupid candy. Lessee, I had cottage cheese for breakfast, and a cup o' joe. need to have a good lunch and a good dinner and then a treat in there somewhere... that sounds doable. Hey I bought these veggie chips... are they veggies or chips? lol

Is it feasable to not keep junk in the house? Like a huge bag of baby carrots in the crisper instead of Cookies in the cupboard? Alternately, does she know about your band? If you aren't a closet bandster maybe you could talk to her about it and just explain why you are having a hard time? Either way, it's either about a weeks worth of will power, or a weeks more worth of a 'break'. I know you are trying to get that last little bit off before goal (CONGRATS), so I'm sure this is super frustrating...

While you definately might want to consider fighting your insurance on this one, I don't know why your doc would say what he did. A number of us on this board were banded in Mexico, and many of us like our Mexican doctors more than any doctor we've had up here. I used Dr. Rumbaut in Monterrey and I have nothing but good things to say about him. I'm also pretty sure that I read in my documentation from him that if you go in for the lap band surgery, they'll remove the gallbladder (if needed) at the same time at no additional cost. You may want to confirm this, but I know I read that somewhere. Doralisa is his patient coordinator, and this is her email address: doralisa@gastricband.com. She'll answer any questions you have, she is so great. Keep us posted on what you decide to do. But I would suggest that you don't 'settle' for the bypass if that's all your insurance covers...

R- I agree with the explainations above, but I will say that sometimes 'burp' seems kind of a mild discription for what happens. Last week I had some Pasta, which is usually ok, but this didn't have enough sauce on it so it was really dry, and the PB that took place was a bit violent with my tummy trying to get rid of it. No stomach acid, but it was a little painful. Is this what you are talking about? Either way, if it's happening alot, make sure to take to your doc. Too much can cause slippage and/or erosion.

I think it makes a ton of sense that if your legs and feet were swelling that your stomach was swollen too. Maybe there is something else they can give you next time that wont make you well so much? But if you do swell, do consider that unfill.

Wow Neicy that's really interesting... Debbie - I was banded on 7/2/04, got my first fill on 8/17 and was at 2cc's. I am 5' 7" and started at 280. Before my first fill I got to 255, and I'm still there. It's a bit depressing... I've started walking in the last month but it hasn't made any difference. I'm taking in about 1200 cals average. I'm going in for another fill on the 4th, hopefully that'll hit the spot.

Mine started falling out last night. I don't know if it's mental or what, but I'm about a week from my 4 month mark. We just gotta remember that it'll pass and we'll have our hair back again

I read somewhere that the shoulder pain that occurs way after surgery has nothing to do with the gas. It has to do with our body feeling the band n' stuff. The stomach is more on the left of your body, so the band is on the left side... and for some reason the brain picks it up as shoulder pain. So maybe when your tummy is rumbling your band is moving with it a little and your brain is pickin' up the signals?

Babs- I'm not too far into my journey, but if I was losing a lb a week I'd probably leave things the way they are. Maybe a tiny tiny fill if I felt like I could take one, but like Jax said, over filled would be bad too. Also, have you looked at your BMI recently? That might give you a clue as to what you want to do. I want to be somewhere in the mid range of "normal" one day.

If you go to the Inamed site and fill out the little thingy for doctors in your area, they'll email you a list of them, then it's just a matter of calling them and finding out if they'll fill you up

Alot of people have tried GasX type products and say they work really well. I've seen one mentioned that is a liquid, I'm sure someone here knows the brand..... Congrats on your banding

Maybe I'm wierd, but I'm not sure I have a "the moment". I've had weight problems since I was a kid, and I've been dieting on and off since then as well. When I was little I never saw my self as thin, even though there was one point where I was (and there's pictures to prove it, lol). But that said, I never really believed I was "THAT" big either. 8 months or so ago it just kind of clicked and I admitted to myself that I was FAT. There wasn't really any specific event that triggered it or anything, I think I just quit lying to myself. Then in May I was going on vacation with my Mom and we were talking about the various WLS's (because we work with someone who had the gastric bypass) and I brought up the band. She thought it was a great idea and said I should do it and she'd cover it for me. I cried in the airport. lol... so a month and 4 days from that day later I was on the table...

I also would love to do this. This is a great way to answer alot of those worrysome questions that we didn't even know we should ask before banding.

Yay Melissa I think that the food cravings were worse in the liquid stage for me. I mean, when you can't have ANY real food at all, then what do you want of course? I got to mushies and had some really really over done mac n' cheese that was really smushy and it was the best thing in the whole world. You'll get past this and you'll be fine

Congrats ladies! You might consider a product like gas x for the gas pains. I didn't take any (or even think of it) but other people here have mentioned it. There's even a liquid version apparently. When I was banded I really felt almost 100% in just about a week. Maybe 10 days. It gets hard to remember you were just in for surgery, but you gotta be careful for about 6 weeks, no heavy lifting n' stuff like that.

Fitday is good for stuff like that (as said above). Tons of people use it. I personally don't log every day, but when I want to see how I'm doing I log for three days without making any special extra effort during those days. I do this so that I can try and make new habits without being aware of everything I eat at every moment, you know?

Well, I don't think it's something where they give you a list of possible locations and say "where do you want it", but I think there's probably a little leeway if you were to talk to your surgeon. My port is right at my waistline, and my doc said he did it on purpose because it wasn't going to be my waistline anymore . I would ask the question, can't hurt right?