kacee

Don't sweat the weight loss right now. Your band isn't even working yet, and won't be until probably after your first or second fill, so don't beat yourself up for not losing a lot right now. You really haven't even begun yet. You are still in "bandster hell" and have a while to go. Do NOT get discouraged!!!

I find that post-surgery I had "active gas" for about 2 weeks. Now at 4 months, I have just kindof settled in to reecognizing I have a lot more air in my body that needs to come out....all the time. I burp, I hiccup, I fart. It's nothing out of control, but apparently the way things are structured now leave a lot more opportunity for air to get into the system. You get used to it.

When you are first banded you don't really need to worry about how much you are eating. Initially you are not going to be ABLE to eat much because of swelling and discomfort directly after surgery. You won't really feel like it. Concentrate on getting good protein amounts. While you are on liquids, just take it whenever you can, all day long, to keep up your energy, prevent nausea and dizziness. That being said, don't guzzle 10 chocolate shakes in a day...I mean, moderation has its place. You'll start getting your appetite back about week 2 or so (sometimes earlier for some people). Once again, you are in the healing phase, so don't sweat it and be disappointed if the pounds aren't dropping off. Your band won't start working for you until probably after your first, second or possibly 3rd fill, so do NOT get discouraged.

Initially they're going to look at your weight loss and think you've done just fine and probably do NOT need a fill. If your doctor has a flouroscope and they try to tell you "no", ask to be fouro'd to see for sure. I was in the same situation as you three weeks ago....had averaged over 2 pounds a week but still could eat a LOT of food. My surgeon did not think I would need a fill so I went to the flouroscope and sure as anything, the barium just whizzed through my gut, showing I was way too loose. I told him that even though I was too loose, I had been GOOD the last month and stuck very closely to what I should eat, instead of eating what I actually COULD eat. The flouroscope does not lie.

Teaching an autistic class? Well, I think I'd rethink that. When I went back to wor I was just sitting at a desk working at a computer and I was still EXHAUSTED halfway through the day. If you need stamina to do this kind of thing, you better listen to your surgeon. He's got an extremely valid point.

I only took off 6 days including the day of surgery and then went back to my desk job at work...no problem. Many people were out less than that. If you don't WANT to take the time off (a busy job you feel you HAVE to get back to, etc.) then try to negotiate with him. If you don't care, just take the time off if it isn't going to impact your life or finances.

I am so excited for you guys!!!!! All kinds of wild thoughts are going to go through your heads in the coming week. Don't freak. It's all normal and we all went through it. Spend the next week getting your "nest" in order for after surgery. Get all your liquids and mushies bought, get your comfy clothes laid out, get your good books at hand. The more you plan for after the easier it is to just slide through. I had been planning and getting my things ready for the full month before I went in and it was like a dream...I had EVERYTHING I needed....no last minute need to run to the drugstore or whatever. I had my ducks all in a row and it went so smooth!

The first fill was such a NON-issue.

I used to think I was pretty goofy looking, especially compared to my little sister who was gorgeous. But recently I was looking at some videos taken back in the early 80's over the holidays and I remember thinking "Who is that PRETTY girl???" about a nano-second before I realized it was ME! We are all our own WORST critic. I complain that I have a "ball" on the end of my nose and people laugh and say it looks really cute. Now granted, my hair DID look like crap for 50 years, and I fought that frizzy mess my whole life....until the advent of the flat iron (YIPPPEEE!!!). I've always hated my thighs...even when I was 113 pounds. I look at it this way. If there is something about you that you despise and you have the resources to do something about it to make yourself feel better...go for it! I fully intend to get my neck tightened in the next two years, get some lipo on the saddlebags... It will all be done to please ME and ME alone.

All I can say is DO NOT SELECT A DOCTOR WITHOUT A SOLID TRACK RECORD IN THE BAND!!!!!!! Don't know how that can be stressed enough. Don't be someone's guinea pig. Even if you have to travel somewhere else to find one. Do NOT go to someone who hasn't done a LOT of lapbands already. You're leaving yourself wide open for disaster.

There are options for the colonoscopy pre-procedure day. Everyone I talked to did the gallon of crappola thing and said it was AWFUL. So when they were going to give me the stuff, I said "What are my options?" and they said, "Oh we have pills too." I said ABSOLUTELY because I take pills easily. Wound up taking something like 2 horsepills every 15 minutes for a couple of hours. Absolutely NO BIGGIE at all, and I sidestepped ALL that nasty drink stuff. The problem is, most people just ASSUME that the gallon of nasty stuff is the only thing available...they don't ask or argue or anything! My procedure was a complete NON-ISSUE. And so fr I am the only person I know who has asked and demanded something other than the gallon of nasty stuff.

Yep. Totally normal. You're going to feel a full feeling and a little discomfort when things go down for probably for about a week. Then it will go away.

I think I am at my optimum spot. Since my fill (fourth) 2 weeks ago, I can eat very little. I actually start to get a full and uncomfortable feeling about the second bite, but it subsides a little and I can eat a bit more. I have to be VERY careful gulping liquid or not chewing enough. Have had quite a few PB episodes since this fill....all were totally my fault and could have been avoided if I had slowed down. I am not getting as hungry as often now. When I do, it gets satsified pretty quickly.

I just did a little thread wondering where you were, and then looked down and here you are... You sound like you are doing fine. Mashed potatoes, oatmeal, cottage cheese...you are going to feel a lot better when you get into that stage. Liquids stage sucks. But don't be surprised when your hunger comes back like gangbusters. Don't worry about it, or fret if the weight isn't coming off immediately. Your band isn't even working yet. This is strictly the healing phase. Good luck and glad to hear you are doing well!

Any doctor worth his SALT should be pleased as punch with an inquisitive patient. It shows they are taking an active interest in their own body. It makes me CRAZY when I talk to people who take medications and have procedures...I say, "So what are you taking and how much, or what did you have done?" and they go, "Oh I don't know. It's a just a blue pill, or, I don't know. I was in the hospital for two days and they "fixed it." I want to know what I am taking, how much, how it works. I want to know the ins and outs of procedures....everything. I don['t want to be blindsided by anything and I want to be as knowledgeable as possible.

Because I am a 42B (kindof a contradiction in terms....) I can't find bras in a regular store. They go up to 40 and then everything over that is like a C, D or DD. What...fat people can't have smaller boobs? Once I get down to a 40 (the fat under my arms is not melting away particularly fast right now) I'll be able to get into a regular intimates department, but right now it is fruitless.

They will probably give you a pre-op packet that has 90% of your questions answered. Most answers outside of the specifics of your particular doctor's procedure and pre- and post-op protocol you can get right here on LBT.

I have a WW scale too and I love it. It is digital and records tenths of a pound. Yes, it varies, but as I stand on it, it settles and is usually within a pound of that last time. I weigh at the same time each day, naked, and I log my weight on FitDay, each day. It may not SEEM like they are moving much, but I look back at me a month ago and I was ten pounds heavier. Now that is SOMETHING! I review my graph chart through the week....set it next to my caloric intake log and I can really see what's going on....none of this "Gee, I just don't seem to be losing weight and I just don't know WHY!" Fooey. I can tell immediately where I have screwed up. It's there in back and white.

I must be the opposite of everyone. I walk into a room and eventually if someone doesn't mention it, I DO. I just can't help myself. Dammit....I am proud of what I have accomplished and I want some back pats for it! I've got to try to temper my "horn tooting", but right now I am just SOOOO excited...it is SOOOOOO new....it is SOOOOO wonderful....I want to shout it from the rooftops. When I start talking about my weight now, and I am boasting that I weigh....175....or whatever...I always qualify it with "I haven't seen those numbers in 25 years!!!" Then even the folks who are a lot smaller than me can have some sense of grasping what I am talking about. 175 isn't all that lithe a body, but relative to where I have been....it is incredible! This is my day in the sun and I am going to wallow in it!!!:whoo:

I actually went to Marble Slab yesterday and got a "Big Dipper" cup with Sweet Cream/Stawberries/pecans. About the first 4 bites it was great, but then I got home and it had to go into the freezer. The appeal just was NOT there. I nibbled a little more later...PB'd some (okay, so now we know that you can PB if you eat ice cream too fast even though it is practically a liquid), and tossed the rest down the sink. I have no desire for it at all. Of course sweets has never been my "thing" to keep up up at night....

I am on the CUSP of losing my membership in "the fat lady store". People now look at me funny when I come in. I am relegated to digging in the dregs of the 14's (not a lot there) for clothes. I just can't bring myself to believe that anything in a REGULAR department store is going to fit me.... I think I am still in denial.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I'm guilty as charged! I've been BAKING my pants and shirts in the dryer trying to squeeze one more size out of them before I have to give up and consign them to the Goodwill pile. I tried on a tank top yesterday and I was swimming in it. So I think today I have to go in and do a second house cleaning of the closet.

Almost everyone I have met up with in the last month has commented that I look SOOOOOOOO much younger! First of all, I always wore my hair "old lady short" because it was frizzy and thick and I couldn't control it. In the last few years with the advent of the flat iron, my vistas have all opened up! For the first time since I was in college, starting this spring I have grown my hair into a long stacked bob and I get nothing but compliments. It is exactly the way I WOULD have wanted to wear my hair back in the 60's!!! At 55, when someone says I look like I am in my early 40's. that's one helluva MORALE BOOST!!!!

Well, Terri and I have the same doctor and he is WONDERFUL...Dr. Hadar Spivak (spee-vak). Apparently he is the first doctor to do lapbanding in Texas. He is a jewel...a sweet and extremely talented surgeon with a great bedside manner. One of his nurses told me that she loves to watch him work because he is just like an artist. His procedure is $12,900 total. If you chose to come down here you wouldn't regret it. There are LOTS of Dr. S's patients on LBT. We're all over the place!

The surgery for me was a breeze. MY only complication was that you have to pee before they let you leave the hospital. I couldn't pee. Finally about about three hours of nothing they put a foley catheter in. Now, foleys are normally put in under anesthetic and when someone said "Where's a foley?" I started to FREAK. But you know what....it wasn't THAT bad. While they were putting it in I was thinking, "But I HAVE MY BAND NOW!!! YEEEHHHAAAAA!"