kacee

Scrambled eggs was one of the first solids I tried and it was a disaster. Even 7 months down the road I have to be VERY careful eating scrambled eggs. You think they are soft and all, but for some reason they can really get gummed up if I'm not careful. I'm not the only one this has happened to, and I've seen quite a few posts where people were pretty sensitive to eggs for some reason. I do eat them....just VERY slowly.

Justin, you're still a "hatchling" in the process! You haven't got a fill yet, so though you will never be able to eat the amounts you did before you were banded, you are still able to eat quite a bit MORE now than you will be able to after you are PROPERLY filled. This is a process that will take a few months because they generally fill about once every 30 days, if you need it (the body needs time in between to adjust and there are delayed reactions sometimes to a fill that can take a few weeks to come on). By your 2nd or 3rd fill you'll start to really feel the restriction and you will go "AHA!" Right now though, the idea is to eat slowly, chew a lot and get in the habit of how you will be eating when the restriction comes down the road.

I was just 38 BMI and not 100 pounds overweight when I started my venture. I found out I had to have 6 months supervised diet before qualifying. Okay, so what does THAT mean? I CAN lose weight (I never said I couldn't)...but I cannot KEEP it off. So what's a 6 month diet going to do for me? Show I can lose weight? I can TELL you that. Then I lose 20 pounds and come back and I am way too far under the cut-off to qualify for surgery. Or what if I don't lose a thing? Do they then decide I can't qualify because I have no self-discipline? It's kindof a catch-22. I'm not sure what exactly it is they are trying to prove by this. Suffice it to say, I self-payed. I wasn't about to go through hell for 6 months only to be turned down.

Yeah, that itching is a bugger. I had to remember not to absent-mindedly start scratching! It'll pass. Don't worry about losing right now.

Dave, that boggles my mind! I remember when you first started out...wow, you have really come a LONG way! Congrats!!!!!

I say go for it. If you've been having back surgery, every tiny bit of weight you put on is detrimental to your mobility and well-being. Health-wise you HAVE to stay leaner or you are inviting many future problems. I think it's great thatthe three of you are doing this together. You will not regret it.

Don't let your family dictate your life to you. You will definitely live to regret that BIGTIME if you do. General anesthetic? Uh, I cannot count the number of times I have had that....no problems....zero....nada. People who automatically equate that with permanent disability or a death sentence are uneducated at best. It's not like you are going to some back alley doctor for this. You pick a highly experienced surgeon who has done preferably hundreds if not thousands of these procedures. You put yourself in capable professional hands. Thank your family for their concern and let them know you have made a decision for yourself, would appreciate their suppot if they can give it. If not, you are sorry they cannot support you and you will continue on by yourself in this endeavor. If they continue to berate you for this you need to request that if they cannot be supportive of your decision then you need to be around positive people at this time and you would prefer that they not harp on the negative about this, and then shut the conversation down. Period. It's the old "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." If you are serious in your decision, it is your right. You are an adult. It is YOUR body. Do not hand your power over to someone else to dictate your actions.

For every one complication/failure post you'll see out here, there are probably 10 successes. We tend to magnify the failures in our heads though. Though I did not hit my "sweet spot" until 3.5 months after surgery I was still losing consistently all that time. It just got a little easier when the full restriction set in (once you learn how to work with i!). People always find it easy to whine and moan about stuff, but I agree...most of those folks, if asked if they would do it again, would say yes.

I personally did not involve my pcp when I did it. She wasn't even that knowledgable about the band. I followed up with her to get my BP meds adjusted about a month later.

Yes, that is indicative of being too filled. I trust you have had a fill since your surgery. This can happen down the road after a fill. The fill seems just fine and then a couple of weeks or a month later all of a sudden nothing goes down. Coughin at night and acid reflux is also a good sign of that. Sounds like you need a slight unfill. Call your doctor and get in tomorrow.

Swallowing air. We're put together a little differently now. But I would imagine you are still getting rid of the air pumped into you during surgery. I was actively farting for about 2 months. It lessens over time, but you will still find that you have more gas than you did before surgery. That's been the case for me anyway.

Why can't you get banded now? I don't understand what having the CPAP machine has to do with surgery. I got mine about a week before surgery, wore it for a few days, and then quit after surgery and have never used it again. Gertting a second opinion on a sleep test is probably useless. It's not really an arbitrary thing....you are hooked up to electrodes and there is a cut off point. I was mild to moderate with some severe points. They still put me on the machine. I think I would ask him why getting the CPAP hlts surgery. There is no "testing" I am aware of after the sleep test. All they do is fit you for the machine and send you home. That's it. Once you are tested, you are tested.

It's ALL you...with the incentive from your band. There are ways to work AROUND the band so if you try to put it on the band alone, you will find that there is little success (in other words, if you are a chocoholic or a pizza freak you CAN find a way to take in this stuff and BEAT the band).This is behavioral retraining at it's finest.....but only if you WORK at it.

I would be suspect of the doctor. Basically he is saying to you...."Oops, apparently I put the port too deep so now I can't do anhything for you until you do it all on your own." I think I would start kicking up a big fuss, myself.

Why did the doctor consider "shoulder pain" abnormal? If you read the posts of post-ops, you'll find probably 80+% of us were in dire distress with shoulder pain for at least a week or more. Shoulder, under the shoulder blade, up the neck, in the back....

If you are passing gas and burping that is the BEST thing you can do. The more that goes out, the less pain of trapped gas you will have to endure. I think my gas finally pretty much went away at 30 days. Kinda comes with the territory though.l Unavoidable.

Are you doing plenty of protein drinks? Don't worry about being hungry. You will be for quite a while until you get restriction. Just keep drinking.

That sounds very odd. If they are paying for the lapband, they would pay for the procedure or they would not pay at all I'd think. I've never heard of insurance paying for a piece of the procedure. I would get with your insurance company and have them itemize what it is they will pay...the surgical fee, the hospital fee, the anesthesiologist fee, meds, tests...... get them to be specific.

Justin, this is TEMPORARY!!!!! You will probably be able to eat fruitcake and most anything else...just in smaller quantities. This is not a DIET. This is a way of life. 30 days of liquids and mushies is not a lot to ask. You can do it. If you are hungry....drink something that has protein in it to help with the hunger. Don't "starve" yourself. Get creative. When you get to mushies you can eat anything that has baby food consistency. There's a lot out there. And if you are dying for the taste of something.....go GET some strained baby food in whatever it is you want. Don't LOOK at it...just EAT it. This is about healing, not losing, right now. Just keep the consistency of what you are putting in your mouth within your doctor's restrictions and you will be fine. If you are not going this alone, enlist a friend or family member to sit down and brainstorm for things you can eat. You'll be surprised what you might come up with!

heating pad

Sliming: when food gets stuck and the stomach releases mucus to pass the food but when the food is stuck it backs up like a stopped up toilet....up your throat and into your mouth and you wind up with a mouth full of saliva that must be spit out. PB: "Productive Burp" (kindof a stupid name). This is like puking but what comes out comes out in the same condition it went into your mouth....without stomach acids or juices...just chewed up food or beverage. When things get stuck and don't go down the chute like they should, sometimes the easiest thing is to hang your head over a toilet and let it come out. Generally not accompanied by stomach contractions like a real vomit, and much of the time will kindof roll out of your mouth. This is a by-product of: NOT CHEWING WELL, TAKING LARGER BITES THAN YOU SHOULD.

When people start asking about your weight loss, and how you did it....simply tell them "portion control" and leave it at that, until you are ready to tell them about the band. Personally, I looked at it this way. I told EVERYONE and go zero negative response from family and friends...and frankly if I HAD gotten negative response I would have looked them dead in the eye and said, "It's my decision, my body and my life....it's the decision that was right for me." period. You might tell your family after you have lost a substantial amount. You never know who you can influence... I've had two friends who I NEVER would have in a million years thought would have done this who have talked to me and then decided to do the band themselves. It's hard to be too negative to someone when you are looking at a success story. If they say something like "You took the easy way out." you can say "Well, the operative word here is that I GOT out....that's what counts."

You are eating SOLIDS at this time? Is that on your program? Most people go 30 days before solids. It is a given that you will be eating more than you'd like to before your fills, but first of all, what the heck are you doing with a cheeseburger????? I mean, come ON! This isn't a magic potion and it does take some effort on your part.

Call your doctor. Could be any number of things....scarring adhesions come to mind first. Those can be real buggers if you are prone to them. I'd call the doctor or go to see him if it seem s particularly dibilitating.

No problem...and probably good for you too. Make sure your pee is a light clear color of yellow-gold. If it starts to get dark or smelly you are dehydrated and need to step up your liquids substantially. Peeing is good.