Frustrated

Nichole, I agree with you, that sweater does look so much cuter now. :confused: I also think I like your hair straighter. You're looking fabulous and doing really well. It won't be long until you're in the Onderland club! There's a party waiting when you get here. :tt1:

Thanks Kartrina. It does feel a slight bit looser this morning. Insofar as I got a hot chocolate down for breakfast. (Thanks lindaa - no rotten tomatoes from me. :wink2:) I didn't read your message until late last night and I was struggling through some fluids. *sigh* I think I've discovered that, for now at least, I'm really finding it hard to get any liquids in that aren't heated. Hot tea, soup and hot chocolate go down easier. Room temp water, cold tea, ice water send me into burping fits and can easily become PBing and sliming episodes. I did, however, manage to get in half a handful of fish crackers. So that's progress. I have a wedge pillow that I bought for after my breast surgery and have been trying to use that. It's really tough for me because in the past couple of years I've become a "no pillow" sleeper, so sleeping semi-upright is kind of uncomfortable. I needed an extra pillow under the wedge last night to prop me up even more as I a few choking episodes again. :confused: This morning I felt awful again. So much so that I didn't get to the gym. But I did manage that hot chocolate, and in half an hour I have the pleasure of a visit to the dentist. :tt1: I'm not sure I can even get through that. Brushing my tongue this morning set off my gag reflexes. So I'll have to warn them beforehand that I'm sensitive to almost everything at the moment. I might try and heat my water up today so I can get more of that down. I'm not even managing half my daily requirement. Protein shakes are still out of the question. I'm going to try a soft boiled egg to get something in me. Maybe go to the market a little later to find some fish. So long as it's fresh. But still, I'm not hungry.... I really enjoy this loss of appetite, but I need to work on my fluid intake for health reasons.

I wasn't told that. But then I'm 6 months out from my surgery, I wouldn't have done it immediately after. I remember telling my surgeon's nurse that I missed chewing a lot and that I'd taken up gum chewing. She told me that so long as I didn't swallow the gum, I should be fine. But most definitely speak to your own surgeon about it.

I got a fill on Friday and I haven't been able to have anything solid since then. But I'm okay with that because I'm not hungry. So long as you're not getting dehydrated you'll be fine. What I do when I miss chewing is get some sugar free gum and go through that. I sometimes go through a LOT. When you start back on solids, go to mushies first; yoghurt, cottage cheese, mashed potato, oatmeal. And only after those go down without any problems, start on the more chewy foods like eggs or grapes.

Oh.... And then there's hiccuping. As soon as I start to do that, it's my signal to stop eating.

I got a fill on Friday just gone and I've been burping like crazy ever since. At times it's uncomfortable, but mostly it's just damn annoying. And it's only air. There is a difference in sensation for me between a burp and PBing. My salivary glands will go into overdrive if I have something stuck and it needs to get out and I have to wait (typically not too long) until I PB. I'm usually stuck over a sink or toilet bowl until it clears out with my mouth open, drooling like a toddler. Then there's sliming and that's not a pleasant experience either. :cool2: Sometimes my saliva just gets too much and too thick and it'll want to come up. At times it's a big ball of foam, at times it's just clear slime. Sorry if that's too much info. It's not the most attractive visual. :tongue: Pepcid Complete has helped me with the burping today (thanks to a forum angel for the tip). It takes a few minutes to kick in, but it's a godsend.

Thank you. I didn't realise how different I looked until today. :tongue:

Okay, so I'm going to try and figure this out on my own. I've never attached a pic before, so bear with me if I screw it up. Top left is me in the summer of 2006, probably just before surgery. It's out of focus, but being in focus wouldn't make me any thinner. :cool2: Top right is around the same time. Notice how they're both taken without my knowledge - the only way to get a photo of me up until now. Geez I was WIIIIIIIIIIIDE! Bottom right, wearing the same swimsuit as last summer, only now it doesn't feel snug. I have my best breast forward in this shot too. :tongue: In the shot from the front you can tell my boobs are different sizes. I can't wait to even them up. Don't ask me what I'm looking up at in an amused kind of way, I have no idea. :huh2: Anyway, that's me. DOH!!! The position of the pics changed on me after the preview. Top is me in summer 2006. Middle left at the same time. Middle right this week. Bottom this week.

Thanks Janet. I agonised for so long over whether or not to get a fill in the first place. Only to get there and have them tell me I probably should have come in a month ago. So on the one hand I don't want to put off not going in if I need to. On the other hand I got what I wanted and my appetite disappeared. On the other hand I'm not doing my health any favors by not eating at all. On the other hand I'm losing the weight that should have been coming off all this time. The solution is quite obvious to me now; I have far too many hands. :mad: Seriously though, I need to think about this a little more. If I feel that my health is in danger, I WILL go back for an unfill. It was similar to this after my last fill in September and that settled down within a week. I'll give it another day or two. Oh, and I haven't forgotten about those pics I promised in the other thread. Once I get them edited to size and figure out how to post them, I'll do that. :cake:

Morning everyone, I had a rough day yesterday. I felt awful the whole day. Sunday night I woke 3 times choking on my saliva and ended up sleep semi-upright on the couch so as not to disturb my hubby. Yesterday all I could get down was 2 cups of hot tea and a cup of carrot and ginger soup. I had to force myself to drink the tea and it did make me feel better for an hour or so each time, but then I got nauseous all over again. I've been burping like stupid since my fill on Friday. :cake: I'm probably a little too restricted, but I only got .25cc put in and I'm afraid if I get even a little taken out it will push me to the other end of the scale and I won't lose any weight at all. :mad: But I need to get more food and liquids into me as soon as I can or my metabolism will come to a grinding halt. And I don't want that! The only trouble is, I'm not hungry. Being ill yesterday has really put me off any kind of food. Maybe I need to try more soup but even the thought of a creamy soup makes me want to barf. As does thinking about the consistency of my usual protein shakes. Geez Louise these appetite mood swings are driving me round the bend. The good news is, I've lost 6lbs since Friday, but my official weigh in isn't until Sat so it could go up again by then. Whoever the fools are that say WLS is the easy way out needs to get their head examined! Or I'll knock it off for them! I'm in a grumpy mood today. :musical_note:

Kartrina, I think it's a great idea. I'm not sure I can find a before pic of myself. I've been a camera-phobe for many years because I didn't like the way I look. Now I'm more comfortable. Taking a photo of myself and putting it on display will be a big NSV for me. I'm sure my hubby's jaw will hit the floor when I actually ASK him to take one so I can post it here.

WOW Janet! I literally gasped when I saw your pic. In part because you look so good and the difference is astounding, but also because you resemble my MIL. That's not a bad thing. :wink2:She's a lovely woman and we get on well. You're looking terrific.

Congratulations Katrina. That's fantastic! :Dancing_biggrin:It's a big milestone. Good for you. I had a restless night last night. I was burping the whole night. :eek: The last time I had a fill I was choking on my saliva, so I guess it was an improvement. :eek: Still, this morning I feel tired and I'm hungry. I think. I'm going to have a hot drink of something, not sure what yet, for my breakfast. I know I'm not ready for any food, and besides, I'm on liquid mushies for another 36 hours. It took me almost an hour to get down my 6oz yoghurt dinner last night. I actually felt good about that as it shows that my restriction is good again. It's a lovely day here today and I think I might do a walk in the outdoors instead of on the treadmill. I'll have to get out my pedometer so I can keep track of my distance for my challenge. Maybe the exercise will boost my energy. If it doesn't, I'll take a nap late morning or early afternoon. I'm very grumpy if I don't get enough sleep, so it's as much for the sake of my family as it is for me that I do. Catch up with you later gang!

I remember it now. The Dean boys did a show in New Orleans and made King Cake. I'm still a big fan of the food channel. I only let myself watch it when I'm not hungry though. I like trying out different recipes on my hubby and son. They're both quite picky eaters, but I can often find gems that'll satisfy them both if I watch for long enough. :biggrin:

Oh my stars! I don't think I'd be capable of doing any work if I was in one of those. I'd be laughing too much. That was so funny, thanks for sharing Janet. :biggrin:

Lots of drama! Come back and share it with us. :smile: Just got back from my fill. I had .25cc put in so am at a total of 3 in a 4cc band. I do the fluro fill, so she could tell from the image that my band was loose and that it was indeed time for a fill. She said I probably could've come in a month ago. She said to expect it to loosen again in another 20lbs and not to wait as long as I did the next time around.:eek: I'm looking forward to the scale moving down again and hopefully it will keep going down and not yo-yo like it has this past couple of months. :tongue:

Could you be a little more specific please Shelly? I'm not sure what you mean by "trouble throwing up". I don't have any trouble throwing up if something's not chewed properly or it's just the wrong type of food for me. It can sometimes take a little while for the stuck food to make it's way back out again. Once it does I have instant relief. But if you're talking about too much restriction, then that's something different altogether and you should talk to your doctor about getting an unfill.

My mistake there, I got his age mixed up with the amount of food he was eating . I wish I had my son's energy level too. There's only one of him, but I swear he can run in 3 different directions at once when I'm trying to round him up for something. :smile:

I'm here. I have a fill scheduled for today so I'm a very happy camper. :smile: I'm asking for a moderate fill just to get things back on track. I started the month off with a morning exercise session and am going to try and eat something for lunch, knowing I will be on liquids for a couple of days post fill. I wish there was some way to make it more restrictive in the evenings and keep it how it is for me now in the morning/early afternoon. If only I could ask for a timer to be installed. :eek:

Your 3 year old has a different metabolic rate to yours. If you could get your metabolism to go like a runaway train like his does, you wouldn't need any help shedding the pounds. :frown:

Thanks Janet. And you too Karri. I think I'll take your lead and change my exercise goal for Feb also. I'm not sure yet if I want to do time or distance. I'll think on it a little longer.... If I use time as a goal I can go a little slower like Janet suggested but still have a good goal if the numbers are high enough. If I go for distance it will also give me an incentive to strive for something. This month if you take into account that each workout I would output 2 miles per session, that would give me a distance of 40 miles or a time goal of 10 hours. So I could set a distance goal of 50 miles to try and increase that way, or go for 13-15 hours the other way. Maybe I'll keep track of both for a while to see how I'm going. There are only 28 days in Feb. Might be a little tougher. Btw, I called and managed to get a fill appt for tomorrow at 1:45, so I'm a happy camper again. I hope. :frown:

Thanks for replying Janet. I knew my angel would have some good advice. :frown: I just tried to call my doc now to make an appt to get a small fill. But they're closed for lunch for the next half hour. :eek: I'll kill some time until then and get right on it. I don't want to much. I have 2.5 in a 4cc band, so I'll see what they suggest. A lot of the time I can keep this taste demon at bay. :frown: I just couldn't stop myself last night. At least I was good enough not to have dessert. I made some for hubby and son and had a lite hot chocolate to give myself some kind of dessert fix. I should've done the same with the meatloaf!!! On the treadmill I have the speed at 3.9 on an incline of 5 and after 30 minutes my distance is 2.07 miles. I can't really go any faster without running, and I don't like my saggy bits jiggling all over the place :frown: It hurts, so I avoid it. That's why I've tried the elliptical. It's more of a workout but good gracious it's hard! Ideally I'd like to do that more often, but I know that if it becomes more of a chore I won't look forward to it like I do the treadmill. I don't want to give myself a chance to find an excuse for not exercising. So maybe I need to start off slow and replace one treadmill session a week with elliptical and slowly graduate more from there. I know I've been slacking off with my water. Bad girl. I've started reaching more for this nice Mango Lemonade I found. Sometimes that's all I'll have for breakfast. It's got 120 calories, and 30g of sugar for every 8oz serving, but I have half water and half juice because it's just far too sweet. However it's really nice and I've found that I'll reach for that during the day when I've been hungry or thirsty when I should be going for the water instead. I don't have anymore junkfood in my house. Unless you consider those 100 calorie snack packs junk. I'm very strict with those though and will only allow myself one per day if I need to get through a hungry stage. Otherwise my snacks are either a yoghurt, a banana or melon, a fruit cup or fish crackers (about 12). So maybe it's just a little tweak here and there that I need to get back on track and stay there. Thank you so much Janet for getting my head working in the right direction again. It's so much easier to spot possible areas of improvement when someone else points them out to you. :cool2:

I couldn't agree more. I'm certainly more healthy than I was 6 months ago. I feel better physically and mentally even though I know I still have a ways to go with both. So I've been struggling for a few weeks with a fill decision. My weight since I got my breast surgery in mid-November has only gone down 5 lbs. You all know I was dealing with an infection and eventual removal of one of my implants. Well that's going to be re-installed in early March. So I've been going back and forth between 193 and 199 since then. I called early Jan when it was up at 199 wanting a fill, but my doc was full for his Friday appointments and then was going on vacation for 2 weeks so she said to call back at the end of Jan to book one if I thought it necessary. I don't know if it is. And I don't want to be dealing with a fill that may be too tight close to my next breast surgery. So the question is, do I wait until I have the surgery or should I try to get in for a fill within the next 2 weeks to give myself time to adjust to a fill that may or may not be a problem? It's been difficult because I've watched Janet and Karri suffer through their too tight fills. With my last fill I was tight in the beginning and couldn't sleep through the night because I'd wake up choking on my saliva. :biggrin: That only lasted 2 or 3 days, but still it was awful. I don't want to be too tight that I can enjoy a small serving of food. I don't overeat now, but at times I can eat more than a cup of food. At night, that is. In the morning and until about 3pm I have good restriction. Good in that I can get fluids down and not be able to eat anything more solid than yoghurt, jello or a banana. I'm fine with that part. But the afternoons and evenings can be like a floodgate opening up if I'm not really strict on myself. Sometimes I lose that battle. Last night I had 2 slices of meatloaf. I know I could have done without the second slice, but it tasted so good and I could keep it down. :tongue: I only have to exercise today to make my target of 20/20 for the month. I enjoy my morning exercises. Am I doing enough though? Typically it's 30 minutes on the treadmill Mon-Fri unless I have an early morning appointment. I've had a couple of elliptical sessions of 30 minutes as well. The first almost killed me :frown:, the second was more bearable. Just. :hurray: Any suggestions from you all would be much appreciated. I'm not asking you to make a decision for me, but I'd like to know what you'd do in my situation. What changes would you make? Diet, exercise, fill.... any and all.

Welcome Dianne, You don't have to be a July Bandster to join our group. The more people we have supporting one another, the more chance we have of being successful. Feel free to stop in anytime for any reason. :tt1:

Happy Birthday Janet!!!!!! :Dancing_O_o::Dancing_wub::Dancing_chief::rolleyes2: You're such an inspiration to us all and I'm so glad you're here to keep us all in line and on to smaller and better things. :biggrin: Hope you have a wonderful day.