thinner1

Congratulations Mary! Less than a week away before your pre-op testing. I didn't find the pre-op diet as too bad, and I lost like 10 pounds on it! Yesterday I went to Dr Shroder and was expecting to be told to go have another fill. I had my first fill five weeks ago - 3 cc's. The doctor told me I was doing really well and was doing better than a majority of his patients and that he I didn't need another fill yet. According to their records I've lost 9 pounds in the past 5 weeks and 41 pounds total. Today is the first day I am wearing my size 18 pants! And they aren't tight at all! Funny, I remember when I was in 8th grade in 1978 and my sister got married and my bridesmaid dress was a size 18. I think the sizes are a bit more generous now than then! I wish I still had that dress to try on but my mother threw it away years ago when my parents sold my childhood home. I've started cleaning out the clothes in my walk-in closet. I am a clothes horse and it was stuffed full with clothes. I did one little section this weekend, about a 4th of the closet, I removed probably 40 items and left about 5. I am going thru a phase of losing my hair. I haven't started panicking yet cuz I went throught a couple month phase a couple years ago and then it just stopped. I Googled causes of hair loss and the first site I went on to, the first cause the listed, was that major hair loss could occur around 4 months after a major surgery. And before I come to this thread here on lapband.com I found a thread about hair loss and from other bandsters said, it looks like hair loss is normal. It can start anywhere from 3 to 12 months after surgery and can last up to a year. I hope my stops sooner than a year or I will be bald!!!! I'm still having issues of "binging" on sweets once a week or so. I tell myself I can't have chips or sweets for so many days and I am good for those doay, but then when that target day comes I eat way to much. Couple Cookies, some chips, a shake! But at least I've been able to control myself to only binging that one day and then getting back on wagon! In the past, once I started eating the sweets I wouldn't stop. That's how come the million diets I was on never worked! Have a great weekend everyone!

The good news is that the pain in my stomach went away a couple days later, the bad news is that I gained 4 pounds in that 1 week I was away from home! As of this morning I think I have lost 3 of the 4 pounds. My next doctor's visit is in 2 weeks and I want to be down something by then! The weight is coming off so slow now! I have been pretty open with just about everyone that I had this surgery. But now it's hard cuz when they see me they ask how much more I lost and now it's only a little bit more, if any! I decided to change my hair so that is deflecting some of the weight questions cuz now they ask about my hair. It was short layered and I would curl it every morning for past 15 years! Now I stopped curling it and I am trying to grow it out to one length. I think is looks horrible right now as it is growing out, but people keep telling me they like it. I have been having some intestinal issues. It appears that I am not drinking enough Water cuz the other day I had to go buy some stool softener! This is the first time in my life I have ever been bunched up and I didn't realize how painful it can be! My stomach, back, and legs all hurt! (Sorry if this topic grossed anybody out!) I am now in-town for the next 5 weeks and am looking forward to getting back to my routine! (except I may go home to WI for an extended weekend in Sept!). Janine - I'm sorry to hear that the meeting appears to have been a waste of time. I can definately see that alot of the conversation would be surrounded around questions from people thinking of having the band. I may try the Sept 10th meeting just to see if it's any better. If not, maybe we should just meet on our own! Mary and LeLee - what's happening with you? Did you get a surgery date yet? TTFN

This working and eating out of town is not a good thing with the band!!! I am trying to control what I eat but it is so hard when you eat out for every meal. Plus I am traveling with 4 other people, 3 of them guys, who want to go to nice places and eat big meals every night. The other night we went to a Greek restaurant and they ordered 5 appetizers plus their meals and I just ordered the appetizer gyro. Of course I ended up eating some of their appetizers and ended up eating half of my gyro meat. I was fine until I got up from the table and I felt soooooo bloated!!! I didn't get the usual pain in my shoulder from overeating like I normally do, but my stomach felt huge and I started to feel a pain in my stomach. I still have the pain in my stomach when I walk around or lie on my side at night in bed! I am hoping it will eventually go away. I don't think my band slipped cuz I think I would have pain all the time with that, but I may have stretched my esphogus. Nothing came back up which I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing! Luckily the hotel has a nice workout room and I have worked at for at least 40 minutes every night. I wait an hour after we get back from dinner and then I head to the workout room. I sure hope that I haven't gained too much. With my job where I do a bit of traveling this is going to be a continuing issue for me and I really need to learn how to control my portions on the road! Tomorrow I head to my sisters house and then on Sat I head to my brothers house for a couple days before I come home on Monday. I think I will be able to control myself a bit better around them as they all know about my surgery, but it will still be a challenge.... oh and I forgot to mention that I've been sharing Desserts too!!!! Oh lord help me! Hope everyone is doing good! Janine - did you go to the meeting the other night?

Hello All, I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with your posts! I got so busy this past month that this is the first chance I've had to even pull up lapband.com. (Ok I probably really wasn't that busy but it sure felt like it!). Luckily the Richmond airport is wireless and my plane is 2 hours late, cuz it gave me a chance to read your posts! I had my surgery on June 1st with Dr Shroder at Richmond Surgical. I went to the seminar last Nov. In Dec I made an appointment with the psychiartrist in Dec for Jan. Then I had my first meeting with Dr Shroder in early February also. Richmond Surgical sent in all my paperwork to my insurance co (Blue Cross). About two weeks later I got a letter from Blue Cross approving the surgery. I waited a week and didn't hear anything from Richmond Surgical so I called them. They told me it may take a couple weeks. About a week later I get a letter from Richmond Surgical telling me my pre-op lab test date and my surgery date of April 23rd. I was going to be on a cruise then, so I called the office and told them I needed a later date. They asked me when I wanted it and I told them May 30th or June 1st. So they scheduled me for June 1st and resent the letter with my revised dates. So as you can tell I had no issues, so my guess is that they have gotten really busy. I had my first fill a little over a week ago. I was in the office three weeks prior to that and Dawn wanted me to have a fill asap. She wanted to do it two days later and she had another nurse call Blues Cross while I was there and get approval for the fill. Then when she came back she told me all this and I told her I was going to be out of town Thurs. Then she was out of town the following week, so then it wasn't until three weeks later that I could get an appointment. But it was really nice that they tried to get me in right away! I really like Dawn. I had always seen Dr Shrolder and then one day he was out and I had to see Dawn. I like her straightforwardness. She told me point blank that I was eating too much! She also did my fill. First she explained what was going to happen and then she totally distracted me when she put the needle in and took it out. And then afterwards she showed me the xray of my stomach. The whole thing took just a couple minutes. They took 2 cc out and put 3 cc in. I keep missing the lapband group meetings! This week I am working out of our Illinois office. I may try to go to the general meeting next Tues. Oh, my plane is here now. I will try to be better about keeping up with this thread! Good luck everyone and try to be patient!

Congratulations Mary! I'm glad your apporval was quick! I just had my 2nd post op doctor's appointment today. It appears that the plateau that plaqued me for a couple weeks is over cuz I lost 6.5 since my last appointment on June 19th! Yippee!!!! That's officially 26 total according to my doctors records - plus I lost 8 from my heaviest weight prior to my first ever visit to him. He asked me about what I have been eating, do I feel full when I eat a meal, and how long after meals do I start feeling hungry. I told him that I am beginning to comprehend the full filling but since I usually measure out exactly what I am going to eat, and then stop when I've eaten that food, that I don't usually feel the "full" feeling - however there have been times that I did eat more than normal and then I feel the "full" feeling. And I very rarely feel hungry and I have yet to really figure out what hunger is. The couple times I think I have felt hungry is really late at night and my stomach starts growling really bad. He asked me if I wanted a fill. I told him that I don't think I need one yet and he said he didn't think I needed on either, but that I could have one if I felt I wanted one. So we agreed I would wait and go back and see him in 2 weeks and then talk about it again. I go back to see him 2 days before I go home to WI for an extended weekend and then 2 days after I get back to VA, a friend from WI is coming to stay with me for 10 days - That 2 week period will be the real challange for me! I pointed out one spot about the size of a pinhead on my largest incision that continues to ooze. This is the only spot on any of my incisions that has oozed. He told me that there is a stitch under there that's irratating it and if I see it sticking out I can just pull it out. How did everyone do yesterday (July 4th)? I ate my normal Cheerio's for breakfast. During the afternoon I went to a picnic where around 4 pm I had about 2 oz of grilled chicken, a little mac and cheese, a little Jello, and little baked Beans, a couple crackers with crab spinich dip on it, and about 1/4 a cup of a strawberry banana smoothie. I had brought my own flavored Water with me to drink. Then around 8 pm when I got home I had 4 crackers with crab spinich dip and about 1/4 cup of ceasar tortallini salad. I felt I did ok......but.... Today I wasn't quite as good. I ate my norm for breakfast and lunch but then for dinner, after coming home from my doctor's visit, I stopped at Ukrops and treated myself to... 1/2 cheeseburger patty, some ukrops potato chips, and a slice of french silk pie. Then a couple hours later I ate some more Ukrops potato chips and a Ukrops chocolate chip Cookies. Now this is the behavior I had prior to the surgery where I would eat several dessets! And even if I buy them and think I will eat one today and one tomorrow, I always end up eating both of them within a couple hours! I have no self control when it is sitting in my house! That is one area of my bad eating habits I am really going to have to work on and overcome! This weekend I went shopping and Macy's was having a great sale. I have definately lost 1 size in shirts and 1 to 2 sizes in pants! That made me feel great! I went ahead and bought a couple things in smaller sizes to strive for! Well that's it for now!

Congrats Mary, Boy there is alot of Mary's in the Richmond area for I too am a Mary. Everything is going good for me except one thing... I'm not losing any weight!!!!! And it's so darn frustrating!!!!! I lost 28 pounds up to the point I started mushy foods 2.5 weeks ago and now nothing! I was weighing myself every day but then last Friday decided to only weigh myself on Sundays and Wednesdays. So last Sunday I weighed myself and I was finally down two pounds and I was so excited. Today I weighed myself and I was back up those 2 pounds. And I really don't feel like I am eating too much. Only on three occasions has my body reacted and told me I ate too much - one day being yesterday. And I'm not eating sweets all day long like I used to!!!! Most of what I eat is Protein and vegies. AHHH!!!!! Yesterday for Breakfast I had 1 cup of cheerios. For lunch I had 1/3 of a taco salad. For dinner I had almost all of the rest of the taco salad (probably 80% if it) then waited a half hour and had a half cup of fat free, sugar free pudding. About 15 minutes later I had an extremely bloated feeling in my stomach, a side cramp, and shoulder pain which lasted a couple hours. I ended up not walking the 2.5 miles I normally walk every night cuz by the time I got home from work/errands and ate dinner it was late and dark outside. I'm sure walking would have helped the symptoms. I have my 2nd post op Dr's appointment next Thursday. I hope I've lost some weight by then! If not, the Dr Schroder better tell me why I am not losing any weight! But even though I am frustrated, I have lost 28 pounds, so I should be happy about that! I know at some point it will start coming off, it's just frustrating having to wait for it to happen when it came off so easily during pre-op and one week of post-op! But don't let me frustrations discourage you soon to be bandster! Reading other threads I haven't heard anyone else complaining about not losing weight so I think I'm just odd - and I still would have this surgery done again in a heartbeat! Keep posting here and let me know how you all are doing!

I just asked my doctor on Tuesday at my 2.5 week post-op appointment and he told me I can now go in the pool. I was glued, all of my insicions have scabbed over and half of the scabs have fallen off.

My doctor told me that only the big "horse pills" need to be cut in half but regular aspirin size are ok. Then when they tried to give me a bigger pill in the hospital I told them I needed it cut in half. When the nurse came back with it she told me she had cut it in half but that she had checked and that I really didn't need to have it cut in half. I will still cut the big ones in half cuz I'm not sure who she checked with. But I do suppose it depends on the size of your band and how full it is (mine is a 8cc and I haven't had a fill yet). So while I would think you could take smaller pills, that's a decision you need to make. PS - I grew up in Racine WI, worked in Milwaukee for 13 years, then moved to Richmond 6 years ago. I do miss WI!!!! But will forever be a Packer fan!

Hello everyone! So sorry I have been responding. I wasn't ignoring you purposely. After my last post it took about a month for the next post and I had just given up on this post and was watching the June 2007 Bandsters thread - which has so many posts it's hard to keep up with them! I had my 2 week post op appointment with my doctor today. My scale matches their scale. I am down 20 pounds since my first visit with my doctor and down 28 pounds from the time I first visited my primary care physician and asked him to refer me for the lapband. My doc told me I was doing very good and that I can slowly start incorporating regular food into my meals. He said I could also slowly start incorporating any exercises I wanted to with the exception of crunches which he doesn't feel is a good exercise in general (never heard a doctor say that before!). He told me I was doing the right thing in that as soon as I start feeling pressure in my chest I stop eating. He said my incisions are doing very well. They are all scabbed over right now. He told me to keep bandaids on them so that my clothes don't pull them off. It's better for the scarring to let them fall off naturally. He also told me that I have the new AP band. He said he was one of the first ones to use the new band and he has been using it for a couple months now. He told me I have 8 CC small band. I asked him about visiting a nutritionist and he suggested I wait a couple weeks until I am on regular food a couple weeks. I told him that I joined this website and he seemed pleased about that. He said I it's good that I am getting info from people who are going through the same issues, emotions I am. So thank you for joining this thread and let's be there for each other! So my main concern of the day is.... I have been slowly incorporating more foods into my daily meals. And now I am afraid that I am going to be adding the wrong foods. Ok - so I stared at a piece of cheesecake at Ukrops for 5 minutes the other day going back and forth... "it's mushy so I can eat it"... "no you can't have it"... "but it mushy"... "but no you can't have it"... In the end I bought fat free, sugar free cheesecake pudding and lite coolwhip. I am trying to limit myself to 1/2 cup per day but on Sat I had 2 half cups. But now I have to be careful that pudding doesn't lead to some other sweet, which lead to another, and then before I know it, sweets will be all that I am eating, just like what I used to eat before the lapband (although the band will prohibit me from eating three donuts in one sitting!!!!) Oh and I told my doctor that I was trying to follow the guidelines for the food for the mushy diet but that I wasn't getting in all the food or Water and he just shrugged and said that was ok. So I guess I don't need to worry about that! Just what my choices are. I think I am going to go to the Support Group on Thursday to see how that goes. I don't know how you feel about it, but while I still want to read the June Bandsters thread when I can, I think it will be easier for me to follow and reply to this band, so I will try to be better about following this band from now on!

I had my 2 week post op appointment with my doctor today. My scale matches their scale. I am down 20 pounds since my first visit with my doctor and down 28 pounds from the time I first visited my primary care physician and asked him to refer me for the lapband. My doc told me I was doing very good and that I can slowly start incorporating regular food into my meals. He said I could also slowly start incorporating any exercises I wanted to with the exception of crunches which he doesn't feel is a good exercise in general (never heard a doctor say that before!). He told me I was doing the right thing in that as soon as I start feeling pressure in my chest I stop eating. He said my incisions are doing very well. They are all scabbed over right now. He told me to keep bandaids on them so that my clothes don't pull them off. It's better for the scarring to let them fall off naturally. He also told me that I have the new AP band. He said he was one of the first ones to use the new band and he has been using it for a couple months now. He told me I have 8 CC small band. I asked him about visiting a nutritionist and he suggested I wait a couple weeks until I am on regular food a couple weeks. I told him that I joined this website and he seemed pleased about that. He said I it's good that I am getting info from people who are going through the same issues, emotions I am. So thanks everyone for joining this thread and being there for each other!

I'm two weeks out now and am doing pretty good. My doctor's general guidelines are all liquids the first week after surgery, mushy foods weeks 2 & 3, and then regular foods weeks 4 and on. So I have been on mushy foods for a week now. I have problems getting in all the foods and water recommended. A couple times I have felt that I have eaten too much because I start getting pressure in my chest and lower back pain. When that happens I go out for a walk and that helps. So now as soon as I start feeling the pressure comng on, I stop eating. I am very cognizant of the fact that I don't want to stretch my pouch and esophogus, or having my band slip. That being said, I haven't been pureeing my foods, but instead I try to make sure that I chew them really well before swolling. My proteins have consisted of eggs, refried beans, canned chicken, and permesian encrusted talapia (a local grocery store cooks the fish and all I have to do is reheat it). During this first week of mushy foods I have only lost 2 pounds. I went out to lunch for the first time with the gang from work (they know about my lapband). I made sure we went somewhere where I could order eggs. I got a cheese omelet. I would eat slowly and then put my fork down inbetween bits. There was way too much cheese for me in the omelet so I ate around the edges and picked off some of the egg from the cheese. Next time I will just order 2 scambled eggs, I ordered a water but only took a couple sips of it during my meal. No one made any comments about what I was eating. I haven't had the shoulder gas pain for a week now and then suddenly last night it returned with avengence! I also got a pain in my left side, like a side stitch. I ended up having to sleep in the lazyboy with a heating pad like I did the first couple days after surgery. The pain is still there today. Has anybody else out there had a relapse of the gas pain? Good luck to everyone being banded this week!

Twinkletoe - Haven't heard from you lately! Are you still out there? By now you I think you should have gone through your pre-op tests and started your pre-op diet. I hope everything is going well for you!

My stats: Banded on June 1st. In Mushy stage now. Lost 28 pounds according to my scale! BCRAZY7 - I stayed overnight. It was my first surgery ever and I was all nervous about the anesthia so I was happy they let me stay. It was my understanding from my doctor that he preferred everyone stay overnight but if you were self-pay (which luckily for me my insurance paid) then he schedule you early in the morning and let you go home that night. Danielle - Happy Birthday! and what a great birthday present to give to yourself Rita - so sorry about the Hernia but don't give up. I had a hernia too that I didn't know about but luckily for me the doctor was able to fix it during the lapband surgery. Renee - I can relate about the IV thing. They blew veins in both my hands before they put it in my one arm. Then that night (actually 4am the next morning) the nurses needed to take blood and which they tried to take out of my hands! They actually tried twice in each hand, once in my non-IV arm, and finally got it in my mid-arm (never scene that before). Tommorrow is 2 weeks since my surgery and you can still see some bruising on both my hands. For those of you on 14 day pre-op liquids only - god bless you! Luckily I was able to eat a sandwich and some vegies along with my protein shake (slimfast) on my pre-op. The week after my surgery was all liquids and that was hard cuz my tastebuds changed and I could no longer even stomach the smell of Slimfast, so I switched myself to just drinking plain milk 4 to 5 times a day. I've been on mushy foods since Sat. Last night I pushed it a bit and ate 2 oz of roasted chicken and 1/4 cup broccoli rice cassarole, without puree-ing either. I ate very slowly and it took me an hour to eat, but then afterwards I felt like I had pressure in my chest. I'm not sure if the pressure is the feeling is my body telling me that I ate too much and my upper stomach is full, or if the pressure was unrelated. The pressure stuck around all night and I had a hard time sleeping on my side. This morning for breakfast I only had milk, I ate my regular refried beans and cheese for lunch and now I am feeling fine again. I've lost about 1.5 pounds since starting mushy foods 6 days ago. Next Tues I go for my first post-op visit to my doctor. I will get from him my weight/BMI from last pre-op visit and then I will set up (try to set up) a ticker. Good luck to those of you getting banded in the next couple days!!!!