hottytoddy

Hey yall! Another Mississippi bandster! I live in Madison.

I agree. I pretty much only read our thread too. Waiting til late Spring puts our weight loss much higher as well!

I have lived in Vegas and can help with recommendations. I will probably stay with friends when I'm there... I prefer the upper-end places, can't help it, love it, love it, love it... Oh, did I also mention I have a 15k piece of jewelry around my stomach that you can't even see?

My first fill is in 13 days and counting! My first appointment was actually 6 days from now but I rescheduled due to vacation next week. I just don't want to be out-of-town and on liquids/softs on my summer vacation!! So, this will be my last hoo-rah before the real journey begins!! (At least that's what I hope!!)

I've read everyday as well, and like Faith, just haven't had much to say! Anyway, I think a Vegas '08 trip is a must!! I used to live there as well, and one of my best friends is there! I would love to show up 100 lbs lighter than when she last saw me... (she doesn't know about the surgery!) So count me in!

Toni!!! I KNEW I friggin loved you too!! I am SHOCKED that you are a (now outed) closet Zombie fan... but I love it!! He has been my number one for over 10 years now! I CANNOT do the treadmill in front of the tv. I get sooooo bored. I can watch tv all day in the recliner just fine, but cannot exercise!! However, listening to some music that really fires me up helps a lot! Cause you can kinda dance while you walk... or in my case, dance and fall off :guess Anyway, Exercising is going to be my biggest challenge... CAUSE I HATE IT WITH A PASSION!!! Rob just makes it somewhat tolerable...:tired This is kinda weird... I had sushi tonight. That makes the second time since my banding. I've been to 2 different places (i have frequently visited both of them pre-banding) and ordered different things at each place (but nothing I haven't had before). WELL.. it tastes different. I have no idea why, but it's not the same... and it's not as good. :cry

Well, with the help of Rob Zombie :rockon: I have just completed an ample amount of time on the dreaded treadmill. :first: Now for the fun part... Back in the day, way back, before excess adipose found its way to my bones, I used to model. Well tonight, while on said treadmill, Rob started to belt out my favorite tune "Foxy, Foxy." Before I knew what hit me, I broke into runway stride... I would say I was in said stride for about 5 seconds before I strode myself right off the back of the treadmill.. :censored: It was not one of my finer moments, but it was my first time to fall off the runway! Don't hate me cause I'm cooler than you.

Oh my CBM! I thought my doc was conservative making me wait 8 weeks! Bless your heart!

ALL of us are over 1 week out!! How exciting!! June 2007 Bandster Calender.doc

Capt Dan! Look at your ticker! Did you even need the band? You go! I can't remember from when we started all these conversations, but how much did you lose before the pre-op diet... cause if you've lost 70 lb in 6 weeks it's time to reign it in boo!! Congrats!

Suzie - My port site stayed bruised for a long time... a few weeks. It was dark purple for a while then shades of green and yellow. At my one week appt, my doc said I obviously bled a lot around my port. Your bruise looks old (green-yellow) and not new blood (dark purple). Is it getting better or worse?

You know what's weird... I CAN have sushi and pizza and haven't yet!!! (Except the sushi I cheated with at week 2, of course)... what's wrong with me??!!

As much as I LOVE sushi... that is the nastiest thing I have ever heard!

Holli, I'm going with Faith on this one... there was no heat... just candid conversation. Wasabi - why can't I get that out of my mind? Wasabi protein shake...no, nevermind...I took it too far. :sick I got too full tonight. All good food - baked fish, salad, 1/2 baked pot. I never felt full in my upper and no pressure, but I've felt bloated ever since. I watched one of the lap band surgery videos last night that's posted here. I've watched several of the surgeries and learn something new with each one. This surgeon spoke a lot about the fundus. The fundus of the stomach is an area that is to the left and ABOVE the opening to the esophagus. It holds excess food that you eat in reserve for about an hour. Well, it's the fundus that's sutured over the band to prevent slippage, and this surgeon said by doing that you also decrease the ability to overeat in the LOWER stomach because you lose so much of the fundus during suturing! That has been my experience and it confused me til I heard that. I really don't feel restriction at all. Liquids flow just fine when I would drink with my meals (I don't do that anymore since week 4, my doc told me before that it was ok..). Anyway, I've just noticed that I get full off less food than before. I can still eat too much, but have felt "Thanksgiving Day" full off 1/2 or 2/3 what I used too eat routinely. Interesting, huh?! My doc also noticed where people used to slip the band and it was in the same place everytime. He now sutures part of the fundus to the diaphragm as well - which is a great relief to me, the food weakling - and thus he hasn't had a slip in over 3 years. He's mentioned it to other surgerons at conventions and stuff, and they've all been very interested. Maybe it will catch on! :eyebrows:

Waters, I've added you to the calender and will repost it soon. I'm sorry you can't open it. It is a Word file. Unfortunately , I can't post the calender itself here anymore. The site doesn't support the format and when I post it it's a jumbled mess. The same happened to the May 2007 calender. But you are there (along with 130+ others!!)

Thanks Dan! I printed that one. Anything with wasabi is great by me!!

HAZE, you're already on the calender...

OK, here's the deal. Faith, I appreciate your dedication and desperation to convince all to comply as we all should. You're will power is indeed commendable... seriously, I mean that! We all have our reasons for being overweight. Never lost the baby weight, POCD, addiction, laziness, genetics, etc. Not everyone who is obese has the truly addicive, psychological, uncontrollable urges that some do. Everyone of us wants to chew. Everyone of us wants to taste. Everyone of us loves to eat. However, not everyone of us can reasonably stick to such a stringent diet in the 2-4 weeks post op without giving in to our obsession at least once. It doesn't make it ok. It doesn't make it healthy for the band. It doesn't make us feel great about doing something to help ourselves. It makes us feel like failures. But it's the real world. I'm tall.. that's why my BMI is lower... cause I can eat like a freakin linebacker! I don't get a fill for 8 weeks. If I could go 2 months being perfectly compliant with a stringent diet, without cheating even once... I would not have needed this surgery. That's just the way it is with me, and obviously a few others here as well. The times that I've done wrong I didn't even really realize it at the time... I can't explain it... one minute your fine, the next you realize you've done wrong. There's sometimes no thought put to it at all. It just happens. Perhaps there should be INTENSE phychological counseling before this surgery. Months of it... just to make sure you can handle the overnight loss of compulsive overeating. My doctor didn't require it for me...he knows about my postop failures, I've been honest with him. This doesn't mean it's OK. I'm not encouraging anyone to screw up. We all know the dangers that are present with poor decisions. NOBODY has posted that they are eating freely cause they want to and that's just the way it is. Nobody is giving anyone an "atta boy" when they mess up. All we are trying to do is let the offender know we've been there, done that, picked up our boot straps, and moved on. Personally, I do not think this surgery should be compared to being pregnant. But on that note, there are NUMEROUS things that pregnant people aren't supposed to consume but do anyway because they are going crazy with an addiction (and society is pretty much OK with it). A perfect example is my friend who is 6 months pregnant. Her husband scolds her for an OCCASIONAL Coke. So she hides them in her bikini drawer and slips a sip when he's in the shower. She gave in. She was miserable and addicted to something she's consumed for years on a daily basis... and occasionally she drinks one. You also aren't supposed to eat deli meat, hot dogs, processed meat of any kind, sushi, some seafood (too much iodine), etc, etc, etc. People also gain up to 100 pounds with pregnancy - very unsafe for the baby and mom - but people hear that and generally laugh. Again, I don't think this surgery should be compared to pregnancy. We aren't perfect with that either. I do love myself, that's why I had the surgery and was a self pay at that. However, I also know that someone putting a band on my stomach does not end years of daily food abuse. I'm doing right at week 5. I'm not overeating. I'm trying to make good choices. But I have messed up since this surgery a few times and by the Grace of God my band is still in place. I pray everyday no long term damage has been done either. Personal opinion - I think Inamed is overly conservative because if not, and people have complications, they will sue. That's what we do in this country. Dr. Ortiz (pioneer of the band, trained US surgeons, on the Inamed Board and Inamed Advisor) doesn't even do a mushie stage. He does advancing liquids for 3 weeks and then solids, regular solids. He wants you mushie, liquid, soft FREE for 3 weeks, then a fill. Sorry this is so long. Again I appreciate everyone who is walking the straight and narrow and am SO truely proud of you. However, for those of you who have strayed a few times, I don't think any less of you. I don't think you don't care about yourself. I don't think you think it's OK that you've messed up. I don't think you're "playing chicken" with the band. I think, like me, you're weak and have a problem and are desperatly trying to get help. Tomorrow is another day. Get up, eat right, and exercise. Lather, rinse, repeat. PS - Amazingly, I have been 100% compliant with carbonated beverages! I drank about 6 Diet Cokes a day before this surgery, and have not cheated once. I guess that one was a little easier for me than the sushi... I love you all! We're all in this together!

Snoopy, This is a very scary time for you... I KNOW!! If you read the posts from few weeks ago, I had a major breakdown over my sushi binge at 2 weeks post op... and my girl Toni bit the bullet a couple of times too!! I was in constant fear that I was messing up my band, and sometimes still am. I guess when you can't feel something or see it, you wonder if it's in the right spot. My doc assures me that I would KNOW if I had a slip. Eating too much of the wrong thing puts pressure on the band before it's healed properly. If the band slips from this, it slips downward. Your stomach is much larger below the band and thus more tissue would be in the band if it slipped, causing severe restriction and nausea and vomiting. Vomiting, I believe, causes the stomach contents to come back through the band and puts force from below causing the band to slip higher. Anyway, be CAREFUL! Most of us have the same fears as you, obsession with food, and lack of willpower! We have got to hang in there a little bit longer... and the fills begin!! Good luck!

There are 130 of us!!! Go check it out!! http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f93/june-2007-bandster-calender-37160/index2.html#post509051

There are 130 of us!! June 2007 Bandster Calender.doc

Janine, Glad to know I have someone on the exact leg of my journey! We will run to the restroom with the "deer in headlights" together!! lol

:whoo::heh::clap2::cool::rolleyes::hungry::bandit:o:kiss2::bored June 2007 Bandster Calender.doc

I saw my doc in the OR again today, so I got to cancel my appt for this Thursday. (It's sooo wonderful that I see him at the hospital every week!!) He told me to call and schedule my first fill to be done at 8 weeks. I called and was going to be out of town, so I scheduled it for 7/23 (which is at 7 1/2 weeks). Then I remembered that after a fill you have to do a couple of days of liquid/mushie stuff, so I rescheduled it for the next monday 7/30. That puts me at just over 8 weeks. I want a fill ASAP... but the thought of going out of town the day after my first fill where I will be attending several group meals and NOT be able to eat anything they are having AGAIN (my last vacation was at 3 wks postop) was OUT OF THE QUESTION!! It scared me a little to be out of the state for the first 5 days after my first fill. Oh well... at least I have a date to look forward to!!

Ange123 you were already on the calender June 2007 Bandster Calender.doc