katerzz

I think everyone is different.. and me personaly can eat whatever I want its just a matter of what I want to deal with.. Like fast food now days is just not worth the effort I do it once in awhile but not often and when I do im disappointed I cant just eat it all because it tastes so good to me still.. so i try to stay away from it because well now the bread and stuff just makes it nto worth the effort. My two favorite out to eat is taco bell and subway. I eat about 1/2 of 6 inch sandwhich that is toasted and i usually eat half of that bread and then just eat the meat. When I was working still I did excellent on my Protein, since then I've slacked. Ive been loosing like 5 lbs a week. Since I slacked on protein it really hasnt changed much so I'm not overally concerned. I do drink slurpees once a week and I have only had a rootbeer float as far as that kinda stuff goes but I will drink a sobe every couple weeks it takes me like 3-4 days to drink it since I only drink a little of it at a time. I think people will have ups and downs and as long as your loosing I dont think it matters. I dindt follow my pre-op diet to a T nor did I follow the after diet, I did what was best for ME. I do not excercise as much as I "should" but I will if the time comes where I am not loosing as fast as I am. I am totally prepared for the platue and brick wall I will hit someday in the future. Luckily I've lost enough at this point I am already totally happy with myself I could care less if I ever lost anymore (ya that seems crazy but its true) My surgeon is aware that I'm not the "pefect bandster" but he also knows that no one knows me like I do. To date I've only had one incident with food.. actually tonight I did. I was eating a chicken nugget and playing an online game with my hubby and wasnt paying attention. I knew INSTANTLY i was going to get sick so I drank a ton of Water to just get it over with and once I did that I did throw it up with no problems and went on with eating. I felt fine as soon as I was able and feel great now like nothing happened. I think of it this way.. yes this is a lifestyle change but if something works.. why try to change it? I mean I'm not miserable because i cant eat what I want but I dont eat any where near as much as I did before. Thankfully my weight is coming off maybe I'd feel different but right now I'm happy and things are working. I know I am very lucky.. I know most arent as lucky and I wish everyone could be as lucky as I have been. So.. granted dont take my post as a free for all since it may not work for you just because it does for me.

So this weekend my hubby and I went to california to spend time with my parents and they have a swimming pool.. well it was like a million degrees outside so I wanted to go swimming but left my suit at home. Oh yea.. btw I havent bought ANY clothes since my surgery and have been trying to avoid that because a. I dont know what size I wear and b. I dont want to waste money and have to buy more later.... sooo Ive been wearing my size 34 clothes since surgery. Well anyway we went to walmart and I decided to buy a pair of cheap ($6 bucks) shorts and I told my hubby well its only 6 bucks and if they dont fit they will soon.. so i get home and try them on... THEY ARE BIG ON ME rofl so now im curious on what size I actually DO wear haha I started at a tight 34 and last time I weighed myself about 330ish a little less so thats like 60 lbs since surgery. Its funny cuz I havent worn a 26/28 since like 2001. So now.. i want to go shopping but im going to resist the urge just a little bit longer and see what I can get down too! haha to bad I think i need a new bra though cant really wear that when its to big! (oh.. thats a good thing btw!!!!)

WOWZERS I just got a "statement" from the hospital both my lap band and reband added up to $72,887!!!!!!!! WHOLLY CRAP =) Now.. they say i gotta pay $500 yea the bad girl in me wants to call and say no i got this statement before saying I paid it so im not paying it.. but I look at the final price and think god only $500 bucks bill me LOL

yes I was in the hospital 5 days and had 2 surgeries. I shouldve included that in my post for those who didnt know.

find out about the hospital its gonna be at.. youd be surprized most hospitals have "bariatric teams" that definately would make me feel better but you know what.. if everyone went to the surgeon who has had the most surgeries under their belt, there wouldnt be many surgeons who do the lap band. If your overly concerned.. talk to him about it tell him why your concerned and ask him what he will do if things dont go right. (ie my surgeon called Inamed and SEVERAL top ranked band surgeons to find out how to fix it)

My surgeon told me not to fly until my first fill because it is impossible to get all the air out of my port during surgery so during the first fill and every fill after that he assures there isnt any air in there.

My husband had a co worker who we used to go out with him and his wife like once or twice a month... since surgery I havent seen them.. even have invited them a few times. Its been three months since surgery and this weekend we are puppy sitting for their dog. (the dog is one of the puppys from our dogs litters) Last night they were supposed to come pick him up b 8:30.. well at 10:30 the call and say they got bumped from their plane.. HAH i know better cuz they had to volunteer or were late. So now.. its gonna be tonight, or tomorrow or whenever I guess! Boy sure can tell they arent my friends!!!!!!!!! I am so serious about it being only since surgery... before that things were soooo different. Oh yea.. and my older sister too ever since surgery *poof* funny thing is she wanted surgery and thought it was her big secret from my parents.. until her insurance denied her. we live in the same town .. last time I told her about a loop i her insurance company and she says to me, "well I decided I can do it the right way" HAH that makes me laugh harder cuz I've lost like 50 lbs (more i just dont want to stand on the scale) in three months I'm stoked and *getting* to the point I could care less. My life is whats better.. I know I can find new friends. My husband and I are 100x better than we were 50 lbs ago and that isnt his fault.. I'm different and I like myself more so it makes things easier.. plus I can actually HELP do stuff around the house without feeling like im going to die haha now just to get another job and I'll be set. =) ps... I tell everyone about my band. I am proud of my band and the short journey I have been on so far. I could care less what other people think and honestly what does it matter anyway? Anyone so nieve to think its "the easy way" is retarded... I think of it this way.. at least I took the steps to do something about my weight since obviously I couldnt do anything about it on my own.

i had the same problem.. my surgeon told me it was scar tissue and it would go away (the pain that is)

I think all bandsters have a period where they just arent sure if they made the right decision, I know I have. Im sure in a year I'll forget all about my post-op doubts. Even with the horrible complication I had and the pain it caused I would do this again. If I knew the person and felt they could make the changes we have to make, id recommend it also. Is there days I wish i didnt have it? yes.. of course lots of them actually. Man what id do for a carls jr meal right now. so how do I fix it? i put my before and after on my computer desktop. I took the before and after in the exact outfit so that even though I dont always "feel" like ive lost.. the picture says it all. I find myself staring at the picture actually.. just thinking wow.. whats it gonna be in a year maybe carls jr isnt that important! I think ive been lucky.. even after the problems Ive had I managed to loose 50 lbs in less than 3 months. Thats amazing to me. Its funny I dont go get new cloths yet.. i like to wear my fat pants so that they are falling off my butt and i feel good in them knowing they used to be tight on me. I laugh sometimes because I dont think im a perfect bandster.. even though the weight is coming off I really dont think im giving it my all. I know i could improve but something in me just figures hey, its working how it is now why change it. In the first month after surgery I found myself many times crying to my husband because I thought I madea mistake. Now when I see my picture I just think of that commerical on tv where they are like "this is what 5 lbs of fat looks like" and I think about going to walmart and buying a 50 lb bag of dog food and lugging it around for a day hehe I did 2 years of research... I thought for sure this was what i had to do to make my life better. I didnt think anything would go wrong.. and I didnt think id loose this much weight so fast. But.. EVERYONE is different and I just have to thank my stars that I am so lucky. So ya.. sometimes I think its better, sometimes I think its worse. I do know one thing... and thats Id do it again in a heartbeat. As far as your surgeon saying they cant fix it.. find another surgeon. Dont take no for an answer if somethings wrong.. it should be fixed. If you have doubts about your surgeons thoughts about how rebanding wont help.. called INAMED they are great over the phone and answer lots of questions from what I hear. What size band do you have? I had a ton of problems with the 9 cc one.. and no problems with the 11cc... just a thought. Also.. im totally floored your surgeon said it wouldnt hurt your esophagus long term.. heh if it wouldnt why is acid reflux a ++++ for insurance approval? I think your surgeons on crack personally and you really need to find out from INAMED what your options and their opinion is and they can recommend you a new surgeon.

Just curious if anyone has experience with this.. about 2 weeks ago I started having pains in my stomach, at first I thought they may be menstral pains but now that I'm actually paying attention to it, its not in the right spot to be that. Basically I have some very uncomfortable pain on my left side, about 4-5 inches below where my incision is for my port. Its not port pain at all. its something else.. i have no idea what it could be. It usually starts if I am in the wrong position but also if i suck my stomach in such as doing a sit up or something. I feel around and dont feel anything but that may just be because i dont feel it lol. it goes from my far side all the way to my belly button it stops at about the belly button range as far as how low the pain goes. Its not like gas or anything like that i cant explain it.. its something different and new to me. when i take a deep breath it often hurts in the area. shrug.. i dunno just seems weird and im going to get a fill tomorrow and i will talk to my surgeon about it but just curious if anyone has any experience with this.

http://lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=7743

two things... do you drink much Water in a day? what is your Protein intake? youd be amazed how much of a difference it makes!

go to GNC they let you buy it.. and if you dont like it you can take it back and exchange/refund.

DeLarla asked me if their was a post about my story and why I was rebanded a couple days after my first band and I realized it would be much better to post my story then to keep responding to the PMs I get about it hehe so here goes.. As most everyone knows the month before my surgery I was a nervous reck.. just like everyone else is. It wasn't until the night before when I decided that this was my only option and if I didn't do it I would die anyway.. at least be unhappy and miserable until I did. So the night before my surgery I decided the risks were minimal and after 2 years of research I was absolutely certain that nothing would go wrong. I must mention that this post isn't intended to make anyone second guess their decision however; I want people to realize there is risks that no one ever told me. I went into surgery on April 11th at about 11 am, my biggest fear at that point was that my liver would be to big and I'd go through the surgery only to come out with no band. When I came too I don't remember much. I was moved to the floor of the hospital and settled into bed. My surgeon came by soon after reaching my room and told my family everything went great and I should be out of the hospital the following day following my Barrium swallow. That night I was to only do ice chips and small sips of Water. Well that evening things seemed fine as I didn't know any different. I tried ice chips and small sips of water but it felt very odd and I just decided it wasnt worth it. My throat began to hurt something terrible and because I couldn't swallow I was unable to take my birth control pill. I walked throughout the night and did as requested by my nurses. I was on a morphine drip and was also given lortabb twice throughout the night. The next morning I went for my berrum swallow and well 45 minutes later I was informed that the liquid wasn't moving. I was sent back to the room where my surgeon met me and told us it was probably swelling and we'd try again in the afternoon. So by the afternoon (almost two days without anything to eat or drink) I went for another swallow and this time it was moving but it was barely moving. I ended up staying in the hospital for another night and we would try again in the morning. The night was a lot harder this time around considering I hadn't had my birth control I of course had a little visit from something most of us really wouldn't want to deal with when you can barely move! I also was getting dehydrated (even with IVs.. which btw my IV had to be replaced about 4 times by this point) so I also got extreme diahrea. So the third day in the hospital (April 13th) I was woken up at 7 am to do a barrum swallow. This time it was just as bad as the day before and at this point my surgeon decided to call around and fiind out what could be wrong and what to do about it. He called Inamed along with some of the top band doctors in the world. At about noon I was informed i'd be going in for another surgery and we would get to the bottom of it. So here I am scared and sick out of my mind. We didnt know if the band was misplaced, if it had slipped some how or if I'd wake up with no band at all. I was taken into surgery at 3 pm on April 13th. This recovery I dont remember at ALL I remember waking up that night in my room. During surgery they put in a picc line (for those who don't know its basically an IV that goes to your heart that your vein can't collapse on) I was horribly groggy and literally thought I was dying. I couldnt control anything including my thoughts. This I find out now is probably from going under twice plus the morphine and lortabb build up. So the next day I had another berrum swallow and everything went down slow but much better than before. My surgeon came in and met with us and let us know that they took out the 9.75 band and put in the VG 11 cc band. He told me that basically I had an artery that was blocking the band due to swelling and it was causing the acids in my stomach to eat away at my esophagus and such. which is why my throat hurt and the swelling was the reason I couldnt swallow anything. I was gonna stay in the hospital one more night and if i could drink by the next morning I would be able to go home. That night was the best night I had the whole experience. With my new picc (IV) line delivering the morphine and being able to swallow made a HUGE difference. I was a lot more sore than I should have been since they did have to go in twice but overall I was in good shape by that point. The next morning I was able to eat my Jello and drink some tea. I had a barrium swallow and by the afternoon I was able to go home. The next few days were VERY rough. Being at home was not as easy as being in the hospital (the hospital i was at had bariatric beds.. made things much easier) I was in extreme pain for a couple days and then I started to feel a lot better. By the following week I was feeling pretty good and things looked good. Basically I think its important that people realize -you may need more than a couple days to recover. the last thing I expected was to be in the hospital an extra 4 days. -there is a LOT more that can go wrong than what you hear about. Every person is different and no one had ever heard of an artery being the cause for such problems. This artery is apparently the same one that we all have mine just wasnt in the same place as most people. -make sure you have faith in your surgeon. I've heard many times where a surgeon has just taken the band out in situations like this. My surgeon did *everything* he could for me and used every resource he had to get things to work for me. Thank god he was my surgeon or right now I could be bandless. So what about now? I have lost 40 lbs since April 11th. I feel great and things are going great. I had my first fill at 6 weeks and when normally they would put in 4 ccs into the VG band 4ccs were too much for me. I couldnt swallow at all and it really hurt. He took out 2ccs and I will be going in for another 2ccs in a week. He told me that I just must have some special force that is letting me loose the weight I am without having much restriction. He wasnt surprized I couldnt handle 4ccs after the ordeal I went through in the hospital. Hopefully things will work out in the future fills and really it wont matter much as long as I still loose as well as I am. Every person is different, every situation and case is different. I just thank my lucky stars that I can trust and rely so much on my surgeon. Who knows what would have happened if I would have been sent home or they couldnt have found an alternative way around the massive swelling.

I was banded April 11th and have lost 40 lbs. I have one fill of 2ccs (VG band) and going in for another next week.

no.. I should probably make one yea? =P man i miss having extra time to post!!

yea.. the ericbanded post

penni.. whats the new policy on deleting threads? can we vote to have them removed?

after about 6-7 weeks I almost thought my port was gone!! One day i just couldnt feel it anymore so have faith it will be okay soon!

fair warning.. neosporin will help "heal it" however if it trys to drain AT ALL it can cause infection. I had my port incision come open and I went to my surgeons to have them put sterle strips on. (probably helps that all appointments for 90 days after surgery I'm not charged) I asked about neosporin and he strongly suggested against it.

one thing ive learned is to do this.. i was a HUGE burger fan presurgery and until i did this i couldnt bare to eat one! take very very lean meat (like less than 7%) and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil or such (i use peanut oil) to each pound mix it in.. it adds the extra fat to make your burger juicy but it isnt hard to chew up and makes the meat REALLY moist. I usually add BBQ sauce on top. also.. grill your buns i usually use pam but butter works also also.. the thinner the burger the better off I've noticed anyway.

also.. try to avoid red Jello.. if in fact something turns out wrong in surgery you cant tell the difference between red jello and blood. (my little quick fact for the day hahaha)

Date: Thursday - June 16, 2005 Time: 6:00PM-7:30PM Description: Lap Band Support Group Status: Confirmed Requirements: None Location: WMC South Meadows Dining Area Contact: Western Bariatric Institute Phone: 775-326-9152 Toll Free: 866-986-8812

Support group at South Meadows will meet on Date: Thursday - June 16, 2005 Time: 6:00PM-7:30PM Description: Lap Band Support Group Status: Confirmed Requirements: None Location: WMC South Meadows Dining Area Contact: Western Bariatric Institute Phone: 775-326-9152 Toll Free: 866-986-8812 This is a lapband only support group and it includes some valuable resources.

I cheated also.. but after working in a surgery department and seeing many surgeries canceled I highly recommend you stick with it the last few days just to be safe!