gmccon

Ask not what you're lap-band can do for you rather, what you can do for your lap-band. I try to do an hour plus in the gym every day, and I haven't had sugar (candy), potatoes, bread, rice, or Pasta since surgery. Don't look at my signature for miracle numbers, because weighing myself now only happens at the doctor's office. I'm also learning how to listen to my hunger. Sometimes I just give it a taste of Peanut Butter and it shuts up. So, no obsesseing over a daily scale. No carbs. Do the daily gym. Deal with the voice of hunger, rationally. Voila, the new me. Something has to give, and it will probably be pounds. These are all probably things that 'normal' people do, instinctively. But I'm a hundred pounds over weight because I am not 'normal'. So I'm 60 and fat, but learning. Whats interesting is that I know now that I can live without bread, etc. If I go to McDonalds, for example, I love a double quarter pounder with cheese, I just throw the bun in the trash. The remaining meat, cheese, pickle, and garnishing, tastes wonderful. Finally, I haven't had a fill yet, either. I've put as much as a quart of salad and chilie through me, for example, and haven't felt any restriction. But just the idea that the band is there, and that there is a limit, helps. As long as my clothes are getting looser, I'm going to stick with what I'm doing, because I'm losing, and I feel good. Finally, my stupid body sometimes communicates that it needs more Protein, which I answer with Protein shakes. Just some thoughts. God Bless Us All, greg

amen, i ate potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, etc. for 60 years. no more. and its easy so far to get along without 'em. have a good day. off to the gym. God Bless You, greg

First year since living in Nevada, I finally got off my rear and took out a hunting license and drew a mule dear doe tag for an area just 3 hours from home (Ely, NV). Guaranteed kill, virtually. Road-kill does laying all over the place. Then my PCP rather strongly enourages my 'lardness' get banded- or die younger than I should. Surgery was 9/6, my tag was for 9/22. I was sure I had the energy, but the healing process was just too distracting (getting back in the gym, etc.) So no hunt.:cry Next year (if I get lucky in the draw), I'll be the much skinnier person, effortlessly dragging a deer or something back down to the truck. :eek:

Ask your doctor. Mine said to start walking the very next day for as long and far as you feel comfortable. Then at the 2 week point, do whatever you like in the gym, including free-weights. ask your doctor.

sorry, that may not be a good link. just 'google' "lunge, exercise" and click on Wikipedia's link. greg

if nothing else Lunge (exercise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) do it at home. do what you can. work up. add weights if you want. works everything in the body than an elliptical trainer or stair stepper or tredmill does, at 100% less the cost. :-) i like the gym because the machines are the lazy man's way. how do you think i got this fat!? :-) God Bless Us. greg

i'm banded 9/6. on my first and only post op follow-up (day 10), the nurse was upset when i told her i had gummed some chili to death about day 9, and told me i was on my own if i did that. but she said i could eat anything i wanted after 3 weeks. its a big practice and they've done many hundreds of bands. they are regular contributors to medical journals, etc. there was no pre-op diet. doc did say that sometimes they have to switch to a standard operation once your out (cut you open) if something goes wrong (everything was okay). and that was about it. the PA did 90% of the talking in the days before surgery. like someone said earlier, i was miserable in the hours after surgery. i was also suprised that i was totally sober when they rolled me down the hall to surgery. a little valium or something in the IV would have been nice, but i guess the anesthesiologist has his requirements. my personal doctor gave me xanax (i have a short history of panic) a week before surgery, and that came in handy. actually, what gave me panic this time was my battle with the insurance company, that and the anxiety of being in the mess i had eaten myself into. my doctor knows how being cornered makes some people feel, so when i told her i had panic, she took care of me. I gave up and paid out of pocket ($15K on credit cards, mostly). i started getting pretty darn hungry at day 12 or so. i called doctor at the end of 3 weeks (a few days ago), and asked what my fill date would be. the nurse said, if you feel you need a fill, just come in. anytime. 3 weeks post op, or whenever, just call, and come in, and they'll fill. as someone else said, doctors vary in how they handle these issues. God Bless Us All. greg

Bruce, I guess the fills and restriction are key. That's what Doc said in his initial consultation. He let me tell him how bad I wanted to get up and going (get rid of the weight), then said keeping the restriction at the right level was the whole deal. I'm a month off from the first fill. They said 7 weeks, this is 3. So I'm committing to the gym every morning in the meantime, and watching what I eat. I'm frequently fighting hunger at this point. But for me, this is it. At 60, I'm not going to be putting this off any longer. I remember wearing 32" trousers at 175 lbs for a short while ten years ago. I was doing a lot of excercise at the time. Its hard to believe that 175 was still "over weight", because I had so much energy I was climbing the walls. I eventually settled in at 200 to 210, and although officially 'obese', I was running daily, doing the gym, and some martial arts. Which is what I told Doc. I want that back just one more time, and for as long as it lasts, 1 year or until death, I'll take it. Many years ago, I quit drinking and smoking, but I'll be darned if I can quit eating, nor restrict it, not without help. 'Voila', the band. My last stand. Good health to you Bruce. God Bless Us All. greg

Hi Bruce, Do you mind sharing your daily exercise routine? I started pretty much where you were, and intend on going down to about the same as your goal. I see you're below 200. Congrats on that. I remember being less than 200 some years ago, and I felt awfully good. Probably the strongest I ever was, just not able to run faster than a 10 minutes pace. greg

i'm 60. i was banded Sept 6. this is as good as i've felt in several years. the surgery was the worst day of my life. trying to figure out how i got myself into the ugly mess i found myself in. but 12 hours after surgery, most of the pain was gone. i went back to work 4 days later. i go to the gym every day. i sweat out 700 calories or so on the elliptical trainer, and do some light free-weights. every day. if you're gonna change your body, you absolutely have to exercise. they say without it, you'll only lose half of your excessive weight. i'm very hungry a lot of the time, but i guess it'll get easier when i get my first fill. doc says the fills are the whole secret to success. he's done 3,500 WL surgeries, including 600 bands, and he's very casual about the whole thing. the band is not major surgery. most folks i know went home in 5 hours. 60 means nothing. God Bless You, and all the rest of us. greg

Chris, I didn't want to spend 3 months fighting my insurance company. More important, I just wanted this done! So I paid out of pocket. My hospital was $8,000.00, up front (assuming I don't get a follow-up bill for some additions). Doc was $5,800, up-front. Anestisialogist was $1,000, up front. (All on credit cards, of course.) I wonder how your hospital found its way up to almost $13K? Congrats on your good health. God Bless Us, greg

Bruce, Doc was very clear. Go to the gym and do what you want at 2 weeks. I get a little vertigo sometimes and have to rest a little more between sets, but I really enjoy it. I spend an hour on the elliptical trainer every day, too, so I think I'm losing more inches than pounds for the moment. But I don't do many calories a day, maybe 800 or 900, and I feel good, so I'm just going to keep doing this. Doc also said 'eat anything you want' at 3 weeks. This is day 20 post-op, so things are okay. Doc has done 3,500 barriatric surgeries, including 600 lap bands, and his practice is very casual about the whole thing. God Bless Us, greg

that's a great report chris. glad everything is going well. down 18 plus pounds already must feel very good. like me, you may have some surgical swelling still, but at your new weight you probably already brought your belt in a notch, eh? i've only lost 13 lbs, but one more moves me down to 'obese' from 'morbid'. its hard to believe i'm feeling good about that. my surgery was 17 days ago. what's odd is how varying this procedure is from doctor to doctor. mine has done 3,500 WLS, including 600 bands, and does not require a pre-op diet. also, i think i only have 5 surgical scars. and he didn't do the barrium swallow. there are still those days when i feel like i've had surgery, recently (tired and dragging), but at 60, its probably to be expected. my near term goal is to feel stronger in the gym. earlier this year, i was benching sets of 200 lbs. today, 8 reps of 150 lbs was a struggle. another lesson in patience. regarding hunger, day 17 is my worst. i was so starved, i ate soft food today but chewed real well, and didn't have a problem. but i was absolutely miserable. Continued good health and success. God Bless us All, greg

the gym is disgusting. everyone there has ipods, be-bopping to their favorite music, while they ride different machines, chatting with their neighbors, lusting for innocent health freaks as they walk back and forth. sweating. news and sports shows on the monitors. more sweaty, sex-starved people walking past you. it's absolutely horrible. do not go to the gym, and certainly do not make a habit of it :waytogo:

as a 'guy' who has gone up and down between the range of 175 to 275, i can tell you that our fellow man (women, for me), become much more flurtatious in the lower weight range. at the lower end of my weight range, women strike up friendly conversations in the grocery store line, etc. i also have noticed that once a woman has 'screened' your face, their eyes go right for your belt line. if you are 'in the zone', their eyes go back to your face for one more look, and sometimes you share 'a moment', or exchange a special smile. so for me, thinner is better. i find the 'you can do me' moments to be important, and rewarding social behavior. the exchange of smiles is very nice. now, my wife. she once made a 'freuding' slip: "keeping your man fat means no one can steal him away". "whoops", i thought. you are busted!

andrew, a lot of useful information in your post here for a new bander. thanks very much. greg

I've been giving this "pre-op weight loss" concept some thought. I think doctors want to see that you are motiviated to lose the weight, in general, before they put you through the surgery process. I say this for several reasons, the most important of which is that my doctor has done thousands of these, and he simply does not require a pre-op diet, at least not for banding. So do the math (so to speak). If our bmi is over 50, it may be that they have professional experience which tells them to be sure that the patient is motivated to see the process through, before they do surgery, with a test of motivation, i.e., a diet. I've heard all the yada-yada about dieting to reduce the size of the liver before surgery, but as I understand it, one of the 5 holes in my stomach was put there to insert the tool to push the liver away from the stomach. In other words, so what if it's fat. Jus' sayin'. but what the hell do i know. Good luck to you, and God Bless US. greg

The smartest thing I've seen posted on these boards. Perfection in motivation, and so simple. Congratulations. greg p.s. There was a lot I enjoyed about drinking, but I couldn't limit it, so I quit. There was a lot I enjoyed about smoking, but that was purely drug addiction, so I quit. There is even more I enjoy about food, but I can not restrict my intake, so "the band" does. Yippie, and God Bless us All. :Banane20:

Hi Guys, I'm 10 days post-op. I feel normal in all respects, except that I am aware of the port when I roll over during sleep. My early posts on other threads will tell you that the day of the surgery was the worst of my life. You can read depression between the lines. That's all gone now. Even at 60, I find I am more interested in losing weight than ever before. At 276 lbs (BMI 40), I could not believe how big I was. Hidiously so. But in the past I have always been able to go back down below 200 lbs, so times much less than 200. So the band and the related encouragement to lose weight is greater today, than ever. Here's what I'm coming to: I am motivated, something I intend to convert to obsessive compulsion (what I do best :confused:). I am old, fat, and developing a bad heart, but my PCP says its all reverseable, "just lose the weight and get back into shape." I have always enjoyed the gym, and jogging, and fighting arts. I guess work-stress and family-stress, and whatever else some how moved, or rudely pushed food into the front of "my line". So I get the feeling that the band is just what was needed to push food back to its proper place in line. "Dead Last." My band-doctor said I could do the full gym-thing, post-op 2 weeks. I'm cheating a little now, by working with a stripped bar on the bench and in seated military press, plus doing some light-weight lat pulls, etc. I'm using the elliptical trainer for fat burn. Again,10 days post-op, and I'm getting more and more energy, every day. More important, a much, much improved attitude. BTW, EAS whey Protein with skim milk is only 200 cals, and tastes just wonderful. I get it on the net for about $30 for each 5 lb can. In conclusion, I forgot to mention that I simply didn't have the energy or time to fight my insurance company, so I am self-pay, and even more determined that this work. For those pre-band guys just lurking this site, if you are BMI 35 or higher, and you've lost control of power over food, give the band some very serious, positive consideration. Find a PCP that understands the band, and let him or her (mine's a 'her'), guide you to the best local band-surgeon. God Bless You, greg

I was banded just a week ago, but ate my wife's chicken/pork and vegitable Soup last night and today without any problem. It had a lot of cabbage and carots and onions, but they were cooked slow for many hours, so they might be considered near mushy, I don't know. I have my first post surgery follow-up visit (wound exam) on Monday, and I'll be interested to hear what the doctor has to say on the subject. greg

I'm going to tell you this, just in case no one else does. No one told me. I'm banded from a week ago today. But the day of the surgery was the absolute worst day of my life. I felt lost. How in the hell did I get there? (my BMI is the same as yours). What did I do to deserve being coded with the feast-or-famine gene? My surgery was at 8:30AM, and it wasn't until many doses of liquid codeine later and 8PM that night, that I thought of anything other than how absolutely messed up my life was. So if you're feeling that way today, you are at least as 'normal' as this fat guy. Now, a week later, I basically feel fine. I'm walking a mile or two every other morning, etc. (I used to be a gym-type guy until food pushed that over.) For those who didn't, don't, or won't suffer like this cry-baby fat guy just described (me) on surgery day, good for you, and forget what I've said. I just don't want you to feel alone, like me, if you do. God bless us all, greg

thanks toots. i was wondering why my pants/belt weren't moving into a more comfortable fit after a week, and i suspected it was related post-surgical swelling. must be it. your soup sounds great! try a tablespoon of almond butter (smooth, of course). :hungry:

It looks like there's a small group of us currently chatting here who are in similar circumstances, i.e., days to weeks post-op. As a reminder I'm now 6 days out, and this morning, I felt as normal as I have since the procedure. I'm having my usual morning coffee, and intend to walk a mile or so before work. I actually *want* to. Also, I felt hungry for the first time last night and scrambled up so relatively loose eggs and milk. Big mistake, but it eventually went down. This morning I caught a glimpse of a bottle of almond butter (Peanut Butter, but almond) on the kitchen table. A tablespoon was 100 calories, and it was delicious and went down nice and smooth, melting in my very happy, hungry mouth. So I am here to say that I do indeed see better days coming. By the way, to those 2 or 3 days post op, I'll tell you that I drank all of my vicodin early on, even if I was uncomfortable trying to sleep. I wouldn't have cared what my doctor(s) may have said, I chugged it. But I was absolutely miserable, and mouthfulls of codeine made it all go away. I think everyone does what they feel they need to do to keep the healing process moving. Which looks out over the many months and years to come when we all struggle for that healthy BMI. At 276 lbs, I was BMI 41 or so, but I will never weigh myself, because the scale can be misleading, so to speak. I'll wait for my doctor visits and let them weigh me and give their assessment. At 1,000 caloriers a day (and usually less), I know I'm losing, no matter what my scale says. Sorry for the blabber. God Bless Us All, greg

my surgery was 9/6, and like many here, it was the worst day of my life, too. at 60 years-old, i thought to myself, how in the hell did i get myself into this mess. surgery was 8:30AM, and it wasn't until plenty of vicodin and 8PM that I felt half-way okay. I was melting sun chips in my mouth and ate 3 small packs over the next 12 hours. now, 5 days later, i'm 'eating' strickly Jello, plain yogurt, soup stock, and the occassional Protein shake. maybe 700 calories a day. i can't say i hurt anywhere, but i'm really tired in a post-surgery sort of way. hope this gets better soon. by the way, at 700 calories a day, i simply have to be losing weight, but my pants are not any loser. is that from the swelling caused by the surgery? good luck and god bless us all. greg

As the RN was going down her very long pre-op check list with me yesterday morning in preparation for 8:30 surgery, she asked, "and please tell me what it is that we're going to do for you today". To which I said, "Penis extension, but if you've got a some spare time while we're in there, could you put on a lap-band?" You had to be there :-)