Tamiko

Well I tried to work with the band but it just isn't working for me. Next month I go in for the removal of the band and I am getting gastric bypass. I am scared but I am so tired of dealing with diabetes and all the health problems I have acquired cause of it. So so long band I wonder if I can keep it once they remove it.

Well I have had it for six years I started out weighing 420 I am now 360 but not because of the band every time I get it tightened it always causes problems this last time a few months ago i only had a little put in and I couldn't even keep liquids down when ever i fell asleep i would wake up vomiting everything up and it caused me to have an upper respiratory infection. So i got an unfill and a GI done stomach was a little swollen with a little acid reflux but i just see no improvement in all these years so i just want to be done with it. Luckly my insurance company approved me so fast

Hello everyone It has been years since I have posted anything on this site. I was banded feb 2 in 2005 or 2006 I dont remember the exact date because I have not been succesful with my band. When I started I was 420 now I am 350. When I was banded everything was good I started to get fills and the weight was coming off but because I am an emotional eater I started to panic. I don't smoke or drink I eat to deal with everything, even tho I was going to counseling it still was like going in withdrawal because i wasn't able to eat like I used to so I would eat and throw it back up I didn't go back to the doctor for a year but when i did it was like my throat was acting like my stomach and i could throw up with no problem so he unfilled me that was three years ago. I have worked out off and on and have managed to get my emotional eating under control and i keep my weight around 350 to 360. So I forgot to mention that after my unfill my doctor Dr. Tichansky left Memphis so I was left with no doctor that is why I haven't had a fill in three years. Well recently I found a doctor hear in Memphis that would take me I had to pay 250 to transfer and 40 for the co pay. Didn't see the doctor saw the nurse practitioner she filled me so tight right off that i couldn't even sleep without liquid coming up in to my lungs started me to cough in my sleep was throwing up constantly could even keep liquids down. So when I finally went back she did a complete unfill now i have to see the gastro to look at my stomach to make sure everything is okay. Now I seem to have heart burn and indigestion all the time bought some Zantac and that helped immediately. I told her that I want this band removed and I want to go to the process to get gastric bypass. Thats only if everything is okay with my stomach because i think she should have put .5 cc in at a time until my stomach got used to the restriction I don't know but I started to cry in the doctor office because its just so frustrating to pay all this money for this tool and I cant even use it. I am ranting because no one around me understands what I am going threw. I feel so alone. When I had this surgery I was in the hospital alone no one was their for me. I had a friend check me out but i drove my self home. Took care of my self while i was at home and that Monday after surgery I was back at school because i couldn't miss any more days. So this has been a struggle from the beginning. I just want this thing to work!

Well I go into the gastro in the morning to see if their is anything wrong with my stomach or the band. I have had heart burn and indigestion almost every day since the unfill. I hope everything is okay i have had a lot of time to rethink taking the band out. I know i can work with it I just need to have slower fills not a huge fill all at once because now I am ready to do this. Just praying everything goes well in the morning.

I never had it before, but since being banded I have. It only happens if I eat or drink something before laying down. When I dont I have no problems.

I got banded in Feb 05 it took me a while but I didn't start to lose weight until oct 06 and it has been coming off steadily 5 to 6lbs a month. I am pretty happy about that because I wanted to get it taken off after the first year when it didn't seem like I was going to lose anything. Well after all this my mother is not the mothering kind and I have come to terms with that but I can tell she is jealous because she doesn't accept the fact that I have lost weight (75+lbs so far) so she always wants to give me clothes and that are 3x or 4x size clothes. When I tell her that certain clothes I wear I can wear a 2x or a 1x now depending on how they are made. She still gets me clothes in a 3x or 4x and I can only wear it as a sleep shirt because they are so big. I told her to stop giving me clothes because I don't need them ( she works for nike and gets giveaways twice a year). I mean who doesn't like free stuff but she makes me feel that I am still huge true I have a lot more weight to lose but I feel good that I can wear smaller clothes. Eventhough she doesn't say encouraging words to me she asks me do I think she could get a lap band done because she can't seem to get the weight off.:angry I mean I want to show off how much I have lost and how good I feel about my self but their always seems to be someone around me who wants me to feel just as miserable as they are.:eek: She gets so much clothes when she has her giveaways that I went over their and took a few items that are a size 1x and I could fit all of them and it looked good on me:whoo:So I kept them!! She won't miss them.:mad:

We'll I can speak from experience but mine had to do with the insulin I was taking my new doctor told me that it was making it hard for me to lose weight and he put me on a different kind. I got banded in fed 05 and lost 20lbs pre-op and finally started losing in october 06 on the new insulin. I have seen people who have lost 100lbs and more within the first year of being banded. So every body is different. My doctor told me not to give up and even though I might not lose it as fast as I want he told me that gastric bypass patients lose at a lot within 6months to a year and hit a plateu and lap band patients can lose steadily. It's all about how much work you put into it and don't give up.

I think it is a good show, but for people in the real world it is more work because a lot of people don't have personal trainers and people who give them a meal plan. I think they give them the tools when they leave the show to incorporate what they have learned into their lives. I hope they did keep it off.

Well I had my lap band surgery on feb 3 2005 it has been well over 2 years since then and I have finally gotten to were I am losing weight steadily. I only lost 20-25 lbs post op I started out at 420 at 5'11". I was at the same weight at about 395 until october of last year. I started working out a lot and I am know at 345 every one is starting to notice and I am too, but I hope to hit 290 if I can by the end of the year. I can't remember being that small at my height I have to see how I would look at 200 I think that would be to small I would settle for 250. Which 100lbs seem so far away so I have to make mini goals of 30lbs every two months.

I have problems with red meat, mostly burgers but I can eat sonic cheese burgers. I wonder why?

Last year I had that problem I was pbing everyday at least 2 or 3 times a day. I even started to develop acid reflux. I was considering having it taken out because I wasn't losing weight either, but when I went to the doctor he took a little out and I have found my sweet spot. I pb every once in a while if I do eat to much or don't chew my food good but I have started to lose weight a lot faster and I eat and have the energy to exercise for 2 hours up to 3 to 4 days a week.

I have gone to my doctor twice to see about getting a fill because I fill too lose. I am blessed that I have insurance so I don't have to pay for it because all he does is take it all out and see how the liquid is going down then put it back in to see what is happening and both times he has told me that he doesn't want to put more in because HE feels that I will be uncomfortable and that I need to try to eat more meats. I didn't want to hear that but I do feel more comfortable and I do have restriction when I eat meat then my other foods so I guess he was right. I am not going to waste my time going back to see if I can get another fill for a while until I lose more weight.

I too found out I had sleep apnea but I found out before my surgery. It really was not as bad as I thought. I just had to make sure I sleep within reach of the machine. The more weight you lose your sleep apnea should go away.

I too had the same problems when I came home. I sleeped on my couch until I was able to sleep in my bed and was able to lay on my back I used the couch to pull my self up. I could only lay on my back but it got better day after day. I also had a problem with trapped gas, but after a few weeks I felt better.

At home I weigh naked. WhenI go to the doctor's office I make sure to take off my shoes and wear the lightest clothes I can just to see if my scale at home is as accurate as I think. It might be a few pounds off.

My doctor put me on Byetta a couple of months ago. I lost weight since taking it but it is supposed to regulate my blood sugars. I have not been able to take it as prescribed but am trying to keep a regular schedule of it. He started me off with 5mg and after a month put me on 10mg. He said that if my levels don't go down he will put me on glucophage which when I took in the past gave me the trots. So I don't look forward to taking that. I hope by my next appointment I can get my levels down.

After a few months of being banded I found my self purposly binging just because I could and I had no idea it was because my band was too tight. I thought that I was having a serious problem develop. I started to talk to a counselor and a weight management doctor to help with my eating problems then I went to the doctor and he removed some saline from my band I haven't had the problems with the purging anymore but with the band it can cause problems because I was starting to develop acid relux I did it so much. It is not a good idea to keep it from your doctor at least talk to your counselor and get help for it because it will lead to health problems. It is a process and just take it day to day. I hope everything works out for you.

I too have the same thing happen I can eat more if I wanted to but my doctor told me to stop eating "safe foods" as he called and that is food that is easy to go down and try to eat more meats. I can only eat so much meat and I am full less than a cup. That leaves little room for anything else. Only thing is I have to take metamucil (i think that's how it's spelled) for fear of being clogged up with all that meat. It works but I do not like to eat a lot of meat. I thought I needed a fill but my doctor wouldn"t do it so I have to eat the meat and things that I know I get full from fast in order to feel full and have a full feeling for a long time. Did I mention that I don't like meat(red meat).

I too tried to take softgel last night and I thought that it would get stuck but I had no problems. My doctor wants me to take Lipic Acid pills and when I tried to take it out of the capsules it was horrible. So know that I know that I won't have a problem with them it's okay know. I don't know if it matters how tight you are or not.

I too had the same problem until I joined a gym that is close to where I live and before I go home I have to pass the gym, so I just take work out clothes with me everyday and go as much as I can sometimes 5 times a week. I have been doing this for almost 4 months know and I did'nt think I would ever have gone this long working out. :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2:

I have become addicted to using the steam room after I exercise. I don't know what it does but eventhou I sweat a lot while I exercise I like to go into the steam room and sweat like a run down horse for about 20 min. I feel drained afterwards but once I go home have about 40 oz of water and fall into a deep coma for about 5 hours I wake up feeling so refreshed. The ellipitical trainer does the same thing.

I have started back exercising and first I did an hour of water aerobics 2 or 3 times a week know I am switching it up to working out on the treadmill I do an hour for about 4 or 5 times a week with a little weight lifting to tone. So I decided to try the (ski monster) I planned on doing 10 min of the 60 but could only do 5 I will keep at it until I can build up to doing half of my cardio on it. Do it at your own pace.

I have had this friend for about 5 years know I will call her Cleo. when we first became friends we hung out all the time and had a good time together eventhough we worked together that made our relationship better. We have both been their for each other through bad times in our lives and could talk to one another when we needed a shoulder to lean on. Although we have similar backgrounds as far as how we grew up, we don't have much in common as adults, but I still thought she was a good friend. Okay know this is what happened, First I had this other friend I will call Sandy she did not know Cleo but Cleo and I knew her boyfriend because we worked with him. Sandy and her boyfriend were going through problems and I would talk to Cleo about it but not devulge to much detail about their situation. Sandy always seemed intrested in what was going on beween them and I was none the wiser. I would tell Cleo that Sandy said that he was acting distant and he didn't want to be with her anymore by the way he was acting he just didn't come out and say it. So this roller coaster ride went on for about 6 or 7 months between Sandy and her boyfriend until finally they did stop seeing each other. All the while I was still giving Cleo information about what was going on between them. Know Cleo had a boyfriend and she would tell me about him and how they were going to the movies a lot which is something that she does not like to do and how he always hangs out with his friends. So I already knew about Cleo's boyfriend and Cleo knew about the guy I was seeing. CLeo told me after 8 months that she had been dating Sandy's boyfriend the whole time and that was why he was acting that way towards Sandy. I felt terrible because I considered Sandy a good friend and was telling Cleo things about her boyfriend I felt like I betrayed her and Sandy used me to get information about them. I cryed because I knew how much pain Sandy was going threw and to know that a person I considered a good friend would do something like that. It was not just that Cleo was dating him it was that she was talking about him to me the whole time and just used the name of the old boyfriend. I felt betrayed because of what she did and how she went about it I told her everything about me and she didn't have to tell me everything but she did not have to lie either. It took me awhile but we resolved the situation and became friends again, although my trust for her was a little thin and I stoped talking to her about everything after that. As time went on an ex that I had kept in contact with after we stopped seeing each other was talking to me and the subject of Cleo came up and he mentioned that when they went out her behavior was rude. (What!!) I asked him when did you too go out and he said soon after he helped me move into the apartment where she lives. They both helped me move and Cleo and my ex were teamleaders on the same team. That is the last thing that I thought she would do because I told her about him sexually and everything. Come to find out a few months after they helped me move they had started going out to Breakfast and lunch together without me knowing and he said that at the time I was still talking to him she would tell him to watch what he says to me because I could catch on to what they were doing. I was shocked so I confronted her and she said that that was a long time ago and she can't believe that he brought that up. She said that she felt like he should be the one to tell me because I was dating him (What kind of bull**** is that). After a lot of he say she say I decided to give her another chance but I really didn't want to I wanted to cut this b**** out of my life for good. I couldn't do it because we worked together and lived in the same apartment complex. So our friendship has continued and it has been a couple of years since then but I still don't like her and I just don't know how to end this relationship wih her, I could never trust someone who has lied like that to me and called themselves my friend. I think the only solution is for me to move when my lease is up and maybe I could futher cut the ties from her. Although I am currently in school right know I don't have time to socialize that much when I do have free time I don't want it to be with her. I have tried to get past those incidents but I just can't because know when I listen to her I believe everything she says is a lie. I don't know what to do? :angry :confused: :help:

Thanks for all the advice, you all are right. From that experience with her I have learned not to be so trusting of people and to look for the signs that something is not right with this person. It has also taught me not to tell everything and to keep personal things about myself and someone else to myself, but I do need to move because although I didn't mention it because we stay in the same apartment complex she can tell when I am at home and always calls (especially on the weekends) if she sees my car in the parking lot which is totally annoying.

I go to a weight loss doctor and have B-12 shots injected in my arm. I have to go every two weeks and my energy has increased and my weight loss has started back.