Cocoabean

Awesome!! I hit #3 a couple of weeks ago. Great work!

Everyone is different in what they find to be their sweet spot. I am somewhere around 6-6.5cc in a 10cc band. Others may be great at 5 or 8. There is no formula for what makes a sweet spot sweet. It depends on your anatomy.

Yes, it is. Just because your BMI is lower, doesn't mean you aren't overweight or obese. Are you gaining each year? A BMI of 30 puts you as obese. Whether or not you choose to proceed with surgery is a decision for you and your doctors. I am not saying you should have the surgery, but don't rule it out just because you fear that your insurance might not cover it. Find out the facts first. I had to appeal my medical group's decision to not allow me to see my surgeon. I won. It was a simple fight. Don't run. Get the information, then decide.

The only fees I paid were insurance co-pays. I also had to pay for my pre-op diet foods (I did not get those through my surgeon, although he did have some available). Ask your primary care doctor for a referral or name of a good surgeon. There are probably some very good surgeons out there who charge a program fee. But there are plenty who do not. If they do charge a fee, find out what you are getting for your money. My surgeon does a free information seminar that includes a question and answer period. It gave me a chance to see him in action before investing my time and effort. I am in San Diego. My surgeon's site is www.thinnertimes.com He was great!

The only solid protein I cannot eat is white meat chicken. Dark meat is fine. Be sure you are cutting it into small pieces and taking your time to eat it. Celery is a problem unless I take out the strings. Asparagus is very fibrous, I have to chew very carefully. Tomato skins are an issue. If you are resorting to protein shakes, you are too tight, taking bites that are too big, or not chewing well enough. I believe anytime a bandster "resorts" to liquids to get nutrition in...something is wrong.

Oh, forgot to add, the FDA just approved the band for BMI as low as 30. That might help, too!

It depends on your insurance. Some require a 5 year history, some don't. Have you called them? You might be able to appeal that requirement by stating that the National Institutes of Health do not recommend a 5 year history as part of the criteria for patient selection. You can read about it here: http://consensus.nih.gov/1991/1991GISurgeryObesity084html.htm In order to appeal, you'd have to have been denied first.

I haven't had the experience myself, but being around the board for over 3 years..I've seen this question many times. So you are not alone. Depending on your port's location, the person doing the fill can sometimes have problems getting to it. Mine is attached to my abdominal muscles, so my surgeon had to go through quite a bit of fat to access it. They can attempt to do the fill under fluoroscopy, which is a live x-ray. That allows them to visualize the port. It's good you have an appointment to see the surgeon. It's possible that the port has flipped. It's a small procedure to correct. Do a search of the forum on "port flip" and you can read up on it.

Mattie, it's possible that with the last fill you had restriction due to the fill and a bit of swelling. When the swelling went down, you lost the restriction. But, I think you've seen what is to come when you find your sweet spot. Many doctors don't want to be too aggressive with fills for fear of making you too tight. Being too tight is absolutely miserable. I've been there. Believe me, slowly coming up to your sweet spot is much better. Also, 21 pounds since December is a fantastic loss. Please remember plateaus will happen on the journey. I discovered along the way that my trend was to lose several pounds one week, then nothing for a couple of weeks, then down one, up one, down four, same, same, same, down one, down, two, up one. So on, so on....until the total was 70 pounds gone. It's frustrating at the time, but in the long run, you will succeed.

30 pounds in 6 months is 1.25 pounds per week. Bandsters can expect 1-2 pounds per week. You are right on track! Keep up with what you are doing and the rest will come off as well. My loss rate was an average of 0.75 per week. Yep 3/4 of a pound. But you know what? Over the weeks and months it became 70 pounds. Time goes by, the pounds add up. 30 pounds is 3 bags of potatoes! That is no small feat. You are doing well. Keep it up! Edited because it was 6 months, not 60! Yikes!

Welcome! It is a long journey, but sooooo very worth it!

Welcome! This is a great place to come for information and support! Ask as many questions as you can think of. The more informed you are the better. There is lots of information on this site. Look around and learn. Congratulations on your decision to get healthy.

Hi Rachel, This is a a great place to be for support! Welcome! Ask any questions you might have. There are lots of people here with a wealth of information and experience. Congratulations on your upcoming banding!

Melody, you go girl!! See? we go up, we go down! It was just an anomaly! Jackie, sorry about your dad. My MIL has had pneumonia 3 times over the past year. It really does sap their strength, and is very hard to watch. Here's hoping he feels better soon. Glad you are still eating well. Journaling can take a back seat, but your nutrition shouldn't. I got our taxes done today. I also do my MIL's taxes. I have quite the feeling of accomplishment. Yay! My band has tightened up on me. It's better than it was a few days ago after the stuck incident. But it is strange how fickle the darned things can be! Ah well, a bit more restriction going into a cruise is a good thing, I am thinking! It's very cold here. Snow level is down to 1000 feet! Wowser! We never see that. It's crazy!

There is a big difference between a clear liquid diet and a full liquid diet. Ask your surgeon's office which you should be on. Then do a google search on clear and full liquid diets. Each doctor is different and they have their reasons for their orders. I had 3 days of clear liquids then 4 days of full liquids. I was able to slowly start back to whole foods after a week. A friend of mine was on clear liquids and shakes for a month. She had a hiatal hernia repair at the time of her banding. I did not.

Mattie, perhaps your surgeon has found there is really not much of a difference in reality, but that many patients want one or the other for some reason. Thus he lets the patients decide. Sort of like the bank saying we will finance you for a Honda or a Toyota, both are good cars of about equal value, you choose which you want. Also in today's medical world (at least in the States) patients are expected to choose their own treatments. Doctors put their recommended treatments and all options out there, and leave the final decision up to the patient. We've been through a lot of this recently with my MIL. Her health is failing. The doctor has stated what he thinks is the best course of action, then offered other alternatives. Unless a treatment is wrong, such as taking out your appendix to treat a broken leg, doctors should listen to what we want. At the same time, we should listen to what they are recommending. That is one of the best ways we can make an informed decision.

Some people take more than that. Each person is different. Keep getting fills.

It's hard to accept, but have patience. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. You did not gain the weight over night. With the band, it doesn't come off over night, either. I lost an average of 3/4 of a pound a week when I was losing. I felt it was painfully slow, but it got me there. You will get there, too. Keep your chin up! One of these weeks you'll get on the scale and be down 4 pounds at one swoop when you least expect it. Keep doing what needs to be done, the rest will follow.

I'd suspect that most surgeons have done more bypasses than bands unless they have chosen to specialize in bands only. I say that because bypass has been around much longer. You might speak with the other doctor, and see what he has to say about it. A 2nd opinion never hurts. I may be wrong, but I think leaks mostly occur early on in the healing process. While they sound terrible, what scares me more about the sleeve is the fear of a stricture. But there have been many successes with a sleeve procedure. Just keep asking questions.

Lap-Band® Surgery - Best Way to Loose Weight I love that line the best! I have a hard time taking something serious when the grammar is so horrific that it is nearly incomprehensible. Perhaps the site is written for another country and translated into English?

3 g of fat is 27 calories. All other things being equal. Is the extra creaminess and flavor worth 27 calories? Also, fat can help keep you satisfied longer. It might be a trade-off you are willing to make. Not having the labels side-by-side, there may be other differences as well.

Add me to the flying squirrel club! I wave once and it keeps on waving for 5 minutes!

You may have answered your own question. You said losing weight was so hard. Why was it hard? Was it because cutting your portions was difficult? Did you stop eating when you were still hungry? Did you want to graze on foods all day long? You gained weight when you were pregnant, as you should. But you continued to gain after you gave birth. Why? Was your diet attempt prior to getting pregnant your first try, or just one of many? There are many variables. For almost all of us, we can lose weight on our own. Keeping it off or even keeping up with a diet for a long period of time is the challenge. Hunger overcomes willpower. Any WLS should be a last resort. If you do not believe that you have given diet and exercise you full effort, you certainly should. My experience with the band is that I get full on smaller portions and I stay satisfied for a longer period of time. I can still eat most foods that I could before getting the band. I have to choose what goes in my mouth. I also sometimes fight the urge to graze. The band helps with this in that I am not always hungry when the urge hits, so I can better fight it off. I don't do a formal exercise routine, I am more active than before, but that's about it. I will tell you that I have been banded for three years. This is the longest I have ever gone with my appetite under control and my weight went down for the first two years. I have been maintaining for about a year now. Maintaining easily at that.

Find out if your surgeon does ALL of the procedures or just specializes in one. My surgeon did both bypass and lap-band. We spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was leaning towards a band, but I was open to what he had to say. If he had sound medical reasons why I should go with another procedure, I would have carefully considered that. He said that he does not do bands on diabetics due to the fact that bypass is such an effective treatment for diabetes immediately after surgery. But since I was not diabetic, and that I had a relatively low BMI that I would do well with a band. And I have done very well with my band. We should be able to work with our surgeons to make a decision. They are on our team, at least, they should be.

I came up vit D deficient. So I take that and Iron as I am also anemic (you most likely would not be anemic). Vitamin D happened most likely because I quit drinking so much milk, so I take a little supplement in addition to my multi. I also take a pro-biotic twice daily. That's due to a c. diff. infection I had last year and my PCP wants me on that forever.