Cocoabean

What Rebecca said. Our meals should be by volume. 6-8 oz being 3/4 to 1 cup. Solid Proteins, about 2-3 oz on a food scale, then add in the side dishes by volume. As a note, I've never measured my food since being banded. It was important to me that I be as "normal" as possible. I did commit to myself that if I needed to measure due to plateaus or whatever, that I would begin to measure. I listen to my satisfied signal and stop eating. It is a big challenge to do so, but I hate measuring and "being on a diet."

Really? 10 lbs in 2.5 weeks? Do you know we should expect 1-2 pounds per week AFTER we reach the proper fill level, many months into the process. Do you want to know how much I had lost at 2.5 weeks? 4 pounds, and that was from week 1. At 2 months when I got my first fill, I was down about 5 lbs. I did not start losing until about 6 months out, after my 3rd fill. This is NOT quick weight loss like bypass.

As I am in maintenance mode, I enjoy alcohol. Just beware as you haven't consumed in a while, your tolerance may be lower. We still absorb the same, so the surgery hasn't changed anything. Keep calories in mind when consuming. Otherwise, enjoy!! :-)

Slime is the mucous the body generates trying to help the stuck item go down. It is very thick and clingy. When it cannot go down, it comes up..you cannot swallow it, so you must spit it out. Once the stuck item is cleared, then the sliming will stop.

This says it all, for me. How long will you be in Japan? Would it be possible, if you cannot get a fill, to just postpone the first fill until your return? There is no harm to having an empty band. It doesn't help much either. I postponed my first fill a month due to a planned cruise. I did not want the risk of problems with only a ship's doctor to count on for an unfill. Even without the fill, I managed to lose a pound while on a 10-day Panama Canal Cruise.

There is a difference between total body weight lost and excess weight lost. I have lost a total of 36.6% of my body weight from all time hight to current weight. From all time high to current weight I have lost 113% of my excess body weight based on reaching a BMI of less than 25.

36.6% here!

Walk, walk, walk. Gas-x strips can also help, even with the gas that was put into your abdominal cavity for the surgery. For me, the heating pad was my best friend. Feel better soon!

I had 0.5 removed yesterday. He said just go easy and see you in a month.

A 23 lb loss in 2 weeks is a lot for your body to adjust to. Add recovering from surgery to it, and it's no wonder you are not 100%! Your body has been through a bunch of trauma. Give it time, eat the foods you are prescribed, and heal up!

My surgeon is not against me having a little bit of liquid with my meal. What I found is that as I got to a tighter level of restriction is that if I take a drink of something while eating it will cause me to get stuck. Early on it made no difference in how soon i would get hungry again. But not...it upsets the delicate balance of what is going on between my pouch, band, and lower stomach. it just isn't worth the risk of getting stuck.

At 6 months out I was just STARTING to lose weight. It took me 2 years to lose 70 lbs. This is NOT a quick weight loss procedure. This is a marathon, not a sprint. You are down 36 lbs, that is awesome! 1-2 lbs per week is the average we can expect. I, personally, averaged 0.75 lbs per week when I was actively losing. But I lost it. That is all that mattered to me. Concentrate on your eating and exercise habits, the rest will follow.

You need to call your surgeon. You need to keep water down.

For me a PB (productive burp) is far different from being stuck and sliming. But many people use the terms interchangeably. A productive burp is just that, a burp where unexpectedly I produce something in my mouth. It is a total surprise. I burp and ... oh, here comes a little bit of something! I can spit it into a napkin with none the wiser, unless someone is watching me very closely. But I do NOT have time to make it to the bathroom as there is zero warning. This doesn't have anything to do with failure to chew for me. Stuck/sliming is a completely different experience. Sometimes caused by failure to chew, sometimes by doughy foods, sometimes by very dry foods, sometimes by taking a swig of liquid while eating, sometimes by I have no idea what. I start with pain just below my sternum. If I stop eating at the first sign of pain, I am often OK. If I press on, I am doomed. Then the slime begins. Since it cannot go down, it must come up. As posted, the slime is mucous made by the body in an attempt to help the food go down. Eventually the food will either go down on its own, or come up (what many refer to as a PB). To me, that is not a PB. When the food comes back up, there is no burping, it is more working my stomach muscles or coughing it up. YMMV.

From what I understand, hiatal hernia recovery is a bit more painful that just a lap band recovery. I never had the problem of not eating enough after my surgery. I swear I woke up hungry! Here's wishing you a speedy recovery.

So, your surgery is over, how are you feeling??

Yay!!! Just keep taking your medication. We are waiting for you on the losers' bench!

If you had radio-iodine treatment, just the TSH isn't the best way to tell if you are normal or not. Can you get a full panel run?

Hang in there! Sip on Protein shakes to get as much protein in as you can. Walk, walk, walk. I did laps up and down my hallway, it helps with the gas. Stay on top of the pain with the pain meds, take them when your pain is level 3. Don't wait. The heating pad was my best friend. Feel better soon!!

I have beer pretty often. Sometimes it gives me the hiccups. Otherwise I take the calories into account. My surgeon is not against carbonation. He says the digestive tract is an open system, so in his opinion the carbonation won't harm the pouch, it just might cause discomfort before it escapes.

Respond "I don't know, I only weigh in at my doctor's office. My focus is on getting healthy not on a number on the scale. I put my bathroom scale away. I walked three times last week!!" Or be rude and ask how many times they had sex last week. Or say my blood pressure is dropping! I am so very pleased! Mostly people are attempting to be supportive, in my opinion. They just don't get how tired of it we end up. Especially because we lose so slowly with a band, and people don't understand that. They expect us to melt away like gastric bypass patients. So after another month they check in, you are down 5 more pounds (great in band-land!) they go.. oh, well, uumm.. cool. Eventually it does stop though. They get bored, life goes on. You being banded becomes old news.

Band patients have to take what their individual doctors tell them to take. It is not a one-size fits all. In general we do not need the prescription level doses of the other WLS procedures due to the fact that we do not have the malabsorption issues. I am anemic, vitamin D and B12 deficient. The amounts I am told to take will be different from others on the board. My primary care doctor checks my vitamin levels annually and adjusts my supplements accordingly.

Don't take it with Calcium (milk or creamer) or other minerals, either. Such a pain in the patootey medication!

You can check with your surgeon as to how big of a tablet you can swallow. Mine had no issues with the size of the pills that I was on, as long as I took them one at a time. The largest i took was the size of an extra strength tylenol. I use Vita Fusion's gummy Vitamins. They don't leave any weird aftertaste. As long as you like sweet fruity gummies, they might work out for you. I consider them my desert. I use their Calcium chews, too. They are creamy, my dog insists on sharing them with me, he likes them so much. :-)

Feb 15, 2008 here. Loving my band. 75ish down, give or take. I've been maintaining for over 2 years with great ease. I eat moderate amounts of whatever I want...except for white meat chicken and doughy breads. I am about to have a slight unfill. The fill I had in September is just a bit too much. It was fine for a few months then got VERY tight. Then got a bit looser. So, I'll just have a bit taken out. I had a flouroscope done 2 weeks ago, all looked very good, except for how tight I am. I LOVE normal blood pressure, normal blood sugar, normal cholesterol. And the vain side of me LOVES wearing a size 10!