giveyouthemoon

Nope, you found it. Hello restriction!!!!

I would suggest that probably what you felt was your band telling you to slooooow down. Sounds like you may have been eating at the old pace and it "pinched" you back.

Congrats...that "whoa I can't eat anymore" is what the band is about!

Thank everyone! Having my LBT family to share successes is such an amazing part of this journey!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!

I'm so not worthy!

I'd talk to your chiro about the band and see what he thinks....I'd also chat with the surgeon. Doesn't hurt to ask!

Honestly? I think she looks fine. She's not rail thin with bones poking out everywhere. She's got a bright smile and a sparkle in her eyes (not just from the flash, I mean she's present, she's there and full of life).

I think she's just a young woman and maybe is watching what she eats because all the girls around her are so small.

She grew up in the house with someone who was weight conscious so she is too. It's just life.

But I think she's fine. Pot doesn't tend to make you skinny, quite the opposite.

Just keep an eye on if she's eating. If she's really eating and not picking at it.

Overall, it looks to me like you raised a wonderful girl. Don't get too much into her shorts about stuff. Trust that you've done an amazing job with your kids and know that you can handle anything that comes along.

And if you are really truly concerned? Sit her down and have a talk. Communication is key.

Ok...I'm one of those for whom flying affects. I have to be SUPER careful anytime I fly because for a couple days after flying I have PB issues. Happens everytime. I can even feel it while in the air, it tightens up.

It stands to reason due to the pressure in the cabin. I mean....I use a fountain pen and while in the plane the pressure makes the ink rise up in the pen....so pressure does affect things and my band is basically my own little barometer......

I guess like a lot of things with the band....it depends. Your mileage may vary!

Sometimes it happens that this week I may be feeling very restricted and then, next week and completely out of the blue, it is as if I have no restriction at all. Maybe I just should let it flow and pretend I'mnot paying attention to it...

niki

Oh man...you have NO idea how much this makes me feel better. Because now I'm having trouble. First I had NO restriction, now I can't go a day without massively PB'ing.

I do not know WHAT is up!! My band is being so....weird.

Still waiting to get my esophagram. The referral is in, the dr confirmed. Waiting for them to call to schedule.

Oh the waiting!!!! I can't take it!

I have an Inamed 10 cm with 4cc's capacity.

Dr said my stomach had a lot of fat on it so I needed the longer length.

I've got 1.2ccs in there and it's a skosh too much.....

Like the others I thought the Dr decided once s/he got in there.....

Yeah...I recall this phase....uh...yeah. I could do a dash from the couch to the potty in nanoseconds. I believe I called it a clench butt scoot because it was BAAAAAAAD. I ran so much liquid through me it was actually black for a while. Don't think seeing tar in the toidy isn't enough to scare the ever living you know what outta me....

It will pass...however, it probably won't pass until you get on to thicker liquids. Sorry! Just plan your path to the potty at work and plan when you are going to have your liquids.

This too shall....er....uh.....pass?

Hey..good news is you are probably nicely losing weight! Does that help? No, probably not......

Hang in there happy bandster!

I guess the only thing I can say is shoot....ready is good...put your intentions out there to the universe and then go out and have fun with your friends. I was *really* wanting to find someone and "put it out there" to my friends and to the universe...it took a while but one day my friend said she was inviting one of her friends along for lunch.....I shrugged and said "as long as it's not a set up". Well....six months later and we're still dating.

Being ready...step one. Step two, put your intentions out there, which you are doing. Step three...then let it go. Release it to the universe to figure out and go have tons of fun with your girlfriends.....

Just work on loving yourself a little every day and the rest will come around....it feels like eternity when you are waiting for that someone to come along. Just affirm to yourself that they will come along when the time is right and not a second sooner.

Bear in mind that he's out there looking for you just as much as you are looking for him......

Congrats on your wonderful NSV, Karen!! Isn't NYC fantastic??

Thank you! And yes it is! I don't think I've come down yet from the amazing natural high I felt while there. It's just such a magical place! My god I love it there!!!!

So I got the chance of a lifetime to get to go to New York City on work....but then stayed over the weekend for my birthday (it was the 7th).

My wonderful boyfriend flew out for the weekend and we had an amazing time!

Heck, that I have a boyfriend (we're at about six months) is a HUGE NSV.

But the one I'm talking about today is that now, at some 90 lbs down...I was able to walk EVERYWHERE in New York. I had energy that amazed even my boyfriend. (amazed me too). I just kept giving thanks and praise to Trink (my band's name) for giving me such freedom, such energy, such joy, such happiness.

I got my life back and it was never more affirmed than it was on Sunday, my actual birthday....we left the hotel at 10 am and returned at 8 that evening. We walked NON STOP.

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge...I never got winded or had to stop, I walked proudly holding my man's hand.

My God I'm so thankful for Trink! She's been a godsend to me. How amazingly my life has changed in just the bounds of eleven months.

My goal is to get to 100 lbs gone by my bandiversary in one month. I may not make it but it's a nice stretch goal.

Here are some photos from the trip!

This is me as we're just about to walk the bridge:

This is me on the bridge:

Here I am with the statue of the Bull near Wall Street. The joke is...I'm a Taurus...get it? The bull with the bull on my birthday!

And this a photo my boyfriend snuck...I was taking a shot of Grand Central station and he was shooting a photo of ME. Lol!

For reference...here's what I used to look like...

I've had my band for almost a year now. I can't imagine my life without it. I've dieted sucessfully many times. And I have the willpower of an ox!! And yet...and yet.....

So when you've been on a diet..and things are going good....you ever have the day when you think "oh $#@% it, I'm going to eat..." and you do....and sometimes it's a binge...and it blows your whole mental game....? Sure you have, we've all done it.

With the band...when you "blow it", you can only blow it a little because the band is your little gatekeeper keeping you honest.

The biggest thing the band has done has caused me to take a good look at not only what I eat but the portions. It has dramatically changed the way I look at food. It is a tine silicone miracle.

I like to travel. I also like to eat. I still like to eat. My boyfriend gets what having the band means and helps me with food choices. I don't feel deprived. I feel liberated from the shackels of food!

Here's an example. We were just in New York. We had some AMAZING meals. My boyfriend wanted me to try real New York pizza. So I did. I didn't have a full piece, I had about five bites from his pieces. And you know what? I was satisfied completely with those bites.

You see? The band for me has meant that I care about the quality of food I put in my mouth. No longer "eh..this isn't that good but I'll just finish it". Nope! If I'm only eating tiny bites they'd better be yummy bites!! So actually....I enjoy food a WHOLE lot more than I did when I was just wolfing down food for quantity and not thinking about quality.

If you could succeed without the band wouldn't you have done this by now? There isn't enough will power in the world. This is not a personal failing by you!!! Please don't let anyone convince you of that!

My doctor calls the band "surgical behavior modification". You get INSTANT feedback when you've eating the wrong thing or too much.

It takes some getting used to, sure. At first I practially did battle with the band....but today I'm 90 lbs lighter in less than a year. I got my life back. I have a freedom from food like I've never known.

Yes, I have scars on my tummy. I was looking at them this morning....I have four little dots and one slightly bigger scar. Who cares????? I also have 90 less lbs on my body....and I have joy, and energy!

And yes, I have a device in me. Who cares?

Hell, the nice thing about the band is that if you don't like it, it's easily reversable.

Of course your husband is your primary support team....and he's right to be concerned.....he has to be on board with this.

But I'll bet that in the end, what he wants most is for you to be happy. And if you believe this will help you be happy, then you owe it to yourself to try.

I wish you much luck and much love on your journey.....

Tell your husband he can ask all the questions he needs...we're here to help!

(cuz that we, your LBT family, wants is for you to be happy too! See? Look at all these folks just caring about your happiness!!!)

Fickle, is right!

Yep! I mean, I'm used to the tighter and looser it feels with my monthly cycle. This is totally different. It feels unlike anything I've felt with the band in this first year. I mean like *poof*, gone.

I am hoping to get the esophagram next week....more to come on that!!

Karen- will you please PM me or post once you have had the esophogram?

Sure! I'd hoped to have it scheduled soon but haven't heard from them yet. Hopefully next week! I'll keep you posted!

I don't think it's wrong to reward yourself for a job well done. In fact I think it's healthy. But it's about choices...... So in this instance, (I had a similar one and this is what my therapist told me) it's time to find a replacement. Something more toward your overall goals. (she told me no one that has an addiction can just stop having addictions...it's about finding something healthy to be addicted to....)

To be honest, a rice cake...not the most terrible thing in the world. Don't beat yourself up about it.... But at least make sure you truly enjoy it! Your reward should be truly rewarding.

I don't think you have to give up rewarding yourself, we just need to find a more healthy way.

What are the things you like? Can you replace it with.....taking a nap? Listening to music? Going to a movie? Get really creative. Make it worthwhile!

Yeah. This is just really weird. I mean next month will be a year I've had this thing and I've come to really know how it all feels.... And this is WAY different than anything I've felt. It just feels....open.

And that scares me.

My primary doc called today. She rocks! She has no issue ordering the esophagram so hopefully soon I'll know the whole story...

My band is always somewhat open in the first two weeks of the cycle and it almost too tight in the last two week. So it's normal for it to feel more open right now....however....I can eat pretty much ANYTHING.

Maybe you are right Angie....maybe I managed to lose some fat around my stomach.

Anyhow, thanks to all who have chimed in!! Your support is super helpful!

I woke up one day a couple of weeks ago and boom no restriction, well hardly any. I have had perfect restriction for mths or so. My Dr was worried and did more checks today. I dont have a leak or a slip so he put it down to one of those things.

Oh my gosh you have NO idea how much this makes me feel better. My situation is the same. I'd had just right restriction for months. Things were going right and the scale slowly in the right direction and now hardly anything! Wow, glad to hear your situation turned out right. I really worry about something being wrong in there...but to be honest, I really think everything is fine.... I guess it's just "one of those things". Weird......

Still waiting to hear from my doctor about getting an esophagram. Can't hurt to take a look in there to make sure Trink (my band) is doing right.

Ok, so this may be a weird question...but I've noticed in the past several days that I hardly feel restricted anymore. On Sunday I had fabulous restriction (too much so almost) and on Monday things seemed to be going down too easy. A couple things happened in that time. One was that Aunt Flo came along and when she does I usually dump a lot of Water off. Next was that I had been exercising A LOT in the days leading up and dropped some weight really fast in that time.

But it's weird and obviously scary to feel like I hardly have restriction right now.

Then again, today I tried to eat a couple bites "too fast" and ended up PB'ing so I think my band is in place ok. (for the record I've called my surgeon and we're working on getting me a esophagram just to check). I don't have any pain, or redness at the port, or reflux and I'm able to keep food down just fine.

I think restriction just changed...boop, like that? Can that be possible?

Looking for some veteran insight on this one. I'm a little weirded out. Of course you lose restriction and first thought is ALWAYS a slip....I'm skeered...but to be real honest, I don't think I have a slip or erosion. Everything just feels...different down in there.....

Thoughts?

I live in California and just paid $3.53. Ouch.

You guys suck! Your not supposed to be supporting my hubby!! Your supposed to be telling me what I want to HEAR! I.e. I can go eat whatever I want......

LOL...well I'm not going to tell you to eat whatever you want...but I AM going to tell you....to send hubs to the store for something, milk, broth, whatever, and while he's gone drink some friggin' hot chocolate! I mean, if it will make you feel better, then have it.

Fer chrissakes, it's not like sugar free hot chocolate is going to halt your progress! I drink it often! Tell hubby "I know a girl who's lost 80lbs drinking sugar free hot chocolate!"

This time is about your healing....and in order to heal, you have to be happy. And if Mama K@t isn't happy....ain't NO ONE that's happy!!!!!

Remind your man that this time is NOT about losing, it's about healing!

Sheesh! Between you and me if during my liquids phase someone told me I couldn't have something an innocuous as sf hot chocolate, I'd probably have smacked 'em senseless! *grin*

Sweets, this is not a time for sadness or giving over to your own inner demons.

This is an AMAZING opportunity! You get to reinvent yourself! You've lived your life defining yourself as a mom, a care giver, one whose needs came behind the needs of others.

And now?? Look! You are there to take care of yourself! There are NO limitations. NOTHING is stopping you! You can be whatever YOU choose to be. It's a revolution! A never before and never again chance to take a look at what makes YOU happy! What are your passions? What are the things you put behind because you were very, very busy raising wonderful kids! What did you always want to be when you grew up? Be it now!!! That or something even better!!!

You've won the race! You've raised good kids! Now....what path are we going to take next?!

I can hardly wait to sit here and watch the Kare show. I've no doubt it will be AMAZING!!! You've got your LBT family here all dressed up in cheerleader suits (Big Paul needs to shave his legs tho...THAT's gonna be rough) and we are cheering you on!!!

Go girl! The world is yours!!!

Giiirl, this is about rebirth and renewal! It's ok for it to be about grieving too.....about letting go of something that once mattered a whole lot.

Allow the grief to happen.....get those tears out...years of backed up gunk...let it flow and imagine it like washing you clean...baptizing you anew.

I have a good feeling about the next steps! And you have a wonderful man to be your cheering section!!

Last year I had abdominal surgery and they used liquid stitches in 3 areas - do they use staples on everyone like yours Sarah?

I had the liquid stiches...like big huge dollops of super glue on all my incisions. I think how the incision is closed depends on the dr. doing the surgery.

Hey Heather and Kelli! Well color me SHOCKED. I had my appointment with Dr Cirangle and he was actually NICE to me! Wow. He came in the room, started looking at my file and said "well, you are doing really great". I said "uh...huh? Wow. This is going better than I'd expected". He says..."you've lost 80 lbs in 9 months, you don't think that's good?" I said "*I* think that's good...but last time I was here you got on me about not losing ten pounds a month." He sort of shrugged that off, said "yes...well....anyhow, I'm happy with your rate of loss. Honestly, if you'd lost 40-50 lbs in the first year I'd call this procedure a success. It's good for me to see how much you've lost. It lets me know that it's possible for band patients to have results that are near what bypass patients get but with mush less invasive procedure. It also shows me what results are possible when people really use the band as a tool and don't expect it to do all the work."

It ended up we had a really nice visit. We talked about lots of things...what to expect as I near my one year mark and other stuff.

He was actually...um...NICE.

Wow!

He must have put the crack pipe down for a minute.

This is only the second time (out of about ten times I've seen him) that he was decent. And when he's being decent he can be really interesting and articulate. Just wish he could be like that more often.

In other news....I noticed that the way he spoke to me was far different than in the past. This just furthers my theory that Dr C doesn't like fat people....he treated me with more respect and deference than he ever has in the past...even the one other time he was nice to me. Sort of a strange profession to be in if you don't like fat people!

And so it goes on with our respective crack head doctors!

Casue I tend have a dark color whenever I play heavy sports and do lots of activities. And clear color whenever I spend a lazy day and do nothing...

It's cuz when you exercise you lose a lot of Water....when you sit about you don't.

Yes, pee should be as clear as possible, it's the best sign of good hydration!