giveyouthemoon

Amazing! Simply amazing and an incredible inspiration!

So much for those stats about "patients only lose 60% of their excess weight", eh? You sure kicked the $%^& of of THOSE stats!!!!!!!

Anybody who complains that bandsters don't get RNY-type results should be directed to THIS post!

We still have our parts play. We still have to buck up and face this monster.

Ah yes! Congratulations!! THIS is a veddy good sign of a very successful bandster.

Go on with your strong self!!!!

My .02? Along with the great advice listed here....talk to me about your head? Because for me...I lost a ton of weight (100 lbs in a year) and now I'm eating so poorly and while not gaining, I'm also not losing.

For me...I am going through a bit of "shock and fear". I haven't been this small in a long time. I guess I'm having to lose my mind a little bit? Eating poorly....maybe a skosh of self sabotage?

I dunno...I agree that if you are hungry all the time, get a fill.

But are you really hungry? Physically hungry? Or mind hungry?

It's ok to tell me "no, girl, my body is DAMN HUNGRY!" then the answer, you know, is get a fill.

I'm just chiming in with this other thought as it's one I'm struggling with right now......

big bandster hugs to you!

Mine is called Trink, short for Katrinka. It came to me after I read that Jack referred to his as the Silicone Fist. So I imagined a tiny little pale Russian ballerina with her tiny little fist on my esophagus. I imagined her name was Katrinka, and she's become Trink for short.

Sometimes Trink is also called my Little Governor.

Is the tenderness near your port? If it is near or around your port, is the area (the skin) hot or red and angry? If it's red, hot or upset around the port it could be a sign of erosion and you should see a dr.

Now...if it's around your port but the skin isn't red or angry or hot...it's just painful, I'm betting your rolled over weird and pulled at the stitches that hold your port to the muscle. I do that occasionally and it hurts like a b*tch, but will heal over a week or two.

Symptoms are feeling no restriction and maybe some reflux. For me I suddenly had no restriction.

Do you tend to pack in the food? Do you eat past full a lot?

If you really suspect this, go see your doctor. My surgeon calls it a "prelude to a slip".

What happened for me is it was caught fairly early. I was put on teeny tiny portions and I still struggle with it. I want to keep away from a slip....a lot.

But when I ate tiny portions, within about a week, the restriction was back.

Papaya is only a "sometimes" cure for me. It usually takes a long time with papaya enzymes for me to feel relief. But they do work, usually, when I can wait it out.

Aloe juice usually works faster...but sometimes backfires as liquid on a stuck can be real, real bad.....

Probably because you think you are a psycho wacko, you aren't. Generally the true psychos don't think that they are.

Just be honest. My dr. asked a bunch of questions. "do you realize this is major surgery", "how do you think it will feel when you've lost weight", "do you understand that this is a lot of work?"

You know. Tell them you understand why you got fat and you understand it might freak you out at first to be thin and you are willing to do the work to get through it all.

It's really no biggie deal. Surgeons are just required to have it since it's such a big surgery in someone's life. They are basically covering their own asses, so be honest.

I don't think that the hiccups themselves hurt the band but you have to take a look at why you have the hiccups. For me, they are a sure sign that I've eaten too much and it's my diaphragm trying to shove the food down.

THAT part can hurt the band, eating too much.

But if you've got a not too full tummy and they just come along...nah, not going to hurt the band.

Just know that we are here, holding your hand and ready to cheer you on.

I too slipped off the path and have been working to rededicate myself. Including comeing back to LBT for support.

In an odd way, I think slipping up and getting it back together is a vital part of the bandster journey.

As for pizza...it's VERY tough to get down for me. I think it's more of a warning than anything. Recommendations, like Wheesin said.

Ok, I have a confession to make. A LOT of bandsters around here say "oh surgery was easy! I was back at work in two days!" Well yay for them. It wasn't so for me.

I. Was. Miserable.

It took me a week before I even felt "ok" and two to three weeks before I said "ok....I'm going to be fine". I was in pain, couldn't sleep, the incision on my side was agony, I would walk bent over, and oh yeah, I had rampant diareah. I had to run to the bathroom but wasn't able to run because of the pain and (this is sharing too much) had a couple "accidents". Humiliating.

More than once I wondered if it was all worthwhile.

You know what? It was.

Hang in there kid....the worst will, in fact, be over soon. Tenacity, my friend....tenacity.

On the creepy/morbid side of things, I'm glad the band will last.

LOL, I wasn't going to say it but....my very morbid surgeon said that with the popularity of the band, one day archiologists will dig up our remains someday and find all these silicone bands as they will last for a VERY long time....

I got a kick out of some guy digging along and finding a bunch of little white bands. It makes me giggle. Then makes me wonder about myself.....

hee!

It might take longer than they say if these are hairs you have been plucking or shaving. I had a friend who was getting professional electrolysis done and she found that hairs that have been "messed with" are more resiliant.

Just fyi.

As much as TOM and Jack are right, Macs are more expensive, but to me, my time is also expensive and all that time spent loading Patches and fixes and getting rid of viruses wasn't worth it.

Spend a little extra money and get what works.

Just my .02

edited to say: been using macs for almost ten years now and have loved them all...actually wept when my old laptop was too old to run OSX

why did I get the band for if I need to do all the same I tried to do before.

If you eat healthfully...hard Proteins, avoid sugar, etc...then the band helps you "do the things you tried before" by helping you not be hungry as quickly and helps you keeps portion sizes down.

Before the band if I ate a half cup of food, I'd be STARVING. With the band I eat a half cup of food and I'm full.

THAT is why someone gets the band.

It will never be a "I can eat whatever I want and lose weight". It's not going to happen.

I'm sad because I think your doctor may not have told you all of this before you were banded.

My doc told me that I would have it forever.....barring complications of course.

Mine said the same.

He said the band will outlive me. What it is made out of will last for years and years and unlike replacement joints, it isn't subjected to repetive stress/motion.

It's intended to last forever.

I think a lot of folks who have it taken out (recently) were the ones (like Osbourne) who had it done early before they got a lot smarter about 1) how to place it and 2) how to secure it. I think a lot of early adopters got erosion which led to it being taken out. Now they are smarter about how they stitch it in place.

So it's a crazy and wrong misconception that it has to come out after ten years. Ms. Osbourne is doing a grave disservice to the lap band industry, IMHO.

Biggest mistakes:

1) I have to add on to Jack's...thinking tighter was better and suffering through being too tight. Weightloss stopped, food choices bad, mental suffering.

2) Losing sight of the size rules and stretching my pouch...what my dr calls a "prelude to a slip". The surgeon gives you size rules for a reason!

3) Letting my old demons creep up on me. After losing 100lbs in a year...I. Freaked. Out. Haven't lost anything in six or seven months. I've seen these demons before...the last time I lost a lot of weight...why I think I was done with them is beyond me.

Biggest lesson:

1) if you mess up...the band is still there...so get back to work

Answer honestly: Do you regularly eat more than a half cup a food at a time?

Do you ignore the feelings of being full and push past it?

Did you have good restriction and then suddenly you didn't or was it gradual?

If you eat past full, more than a half cup or so at a throw and suddenly lost restriction, you probably have a dialated pouch.

If would make good sense to see your dr anyway, tell him/her of your concern and see if they want to do an esophagram. That's how mine was diagnosed.

Keeping my fingers crossed that you just need a fill!!

Well I wasn't really making myself vomit I was eating in excess then drinking fluids right after to get rid of the aweful full feeling I have after eating.

What about this isn't making yourself vomit? If you know that drinking Water will make a PB, you are making yourself vomit.

If you "eat in excess" (<- binging) then take action to make it come up (<- purging) then there is a problem here.

I'm glad to hear you are seeking some help. If the one dr. you know is overly pill happy, then by all means seek the help of another. I, too, didn't want to be put on anti-depressents, and I found a dr. who was willing to work with that.

Look, in all the reasearch I've done, the best results for overcoming an eating disorder is talk therapy. But you have to be willing to do the work. Sounds like you are starting down that road.

I wish you luck. It's a road I've spent quite a bit of time walking.

I've completely stopped losing weight since my last fill. Is it possible I'm too tight? I've had some problems getting things to go down, but I can still eat fairly large quantities of soft foods. I've been the same weight for 4 months!!! I'm ready to scream.

It depends on what you are eating. Since you say you are eating soft foods, you might be getting a lot of calories in there. My dr's motto on fills is..."I'd rather have you eat a bit too much chicken then be overfilled and eat too much ice cream (mashed potatos, high fat Soups, or whatever fill in the blank)"

He says being overfilled drives bad behaviors and I agree this was true in my case. He said he's seen time and again people who are overfilled who gain weight or stop losing.

If you can't get at least some hard Proteins down, you are too tight and probably eating around the bad. A very small unfill might get you back to the sweet spot so you can eat what's right.

Just my .02

With your first fill, they are unsure of 1)whether it is too tight, 2)whether all the swelling has gone down from surgery, 3) whether having a fill will further inflame the tummy (it always does for me) and 4) if you are overfilled. Liquids is a good way to make sure the swelling is down and to ease into eating with a fill. The first fill is always a tough one. You'll probably find out for the first time what being "stuck" feels like.

Just take it easy and follow dr's orders until you get the hang of things.

But yay! First fill!! Woot! Now you are working in "the fast lane" of bandster land. Enjoy!!

The whole making yourself vomit thing is a real head game....as a recovering bulimic who still struggles, I know where you are at.

I'd suggest maybe you talk to the therapist who did your psychological ok for surgery and see if you can explore some of what is going on. I mean, losing as much weight as you have is no small matter and it can play tricks on the brain.

It takes a very strong person to be able to ask for help! I hope you do.

In the meantime, we're all here to support you!!

All my dr ever asked is that I get to the weight that is the border of "healthy" and "overweight"...a bmi of 25 but the high end, which is 160.

Jachut...I think a lot of us have never even approached their "healthy" weight so it's so outlandish to consider actually being there...that many don't.

For me, once upon a time I Jenny Craig'd my way down to 140, still five lbs above what my "healthy" weight should be at 135. I was able to maintain it for exactly two weeks. What it took to maintain 140 was not something I was willing to continue.

I went back up to 150ish and maintained it for many years.

It's all a personal choice.

As a recovering bulimic, I was really happy my dr gave me a realistic goal and if I want to (healthfully) continue from there, I will.

Shoot, if I could just get to 160, I'd be freaking over the moon!!!

Ok...time for some tough love.....

While I might agree that you need another fill....

I also think that your food choices are part of the problem. For me...cookies...ice cream....cake....cheetos...chips...bad stuff does NOT give me restriction. Goes nicely through the band.

But when I eat things like chicken salad...or eggs....or cottage cheese...the band works beautifully and I eat a whole lot less.

You cannot make this work until you are able and ready to do something about how you eat. The band can't do all the work. It was never designed to.

The band helps you feel full when you are eating right. When you eat around the band you are on your own.

It's not that you paid $15,000 for the band to let you down. You paid $15,000 to let yourself down if you keep going down this road.

Get in to see your dr. Get a fill. Ask your dr if he has a nutritionist. See one. If you really do want to be thin, then you really do have to make some life changes. You can't eat bad and be thin. You just can't.

Might also make an appointment with whichever therapist gave you the psychological ok and start exploring your connections to food and perhaps some self sabotage as well (items I'm *quite* familiar with, myself).

You can do this. We're here to help!

Ok, that ends the tough love portion of our show.......