JustWatchMe

I almost forgot. One thing I do, because I would like a lot of support, is go to support group meetings in the Chicagoland area, even if they are not offered by my own hospital. I make sure that I am only going to the ones that are open to the public. The support group meetings are attended by people who are further along the road and have had the surgeries already. They are also intended to answer any questions for people considering the surgeries. Here again is where you will hear real-life stories, good and bad.

Good luck and keep posting here. My experience was five days of pre-op Clear Liquids diet, followed by six, yes, six weeks of post op full liquid diet. Again, every doctor is different. Keep in mind, that when you hear the term "gas pains" here, they are not talking about abdominal digestive gas pains. People here are talking about a pain that is up in your left shoulder area, sometimes your neck, as I had. For me, it was relieved by someone karate chopping the back of my neck in rapid succession. They did this for me a few times a day. That, and much, much, much walking. Those will help the pain go away from the gas that is trapped inside your body cavity. Gas-X tablets did nothing for me, because it was not digestive gas. That said, I did not have enough pain to make me regret the surgery, by any means. I am extremely thrilled with my progress so far, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I am now 11 weeks post op, I have dropped 55 pounds since my pre op regimen until now, I can walk without pain, and the list goes on and on. In my opinion, the medical staff explains what it can, which are basically the medical procedures that they perform, and the presentations that come through their office. However, if you wish to get real life experiences, and advice, keep coming to this forum, because here is where you will hear the day to day questions and answers and experiences of real people living with the band. One last piece of advice from me. Alex Brecher, the founder of this website, wrote a book called The Big Book of the Lap-Band. Look for it on Amazon or anywhere. I actually saw and read that book before I found this site. It will give you so much helpful and detailed information. Welcome!

@@CarolinaGirl, just what I needed to hear! Headed to my second fill today. The process continues. Have a great day!

So, I traveled to Italy with my husband and younger college daughter, meeting my older college daughter there after her semester abroad in Madrid. Today is the second day. I decided to start a thread for this because I'm so unbelievably happy with all the changes in my life so far that are making this trip truly one in a lifetime. I also wanted to not hijack the NSV thread because I have so much to be happy about, and this trip will be for two weeks! Before I departed Chicago, I was 9 weeks postop and 4 weeks after my first band fill. I had dropped 55 pounds from my high weight in February. I was 302 then and 247 now. I was nervous about flying, and my new band being too tight during the flight. My first happy moment was fitting in the seat without a seatbelt extender and actually having to pull it tighter! I dreamed of that and it happened. Second was the in flight meal. I didn't plan to eat because I was afraid of tightness due to swelling during flight, but I was pretty hungry and decided to try very carefully. It was fine. I ate very slowly and chewed very thoroughly. I also drank tomato juice, Water and tea on the plane and kept my liquids up. My younger daughter decided she was going to help me by sharing meals with me over the next two weeks so that I didn't overdo it. So our first airport food was shared between connecting flights and it was enough. A little Chinese beef for me and beef and rice for her. After we landed the next day in Rome and found our luggage, our older daughter met us at Arrivals. She put her arms all the way around me and told me I was "tiny". I haven't seen her in over 5-1/2 months since she took a semester abroad. It was wonderful to see her again. Off to Rome from the Italian terminal. From there a train to florence. Between the Chicago, Dublin and Rome airports, and then walking about two miles over cobblestones with all of our luggage to our Florence hotel, I walked more than I have in years. I was tired and sore but not the least bit out of breath. I was so happy about not being winded that I decided not to strangle our travel agent who told us it was "a few blocks" away and not worth a taxi. Then a lovely dinner in our hotel, which I was able to eat about half of. I've never left delicious food on a plate in a foreign country until now. It was incredible. Today we awoke to realize my phone alarm didn't ring and wake us up like I'd planned, so my family went downstairs to have the continental Breakfast in a hurry while I dressed and had an powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury Protein shake. I'm so glad I brought the to-go packets. Off to the first activity of our trip -- a 3 hour walking tour of Florence. How can I describe what it feels like to be able to walk for three hours (plus the 30 minutes returning to our hotel because they don't return you to the starting spot) and stand and walk without stopping to sit, when six months before this, walking to the church a block from my house made my back ache and my chest heave so much that I always felt I was a heart attack waiting to happen? Not once did I get winded today. My feet are damned sore but that's from the cobblestones. My back does not ache. My arthritic knee started to complain in the final hour, but not all day. We stopped at a little restaurant and I had a delightful lunch of roasted cheese and vegetables and a glass of wine with my teen daughters. That was a new experience for all of us! Needless to say, they love Europe! Then we stopped for gelato at a recommended spot and I did not order the large, or the medium, or the small. I ordered the "tiny", in keeping with my new identity. It was about 1/4 cup of chocolate hazelnut heaven. And it was enough!! Back to the hotel and into the bath. Deep European tubs -- sinfully decadent! Loving every minute of it. Resting now before a walk tonight and dinner somewhere. Tomorrow is an eleven hour tour of Tuscany by bus and a winery in there somewhere. More to come!

Rena, I started pre op weight at 302 and have lost 55 pounds. I got cortisone shots in my knees three times a year and lived on NSAIDs. At 247, I went to Italy with nothing but Tylenol. I walked my butt off on hills and stairs and cobblestones every day for two weeks. Miles and miles every day, several cities. Although my knees hurt by the end of the day, they recovered daily. My feet hurt like hell but also recovered every day. Amazingly, I was not out of breath, and I kept up with our tour guides easily. Just that small amount of weight lost changed my physical abilities. I look forward to how much more I'll be able to do when all the excess weight is gone.

Emotionally controlling, emotionally abusive. We need to get toxic people out of our lives.

Weight returning from Italy for two weeks: 247.4, which is 0.2 less than departure weight. No seatbelt extender on any of the four flights. Walked a million miles (estimate) up and down hills and stairs on cobblestones every day of the vacation. Feel more empowered than ever!!!!

Woo hoo! It was all flight swelling. I weighed myself this morning and I'm exactly what I was on departure. Yay yay yay !!!!!! Back on a structured eating plan with way less bread, oil and pasta, and way more outdoor walking than pre-vacation. I feel revitalized!!! I also woke up at 5am today because my body thinks it's noon. Lol. Watch out world, here I come!!

I gained four pounds in Italy. This weigh in was also after a full day of two flights, and my feet are swollen, so maybe half a pound for swelling. I'm very happy and have no doubt the four will come off quickly since I have a fill Friday followed by two days of liquids. Home sweet home!

The biggest obstacle was my own fear. Second is my husband. Although he did not actively obstruct the process, he has been anywhere from openly critical of WLS to indifferent. I am lucky that we have excellent insurance. I did have to prove my efforts to the psychiatrist by changing my snacking habits before he would sign off, costing me an extra three weeks. That was a wake up call that showed me I had to work at this. My mom and best friend and two daughters are 100 percent supportive, and nobody else knows.

Best decision I ever made. Good luck. These early weeks will be a faint memory soon. Then you will reap the benefits and start to really live your life. Keep posting!

My band is 14cc and my first fill started with 5cc but the NP drew out half of a cc when she didn't like the barium swallow rate. She drew it down to 4.5 and I swallowed again, and I could feel the difference. I've had no issues at all and will have my second fill in three days. I was scheduled for my second fill three weeks after my first, but I delayed it for my overseas vacation. Your experience sounds unusual but maybe others have had that episode. Are you certain the symptoms had nothing to do with seeing the needle? Good luck to you. PS: mine is done with fluoroscope and I watched it go down. Did your doc use X-ray as well?

!!!!!!!applause!!!!!!!!

This post made my day. Woohoo!!!!!

@@gowalking, book your trip! I am serious. I could not walk one block without gasping six months ago. On this trip I walked a zillion miles and up and down hills on rocky terrain every single day. On Tylenol! No NSAIDs, no painkillers. I feel like a new woman. Italy showed me there's a lot of life left in this 53 year old body!

The Spanish Steps were nice, but totally under construction, as is the fountain at its base. No matter. We walked through Rome and the girls did some souvenir shopping. We've seen so much in two weeks. I've loved being here and absorbing the sights, smells and tastes of this beautiful country. There's a white flowering climbing plant that grows everywhere here. It has the most beautiful aroma. I don't think it will grow in Chicago because I haven't seen it anywhere. Anyway, it truly was the trip of a lifetime. I'm pretty sure I put on a few pounds here, but I'm giving myself permission for that, and getting back on my food plan when I return home. Also will be walking more outdoors. My shoes survived! I have my second fill Friday. Not a bad meal in two weeks, anywhere. I had a tomato and cucumber salad for Breakfast along with my scrambled eggs today. Thank you all for expressing interest in this self-indulgent thread I started. I felt buoyed by your long distance support and it kept me accountable every day and helped me not to go food crazy. We even went to the Lindt store yesterday and I ate two chocolate candies over two days. I gave away the third piece. A few photos will be uploaded when I'm home on my PC. Thank you again, and if anyone is traveling, I'd love to read your adventures too. Arrivederci, Roma!

Yesterday I got a call from a female VP on my floor who noticed I've lost weight. (I haven't told anyone except my mom, daughters, husband and best friend about my banding.) In my own department, I work with mostly men, and they don't notice or don't care. Only one male coworker noticed I've been bringing my lunch, and I shrugged it off, saying I had to "get healthy, doctor's orders". That was enough for him. But this phone call yesterday threw me off guard. I guess I should have been prepared for her comment, but I don't see a big difference in the mirror to my own eyes yet. I do acknowledge that I'm wearing my smaller clothes again, but nothing dramatic. I saw my MIL and BIL yesterday after weeks have gone by, and neither of them noticed any difference. My WLS skeptic husband hasn't said a word about how I look. My younger daughter saw me at Easter and said she could see it in my face, and my BFF and my mom have also both been complimentary. But at work, I wasn't prepared. Forgive me for not remembering who said this recently, but I read a post on these boards about two days ago that I needed to see. The gist of it was that in the early stages of weight loss, it's a bit of a thrill to answer folks who ask how much you've lost... 20, 30,..60. But for the morbidly obese, one day that answer can become 140, 150.... and the novelty has worn off, and you can feel people doing the math in their heads. That post got to me. I deliberately didn't tell people at work and extended family about my banding because I didn't want to be watched, to be analyzed, to be quizzed, to be whispered about. But eventually the weight loss itself will trigger questions. And yesterday it did for me. The VP was nice, and asked if I've been losing weight. "Yeah, a bit. Gotta get healthy - ugh!" "What are you doing?" "Walking the treadmill every day, eating less. It's a drag sometimes, but what can you do?" "Well, good for you. You can tell." "Thanks, that's nice of you." I hung up the phone and I was literally shaking. It's started. I need to get a game plan so I'm not rattled and caught off-guard like that. There was nothing bad about it at all, but I felt watched, and now I feel like I'm being observed. My instinct was to downplay it and end the conversation. I feel good about that, but it's a matter of time before someone else mentions it I guess. Interestingly, I have no guilt about not mentioning the band, which I never intend to do, because this 52 pounds all came off before my first band fill this week. So I feel like my band has only been helping me out for the last couple of days. I do walk my treadmill faithfully and I do eat less. That wasn't what unnerved me. It's that somebody noticed my body. As an obese woman, I lived in denial for years that even though I was large, I was somehow invisible. Yet yesterday somebody reminded me that no, they can see me. And if they noticed I'm smaller, they earlier noticed I was pretty big. So my first compliment from a stranger left me a little shaken. Can anybody relate?

We went to the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, and the Trevi Fountain. Feet are dog tired, ha ha. I was very impressed by the map room in the Vatican museum. The accuracy of maps made hundreds of years ago was upwards of eighty percent as known today. Tomorrow nothing planned yet except maybe the Spanish Steps. It's our last day here. I'll be sad to leave.

@@Bandista, I'll check it out at home. For some reason I'm not getting the audio on that link from my phone. Thanks!!!

@@lisacaron, imagine a Relay for Life type event for raising obesity awareness. I've lost as many family members to obesity related illnesses as to cancer.

Roma! We walked to church, and then to the Colosseum. I prayed for my feet. Mass was long, and in Latin. Beautiful music. The weather here is sunny and warm, and starting to get humid. I cannot imagine the stifling heat in full summer. They were sold out of the English audio tour, so we just wandered in the Colosseum and Forum on our own. It was amazing. I was struck by how this thousands of years old structure is right next to a major roadway. (Go ahead, Google map it. Right. Next. To. It.) It stood for thousands of years, and here we come in the last hundred years and introduce constant gasoline and diesel fumes to these enormous walls. We don't deserve this planet. Another magnifico lunch with my daily glass of wine. It made the walk back to the hotel easier! My shoes are still holding out, but today we walked on the craziest stones ever. Huge flat stones, small round stones, medium jagged stones. I will post photos when I get home. Ouch. Stairs, stairs, and more stairs. There are a lot of stairs in the Colosseum. At least I did not have to run up or down them while being chased by a lion. I accidentally on purpose packed nothing stronger than Tylenol in my bag for this trip. My knees and feet have regretted that a few times, but so far I'm bouncing back every day. Hard to believe. I feel like I've been on Survivor! When I get home, I will definitely walk more, and outside rather than on the treadmill. If this vacation taught me anything, it's that I am physically capable of much more than I thought. Well, we will sleep soundly tonight and then take a tour of the Vatican museum tomorrow. Caio for naio!

I got my first compliment from my WLS skeptic husband today, ten weeks post op. He commented that I am in better shape than our Pompeii tour guide. She got out of breath walking up a flight of stairs and I didn't. Best part? I don't care.

@@gowalking, Pompeii was so interesting to visit. A man could throw his wife out in the street for two things. Infidelity (hers, not his, of course) or getting into the household wine. Brothels abound. The buildings and streets have sculpted, ahem, phallic symbols on them to literally "point" the way to the nearest brothel. Since sailors from many countries would stop at the port and didn't speak the language, the brothel walls had paintings of the "menu choices" on them. A sailor could simply point to the picture he wanted and then go into a room with a girl for that service. One part of town had a circular theater with excellent acoustics. In the corridor or alley leading up to it was a wall with scratch marks in it. Pompeiian graffiti! People standing in line waiting to get in would get bored and etch on the wall. They drew horses, gladiators, and of course, male genitalia. The male member was considered a lucky symbol of fertility and power. The plaster casts of the people who died affect you the most. Even a dog was captured in its death pose. The people did not die from the lava. They suffocated from the gas in the air, and then were buried in ash over time. Between the first quake and the second one, all of the boats made it out of port. But that was not nearly enough to rescue the population of the city. Vesuvius is much farther away than you would think. The baths were amazing. Double floors for insulation, lead pipes for Water transport. The streets have actual grated sewers just like we do today. I could spend a week there and probably not see it all. Almost forgot to mention that Pompeii was taken over by the Romans in 79 BC and the volcano erupted in 69 AD. I think that's what our guide said. Sorry if I'm getting the dates slightly wrong, but basically it happened two thousand years ago.

Well it wasn't until we were leaving the Amalfi coast that we realized we hadn't seen very much of it. Supposedly we should have taken a bus into Amalfi and Positano. Oh well. Live and learn. Sorrento was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed our hotel as well. Pompeii was worth seeing again. There was no way to see it all on a two hour tour. Today was not much more than a travel day. We left Sorrento and railed it to Rome. Having an hour to kill in the Naples train station gave us time to observe a team of six panhandlers work the crowds. One would approach a tourist and the others would lurk nearby. If the tourist gave money, a couple of the others would then follow him, probably to grab the wallet from the pocket they just saw used. From our train seats, we also saw a team working one of the platforms, and a pickpocket jumped off the train and handed off a wallet to an accomplice on the platform, who vanished like lightning. It's an art form, I tell ya. We had a late lunch/early dinner in a little restaurant near our hotel in Rome, run by an Egyptian. Then back to the room. We're all tired today, so just being lazy tonight. Watched some Cake Boss and Spongebob Squarepants in Italian on TV. Tomorrow Breakfast and then mass. We'll walk around and see some sights on our own. Our next scheduled tour is Monday at the Vatican.

I'm sorry you're having so much discomfort. I had diarrhea as well, but not to that extent. My gas pain was in my neck area. I hope things turn around for you soon.