JustWatchMe

I just came back from Lands' End. Tried on five suits.

Good luck! Stay connected here, keep your eye on the prize, and you will do great!

Yay Rita!

Hi, May banders! I had surgery March 13. I had a five-day clear liquid pre-op. It got easier at day three. After surgery I was put on six weeks of full liquids, which in my case also allows blended creamy Soups and yogurt and sugar free pudding. That got easier after two weeks, and I finally get solid food in five more days. You will probably gain a few pounds from the surgery from swelling and healing. This will take up to a month for your body to shed at its own pace. Don't obsess about it, it's useless. Just follow your nutritionist's instructions. If you can start a walking regimen now it will help after surgery. It all seems so daunting pre-op, but it is doable. You will make it through and your new life is waiting for you. This is hard, but it gets easier the more I follow directions. The days I have trouble are the days I cut corners. So I stopped cutting corners and the weight is dropping off now. My band is not yet filled and I am surely still dieting, but my goal is a safe and healthy transition into the fill phase and then finding my green zone. Until the band is filled to the green, we are working hard and exercising a lot of discipline. Don't despair. It is so worth it and I feel a thousand percent better than I did two weeks pre-op. I walk two miles a day now, every day, and I couldn't get off the couch on March 12th. Good luck to you all! Keep posting!

Lorena, welcome to bandland. I had surgery on March 13 and I am still not allowed solids until April 24th. So my first month is creamy Soups without chunks, Protein shakes, yogurt, Jello, milk, basically liquids. Please ask your doctor for a list. They may have tucked it in that packet they gave you and didn't spend enough time stressing the importance of healing and behavior change during this post-op time. It's very important to long-term success and to giving your band the best healthy start. My band needs to get used to my body just like my body needs to get used to my band. It's fragile now and stitches are healing. Keep reading these boards and stay connected. Good luck!

Parisshel, I agree totally. My nurse practitioner, who does all the fills and is the primary person I'll be dealing with going forward, didn't know about this board or the Big Book of the LapBand. She's great, and I really like her, but she treats only WLS patients day in and day out. I couldn't believe she didn't know about this site or any other online support. To her credit, she asked me to send her the info, which I did. But it hit home how a non-patient may never really understand all that a patient goes through. I guess it's up to us all, collectively, to teach them. And to speak up at monthly support group meetings. I went to a few of those pre-op and learned a lot from folks who had the surgery already. Regarding head colds and tightness, so true. I recently posted about morning tightness and I don't even have a fill yet. Well, my cold is almost gone and I am now sure the feeling was due to congestion and post nasal drip, because the tightness is gone now. The surgical team teaches us the rules and the basics. We teach each other the finer points of day to day life with a band.

Cccv4, we'll have our soup today and we'll get through this holiday together! Since I'm the cook around here and my daughter is always on a diet and my husband is working today, I got a reprieve from holiday food madness. My daughter and I are having a low-key lunch with my mom and a low-key dinner out with my husband later. No Easter chocolates in my basket this year. It's all worth it.

Congrats to those who have lost so successfully. Good luck with this next phase.

Incredible. Congratulations on all of your success!

Cccv4, so glad to hear it! Congratulations on your success so far!

When I started the band process in September last year, I didn't know how much work it would be on my part. I just knew it was the least invasive of the three surgeries. As I went through the pre-op protocol and was told to change my snacking habits or else the psychologist wouldn't clear me for surgery, I got really ticked off. How dare he? Well, I turned the anger into action. When I did that (gave up tv eating) I then understood why he said that. It required discipline! Of course, if I wouldn't stop tv snacking every night, I wasn't going to have success with a band. I didn't know that but he did. I guess I thought everything would just magically change for me without any pain on my part. Once I changed that snacking habit, I began to believe what they all kept saying, which was that this process was only going to be as successful as the effort I put into it. I had the same negative instant reaction to the post-op liquid diet. When the surgeon told me it was six weeks, not four weeks, of post-op liquids, I was mad and aggravated. When he further told me to reduce my post-op calories from 1000 to 800, I again got mad and wanted to rebel. When the nurse coordinator told me I had to walk a treadmill every day starting one day post-op and build up to a 2-mile walk every day, I nearly croaked. I think on some level I expected to treat these like suggestions, or guidelines, that were great for other people, but no biggie if I chose not to do them. After all, I'm special, you know. I have arthritis. I'm really fat and I get out of breath. I have hunger issues. I really like food. I'm not in this for the beauty or vanity aspects, just for health reasons, so there's no problem if my weight loss takes a little longer. But instead of giving in to those excuses about my uniqueness (!), I followed all of the rules. Only by following them did my understanding of how this works transform from theory into understanding and acceptance. Sure, I read the book, I researched all this, I "knew" all these things back in September, six months before I was banded. But I didn't really learn them until I did them. I have experiential knowledge of these things now. I feel better because I exercise. That one blows my mind. My knees still hurt, but I feel BETTER when I exercise. Sweating and panting do not destroy me. I walked in the forest preserve with my college-age daughter yesterday and she told me I hit my target heart rate. Huh? She said we were walking and talking, and I was slightly out of breath the whole time, but able to carry on a conversation, so that meant I was exercising at a good pace . For an hour. Amazing. Six months ago, heck, four months ago, I never got off the couch. Eating differently is huge. I'm on liquids for 5 more days and then I finally move to regular foods. I'm dreaming constantly of what I'll eat. I want steak, I want lobster, I want three Jimmy John's sandwiches in one sitting. I want, I want, I want. What I will do instead is make a scrambled egg on Thursday morning and I'll probably be in heaven. Then I'll probably have a Protein shake at work for lunch because dinner will be at a restaurant with my friend before our exercise class. I'll probably have a few bites of some meat or fish and a veggie. Not three Jimmy John's sandwiches. Not a ribeye. Not a burger. The next phase is what some people call bandster hell. I'll get a first fill, but have to keep a good eating discipline while the months go by and I work toward the correct number of fills for my green zone. I WANT to wolf three Jimmy John's sandwiches, but I WILL practice eating slowly and chewing thoroughly and keeping portions small. I won't drink while eating. This will all be new behavior because I haven't chewed in 7 weeks, have only consumed liquids so far, and haven't slowed myself down too well yet. It will be my next big challenge. Thank you, people of this board, who post your experiences and teach me how living as a bander works and doesn't work. And that's how I approach all of this. What works and what doesn't work. My actions for 52 years didn't work. This year that all changes, because I'm following the directions for what does work. It gets a little easier every day.

Tmf, yes that's a good analogy! You cracked me up. Yes, you could have done this. Most of us can do anything for a finite amount of time. Once, anyway. One of my biggest fears is a band slip or unfill and having to start again. That's enough to keep me on track right there. Once I get my food, it's gonna take a heck of a lot to wring it from my grasp. Oh, and don't misunderstand my ribeye comment. I will have steak again. Just not on day one, and it will probably be divided into three or four meals. Thanks for the kind words from everyone. It means a lot.

My team defined full liquids as soups (I'm allowed to put chunky soups through a blender), Jello, protein shakes, yogurt, sugar free pudding, milk, sugar free popsicles, as well as the clear liquids I had pre-op. Pretty boring, but I got used to it after the second week. My doc said to take two Flintstones vitamins daily. Protein I like is Unjury Chocolate that I buy online, or Atkins Dark Chocolate.

Tough stage, no lie. Organic broths tasted better to me than others. You'll appreciate full liquids so much more after surgery. Good luck! You can do it. You're almost there!

Beautiful!!!

You can do it! You'll be so glad when the surgery is done and your new life begins. Keep us posted!!!

BB, very inspiring!! Regarding posts about problems with the band, I truly appreciate those as much as the positive posts. I always feel better armed with knowledge, and it helps me know what to ask my bariatric team when I have appointments. It also puts reality in front of me. If I do "A", "B" could happen. Personal experiences from others is a powerful motivator for me.

Chrissy, good luck and congrats on making this big lifesaving change. For me, the band didn't/doesn't do anything yet, since I have no fill and I'm still on liquids. However, post-op swelling and healing time may give that "full" sensation for awhile. Be patient with yourself, do not obsess about post-op weight loss the first month like I did, and once your body heals, the weight will begin to come off.

Glad to hear it! I too felt better when I walked. Keep us posted!

I tried some suits on Thursday after the class this week. Nothing fit. So depressing after losing 40 pounds. Well, it was only one store. I'll keep looking.

Okay, this is embarrassing, but maybe somebody has a suggestion for me, so here goes. I started Aqua Zumba this year and love it. I was on hiatus from the pool for four weeks per doctor's orders after my banding. I went back last week and everything was fine, except I noticed how much my stomach fat bounces in the water when I jump. Because it's so soon after surgery, I got worried that the tugging up and down with every big movement was going to harm my band or port sites internally. I'm not sure what to do about it. It didn't hurt when I was done, but I sure could feel those muscles inside. My question for banders is, can I bounce like that without worrying? If you do water aerobics or jogging, did you have to wait longer than a month after surgery? I feel like I need a girdle under my bathing suit...

Welcome to bandland!

Thank you and congratulations. I so needed to see this today. Woo hoo!

Yay!

Tmf, I've been told by people in his office that my surgeon pushes for maximum weight loss in the post-op phase. Developing discipline. I'm tired of dieting but I decided not to fight it. Hoping it gets a little easier on solids and hoping I don't gain this weight back.