"Nita

I wear a regular old underwire and for the most part I didn't have any trouble although sometimes doring that first week or so, it felt better to not have one on. They wouldn't let me wear one at all right after surgury. I had to go home hangin' LOL.

One thing to add, articial sweetners have been shown to lower metabolism is several studies. so, your diet coke is bad for reasons other than the carbonation. And while I am only two days out on solid food so I have no experience to speak from, my doctor has told me repeatedly that no meal should ever last more than 20 minutes. That is all the time it takes for your pouch to fill and your brain to get the message from your stomach that it's full. Best of luck.

It took me about five days to go from looking six and a half months pregnant to looking about five months pregnant. It was about two weeeks before I was back to my normal amount of fat and not looking pregnant. I wanted to slap my husband who kept telling me....your not that swollen. You don't look that swollen to me... All I could say was, How fat do you think I am....I look like I could give birth any moment!!!! LOL Well, after the first week, he said, oh wow, I guess you were swollen and bloated. Ya think???!!!! LOL It will go away!!!!

OK, not one of the things I am really wanting to admit but is this normal???? Since a few days after surgury I have noticed all of my body odors are stronger.( four weeks out now) I shower at least twice a day now and deoderant fails within an hour or two tops. I just smell. This is all new for me. I have never had trouble with BO but OK this is about to be TMI..but...ALL of my bodily fluids, bodily odors, hair, everything is just different and not very pleasent. I am brushing my teeth several times a day as well.....ewwww very embarrassing. I thought maybe the liquid Vitamins were doing it so I stopped them for threee days, no change. I am getting plenty of Water, about 68-80 oz a day. I shouldn't be in ketosis because many of my mushies are carbs. Could it be from the protien drinks ( I drink 2 EAS Advantage edge carb controls a day) I will be on solids very soon so I can then give these up if they are the reason. Did anyone else else go through this? Will it go away??? Embarrassed and in need of advice!!!! thanks

Mine is just below my sternum (up between my rib cage below the little peice of breast bone) As for how to know if it is flipped, not sure other than a check-up with the doctor. I would think though that it could be bruised without being flipped, so maybe, hopefully, it is just bruised either still from surgury or from a little bump into it or something.

Well, sometimes, the only thing to do is laugh about it. And I will second your observation about a sharpened sense of smell. I think I could have written down the exact recipe for the Cookies I smelled my son eating yesterday. So, if it wasn't for the fact that my husband is sweet enough (LOL) to tell me that yeah, Ya kinda do stink right now, LOL....I just might think I always smelled like this and just didn't know it. Thanks all for the advice I am absolutely looking into each suggestion!!!!!!

LOL, I'm not sure if I could chase off a monkey yet....maybe, LOL

Secret is what I use too. And no, it's not keeping any secrets....but I smell all over not just underarms. So I'm not sure if that's it. Oh and thanks for lovin' me even if I stink Kathy..LOL!!!! You know that song "smelly cat" from friends? I think it might become my theme song if this doesn't change soon!!! smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you? Smelly cat, smelly cat....you're no bed of roses, no friend to those with noses, smelly cat, smelly cat, it's not you fauuuuuult. LOL

This is one bad habit I broke a couple of years ago. Not to say I quit overeating but I didn't do it just to clean the plate anymore. I read an article and gave it a try and this is basically what I did... First make yourself leave one bite of food on the plate then be proud that you didn't clean the plate. After a few times, try to leave a couple bites, then remind yourself how you are doing so good and do not need to clean your plate. It takes actually telling yourself, see, I can do this. I didn't clean my plate, I left at least two or three bites there. Eventually, you can switch your need to eat it all to the need to leave some there. Even when hungry, I just can't finish a plate without leaving a little there now. LOL so switch one compulsion for another, LOL

Hey deejay, How is the carb withdrawl going? Are you still hanging in there. Not sure if I mentioned when you wrote me but I went through a few days of carb/sugar withdrawl as well. It gets better. My husband was teasing me because you would have thought I was coming off crack!!!!! LOL. I survuved though & you will get through it too.

best soups I found--pacific brand french onion, asian chicken then when you can have full liquids, carrot, red pepper & tomato, squash (they come in a carton you will find them with the organic stuff or at whole foods or central market. best protien drink. I like EAS Advantage Edge carb control in dark chocolate and in cafe' caremel. Both of these are really really good. The strawberry is nasty though. Don't forget the sugar free Jello. Oh, I also drank alot of alpine brand sugar free, low-carb apple cidar (it is with the hot cocoa packets. And the low carb sugar free (made with splenda) hot cocoa mix. watch out on the gatorade. It has a lot of sugar which isn't too good for especially if that's all your drinking. Try to get your liquids from Water if possible and just fill in with the juice and gatorade.

I don't think it is so much about telling people about the band as it is the weight loss that results. A few years ago I went to a diet doctor ( adrug dealer with a white coat...LOL) I lost 90 pounds (regained 40 of that before I got my band) anyway, I started going to this doctor with my two sisters. both of my sisters (at that time..now one is super thin, oh well...) were just overweight not obese. I was the fat sister. Well, once I really started losing and doing well, they decided they didn't want to go anymore so I was then going alone. They would tempt me with junk and try to sabatoge me at every turn even though they would say you look so great, we are so proud of you, yada yada yada, do you want this cheesecake???LOL Another friend jumped on the diet doctor bandwagon and started going with me a few months later. She was already much smaller than me and I really think she jumped on just to stay smaller than me...LOL. With her, if I walked two blocks, she walked two miles, If I stayed on 1000 cals, she stayed on 900. etc.... it was always about outdoing me and she always let me know how she was doing better and how good that felt to her. As if I was supposed to be happy that I was somehow motivating her.....warped!!! LOL Whether it's band or pills or whatever, when the fat friend isn't the fat friend anymore, roles have to be redifined and friendships and relationships sometimes change. A lot of times, the fat friend is not a threat or is a self-esteem boost is some sick way. So when we decide we are gonna be the thin healthy not eating the whole cheesecake pretty friend. It can threaten people. Sad but true. And my two sisters I mentioned above. They were always much closer with each other than to me. Now that one of them is a size 6-8 and the other is still a size 14, they hardly talk anymore.....go figure. no bands involved, just weight loss.

from a person who always used to claim an excercise allergy.......Never found anything I didn't truly hate!!!!! I discovered yoga about six months ago. I take three- five one and a half hour classes a week. I love it. It is hard and much more strenuous than I ever imagined. I thought it would just be some stretching and since I have always been pretty limber I figured it wouldn't be too hard...wrong, LOL!!!! I spend most of that 90 minutes sweating with shaking muscles from holding some lunge or push-up type position. It is a real work-out. But once you finish with meditation and relaxing, you leave feeling refreshed not weak and tired. Give yoga a try, you may like it as much as I do.

My grandfather used to eat raw onion also. He would them just like apples or something...just takin' big ole bites out of a plain white onion...yuck!!!! Of course he also ate raw hamburger sandwiches...raw ground beef, mayo, salt and pepper on white bread.....even grosser than the onion thing....who would have figured he would have lived to be well into his 90s????

OK, almost three weeks out and this is really hard. I am fighting not only the head hunger which is horrible but actual hunger too. I have found that I am way more obsessed with food than I ever imagined I was. I am so sick of bland looking bland tasting mushy food and as stupid as it sounds.....I am truly grieving the loss of junk food and of eating as much of as many things as I can eat. In my head, I know this is dumb since that habit is what got me where I am but I feel like I've lost a friend. Yesterday we had to go to two different family Fourth of July parties. Well, I tried to take the focus off the food and enjoy visiting with everyone and relaxing but all I could focus on was the constant eating by everyone but me. It wasn't as if there was a meal then socializing. People ate the entire day. chicken, ribs, sausages, chips you name it and it was in the hand or mouth of whoever I was sitting by, standing near, or talking too. I was miserable. I actually cried when I got home. How pitiful is that???? I just feel disgusted with myself that food is this important to me. I am still sad and weepy today over all the food I wish I could eat instead of this mush. I really never expected to feel or act this way.

I too have scale anxiety, LOL. but my problem (I know from so many diet failures) ifs that at least in size 20+ clothes, there is a good 20lbs of play. Meaning it takes about 20 lbs regardless to what fashion mags say before I am out of one size and into another. So, when I have relied on how my clothes fit, sometimes 20 or 25 pounds would sneak up before I realized it. Now add to my scale anxiety the fact that I am one of those in denial of weight gain and only look in the mirror when in favorable lighting and angles, LOL..... So while I would love to throw the scale away, I know weekly to bi-weekly weigh ins are a neccesary evil for me. I am jealous of those of you who can maintain without that horrible thing!!!!!!

Count me in those numbers, I was scared to. Not of the surgury or the pain (although I found out I am a big wimp and wasn't too happy about hurting afterwards, LOL)... I was afraid of failure or maybe of success. I tend to be self-sabatoging. When I start really doing well, I feel like I am going to fall short of my goal anyway so I just blow the diet and regain the weight. This isn't something I think out before hand, it has just been that way with me. Anyway, before my surgury I thought what if I spend all this money, go through all of this and then don't lose enough for anyone to even notice much less hit my goal or what if I work really hard at sticking to the rules for some unkown reason I don't lose and my band doesn't work, then what do I do?, maybe I should just not do it rather than try and fail.....those sort of self-defeating thoughts. But I did the whole Dr. Phil thing....ask yourself is that really a valid fear and is that really a true statement and if not correct the thought. And I rationally know that if I follow the rules I will lose. I am not so special that I am the only exception to the band working the way it is designed to therefor I will lose weight. But, all of that, LOL, was meant to say we all have fears, but if you have done your research, understand what you are doing, checked out your doctor and are certain you picked the right one for you and feel that this surgury is right for you, don't back unless you can examine that fear and you are certain it is a valid reason to cancel.

Ditto, it goes and stays where it wants. I have read several places that those stubborn areas we all have where our fat deposits first when we start to gain are the very last places to go. but congratulations on losing 100 lbs!!!! That is fantastic!!!:banana

My sister, who certainly wouldn't qualify for any sort of weight loss surgury at a size 8...have to hate her, huh? LOL...has gone on and on about how she wants it too. How she is gonna try to find a doctor to do it, yada, yada, yada.... She won't find anyone to do it, she won't pay that money even if she did, she knows somewhere in her rational thought that it just isn't gonna happen and so do I. I knew this would be the case and proceeded without giving it another thought. You can't let someone else's reactions to things (especially irrational reactions) dictate your choices. Best of luck. She will eventually get the idea out of her head once she finds that no doctor will do it if she isn't in need of it, so don't worry, just do what you need to do.

According to my doctor, these statistics are far from acurate. They include the good band docs as well as the quacks, the patients who follow the rules as well as those who don't the patients who know the rules as well as those who don't. What he said, and I truly believe from the research I have done, is that if you choose a good doctor, inform yourself about the procedure, the rules, and then follow them, your success rate will be much higher. Many studies are starting to suggest that at the five year point the band has a higher % of loss than the bypass because at that point the bypass has started gaining back. I would be making up numbers if I tried to quote any as I really don't remember the exact % my doctor used, but they were much higher than that!!!! I agree with other replys that those numbers are outdated. The shame is that they can't do a study of long term statistics for those who go to good doctors and comply with the band rules and a seperate study for those who don't. But just like in school, there are always the kids who throw off the grading curve one way or another.

I agree the pics are very cool. My surgoen has actual pics of a lap-band as well and it being put in. There are also surgical pics orf the bypass on there. I will put the link to his site in case anyone wants to see those as well. http://www.lap-surgery.net/photos/photos_set.htm

Molly, I recommend a product called Threelac by Nature's turn. It comes in individual packets of a lemon flavored powder that tastes sort of like lemon squares. Think pixie stix...you put it on your tongue and let it disolve fully then swallow with a little water. It is It contains all three needed live bacterias you need to replenish the good flora. Any time you take an antibiotic, it kills all of the bacteria not just the bad stuff. It takes a whole lot longer than you would think for these good bacteria to re-colonize. Some experts belive it can take six months to a year to fully restore balance some say closer to three to six months. At any rate, during the time you have comprimised good bacteria, you are more prone to trouble from the bad ones who are living unchecked basically. And if the bad ones grow rapidly during this time you get even more problems such as yeast overgrowth, yeast infections, systemic yeast overgrowth, funguses..etc. We are big believers in minimal antibiotic use in our house and we definetly use threelac for a month after we used antibiotics. You can probably find threelac at your healthfood/ herb store or just do an internet search for it.

I was told to bring a pillow preferably a mushy one to use as a stomach brace if I coughed and for the ride home. I wore loose t-shirt and cottony pants again loose. My port is at my sternum so the pants didn't bother that. If you know your port will be in the waist area then I would go with a loose comfy dress of some sort. I was also told that if I wanted to wear socks during the operation makke sure they are cotton not polyester as polyester could spark from the equipment ( I had to wonder why the equipment would ever be near my feet but I made sure they were cotton anyway) I was told the same for underwear. Yuo will go in without underwear unless you are on your period or strongly object and demand them but if you do demand them...make sure they are all cotton. You don't want any unwanted sparks flying around there, LOL. Comfortable slip on shoes are a must too if you have slip on tennis shoes (the mule type) or flip flops as long as you aren't giong to trip and fall or anything like that. The only other thing they recommended I bring is chapstick if I thought I needed it. I guess if I had trouble with dry lips enough to bother putting it on. I brought it but my lips being dry was my last concern after surgury!!! so it is still unused. The surgury center wouldn't let me wear my bra home even though it was a sports bra so don't spend any time or money looking for a new bra for the occasion, you might not get to wear it.

what I had to drink smelled and felt and tasted like what I would imagine suntan oil to taste like. It wasn't horrible but did make me gag. It had a slightly coconutty smell and was very think whitish stuff felt thick and gross maybe even oily feeeling on the way down and I am pretty sure was supposed to have some sort of tropical flavor. I thought this was barium..was it???

I understand cost is an issue with self pay ( my insurance only covered 1/2) but don't let that alone make your decision. Do some research on the doctors you narrow it down to including the Mexico docs and pick the one with the best track record and enough experience. I am certainly not saying that any doctors mentioned aren't great doctors. I only know about the houston area ones myself, but your life and quality of life are worth more than five or six thousand dollars in the long run. Just make sure whoever you pick has a good reputation as well as a good price. Best of luck!