lizzie_07

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada here!

Great, thanks! I'm picking some up today. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my hair..eek..

I had a similar thing happen to me except that I screwed up the cheque I gave them and didn't realize that my payment didn't go through (I had to have it in 2 weeks prior to the surgery). I ended up paying the day of the surgery and everything was fine. I'm sure they'll be fine as long as they get the money in time for the surgery. Don't worry about it.

I've been wanting to buy biotin but I can't seem to find it. Where does everyone get theirs? Does GNC carry it?

Well, half of my close friends know, half don't. I went out to dinner with a bunch of friends the other night and it was slightly awkward because I thought the friends who didn't know may wonder why the person who normally cleans their plate AND gets dessert ate so little. They didn't SAY anything. In fact, I didn't eat that much less than my really tiny friends. I'll probably end up telling all of them soon enough because it's more of a hassel to keep it from them. As for the friends who do know, they completely look at how much I'm eating and make comments if I ate more or less than they thought I could. It's not a big deal though. I just love the fact that I can control how much I eat when I'm with them and I don't have to worry about gaining a bunch of weight from one night of bad eating.

Thank you Kelli. She was the greatest woman I've ever known. I thought getting the defill would make it so that I lost all restriction but it didn't. I'm only at 4.6cc right now and the band is perfectly tight. Perhaps the swelling from being so tight is still lingering. Either way, it was worth it because reaching restriction has been amazing for me. I finally have my motivation back =)

Congrats!! =)

The only regrets I have are related to myself, not the band. The band is just starting to really work for me now, so for a while I let the frustration get to me when I should have been trying to lose weight even though I had not reached restriction. But I would not change my decision for anything.

I have an insanely high sex drive as it is. Can't imagine what it'll be like when I lose all this weight. Watch out men! lol

I agree, beautifully said. I can also completely relate to everything you said. For me, this band was more than about losing weight. It was about regaining control of my binging and purging. Bulemia was a last ditch effort for me that started almost 2 years ago. I thought I had control over it and could stop, but just like the binge eating, I began to lose control over the purging as well. I knew deep down this band would change my life; it would make it so that I could not purge multiple times a day because it would hurt the band, and it would force me to eat smaller meals which made me feel less guilty and less likely to want to purge in the first place. This is all a learning process for me and like you, I can feel the wonders of this surgery. Since having the surgery, I have not forced myself to purge once. The binge eating has been a little more of a struggle, but as time goes on I've been learning how to say no to extra food (the negative feelings felt when I overeat definitely helps).

I'd suggest still getting that fill and as jack said, retraining yourself to chew better and eat slower. Now that I've reached restriction this is a whole new game. I have to be a lot more mindful of how much I chew or I pay for it. But I wouldn't go back for anything! Don't let sliming scare you from trying to reach restriction. By the way, you're doing AMAZING if you still haven't reached restriction! Wow! Everyone has been doing so much better than me lol.

I've been in the EXACT same position as you for a long time. I had a rough go for a while there and was very frustrated with the band. About 2 weeks ago I reached restriction and joined a gym the day before. Combining the 2 has been amazing for me (and they made me more motivated to eat the right foods). I'm finally feeling like this band is going to work for me. I've lost almost 9lbs in 2 weeks. I'm assuming you haven't reached restriction yet? Have you been exercising? Eating the right foods? If you haven't reached restriction I completely get how that can impact your motivation and weight loss. Looking back, had I at least tried to make the right food choices and work out daily I would have had some results instead of gaining weight like I did. So I would suggest starting there until the band starts doing it's part. I hope this comes off as motivational and not naggy =) I just want you to know that there is hope and things will change in time, but you can start to implement some changes before the band kicks in. I wish I had.

Thanks everyone! I'm still only able to eat semi-puree foods like yogurt and spaghetti sauce...I'm hoping the swelling goes down more soon. On a side note, while all of this has been going on my grandmother has been in the hospital. I was there all day yesterday and am going back for the rest of today. She's not going to make it =( My fill nurse said stress causes the band to be tighter so I'd say thats probably making things worse as well.

Not sure if anyone is still following my progress...but I'll post a final update anyway: I could not swallow anything but Water all day today, and even that was giving me difficulty. I called the clinic where I had my surgery and they said if I could not swallow apple juice I needed another defill. So, for the 3rd time in 3 days I drove 1 1/2 there and back to get a defill. I almost fainted when she was doing it because I was so weak from not eating or drinking for 3 days. I am now down to 3.6cc from 7.2. I feel MUCH better. I had some yogurt, milk, and tomato sauce today and it was like heaven. It's going to take a LONG time for me to reach restriction now because the fill nurse wants to take things really slow after this episode, but at least I don't feel miserable.

Steph - Yeah, I've thought about that. When I called my surgeon he said the swelling would go down and that he doubts I did any serious damage to my band. My aunt (the nurse) is staying with me and recommended I take an advil to help with the swelling. She said not to worry about the lack of fluids right now because I'm young and healthy and she said the swelling should go down in 48 hours. So we'll see. I am drinking a bottle of room temp. water now and it seems to be going down well. I think the apple juice may not have gone down because it was cold. I'm going to drink a LOT of water now that I know it's going down.

jo jo - are you sure you were as tight as I was? throwing up your spit? can't get any fluids down without throwing them up? I needed a defill..the swelling would have just gotten worse over time and I would have had an even bigger problem on my hands had I waited any longer than I did. I don't recommend being so against getting a defill. I always thought I wouldn't want one either. But being "too tight" can differ greatly. I see people on here who don't get a defill and are too tight to the extent that they cannot eat solids. I could not swollow my spit. There's a big difference. It makes sense that a chemo nurse could do it but regardless the nurse I spoke to gave me no guarantees and it wasn't worth waiting around in emerg for nothing. It's good to know though for next time (hopefully there won't be a next time) Update: It looks like the swelling has gotten worse. I just tried to drink apple juice (which I drank right after my defill) and it got stuck and came back up. If the swelling doesn't go down by tomorrow I'm going to need another defill. I have had maybe 2 cups of fluids stay down in 2 days. Not good.

Oh and Sades, yes I hope this will at least kick start my weight loss again. It'd be nice to get at least one positive thing out of this ordeal.

Josie - Yes, I definitely learned my lesson. No more quick fills for me. Sades - Yeah that's a good idea. I'll have a hard time finding anything to do there though because it is a small little town in the middle of no where. No malls, no shops. On a side note, I just tried to take some children's liquid tylenol for the pain and it's stuck....my stomach must be insanely swollen. I called my surgeon and he said the pain I'm experiencing is normal after being too tight. I hope the swelling goes down soon...

Hey thanks for the concern everyone. When I got the initial fill I did drink Water and it went down fine it seemed. It wasn't until about 30 mins later that I got the hiccups and then another 30 mins until I started to throw up. Mind you, I could tell there was a different, slightly uncomfortable feeling right away but I though that was the band doing it's thing finally! lol I'll give you an update: I didn't sleep all night. The pain in my chest came back when I attempted to sip some water and had to throw up multiple times. The pain seemed to increase in intensity as the night went on. When I finally got to the fill nurse (my aunt didn't end up doing it because we couldn't get the proper needle) the pain was unbearable. I felt like I couldn't breathe and was going to throw up again. Anyway, she brought me down to 6.6cc from 7.2cc and I tried to drink water. That didn't go so well and I threw up. So she did as you mentioned, Steph, and got me to drink water as she removed or added saline. It seemed like max saline that i could have without feeling like the water was stuck was 5.6cc. Before I even got my 4th fill I had 6cc, so I feel like I've gone backwards. She told me that because of the irritation to my stomach I will feel more restricted even though it's less saline. My stomach is in so much pain still. I was hoping that would go away but clearly the band has irritated it a lot. It hurts when I drink, swallow, even breathe really. Sucks. So I'll be on liquids for a while until this pain goes away. I can't imagine the pain I would experience if I attempted to eat something solid, or even mushy. I had a pretty smoothe recovery from this surgery and this pain is MUCH worse than anything I ever experienced after the surgery.

I know many people dislike Rosie O'Donnell (I like her, personally), but she posted a web message to Tressa on her website inviting her and 3 friends to come on her cruise (R family vacations). She was really touched by her story as well. Anyway, Tressa said yes =)

Linda - my aunt said she had no problem doing it for me because it was just a port, but for whatever reason the nurse in the ER couldn't guarantee me anyone would do the defill for me. She said she wouldn't. My aunt is here visiting from vancouver so she hasn't been successful trying to get the proper needle from the hospital (she happens to be visiting my grandmother in the hospital right now who is having a very rough night)

Hey Wendy - no doctors here are familiar with the lapband unfortunately. And the surgeon who did my surgery is in Toronto, I'm in Halifax. 8 more hours and I'll get to see my fill nurse though..yey =) I'm trying to decide how much I should get taken out. I want to get enough out but not so much that I lose restriction.

I'm in Canada and frankly, I'd be waiting a good 5 hours or more to get those fluids into me. I know you're probably right but I'm gonna try to sip on some water now...we'll see how it goes. I haven't been throwing up the last few hours because I've spit out everything so thats probably keeping me slightly more hydrated, although I haven't had anything to drink all day.

Yeah it's been brutal. Interestingly enough, while typing that message that pain in my chest disappeared. I'm still terrified to swallow my spit though because that seems to trigger my having to throw up. Now I completely understand what other people who were too tight were writing about.

I went on this forum trying to gain a vast understanding of how my recovery would be once I got the band. I prepared myself for "bandster hell" and knew it could be a very demotivating factor for me, but I hoped that since this was my chance to turn my weight around that I would be strong and stick to the program. When I started mushies 3 weeks ago I immediately put on 2-3lbs even though I was eating the right amount. As my discouragment continued and my weight stayed the same I felt more and more defeated and started increasing my intake. I'm so ashamed to admit that I'm almost back to my surgery weight and cannot bring myself to change my ticker. I'm scared that I stretched my pouch or hurt my band. I get my first fill next week, so I guess I'm just hoping for some advice or support. I've lived my whole life saying I'd lose weight and then disappointing myself and I can't believe that I'm doing it again. Wow, it's so upsetting just writing this...sorry for the downer msg. Just had to get it out I guess and admit it to myself..