kagoscuba

So, last night I got home, was getting undressed and said to my wife, "Wanna see something kinda cool?" She said yes, so I unbuckled my belt and took my 3 weeks ago snug pants off without even unbuttoning them. They practically fell off of me. She just laughed and said I looked great...actually that's two NSVs. :whoo:

Yeah, right. You've got three kids and so do I. Now tell me if you think "exercise" was a possibility within 20 minutes of me getting home from work? Every third Saturday of a month with the letter Q in it is more likely. Nothing spoils the moment more than a pair of inquisitive 4 year-old eyes you didn't hear sneak into the room, or an equally puzzled Labador Retriever doing the same look. Thanks you and everyone else for the congrats!

All kinds of differnt docs out there. When I got filled on Monday, I was told 3 days clear liquids, 1 week full liquids, 1 week mushy food, then start "real food." The doc said I may not feel any restriction until the "real food phase." He also warned not to be lulled into a sense of false security while eating the liquids and mushies. He said "the restriction is there, and if you ignore it the day you start full foods, you are going to regret doing so."

I'm exactly the opposite. I can smell food and describe it in intimate detail (spices used, ect) from quite an astounding distance now. I also sometimes get upset when people bring food into meetings. The smell in a small conference room can almost be overpowering. Since smell is tied to taste, I can also say I am enjoying food more than ever now, since I can taste every nuance of the meal, since I have been used to Clear liquids and Protein drinks for a few weeks. Broiled salmon with lemon and garlic never tasted so good!

It stands for "Non-Scale Victory."

I'm not a month out yet, but I can tell you it's worked wonders for me and will continue to. Why? Because I was never a "bad food" eater; I've always been a family sized portion eater. Since that option is now gone, I am sure I'll be able to control my weight much better. I've always exercised, which helped me to not be bigger than I was. When people asked me at the gym how I worked out so much and still stayed so large (that was nice...not!) I just said, "I'm working out to keep on even keel with the beer and Pasta." Now either one of those in moderation will not kill a diet, and the beer was mostly in moderation. However, the pasta? I could go through a 12 serving box in two meals. Sushi? Healthy right? Not if you eat four rolls and 6 pieces of sushi, along with a miso Soup, salad, and edamame. All those things are healthy...not all together though. That's where the lapband will make the difference to me. I'm was never a grazer, but I was a buffet destroyer. I count calories now to ensure I'm getting enough calories; I'm not worried about getting too many. With the food choices and meal plan I have (most important for the lap-band to work) getting too many calories would almost be impossible.

my doc fills under floro, so we both get to watch the barium go down. It's pretty darn cool.

My face within 4 days of surgery and now 19 days post-op everyone is commenting on the drastic change in my face and abdominal area. I can tell because size 42 pants which were snug on me 3 weeks ago fall off of me without a belt to hold them up. I put on a pair of size 36 jeans 4 days ago...albeit they were a TAD tight in the waist.

It's all personal really. I went back to work in 4 days (office job). My doctor also told me he has had police officers go back to work, on full duty, in the same time period. However, I've seen some people on this board take a month to go back to work. I was exercising (elliptical) by day 8 post-surgery, and I am now 19 days post-surgery doing .5 hour elliptical a day, abdominal work, and light weights (20 pounds or less). Again, your experience may vary.

Oh, don't worry, your outburst is normal and to be expected. I know I've had similar issues with my three irugamus iratamus and also once with my wife eating "my" food. Since I can't eat anything else in the house, I get a tad tense when the only thing I can eat is suddenly gone, and I've been waiting 4 hours to eat it. Daddy didn't like missing a meal before, and he SURE AS HELL doesn't want to miss one now.

Well, you know God can't create organs twice...that'd be too difficult and tiring after creating the universe. *wink* Just like God made the mid-western flooding happen because he disapproved of river-boat gambling...like he just couldn't have hidden the dice.

I went in this mornign for my first fill. Just a pinch for the numbing needle, a slight burn when the nerves got turned off, and then painless. I got to watch the monitor as my barium went down and went through the unfilled band pretty easily. Then, I watched as we tried a few different things. The coolest was when the barium went down and came to a complete halt. The doctor said, "Yep, I think that's a little too filled." I felt like saying "Ya' think so doc?" So, he finally adjusted everything until there was just a little squirt of Fluid going through the band at a time. Now comes the hardest part. Starting the diet all over again. My doc recommends 3 days of Clear liquids, 1 week of full liquids, 1 week of soft foods, then progressing on to small portions of solid foods. Geez, and I just got to eat my first small dry tuna-fish salad yesterday. :cool: One bonus of the diet I've been on is the barium tasted ok. It's a hell of a lot better than "Isopuke." My stomach has now gone back to gurgling a lot...I'm a one man band again!!

:whoo:Down 30 pounds in 20 days! :Banane35: The pounds are coming off slower now that I am progressing towards a "normal" diet, but I'm still pretty happy. Even though I just got my first fill yesterday, the lap-band has already been a life-changer. For example, I can bend over to tie my shoes, and I don't feel like I'm going to pass out; I can walk up stairs without getting overly winded, and I played golf on Sunday with no knee or ankle pain. My interim goal is 50 pounds by Jan. 1 2008. The first few pounds I've lost before...now comes the hard part!

I'm not sure how much was put in my band, but from looking at the monitor and seeing how much the barium flowed pre-adjustment, compared to how much barium flowed post-adjustment, it looked like a 90% difference. I'm sure that's not reality, but it sure was what it looked like.

I have home equipment and joined a gym. I have three little ones who barely see daddy as it is, so I go to the gym during lunch, get in 30 minutes of cardio, then twice a week I go after work for back and legs training. The other days I get home at a decent enough hour to see my kids for about a .5 hour before they go to bed. I then go and do weights in the basement for awhile. I also have an elliptical for weekends.

No difference so far, except the liquids satisfy me quicker than before. There is no difference in swallowing so far. However, when the doctor closed me off completely this morning, I DID feel that. Very weird to just have the barium just sitting up top waiting to go down. My personal way of being able to lose before I was restricted was to buy a lunch-box and pack Breakfast, lunch, and dinner in it and eat those meals at work, and only drink liquids and snack on diet popsicles at work. That way I never felt neglected, and was able to keep on losing. Weekends were tougher, but I usually made it through those without cracking, although I did eat hard-boiled egg whites before I should have last weekend. :cool:

This is just a guess, but I'm guessing some doctors are more aggressive with some patients than others, and doctors that don't do flouro are less likely to give a big fill, as they aren't sure when the stoma is closed. From my appointment this morning, I watched my doctor block all liquid getting through my band and then crank it back a "couple of notches" so some liquid made it through...not a lot though. I know this is my first fill and I've got a lot of experience to go, but I don't honestly see how he could fill my band much further (although he said he could restrict me more, if I wanted).

Yeah, my doctor followed #11 this morning. I watched the barium go down and come to a screeching halt, then he removed just a little bit a of saline, and a tiny little squirt of barium was going through. To scale the difference, I'd say the difference between what could flow through a typical dinner water glass and what could flow through the inside of a ball-point pen. It looked that drastic.

Thanks and good luck!! Two things I did not mention before. 1. Now, after "eating" full liquids for a week, I am really hungry today on clear liquids. 2. My port is directly under my sternum, which is different than a lot of people here who desribes theirs as on their left or right side. I guess I now know why sleeping on my side was so easy. :cool:

Being on a clear liquid and full liquids diet so far has not really given me the chance to worry about variety, but it has opened me up to potentially being hungry. However, I'm not, and I think it's all because of the new coffee maker I bought for work. I bought a Keurig K-cup maker to put on my desk, and I have one cup in the morning, and one cup around 3:30, in addition to my meals, and I am not hungry during the day!! Last weekend I didn't have coffee at home, and I had a nagging hunger all day. Maybe it is psychosomatic, but it works for me!! The K-cup machine makes it soooooo easy to get that cup of coffee I need too. Lots of flavors break up the monatany too. :hungry:

My doc uses x-ray...that's a nice little extra $178 for the radiologist. (plus $200 for the fill) :eek:

Don't feel bad Sue. BC/BS turned me down with a BMI of 39.1 AND two co-morbidities (high blood pressure and sleep study diagnosed sleep apnea). They said because I didn't have 5 years of written proof I was overweight they were denying me. Lovely people.

I was two weeks post op yesterday and like you, I have not been too hungry. During the clear liquids week I wasn't hungry at all. Now I am eating full liquids, I do get the occassional hunger pang, but that is easily negated by Crystal Light or a cup of coffee. I am getting my first fill this coming Monday, which came as a shock to me. From reading here I would have never thought I'd get my first fill within 18 days of the surgery date. Something must be working though, as I am fitting into my "2 years ago" pants as of this morning. They are a little snug, but they button, and that's a lot better than barely getting past my thighs three weeks ago. :cool:

I haven't tried that, as I am averaging 100g of protein a day already. Since I drink caffeinated coffee, I think that helps keep the hunger away already. I will try the protein in the coffee though, if the other protein gets boring and I need a change. Thank you for the suggestion! :cool:

Today is exactly two weeks since my surgery, and as of Monday I had lost 23 pounds. I'm pretty sure it's 25 by now (I force myself to only weigh myself once a week), and it's all been clear or full liduids diet for me. Since I am getting my first fill on Monday, I will not be progressing to the next stage of my diet, and my doctor requires I restart the entire diet cycle after the fill. Therefore, I will not be eating "real" food until the second week of November. Of course, the one good thing about that is I'll probably lose 50 pounds, in total, by Thanksgiving. That'll leave me with "only" 35 more pounds to lose. As far as family living with you, my wife was CERTAIN I was going to be a grade-A A-hole on this diet, and I could not haev agreed with her more. I got what she referred to as "serious food PMS" when I did not eat for awhile. However, since the surgery she says I am the happiest I have been in years, and I feel that too.