Fanny Adams

Welcome aboard rhardy and ackmaui! Good luck in your journeys!

You mean there's hope that Tim Tams don't have to disappear entirely from my cupboard? It really is possible to stop at only 4 or 5? I've always been an all or nothing person on those - if the packet got opened, it got eaten, no two ways about it. I haven't dared even think about them for the future. I don't think I'll risk buying them till I am feeling more restriction, because right now I could just go a whole packet of Tim Tams - with at least half being Tim Tam Bombs!!

I work on a mine site and am required to wear the uniforms supplied. The trousers are very heavy duty denim, with no give in the material and no elastic in the waistband. The waistline sits exactly on top of my port, which is situated dead centre, a few inches above my belly button. Because I've lost a little weight, when I stand up, the trousers are falling off me, but when I sit down, they are still quite tight, especially at the waistline. They dig into me quite a lot during the day and I often have to undo the top button or shift the waist band to sit above or below my port. I have noticed at the end of the day, I often have faint blue bruising beneath the incision scar and occasionally feel sharp little tugs inside, as though it was pulling on stitches. I am now 7 weeks post op, and before I returned to work (at 4 weeks post op), all my port pain had gone completely. Now it bothers me, not a huge amount, but enough to be aware of it constantly. I am worried that this constant pressure will cause the stitches holding the port in place to tear, eventually leading to my port flipping or moving. I mentioned this to my doctor at my last visit, which was for my first fill, after a 1 week shift back on site. He didn't seem worried at all, put it down to continuing post-op recovery, and pretty much dismissed my questions. However, given that I am now so far post-op and the problem still hasn't gone away, should I be bringing it up with him again, or am I getting worried over nothing? Does anyone know if it is this kind of pressure that leads to ports flipping? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can work around this problem? At the moment, my pants are way too loose when I stand up, so if I got a bigger size they would literally fall off. I can forsee the problem still occurring as I go down in sizes too, as it is an inherent problem with the cut and material they use. PS: I'm kind of worried that it might have started to flip already. Once, when I stood up in an awkward way, I felt it pulling inside quite a lot. When I pressed on the port location from the outside, it felt like I was feeling the edge of the port, as though it had turned sideways. I very gently massaged the area until it went down again and that hasn't happened since, but it scared me quite a lot!

Good luck with your journey!

Has anyone done a poll to find out if there's a correlation between being able to burp and getting stuck/PB'ing? I'd guess that those of us who are able to burp easily will experience less of the stuck/PB thing but it may be the opposite is true, or that they are completely unrelated. Personally, I burp after just about every meal and feel anything from a little to a lot of discomfort until I do, but have never really understood what people mean by "stuck" and never had a PB. From the descriptions of getting stuck that I've read, it sounds to me a lot like a burp that doesn't want to come up. Is anyone familiar with both sensations and can describe the differences?

Wow that IS a rough week! Sorry to hear that, Cherry, and my best wishes for your son's speedy recovery!! Hang in there, mate, and don't worry, I'm sure we'll have more than one get together, so you can come join us at a later date...

Glad to hear your doc is doing the right thing by you and that you are recovering from the infection! Good luck with everything in the future!

PS: Just noticed that you have lost 17lb! That's great going! Don't discount that as nothing just because others have lost more in the same time. I've only lost 23lb myself and almost all of that was in the first 15 days. Still, I know this is going to work for me in the long run and it will work for you too! Chin up, mate!

It WILL get better when you get more fills - have faith and believe in yourself! In the meantime, the only thing I can suggest is to make sure that the meals that you eat are full of Protein and bulky. Avoid carbohydrates at all costs!! I've really noticed that eating carbs is a guaranteed sure-fire way for me to be starving hungry again within an hour. You mentioned that you were snacking all night - most snack type foods are high in carbs and this could be why you are feeling so hungry. From what I can tell, it takes about 2-3 days of cutting out carbs to really notice the difference but once you do, that hunger daemon is much easier to tame. Unfortunately, it only takes one "cheat" with carbs to break the cycle. If I start my day with toast, I can guarantee I'll be hungry all day, but if I go for eggs, I don't have the problem. A typical day's meal for me: Breakfast: Scrambled egg (1 egg, 1 slice FF cheese crumbled in, 1tbsp FF milk, shake of chicken herbs & salt) Lunch: 2 oz lean ham, chopped into chunks, 1 raw tomato chopped, 2" cucumber chopped, 1/2 tbsp FF salad dressing - toss all in a bowl & enjoy! Dinner: 2 oz any lean meat, 1 cup steamed veges If I'm hungry between meals, I have a Protein Drink or Optifast shake. Here's a link to the Atkins meal plan: Atkins - Two-Week Induction meal plan I know we've all tried similar diets in the past and you may have tried Atkins before, but now you have the secret weapon of the band to help you to stick to it. The Atkins meal plan is a lot more than we are meant to eat on the band, but while you're still waiting for restriction, you may find that you can eat it all quite easily. If you have to eat more than what is on their plan, make sure you snack with protein, not carbs. I know that isn't easy because so many snack foods are high carbs but maybe try something like having some beef Jerky strips around that you can chew on for those gotta-munch-something-NOW moments? Good luck!

Greetings Renaissance Man! You will be amazed when you come back to Perth - the place sure has changed a lot in the last 40 years!

Hey Rastis! You are a South of the River girl? I should have expected that, given you're using Doc Watson in Murdoch. I grew up in Ardross and the 777 on the corner of Canning Hwy & Riseley Street was my local chemist for years! I now live in South Lake, which is a lot further south but still counts as a SoR Girl :party:

One of my aunts won the "Slimmer of the Year" for Australia for WW, many years back and has worked until recently as an "ambassador" or some such thing for them. She did have phenomonal success with it, dropping from what must have been 350lb+ (at a guess) to under 150lb. She did manage to keep it off for a few years, but has been slowly putting it back on over the last half dozen years or so. Since she quit working for them, I think the weight is coming back faster. I've never tried Weight Watchers - tried Jenny Craig, Lite-N-Easy and a gazillion diets, but I was never into that whole "group therapy" scene and there was no way on earth I was going to get on a scale in front of a bunch of others and have them ridicule me if I didn't lose that week! At least with Jenny Craig, the weigh-ins were in private with your consultant. Lite-N-Easy (one of the home delivery systems in Aus) worked best for me, as it meant absolutely no effort involved on my part. However, it didn't stick well as a long term plan and I slowly regained the 20kg I had lost. Still, it took me only 4mths to lose that and 4 years to regain it... But this time round, it's going to be gone for GOOD!!!

You mean you had every teenaged boy's dream to have a sister who could get you backstage at the beauty pageants and you missed the opportunity?? :thumbup: LOL!!

I posted this in another thread on "Who did you tell?" in the general discussion forum, but it is relevant here: I understand why people would want to keep it private. I've told many people and have had the "cheater" comment a few times but mostly it has been very positive feedback. I just feel that we have some obligation to break down those negative images out there and educate people on the fact that it is NOT cheating and is NOT an easy way out...

I've always called them Tim Tam Bombs and yes, they are an essential for the evening. I sent a friend in the US a box of Tim Tams and a tin of Milo, complete with instructions for making the Bombs, for Christmas :tt1: Only problem was the postage cost three times as much as the goodies!!

Hey Jachut, she shouldn't forget the lamingtons either to go with the pav, although nothing beats good pavlova with oodles of fresh cream and strawberries!! (or kiwifruit or mandarin segments or peach slices...any soft fruit really.) Some great wine labels to look for: Jacob's Creek Jane Brook Leeuwin Estate Cape Mentelle Goundry Evans & Tate Houghtons This site might give you some ideas: West Australia Wines

Yes, from the chemist but shop around. I've seen prices range from $40 a box to $55! I didn't ask about the Tony Ferguson ones, and just went with the Optifast. I can't find the dietary information on the Tony Ferguson shakes (even on his website!) but I believe they are higher in sugar and carbs than the Optifast, which is quite probably why they apparently taste a lot better, heheh! There are a lot more choices with TF, but the better taste may also mean that they don't work quite as well in shrinking the liver.

General comment, not directed at anyone in particular: You know every time one of us hides the fact that we've had WLS and passes off our weight loss as the result of willpower, diet and exercise alone, we reinforce the concept in other people's minds that the surgery is the "easy way out". The more successful we are in losing weight, the more other people will think "Hey, I know someone that dropped a ton of weight and they did it all by themselves, so that just proves that anyone can do it if they try!" We have all come down the hard road of trying and failing at that approach, leading us to make this decision to have the surgery, so why are so many of us actively working to reinforce the idea that WLS is unnecessary?

What the Optifast does is help you to shrink your liver, faster than in a normal diet because it is so low cal/low carb. If you have a fatty/enlarged liver at surgery time, it gets in the way of the surgeon, making the op more difficult for him and can bruise/bleed very easily, causing more pain in the post-op. Get Doc Watson to show you the videos - it is sooooo apparent when you see it. It's hard to stick to but well worth the results. I had a dream recovery - no gas, virtually no pain other than a little soreness around the incisions. Didn't even take the pain meds after the first day and I'm never one to turn down pain meds if they're needed.

LOL - I couldn't do that! I have long hair and wash it every day. Weighing after the shower would include all that wet hair and water weighs a lot, as we all know!! Hehehe!

Yeah, Dr Watson did say I didn't HAVE to, but he showed me the videos of surgery with and without the pre-op fast and encouraged me to do it. I liked the way he let me make my own decision and decided to do it to give myself the best possible chance.

Well here we are, 26th January again and time to wave the flag for the year :rolleyes2: I found this a few years back and it still brings a smile to my face:

This seems odd to me: "My doc is offering to do a sleeve or bypass free of charge since the band failed, but I am just not up to having another surgery after that scare.", followed by: "the bills of the surgery for removal is gonna be like another 4k or so". If the doc is willing to do surgery for free, why wouldn't he just offer to not charge for the removal, rather than try for another type of WLS?

I fly to and from work every week and have not noticed any change in restriction as a result of flying. I don't have my band particularly tight though, so that may change after a few more fills. I was feeling reasonably ok with sticking to 1 cup before my first fill, so asked the doc to be pretty conservative. He only put in 1cc and it felt tight for the day, but by the next day was back to normal. I flew again a few days later and still didn't see a difference. Since then, I'm feeling a lot more hungry and regretting going easy on the first one. I'll see how flying affects things after my 2nd fill, in 2 weeks time.

Low-cal icecream toppings don't break the rules and can be the saving of Optifast. Failing that, if you like coffee, a level teaspoon in both the chocolate and the vanilla can make it almost palatable...