Fanny Adams

Here ya go - just for you! And I totally agree - this site is awesome for motivation, information and support.

ROFL!! I would vote for Khe Sanh if it was on the bill but if they put Barnsie's Working Class Man on there too, it would be a toss up! And I don't care how old it makes me seem, I work on a mine site these days so that gives me the right to sing Blue Sky Mining at any opportunity!

I get this problem too but I'm not entirely convinced it is ALL in our heads. I've even gone so far as to take pics on my digital cam of myself in the bathroom mirror, then compare it to the person I see and the pic is ALWAYS 10x more awful than the reality. There is a difference! However, I do accept that a lot of is head space - some of us see ourselves as heavier than we are, some of us as lighter. I wonder how well that correlates to whether or not one has been heavy all their lives. It seems that most of the people who have posted about seeing themselves as fatter than they are (especially after losing the weight) were heavy from an early stage, whereas those who gained the weight as adults have trouble seeing it. I was slim up until around 30 and then ballooned very quickly (and stayed fat for the next 15 years despite innumerable efforts to lose it). Consequently, I have a clear memory of myself as slim and can often convince myself that I don't look "that" bad. I've been in denial about just how huge I have gotten for years and years. When I look in the mirror, I instinctively hold my head at the right angle to minimise the double (triple!) chin effect. I make sure my body is angled correctly to show the "best" side of me. I still have a waist (albeit MUCH larger than before), my boobs are enormous and my butt isn't huge. I carry most of my weight in my tummy, which sticks out like I'm 9 months pregnant, my arms and my back. I am thicker front to back than from side to side. All that means that, if I wear the right clothes and stand at the right angle to the mirror, I see the waist and boobs and not the fat and think I look fine. Then that horrid camera will catch a side on view of me, with my gut sticking out, rolls of back fat and the chins wobbling in all their glory and there she is! That fat heifer has grabbed the photo pic again and where was the girl I saw in the mirror? :confused:

Sorry to poke my head into the Men's Room (you guys DO know us wimmens are spying on you, dontcha?) but I thought I'd add my 2 cents. My personal drink of choice has been scotch and water, lots of ice. I've always been a scotch/bourbon drinker but usually with coke (or diet coke when dieting). At 70 calories a pop, I can slow sip a couple and nurse it through the night without having gas problems and not breaking the calorie bank. I have to agree about becoming a lightweight though - previously I could knock back half the bottle quite easily, now 2 over the course of an evening gives me a serious buzz. YAY for the cheap thrill :confused:

ROFL!!! I had to read that 3 times before I worked out that it was a typo and you meant "he was like..."! I was thinking oooh that's getting a bit close to the bone, isn't it? Talking about what your husband was licking!! :omg:

I was on holiday with my daughter in Malaysia in November, just before getting banded. On our first night, we got a taxi from the airport to the hotel, which was a lot cheaper and nastier than we were expecting (we moved the next day) and there was no door man to help with the bags. As we walked up to the steps, a local man, who had obviously been drinking, came up to us and started to show us how to use the old luggage lift in the steps. He pointed right at me and started laughing out loud, saying "You so fat, lady! How you get so fat?" Then he looked at my daughter and said, "You fat too but not as fat as her!!" and proceeded to laugh some more. I was so shocked I didn't know what to say! Needless to say, he didn't get a tip for helping with the bags!!

I know just how you feel. I lost really well on the pre-op diet but have only managed a pound or two since, yet I only really cheated on Xmas Day (not by a lot) and New Year's Eve (had a couple of drinks but didn't eat over the limit). I'm starting to eye off that "Slow Losers Unite" thread on the main pages :confused: I've just about finished with the mushie stage now (as per instructions), and have found that now that I've moved onto more solid food, I am feeling some level of restriction. Not as much as I would expect after a fill, but a small bowl of solid food will fill me up completely and I am no where near as hungry as I was on the liquids and mushies. Still, in the 25 days or so since the op (10th Dec), I have gone over 800 calories a day only twice and then only to 1500 a day. I don't know what more restriction will do for me, as I am staying in the boundaries using will power alone so far (albeit easier lately). I spent the first 10 days after the op on around 3-400 calories a day and STILL didn't lose Getting restriction might make it easier to stick to the diet, but if you can't lose on under 800 cal for a month, what the heck's going on?? I'm due for my first fill on Jan 15 and if nothing has changed by then, I'm going to make an appointment with the dietician and see if she/he can suggest what is going on. PS: Yes, I am exercising more now - not a lot but decidedly more than previously.

I really don't get this. I did 10 days on a liquid pre-op diet, averaging 6-800 calories a day and lost 10lb in that time. in the 4-5 days post-op, I was on Clear liquids and barely cracking 300 calories a day and lost another 4-5lb. At 15 days from the start of the pre-op diet, I had lost 15lb. I was ecstatic! I had a really easy time of it for the operation - hardly any post-op pain, a little gas but not a problem. Wounds are recovering well. As per doctor's advice on Day 4/5 I moved onto thick liquids and have still been maintaining around 350 calories a day for the last 4 days (it is now Day 8 post-op, Day 18 since the diet began), and EVERY DAY for the last 4 days I have GAINED almost a pound!! What the hell is going on? I'm not stopped up - have been taking a laxative and been twice since the op. I'm not cheating ONE BIT and I'm going up as fast as I came down. This has been my menu for the last 4 days: Breakfast: 1/2 cup diet jelly, 1/2 cup fat free yoghurt - 45 cal, 7g Protein, 7 g carb, 0 fat Lunch: Optifast - 152 cal, 17g proteing, 15g carb, 3g fat Dinner: Heinz 99% Fat Free Soup (average) - 66 cal, 5g protein, 8g carb, 1g fat Snack meal somewhere in there: Heinz 99% Fat Free soup (average) - 66 cal, 5g protein, 8g carb, 1g fat 2-3 cups of coffee with 0% fat milk and Equal sweetener @ 43 cal, 4g protein, 6g carb, 0g fat. Total: 382 cal, 37g protein, 44g carb, 6g fat How the HELL can I be gaining almost pound a day on that? I know the scales will go up and down with Fluid retention, etc, but this has been 4 days in the UPWARD direction! I was down to 259lb and today I'm back at 263!! I refuse to update my ticker upwards!! I don't feel sick, no gas pains, no vomiting/retching...in fact I feel perfectly fine and as though I could eat normally (but I won't - which is hard coz I'm hungry!). If that damn scale doesn't move in the right direction again tomorrow, I'm going to cry As it is, it's going to take 4 more pound before it even counts

NO NO NO!! Don't go now - just when I was getting out the popcorn and settling in for a rousing battle between The Duelist and the Cyber Sisters!! *ding ding ding* And there goes the bell, folks, time for Round 4 of: The Duellist VS The Cyber Sisters!!! :ranger:

Ok, I fell off the wagon badly yesterday but today I am gonna pick myself up and get back on it. From post-surgery to the day before yesterday (20th Dec), I had gone 9 days straight on less than 400 calories a day - not aiming for that number but just eating the fat free Soups, yoghurts and jellies up to 4 times a day. Regardless of all the "you're healing after surgery", "you're just rehydrating", etc, I still felt I should have seen SOME movement in the scales - how the hell can you eat so few calories for so long and not lose?? But there I was - regained 3lb in the days immediately following surgery, then have been stuck without movement for a week! Yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore and gave into the cravings that have been bugging me since I started the pre-op. I rationalised it by saying maybe I've gone into "starvation mode" and what I need to do is EAT! So anyway, it was only Post-op Day 10 but I went to Domino's and got those spicy chicken wings I was dying for and ate all four!! My god, they were GOOD!! I ate them really slowly, chewed thoroughly and relished every bite, so there! It gave me no pain but I did feel full afterwards (whereas previously I would have eaten them as an appetiser, then had half a pizza [blush]). I also had several soups and two serves of custard, so I felt like I had stuffed my face all day. Surprisingly, FitDay says it wasn't as bad a blowout as I had thought - here's the numbers And after all that? This morning on the scale - no change! I'm going to just go back to eating semi-normally (still mostly soups and smaller quantities, and just say f**k it till I get my fill. I'm disappointed that the loss is stopping, as I have told all my friends and family and I was looking forward to being able to show off a big difference at Xmas, but I guess I'll just have to settle for the 6kg loss and pick it up again after January... Can anyone tell that patience is not my long suit? LOL!!

I seem to have been dropped off somewhere along the way, so I'll just add myself again... USA chatita - Houston, Texas christasha - Chula Vista, California DonHoll1 - Indiana egorsgirl1 - suburb of Dallas,Texas Ellisa - Ohio freebird - Cheyenne, Wyoming grannyk - Missouri InTheCityGirl - Las Vegas, NV Jazzywoman - Ohio jomama36 - Sterling Heights, Michigan jwright - Michigan Kennergirl - Louisiana motocrossgirly - Liburn, Georgia Sandy63 - Dahlonega, Georgia sfeiner - Baraboo Wi sghatl - Georgia thundandlight - Massachusetts tomecia25 - Dallas, Texas Twilight - Montana MrsKrzyz- Western New York Antsmith101 - Irvine, California CANADA Meghan1983 - Hamilton, Ontario AUSTRALIA Sewenup1 - Sydney Fanny Adams - Perth

HI Cherry, I'm a new bandster too (Dec 10) and also in Perth. Welcome to the club

I have 6 incisions - 4 really small, one about an inch and the other about 2 inches. All with just the Dermabond glue, so I can see the gory bits nice and clearly

I hear you loud and clear... that is, what I can make out over the roar of my stomach rumbling... I've been dreaming of spicy chicken wings for days now...

Hmm... I think sodium might be the significant factor here. After all those days on Optifast (yuck!), I was craving some savoury food and the Soups were hitting the spot, and those are pretty high in salt content (*makes the evil eye sign against low salt soups*). I was piling on the salt too, to try to satisfy my hunger, so I probably upped my salt intake by a factor of 10. oops! I'll try salt-free for the next few days and see what difference that makes. By the way, I am not specifically trying to keep the calories that low - it just works out that way. With the limited choices on the liquid diet, the items I like (as listed above) only work out to around 350-400 a day.

My doctor didn't insist on a pre-op diet but did recommend it and explained the advantages in terms of liver reduction, etc (with comparative videos to make the point!) However, he didn't give me any specific instructions and I didn't have time to see the dietician before I had to fly back to work. I've been trying to stick to it with some adaptations, thinking that I had a bit of leeway because the doctor hadn't insisted I bought the vanilla Optifast option which has 152 cal, 2.3g fat, 15g carb, 17g Protein. The recommendation is 3 x Optifast + salads/low carb veges, giving a total of about 500 cal, 7g fat, 60g carb and 51g protein. This seems high in carbs and low in protein to me. I've been substituting the evening drink with a small meal of very lean meat and low carb veges and putting my daily intake into Fitday.com. It comes out at around 550 cal, 12g fat, 50g carb and 60g protein. While the fat content is a little higher, the carbs are lower and the protein higher and it is MUCH more satisfying to eat! A couple of days I've had a slightly bigger piece of meat and its gone up to 650 cal, with similar rises in the others. So my question is, am I blowing this by not sticking to pure liquids? What is the purpose of liquids in the pre-op stage? If the point is simply to lose weight quicky, then surely 550 to 650 cal should do the trick? The carb/protein balance on the Optifast is much more carb heavy than the Atkins diet, so I don't think the aim is to get into ketosis (I'd need to get my carbs down under 30g for that I think - not sure). If I've stuffed this up, I have another week to go before the op to correct it, but I have had to guess as best I could, as I am 3000km away from doctor's advice at the moment. Can you folk help?

I had my first appointment to see the surgeon on 27th November and I have got my date for surgery ALREADY!! And it is in only 2 weeks (12th December) - PANIC STATIONS!! I have been dreaming about doing this for several years, thinking seriously about it for over a year, as now I am in a position to be able to pay for it (full self-pay, no private cover :cry), and have been discussing it with my GP for the last few months as I gave alternative methods (eg drugs) one last ditch try. He gave me the referral to the surgeon 6 weeks ago, but the surgeon was booked out for a while and I work Fly In/Fly Out, so didn't get to see him until just this week. He said asked if I wanted it done before Xmas and I nearly fell off my chair!! I was expecting January to be the absolute earliest and more likely later! Oh boy...now the reality hits. Am I really going to go through with this? What if I panic and run away from the hospital on the night before? ARGH!! Part of me says I need time to get used to the idea but most of me wants it done NOW NOW NOW and dreads the waiting time. I also thought about whether doing this before Xmas was such a good idea, but decided that if I couldn't face giving up the Xmas dinner pigout this year, what made me think I could face doing that forever? *quakes in her boots*

I figured safer surgery, less slippery difficult to hold liver and fewer lacerations and damage would automatically translate into a faster recovery with less pain. It seems logical that reducing all those things would reduce internal bruising and swelling, thus reducing pain.

This is my favourite thread in the whole board and I'm going to be on that list one day... one day SOON!!!

First google hit for "lap band slippage" - they all say about the same thing. Note the underlined bits (my underlining): "The two most common complications associated with the LAP-BAND® procedure are band slippage (up to 3-5%) and band erosion (up to 1%). A band slippage can be described as when a portion of the stomach slips up through the band and causes dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), nausea/vomiting, and acid reflux. Band slippage can be caused by a repeated or sudden increase in intraabdominal pressure. This could be related to repeated vomiting or even trauma caused by a car accident. A band slippage usually requires the patient to return to the operating room for repair. A band erosion is related to the pressure of the band being wrapped around a hollow organ. Over time, the band may erode through the stomach wall and if this occurs, reoperation is required. "

This is from the printed information given to me by my surgeon before the op: "REMEMBER In the first month, gradually increase the food and ensure that you eat slowly. Avoid a situation of food getting stuck as vomiting, especially early, may tear sutures around the band and increase the risk of SLIPPAGE and further surgery." My doctor gave me 2 types of anti-nausea medicine to take home after the surgery. One is Metoclopramide, which is for general nausea, to be taken up to 4 times a day if necessary. The other is Ondansetron, which is a wafer to be put under the tongue in "emergencies" only, i.e. if you are just about to chuck. He was very insistant that I don't let myself get to the point of heaving, and apparently the latter stops the urge instantly. I haven't needed to take either yet (4 days post-op) but I'm hanging onto them for possible future problems. You might want to talk to your doctor or chemist about anti-nausea medicines. Better to have them on hand and stop the heaves before they begin, than to let it get to the stage of needing a trip to the ER. I haven't had a fill yet, but everything I've read about them says that you should go back onto liquids for at least 24 hrs after a fill, so if you've been trying solid foods again straight after a fill, that could explain the vomiting. If I were you, I'd go onto liquids for a day, then mushies for a day, then back to normal band eating after that, on every fill. That's my plan anyway...

My starting point was 125kg (275lb) on November 27. After 10 days of pre-op and 4 days post-surgery, I'm at 120.2kg (261lb), so have lost 14lb in 14 days... whoohoo!

My doctor gave me 2 types of anti-nausea medicine to take home. One is Metoclopramide, which is for general nausea, to be taken up to 4 times a day if necessary. The other is Ondansetron, which is a wafer to be put under the tongue in "emergencies" only. He was very insistant that I don't let myself get to the point of heaving, and apparently the latter stops the urge instantly. I haven't needed to take either yet (4 days post-op) but I'm hanging onto them for possible future problems. You might want to talk to your doctor or chemist about anti-nausea medicines. Better to have them on hand and stop the heaves before they begin, than to let it get to the stage of needing a trip to the ER.

I hope it went well for all the people being done today and goes well for those up tomorrow. Good luck all!

ROFLMAO!!! Damn this liquid post-op phase!! I want popcorn!!!