Fanny Adams

I have a theory that all of the emphasis on the Atkins-like high protein/low carb eating patterns in this forum is because the US doctors are much more familiar with the bypass operation and they don't distinguish it from lapbanders. I want to see whether or not Australians are getting the same recommendations to eat high protein, drink protein supplements, etc. I know my doctor has not advised me to do this in any way and recommends a balanced diet of all the food groups, with smaller portions and low fat/low calorie intake. I feel this is a MUCH healthier approach, as there are distinct dangers in going the Atkins route (kidney stones, high cholesterol, etc). So what's your experience?

Hmmm... the toy idea doesn't always work. Fingers, yes! Go slowly, yes YES! But for me, I've never been able to get into toys there. They're just too hard and uncomfortable. My honey is well hung (9" and thick) and I was admittedly terrified at the idea of taking him there at first, although I had had a lot of pleasurable experiences in the past with less endowed guys. But even after 3 years, it still takes me a long while to work up to it with him and I have never like toys as substitutes or preparation, even though I enjoy then in the more usual place. One thing that my love does, that makes all the difference for me, is to hold himself still and ready and encourage ME to take all the control over how far and how quickly I ease into it. It can sometimes take a really long time before I relax enough, but when I do, it's oh boy! TAKE ME NOW!! Probably TMI for most people, but I just wanted to put it out there that toys aren't always the answer. They work for some, but if they don't work for you, that doesn't mean that the whole idea won't work...

I've certainly had the energy renewal!! And I look and feel different "down there" but sadly, no increase in sensitivity. I think that has a lot to do with my age (48) and generally things just getting less sensitive overall, not anything to do with the banding.

Hi Mimi - yes, I kind of dropped out of the loop for a long while, but lellow's tatt post caught my interest again :smile2:

You go for it, Lellow - the tatts look fantastic and I'm loving my boob job, so can highly recommend that too. Mind you, Bruce said the same thing to me re if you're dithering between two sizes, go for the bigger one, which I did but I'm kinda wishing I hadn't now. I wanted to stay the same size as pre-op (E cup) but I'm actually closer to an F now and they have dropped quite a bit in 12 months as they are quite heavy. Oh well, at 48 I'm not expected to have the boobs of a 20yo, am I? And I LOVE what he did with my bum - best part of the whole package I think. I'm seeing him next week to talk about a few minor tweaks/fixes but if I don't go ahead with those, I'll get the tattoos done before Xmas. If I do go ahead, I'll have to wait another 6 months for the scars to settle down again.

I know there are several Perth bandsters out there. The Melbournites and Sydneysiders have their own thread and we should too!! So who in here is from the West?

Yup - lingerie helps a LOT! Go to a good lingerie store and get fitted for quality stuff. It's more expensive but it makes a BIG difference. Stuff available online never fits properly when you have skin issues, and doesn't give the right support or hide the right things. Once you find that special something that helps you to feel sexy and disguises the sagging skin, take extra good care of it, so that you get your value for the money. It's worth it, believe me!

I know how you feel, coz it can be awkward. If it was me and it was a tampon, I'd probably just flush it (with all the attendant guilt feelings). If it was a pad and not easily flushed, I guess I'd have to go the 'wrap and toss' route. With any luck, the open waste paper bin might have something in it, so I could shove it to the bottom and hope it wasn't visible...otherwise I'd be using a LOT of their toilet paper to wrap and then probably put another layer of paper over it in the bin, LOL!

GRR!! I just had my third encounter with Dr Bowater (at Stephen Watson's rooms) and for the third time I've left his office annoyed as hell and not happy with the results! I signed up for the band with Stephen Watson, not Bowater and I am not happy about being fobbed off because Stephen has gotten "too important and busy" to deal with his patients personally now. Bowater is inconsistent in his advice and has been pushing his own variation of the US emphasis on Protein, and this is NOT the eating pattern that I want to follow. I'm sorry, but a diet consisting solely of tinned fish in olive oil, fish filets or chicken thighs, eggs, protein bars/shakes and the occasional vege or salad is NOT my idea of a healthy eating plan. As for his inconsistencies, ARGH!! Immediately after my plastic surgery, he wanted to refill me back to my full pre-op level of 7cc in a 10cc band. I had been pretty tight before the op and wanted to ease back into restriction slowly. Not realising how long the waiting times for follow up appointments were, I pushed him into only giving me 6cc, and intended to come back for another 0.5cc in a month's time. Well it turned out (AFTERWARDS) that I wouldn't be able to get another appointment until nearly THREE months later, by which time all my internal swelling from the op had gone down and my hunger was raging out of control. So I go back FINALLY for the fill, desperate and upset about gaining 5kg since my pre-PS weight. His response? To tell me all about how he'd only taken Fluid OUT from people that day and his new approach was that people should have LESS fill, not more, to lose weight. I'm pretty sure I know where that is coming from - if people are too tight, they switch to slider foods and liquids and overindulge in those because they are still feeling HUNGRY as the sliders/liquids don't fill them. Give those people a small unfill and they will be able to eat solid foods again and will be able to get full. Been there, done that, but believe me, that is NOT my problem right now! On the Saturday night before the fill on Monday, I managed to eat a HUGE dinner of Lamb Rogan Josh, Butter Chicken, Dahl, rice, steamed snowpeas and Naan bread and then went back for dessert of stewed apples & cranberries with icecream! I am NOT too tight!! I need restriction!! So after telling him all this, he reluctantly agreed to give me a fill. Foolishly, I didn't ask him how much he put in. Usually I check this carefully, but on Monday I was so upset at his reluctance to fill me that I just forgot. So Monday afternoon/evening, I try to stick to liquids as advised but I'm hungry all night. On Tuesday, I eat the eggs for Breakfast and by 11am have already finished the 2 cans of tuna, boiled egg and carrot/celery/cucumber salad that I brought to last me all day and I'm still hungry. I went back to camp and ate a full roast dinner for the evening meal - all this after the fill! So I call the doctor's office to find out how much fill he gave me - just as I suspected: 0.25!! Bloody hell!! I had meant to ask him for 1cm but was prepared to be talked down to 0.5cm. I didn't think he'd halve that again, after I told him how much I needed it! I promptly turned around and asked the office to make me another booking for another fill, asap. The best she could do is 5 weeks away but that's better than the 3 months I had booked on Monday with Bowater (and he had wanted me to push it out to 6 months down the track!) I have had enough of this guy! Stephen Watson is a great surgeon, even if he is an arrogant prick and his bedside manner sucks, but at least he LISTENED when I spoke and worked WITH me to get my band to where I needed it to be. Can anyone in PERTH recommend their doctor? How is he/she with follow up work? Do they listen? How far out do you need to book fill appointments? PS: Can anyone tell that I'm just a little bit pissed off?

I can't say that I've noticed this but I know what I'm going to do with the heads-up!!! I'm going to have to tell Chris that there is a correlation and I need the stimulation to get the extra restriction, hehehehe!! :smile:

The vanity one was undoubtedly a major reason but I also really wanted to feel fit and healthy again. I'd gotten to the point where heaving myself up out of an armchair was a major obstacle in my life. I wanted to be able to fit into the seat belts on the plane & bus to work, carry my suitcases across camp without fainting from exhaustion or bursting into tears if, for whatever reason, I had to go back and get something. Most of all, however, I wanted to live to enjoy my old age. My "aha!" moment was in October 07, when I had been working on the mines for 18 months and had gained 18 kilograms (40lb) in that time to reach my heaviest ever weight. I was working on a spreadsheet, figuring out what I was going to do with all this money I was suddenly earning in the booming resources industry here, and making a "5 Year Plan", when I realised that, if I continued to gain weight at the rate I was gaining, I would have eaten myself to death in 5 years :thumbup: I decided that the money spent to get the band done ASAP was well worth it... and have never regretted that decision!

I can't believe how much energy I have these days. Before banding, I was seriously convincing myself that I had "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" or something similar. Turns out I was just fat, unfit and depressed - go figure! I had to pick 15 years younger because 10 years ago, I was gaining weight rapidly and really starting to feel old and tired all the time. To be honest, I haven't felt this fit and healthy for more than 20 years!

To take your questions one at a time: 1. Is gaining weight normal when you start to eat regular food again? Yes, when you've been on liquids for a while (pre-op + post+op), you empty out your alimentary canal and this accounts for probably 5-10lb of the "weight loss". You probably would have noticed a marked decrease in the amount of matter eliminated from your system. When you start to eat regular food again, you refill yourself and this will appear to be a 5lb weight gain. Don't worry about it - it's normal. 2. I'm worried about stretching my pouch. I haven't gotten a fill yet. Is it possible to stretch the pouch before the first fill? Stretching the pouch is something that happens through significant over-eating over a prolonged period of time, i.e. always eating the the point of absolute fullness (as far as the band allows) and doing it often. If you haven't had a fill yet, it is unlikely that you will have restriction, so you won't be filling your pouch much at all -the food will be going straight through into your main stomach. The likelihood of stretching at this time is very small. 3. How would I know if I did stretch my pouch? It's hard to tell but if you had a fill test (i.e. they take out the Fluid in your band, measure it, and replace it) and the test showed that the band was very full and you should have restriction, yet you were still eating large meals, that might be an indicator - not a definite, just an indicator. 4. Is there any way that it can be fixed or if I ever do/did will I have ruined my chances at this working for me? Yes, in the event that you stretch your pouch, there are several remedies that can be applied before you have to even start thinking you might have "ruined things". One simple remedy is to do the "5 Day Pouch Test". Search this site for threads on that - there are dozens. 5. Would someone know if their band slipped? If so how? One of the common symptoms is being able to eat a lot in the day but getting severe reflux at night, i.e. when lying down/sleeping. 6. Do weird things cause the band to slip or is it simply overeating or something like that? There are several causes but you'd be better off asking your doctor about that one.

I think you are being more than a little hard on yourself and, to be brutally honest, a bit silly really! Don't let your imagination panic you into fearing the worst when it is really not likely :thumbup: 4oz of anything, eaten 4 months after banding, is not going to "ruin" your band! Goodness me, if they were that fragile, most of us would have ruined bands by now and the whole idea of banding would have been deemed to be a poor long term option! Being always hungry is a good indicator that you need another fill, that's all. You've had three so far - great! Go back and have another one. You'll find that fills sometimes work for a while but then, when you lose a bit of weight, the band comes loose again and you need another one. It is a continual adjustment process and one that you will go through several times more, I'm sure, before you hit goal.

She's great, isn't she? I'm going back on the 10th of May, which is six weeks after my last fill. I would have gone back after only 4 weeks, except that works out to be the 26th of April, which is a public holiday for Anzac Day. I really need the next fill but will just have to hang out till May. At least it is more manageable than it was last month, but still no where near restriction yet.

Oooh I dunno, but 2.5 hours doesn't seem like quite long enough to claim that it is working :thumbup::thumbdown:

Retta, it can be frustrating but we get the hang of things eventually :thumbdown:. If you've been vomiting and/or getting really bad pain from getting stuck, go back to liquids just for the day and let your stomach rest. Over the next couple of days, work your way through the post-op phases again, i.e. Clear Liquids on the day of problems, thick liquids/soups the next day, mushies on the day after that and then back to solids. At each stage, assess yourself. If you are having trouble with mushies after 1 & half to 2 days on clear/thick liquids, you may well be too tight and need some Fluid taken out. The "sweet spot" is when you can eat small solid meals and not feel out of control with hunger; it doesn't eliminate hunger altogether. By the way, my doctor says that if you are too tight to eat in the morning, take advantage of that and skip breakfast. He says that even though the nutritionists don't like that idea, they are thinking more about people who are not carrying a lot of excess weight. As obese people, we are in no danger of malnutrition from skipping one meal in the morning and should save the calories up for later in the day when we are hungry again.

You should be fine with Maria. She was great - listened and paid attention to what I was saying, unlike Bowater. I could not only eat a bowl of rice, I've been eating 3 course meals - Soup, mains (including rice, Pasta, steak, whatever's going!) AND dessert, with bread on the side!! EEK!! Trying desperately to make good choices for the mains but even with all that, Bowater threatened to take some fill OUT! This last fill has made it a little easier to have some measure of self-control, but I can still eat anything and lots of it, if I'm not careful. I'll do what I can this month and go back again until we get it right!

I went back for another fill yesterday and got Dr Maria Ingham. She was fabulous, gave me the 0.5ml I wanted and agreed that I should come back every month for anothe 0.25ml until I got the band where I want it to be. YAY!! I made sure all my future appointments are going to be with her :thumbup:

Great advice, Lellow :blushing: I'll try that. I've booked to go back for another fill on the 29th March and I'll see how that goes. If he gives me a hard time, I'll be writing to Stephen immediately. But more importantly, how did your holiday go? Did you have fun??

That's where I want to be, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm barely managing the control over the hunger at the moment and could really do with another 0.25ml. I think the 0.5ml that I wanted at the last fill would have been perfect but I do agree that being too tight is worse than not tight enough. I just want my sweet spot back!

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence on this site about rapid weight loss affecting one's cycle, usually making it much heavier and more painful. It evens itself out after a couple of months. The reports about the effects of your cycle on restriction are very different for each individual - some people feel much tighter during their period, others feel much less restriction. My personal experiences were that my periods got heavier and more painful for about 6 months after the op (when I was losing weight at the fastest pace) but it's all back to normal now. I get starving hungry on the day before I'm due and can eat everything in sight! This eases off by Day 2 after I start and my appetite returns to normal. On the day (or day after) I finish, I usually see a 2-3lb sudden drop in weight, which I put down to letting go of all the Fluid retention from the previous week. Everyone is different but your experiences are by no means unusual.

I'm managing to cope at this fill level. Still not enough, and I have no trouble eating a full meal if I want, including bread, pasta, etc. However, I am able (with a lot of self-control) to stick to reasonable portions and general healthy eating. I'm hoping that this, together with starting back with my trainer and exercise program, will get me through until the next fill. I'm even hoping for a small loss - not expecting much but a little should be possible, no?