hope2bhealthy

i have cigna, and i had no problems. you'll have to do a 6 month diet, though. of course, i believe that it all depends on who your employer is, not who your insurance is. employers can choose to pay or not. but if they do pay for it, then cigna was pretty good. once the doc's office got all the info to them, i got the approval in less than a week.

hopefully if you stretch will and work on your shins you'll start seeing an improvement soon. i was always really bad about it, and then i'd try to jog/walk and 10 minutes in i'd feel like my shins were about to produce an alien baby. if it doesn't work for you immediately, keep at it. it can only help. and one thing to give you hope. once you drop a little weight, it might get even better. i jogged for the first time in a while yesterday, and not only did i make it through my intervals, my shins didn't hurt at all! i stretched really well, but i'm also 20 lbs down. it makes a difference. once you get banded and lose a few lbs, you'll probably notice an improvement in your shins, too.

i'm only in san marcos for 3 more days. moving back home to killeen. so sad. :thumbup:

hey, i live in Killeen, and i was just wondering if anyone who also lives there might want a band buddy. someone to work out with, keep you on track, etc. i've been banded or 6 weeks now, so i'm still at the beginning, and i'm just starting to exercise. if anyone is interested, let me know.

So, I know that everyone likes the high protein/low carb thing. And maybe you are doing it from doc's orders before your surgery. But one thing that you need to keep in mind is that your muscles need carbs to have energy. yes, your body can convert protein into carbs, but it's not an easy process and it's much better to just give it some carbs, particularly if you are about to ask it to work out. If you eat that banana, or have a cup of juice 15 minutes before you start a workout, you'll have more energy during that workout, which means you'll be more inclined to run further or faster and to push yourself. and any carbs that you take in are going to be burned up during your work out. then, AFTER your workout, you should have some protein to help build more muscle. I'm not slamming low carb, but i do think that if you are heavy, and you're going to ask your body to run, you should give it what it needs to do it efficiently. this will only be to your benefit. if your run really kicks your ass because you don't have any energy, then you are probably less likely to run again. but if you have energy, and you get a really good workout, then you'll be stoked to do it again.

So, if I repeat anything that you already know, I'm sorry. The problem with your shins is called shin splints. It's actually really common. I have them really bad myself, and have read alot about them and have even talk to my doc about them. A lesson in anatomy and physiology: muscles always come in pairs. The way a muscle works is that it contracts up. When one contracts, it pulls another into an expanded position. Then when that one contracts, it expands the other one. Your calf and shin muscles work together to move the front of your foot up and down. If your calf muscles are tight, then your shin muscles have to work extra hard to contract up because they are also expanding the calf muscles, which are tight and don't want to be expanded. This is what causes shin splints. The pain in your shin is your shin muscle screaming out every time it has to move because it's already completely pooped from pulling against your calf. To combat this, there are several things you can do. First and foremost, YOU HAVE TO STRETCH YOUR CALVES! You should really do this daily whether you work out or not, especially if you have problems sometimes when you're just walking (I do). Of course, if you don't do it daily, which most people probably won't, including me, then make sure you stretch them extra good before exercising. The best calf stretch is to stand on something like a stair or curb and drop your heal down off of it. Hold it for about 15 seconds on each side, and do it at least twice for each leg. Then stretch out the rest of your legs too, hamstrings and quads. All of your muscles are working together, so the looser your legs are in general, the better. Also, make sure to stretch them out again when you finish up, especially your calves. It really only takes about 2 minutes to stretch your legs well, and it will really help to stop the shin splints and prevent other injuries. The second thing you can do if you are determined to end the pain is to work on strengthening your shins with some exercises. One easy one is to put your toes under the edge of the couch and try to lift it with your toes (by pulling the front of your foot up, not by lifting your leg). Do this 10 times on each side. If you do this and your shins still keep hurting, don't rule out the possibility of a stress fracture, especially if the pain is bad and stretching doesn't help. Go to the doc if the pain keeps up.

when i woke up in the recovery room, i just remember having a hard time breathing the first couple of times i woke up. i could breathe, but deep breaths were hard, and for some reason i kept trying to take deep breaths. and i was unbelievably thirsty. i woke up and fell asleep about 5 or 6 times before i really woke up, and every time, i was incredibly thirsty, and they would give me an ice chip, then i would fall asleep again in relief. once i finally woke up they gave me some water, and that was better.

i think that your protein shake is only too many calories if it doesn't fill you up for a while. but if you drink it at 7 and don't want lunch until noon or 1, then it's fine, especially if it is really high in protein and not high in carbs. i have a shake like this that i make, and it fills me up for hours. slimfast has half the cals, but only fills me for 2, maybe 3 hours, so i end up eating the same amount of cals as if i'd had the good shake.

one thing with the scale: if you are going to get one, either go for a digital one, or get one of the small ones that tend to be the cheapest. just make sure it has some type of a cup-ish thing on top for putting stuff in. the only thing that you really might want to weigh is meat or cheese. it's nice to cut your meat into smaller portions and then freeze it. but if you get a big scale, it can't measure 4 oz properly. get one of the cheap ones that don't measure very much, and they will work better. i made this mistake and had to return the scale.

so, i've been banded about 5 weeks now, and most of my weight loss has been slow. for the most part, i track my food and try to stay at about 1500 cals a day. i weigh myself daily (it helps me be accountable) and i keep getting on week long plateaus where i will stay the same weight or go up or down a pound or 2. then it always seem my plateaus are broken on the day that i lay around watching tv all day, eating pizza and sugar cookie dough. this has happened on more than one occasion. why can i focus on my calories and Protein, etc, on most days and lose nothing, but the day that i say screw it and don't care, i drop 3 lbs? i've toyed with the idea that maybe i am one of the people that needs to consume more calories to lose weight, but i would hate to be wrong and gain 5 lbs back. i would like to discuss this stuff with the nut, but seeing as i am eating solids (and have been), when i'm still supposed to be on liquids, i don't think her advice would be constructive. i'll probably ask her anyway when i go in on thurs, hopefully to get my first fill, but i fear she will just yell at me again. (i got a big yelling at last time because i dared to put a banana in my Protein shake because fruit is full of sugar and thus unacceptable.) anyway, has anyone else had similar problems? it really is discouraging to lose weight eating the bad stuff and not the good.

the optima shakes have just about as much protein as the low carb ones. they just have sugar, too. if you bought a case of them, you might consider returning them. but if you just bought a 4pack or 2, i would just drink them. it isn't going to kill you. and they probably taste better.

Thanks everyone for replying with helpful suggestions and commiserations. one thing i think i should address is that quite a few of the people that replied seemed to be worried about me. Worried that I am sabotaging myself. On the one hand, maybe I gave the impression that I am sitting around gorging myself, but I am not. It took a couple of days for me and my roommate to finish off one pizza. And it was thin crust and vegetarian. So it was not the worst food in the world. And the sugar cookie dough was delicious, so I won't appologize for it. Everyone has to make their own decisions on how they will lose weight. Some people make the choice to stick to a diet completely and consider SF pudding a splurge. That is awesome for them, and they will probably lose weight quicker than me. Some people work out like crazy, and that is awesome too, and they will probably lose weight quicker than me, too. I have a different approach. I am not trying to go on a diet. I am trying to eat healthy, but like a normal person healthy. If I want to eat chocolate or pizza or ice cream, I will. Just like a normal person. The difference is that with the band, I can eat 1 or maybe 2 slices of pizza instead of 4. I can be perfectly satisfied with a 1/2 cup of ice cream instead of a whole bowl. I don't just eat bad foods, but I'm not going to banish them. This does not make me a bad bandster, and you don't have to worry about me. Notice that I HAVE lost 24 lbs in 6 weeks, so it seems to be working.

i was banded on 3/31. i gained about 5 lbs from swelling after the surgery. about the end of the first week, i dropped those 5 lbs plus about 10 more in 3 days. i thought, hell yeah, this is awesome. then it slowed down tremendously. since that first initial drop, i've sort of lost in slow spurts. it took me 3 more weeks to lose the next 5 lbs. and i would go up and down on the scale (i weigh daily). up 2 lbs down 2 lbs for 3 weeks. then, bam, a week ago i lost again for several days in a row, and now i'm down another 5 lbs. on the one hand, i was really frustrated because i felt stuck. on the other, i haven't had a fill yet, so i honestly haven't been too worried about not losing too fast. besides, 20 lbs in 5 weeks is pretty damn good by any standards. of course, the most frustrating part is that just about ever time that i've mini-plateaued then wake up 2 lbs down, it comes when i've eaten pizza and laid around on the couch the day before. :confused2: if only laying around and eating pizza and cookie dough had worked for me before, i'd be a model now and several thousand dollars richer. so, don't get too frustrated if you aren't losing as fast as you expected. 13 lbs is 13 lbs.

i have a realize band, also. i wasn't given a choice in what type of band i was banded with, but i really didn't care either way. my doctor uses only the realize bands. he likes the aftercare website. the website isn't bad, but if you are already using another site to track your food, it might not be worth switching. they did just update the site so that you can enter in your own foods if they aren't already in system. it is much better now. as for the band itself, from what i can glean, it's wider than some of the older bands. i'm not sure why, but i think i heard that this might help with slippage. i also heard that it has a low profile port. all of this is just info i've gotten from this site, though. good luck with your surgery.

for those of you who have a realize band and have been disappointed in the website because it won't let you enter your food, then your in for a treat. i just logged on to get some exercise cals (i don't use it for food because it sucked), and it says that it has been updated. you can now supposedly enter in your foods if they aren't in the database and also save meals. yippee! i haven't checked it yet to see how well it works, but i'm about to.

um, sweets ARE carbs. maybe you should change your poll to "breads or sweets" to avoid confusion.

my doc says that he doesn't worry about his bypass patients losing weight. he knows they will because the surgery basically leaves you no choice. he does worry about his band patients losing. BUT, he says that if a band patient does lose the weight, he doesnt worry about them keeping it off. to lose weight with the band, you have to change your habits, and by the time you lose your weight, you eat healthy and exercise. with the bypass, he DOES worry about them keeping the weight off, and he sees many gain some of their weight back. they don't have to relearn how to eat to lose weight, and after a year or so, when their stomach volume has naturally increased and they can eat some sugar again, weight can begin to creep back on. he also said that many docs that tout one surgery over the other do it because they are more familiar with that surgery, and so are more comfortable with it.

I know it might be frustrating that your specific question hasn't been answered by everyone, but you should also realize that a lot of people are reading it and they might be getting some good info from the other stuff as well. threads normally don't stay on topic. oh well.

i am supposed to be taking 2 multis and 3 Calcium daily, along with a pill to prevent gall stones. none of these pills can be taken at the same time as any other pill. it's super annoying, especially because i am eating about 1500 cals a day, and so i am not malnourished. so, i am taking only 1 multi and 1 calcium a day. i don't need more calcium than that because i am drinking milk and eating yogurt. the thing is, the Vitamin instructions from my doc are the same for banding and bypass except that bypass is supposed to take a b12 pill also. but since i don't have part of my intestines bypassed, and i am able to absorb all of my nutrients, why do i need to take as many pills as a bypass patient? sorry, this is sort of a sore subject for me. i got yelled at by the nutritionist at my last post op. oh well.

katie - i know you feel horrible right now, but the way you feel is probably not abnormal. since you are only 4 days p-o, your stomach is still swollen and sore. this is why you can barely get your fluids in. it is also why you feel like you have gas in your stomach and you need to burp but you can't. a good burp cant make it past the swelling. it took a while before i could burp regularly. i had my surgery on a monday, and i remember that on friday i was really hurting from gas pains. i felt horrible enough that i just had to lay in the recliner for 5 or 6 hours, trying to get the gas to go away. then all of a sudden, i belched for the first time since surgery, and it was wonderful. (i might have farted a few times, too, but a lady never tells:tt2:) and the next day i woke up and my gas pains were gone for good and haven't come back. the point of this is not to rub it in your face that my gas is gone, but to tell you to just hang in there for a little while longer, and yours will be too. once your swelling goes down, you will be able to get in more liquid, and hopefully you will be able to burp to relieve the gas once your swelling goes down. if you are feeling weak, then maybe you should drink Protein drinks instead of Water (they are mostly water themselves). that is, of course, if you are allowed Protein Drinks. if you are able to get some calories into you, even if it isn't much, you might feel better. if your holes are bleeding, when they weren't before, you might want to take it easier. maybe try not to bend at the waste until they are good and scabby. my docs instructions said that it is normal to have a orangish Fluid come out of you. maybe this is what you are calling bleeding? of course, if you are worried, call the doctor! you paid them a lot of money, so they can talk to you for a few minutes to allay your fears.

everything happened pretty fast for me, too, at least there at the end. i got approved and my surgery was scheduled for less than 2 weeks later. it was either take that day or wait another couple of months because my doc was booked. the good thing about it was that i didn't really have time to get nervous. the day of the surgery i was completely calm, because it all seemed very unreal. i'm not sure exactly why you are nervous about the amount of food you will be eating. is it the first couple weeks of liquids that worry you, or just the smaller portions allowed by the band in general? if it's the latter, then i can tell you that it does take a little getting used to eating less. i was getting some chili a couple of days ago, and i started to put a second ladle full in my bowl and had to stop myself. i knew that the first ladle would be plenty, but it was automatic to take more. you just have to relearn what your new portion size is. i know that "relearn" sounds intimidating, but the relearning is mostly so that you don't waste food by putting it on your plate and then not being able to eat it. and your head might want to eat a little more, but your stomach won't (isn't this how it is before the band, too?). you'll be hungry, but you'll just fill up on a normal (ok, slightly smaller than normal) amount of food. nothing to fret about. i didn't really like taking the prescription pain meds, either, but it was mostly that they made me sleepy when i had things i would rather be doing than sleeping. i was taking a liquid hydrocodone/tylenol mix. i needed it several times a day for the first couple of days, then mostly just at night or if the gas pains were really getting to me thru the end of the first week, then just at night to sleep comfortably for the next week. i stopped taking it during the day at all after the first week and switched to tylenol. after the end of the second week, i didn't even need tylenol day or night. if you take pain really well, and if your surgeon is good and doesn't do a number on you, you probably won't need much of the prescription meds. but the first few days you will probably need them, as they work much better than tylenol, and you will likely be uncomfortable without them. good luck on your surgery!!

Name............Current............Goal..............Lost..........Sti ll to Loose... Jennifer..........188................183................0............. .5............ KarenG............174...............169.................0..............5............. Tracy..............271...............265.................0..............6..........

So they should get a lap band after they've both already had gastric bypass, and are probably as skinny now as they'll ever be? and britney spears? just because she's gained a little weight this year with her mental problems, and 6 months ago she looked great? she should get a surgical implant? your body image must be way screwed up.

so, i have this pair of jeans that i used to wear the last time i weighed 270. actually, i think i probably got them when i was more 275-280. well, i'm 270 now, and i still can't button them. i can almost button them, but they would be very uncomfortable if i did. my current pants are all really loose because ive lost 20 lbs, but i'm not quite into the next smaller size of old pants, and i really don't feel like buying more (especially b/c it's summer). i'm just wondering if anyone else had these problems? are you as small at your weight now as you were when you weighed it before, or is your body different now?

queen latifah is gorgeous and healthy. what is she, maybe a size 16? she doesn't need fat people on the internet talking about how fat she is. and do you mean vincent d'onofrio? he's overweight in LOCI, but that man can lose weight or gain weight for a role when he wants to. he doesn't need a surgical implant to help him. i'm not trying to be crabby, but really, why do we sit around judging celebrities about their weight. yes, some of them probably do need WLS because they have been struggling with being morbidly obese. but since when is someone who's just overweight (like Vince Vaughn) a candidate for WLS in our eyes? What happened to all of the rhetoric about how hollywood has distorted our body images and our views of thin? VV being so fat he needs WLS is definitely a hollywood distorted body image.