SpecialK

Forgive the excitement for posting this in 3 places on the forum but wanted to share with my Mt. Carmel buddies especially since you've been a great support as well as my March 2008 Shrinking Shamrocks group and the whole Columbus group.... I changed my avatar this a.m. to reflect that I'm tooting my own horn for getting to Twoterville as of this a.m.!!!! 299.... who would of guessed I'd proudly proclaim that only to those who really understand how I feel -- won't be sharing the actual number with family and friends who had no idea what my weight was so I don't really feel up to telling them this number at this point. Maybe later... Second, I updated my ticker and it showed my BMI has dropped below 50! :teeth_smile: By my doctors office I have crossed the 50 lbs mark, but I have just a teensy bit more to go by my scale and tracking but I'm hopeful I'll celebrate that golden moment this week.

Congratulations Heather!!! I'm so happy for you! :teeth_smile::tt1::tt1::wink2::tt1::ohmy: 7 Smilies for 70 LBS!!

I changed my avatar this a.m. to reflect that I'm tooting my own horn for getting to Twoterville as of this a.m.!!!! 299.... who would of guessed I'd proudly proclaim that only to those who really understand how I feel -- won't be sharing the actual number with family and friends who had no idea what my weight was so I don't really feel up to telling them this number at this point. Maybe later... Second, I updated my ticker and it showed my BMI has dropped below 50! :teeth_smile: By my doctors office I have crossed the 50 lbs mark, but I have just a teensy bit more to go by my scale and tracking but I'm hopeful I'll celebrate that golden moment this week.

Yes, I changed my avatar this a.m. to reflect that I'm tooting my own horn for getting to Twoterville as of this a.m.!!!! 299.... who would of guessed I'd proudly proclaim that only to those who really understand how I feel -- won't be sharing the actual number with family and friends who had no idea what my weight was so I don't really feel up to telling them this number at this point. Maybe later... Second, I updated my ticker and it showed my BMI has dropped below 50! :teeth_smile: By my doctors office I have crossed the 50 lbs mark, but I have just a teensy bit more to go by my scale and tracking but I'm hopeful I'll Celebrate that golden moment this week.

Welcome Deb and Kim to the Ohio bandsters forum threads. You'll find there are threads for Central Ohio, Cincy, Cleveland, Dayton, etc. so hope you enjoy getting connected to those close to your area. I've met some great ladies in person now based on meeting through the Ohio forum here.

Well I had a checkup today with my primary care doc who was very anti weight loss surgery specifically on RNY and when I went and said after a very concerted effort with WW and exercise and I still wasn't losing, I had chosen to pursue lapband surgery she was very neutral - not supportive but not anti-lapband either because she just never has had a patient have the surgery so I'm her learning tool! Anyway, when I went to the doctors' office I took a picture of what an AP band and port look like, a chart showing how I've tracked my weight as its gone down since my pre-op high, surgery day, fill #1,#2, and #3 and she was very pleased and excited for me. I even showed her my fluroscopy pictures of my insides that showed my band, the tubing and the port and she was really fascinated about it. She finally asks me if I'm having diarrhea, how my energy level is, any problems (like RNY patients do) and I kept saying "No, doing great. Glad I did this." So as she is leaving the room and said well it looks like you're doing great. I'll see you in 4 months for your annual physical and we'll do a full workup on bloodwork, etc. and confirm things at that point but by my records you've lost 50 lbs and Keep doing what you are doing, its working. Amen!!! I'm hoping I'm helping make it easier for her next morbidly obese or severely obese patient to approach her or for her to even disclose to them that lapband is a weight loss option (she never told me about it). I need one last favor, keep thinking good thoughts for me as I'm on the edge of Twoterville (at 301 today) and am dying to see the first number on my weight change to a 2. However, I went to Don Pablos at lunch today and didn't think I did too bad but when I entered it into my food diary, it was way more calories than I ever dreamed...step away from the basket of tortilla chips and skip the refried Beans (even though I ate about 12 chips and about .25 cup of beans, that was about 284 calories for the chips and 76 calories for the beans. It wasn't worth it. On the positive side, the beef enchilada I had was about 270 calories and 16 grams of Protein -- so that was worth it!

Interesting but in my humble opinion, I think it is important to know what size/type band you have and what fill level you are at. If you are out away from your hometown area or where you had surgery and have an emergency, it would be good info to know immediately. I'd ask them to tell you and if they won't I'd wonder why not. An informed patient is a good patient!

I had my third fill last week to get to 8.5 cc's in my 14 cc band and I'm at a total of 48 lbs in 4 months. I'm thrilled.

Patty - so excited for you - what time is surgery if you know yet? Lyn and I will be there at the docs office for Fills the day you're having surgery. I'll say a prayer for you but I'm sure you'll do fine as Doc Price did good for me and lots of others!

Well Lyn, I think what you are getting to is the first pangs of bandster he** but get to Mushies and see how you do once you can chomp your teeth into something. I can tell you that Niki, myself and others were ready to chew a leg off by the time we got to our first fill, then it was better for awhile, then some hunger until 2nd fill, etc. BTW - I'll be in the office Sept 2 getting what might be my 4th fill-- what time will you be there?

I flew just 3 days after a fill and had no problems at all. No problems getting through security, no problems in the air or afterward. I would recommend taking along a good size water bottle, empty, and then fill it from the airport drinking fountain once you are past security. They won't let you have unopened bottles of water past the security checkpoint. Bring whatever snacks you'd like, I took a couple protein bars and a cheese stick and I was fine. On my 3 hour layover, I was able to find food options I could eat to get by. Have a great vacation...I'm already ready to go again!

Slimfast has a protein snack bar that is chocolate and peanut butter crunch and is 120 calories - tastes like a Buttefinger candy bar to me!

Okay folks I would say this fill still hasn't taken me to my ultimate sweet spot because I was still able to eat 3 oz of steak, half a potato and maybe less than 1/2 of my salad at lunch then 6 hours later finished the other 3 oz of my steak and the other half of the potato. Eating very slowly and being very full with the 1/2 of the meal but still surprised I could eat that much before getting my signal to stop. I did have a little NSV over this though... my Mom and I were out eating together and she is always the last one done eating and it was so funny to see her eat a dinner roll, polish off her salad, and eat most of her 10 oz ribeye steak and sweet potato when I ate what is listed before this. In the past, I would have had the bigger steak and been finished way ahead of her. I ordered the smallest size steak (6 oz) and was surprised to see I could only eat half of that.

I'm doing the happy dance for you!!! :thumbup::tt1::tt1:

I find it very inspiring that we are so HONEST with each others of our failures as well as Celebrate our successes. Keep Shrinking all you Shamrocks! I'm down a couple already from fill #3 this week and its keeping me motivated that much more to get more exercise. I'm getting ready to head out for a walk while its cooler this a.m. I had a funny thing happen -- decided to start wearing my pedometer on my waistband of my slacks and shorts again to see how many steps I"m getting in. Then I went to the ladies restroom pulled down the drawers, went to pull them back up, and of course as some of you may have, the toilet automatically begins flushing as soon as you get up or start to step away and the pedometer flips off my waist band right into the flushing toilet... it flushed right down but the Water kept swirling and swirling and I was thinking oh no! its going to block the toilet up and I'm going to have to tell the building services group what happened.. embarassment deluxe... but fortunately it went down and stayed down and seemed okay. So, pedometer #2 is ready for service today but I'll be more careful ...hee hee (Just for Fenton and guys... see how lucky you are not having to pull down pants most of the time in the bathroom!)

Lady QT -- Congratulations on a wonderful accomplishment in your life to get healthy... and being able to shop in whatever stores you want is a great bonus! Keep moving and you'll get those last pounds off. Lyn -- how is the last days of pureed going? I'm back up to some real food again today after going soft and mushie foods yesterday fine. So far I don't see alot of difference in restriction but I'm not eating full food yet and I'm eating very small bites and chewing very well just to be sure so we'll see and I think it takes a week or so for me to really see how a fill is going to settle in.

Are the silicone strips in the same area of CVS as like band-aids?

Sorry to hear you got your internet wings at work clipped but it happens and I happen to be in a job role in IT Security and compliance to company policies and things where I get exposed to being the group to have to do the monitoring of internet use. It turns out that it is really sad how many employers have had to purchase and implement expensive blocking and filtering software to keep employees and contractors from abusing their internet privileges on all kinds of sites. There are companies that have all sports, entertainment, games, and miscellaneous sites all blocked to keep productivity up. The ugly part of the things I see are the ones who still try to surf pornography while on the job - we have a posted zero tolerance policy that people can be and have been fired for their first offense. My own company blocks all access to every personal email site, anything that has been categorized as racist, hate, bomb making, and various things that I would have never believed we would have to block in order for employees to use the right discretion but they just don't do it. Its men, women, younger and older, married, single, gay and straight, etc. that abuse things at work. We can see what sites someone visited, how many times they hit the site, per day, per month, what category the site is considered, how many minutes went by from the time you hit one website until you moved to another, what files were downloaded, etc. Bottom line, the internet resources of the company are theirs to monitor at all times. So, for now, I'd take this slap on the hands as something of a learning experience, and wait to see what it takes to earn your internet privileges at work back again. Sorry for the tough love here but if you boss could see all your hours on the internet were for this website or others that he/she knew were not work related, he was within the company rights to do what he did.

Absolutely look for another doctor. You will have a long term relationship with your bariatric surgeon and his office and this was an unacceptable and inappropriate manner with how he treated you. Good luck!

As my signature shows I had surgery March 17 and I just had my 3rd fill yesterday July 22 to take me up to 8.5 cc's total in an AP-L 14 cc band. I'm on my second day of liquids so I can't tell much on restriction but fluids, jello and SF pudding all go down easy enough. We'll see how it goes with some cottage cheese tonight and then start full foods tomorrow.

I had my 3rd fill today and its liquids day for me. He took me up to 8.5 cc's in my 14 cc band. I've had no problems with liquids at all so I'm very encouraged. I treated myself to a chocolate Peanut Butter Protein shake for my dinner - using my PB2 in with the chocolate Protein powder and it was yummy. BNL -- I had a goof up this week too - thought ordering the Johnsonville brats appetizer would be a good protein lunch when a big group all went out on Tuesday and it was tasty - it turned out to be 2.5 brats sliced lengthwise, and I didn't realize they'd be batter dipped and deep fried. I ate 1.5 and was full and then ate the rest as a snack later in the afternoon. When I looked up the calories for 2.5 brats it was like 600 calories and I didn't even look at the fat grams at that point. So, here's to my fill #3 and more self control!!!

I so remember how ready I was for something to chew on. One thing I tried was I took a small Wendy's chili and pureed it in my blender and it was so good - go the taste of the meat in my mouth and it really satisfied. Hang in there! I'm on liquids today and tomorrow so I'll be your partner for these few days, then mushies, then back up to food but we'll see how I did since I got a good fill amount today.

Hi bandsters! I can tell you I definitely like having an 8:30 am fill appt as the first patient of the day -- in and out in a breeze today with Dr. Miller. He has me up to a total of 8.5 cc's in my band as of today. Holding down fluids okay so far. He said "see you back in 6 weeks, no guarantee I'll give you another fill but we'll see how you are doing." ...and I got an appointment for Sept 2 before I left the office! I'm excited... For those who want a fill appt and can't get in for a long time to see Dr. Choban, consider checking to see him. He hit my port in seconds and it was totally painless.

I have a 14 cc band and I have 6 cc's as of my 2nd fill and I'm heading in for my 3rd fill this Thursday. I'm at 4 months post op. I have some restriction but not enough because I still can eat a bigger portion than I should be able to. The only thing I've had a significant feeling of stuck on was chicken when I tried to push it and eat more out at a restaurant beyond when I had that full pressure feeling come on. If you go that one more bite, then you can feel it.

I recently found this graphic of the AP band and port. Hope this helps. I have an AP-Large and my doctors switched to the AP once it was offered feeling it was better than the VG.