SuzanneG

My sister gave me the "I can't imagine having a foreign object in my body" speech. Then I reminded her of our mom's defibrilator that they put in her chest after open heart surgery 2 years ago, not to mention the screws in my foot. Why is the band the only exception to what can go in your body long-term? Seriously.

I've seen where a lot of people on here eat salad, but I have to admit, for me, I still don't/can't eat it. I can, however, eat raw carrots, cukes, and tomatoes. I just don't like the way the lettuce turns yucky when chewed a lot. Which is a little sad because I used to LOVE salads, but I don't miss them as much now.

I worry about the same thing, but so far it hasn't been a problem for me. Would love to hear if it has been a problem for anybody with bad cold or allergies.

I was denied by BCBS the first time through and my BMI was 35.1. I appealed - I wrote 2 letters from me, then asked my GYN, GP, Gastrointerologist, and Podiatrist to all write letters of support. They all did. Then my surgeon wrote his own and we submitted it as one big packaged and I was approved. One thing, I ate like there was no tomorrow during the time when I was gathering the letters (for some docs it was like pulling teeth to get them, but I just kept calling). Anyway, by the time I wrote my letter, my BMI had climbed to 36.7 which also helped me get approved. If you end up needing letters, PM me and I'd be happy to share mine. Good luck to you!

LOL - I love buffalo wings too, but haven't had any trouble with them. I haven't PB'd or slimed, but a few of the things I don't eat now, the biggest is pizza. I'm too scared to try it. Ground beef totally grosses me out when chewed too much, you find things in there that you never wanted to know about. YUCK!

Honestly the struggle doesn't end with the surgery, but it becomes manageable in a way that it never was before. My doctor used to tell me that his biggest patients were one meal a dayers so you may want to change that asap. My doctor currently requires 3 meals a day. I was so happy to hear it wasn't 6 meals a day because I just can't manage that, but I see others on here that do eat 6 times a day. Best of luck to you!

Hi WannaBeMeAgain and welcome to LBT! I was in Chicago for my son's graduation from Navy bootcamp last month. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! This is the best possible place to find out anything and everything about lapband. Best of luck to you.

Hi Everyone, On May 10th I will be running in the Richmond, VA, Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure. This is a cause that is very near and dear to my heart. My sister, mom, grandmother, 2 aunts, 2 cousins have all battled breast cancer. Half of them are winning the race, the other half have passed away. I had a preventive mastectomy in January of last year. I will be running the race with my sister, neice, daughter, and friends. Please show your support with a donation to our team! Click on the link below and then click the button that says "Support Suzanne". Richmond Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure: Thank you all so much!

Thanks for the support. You'd be amazed at how much negative feedback I got when I decided to do the surgery. I applied for leave donation at my work, so it was public knowledge. Once I came back and told that they found pre-cancer, all the people who said "Why have the surgery when you don't need to" were saying "OMG, you're so lucky you had the surgery when you did". I didn't opt for reconstruction. At 42 and married, it didn't seem like such a big deal and the pics of reconstruction weren't great. I figured it only looks "normal" in clothes, then why not save myself tons of extra pain and recover and just wear prosthesis. Lucky I did that too, because with the weight change, at least this way I can change sizes on a whim. LOL Thanks again for the support.

Thanks. My daughter is 20 and will be an RN in May of this year. We never got the gene test as I had mixed thoughts on this. I felt like the test only identifies certain strains of cancers and are they are still identifing new ones. So, if the test was negative for BRCA1&2, then it could provide a false sense of security and if it was possitive, well that would certainly be a load on my 20 year old's mind. Not to mention possible impact on future insurance issues. My daughter's best friend lost her mom (a friend of mine) 2 years ago and plans to have a preventive mastectomy at 25. Thanks for the support folks!

Thank you so much! They did my surgery in the nick of time, I had pre-cancerous tissue on one side. Wouldn't it be amazing if they found a cure before my daughter had to think about it?

I had my surgery on Jan 4th and had my first fill Friday the 15th. He put 4.5cc in my 10cc band. I feel slightly less hungry than before, but still growling. I called my doctor's office and she said if I'm hungry, I should get a fill. I'm on hold now, waiting for my appointment.

I did it again. I got my first fill Friday 4.5 cc in a 10cc band. Last night when I had dinner, I got a little uncomfortably full. I haven't PB'd or anything, but I was a little stuffed feeling. I'm going to be more dilligent about measuring my food from now on.

Getting my first fill tomorrow and it can't come soon enough. However, I'm really nervous. Both about the pain and possible problems with too tight. I work 3 hours away from my doctor and live about an hour away so I don't want to have to have an emergency un-fill. My PA said just to mention it to the doctor and they'll be conservative with the fills, but at the same time, I'm STARVING and am hoping for genuine restriction, so I'm torn in two directions.

I have the Realize band and thought I read on here that it comes with the low profile port. Mine is also directly below my incision. I go for my first fill tomorrow. Thanks for all the great feedback, I feel better already.

My doc said that they have had only 1 patient in all their years of practice who never needed a fill. Wish it was me, but I'm going in for my first one tomorrow.

So sorry you weren't feeling well. I've been worried about this same thing and gone to great lengths myself to aviod those infected around me. Although memebers of my extended family have gotten, no one in my house has gotten sick yet. Thank goodness. I called my GP and asked for nausea meds and he said call my surgeon. I guess I'll ask them tomorrow when I go in for my fill.

I took a 15 hour trip 3 weeks after surgery. It wasn't bad at all, but do be careful about the blood clot thing. Get out and walk often.

My stats are almost identical to yours, only I'm STARVING. I'm scheduled for a fill tomorrow and it can't come fast enough for me. Having said that, I've stayed really close to the same diet as you and I also am only losing 1-2 pounds a week. This past week, I cheated once, went to Carlos Okelly's, had some drinks and chips and small dinner. It took me all week to get that weight gain back off, so for this week, I was ZERO pounds lost. :cursing: Hopefully I won't do that again any time soon. Sounds like you're doiing everything right, but I would'nt cancel that fill too soon. I noticed this past week I got hungrier and hungrier, so you may decide it would benefit you after all.

I'm a month out from surgery and I'm finding I just can't get enough sleep. I normally get up at 4:00am anyway, so I'm used to feeling tired, but it seems more drastic now and this morning I have dark circles under my eyes. I know about the importance of protien and I am careful to focus on that at every meal. One thing my doctor does that a lot of folks on here don't do is that he says NO PROTIEN shakes once I started on food, so I doubt I'm getting my 60, but I'm definitely making protien at least 3 of the 4 oz of food that I'm allowed. Any suggestions? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

I have increased my Protein. I started eating South Beach bars for breakfast, 19 grams, and there are so many yummy South Beach lunch kits which are small as well as Tuna lunch kits, all include around 20-24 grams and then my dinner is always protein heavy. So I think I'm doing OK now on that too. Now if I can just get to that first fill, this Friday. I've been in bandster hell for over a week now and I'm struggling.

Thanks for the suggestions, I do take a liquid multi-vitamin. Things have improved dramatically since getting off of the cholesterol meds. I think that was the problem, not the band after all.

Mine does it too. I now have these super big, washing machine churning, kind of growls.

You may want to call around. I was having trouble getting through the process with my surgeon and found out that several surgeons in my area were willing to accept the seminar, psych eval, etc. that I had already completed. I know it's frustrating, but don't give up! It's totally worth it.

Yes, he does it under fluoro. I'm doing mostly soft food now. I'll do liquids that day.