Jachut

I dont know, I dont think I *need* plastic surgery. My boobs are horrible, very saggy and empty, they will probably get some attention at some point in time. My stomach, well, its hardly washboard, but its OK. My bum has ALWAYS been wobbly and always will be. I'd need a total body lift to improve my backside and the backs of my thighs and I'm in no way prepared to go through a surgery like that, I really do fall on the side of learning to live with and love what mother nature gave you. I dont have any real *problems* in that there's huge flaps of disfiguring loose skin so for me, I think the answer is to be happy with what and who I am. I am 42 and a mother of 3 afterall. I lost 100lb.

Dh is banded too and at night we both lie down in bed and the opera starts. We laugh and laugh at the noises that come from our stomachs. Like you say, its lower, definitely intestinal air moving around, but not in a flatulent kinda way, lol. Its not like you need to fart or anything. Its just kind of there, and when you lie down, all the bubbles rise to the surface, lol. It must be due to the smaller stomach opening, less air escapes, or something like that but it sure is NOISY.

You know, they've just f*cked with Vegemite too Noooooooo. They've mixed it with cream cheese, so instead of being black, its now the colour and consistency of a good dose of diarrhoea. Vegemite and cheese sandwiches, a classic combo, now there's a competition to name it. It cant last. Australia will not stand for it. You can still get regular vegemite thank goodness.

I am proud of what i've done and I dont hide it from those that knew anyway. But otherwise, I tend to fall on the ashamed side. I was fat becuase I was a lazy slob, there's no nice way to put it. I stuffed my face and sat around moaning about how fat I was. I know, I know, there's "reasons" why I behaved like that. Dont know what they were, dont care, dont go in much for therapy. But overall, I was just darn lazy. So although I had no problem sharing that I'd had surgery with everyone who knew me, I certainly dont go round advertising the fact that once I was fat because I ate crap food, I overindulged my every whim and I was too sluggish to move my ass. Especially in a professional environment, that's not the person I am now.

personally, I'd stay far far away from Peanut Butter toast 2 weeks post op. I occasionally have a slice of toast and peanut butter for Breakfast, but its a VERY difficult thing to eat (the stickiness of peanut butter combined with bread) and its VERY filling. I think its way too difficult a food for the mushy phase, and quite likely to result in a pb, which you dont want at this stage. I didnt start mushies till week 3 but I remember after this stage enjoying peanut butter and honey on ryvita crackers VERY much and when I fancy this, I nearly always choose crackers rather than toast now, simply for ease of eating. perhaps have a spoonful of peanut butter? Personally, whilst not meaning to be rude to well meaning advice I gaped at powdered peanut butter, lol. Why f-ck with a perfectly good food and make it a powder????????? I just dont understand....... We must be so behind the times downunder, but if this is what we have to look forward to (that and the ORANGE American cheddar i saw in costco when it opened here in Melb), I'd rather stay backward.

Ah, exactly HOW does eating lettuce strain your stomach? Where on earth do people get these crazy ideas :blushing: Iceberg lettuce may not be particularly nutritious but leafy greens such as spinach are. And has it ever occurred to you that you actually need roughage? And that you need more nutrients than just what are contained in Protein foods? What happened when people used to live on meat focussed diets with few vegetables? They got scurvey and gout. Personally, I hate shakes and I dont find them satisfying. They fill you up for a minute but then they're through and i'm hungry again.

Isnt it weird how wine burns now? I have to have something in my stomach to drink wine. Often when you go out for dinner, its late, you've saved up all day and are STARVING. Always you get a drink first, while looking at the menu. It's liek drinking freaking battery acid! Of course, I still do it, lol.

I'm 5ft 10 and 150 and a size 8 to 10 and I wouldnt have been happy to stop at a higher size. As it is, I'm still a "big" girl. I'm taller than most women, I'm not petite and tiny and whilst a tall body can hide weight to some degree, I never felt feminine. To me being big and carrying any extra weight made me feel like a footballer. I'd like to be thinner than I am becuase I feel that smaller women with higher BMI's still look more "feminine" than I do. Plus, in Australian clothing sizes and 8 to 10 is a 12 to 14 which is STILL too big for a lot of clothing labels. But to my way of thinking nobody could call me "all bones". I am simply not that thin. I tend to be pear shaped, so you can see bones on my chest, and my collarbones are very sharp, but again, that's NORMAL. People are so used to everyone being fat that they think that's anorexic. Now, if you can see pelvic bones and jutting hip bones, that's thin and I definitely dont have that. I am well covered, still curvy but not overweight. My BMI is 22. I dont have a body type that carries extra weight in a curvy way, I'm tall and willowy and just get flabby very very quickly. but it is very dependent on your own personal taste, I would find 180 at 5ft 10 rather chunky and big and wouldnt find it that attractive in a woman, I think thin, smalll breasted and elegant is attractive. That doesnt mean it IS, just my personal taste, I also cant imagine why in the world you'd want your DD cup breasts to stay that big or think that lots of make up looks good, all stuff that the next person would disagree with.. But I dont like thin men! I dont like really muscled men either, men who look like they care about their appearance too much turn me off completely. I like men that are a bit older, a bit scruffy and just a bit cuddly. So there's no rhyme or reason to it, its different for everyone.

That's why many doctors wont touch self pay in Australia - it doesnt make for good compliance with follow up care because people exhaust their funds with the original surgery. Hopefully you get it sorted Fairy.

I think the hardest thing in this situation is the person themselves admitting how sick they are. I have 2 personal experiences with this, not as serious as bipolar but still. DH tends towards depression and anxiety and it has really escalated at one point in his life. But what really made me think "I cant deal with this" was the self pity and desire to wallow in it, which of course is part of the illness. He didnt want to seek help, it was as if he enjoyed the state he was in in some warped way. It suited him to moan about how the whole world was against him, it must have satisfied some part of him. So although you never tell a depressed person to pull their socks up, I laid it on the line - make an effort to get better or I'm leaving. I will not live with this downer on what is a VERY good life that we have if you wont even try. Thankfully, he's never quite descended that far again, he seems to have recovered a good degree of resilence and an ability to handle stress again. More serious is the situation my sister is in. Her DH has some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder, he cant throw anything out. He also cant spend money. She's 40, 34 weeks pregnant with her first baby and living in a house in Sydney that by all reports (she's never allowed me to see it) should be demolished. She has power only in the kitchen and living room and hot Water only in the bathroom. There's holes in the floor, and ceiling. This is a heritage listed house, a potentially beautiful early 20th century federation home in inner Sydney, worth a freaking FORTUNE, but he wont fix it up although he owns it lock stock and barrel. It is piled to the roof with junk in every room, there's just a little space hollowed out for the couches in the lounge room, the kitchen is full of car parts, there's about four old cars in the backyard, the garage is full of junk, he picks things up off the side of the road, there's rats and mice because he does things like buying 10kg bags of rice and sugar that they dont need. Not the sitaution to bring a baby into. I think she thought he'd finally change with a baby on the way, but he cant. He wont leave it to rent, and then he's gone and left the handbrake off his car and its rolled into someones house. Rather than rely ont he insurance to fix it all up, he wants to fix these people's house for them because he doesnt want to pay the excess. I feel sick about it, I'm so so worried about her. She's emotional, hugely pregnant and now has to cope with this once she brings the baby home. I dont think he's even aware that he's not normal! If she walks, he'll be baffled about why. What did he do wrong? But I think its the only answer. Its only relevant to you in terms of, if someone is willing to admit they're sick and truly work on getting better, you can perhaps deal with the downsides of the illness, the lapses in progress etc. But if its all hunky dory from their point of view, its a pretty lost cause. You cant help someone unless they want to be helped.

Well, I think you need to be realistic that you will be in partnership with your doc or another medical professional for as long as you have a band. I've had about 3 fills since hitting goal because I decided to take a bit out of my band. Thought I probably didnt need it to maintain after a couple of hard weeks where I was very very tight. In hindsight I was very very tight becuase i was training to do my first half marathon and running MAKES me really tight, cant eat for hours afterwards. With the loooooong runs I was probably rather dehydrated on a constant basis, another thing that makes me tight. anyway, i digress, i had 0.2 cc removed from my 4cc band. Made me feel much more open. Promptly gained about 5 lb and noticed I was really peckish all the time. Didnt gain any more than 5, could have easily have just lived with it, but went back in twice more to have 0.1cc at a time put back. Have now been ticking along nicely for about a year with 3cc in my 4cc band. Feel a bit looser these days but not significantly so, and certainly not enough to show on the scales. I envisage that over time, you do loosen off and I *may* need another fill but it would only be teeny tiny adjustments very far apart from hereon in. Or it will be for stuff like at the moment I tend to graze a bit, five small meals more so than three meals a day. When i return to full time teaching next year, it will be back to a 3 meal a day routine, no opportunity to graze. Will I be able to eat enough at each meal to get me through? Not sure. Might need a small unfill for that reason - because I run so much my energy needs are high and I do need to eat up around 2000 calories a day to maintain my weight.

Hussy, lol. I think there's more than a few of us who have gotten a shock at the lower tolerance to alcohol we have when we're not washing it down with a huge meal and then soaking it up with a 2 am kebab or hot dog! I cant handle more than 2 or 3 wines now and THAT will see me tipsy, whereas I could drink many people under the table before. I would never have more than one to drive, and a small one at that. I also fear that I will lose my eating caution if I've had a few and forget to eat slowly. Alcohol and food all mixed up, coming out your nose, ugh.

Erosion is where the band just gradually erodes a hole in your stomach and works its way through. Its pretty serious, the band must be removed and the stomach allowed to heal, sometimes a new band can be placed, but its not uncommon for there to be just too much scar tissue for this to be possible. Slippage is where the band simply slips down on the stomach, which is what I suspect you mean by twisting. A loop of stomach will bulge out the top of the band and it may cause you to either lose restriction or to make you unable to even swallow Water. Sometimes it comes with only very mild symptoms like heartburn and reflux. A slipped band can sometimes be fixed by unfilling, and the stomach will readjust itself, or it can be repositioned and sewn back down or removed and replaced. It doenst usually do so much damage that a new band isnt possible. Twisting of the stomach on the other hand, major, life threateningly serious but not really a band issue, that's something that can happen with techniques like bypass and sleeving, where the new tiny stomach can twist over on itself, cutting off blood supply. Erosion seems to be one of those things, an infection in the port is very serious as it can travel up the tubing and eventually lead to erosion, but it doesnt often have a known cause. Slippage on the other hand - treat your band badly and you're way more likely to have problems. If you pb daily or even weekly, constantly overeat, and have your band really tight, then you're putting yourself at risk. never ever ignore symptoms like reflux etc, it means you're too tight and that's not good, bands are not supposed to restrict you to eating like a sparrow, they're supposed to reduce the amount you can eat from gargantuan to small and YOU have to do the rest of the work that causes you to lose weight. The high incidence of band problems, I firmly believe, is becuase being a weight loss surgery people AND surgeons simply expect it to perform as well as bypass and expect too darn much of it. They tighten it up and up and up and cause these problems. A moderately firm band that provides portion control but not much else is what is safest and healthiest and that means of course, that there's a lot of people who are just too disordered and unwell in their eating to be able to work effectively with a band. Not a moral judgement in the slightest, but a simple observation. If you treat your band well, dont have it too tight and make up a lot of your calorie deficit with good choices and good exercise, you stand a good chance of being absolutely fine for years to come. But bands are a bit of a problematic surgery, there's a lot of complications that come with them and you can just be unlucky too.

Like you say, its rare. I cant imagine a life where I had to obsess over counting carbs in everything I ate, in that situation I would do exactly what you did, what other option is there? I dont count a darn thing, calories carbs Protein, nothign and I lost weight easily and have kept it off. So I dont think one meal of Chinese every now and then is going to make or break anything.

God. thankfully at 42, I've left that in my dim dark past, last time I was that drunk I was probably 18. I've never gotten sick and needed to vomit either since banding. My doc said at the info night, for some people, its like normal, for some, they dry retch for hours and cant get anything up. Whatever the case, he said to always have anti nausea medication to hand and come in for an unfill if at all possible. My kids have had gastro about 50 times since my banding, as kids do and I have been freakishly obsessive with cleanliness, I even Glen 20 the couch after they've sat on it, lol. Go through 500 pairs of disposable gloves, bottles of bleach etc. BUT it has worked and i've never caught it.

Weight loss also tends to make your hormones go crazy. I didnt notice breakouts so much, being over 40, but I had months of truly awful PMT, heavy periods etc, so much so that I thought I was either starting an early menopause or something was really wrong. But it all evened out again. So dont be too surprised if you notice these sorts of symptoms as well.

Sorta, we need to move desparately as we have our two teenage boys sharing a room. Not working. I'm currenly finishing up my teaching degree and interviewing for graduate positions for next year. DH is renegotiating his salary and bonus arrangement, due for a huge boost, so as soon as that's all locked in, we're house hunting. I dont think we'll sell this one, I think we'll keep it and put tenants in it. Its a perfect rental, this area has become high rental, its well serviced, central, near to schools etc. and we're extremely lucky that I own it so under Australian tax law, DH can buy it off me and enjoy all the tax benefits of owning a rental property. But I hear you - 3 kids, 15 years of living here and a year of both DH and I being crazy busy, the garden has just gone to completely ruins, we've NEVER painted apart from the original paint job, the shower screens need replacing, one shower is leaking a bit etc etc. Thank god we built the house and its only 15 years old, built on a concrete slab, so no major stuff to do, but it certainly needs a bit of TLC. We're organising working bees, lol, DH does tons of unpaid tax advice for friends and they're all about to pay up!

Fills will help, what you are experiencing is entirely normal. What you have to remember too is that there's eating too much and there's REALLY eating too much. Many people dont have restriction until they've had a few fills and are eating more than is ideal for good weight loss. That's fine, it comes eventually and if we were all so great at dieting, well we wouldnt be here would we? So do your best, but dont think that it wont ever work or that your'e somehow the one and only person who ever did this or who will ever fail with a band. Then there's overloading your stomach. Eating past the point of comfort, eating till you vomit, continuing to eat foods that get stuck and make you vomit, eating so much that you get reflux, heartburn etc. That's serious, you can do damage. So try your best, try to stop beofre you're stuffed, and take care of your stomach, but dont be too hard on yourslef for not being a perfect dieter just yet.

I went for a walk when I got home from hospital, the morning after surgery. I did go with DH though, not alone.

Nothing gets in the way of my runs. I've also never been unable to drink as much Water as I need to. The only thing I notice is that I cant really gulp it, I need to take a sip (although a big one) let it go down and take another. So no downing half a litre in one go.

Well, think of it this way. None of the rules that you guys have are rules here in Australia. The clinic I attend has several surgeons all working under Prof. O'Brien who is one of the band's pioneers (with a team of others). Who would know more than him, right? And they've been doing the band a lot longer in Australia than they have in the US. My doc laughs at the carbonation rule, says its ridiculous. That if it makes you feel bloated, avoid it, but otherwise, moderation in all things. They also dont recommend Protein first, a lower carb diet etc. They recommend a healthy well rounded diet that includes good carbs. Caffeine isnt banned. Nor is snacking, if you're a grazer, go with that plan, if not, stick to your meals. The half cup serve isnt the holy grail of banded existence, the plan is to eat what satisfies you and if you're still losing weight, then it doesnt matter if that's 2 cups, if you're not losing weight, time for a fill to reduce portion sizes a bit more. Drinking with meals is not recommended, for the reason that it flushes through food. That's about the only "rule" we have in common. So where do all these rules you guys have come from? Certainly not from the originators of the band.

Well, to be honest, i dont do the Protein first thing. We're not told to here in Australia anyway, but my diet is based on wholegrains, fruit and vegetables with more modest amounts of protein and I stay very regular. The thing is, there may well be weight loss advantages with high protein, low carb, and it may well not have the dire effects on your blood chemistry that such a high fat diet would be expected to have, but its shocking for your bowels.

I dont work in quite such stressful conditions, BUT I find myself always having to eat quickly, for example, getting myself to work and kids to school in the morning, there's no way I can sit down for 20 minutes to eat a bowl of Cereal. So I choose things to eat - like muesli (which doesnt go soggy) that I can have a spoonful, carry my bowl up to the bathroom, dry my hair and have a few spoonfuls, carry the bowl back to the kitchen, make the kids lunches, have a few spoonfuls. In fact, I can get in a breakfast of cereal AND fruit like that, I could never eat it in a single sitting, so in a sense I'm eating around the band, but a good breakfast really sets me up for the day and means i eat way better overall. For lunch, I would do similar with a sandwich, or cheese and crackers, a garden salad or something cold and non messy which COULD sit on my desk and be eaten forkfuls at a time rather than have to get the meal all over and done with. As to exercise amping you up, I've found that over time,t that effect has gone away from me and I can run late at night and then be able to sleep, as my body has gotten used to it.

I've been crazy busy too lately, and frankly I'm really disappointed in how badly I've handled it eating wise. I have eaten nothing but sugar and fat for about three weeks. Many many days I've not eaten a proper meal but snacked all day. I've simply not had the time to think about it and prepare it and with a band, you cant so easily grab something quick and healthy like an apple becuase when you're stressed and tight, you cant eat it! It just goes to show, we have behaviour patterns embedded which will probably always be there to some degree. Its important to just keep plugging away at that one. TRY to do better, sometimes I succeed, sometimes I dont. As to getting your head around your weight loss, well, yours has been remarkably fast! I dont doubt that you need some breathing space. I think the reason for waiting 2 years after hitting goal to have cosmetic surgery isnt really to let the skin shrink its to let your head catch up, get used to the new you so you can make sensible decisions. There's things I would have done to myself 18 months ago that I think I probably would have regretted now - if only for spending unecessary money. Its taken me a LOOOOOOONG time to accept what I am, how I look, what can change and what cant and come to a happy place with it all. So, you do what you feel you need to do.

This is exactly my issue too, and the advice I have had is to go for implants as well as a lift. I'm really ambilvalent. Like you, the affordability of just a lift is attractive to me, I could make an appointment for next week. But what I really want is cleavage, since my C cup breasts are now small enough to be well contained in even a bikini top, the fact that they need lifting is not obvious to anyone but me. But the flaccid old lady skin on the top of them, I'd die if anyone saw it. Its really ugly, like the old broad in There's Something About Mary, lol. But I actually do not like fake looking round breasts and I really do not want BIGGER ones. I like my C cup size. I hate the whole botoxed, juvied, breast implanted look. I really fear going down that path, and I have issues with seeing it as unforgiveably vain and selfish to spend that kind of money on myself instead of say, a bigger house which we all need, or my kids education or even a holiday for them. So I've done nothing. I'm not sure I care that much. Why fix my breasts when the rest of me looks 42? I think I *should* be fine with that, grow old gracefully, but sometimes the vain me pops out. So in a nutshell, the advice I've had from 2 surgeons is that I'd need implants to fill out the tops. In essence i'd go for that, if I could sort out my moral issues on whether or not I should.