Jachut

Even unfilling it substanitally generally leads to weight regain. Its frustrating, I had to have all my fill out for nine months to have surgery and chemo. I have kept off a weight loss of over 100lb for five years and I have definitely changed my lifestyle habits, not the least of which change is a huge commitment to a lot of vigorous exercsise. I didnt regain weight in that time, but I had to work VERY hard not to and by the end of the nine months, was really beginning to slip. And I was having chemo at the time! So even at the low BMI of 20, if I had to remove my band for any reason, I'd want another one! You can always have it removed when you're older if you're prepared for the consequences. Of course if you get really old then people generally start to get skinny again anyway.

So glad to see youre happy and healthy Kel!

I know Im no advocate the damn diet but for pete's sake, its ATKINS, not ADKINS.

I had trouble after my tummy tuck, i had a catheter from the surgery and 12 hours later there was barely anytjing in it, but i felt no pressure. Took 24 hours for the catheter bg to start filling, they took out the catheter on day three ( a tummy tuck is four nights in hospital here if youre a private patient) and i ad a lot of troubke peeing. But tjis is something i ave to investigate as i m getting orse. I think i have radiation damage to my bladder after cancer treatment, i pee like an old man now.

I have maintained my loss ( well got a bit lighter actually) for about five years. I do all the same things i did to lose, my weight loss just got slower and eventually stopped. I have needed a teeny top up fill once a year or so. I eat about 1500 calories a day and run or do a spin class most days.

Of course! A little bit of alcohol isnt going to be a problem, just not everyday

Yay us!

Congrats, very exciting! What work do you do? I took four weeks off, as a teacher i think i needed this long. Thats not to say i couldnt/wouldnt have coped a bit earlier but i could so I did. Just be emotionally prepard for it to take a long time to ge bavk to mormal. At six weeks Im still tight, a bit swollen and sore.

I had my port moved six weeks ago during a tummy tuck and am experiencing the same thing. I recall it lasting three months or so after surgery too, its pretty normal.

Wow, they look great, very toned! Bet youre thrilled

Lipo depends on how much fat you still have. I had a tummy tuck considered medically necessary - it was to fix damage done by other surgeries Ive had in the last two years, but I had a flat stomach and a BMI of 21. The surgeon I was referred to was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, botox, lipo, fillers, all that stuff is not his thing, and my surgery was covered by our public health system here, so lipo was not on offer for me. Let me tell you, BMI of 21 or not, I wish I'd had some and I still might. My tummy is beautiful, but the love handles on my sides and lower back - still there. The saddlebags on my thighs - still there. In fact both look more pronounced now as my stomach is so perfect. I suspect there's very few people who couldnt benefit from a little lipo fine tuning at the time of a tummy tuck.

I havent had nighttime reflux in a long time, I did briefly for a few months and a sight unfill fixed it - such a small unfill that it really barely made any difference to my weight, I just went up 2lb, that's all. Now however, i've got constant heartburn and am getting by on 24 hour Mylanda until the 17th when I see my surgeon again. I know my band is too tight because he said it was based on the barium swallow I did in January - I did that barium swallow to try to work out why I seemingly have too little restriction. I have a slightly dilated pouch but the band is too tight - I cant feel that tightness so it can be there and you dont know it. I dont have vomiting, can eat things like bread rolls etc but its too tight nonetheless. I cant wait to get a small unfill, this is miserable. The heartburn started for me when I had a tummy tuck six weeks ago. I didnt unfil based on my surgeon's advice, but the surgery has tightened up my stomach muscles which I think has increased restriction! Anyway, that's not the point, the point is, reflux = unfill as a first choice to determine whether its just tightness causing it. Tightness isnt serious, reflux IS. And I know I tried to pretend that I wasnt feeling heartburn out of apprehension that that pouch I have may now be a slip, but really, if you put it off you risk doing damage to your stomach and esophagus that might even mean you cant be banded again.

Well, the voice in my head is nowhere near as functional or healthy as one that questions whether a nice well covered BMI of 25 is healthy enough, a great achievement and easily maintainable. The voice in my head says "stop eating you fat pig, youi're disgusting, you're fat, lose more weight". I'm 5ft 10 and 145lb or so, give or take. I have been lower and I know I cant maintain it without a tight lapband and very small food intake, and that's not healthy forever. So I do have to stop here. But people saying it annoys me. Cant they see my enormous thighs? Cant they see that I'll always be the 5ft 10 "big girl" and that I just want to shrink and shrink until I actually am 5ft 3 and cute and curvy? Cant they see that I've still got a few bulges and bits that arent perfect? Obviously not. But I wish I could see myself how they see me. Nonetheless I think people say it becuase you barely ever see anyone lose significant weight, enough to really change how they look. It freaks them out. They cant picture how you could lose anymore. People are bigger nowadays, they've lost sight of what "normal" looks like. We accept that after babies and when middle age hits, women are going to get squidgy. I know that me watching what I eat (and succeeding) and running or spinning every day gets right up several people's noses because it simply highlights to them that their own well cushioned rears and flabby tummies are a diect result of their own failure to maintain those same behaviours so they lash out at me for it. I love the school I work out now. An entirely female staff with a male principal, most between 30 and 50 and at least 3/4 of us all really into fitness. We can sit and talk about who's doing the next fun run and who is a member of what gym and what classes they do and everyone eats well and its amazing. Nobody there knew me fat and nobody there tells me I'm too skinny. Its really just the shock of seeing you actually shrink that prompts it I think.

For me, yes, but over time, the bread, Pasta and rice has naturally decreased significantly. I think a diet high in those things - Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, muesli bar for snack, pasta for dinner, that's likely to make you fat fat fat no matter whether you eat large portions or not. Its too much ready energy for the average person. But if you dont eat any carbs, the Protein is all diverted to be converted into energy for your body and it doesnt do its job of building and protecting muscle quite as well. You really cant eat NO carbs. For me, I need a bit, I run and I do burn it off, but since I had a bowel resection, a diet based on starchy carbs like that, although wholegrains and bran and oats are high in soluble fibre, it plugs me up, feels like glue in my system and is a recipe for major constipation (talking 8 days or longer) and I've found I must have vegetables as the base for EVERY meal, even breakfast now. I also cant tolerate fruit, too rough for my system, gives me the runs. So the carb level of my diet has taken a nose dive. Its made not one single bit of difference to my weight. I'm already well below goal, but its not like I've cut carbs and suddenly dropped weight. Not at all. Which reinforces my belief that weight loss (as opposed to health, long life, healthy blood chemistry) is about nothign more than calories in v calories out. I personally lose weight the same whether I eat 1000 calories of carrots or 1000 calories of cake a day.

I felt great at 130 (I'm 5ft 10) last year, but when i see pictures of me now, it looked awful, really gaunt and sadly, I did indeed look like I had cancer. See, I like a bit of visible skeleton, lol. Sharp collarbones and such. But seeing actual veins across your chest, and every single rib is a bit much. That's what's unique about models I think, that they can actually be 20lb or more underweight and still have "shape". At 140 to 145 though, I have thigh bulges and bits that really upset me. Now I have this nice flat tummy, I'm annoyed that I still have love handles which could have been removed with lipo but because I had a medically necessary tummy tuck covered by our public health system for issues caused by other surgeries, lipo and that kind of fine tuning wasnt offered. But one good thing about having gotten so low, I've learned that the problem bits for me are STILL there, only I dont have cheeks, or breasts or any flesh on my shoulders. So I've stopped trying to get down that low. Doesnt make me entirely happy with my body now, but I've kind of learned how to put that self doubt in its box, accept it will always be there and stick to a healthy lifestyle and healthy weight.

Crapola. Its a food and not a filling one - just a supplement that you take in pill form or by the spoonful (tastes absolutely foul).

I threw a frigging tantrum to get refilled after cancer treatment my doc kind of wants me 10 kg heavier, right at the TOP of my healthy weight range. It makes me furious, i have the ight to choose my own weight thanks and i will not be contstrained by averages. I think i may have even sworn, lol.

I cant tlk when im stuck, my voice goes all funny.

Well, I'm in a lucky situation in that my colorectal surgeon operates from Cabrini in Melbourne, which has an emergency department (which I've unfortunately had to visit a couple of times for bowel related issues) where many private hopsitals dont. My colorectal surgeon began his career doing lapbands with the surgeon who heads the lapband practice I attend. So in theory, I could go into a private hospital ER, and request my colorectal surgeon (with whom, as a cancer patient only in the early stages of remission, I have an ongoing relationship with) who could certainly unfill me and perform an emergency removal surgery. I could then get my lapband surgeon to put in the new band that I would want, lol. That's what I'd do on a weekend or early morning emergency. Any other time, I'd ring my clinic of course and take my surgeon's direction on where to go. What I cant believe is the stories of surgeons refusing to treat other doctor's patients. That's appalling! What do you do if you move interstate? Or if your surgeon retires? I may be wrong, but I dont believe this happens generally in Australia - insurance is insurance is insurance by and large and the surgeon's fee is not covered by private health insurance, its covered by Medicare which everyone gets. So we have less of that kind of problem in Australia - I do have reasonable expectation that if I were in another state and and needed an emergency unfill, somebody would do it, even if I had to contact my own surgeon by phone for a recommendation of who to go to.

I wasnt teaching when i got banded but i just took a full four weeks off for my tummy tuck, glad i did. Teaching is very physical. First day back i umpired three games of netball for interschool sports and tomorrow im making my debut as an AUssie Rules football coach, groan.

I have a slightly different take on it because I never got above a BMI of 35, which in the adult world isn't really fat enough to stand out. Oh, I was barely overweight as a teen, but I sure copped it then because I wasn't 5ft tall and 90lb. But as a young mother doing the school socializing thing, nope, I looked like everyone else, shopped like everyone else, wasn't in a glamorous stage of life, wasn't going out and trying to meet guys or getting dressed up for work, none of it. Life was pretty easy from that standpoint and there was always something in the store to fit me, I didn't even TRY to shop at certain stores. As I got thinner, I noticed I got the cold shoulder a lot in social circles. Those school mums/soccer mums etc were never my besties anyway, just social acquaintances, but I went from fitting right in to people treating me a bit like I thought I was better than them, because I was thin and fit looking. As my kids have moved on out the public school system, sad but true, a higher socioeconomic environment does mean that less people are fat, it just is. I work now, and mix with people of a wider range of ages, from a wider range of backgrounds. That's made a difference. In fact at the school I'm now at, its a remarkably fit staff, we have lots of runners, gym goers, triathletes in our small staff of 20. And these people have not only never known me fat, but don't even know I lost weight. I havent noticed a single difference out in the general public in terms of service in shops etc, other than more attention from men in general. My husband thinks its hilarious.

I wouldnt worry too much then, as long as your calories arent crazy low.

Eeew at the moment my entire lower belly is numb after a tummy tuck and I have the itch thing that I can't feel when I scratch.

I'm gobsmacked by the scenario where a doctor claims she "doesn't know what's in there". Band surgery is not something that can be done a million ways - there's only one way to do it correctly and bands don't come with different equipment. She can find your port, that is attached to your band, that's all that needs to be done for now and if you were to require revision surgery, then standard scanning such as a barium swallow, X-rays and ctscans are going to provide all information. It is a completely warped world where a surgeon turns away a patient in need simply because they didn't perform the original surgery. I would vent my spleen well and truly - probably wouldn't do any good - but I wouldn't walk away from that without making my feelings know. Will this surgeon see you if you attend the seminar? In which case what choice have you but to wait and live on something like Optifast which at least will provide basic nourishment? An emergency room visit will not necessarily result in band removal surely someone will know how to unfill?

If you're having symptoms that make you think you need to eat more, then obviously you should discuss that with your doctor. But you're WAY better off unfilling a little and eating more healthy food - whole grains, fruits, veggies, Protein than trying to add calories the traditional way we're told to when we need to gain weight - with butter, cream etc added to meals. That's unhealthy. There's also things like Ensure, Sustagen etc. I was told to take these products when I got so thin during chemo but I never did - sugary crap to my way of thinking, but my doctors all seemed to think they were great. Likewise a Protein shake between meals - made with skim milk - would add calories.