Jachut

I didnt diet, but once I made the decision to see the surgeon, I considered my life changed from that point on and I tried to eat well. I obviously wasnt terribly successful as I didnt lose more than a kilo or two in the few months, but I was resolute I wasnt going to eat my way to surgery day. I dont know, I never felt I wouldnt be able to eat anything again after banding, it just wasnt presented to me in that way. From the people I heard talking at the info evenings, I got the strong impression that life went on, just without food as the major focus. I started exercising in earnest though, got back to the gym etc. and that helped a lot. I did as best as I could around my sore ankle.

I dont take any medication regularly, other than the occasional headache tablet. But my daily vitamins I just down them with a glass of water - I take a multi, 2 flaxseed and 2 fish oil capsules. I have been known to gag on them, I loathe taking big pills but have no problems restriction wise with them.

I suspect so, but I think if you keep your fill levels appropriate it shouldnt be a major issue.

I've never pb'd thank goodness but I get 2 different forms of discomfort (of the type which could lead to a PB). I get the "golfball", that lump in the chest from not chewing thoroughly enough or from eating too fast. That's instantaneous and may or may not occur with sliming. It doesnt happen with any particular foods and can even occur if I gulp a drink. Its not frequent but its very unpleasant and at times has gone on for 40 minutes or so, I eat SO carefully in public because I really coudlnt sit at a table and hide it. I have to pace and spit on the one or two really bad episodes I've had. The second which can occur within 10 minutes or as long as half an hour after eating is what happens when I eat one of my problem foods - cake, muffins, donuts, white bread. It goes down just fine but as it starts to go through the stoma I get a dull ache in the region which can be quite painful. Obviously it goes through in lumps and it feels like it has corners. It doesnt occur with sliming and it doesnt even remotely feel like it may come back up, it just has difficulty passing. That can catch me by surprise, since I've eaten and forgotten about it, then it suddenly comes back to haunt me.

NewSho cant you get Dermablend or similar scar covering make up over there? i have a friend who has a huge red birthmark covering half her face and she uses it daily and it really does cover the red/purple tones. Its totally waterproof - she swims several times a week for excercise confidently. I was thinking a good dose of fake tan and some dermablend would hold up for you and make them if not unnoticeable, not so stark. Sigh. I tend to hold on to the purple colour of scars for a very long time. Six months out, my little scars are losing their colour, but my port scar is going to be purple and large for a long time yet. Although 3 years down the track my caesar scar has all but disappeared so I am hopeful. I feel good, 99% good about this surgery. I'm sorry for my tummy scars becuase actually I had a rather lovely stomach - I dont have any stretchmarks and whilst it was fat, it wasnt deformed fat, its relatively flat and I could certainly show it in public when the weight's all gone, but for the scars. I'm deathly afraid of a tummy tuck, not that I'm going to have or need one, the scar would put me off that. I'm not too sad about not looking perfect at the end of it - my skin is bouncing back quite well but its still 38 year old skin, the thighs are a teensy bit looser than they once were! But we all have to age and I have great respect for my body and what its done for me over the years. I'm sadder about my face. I didnt think the effects of weight loss would be so profound in my face, but I've lost a lot of my facial plumpness as I've gotten older - I dont ahve any wrinkles or drooping yet but the undereye circles, oh my goodness i look like a walking skull. I have deep set eyes anyway, but I seem to have developed some pigment around my eyes as well, or else its the veins showing through and they just make me look ill - I now cannot go without at least some makeup every day which depresses me, I loathe that full face of make up just to go to the shops look, Im an au naturale girl at heart. I dont want to spend a gazillion on eye creams just to find they dont work and I'm not sure there's a lot of cosmetic surgery options for it, not that I'd take money that could educate my kids or buy us a bigger house for that anyway.

You sound really happy, I'm glad it was a good experience.

I think the idea behind weights is that it builds the muscle underneath the skin so fills it out more. Not that it does anything to the skin itself?

Obviously you're just someone who heals up quickly and doesnt swell alot. In which case you've done really well to lose as much as you have. Hang in there, restriction will come with fills.

I dont have any loose skin. I'm about half way to my goal, I wanted to lose 35-40 kg so 90lb give or take. But I'm 5ft 10, so I had a BMI of 35. I didnt have a hanging stomach or huge arms - I put weight on all over and didnt have any real "problem" spots. Not that I'll have a washboard stomach at the end of this, I've never had a truly flat tummy. I've always had plenty of skin to pinch there, but I've had 3 large babies, all over 10lb and dont have any stretchmarks at all so I'd say I'm just lucky that I have skin that will bounce back. So far its shrunk back fine, it looks the same as it did 10 years ago when I was last this weight. I think it depends on your expectations too. I'm happy to look like most people - better dressed than naked, lol. I dont feel the need to be perfect, I have no desire to have a huge scar across my stomach in order to be able to say that its perfectly flat. I've had 3 babies and I'm nearly 40 and I'm happy enough to look that way.

I'm sorry, but how can you be happy with that? This is supposed to be a tool to help you eat well for the rest of your life, not starve yourself into fatigue and malnourishment. You cant live on cottage cheese and blueberries. That is way too much restriction if that's all you're eating and your body is telling you so in no uncertain terms. I'm sorry to be harsh, but I just think its nuts that people act like that's a good thing, being unable to eat all day. Not to mention that its possible that through being so tight you're at more risk of complications. Cindy you need to get this sorted. Do you really think you can live long term like this?

Yes, I do too! John Travolta, Vince Vaughan, mmmm. Although Russell Crowe tops my most hated people for absolutely no reason list (Nicole Kidman a close second). Gawd I loathe that man. We ran into him on the street in Sydney and he's utterly disgusting, feral, in real life.

I think for some people there just doesnt seem to be a way to regulate restriction throughout the day. I'm a little bit the opposite, I seem to be much tighter in the evenings. Though I'd like to have to use less willpower during the day, if I were tighter, I'd start PBing and sliming at dinner time. And dinner for me tends to be a pretty nutritious meal too, usually involving lots of fresh vegetables, so I dont want to skimp on it. If all you're having during the day is shakes, then personally, I'd be having fill removed. I certainly wouldnt be getting more.

I'd be ropable if I found out they'd done that to me. yet I do believe (for me anyway) the psychological effect of having a band is at least as important as the physical effects. this time I expect to be successful therefore I am. I always expected to fail before therefore I did.

I didnt do pre-op fasting but the post op liquids, eeek. My tongue got thiis absolutely disgusting coating of thick khaki slime and I had a 20metre radius clear all around me becuase my breath stank. The minute I started eating solid food it went away

You're going to have to stay away from the liquid calories forever! But the further into this banding thing I get, the more I realise that its' real advantage is going to be maintenance, not actual weight loss. I'm working just as hard to lose weight as I ever did, but I dont quit and put it back on the minute I hit a plateau. You'll hopefully be able to get it just right and never have to worry about your weight again!

Better a small silicone ring than an aritficial hip by the time I'm 50. Or ankle in my case.

Saturday: breakfast, one egg, one piece bacon and a piece of toast lunch: chicken and avocado on a wholegrain roll afternoon: handful of walnuts dinner: bowl of baked Beans Sunday: breakfast: muesli lunch: pumpkin soup and garlic and parmesan bread dinner: chicken (lime curry marinade) fillet, rice, broccoli and carrots glass of chardonnay

fair fat forty fertile and flatulent dont they say? It is really common after weightloss to have gallstones and gallbladder attacks, as it is after pregnancy.

I wonder if I can now call myself lily livered? Weak stomached? I've always had a cast Iron gut, but I went in to have a "Phototherapeautic Keratectomy" done on my left eye on Thursday - a procedure I've put off twice through fear. In the end living with constant corneal erosions got worse than the thought of the surgery - where they basically scrape off your cornea with a blade and finish it off with a laser. While you're conscious I might add:omg: Anyhow, they made me take two Panadeine Forte prior to surgery (strong codeine) and then a Maxolon because the Panadeine Forte can cause nausea. Not in me I said. I never get sick from that stuff. But anyhow, when it came to take the next lot of painkillers I didnt take the Maxolon. Boy oh boy did I feel sick!!! I had to take it quick smart or I would have vomited. That is so unlike me! Oh well, lost a bit of weight over the last few days, lol. All better now, but have to schedule my right eye some time in the next few months. Does anyone else here suffer from a corneal dystrophy at all? Mine's map dot fingerprint dystrophy.

I love mine now :-) But I have thrown the scale away three times in a tantrum when it hasnt said what I wanted it to! Doug would get home from work and the scale would be gone again, lol.

Makes sense to me, its really down to how much you eat, not what in the end anyway. Its just calories in versus calories out and whether you eat 1200 calories of chocolate a day or spend your 1200 wisely on the 5 food groups, you'll lose weight just the same. You might get scurvey, but that's a whole nother argument. I've found anyway that my sweet tooth has markedly diminished since banding. It has an effect on many people's appetites and preferences that cant be measured or predicted. My doc says its thought to be the fact that the pressure of the band on the stomach, the simple pressure of it being there, stimulates the vagus nerve in some way in some people.

Ok so I established in another post I'm terribly afraid of hot dogs (as in frankfurt sausages, not gourmet ones). The red colour of them is not natural and kind of spells to me danger. Ick. I love Maccas and Hungry Jacks (Burger King to you). I wouldnt eat KFC if my life depended on it and I've rarely eaten anything more disgusting than Subway - any white bread that you can squish into a ball is NOT good and for the longest time they didnt toast the buns here, just heated them in a microwave *shudder* I love a pizza - although cant bear Pizza Hut or any of those major chain ones, the thought of things like thick cheesy crusts makes me want to hurl. If we have takeaway we'd normally go Indian or Thai, I dont like Chinese food much at all. I dont know if you guys eat fish and chips as commonly over there, there's a fish and chip shop on every corner here. I used to love them, and good fish and chips ARE good but lately, I cant handle the fat. A big slab of flake (shark) battered and deep friend, it leaves a halo of oil round your mouth, I cant take it anymore. If we have fish and chips I get a dim sim or two and a few chips now. Dim sims are kind of like Aussie chicko rolls - nobody knows what's really in them - I think its minced meat (rumoured to be dog) and veges and cabbage. But the main thing that suddenly strikes me down with a craving I cant resist is if I walk through the shopping centre and McDonalds is just cooking the first fries of the day, clean oil, super hot = delicious fries. Yummy.

Hehe, I've just thought of another thing I'm afraid of - Lean Cuisines and packaged food like that. Ugh. Salt, chemicals there is no WAY I'd eat one of those things. I'm paranoid with the kids too - I wouldnt feed them stuff like that. I freak at 2 minute noodles (OMG, what is in that flavouring?), they're not allowed to have soft drink and I dont like chips or biscuits - I dont mind them eating chocolate or good old jelly lollies like snakes and jelly babies. I have a deathly fear of mysterious food colourings and preservatives though.

If you're doing the right things, it will move again. It takes a long time to lose real fat, its a very slow process. Hang in there, and try to look for other victories besides scale ones.

I'm a coffee drinker but I figured five cups a day after surgery isnt great for you, especially when those five cups will mean you dont have something else healthier due to lack of room. So a month or two prior to surgery I started switching over to decaf and peppermint tea, I love peppermint tea. So I didnt have any trouble sticking to just one or two coffees a day after surgery and I made those decaf although I believe any coffee, caffeinated or decaffeinated is heinously rough on your stomach and intestines. Nevertheless I healed up fine. I'm back to my usual 5 or 6 cups a day now but I make a good proportion of that decaf. And I dont drink strong brewed coffee as a general rule either, maybe only one a day, the rest is just instant.