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Jachut

LAP-BAND Patients
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Everything posted by Jachut

  1. Its now a year since I unfilled my band totally for my bowel resection and chemotherapy and I've learned a LOT about myself and my band in that time. I've been gradually refilling since about July. I'm proud to say that I'm just about exactly the same weight I was when I was unfilled last year. I did lose about 15lb due to my surgery and the chemo and I have regained that. But I have learned that I definitely need that band working in order to maintain my loss for life! This has been the most frustrating part of my journey and something many bandsters experience at the start, but I avoided. I unfilled my 4cc band with 3cc in it. I have gotten up to 3.6cc and dont have half the restriction I did. I can eat entire sandwiches, I get hungry between meals, I can eat raw carrots, apples with the skin, cold yogurt, all the stuff I used to struggle with. If I go out for dinner I am positive I could eat an entree, main and dessert if given enough time. I dont vomit, dont get stuff stuck. But man is it hard to keep weight off! I have worked my butt off this past year, I have been on a "diet" the entire time and I run incredibly tiring interval runs of an hour in length and covering 10 kms or so, a few times a week with 'small" rums of 8kms of steady pace the other days. I do Body Pump. And I have still battled to keep that weight off. I average around 2000 calories a day and that is with effort not to eat more, and extras. Its doable, I could live without my band and would probably never see 240lb again, but I sure couldnt maintain a BMI of 20. I've just had a fill of 0.2cc and I can "feel" my cup of coffee. Yippee. I want easy street for a while. I want to maintain without thinking about it. I think I've learned enough lessons now. I sure have a renewed respect for all those vacuous hollywood starlets. They may not be the sharpest tools in the shed but they sure know something about hard work to maintain those size 0 bodies - not that I'd want to go there. Its work, no doubt about it. Please please please let this fill take and give me what I'm looking for. My doc said she'd do a barium swallow if it didnt. She said bands often shift when they're unfilled but usually you can tolerate less fill afterwards, this is a little unusual (and we're positive there's no leak). It must be the fact that I lost 15lb when my BMI wasa already just 20, and I know because my colorectal surgeon remarked from the CT scans I had that there is simply so little fat separating my organs that he could barely read the scans and tell one organ from another. I'm glad I regained that weight (and I look better for it) but I dont want to regain any more! Fingers crossed xx
  2. Thanks guys - no there's been nothing easy about maintaining it. Its not like its so hard that its not doable, but I've certainly had to apply myself each and every day. There's been many days when I've been really really naughty! And you know, obsessed as I am with being skinny, I'm OK with that. I've had cancer FFS, there's more to life than always worrying about your weight. But it just goes to show that you dont HAVE to be perfect all the time. You can fall off the wagon, you can eat poorly, you can struggle with restriction and its not the end of the world. I cant lose without restriction but I've been able to maintain. I'm glad to be an inspiration but believe me I am no different to anyone else here, I have the same disorders/hangups/difficulties. On a bright note, it seems I have restriction. Hoo-bloody-ray. Finally. So its bye bye to the occasional Peanut Butter AND butter on toast in the mornings, oh how I will miss you. But oh, what damage you do to my thighs!
  3. DH had exactly this explained to him - we attend Prof. O'Brien's clinic, so they're at the forefront of band research as Prof O'Brien was one of the band pioneers, and heads research units through Monash University. So when my clinic states that low carbing is a crock, Protein shakes should not be consumed after the initial stages, 3 small meals a day is what you should aim for etc, I feel quite confident that they are not leading me astray. And yes, latest research shows that food does not sit in the pouch for hours (or shouldnt) but rather glugs and chugs through the stoma rather like Water going down a blocked drain, there's this forward and back sort of phenomenon before it finally goes through. Guidelines are about a bite a minute, small bites. This work, plus the sheer time it takes to eat at a bite per minute is what creates satiety. This also answers that perplexing question - why can you get instantly stuck on the last bite of your meal when it should be sitting on top of all the food you've just eaten? Answer, it isnt, everything you've just eaten has gone through. Its also why you can pb more than just the stuck bite - as it chugs and glugs, it mixes up and it doesnt go down strictly in the order that its eaten. Also, you can have something sort of refusing to go down but as it churns around, stuff goes down around it and you might throw up an hour later when your body has finally had enough of trying to get it through. I've got a video showing what they think happens.
  4. I've had two experiences from unfills. One unfill I had because I did exactly what you did - had a fill I really didnt need. I was uncomfortably tight, so I had 0.1cc taken out (4cc band). It relieved things, I began to eat better (not sliders) and it had no adverse effect on my weight at all - I was maintaining by that stage, thought I might like to lose a little more but learned that to do that, you have to full your finger out and work at it, not go along for another "magic" fill. It was no big deal getting unfilled and I learned a lesson. Second unfill was last year just prior to my huge bowel resection, radiation and chemotherapy and that was a total unfill. It has taken me a year to get back to restriction and I may not be there yet - just had a fill today that feels good, but we'll see in a few days time. Its been incredibly frustrating and i've worked like a dog not to gain weight. I would do almost anythign to avoid unfilling totally and disturbing my band again - and that means if I had a fill so tight that I thought it might actually cause damage through vomiting, I would unfill slightly to avoid such irritation to my stomach as to necessitate a total unfill. Because if you unfill totally, you cant get it back in two weeks, it takes months to fill up again. but if its manageable tight - you can drink, you're fine if you eat slowly and avoid certain things, and you think you can avoid the sliders trap, then you can probably afford to wait and see and perhaps if you lose a little, it will loosen.
  5. Jachut

    Getting sick after lap band surgery

    Hope you feel better. A surgery is a big deal for your body and will weaken your immune system, you're much more likely to pick something up. I often find I get sick if I really kick the exercise up a notch and I will ALWAYS get sick if I go for a swim in an indoor public pool. Yet I can work in a classroom full of five year olds and not pick up a sniffle.
  6. Jachut

    Over filled?

    That's definitely time for an unfill. Hope you feel much better.
  7. Jachut

    Low BMI Complications?

    I dont think your BMI has a lot to do with how well you recover from the surgery - people all have different tolerances to anaesthetics, different pain thresholds etc. I'm pretty fit so I recover pretty fast and pretty well from things like surgery and that's perhaps got a little to do with not being overweight before and having a BMI of 36 at the time of lapband surgery - I could be fitter and more mobile than someone much heavier. But that said, at a BMI of over 30, I popped out 3 babies with no pain relief, in the space of about 40 minutes per labour and was right as rain within a few hours. I was much heavier than a lot of women who find childbirth a lot harder than that. I dont even think childbirth hurts that much - certainly not as much as a brazilian wax, lol. So its totally individual. I do think your BMI can affect how successful you are with this surgery though. Obviously over the years eating and exercise habits slide and we get heavier and heavier but it is pretty much a given that someone who has a BMI of 35 is probably more mobile, fitter and eats better (if not well) than someone who has a BMI of 50, and so has less work to do to get themselves onto a healthy track. Not that that's strictly true either.
  8. Jachut

    Over filled?

    I think you can afford to give it a few days if you had that vomiting incident, as you are no doubt a bit swollen. You'll just have to work the liquids to mushies routine over a bit longer to make sure you get back to normal THEN see how tight you are. Sometimes that swelling just wont go away - the one and only time I've had to have an unfill in six years (apart from for a big surgery) was after a pb, when I went right back to eating because I "could". I just could barely eat a bite before becoming extremely full after that and I had to have a teeny unfill. I've always been in the "just unfill" camp, but I know now personally the frustration of unfilling your band and then being unable to get it just right again, so I'd wait. But if you have ANY night reflux, any more vomiting or cant get down liquids, you need to act right away. That being said, with my band well adjusted, I can eat bread but cant drink orange juice. There's several liquids I really struggle with actually.
  9. For me, I never truly believed dieting or exercise worked. I mean, I'd do one or the other, interestingly I never hauled my ass into gear to do both together, and I'd lose a few lbs but never enough to actually go down a size, or look any different. I was still fat. So I never really gave it my all, thinking it was doomed from the start. That was never conscious, but I think that was how I felt. Once I was banded, the diet side took care of itself. I was one of the lucky ones who got restriction from the very start (I have a 4cc band) and within two months, I began to exercise in earnest (I'd walked all along). I took up running. I lost so much weight so quickly at first (well, quick for me!) and when I saw the results of diet and exercise together, I was soon hooked. I'm certainly not a health nut. I like healthy foods and I'm pretty enthusiastic about REALLY healthy stuff like chick peas and wholegrains and such, but in truth, I'm a disordered eater with an addiction to sugar and white carbs and I use food inappopriately to mark my day, delinieate between work and relaxing, ease boredom, etc. When I'm good, I'm really really good and when I'm bad I'm horrid, lol. I love love love my running though and my fitness is a joy to me, its something I would never want to give up, I ran through cancer diagnosis, surgery and chemotherapy, I have a real passion for it. For me the outcome of hard exercise - which is more to do with self esteem, empowerment, achievement than it is to do with how my body looks - makes the blood, sweat and tears an enjoyable process. dietwise, I havent really changed all that much. I eat way less, due to the restriction of the band and I held it together for nine months with no fill, but I'm still the same person I was on that score.
  10. Jachut

    For those of you at goal/ long termers

    Banded december 05. I needed top up fills (tiny) once a year, but i kept a loose band. Had to unfill a year ago forva surgery and have had six fills this year to try to get back to where i was, am now past my previous levl but not in the green zone yet. Fortunately ive managed not to gain.
  11. Technically if you are restricting yourself to 900 to 1100 a day, you should lose regardless of fill level -there is nothing magic about restriction,nit does not cause weight loss in nd of itself. Eating fewer calories than you burn causes weight loss. Bit good restriction leads to more consistency with calorie cutting. For eg. At the moment i dont have great restriction. I regained some weight after cancer treatment but about 5 lb more than i wanted to and im trying to lose that. I get frustrated that im eating 1200 a day and running no less than 8 kms a day but not losing. But really, im eating 1200 for three days then pigging out for two, because im damn hungry. Im als not that careful, i pick and nibble a bit. Could you be forgetting or miscalculating calories in the same way? Or perhaps burning very few due tp taking it easy after surgery?
  12. Jachut

    Food questions

    I eat a normal diet with a little bit of everything - that includes Pasta once or twice a week, bread a few times a week, a glass of wine a couple of times a week etc. I eat chocolate and eat chips and Cookies occasionally too! I've not given anything up BUT I eat much less of everything and I do say no to those foods a lot more often than I would haveb previously done. What you have to realise is that it is not the band that places these restrictions on you, its the trade off you make for being thin and healthy. Because band or no band, if you want to lose weight you cant go on eating the way you've been eating. You have to change. The band just makes it easier.
  13. I had great restriction at 3cc in a 4cc band by the time I'd lost all my weight. From that point on, I didnt need fills anymore in that I didnt lose more weight and my stomach didnt lose the fat around it - my weight loss kind of petered out and got slower and slower till I thought "I guess this is goal". But once a year or so I've been for tiny top up fills when I've felt that I was eating more/faster/worse. Sure enough, each time I've lost 0.1 to 0.2cc from my band - it does evaporate slightly, cant tell you how, but its not like you get to goal and then dont have to touch your band ever again. Now, I had to unfill my band this time last year, completely, for a surgery. In about July this year I began filling it again. I'm up to 3.4cc and dont have anything like the restriction I had at 3cc - band has been sighted on CT scan and Xray and all is fine, but they are just fickle things that can change for seemingly no reason.
  14. I can tell you from experience that getting below " obese" is wonderful and people will say you're thin and dont need to lose anymore. But going the whole way makes you realise how much better you can look and feel - beyond your wildest dreams. It can be hard to see where it will come from, but it is there and you will love your beautifuk bones (yes, some of them are actually meant to show!) and the muscle tone you didnt even know you had. You cant tone fat, it will lways hide your muscle! Go the whole way. Your pic looks great and we are all different but at five foot ten i was pretty flabby and just plain large at 175, i much prefer how i look and feel and how i can truly wear anything (without strangling it all in spanx) at 140
  15. I can identify, im a bit the same myself at the moment. I wanted to regain some weight after being sick but i regained 5 lb more than i wanted. I cannot get my act in gear to lose five tiny pounds! WTF is with that - i lost 120 and now cant lose five. I run hard for an hour most days. I maintain on about 1800 but when i cut back just cave and go on a 3 day binge. The answer unfortunately is simply to haulnyoursel up by the bootstraps.
  16. I've got a 4cc band - I was banded nearly six years ago. I believe they "can" hold a little more than their stated size - its not quite like a glass of Water that will overflow - its more like a water balloon that you can still squeeze a smidgeon more in - but its risky. Like an overflated ballon - it CAN burst and if you let Fluid out, it will be flabby and loose (a bit like our bodies, sigh) and will then offer LESS restriction at a given fill volume than it otherwise would have. But as you get closer to full, it takes less and less to make a big difference. I think you'll be surprised at what that next tiny fill or two could do.
  17. Jachut

    should I eat more

    I dont think so personally. Three weeks isnt really a long plateau an youre not that heavy. But try it and see- if it works then great. I run and pretty hard at that, and do spin classes and i know when ive not eaten enough because i get really ba carb cravings and spend a few days binging on them till i feel rplenished. I do need more than 1200 a day but im maintaining, not trying to lose.
  18. Jachut

    Do any of you eat like this?

    Any diet that avoids fruit but encourages bacon just isnt healthy! Carbs are not the only thing that defines a healthy food and a healthy diet is about balance even if you like to low carb. Did you know that the association between processed meats like bacon and ham and bowel cancer is so strong that current recommendations recently declared are to not eat those foods at all? Wheteher you eat carbs or not, fresh and unprocessed is the way to go.
  19. Well that depend in how you define ideal. Odds are you will have some loose skin and theres nothing you can do to prevent that, loose skin is already there before you lose weight, it happened while you were getting fat, unfortunately. Do you have a lot of stretchmarks? That skin usually doesnt recover. Genetics play a big part too.
  20. I lost 120 (but i only started at a bmi of 36) and i dont have a huge problem with excess skin, however my rear and thighs will never be as firm as they would have been, and i do have some pooch on my tummy. You say "perfect body"- I dont believe that is possible without plastic surgery after weight loss, but a nice body sure is, if you can live with a few imperfections. I have nice shape, good tone, but i just need to shrink my skin half a size all over.
  21. Well......... There is a little bit of that going on too, lol
  22. Jeez, sorry about the spelling, typing on my phone.
  23. I got cancer. I had to totally unfill my band forvradiation, surgery and chemotherapy. I had an ileostomy and had to live on a low residue diet which eant white bread, cornflakes, banannas, rice both to avoid bowelobstructions (had three anyway) and to thicken my poo up so i didnt get dehydrated. I handledit by vowing cancer was not going to win. I was going to survive, tht was a given, but i was absolutely not going to give cancer the power to take away all that i had worked for. So i stckbtonsmll portions, did not eat more just because i was unfilled and since the low residuevdiet was notvworking that well nyway i stck with lods of salads, fruit, vegies. Despite feeling like deathvwarmed up some day, i ran through ll my treatment (ten days after surger which is somewhat stupid in hindsight). That was my power, my control, the thing i clung to and my medical team were encouraging. I suggest you dont give a man like your husbnd the power to derail you from your goals. You are worth too much, worth ten of him and the best way to recover is obdisvover your inner strength. Get angry! Fight!
  24. Id say it was inaccurate! Losing even a lot of weight often makes much less visible difference to your body when you have a lot to lose and by the same token your actual fat percentage doesnt drop like you would think, whereas you get down to normal weight and lose 10 lb it makes a huge difference on both counts. But 1% seems unlikely. Well done on 50 lb!
  25. Jachut

    5K or more??

    Wayne, even if you did come last, you will be streets ahead of all the folk still at home in their beds. For that reason every entrant in a race is worthy of respect. And you wont be last anyway. There's always amazing people like 95 year olds or disabled people and such getting out there having a go, who are happy to just be out there but generally come in way behind the average aged, average ability people. 5K is very achievable, you can train up for it in a matter of weeks and its short enough that you can run it with a bit of pace. Have a go, you'll get hooked and be doing 10k's before you know it and then you can REALLY burn some calories!

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