Carrie D.

Wooohoooo! I'm approved for surgery! I have BCBS of Texas through the school district (TRS Active Care). My paperwork was submitted on Tuesday, looked at on Wednesday. The insurance company requested better copies, the surgeon's office overnighted the paperwork. Paperwork was received by BCBS on Friday morning, forwarded to the medical review board after I called for an update. I called after work today and got the news that they had just sent out a letter of approval! So, 6 days from submission to approval. Thank you, BCBS!

It's been a couple of months since I've been on here. I'm now up to 5.8cc's in my 10cc band. I'm starting to lose again. I was stalled for quite a while. Anyway, my eating has definitely changed. I live on chicken thighs. I'm unable to eat any white meat poultry at all anymore. I usually buy a bag of bone in, frozen chicken thighs at Wal Mart. I put them in a gallon Ziploc bag with whatever marinade I want (Citrus Chipoltle, teriaki, chile lime, etc) and let them sit for a day in the refrigerator. I then remove the skin and bake until done. I then have a supply available to grab and go. I've even eaten them for breakfast before. The Protein really keeps me full.

Okay...I'm getting pretty frustrated here. I'm consistently getting 900-1200 calories a day. I'm not losing anything. I just don't see how that is humanly possible especially since it says that I need 2350 calories just to maintain my current weight. I don't think I'm even losing inches any more!WTH? I eat mainly high Protein, but I do have some carbs. I try to eat whole grains. I eat healthy fats, like almonds and I count every morsel on thedailyplate.com. The only thing I haven't been doing is exercising. I hurt my back and doing anything is painful. Anyone else having issues like this?

Hi there...I can relate to your frustration. I was at the same point not too long ago. Please go look at my post "Not losing weight" on the June 2008 forum. Basically, I was told to up my calories and now I'm losing. I was getting somewhere between 800-1000 calories a day. I upped them one day to 1600 and then went back down to around 1200. Now I'm losing the weight again. I do realize that you have trouble counting calories via the online program. We eat a lot of Indian food. Sometimes I try to find just the single ingredients and add them up that way. Hope this helps some :w00t: Carrie

Billie...that's right. The ticker includes my 6 month diet as well. My highest weight was 261 last December. At surgery, I weighed 238. I'm now down to 219.

Okay, for those of you who answered on my "Not losing weight" thread, I want to say thanks. I'm happy to report that I upped my calories yesterday to about 1600 and today I am down 4 lbs. Woohoo! I'm not sure if just upping the calories significantly for the day was responsible or what, but I'll take the results!

Thanks, everyone. I'm feeling a little better. I'm going to try to start walking a little bit if I can and see if that helps. It's nice to know that others out there are going through or have gone through the same things. I was feeling pretty alone and depressed about the whole situation beforehand. Thanks again. I will try the suggestions and see what happens this week.

I had my first PB today. It was terrible! And I haven't even had my first fill!!! My local grocery had their whole turkeys on sale for 49 cents/pound. I bought one and took it to a BBQ place for them to smoke it. I couldn't wait to get it home. When I got home, I tried a bite of dark meat first...that was fine. I then sliced off a very thin slice of turkey breast. Let's just say that it wasn't pretty. I wound up leaning over the kitchen sink. I definitely don't want to go through that again.

I felt the same way at the stage you're at. Someone told me a great thing that I try to keep in mind even now. Stop eating when you're not hungry anymore...not when you're full. I keep this in my mind for the most part and the times I haven't, I overdid it and was in pain. It sounds kind of like the same thing, but there is a very big difference.

I love my band! I wish I could have had it sooner, but it wasn't to be. I'm down 35+ lbs, off my blood pressure medications, and feeling wonderful. Most of all, I have hope for the future...a healthy future.

I'm very sorry you're going through this. I've been right where you are with 3 small children and no job to boot. I was scared to death and very, very hurt. I made it and have a great man (who has had to jump through a lot of hoops to help rebuild my trust). I'm glad you're in counseling and you're headed in the right direction. It's painful and takes time, but you WILL get there and be healthy and happy for you and your child. I remember this quote that sums it up very nicely... "No man is worth your tears and the one who is, won't make you cry."

I'm scheduled for July 28th. I'm very excited and a lot nervous about my first fill. I'm doing well...still losing despite a stall for 2 weeks. I think I'm going to be one of those people who loses 8-10lbs really quickly and then nothing for a couple of weeks. It's rather discouraging. If I'm honest, I'm generally not very hungry. Most of the times, if I'm feeling hungry after eating, it's head hunger. I've had my cheats too...one time a fish fillet and a hushpuppie from Long John Silvers and a couple of times I've had buttered popcorn at the movies. The majority of the time I do okay though, but it's a struggle.

Mine said to wait until the scabs came off of the incisions...they used glue on mine. I waited and got clearance to swim at my 2 week post op visit.

This happened to me too. I'd been suffering from a sinus infection and bronchitis about 3 weeks before surgery. The sinus infection cleared up, but the bronchitis was slower. I then got put on steriods to help knock out the cough and inflammation. Anyway, the long and the short of it was that I still had an elevated white blood cell count a couple of days before surgery. I was extremely worried that they would not do the surgery, but they did. They just gave me broad spectrum antibiotics during surgery and afterwards. I'm doing great. No problems :tt2:

Hi there, fellow Jazzy Junes! I went for my 2 week post-op visit today (although I'm actually 3 weeks out). I've lost 9 lbs since surgery and am feeling really good. They told me that I'm right on track and am healing beautifully. I'm consuming anywhere from 900-1200 calories a day. I log all my food on dailyplate.com . My only problem area is exercise. I started walking and have begun having back troubles. I have two ruptured discs and so have to be careful. Anyway, I was released to start swimming today and I'm excited about that. Hopefully, I can get myself in gear with the exercise.

I was on another forum where someone posted about this. Apparently, she wound up going to the doctor about it and when her blood tests came back, they found that she was really Vitamin D deficient. She's now supposed to be taking strong supplements for the next 10 weeks I think she said and then going back in to be checked.

I have a question about setting short term goals. I find that I do very well when I have something to work towards and I'm wanting to start setting short term goals for my weight loss to encourage me to stay on track. I was banded on June 9th and have lost 10 lbs. I know that the weight might slow down and I don't know what is a realistic time frame for me to get under 200lbs. I'm 229 now. Any ideas on how to set realistic goals? Do you go by the average 1-2 lb/week that is stated by the doctors or do you go by your past weight loss after getting the band or what?

I went out and bought an abdominal binder during that first week. For some reason, my incisions felt better when pressure was applied. So, it did help with that. I didn't do it for looks, just so that I felt better.

I've heard good things about the bullet, but I didn't wind up buying one. I have a large blender, but wanted something smaller. I bought a Hamilton Beach personal blender from WalMart for $15. It chops ice and everything. It's served it's purpose for me for sure without spending much money.

I'm two weeks post op and feeling great. I have to say though until the end of the first week, I was wondering what in the hell I'd done to myself. I was suffering from severe buyer's remorse. I was ready to go back and have it taken out. That said, I did start to feel better and haven't regretted it since. I'm just transitioning from soft foods to solids and couldn't feel better. It does pass, I promise.

I'm just starting solids tomorrow, although I think I've been slowly transitioning over the weekend. I'm up 3 &%$%$ pounds since Friday. I am getting frustrated because I'm logging my food on the Daily Plate and I'm eating between 700-900 calories a day. I swear I'm logging everything. I'm keeping my fat gram below 30 and my protein 60+. I'm told this is normal, but it's EXTREMELY frustrating. Cripes...if I'm only eating around 800 calories a day, I want to lose some weight. :grouphug: Okay, now that I'm done throwing myself a pity party, I hope I answered your question somewhat. 2200 calories seems like a lot to me. My surgeon recommends 1500 and below although I know all surgeons are different.

The exact same thing happened to me. I work as a secretary in the hospital. I felt sooooo bad the first 2 days back at work and even got a little hypoglycemic around lunch time the 2nd day. I upped my protein and calories on the 3rd day with one of those protein bullets and then had tuna salad for lunch. I felt normal...it was amazing.

Well, this is pretty embarrassing, but I'm wondering if anyone else is going through this too. I'm suffering from very foul breath. It doesn't matter how many times I brush my teeth, mouthwash, etc. It's horrible and I have a bad taste in my mouth that makes me nauseous. Again, nothing helps. Is this because of the diet? Is it because I"m losing weight? Anyone?

Thanks, Jack :frown: I can see you've answered this question before. That makes sense. I'm upping my Water intake to see if that helps out some. I've been having trouble getting in all the fluidsI need within the day. Thanks again

I'm so glad you posted this. I had surgery on the 9th and am still having the shoulder pain. I'm not so much bloated anymore and can wear regular pants. I took Phazyme instead of the Gas X. It seemed to do more than the Gas X. I'm just aching with this shoulder pain...God, I hope it goes away very soon. Sometimes it's so bad, it makes me nauseous.