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Some call this period "bandster hell"! Do your best to follow the guidelines. Just because you can eat more doesn't mean you should! Measure out what you should have, eat it slowly, then stop. Find something to do to distract yourself. Good luck! Orea

Tad,I have had nothing but loving support from all of my friends and family. My husband has come to every meeting and appointment I've been to. I know I am very lucky! (But then again, I am VERY choosy about my friends!) Orea

That makes 3 of us in Northern VA getting our bands! Just think, if we follow the guidelines, we'll be 50 -100 pounds lighter this time next year. Hold that thought! (I'm feeling like the grandmother here! LOL Though I haven't been blessed with any yet. Just think, those possible grandchildren may never know me as heavy!!!! My kids never knew me thin...but they will.)

I don't know about Optima, but Optifast is a product you can only get with a physician's prescription. It is only to be used under medical supervision. I'll be starting two weeks of Optifast prior to my surgery date, to shrink my liver. The day before I believe I'll be doing something else like clear liquids, but I don't know that for sure, yet. I got my Optifast right from the doctor's office, but when I went to their site earlier, I saw that you have to have an authorization number to order it from them, and you can only get that number from your doc. Hope this helps! Orea

I'm all set with the Protein supplements and the like. What I'm looking for is a list of what I might want to take to the hospital. Things like lip balm. Sorry I wasn't clear. Joiful, I'm praying for you that you heal quickly and all goes smoothly from here on in. Orea

Joiful, I am glad you are seeing a doctor soon. I had my preop testing and nurse interview yesterday. Hopefully all went well. I have a question: I'm starting to prepare for my trip to the hospital. I know somebody posted a really good list of things we might need, complete with approximate costs. I've lost it. Can someone direct me to where it is, or post it here or something? I'd really appreciate it. Orea

Josh, congratulations! Being younger, I'll bet you heal really fast! Orea

Tomorrow is my day of preop testing. I'm not looking forward to this, but it has to be done. Wish me luck! Orea

An excellent suggestion! I brought my pillows both times. No one minded a bit. Orea

I didn't call at all. My doctor's office said Aetna would take 2-3 weeks usually, and it did. I was just about to call when I got the news. I might add that I know that the staff here knows their stuff, so I didn't think nagging would be useful or necessary. Orea

I recommend the Breeze nasal pillow mask from Puritan Bennett. I bought one with my own $$ and it was the best investment ever. It doesn't bind, it never leaked from the first moment I slipped it on. And it doesn't have an assortment of buckles and latches to fumble with every time you need to take it off or put it on. There are cheaper places to get it than the site below, but you might like to see the reviews. --Orea Breeze SleepGear CPAP Interface System with TWO sets of Nasal Pillows

I don't sleep well there, either. I probably would if I didn't have to be on my back. It took me about a week of real effort to get used to my CPAP machine. I was cranky for a while there! But now I don't want to be without it. I have a battery backup for my machine in case the power goes out, that's how important it is to me. You will get used to the greater effort of the exhale, but I want you to know that there are machines with a "flex" feature that sense when you are exhaling and soften the pressure just enough to make it feel more natural. I invested in one of these (there are some good deals on the Internet) and it is my machine of choice. Mine also has an "automatic" feature which senses how I am breathing and supplies just enough pressure to keep those passages open. I have been able to watch my pressure decrease as I lost weight this year. It's well worth the effort to get used to your machine--should you need one. Hope this helps. Orea

Because of your high BMI (and mine!) you may find your surgeon recommends a bypass instead. Just a heads up on this. When I told my surgeon that I wasn't comfortable doing a bypass and it was band or nothing, and asked if he was willing to band me, he was fine with it. He said the reason he has that recommendation is that it takes longer and people get impatient when they have more to lose. I told him I was fine with taking 2 or 3 years to get there. This said, my surgeon never said I had to lose X amount of weight to qualify. (When I was with Kaiser Permanente, they did. I was told 3% which was like 11 pounds, west coast KP members have reported they have to lose 10%.) I lost weight anyhow because it'll make my goal that much closer and I badly needed to get some of the pounds off because I was physically miserable. Besides you BMI and possible comorbidities (have you been tested for sleep apnea yet?), they may want to know that you have tried dieting repeatedly, that you are of sound mind and able to follow directions (psych evaluation), things like that. Take your time, do your research and make sure you are comfortable with your choice. I highly recommend SmartBandsters at Yahoogroups. I have learned a bundle from them and it has been most valuable to see others doing what I hoped to do, their ups and downs, triumphs and mistakes. They know their stuff and are great about answering questions. Good luck! Orea

Meeting with the surgeon will not obligate you. So why not? Look at it this way: There is nothing that is so dangerous that you shouldn't talk about it. (Paraphrasing one of my favorite movies. Extra points if you know which one!) Yes, this is a time for you to ask any and all questions. Your surgeon may well explain the band and what it can do, and tell you what the surgery involves. Here is a list of questions I got from someone else: Some of the questions I asked the first time I met my surgeon was: 1) How many have you done? 2) Complication rate? How many fatalities? And you can ask for details. I asked mine and he was upfront with me. 3) If there are any complications, is anything covered in the cost of the first operation? 4) What is your aftercare program like? 5) Are there support group meetings? 6) Do you have a list of referals from previous patients that you can call and talk with? Alot of surgeons do. 7) What is your fill policy 8) Do you charge for an unfill if the fill is too much? If a fill is too much is there a grace period where it is free to unfill? If so how long is that? 9) How much are fills? I asked mine at the seminar how aggressive he was about fills in terms of reaching the "sweet spot." This is kind of a trick question, because more aggressive is not necessarily better. You don't want to be overfilled (and possibly risk a prolapse) -- but at the same time you don't want to take two years to get to where you are losing well! Let us know how it goes. :-) Orea

Thanks! The only thing I want to eat before I can't, is a nice batch of sushi. We have a local restaurant where the quality is superb. As a last fling, I don't think it's too bad. I'm utterly terrified of the Optifast, too. I don't know the details yet, I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I see the dietician, but I'm willing to grovel just to be allowed a plate of steamed broccoli or green beans! I just hate feeling hungry. Hopefully it won't be as bad as I fear. By all means, if a psychologist will help, use one! Anything to make it as easy and comfortable as possible. I was glad to make contact with my psych via the screening so I know I have her there should I need her. Another tool in our arsenal! Orea

Thanks, Kimaly! :-) Orea

Congratulations, Amy and Banditmel! :-)

Wow, doing it voluntarily! Good for you. I wouldn't, but I have to anyhow. Orea

Thanks for the welcome! :-D Orea

No problem re the questions. Here goes! Well it all started for me in April of 2007 when my blood work inched over into diabetic from prediabetic -- by one point! Suddenly it got serious for me. I was determined to to everything I could to stop the direction things were going. I went into a big poor me funk for a week or two. Then something happened that completely turned me around. The massacre occurred at Va Tech. My son was there, two buildings away. I could have lost him that day. Suddenly I realized that my husband and kids are alive and well and nothing else mattered. I could handle my health challenges! They didn't matter compared to that. Somehow it put steel in my spine, and I've never looked back since. It's kind of odd that something so terrible and tragic could give me a gift, but there you have it. I've never felt sorry for myself since. I know I'm darn lucky and I am going to make the most of what I have. I hadn't even heard of the band at that point. I started by doing Suzanne Somers' diet which means no "funky foods" -- no sugar, no white flour, etc. She doesn't even allow carrots! It was really hard at first, I had major cravings and hunger. I let myself eat whatever I needed to that wasn't on that list as long as I needed to, which was at least a month. I cooked with heavy cream and cream cheese and snacked on Proteins and more cheese. Just to keep sane. And I ate lots of vegetables, too. Butter and oil were legal, so I had big salads and buttered my veggies. Anything to keep myself off of those bad carbs. When things got better, I cut back on that stuff, but I needed to do it for a while. My fasting blood sugar dropped every time I had it rechecked until last time I was within a point of absolutely normal. I may well be there by now. I lost 28 pounds Somersizing and put back all but 11 by the end of the year. By this time I had heard about the band, and researched it thoroughly. I joined SmartBandsters at Yahoogroups and saw that the bandster way of eating was pretty much what I had been doing: Protein and produce, and high Fiber carbs. So I stuck with it. There I also started learning new ways to think about food and dieting, much of which is based on The Beck Diet Solution. (Check it out, this really is effective!) I started seeing food as fuel for my body, not something recreational. I started thinking in terms of lovingly giving my body the best possible fuel instead of what my taste buds were in the mood for. After the New Year, I started in again. I realized that while I wanted my band yesterday, I could still lose 1-2 pounds a week while I waited, just as if I were banded, and be that many weeks closer to my goal. I lost about 13 pounds and stalled by early March when I saw the hospital dietician as part of my 3 month intensive for Aetna. She helped me tweak what I was doing. I started weighing and measuring and cut way back on my fats. I switched to fat free mayo, for example. With time, I picked up some of the Smartbandster mottoes and made them mine: It's not how much you can eat, but how little you can get by on. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. If hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the answer. Am I trading what I really want, for what I want right now? Do I like that food enough to want to wear it? I also joined CalorieKing.com and started journaling everything I ate. Wow! Was I in for some shocks. There were a lot of foods that had a lot more calories than I realized! The first couple of weeks were punctuated with my screams of horror when I looked things up. My favorite Panera sandwich had over 1100 calories! Not including the chips and lemonade I usually ordered. I kept saying, "No wonder I'm so fat!" :cool2: We all know that journaling is one of the most powerful tools for successful weight loss, but Calorieking took it to a whole new level for me by showing me the breakdown as my day progressed of protein, fat, fiber, Calcium, etc. By the end of every day I knew how many calories I had left and if I had enough room in my fat allowance to put butter on my popcorn. The other thing that the dietician said, that really stuck with me, was, "Look for easy ways to cut 100 calories." I eventually went from counting out my serving of 6 Triscuits (one of my mainstays) to thinking, "Do I really need all 6? Will 3 do?" You get the drift. Oh, and once I identify a food I I lose control over, it is out of here! Goodbye to Wheat Thins and Domino's Pizza! I don't know what they put in that pizza, but not only did I scarf half of one for dinner, I was also extra hungry for two weeks afterward! NOT worth it! Once the weight started coming off again, I was even more motivated. I set my goals 2-3 pounds apart so I wouldn't get discouraged or overwhelmed. Right now I am panting to get below 330! You wouldn't believe how good I've been this weekend, no junk, lower sodium, no eating out even though I want to. I want this more. Hope this helps! I'm absolutely amazed to have made it this far. I lose, then stall, then lose again. You've just got to stick with it through the hard parts knowing that the eventual thrill of a lower number on the scale (and your pride in yourself) is worth it. Orea

We weigh about the same and we are about the same age. Trust me on this: As you can see below, I've been a good bit heavier. You don't want to go there!!!! I can't begin to tell you how awful it is 50 pounds ahead. We need to take the pounds off and we need to do it NOW. Don't feel guilty about needing a tool to help you. If our hunger turned off when and as it should, we wouldn't be needing this kind of help. But mine doesn't, it hasn't for years, and I bet yours doesn't either. We need the band. We deserve the chance the band will give us. Take your time and learn all you can. Start now to improve your eating habits. You still have time to change your mind, but I hope you won't. Just think, if you follow most of the rules most of the time, you can lose most of the weight! Won't that feel incredible? And you can take off 50 to 100 pounds in the first year. Maybe more, since, like me, you have a high BMI. I'm directing this pep talk as much at myself as at you. :-) Orea P.S. The mortality rate for this surgery is extremely low! Or I wouldn't be doing it.

Congratulations!!!! :-D Isn't it a great feeling? Orea

Hi, I'm 53 for a couple more months, and I'm going to be banded at the end of the month. I live in Northern Virginia, and I have been married 34 years to a great guy whom I still enjoy. We have two grown kids, a daughter 31, and a son 25. No grandchildren yet. We also have a Keeshond and 8 cats, one of whom is trying to get me to stop typing and pet her! Yeah, every single one of them is spoiled. I've been losing weight on my own for the past 15 months, but I'm more than ready for some assistance. I've known for years that my hunger doesn't turn off correctly. That is where the band will hopefully come in. This is the week I get all of my preop testing done, and see the dietician. I am not looking forward to the preop Optifast diet but I'll do what I have to do. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all! Orea

Yeah, I still have over 3 weeks to go and I am stressing about my testing this week, and the Optifast diet, and then there is the whole other issue of what will my gynecologist say about a completely different problem... and, oh, you name it. I am SO ready to get several months past this! But one day at a time is how we have to play it. Let's all take a few deep breaths and try to relax a bit. Lots of other people have done this and we can, too. Orea

I'm glad to hear things are going well and getting better for you. I'm a stomach and side sleeper, too, and I am not looking forward to sleeping on my back. Or sitting up. But I've done it before and I can do it again. This, too, shall pass. Orea