mia31771

Thanks guys! I love taking these pics as I can't REALLY see it in the mirror yet but I can see it when I put them side by side.

Nearing my 3 months post op on thursday- thought I'd take some progress shots. First pic was taken in december at 376+ pounds- second was taken today at 335 lbs!

I dont feel restriction until I eat something and mostly I don't REALLY feel it (unless I don't chew my food well and then my restriction bites me back) until I am full. When I am full and know I need to stop it almost feels like there is food backed up all the way to my throat- there isn't but it feels that way- my 'full' feelings after being banded are not like being full pre-band- I dont have that stuffed feeling in my 'stomach' so to speak- I feel it underneath my ribcage and pressure on my chest and usually this means I've eaten too much. I just now have 7.5 ccs in my 10cc band and I've never had restriction up until now, so I'm slowly having to learn to chew chew chew and eat slow because before I never really had to- I tried my very best to eat slow and chew well but the times that I didn't the food still went down very easily, now I KNOW when I didn't chew something wel enough. You will know the difference dont you worry.

Thanks! I cannot wait for the big day!

It took me four fills and having 7.5 cc's in my 10 cc band to start really losing any significant weight..and I still have restriction 2 weeks after my fill which has never happened with any of the other fills so maybe this 'is' my sweet spot! Keep my fingers crossed. My advice is keep going for those fills as often as your dr.will let you- restriction WILL come with enough fills, I promise!

Brina- I have the one, two and three mile walk away the pounds tapes! Usually I do the two mile and it is a GREAT workout!! Makes me sweat like a pig! Pamela- I hope everything gets better for you. Staph scares me to death, I will definately be praying for you! Nip- Congrats on losing 95 in six months! You are doing fabulous! I'm already going to need my dress altered to get some taken IN! AHAHAHAHa! That is AWESOME! I'm finding out the hard way fluffy bread is a no no for me right now. You'd think I would already know that but my head tells me 'oh go ahead, just chew well' and my band says 'oh no you didn't girl." Anyway, instead of rewarding myself with food for losing, I got my nails and toes done yesterday and it was quite relaxing. Life is so different now that food is not my main focus. Oh, I still focus on it, I think that is going to happen for quite some time now, but it is not my MAIN focus. That in itself, amazes me.

Pamela: I will keep you in my prayers sweetie. Staph can be a scary persistent little joker so you take care of yourself honey. You have the rest of your life to exercise, just get healthy so you can be rid of this. Leslie- I am so glad your surgery went well and you are fine! I am so sorry the IV incident happened to you, it made me shudder just reading it. IV's and me are rivals- but I try to remember they bring the 'good drugs' and I likes me some them, lol. Take it easy and rest, in a few days you'll be back to your old self again! Brina- Congrats on the two pound loss girl! Coming through bandster hell that is EXCELLENT!!! I was down another pound this morning!!! Its coming off slow but at least IT'S COMING OFF!!! I'm about to go work out for the morning since my lazy tail has avoided it for 3 days now. Have a great day everybody!

Yep- BAmboobabe hit it on the head- while my restriction is less at times, I can eat NO WHERE NEAR- what I used to pre-band. An example since I'm sure we have all dieted till we are dead- I used to eat a lean cuisine when dieting and think this little bit of food wouldn't fill a mouse up- Now I'm lucky to be able to eat half of a lean cuisine meal at one sitting most days. Some days I can eat the whole thing but am stuffed beyond belief. And we all know there isnt enough food in those tiny little meals for anything. In the morning times I do good to get my shakes down. Now around lunch and especially at supper I can eat just fine. Last night for supper I made meatloaf since my DF was off of work and its his favorite. I was able to eat a little more of it than I thought I should've been but it was still WAY less than I'd ever have eaten. Now that my band has helped me get my portions down I wish there was a mechanism to make me LOVE exercise. LOL!

Don't be surprised if this first fill doesn't do much for you. It took me four fills to feel any restriction that lasted over a week. Even now with 7.5cc's I can tell that my restriction is lessoning some. But definately once you get good restriction you just won't be /able/ to eat a lot of any food. All it will take is once of you going over just a teency bit and your band is 'just gonna say no' for ya girl. So hang in there and I'm keeping my fingers crossed you get great restriction on your first fill =)

WOW nip, you are almost at 100 lbs lost! YOU GO GIRL!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

Just remember this is a process sweetie. You didn't get fat overnight and you aren't going to get thin that way either. Do NOT beat yourself up. I feel like a hypocrite for saying that because I find myself doing it ALL the time if the scale doesn't move the way I *think* it should. As overweight ppl we have alot more than fat to deal with during our journey. Years and years of being the fattest girl around have really taken a toll on my self esteem and ego. It's gonna be a long road ahead but I can't wait to travel it! We all CAN do this!

Oh BTW, since I'm staying up to be sure to get my 64 oz of water in and posting away, we need to have a support group meeting soon!

What kind of vitamins do ya'll take? Ive been taking the centrum chewable (orange) and man is it NASTY! In fact it makes me nauseous now to even take it and I haven't taken it in a week and man am I TIRED. I have zero energy at all. Can anyone suggest one that tastes good? When I was at walmart I noticed they did not have a huge selection of chewables for adults that tasted good and it seemed the kids kind was loaded with sugar.

When I 'schedule' my fills I try to get them close to lunch because they close for lunch and I know they will be working fast to get us out. The busiest fill appt I've had was at the 9:30-10 bracket and It was lunch time before I got out. If you have future fills you might wanna consider that when scheduling. I always go on thursday's too usually since it's a light day at work for me. I think my next one is scheduled on a tuesday but it was take that or wait till the end of may and I wasn't about to do that.

Come back in 5 months when you only have a few cc's in your band and still no restriction then tell us how 500 calories a day is working out for ya.

You know now that I think of it- every time I have ever been there are only one maybe TWO other people in the waiting room. Lets see, Dr. bagnato has done 500 surgeries give or take and I know they take them from the other Dr as well so i'm sure they have a ton of patients but how can they lay all that on one fill nurse's shoulders. Now I know ppl dont get fills forever and all but still- even that considered that's alot of cases. You'd think with the money they take in they could afford to hire another person. My next fill is scheduled april 22 and I kept it because I got squeezed in this past thursday. It was just sheer luck the day I called someone had canceled. The clinic is not open for fills on Fridays at all- Wonder why not?

ME TOOO! In fact, the time I leave work an hour early to get there, sit and wait to get filled and drive the hour back I miss half a day's work just getting a fill. My boss has been understanding but it is really frustrating. They need more than one person who is able to do fills. They run poor elizabeth and Malik to death. But you know at my last fill Malik was telling me that Palmyra had wanted to move the OTC into the hospital so we'd have to go there for our fills and do it as outpatient- sign in at the front and everything but she fought it. I am so glad- palmyra took FOREVER the two times I had to register with them and I would totally hate to have to do that to get a fill. But they have to know that things are getting WAY backed up- They were eager to take our money and our insurance companies money- they should be just as eager to see us satisfied with our treatment.

That is great shortgal!! Way to go! And I'm sure the Op tries her best to eat healthy but we all have slip ups with dieting or we would not be here. I'm glad your program is working so well for you! Keep at it!

Drtifg- Exactly, If I were good at sticking to diets and controlling portions I never would've needed this surgery. At a starting weight of 376 pounds I have more than sucessfully bound and gagged the voice of self control in me! I need help which is why I had WLS. Trust me, restriction will come once you get the proper fill amount in your band. A few bites of something will fill you up and it will be GREAT! And if you are still like me who even after KNOWING she's full still keeps eating another bite anyway, the band will snap you back into a painful reality of how you really don't want to ever do that again!!! It will come. Just try your very best to limit portions and try more often than not to eat healthy foods until that time comes. Up until my last fill I had even gained weight back that I had lost- I was in utter desperation until I got one helluva fill and am now in restriction heaven! I'm four months post op and I thought this day would never come. And in all honesty, my dr's led me to believe that it usually only takes one or two fills to get restriction and while it does on MOST ppl, it certainly didn't on me. But live and learn, it will come just try your best to hang in there till it does! We CAN do this!

Graycie- Try your absolute best to follow the Dr's plan for you post op- Even though you got that meal down fine, give your stomach the 6 weeks it needs to heal to avoid future problems when you DO have restriction. Your band will be snug as a bug and be less likely to slip or erode. But yes, it is true, until you get enough fills to give you proper restriction you WILL be able to eat more than the small amount people with restriction can. Hang in there it took me getting to 7.5 cc's in my 10cc band to find restriction and boy was it frustrating but it WILL come, just keep getting fills until you get restriction. I know LOTS of other users who got it with much less in their band than me so hang in there, you could be like that too! But please- take care of yourself until you are fully healed. If you are feeling really hungry tell your surgeon and he may ok you to progress sooner than the protocol normally is. My Dr. did that but you should do what YOUR doctor suggests. Good Luck and hang in there!

Careful what you pray for, lol. Boy is restriction SUCH a different experience. The first few days I worried I was too tight. I am now testing solids and what a roller coaster it has been. I'm drinking a shake in the mornings since this morning I tried to eat an egg and wound up pb'ing. At lunch I had a grilled chicken breast and took my time and chewed everything to bits and it went down with no problems. Then at supper I tried having grilled chicken again and I got busy when the phone rang and tried to do them both at the same time and wound up pb'ing again. I have really got to concentrate when I eat and pay careful attention to chew chew chew and go SLOW. I can no longer tolerate fluffy bread which I guess is a good thing, If I concentrate and chew my food well things go down fine so I don't think I'm too tight at all, I think I'm just so used to half chewing everything and it going down fine...but man the gurgling throat noises are really embarrassing, lol! My family thinks my band is talking back to us!:regular_smile:

Restriction WILL come- I too was thinking even WLS wasn't working for me and that maybe something was wrong because I had no restriction- I was even gaining weight- I sent a desperate email to my surgeon and he got the fill DR. to give me an aggressive 2cc additional fill to the 5.5 I already had, so now I have 7.5cc in my 10 cc band and boy howdy do I have restriction now- It will come, trust me- It has certainly hit me over the head and now I'm finding out what it's REALLY like to have to chew chew chew and go slow slow slow..Don't worry, what you are experiencing is normal when you get small first fills. It took me 4 fills and the last one was much larger than what most ppl get when they are above 4-5 cc's already in their band.

Im not sure exactly what you mean by 'your band felt tight'- do you mean that you had a tightness under your ribcage? If so- sounds like gas- I don't feel my actual 'band' at all. The only pain I ever feel is when something is stuck or I have eaten something that gives me gas. Hope this helps.

You just need a fill- yes another food choice would have been great, but lets face it, just because you get banded it doesn't mean you have to totally give up pizza- I personally don't want to live a life like that where I don't get to enjoy foods I like every once in a while. I'm not an advocate of eating junk all of the time, but every once in a great moon is fine. Before my last fill, I could eat 3 slices of the pan crust pizza with NO problems...Now, I probably am lucky to get the topping off of a pizza down. You just don't have any restriction, don't beat yourself up, just get a fill!

Holly- Have you called Malik to see if anyone ELSE has canceled? The day I was so desperate for a fill I called and someone had canceled a few days from when I called. She did tell me there was a possibility they'd be backed up and I'd have to wait longer than usual but I did not care! Keep calling, someone is bound to cancel sooner or later. My next appt is april 22 and I'm hoping I won't need it! When is your fill scheduled?