vegors

I am on day 3 of the 5 day Pouch Test and lost 5.5 pounds the first day, and that was without drinking all the water that is suggested. I gained a pound yesterday, and also didn't get my water in and had some really salty bean soup the night before, that kept me up during the night drinking water. I have been busy with cleaning up our basement that flooded on Monday, so have not had time to think about food nor been in the kitchen to be tempted. I know that it gets very frustrating to go through everything that we all did to have the surgery, then go through the pain of the surgery, and then sit there and wait and wait for that magic sweet spot. Meanwhile, we get frustrated and tired of trying as it feels no different than being on a diet, and for most of us, diets don't work. We do have to take responsibility for what we put into our mouths, and those foods that people call slider foods,( my dietician calls them melting foods) we have to make choice not to eat those foods as they do not fill us up and do nothing but add empty calories, as I well know! Have your daughter try eating cut apples or grapes. Those two are what my dietician recommended in trying to see if your band is really starting to work or not. If she feels discomfort in eating those, then she has some restriction, just not enough yet to tell her to stop eating. If she can eat those and they go right down with out any problems, then she is wide open and it may be time for a upper gi to see what is going on. I have not felt hungry this week, but again, am not upstairs hearing the calling of my kitchen. I am choosing not to make cookies for my son's event tonight as cookier batter is too much of a temptation for me! That goes down real easy! I will bake a cake or pie and then I can't sneak a bite or it will show! I have a son that is probably getting close to 400 pounds and there is nothing I can seem to do to get him to realize how hard it is on his body and what he needs to do to get the weight off when he is younger rather then at 44yrs. Both his dad and I were in the normal weight range when we were his age and it has been a battle for the last 15 years for both of us. Sure hate to see that for my son, but as you already know, we can't do it for our kids, they have to make the choice on their own. I can have this house stripped of all bad foods, but that doesn't slow down his portion control or stop him from going out with his friends and making poor food choices then. They have to want it for themselves, just as I have to want it for myself and somedays, I want the food more than the healthier body. Good luck!

Oh I hear you guys and understand the frustration! Why is it so easy for some and not others like us? I am just trying to believe there is a reason for everything and in my case, since I am a believer, I just think that God has a purpose to my struggles and that it is to teach me something. What that lesson is, I am not sure yet, but I am not going to quit, even though I have eaten like I have given up all hope. I got back into the saddle today and am trying that 5 Day Pouch Test to see if I needed to shrink down my pouch. Then we will see what happens with the upper G.I. next week. Suppose God is trying to teach me patience? Maybe better eating habits and exercise habits? All of it I need and I know I am not in the same frame of mind that I was when I started this whole process. Of course, I thought it was going to happen A LOT faster than any of this has! Guess the best way to think of this as our weight loss goals are our destinations and our particular journeys are taking us on some winding and curvey roads, while others get on the Interstate and drive straight there! Now if there was some really pretty scenery along way, I might not care so much, so guess I need to look for those pretty scenic spots in the midst of this very long and frustrating journey!

Okay TCT2FLY, you suck! :tongue: To be able to eat that and STILL lose weight, you are sooooo lucky! Have made it half way thru day one of the 5 day pouch diet and have only had yogurt as the funeral I went to had lasgna and garlic bread and cake for dessert. I then got a frantic call from my hubby who has the day off and our hot water heater had leaked water all over our basement, so spent the last few hours cleaning that all up. I am having a Fresca, which I know is carbonated, but has no caffeine, which is what we are suppose to avoid on this 5 day diet, but I have that old left shoulder ache, which tells me I have gas going on inside there and I need to burp or move around a lot to get rid of it. Amazing what you notice when you are not thinking about food all the time. Right now I am not hungry, which is good, but then I also have been so busy cleaning up that darn basement that I have had no time to think about it. My stomach did growl when I smelled that good old garlic coming from the kitchen at church!

Oh you have given me hope! I know that when I go in next week, they will give me .5cc which will put me at 9.5 cc and I have a 10cc band. Not much more room to go. I am hoping that with that restriction, and doing the 5 day pouch test starting tomorrow to hopefully help shrink down my pouch, my weight loss will start up again. How wonderful to have people tell you that you need to stop losing weight! Isn't that something that we overweight people all dream of hearing one day? Congratulations on your very consistent weight loss!

On Januray 1st, 2008, the goal was 100 pounds, as it was the middle of the chart for Weight Watchers for my height, 5'7". I had lost 20 before my surgery, and then 25 after the surgery, with 12 of that in one month. They don't do my fills under floroscope, so that is why we are doing the upper GI next week. After the first fill, when they bent the 4 needles, they had me go in and they did the xray while trying to do the fill and found out that the port was basically standing straight up instead of lying flat. They had to reopen that incision and sew it back down. At that point she told my husband that my insides looked much different than my outside. What that means, I have no idea. Maybe I should have asked as I am sure she probably doesn't remember now. Do I have more fat inside than appears outside? Who knows, but I am definitely a pear shape and thinner above the belly button. If being thinner in there makes more of a difference, wish they would have quite messing around with fills only 1/2 cc at a time and had given me 1 cc at time.

Oh yes the weight loss question- I am still 30 pounds down from this time last year, but had been down 45 in June.

At this point, a pound a week sounds great to me! The band is suppose to be much slower than the bypass. My doc showed me a chart that showed us banders as much slower than the bypass, but after two years, the average weight loss was about the same.

It will be a year on this month. Got it on the 13th as a Valentine's Day gift to myself! I have had it checked once and they seemed to think it was okay, but will have the upper GI next Monday and will see what that shows. I kind of wish when I drink the barium that it would show a fountain of it leaking out into my stomach just so I could say, " There! I told you so!" but since there was no fountain last time, I am thinking there won't be this time either. Sure they eat 1500, but I have read that they end up working out 6 hours a day when on the ranch! One can not do that in real life, unless one is a trainer. Or I suppose I could, but not have a life and a family.

Hey, the good news is that you only have 50 pounds left to lose-it use to be much more, right? You are doing all the right things, which I can not say that I am doing at this point. Have you checked out this 5 day pouch test, by chance? I am not trying to talk you into anything, but I sure have been wondering if my pouch above the band is bigger than it started out to be and thus the reason for my hunger, etc. Maybe you have a stretched out one, too. But then, I also think, if I ever really recongnized when I was full, would I have ever gotten this big? I know when food is stuck and I have known in the past when I felt full, but only once has it lasted longer than a week. During that week I would lose a 2-3 pounds, but then gain it back again once that restriction was gone. Not very motivating, I know, and this restriction of yours may last for a long, long time. You know, like those who only need a few and make their goal weight!

This 5 day pouch tests has a journal to print off to write down everything that I eat, which I know is what I need to do. Too many licks of this and tastes of that can add up in no time. I have a very sneaky feeling that I, too, will have to measure calorie intake. May I ask how many you have day. I know in the Biggest Loser they recommend 1500, but I do not want to lose weight that fast nor work out that many hours a day!

Oh you are so right about the rice snacks-I ate them because they were on the counter open when I came home. No thought to eating protein over snack food. But you are wrong about the jerky- 1 oz(28g) of the Jack Links has 80 calories, .5 grams of fat and 3 grams of carbs, plus it takes me awhile to chew it! All the things that are suppose to be what we are looking for in a protein, right? Any way, my point of saying that I ate the bad food was that I had given up on making those good food choices. I was always feeling hungry in between the meals and was always eating more than 1/4 cup as some sites say, and more than 6 oz. that other sites say. You still have a great mind set to make good food choices, I have pretty much just about given up. After reading more info on the 5 day pouch test, I really think that it will be the motivater and the kick start that I need to get back on track. That and meeting with my doc in another week with an upper GI to see how the band is working. I do appreciate your reply as you are right-I can't be upset with the band if I am not making good food choices. But I can when I know I was making those good choices and still nothing was happening on the scale and could not feel any restriction.

Oh am I so glad to see that I am not alone in this problem! My husband begged me this morning to get on line to see if others were also having this problem and unfortunately for you, you are! I am at 9cc and I have a 10cc regular band. I had my sweet spot back in May and lost 12 pounds in one month and thought that life was good. That was the last of my weight loss and now have spent the rest of my time trying to keep it off. This past month I have just given up. Oh sure, I have some restriction in the morning, ate half an omelete and a few bites of pancake at 11 yesterday while the rest of my cousins ate all of their food and of course, they are all tiny little things! I drank water with lemon before hand, but one or two tiny, tiny sips afterwards just to wet my throat as I have been fighting a cold. By 2:00, was starting to feel hungry, so ate a bit of jerky and by 4 was really hungry( or at least I think I was) and pretty much ate a bag of the Quaker Oats rice crisps cheddar snacks, and it was the bigger bag. No restriction and my husband just looked at me mortified that I could do it. He kindly approached the subject this morning and said I need to find out what in the heck is going on. All the old feelings of failure, inadequacy and why can't I control my eating are back. I am assuming you guys know those feelings. The ones we got every time a another diet failed. I thought that this would be it, the control that I needed to succeed in weight loss. My husband over the past 1 1/2 years has lost over 100 pounds on his own, eating Fiber One bars and chicken breasts. He started it when we originally started looking at both of us doing the band surgery and he decided he was too chicken to do that, so would let me do it first and then if I succeeded, he would do it. But until then, he got some phen phen(yes it is still out there, but in a healthier version and prescibed by our family doc) and started eating less. He stopped the phen phen after 6 months and has continued on without exercising! He now weighs probably about 15 to 20 pounds more than me! But he has the will power that I have never had and can just pass up a meal and eat less at other meals. He wants to see me happy and knows how much of a failure I feel like, so that is why he wanted me to find out if I was alone in this. I am going to start that 5 day pouch test tomorrow as I feel that that might be part of the problem. I need to shrink my pouch and start all over. We do this surgery knowing that we have no will power, if we did, we wouldn't have needed the surgery! But for so many of us, it just doesn't seem to be doing for us what seems to be so easy for others. Guess I could piss and moan and say why me? But I just want to find out how to get it to work and get back to the weight loss again. Will keep you posted as to how the pouch shrinking goes. Thanks to all of you who have posted your same problems and frustrations. I pray the best for all of you and that some day very soon, we all find our sweet spots!

Thanks a bunch!

Hey thanks for the info on the shop in Ankeny. Always looking for some new stuff. Where is it located? Good luck on your surgery!

I feel your pain and frustration, 2BEME! I am some what in the same boat. Exact same fills, but only after they tried four times with a short and long needles to fill me the first time and kept bending them. Long story short, had my surgery on 2-13, and had my second surgery on 4-3 as the port had gotten flipped up and was not lying flat so that they could fill it. They just opened up the largest incision and cut out some fat that was not letting it lie down(so glad to hear that!) and then filled me with 4 ccs. At first felt a little, but by the next app't. I was ready for the next 1cc. That one I really felt! I was choking on everything and getting food stuck all the time! I was so frustrated as I told my husband now I know why some people become alcoholics over this! It was the one thing I could drink or eat! In fact, I cancelled my next app't. because I knew I was not ready for a fill. I was very frustrated though as I had only lost 7 pounds and was riding my bike almost every day at least 12-15 miles getting ready to ride on RAGBRAI for a day. I felt more energtic, but was not losing the weight, though the clothes were fitting better. Then all of the sudden, I could eat everything and anything and had cravings that I had not had in months. I was due for another fill and I was given 1cc and knew by that night it was not working. I called and was told to give it the weekend to see if it would work. Monday I called again, but it has to be two weeks before they can fill you, which would have been the day before RAGBRAI and we didn't want to take a chance of me having problems the day I was riding. Then I was out of town, and they won't fill you if you won't be around for the next 3 or 4 days, to make sure things are going okay. So went two weeks of intense food events( one week was a cruise to Alaska-no will power there at all, but I really did try to exercise a lot) got back and had gained 5 pounds. LOVELY! They filled me with a 1/2 cc and still I have nothing. I now have 6.5 cc in me and my doc says I should be getting close to my sweet spot and of course, I am telling her I could eat a horse! They now think that when I was filled a few times before and was choking on food that when I coughed it up, the pressure sent my lower stomach up thru the band and made my upper stomach larger. So, I will go in again on Monday for either another fill or they will empty me out, let the lower stomach then fall back down thru the band and then I will start all over again. So, I certainly I understand your frustration and can empathize with you. You were to meet with Dr. Eibes, and what came out of that? I have decided this is my way of life and the weight is going to come off, just not as fast as I had planned, but it WILL come off and it will for you, too! Just remember that which does not kill us will make us stronger!!!!!

As a medical student, perhaps you will some day will be the one that will find a cure for the pain and that is the reason that you had to struggle with it for so many months, so that you would believe in it and not poo poo it as your doctors have done. We are counting on you!

Missrachel, I agree that is is no longer gas in the body. From what I have read, it is referred pain from the band area. I know breathing out really hard after I had the surgery also really aggrevated my shoulder, so I believe it has something to do with the diaphragm and the banded area being irritated some how. Wish these docs would do more of a study on it as the pain is most certainly real and I do not want to live with this for the rest of my life!

Actually JoyJoy, I am glad someone explained it to me so I know what to look out for and how to prevent it from being worse by not drinking water. Thanks!

Well now we know the answer! I would agree that knowing that this band thing is working would be cool and I guess I will hold judgement on the PB until I have my first one! 8-)

Thanks Redtulip for answering the PB question. Hope that I never have one, but I suppose at some point I will. As for it being cool, perhaps he is really into the scientific aspects of being banded!

I hear you on being healthy and doing this to yourself! But you will be feeling great in no time and on the way to knowing that you are becoming a slimmer you! I had to get out of a wheelchair and get on the table, but it was no problem, so it must have been a lower table or something. My docs gave me kudos as I pulled the gown out before I laid down and they said" Hey someone who knows what to do!" My nurse said, "Of course she does, she is a MOM!" So pull your gown out from under you and see if you impress your surgical staff! 8-)

Thanks Bunny! I have read about the referred pain, but just didn't know why it seems worse when walking. I tried my breathing thingy yesterday, you know the one you get at the hospital, and was just about at the end when i was really trying to force the air out and bam! That left arm started to hurt like the devil! My husband and I both assumed I had irritated the diaprhagm or something inside of me when I was pushing out that last bit of air. It went away after a few minutes. But there must be something that is getting irritated when I am walking, but I am not breathing heavy, so am not sure what it is. And no, my doc said NOTHING about left arm pain and what to expect. I read about the pain on this website, but still was not prepared for how long and how bad it was.

I am looking for some advice as I was banded on the 13th and have had two really bad experiences this week with pain in my left arm when I have been out running errands or just walking around at Costco. I even took Tylenol extra strength before going to Costco today, to try and head off any pain. Didn't work. We walked slowly( which just about killed me as I use to be quite a fast walker) but the pain came on not 5 minutes after getting there. It starts as an ache in the shoulder blade area and just spreads from there and gets to be like a huge charlie horse and I can hardly lift my arm. I tried sipping water thinking I was hungry and needed something and it eased the pain for a short bit of time when it first started out, but was useless as the pain spread. I had not over eaten as it had been hours since I had had a slim fast shake. I could really use some suggestions as to how to prevent this pain or what I may be doing to cause it. Thanks a bunch!

Hey, well what do you know? I had no idea that they did that with the tube! Thanks for clarifying that, Cookienay!

Okay, since I am newly banded and am new to all of this, what is a PB? I would assume by what you are saying is that your threw up, but where do those initials come in?