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Jean McMillan

LAP-BAND Patients
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Everything posted by Jean McMillan

  1. Jean McMillan

    Solids After Surgery

    Just because you CAN eat solids doesn't mean you SHOULD eat them. The point of the post-op diet progression (liquids-purees-soft-solid foods) is to allow your stomach to heal and your band to "seat" itself against your stomach. One of the most common causes of band slips is the failure to follow post-op and post-fill eating instructions.
  2. Jean McMillan

    Cant Stop Eating Choc

    I can't keep chocolate or chips (or other junk) in my house, because if it's here, I'll hear it calling to me.
  3. Jean McMillan

    JM 2000 & 2010

    From the album: Jean

    After weight loss, multiple chins become multiple wattles, but I'll take the wattles, thank you very much.
  4. Jean McMillan

    November 10, 2012

    As someone who has suffered major depression for over 40 years, I just want to give you a cyber-hug, tell you not to give up on yourself, and strongly advise you to talk to your PCP about getting an RX for an antidepressant (or changing the med and/or the dose if you're already on one).
  5. It's good that you've been referred to a gastroenterologist, but I think your surgeon needs to work closely with that doctor. I had a bad esophageal dilation with dysmotility early this year that was diagnosed by my gastro doc, but he didn't know what to do about it until he talked with my surgeon and they agreed that taking all the saline out of my band was the best course of action.
  6. Jean McMillan

    Lithium

    If Lithium toxicity is a possibility, you really need to talk to the doctor who prescribes it for you. Maybe the dose needs to be adjusted, and if your dehydrated, you may need IV fluids.
  7. Jean McMillan

    Stuck Food

    I've tried papaya enzymes and pineapple juice and a hot beverage and prayer and probably more, and the only thing that ever helped was patience. Making yourself vomit is never a good idea. If the stuck episode is so bad that you can't drink Clear liquids, it's time to call your surgeon.
  8. Jean McMillan

    Drinkng With A Straw

    I think that depends on each restaurant's policies and practices. If I was denied service in a restaurant because I wanted to use my own cup, I'd be having a little chat with the manager or owner on my way out the door.
  9. Jean McMillan

    I Really Dont Get It. Very Disappointed.

    I completely understand how all the work you do taking care of your family can leave so little time for you, but when you have so many people relying on you, it's all the more important to set aside some time each day for yourself. You might even want to make an "appointment" for that and treat it as seriously as a doctor appointment. One of the small but helpful things I do is this. When I come home from work feeling frazzled and am greeted by a husband and 9 dogs who all want my attention, I greet them briefly and go into the bedroom to change out of my work clothes (very important step when you have 9 dogs). I take my time in there, change clothes, hang up the work clothes, do a little tidying while I think about the day, take some deep breaths, wash my face, putter around some more...well, you get the idea. By the time I emerge from the bedroom, I'm in a calmer frame of mind and better able to tackle preparing and eating a healthy meal and visiting with my family (human and canine). They're OK with this routine because they've learned the hard way that I'm extremely cranky if I don't get my me-time.
  10. Jean McMillan

    Drinkng With A Straw

    I'm not a microbiologist, so I can't guess how many germs could survive a cycle in a commercial dishwashing machine. Why don't you bring your own cup when you go out to eat? I've never waitressed, but I deal with the public every day and a customer who wants to use her own cup would be pretty far down on my list of weird customer hijinx! If other diners give you a strange look, you could smile and say something like, "I'm just trying to protect you all from the highly infectious disease I have."
  11. Jean McMillan

    I Really Dont Get It. Very Disappointed.

    It's important to give some thought to what makes you feel "satisfied". There's physical satiety and then there's emotional, sensory, and mental satiety. I had overeaten, and eaten in response to cues that had nothing to do with physical hunger, for so long that it took me a while to understand that the band only helps with physical satiety. As you said, the band is around your stomach, not your mind. I agree with Missy that some counseling could help. Also, attending Overeaters Anonymous and/or food Addicts Anonymous meetings could help. Go to oa.org for more info.
  12. I can't help you become a compliant patient - only you can do that. All I can say is that it sounds like you're sabotaging yourself for reasons you might want to explore with a counselor. Your surgeon can probably refer you to one who has experience with WLS patients and/or eating disorder patients. When you have a stuck episode, the worst thing you can do is to go on eating. When you do that, you can get into an endless cycle of stuck-eat-stuck-eat-etc. You won't lose weight that way and you can do yourself some real harm by means of a band slip or esophageal and/or stomach dilation. It will probably take a good deal of discipline for you, but I strongly suggest that when you have an eating problem like a stuck episode, you immediately stop eating and follow a liquid diet for at least 24 hours before carefully transitioning back to purees, then soft foods (that you can cut with the side of a fork), then solid foods. Also, don't be afraid to talk with your surgeon or a member of his/her medical staff about this. I can almost guarantee that you're not the first patient they've had with struggles like yours. They already know you have an eating problem, and presumably they're well qualified to help you deal with it.
  13. Jean McMillan

    Drinkng With A Straw

    The no-straw rule is a very common one for all WLS patients. We tend to gulp air when we eat and drink anyway, and a straw just makes it worse. It's along the same lines as the no-carbonated-beverages rule. In what way are you having trouble not using one? Sit-down restaurants usually give you a beverage in a glass; you don't have to use a straw at fast-food restaurants if you leave the lid off the cup; as far as I know, the International Order of Straw Devotees no longer does home visits to make sure you're using your straw as required by your lifetime membership; and if you can't drink a beverage from an open cup while in a motor vehicle (I sure can't), use one of those coffee cups with lids with an opening to drink through.
  14. What is the secret to being a weight loss surgery success? The answer may surprise you! HOW TO BE A WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY SUCCESS When aspiring writers ask me, “How can I become a writer?” my answer is invariably, “Write.” So, want to know how to be a successful WLS patient? The answer is: “Be one.” What does that mean? It means that I write every day. Other than finding or making the time to do it, it’s not hard, because I love to write. So to be a writer, I practice the art of writing every day. What I write varies, just as what you eat varies, depending on how much time I have and what I’m in the mood for. Within 15-30 minutes of getting up each morning, I write something. I write e-mails to my accountability partners, telling them about my eating, exercise, and perhaps some funny, or infuriating, or interesting stories about my daily life. I write down the thoughts I have about newsletter articles. I write lists of things to do and things to think about. At some point during each day, I write sentences or paragraphs or chapters of articles, essays, stories and books. I write journal entries that help me muddle through puzzling situations and relationships. I also love being slim and healthy, so I practice the art of being slim and healthy every day. This too varies, but within 15-30 minutes of getting up each morning, I practice my healthy lifestyle. I update my food log and report my food plan and eating behavior to my accountability partners. I get dressed in workout gear and spend 45 minutes at an exercise class, 5 days a week. I write a weekly menu plan and I write my grocery list. Even when I’m doing something that isn’t directly related to weight and health, I’m practicing. I see a plate of home-baked cookies on the break room table at work and think about whether I want to eat one or if I’ll regret doing that. In a short 15 minute break, I practice good eating skills as carefully as I can despite feeling hurried. When I get in my car to go home and notice I’m thinking wistfully of Chicken McNuggets or Dulce de Leche ice cream, I take a deep breath and ask myself if I really need those things or just want them as a quick fix. I try to see myself driving home and preparing the healthy meal I’ve planned. I try to remember how good I felt when I did that the day before. I think about how happy my dogs will be if I get home on time (anybody who claims dogs can’t tell time has clearly never lived with a dog). The key words in the two paragraphs above are “love” and “practice”. If you’re thinking, “But I don’t love to diet!” maybe it’s time to adjust your thinking. Instead of thinking, “I hate dieting,” try this on for size: “I love being a WLS success.” And it’s definitely time to discard the notion of being “on a diet”. A diet is something you do for a finite period (a week, a month, 3 months). It’s temporary, and when it ends, your eating goes back to the way it was before the diet, and lo and behold, the weight you lost comes back, and sometimes it brings all its friends. I know that for an absolute fact because it’s happened to me so many times since I was 14 or 15 years old. Being a weight loss success means practicing healthy eating every day of your life, for the rest of your life. Some days may be healthier than others, and that’s OK. You’re just practicing, right? It doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be regular and ongoing. I don’t think about weight loss and health and all that good stuff every waking minute, and not all my thoughts are virtuous. I spend quite a lot of time thinking things like, “Why doesn’t that pickup truck just pass me rather than riding on my tail?” or “If he spits toothpaste on the mirror one more time, he's gonna die a painful death.” But thoughts about weight and health do go through my mind a few times a day. I’ve heard WLS patients say they never want to have to think about that stuff ever again. I don’t think I could succeed that way, and those thoughts are not a burden for me. The real burdensome thoughts I bear are ones like, “I should have hugged Mom more often before she died.” Oh, I know that “shoulda, coulda” thoughts are a waste of time and energy. That’s probably why they’re so hard to bear. But that’s a topic for another article. So, do you want success? I want to hear you say it, loud and proud: I WANT TO BE A WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS! I WILL BE A WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS! I AM A WEIGHT LOSS SUCCESS! And give yourself three cheers for your effort, even if you feel you haven’t yet achieved success. Sports teams get cheered at every game, whether they win it or not. BE A CHEERLEADER Speaking of cheering… Sometimes your WLS journey seems endless, and you wish someone else would notice all the work you’re putting into it, and you wonder why no one else has noticed that hard work and praised you for the results. In Bandwagon I list some of the reasons other people don’t seem to notice your weight loss (#1 being that they’re preoccupied with their own issues), but you can set the stage for the cheerleaders you wish you had by becoming a cheerleader yourself. When you give out (deserved) compliments, smiles, and encouragement, all that good stuff will eventually come back to you. Other people are usually attracted to someone positive and optimistic. Of course, there are people who are attracted to the vulnerable loser I used to be, like several toxic ex-boyfriends I could name, but I’m no longer so desperate for attention that I’ll take abuse just so I won’t be alone. Here’s an example of how cheerleading works. I have a young coworker who I’ll call Suzie. She is short and plump, with a sweet face and severe acne on her face, throat, chest, neck, and upper back. I often feel sorry for her when I look at her poor, inflamed skin, but pity isn’t going to do much for her, and I’d rather save my pity for the truly deserving people, like me. (Just kidding!) It’s hard for me to watch my young male associates flirting with the other girls and ignoring Suzie. But I don’t go up to Suzie and tell her those guys are idiots. I go up to her, gesture at her sweater and say, “Suzie, that color looks fabulous on you!” A smile lights up her face, and we go back to whatever we were doing before that exchange. Two days later, Suzie finds me in front of a mirror, holding a sweater up to my middle-aged body, and she says, “Miss Jean, that would look great on you, but I think you need a smaller size.” Get the idea? Try it - you might like it! FAKING IT I probably quote this saying too often, but it bears repeating now because it relates to the theme of this article. 12-step programs have a saying that never gets old and applies to anyone who’s trying to change or to live a better life: FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT At one point in my life, that saying struck me as disingenuous. I was hung up on being the “authentic” me and looked down on the idea of role-playing my way into a better place. But I was miserable being that “authentic” me, and faking it is one of the things that helped me learn how to be a happier me. Pretending to be a weight loss success is one of the things that made me a weight loss success, just as practicing scales is one of the things that makes a pianist into a virtuoso. So, try it - you might like it!
  15. Jean McMillan

    Self Fill?

    It's not just the length of the needle that's important. It's the type of needle. It has to be a non-coring needle (or Huber needle) or it will leave permanent holes in the port's membrane. And getting the Huber needle from a trustworthy supplier is yet another issue, because a few years ago the FDA recalled the Huber needles made by a certain manufacturer because they were not non-coring.
  16. Jean McMillan

    Self Fill?

    Even if the medical friend or family member is a bariatric professional trained to do fills (which are not as easy to do as they might look), I think that in most cases it's a bad idea to have a friend or relative administer medical care. A medical mishap could turn into a nightmare (personal, medical, legal, insurance) that could ruin a relationship and turn the patient into a mess that no bariatric surgeon would be willing to take on. Also, if I could get fills and unfills pretty much on demand from a friend or relative, my abdomen would be black and blue from so many needle sticks. I'd want an unfill at 11:42 am so I could eat fried chicken for lunch, a fill at 1:16 pm when I'm feeling regret about lunch, an unfill at 7:51 pm so I can eat birthday cake...well, you get the idea. The cases in which it's OK (to me) to do "family" medical care are things like parents giving diabetic kids shots of insulin, spouses giving morphine shots to partners dying of cancer at home, and adult children giving meds to elderly parents who can't or won't take care of themselves. If the cost of band fills is a big issue, I'd suggest a different WLS procedure.
  17. Jean McMillan

    I'm No. 41 ;-(

    Plication is a procedure in which the surgeon puts sutures in your stomach to make it "pleat" (that's the plication part) and reduce its holding capacity. Sometimes it's done as a procedure by itself, sometimes in combination with band placement. I think I'm not understanding you though when you complain about losing 13 lbs. You were banded 2 weeks ago and feel that you should have lost more than 13 lbs by now? That would work out to 6.5 lbs a week, which is a heck of a lot faster than the band average loss of 1-2 lbs/week. Or were you banded prior to 2 weeks ago?
  18. Jean McMillan

    Jean Mcmillan

    This is something I find myself saying over and over again, but I truly mean it every time: I hope that reading Bandwagon helps you as much as writing it helped me.
  19. Channing, Why don't you try posting this on LBT's sister site, RNYTalk.com? There's a link to it on the bottom of the page (towards the right hand side). Jean
  20. Jean McMillan

    Question About Unjury Shakes

    Depends on whether you're on Clear Liquids or "full" liquids. I wasn't allowed skim milk when I was on clear liquids, but I was allowed Unjury's chicken Soup flavor, which is very good mixed with warm (not boiling) Water (the powder tends to clump up if the water's too hot). I've never mixed unjury chocolate flavors with water, just skim milk or unsweetened almond milk. Unjury also has a strawberry flavor that I didn't like mixed with water or milk.
  21. Jean McMillan

    Jean Mcmillan

    I'm the author of 2 books about living and suceeding with the band: Bandwagon, Strategies for Success with the Adjustable Gastric Band - it's what I call the giant encyclopedia of band advice Bandwagon Cookery - a cookbook with 180+ recipes (with nutritional stats and instructions for adapting recipes to each post-op diet phase) plus tips for band-friendly cooking methods, meal planning, etc. You can order the books by clicking on one of my ads here on LBT or by going to http://jean-onthebandwagon.blogspot.com and choosing one of the purchase options (credit card, PayPal) found on the left hand side of the page. Jean
  22. Jean McMillan

    Jean Mcmillan

    Bandwagon and Bandwagon Cookery are not available in e-book format. I've looked into that, but I'm told that converting them would be difficult and costly because the books have so many charts, illustrations, diagrams and photos.
  23. Jean McMillan

    Favorite Articles/books

    Naturally I want to recommend my own books, Bandwagon (strategies for success with the band)and Bandwagon Cookery (a cookbook with food prep strategies, meal planning tips, and 180+ recipes including nutritional stats and ways to adapt each recipe to the various stages of the post-op diet) but I can also recommend: WLS BOOKS: Laparascopic Adjustable Gastric Banding, Jessie Ahroni - the author is a band patient and NP so she knows both the patient's point of view and the medical point of view. Just the chapter on how to know if you need an attitude adjustment or a band adjustment is worth the price of the book. Weight Loss Surgery with the Adjustable Gastric Band, Robert Sewell, MD & Linda Rohrbough - by far the most comprehensive book I've read about the band (aside from my own, of course). Rohrbough is a band patient and journalist, Sewell is a surgeon, so the material is detailed, clear, and easy to read. It also includes information about the other WLS procedures which I found much easier to understand than anything else I had read. COOKBOOKS Recipes for Life After Weight Loss Surgery, Margaret Furtado & Lynette Schultz Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery, Pat Levine & Michele Bontempo-Saray
  24. Jean McMillan

    Pre Op Diet

    It depends on the details of your pre-op diet. Surgeons' pre-op diet requirements vary greatly. Some insist on only liquids (Protein shakes). My current surgeon allows only Protein shakes and Protein Bars, where as my original surgeon's pre-op diet was 1200 calories a day of real food with absolutely no processed food (to reduce sodium intake). Without knowing the exact pre-op diet you're on, and how long you've been doing it, and when your surgery will be, it's hard for me to make suggestions. The purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink your liver and improve its texture (making it less slippery) so that your surgeon can maneuver your liver out of the way (because the upper lobe lies on top of your stomach) without damaging it. My original surgeon told me that if he didn't like the looks of my liver after he got his scope inside me, he'd bail out of my surgery altogether. The idea of waking up with no band scared me into 100% compliance with my pre-op diet.
  25. Jean McMillan

    Allergan In The News

    Medical implants of any description can be a mixed blessing. A coworker of my husband's has had a medical nightmare since his hip replacement operation. Something in the materials used in the artificial joint caused major inflammation, he had complications from the second surgery he had to deal with the problems from the first surgery, and a year later he's still too sick and disabled to come back to work. On the other hand, I know plenty of people who've had hip and knee replacements with no problems and great success in restoring their mobility and reducing their pain.

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