Wheetsin

I told everyone, but if you really wanted to hide it I don't think it would be that hard. As long as you weren't eating lunch with them. Your employer cannot ask specifics about what type of surgery, so you're not obligated to release the information. Eating changes - maybe just tell them you're trying to eat less, that way you aren't lying. I would've had a hard time keeping it secret because there have been several occasions where I've been very stuck, which really hurts me and I can't hide -- or times when I've been holding back a PB in a co-worker's car, and once when a co-worker had to drive me in for an emergency unfill. In all those situations it helped me that they already knew and understood what was happening. But I know there are people who have successfully hidden their bands, so best of luck.

I met a girl this weekend that said that if the food trickles down, my band is not tight enough, even if the food gets stuck. She also said that I should get my band tighter so that I wouldn't get that horrible stuck feeling; I would just know when to stop eating. That doesn't even make sense. The food is supposed to trickle down, otherwise it would stay there forever or until you yakked it out. And a tighter band is going to make things stick more, not less. Another woman said that if food gets stuck and/or trickles down I am too tight and should get an unfill. Not entirely accurate either. Again, food is supposed to trickle down. And getting stuck is - well, chalk it up to part of the learning process en route to getting the right chewing habits, right bite size, etc. Eventually it's part of the game, and does NOT mean you need to get an unfill. This Wedensday, I have an appointment for another fill. Right now on my journey, I am at what they would say that my food sometimes gets stuck. I feel the horrible "Stuck" pain in my esophagus but its once in a while. I would like to see everyone's opinion on what they think. Here are some of the guidelines I use. They're only true in so far as their mine, you'll learn your own as you go. I'm too tight if: I've only been too tight once, and I was sliming on Water. I tried to get a chewable Vitamin down and that was it, I ended up spending the next 7 hours running to the bathroom to yak up what looked liek shampoo lather. Generically, if you cannot get any solids down for an extended time, and definitely if you can't get thin liquids down (other than unusual or known circumstances), you're too tight. Getting stuck is more likely a symptom of poor behaviors than being too tight, unless it's happening on everything all the time. I need a fill when: I find I eat more at a meal than I used to; I need to eat between meals to avoid prolonged hunger sensations; I can eat foods I couldn't previousy eat; I can drink more than tiny sips with meals, without significant pain; I am not feeling restriction, or it is faint.

Get the fill. If they give you the option for lidocaine, opt OUT. (IMO) Don't be afraid of sliming and PBing. Eventually you're going to need your restriction, aka artificial will power, and when you have restriction they're kind of just part of the game. Our stories are horrible, sure, but you don't see many saying "OMFG I can't stand PBs take my band out." :blushing:

I've gotten estimates for brows and they've not said anything about it being dangerous, but perhaps that just means I haven't asked the right questions. :blushing:

Quoting myself so I don't have to retype.

Dead muscle tissue, as unappealing as that sounds. Fish, chicken, turkey, pork... eggs, especially the whites. Beans and bean products such as tofu. Dairy products generally contain decent amounts of Protein. Sea plants (nori, spirulina, etc.) have very large amounts of protein. Most nuts. Etc.

Can you borrow something from someone? For an occasion like a wedding, it's probably worth investing in a nice outfit. You'll feel better than wearing something too big, and that's worth it alone. Going almost 3 sizes may make it difficult for a tailor to get a good fit. Small adjustments, no problem - multiple sizes -- iffy. But best of luck either way. :blushing:

Do you mean post-op gas (from the gas they pump you up with during surgery that's "in" your body, not to be confused with gas in the digestive tract resulting from digestive processes), or the latter?

I've actually not had so much as a cold since before banding, but I've been concerned about it. You might want to ask your surgeon for an antiemetic prescription to have on hand, just in case. Kind of like motion sickness remedies... it won't actually fix the problem, but it can help keep the gorge down. Eat what you can. When you're sick, staying hydrated is number one. It won't hurt you to go a day or two without food (or longer, but let's say a day or two) as long as you can keep fluids down. If you can't, you should probably seek IV fluids.

I can't take pills. I cut a pill the size of a Tylenol into 4 pieces and had one of my worst PBs on it. When there is no liquid/chewable alternative, I crush and use drinkable yogurt to get it down. Not sure what I would do with smtg enteric coated.

Wow, were you the kid who wanted others to give you all the test answers? :blushing: The purpose of the psych eval is not to deny you, it's to ensure you have the right support mechanisms going forward. Being honest is one of the best things you can do for yourself, perhaps even better than banding itself. The banding helps us, but it's the changed behaviors that make or break our successes, and the best way to change behaviors is to have someone on your side helping you (e.g. psychologist).

Aside from the obvious PS, I would like to have laser hair removal on my eyebrows, but that's not waiting on weightloss, it's waiting on courage. Not too old if it's what you want. If a 35 y/o can't get belly piercings, then people in middle-age crises around the world are in for some bad news.

Answers below in blue. I'm around 330, 5'6 or so, and 25 years old. Is anyone like me, if so, what is your experience with the band? Not much (started around 380, 5'10+, 30 when banded) but our stats don't necessarily impact our band experiences. If you're mostly interested in experiences from those with similar stats, you might want to start a thread with the stats in the title, asking for others with comparable to reply. That's your best bet for getting targetted information. Is there anything physical you shouldn't do, that could like, cause slippage? There are several factors thought to cause slippage. I believe one of the more prevalent is vomitting. Allegedly one of my surgeons' patients was diagnosed with a slip due to severe coughing, but I can't back that up, it's word of mouth. How can I maximize my weight loss, I'd like to lose at least 200, and frankly I don't want to wait 5 years. Anyone who has had optimal success, what did you do during to make it go so fast (I saw someone here say they lost 200 in 18 mos or something)? 200 is my goal and I have about 40 left to go. What someone else shouldn't be used as a guide for what you will lose, or you might end up disappointed. :blushing: Not that you can't do it, just that you shouldnt' expect it. As for making the most if it, capitalize on the first 6 months. Most everyone I've talked with who had 200+ lbs to lose found that the weight fell off during the first 6 months, and it was an uphill battle from there. If I'm all hot and sweaty, sometimes I'll just down a big glass of Water -- will I still be able to do that? You may have to drink slowly, a "slow chug" swallowing fully before the next mouthful is taken, perhaps. And you may not be able to do more than occasional tiny sips if you're particularly tight, but by and large thin liquids such as water go through quickly. If something gets stuck, how do I get it to release? Let me know when you find out! If something is really stuck, chances are there is no release, it has to come back up. Some people have good luck with household remedies such as meat tenderizer, papaya enzymes, pineapple juice... but for me, these just sit on top of what's stuck and it's that much more to get rid of, or if I'm lucky they turn everything orange.

I'll try to hit on everything. I hate multi-quotes, so forgive the font changes but it's the most concise way I can think of to do this. Responses in blue below. You say its not genentics, well I have to disagree, on both sides of my family, the women struggle very hard to lose and keep the weight off. The men in the family struggle very little but the woman, if not constantly working out and eating a low cal diet ( basically if it taste good spit it out rule) you wont stay with in a good rate of eating well. No, that's not what I said. I said I would have a hard time being convinced it was genetics. You come from a whole family of obese women, then it seems natural that you would learn behaviors that come from an obese lifestyle. Men genetics, and women genetics - no. Genetics are genetics. By and large, you're just as likely to get something from your father as you are your mother. So for all women to be fat, and all men to be skinny, doesn't make sense from a genetic perspective. What does make sense is learned behaviors, even subconscious ones. It also makes sense that physiologically and statistically, men do better at weightloss than women. "Won't stay within a good rate of eating well" sounds 100% behavioral. Eating well is not gentic, it's behavioral. There's nothing genetic about whether or not someone eats well, that's defined by personal choices and maybe some influencing factors such as socio-economic status (and all that other good naturalism stuff). So do you think that maybe my "body has an ideal weight of it being to high"? I'm not sure what you're asking here. I wouldn't even worry about "ideal body weight" if I were you. I would find my BMR and my AMR and identify an attainable number between the two, then compare that to where you're at on an average basis. When I say I eat way less then my husband is no lie, You may have misunderstood what I was saying. I have no objections to the idea that you eat less than your husband. I ate way less than my husband, and still ballooned up to nearly 400 lbs while he put on... 25 or 30 lbs. Who eats more than whom is irrelvant. good example the other day we went out to a pizza shop, I had one slice pizza and 3 wings and a coke, and I was stuffed!!! The boys on the other hand ate the entire large pizza and ate the rest of the wings a several beers before they were stuffed! Still irrelevant. You can't take different genders, different body types, different activity levels, etc. and say that weight their weight should be higher because they eat more. Now tell me did I over eat? I only had that day a bowl of cheerios, 1%milk and cup of coffee, and was cleaning all day before we went out!? I don't think on average that I eat more then 2000-2500 cals a day If that's all you ate then I wouldn't say that one that day you overate, but if you get 2000-2500 calories per day, you're maybe eating more than you realize because what you're reporting isn't near that number. , granted you may be right that is obviously way to much for my body! So yes my metabolism doesn't burn as fast as this skinny girl who eats everything in site! Perhaps not, but there are a LOT of other factors, too many to start listing. Yes I believe that genetics do play a role, I watched national geographic dealing with weight issues, yes I believe that if you are not gorging yourself and eating fast food everyday, yet your body seems to not burn what it should, there is something wrong that scientist haven't found yet! You realize that medical science has found many reasons for weight gain despite a healthy diet, right? Hence my statement that if you are being honest about what you eat, then you need to seek an aggressive medical provider. I'm not saying you're lying. You don't eat below a BMR/AMR range, for any significant length of time, and be active on top of it, and gain weight, without something being wrong. It just doesn't happen. And if it does, then it's time to seek a doctor's help -- probably with some urgency. That doesn't mean you need to seek a genetic answer. For example, a member here, VinesQueen, had similar trouble, and walked away with a pituitary tumor. When you look at all the women down to both my great grandma's and they are very over weight, you cant tell him that gene's dont have a hand in it! I'm not sure who "him" is - but yeah, I would tell him that. If some weight anomoly occured randomly, or could be traced through the family history, or linked back to some genetic issue, then I would believe gentics more quickly than I can when I hear "every woman." When I hear someone say "every woman in my family is fat" I think - wow, it's sad that the women are perpetuating poor behaviors. A fat mother is going to teach her child poor behaviors, even if it's not intentional, and even if the child is able to avoid manifesting the behaviors. A fat woman who learned fat behaviors from her fat mother who learned them from her fat mother who learned them from her fat mother... is going to have that much more chance of passing on the behaviors down, and so on. Add to that the amplified effect of a female child who sees her mother, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, etc. all overweight. This is no different from other "family" behaviors. You could just as easily have said, "Every man in my family beats his wife." That doesn't mean there's a wife-beating gene, maybe it just means that boys have learned from watching their parents and other family members. Anyway. This was not a personal attack. You posted in RnR so I didn't assume you were seeking support or validation. Best of luck to you on your band journey. :blushing:

Not all men want to date a supermodel. Don't listen to him on that one. However, just MHO, 4 years is a significant investment, especially if thigns are otherwise good. I think it's easy for people to say "drop that loser" but I don't think that a couple of rude comments about you, associated with food, are justification for sumping someone if he otherwise treats you well AND honest efforts haven't been made to fix the situation. Him not saying sorry - yeah, sounds like a guy. To most guys, giving flowers is better than "sorry." Too bad they're so clueless. :blushing: Have you tried talking to him about how it makes you feel? How about his feeling gratified by using the word fat in front of you? That's an odd emotion to tie in to something so weird. It might make you wonder if he resents you gaining weight.

You know, I'm trying to remind myself of that constantly. And for a while I get immersed into the "me"-ness of it, and then I come up for air and realize that billions and billions of people have done this before me. It's one of those "everyday" things for everyone else, that for you is the absolute center of your life. (That's part of why I didn't want to be a clinician -- same story over and over and over, and every single one of those people thinks they're the only one. I didn't think my patience would last long with that.) One of the really nice things about it is that we found out while the in-laws were still visiting. They live in Europe. So we had the opportunity to tell both parents, in-person, at the same time. We didn't think that would ever happen. And thanks for all the joy. Am thrilled and terrified at the same time. And I'd be way more concerned if I weren't. :blushing:

You know, I was nervous about the tube too. And just the idea of having zero control over what was going to happen to me once I was out. Even the actual act of going under was causing some anxiety. What made the tube idea worse for me was that my admitting nurse told me, "Sometimes we leave it in and make the patient pull it out themselves. That's how we know they can breathe on their own." That didn't make a lot of sense to me, but as a surgery virgin it was enough to make my skin crawl. Well - I was out when it went in, and it was out when I woke up. In fact, sheepishly putting my hand up to my mouth to feel if it was still there was one of my first conscious acts in recovery. As for how I deal with the needles - I was really nervous for my first fill. The fact that I couldn't see jack (due to laying on my back and being pretty much limited to the ceiling) helped. And actually having the first fillr eally helped, because I knew what to expect. My advice for fills - if you're given the option for lidocaine, go without. Trust me on this.

Typically you would get instructions for appeal with or shortly following a denial. If you didn't, contact your insurance company re: the appropriate process for filing an appeal.

Well - a few points. Contrary to what you might think, years of dieting probably did nothing to your metabolism. I'd wager it's just fine, if not a bit low from lack of exercise (which I assume you lack from your post). It will help to look deep and find the reasons for your obesity. It's probably not your metabolism, and it's probably not genetics. (I came very close to having a degree in genetic science, not for lack of the genetics classes, and it's going to take a lot for someone to convince me of genetics over behavior). EVERYONE overeats (who's physically capable of it), even my size "2" co-worker. It's just a matter of how frequently more than anything, and after that - what foods and what degree of overeating. And eating less than your skinny husband doesn't mean you aren't overeating for your own body and caloric requirements. My husband was skinny and ate way more than me, but that doesn't mean that I should have been skinny just because I ate less than him. That's not even logical. How long have you been on the 1500 calorie diet? You say you can lose the weight, but it comes right back when you resume "normal eating." Chances are that's your normal, and not a medical normal. With the very rare exceptional, rare case we don't gain weight if we're consuming as much as or less than the number of calories to satisfy a range between our AMR and BMR. Outside of unusual (empasis on that) circumstances, it just doesn't happen. If it truly happens, there's something medically out of whack that needs to be looked into. If you're honestly and truly eating 1500 calories, mobile, and not seeing weightloss after a reasonable poeriod (let's say a month), then you should call your doctor, not a band surgeon. If you can't lose weight on a 1000-1500 calorie diet pre-op, then I'm not sure you'd lose weight on a 1000-1500 calorie diet post-op. The band in and of itself isn't going to change anything. So... ppl with 75 lbs to lose (over and over) should be treated differently from someone with 600 lbs to lose? I don't know that I agree with that, but it looks like you'd definitely benefit from hanging out and doing some research. I don't know who "they" is, but it seems like some of their information was inaccurate, at least for standard banded guidelines. HOWEVER, don't take it so personally. Someone telling you not to have a glass of wine doesn't mean they're "treating you like you have 600 lbs to lose," it probably just means that it's in line with what they've found to give the best success, and would probably feel amiss if they didn't give you the same advice as anyone else. I've yet to find a band surgeon who will give a more leanient or open diet to someone who has "just" 75 lbs to lose, over someone who has 150+. "Rules" for best results don't change because you have more or less weight to lose than someone else.

I actually had restriction without fills. Had a small first fill, but then was back 3 weeks later. BTW... Honestly - try your next fill iwthout lidocaine. My first fill hurt a LOT, and I have a high pain tolerance. It was the damn lidocaine shot. I've gone without ever since, and they're a breeze now. I've heard the same from at least 30 ppl here who skipped the lidocaine after reading my (long ago) post about it. And since I told him nolidocaine, my surgeon actually stopped doing it by default. Now he only does it if requested, and last I heard not many were requesting it... most people found it a much more painless, quick process without.

My first week I lost about 32 lbs. Keep in mind that any upfront loss is maybe 40 - 50% fat, the rest will be fluids.

Always be honest with medica staff, especially when it comes to something like surgery. Being dishonest, even by omission, shouldn't even be on the radar of things to consider. Health and life are way too important. A sore throat from a virus, and a sore throat from the breathing tube, are very different things. You can't really say "well it would be sore anyway." It's not about the sore, it's about the cause. And no, it's not necessarily going to be sore after surgery. Mine wasn't a bit sore with either surgery I've had in the lsat 2 years.

BTW... For your reference, and your wife's, shredded chicken is not pureed, nor are mashed potatoes (they can be, but not the way I think of them), nor are "smash flat greens," whatever that is. Pureed foods are foods that have been pureed - aka ground until there are no solids. Think BABY food, not SHREDDED CHICKEN. Shredded chicken is a solid and shouldn't be attempted until you reach that stage.

There are symptoms for a slip, but you would need to see your surgeon to know for sure. This is the importance of following the post-op diet. How do you not know what food stage you're in? You got no documentation, instructions, etc. from your surgeon? If I were you, I would question them on this. Actually if I were you, I wouldn't have left unless I had some information in hand. It's unacceptable. Be your advocate and don't accept "couldn't be reached." There should always be someone answering the phone and a route to voicemail or leave a message.

My surgeon advised to wait 4 weeks for light exercise (walking), 6 weeks for moderate exercise (elliptical, etc.) and 8-10 weeks for anything that would strain the abdomen (weightlifting, exercise balls, etc.) Ask your surgeon for their specific guidelines.