Wheetsin

Yowzer! I tend to recover very quickly. Keeping that in mind, I had my surgery on a Wednesday. Friday I was feeling restless and went to Target to walk around a bit (it was too cold out to walk outside), and used the shopping cart to lean on. Saturday we drove 1 hr out of town to visit my parents. Sunday I went grocery shopping to prepare for my next few food progression stages. I took it very easy, but was fine. Soreness in my port incision, but nothing I couldn't ignore. Monday - Wed of the following week I telecommuted. I could have gone into the office, but my incisions were closed with staples and the staples were right where my pants hit. I went into the office Thu (staples came out Wed), but the clothes were still uncomfortable on the incisions so I telecommuted the rest of the week (aka I could work in a bathrobe). <!-- google_ad_section_end -->

I've had two surgeries. My band was my first, and my second was B removal about 3 weeks ago. Here's what I experienced with each. Band: I was sedated. I don't know if it was Versed at that point or what, I'm guessing it was. It makes you feel a little woozy/spinny. Not sick, just whirly. Hard to describe. I have clear memories up until then, and very splotchy memories after. Vesed induces memory loss - "Milk of Amnesia". I remember people coming to talk to me, and I remember them putting the squeezy boots on. I vaguely remember someone putting a cap on me. I remember someone coming to get me, and kissing my husband goodbye, but the next memory is being right outside of the OR. It was a narrow hallway and the guy pushing me banged into something. I clearly remember being wheeled into the OR, waiting for them to adjust the table, and moving onto it. I clearly remember laying there and anesthesiologist putting the mask on me and saying, "I'm going to give you some oxygen, this isn't gas." He put the mask on crooked and it wasn't sealed around my mouth. I remember thinking, "Oh great, I'm never going to get to sleep with this mask crooked" and the next thing I knew, someone was telling me to lift my butt so they could take an xray in the recovery room. Looking back, they must have put me under through something in the IV, but they didn't tell me they were going to. GB removal: Much more "alert" for this one. I know they gave me versed, but I don't have the splotchy memories - I remember 98% of what happened. They came to get me, I kissed DH goodbye, and they wheeled me into the OR. I moved to the operating table, and starting talking to one of the nurses about recipes. They were asking me about my band, too - how I liked it, why I had chosed it over RnY, etc. The guy told me I would be put to sleep through the IV. Talked a few more minutes, and this is where I forget. Someone said something to tell me that I was about to be put to sleep, but I can't remember who or what. I said, "See you on the other side" - and next thing I knew I was in recovery.

Answers below in blue.

Rice makes me uncomfortably full so I've being going with the sashimi. As long as I stick with "fishy" meats (no squid, eel, etc.) I've had no problems. My current favorite is core yellowfin. Dry it off, slice it up, dash it with soy, and then combine soy, ginger (ground, not pickled - can't stand pickled) and wasabi in a ramiken. YUM! It's a superb lean protein, chews up with no effort, and always goes down easy.

I'm still working on it, but consider myself a success. 18 months and I haven't gained a pound. Do you know how long it has been since I could say that?!? :peep: I just posted new progress pics yesterday: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/573105-post856.html

Mike Rowe is hot.

<p><p> Well, technically we're in Kansas City, but we're like a mile from the Liberty city limits, off of 291. We have KC address, Liberty phone number... we're on that weird divide. :peep:

I haven't but I wouldn't hesitate to. I haven't had a fill in a while, but I went to 0.25cc at a time. For me, 0.5cc is the difference between wide open and completely closed.

I lost 80 lbs putting myself on a 10g fat/day diet and exercising 6x week. At the time, that was all I had to lose. Then I gained back like 200 lbs. $^#&% diets. Green - all throughout my childhood, and up until about 3 years ago when our last one died, I had snakes as pets. Pythons. I think they're awesome. I can truly look at a snake and think, "Awww, it's so cute!!" I don't ever plan to have another, but still like to "visit" them at the local herp stores. A plus - there's no way I could have snakes as pets, and be afraid its food, so I also have no problems with rodents, big or small. The only time they've alarmed me was when I was brining home feeder rats, and one escaped and crawled up my pant leg while I was driving down the interstate. Any time anything crawls up my pants, and I haven't at least been bought dinner, alarms are going off. In addition to little people, I am sincerely creeped out by the sound of joints popping. Like when people crack their knuckles, or backs, I want to stab them in the face. I can't stand it. It is to me what nails on the chalkboard are to others. It gives me goosebumps and makes me feel nauseous.

I have spent winters in Sweden. Trust me, having to tunnel yourself out looks cooler on TV. BTW - hi! I kind of left the face of the earth for a while. But I see you're slated for PS. Wow, that's awesome! Who's doing it?

I was a behavioral eater. And overcoming it is a matter of changing behaviors. Pre-op, I would come home and eat. I wasn't hungry, but I was getting ready to sit down and watch tv, and that's what you do when you watch tv. Then I would make dinner and eat. I still wasn't hungry, but it was early evening and that's when you eat dinner. As I was cooking dinner, I would eat because when you have pieces leftover on the cutting board, that's what you do. MO sees two primary types of eaters: emotional eaters, and behavioral eaters. I don't do any emotional eating at all. When my emotions are up, I avoid food. It gets in the way. I think in some ways it's a blessing to be a behavioral eater. Like I said - you just change behaviors. But when you're an emotional eater, you can't just turn off your emotions, you have to create new outlets. I know I would have a much easier time training myself to turn the light off when I leave a room, than not crying when something makes me sad. (I've done both myself, and I've worked in behavioral management, and although somewhat removed, I continue to work in a field that at it's core is built on changing behaviors. I know which is harder to produce results)

Most of my loss was in the first 6 months. I lost over 30 lbs my first week, and at my first fill had about 50. After that inital 6 months, things really slowed way down. In March of this year I set a goal to lose 15 lbs by July, and I didn't make it. I didn't lose a pound. Then 2 weeks into July I dropped the weight. I've probably lost a total of 50 in the last year. And I have about 50 to go. That seems to be a magic number for me. My exercise hasn't been what it should have been, but I do move. I walk at lunch - usually make myself walk to get lunch. I try to take 2 or 3 breaks during the day, and "speed walk" the hallways. The dog gets walks, and unless school is in (I took this semester off), I'm always going something at home. I watch maybe 2 hrs of TV a week. I just can no longer stand a sedintary lifestyle. If I need to move, but can't stand exercise, I will go shop. I figure - hey, I'm still moving around. Only now I'm getting therapy too! For a while I had a firm gym routine, but that didn't last. I really hate exercising. But I can't blame my near stop in loss on anything but me until I get my arse back into workout habits. I don't get a "soft stop" like hiccups. I just get to a point where I'm not hungry. I don't have "comfortably full". I have "not hungry" and "freakishly bloated." No happy medium. And I hate feeling that FULL feeling now, so I stop at "not hungry". I too get a burp sensation, and can't get anything out. I figure it's because there's something in my band that's keeping the burp frm getting through, kinda like a clogged toilet. 155 sounds like a lot, and it is, but I had a lot more to lose than most people who get the band do. It's a numbers game. Right now I'm sitting at almost exactly 75% of my excess weight gone, and that's very typical (perhaps even on the low end) of a bandster 18 months out.

Forgot the last part of my message. I try to keep our house clean. More often than not it's -- not dirty, but disheveled. Our dishes are done, showers are scrubbed, but there's probably laundry on the bedroom floor and some project or another in the middle of the home office... dog toys all over the place, etc. What's hard is that DH tends to make more mess than I can keep up with, and it's like pulling teeth to get him to clean. We have a cleaning lady. She takes care of things like mopping, dusting the blinds & furniture, cleaning the windows, etc. But we still have to do a lot of cleaning on our own. I found that it was great motivation. I insist that my house is absolutely pristine before anyone can come in. If we're having stay-over company, I'm detailing the bathroom with a toothbrush, polishing faucets, etc. Knowing the cleaning lady is coming compels us to keep up with the cleaning. DH is a packrat. It sucks. We use a bedroom as a home office, and the closet was completely full of wokring, and not, computer parts, monitors, discs, game boxes, etc. He had never used any of it in the 8ish years we'd been in the house. Stacks and stacks of VHS tapes and we don't even own a freaking VCR. Shirts he never wore, etc. He went out of the country for 3 weeks, and I went room by room with a trashcan. If I hadn't used it in the last month, or didn't think I'd need it in the next month, it went into the trash. The first week I threw out 11 trash bags. I'm talking the big 65 gallon ones. The second week I threw out 8. And then I hit the garage, which was an entirely different story. I would suggest that you prioritize what needs to be done, and then organize it based on what you can accomplish in the time you're willing to work. I can clean all day without stopping, DH tops out around an hour - and usually it's more like 15 minutes. Then he finds some excuse and needs to take a (2 hour) break. Approach it the same way people approach credit debt. The win-win advice is to hit the smallest debts first, get them cleared, and then use that $ toward the next largest, and so on. That way, you actually accomplish something, see something coming out of your effort, and are building additional resources for the next step. Clean in the same way. Organize by effort/time required, and take on the ones that are lowest on the list. When you jump into a huge messy room, you could spend 2 hours and not see much reward, but when you're cleaning a "not so bad" room, 2 hours is going to make all the difference in the world. And when you're balancing gloom/depression/etc., you NEED to see these results.

In a way, this can be extremely related to weight, and personality types. Many personalitites do not like to enter into things they do not know they can "win." They are all or nothing, with not a lot of ability to find a happy medium known as maintenance. Think of this perspective as it relates to weightloss, and you've defeated yourself before you've started. It's the same with housework. You get in a go mode, and clean your house, but can't maintain it. You get in a go mode and lose some weight, but can't maintain it. Your house was just clean, and look at it now - overnight (seemingl) it's horrible. Where did that mess come from, and how did it creep up on you? You were just down weight, and them (seemingly) overnight, you're up a few sizes. Where did the weight come from? (I'm going to guess that those with messy abodes might be "type A")

If price weren't an issue, California. Southern. I was born & raised there, and am still in love with it. The weather is perfect, all year. I live in MO now, and I can't stand winter. The cold, ice, snow - it all sucks. We get about 3 usable months a year. Other than that, it's too cold (for me), or too hot (for hubby).

Liberty, MO? If so, we're neighbors. :wave:

I'm going to guess that you have enabled the option to auto subscribe to threads upon post, or not yet disabled it if enabled is the default. Click User CP. Click Edit Options. Scroll down to Messaging and Notification. The second option is Default Thread Subscription Mode. Use the drop-down in that box to select the subscription option you want. Scoll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes. You can also use the List Subscriptions option to select notification (instant/none) on a per thread basis. HTH!

Hi and welcome. :wave:

If the lunch is your surgery day, I wouldn't eat or drink. Most surgeons will require 12 hours of complete fasting prior to your surgery. Assuming your surgery is before midnight, that would pretty much rule out anything to eat or drink that day.

A new round of comparison pics. Pre-op, and 3 days ago. I'm about 18 months + postop. Weight lost is about 155 lbs. BMI difference is (then/now) 55/33. Size difference is 32+/18ish. Over 5 feet gone from my measurements. I don't know how much more, I quit doing measurements about 5 months ago. Still have 40 - 70 lbs until goal, depending on which chart, so we'll call it 55, just to throw a number out there. And yeah, the tight dress is jsut for pic purposes. I don't really strut around in something that fits like compression hose!

Ok, when you say vomitting, do you mean vomitting, or do you mean PB? There's a difference, and it's important to clarify which you're experiencing. if you vomit - or PB - while eating, don't keep eating and do it 16 more times. Stop, and let some warm liquids, or nothing at all, give your stomach a rest. Waking up to vomit (not PB, vomit) in your mouth is a symptom of GERD. Black is a symptom of several things. You need to see someone sooner than 10/3 about black vomit. Don't assume it's a result of your band. Go to a regular doctor, care clinic, whatever it is you have there. You don't need to eat solid foods. In the time before you can get in to see your band surgeon, I would suggest sticking with liquid or extremely soft foods - e.g. the post-op diet. If you cannot get foods down, quit trying, because you're just going to risk harming yourself further.

You really need to follow your pre-op diet. Every surgeon does it differently, and to their own preference. If surgeons get in there and don't like what they see, they may opt to do the procedure open vs lap. You don't want that. If you absolutely cannot make it more than 1 day, tell your surgeon. She/he may be willing to compromise. Better yet, tell him WHY you cannot make it more than one day, and discuss it with your psycholgoist - assuming there's one associated with your program or requirements. Be honest with your surgeon. If you don't tell the truth about something, it's only going to hurt you. I still crave goodies, and if I'm craving it, I have it. I don't crave as much as I used to, and now one serving - or less - is enough to satisfy me. That's new since banding. Weight can add complications, as can overall health (hence the no smoking).

If I'm within a handful of hours of my flight, I stop eating. Don't want to get stuck anywhere near take off. If I'm super hungry and just need something, I will get a Soup at Hand, or soup from one of the AP restaurants. Client lunches - again, soup is always a safe choice. Or I at least start with soup, to help open up a bit. Then jsut eat whatever sounds good. I've been asked a few times if I feel ok, or if the food wasn't good. I either tell them I have the lap-band, or (when needed) just excuse it as "not terribly hungry." Most steakhouses also have chicken, potatoes, vegetables, etc. I don't eat read meat, so I'm always looking for steak alternatives. I will go with soup, or chicken, or perhaps jsut an appetizer. As for hotel meals - I nuke some turkey pepperoni & baggie it up.

I'm not a veggie, but I usually eat that way. Here are some things I use for Protein and genreal good eating. Tofu, in all the millions of ways it can be eaten. Lentils/beans (chickpeas are SOOO versatile). Dairy products (assuming you aren't vegan) - cottage cheese has an excellent rounding of nutritional values, and can substitute for a lot of other dairies with less protein. You don't like protein shakes - perhaps Protein Bars. I've started making my own with tofu & Peanut Butter as a flavor base... yummy. FF refriend Beans also have a good protein breakdown for their values. There is protein Water on the market now.

As for things not fitting that should, I'd have to refresh myself on the limits. I think it's something like 5 lines of text - including code lines. If you want to, send me or post a screenshot of what your signature looks like in edit mode. Sometimes code, especially when direct pasted from generators, takes up a lot more space than it needs to. There's something adding line breaks between your text line and your ticker - but I don't know what.