lildarlin

HI! No, the band won't stop sugar cravings. But what it will do, if you're properly restricted is stop you in your tracks if you try to eat certain sugary foods. For example....I cannot in any way shape or form eat brownies, donuts, b-day cake (that's iffy). Anything "cakey". Getting these things stuck is not worth trying, in my opinion. I have a major sweet tooth and I've lost 84lbs in 17 months. I think my losses could be better, but my doctor is not upset and I don't feel deprived. I like ice cream and need to stop the nightly dishes of it. The band lets the stuff that melts in your mouth slide right through. Good luck!

Anyone else experience this? I still get a fair amount of gas - lots of toots sometimes! But for the past several months I get pain right about where your waistband would be, about at the belly button, maybe a little higher. I can lay in bed and press down and feel tenderness. Sometimes after I press, or while I'm pressing I can hear a gurgle or feel what I assume is gas moving. This is really annoying....I am assuming it's intestinal gas and nothing to worry about. Does anyone else ever have pain in that area? I meant to ask my dr. the last time I went, but I forgot. It's not a pain I have every day, but when it happens I'll have the tenderness for a few days. Thanks!

One part of this journey that I've noticed is that I eat more like a thin person. My sister is very thin, like 125lbs. She came to my house for a party and we both fixed our plates. I took a little dab of almost everything we had to eat. Stood there talking to her and looked down at her plate....in comparison...ours were identical. She took the same mini portions and was satisfied, so was I. Same thing happened the other night when she came to my house, identical portions on our plates. It's just something interesting I have observed. I pretty much eat whatever I want, I choose not to eat certain things because I know they'll get stuck. I'm in need of a small fill now so I probably am eating more at a sitting than I did before.

Deli ham, turkey from a roasted breast, but I can eat sliced deli turkey (go figure!), brownies, cake, sometimes crackers.

Here is a comparison of my face.

When you can get to the solid food stage, I just discovered pea pods. I bought them in a bag at Walmart in the produce section. They peas inside the pod and I just finished having some with lunch. Very crunchy! Quaker makes 90 calorie packs of baby rice cakes. Cinnamon streusel and one drizzled with chocolate and I can't think of the other. They are very good as well. You'll be able to crunch soon, hang in there!

I totally agree and totally off topic here...mainly because I am the recipient of said lawsuit. DH and I were sued for 1/2 million dollars about 10 years ago because it was an icy evening, roads hadn't been plowed and DH slid on the ice into the path of an oncoming car which t-boned him. The only injury was passenger of the car who went to the hospital and they literally put a bandaid on the cuticle of her finger! Yet we were sued THAT! Plus an additional 25,000 from her husband for "lack of services". We joked that she must have had some magical freaking fingers to not be able to service her man from a simple scratch on her finger. Plus I knew where she worked and had some spies watching to see if her finger was totally useless, nope, she could type with that finger just as well as I can! Totally bogus, they were awarded some money, but not without a fight first. Our insurance company rocks. Just thoughts from someone who has been burned......

Wow...you just told my story. No true support, met the doc 5 mins before surgery and now almost a year later acts like I'm the problem. I'm tired of it, but don't feel divorce is the answer. We've tried the night out business, certainly didn't change his attitude. I don't know.....it sucks.

I was over 9lbs when I was born. A chubby child, had to shop at Sears in the "pretty plus" section. My mom made a lot of my clothes too. I was and am tall so I wore my weight well, but have never been skinny. I was about 30lbs from my ideal weight when I was 20 (did nutrisystem them). But, stopped that and gained all my weight back. I don't know what it's like to shop for normal clothes. I want to put on a pair of jeans and look darned good in them! You know...even though I'm married, I'd love to know if when I get to goal, if any other guy would look at me and think I was pretty! I don't hear it from my husband....guess that's why folks who lose weight also lose the extra baggage from an unsupportive spouse!!!

Hi everyone. I'm curious, do you lose weight every week or is it a week of loss, then nothing for a few? For me, I seem to lose very well the first week or so after a fill, then it stops. I don't gain, but I do bounce up and down and can't seem to get past that weight unless I have another fill. Is that normal? I know I need to get back to a good exercise routine so maybe that'll help give me a more continual loss pattern. I just wondered if I was the only one dealing with this. Thanks!

I have had a misconception of fruit & veggies with the band. I thought that veggies had to be cooked to mush first and have been totally afraid to try fruit. I recently was told by local fellow bandsters that fruit and veggies are best eaten fresh/raw. My doctor said the same thing the other day when I went to see him. He said that a lot of folks adapt a vegetarian lifestyle with the band. As far as what things I have tried (because I was afraid to try anything) have been apples no peels, I can't eat the skins off tomatoes either. I have successfully eaten grapes and mandarin oranges from the can. I haven't tried fresh oranges, although they were my favorite this time of year prior to banding. My problem has been that I've been scared to death to try anything, primarily eating Protein, Beans and crackers (to have with my tuna salad etc.) I went to the store yesterday with some new ideas and bought some romaine, cucumbers and radishes to get started on trying new things.

Don't let it scare you too much! Make sure you know your surgeon, how many he's done, his success rate, his failure rate and talk to other bandsters as much as you can. The boards are good, but face to face is better. I went to monthly support groups for 5 months while in the process of getting approved to learn all that I could. Complications don't occur for everyone. I had an uneventful surgery, I was walking the halls 3 hours later for hours on end. My mother said it was the easiest recovery from major surgery she's ever seen. I stayed home 2 weeks just to be at my best because my workload was going to be very heavy when I went back. I have never PB'd, I slime now and then because I eat too fast, I have lost 64lbs in 7 months, I can eat most everything and I am doing this with a little over 1cc in the 4cc band. I don't even know that I have the band except for when it's time to eat!! That's the way it should be! I wish you luck in your decision.

Hi! I'm looking at a doctor at Highland Hospital in Rochester NY. Anyone here have surgery by him and how would you rate your experience? Thanks!

I heard about Dr. Galvin leaving...what a shock! I'm so sorry! I ended up having surgery close to my home in Ithaca on 4/18. You would have thought that he knew his intentions before he even told your husband he'd do the surgery! He had to have known. I wish you luck. If you can't find a doctor closer to your home, Ithaca isn't too far, a bit of a drive, but not 4 or 5 hours. My doctor is John Mecenas and he is wonderful. Upstate Medical in Syracuse just started doing the band....my doctor has done a lot and he studied under Dr. Christine Ren in NYC - I feel he's very competent. Good luck, let me know how you make out!

Why's that Ralheit? Are you afraid because it looks weird?? Or afraid to eat it for fear of getting stuck?

Every 4 weeks since I was banded. I have only had 2 fills so far. He is very good about aftercare, which is very good!

I make Buffalo Tofu. Slice or cube (however you like) extra firm tofu, fry in olive oil. Make up some Frank's Red Hot sauce with some butter to tone it down and drop the fried tofu in it. It is out of this world. It's like chicken wings, boneless. Pre-band I could eat a whole 16oz brick, if I allowed myself. We live where they make it from scratch and sell it in these big white Water filled buckets at the health food stores. I've never used pre-packaged before. If you go to www.allrecipes.com and type in Tofu - they have a ton of recipes. I found one for eggless quiche made with tofu and it was really good. I can't eat eggs so it was a nice change.

May he rest in peace. A major loss for the world. I feel so bad for his family.

Bettina, Question for you. If you can stop/reduce the amount you lose by upping your Protein, how long might it take? Does it take a specific amount of time to build up that protein in your body? Does it build up? Does that make sense?? One of the things I did today was when I showered I didn't purposely tug on the back of my hair just to see how much was going to come out. Then, when I put product into my hair, I didn't notice as much on my hands and once again, didn't purposely try to pull and see what was coming out. I also didn't find as much on the sink, toilet & tub when I blowed my hair dry. I have been upping my protein for a couple weeks now and getting in close to 85 or more grams per day. Hoping the shedding will stop soon. I still have a lot of hair to spare, but..... Thanks!

Mine has been coming out for about a month or more. I have naturally thick red hair. It comes out like petting a cat, not in clumps, just sheds. I am starting to worry that it's going to be quite noticeable even though now it's really not. I can tell it's thinner in the back which is shoulder length, but nobody else could tell. I still have a LOT of hair, but this is worrisome to me. The only time I truly shed a lot is when I shower. When my hair is dry and I run my fingers through it, I might get 1 hair out. Isn't that strange??? I went to Sally's beauty supply today and bought a shampoo for $5.00 that has some ingredients supposed to help thicken hair. I'm also going to faithfully take Biotin. I have a dr. appointment friday morning and am going to talk to him about it. The nutritionist I talked to wasn't overly worried. What I find ironic is....of all the people in my support group and folks on the Obesity Help board, nobody has gone bald, nobody complains of hair loss, or if they do complain, you'd never know they had any loss!!! Maybe I just need to relax, and wait it out, but I love my hair!!

Now DH says I feel "flatter". Before he said it was like he was lying on a hump. (wasn't said to me to be mean, he was trying to tell me that he could feel my belly had gone down the best way he could LOL!) Definitely better though. It was good before, but now, better! I can't wait to see what it'll be like 100lbs from now. Woo Hoo!!

HI everyone...I feel like I'm back to old habits. Maybe it's the 100 degree heat! I was banded 4/18, I've lost 52lbs. I just had my first fill of .6 cc's last week. I feel like I'm falling back into my old habits. I know I was a volume eater pre-band - compared to what I eat now, yes, I overate. But...there were times, many actually, that I didn't eat at all. Some weekends I'd eat 1 meal on both Saturday & Sunday. I find that with the band I can't eat much at all. Eating isn't "fun" anymore, so sometimes I just don't eat, I'll drink something because it's easier. I'm finding that I am getting no-where near the number of calories or Protein I need. My hair is coming out - not in clumps, but I get many many strands on my hands while putting the gel in the a.m. Because we have to eat protein first, I find I have no room for anything past a couple ounces of meat. No room for veggies or fruit which I do like. I don't feel overly restricted, but I do know that my level of intake is so reduced that I can't possibly continue to lose any weight. In fact, I find that that I stay the same for several weeks, then drop a few. I don't lose weight steady each week like most people. I wish I could get back to eating more veggies etc. like I used to. I just can't, and I have the mind set sometimes of "why bother eating then?" I know that's not good. Maybe I need to head back to the nutrtionist that I have unlimited visits to for 3 years....I may need to talk to her about this. Anyone else kind of feel the old ways creeping back in - I don't want it to be this way - I want to lose weight but I want me to be healthy too!! Thanks for listening.

I just got my first fill on Wednesday. I have the 10cm band and he gave me .6cc. We both agreed to "sneak" up on proper restriction. I didn't want to have to go back and have some taken out. Someone asked about numbing...he didn't numb me, it didn't hurt and he found the port on the first try. He never uses fluoro because we were told that he wouldn't get paid for the fill! The fluoro is done at the hospital and they are the ones that get paid, apparently his office can't charge the insurance for his service if it's done at the hospital. That sucks for him. I'm sure there are a few of his patients who need the fluoro.

Interesting! Thanks Leatha. I guess a cough here and there isn't bad then.

I was told this last week. I'm puzzled . I actually don't think it's true, but thought I'd throw it out here to see what you all thought. If that's the case, I've got a 100% chance of a slip....I've had 2 chest colds since being banded in April! I coughed, boy did I ever!! Another myth?? What do ya say???