josephine

I had my surgery on a Thursday and I was back to work on Monday. I have a sit down job so it was okay except for the bending for awhile. Josephine

Hello Everyone, :help: I know alot of you will not be able to relate to this but everyone's opinion would help. I have requested a new forum on ths site to a moderator and I am still waiting for a response and approval since all the moderators have to approve this. I asked for a type of forum for the people who have reached goal. Being able to help everyone with what they are going through now is great but the afterwards is just as important. Maintenance is a BIG part of this journey and everyone I am sure can relate to that. How many times have we all lost and then GAINED plus more? If at all interested, what do you think the name of the Forum should be? I hope you all have ideas and I also hope that the New Forum can be created. Give me your thoughts! Josephine Surgery: Nov. 10, 2005 251/141 -110 lbs at goal - No Fills

Well Everyone !!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for your replies. I just want you newbies and everyone that is on their way to goal not to be discouraged because we will always be here for you. So moderators, lets have it ! Alexandra, what you wrote is PERFECT and I appreciate it very much. Josephine 251/141 -110 lbs. No Fill Surgery: Nov. 10, 2005

I just had my port changed out last Thurs. The original one is a quarter size and the one I have now is a dime size (low profile, they call it). I also asked the doc. to move it upwards because it was right on my waistband. I am still swollen, no thanks to my husband. He forgot to tell me to put ice on it until I found out from the doctor's office on Monday. It was a little more sore for me this go around than the original surgery. I guess it is because of the weight loss and not as much fat to protect the area. The surgery is around 5,500.00 but my with my insurance I will have to pay around 10 - 20 %. I suggest to all if you are serious about changing your lifestyle and truly wanting to get to your perfect goal weight to consider the low profile port instead of the regular one. This way you don't have to go through a second procedure. I was under general anestesia again and I was out of the hospital in 2 hours. Surgery on Thurs, took off on Friday and Monday. Probably if I knew about the ice I would have been back to work on Monday. My original surgery I was out on Thurs. and back on Monday. I will be happy when the swelling goes down so I can get back to normal. There is no special diet at all before or after. I did have a bout with constipation though because with my stomach muscles I couldn't push so my stomach was bloated. That was painful. I would even suggest to take an enema or super dieters tea the night before the surgery since you are eating normal food. Good Luck to you and there are no worries. Josephine

Ruthie, You are watching portions but you aren't explaining what you are eating? If you want good weight loss you need change your eating choices. We all go through a halt in weight loss. The healthy weight loss is 4-8 lbs. a month. I lost 32 lbs. during my first month too but I totally went to healthy choices and I averaged 10-13 lbs. a month after that. I reached my goal quite quickly but now I am paying for it with hanging skin. I don't know for sure if that is the reason because I heard if a person is 5 or more years obese, you are going to have hanging skin. I actually drink 72 oz. of Water a day and I keep that count seperate from anything else that I drink for the day. Maybe you are at a plataeu and your eating habits are good. Give your body a chance to catch up. Don't get disgusted. At least it isn't 31 lbs. you packed on. Josephine 251/140 Surgery Nov. 10, 2005 No Fills

I went to see a PS today for the first time. The docs. nurse walks in and introduces herself and then says, your skinny. I was dumb founded and that word hit me like a ton of bricks. Saying skinny reminds me of being called fat. I would much rather be called thin or obese than skinny or fat. I asked her are you telling me that I am too skinny? and of course she said no, your not too skinny. It must have been the way she said it but it turned me off big time. At least the doctor said that I was thin. By the way, tummy tuck, thigh and butt lift and breast lift? Oh my God, over 30,000.00. Wait, let me go to my money tree in the back yard. I would still rather have that then a new car though. Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's off to Rio De Janero I go.......................... . I will explore all options here of course and if anyone can recommend a PS doctor for me I would greatly appreciate it. I live in Arlington, TX and will go anywhere in the metroplex. Good night all, Josephine 251//140

As you can see how well I type and spell...............

Tahnk you Stichy. I am going to foward this to my work so I can print it out. Josephine

Leva, Thank you for responding to my thread. It is funny, I read your bio and I am a licensed nail tech also but a non practicing one. I can't tolerate the acrylic smell. As far as the PS goes, it is really that expensive? I wanted to get sick. It kills me even more that I allowed myself to get this way that I have no choice but down the road to do this. What about the pain? Did you have alot of it? I can tolerate pain pretty well but I have no one here to help me. My husband works 6 days a week and I don't think he can take me for that long. This would truly be a test once we get older and have to take care of each other. I already told him that if he ever gets like my father how he is now that I would have to hire someone to help me. Josephine

I am going to get the low profile port put in on Thurs. This other one sticks out too much and it is on my waist band area where it is very uncomfortable to wear clothes in that area. My doctor suggested to move it down further instead of upwards and I wonder if I will get uncomfortable there too from pressure from pants. I know this as already been asked but please give me suggestions on where to have this one put. Where is your port located? Thanks Josephine

Thank Anne, I asked if it was going to be a local and he said no. Josephine

It is back to the hospital for me under general anestesia. He will use the same incision where the other port is. I got lucky that the insurance is covering this too. It is too bad though that I wasn't given the choice in the first place. The low profile port was just 700.00 more and now with another surgery it is going to be over 5000.00. My portion will be about 1400.00. Josephine

LInda, Hell of a loss !!!! Way to go !!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for responding. If you have had any fills though, how are they getting through your rib cage? Josephine

I forgot, I think I can eat everything. I have absolutely no restriction except maybe my brain is giving me the restriction. I am just eating to eat. Very seldom I am hungry. I have never gotten sick with anything except greasy giving me a stomach ache. Josephine

I have been trying to maintain for a month now and it has been VERY difficult. I have had to add in a meal because I am still losing. It is so difficult because I am not hungry and I have to eat..............ARGH !! There are actually 2 meals that I eat because I HAVE to and it just grosses me out. Do you think it is easier if I drink something with calories than chewing something? Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't know what to do. My stats will look strange below but I have to mention them to help me out. Thanks, Josephine 251/140/145 Please, any suggestions will be of great assistance.

Thank you for responding to me. I am at work and that is probably why I was so brief. I had my surgery on Nov 10, 2005. I dropped 111 lbs. in 8 mos. with NO FILL ever. The only error I ever made was going on the internet to find out the calibrations of grams to ounces when it came to my Protein and it said 65 grams was 2 1/2 ounces so I read the front of cans and if the can said 3 ounces I ate half a can of tuna. I didn't know that when you read labels in the back it says 3 ounces is 20 grams of protein. This is probably the reason why I dropped the weight so quickly, besides some of my hair. I had all blood work done after the fact and now I have been taking B12 for two months and luckily I am a clean bill of health except that my BUN level was 2 points lower than it should have been and that is related to protein levels. I don't eat too many carbs because that is what got me obese in the first place. I eat all healthy foods, everything baked and nothing fried. I have an addiction to grease (fast foods) and I WILL stay away from that. I will eat crackers and croutons as far as bread related items. I haven't tried soft bread yet. I still see my doc every month and he is telling me to eat higher calorie foods. Josephine

I lost 64 lbs. my first 3 months. Josephine 251/141 -110 lbs. Nov. 10, 2005 No Fills

I think I did this correctly. Josephine Surgery Nov. 10, 2005 251/142 No Fills I AM SO HAPPY I MADE IT! NOW I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO KEEP IT OFF!!

How in the world does a person get photos on here. I hae them i my Yahoo photos but I don't know how to move them here on a thread? Someone Help Please. Thanks, Josephine

:clap2: Yesterday I went to my doctor's appt. It has been exactly 7 months and 3 weeks that I started my journey. I was 251 lbs and I am now 142 lbs. I can't believe I lost 109 lbs. This time went so fast for me and such a learning experience. I only hope that I will be able to maintain my weight for the rest of my life. Thank God I can always go to the doctor's office to get a fill that I still have never received. My problem is keeping it off and at least I am able to use this tool as my maintenance program. My journey really has only just begun. The scary part is ahead of me. I am trying to get a before and after picture on here and I am having difficulties. I have to wait in the morning to see if someone at work can help me out with this. I gotta go ! Josephine 251/142 I made it !!!! Surgery Nov. 10, 2005 No Fills

Karen, I could very well be not getting in enough Protein. I starting taking B12(sublingual). It helped me with my energy and my hair growth. Josephine

Will power and determination ! I made this a lifestyle change and started eating healthy. I averaged between 10 - 15lbs loss a month. I am not saying that is good but I am glad that part is over with. I will now have more of a struggle to maintain my weight. You will do fine and it is okay to go slow. I am sure it is better off. Don't worry. you will be fine. I never had any problems at all through my weight loss journey. It seems most of the people have problems once they start having fills. Josephine

Your port area will probably be uncomfortable for at least 5 full weeks. Then you are able to feel the food going through your intestines because you will begin to get a pooch coming out of your stomach all depending where your port is. Mine used to come out when the food was passing through me. Now I have lost all my weight and the port is really sticking out. It is uncomfortable when I have my clothes on because it is right where my waistband is. I hopefully will be getting it replaced with a low profile one. They say it is flat and it won't get in the way. I am still going to ask while he is in ther to put it lower or higher. Don't worry, you are going through what everyone really goes through. Josephine 251/142 Nov. 10, 2005 No Fills

I am not sure if anyone goes on Obesityhelp.com but I posted something there and I thought I would share it with my Texas family(lapbandtalk.com). It is quite long so grab a 32oz. bottle of Water, get comfortable and start reading. I believe alot of people will relate to this testimony of mine but for my mind I had to write this. food ADDICTION JODI’S LIFE STORY (MY BATTLE WITH FOOD) THIS IS WRITTEN FOR MY MAINTENANCE I am 41 years of age and I can’t believe I finally figured out the meaning, and the importance of food. Growing up in my home, food was plentiful. During my time as a child, it was so important to eat everything on your plate because of all the starving children of the third world countries. We didn’t know how fortunate we were and how unfortunate other children were because we didn’t understand the differences. I must say though that my addiction has never been and never will be my mother’s doing. She didn’t stuff the food in my mouth. In fact, she was a very healthy cook. She always made sure we had the five food groups like we are supposed to. I ate everything under the sun behind her back. I wasn’t going to allow anyone to disrupt my favorite (unhealthy) foods. For a while though I thought it was a lot of her fault and at this time I want to apologize to her for even having those thoughts. To give you a little background on this, I remember in second grade my mother noticed I was having a weight problem. She brought me to a doctor who put me, I believe, on a diet. The only thing I can truly remember is diet sodas and skim milk. Candy was allowed during Halloween in which we broke the bank in our neighborhood. They gave out big bars, not the bite size or fun size like they do now. With that said we were allowed one piece a day. Of course I didn’t listen. I had the candy underneath my bed and enjoyed every morsel. Our Easter basket hunt my mother had panties, socks, trinkets, fruit and jelly Beans. Till this day I HATE JELLY BEANS. I can say at that time I hated her for this. It was so unfair. As of today, I was so unfair to think that of her. I love her with all my heart and can’t thank her enough for everything that she has done for me and all the care, love and understanding she has given me all of my life. Even during this time when I am struggling with my food addiction she is supporting me 100% and has always been worried about me only for health reasons. She loves me unconditionally for who I am and is not disgusted by the way I had looked. My mother has always been my rock. My husband is an unbelievable man. What he has put up with in his lifetime with me, I believe any man would have left their wife. There are many other reasons besides my weight problem but this is what I need to write about. I thank God on my knees for bringing him in my life. He is caring, loving, understanding, most of the time, and no one has more patience than him. I love him so much too and unfortunately I don’t tell him enough. I will be letting him read this and I want him to understand from this letter that I was never much for I love you, hugs and kisses. I want him to ask my family what a cold person I used to be. They know. I hated myself so much and I was so stand offish. I was just a hateful child even as an adult because of my weight issues. I realize now it was because I hated myself. I was very unhappy with myself. The more I hated, the more I ate. Who me? I eat fruits and vegetables, right? I was only getting bigger and bigger. Who in the hell was I kidding………………………………… I was just killing myself inside. Probably in my lifetime I have lost close to 1000 pounds. Up and down, up and down. I have tried Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Adkins Diet, Cabbage Soup diet, starvation diet, that was one salad a day and fried chicken on Fridays only and if I couldn’t stand the hunger I used to eat some popcorn. I even took 8 Exlax chocolates a day to get rid of my food. At that time I was losing my hair so I went to GNC to ask why I could be losing my hair. There was a doctor there and he put one finger on my upper chest area and he said, you are taking Exlax and you better get off it. I didn’t say a word to him and I turned around and left. I did stop taking them. I was fine medically for the moment but then once I got to 254 pounds I started noticing my knees hurting. I walk my dog daily and every time I went up a few steps my knees were hurting. I just dealt with it because on the outside I was just accepting myself for being obese because I truly believed there was no hope for me. I have been through the ringer with dieting, losing and gaining. I was in a lot of pain mentally though with myself. I am a pro at fake smiles. I soon was turning 41 years old, at this time my knees were burning going up those stairs to walk my dog and I thought, what am I doing to myself, I have to stop allowing this food to run my life. It is slowly killing me, I thought. I finally said to myself I have to do something about this but then I was afraid. I didn’t know what to do. One day at work, God must have spoke to my friend Jalinda because she came one day to me and told me about a weight loss procedure she knew about. It is called Lap Band. It is a Laparoscopic Banding procedure and it is a minimally invasive procedure. I thought that was perfect for me. I went to a seminar one Saturday to learn about it and that is when my new life began. I went to see Dr. Snow with the appt. that I had made from the seminar. It was two weeks after the seminar and I was over anxious to get the preliminaries over with. I wasn’t even sure if the insurance would cover this much less approve me. I was severely obese according to my BMI reading. I believe I was approved by my insurance 3 weeks later. My surgery was scheduled for November 10, 2005. Five days prior to the surgery I had to go on a liquid diet. I told my crew at work that if I am crabby, I am sorry for that. What a starvation diet this was going to be. It wasn’t bad at all probably because I was still able to drink my coffee. During that time I lost 12 pounds and that was a hell of a jump start for me to keep me motivated, even though that was just water weight I’m sure. On the day of surgery I remember Dr. Snow coming to see me before he performed the procedure. He said, with percentages possibly being wrong, it is 20% the band and 80% you’re doing. I truly took that to heart. I believe at that moment I was hooked on changing my lifestyle. I am not going to live to eat anymore. I am going to eat to live. I am on the road to becoming healthy and enjoying it too. Today is my 7 month band anniversary and I have lost a total of 103 pounds. I have 3 more pounds to go to get to my goal weight and I am excited to get there. My struggles now are not losing the weight. I have proven that to myself. I am now terrified to be able to keep it off. Maintenance has always been an issue with me. Once I get to my goal weight I have to figure out how to stop losing weight. Then I have to figure out how the scale is going to stay at 145 lbs. People have said to me that there is no way you would ever be able to gain that weight back. They don’t know about my history though so there isn’t much baring on what they said. I am a food addict. To be more specific, I am a fast food junkie. Till this day it still bothers me to smell deep fried food cooking. I used to say if I could just lick a French fry it would satisfy me but I know that I am just fooling myself. I would have grabbed the bag of fries, run into the bathroom and eat them. I am a very good closet eater and I was a pro at eating in my car. I will never do that again unless I have no choice but my food choice will be extremely different. I don’t crave that food at all but smelling it is a different story. I know that I am able to see Dr. Snow if I start falling off the band wagon. He would be able to give me an adjustment to help with restriction but I haven’t needed that so far and I would like to say that I have conquered my food addiction some day and I never would have to be restricted; if the need arises though I will run to his office to get help. Food can be very addictive. For some, it is a drug. We need to understand what food is for. We need to fuel our system to survive. It is not to be taken advantage of. I don’t understand what happened in this country and the food intake. It isn’t the amount that you put in your system that makes it better; it is the taste of the food that satisfies you. We need to listen to our stomachs that is telling us, “Hey you are stuffing me” and you have had enough. STOP EATING when your stomach is satisfied. Be thankful for what we have. There are so many starving people in our country as well as in other countries. If you are plentiful, give to the ones who really need to eat it. The restaurants put enough food on our plates to feed two people. We need to be realistic about our food intake. Take your time eating your meal and realize how lucky you are to be able to eat. I am in dire need for a lot of support now. I made a lifestyle change and I still do not trust myself. I am hoping I can make it this time. The struggle is all in my mind and not in my stomach. I still see myself as obese. Not in the sense of looking at myself but my mind. I will go to support group meetings just like an alcoholic would to AA. They are considered, I believe, an alcoholic the rest of their life and I consider myself a food addict all my life. Hopefully I am on the road to recovery but it will be a life long struggle for me. To my husband, all of my family members, Jalinda, and Dr. Robert Snow I want to Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support you have given me thus far. My journey is not finished yet though. It has only just begun…………………… With Loving Thoughts Josephine (Jodi) Darugar June 10, 2006

My port is on the left hand side but it is right where my waistband is. I also have to get this one removed and get a low profile one put in. I hve reached my goal and it is sticking out too much. The low profile one is flat and hopefully he will move it down a bit too because it is irritating. Josephine