JRT Mom

I read this and was aghast that the woman who gave birth to you is now doing you this way. I feel for you. I know sons always want to make their mamas happy, but this woman is beyond toxic and you will never please her. Focus on YOUR life, happiness and health. Take pleasure in those gorgeous furbabies of yours. If it gets too bad, maybe try counseling. If you can get your mother to go with you it would be great--sounds like she needs it. But if not, just take joy in the things in life you CAN control. Please keep us posted, we are rooting for you,

Awwwwww, a little mini Rey! She's adorable. Have a great time!

Thanks, Chardonnay40! Sometimes we need to be reminded that this whole journey just isn't about the pounds on the scale.

Thanks! I'll check it out. ps I went low-tech and printed a piece of graph paper. On the y axis I put my weight and on the x axis the date. It surely makes the weight loss look dramatic!

Where do you get that weight graph? That looks like a great way (weigh) to track your weight!

Even before my surgery I've had to cook two meals--I'm a vegetarian and hubby is a carnivore. I've gotten to be a very good short order cook! Now it's easier-anything I cook for myself can be divided and frozen into 4 or 5 meals so I just have to zap it while I cook for DH.

Hi guys- This is a long rambling post because I wanted to journal my story, so if it's of no interest to you you won't hurt my feelings!😁 I just got a lab band to RNY revision a week ago. I've an old band that was making me vomit quite often, and even though the xrays show the band to be perfect the surgeon said it still had to come out. I was lucky that he only requires a three day liquid diet since that was tough. When they admitted my the morning of my surgery the nurses asked if I was suicidal and I told them that it wasn't a good time to ask me that. When I got my band the nurses in the recovery room saw me groping my stomach after I awoke, and they asked me what was wrong. I told them I was sure that they had put me to sleep and then found something wrong and woke me right back up so I was checking for bandages. Nothing hurt-there wasn't any gas pain. This time I awoke in the recovery room to hear a woman moaning piteously and it took me a second to realize it was me. This hurt WAAAAY more than I expected. But the nurses immediately gave me a painkiller and that helped a lot. Part of the problem was when the surgeon actually got inside me, he found not only had my band slipped, but I had a hiatal hernia to repair also. Surprise! That added to the excessive pain. Then they get you back to your room and the drinking game commences. They line this little cups in front of you like shots at a bar and expect you to sip them down. This is while you have raging chest and neck pain from the gas and just want to sleep. The nurses where nice and not giving me a hard time about my lack of effort, but I sipped at a less than stellar rate. What I DID rule at was the walking. The first time they made a nurse walk with me but after that I was free to go as I chose. I walked long and fast (as I could, dragging an IV pole with me..) lapping other walkers in the hall. I wanted these gas pains gone!! So I walked and walked--even at 4 in the morning. And after lapping one lady twice she hailed me to slow down and walk with her. Her surgery had been two days ago, and she was astounded that mine had been less than 14 hours ago. But then back in my room all I wanted to do was sleep. They kept waking my up for vital signs, and even though I only had a small touch of the diabetes they kept doing the fingerstick blood sugars. But they didn't really hurt so I didn't mind. What I hated was they kept giving me all sorts of pills to take. Choking down a pill on a sip of water with raging neck pain was not fun. And my BP was only slightly elevated, actually normal for me, but most of those pills were for HBP. The next morning I got up to take a walk and then broke out into a cold sweat and felt faint and nauseated, so I rang for a nurse. They took my BP and found it as 90/50. So at least I didn't have to take those pills for a while. I'm glad my surgeon said I could stay two nights. I couldn't have left after the first night if they'd have kicked me out. But I was being able to drink an ounce of fluid in an hour finally. I was proud of that until they came back into the room and said "now we want you to drink 4 ounces an hour. By the next day I think I only accomplished this feat once, but they agreed to discharge me late the second day. Here's where it got interesting. I live 5 hours away from where my surgery was. One of the disadvantages of living in a rural area. My husband isn't in good health and we have three dogs, so he stayed behind while I took Amtrak to get to the hospital. After they discharged me I thought (correctly) that riding the train back the same day could be bad, so I laid up in a hotel 1/2 from the hospital until I went back the next day. I didn't want something to spring a leak while I was on a train. I should have known it was going to be a tough trip when the Uber dropped me off, and the Metro station was closed! Luckily there was a free shuttle to the next station down the line. I got on the train, and for the first time in my 20+ train trips, the dang thing lurches to a stop where they find a problem. So we were delayed 4 hours on a already 5 hour tip. At least we didn't have to switch trains--they brought a new engine to us. So my advice is if you can get surgery closer to home, do it. Of course it could have been worse--I understand many self-pay people have to go out of the country. I should consider myself lucky that it was only 5 hours away. I had the terrible "buyers remorse" that you read about here but think it won't happen to you. But in only lasted about 3 days and I turned the corner about two days ago when miraculously I could drink down amounts more than I could before. It's still not 64 ounces, but much better than it was. So I think I've lost the "buyers remorse", especially since I weighted for the first time and I'm already down 10 pounds... So read this, if you wish, and for all the griping I did here, it was worse than I expected but that feeling only lasted about 4 or 5 days. So if your considering WLS go for it, but don't have unrealistic expectations, prepare for the worst and you'll be happy if it isn't that bad! And hang in there if you are recovering..it WILL get better, I promise!

Yes, the bypass is much better for people who have GERD. I'm happy your niece has had such a great outcome with her RNY! You will do well with this too, especially since you have a family member who's been through it to help you. Keep us posted!

I was lucky that my surgeon will do the revision in one surgery. It was nice only having one hospitalization, recovery, etc. My lap band was over 10 years old so I'm not sure the age of the band is a factor as much as the scar tissue is and once it forms it might not get worse the longer it's there. Good luck, y'all! However you do it, it is TOTALLY worth getting that useless band and port out. I can lay on my stomach without the port sticking into me without pain now!

I'm so sorry you are getting zero support from your family, and truthfully, it's more sabotage than lack of support. You are really going to have to decide whether or not you are going to let them sabotage you like this. I hope you can stand up to them, this is YOUR life and health! Hopefully you will get over this unscathed and can use it as a valuable lesson. If you feel like you are in this alone come here often, you have lots of people here going through what you are and can help you through this!

I had a 10 year old band slip and it was miserable. I got a fear of eating since I didn't know if each meal was going to stay down or cause vomiting. My surgeon wouldn't even consider trying to fix the band, so it came out and I now have a RNY. Best thing I could have done after fighting that band for a year. I get what SpaceCowboy74 is saying about food. I don't think he's talking about eating a whole loaf of bread in one sitting--he'd just like to eat a small amount without it binding up in his band. With me it was eggs. Never could eat them with my band. Now that the band is gone, I can eat them again. Would I eat a dozen at once? No, but it's nice to be able to eat one without fear! I wouldn't stay with a surgeon that was trying to fix a lap band problem. Most surgeons today won't even place one. The 10 year failure rate is somewhere around 50%. You might want to look into a RNY--if you have GERD, or even if you don't, lots of people develop it after a sleeve, Good luck!

Mine is for two months. It's supposed to help keep acid down so your pouch and remnant can heal better. Ya know, whenever someone posts a question, everybody has different recommendations from their surgeons. Doesn't matter whether it's food, medicine, back to work, etc, the answers are ALWAYS all over the map. I mean we are all humans getting the same surgery, but the advice is soooo different. Seems they should have a conference and make up a handbook with consistent advice for us.

60 pounds? That's amazing! Glad your home in your comfy recliner.

Feliz Año Nuevo 2020 !! I'm glad you had a good time. Su novia es muy bonita!

Sorry I can't claim it--Slimming Down Steve quoted it first!

Refried beans! Ricotta cheese or cottage cheese drizzled with no sugar added spaghetti sauce. Hummus. When you scramble your egg pour a bit of pureed salsa on them. I can eat anything now but those are still my go-to foods because I'm a vegetarian.

Did he eat it with some fava beans and a nice chianti??😉

YAY!!! Good work!

No red jello? I thought that rule was only if you were getting a colonoscopy since the red dye could interfere with the visualization of the colon. I'm not sure why that would affect WLS.

You will love the bypass! With me, when I got full with my band the feeling as 'Yuck! I'm gonna hurl!" And half the time I did slime up some food consistently. Now that my band is out and I have a bypass (I was lucky and was able to get it done in one surgery) the feeling of fullness is the comfortable one I am used to prior to getting my band. I am also Medicare and I'm a bit nervous. The first bariatric office tried to tell me if you have had one weight loss surgery Medicare wouldn't pay for a second, even if they didn't pay for the first one! So I suffered with my band 6 months longer than I had to, and when I went to a different surgeon the new office said "That's crazy" and guaranteed Medicare would pay for the revision as long as you meet their criteria. I got the surgery 5 weeks ago, and I haven't called the hospital to see if Medicare picked up the tab yet...we'll see...

AAACK!!! The waiting must be killing you. Tell the nurse you're really scared and maybe they can give you some joy juice to kill the time...

When did Ed Sheeran make the Sexiest Men Alive list??

I'm afraid to go read all these posts--I might learn something I don't want to know!!

Being excited is good! It's a good positive emotion for what you're about to do, and is much more productive than trepidation! You got this--post often and let us know what's going on.

Slimming Down Steve- I see we share the same warped sense of humor. Any Silence of the Lambs references are welcome!! *It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again...*