4evrwild

Hi Joe and welcome aboard :thumbup: I used to live near the St. Pete area and still have good friends and family there There is another nice guy in this forum who went to Tampa General with Dr. Murr I believe. It's interesting that you both picked different hospitals. How was your experience? You are doing fantastic!!! Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing you around here!

I've been noticing this over the past week and again today which is why I haven't visited lately, drives me nuts! Takes forever to load and I'm not experiencing issues elsewhere.

My Dr.'s plan was 2 weeks liquid, 2 weeks pureed/mushy, 2 weeks ground, but one can progress as they are able to tolerate. Everyone is different but it's also important to allow the healing process internally. You'll be fine, and yes, we really have to be conscious of what we eat and how we eat it. I found that out the other day and it wasn't pleasant. I finally figured out why they call it "PB-ing"(that term always seemed silly to me until I found out exactly what it meant in real life, lol) I haven't tried any breads. I've had some saltine crackers with hummus to make it more moist and I've been eating Wasa crispbread with egg or chicken salad with no problems :thumbup:. I'm just gonna stay away from regular bread, I'm not a big fan of it any ways. If you are to eat bread you should probably toast it so that it's more crunchy than soft, that way it won't get stuck .

Strange as it may seem, I've been lost for nearly a decade each year gaining more and more weight. I just can't wait to get back to the old me and I don't have to be perfect. I feel more like myself every time I get on the scale at the Dr's office and find I've lost some more weight The old me is still in there somewhere just waiting to come out and live life to it's fullest again. I understand for some people who have been heavy all their lives it's a major adjustment. I think it might be a good idea to talk to a professional. I think we all have issues to resolve, it kinda comes with the territory. In my support group there is a beautiful girl, now 140 lbs. lighter and she is having the very same issue. She's doing everything she can to overcome these still negative feelings and I commend her journey. She just doesn't see herself the way I and others see her and I truly hope one day this is possible. Wake up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself how special you are, how funny you are, that you are worthy etc., maybe you'll start to believe it :thumbup: I sure wish this for you!

Welcome to the forum. I'm a newly banded gal, bout a month before you. I too started feeling better after the 4th day. You're on mushy's already?? I was on a liquid diet for 2 weeks after surgery. I have no experience on the Pasta front, but I am told and have read where it can glob up, get sticky and become a problem, so please tread there lightly to see how you personally tolerate it. Pasta was a weakness for me so I just choose to stay away from it now :thumbup:. Best wishes in your recovery and your new life.....

On your "matter of privacy", I totally agree as well(also with the other stuff you said). People who don't know me or don't know me well don't need to know my business, I'm a very private person. I just want support from the people who matter most to me and from new friends I've come to trust and respect. The forum is great too but that's totally different than your whole neighborhood knowing your personal biz especially if you're just neighbors and not much more :biggrin:.

Oh that is wonderful news!!! I'm so excited for you. Ask away, this forum in a great help!!

That's good to hear, I was wondering what it would be like after restriction for vitamins, I just started taking regular vitamins today, I'll save some chewables just in case. I take glucosamine and that's a one even split in half but I didn't have any trouble so far. I'm still waiting on my fish oil, may just stop taking 'em cuz they are huge and in gel form so my dietician wasn't too sure bout what I should do there. I'll ask my Dr. at my 4/30 appt. He likes to wait two weeks in between fills. My forever medication luckily is a tiny lil pill :tongue: Have a great weekend everyone!!

Hooray for Lise, finally she got her restriction, see patience really does pay!! lol. I'd be interested in knowing if you have been taking vitiamins all along, can you still swallow them with this restriction or do you have to go back to chewables? Just curious what I may run into down the road when I finally feel restriction :crying:. Keep us posted!

Saqueen, very well said indeed!!!! (post #15) For me it was a small risk for surgery opposed to a big risk of shortening my quality of life w/o surgery. Living an obese life posed more risk to me than going for surgery and getting my life back! Every year we get older and every year the weight stays on or we gain more. That is as life threatening as it gets. If we were to stay obese we are shortening our lives immensely and killing our quality of life. I want to get my life back and enjoy it, that's why I did the surgery. I had a lot of doubts and worries before surgery too, especially the week just before (cuz I knew it was gonna happen) but still, the positives out weighed the negatives. Thank goodness for my family's support. Without them I don't know where'd I'd be. 5 weeks post op and loving life more everyday!!! I too would do it again; already feel like a brand new person :cry_smile:

A little more info from you would be more helpful. Were you just banded? If so, how many days ago? I know I was extremely uncomfortable the first 3-4 days post-op. They say the best remedy was walking around but sometimes it was just too painful, walking does work tho, if you can stand to do it.

"Anti-inflammatory drugs that may irritate the stomach, such as aspirin and NSAIDs, should be used with caution." quoted from Lapband.com - Risk Information My Dr. says Tylenol is ok but I still feel nervous about it. Tylenol is not an NSAID. Sorry I can't be of further help, I too need to learn more on this subject.

I use Viactive calcium chewables but I'm really not sure if they are calcium "citrate", doesn't say on the box . I find them quite yummy tho, and as for my chewable multivit, it's rather nasty but I do what I have to do :thumbup:. Since I'm 5 weeks out I can get back to swallowing vitamins as I did before surgery, I don't seem to have any trouble, although I'm not sure about the my Fish Oil, they are huge and scary.

Why thank you very much dahlink!!! I bet I know whose closet I go can shopping for those sundresses too, lol!!!

I really like what you said about we bandsters makiing an incredible commitment and deserving to have people respect us for it!!! I've only told my sister (and not her husband!) and my parents. I have a few new good friends who were banded at the same hospital as me and they provide me wonderful support. I think down the road I may not care as much as to who knows and who doesn't but I'm not there yet. You make a good point, we should let the world know how proud we are that we chose to do something to make ourselves healthier and happier.

I had some internal self dissolviing stitches and the glue. Two days after my surgery I took a shower and the strips came off permanently. It's important to let air get to them to allow healing, least that how it was for me and I had no problems.

You say you are experiencing this after a fill? Did the Dr. have you drink some Water right after your fill to make sure you were ok? If you have too much a fill you can't drink very well and they would then take some out. I had my first fill yesterday and that is what I was told so I would call your Dr and tell him what you are experiencing. I can't imagine having that feeling since your banding in Oct., long time to feel that way. Hope you get some good answers and feel better.

I felt all the mix of things you're feeling right now and now that I've done it I couldn't be happier. My self image has dramatically improved and it feels good to be able to exercise w/o as much pain as before, perfect for spring! Good luck and keep us posted!

Yikes, that's no fun but at least we gave the warning! Hope she saw it before it was too late Edit: sugar free, fat free puddiing is a much safer alternative. I put unflavored whey Protein powder in and with the skim milk that packs in 14 grams of protein per 1/2 cup serving. Unfortunately I wasn't able to eat something that thick for at least a week post op.

This does sound odd! Do you know for sure that they are actually getting the fills into the port? Have they used a fluorscopy to make sure?? I got my first fill today and after my surgeon poked around trying to insert the needle into the port about 4 times he took me to do the fill with the fluorscopy, the port wasn't where he thot it would be exactly.

"So there is more to being banded than thinking it is a miracle cure for being overweight. It is a program, just like any other weight loss program. Approaching banding with the idea you can continue eating exactly like you did prior to being banded is setting you up for failure. You need a different mind set. You need to follow the program (liquids/mushy/healthy and small portions). And exercise. How many of you are exercising? I am not doing as good in that area as I should. I've made a decision that starting today I was going to get more active. My yard needs raking. Why hire someone when I could get a good workout doing that? So I raked three bags of leaves. Yippee!! I need to repaint some walls....again, a good workout. And soon it will be lawn mowing, gutter cleaning, window cleaning, etc. (can u tell I live alone?). I made a committment when I said yes to banding. I am not going to tempt the band and find out if I can stuff myself. I am going to learn to be satisfied with smaller portions of good healthy food. And when I get tempted to try out that delicious chocolate cake at Bennigins, I'll take my Mom, buy it and have one bite and let her eat the rest and feel satisfied! This is working for me!" Gracie, Very well said and I truly believe you have hit the nail on the head!!! We have to change our lifestyle and remember the band is only a tool that will work "if" we work with it as we are supposed to! We all will have our bad days from time to time while we are learning to change our bad habits but I say lets just focus on the days we do it right and eventually we will do it naturally.