losingitforlife

I'm glad the US went well, how fun to see baby dancing!! Keep us posted.

I was having breakthrough bleeding on my BC pill so my Dr. put me on the Ortho Evera patch. I was wacked out for 4 weeks. I can't even describe what I felt like, I just kept telling my husband, I'm in a funk that I can't snap out of. I was miserable. I had a HUGE deadline I was working on at work and thought maybe I was just caught up in the stress or something. Then my husband asked, when did you start taking those new Patches. He was right, that "funk" I was feeling was directly related to the new bc. It took about 4 weeks, then I took them off for a week and felt much better. I have a lot of "women" issues so I decided to try them again. It wasn't quite so bad then next month, now I just get a little weird feeling the first day I put them on and it gets better as the week goes by. With patches you get kind of a "surge" of Estrogen with each new patch so that is why I feel so weird, the flux of hormones. I hope this helped, I totally think all you have described is related to the bc. Of course you should talk to your Dr. and take their advice :sad: Good luck and let us know how your doing.

Dreemer69, Oh MY GOODNESS!!! Congrats!!! Congrats!!! Congrats!!!! What an exciting story!! Let us know how the U/S goes!!

SOM - I'm so sorry you are going through that. Your right, if you have an oops pregnancy there isn't anything that you can do. No way to get fluro done then. UGH How frustrating for you. I've never heard of the tubing getting bent. Nothing that could have changed that outcome. What Dr. did you use in Mexico? Mine is Dr. Aceves in Mexciali I also thought, forget it, I'm not getting an unfill. I'm at a perfect spot right now, no pbing, able to eat a good amt, not losing, not gaining. But when Dr. Aceves went through the worst case scenarios which of course included puncturing the tubing getting an unfill during pregnancy because he can't use fluro, I relented an scheduled the unfill before we do IVF in August. My husband was insistent on a complete unfill. He said we aren't going to spend the money on IVF only to possibly have complications with getting nutrition to me or to baby or damage the band and do that all over again. I had to agree :sad: How has the band been working for you since you got the new tubing/port?

Emily, Every Dr. is different with what they want when your pregnant. I knew that if my Dr. asked me to get an total unfill, I would go find another Dr. LOL Now I'm at crunch time asked my Dr. what he suggested... He said a total unfill. He gave me a list of "worst case" scenarios and reminded me that they are only worst case but reassured me a total unfill was safest. After a few weeks of stewing about it, I agreed with him. I don't want to leave a slight fill in there and then run into problems getting the fill out w/out fluro because of the pregnancy. I had such a hard time accepting this suggestion but he was right, I would be so mad at myself if I was stubborn and didn't follow orders and then damaged my band or my body. My total unfill is scheduled for late July and my frozen round of IVF is Aug 7. Good luck with your decision on the unfill. And a big congrats on the pregnancy!!

Name: Cyrena How far along: IVF Aug 7,2008 Due Date: ? Boy/Girl/Surprise: ? Rants: None Raves: None Anything else: I know I'm not there yet, but I read this thread all the time and post whenever I have something to add. I hope to join the ranks of you wonderful banded and preggo women in Aug. Thanks!

We are doing a frozen round August 7!! Good luck with your first round. Our first round was 3/04 and DS is now 3 1/2 yrs old :cool2:

Congrats Jill!!!

Just to confirm what your Dr. said, mine said the SAME thing :confused_smile: He wants me to get a complete unfill under fluro before we do IVF. He stated the worst case scenario's like you mentioned and also said that of course these were the worst case but as self pay also wanted me to be extra cautious. I fought the idea at first but now I realize he is right, if I did something to screw up my band over just being stubborn and wanting to keep a fill, I would be so mad at myself. :tt1: Good luck with the PG!! I had to change my appts today but will have my IVF done on Aug 7th! YEA.

web, Isn't it funny how each Dr. is at a different point with their recommendations. My Dr is from Mexico and he is ultra conservative. My suggestion is that every do what their dr recommends. We wouldn't have chosen our dr if didn't trust them with our lives. That is great that both your dr's agree and your right you should be down 40lbs in no time at all. I have read that some dr's recommend the 1 yr waiting period so that your band is done healing in the place they want it to stay and the scarring is complete around it. I knew going into the banding, I was going to wait a year because we are doing IVF, so the money wouldn't be there any sooner :huh2: Good luck with your banding and let us know how it goes.

ltre, What an awesome story you have to tell that little baby! You are right, if not losing a pound was part of the deal and getting baby instead, it would be worth every penny! CONGRATS!! Your story is so inspiring. I'm curious if you are nursing? I know our bodies are all so different but it seems like nursing would cause someone to be tighter than before. As much as I'm fighting it, I'm taking my Dr.'s advice and getting an total unfill. I would be so mad at myself if left a little fill in - just being stubborn - and then had a complication and lost my band or damaged my stomach. This is just going to have to be all about the baby and your right - I can lose 25lbs again. I've lost 100, what is another 25. LOL If you can still eat too much, I would consider another small fill, it can't hurt :smile2: Anyway, congrats!!! and thanks for sharing.

Jodie - How beautiful you both are!! Congrats!! Lisalu - Thanks for the advice. I called today to find out about the local surgeon to do my unfill under fluro, it looks like it will be about $350 compared to about $700 to fly back to Mexico. I honestly have a gut feeling like, I should just go to my local dr and quit worrying so much, how can you miss a port that sticks out like mine??!!?? LOL I don't know about keeping any of my fill, I think my husband would kill me, but I'm already having thoughts of pasta that I haven't been able to eat in a year. It can't be good for me to be totally unfilled :rolleyes2: :cry_smile: Thanks for your thoughts!

Juno, how exciting!!! Do you have any other kids???

lisalu, Thanks for the compliment. Yes, of course you are right I want a healthy baby. If it were free for fills I would do it in a heart beat. I think I would still whine because I really don't want to gain all this weight back. But again you made another good point, this is temporary, 9 short months in comparison to keeping my band safe for a life time. I have been thinking the reflux isn't right and I maybe a little too tight. I was so insistent on getting my last fill to get those last few pounds off. UGH :redface: I'm really struggling with thoughts of where to have my fill. I can go to my local Dr. - not the one that did my surgery - for about $150 or I can fly back to my Dr. in Mexicali for about $500-600. On one hand, I have had a fill locally and they did the same thing as you - one quick poke, in an out, all done. Then I had one locally and got the new girl, and she dug and dug and was horrible, I called the dr and they said that girl doesn't even work there anymore. I would ask to see the surgeon there who is the one that did my first fill. OK so all that said, the local dr. has nothing "invested" in making sure my band is safe, if they accidentally hit the tubing or something, they don't care, not their problem. If I go back to Mexicali, they truly care, I have had a fill there and they are so concerned about their patients, they want only the best, they are more proactive (ie fluro) to make sure nothing can happen to your band. UGH. Sorry for the vent session, I guess I'm down to trying to figure out who should do my unfill. UGH. Thanks for your thoughts, and your right, I just needed to hear that the decision is made. :hurt:

Hi guys, I feel like I have just been hit and hard!! I have been having a burning in the back of my throat, my Dr. who is in Mexico suggested I might have reflux and to try making some changes to my eating and possibly some prilosec. So that got me thinking, how can I get a slight unfill if I need one AFTER I'm pregnant. How can I get fluro etc. The pt coordinator just emailed me back and said Dr. Aceves recommends a complete unfill BEFORE getting pregnant. He went through the chances of having morning sickness and vomiting and then slipping the band, then not being able to have surgery to fix it because of the pregnancy. He also talked about the chances of needing an unfill a few month into the pregnancy and not being able to do fluro and then the possibility of puncturing the tubing because it would be a blind unfill and then having a damaged band etc etc. His pt coordinator ended the email with saying of course this is the WORST case scenario but better to get a total unfill and be on the safe side. I talked to my husband about it tonight and he is adamant that I follow the Dr.'s orders and said, "I'm not spending $5000 on IVF only to have something go wrong with you or the babies" UGH I just wanted to float through this IVF and pregnancy and gain 10-15lbs and be a cute little "all baby" prego girl. I don't want to gain all my weight back and start over. UGH I'm also stretching to come up with all the money for the IVF in July, I didn't budget another $500 for an unfill. Any advice out there?? Thanks for listening!!:redface:

Please keep asking questions, I'm so grateful to have the people around me that answered these questions when I had them :biggrin: :w00t: A tater tot is a shredded potato that is like a little ball I have never counted calories, I have been able to rely totally on portion control. My BIGGEST issue and one that I have battled is Ice Cream, I eat too much of it but apparently it is not totally out of control since I have been able to lose and maintain my weight and still eat it When I am eating, I need to take a bite, put my fork/spoon down and swallow. Then pick up the fork, take a bite, set it down. It is funny how many people follow my lead even when they don't know I'm banded. We have been taught our whole lives to slow down when we eat, well this time it's for real. If I eat quickly, I get stuck So to eat my cup of chili took me about 20 min. I could have eaten more but I was satisfied and I would have been pushing it to keep going. Now I'm not talking about white knuckling it, I'm just saying, yes I could have gotten up, put more in my bowl, eaten more, but then I would have felt miserable all night with pain. When I get pain from overeating it is usually in my port area, like the food hits my big stomach and PRESSES on my port. Strange feeling. I have found my "safe" food, you know the one you eat every time you go out with friends because you know you won't PB on it, is Nachos. I ordered 1/2 taco salad after church and ate 1/2 of it with no problems. I have started having the cafe make me a small plate of nachos when I go there because I know I won't PB. We live in a small town and only have one cafe that deep fat fries everything. UGH Not much I can eat there, but nachos is my safe food. Baked potatoes is my other safe food. I will eat a baked potato with butter on it almost every night that I can't come up with something else. Last summer I started managing a bed and Breakfast which meant I had to cook for guests most every day. Being newly banded I was freaked out, but I would make the guests, spinach and strawberry salad and then steak and baked potatoes and asparagus. I could eat a little salad, 3-4 bites, 4 or 5 asparagus and then a baked potato. That is more than I could eat now, since my last fill, but that is what I lived on all summer long and lost the majority of my weight. Some people can't eat a baked potato at all and I can no longer eat the skin (used to be my favorite part), but that is too starchy for some peoples bands. Let's see what else have I been eating??? I can eat a few bites of steak if it is really tender and I chew well, I can eat an egg as long as it is late evening (I only eat one). I will keep adding to my list as I think of foods I can eat and how much. I guess the biggest thing is having a fill that makes it so you can feel satisfied on a little amt of food. Oh, and for Cerrin, don't start off really hungry. HA Easier said than done I know, but your head tells your body, keep eating, I'm still hungry, I can't get rid of the shakes with out more food. But in reality it is your blood sugar level dropping and trying to level out. Your blood sugar isn't raised instantly when we put food in our mouth, it take a little while, if you are always in HUNGRY mode your body will always think it needs more food than it does. Hope all this helps :laugh:

Katie, I remember thinking that exact thought when I was researching the band. I decided I was going to defy the stats and I did. It was my choice not to give up until I was done losing, the band never failed me, I failed the band when I wasn't losing. I'm grateful everyday I have my band!! It was the best decision I have ever made and I paid cash for my band, I was denied 3X by my insurance.

Pammie, I know it is frustrating when you don't get the signs, I encourage you, if you get another fill, start watching for them, they may show up yet :biggrin: When I talk about a cup, I mean a measuring cup. I ate chili last night and I ate 1 cup/8oz measuring cup. If you can over eat and not have any problems then, your right, you need a fill. I'm also more restricted in the AM, I have a 16 oz Decaf, S/F, Latte that I make at home every day around 9AM. I slowly sip on it, if I take a big drink it hurts like it is "stuck", I usually only get 8 oz down and then it's so cold I throw the rest out. Then by noon or 1:00 PM I'm hungry and I have tuna mixed with mayo on crackers. I can eat 7 bites, literally. It's about 4 crackers. If I use the wrong crackers, I can only eat 3 bites and I'm "stuck"/"full" so I eat whole grain heavy cracker. Then for dinner I eat whatever I made for the family. Tater tot hotdish- I couldn't eat the tater tots, last night was the chili, enchiladas the other night, I ate 1/2 of one - that was made with one 10in tortilla. I hope that helps get some ideas. I'm happy to share more about what I eat if you need some more ideas.

I had my band 1/19/07 and will be starting IVF in May actual embryo placement will be July 08. So that will be about 19 months after band. I have gone from a size 20 to a 4, from 240 to 141 lbs. I can't wait to get pregnant but I highly suggest waiting the year your dr recommends, if you have a choice :biggrin: I'm so curious what the medication did to you with regard to restriction. We start injection June 1 and IVF on July 18, 08. I'm nervous if I will get really tight. Did you have an unfill? Another reason Dr.'s recommend waiting is that the scar tissue around the band is not totally "set" until 12 months out, after that your band is scarred into place I'm hoping not to need an unfill but of course I will do whatever is best for the pregnancy

Pammie, No, I have NEVER had the same full feeling after being banded. I wish I would have tried to put it into words when it was first happening because a year later, I'm so used to it that it feels "normal" now. :eek: Here's my attempt... Pre-band, I would eat until my entire stomach felt "big", "full". Now, I eat a few bites and my nose starts to drip, that is my first "full signal". I usually keep eating :thumbup: Then I take a few more bites and I get a pain under my left shoulder. That is my "last" full signal. If I keep eating, I will feel miserable for hours, or I will PB and then be done eating for the day and have to go back to liquids for 24 hrs. Everyone has different signals and some people don't get a signal but I think if we stop long enough to listen to our bodies we would be surprised at what our bodies are saying and we just don't slow down enough to listen. Remember if you PB, it swells everything up and you need to go back to liquid. Don't eat or drink anything for 6 hours and then slowly start adding warm liquids a tbls at a time and then the next day, mushies, next day solids again. If you don't watch it, you will get into a cycle of PBing and it isn't actually that particular food, it is just that you are swollen and your body can't handle anything yet. Ok, so getting back to the full feeling. No it isn't the same, sometimes you just have look at the amount of food, 1/2-1 cup and stop. You don't want full anymore, you want satisfied. It is a matter of retraining our minds If I eat 1/2 cup I know that is it. I still put 2-3 cups of food on my plate, I still make 2 baked potatoes to eat. HA I can't eat one but I still think, but what if I can eat more tonight. I'm working on that thought pattern and probably will be for a long time. I've been overweight a lot of years, to think that "thinking" will change in a year is unrealistic Let me know if I can help with anything else, I hope this wasn't to scattered to make sense.

Progesterone is what thickens the lining of the uterus. It is a very common cause of miscarriages and underdiagnosed in my opinion. My s-i-l had 6 miscarriages before they figured out she needed progesterone suppositories and after she started them she has had 2 healthy babies. My fertility Dr. prescribes progesterone in oil shots. They are horrible. If you can imagine pushing oil into your muscle. UGH. I can handle all the shots that come with IVF but that one is so hard. I remember last time we did IVF (had our wonderful son 3 yrs ago) I was icing the muscle before the shot and my husband started to tear up and said, I just can't cause you this much pain everyday. It was very touching but difficult. UGH. I like to forget about all this when I think of starting it all again :thumbup: :eek: I take Isotonix vitamins, they are powder form and you mix them with water. I like them because I get all the folic acid I need for the pregnancy and I can take them in the AM, long before I can get food down. Oh, a subway sounds heavenly I haven't been able to eat bread in 4 months (since my last fill early December). I'm pretty tight right now, like healthy bandster tight, but I'm worried when we start medication for the IVF I will be really tight. I guess I will find out in a few short weeks. What are the fish oil pills for?? Sound horrible

Lisalu, CONGRATS!!!!! What an amazing time in your life!!! A baby!! Where are you at in your pregnancy and where were you at with weight loss. When were you banded? Another thought I had today, is I wonder if the fluroscopy is safe when you are pregnant? I don't know if I will need an unfill when I get pregnant but started to think about that today since it is an x-ray. Any thoughts??