Constance

I was banded by Dr. Ortiz and he has a nutritionist who gives you guidance on the pre-band diet. Well, apparently some patients had emailed her and confessed they'd fallen off the wagon and she reassured them it was ok. Dr. Ortiz was so disappointed to see their fatty slippery livers, that he made her come into surgery and see what blowing the diet looks like! wow...and yuck! So she really stresses the importance of following the diet, for her benefit, too. A good surgeon CAN work around a fatty liver. But apparently the surgery is faster and there is more accuracy if the organs are easily maneuverable.

<p>I spoke too soon. I have been PB'ing all night long. It sucks. I had salad at dinner. About 3 bites -- then up it came. I tried again later...back again. Then I tried a popsicle...which just created fudge flavored PB's , GROSS! So tomorrow its mushies and I have to seriously slow the eff down...or get an unfil.</p>

Hi guys, thanks so much for the words of support and tips. I have been working on slowing WAY down when I eat, and working on less "treats". AND I hit the gym 3 days this week - which is 3 days more than I normally go. Do you guys find you have gotten "better" at PB'ing? I know that sounds disturbing. But the first time I PB'd it was super traumatic and lasted forever. Now, if I feel it coming on, I just excuse myself and "erp" (that's what I call it) and I'm done. Don't get me wrong, it still sucks and reminds me I'm going too fast/too much, but I guess I feel sort of relieved that it isn't this terrible earth-shattering event over and over again. That was one of my biggest fears before I was banded...reading peoples' horror stories and all.

Thanks for the tips you guys! It really means a lot to hear from you and get your personal take. I am going to record what I'm eating and really focus on slowing down. Sometimes I really get emotional, like, "This is so unfair I want to eat"...and the ice cream is like me punsihing the band...RIDICULOUS! So I need to work on my attitude. The band IS doing what it was designed to do! I have to let that happen.

You guys are all close to goal...I feel like such a slow poke. HELP! I haven't lost a pound in MONTHS. Truthfully, I have sucked at choices. I eat too much ice cream and soft crap. But you'd think it would balance out with how much trouble I have with solids sometimes. Since the last fill, I have PB'd with some frequency...a few times a week. It's more of a stuck issue than a fullness issue --- but are those the same? I don't know! I can eat 1/2 cup and sometimes a cup. But I have to go super slow. Once I get past the initial stuck-ness, I can't eat a decent, satisfying amount. But if I CAN'T get past the first few bites and I PB, I get super bummed and feel deprived. Then...I eat ice cream. I know, bad girl. THE AGE OLD QUESTION: So, do I need another fill? Is the logic that if you're PBing *at all* then you are fine? Or am I PBing b/c I am slacking on the supersmall bites? (Since the PB is almost always within the first 5 bites. Is that how it is for eveybody?) I feel like this is so new to me (!!) -- even though I've been banded since Aug 06 - only in the last few months have a really felt what every one is talking about. Help, you guys! More fill, less, about right? At one point in a meal do you guys PB? PS. Oh AND my port is all 'wonky' and tilted towards my feet as opposed to flush on my abdomen. That's freaking me out, too. They can still give me a fill but I have to get all Yoga for them to access my port. Anyone have wonky port issues, too. I press on it all the time and say "PLease, port, no flipping over!"

My port is kind of wonky and sideways. So when I get a fill they have to point the needle towards my feet. Make sense? Increasingly, I feel it and get a little sore. Nothing bad -- just more conscious of it than I was 3 months ago. Is it moving more? Or flipping? I feel my port to try to get a status check but I get all grossed out manipulating it. Anybody else have a "travelling port"? Normal?

I think that new Breyers double-churned lowfat stuff is great. Still tastes like the real thing but much less fat. I try to do ice cream bars or popsicles since it is pre-portioned. I say this but last night I had a bowl of Cookies 'n' cream flavor with some cherry cobbler. oops!

Depending on how your restriction is...I'd say some lunch meat, crackers, maybe a wedge of cheese, yogurt or pudding cups...stuff with Protein that will go down easy and be tasty, too.

Today at lunch with co-workers (who don't know I'm banded) I felt a little stuck. Nothing new, I thought, it'll pass. Wrong. I politely excused myself. After 30 minutes heaving slime and foam into the toilet I barfed up my few bites of food. This was followed by horrible pain, more slime, excrutiating hiccups, more slime...so I finally left work. Then (get ready, it's bad)... I barfed into my gym clothes while driving in my car. Then some more at home. It was only 4 or 5 bites of meatloaf and peas -- but it lasted for over an hour. I wanted to drive straight to the doctor for an unfill. I feel so embarassed and ashamed. What do I say to my co-workers? I basically left the lunch table and never returned. On top of the, I feel so fat and stalled right now -- I have been for 2 months. I'd like to think the trade-off for this is that I'm losing weight, but I'm not. I constantly crave easy junk like ice cream and donuts. (Yes, I know, how can I be able to eat DONUTS? Blessing or curse?) I just feel like crap. Like I "failed" somehow with the PB and that I am already failing at losing weight. :phanvan

I'm glad to see everyone plugging along. I'm at a plateau, too. But also I'm realizing that this is really work (duh). I mean, it still is better than any diet I went on without the band. But as I try to break this plateau I see how I DO need to make the very best food choices I can and not just use restriction alone as a means to lose weight. Sort of a reality check. I've sucked at going to thr gym. I keep justifying not going by doing yard work...but I think there is just something about really sweating it out for 30-45 minutes that makes my body say "we better burn off some calories" that I can't seem to get from yard work.

Oh I'm so sorry. It is NOT your fault! If anything, I was issued a big warning that with weight loss comes the increased chance of conception and to be extra dilligent with BC or I'd be pregnant in 6 months! Don't beat yourself up and don't take your partner's comments to heart. He is confused and sad and looking for a reason...you are NOT the reason. Just try to heal yourself right now. I know it is sad to grieve this w/o his support but just focus on getting back your confidence. Your biology and lapband are fine! Don't give up!

I can do liquids and soft stuff easily. But at the last fill the nurse said I really needed to work on eating more hard proteins and not falling back on the 'easy' foods. I do seem to be getting tighter since the fill so I will watch out for difficulty with the soft stuff. Thanks guys! Always helps to hear from other ABC'ers.

I just need to vent for a sec...indulge me please. Here I am, 6 months out, and I feel SO restricted since the last fill. Wow, so THIS is what it really feels like. Everything else before this was a little uncomfortable, or a little inconvenient -- but this is like "HELLO I AM YOUR BAND... AND I WORK." Today has been tough. I felt stuck every time I ate. I had to wait and suffer through the stuckness and I was hungry and in pain. Of course it makes me bummed out and then I want to comfort myself -- with food! It makes me feel crazy. I'm frustrated. I know this is what the band is all about. I've gotten spoiled, bending the bandster rules b/c I haven't been that restricted. On the flip side...this COULD be the sweet spot for me if I can just get used to the little bites and more conscious eating. OK, thanks for listening...er, I mean, reading.

I had an episode of sliming and one of my co-workers walked in the bathroom. I was like "whoa, bad burrito", and played it off like I was barfing. (I hadn't been anywhere near a burrito -- it was just the first thing that popped into my head..hahah!) Nobody at work knows about the band. Yes, I totally felt like the closet bulimic! It's weird, I never seem to have "issues" at home. It's always at work ... stress! Since my last fill I feel pretty restricted. Like to the point of feeling like I barely eat and the band says "you're done". Unfortunately the restriction doesn't seem to include much 'staying power' and I'm pretty hungry after 2 hours or so. Sometimes I don't even wait that long. I eat -- wait 20 minutes, then eat some more of the same meal. Is that ok? Am I breaking the rules? It's just when I only eat 4 bites and get all restrcicted, I KNOW I will need more intake than that, right?

I have it done without flouro for 190$, out-of-pocket.

Good job Seren! You inspire me!! Here's my latest "tootin' of the horn". I've lost 40lbs -- gone from a size 20 to a 16, bra from a 40C to a 38C. I can wear so many things that had been banished to the closet. For the first time, in a LONG time, I grab the "L" instead of the 2XL when I try clothes on. My panties seem huge, haha! Something I really didn't think about needing to buy more of. Everything is more comfortable, from fastening my seat belt, to walking the dog, to well, "Everything Else". I look forward to even more NSVs!

I appreciate you posting the full monty. It's good to see the unabridged before and after. Thanks for sharing with us!

I decided to go for .5 and for the first time the nurse had a hard time finding my port. Now I see what everyone is talking about. Wow, having somebody first puncture you and THEN dig around in there...ick! And you can vaguely feel the needle skidding on the port. **Shudder** Hopefully this will kick starrt some loss. You guys are doing great! I want to get to 50lbs too!

Hey peeps, anyone around tonight? I am getting a fill tomorrow morning. I can ask for what I'd like -- within reason, of course. Is going up .5 too much as I am getting closer to the 'sweet spot'. Any thoughts? I have to pay rough 200$ and I've been pretty cautious along the way. But now I feel like I'm ready to just get there, know what I mean?

Pam from your insight I thought you were a seasoned bandster! See, we all have something to teach each other. I love it.

I think the hard part is when you DO feel the golfball sensation the question is "Is this restriction from being full, or restriction from a bite that was too big?" For me, the golfball often comes in the 3rd or 4th bite of food. I know this isn't the stopping point and that I've barely consumed a few spoonfulls of food. So I wait it out, it passes, and I eat again. From there I can eat and eat and eat...sometimes much more than a cup. So, I think I need a fill, right? This would NOT be the sweet spot. If it were I would feel another golfballish feeling (hopefully I catch it more subtle that that) and I'd be stopping at less than a cup of food, correct? My band can be so confusing! (Pam, I just read you wrote almost exactly what I wrote...you're in my head!)

When you say your stomach..do you mean your abdomen? or your 'banded zone' which usually feels more like your sternum/chest area? I was thinking what you describe kind of sounds like gas bloat pain if it is abdominal. I get that if I just eat a little on an empty stomach. I blow up like a balloon sometimes and it is so painful! My belly is all stretched out and I couldn't suck in my gut if I tried. It doesn't seem to matter what the food is, but rather how empty my stomach is at the time. Could that be what you're feeling?

karen, I've only losy 40 lbs in 6 months! I try not to beat myself up over the numbers. At least you have some actual events (unfilling, etc.) to explain your stall. I have nothing to blame but ME and my bad eating habits. I'm trying to focus on each meal as a choice and not get caught up in the "what do I have to show for 6 months!?" mentality. It's the choices and patterns every day that help us lose, right? I totally get stuck a lot, too. And yet I feel like overall I really need a fill. Weird, right? One minute I'm golfballing on salad, the next I'm stuffing my face. You are not alone! It is confusing and frustrating and not losing weight sucks. But I know I CAN do it and I WILL do it. Sometimes the 'planets aren't in alignment' if you know what I mean. Like there is junk food around, AND I feel lazy, AND I don't feel restriction...and before I know it I'm in this bad binge mentality. So I have to try and put all the pieces together. Keep good foods around, motivate myself to move my butt more, and have proper restriuction. Sometimes that is a lot of crap to work on when you're trying to live your life, too! I totally feel for you -- hang in there!

Wow, I can't tell you how much this helps me to hear a bandster put it that way. I DO get the golfball but have never PB'd so I somehow assume I simply won't because I haven't -- if that makes sense. But now I see, DUH, it's just the beginning...go no further!

ok, good advice. I'm just frustrated b/c I'm total Snackmaster 9000 -- an eating machine. And I want to say "please, just make it so I don't eat so damn much!" Also, I pay 175$ per fill (or unfill) and it's a fine balance between too much and too little. I'm sorry Seren., that really sucks. You're doing better now, tho?