dabble

Hello there! I am nervous and I am craving a toasted cheese sandwich. I am being banded in 20 days. I have had to be on the Optifast diet for a month. I have lost a little weight so far which I am hoping to keep off. I started at 151kg. Which means I have to lose half my body weight to be in the right vicinity of the right weight for my height. I think I am starting to mourn the foods that I can no longer eat in any quantity. Like cheese and bread. I just have to be remember that I am sadder as the person that I have let myself become. Thanks for making for interesting reading Beck

I think your doctor is probably quite right about it being an effective tool for men, but I think the lapband is just as effective for women too. Mostly for women I think the effect is psychological first and physical second. Either way I am very happy to have my mine and I can work towards a better me!

Thank you both. I will do my best to put out the negative rubbish and take on more positive words such as yours. Thank you! Beck

This is a bit of a rant and this seems like the thread to put it in. I had lap-band surgery on the 21st of July. This has been a good thing in my life. I feel empowered, confident and finally on the way to making life long positive choices. This was the switch I wanted. You know that switch? You are in the zone with the new diet and you can push bad choices aside without sounding like food is out to get you. You easily move through a supermarket and don't even consider the salty sweet high carb things. Going out is a breeze. You lose weight. You feel good about -this- diet. And then someone throws the switch back. You start making excuses for your choices. All food is good food, but moderation is out the window. You stop caring that you've gained all that weight back and then some. I flicked this switch back and forth so many times I reset my brain. I just couldn't diet anymore without setting myself up for failure before I even started. The band has been my choice to take back control. I get to keep my switch on and know that even if I stumble along the way, the band and my supporters will get me back on track. The surgeons are suppose to support you in this. Right? I have two good doctors. One whom I love, the other was the lead surgeon. Calm, dry humoured, but quietly confident. A contrast to my happy doctor, but still filling me with confidence. On Monday I got my staples out. I met the second surgeon. He had been inside my belly and I hadn't even shaken his hand. Instantly it felt off. He didn't seem to look me in the eye. I was up on the table getting those staples whipped out before he could say 'this won't hurt'. Which he didn't say. I had questions. He answered them monosyllabically. I thought I was doing well, He kept telling me how that would change and giving me examples of how I would fail. I was out of there in about 10 minutes with my confidence shattered. It was like he got me at my most vulnerable and then hit me with statements guaranteed to make me feel like even the band can't help me. It took me a few hours before I could even begin to cry and then I felt like I couldn't stop. 24 hours later I managed to change my next appointment back to the doctor that makes me feel good about myself. I -know- this is partially me projecting my fears on a surgeon who was probably just being brusk. I know it was partially him being insensitive jerk who has no bedside manner. I hope this vulnerable feeling will pass. I hope I never see that doctor again. Thanks for letting me rant.

Thank you for everything you said. It is most heartening to see that people face the same experiences and manage to use it to as a positive rather than a negative. I will do exactly that! Thank you again. It means a lot to get positive thoughts. Beck

The band *is* helping. The doctor's attitude did not help. I don't have any weight gain, it was just that the doctor kept saying that it was only a matter of time before I started making bad choices again and that it would only be natural that I would gain weight. As many people have suggested it just inspires me to prove him wrong. The staples were over my incisions. Instead of stitches to hold the keyhole cuts closed they used staples. Very clever things!

To Bonni and Cami, I am okay! Feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself, but taking it easy. It's a bit hard to explain all the feelings going through my head right now, but I hope to get there at some point. Until then I am cheering you all on and working out this new path too! Beck

Wheee! Thank you Cami! I am about 6 hours 54 minutes before check in time. Not that I am counting! Just as well I don't exactly know when my surgery is or I would have it down to the minute. I still haven't gone to bed yet, just pottering around the house trying to organise last minute things. I am a little scared, a whole lot of tentative and mostly just anxious that it all goes smoothly. I am worried that I am going to start shouting under sedation that I have changed my mind!!! July 31st will come fast for you and its good to have someone excited with me :biggrin2: I look forward to celebrating your band day too! Beck

Anne, You will be great at working towards your lap band, because it sounds like something you are keen to get started at working towards! Good luck with your journey and I hope your PCP can help you work towards you goals!! Beck

I am sorry that you have had your procedure delayed. If the doctors wanted you to reduce your BP then they should have at least suggested ways for you to do this. As I said in an earlier post, most doctors are different, so you really need to talk with your doctors and get some clarity on what exactly what they want you to do. Having said that, a lot of doctors seem to want a pre-op diet of some kind. The aim is to make key-hole surgery easier to get around a fatty liver. I have had to go on one for a month and it has been hard going. Some minor giitches, but trying to keep it all under control. Essentially it has been a shake for Breakfast and lunch. In Australia we have Optifast that is generally recommended, but in other countries i tends to be the local Protein Shake for two replacement meals. My main meal has been chicken or fish and steamed vegetables. A lot of diets I see here are limited to only green vegetables. I can eat other things, just no potato, pumpkin or sweet potato. My doctor wasn't too fussed when he heard that I was having a aizeable chunk of protein for dinner either. He figured if I was still losing weight (which I was) then it was okay. Just no red meat. I can also have a piece of fruit during the day. I know I can add some substance to my diet shakes too with extra fruit or low fat milk, but I really haven't felt the need. I hope that helps a little with the confusion. Oh and vegasgirl44, thank you so much for making me feel like part of the forums. No one else seems to have noticed me! Tomorrow is band-day. Wish me luck!

Doctors are SO different! I have been on the pre-op diet for a month. Last night I started crying cause I really wanted toast. I only have three days to go, but the month has started to get to me. My day has consisted of Breakfast shake lunch shake Apple for afternoon snack dinner has been chicken or fish with vegies. Usually steamed. No potato, sweet potato or pumpkin. Which are like my favourite veggie choices! Three things have helped. Variety. I try and add herbs or spices to chicken or fish to give things a flavour boost to feel like I am not missing out. I even came up with a tuna pattie creation that used mashed cauliflower. Not exactly on the diet, but pretty damn close AND a hell of a lot better than what I used to eat. Concentration. When I am feeling like I snack I focus on how I feel. Am I really hungry or is it a craving that I am feeling? I have been surprised how little I have craved chocolate. It has all been bread related! But it seems to work so long as I really sit back and think about it. If it is feeling like hunger I try and make a green tea or drink some Water and then rethink it in an hour or so. It doesn't always work (especially last night!!) but it has helped a lot. Especially in the early days. A support person. In my case its my sister. I text her when I am feeling low or hungry and tell her what I want to eat. Last night it went something like: me: I want toast her: toast is evil me: but I want the toast. Even if it is evil. her: (trying to distract me) We are going to see Batman tomorrow night. me: Does it have toast in it? her: No And so on. Seems silly, but the conversation did help. I was distracted (way to go sis!)And I got through another day without driving to the store and stuffing a loaf of bread in my mouth. Good luck on your journey. Don't beat yourself up. And remember each good meal is a step in the right direction. A bad choice is not a backwards step - it's just tango until you get back on the right path again.

I do love this idea. That I am not alone and that one day I can help other people through the pain that being obese brings. Thank you Terilynn - yet another 'aha' moment in this thread for me!

This is a wonderful thread. I am having surgery next week and like a lot of people I am nervous. My surgeon put me on a one month diet before hand. Two liquid meals and dinner of chicken or fish and vegetables. I was actually doing okay until my birthday last week and had a bit of a blow out. I didn't gain weight, but I lost my groove. This thread reminds me of all the amazing people who have lived like me and who want to change. My straws: My mother saying the 'if only you lost some weight...' thing every time we speak. Not being able to buy nice clothes. Not being able to feel like I am really hugging people. Feeling sickened by the sight of myself when I am naked. Having my ankles blacken every time I fall. Never being comfortable in a seat. Fake smiling when I apologise to the people I am sitting next to for spilling into their seat in the theatre, on a plane... anywhere. Feeling embarrassed that I haven't been able to control my eating and that I have 'let myself go'. Not feeling sexy more than once in my life. Looks of disgust from strangers... or worse, friends who haven't seen me in a while. Never wanting a picture of myself. ... I think I could go on. Thank you to everyone for making me strong for that little bit longer.

Ahh, no worries. Looks like you are getting banded a couple of days before me AND you have as much as me to lose. We can do this! I have to believe this, cause today I have had a bad day (must stop weighing self while on pre-surgery diet!!) Good luck!

Me? I was just happy that you asked these sort of questions. I have also been doing lots of reading, and I never seem to be able to ask the questions that you have. In fact I have started to keep a notebook of questions I can ask the surgeon next time I see him. Keep asking! It helps the quiet ones like me understand this process a whole lot better.:biggrin:

Oh good questions! All the things that I wanted to ask too :thumbup:

Thank you for replying! And the encouraging words about one of my favourite food groups!! I am going to save my 'cheat' for my birthday in a few days. Coincidentally it is after my weigh in with my surgeon. Does that make it a double cheat? Thanks again.