lellow

Are you doing low carb? It might be that you're in ketosis. I understand it makes your urine smell different.

I lost weight and I realised that my husband and I weren't on the same page anymore. He treated me the same as he did when I was bigger, and I suddenly realised what I had settled for all those years. I loved him, but I wasn't happy with our relationship and hadn't been for many years, and he didn't think anything was wrong. In the end, I left because I understood my own value like I hadn't previously. I think I'm with my current partner because his previous fiance was a big girl. I know he's not someone who only fell for me because I look a certain way now. Because, man, did I meet a LOT of men who only cared about what I look like, but who I'm sure wouldn't have given me the time of day when I was heavier. I have come full circle from that though. I used to be angry with people (not just men) who only now saw me because I'd lost the weight. So I completely get where Missy is coming from. But I also realise now that it's their shortcoming and not mine. I take great pride in the way I look now, and I don't see me as pandering to any societal pressure, nor do I see how I look on the outside as being the total sum of me, but I do understand the way the game works now, so I play it and use that to my advantage.

Your port is the last thing to heal, honestly, I was years out and if I wore pants with a waistband that sat on my port for the day, I'd be sore for days after. You just need to be aware it's there and baby it a bit. Especially after surgery, coz I think it was 3 months before the soreness was completely gone. I had my band replacement surgery in late April and my port is still slightly sore most days.

Kinks in the tubing are very easily fixed but do require day surgery. Usually it isn't a difficult thing to fix and the likelihood of re-occuring is very low.

Basically cardio is for weight loss. Strength training is for strength (duh) and also to increase your metabolism. Short answer is that muscle requires energy, and having muscle will increase your body's need for energy. So yes cardio is what you need to do for weight loss, but muscle is what's going to help you keep it off.

I started out in this thread differentiating between band and sleeve, and wanted to add that in term of long term studies, there are nearly none that can be done for the sleever of more than 10 years, because they don't exist. The risk with the band is this: it may not work for you, you may have complications that will impact your life, this may cause you more suffering than not. But it does work for many people, and there are in fact studies around it. And if it does not work, you can have it removed and in the majority of cases, this alleviates or reduces the issues caused by the band. You can't have your stomach re-attached after removing it to create a sleeve, whatever your issue is. The reason I chose NOT to have the sleeve when I had the option of revising is that I know no WLS comes with guarantees, but I would prefer one that I have had success with, that had a smaller chance of death than other surgeries, and also has been around long enough for there to BE long term studies on it. My surgeon (a professer) has been placing bands for over a decade, and he still believes in them and their ability to promote long term health benefits at a smaller risk to the patient than other WLS. He also does the sleeve btw. He advised me to get another band rather than revise to a sleeve. With his experience and having been in the business of banding as long as he has, I'm happy to trust his advice. Coincidentally (or maybe not), I'm also in Australia, where the Paul O'Brien and Wendy Brown study was conducted, and here, the lapband doesn't get the kind of bashing that it seems to get in the US. Over here it's not a fad, it's an accepted measure to combat obesity and in fact most insurance companies here will pay for it if you have a BMI of 35 or above, end of story. No hoops, no psych evaluations, no 6 months supervised diet to qualify, because the fact is, they accept that lapband surgery will likely save them money in the long run for obesity-related health problems, so they invest in the band as preventative medicine now. They wouldn't do that, imo, if they didn't reap a financial (long term) benefit from paying out for the lapband. This shows a confidence in the effectiveness of the band from private companies who are hugely risk adverse. And as for me, the band has really has worked, and worked like a charm. Even when having had a complication (a leak) and was gaining weight, I accepted that sometimes something you want to work, doesn't work. And you then look at your options, because you HAVE to assume nothing is forever. I think in that respect I have had far more realistic expectations of what the band would do for me than most people I see.

I never had problems with losing weight, which I think is why I did well with the band. What I had problems with was keeping it off. Watching what I eat and starving myself for the rest of my life wasn't something I could do. Something would happen, I'd get stressed and I'd gain it all back plus some. Always plus some! My band was leaking last year and leaked for 15 months. I gained back 35lbs. I can tell you, I would have gained a lot more than that had I not been a bandster all these years and developed some good eating habits. I also arrested the weight gain and went on to lose 15lbs of that on my own. And I did wonder: can I do this myself? But the truth is, now I have a replacement band in, losing/maintaining is easier. It just is with a band. I don't even have to count calories, it maintains my weight easily. That's the difference I think.

I am pretty happy with my current weight. But I have been thinner - my BMI at one stage was around 21. Even at that weight, I had uneven-ness in my waist. I have pockets of fat just above my body lift scar which looks like a permenant little muffin top. At my current weight it's barely noticeable with clothes on, but when I gained a bit, it became more obvious (proof is in the pic below from when I was jusy 8lbs heavier). It also means that I currently can't wear anything but low rise pants because I have a 'faux' waist on my hips (where the body lift scar 'dips' into my body) I also am interested in seeing if I can get any improvement for my inner thighs, which remained heavy at the very top even at a BMI of 21. This is less important though. My body lift surgeon suggested 'finishing' off with lipo after my body lift 4 years ago but I never really got round to it. But now I would like to finally get my body shaped correctly so I don't look lumpy in weird spots. Which now leads me to my questions: Who here has had lipo to their waist or love handles? Was it day surgery? Did you do it under general or twilight sedation? What is the down-time like? And roughly what did it cost?

Thought this thread was finished up but had my post op appt with my PS today and looked me all over, and while he's VERY happy with how I'm looking in general, he suggested a little bit more work on my inner thighs/knees. He did some lipo on my upper inner thighs and that looks great, and the skin is 'bouncing back' better than he expected so he thinks if I want a little more off the thighs, he would now be quite confident of an excellent result. So I'm doing it under local aenesthetic on the 2nd Aug. Guess I'm not quite done yet!

I think like any man-made device, it is not foolproof. They initially believed my leak was caused by me getting a tattoo on my stomach and damaging the tubing, but turns out it wasn't that. My dr also said that there were a bunch of bands placed at the same time that seemed to have been delivered defective and many people who got that batch then experienced leaks. But it's not common, and it is generally quite easily fixed.

I post all over the place around here! But in terms of a catergory, I guess I'm a low BMI veteran. Generally speaking, until my band started leaking, yes I pretty much got to my green zone and maintained for 3 years with a small tweak fill once every 6 or more months, just to keep me properly restricted. Then in Jan 2012 I sprung a leak and despite a couple of attempts to fix it, it kept leaking and I 'fell off' the wagon and gained 35lbs. I then went on to lose 15lbs of that while waiting for a full band replacement (that was 2 months ago), and since then have lost another 7lbs. I don't want to lose anymore now so am back to maintenance mode, even though my band is not yet at green zone.

It's common I think that after a while, living with the band becomes the 'new normal' and you don't even realise you're losing restriction, eating a little more, falling back into old habits until one day your clothes don't fit. I have come and go from this site over the last 5 years but I tend to do better when I'm here talking to people and reminding myself that I have to keep working with my band. I'm glad you're back and recommitting. I'm sure you'll find loads of support here if you keep posting.

Apparently dilation, once it occurs once, is of a much higher risk in replaced bands. If I had suffered a slip instead of a leak, I would have revised to a sleeve. But to get back to your question about not gaining: I gained with my leak but turned that around and starting losing again just before it was replaced. To do that I had to become super strict with cals and exercise. I never had to do that with the band (count calories) but without the band it was crucial. You only have to do it for 3 months, and that's so completely do-able. Good luck!

Yes I had fear. But mainly I was excited about changing my life. I think you need to go into this with your eyes wide open. You need to know all the possible things that go wrong. You need to be prepare for the worst. And then you need to put the 'worst' into context: complications only happen to about 5 out of every 100 people who get the band, and many are minor enough to be resolved without much fuss. I was one who had a complication. I'm grateful it didn't have long term effects and was relatively easily fixed. I don't blame the band for me gaining weight as a result of the band failure, the band works while it's working, but it's not some magic weight loss injection, all it did was help. When it stopped working, it meant it was all on me, and I don't blame the band for that either. That's the thing I think: people don't take the responsibility for their weight loss. They hope that the band will fix all their ills, and it doesn't work that way. So when it doesn't because they didn't put in their part, they blame the band for failing them. I have definitely seen my share of people for whom the band has failed them, BUT I see a WHOLE lot more people who consistently fail themselves, which has very little to do with the band itself. So you need separate the good from the bad and figure out what's best for you.

It's taken me a long time to get my head screwed on right. I went from being heavy to being too thin, and after a lot of analysing, I decided that I'm finally happy with my weight. Because I'm not all about my weight. This was a difficult mindset to come to. I sometimes wonder, when I was losing, whether or not I'd traded one obsession for another: food for weight loss. My whole goal was to lose, and it didn't matter what the scale said, I kept wanting to lose. My best friend eventually intervened. She told me she thought I was too thin. She could see the ribs in between my cleavage, my hip bones stuck out, my head looked too big for my body. My doctor did too. He said if I didn't stop losing, he would unfill me a little. So I worked to gain a little bit to get to a BMI of 23, not because I wanted to, but because I was scared that if he unfilled me I'd gain it all back. Fast forward a few years, and my band starts leaking. My worst fears come true - I start gaining. I get disillusioned with my doctor's failed attempts to fix it, and I fall off the grid, and off the wagon. I start gaining and I don't care. I've given up. Christmas comes around and I go on vacation to spend it with my son and when we go to the park, I realise that for the first time in 4 years I can't keep up with him. The penny drops and I remember why I got banded in the first place: for him. That same moment, I make a decision to turn my weight gain around. I start tracking my calories, and exercising, and I lose weight, and I then make an appt to see my dr again to try to get back on track. At that appt, he withdraws the fill and it's immediately apparent that my band is still leaking, and we discuss what we should do next. The next few weeks really confused me: Do I replace? Do I revise to a sleeve? Can I do this on my own? Am I really not capable of maintaining without the band? Am I really so hung up on weight loss that I'm going to go under the knife again?? And more importantly, was I really unhappy? My weight changing didn't change me, it just changed how people saw me. Did I really want to get on that rollercoaster of weight loss being so important that I'd get too thin? So I made a decision: I'd get a replacement, because maintaining my weight was a lot easier with a working band, but I would not make weight loss my goal. It was for this reason that I decided I didn't want to lose anymore, and instead would get lipo to 'take care' of the problem spots. I'm not 5 days post lipo and by all accounts I'm exactly where I want to be. So what's the point of this post? That self-same best friend yesterday asked me how much fat they'd taken out during lipo. Did I lose any weight? So this morning I weighed myself. And yes the scales have gone down. And I was ecstatic. And all day today I'm thinking 'maybe I should try to lose a few more kilos, I could still stand to lose some weight' until I caught myself and shook myself out of it. Body image. It's such an insidious damaging thing sometimes. Because we constantly have to convince ourselves we're good enough, that we're happy enough, that we don't need to be better than we already are and actually believe it. And it's a battle you can't ever let your guard down on. And I'm angry with myself for having succumbed to that vicious inner voice in my head today. She really needs to shut the hell up.

Oooo how exciting! Hope all goes well and see you on the flipside!

The sweet spot exists for me, I did lose weight with the band, I will be a bandster going on 5 years next month, and I've had complications yet am a successful bandster. I know that not all band issues are a result of patient non-compliance (mine wasn't) but I also have seen a LOT of people in the last 5 years come through this site who think they're complying but aren't really, and then blame the band. No, I'm not saying any of you here are guilty of that because I don't know enough about you to say one way or the other, but I see with my own eyes posts from people who give in to their addictions, won't make any effort to change their eating habits and then wonder why the band didn't magically make the lbs fall off. Apparently taking responsibility for your own weight isn't something a lot of people are good at doing. I gained 35lbs while my band was leaking, that was ME, even if it was the by-product of band failure. The band sure as hell didn't put the food in my mouth. So while I do empathise with people who have difficulties with the band - I had my own difficulties and I know it's VERY easy to get disillusioned - I agree with B-52 in that saying 'don't get the band, it doesn't work, there is no such thing as the sweet spot' or even insinuating that the band cannot sustain weight loss long term is simply factually incorrect. If you don't believe me, feel free to look at my pics. Personally Chanel reading your story I actually think you were too tight and your aftercare team failed you badly. You say you've lost weight since having less restriction? That's actually not at all unusual. Being in the red zone stalls your weight loss, and more than that, is a bloody miserable existence to boot. I think if you got rid of your current aftercare team and found a team that actually listened to you, knew the symptoms of a band that was too loose, or too tight, and worked with you to find the right restriction level, you might have a far more positive experience with your band.

Oh look at you, miss thang! How gorgeous! I, on the other hand, was 215lbs when I got married, and while I still have my dress, I'm hoping never to fit into it ever again!

Lol SO CUTE of your 11yo granddaughter to say. And it's got to feel good. Well done!

I'm allergic to surgical tape too so I asked specifically when I could take them off and they said 6 days. I get blisters under where the tape is, so yes it looks nasty too after a few days. But I think the tape is to keep the scars from puckering and infecting, so if you have taken them off, it might be an idea to go get a different sort, wash the area with anti-bacterial soap and cover them over again. Just to be on the safe side. Is there anyone from your medical team you can ask?

I have a friend who is banded 2 years for who this became a habit. Everytime she wanted to eat something but thought she shouldn't, she would chew it then spit it out. I only found out because I was saying recently I was craving something and she suggested it. I actually don't personally think that this is something I would do, or continue to do. Because half this battle is fighting your food demons, and this, to me, is like saying I'm not really smoking if I hold a cigarette, puff but don't inhale. Because it's still feeding the addiction. In the end it's up to you, but it's not something I would do. Just on the aside as well, my friend is not a successful bander, and has only lost 20lbs in 2 years despite exercising a LOT more than me. I don't know if there is a correlation, but in my uninformed opinion, she has never really won her battle against her addiction to food.

Hi Hoover, Happy to help with any questions you have. I'll PM you instead so as to not go off tangent on this thread.

Also just to add, not just to the OP but in general, the day you got your band should have been the day you committed to changing the way you eat. I understand temptation as much as the next person because I still struggle with it everyday, but this is a life changing event, so take it seriously and don't 'test' it, because you may in fact do damage to yourself.

I don't even like Maccas nuggets anymore. They taste like cardboard. Now that I can only eat a little bit of food, I want it to taste AMAZING, so I don't waste the little space I have on food I don't like. When you're off your post-op have a think about that: food that tastes good and is full of texture and succulence isn't going to be MacDonald's! In my experience, great tasting food is actually healthy, whole foods that are good for you!

OMG yes! I think that says it all. If losing the weight is what you want, more than anything, you will make it happen, band or not. The band just makes it a little easier, but we still have to do all the heavy lifting (pun intended)