2muchfun

My daughter, her husband and my grandson came to visit for a week in July. When they left they texted me that they had left some Hagen daz ice cream in the freezer. I had a bad day and ate the 1 1/2 pints of ice cream in one night. Ice cream is not a trigger food for me, it's the nuclear bomb button. Keep it away.

I can't recall where I found this quote but it sure fits you and I mean this respectfully: "The jealous competitor. – Don’t be jealous of others. Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Stop comparing your journey with everyone else’s. Your journey is YOUR journey, NOT a competition. You are in competition with one person and one person only – yourself. You are competing to be the best you can be. If you want to measure your progress, compare yourself to who you were yesterday"

Some people(me) can't handle pain meds. They shut down my entire digestive system. My stomach fills with food, Water, bile etc and my stomach protrudes. I get to a point where I can't eat or drink anything as there's no room. Seems like my pyloric sphincter just shuts down. So, I do not take oxycodone or any other pain relievers. Just a thought?

I've seen many people use an overly tight band to continue to lose weight. Don't make that mistake? Get some saline removed next week if this trend continues. Being in the red zone is an invitation to stretching your pouch and/or esophagus.

I'm sure you've been told this but this pre-op diet is to shrink your liver before surgery. They have to lift your liver to get to your stomach and if it's too heavy they have to punch an extra hole in your body or just close up and not do the surgery. Also, they don't want to damage the liver. It's difficult I know but so worth it.

How many days do you have to diet and what are your Dr.s pre-op dietary requirements? tmf

"I have since be adjusted properly and I'm only down 7lbs!!" And how long is this?

Take some photos now, so you can post a before/after pic on your 1 yr anniversary.

I might drink 2 shakes a week but I don't really rely on them for my Protein. I get it all from meats and Beans and rice. Went to a support group this week and the guest speaker was an endocrinologist(Dr of hormones, diabetes, metabolism issues) and he was pushing for 80-100 grams a day. I'm not sure I get that much or if I can even eat that much with my band? So, why can't you get enough protein?

Explain "having trouble keeping food down"? With the band, this could mean many things? What does keeping food down mean to you and what food are you speaking about? No offense, but it sounds like your doctor wasn't experienced and put the wrong size band on 5 patients? 10CC bands are quite common but the 14 CC is probably the most used.

If not for the band, there are many people who would not even have WLS. I know I felt that way. And, I'm sure some feel the same about their own WLS technique. But most of we banders aren't ready to have parts of our body removed or cut up and reassembled and that's a huge reason we went with the band.

Someone else is having a similar tilt problem this last week or so? Sorry, I can't recall which forum member it is?

23 lbs is very good. I only lost 12 lbs the first 4 months. It took 3 fills before I started to feel satisfied with smaller meals and began to lose more weight. Until you get the fill that gives you some kind of restriction/satiety, you'll be hungry. It's called Bandster Hell and most all of us experienced it. Keep getting fills. Hunger will go away eventually.

Are you a vegan or just don't like meat? Or, are you getting protein via shakes?

There's a lot of that even on this forum. But, Alex put the kibosh on the nay sayers about 6 months ago so the dissing has quieted down a lot here. Here, it's mostly banders who didn't find success with the band for some reason and have had their band removed and/or revised to sleeve/bypass. There are so many reasons for band failure and the % is up around 10% so there are a number of band haters out there. Not all hate the band now of course. But, there are also a lot of surgeons who no longer offer the band for their own selfish reasons. One is, aftercare. Some docs don't want to hassle with patients for years after surgery providing guidance, fills and follow-up. They just want to make money off the surgery and move on. They tell their patients they don't offer the band any longer and make up horrible stories. Some of these docs just are not good with people and that's why they became surgeons. jmo And Ginger Snaps is right. The band on average, is not as effective as the other WLS techniques. It doesn't mean that all other WLS techniques work better all the time.

I strive to live the Paleo life but I had to modify it. I still eat Beans and rice on occasion and I also consume small quantities of cheese and milk. Eliminating processed flours and sugars was quite easy to adapt to for me but a sprinkle of cheese on my omelet and 8 ozs of milk for my latte were the trade-offs. Being banded, beans and rice works great for the Protein intake and also is solid enough to give a lot of satiation. I've actually taken the paleo diet to another level by implementing an intermittent fasting program that has allowed me to drop 14 lbs in the last 6 weeks and beat a 3-4 month stall. I modified Dr Varady's IF program by fasting(still 600cals on fast days) 3 days a week. It's not a true fast as in all liquids all day. It's like stop eating on Sunday at 7 pm and I don't eat again till Monday around 1 pm. The Fast Diet(aka 5-2 fast diet) is similar to this but it's best if you can modify the timing so it works for you. They're not true Paleo Diets but do follow the low carb, low glycemic index path to an extent. True Paleo is just a diet that is like other diets and can not be counted on as a lifestyle forever. jmo

Give it time. Despite what we were told about this surgery being minimally invasive, it's not. My copy and paste response to posts like your(and there are many) is: While You Were Sleeping So I'm sorry to be too graphic here but remember, someone filled your body cavity full of gas, they pumped fluids, medications, antibiotics and anesthesia into your body. They punched 5 holes in your abdomen, moved all your inner body parts around, shoved a tube down your throat, took an electric scalpel and burned away excess fat and tissue wrapped around your upper stomach, then wrapped a plastic strap around your stomach just below the lower esophogeal sphincter, stitched it in place with 5-6 sutures bringing your lower stomach up and over the band and then snaked a tube out of your body and then sewed another plastic piece to the muscle tissue on your rib cage. It does get better with time but you've got to let your body heal and that will take about 5-10 days before you feel back to somewhat normal.

I'm envious Great job, looking good!

So, you've tried to make an appointment for a consult and they don't respond?

I've thought about naming my band but no name ever really popped for me. Now I do have names for other parts of my body

Has not happened to me but I've seen many other posts where the unfill worked.

Refried beans was my go to. And egg drop soup.

BTW-There are several on this forum who are banded w/plication. CarolinaGirl, LisaCaron, both had plication w/band.

When you post in the "General Weight Loss Discussion" forum everyone can see it.

You may have a few misconceptions about WLS. With the band, you still have your stomach in it's entirety. You can still eat till the cows come home. But, for most of us, that desire or need is greatly diminished. But, there are some who never come to terms with their food addiction. In any WLS there are patients who simply continue to cope through their emotions by eating too much food or eating the wrong kinds of food. Here's a quote/comment from another forum member from years ago that explains it quite appropriately: "In my case, the most fearful thing I had to do in order to succeed with my band wasn't switching to skim milk, surviving a liquid diet, or giving up bread. The most fearful thing was giving up my emotional attachment to food. In the nearly 5 years since I was banded, I've made a lot of progress with that, but the attachment is still there. It forms one of the innermost layers of my turtle shell. Working on that layer will probably be a lifetime job for me. At times I'm not even sure I truly want to get rid of it altogether. At times I'm afraid that if I shed my shell completely, I won't be able to survive. On the other hand, I seem to be doing fine without that thick old bitch layer. So I'm going to pay attention to my dreams rather than my fears and pray for a miracle. And why not? It can't hurt to try!" Pay attention to your dreams and not your fears seems to be the message here?