2muchfun

No worries, you'll get to take a nap for an hour or so around 5:30 am tomorrow Check back when you're on the other side, K?

Your comments are so common I should have a an automatic reply I can just click on. Many of us lose a lot of weight during the first 30 days and then nothing till we get that fill/adjustment or two that gives us some restriction/satiety. For me, that was 3 fills and 6 fills till I was in the green zone. Your stoma is still open enough for you to eat what you want. It doesn't take a lot of saline to make it tight or too tight though. What you're experiencing is normal and happens to most of us. And, just like our esteemed forum member B-52 says: "Until there's restriction, it's just another diet"!!

Well, it's always a good idea to call your doctor and run it by him or his nurse? But, you might want to stick to slider type foods for 24 hours to give your pouch and esophagus a rest. I doubt you did any harm but I guess it depends on the amount of blood you coughed up?

You should be doing no harm to your band as it's wrapped around your stomach and the port should be stitched to your muscles on your abs? Jiggle till your hearts content

Join the club You won't find many here who didn't also have the same fears. But, it's like any other fear, once I took that step it was no longer a fear, just a silly memory of how pathetic my life had become to rely on food for support. HA! I read this from another forum member years ago: "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!"

30 lbs is possible but will require a lot of commitment? You may not feel a lot of satiety or restriction till you get the adjustment that does this? Could be 1 or 6? As far as what we eat, we all eat regular healthy foods. Foods that work with the band, like, Proteins first, veggies and complex carbs 2nd and 3rd. It's not so much what we eat, it's the amount we eat and the caloric content of these foods. tmf

Congrats, my post-op was fairly easy too. I was able to work a day or two after surgery. Did your doctor clear you to take Nsaids(advil)? Most surgeons ask us not to take Nsaids after surgery. tmf

Good to hear DD. Be careful so early in your journey with solid foods even if it's in soup? Your stomach is healing and the post-op diet is designed so that your stomach does little to no work till the sutures holding the band in place heal. Noodles should be OK but if there's solid chicken, beware! tmf

Cereals and milk are slider foods and are usually not recommended. Maybe cereal in moderation is OK with a little milk or almond milk. If you're looking for just the nutrition from these foods, Vitamin supplements might be a better alternative for a Bandster? But, you're better off asking this of a registered dietician/nutritionist who is familiar with our dietary restrictions. What you see here is only anecdotal and if you truly need the nutrients and still want to integrate this with your band guidelines, a professional could give you better advice.imo tmf

^5

Click on the surgeon button at the top or bottom of this PC screen? Search for Surgeons in your area here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/surgeons/

You've given yourself a false dilemma. You are not being selfish but your expectations may be a little too lofty. Losing 8 lbs(fat) a month is about the most we can lose and it would take more than just walking to achieve this goal.imo The calories burned math just doesn't work out well for your scenario. Remember, you need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1lb. You need to burn about 900 calories/(every)day more than you consume to make your goal. If you consume 1000/day and your BMR(basal metabolic rate) is around 1600, you need to burn an extra 300 calories per day, every day. It can be done but it's so difficult to exercise every day and keep those calories at 1,000/day.

Unfortunately the band will not make you eat less. It's sometimes billed this way but it's just not true. Try not to gauge or judge the band by how often you get stuck or how much restriction you feel. Satiety and satiety soft signals are what you should be looking for. Soft signals like hiccups, burps, runny nose are signals to stop eating. And for some of us, it takes many months or years to really learn how to eat small and chew big with the band. Getting stuck every other day could be a sign you're not chewing enough, not eating slow enough or that the bites are too big. I too thought I was doing it all just right 8 months out. I thought I had gone too far and was in the red zone but the truth was, I wasn't following the rules as well as I should have. Cravings can make us eat more than needed and eat the wrong foods too. Watch for the satiety signals is all I can offer. tmf

Funny how quickly the years pass by and we're still here working it.

It sounds like you have a wise doctor. Stay in touch with him and with us too.

Wish I would have been aware of placation when I was banded. Keep us posted and congrats.

Well, don't leave us hanging? Score please? Low 90's, high 80's?

The line you ask about is elusive and different for each of us. Leftover meats or over cooked foods like chicken and pork are notorious slow pokes through the stoma. I agree with Breedlove, I too use sauces, condiments and gravies to lube things up so these foods pass through the stoma with little friction. I like salmon but if I cook it 2 minutes too long or eat leftovers, I use hollandaise to lube it up. The trick is to find lubricant/foods that are low fat, low sugar and low calorie. So, use less or no butter with the hollandaise mix. Dry foods do give more satiety than the slippery foods. I prefer freshly cooked foods that are more pliable but I also don't like throwing good food away. So, it's a personal balance I guess.

There's a lot of healing so losing weight the first 30 days is secondary. I lost 12 lbs in 30 days.

Is there a story to this?

" I get angry that I cant just sit and eat a burger, or a sandwich, or fries, or whatever, like I used to be able to" Snide remark to follow The first year I was banded one of the forum members, Pink Dahlia, wrote this: "I'm so stinkin thrilled with my weight loss, I don't even care what I can't eat" Once I hit the green zone I realized she was right. Being healthy and thinner than I was before band is so much more important to me than what I can/can't eat. food just isn't that important. And, I think you may be kidding yourself if you think you can be satisfied with just a bite or two of fries and burgers? Of course, the sleeve will limit how much you can eat. But the sleeve can be compromised too. I'm no psychologist but my recommend would be for you to set up a series of consults with a bariatric specialty psychologist. Band or no band, sleeve or bypass, you could benefit from some counseling. Sorry for the tough love BTW-If you feel like you're chewing enough and taking small bites, you could use a small unfill.jmo

Watch this video too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VmvWFu79Ik#t=99

You may not lose any weight till you're filled. It's just the way this works. This is one of those dirty secrets they don't tell you about before surgery. You may lose some weight but don't count on it. This is a time to heal and do not pay attention to the scale. If you lost a lot of weight prior to surgery, your after surgery weight loss will probably be much less. Most of the weight we lose the first month will be fluids retained. Once the excess fluids are squeezed out you may lose 4-8 lbs a month. And you can go weeks without losing any weight at all. Sorry for the tough love tmf

I can't answer definitively for sleevers but one of my Snacks is Clausen pickles. I even have a bottle of Famous Dave's spicy pickles in the fridge. Pickles have a lot of sodium in them and the sweet ones are loaded with sugar but it takes me 2-3 months to go through one bottle.

Did you see this post from the founder/creator of this site? BariatricPal is trying to start up local chapters for support in many cities. Yours may be one? Click on the link below and good luck but be aware, there are thousands of people on this site so many eyes will see your specific concern and many will respond! http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/304185-bariatricpal-local-chapters-charter/