2muchfun

It's your body telling you it wants to go back to the good ole days of over-eating. Don't listen to it. This is normal. Your body thinks you're trying to starve it. As long as you're getting in about 800 calories or so, you should be fine. Your body has plenty of reserves to survive.

Go to the top or bottom of this page and click on surgeon. Use the search engine to find a surgeon in your area. Good luck.

Dehydration is very dangerous. You need to call your surgeon and have a small unfill asap.

Stuffed at 2 crawfish or 2 lbs?

Depends on the device you're using? PC, it's next to the multiquote button. Kindle is the down arrow I believe. Iphone is the down arrow on the right side of the screen.

Anytime you pass blood or regurgitate blood you should call your doctor or surgeon. Nothing to mess around with? Could be just an ulcer? Could also be band erosion which is very dangerous. Don't waste time, call now.

Here in the states, we have Miller Lite. It's a lite lager beer. Thought maybe your spell checker failed or something

I mean no disrespect to anyone who has hit there own plateau but for me, when I hit a plateau, I always know why I'm not losing and it's directly related to the type and amount of foods going in my mouth. Sometimes if I set a midterm(not final goal weight) monthly or personal goal weight to achieve, once I hit that midterm/personal goal, I Celebrate, with food. Not mass quantities of food, but I fall off the wagon just far enough to gain a few and then plateau for weeks. Thanks for the post Alex, I'll remember this. tmf

Muller light? Hope you're not drinking anything with carbonation? This can put a lot of pressure on the pouch causing your sutures to break away?

I'd probably attend at least one? It's the facility access that would be problematic I think. There's already a number of support groups that meet monthly but none associated with this site.

Placements?

I was banded in November of 2011. I lost 12 lbs the first 2 weeks and then nothing for the next 3.5 months. Late March I got my 3rd fill and had a visit with my nutritionist. She really made a big difference. I was able to clean up about 300 calories I was eating a day and the 3rd fill gave me enough restriction to start my journey. I was eating the wrong foods so that the band couldn't work it's magic. Unknowingly I was eating slider foods that didn't stimulate the valgus nerve. Once I made that correction, I started to notice the signals. Not always of course. Unfortunately with the band, most of us have to pay closer attention to what goes in our mouths than other WLS patients.

Thanks so much for the video and let me say you are drop dead gorgeous!! What a transformation?? The picture near the end were super. But, the music? I love that music? Who was that? We have a time share in Mexico but haven't gone much in the last few years. Your video brought back this rush of memories sitting in a café by the ocean listening to the music. I see you love the ocean as we do? Have you ever listened to Sting "The Living Sea"? There are a few songs from the album on youtube, here's two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYu4oJNZXHA&list=PLsulSF6rs_4UJZNfqUeN_sjQk_TskK-hY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMP-yT4IYgE&list=PL_6q_o980Gv3q1d7H8h_zFpHTz8QWTHDE

Good for you and see you on the other side?

IMO, it's impossible to hide having major surgery! You're going to have to recover and how do you hide that? If you remove your clothing around him the port and incisions sites will show for some time.

The pre-op diet isn't designed for you to lose a lot of weight. It's designed so that you shrink your liver since it's in the way when they band your stomach. A heavy liver is a dangerous liver to move and they don't want to sever anything. Just losing a few lbs is plenty. And you might want to lower your expectations on how much weight you can lose per week post surgery. Losing 1-2 lbs a week is quite normal. 9 lbs in 2 weeks is great but it's mostly Water you're shedding due to the diet. tmf

For you and Leena. Please come back over the next year and tell us your struggles or successes with maintenance after removal. I know I have always been curious if the lessons we learned from being banded are retained? I've seen many who gained all weight back by going back to old habits. How hard is it to stay focused and eat healthy when the tool is removed? Keep in touch. tmf

Do you feel it was worth it? I feel like if I can get 7-10 years out of my band it will have been a success. Of course, we all want more but you made it almost to a decade before the problems overwhelmed the band? If my band failed say after 8 years, I'd consider having another one. Of course, other bodily parts may not agree with that and I'd have to go with a sleeve or nothing at all? Or, maybe plication? Good luck and let us know how it all works out for you?

No sure if I count on this one? I had my surgery when I was 64 and BCBS paid for it. It works for me but I've been thinking lately that recommending the band might not be a wise choice unless the patient was cognizant of the difficulties and aware of how losing weight works. So many obese people do not understand the math behind calories burned and calories consumed and how exercise can make a big difference? So many are so driven by their addiction or security blanket that they can't give up old eating habits. Of course, much depends on the awareness of the patient but I would recommend the sleeve over the band if the patient seemed at all like she might not be the type of person who could control her cravings? jmo tmf

I use my iphone just for reading posts. I use a PC to enter photos into the gallery. I looked at my IPhone and don't even see how you upload a photo?

What device are you using? PC, IPAD, Iphone?

Very little diff between 1 and 2. I think I had a couple of stuck episodes after that 2nd fill but I was still eating like my daughter's dog. No chewing, just suck and swallow. Fill #1 and #2 seemed to shrink my appetite by about 20% total. My 3rd fill not only brought on restriction in the form of having to eat smaller, chew bigger and slow down, it also made me realize satiety much much sooner than before.

Sweet, Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel

The satiety signals for me are usually a burp or hiccup. Occasionally it's a runny nose. But I usually stop when I'm not hungry any longer which is the Numero Uno satiety signal we should all look for. imo tmf

No one is supposed to feel the "full" sensation. You're supposed to look for the satiety signals. If you're full, you've eaten too much. I went back and read some of your past posts. Jean McMillan is one of the magazine contributors here and this is what she wrote: "I just had another thought, about something that might help you find your very own Green Zone. One of the biggest jobs for any WLS patient, no matter what surgical procedure they have, is learning how to recognize satiety. That's something I managed to completely ignore for 54 years before my band surgery, mainly because I was eating for a lot of reasons that had nothing to do with physical hunger, good nutrition, health, or any of that good stuff. Satiety is the feeling of having eaten enough food for now. For someone like me who had a gaping void inside that no amount of food could ever fill, learning to recognize satiety wasn't just hard - it was scary. Deprivation was one of my worst fears. I think that fear exists to some extent in every living creature. If we don't eat, we eventually die - every single one of us. A morbidly obese, middle-class, middle-aged woman with a job and a home and loving friends and family is not likely to starve to death, but that fear haunted me for a long time. Fortunately, I made lots of friends on online WLS sites like Bariatricpal who helped me by sharing their own satiety signals. The work of paying attention to and heeding those signals was all up to me. I got better at it as time went on. My conscious behavior and the effect of more saline in my band helped a great deal. Now that my beloved band is gone, that work is much harder, but like it or not, it's my job for life. Other members have shared some of their "stop eating" signals on this thread, but please don't kick yourself (or blame your band) if all those signals don't happen to you on the magical, mythical day that your band is filled to an optimal level. Even if and when that day arrives, those signals and that optimal fill level are probably going to change. One of the best - and hardest to handle - consequences of my WLS has been learning to pay attention to and take good care of my body. It's the only one I have, and I plan to make it last a long, long time. Jean"