natashabands

As you guys can probably guess from the thread title, I'm having trouble finding a way to tell my friends I'm getting the surgery. I only have one other overweight friend and she's actually talked to me about wanting the surgery herself, but me telling her I'm getting it is a whole different ball game. Anyway, my point is that most of my friends are skinny and honestly, it seems a little strange telling them about me getting banded. So do I tell them or not? I mean eventually, they'll notice my new eating habits. And if I do tell them, when? Before, or after the surgery? It's just really difficult because none of my friends are really alike. Like I said, one is overweight so she understands up to a point, another is skinny, but she gets super angry if anyone mentions my weight and the other two ignore it and probably think I think I'm fine with the way I am. So who do I tell? Everyone? One person? No one? What did you guys do?

Well that's the gist of it at least. Apparently a huge portion of my stomach had slipped through the band months and months ago. Started vomiting blood. Had an upper endoscopy done. Was told that I had the beginnings of an ulcer. Fast forward to 8 months later, and I'm in the hospital in severe pain and living off IV fluids when the doctors tell me that the portion of my stomach that slipped through had become necrotic tissue and was basically killing me (my white blood cell count was through the roof). Long story short, they removed 75% of my damaged stomach and I'm trying to cope with this new way of eating as well as intense hunger pains if I forget to eat. Anybody wanna hit me up and explain what the hell is going on with my body? Like why I don't feel the urge to eat (and many times forget to) and then I'm suddenly hit with the most intense hunger pains I've ever felt in my life accompanied with feelings of nausea? Like why I experience dumping when I eat ice cream, but not candy? Whether or not it's safe for me to have alcohol? Just majorly confused.

Well to be fair, I don't think they knew my band had slipped until they'd actually gone in there. Also, I thought everything was fine and so did all of my doctors. Everything seemed to be working out until about four or so days before I was hospitalized. Anyway, thank you all for your encouragement and well wishes. I hope that anybody else who may be suffering from what I had did not hesitate to remove the band immediately. Looking back, I should have just insisted that it be removed the first time I started throwing up blood.

Five years ago, he was charging over $ 500 per fill. My mom couldn't afford to go to him so she found a much more reasonable price with another Dr. I hear he's still charging tons of cash but i'm not sure of the amount. If you feel like you can't cover his costs, send me a private message and I'll recommend another Dr. for you to get your fills at. He's my current fill doctor and he's the best.

Um. My mom hates him. She had her band done by him, as did my aunt, my cousin and my other cousin. If you want to pay tons of money, but end up with a decent job, then that's cool. I just don't suggest you go to him for fills. He's completely rude and overcharges like a BLEEP! Armenians have this thing where we want to stay in our tight circle of people and sometimes we end up settling on personality and quality of care. Nope. All of that is very important and Dr. Davtyan is just lacking.

Well uhm, I'm 5'3something" and I weigh 201-3 lbs. I wear a US size 16 in jeans with a normal amount of stretch. My legs could easily fit in a size or two smaller but hey, that's what skinny jeans were made for. I definitely carried most of my weight in my stomach, but i'm starting to flatten out and fall in proportion. I figure once I hit 190, I'll be able to get into a 14 and thus, shop in normal people stores. My top half though, fits into L (for a tighter fit), XL for a normal fit, and sometimes a size larger for more structured tops 'cause my boobs be big.

Dating? lolwut. I'm 20 and I've never been on a date. Today, I clocked in at 201.8 lbs and a size 16. Who's asking me out? No one. Who's looking my way? No one. And I'm damn cute too. Now is it me? The people I hang out with (my closest friend is a 0-1)? Or the geographical location? You tell me bandsters.

THROW THEM AWAYYYY. (Keep one pair of your fattest pants for comparison.) But throw the rest away. YOU DO NOT NEED THE SAFETY NET. If you have it, you'll subconsciously think you know what, those ten extra pounds are okay because I have pants to fit. NOOOOO. Throw it away. Plus, when you buy new clothes, you'll automatically look thinner because you won't have baggy clothes adding bulk.

My heart totally goes out to you. I know what it's like to go days without water, though, not from anything getting stuck. It's a horrible experience and puts a lot of things into perspective. I'm glad you're okay now.

I hate being the person who brings the mood down, but perhaps you have PCOS? Being heavy, intensely irregular and having painful cramps are three of the signs. (But then again, so are brownish Patches of skin on the arms)

Yeah, I wasn't allowed anything either but for one of those huuuuuge pad things you use to potty train your dogs.... So very very awkward. Especially waking up to find out that they cleaned you afterwards. But don't worry, they're used to it, and hey, getting banded beats bleeding a bit.

You know, if you consistently lose weight while exercising, it could be that your jeans just fit like new every time. I mean, if you stay the same weight, eventually, the material of the jeans stretches and stretches and becomes loose. So maybe as you're losing weight, the material doesn't get a chance to stretch at all. What might be good is working out, and then going shopping for jeans.

Sounds random, but is your face area paler than your chest? If you have a darker chest then she may have been using the wrong machine. Tanned skin needs a completely different machine otherwise it burns the skin and causes scarring.

But does anyone here know the hourly pay rate of a pharmacy worker in California? I've no idea what the technical name for it is, but the person counts the pills out, does inventory, answers the phone and sometimes handles customer orders. Actually, if anyone can just give me what the technical name is, I'd be happy.

My period was out of wack too when I had weight loss in the beginning. It has something to do with your hormones balancing out again after the fat's gone. (Because they "travel" through fat cells)

I'm not a fan of most carbonated drings. Coke's weird, Pepsi has too few bubbles, Sprite-let's just say soda was never meant to be clear. And the rest are too sweet. I would have Dr. Pepper maybe twice a week and that would be it, in the pre-band days. But now... I find myself wanting the bubbles. Dr. Pepper bubbles, ginger ale bubbles... I tried to have a few sips of soda with a bit of chicken... That was bad. Not only was in uncomfortable, it was also burp-city for a good fifteen minutes. That is just not cute. Soda on its own though, is still burp city, but less painful and violent than when there's chicken involved.

I was wondering about this for the last few days. Not specifically the food portions, but just going out with friends in general. For example, I have this one friend who eats SUPER fast (five minutes and that foot long is GONE). Even when I didn't have the band, I ate slower than she does. And lately, the quick eating has been putting me on edge. I'm really anal about eating habits. Like I said, people who inhale their food or chew with their mouths open... bah. I can't handle that. Even pre-banding I was hugely annoyed to the extent where I would avoid eating with certain people. Anyone else have this problem?

I think a study came out about a week ago that said you can jumpstart your metabolism by eating junk food once every twenty days or something. But then you immediately go back to the healthy foods. It's to shock your body into losing weight. But you shouldn't be gaining anything during the healthy days.

After you lost the weight? I don't mean the extra wrinkles or looking older thing. I mean, does it seem like your bone structure changed? Did you eyes get bigger? What are the changes you guys noticed, and do you think you look more or less the same?

If the scary part is you having a new life... then that's not something that should be feared. It should be embraced. It's a huge change and it'll work if you're willing to make it work.

So. Surgery. Thanks Giving Day. Am I the only one who finds that funny? But maybe the day isn't the funny part. Maybe the funny part is me getting what I've been wanting for... for as long as I can remember. Yeah, that's probably it. It's weird though. I've been heavy ever since I was a little girl and it was a regular thing for family members to have "talks" with me about my weight. It was all a little hypocritical because none of my family members are really models for healthy eating, but whatever. So now, ever since my mom told everyone that I'm getting the surgery, my extended family has been super happy. And their excitement almost rivals mine. I feel like they think that a burden has been lifted off their shoulders. Because now they don't have to worry about my weight interfering with my life. On one hand, it's cute.:confused: On the other, leave me to celebrate in peace!:tt2: I don't even know why I'm complaining. I should be happy that my parents are even paying for this (no help from insurance companies). It really is the perfect solution. I'm not a fan of junk food or fatty meats or whatever. My biggest problem is portion control and that's what the lap band is for. I should be wooting with them.

So. Surgery. Thanks Giving Day. Am I the only one who finds that funny? But maybe the day isn't the funny part. Maybe the funny part is me getting what I've been wanting for... for as long as I can remember. Yeah, that's probably it. It's weird though. I've been heavy ever since I was a little girl and it was a regular thing for family members to have "talks" with me about my weight. It was all a little hypocritical because none of my family members are really models for healthy eating, but whatever. So now, ever since my mom told everyone that I'm getting the surgery, my extended family has been super happy. And their excitement almost rivals mine. I feel like they think that a burden has been lifted off their shoulders. Because now they don't have to worry about my weight interfering with my life. On one hand, it's cute.:mad2: On the other, leave me to celebrate in peace!:wub: I don't even know why I'm complaining. I should be happy that my parents are even paying for this (no help from insurance companies). It really is the perfect solution. I'm not a fan of junk food or fatty meats or whatever. My biggest problem is portion control and that's what the lap band is for. I should be wooting with them.

A pros and cons list. Well, the pros are pretty much the same, so skip that. Just make a cons list for both. That's how I decided. And make sure you find a surgeon who specializes in the band.

I'm pretty good support system-wise. Literally five people in my family have gotten the same exact surgery (including my mother) so I can probably go to one of them for help. It's just that I'm horrible with keeping secrets and how do you hide eating habits when your two closest friends love to eat? It's just frustrating because I KNOW my two closest friends won't understand. Not because they're skinny, but because I've never mentioned a thing about my weight loss or weight gain to them. Yet at the same time, they're probably the ones that deserve to know. I can tell I'm getting nowhere with this. Thanks for all the suggestions though.