ParrotheadCathy

Jitters are pretty common, pre band or any other surgery! But take consolation in the fact that this is outpatient surgery (at least most doctors do it outpatient) and unless you are having a hiatal hernia repaired at the same time, it takes about 30 minutes or so. No surgery is risk free, anesthesia can have complications but the statistics for surgical complications with this procedure are very small. Keep your eyes on your goal, not on the speed bump that the surgery is. Surgery is just the very first and somewhat small step on the road to the new healthier happier you.

A REALLY, REALLY GOOD LUNCH, if you have a Ted's Montana Grill....They have an $8 lunch menu and one of the meals is a small serving of salmon, green beans, a few garlic mashed potatoes and a bite-sized roll. The salmon is fabulous!!!

The pizza crust thing has a couple of reasons. First thing is that I have a problem with soft bread. If anything is going to get stuck, soft bread is it! Crispy/toasty/cracker-y is all okay because it can't stick itself into a ball of dough. And Crispy crust has fewer carbs/fewer calories that the thick crust you get at a lot of places. If I make pizza at home, I use a fat free tortilla as the crust. I used to be Type 2 Diabetic (the reason I got banded) and back then I had to control my carbs so it started then and it's been so long that I simply came to like the crispy thin crust better.

Restaurant portions are usually HUGE, LOL. We just never realized it until now. And now, I order whatever sounds appealing (taking into consideration the things I have problems eating or just shouldn't eat) and I ask for a go box and box up half to take home for dinner the next day. I just think of it as more bang for the buck .... two meals for the price of one. You'll come up with your favorite places. I don't do pizza usually, which is as much a personal choice as anything, and if I do eat it, I get crispy thin crust.

Heck, my doc took me off all my meds (metformin, Amaryl and Avandia) starting the day of surgery. He checked my a1c 30 days out and it was 7.something so he said "let's check again in 60 days. In 60 days it was 6.5, so he said "I think you can just forego the meds entirely and I've neger gone back on them and it's been almost a year! I also came off Lipotor and 3 blood pressure meds on the day of surgery and never had to go back on them.

DoOn't be afraid to go back to your doctor! I was told by my surgeon that once I reached my sweet spot, I might need a adjustment occasionally to keep my fill level just where it needs to be. Sounds like you probablyl haven't been in at least 6 months, if not longer. I suggest, too, that once the weather warms up that you get your spouse/your child/a neighbor to walk outside with you too. Right now, building up on the treadmill how far you can go and increasing the speed that is comfortable for you is a really good thing. Your spouse (hopefully) will be happy to eat the healthy meals you need to be preparing. As for your 13 year old -- it may be reluctantly that he/she will eat exclusively healthy meals. My solution is that my 20 year old can have her junk but she has to keep it in her room. I don't clean her room, do her laundry or anything else so I don't see it and despite any food issues I've ever had, I wouldn't go in her room and take her junk food. The support here is important. This group is a source of great ideas, information, pats on the back, kicks in the pants when needed ... and they are simply HERE FOR YOU.

I read some interesting statistics the other day and one of the suggestions is that it can be good for your weight loss to pick one meal a day where you eat pretty much the same thing every day. I've been doing that for most of my pre-op period. I have a can of Campbell's Vegetable Beef Soup (the old condensed kind, which I have loved since i was a child) for lunch Monday through Friday with a few Kelloggs Special K Crackers (whole grain, low fat). This is easy for me since I can bring several cans to work and keep in my desk along with a box of the crackers. Remeber that with Protein, solids (as opposed to shakes) keep you full longer BUT dry meats/fish get stuck easily. Roast beef cooked in beef broth in the crock pot is much more moist, for example, than a pot roast cooked in a pan on the stove. You can buy a roast and cut it into smaller amounts and freeze them so that you can eat roast beef. There is an Italian style of cooking [whatever] en cartochio is think is the spelling. Basically, you put your fish/beef/chicken serving in a heart-shaped piece of parchment paper folded in half. I use foil, which is an acceptable substitute for the paper. For fish, put a little (like a tablespoon) of white wine, a couple of lemon slices and a little seasoning, seal it up, put the package on a baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes at 375. With the others, you can use broth, add vegetables and cook -- meats take longer than fish to cook, around 30 minutes. All of these come out moist, flavorful and best of all, the cleanup consists of throwing away the foil.

I had a fill about every 4 weeks during the first 6 months. The amounts varied and the last thing i did was in September -- an unfill of .2cc which has me at 5.8cc.

I don't think the failure rate is 50%. Basic statistics say that the AVERAGE is to lose about 50% of the extra weight you carry. Obviously. an average is just that.....a combination of all the people who managed to eat around their bands and all those who lost successfully however much they lost. Those who simply fail with the band are going to include those who believed it would magically solve all their food issues. Unfortunately, most of the food issues an overweight person has are in their head rather than their stomach. You'll read here often that the band doesn't help with "head hunger". To succeed, you have to work with your band. If you can make the changes in lifestyle (regular exercise is key) and eating (and this is where the band helps you....portion control) then the odds of success go up greatly for you.

Well, I started out at 284 pounds/BMI of 42.2, so I know about not doing much. However, I'm down 80 pounds and am looking at running as the next step in my exercise program. Me. Run? WTF? I now walk with running intervals and continue to increase that. I'll be 59 in two weeks and while training for a triathalon isn't totally out of the question, I think probably not....but I continue to increase my duration for exercise and what I can actually do comfortably so I can only say it is what you set out for yourself to do...and what you work to achieve. The band has given me something very precious. I've made it through the holidays without a significant weight gain FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE and in the past that would always throw me off and I'd start regaining lost weight.

I never vomit, ever. PB? Yeah, that's happened a bit. They are two entirely different things!!! Vomiting uses strong spasms to entirely expel the contents of your stomach (food, acid, yuck) but a PB is just the expulsion of food stuck in your esophagus, usually as the result of eating too fast, taking too big a bite or not chewing well enough. I was a bit too tight and was getting stuck at least once every meal and having a fair number of PBs but a tiny (.2cc) unfill fixed that. Now a PB pretty much never happens.

It is completely normal to have a day when you are much hungrier than normal. Have kids? Then you've seen them have days where you just have to keep feeding them only to have the next day arrive and they are back to normal. Same thing for us adults. Just because we've had weight problems doesn't mean some of the things we experience related to food are simply normal. Do the best you can with them when they happen. I agree with the "eat more protein" suggestion since protein takes longer to digest so would keep your stomach busy longer....

Gas-X and moving around as much as possible. Even try waving your arms over your head. Hiatal hernie repair comes with some additional discomfort in the diaphraghm area and since I didn't have that problem I don't have much insight.

It was just gas pressure. I have NO PROBLEM burping. I burp all the time, LOL...more than I ever did before the surgery. I drink a little soda now and then and if I don't give it a chance to go a little flat, it can give that feeling but, at least for me, a healthy burp fixes it. I'd say a Gas-X strip or tablet (they are tiny little gel caps) would fix it.

I'd recommend exercising 5 days a week. Journal your food so you know what you've REALLY eaten. If you get in the habit of writing absolutely everything down, you'll walk away from things you might otherwise eat without thinking. One thing that has helped me is when I'm at home (not so much when I go out because people look at me sort of funny), I cut all my food up before I start eating -- into bites about the size of a nickel. That way, i don't accidentally take a bite that is too big and have it get stuck.

Welcome to that place you don't want to be....Bandster Hell. The good news is that once you start getting fills it does get better. What I was told to do was to eat a meal consisting of 3 oz of lean Protein, a vegetable and a whole grain carb. If (when) I got hungry in less than FOUR HOURS, I was to eat a snack of protein...a boiled egg, an ounce of low fat cheese, a little deli sliced turkey. Any of those things are lean protein and are about 70 calories. Once I started getting fills, I found I could go longer before I got hungry and now I can go 4 or 5 hours (and sometimes, even 6) between meals. Just don't DRINK your protein (protein shakes). Yeah, they have a lot of protein but liquids pass through your band very quickly and as a result do not stimulate the vagus nerve and because that doesn't happen, you don't get a full feeling.

Well, my first thought is that you obviously have health problems that should necessitate regular doctor visits. Have you considered discussing it with your primary care physician? That's what I did first and my doctor was very helpful with a lot of information...including that he felt that I was an excellent candidate for lap band surgery as all my health problems were weight related.

Talk to the insurance commissioner's office for your state. There may be regulations about reductions in what is covered, especially in your situation since you were originally covered but now are not.....

Well, you could always try to structure your meals more toward the way you will be eating in the future. Lean Protein, steamed or raw vegetables, whole grain carbs. Try to stay away from refined sugars (and all those sweets we all seem to love so much). To actually go on a pre-op diet now might cause a little burn-out when it is really important to be adhering to the pre-op diet. Work at drinking 64 oz of Water per day, go ahead and give up sodas and any other carbonated beverages (you may be able to drink them with no problem in a few months but at first, they're no-nos). Vitamns can't hurt you. You may have problems in the future swallowing large pills. Many bandsters use 2 Flintstones gummies per day as they are chewable and have an acceptable taste. hair loss doesn't necessarily happen to everybody. Many of us have never had a problem. Usually, getting in the minimum of 60 grams of protein per day is enough. Many of us do take a Biotin supplement, or our Multivitamin contains some biotin. Got any specific questions? Ask away. We'll try to answer!

Well, at least the holidays are OVER! Now, we can get back to the business at hand. I was down a little more than 2 pounds this morning from Sunday...and we both know that was Water. Probably more to follow soon. The hardest thing to do is to get back out there at 5:00 AM in the cold and start walking again.

Before you go on an eating binge MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that your BMI doesn't have to be at 43 for a certain period of time. I'd hate for you to exacerbate your problem only to find out it didn't solve the problem. I would call the coordinator back and ask about that.

Okay, I know the feeling, LOL. Here's what I was told to do in the beginning. It may not be what your doctors have said but I'll share. I was told to eat 3 oz of lean Protein and a vegetable. If still hungry, I could have a serving of whole grain carbs. When (notice I didn't say "IF", LOL) I got hungry in less than 4 hours, I ate a protein snack...a boiled egg, an ounce of low fat cheese or a little deli sliced turkey -- each of those are about 70 calories). Try to EAT your protein rather than drink Protein shakes. The reasoning behind that is very easy.....liquids pass through your band very quickly so they can't stick around long enough to give you any feeling of satiety. On the other hand, solid food -- especially solid protein -- takes longer to digest so it stays in your pouch longer and that gives you more of a feeling of satiety. Hope this helps.

I didn't lose anything the first two weeks after surgery. We're all different. Don't worry. Just keep doing what you've been instructed to do and it will work for you.

I've been drinking skim milk for years. The newer skim milks don't look watery or anything and I like them fine. The calorie difference between skim and 2% is fat calories and I can do without them. I love milk and used to be a "2% snob" but made the choice to give up those unnecessary calories so that I could still have my milk and not feel guilty about it.

Broken Angel....I suggest you call both insurance companies (there should be a customer service phone number on each insurance card). ASK if your policy covers lap band surgery. If yes, then ask what their requirements are to qualify you for the surgery, what requirements they have otherwise....by this, find out what surgeons are covered under the policy (since you are seeking co-insurance, you'll need a surgeon covered by both policies I believe) and if there are requirements about the location where the surgery takes place (I've read comments here that some insurance companies REQUIRE inpatient overnight or require the surgery to be done at a "center of excellence". Ask if they require weight histories, pre-op diets....anything you can think of.