BearSpiritGuide

I take 1 - 11oz Atkins Chocolate Protein Shake and add 2 scoops of Isopure Natural Chocolate Protein Powder to it...Tastes just like an In-and-Out Choc Milk Shake. That combo gives you 75 grams of protein for only 6 carbs... What a deal. -BSG

I was feeling that way too... Are you still taking pain meds? If so, you might want to consider not taking them anymore if you can. They mess you up. About 3 days after I stopped taking mine I felt a lot better. I still feel like I am Narcoleptic - I get suddenly tired at the drop of a hat. But this is fading too. The more you try to act normal and do the normal things you "normaly" do, then the more normal you will feel. -BSG

Part of what you are actually feeling are the Lies of Hunger: Please read this thread - http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f178/lies-hunger-92329/ I know it is so had. I am with you - 9 days post-surgery. Just yesterday, I was driving through town and this was the running dialog in my head. "Ooooh. 7-11, I'm thirsty, I should get a soda... Crap, can't have soda" "Hey a Jamba juice, I can have one of those right... I'm thirsty and kinda hungry, Jamba Juice is a good choice right?" Burp. - Tummy felt full still "Ok, maybe I'm not hungry...." "Ooooh, McDonnalds..... I'm on liquids and some bandsters have milkshakes to help get enough calories... I could get a kids milkshake and that is not a whole lot... that would actually be good for me, because I need the calories right.???" "Wait, In-and-Out have better shakes, but they don't make a real small one... Well, I could get that and just drink the whole thing over the coarse of my day... it would be the same thing right..." "Wonder if I will ever be able to have a Wendy's chicken Sandwich again? Them are good!!! It's got chicken and cheese, and the bun is not that big...." Ugh... It was so very hard... But I have recently, 9 days ago, gave the little voice of reason a grip on my stomach - the band. And so it was able to bring me back into reality. Not by stemming the hunger, but by just remembering that it was there, and what a drastic proceedure I went through because I cannot keep the weight off - like a lot of lap-band patients I have been able to loose up to 60 lbs in my life, at least 3 times, and then put it all back on. I would challenge you to question your hunger - I am not saying you are not actually hungry, but I am asking you if the hunger is in your head or in your gut. If you have a hard time driving anywhere without stopping for food, bring Water with you, drink, drink, drink. or even Crystal Light... I love the lemonade - get the Safeway brand, cheaper. Our brains, and even our bodies have learned to fool us, we have learned to fool ourselves, we have trained the people around us into fooling us too and we pass all that behavior on to our children. My 4 yer old son yesterday told me that he NEEDED his candy or he would die. His words. That scares me. He and my other 5 kids and my wife are the reasons I did this. So I just have to keep them in mind. -BSG

I did exactly what the two posters above did. Just go slow. Funny thing: when I lay on my left side now - my port side - I always burp right away. Roll to right, no burp. Roll to left, burp. Its weird. -BSG

Reposted from another thread: One of the things that has been fascinating to me is the "HUNGER". I have "FELT" hunger for about the last 4 or 5 days. But when I go to drink, even Water, I am so over full that I cannot get anything down. It has really made me look at what this "HUNGER" means. I have tried to catagorize some: 1 - The Gee that sounds good hunger: Generally accompanies Carl's Jr., In-and-Out, Taco Bell, <fill in your favorite fast food> commercial. This is an easy one to recognize in context. Just disregard and change the channel. Drink some water. 2 - The Gee I wonder if I can tolerate that food hunger: more of a curiosity than a hunger, but it is devastating (or possibly could be in my case). You want so bad to get back to eating normal that you try a little of this and try a little of that and when you find you can tolerate it you just add it back into your staple diet without any regard to if you should. Remember, you needed the lap-band because you made bad food choices in your OLD LIFE. This one is kind of a pet peeve of mine. I see a lot of posts here asking if banders can tolerate this food or this food and almost every one is something that had got them into the mess they were in before they decided to do something about it. DON'T CHEAT YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT. 3 - The Gee I should probably eat something hunger: You are not sure if you have eaten enough calories today. You should be keeping track of the calories you have taken in and KNOW if you have taken in enough for the day. Don't try to fool yourself into thinking you are hungry and NEED to eat. If you have to justify it you are probably not hungry. There are more that I have not quite figured out yet, but I will add them when I do. The thing that you need to remember more than anything, is that you made a huge decision to do something about your weight and get surgery, use that momentum to change everything about your life for the better. Be a better eater, be a better exerciser, be a better employee, be a better father, be a better husband. These are the things that I plan on focusing on whenever I "THINK" I am hungry. -BSG

Repost from another thread: Cheat. This is something that we did in my Weight Watchers days (pre-banded). Four of us were going together and we all hit plateaus at the same time. It was suggested that we try cheating once in a while to see what would happen. So we would do our regular program diet for the whole week then on WWs night we would go weigh in and then go to dinner - usually across the street at Marie Calendars (ever notice how all the WWs are next door or across the street from really good places to eat). We would order whatever we wanted for dinner and even pie, then the next morning back on program. We never plateaued again. Hope this helps, -BSG

Congrats, keep it up. -BSG

Welcome to my world. Very normal. You are probably on a liquid diet now anyway so just buckle up and hold on, it won't change till you are on more solid food. -BSG

I was in the hospital for two days after surgery on IV fluids. I could not get anything down at all so they had to feed me with the IVs. This really wiped me out. I am a 6'3" man, that was fairly active before the surgery. I would do the elliptical cross trainer for 30 minutes everyday and would take my 4 year old to the park, etc. But when I got back all I wanted to do was sit and hold my stomach. I knew that walking helped but I did not have the energy. My wife started taking me for rides since she noticed that the bumpy roads where we lived produced a lot of burps out of me while we were driving around, so we did that. I was like that for about 4 or 5 days after surgery then I started getting a full nights sleep and having energy again. Just do what you can, -BSG P.S. - Getting in a hot shower and singing and rocking back and forth really helps with the gas too.

I learned this the sorta hard way last night. We went to Chinese for dinner. All I had was a small bowl of egg-flour Soup (I was banded recently and am still on mostly liquids). That was fine, but it was the small sips of the hot tea before the soup and the small sips of Water during the soup and the small sips of hot tea after the soup that made the meal uncomfortable for me. Lesson Learned -BSG

My ex-wife and I spent 8 years in couples and individual counseling. My current wife is SOOOOOOOO grateful for all of that counseling. It made me a better listener, a better talker, a better husband, a better father, a better person. My first marriage did not work out for unrelated issues, but I learned how to truly communicate with everyone that is important in my life. If you find a very good Couples Counselor, they will request or even require you to each be in individual counseling as part of the Couples process. This will be good for both of you. Good luck, -BSG

BTW, I know that I may be coming off all preachy in the comfort of my swollen band so recent after surgery. But I give full permission to all forum users to berate me when I falter (and I will) and throw my own words back at me. -BSG

I am not sure what diet your doctor put you on, but mine is different. First of all I am a man 44 in June. I am 6' 3" tall and have a massive frame. When I started my Pre-Op Diet 6 months ago I weighed 350, The day I checked in for surgery I was 321 and this morning - 8 days after surgery - I weigh 296. Grand Total so Far: 54lbs - 25 lbs in just 1 week I know that my weight will not continue to fly off like that and it will eventually slow. The diet my doctor gave me always had a limit of 1/4 to 1/2 cup of food at any one sitting. and those would be limited to 3 or 4 times a day. Some of that is supplemented - in the initial liquid phases - with Protein shakes. I am still in these phases. One of the things that has been fascinating to me is the "HUNGER". I have "FELT" hunger for about the last 4 or 5 days. But when I go to drink, even Water, I am so over full that I cannot get anything down. It has really made me look at what this "HUNGER" means. I have tried to catagorize some: 1 - The Gee that sounds good hunger: Generally accompanies Carl's Jr., In-and-Out, Taco Bell, <fill in your favorite fast food> commercial. This is an easy one to recognize in context. Just disregard and change the channel. Drink some water. 2 - The Gee I wonder if I can tolerate that food hunger: more of a curiosity than a hunger, but it is devastating (or possibly could be in my case). You want so bad to get back to eating normal that you try a little of this and try a little of that and when you find you can tolerate it you just add it back into your staple diet without any regard to if you should. Remember, you needed the lap-band because you made bad food choices in your OLD LIFE. This one is kind of a pet peeve of mine. I see a lot of posts here asking if banders can tolerate this food or this food and almost every one is something that had got them into the mess they were in before they decided to do something about it. DON'T CHEAT YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT. 3 - The Gee I should probably eat something hunger: You are not sure if you have eaten enough calories today. You should be keeping track of the calories you have taken in and KNOW if you have taken in enough for the day. Don't try to fool yourself into thinking you are hungry and NEED to eat. If you have to justify it you are probably not hungry. There are more that I have not quite figured out yet, but I will add them when I do. The thing that you need to remember more than anything, is that you made a huge decision to do something about your weight and get surgery, use that momentum to change everything about your life for the better. Be a better eater, be a better exerciser, be a better employee, be a better father, be a better husband. These are the things that I plan on focusing on whenever I "THINK" I am hungry. -BSG

I am 1 week post-op and I am just never hungry... It takes me 2 to 3 hours in the morning to get down 1 Atkins shake. then another 2 hours to get down 6 ounces of Water, then another 2-3 hours to get down some Soup, then back to water... I know most of my tiredness is due to lack of nutrition, but I cannot get any food in. Any suggestions? -BSG

Thanks guys that all makes sense... I will focus on not so much Water and more Protein - think I'm gonna try Isopure. Sorry for your hair loss. My wife actually prefers me bald, so I would not mind the hair loss... but I think shaving my head is a better option there. -Jim

Cheat. This is something that we did in my Weight Watchers days (pre-banded). Four of us were going together and we all hit plateaus at the same time. It was suggested that we try cheating once in a while to see what would happen. So we would do our regular program diet for the whole week then on WWs night we would go weigh in and then go to dinner - usually across the street at Marie Calendars (ever notice how all the WWs are next door or across the street from really good places to eat). We would order whatever we wanted for dinner and even pie, then the next morning back on program. We never plateaued again. Hope this helps, -BSG

I am only a week post op but here is my take... The Lap Band does not prevent you from eating, it limits the amount you can eat. So if you are eating your meals like you should you will be way to full to even want to eat. In other words, the LB does not prevent you from eating it is a SHARP reminder that you have to know exactly what you are putting into your mouth at every moment. Oh, and most of my weight issues have always been from emotional eating. Hope this helps, -BSG

I chose LB over BP for two reason - they are my own reasons and do not reflect on anyone else's choice. 1 - They Re-Plumbing of my guts did not seem natural at all. I mean it made sense what and how it was down, but I could not see myself doing that to my body. 2 - The possibility of additional fills - this was the biggest one. So 4 years down the road I have lost all the weight I would need to, but I start to slip back into old habits and I stretch a bit... Well, I can go get another fill to give me that sharp reminder to pay attention to what I stick into my mouth. -BSG

Has any one else had this issue: My tongue is very white and filmy... I brush it and scrape it and it does not seem to change. It has a film on it that will not go away and nothing has any flavor anymore - Water and cranberry juice taste the same. Is this from... dehydration? post op? my diabetes - though it has never been this bad? meds? Any help would be appreciated. -BSG

Helps a lot. Thanks guys. Ugh, my throat started hurting today. I see my Doc in the morning so i am sure he will take care of me. -BSG

Keep chipping away at them. Call them everyday if you have to. Insurance carriers are more interested than ever in getting you to pay for stuff, even when it is covered to soften their payouts. They will let the hospitals keep billing you and sending late notices in the hope that you will just cough it up. Don't let them get you. -BSG

My Favorite Three: "Unless someone truly has the power to say no, they never truly have the power to say yes." -Dan Millman "There are no ordinary moments." -Dan Millman "Do or do not... there is no try." -Yoda -BSG

Well, I have experienced two versions of it, though from my reading here there are other versions as well. Version 1 - My Take Anyway Due to swelling or overeating your new stomach cannot pass the food/liquid that you have just taken in, and you BURP it back up. For me the precursor was hiccups. My first few days after surgery I was not able to keep anything down, even small sips of Water or liquid meds. Version 2 - From My Reading Here Due to overeating, or trying something that your new stomach will not tolerate - I hear pretzels are a big no no - you burp that back up accompanied with any stomach fluids that are present. Version 3 - Something Else I Noticed I put in this in the same category - the over abundance of saliva. I believe this is produced because your stomach is full and you esophagus has something in it that is being processed but it it slow. You don't bring it back up but your mouth just waters. I equate this with that rush of saliva that hits your mouth right before you vomit (yeah, I know you all know what I mean). -BSG

What everyone else has said is they way to go... My doctor sent me home with a prescription for gas/bloat meds and they helped a lot. If you don't have that, then do the Gas X. One additional method to cope is Hot Showers. I will stand in my hot shower for 30 minutes and just rock back and forth, probably has the same effect as a heating pad. It will get better. -BSG

I had the same issue and even had a trip to the ER for IV fluids. You need to get the bloat/gas meds your doctor perscribed to you down some how, once that was in my system I was a lot better. And you really need to walk a lot. I also would stand in a hot shower and just rock back and forth. -BSG