stateofzen

I was supposed to get my first fill today (2 weeks post-op), but since I still have pain and swelling around my port, he pushed it off another two weeks. I had mentioned that I couldn't sleep on my stomach yet because it was uncomfortable, so he started poking around and youch! Said I still had Fluid around my port site and put me off for another two weeks. I realize it is silly, but it makes me feel like my body is taking an abnormally long time to heal, particularly since I'm only 35 and have absolutely no comorbidities. I guess most people he operates on are good to go at 2 weeks, but I'm not :thumbdown: I did find out that he used the LapBand, not the Realize band though. Not that I cared at all, but I was curious This week I get to add soft veggies, fish, and chicken or tuna salad into my diet so I'm super excited about that. I feel like I can go back to low carbing it. In spite of the lack of fill, I'm doing really well with my eating and I know I can do another two weeks, especially now that I get to eat some real food! I can't decide if I want spaghetti squash with marinara or fish and zucchini tonight. I also bought an eggplant to make baked eggplant with feta cheese. Doctor's scale has me down 15 lbs since surgery date, which matches my home scale, so that's pretty awesome! Can't really complain.

I'm pretty sure the port prongs are metal (at least with the Realize Band)-- maybe that's it?

I'd just say I'm going to keep up my healthy diet and exercise and see where my body ends up happy. Just act like you're not that concerned about the weight, just the healthy behaviors, and that what happens will happen. It's really none of your coworkers business If it was a family member saying that, I might tell them that my doctor recommends a "normal weight" BMI and that I'm not there yet, but will stop when I get there, but I wouldn't bother trying to explain to random people who are just uncomfortable with other people losing weight.

Thanks for the tip MissGypsy-- I've tried to grill and panfry before, and maybe bake? Always either over or undercook but I'm going to figure it out.

Hi to the new faces! Ok, folks, I need some cooking help. This week I am very excited to be adding baked fish to my diet BUT, shameful admission ahead. . . I have ruined every piece of fish I've ever tried to make at home. How the heck do you cook fish so that it is done, and soft, and flakey, and not overcooked? I am generally a good cook but fish flummoxes me! First post-surgery appt tomorrow afternoon-- I'll find out then when my first fill is.

I'm still on soft foods post-op, but I had 3 mushrooms stuffed with a low-carb artichoke jalapeno dip and a tablespoon of fat free cottage cheese to cut the heat. I can't wait to have fish tomorrow. I suck at cooking fish, so even though I like it we never buy it for home, but now that it's about the only meat I'm allowed (at the moment) I'm giving it another try.

I do sweet tea made with Splenda, but limit myself to no more than 12 oz a day. Most days I have none, but it's nice to do something non-water/non-powerade zero on occasion and I just find I don't have to make myself drink it.

I was on the spreadsheet last week but am gone this week. That's ok though-- I haven't lost this week so I'm still 12lbs away from goal.

Actually, let me put my .02 as a mental health professional here-- it is absolutely not the original posters responsibility to do anything more than she has. I think she's said numerous times that she doesn't know who the surgeon is-- she's talked to her friend, talked to her husband, and now for her own mental health she is doing the right thing by stepping away. The number one problem of friends and families of alcoholics is assuming responsibility in situations just like this and any Al-Anon or psychologist is going to say the same. The alcoholic's behavior and the consequences of that behavior are absolutely not the poster's responsibility, but the alcoholic's responsibility. Ultimately, the people responsible for uncovering alcoholism is the psychologist who did the psych eval and the surgeon who is doing the surgery. There are ways to discover this if you do a thorough enough eval. It is a sad situation, but brow-beating this woman who seems to have really tried in this situation seems unnecessary to me, and I say that having the utmost respect for you, BetsyB.

Yay Zeniada! Isn't it funny how that happens? My husband made a similar statement to me yesterday. He said in the past week he has really noticed weight loss in my chest area (snort, of course that's what he's paying attention to!), and he's right. My v-neck shirts are so baggy now all of a sudden. But on the scale, I've been the same for a week. So I think our bodies are readjusting themselves even when we aren't dropping pounds.

Citracel + Vitamin D petites. They still aren't tiny, but much smaller than my regular calcium supplement. I cut them in half.

Congratulations on your pregnancy Brenda-- at least your band is in place now and ready to use by the time you can use it. Hearing your story, I'm really hoping my birth control doesn't fail me now! That would be just my luck. One of the main reasons I got this surgery is that I've had difficulty with repeated (3) first-trimester miscarriages, and after the specialist did all of the tests he said "no real reason I can identify-- maybe the weight?". We hope to try again after I've been banded a year-- that will be our final attempt, and if it doesn't work out, we've become comfortable with the idea of being childless. I have been stuck at the same weight for a week, and I really think it's because I'm not getting in enough calories to lose. I'm not worried about it-- there is no possible way I can not eventually lose weight doing what I'm doing-- but I sure do like the steady loss over the plateau :smile2: I'm managing somehow not to be too hungry, even though I really haven't had anything that felt like restriction or "band" stuff. I just feel full on less food, which part of me thinks is because I've been eating so much less for weeks now. No complaints though-- I'm definitely not looking forward to getting stuck. Oh, for those of you on soft foods-- last night I pureed about 2-3 tablespoons of fat free cottage cheese with about 2 tablespoons of a store-made artichoke jalepeno dip, then stirred it in with 2 eggs and a little bit of skim milk. Baked in a small dish at 350 for about 40 minutes and had an excellent crustless quiche (made 2 servings).

Thanks for starting the thread, Brian! And John, thanks for the inspiration from a 2009'er! It's amazing to think where I might be in a year. Yesterday was my 2-week anniversary for my band and I am very happy I did it. Most of the time I feel normal and I haven't really had any problems with following my diet. I get to add more natural Protein on Monday, so I'm excited for that since I'm having a hard time getting protein in. I'm looking for a truly unflavored Protein powder I can just stir into stuff-- any suggestions? But, I have to admit, there are a couple of things I'm bummed about. #1, I have an incision site that the dermabond came off of too early and it is a little open (not bleeding open, but definitely not closed skin). My surgeon looked at it and said it would be fine, though will probably take longer to heal/have a larger scar, but the bottom line is he didn't stitch it back up. So now I'm taking nasty liquid antibiotic and I have to be even more careful with lifting/bending etc. It's a bummer when I see other people healing faster than me. Maybe related is the fact that I STILL cannot sleep comfortably on my side and forget the stomach! My back and neck hate me from sleeping on my back and I'm just really tired of it. I know absolutely that it will go away eventually but I'm so impatient! The good outweighs the bad though. I'm looking and feeling better everyday. My in-laws sent me a Macy's giftcard as a "get well" present and I went to spend it yesterday. I hit the clearance racks and grabbed 1x, thinking that I am currently at 2x and I could shrink into them. But, the thing was, they all fit or were even too big so I ended up in the shoes instead. I've got a great new pair of calf-length gray boots :smile2: Thanks in-laws!

I've started a clothes exchange community exclusively for bandsters at Livejournal. If you are interested in joining, come check it out here:Clothes Exchange for Bandsters Everyone is welcome (and high BMI bandsters, there is already an offer up that you might like).

The things on my soft food list are: Scrambled eggs, yogurt, mashed potatoes, oatmeal/cream of wheat, tofu, mashed bananas, no sugar added applesauce I've added laughing cow soft cheese and hummus to that list. On Monday I get to add steamed-soft vegetables, baked fish, and very wet and finely chopped tuna/chicken salad and i can't even express how excited that makes me :thumbup:

I live in Alabama and I'm a college professor.

Hopefully the psychologist will catch this during the psych eval and refuse to recommend her. She should absolutely NOT have the lap-band while an active alcoholic.

I've heard that it helps if you marinate it (like with a low cal italian dressing). I've been thinking about starting with shredded crockpot chicken that's been cooking in chicken broth when I'm finally allowed to eat it-- I wonder if that will help?

September 17th surgery (one day short of 2 weeks) Ups: I've lost 14 lbs since surgery (49 since started process) I can wear my wedding ring for the first time in 6 years My rolls are visibly shrinking! I am down into the clothes I wore last more than 5 years ago I look better in clothes People are noticing, but are attributing to my hair cut Downs: My neck is killing me from having to sleep on my back I had a minor complication with one of my incision sites, so I'm taking nasty liquid antibiotics I miss red wine :drool:

Sure, if the only reason you want to lose weight and keep it off is for vanity reasons, then I'd think twice for sure. Vanity isn't why I did this. It is a personal decision. Everyone needs to get all of the facts they can, ignore the "advice" of uninformed family and friends (unless they are physicians, I guess), do some soul-searching, and then decide yay or nay, or maybe even "maybe later".

The first time I saw my PCP it was to talk about surgery. I just went in and told her I wanted to pursue weight loss surgery and asked if she'd help me through that process. Straight up and direct. We had a conversation, she said yes, and I'm banded. I'd just be frank about WLS being your priority. If after hearing all of the things you've tried, your new doc suggests something else first, it's time to move on to the 3rd doc and try again :drool:

My husband and I love red wine. We look for good bottles, we enjoy tastings and winery trips, and we like to have the occasional conversation about it. I have no intention of giving up red wine (not to mention all of the health benefits it has). I just won't get to drink as much of it (1 glass instead of 2). The biggest thing for me to adjust to will be to not drink it with food. Agh, it kills me to think I'm not going to be able to enjoy wine/food pairings anymore. Actually, the whole "no drinking with food" restriction was the one thing in all of my surgery materials that made my husband freak out for me

I was in a lot of pain too for a few days. The night of my surgery I went home and was miserable because the liquid lortab made me vomit, so not only was I not getting pain relief, I was in MORE pain from the dry heaving. My doc switched me to pill-form lortab (cut up) and it was so much better! I was back to work 5 days after surgery and I felt so much better by then, and at about a week out I stopped taking the pain meds. It gets better, I promise!

It will fly by, I promise! It seems like such a long wait when you first hear 6 months, but my experience was that I was able to use that 6 months to get myself in the right mental state, start a gentle exercise program, etc. Treat it like an opportunity :rolleyes2: A tip about the psych consult: My surgeon said "here, go to this guy". But "this guy" wasn't covered by BC/BS. So I found a psych who did the eval who was in my plan and instead of paying $350 for the test, I paid a $40 copay. I don't know where you are in AL, but private message me if you are in the Birmingham area and I'll tell you the psychologist's name. Good luck and you'll be banded before you know it!