Goannabanda

G'day to all new Aussies who have checked in here, and welcome to our little family. And a hi to those who have been around the traps already for a while. Not much news from me, other than I had my first fill last Friday - 4ml into my 14ml AP band. I can feel it! I can feel it! Hooray!!! Hope all is going well for all. Cheers.

Hi Lisa, Just thought I'd check in with you and send you a virtual hug! Great to see you (TWICE!) this week, and looking forward to the next time. Hope the new meds do the trick - it's your turn to be our next loser!!! (in the nicest possible way of course! hehehe!) LOL! Hugs, Goanna.

I hear what you're saying too!! I imagine that it will feel like completing any other major life "project" does - once the event has past, all is great for a while, but then the celebrations die down, and life moves on. For example, I felt a bit lost after our wedding, birth of our son, and most recently after our last move into our current (and lifetime!) home. For now I've turned myself into my "project", and when I'm done, I'll find new, positive, things to do. I am enjoying planning what I'm going to do next. I don't know what it will be, but think that at least if I've got a plan, that I'll have a good chance of turning my energy to good use. I've got a list as long as my arm of all of the things I want to do - I imagine that I'll be busy enjoying an active life with my family, hopefully will have more kiddies to chase around, and hope to find opportunity to try out new "extreme" activities and adventures - but who knows?? Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

Hi all, Count me in for the Christmas challenge I already started on the 14th Nov, as I want to lose a few more than just the 10#, to round off my weight to 120 kg. I think that I've lost about 4# so far, but I'll check it tomorrow morning! I had a day of highs and lows today. First the low, and slap me please, because I don't know WHAT I was thinking. Anyway, I bought a chicken, avocado and lettuce baguette for lunch today, mentally promising myself that I'd eat slowly, little bites etc, etc (yeah, stupid, I know, but I wanted bread for a change...). First bite I took I got stuck. I thought I'd chewed enough, but obviously not. No PB, but close. Plenty of slime - charming. I am not new to the whole PB / slime thing - I've had these episodes pre-banding, frequently on bread products because I STILL think I can eat them at a normal speed. After all the posts and advice I've had, I felt like a complete idiot. Now, the highs, which made me feel better - driving my mum home from work tonight, she says "you really have lost weight, look at the gap to the steering wheel!". I couldn't believe it - my belly used to just meet up with it, and now there's a gap of about 10cm (4 inches)!!! I also realised today that my second, tighter pair of old faithful work pants are almost falling off me!!! I still haven't lost enough weight that anyone outside my family has noticed yet, but I can smell that NSV in the air any day now... That's all from Goannabanda land for now! Keep up all the good shape-shifting work October band buddies!!!

Lee-sahhh! I'm ALWAYS GOOD!!!! ...well almost always! LOL! Only 9 more days until you're back at the grindstone - maybe we should have a wake for you instead of a Christmas party! LOL!!! Unless Cam was there last month or in August, we haven't met yet. Mark, better the crappy gift you know than the one you don't... LOL!!!

:bump: Any more for our picnic?

Hi everyone, See you there tomorrow night. Can somebody please introduce me to Cam this time??? I hope there isn't a no chocolate rule... ...the letter didn't say so... LOL!!

Hi everyone, Great to read our thread and catch up on our progress. Sounds like we are all doing well, with just a few hicups for some of us here and there. Great work everyone, keep up the good stuff! I have been working like a maniac with my day job for the past few weeks, and haven't had much time to hang out here at LBT . I ended up putting on about 4 lbs after going back to solid foods. It has moslty gone again now, and the scales seem to be moving downwards again. I am finding protion sizes are much smaller, and I am not driven to snack like I used to be. Life is different already. Although I am far from perfect, it is already so much easier to be clever about what and when I eat. After a lifetime of feeling that I was "different" about food to everyone else, it is such a relief from worrying about food all the time and to finally start feeling what I think "normal" about food whould be. Anyway, enough rambling. hehehe. I track my measurements using the Excel "Fitness Progress Chart for Women" from Microsoft Office Templates (www.microsoft.com, follow the links to the template downloads). I added extra columns for the additional measurements I like to keep. I updated my charts today, and was surprised to find out how many centimetres I have lost - in the weirdest places! :clap2: I was expecting that some "obvious" parts (eg. waist, hips) would have lost more than they have so far, and was surprised at how much I have lost on "obscure" places like neck, wrist and ankle! Here's the details (2.5cm = about 1 inch): NECK -2.5cm CHEST -2cm BUST -3cm WAIST -1cm HIPS -3cm THIGH -5cm CALF -1cm ANKLE -2cm UPPER ARM -4cm FOREARM -1.5cm WRIST -0.5cm I have my first fill scheduled for Nov 25th. Feeling nervous. I hate needles. Anyway, looking forward to catching up more on LBT soon! Take care October band babies!

oooh! Jess, The Maldives sounds wonderful - wish we could have our picnic there! hehehe! Bumping the thread for any other Aussies who can make it....

Here in Australia, a common nickname for a vagina is "fanny" - so it used to crack us up as kids to hear Americans say they fell on theirs, especially guys!! Other nicknames heard around these parts: snatch pussy The Y My 5yo DS said to me the other day ""mum where's your penis?" I explained that as a girl, I didn't have one, I had a vagina instead. Puzzled, he said "so how does your wee get out?" It was hard not to laugh. Here's antoher one for you: Last night we were looking at his baby scrapbook, and he wanted to see a photo of the tunnel he came out of. Apparently DH told him that's how the babies get out. We read the scrapbook again tonight, and he wanted to know what colour it was in the tunnel, and what it was like in there. Time to borrow the book "Where do babies come from?" LOL!!

philli - sounds like you have the new AP band. I have one too apparently, although have no idea how much they hold.

Sorry to read of your bad run phili, and your slippage. Something we all dread of ever happening. Hope your the repair all went well and that you are feeling much better now. Looking forward to your update. Anna.

Hi Eddie, Welcome to our forum. Where are you from in Australia? Looking forward to your posts. Goanna.

Sorry it took a few days to get around to updating our list. I can't believe that the month is almost over! Welcome to all our new members, and good luck to all being banded up to the end of the month! Cheers!

Good luck for tomorrow!! I was banded by Mr Chris Hensman at The Valley Private, Mulgrave on 5 Oct. Where are you going & who is your doc??? Hope all goes well for you.

I am sooooo excited for you! Busting my buttons to hear how great you are doing! All the best for today!

Congratulations Audrey!!! Welcome to the Band!

I already posted this earlier in the thread. I am loving porridge with a little honey for breakfast (plain instant oats sachets), mashed veggies (with any or all of yoghurt, cheese, garlic, parsley etc), salmon patties (1 egg, mashed veggies, salmon or tuna, coat in breadcrumbs and lightly fry in a non-stick pan with spray oil). I had a Lean Cuisine salmon gratin for dinner last night, and will have tuna and cottage cheese mixed together for lunch today. I am making fish pie or tuna mornay for dinner tonight (which I use low fat milk & cheese to make the sauce, or a low-fat bought sauce' add corn & zucchini for veg). I also bought some steamed fish fillets in sauce (frozen hake), for work nights, which I'll have with mashed veg. Custard and yoghurt with mashed tinned fruit is great too.

Many of us have to do it as part of pre-op diet. Mine was for 2 weeks, so that the liver could shrink. It's pretty ordinary, but not unbearable. The choc shakes, choc dessert, and bars are the best IMO. Good luck if you go ahead.

Everybody sing (in Meatloaf voice) "You took the words right outta my mouth!"

No catheter for this surgery, as it's so short. I had one when I was birthing my son, it was put in once the epidural had kicked in, and not taken out until it had worn off. No pain, just a weird feeling as it was removed. They are needed for longer anaesthetics because the drugs relax all your muscles so that you can't pee. As your body continually produces urine, not being able to pass it while under an anaesthetic causes it to back up into your kidneys, which is very dangerous.

Like the wise heads before me have said, the liquid then mushies rules are all about healing. I find it unbelievable how many people come here to LBT and haven't had this explained clearly to them. Your stomach needs time to form a good bed of scar tissue around the band so that it will not move, causing a slip. Band slippage can be caused by other things, such as vomiting, at any stage, but if it is firmly secured from the start, then your chances of a slip later on are greatly reduced. Think about you internal healing by looking at your external scars. When you look at your scars at 3 weeks out, they are still red, just knitted together, but not yet fully scarred up or strongly bonded. Your stomach and around your port site will look the same, just on the inside. We put bandaids and later Vitamin E on the outside to help healing, but the inside needs care by being allowed to rest - hence the liquid diet. I was also told no heavy lifting for 6 to 8 weeks either, for the same reason. I had 1 day clear liquids, 3 weeks full liquids and 3 weeks mushies / transition back to normal food (our dietician has a 3 week transition program to follow during the mushy phase).

Most people around here seem to take between 1 and 2 weeks off. 1 week seems to be about average for people to feel well enough to work again. After 2 weeks, most people feel back to normal and able to run with the pack again. I had surgery on a Thursday, and was still in hospital on Saturday. I went back to work the Monday week after (10 days). I work Mon to Wed only, so only took the 3 days off to get a 10 day break. I could have gone by about 1 week out, but wouldn't have felt all that great. You might be better to consider having surgery on a Monday, then having a few extra days off until Saturday, if you really can't afford to miss a Saturday. Everyone is different, but personally, I'd take a few extra days off if you can.

Don't panic yourself worrying about the post-surgery recovery. You will do fine if you have reasonable expectations as to what to expect. You won't feel great for a few days, but within 3 or 4 days you will feel almost normal. Here's my story, so you can see how it ran through for me: I was dizzy, nauseous and tired for about 5 days, and then just a bit tired for about 2 weeks. I had low blood pressure immediately after surgery. I had some pain around the port site, and minor discomfort where I guess the band itself is (golf ball?). The gas pains from the CO2 moving around felt like bad cramps in wierd places, and were probably the worst thing. I had a lot of swelling in my stomach, about 8lbs worth, which took about 4 or 5 days to go down. Standing or lying inclined was the most comfortable positions for the first few days, progressing to (almost) comfortable sitting and flat lying by about 1 week out. I couldn't bend to tie shoes for about 10 days, and needed help to get my surgical stockings on and off for the first few days. All other personal care I could do myself. Walking helped with the gas pains, so started a daily walk in hospital on the day of surgery (just slow & short, built up to normal now). The incisions were itchy on and off as they healed. All up, the recovery took a little longer than I was expecting (2 weeks as opposed to 1 week that I thought it would be). I went back to work after 10 days, and was tired, but otherwise fine (1 1/4 hour each way commute, desk job). I am just over 3 weeks out now and feel great, just a little sore around my port area if I press on it hard, or overstretch. I already feel better for the weight I've lost so far, and feel much more enegetic than I did before surgery. All up, none of it was unbearable, the recovery was more inconvenient than anything. I have no regrets, and would do it again in a heartbeat. Good luck!

Hi Kellie, I was pretty tired until the last few days (I am now 3 weeks out). Partly it's anaesthetic / healing effects, and partly diet. I trust that you are trying to take some light exercise (walking) in the mornings when you feel up to it. That will help boost your energy levels, but don't overdo it or you will feel even more tired. I guess you are still on liquids for another week. In terms of the liquid diet, I find that taking a daily Berocca Performance (with calcium, magnesium and zinc) really helps, as does boosting protein in drinks & soups (I favour greek yoghurt or light sour cream). Blend up a home made meat based soup, it's very satisfying, and I found that I had more energy once I was able to tolerate the meaty soups again. A daily yakult type of drink doesn't go astray either, as it helps improve digestion, leading to better energy recovery from the diet. I am just starting on mushies, so will continue with the same protein boosting methods (yoghurt / sour cream) but now will also include 'solid' yoghurt, soft cheeses, fish etc as well. Hope that my ideas help. PM me if you want to chat. Anna.