Humming Bird

I started taking mega doses of biotin before surgery because hairloss was one of my biggest fears. I still lost about 40% of my hair. I tried many other things as well and nothing but time helped. Thank God my hair grew back in.

Some gummies work out better than others. My multi is not a gummie....Adult centrum chewable. Vitafusion brand gummies are easy to chew and taste great.....many others get hard. I take vitafusion brand fiber gummies, D3, B12 ....and I think my calcium gummies may be vitafusion as well.

This post was a good reminder..... I've slacked off a bit with my vits. in the last few months and have only been taking them on work days .....bad bandster. I do believe they are needed for the rest of our lives after any sort of WLS. Here is what I take right now; All are in chewable or gummie form Adult chewable Centrum Fiber gummies calcium D3 B12 I may start taking vit. C and Biotin again in the near future

It won't be long now! Yes, you are thinking clear, you still need the band. It is great you are already down some pounds, but when we have 100 pounds or more to take off the task is just too large and keeping it off is even worse.

This may be the green zone for you. If you can still get in plenty of fluids and eat soup you should ride it out for a little while to see if you are in the green. The first time I hit the green zone I felt very tight for a couple weeks and then I could very slowly work my way to eating a better variety. This is also the time my weightloss really was the best and stayed steady with not too much hunger.

The only things I don't eat are the things that cause me discomfort (or worse). That being said, pasta, rice, bread, carbonation, and a very long list of other things cause me discomfort.

It sure was the easy way out of morbid obesity for me. i don't see anything wrong with taking the easy way because the hard ways I have tried over the years didn't work. I don't really understand why people get so offended by it. I guess it's all in how the comment was said and how the bandster takes it sometimes. It may be sort of like the cup being half empty or half full..........

Here is my 2 cents worth..... the way it has worked for me........it's worth at least giving some thought since I dropped 100 pounds in the first year. Both surgeons I have gone to (first one retired) do not push calorie counting. I have not counted calories since day one. I find that it is really a waste of time and effort. I do stay mindful of things like calories, carbs, Protein and such....... but no counting or tracking. With a properly adjusted band and staying away from eating things like candy bars as meals, banded life can be effictive and easy. I don't make it harder than it has to be. The band and tracking does not consume my life. This method may not work for every personality type, but it is worth giving some thought.

Chilis has some very good Soups. Their soups don't make you feel like "all I can have is soup". I love going there and then my husband can have a non-bandster meal. (Chilis chilli is not my fav) Ruby Tues. menu is a bit harder for me to find something on. They do have very good brocc/cheese Soup. Applebees has some great soup/salad combos. I get the tomato soup/ spinach salad combo. (If I eat the soup first it works out best) I also like going places that have fish on the menu. At The Outback I order the scallops ............yum.

I'm 3 years post-op and my eating has pretty much stayed the same the entire time. I guess I may sneek in a bit more junk food than I did during my first year. The nice thing about it is that my weight has also stayed the same. I've stayed the same weight (within a pound or 2) for the last 18 months. I have not counted calories from day one. For me it is a texture and volume thing. The "lifestyle change" thing for me is , find what works for you and stick with it..... forever. If you find that counting, measuring, and tracking works in the weightloss stage, do it and never stop. I will never go back to what "normal" eating was before the band. It is what made me morbidly obese. Now my new way of eating is my "normal" and I do it without even giving it much thought.

Sometimes you have to jump through these hoops for insurance and sometimes for the hospital or the surgeon. If your final cost isn't much and you get banded and drop all the excess weight, it is well worth sitting in on some alcohol and eating disorder classes. In my case, there were no pre-op hoops to jump through .... nothing. There were no classes and no testing. I just had to do a 2 week Atkins pre-op diet. The one very large hoop I had to jump through was paying $10,000 cash. Either way I think it is well worth it. If I had insurance that would have paid for the surgery I would have done whatever the insurance required.

It really depends on what type of pre-op diet and testing your surgeon requires. I was self-pay in Colorado and my surgeon did not have me do any pre-op stuff except 2 weeks of Atkins diet to shrink liver. I was banded 3 weeks after my consult because that is when both of our schedules had an opening.

EWWWW! A bologna sandwich dipped in barium would make me puke no matter what my restriction level is. eeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

It is the actual stomach tissue that erode..... come on.... think about it. I'll see if I can find an actual picture or something...... The use of NSAIDS, alcohol and smoking are proposed as three of the main factors contributing to hyperacidity and irritation of the mucosa layer of the stomach. This important layer prevent us from acquiring an ulcer and when the irritation is persistent causes its erosion and then the erosion of all the wall layers of the stomach favoring the lap band to migrate into the stomach (”inside out” erosion theory). just found this at "thinner times" Lap-Band erosion is migration of the band through the stomach wall into the stomach. This complication occurs in less than 2% of patients when surgeons use present day technique (pars flacidatechnique). It was significantly more common early on when the band was placed tightly against the stomach (peri-gastric technique).

It did happen to me a few weeks after being banded, but only that one time in 3 years.

I saw my surgeon for my consult and then saw him again 3 weeks later on the morning of surgery. That's it.... that's all. I had zero hoops to jump through and zero pre-op testing. I had a telephone consult with the NUT and with someone from the hospital. The nice thing about doing it this way is it didn't really give me any time to freak out about it.

I have rewarded myself many times in the past 3 years..... spoiled myself rotten! It has never been a food reward. It's mostly been clothes, things for the house, and cars. I don't buy real expensive clothes and I have never been big on expensive handbags or shoes. I have pretty much replaced my entire wardrobe though..... going from a size 22/24 to a 10/12. I'm already on my 2nd reward car

When the doc took out my fluid to measure how much was in there at around my 2 year mark the fluid was yellow. I think it's pretty normal and he was not alarmed by it.

Mine is in the center of my torso about 1 1/2" below my sternum.

I thought people were behaving pretty well here. It was much worse in 2009, but even then was pretty tame when you compare with other places online. I read/post pretty much every day and I guess I could have missed all this mean, evil and angry stuff you are talking about.

That is one of the nice side effect of getting banded It sure helps with some of the head hunger. Just go with it ............

ooohhh The SLIME........ What is your first bite? I can't always stick to the Protein first rule. There are also several threads about "first bite syndrome". You may want to check them out.

My doc put in 2.7cc at surgery. Maybe it helped me reach my sweet spot sooner or not have much of bandster hell....who knows.

Asprin is a NSAID, so the same rule would be true. You can try tylenol for headache and see how it goes. They do make adult liquid tylenol. When nothing else will work for me I take a double does of Jr. strength liquid ibuprophen......yes, it's an NSAID, but in liquid form it does not sit there on the stomach tissue. There are also some topical treatments you can find in vit. stores ....... they go on like roll-on. There is also a solid stick you can find at Walmart called Head-on. You rub it on your forehead or back of neck. It works well, but icky in hair

It's the stomach that erodes ....not the band......sorry, just bugs me when people say the band erodes I have to take NSAIDS sometimes for health issues, but take it in liquid form. It is my understanding that the NSAIDS can ulcerate the stomach tissue when a pill sits on the lining ..... this area of the ulcer can then start the erosion process...... of the stomach, not the band it's' self. I hope all goes well with the Prednisone for you. I have had to take it a couple times over the years and really don't like the stuff.