Humming Bird

I agree, you can't really change who people are or how they act. Success is the best revenge. Keep your eye on the prize.

Wow! Kristina, your weightloss looks great on you! I am so happy for you!

No, this has not happened to me. This does not sound right at all. Why are they making you wait a week to see your doc? You can't eat anything? That is not going to work for a week. Can you drink protein shakes?

Both my avatar pic and my profile pic are gone......got a new avatar. I had a pic of me in my profile and a hummingbird as my avatar. I ended up with a red x in both and the pics are gone.

Thanks ... got one. Now I don't know where my actual profile pic went.

I think many of us have this same fear. What if I can't change? What if the band doesn't work for me? I can only speak from my own experience. The band has given me no choice. I reached me green zone very early in the process and I simply can not over eat. I still have chocolate. I just had some yesterday. I just don't live on the stuff. In my experience, with proper restriction, if you have a significant amount of weight to lose the band works very well. My eating habits have changed with very little thought or effort on my part. There are quite a few foods I can no longer tolerate and that is a good thing because they are the foods that made me obese. I no longer even miss those foods.

I have to disagree somewhat. Some people have to work hard, I don't. Some people can still eat burgers, fries and pizza, I can't. It has been sort of a magic fix all for me. The thing is, a person doesn't really know how the band will work for them until they are already banded.

Go get your teeth cleaned. It really may help quite a bit. You may have a bad taste in your mouth and bad breath from your body being in ketosis for awhile.

I asked a dermatoligist this sort of question just yesterday. Biotin is the only thing that has shown any true results in studies. Even the studies show it doesn't work for everyone. As for my own experience, I started taking biotin before I had surgery and I still lost a great deal of hair (40% at least). I tried everything from shampoos to, vits., extra protein, even rogain. Nothing was going to help. I have fine thin hair and it just had to run the course. It took quite awhile, but my hair is back to it's normal thickness. Now I take the hair-skin-nails chews from GNC.

I don't like it yet. Maybe I will learn to like it. I lost my hummingbird avatar and it put my mug on every post ..... don't like it. The links in the emails don't take me to the thread it's for. I now have to search for the thread.

I never could get the spell check that this site uses, so my spelling may drive people crazy sometimes. (sorry about that if it does) What I did lose with this new change to the site is my hummingbird picture. WTH? Also, when I get a link in an email about a new post in a thread it does not take me to the thread like it used to. It just takes me to the site in general and I have to search for the thread.

Yes, 10 pounds a month (or more) can be done when you get restriction. I don't exercise at all. I'm not saying that is the proper way to do it. I'm just telling the truth. I am more active in general since the weight started coming off just because I feel better. If you exercise I'm sure you will have even better results than I do.

Sometimes your full signal can be as simple as a sigh. Sometimes a tiny bit if a runny nose. Look for a "softer" sign.

You are right, it is a major "mental" thing. I think we all think of food in our own way. Pre-op I was so desperate to be thin I didn't care if I had to eat gruel for the rest of my life. I figured I had eaten enough pizza and other things like that to last a lifetime. I am now pleasantly surprised that I am not living on gruel. I do have quite a list of things I can no longer tolerate, but I don't miss them. I'm ok with the list.

B-52, I agree! This is the easiest weightloss and maintenance of my life. I have been on almost every diet known to man and I still ended up morbidly obese. I am so glad I did very little research before getting banded. I think all the negatives would have freaked me out and I may have put off getting banded. I would still be obese. I didn't find this site until post-op. From day one I have not "worked" at it, counted calories, weighed, measured or counted anything. The band has done it's job and I have put in very little effort compared to all those lousy diets in the past. I Lost 100 pounds in one year this way. That being said, I can't tell you how many times I have been blasted on this site by hateful people telling me I am doing it wrong and I am making newbies think it is a "magic wand". I hate the "tool" talk. If it is a tool, it is some sort of automatic tool for me that I do not really have to operate. Heck, the damn this is magic for me! Then I get comments like, "well, that's great for you, you are lucky, you can bask in your effortless success!" Then the links get posted about "it's not about restriction." Yes, it is about proper restriction. I am living proof! I think many bandsters make it harder than it has to be. Oh well , I guess I choose to do it my way and let others "work" at it. LOL..... now I get off my soapbox :biggrin3:

I guess it also depends on how much he puts in at each fill. A standard routine like that won't work well for everyone. If he is one of those docs that only put in .5cc at a time his patients may all feel the same. If you took my fills as an example, his patients wouldn't even feel the restriction I felt from day one. I had 2.7cc put in at surgery. I then reached my green zone (a pretty tight green zone) with my 2nd fill after surgery for a total fill of 5.3cc. I stayed at that fill level for almost a year and have had a couple tiny fills since. I was banded July 2009 (10cc band) and am now at 5.7cc and in the green still. Other bandsters may feel no restriction at this level and some may not be able to swallow their own spit.

Of course you need to go back and get checked by your Dr. and get a fill. It sounds like you already know that. I am guessing you are fine and you do not have enough in your band for it to do it's job. I think your lack of restriction and the vomiting episode are two different things. I know you can't compare to other bandster's exact fill levels, but this far out post-op 4cc does not sound like much. I was banded July 2009 and at this stage have 5.7cc in my band.

It does sound like your stoma is wide open and you will have to "diet" the old fashoned way until you get some fills. When you do start getting some sort of restriction, use caution when it comes to fried foods and breads. I was really lucky I guess. My anatomy was right for the small/standard AP 10cc band and they gave me a 2.7cc fill during surgery. There is no way I could have eaten that stuff so early in the journey. I really think it helped me so I didn't go through much of a "bandster hell". I wish you the best on the rest of your journey. It sounds like you will need several fills. I have found that this being banded thing is really not all that hard and takes very little effort when I have proper restriction.

major hairloss (it grew back)

Just wanted to send you best wishes for the future and I hope you are doing well tonight.

I'm with Jenn on this one. I did not "make" any mushies. I just ate things that were already mushie. Cream of wheat, oatmeal, yogurt, chili, creamy soups ........ If they weren't quite mushie enough, I used my teeth to chew chew chew .

Try some cream of wheat with milk and a bit of brown sugar. You can even add protein. It will sit better than the mac & cheese or potatoes so early in the process.

Sometimes they give you a small fill during surgery. That's what they did for me and I think it helped jump start things. Morning is a great time for protein shakes when you are feeling a bit more tight.

Welcome to LBT ! :seeya: Jump on it and post anytime.

Walmart by all the other vits.