Humming Bird

Cheryl Ann, Thanks for sharing. Don't feel bad about going back to the surgeon. It is a positive step and you need to do it for yourself. Sometimes it seems like we have been programed to take care of everyone except us. Keep your head held high and go take care of you. Let us know how it goes.

Kevin, You are doing so great!!! :clap: Life only gets better from this point. Keep a positive attitude and enjoy.

Hello and welcome to LBT. There is a ton of info here, so spend some time reading. Make sure you write down all your questions to ask during the consult. It helps so you don't forget things that are on the top of your concern list. The nice thing about the band is that it is adjustable. You won't lose too much weight. The band does not have to stay in forever, but that is the plan. In my case, if the band were removed my weight would come back. They encourage you to stay away from drinking liquor in the weightloss phase. It is high calorie and has no nutritional value. That being said, I do have a glass of wine once in awhile. Beer would be a problem for me because I can not drink carbonated stuff. I wish you the best with your research and consult.

When and if you feel like putting in the effort, educate them about the band. If that is not helping, oh well, just keep your eye on the prize and enjoy your life. Celebrate every single pound lost and be happy for yourself. No matter what other people think, you already have the band. It doesn't matter if they think you could have done it any other way. The band is already there and that is how you choose to take the weight off.

I am about 20 months post-op and still use protein powder. I sometimes make smoothies at home on days when I know I'm not getting in much protein with the foods I eat. As a treat I will get a smoothie at starbucks and have them add extra protein for .50 cents more bringing the protein in it up to 30g.

sorry, I can't take the poll. It's been so long I don't remember. I hope those newly banded will vote and help you out

That is the first time I've heard lettuce is the #1 thing that gets stuck. I've always heard that pills and meat top the stuck list. I do not eat salad often, but have no problems with the lettuce when I do. I do try to stick to the leafy types or spinach because it's better for me than iceburg.

Like I said before, My shoulder pain lasted for months. It was my full signal for months as well. It did teach me to stop eating and not take even one more tiny bite after I felt even the smallest shoulder reaction. As I dropped weight (about 45-50 lbs) the pressure on the nerve eased up. I still have the shoulder pain sometimes, but at this point it is rare. I can not imagine living with it longer than I did like some other bandsters do. It really makes me question why they have to place the band so high on the stomach. Even if they placed it 1/4" lower the weight would come off.

I will have to read the article later and see what it has to say ... I don't keep track of anything, but I try to stay mindful. For example, if I go to starbucks and get a latte I order non-fat. I do know that after being banded I can no longer tolerate fried foods, so that has reduced my fat intake a great deal. Even with not tracking or journaling anything my intake of everything has been greatly reduced, fats, carbs, whatever. I am in a much better place with simply being banded. It works for me.

Congrats!! Yesterday was the first day of your new and improved life!!!!! There may be moments that are tough, but hang in there and one year from now you will be posting about losing 100 pounds!!!!!

wow, every time I have popped in on the chat room there is nothing going on, I mean nothing. This is really the only specific forum I have posted on. I used to chat years ago on a couple sites, but it got old.

That's great news! Now it's time for a reward! What will you do to celebrate?

I feel for you. Some bandsters never have the left shoulder pain and some only have it for a week or 2. Mine lasted a couple months. It was even my full signal for awhile. I can tell you that it does go away. Mine went away after I dropped some weight and the pressure was no longer on the phrenic nerve. One thing that did help me were equate brand (walmart) menthol pain Patches. They are under $4 and well worth the trip to walmart. I would just put a patch on the tip of my shoulder in the evning and leave it on all night. Here is some info I copied from another banster's post awhile ago: Best explanation of left shoulder pain I've ever found. If you woke up with a pain in your shoulder, you'd probably think something was wrong with your shoulder, right? Maybe you slept on it the wrong way, maybe you're a weekend warrior who threw the football a few too many times. In most cases, your hunch is probably right. Pain in the shoulder usually indicates an injury or disease that affects a structure in your shoulder, such as, say, your subacromial bursa or a rotator cuff tendon. Makes sense, doesn't it? But you might be way off. Sometimes the brain gets confused, making you think that one part of the body hurts, when in fact another part of the body, far removed from the pain, is the real source of trouble. This curious (and clinically important) phenomenon is known as referred pain. For example, it's unlikely but possible that your shoulder pain is a sign of something insidious happening in your liver, gall bladder, stomach, spleen, lungs, or pericardial sac (the connective tissue bag containing the heart). Yup - conditions as diverse as liver abscesses, gallstones, gastric ulcers, splenic rupture, pneumonia, and pericarditis can all cause shoulder pain. What's up with that? Neuroscientists still don't know precisely which anatomical connections are responsible for referred pain, but the prevailing explanation seems to work pretty well. In a nutshell, referred pain happens when nerve fibers from regions of high sensory input (such as the skin) and nerve fibers from regions of normally low sensory input (such as the internal organs) happen to converge on the same levels of the spinal cord. The best known example is pain experienced during a heart attack. Nerves from damaged heart tissue convey pain signals to spinal cord levels T1-T4 on the left side, which happen to be the same levels that receive sensation from the left side of the chest and part of the left arm. The brain isn't used to receiving such strong signals from the heart, so it interprets them as pain in the chest and left arm. So what about that shoulder pain? All of organs listed above bump up against the diaphragm, the thin, dome-shaped muscle that moves up and down with every breath. The diaphragm is innervated by two phrenic nerves (left and right), which emerge from spinal cord levels C3, C4, and C5 (medical students remember these spinal cord levels using the mnemonic, "C3, 4, 5 keeps the diaphragm alive"). The phrenic nerves carry both motor and sensory impulses, so they make the diaphragm move and they convey sensation from the diaphragm to the central nervous system. Most of the time there isn't any sensation to convey from the diaphragm, at least at the conscious level. But if a nearby organ gets sick, it may irritate the diaphragm, and the sensory fibers of one of the phrenic nerves are flooded with pain signals that travel to the spinal cord (at C3-C5). It turns out that C3 and C4 don't just keep the diaphragm alive; neurons at these two spinal cord levels also receive sensation from the shoulders (via the supraclavicular nerves). So when pain neurons at C3 and C4 sound the alarm, the brain assumes (quite reasonably) that the shoulder is to blame. Usually that's a good assumption, but sometimes it's wrong.

Melody, I will keep my fingers crossed for you. I hope they go in and find something not positioned properly and say, "well, duh, that's why she has had so much pain." I hope it works out where you can keep the band and get it to work properly. I am wishing for the best case. If they do take it out, I'm still wishing for the best ..... whatever that ends up being.

I went from a starting BMI of 41.3 to current BMI of 24 Whoo Hoo! One thing to keep in mind is that when you reach a BMI of 25 (normal weight) you have then lost 100% of your excess weight. If you drop lower than 25 you go over 100% of the excess!

Yes, I can feel mine sometimes. It is strange, but after time it feels like a normal body part. I am so used to it that it feels like an extra body part I've had all along. Does that make sense? oh well, it does to me .....yes, I can feel it

I don't think the posts here at LBT have been bad at all lately. I read and post here quite a bit and have only seen one post that was "name calling" or "disrespectful" or "rude", but that guy is known for being that way. It was much worse in 2009 with the fighting and name calling. I am one of the few success stories that have stuck around. I am also pro-band and believe my band is magic, but I do agree with Cleo's Mom that I struggling bandster does not want me to rub my effortless success in their face. It offers nothing of value to them and only makes them feel worse. Just because my methods have worked great for me does not make it right for me to post in their "struggling thread" how great I have done and how great my tool works. IMHO that would be rude. It also is pointless to tell someone who has had the band removed how to "use the tool".

Believe me, dental insurance is even worse in many cases. There are quite a few that pay less for a cleaning than the Dr. has to pay a hygienist, so the Dentist is in the red on those. This is why in some cases the dental office encourages "up-selling". They try to get the patient to do extra things like extra fluoride treatments or extra x-rays that really are not needed. When you have to pick a dentist from a list of providers and you find only a few that will take that insurance, that is a sign of those companies who don't pay the dentist well. You may have no choice to get better insurance, so you go to one of those on the short list. You get to the office and feel like you are being herded through and you are just a number. The personalized care feeling is gone. In those cases the dentist and hygienist have to see 2, 3 or more patients in the time they would have only seen one with better insurance. It's the only way they can keep the lights on, buy supplies, pay someone to run the front desk and pay malpractice insurance. There was a case just the other day where the insurance company only paid the Dentist $5 each on a couple fillings he did on a man. The man did not have a co-pay because he pays the insurance company for the upgraded plan. The insurance company is making the money off him, not the Dentist. The dentist paid more in supplies and a dental assistant than what the insurance paid him for doing the fillings. I could go on and on about how the insurance companies are ripping off Dr.s and Dentists. I think it will only get worse in the future.

I get it too and it's just from my own experience. I think all the tool talk is over rated. I think it's pretty magic when the sweet spot is reached, but I used to get flamed quite a bit for that positive attitude. Oh well, it's my own special little piece of magic. The tool people can keep using their tools and I'll keep enjoying the magic (perfect magic)

Wow Leigha, glad to hear from ya, but that sucks.

In dentistry it is not PC to say "dental tools". They are not "tools", they are "instruments". So, I like the sound of "weightloss instrument" better

Ice cold liquids and even eating tiny ice chips will help the swelling go down and the pain along with it. Keep an Ice pack high and to the left as much as you can. I found that this was very helpful. Sleep is very important in healing. Sleep, then walk a bit, then sleep ....... I feel for you, but it does get better. Hang in there.

That sounds kinda yummy. I never really liked cooked cabbage, but my tastes have changed. I'm a bit worried about gas with the cabbage, so I better try it on the weekend.

were you trying to prove CM's point? strange, didn't you read the thread? :der: oh well.....

too funny .... we could start another list ...... installed, placed, fitted, inserted, seated............