purplemonkey

Hi. I was banded 2 years ago today! March 19th of 2007. So much has changed. I started at 389 pounds and today i weigh 189 pounds--200 pounds in 2 years! I have never had a fill and have been doing awesome as long as I keep up with the gym. A few days ago I took 2 pregnancy tests, lol--DID NOT believe the first one--and it was positive...which completely floored me. The only symptoms I had had up to this point (my period was due on March 4th) was feeling very very tired, very sore breasts and soreness by my port. my port area always got sore and "more puffy" when my period was near. My port does seem more slanted or something...i can't quite explain it. how do you know if a port has been flipped? Anyway, I can't get in to my first OBGYN appt until April 10th and I'm trying to stay calm and relaxed even though I'm really worried. I'm 39 years old, still 50 pounds overweight and have the band. I know for my age that miscarriage rates are high and that worries me. I guess I'm just looking for some replies from others who are in or have been in a similar situation. Thanks! I think I'm still in a state of shock and disbelief LOL. I feel compelled to take another test just to confirm that I'm still pregnant! LOL Virginia

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've written, mostly because my life has become very chaotic. A family illness caused me to quit my job as a librarian in NJ (work that I really love) and take a minimum wage job in western NY because there are just no library jobs to be found. As of today I have lost 197 pounds, going from my starting weight of 389 to 192 pounds. Maybe some of you who have lost 100 pounds or more can understand this...but life seems so surreal to me and has ever since the weight started coming off. I know it's me living my life and doing things but on the other hand it doesn't seem quite real. I don't "see" myself as being any thinner than 389...I hate clothes shopping and automatically grab bigger sizes and have no belief whatsoever that I could ever possibly fit into smaller sizes. I am wearing clothes now that I wore 40 pounds ago and are so baggy on me but I just am not comfortable in my own skin and it's very strange!! I visit the gym at least a few times a week and it seems to give me the boost I need for my metabolism to get cracking. I have not had a fill yet and still have reasonable enough restriction that I usually don't overeat. I do binge at times, but certainly nothing like before and when i do feel like I've overeaten my friends look at me like i'm on mars, because i eat way less than they do... I just wish that my head would catch up to my body. I can't wrap my head around how I look now and still "feel" huge. Anyone dealing with similar issues? My ultimate goal is to weigh 139 pounds because when i was in first grade i weighed 140 pounds and it only went up from there. With any luck I can get close to that by the end of this year. At least that's how I'm hoping to bring in 2009~ :") virginia

Hello fellow 2007 Marchies!! I can't believe it will be one year from my surgery on March 19th. I have worked soooooooo hard this year! The key for me has been going to the gym...it was the only thing that seemed to kick my metabolism into gear because I gotta say that when I laid off going to the gym I never lost any weight. So here it is one year later...I still have not found it necessary to go in for a fill yet! I have good restriction most of the time. I eat what I want and make up for it, if need be, at the gym. I've slimed a couple times and thrown up twice since the surgery but I knew both times it was because I waited too long before eating and just ate way too fast. I took one or two bites and knew I was in trouble. Other than that I have not had any problems. About 4 or 5 months ago, I noticed that my port seemed more sensitive and more pronounced than it had prior. I think I really irritated it on the recumbant bike when it was already sensitive from me having my period. Ever since then it has been a bit sensitive here and there and to me it seems like it sticks out more, but maybe that's only because I have less fat now to hide it. I don't know. I've had to relocate back to my hometown a couple months ago because of an illness in my family, so now I am back to the unfortunate place of having no health insurance...so getting my port checked out and my upper GI will have to wait a while. I've lost 175 pounds since my surgery!! I totally cannot believe it. I still see myself as I was at 389 pounds even though I weigh 214 now. I have such a hard time buying clothes because I grab the 4x shirts and still truly cannot believe that there is a chance in hell that i can get into anything smaller. it's always a surprise to me that i can. always. i have no concept of what i look like now. it is the strangest thing. I have 75 more pounds i want to lose to get down to 140, which i think is a reasonable weight, but i wonder if i'll ever see myself as thin. I haven't weighed 214 pounds since I was a senior in high school and that was 20 years ago. It's all very very surreal. I haven't weighed 140 pounds since I was in FIRST grade! so if i got down to that weight it would be unbelievable. One thing that is different for me is that I typically dated men who were more on the couch potato side of the fence. But after losing about 100 pounds I really wanted to date an active person who could challenge me physically. I met someone in November, during the time I was coming back and forth to visit my sick father. Besides being a wonderful guy he loves hiking and camping and skiing and all those other great outdoorsy activities that I have wanted to do but couldn't for such a long time. March 19th is truly a very special day to me. I have heard many others call their bandiversary their birthday because it truly gives us a second chance at living our lives the way we wanted to but couldn't. At 389 pounds I was 20 pounds from a wheelchair or a heart attack. Now almost 1 year later and a lot of hours at the gym, I no longer feel trapped in my body. I no longer feel that I am passively existing, just waiting to die. I feel hopeful and optimistic about so many things in my life now. It is empowering to finally have some control and SUCCESS at setting goals and achieving them. Good luck to all of us Marchies for continued good health and as being a means of support to one another. It meant so much to me esp in those first 6 months. I sure don't miss those xrays right after surgery...that was the worst! but if anyone is reading this who is considering surgery, i can't make the decision for you, but it gave me my life back and for that I will be forever grateful. Cheers! Virginia

Liz, my doc told me that if i was a sugar-craver, which i am, that the bypass would be better because there would be immediate negative consequences to eating the junk food, like dumping, et. But i had to go with the band. :confused: I still eat chocolate when i want it, but i don't need as much to be satisfied. plus, when ur doing the treadmill and realize how much work it is to burn those 300 calories, you definitely make better choices. lol ...i have gotten to the point where i will eat whatever i want, how much i want and just make sure i put in a good workout at the gym and this has worked fine for me. when i do have chocolate, i'll pick a kind with nuts so as to get at least a little Protein out of it, or i'll go for sugar free Chocolate. i could never not go without sweets, but they definitely don't have the same draw they did before. Does that help?

btw, Liz...do u exercise? my metabolism is so bad that if i don't go to the gym everyday to jumpstart it, i don't lose anything at all, even if i really cut way down on what i eat.

i was always someone who never lost weight. my weight has only gone up over the course of my life. when i've tried diets i never lost anything. the band is the only thing that has done it for me. but because i've never lost weight before, it's a very surreal feeling now that i am. i have lost 123 pounds in just under 6 months since surgery and in my head i am still 389 pounds. when i buy clothes i go right for the 4x tops and literally have to stop myself and try and talk myself into taking the 1x or 2x instead, even though in my head i don't believe for a minute that it will fit me. and then i'll try it on and be like wow, it fits or is even a little loose. but i cannot get out of my own head and see the differences in myself physically. i had a NSV yesterday. my friend wanted to take me to the city to walk around and my immediate thought was OMG walking? sure, i do the treadmill an hour a day but the last time I walked on the streets was before any weight loss and it was horrible. i was huffing and puffing and was in such pain that i had to stop every few minutes. it was embarrassing. but we went to the city last night and walked around for a few hours and i had no problem whatsoever. i would have walked around all night. it was awesome. it was such a great feeling to be mobile and comfortable moving around. the band has been such an awesome life changing experience for me. i know u may be a bit discouraged liz but try not to be. Like insub said, you were not born to be fat, and it will come off. you are on the right path. :confused: stay strong. virginia

September 19th will be my 6 month anniversary and as of today I've lost 120 pounds. This is entirely made possible by my going to the gym 6 days a week doing cardio and weights--cuz when i slacked i lost nothing, even when not eating a lot. I still haven't had a fill and have been managing fine with food. virginia

Barb, that's just sort of what mine feels like. it's bulged a bit and been sore the last 3 months with my period...of course that's when i started birth control pills to get regular. But what were your hernia symptoms? or didn't you have anything other than the bulge. Is it the bariatric surgeon that goes back in and takes care of that? and how is the recovery time. stillllllllllllllll waiting to hear something from my nurse practitioner.

Hi everyone. It's been a hectic summer for me as well, but it's nice to be back! The weight has been coming off steadily, and trust me, it's only because I'm at the gym 6 days a week. When I don't go, the scale won't budge. I'm having some swelling in port area bcuz of my period, but this month it is more swollen than i like, so i have a call into my doctor. I'm wondering if it could be a flipped port or something like that. Has anyone had that problem? virginia

Yeah i still feel pretty restricted so I haven't had any problems with food. I will say though that when i don't go to the gym I don't lose anything. My body seems to need the gym to jumpstart my metabolism on a daily basis. I still have a couple days of period left and no change on the swelling so i put a call into my doc today. The nurse practitioner will be calling me back this afternoon. I hope it's nothing serious. I'm having no problem with food, so I'm hoping it's only a port thing and not a band thing.

i haven't had a fill yet so my port hasn't been "inspected." what would it feel like if it had flipped?