nlawlor341

I am 3 weeks post op and am looking at my first fill in 2 weeks. Don't really have many friends or family around to discuss things with and would love to find a friend.

I spent all weekend reading all these great forums and started my workout at 5AM this morning before work. I had seen so many people speak so highly of the eliptical machine so I headed there first. After 3 minutes I was almost passed out on the floor choking for breath. I did manual and level 1. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I will just stick to the treadmill until I lose a little bit more weight for now. I then went to the pool and did 45 mins of Water aerobics, but my legs are still wobbly from that eliptical machine.

My surgery took 2 hours. I woke up in almost no pain and walked within 20 minutes of waking up. An hour later I was in my car on the way home. The biggest adjustment was having to sleep sitting up on the couch in the living room...Unfortunately, I sleep on my left side and that was the most tender (where the port is) and have just now been able to sleep comfortably on that side. Oh and I was lucky and got a nice big cold from the hospital!! Two weeks of holding a pillow over my incisions while I hacked and hacked and hacked!! First day back to work today. I am scheduled for my first fill on 11/24/09 and feel almost no restriction right now. I am sticking to about 1/2 cup of food 3 times a day. I am not doing very well on the Snacks so my Protein is a little lower than it should be right now. I started working out today as well. I have only lost 14 lbs since the 2 weeks before the surgery (10/08/2009). (That includes the 2 weeks of the liquid diet with the Protein shakes.) I am getting very worried that I might have made the wrong decision and should have gone for the GB instead of the LB. I will hold my breath until I get my first fill and hope that I will see some larger numbers coming off after that.

Hello, I am courious. I have been fat my entire life. I was wondering how many people who have had the Lap Band have always been big and what their results were. A lot of the people who I have spoken to who have gotten the LB were small growing up, then gained their weight from being pregnant, married, etc. I have always been the smallest in my family. My older sister was 750 lbs before she got the verticle banded gastroplasty when she was 18 and again when she was 22. She got down to about 450 lbs. She was scheduled to get the sleeve when she passed away 2 years ago. I was 225 lbs in High School and then before the LB I weighed 426 lbs exactly for 7 years straight. I didn't fluctuate a pound in 7 years. I went on the Dr. supervised diet as the requirement for my surgery and I got down to 360 lbs. Before surgery, 6 months after the 6 month diet, I was back up to 390 lbs. Took me so long because I had to quit smoking. (Worse than any diet!!) I have lost 15 lbs since the surgery, and I go in for my first fill in one week from today. My concern is that I will never be "normal" sized. I know that I will never be a size 2, but I am courious if anybody else out there was fat their entire life and what kind of results you have had from the surgery. Thanks.

Please say how it went! I get my first fill tomorrow.

I was banded last month, but have yet to have my first fill. Does anybody seem to notice very loud noises coming from your stomache after you eat? Mine is so loud that my husband can hear them across the room! Is this normal? Will it always be this way? It's a little embarrassing around other people!

I grew up homeless until the age of 9, when my sisters and I were put into the foster care system. We would go 2+ days without eating and then my mom would bring home a box of twinkies and we would all scarf them down. I remember stealing candy bars with my sister when I was 6. She would stuff them down my skirt at the grocery store! At 9 we went into the foster system. The foster home that we were put into was just like you hear those horror stories about. They would punish us by not letting us eat. This started the 'sneaking the food at midnight" part of eating that stuck with me until today. At 18 my older sister was over 700 lbs. I was 13 at that time and I was 240 lbs. Over the last 10 years I worked a lot of night jobs. I would go all day without eating, hated eating Breakfast. Then go home and eat a 2000 calorie dinner and go to bed. For 7 years, up to the day of my Dr supervised diet, I did not fluctuate 1 lb. My sister had 2 verticle banded gastroplaties when she was 18 and then again when she was 21. She got down to 400 lbs before she passed away. I never had a fat complex. Being the smallest in my family I never understood why people called me fat! Now that my sister is gone, I really miss having somebody around who understands the every day struggles that we go through. I miss having somebody to joke with about having to wear pads cause we laughed so hard, etc! The hardest part fo me is remembering to eat breakfast. If I eat breakfast I am hungry every 3-4 hours. If I eat nothing, I can go all day without ever thinking about food.

Oh that's a great idea HappyHome! I will start out on the bike, maybe that will help build my legs up. You would think after walking around for 20 years with 200+ lbs of extra weight that they would be strong already.....

I had the same experience as Allie. I had to tell everybody and didn't get one bad reaction. I still haven't had my first fill yet, but I know I made the right choice. That's all that matters :thumbup:

Thank you for all your replies. I guess I am just impatient to feel the restriction. I feel like I am hungrier now than before being banded. But maybe that is because I am sticking to the suggested portions. I am eating Protein first, etc. I am also working out now. After I go swimming I am STARVING! I also get the late night munchies pretty bad. I am getting so sick of cottage cheese :thumbup: I have always been obese, since the age of 8. I am SO broad, been called a linebacker. I would be totally psyched with wearing a 16/18!

I was afraid of this. Everybody has had a time in their life when they were 'normal'. I have not been considered normal sized since I was about 6 years old.

I sure wish my surgeon had told me that! I have lost 5 lbs since my surgery on 10/22 and my first fill is on 12/01. I have been feeling horrible for only having lost 5 lbs. I even started exercising and I eat around 1200 calories a day. My surgeon didn't say I wouldn't lose weight, but he also didn't say that I would. I just assumed once the band is in....

Hey there! I was just banded on 10/22/09 and my 1st fill is scheduled for 12/01. I am in Federal Way, WA. I am 39 years old and starting weight at time of surgery was 390 lbs. My goal is to reach 200. I am really concerned that I feel almost no restriction in what I can eat right now. My first fill was scheduled on 11/24 but they rescheduled it because of Thanksgiving. Something about having to be available for 48 hours after a fill. So now it is set for 12/01. Seems soooo far away. I am working out 4 days a week for 45 mins. Doing Water aerobics at Bally in Kent M, T, Th, F at 5:00AM by myself. Then I treat myself to 10 minutes in the steam room! I lost 5 lbs since surgery. That's IT!!! I am eatting 3 small meals a day and 1 snack. Somedays I have 2 Snacks. My meals are no more than 1 cup of food. 4oz of meat and lots of steamed cauliflower. For lunches I am eatting tuna salad (4oz of tuna with 2 teaspoons of lite mayo) and a piece of whole weat toast. For Breakfast I have 1/2 c. of 2% cottage cheese. For snacks I am having 16 lite wheat thins with 2 oz of turkey ham and 1 oz of provolone cheese. That's it! And 5 lbs??? I don't really know what I am doing wrong. And I am starving!!! I used to only eat once or twice a day. But once I eat breakfast I am hungry throughout the entire day. Any advice?

Hey there. I was just banded on 10/22 and my first fill isn't until 12/01. I live in Federal Way, WA and am worried about the slow weight loss currently. I started my Pre-op diet at 400 lbs. I followed the pre-op diet to the T and only lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks. Since the surgery I have only lost 5 lbs!! I had a few days where I had gained 5 lbs, but then lost it again within the next few days. I am currently working out 4 days a week in the pool at the gym before work for 45 mins. I still haven't lost any more weight! I have almost no restriction to what I can eat and that is disheartening. I was scheduled for my first fill on 11/24, but the doctors office called me to reschedule because of the Thanksgiving Holiday. I was so disappointed that I cried for an hour!! My sister passed away in 2007, like your grandmother sweetheart. My sister and I were extremely close. She weighed 750 lbs when she was 18 years old. She had the vertical banded gastroplasty twice. Once in 1988 and again in 1991. She got down to about 250 lbs, but then got pregnant and gained 200 lbs!!! She was in a car accident in 2006 and because of her weight, they couldnt operate on her ruptured disc and put her on pain meds. She was 1 month away from getting the sleeve procedure when she went to bed one night and never woke up. She had horrible sleep apnea and the pain meds restricted her breathing as well. When we found her the cpap machine was off her face. Anyways, she was always my rock. She was 5 years older than me and we grew up homeless and in the foster care system. She was my mother in all ways. We lost our little sister in the foster system and swore to always be together. We bought this house here in Washington in 2001 and we cried for days. It was the first house we had ever lived in! I want her to see my weight loss that is to come (I hope) but I also feel guilty that she can't be here to do it with me. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends. I don't mean that to sound bad, I just never needed any with my sister around. We had moved so many times growing up. (I had been to 41 schools by the time I dropped out to work full time when I was 15). So never really learned to make friends either. My husband is supportive, but really doesn't understand what it is truly like to be obese. He cares, but I just need somebody who KNOWS. Does that make sense?

UGH! Just got a call from my Dr.'s office. My 1st fill was scheduled for 11/24 but they had to cancel it, because he said that they have to be available for 48 hours after a fill and since Thursday is Thanksgiving..... Now I have to wait until December 1st to get my first fill. You would think after 30+ years of being fat that one more week wouldn't matter, but I can't help but feel disappointed.

Thank you all for your replies. I have started exercising. I have been doing my own water aerobics at the gym every morning (for 3 days now). Unfortunately there are no classes for the working people around here! I get my heart rate up to 150-160 and then start the clock for 30 minutes. I then go sit in the hot tub and steam room for 15 minutes as a reward. I just am not seeing the weight loss at all. I am eatting 1300-1400 calories a day. I am hoping once I get my first fill on Tuesday that something will change.