timmmers

Hello again everyone! Wow, the last semester of university sure is testing my limits! With only two weeks left of classes followed by two weeks of final exams, I'm actually excited about the fact that I have a job interview tomorrow! (for a summer co-op position). But, putting the stresses from school aside, I have been doing pretty well. Most of you know that I had a problem a few months back which caused a large gas bubble to form in my stomach, creating pain, which was relieved by taking all of the fluid out of my band. Which of course felt great, except my body re-learned that it can eat whatever it wants (well, pretty much). So, after almost three months of having problems, eating "around the band" and eating with an empty band, I gained 5 pounds (well, gained and lost more than that, but am now 5 pounds higher than I was 3 months ago). I felt a bit defeated, run down, and hopeless. Luckily, however, I have had two fills now (yesterday I had another 1 CC put in), and finally have restriction. Not 100% where I want to be, but about 80% restriction, so I am finally able to eat good foods, feel full, and have that feeling last a while. Since I "reverted" back to my old ways for so long, late-night eating has been a problem. So, starting today I had steal-cut oats for breakfast (after not eating breakfast at all for the past few months), and am really going to push myself to eat well for the next few days to get my body back into the right rhythm. And what better way than to have a support group meeting?!?!?! It's FINALLY time to have our first official Vancouver Bandsters (Richmond) meeting. You can get all the info from our website: https://sites.google.com/site/vancouverbandsters/ We are meeting at 11:30am this saturday at the boston pizza in ironwood, in south richmond. I really hope to see you there!!! We welcome anyone (including those who are not yet banded, or had other forms of WLS), so please come and say Hi! Cheers! Tim

Hello everyone Glad to hear things are going well for you CanadGirl (and the rest of you too). I also had quite a few things happen in the past few weeks, so I apologize for not keeping everyone up to date with the new Richmond meetings. As I mentioned before in my last post, we now have a website that has a little bit of information about when/where we meet, a bit about myself, but most importantly it has a calendar of events for bandsters. Right now I have the North Van group, the LionsGate group, and the Richmond group on there. But, as things come up I hope to be able to keep the calendar up to date. Please come visit the site at https://sites.google.com/site/vancouverbandsters/ Though the dates have moved around a little bit over the past few months, the new official meeting time is 11:30am every second Saturday of the month. We might increasing it to twice a month, but for now it is on the second Saturday. Because of a scheduling mix-up and some miss communication, I will be at the Boston pizza tomorrow at 11:30am as well, just in case some bandsters did not get the new information (originally we were supposed to meet on the 27th of March). So, if any of you want to come out tomorrow, that is fine as well. I had all of the Fluid taken out of my band and "rested" for two weeks. During that time I gained 4 pounds. But, now with some fluid back I have lost 3 of those pounds. I also purchased the BodyBugg (as seen on Biggest Loser) and have been playing with that gadget the past few days. It's really quite neat, very fun, and a little addicting. The website lets you enter the food you are eating online (they have a pretty good database of foods). It really helped me get back on track. I hope to get another fill soon to get back to my previous fluid volume. I hope you are all doing well, and I hope to see some of you in person either tomorrow or on April 10th! Cheers, Tim

Thanks Doddie. I have received a few e-mails from some bandsters, so I guess those are the two you referred. I really hope my group works out, but I also really hope your group keeps on going. I definitely did not want to replace any of the groups, but ADD groups to the vancouver area (since we had so few groups, but so many bandsters). It would be nice to meet you one day. Unfortunately, I just received my summer course schedule, and the ONE and only course I am taking, is on the night of your group!!! But, maybe I can make it to a meeting between semesters (have one week off), or after my semester, as I am graduating in August. Cheers, Tim

Hi everyone! So, I took the next step and I have officially created the Saturday support group - Vancouver Bandsters. Starting in April 2010, we will be meeting on the SECOND SATURDAY of each month, at 11:30am. The current location is the Boston Pizza restaurant in Ironwood plaza, in South Richmond (But, this will most likely change). I have also created a website (still in progress) for the group. Please visit my site and let me know what you think. Vancouver Bandsters (Vancouver Bandsters) Thank you all so very much for your support, especially Doddie for all of your support and motivation to get me to start this group. There are now 7 people who are joining this group, so hopefully we will be able to support each other some more in real life. Good luck everyone! Cheers ~

Thanks Melissa and Christine for your responses. I am doing LOTS better now. Have no pain, no gas, and feeling like things are going to be back to normal soon. I'm still not sure if it was the beans that was causing the pain or if it was simply coincidental. However, I have decided to stay away from beans for a bit, get back on track, and then try them again. And, if it gets worse, then I know it's the beans - and I guess that will be the end of beans for me... or maybe I'll try the Beano??? I don't know about others, but I find if I lay on my left side, I sometimes burp (even though I didn't feel the need to burp before). After seeing my band and stomach in the floroscope, I'm thinking that gas might just get stuck up there regularly anyways, and that leaning over might be a good idea to do on a regular basis. Has anyone else experienced this? Hope you are all doing well. Cheers ~

I had my band completely unfilled today, because I had gas trapped in my lower stomach. The past two weeks I have had some discomfort, with occasional intense pain. So, I went to see my surgeon today, had a floro, and saw that my band was positioned well, had good restriction but not too much, and was bulging with trapped "air". So, other than being upset that I have all of my fluid out (because I had pretty good restriction and was happy with my weight loss), I'm now trying to figure out why I had that "air" trapped. I was looking at my food journal, and realized that I had started eating beans a few weeks ago, and have eaten them pretty regularly since then. At some points, I have become a bit "gassy" from... to be polite as possible... the other end. I'm thinking maybe I've been gassy inside my stomach too, and that's what has been causing my pain. I'm hoping some of you have either heard about bandsters with pain that was caused by beans, or have experienced it yourself, so that I can determine if I should stop eating beans... or if it's just coincidental. Otherwise, doing great. Really loving the gym & working out, which I never thought I would say. I'm thinking about starting to job and if I like it (and get good enough), joining a jogging group... Thanks for reading! Good luck to you all! Cheers ~

35 pounds is great! That's 1.75 pound per week, which is exactly where you want to be! I would be proud of what you have accomplished. Band Friendly Recipes has some pretty good recipes. Personally, I LOVE chilli, as long as it's home-made so you know what's in it, it has finely enough chopped veggies, and it's not too liquid. My recipe asks for 2 cups of broth.. I just skip that, and it's a perfect, thick, consistency. Good luck on your journey!

Thanks Doreen! I agree, I don't want to be excluding people. So, "GVRD Bandsters"? Since we are meeting in the South-Western part of the GVRD, I'm thinking the name sould be a bit more specific. But, again, don't want to be exluding anyone. This is harder than I would have expected. lol Cheers, Tim ~

Thank you to those who made it out to the Richmond support group meeting yesterday. It looks like this group is growing rather quickly, so I am thinking about starting something a bit more "official". I think the first thing we need to do is create a name for this group, and then we can select a re-occurring schedule for meetings. This way, I can add the meetings to the PNW calendar, etc. and have our meeting advertised more regularly. These are the names I could think of, but I'm not a creative person, so please pitch in your ideas. Richmond Bandsters / Richmond Bandits GVRD Bandsters / GVRD Bandits Southern GVRD Bandsters / Southern GVRD Bandits or, something completely unrelated to geographical location Super-bandsters, power-bandsters, etc. ... like I said, I'm not very creative... Also, I'm trying to decide when's the best time to meet. Unfortunately for me, weekday evenings are a no go (and the principal reason why I created a weekend group). So, it will either have to be Saturdays or Sundays. I'm thinking Sunday's are not a good day... hence why I originally choose Saturdays. But, the time on Saturday is completely flexible for me. I have liked meeting at 11:30, as it isn't too early, and still frees up the majority of the afternoon and evening. But, with a lot of activities happening Saturday morning, I am been considering meeting Saturday evening instead. So, please share your thoughts with me, and let's pick a time that works for the majority of people. Also, we should select which weekend to meet. I'm thinking the first Saturday of every month is good. Any suggestions? I'm really excited to meet some of you, and I look forward to our journey together. Cheers, Tim

Hi Yosemite Yeah, it is a bit hard to believe that we are the only GLBT bandsters in the Vancouver area. I'm sure more will appear over time. The meeting went pretty well. There were two new ladies who were going to go, but one who couldn't because she was moving, and another didn't come because I forgot to confirm the location with her with enough time for her to find someone to take care of her kids. So, had the same two women from last meeting (who are both pre-band). But, we had a good conversation, and both of them are proceeding with getting the band, so hopefully we will have more bandsters who will be attending the Richmond group. I'm thinking about making a name for us, and starting a new thread on the Canadian support site??? This has worked out better than I had expected. How are things going for you? I went on a cruise during the Olympics, gained one pound... have since re-lost that one pound plus one extra. However, that means I'm down only 1 pound in 4 weeks :-S I hope I can get myself right back on track and jump start my weight loss again. Good luck with everything. Cheers, Tim

Hi everyone! I just got back from a two week cruise in the Caribbean, and even though it was a bit sad to miss the Olympics, I had a great time - even with the band! I was a bit worried about how I would handle the constant availability of overwhelmingly large amounts of high caloric food. However, things went much better than I had anticipated. Surprisingly enough, it was not the buffet that was the hard part - but rather the served 5-course dinners. Obviously I did not eat all 5 courses, but a few times I did eat 3, and once I even ate 4 (which did not end well). So, though it was a challenge, I am really happy I was able to go for, what some people probably consider, a 2 week long binge-fest, without actually bingeing :-) I'm glad to be back though, as I was getting a bit tired of the constant eating! (never would have thought I would say such a thing pre-band). As promised, I will be organizing another meeting in Richmond, for this coming Saturday (March 6th). The meeting will be held again at the Boston pizza restaurant in Ironwood mall (on the corner of No 5 Rd and Steveston Hwy) at 11:30am. I will be there to share some of my stories, and very willing to listen to some of yours. I have heard from two women who said they will be attending, so there will definitely be at least some people there. So, if you are at all interested in meeting some fellow bandsters, and have this Saturday afternoon free, please come by and say Hello. Like I have said in my previous posts, I want to meet some other bandsters to walk together on this path and enjoy the journey not alone. Hope you all had a great time during the Olympics! Cheers PS. If you would like to e-mail me directly, my e-mail address is tim_4756@hotmail.com

yes, just to re-confirm what everyone else has said. It takes multiple fills to get to good restriction. There are the occasional people who don't need any fills or just one fill to get their, but on average you're looking at 2,3, maybe 4 fills before you get restriction. I was one of the lucky ones that felt restriction after my first fill, and then perfectly restricted after my second fill. Added another .25 not too long ago, but actually feel a bit too tight. Getting it unfilled tomorrow. So, if there is one thing I have learned (the hard way) is to take it slowly, one day at a time. The literature from my surgeon says that you can get a fill as often as every 2 weeks (with the first fill being a minimum 4 weeks), but just from my own personal experience, it takes about 2 weeks for your band to settle down after a fill... so, every 3-4 weeks until you feel restriction is probably better. Good luck!