ElfiePoo

As someone already said, unless you have kidney problems, the excess protein will not hurt you. Our body does not store protein so it washes out what you don't use.

I had my surgery 11/3/09 and I can still feel my port, although considerably less than even a month ago. The number of fills you have won't determine restriction. It's the amount of fill. My doctor put 3 ccs in on my first fill and 3cc's on my second fill. I have 7.5 cc's now and at least temporary restriction. Some doctors only put .5 cc in at a time and make their patients wait months between each of these tiny fills. At that rate, restriction is probably a year away. .

How to maintain after surgery Each meal should only be about 1 cup of food total. It should be primarily protein, then vegies and then carbs. A typical dinner for me would be 3-4 oz of protein, 1/2 cup of vegies and 1/4 cup of potatoes, rice, pasta, or bread. Here's what I had yesterday: B: 1 sl bacon, 1 egg, 1 piece of toasted bread (1 oz) mid-morning snack: low cal/low carb protein shake L: 3 oz fish filet, 1/2 cup sauteed cabbage mid-afternoon snack: protein shake D: Shrimp scampi (4 jumbo shrimp), 5 roasted baby carrots, 1/4 cup rice pilaf evening snack: protein drink Eating a piece of cheesecake when nothing of nutritional value has been eaten that day is a bad choice. .

Getting sick is *NOT* part of having this band. Has she been 'throwing up' daily and several times a day since her surgery? If this has been a common occurrence, then she needs to talk to her doctor because that type of behavior over so many months may have caused band slippage. At the very least, by this point she probably has some serious swelling around that band and it would be in her best interest to go back to a liquid protein shake diet for awhile to allow any swelling to go down. There are so many variables that it's hard to guess what might be the problem but she should immediately talk to her doctor. This is not normal. Based on the behavior (and quantity of food) that you describe, one would assume that she's dropped a considerable amount of weight since August? .

The misuse of words and spelling/punctuation errors used to bother me a lot. Now I hardly ever see them unless it's so bad that I have to struggle to understand what they're saying. In which case, I figure if it wasn't important enough for them to at least attempt to clean it up, then it's not important enough for me to struggle to read and understand. .

ROFL.

If you can still eat to excess and you're still hungry, then you have not yet reached restriction and the band is still not 'turned on' so to speak. Sadly, I'm seeing this a lot here. It doesn't really matter whether your doctor 'thinks' you should be in your sweet spot because most people are at this point, nor whether they're giving you more fill than they'd like. We are all unique and our bands are filled to our specific needs...not the masses. Call your doctor and start getting your fills every two weeks until *you* can tell him you have restriction. .

I agree with HB. When I get that 'heartburn' feeling, I know I've taken one bite too many. You want to try to stop before that point. Unfortunately, that may change from day to day so it's a bit like Russian Roulette. Since my last fill, I have restriction again and even more so than the last time. For lunch today I had a Gorton oven baked tilapia filet and 1/2 cup of sauteed cabbage. I didn't feel full, but I stopped anyway. I don't worry about whether or not I'll get hungry because 2.5 hours after lunch I'll drink a Protein shake which helps me go another 2.5 hours to dinner. I never feel 'full' the way I did pre-band. I just have to let my eyes tell me I'm full and trust that the band is doing it's job. .

ROFL...glad to hear you're doing better. I had to laugh at the bat wing comment. My 17 year old commented that if I just sewed my 'arm flaps' to the side of my body, I could do the whole "Rocky the flying squirrel" thing. It's a good thing God made our children so cute or they'd never survive to adulthood. .

True, but that is not what qualifies it as an addiction. Some people have an addiction to sex, gambling, shopping, etc...none of which will cause death if the addiction were withdrawn. Even with alcoholism, life-threatening physiological responses aren't always a fact. It depends on how long that person has been an alcoholic and how much they've been drinking. My brother, 4 uncles and several cousins are all alcoholics. At some point in their lives, they all just went cold turkey without life-threatening complications. At this stage of their addiction, it would definitely be life threatening. I think that is a very good point even for those with an addiction. Addicts don't just quit their particular demon. They get group and individual support. They have a mentor who looks out for them and who's there during their moments of crisis. They get therapy to learn behavior modification. Changing our behavior is just the beginning. Unless we figure out what sets us off, we'll continue to go round and round with our weight. It's great aversion therapy. I made a cherry kuchen to take to a homebound acquaintance's home when I visit this afternoon and I timed it so that it would be out of the oven after I'd eaten lunch because if I try to eat a piece of that now, after I'm full from lunch, Hilda (my band) is going to slap me hard. I'd make a lousy spy because I'd do just about anything to avoid pain. :w00t:

That's no joke. My son was 50 pounds over the top weight allowed when he joined the army, but they took him because they wanted him so badly. With the restriction that he would be discharged if he didn't drop the 50 lbs by the end of his schooling (6 months after basic). He did but it was because he had to do PT twice a day instead of once, but he also worked out on his own because he was so determined. He overheard one of his superiors telling another that he didn't believe my son could do it because the fact that he was 50 pounds overweight showed how 'lazy' he was...that he lacked the 'spine' to follow through. Tell him he can't and he gets his back up. Now 5 years later he's still trim and in shape and, best of all, has discovered that he loves rock climbing, snow boarding and other very physical activities. The military is the best thing that ever happened to him. .

It isn't different and that is why the medical community now recognizes there is such a thing as food addiction. You're also comparing from two different angles. A food addict is addicted to food and there is a physical dependence as I explained in my previous post. You said, "if you don't overeat you don't experience physical and neurological changes that threaten your life." Guess what. Neither does an alcoholic. It is only when the alcoholic is in the throes of his addiction, or withdrawing from it, that he does...as does the food addict in the throes of their addiction and/or their withdrawal from it. *You* may not be a food addict. As I said in my previous post, there are many reasons for being overweight and not all of them are necessarily a result of an addiction. As part of my doctoral degree, I was required to go through therapy myself and I know that my relationship with food absolutely meets all the criteria of an addiction. That 'revelation' is actually what led me to WLS. I agree that not everyone's will be an 'addiction', but in the meantime we should not be making judgments about someone else's relationship with food. First because most here are not trained in behavioral modification therapy or any other type of therapy and even those of us who are only see a fraction of a person's true thoughts and feelings in these posts. .

A food addiction is physical. If I eat *any* type of carbs found in Pasta, Beans, rice, bread (basically any flour product whether it be whole grain or refined), I set up a chemical reaction in my body that physically craves more of these carbs. I went on Atkins for 5 months and lost 70 lbs. The first week was the hardest. I was literally going through withdrawal. I had all of the physical symptoms of withdrawal as well...nausea, lightheadedness, headaches, etc. After the 2nd week of absolutely no carbs, I was fine. No cravings, no 'compulsion' to eat. The *first* bite of carbs I put in my system and it was downhill from there on a rollercoaster binge. So I learned not to eat carbs...at all...and I lost 70 pounds. At some point it just became too much to avoid all carbs. So no more weight loss. Fortunately, I didn't gain it back though because I increased my activity to compensate. However, I deal with it from another angle -- diabetes. The only way to keep my blood sugar levels within a normal range is to either give up carbs completely...or take insulin. No surprise I'm on insulin. The band helps me deal with my carb addiction because I physically cannot eat the carbs except in tiny quantities...and yes, when I sit there and finish my 1/4 cup of potatoes, rice, a roll, etc...within 30 minutes my body starts screaming "MORE!" and the only thing that stops me is knowing that if I do, I will get immediate, painful feedback. We (therapists) call it 'aversion therapy'. Like the drug they give alcoholics that makes them nauseated and feel sick if they drink while taking the medication. Calling something an 'addiction' doesn't make it an excuse. It's just an explanation for the behavior. If calling it an 'addiction' is an excuse, then the same applies to alcoholism, gambling, shopping or any other 'addiction'. Just pull yourself up by your boot straps and fix it. Fortunately, we're coming out of the dark ages and recognizing that people can be addicted to food and it's not completely about willpower or self-control. It's about a physical craving. This may not be true of all overweight people. Some people eat to bury their pain. Some just eat the wrong things or aren't active enough. My mom dropped 75 pounds and has kept it off by doing nothing more than kicking her 12 cans of Pepsi and bag of chips a day habit and getting off her butt. She now drinks diet-pepsi and rarely eats potato chips and stays active. Some of us have a physical addiction. In any case, until we each find the reason for why we overeat, we'll always be fat. Just ask the people who've been banded for years and still are. .

Did you ever pour Water on popcorn? It melts. Popcorn is a slider food. I find that if I don't sit absolutely straight at the dinner table, I get stuck on the same foods that don't get stuck when I sit up straight. I didn't realize that I did slouch until I started paying closer attention. For whatever reason, it sounds like your band is tighter. You can either work with it or get an unfill. Personally with only 2 cc's in your band, I'd work with it.

Just as an alcoholic or gambler or shopping addict uses their addiction to comfort their fears and insecurities. :w00t: In the past it was believed that you could 'cure' an addict by getting to the root cause. Now we know that just isn't true. .

I'd be surprised if they did since, as someone said previously, it requires care that may not be available in the field. Beyond the fills, it's possible for the stitches to come loose and the port to flip or the band itself could slip. You could lose the weight and have the band removed but this is risky since statistics show that when people have the band removed, they regain their weight. Heck, just look at the people who lose restriction and don't keep up on their fills. They regain their weight as well. Then again, once you're in the military, they'll keep the weight off you...maybe. They don't give the wink:wink:nod to even officers being overweight now. Many of my family are career military (sort of a family 'profession') and the military has been cracking down on the fat officers and enlistees. My uncle is a major in the army. He was 40 pounds overweight and they gave him a year to lose the weight or they said they'd discharge him. My son has been in the army for 5 years and is going into officer's training school in May. I know that since he joined, his regiment (like all of them) has a monthly PT test where they are measured and weighed and BMI calculated. They can only flunk their PT test a couple times and then they are discharged. .

I think the answer lies in why we overeat to begin with. For most of us, eating is our addiction. Even the medical community is finally coming around to the fact that it is an addiction. Imagine an alcoholic being told they must drink one shot of alcohol every day...but that's all. Imagine a gambling addict being told they must go into a casino and play one round of cards every day...but that's all. Now, imagine a food addict being told they can only have 'so much' food and that's all. It's the same thing. The only difference is that we can't avoid our addiction. We have to find some way to control it while still using it. That's the beauty of the band. With good restriction, we can eat like normal people and when the demons of that addiction grab us by the throat, the band will remind us to stop when we attempt to drown ourselves in it. Either by making us feel full...or through pain should we be stupid enough to continue. Without restriction, I eat until I think I'll pop. With restriction, I feel full and know that one more bite and I'll pay with pain. Pain is a good deterrent for me. .

It depends on whether you are in control of your fills or whether your doctor and his schedule are. My doctor puts the patient in control of the fills. He does the first one at 4 weeks post op if we feel we need it. Our need is based on whether or not we're feeling hungry and whether or not we're still able to eat to excess...and are doing so. I had my first fill of 3 cc's at 4 weeks, the second one of 3 ccs two weeks later and, 2 more cc's a week after that My doc said that once you get true restriction, you probably only have to come in maybe once or twice that first year and then maybe once or twice the following year. You want restriction. The band without it is just a piece of plastic. I have read of some people not needing any fills, but they're rare. It will all depend on you. .

Heidi, It doesn't look like you're eating too much but don't forget the protein at each meal. That's what keeps our blood sugar stable and keeps us from craving and being hungry. .

Yesterday's menu... B: 1 over easy egg, 1 sl bacon, top half of an English muffin Snack: low cal/low carb protein shake (110 cal and 3 carbs) L: 3 oz pork chop, 1/2 cup brussell sprouts, 2 Tbs mashed potatoes Snack: protein shake D: 2 sl homemade, thin crust pizza with ham & cheese Snack: 1/2 cup of mixed walnuts and dried cranberries I tend to eat more on the weekends but it was a good day.

I read a quote somewhere that said something about 'hunger being the sauce on the food'. I can't remember the last time I was hungry but I know I enjoy my food more because I'm not oversaturated with it...and I don't walk away from the table anymore in carb overload. .

I went in for a fill last Thursday and asked them about this. I was told that some Blue Cross plans only cover fills for 90 days after surgery...another reason to push your doctor for fills on your schedule instead of theirs. Can you imagine having to pay for 4 or 5 fills out of your own pocket when insurance would've paid for them if they had just done them sooner and more aggressively? .

If your insurance didn't pay for this, then I can understand paying for it out of pocket. I was fortunate. My insurance paid for the psych eval, the preop nutrition class, and all of my fill appointments. Support group meetings are no charge and I was thrilled at not having to waste my time in endless nutrition classes when they can't teach me anything I don't already know. When I started at the diabetic clinic years ago, their requirement was that I have 6 hours (or something like that) of nutrition classes. We compromised. I told them I'd go to one and if it was apparent they had nothing to teach me, they'd consider the other 5 hours as not needed. I didn't have to do the rest of the hours. If you needed this knowledge, then I can see how you would find it worth spending money on since this is knowledge you will need to choose your foods wisely. .

When I first brought up surgery, my husband was against it. None of his family have ever struggled with being overweight...not even by a little bit...so he couldn't grasp what I dealt with on a daily basis. I basically told him that I loved him and I wanted to grow old with him, and at the rate I was going and the success (or lack of) that I was having with my weight, it was becoming increasingly likely that he would be a widower for the second time. I also told him that I hoped he would come around because I was going to do this with or without his support because I had to for my health. By the day of my surgery, he was on my team and has been my biggest supporter. .

People are not stupid. Even if you tell them how much you lost, they're going to be looking at you and guesstimating what you must weigh now and what you must've weighed before. Kirstie Alley, when doing the Jenny Craig thing, stated she lost x amount of lbs and originally weighed x amount. I can't remember the details at this point but I remember looking at her and thinking, "Liar". If you truly lost that much weight and were the starting weight you said, then you wouldn't still be overweight...which she was. Personally, since reading Camryn Manheim's book several years back, I am never embarrassed to reveal my weight...even at my highest of 330. I figure if someone is going to look down on me because of a number on a scale, that's their problem...and someone I don't care to know anyway. .