BetsyB

How many fourteen-year-olds do you know? The name of the game in early adolescence is noncompliance. It's part and parcel of the developmental stage. It's an utterly inappropriate time for weight loss surgery---and I would run fast from any surgeon willing to perform it. A couple of years--really, just a handful of years--can make all the difference in the world in terms of success. It's hard enough to follow the rules as an adult. 14-year-olds are just stretching their wings; defying authority is a bona fide developmental task. Supporting them during this phase involves limiting the chances they will fail or harm themselves. To me, that means postponing things like bariatric surgery.

I was encouraged to walk immediately after surgery. Within a couple of days, I was outdoors walking--albeit not as far and fast as preop. I was not permitted to do other forms of exercise until after my first postop check.

I know it's frustrating, but very few people lose within the window of time you're occupying. Surgery is an insult to the body--there's swelling, your body is still dealing with Fluid retention (from meds, from anesthesia, from IVs), and so on. The lactose intolerance must be frustrating! My surgeon didn't advocate cream soups---so I avoided that issue. I've found that making my shakes with almond milk has been a good solution for me.

Done. Love Wheatens.

There's no way to answer your question, really, without knowing what your weight is, your goals are, and what you are willing to give up or do for additional loss. You say you need to lose, but are okay with a maintain--which is it? I personally will not be satisfied until I reach my goal. I didn't have surgery to sort-of succeed, or to do it halfway, or to learn to be satisfied with less than I want. I exercise religiously, and haven't even given my sweet tooth a chance. It would get the better of me, too---so unless it's a birthday or holiday (or something that really is a once-in-a-blue-moon REAL treat--one that is worth it), sweets are just plain off-limits. You may not be willing to make these changes--but maybe you're willing to modify them in a way that does promote loss.

Over time, I have noticed a correlation between pounds and inches lost. But that doesn't mean they consistently come off together. At times when my weight has plateaued, it's very common for me to see my measurements go down. Sometimes, the body just needs time to regroup and redistribute a little--then loss resumes. (OTOH, I don't think that most people who aren't seeing a general downward trend in weight see much of a downward trend in inches--you have to be doing something to see the change. Eating properly, but plateaued, or exercising, or something to promote the loss.)

The weight you gain from solid food will not be a fat gain--it will be related to the fact that solid food creates bulk in the intestine. Really, there's no sense getting worked up about the weight of this matter. It's...well, just shit. You need solid food. Liquids bypass the band, defeating its purpose. Your caloric intake will remain low. You will lose weight. Will there be a brief temporary upward blip? Sure. There's a good chance there will. But it's...just shit. And you will cope with it, and then you will watch how your good food choices still promote loss---because your body will, in fact, lose fat even if your colon houses some waste. It'll be okay--really.

My doctor has his patients wait 4 weeks--but does not give any fill at the time of band installation.

At four days out, it may be too soon to tell how the fill will ultimately work for you. Especially since you seem to have had some difficulty that likely exacerbated swelling. If you can keep liquids down, you don't have to worry. What I'd do is stick with those for a few days, to let things calm down, then gradually ease back in to food. Once the swelling has had time to calm, you can better assess how the fill will work for you.

I have a very high pain threshold, but was in considerable pain immediately postop. But my rating is UNmedicated. With medication (which I did use), my level was consistently kept beneath 3, which made walking (the BEST cure of all) easy. And that got me feeling better really fast. Don't be shy about meds if you need them. Just by comparison, I've had 2 c-sections, and banding was NOTHING ---really nothing---compared to them. Still, there was pain. But it was so easily dealt with. And it was very, very short-lived.

Did they check your blood glucose level? Polydipsia (excessive thirst) is often the first sign of diabetes.

Yup, works for me---no argument at all with everything he has to say.

It took me 10 days to really feel like myself again--but I was incrementally better each day after surgery. My son had his tonsils out on Day Three, and I had no problem going with him to the hospital, walking the long halls, waiting in recovery, etc. I think a day in court after 8 days is likely to be fine.

I didn't tell my husband until I got below 200. He never for a moment suspected I weighed more than that---which made me laugh, because he knows the BMI I needed to qualify, and how tall I am. He just never saw me as morbidly obese. I'd say that was a good thing, but really, he never saw me at all.

Caffeine was green-lighted at six months for me. I gave up coffee preop, and haven't gone back. I do however drink iced tea (and did so, on occasion, well before I was "allowed").

My doctor doesn't recommend reintroducing starches and grains until 75 percent of excess body weight is lost. I've reached that point, according to his goal for me--but because my goal is lower, I have not yet added them back in on a routine basis---I just don't miss them enough to do so. On rare occasion, because I'm now officially "allowed," I do have a taste of something, but have not had good success, stomach-wise, so I generally still steer clear. Not worth the pain of getting stuck. My one exception is that I will now order a piece or two of sushi with brown rice, rather than sticking only with sashimi. No problems there.

Well, the fill process is, indeed, a gradual one--they can't simply fill 'er up all at once, because a too-large fill causes excess swelling. So, the process of achieving appropriate restriction is frustrating. My doctor uses fluoroscopy for all fills--when I leave his office, my band is always appropriately "tight." Until I was toeing the line of restriction, though, I never felt that way--as the swelling receded (if there even was swelling; very early on, there was not), I felt the same as I had before. But eventually, you do reach a point where those incremental little fills start making a big difference. My doctor started out with 4 cc fills; now I think he's giving me 1 cc or less each time. (As you approach and reach your sweet spot, you might lose track of how much you have in your band and how much you get---it's not something I pay attention to any more, now that we're just fine-tuning.) I agree that your doctor's lack of communication is odd--bariatric surgeons tend to break the paternalistic, I-know-what's-best mold typical of surgeons in other specialities, and usually are more forthright. But it seems as though you've got an old-school dude who doesn't think patients "need" that pesky information. In your shoes, I'd very simply say, "I know you don't feel it's necessary for me to know, but I disagree. It's my body, and my band--and while I know you are doing things just the way they should be done, to me, information is important---and when you are reluctant to share it with me, it sends the wrong message. Again, I know you're doing things correctly--but your reticence to share sends my information-needing mind in a different direction. To work together effectively, I really just need some simple information. Not because I don't trust you, but because that very information is what allows me to trust you. In exchange, I will share with you information that allows you to make decisions about my care." And then do provide that information. Tell him what and how much you eat, and how often. Tell him how long you are satisfied. Tell him how many hours elapse, after eating, before you become ravenous again. This information will help guide him as he helps you achieve the appropriate level of restriction.

I eat 800-900/day and have, since banding. I have had a couple of very brief plateaus, but loss has resumed quickly. I don't buy into the "starvation mode" theory; there isn't peer-reviewed evidence to back it up. Some people may, indeed, need more calories than I do. But most of us have ample fuel stored on our bodies in the form of fat--and our bodies simply are NOT ever in the position of "starving." As we get smaller, though, metabolism does decrease (smaller bodies need more fuel)---so loss tends to slow a bit. The common wisdom is to shake things up by eating more; for me, this is not a good approach---it causes gain. So I look over my journals, see whether things are creeping in that needn't, and if I'm doing well, I just tough the plateau out. If I need to make changes (and here, I usually try to do it with exercise so that I don't pare down calories further), I do that.

I am also in the weigh-and-measure camp. (I also am an advocate of journaling what you eat so you can evaluate what changes need to be made when you hit a wall.) Did your doctor provide guidelines to you? When I was at your stage, I was eating 3 ounces of Protein per meal. A bit farther along, I added 1/2 cup of nonstarchy veggies.

Your PCP is well-meaning, but is not a bariatric surgeon. The person with whom to discuss getting back on track is your surgeon. WELL before I considered a revision, I'd do whatever it took to get my behavior under control--because the same changes required to successfully lose with a band are required for successful loss with a bypass or sleeve. Can you identify the hows and whys of your regain? Do you have appropriate restriction? What changes can you make in your eating and exercise? I agree that exercise is CRITICAL---just absolutely critical to long-term success. Call your surgeon; ask for an adjustment. Then make the appropriate adjustments to your actions. You can do it! You've done it before---and you don't need another, more drastic surgery, to do it again :thumbup:

Sweet spot or no, I've pretty much eaten the same stuff all along--at first, it was a struggle, because I was, indeed, quite hungry. But now it's no biggie. What I'm about to type will seem incredibly restrictive--I actually get a good variety by choosing different foods within the parameters. I've also "technically" reached 75 percent of excess weight lost (I say "technically" because my goal is lower than my doctor's), so I'm allowed to add in grains and starches; because I want to lose more than my doctor has targeted for me, I do this very, very sparingly, and instead stick with the basic plan that's worked for me all along: Breakfast, lunch, Dinner: 2-5 ounces Protein (usually just short of 3 oz), 1/2 cup nonstarchy veg, sometimes a fruit Early morning, evening: a warm Protein shake (to help dissolve my Vitamin capsules and bump my protein level up) Between meals: veggies, occasionally cheese Before I hit my sweet spot, my protein portions were larger than they are now (usually right at 5 oz., whereas I can only hold about 2.6 oz. of dense protein at a go now), but otherwise, my basic plan of attack has been the same all along. Yes, it sounds tedious and monotonous, but I eat a wide variety of things prepared a wide variety of ways, and feel completely non-deprived and--even better--healthy.

Being stuck hurts--there is discomfort associated with the actual "plug" of food that obstructs the stoma, as well as discomfort from pressure that builds up because anything else introduced to the stomach can't go anywhere. It is a sensation I do anything to avoid---and by anything I mean I've given up foods that consistently cause me trouble. (I do tend to give things more than one try; some days I'm just tight, so it's worth giving things another shot or two before deciding they're troublemakers.) That means that many things I used to "love" are now things I really don't like at all. (So, I don't miss them.) Perspective has a funny way of shifting :thumbup: I have to add that my doctor's recommended eating plan leaves out most of the foods that seem to cause people trouble; I have not yet tried bread, for example. Or rice, or pasta, or other starchy things that many people have difficulty with. Oddly, I don't miss them, either.)

I think that "restriction" must mean different things to different people. I didn't have surgery with the idea that I would be restricted in what I eat. I did plan for restriction--physical narrowing of the stoma that slows the emptying of the upper portion of my stomach so that satiety with a smaller volume of food is achieved and maintained for a period of time. To assert that the band is not about this type of restriction is erroneous. That said, I lost a huge portion what I've lost before I achieved this restriction--because I measured my food and told myself NO a lot. I very quickly learned, simply by virtue of the fact that my stomach configuration had been vastly altered, that "full" means something completely different post-banding. And I listened to that. Never mind that the sensation only lasted a short time (because the upper portion of my stomach emptied rapidly)---I told myself NO when it wasn't mealtime. Nevertheless, achieving that restriction---the physical narrowing of the stoma that slows stomach emptying---is in fact a very important part of banding. Otherwise, why bother? Why have fills? Why be banded in the first place?

I'm a fan of fitday.com.

Mine wasn't around a whole lot--he was home with our son. When he was there, he was fine. But he didn't stay long---basically, he visited briefly after I came out of surgery, and fetched me when I called and told him I was being discharged.