TheCurvyMermaid

Hillary, Thanks for the encouragement, and the spedometer analogy *does* make sense, I get it. =) 3CCs isn't nothing, true, but I don't feel like I'm getting any benefit from any restriction at this point. I'll keep being a good girl. I could eat anything now without a problem, and I promise you, it's not my band that's keeping me away from the fudge cake, potato chips, and SIX BOXES of Girl Scout cookies my roommates have had on the kitchen counter this week! LOL!

Oh, and Hillary, I'm totally guilty of the "coffee for breakfast" thing too. I've never been a big breakfast person, and I've never been one to eat much until I've been awake for two or three hours, so I totally get it. Which reminds me... I should probably find something solid to eat! LOL!

Hi all, here's a bit of an update on where I'm at. I had my initial visit back at the doc, and the PA gave me a 2CC fill to start with on 2/19. I didn't feel much of anything as far as restriction goes, so I went back on Monday the 25th and got another 1CC. I've been working HARD at keeping my portions under control, and I'm eating mainly Proteins and veggies, barely any carbs because I'm staying away from bread/pasta/rice, etc... as I figure out where I'm at with my band. I've started tracking my intake on the "My Fitness Pal" app, which I LOVE. I still don't have good restriction, and my small meals aren't keeping me full by any stretch of the imagination, but until I have good restriction with my band, I'm restricting *myself* to 1200 calories a day. I've been tracking since Monday, 2/25 and I've been working hard at getting 90g+ of Protein a day. So far so good, and I'm seeing results on the scale. But... I'm still super hungry all the time. Last night I had a 7oz piece of salmon, a handful of asparagus spears, and a small slice of garlic bread for dinner, and within half an hour of eating, I was hungry again. Earlier meals in the day were a cup of low fat cottage cheese over a handful of spinach, and I feel like I'm losing weight because of my diet efforts, and not necessarily because of my band. I think more restriction could make a huge difference for me, and I know I won't be able to maintain such a low calorie diet for too long without a little more help from my band. I'm starting to feel a shift in the way I've viewed my band... previously, I counted on restriction to do the work for me, but this time around, I feel like I'm actually using it as a tool to help me along, rather than as my magic bullet. My doctor's office doesn't really care about counting calories, or really tracking anything other than protein: they care about portion size. They want me to be able to eat a small portion and stay satisfied/full until the next meal. I'd say personally, I intend to keep both in mind. I like knowing what I'm eating, and when I'm tracking it, I feel like I make better food choices. My next appointment is on Monday, March 11th, and I will most likely get a bit more of a fill at that point. Until then I'm just going to do my best to stay on track. Suzi, good luck with your fill! Hillary, I wish you the very best of luck with that CPAP and adjusting to the eating schedule. It seems like a lot to keep up with, but it's definitely worth a shot.

Mine has never entirely gone away. When I was at a good level of restriction, I'd call it a "full" signal, but when I was over-filled, I had the left shoulder pain all the time. After some complications, I had all of my saline removed, and for a year and a half, even with no restriction, if I overate, or if I drank too much liquid at one time I'd still get shoulder pain. I really wish it would go away, but I've come to accept that it's probably here to stay. I hope yours becomes more manageable.

Well, I went to the clinic today, and the PA gave me an initial fill of 2CCs. (Remember, I'd been at 0.) I've got an appointment for an adjustment in a month if I need it. I think I was at 5CCs when they ufilled me, and I think at my highest fill I was at 6.5 or 7CCs. I expect I'll probably need a bit more, but I'm not going to go fill crazy. Oh, restriction... It's been a while, but I remember you. The tight feeling in my chest when I drink cold Water, and the lack thereof when I have hot tea instead. Yeah, I didn't miss that! Now to figure out what do do about food. Definitely liquids tonight, and then we'll see how it goes from there. After this long without any restriction, I know it probably sounds silly, but I'm a little bit scared to eat! Should do wonders for my weight loss if I can keep that up, right?... (Kidding...) One nice thing that's changed at the clinic, right off the bat they gave me a new "Bariatric Eating 101" packet which focuses heavily on Protein intake, Vitamin supplements, and the glycemic index. I feel MUCH better about the new focus, especially on low GI foods. They didn't really say much about portions, (I'm going to assume 1/2-1 cup of solid food) but they want us to shoot for 90g of protein a day. Does that seem a little high, or is it just me? Anyhow, thanks everybody for the sounding board and the support. For those of you starting over, like me... let's do this. Good luck to us all!

Thanks, Cheryl. It's awesome that you've been so successful with your band. I really hope I can hit my stride with the band. Sugar is a big trigger food for me too, especially ice cream. I avoid buying it, because if I do, I know I'll manage to inhale the whole carton in a few days, so I just don't buy it. I find that the more sugar I have, the more I want. When I had my band, my surgeon kept saying that I should be full and stay satisfied on just the 4 oz, 3x a day... and that was definitely not my experience. Because I didn't stay satisfied between those meals, I figured my band wasn't tight enough, and would get a fill, but maybe I was wrong in that. Like you, I was hungry every couple of hours. The one size fits all approach that my surgeon takes is a bit frustrating. I think I need to find a balance between what they tell me there, and what works for me. I didn't find it last time around, but hopefully it will go better this time. I *really* hope I'll be able to tolerate fruits, veggies, and salad greens this time around. I missed bread and Pasta, but what I missed most were the fruits and veggies. The first thing I ate when I got my band unfilled was a veggie tray. I scarfed out on fresh broccoli, carrots, and celery... LOL! What is ideal Protein? I'm not familiar with it.

It's good to know I'm not alone at least. Hillary, I TOTALLY feel you. I've been doing weight watchers on and off too... lost about 20 lbs last year with diet and excercise, and then gained it all back after an injury from overtaining at the gym. After pulling a muscle in my back a couple of weeks ago and ending up just about incapacitated, my doc gave me a course of steroids, muscle relaxers, and painkillers. Between the steroids, poor food choices, and inactivity while resting my back, I've put on almost ten pounds since then. Eek! Not okay. If you do WW online and feel like adding me there, my handle is TheCurvyMermaid. Pjop, I used to wake up choking on acid too. It's pretty bad when you can't pass your own saliva through the band, isn't it. I've told people, you really have no idea how much Fluid your mouth produces on a constant basis, along with when you eat, until it stops going down. It's absolutely awful that you got pneumonia. I'd say that my biggest health complaint with the band comes from not being able to throw up. (Slight oversharing coming up, but I'm just keeping it real.) Sometimes, your body needs to get rid of things. (Hello, hangover! I kid you not, there was one time I had a throwing up sick hangover from *one glass* of red wine. How lame is that?!?!) When your body is trying to get rid of something toxic and can't, it can be pretty miserable. I get migraines about 4-5 times a year, and have had them for most of my life. The pattern they follow is that I get the migraine, and the pain gets more and more severe over the course of about 3-6 hours until I finally get nauseaus and throw up. After that happens, I take my pain reliever of choice, and the pain recedes. Until I throw up, the headache WILL NOT go away, and I've found more often than not, my band makes my digestive system a one way street. My body *tries* to throw up, but it can't get back up past the band, so I can't get the reset I need. I'm really not looking forward to going back to that. There's a part of me which wonders if I just really didn't try hard enough to do things by the book. The guidelines I was given by the clinic I went to were to eat a 4oz meal a day, 3x a day. No Snacks, and only calorie free beverages. It was so different from the guidelines that I heard from other people who went to other practices, and so counter to what I've always been told about nutrition and healthy eating that I totally ignored the "success formula" I was given and pretty much tossed it out the window. I thought I knew better, and maybe I really didn't. I paid for my surgery out of pocket. I paid about $6,000 in cash up front and financed the other $12,000 through Care Credit. Huge financial mistake! With a 29% interest rate, I can only blame it on being young and stupid. Almost five years later, I still owe about $4,000, and make the equivalent of a car payment every month. My insurance considers the band elective, so nothing was covered, including any fills I get. The clinic charges $175 for adjustments, and that amount covers any adjustments for the following 3 month period. Paying that out of pocket is a pretty penny when you're on a budget. I don't know if I'm going to be able to pull this off, and if things will be different this time around. I wonder, am I just throwing good money after bad? I'll totally own that I have a love/hate relationship with food. (I suppose that many of us do, or we wouldn't have ended up so large that we got WLS in the first place, right?) I eat too much. I eat when I'm bored. I eat the wrong things. I eat when I'm emotional, and I eat to make myself feel better. I stuff myself silly sometimes just because I can. I don't always do all of these things, but there's definitely an underlying pattern of behavior. I ask myself, did I continue the same behaviours and just find a way to eat around the band? Did I just not try hard enough to use this tool? I really don't know, but I try to be self aware enough to at least ask myself the question. I really hope I'll be more successful this time around, but I have misgivings, and I hope that with those doubts, I'm not setting myself up for failure from the start.