jmw0424

I had self pay surgery in detroit. loved my doctor but he left jsut after doing my surgery. his partner that I now see is nice and he has been very helpful< but I have to pay 150.00 each fill and I have not yet found my sweet spot. the only time i feel restriction is if I swallow food that i havent chewed well, or eat a regular portion (ie.... 4-6oz meat 1 cup veggie and starch, 2 slices of pizza, two eggs and a slice or toast, whole sandwhich etc...) I have never had an issue with any food (not that I want to) but i get this odd shoulder pain when my stomach is empty, and I am finding that it takes more then I should be eating to make the pain go away. I am hoping to find a doctor that does fills under fluro, as my u=current doctor doesn't and he also says at 7.5cc's I "shouold be at restriction and don't need any more fills or I will end up too tight" I don't want that but I woulod rather pay once and know that I am at restriction instead of paying a bunch of times for a .25cc injection and a good guess. any help would be great. thanks

so finally after my fourth fill I think I am in the green zone. for the first time I feel restriction when I eat. I am still able to eat any food with out PB, but if I eat too fast or too big of a bite or dont stop soon enough, then I will get stick and that is not comftorable! I am glad to have enough restriction to regulate my portions with out feeling jungry, but still not be so restricted that I have to leave out certain types of foods. I like the fact that I can eat out with people, and aside from eating slower and less, I am just like them on to the NSV!!!! my family spent the week at disney world last week. Talk about HOT and HUMID!!! anyway for the first time in a LONG time i got onto every ride with out wondering if I would meet the seat size requirement I also wore tank tops the whole time with out avoiding pictures because I wasn't worried that my arms looked HUGE. granted they are still bigger then avg size people (they were even big in compairson to the rest of my body when I was heavier) but for the first time they were not the focus of my attention when I looked at pics of myself also no second chin in photos!!!!!!! last but not least I had been holding off on shopping until just before the trip and I am happy to report that I was able to shop in the regular womens department and not the plus size department!!!! I comftorably wore sz 14 or 16 bottoms, large skirts and large shirts!!!! I even got a few xl shirts from the juniors department and a sz medium skirt from old navy (clearly elastic is my friend lol ) I am almost 6 months into this journey, and I am half way to my goal weight, but I am 100% at my goal lifestyle, and that is way more important to me. It feels so good to finally be happy with me and know that I am leading my family in a healthy active lifestyle.

so finally after my fourth fill I think I am in the green zone. for the first time I feel restriction when I eat. I am still able to eat any food with out PB, but if I eat too fast or too big of a bite or dont stop soon enough, then I will get stick and that is not comftorable! I am glad to have enough restriction to regulate my portions with out feeling jungry, but still not be so restricted that I have to leave out certain types of foods. I like the fact that I can eat out with people, and aside from eating slower and less, I am just like them on to the NSV!!!! my family spent the week at disney world last week. Talk about HOT and HUMID!!! anyway for the first time in a LONG time i got onto every ride with out wondering if I would meet the seat size requirement I also wore tank tops the whole time with out avoiding pictures because I wasn't worried that my arms looked HUGE. granted they are still bigger then avg size people (they were even big in compairson to the rest of my body when I was heavier) but for the first time they were not the focus of my attention when I looked at pics of myself also no second chin in photos!!!!!!! last but not least I had been holding off on shopping until just before the trip and I am happy to report that I was able to shop in the regular womens department and not the plus size department!!!! I comftorably wore sz 14 or 16 bottoms, large skirts and large shirts!!!! I even got a few xl shirts from the juniors department and a sz medium skirt from old navy (clearly elastic is my friend lol ) I am almost 6 months into this journey, and I am half way to my goal weight, but I am 100% at my goal lifestyle, and that is way more important to me. It feels so good to finally be happy with me and know that I am leading my family in a healthy active lifestyle.

that is so great! congrats on your success and I am sure your story will help another person out which makes telling it all the more worth while

I'm with you in the wanting to be a runner thing. In high school I did softball and hockey and even though I was about 150-160 with lots of muscle, I had large breast and could never run with out feeling like my stride was messed up and my breast hurt. I had a reduction a few years after I graduated, but by then I was out of work out mode. I think it is hard for people who always got exercise through sports to realize how important it is to begin a work out routine when high school is over! Esp people who would have been fat were it not for being in a sport year round, anyway I just downloaded couch to 5k yesterday and I am looking forward to being able to really run / jog for 25-30 min. on the ground, which I found out recently is NOTHING like the treadmil!! I have been doing good on the treadmil walking for 5 min and jogging for 5 min but when I tried it with my kids at the park I could hardly jog for 2 min :grouphug: anyway good luck and my goal is to do our local 5k run / walk for breast cancer

I think in most cases you will always get an answer from the nurse, that errors on the side of caution. first not every pill can be crushed (entric coated, time released etc) so saying you need to crush every pill is silly. I would say to split the pills that are long, such as Calcium pills, but most sizes of round pills are fine for just about every. also keep in mind that you dont even have any Fluid in your band so the odds of getting stuck are slim. If you do need to crush your pills now ( while the swelling in your stomach goes down) then rest assured that you wont have to do it forever. I will tell you my diet progression, but every doctor is different. I think mine advances diets a bit more slowly then some others that I have heard, but again better safe then sorry. week one - Clear Liquids only ( only approved non see through item was Protein shakes) week two- week 1 foods + full liquids ( Jello, cream Soup, etc) week three - week 1 &2 foods + soft foods ( cream of wheat, pudding, mashed taters, hummis, cottage cheese etc) week four - weeks 1,2 &3 foods + non red meat Proteins ( fish, chicken, shrimp, lobster, crab etc) week five - weeks 1,2,3 & 4 + fruits and veggies advoiding uncooked veggies until well tolerated week six - weeks 1,2,3,4 & 5 + red meat, Pasta, bread, and rice - be careful with these foods, try them in small amounts one at a time until you know how u will tolerate them. **NEVER FOODS** carbonated beverages & gum that was it. good luck and if you are unsure of anything call your doctor or nutritionist

I still get painful burps / stuck gas if I go too long between meals. It took me a while to figure out that was the cause, but I am almost 100% sure now. It also gives me referred pain in my shoulder, which is what prompted me to get to the bottom of it. try gas x and hopefully it will improve when u get onto more solid foods. also drink very slowly and eat very slowly. sure u know but no straws. all of those things make u swallow more air, thus more burps :smile2: as for the drinks, I use chocolate powder from walmart, and add a 1/2 tsp of Peanut Butter or 1/2 of a bananna..........or both if it has been a pretty low cal day and make a smoothie. anyway this helps with the taste for me, but u have to be careful because PB has lots of calories so dont use too much. if u like other flavors better, then just add some sort of frozed fruit in place of ice and blend it up and that helps too sure the pain with laughing will pass once u heal more, but it takes a long time for the port site to stop being tender at times, I am still waiting for that day Good luck to you:thumbup:

my doctors told me that when people get filled to the point that "lots" of regular foods are not tolerated and they have to do things like hot tea to tolerate solids, then they are usually too full and either eat too little or eat slider foods and both problems will cause u to be hungry soon after eating. He told me the best fill level is to be tight enough to feel not hungry after 1/2 - 1 cup of solid foods and have only a few common foods on the can not tolerate list. so maybe you are a little too tight?

:tongue:Thank you all so much for the support !!! The last couple of pounds are holding on for dear life, but they can't stick around forever. I see my doctor next week for another fill and I think at that point I will have some pretty good restriction. might not quite hit the "sweet spot" but as long as I am no longer hungry after 1 cup of food or less, then I can do this :cursing: I am learning that I dont need to be "full" after a meal, just not hungry any more. Again this website has been a wealth of information and I am so greatful to have others with my same "issues" to seek advise and support from. Thank you all again

2 pounds and a few ounces and I will be in the 100's ( what me and my friends call ONEderland lol ) I have been under 200 pounds in the past, but only by 10lbs or so and I always gained it right back with in a few months because I lost the weight taking Adapex and couldnt maintain such a low cal diet when I stopped taking the pills. Anyway it feels good to be this close again, but this time I know I did it the right way eating healthy foods in moderate portions and moving my butt off the couch. I dont have restriction yet, but I know I will soon and this time the weight will stay off.........and keep dropping:thumbup:!!! It has taken lots of will power and my loss seems to be going slower the some others, but I am thrilled and looking forward to my future.

I am down almost 35lbs. my pants are getting looser, but I am not small enough to drop to the next size yet. I out it on the fact that my 18's were getting pretty tight and had I bought new clothes would have prob needed to get a 20, so now my 18's are looser but I am not ready for a 16 and prob won't be for another 10 or more pounds.

hey hun I had a reduction when I was just 19 back in 2000. I can tell you that it DOES get better :confused: They will look very odd and mishapen for about 3-6 months before they "settle" into place. Like you I felt like they were too small right after, but when the fell into place I gained a full cup size. I currently wear a 38 C if I want some cleveage or a 38D if I am looking for full coverage. I wont say that there are no problems each breast is shaped differently. My nipple placement is uneven and the areola is different shaped and size, but in the end I am still happy I did it. My back thanks me every day. As I got older one thing I found is that as I gained weight (was only about 130 at time of reduction with 28" waist) it was hard to fit into plus size tops as they seemed to be made for large women with large breast. Since you are loosing though it seems as though you wont have to deal with that problem:) If after a few months they still seem to small then just invest in some heavy padded bras and they increase you 1-2 sizes. all of my bras these days are padded push ups

:confused::laugh: LOVE THIS!!!!! Our sweet tooths must be related LOL So far there are not any foods that I can not eat as long as I chew well and eat slowly. I have only had 2 fills though, so this may very well change. I have had a couple of times where something I was eathing seemed to get stuck. It caused some discomfort, but I didn't PB or vomit or anything. I can also say that those episodes happened when I was really hungry and ate a little to fast or my bite was a little too large.

I am finding that for me the stomach gas with lots of belching and even left shoulder pain seems to happen most often when my stomach is empty for too long. at least that is my new theory that I am testing and so far I am correct :confused: I had problems about 2-3 weeks post op and then was fine until just a couple weeks ago, now I have been getting lots of gas. The thing those two time peroids have in common is a mostly liquid diet. I am currently doing a meal replacement program with my doctor to "jump start" my weightloss and have 2 shakes and dinner. I am finding that if I eat a small snack between shakes I do not have the problem with the gas.