shrinkAdink_05/10

So, this last 2 weeks since my last fill became torture...ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS EAT! AND YES, I WAS HUNGRY! :tongue2: This last week was riddled with failures. I ate half of a steak house burger and fries for lunch one day and that wasn't the only time I fell off the wagon, but on this day I decided this is a bunch of crap after I feed my emotions with half of a snickers bar! HOW FOOLISH I HAVE BEEN! :frown: Lucky for me my doctor is the best! They scheduled me for my first day off that I could get there. Went in today and the PA did my fill which scared me. Dr. K is so good at it that I was afraid he would hurt me. It did hurt more going in, but as you see I survived it :smile: He added 1.4 cc's, and I think this time I definitely feel some "real" restriction. :wub: I kept my July 1st appt. just in case I feel like I need more. When he added 1.5cc's I could feel the water he had me drink nearly stop in my throat and felt the funnel effect, so then at 1.3cc's it went down every easily so 1.4cc's it is! This was the first time of any of my fills that I felt the slowing/stopping feeling. I liked feeling this because now I feel like i finally got a really effective fill. oh well, we'll see! The nurse said i now have 7cc's in total. I hope this does the trick. I want those ICKY hungry, cravings feelings to stop for good!:thumbup: BTW, I weighed in at 177. I was happy to hear I lost 5 pounds from the last fill but it definitey WAS NOT from eating right. When i messed up, like with the hamburger and the snickers I took an Alli pill with them, helps keep your body from absorbing all the fat. (I used this successfully before surgery on 2 different occassions to lose weight, but of course you stop, you gain it back) I worked my butt off at the gym to try and make up for the food failures. Looks like it worked, but I can't and won't continue on like this! Family reunion is coming up on July 22nd my goal weight for the reunion is 169...will I reach it???! I'll keep you posted! :smile:

I have never done a blog before so this is more of an experiment in...can I figure this out? I was banded on May 5, 2010 by Dr. Gerald Kirshenbaum in Aurora, Colorado. Before the pre-diet I weighed in at 212 pounds. At my pre-op appointment May 1, 2010 I was 196. May 16th, I weighed in at 186. Today June 1st I weighed in at 181, but that is what I have weighed for the last several days now. I guess I have hit my first plateau??! Uggggghhh! Hate those! So, I am super excited to have my first fill on June 4th. I am feeling the desire to eat these last few days...not sure I can really call it hunger, but I am wanting to eat. That feeling scares me and I just want it to go away!..FOREVER!! In fact I think I am hungry now, but i also think I have eaten plenty today so I am trying my best to ignore the feeling. I am looking for others who are going through this journey as well so that we can use each other as a support system. I know this is going to be more difficult than I had invisioned...I just have to keep motivated. I am a self pay patient. I paid $9,875 all on my credit card...so with the monthly bill coming in, guess that should be motivation enough huh??? LOL I know in the end it will all be well worth it. With no restriction though...these next 2 weeks are gonna be rough. OK, enought for now...tell me about you. :smile2:

Thanks for all your encourgement guys! It helps so much!!

Yipeee! I weighed in today at 178! I bought a body bugg too, I think this along with the weight trainer is making a world of difference. I highly recommend it! My new goal is 169!

Today I got started with Lori a personal trainer with 23 hour fitness. She got me set up with a simple full body workout. She kicked my butt, but that wasn't so hard to do. I am such a whimp and have no staminia...I can't wait to feel like exercising instead of dreading it. My arms are so weak 20lb weights are all I can bare to lift. On another note...looking forward to tomorrow, I get to see the Doc for my second fill. Hopefully this time it will be an effective one. I am bouncing between 181 and 185. I want to see 179!:bored:

Went back in today to get another fill. I wanted more than he gave me, but he was really concerned that I would be over filled and then suffer the weekend. This time since I knew what to expect I was less nervous and the needle wasn't anything more than a tiny quick pinch. He filled me to 5.7cc so lets see how this will work! I stopped at Wendy's and got a baked potatoe and a junior frosty to sample both. I was only able to eat about 4 tablespoons of potatoe and about half an ounce of the frosty. YIPPPPEEEE....I hope it stays this way! I am eating watermelon for dinner and then off to the gym. The fill was a good thing but the rest of the day has been shit. Husband got a speeding ticket on the way there and then bad news from our attorney regarding his child custody battle. MY GOD am I sick of all this crap. I am trying so hard to focus on me, me, me so I don't go into a tail spin. Good thing I can't eat much or I totally know i would be on a binge on my drug of choice....FOOD. Instead I am headed to the gym to try and sweat out some of this frustration. :bored:

I think i do have some restriction again, FINALLY. I did for the first 2 weeks after surgery, but not again til now. After the second fill I regained some faith again although i am hungry as we speak, i am fighting myself on having a little something to eat or go to bed and sleep the hungry pain off. Today i ate half of a salsbury steak weight watcher meal and felt plenty satisfied. Had a healthy dinner measured it out to 5 ounces and ate it all... felt satisfied. All day until now i have been happy and satisfied. i guess that means i need to start going to bed sooner??? Keep working out, I know that is what is helping me right now. Can't you go get another fill? I guess I am lucky because my Doc is only an hour away and it's only $25 for a fill. (except for now it's free til 3 months post-op) Good luck to you!!

Well the 2nd fill has broken my plateau. Am I to my "sweet" spot? Don't think so, but feeling less hunger than ever. Tonight I ate about 5ozs of good healthy food and felt satisfied. It's now 11pm and my belly is rumbling a bit, but seems that i always have a problem this time of night. Guess I should hurry and get this blog done so i can go sleep off the hunger? I go July 1st for my next fill. So, in two weeks i think i will be where i want to be! Today is June 13, 2010 and I weighed in this morning at 178! Yippppeee!!!:mad2: My first goal was to get to 179, so I just set my new short term goal today at 169. Then, I have a family reunion coming up on July 22. So, that is five weeks for me to lose all I can. My original goal for family reunion week was 170. I think I am going to revise that to 165, this is just to push myself more at the gym. I am currently kickin' my own butt... I come home feeling good, but sore! I know I will be converting some of this blubber to muscle so I may even have issue with the scale moving the way i want it. But, oh well...it gives me something to work towards. All in all today was long, but pretty good. No complaints... I had a great day at the gym. 10 minutes on the rowing maching, 15 minutes on the stairmaster (my new love!) and then 30 minutes on the Elyptical on the cross training mode with intensity of 9 kept heart rate up in the cardo range the entire time. Everyday it gets easier!:frown: Bad news, I am SO hungry! Think I'll have a little chuck of cheese:blush: then off to bed.

Am I feeling restriction yet?....NOOOPE! I am doing the happy dance because I expected to have to beg to go in for another fill, but heck no! I had ZERO resistance, just sweet, kind, gentle understanding. My doc's staff are so nice and i think most, if not all are patients of his too, so they know what I am going thru. I love that I am not treated like a fat woman there! They make you feel like family. So without asking when I told her my name she says, "oh, do you need another fill?" So, she read my mind and without asking anything else she says can you be here Friday, June 11th? HELL YEAH I CAN BE THERE!:eek: I have been so bad, really bad the last two days since I know anything and everything will go thru my band. I am too ashamed to even tell the truth about what I have eaten..and I won't waste time beating myself up...help is on the way YIPPEEE! I can't WAIT to see what restriction feels like on Friday.

I was very nervous about the fill needle and being poked, but turned out to be pretty simple. When I was laying there with the needle and syringe sticking out of my body the doc says, "ok, now I'm going to have you sit up and drink some water'. At the point I started laughing hysterically, tears and all. I said, "REALLY! :w00t:With the needle sticking a foot out of my body?!" The doc and my hubby looked puzzled or maybe they decided I had really lost it, but I seriously couldn't stop laughing. Doc said this was a first, lol....I guess most people aren't that easily amused? Oh well, now I am NOT laughing...:sad:I don't think I got enough of a fill! The doc filled some and had me drink water to see if it went thru, and with each fill and each big gulp, it always went down, no problemo. A few times i felt a little bit of what felt like a bubble in my throat but no feeling of water being stuck or backing up. i think it was just that it was a little air since he was requesting that I GULP the water. Not knowing what i was feeling I thought the bubble feeling and my husbands bulging eyes was maybe an indication that I needed to stop, so I took 4.4cc as good enough. I have read so much on here, but for some reason it never occurred to me to read about other people's first fill experience. So I really didn't know what was a little or a lot in terms of 1cc, 2cc's etc.:eek: Since I have a 10cc band, 4.4cc's sure did sound like an awful lot for a first fill when I hear others say their doctor doesn't even let them participate in the decision and 1 cc is all they get whether it good enough or not. I really cheated myself darn it. So, since my appt was at 11:30am and I was told to fast before the fill, I decided to have a junior frosty on my 2 hour ride home since I had a free coupon for one...skim milk later in the day and mashed potatoes for dinner. The doc said start with liquids & rapidly progress to full liquids and then soft foods as tolerated for the next 24 hours. NOW GUESS WHAT??!! I AM HUNGRY AND IT HASN'T BEEN 24 HOURS! Grrrrr..thank goodness for me it's only a short drive for a fill. I have a feeling I will be heading back up there next week. I am so mad at myself! What the heck was I supposed to feel to know I was tight enough??? Next time I won't let him stop til water is backed up in my nostrils, lol....guess that would mean I am filled enough???

The only reason I ate those things was because the Dr. said all I could have liquids and mushy stuff although maybe not the best choices.:thumbup: Well, yesterday I went back to solids and still absolutely no restriction. I was just surprised that for a first fill if 4.4cc I feel nothing. That sounds like a big first fill to me. For breakfast this morning I had a packet of instand oatmeal and I feel satisfied. Now I am just curious to see how long before I feel hungry again. Yesterday I was very hungry between meals. Seems as though I feel more hungry now after the fill than before. The trial and error part kinda stinks, but again, I definitely don't want anything to go wrong and risk hurting myself or the band. I will be calling ASAP tomorrow to go for another fill.

I had my first fill today too and didn't know what to expect. My doc puts the needle in then has you sit up and then injects 1 cc at a time and has you drink water to see if it goes down. It always did! I felt what kinda felt like a bubble in my throat when i swallowed one time so i thought we should stop since i was at 4.4cc at that point. Soooo...that is where i sit now. I WISH I would have waited until it wouldn't go down but i had no idea that many people get 6cc+ put in during their first fill. I was thinking I was over doing it and worried I may go home too tight, so I had him stop. Well, now I am super hungry. I have been getting more hungry at night anyway for some reason? I am so mad at myself, but luckily a fill is only an hour drive away. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel some change. Otherwise i am headed back to Denver next week! Don't feel bad 1cc or 4cc..still hungry:crying:

The problem is this...I made several calls to our Insurance company to let them know I was having LAP-BAND® surgery and the person said it was covered. Well, I didn't believe them. I figured the person was new, or didn't know what LAP-BAND® surgery was, so I called again a few days later to get a new person and ask the same questions. This person too said, "yes, this surgery is covered" This person was even more helpful giving the link for the pre-surgery requirements all of which I met except for the psych eval. They even gave me the link to print out the form to file with the insurance company since the doc I was using did not file with insurance and wasn't in the Blue Cross Blue Shield network. I was self pay in the amt. of $9875. which includes 3 months post op. After that he only charges $25 for fills. During the surgery he did find that I had a hernia and repaired that as well. Now that I have had the surgery, and before I have filed anything with the insurance company I find out that I was required to call in for a pre-auth for surgery. We just switched to Blue Cross from Aetna in January. Aetna didn't require pre-auth's (I had foot surgery and bladder surgery last year and never got a pre-auth, unless the doc did this for me??) So, now I am wondering if anyone has delt with this issue and what the outcome was? Any ideas on how to approach this when I file for reimbursement from the insurance company? I paid with a credit card and while I will be very disappointed if they won't cover anything...it is stll the best thing I have EVER done for myself and I would have still been a self-pay regardless. My primary care physician said he will do whatever it takes to help me get this paid for as he has been treating me for the last 8 years for obesity with nothing but a yoyo effect. If you have any advice on how to approach this at time of filing I would GREATLY appreciate it! (Do you think they would even cover the hernia portion of the surgery??) THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ADVICE!!

I am in Colorado Springs. Dr. Kirshenbaum in Aurora did my surgery. He was the most affordable that I could find for self pay and he has great reviews. ($9875 w/ 3 months post op and only $25 for fills ) I asked someone about the bullets and they said they taste really bad, so I am done wasting money on products that will never be consumed, so I am simply going to consentrate on getting it in other ways. This morning I made and egg w/ skim milk and shredded cheese. I put enough milk in it so that it was about the consistency of pudding when it was done. Sounds gross, but didn't taste bad at all after adding a little garlic salt and pepper. I am drinking skim milk between meals instead of the Protein shake as it has no fat and a good dose of protein. I think I am getting plenty since my hair is still not falling out. I have gone on low fat diets in the past and my hair fell out like crazy, so at least I will have a clue what is happening if I start getting wads of hair in the tub. (Last time this happened I felt bad cause my husband who was balding very young and quickly came out of the shower and had a horrified look on his face and said, "Ang, OMG look at all the hair that fell out just when I was taking a shower!" I laughed SO hard:lol:....I had forgotten to clean out the drain and we have the same color hair) I have been lucky so far with no serious hunger, and have yet to feel starved which I was really scared about before the surgery. I was afraid smelling food would send my belly (and brain) into a frenzy wanting to eat desperately, but that hasn't been the case at all. I enjoy the feeling of smelling good food cooking without the desire to actually eat it. This part has been so far the best part of the lap band for me. I am however starting to feel hunger so I am looking forward to my first fill on June 4th. I made the mistake of watching a YouTube video showing a girl having a fill and now I am scared! Looked pretty horrifying since I HATE needles, lol.:tongue2: I was gonna go by myself, now I am dragging the hubby and the baby along to hold my trembling hand. So, scale has moved yet again but I felt up to a long walk around a lake here in town. We made three laps which is 2-3 miles so I am hoping this helped something somewhere in this body of mine. I think when you get to start the "mushy" stage you will feel much more satisfied. When do you get to have your first fill? That will help too I am sure. Have a good week, keep up the good work!:smile:

SWEET!...After posting no weight loss for the last 9 days, I finally lost another pound. That was a GREAT way to start my day!! It's only a pound, but when I think of it in terms of what a pound of hamburger meat looks like, then that's make me happy. I don't really have a well rounded meal plan yet obviously since i am only 2 weeks out, I am sticking to boring at the moment. I have a pack of oatmeal in the morning, can't eat but about half the pack, I share the other half with my 11 month old daughter. Our appetites are now identical, lol. For lunch I have been having either mashed potatoes or potatoe soup with shredded cheese mixed in to help get some more protein. Dinner has been refried beans with cheese and sour cream. For a snack if I feel I need one i have had apple sauce, pudding, jello, popsicles, skim milk, carnation breakfast drink. I found some diced ham in the sandwich meat isle and plan on mixing that in with mashed up sweet potatoes when I transition into the chewing stage. I also had a smashed up boiled egg a few days ago and it went down well, stayed down and didn't make me feel yucky. I am not doing the protein shakes, just can't...they all taste gross or too thick or too sweet etc. I take 2 gummy vitamins and 2 tums in the morning also. I sip on water all day but don't manage to get down more than about 12 oz at most. This is something i really need to work on, but didn't drink much before the surgery eitherunless it was Coke or Dr. Pepper, which isn't good as i have had kidney stones in the past. Urologist told me then, adults living in Colorado need to be drinking a minimum of 1 gallon of water a day if they have issues with stones..:thumbup: HA!

I was banded on May 5th. Consultation weight was 212 lbs. After pre-op diet at pre-op apt. April 30th, 196 lbs. By May 11th I was down to 186 lbs and now for the last 9 days NOTHING is changing...so frustrating. I suppose I have gone into starvation mode and my metabolism is at a dead stand still with the little that I am eating. I can't wait to start my exercise program to get the scale moving again. Of course I am happy to report that at pre-op I was in my tight 18's and today I was able to get into my size 12's. They were snug, but not uncomfortable.