Katy517

Great. Thanks for your help Trish and for the compliment. My 6 weeks post-op liquid diet with no mushies is apparently pretty unusual. I'm using your 3 lb. per week target and shooting for 24 lbs total. Thank you for the help and good luck on the challenge!

I'm down for 24 lbs. by Independence Day - 3 per week. Aiming high. :confused:

Is this for me? My first fill will be on 5/26, which is six weeks post-op. I've factored that in as two add'l liquid diet days, albeit clear ones. That means approximately five weeks of solids after 1st fill. Three pounds per week sounds awesome.

I'd like to participate as Independence day is just one week prior to my summer vacation. I could use some guidance though as I'm not really sure what I should target for since I'm not on solid foods yet so don't really have a good barometer to go by. I've got 19 more days on full liquids and the weight has been coming off pretty well so far with that program. I've lost 15 lbs. since banding, 27 since pre-op liquid diet and 32 overall since beginning to work with the nutritionist pre-op. Just not sure what I should expect to lose based on ~3 weeks full liquids plus ~5 weeks of solid food, probably without much if any restriction. Any help for setting a realistic short term goal would be much appreciated. TIA, Katy

Happy anniversary and congratulations on a job well done. Way to work your program!

Same thing for me. I'm told to wait six weeks to submerge in Water by my surgeon - includes bathing and swimming. No special instructions for sea water.

My surgeon told me to take liquid Motrin (an nsaid) for my post-op port pain.

Great post Betsy. Thanks for reminding me of the 'paying oneself' method to keep up good practices. I've done it a couple of times and it really works. I initially used it to help motivate me to quit smoking. I smoked a pack a day and they cost $3 per pack when I quit so I would put $21 into a special bank account each week to help motivate me to stay away from cigarettes and that bad habit. I kept it up for about 1 1/2 years and had about $1600 saved at the time. It was used toward the down payment on my first home. The other time was when my significant other decided we were too busy and needed to hire somebody to clean the house every two weeks. My fiscally conservative nature just couldn't deal with that so instead I managed to convince that we should pay ourselves what the cleaning service wanted to charge, which at the time was $75. So, we setup a special savings account and deposited $75 into it every two weeks when we would do major house cleaning and it ended up paying for a trip to Maui. Not bad. LOL, things have changed though and now there is a cleaning person who gets $100 each time she cleans. If it were up to me, I would still be doing the self-pay thing and cleaning ourselves. This is a great idea to incorporate into a weight loss routine though. I've actually been wondering just how much will be saved in terms of restaurant and grocery bills.

I love most fish, but really don't care for Tilapia as it is pretty tasteless in my opinion. King Salmon is my favorite. I like to grill mainly if it's a nice firm fish. You can also bake, broil or saute in a fry pan. It really depends on the fish as to what the preferred cooking method would be. A really easy way to cook almost any fish is to wrap it in foil with seasonings and bake. It keeps the fish very moist.

See this thread for details http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f178/diet-ticker-114355/. Good luck with your bnading.

I was not allowed to have anything by mouth the day of surgery - both before and after. The next morning after the barium swallow I was given an 8 oz bottle of Crystal Light and told to take a small drink of it every five minutes to be sure that I could keep liquids down OK. I think it took about 1 1/2 hours to finish that bottle. Once that was deemed to have gone down without difficulty I was told that I could have liquids as desired upon my return to home. There was zero hunger though, just thirst.

Mine is also right under my skin and does look like a large tumor before any weight loss at all. It scares the heck out of me that this won't get better on its own. It still hurts a lot too after more than three weeks. The doc keeps saying to wait and it will improve. As to the OP - I've yet to be hungry. food smells really good to me and makes me want it, but no hunger pangs (or hunger pains for that matter) at all.

I've heard of a very few situations with special pre-op diet (clear liquid or otherwise). It might do well to check with your surgeon's office though. Mine didn't tell me about my 5-day clear liquid diet until 8 days prior to surgery.

I'll be following this thread closely. I have a new 14 cc band and will be getting my first fill on 5/26. I was surprised to find out that it will be done at the hospital and not by my surgeon or his staff at their office.

I was told no lifting over 10 pounds for six weeks. Didn't ask specifically about working out, but assume it's the same timeframe.

Ditto this - walk, walk, walk. I was up and walking in the hospital within a few hours of recovery and the Bariatric Coordinator at my hospital told me to walk regularly at home too. She advised a block to start with for the first two days after surgery and then adding a a block on day three and continuing that objective of adding a block every two days. I'm up to 11 blocks now and can vouch for this really addressing gas pains in a significant way. Good luck.

I was always thin/normal sized growing up. I then went away to college at 18 and promptly gained about 40 pounds the first year. I've always had a big appetite and growing up very active, working on a farm and all, that worked out ok for me. Once my days became pretty much sedentary in school that all changed. I took that weight off, started smoking and breezed through my 20s between 125-130 pounds for the most part. I was active and if I gained I could get it off pretty easily. I quit smoking at 31 and within 4 years put on 50 pounds shooting up to 180 without me really noticing. I finally noticed it on a vacation and resolved to get it off. The Jenny Craig program helped me considerably with that and within about 9 months I was back to normal. I only kept at that weight for about a year though as I returned to normal eating/drinking habits and put the weight back on - all of it and more within about 2 1/2 years time shooting upward of 200 pounds for the first time in my life. I returned to Jenny Craig with no luck this time around. I then learned that I had to have a hysterectomy in order to address some scary cervical cancer symptoms and the result within one year of that surgery was an additional 50 pounds. My behaviors hadn't changed, my body had. I was mortified. I tried a diet pill doctor to no avail. I had four different stints on Weight Watchers also to no avail. Did the Carbohydrate Addict diet and several others along the way. No luck keeping any weight lost off for long. My PCP recommended that I consider lap band a few years ago and I blew it off thinking that was just a cop-out and I could do it on my own. I could not and last summer began to seriously work toward getting approved and hope to finally get back to normal, whatever that might be at this point. I'm not a binge eater, junk food eater or sweets lover. I like big portions and starches and fatty cheeses and meats like steaks and sausages, etc. (think pizza or spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread) are some of my favorites things. They say that I'm a good candidate for the surgery and should have good results. I sure hope so.

LOL Stacie, I hope it wasn't the kitten in your avatar! Do you recall how long your port stuck out? Thanks for lightening my mood. I have been very worried.

That's what I read so much of here is in regard to difficult to locate ports. I could inject my own saline at this point as mine sticks out a good 1/2". My surgeon said yesterday that it "is pressing against something" and that "something" feels like my rib cage. I can't imagine that this is going to resolve itself, but I'm trying to stay positive.

Thanks for the info Mimilou. My surgeon just tells me that he's not worried about it. Almost like he doesn't want to address that we have a problem. I'm in a constant state of pain in that area and it throbs frequently. I can't even imagine how exercise would be with it. It's really very troubling.

Mine does too, but I'm only three weeks post-op. Looks like you're pretty far progressed. Has yours always bothered you? Did you complain about it to your surgeon? I'm just really uncomfortable all the time and can't imagine living with this object sticking out like it does under my skin.

Hi all you April 2010 bandsters. I've had mixed results, but am feeling positive. Still a lot of pain in the port site and even though the swelling from surgery has gone down my port is still significantly extended. Still hurts a great deal to bend over or sit in one position too long. My surgeon isn't worried. I am. I don't have an appetite yet, but do realize when I need nourishment and have no trouble drinking liquids. I guess that's good since I still have three weeks to go on full liquids. Not sure at all why my doctor has the unusual practice of requiring six weeks full liquid post-op with no clear liquid or mushy phase, but that's what I have to deal with. I made my first fill appointment today for the afternoon of May 26th and am looking forward to it. Nothing to eat or drink (not even water) after midnight the night before and clear liquids for 48 hours afterward. So, my first solid food will be hitting my mouth the evening of May 28th after not having consumed any solids since April 9th. Yikes. I would not have thought this was really possible without my jaws wired shut, but so far so good on the diet stuff. I hope you all are doing well in BandLand. Katy

Thank you for the reply Tish. Did yours hurt a lot too? Mine throbs almost all the time and even wakes me up at night. All my surgeon recommended was to continue using ice packs and liquid Motrin. Logic tells me that if it sticks out now it is going to be even worse when I lose weight as it almost feels like it's attached to the outside of my ribcage.

Six weeks post-op.

I couldn't connect yesterday morning for several hours and then the same thing happened last night too.