aromanek

Only 10 days post-op, byt it has made a huge difference!

I hear you. I was banded on 3/10 and I went back to work last thursday. My first day back was one of the longest days I have had there. I was just tired and wanted to go home. I recommend taking it slow. My boss know about the band and I worked out a little arrangement with her. I broke my lunch up into two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. If your boss knows about your surgery ask him/her about taking an extra break here and there or seeing if they can manipulate your lunch time too. Keeping up on fluids is important so hopefully your boss will be on board.

Since this whole process began that is all anyone sems to ask me. It is getting a little weird, but I think that is just because I have avoided any conversation regarding my weight nearly my whole life.Talking about it, even if it is about loss, still makes me a little uncomfortable. Only a few people on my team at work know I was banded, everyone else just thinks I went on vacation and dropped a few pounds. I think it is just natural for people who like and support you to ask how you are losing weight because it may be thier way of cheering you on. I know they mean well, but it doesnt make it any easier.

I am glad I saw this post. I am almost a week out from my surgery and there is this little thought in the back of my head that I will never be able to have the things I used to love. It is good to know that with informed, conscience decisions you can still enjoy food.

I am four days post op now and I cannot wait to be able to sleep flat in my own bed again. I am usually a side sleeper, but I have been sleeping on a recliner since it is more comfortable. I tried sleeping in my bed, but it was too uncomfortable. It didnt cause any pain, but I just couldnt find a spot where it felt like I wasnt putting pressure on where my port is. I havent been in too much pain since the surgery, but I was taking meds just to make sure that there was no pain at all. Today is the first day where I havent felt like I needed any meds so tomorrow I will run to the store and stretch my legs.

I love the Magic Bullet! It is perfect because the blender becomes the cup you drink out of so there is less clean up. I was one of those people that thought it was pointless to use a contraption, but at work the other day I mixed the powder into my shaker cup and it got clumpy no matter how much I shook and it became slimy globules. Never again.

As of today I am halfway done with my preop diet. I started out great and then the fifth and sixth days were rough. I never cheated, but I just felt grumpy and tired. Today I feel like I have a clearer focus now that I am over the hump, but I am learning what a crutch food is for me. This has been a stressful week at work and it makes me want to eat even more. As soon as I get home I could tear through the fridge and eat everything in sight (had I not thrown everything away the day before preop started). On stressfull days I would always stop at McDonald's and get some double cheeseburgers because they were my goto stress food. I would eat those suckers untill I was full then I would have one more for good measure. After a particularly crappy day today I drove home and when I drove passed McD's I jut kept going. When my nutritionist and surgeon told me my relationship with food would change, I didnt quite understand it, but I now see they were right.

I hear that. I feel like my office is the potluck capital of the world and every meeting is catered. I have no idea how everyone isnt over 500 lbs where I work. There is food everywhere. It is making this process tougher.

I can relate. I had/have this image in my head of what I am supposed to look like and I guess over time I just began to see only that. I think it is like people that lie too much begin to believe all the crap they say themselves. Im the back of my mind I knew how big I had become and I took comfort in people telling that I didnt look over 300 lbs. Now that I think about it people said that a lot with out me talkling about my weight.... I knew I was fat, I just didnt want to see it. I skipped a trip I had been looking forward to for months to see my old roommates from when I was in the Navy because I thought if they saw me they would think I was a failure because they knew me when I was thin. In fact, that is the only time of my life I was thin. I have always been big and I just straved myself in the Navy to be normal like everyone else. When I tell people I was in the military they all pause and look me up and down and I feel crushed. It is like they dont believe me so I just stopped talking about something I was proud of because of that very reaction.

Based on your measurements and description I would say we are pretty close in size and shape. When I was first considering getting the band I had a lot of people in my life who all of a sudden became medical experts telling me that losing weight too quickly and eating less would actually be harmful. While I can see where there is some small truth to that, I don't think that that will be the case with the band. I talked to my primary care doctor and any lapband team (nutritionist, psychologist and surgeon) and they all told me pretty much the same thing, getting banded is one of the best avenues to take in getting as close to a "normal" BMI as I can. My Endo doctor put it the best, "The stress of losing weight on the body over 1-5 years is immaterial when you consider what the body must endure over a lifetime of being obese." I know that there is a pretty substantial aftercare program with my surgeon's office and I am sure if I begin to lose weight faster than they would like, they can help be balance out my activities, eating, and fill quantity. Since I have been on my journey, I have lost about 20 lbs and I am gearing up for my surgery on March 10th. You just have to work with you care teams and leave the medical advice to them. I recommend taking your wife with you to see your doctor so she can air her concerns as well. After all, she will be the biggest part of your team helping you on your way.

I do feel like I have lost some energy from my preop diet, but my doctor encouraged me to get out and get exercise daily. My diet as a whole includes about 600-650 calories so I am getting WAY less than I was used to. In the last couple months I have been running, but I thought since I am a little more fatigued as of late I have switched to the elliptical. I like you suggestion of swimming. Maybe I will take a couple laps tonight and then relax in the hot tub at the gym.

I miss Port Orchard so much! I lived there for 3 years while I was in the Navy. It is good to have you here.

I get my band on March 10th! That day cannot come soon enough. I just got home from an Oscar party and there was so much food there and I felt like a dork with my shake. I wasn't going to go because of the food, but I got on the scale this morning and I have lost 8lbs so far (i'm on my 4th preop day) and I felt like going out and having a good time. I did find myself mesmerized by watching my friends eat. Just watching them shove mouthfull after mouthfull of crap down was so weird. I have never paid attention to how other people ate before. That made me feel better about drinking my shake. I have been known to pig out before, but I never knew it looked so disgusting.

I have been using Metformin for almost 3 years now and in the time I have struggled to lose weight. To be honest, losing weight was easier before I took these meds I am currently on for Diabetes. It does help a great deal with my glucose levels though. I am hoping in a few months I can say goodbye to taking Metformin and glipizide, lisinopril.... etc. When my new primary care doctor saw I was taking Metformin (and being diabetic in general) it was even more reason for him to endourse the band.

I am finishing up day one of my preop diet and I have to say it is MUCH better than I thought it was going to be. As part of my fee, I get a one month's supply of shakes and Vitamins. I am drinking Bariatric Advantage chocolate and it is pretty good. I get to add fruit, today I chose strawberries, and so that makes it even better. I have a shake for Breakfast and lunch and then I get a cup of Soup for dinner and one yogurt that I can gave any time of day. I just decided to make my own soup so I made green chili (I love New Mexico) soup with chicken and Beans. It came out great. I bought a bunch of one cup size containers on a whim last year and they are paying off helping me portion all my dinners. I am happy that with a few bumps in the road behind me on my journey, this diet is helping me to stay positive for the weeks to come.

I hope to see you there! One of my favorite things about this diet is that I can have 1 cup of yougurt any time of day so I have been eating the yougurt mixed with the cup of soup I can have for dinner. It makes me feel like I am eating a full meal. I made a homemade roasted tomato and garlic soup with chicken broth and mixing in the yougurt made it creamy and satisfying. I am going to try a clearbroth clam soup and try the same thing for a chowder effect.

I have wanted this for roughly 1 1/2 to 2 years now and it has been a rough ride. When I became a diabetic, I have done a lot to try and make my health better. Getting rid of the symptoms of diabetes is my main goal, those of you who have gone through shots and pills can confirm that diabetes sucks. I went from being in awesome shape in the military to being almost 340 lbs in the span of 7 years and I am only 28. I have lost weight and then gained it all back and more time after time. Because of this I refused to let anything get in my way and I pushed as fast as could to get all my appointments done quickly. Once I got all those done I have had to push the insurance person daily to just fax those damn papers in. I got excuse after excuse and then she went on vacation. I came to find out that my papers were in her office locked up and somehow no one in the entire hospital had a key. My insurance company even called me 3 times saying that they were stuck and couldn't move forward without her, but they couldn't reach her and she wasn't returning their calls. Needless to say I found that unacceptable and I made it my mission to bother her to the point of submitting my papers just to get me off her back. This morning she submitted my papers and less than two hours later I was approved. All that waiting for less than 2 hours of deciding. In all this I get some good news and my date was moved up to March 10th from March 24th. That means I have to stop by and pick up all my preop diet stuff tomorrow and actually begin my diet. Another upside is I can't believe how supportive my boss and team at work have been. Anytime I mention the word appointment my boss is more than happy to accommodate any time I need off to handle appointments at the hospital. I think I am her guinea pig and she is seeing how my recovery and progress are so she can see if this is for her too so that is a plus. At home I have an amazing support system, especially since my sister has had her band for 12 months now and I have someone who has been there to help me on my way. March 10th has been a long time coming.

I should have called days ago. I called my doctors office this morning after having been done with all my appointments for about 8 days now and the insurance person said she thought she sent it out last week but she would be happy to double check. Turns out she never did and my call reminded her. I called my insurance a couple hours later and they confirmed they just got it. I guess I will be waiting another week. This process has tought me a couple things.........to be proactive and not assume and since I am the person most invested in me getting a lapband installed I have to be persistent.

Three weeks? That makes me want to call my doctor's office tomorrow and bug them. The insurance person told me it would be a week for the insurance to reply with a yes or no and one week was today. I guess I am tired of waiting. Two years ago i decided to get the lapband, then my department at work was eliminated and I lost my insurance and now that I have insurance again I have been doing everything I can to speed the process along since October. I am sure getting this close makes people impatient, but if I dont hear anything tomorrow I will likely become my insurance lady's most frequient caller.

I am so glad I came across your post! Dr. Sanchez is my doctor too and it is good to hear you had a smooth experience with her. That makes me much less nervous about my surgery in mid March.

I had a $450 program fee, but it actually covers a lot. Nutrition visits, psych evaluation, and nearly all preop visits. It also covers my pre op diet food and supplements. There is also two fills included. Not too bad considering that the surgeon consult, that wasn't covered by the program fee, cost me almost $150 by itself, even with awesome insurance.

I am a type II diabetic and I go for my final nutritionist meeting on Feb. 10. I havesome concerns as to what my preop diet will consist of. I am concerned that I will not get enough carbs and I will be experiencing a lot of blood sugar lows. I have brought up my concerns to my nutritionist at each meeting, but she just tells me we will just play it by ear. I am not sure how comfortable I am with that. I was wondering if anyone else experienced this issue during their preop diet. My sister got her band last Feb. with the same doctor I am going with and she was on the same preop diet I am supposedly being placed on, but she wasn't diabetic. Looking at everything she had, shakes, Soups, broths etc... I am pretty sure that it will not be enough carbs to offset my current medications.

I think we are in a similar situation. I was laid off and then rehired, but since it has been a while I have a waiting period for my insurance to become active again. My HR manager isn't the brightest bulb in the socket so she doesn't know if WLS is excluded. I am waiting on my paperwork from Independence Blue Cross so I can know for sure.