jingleboob

yes, hunger is normal. I've never felt so constantly hungry in my life!!! Oh restriction, where are you?! :-)

a hard lump sounds like a possible infection. Now that you have a fever too it's probably likely and you shouldn't wait any longer. Go see your pcp or head to urgent care or the er. You don't want to let a surgical site infection go so long... best of luck

I'm a big baby with liquid medicine... at 31 I still can't force myself to swallow a spoonful of robitussin... blech... I got a liquid form of vicodin, and it was nasty! I used it for 4 days regularly, and then just twice a day for a few more days. After a week I was ok with just chewable jr. tylenol (160 mg each so 6 counts for a dose...). They do make a liquid adult tylenol but it's cherry flavor... the worst kind of liquid medicine flavor for me! Makes me gag just smelling it... didn't want to be gagging and wretching while recovering! I take vicodin (hydrocodone) for my back so I was comfortable with the pain meds. And it did hurt. When i woke up in recovery I thought something had surely gone wrong! Got the max dose of morphine before I could even breathe without the nurses constantly telling me to breathe. But within a few hours the pain wasn't as bad. I'd call it a 10 for those first couple of hours, a 7 by the end of the first day, and a 4-6 for the next few days. By day 5 I was feeling pretty good. I prepared for the worst... I had a hard time after my gallbladder surgery and I expected the same with this, but I was pleasently surprised!!

I did it in less than 4 months... just had to get all of the testing in, all of the nutritionist appointments and psych eval, and lose the weight required by my doc (had to lose 15 before he would approve surgery... I lost 25!). Just go, go, go. A lot of people on here have had their first appointment and surgery in the same month... it depends on your surgeon's requirements and how much you're willing to do in a short time... I'd discuss this with your surgeon and let them know you need to have it done before 2011... if they can they will!

almost 4 weeks post op, no fills yet... finishing up mushy foods and headed to "real" foods in the next couple of days... for the past week or so I've been so hungry!!! My stomach growls all day and night. It's hard not to be food obsessed when you're gurgling and hungry all the time!!!! I know I've been eating too much but 1/2 c of food 3x daily isn't cutting it! I've been eating 1/2 c of food about 5 times daily... and I'm still hungry... Here's my plan for today... similar to the past few days... 5am- Protein shake 7am- 1/2 packet of low sugar oatmeal 11am - 1/2 c cottage cheese with peaches (light syrup) 6pm - 1/2 very bland homemade turkey chili 9pm - lowfat cheesestick But I could seriously eat twice this. The only thing that hasn't gone right through the band was refried Beans and scrambled eggs... not together... and after 2 small bites those foods had me stuck and in pain. So... this constant hunger is from no restriction and what is known as "bandster hell"?? After a fill it should be better? Because the thought of living life feeling this hungry all of the time is exhausting! I'm thinking about food more now than before!!! :thumbup: Please tell me it gets better!!!! Need some encouragement that I'm not going to feel this miserable forever!

1) how long after surgery (days) did you start feeling better? I was feeling crummy and a lot of pain for about 4-5 days. I was expecting it to be worse so I was amazed on day 5 that I felt pretty good! I feel uninterested in drinking even thou I know I have to. Understand that one! Just keep sipping... sing it liky Dory from Finding Nemo... Just keep sipping, just keep sipping... after that 5 day mark I was better with drinking.. and after a week or so I could drink a lot easily as long as I had nothing in my stomach.. Also, I had that feeling of "what in the hell did I do." I really didn't think that would happen. Must be the pain talking. I thought the same thing, and still do 4 weeks later when I get stuck or when the rest of the family is devouring my favorite pizza!!! I am confident that once I get restriction and really start to lose this weight I will no longer have that nasty thought in my head! You can prepare as mush as you like for this change, but trust me I am lost as all get out just thinking about how my life is now changes. Thank goodness for this website and everyone on it! No, you can't be fully prepared for this life change. My dr and nutritionist tried to prepare me fully and did a great job- but hearing from hundreds of others in various stages of lap banding is what really prepped me. I knew the first few weeks would be "hell" and they are. So I know that once I get to my "sweet spot" it will be closer to heaven... had I not found support here I would be in a much worse state of mind than I am now over the whole thing! best of luck to you!

Hi guys... my eating schedule is not "normal", nor is my work/sleep schedule! I work early morning and am home by noon or 1... then I sleep from about 1 or 2 until 5 or 6 at night... Then sleep at night from about 11:30- 4am... I start work at 5am and I'm lucky to get 5 minutes to eat before 11am. I drink my Protein shake on the way to work (which is a no-no, but the only time I can get that in... I have a 45 minute drive so it's grosss when I get to work and nothing I keep in the fridge at work stays mine so I can't leave milk and ice here...I have a yogurt or oatmeal at my workstation around 6 or 7am... so when 11 hits I heat up my lunch I'm not hungry at all and often get sick if I eat too soon after I wake up. I can tolerate a Protein Shake when I wake and do. I'm currently getting in 60-70 grams of protein a day. Love the greek honey yogurt... So eating before 6am isn't an option, and eating anything substantial before 11am doesn't happen on weekdays. Lunch at 11. I try not to eat right before I go to bed at 1pm, then need to wait about an hour after I wake up to eat which puts me at dinner around 6 or 7pm. To have a life at home I have to have this split sleep schedule, otherwise I'd be in bed at 8pm and wouldn't have more than an hour a day with my love or the kids. So fitting the food into the few hours a day I can isn't always easy.

They gave me a very detailed packet listing the foods I should be eating and amounts... 1/2 c of food 3x daily on mushy foods... then it's 1c of food 3x daily once it's real foods... they also said if I'm hungry between meals I can do 6 meals a day of 1/4 c (on mushy) or 6 meals of 1/2 cup on real food but they would prefer 3 meals a day... I would tend to agree that 1 1/2 cups of food total per day isn't much! I understand the eventual goal of 3 healthy meals a day and with ideal restriction that being ok. I also have a strange schedule and wake early and work until noon or 1pm... then I sleep for 3-4 hours in the afternoon... so dealing with the spilt up sleeping schedule and fitting the right meals in isn't always easy. I'm hungry at different times than the rest of the house... I'm barely 4 weeks in so I know I've got a way to go... and will keep up the faith until I've had my first couple of fills... I know it will get better! Damnit, it better get better!!! lol Glad this ridiculous hunger isn't just me!

I'm almost 4 weeks post op and my port area is the only place that is still sore... my NP said it would be for a few weeks longer than the other incisions... and it's right where I feel it when I bend over too... fun!!! :-)

:biggrin:Just picked up recipes for Life After Weight Loss Surgery: Delicious Dishes for Nourishing the New You by Margaret Furtado at Barnes and Noble last night... excited to try some of these recipes! I know there are other cookbooks out there for WLS... any favorites? I LOVE to cook, and would love an army of healthy recipes I can make for the whole family... I love to cook but I'm not cooking 2 dinners a night!

I'm 3 weeks post op today...and feeling really well! Just the port area is a little tender to touch. I had my post op visit last week and didn't ask when I could exercise again... My next appointment is on 9/24 (when we will schedule 1st fill!) How soon after surgery did you resume "the gym"? I know I am allowed to walk so I can do the treadmill, but what about arms and legs? Probably going to wait a little longer on my core/abs...

My nutritionist is vividly against the gummies because they can get stuck for some, but mostly because they don't have any iron... which is a biggie! She won't even give them to her kids because of it! Flintstones all the way here!

There are pics of a lot of the recipes in it. I made sweet potatoes au gratin last night and it was delish!!! Each recipe lists what weeks post op you can handle that food...

Woohoo on the jeans!!!! Hope all goes well today... sorry you've got another surgery especially so soon...

The only time I have had shoulder pain is if I've eaten too much! Horrible pain too. Got it day 2 post op after eating half of a pudding cup too fast. I've had it a couple of times since and all were related to eating too much or too fast. Just happened last night too and I'm about 3 weeks post op... the only actual gas pain I had was horrible bloating and pain in my lower abdomen about 4 or 5 days post op and the gas x strips were HEAVEN for that!!!

WOW! That's a lot of no drinking time! I don't know how you'd get it all in either. I'm not going to complain (for at least today, lol) about not drinking half an hour before or an hour after eating! I did feel dry the first 4 or 5 days after surgery, but once the initial swelling went down and I could just drink I was OK. I guess if I were you I'd just drink whole glasses at a time when I could... no room for just sipping!

My fiance is about 50 lbs overweight and has said several times that he hopes some of my weight loss will rub off on him too. He was looking at me over the weekend saying I'm melting away and pretty soon he would be the heaviest in the house. In fact he has already lost a lot since I started pre-op as I am not cooking or getting food for him. I did however lose it on him last week when he ordered a large pizza at 10pm. I know he has to eat, but we do have healthy foods and I offered to make him a turkey sandwich or some Pasta. The thing that set me off was him saying "I've really got to lose weight, this gut is too much" while shaking his tummy, and then immediately ordered a pizza. I was furious and said "Have you see what I've gone through these past few weeks??? How hard this is and the pain I've had and you say you need to lose weight but order a pizza instead of DOING something about it?". He felt bad but ate the pizza. Makes me angry when he does these things because we both made the decision for the surgery together because we want to have kids (he's got 2 girls from his 1st marriage who we have half of the time). We both know it's not safe to get pregnant at 300 lbs, and we both want to be healthy parents together- it's our main reason for this surgery... but his dad had a heart attack at 50, and he is just like his dad and he has high cholesterol too so he's worried about a heart attack too... just as he doesn't want me to die in child birth and leave him alone, I don't want him to die from a heart attack and leave me alone. So I'm a little resentful that he's not taking his part of getting healthy seriously... especially in front of me like that. Still not sure how to handle it or how to get my feelings out in front of him. He's a wonderful man and I love him to pieces so I don't mean to be bashing him here. He's supportive of me, but not of himself. I need him to get with it too!!! Any suggestions? Also... I have developed this horrible crying issue lately- when I'm upset over something I literally can't talk about it without crying and I really hate it. I don't want to confront him crying over everything because that's just not fair. URRGH.

We had a heart to heart last night about all of this. I told him how frustrated I've been, and acknowledged it's a HUGE change for both of us... that we centered so much of our social time around eating and going out for food and it's going to be hard at first. He said he is frustrated with himself for not trying harder and we decided he would ease his way into eating healthier over the next couple of weeks until I'm onto the "real food" stage and start cooking again. Then I'll make healthy meals and Snacks for him and we'll both be on track. I also asked him to go get his physical and cholesterol checked again as it's been over a year so we can know what his goals should be. It was a good talk. I told him I couldn't force him to do it, but it was important to me that we both become healthy people together and he agreed with that. I said I would need encouragement a lot from him and would love to be there to give it back to him when he needed it. That I needed him to stop enabling me when I "want" crap to eat as I wouldn't be encouraging him to "just go get mcdonalds" anymore either. I don't think I would have been able to have a nice, calm, rational chat about this with him if I hadn't vented here first! Thanks for all the feedback!

I had the same problem for my 2 weeks post op on liquids... Dr suggested using lactaid milk in my protein shakes and to make pudding and cream based soups... it helped me a lot. Always been a litter lactose intolerant, but after surgery I was getting a TON of it with the whey protein, milk in the shakes, milk in pudding, milk in soup... led to a LOT of uncontrollable gas that wasn't always gas if you know what I mean.

every insurance plan is different... even with the same provider. I have UHC and all I needed was a BMI of 40 or a BMI of 35 with co-morbidities. My plan also only covered 80% of expences. Call and talk to someone and find out exactly what your plan requires! Best of luck

I had it last Friday at work... all staff meeting with breakfast.. I was attempting to eat a couple spoonfulls of scrambled eggs and ended up leaping from the conference table and running to the bathroom... needless to say everyone I work with was there and the cat is out of the bag on my surgery! All very supportive so that's a plus... but embarassing!!! and it hurt! Had I not been eating and known I was stuck I would have thought I was having a heart attack. That chest pain and pressure is horrible.

HAHAHA! Me too!!!!!

I wouldn't have gotten so mad had he not just finished saying he needed to eat healthy and lose weight... I'm not thrilled when he orders pizza and I have to smell it but the comment is what set me on fire. He also complains about how much my protein powder costs... $20 a tub, but one tub makes me breakfast for almost a month. I've pointed that out before but it makes no difference. Then he'll spend $20 on one pizza for one meal and think nothing of it. I'm just angry with the double standard I guess. If you're going to complain about your gut and say you need to lose weight don't instantly follow it with a whole pizza. I also feel like I'm the only one doing my part in our agreement. WE decided for me to have this surgery... I NEVER would have done it if he hadn't thought it was the best thing, because he wants another child or two and wouldn't even think of trying at my current weight due to the risks. He didn't make me have the surgery, but he nudged me toward it. I'm glad he did. But he was supposed to be eating healthier and watching his cholesterol and doing what he needed to do too and he's not and I kind of feel like I was tricked into the whole thing when he does what he did. Again, I'm glad I had this surgery, but I went into it with him telling me he was going to be right with me and we were going to get healthy and lose weight together. Now I'm doing all of the work and watching him eat eat eat. I'm just frustrated...

if you're talking about the steri strips don't pull them off. they'll come off on their own in time. If it's other bandages there should be instructions on your discharge papers... or call the dr. Probably best to call. You don't want to pull the incisions apart!!!

I had about half of a soft serve kiddie cone last week when we were at the state fair. It was about the only thing at the fair that was soft enough to eat. I know it's not a healthful treat, but my nutritionist also said that having the band and eating healthy doesn't mean you can never have ice cream or pizza again, just not regularly and not in the large quantities we had before the band. Before I would have eaten a large... now I was happy to have a few bites of a kiddie, and I was ok with that.