She Smiles

It is SO not the easy way! There is no just eating anything, chewing 3 times and swallowing any more. There is limitations on the food we can eat. We have be ever attentive of our band and how we treat it and we have to look after ourselves by exercising and taking vitamins every day for the rest of our lives. We have to careful about the medications we take. AND the band is only a tool! I know that phrase gets thrown around a lot, but damn it its true! A person who is unwilling to work with their band will have VERY slow or minimal weight loss. They will PB and feel sick and run down and in poor health. We have the band to HELP us limit our food intake because our natural chemical controllers are all haywire and don't do that for us! It annoys me to no end that people make this judgement of us after we have gone through the rigourous pre op testing and consultations and the decision to operate is made by A TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS based on our weight histories. *Most* bandsters have tried every diet and every possible way of losing weight that they can physically manage. And the band is a last resort. Its the end of the road. Its not easy and I HATE (yes its a strong word) that people think its the easy way out. I don't know about you guys but I laboured over my final decision to be banded because I knew it wasn't going to be easy. This thing is in my body for the rest of my life, and I am 28, that a long time (hopefully even longer now I have my band!). All of that said though, and dispite it not being easy, my band is the best investment I have ever made in myself. *gets down off soap box*

Sharyn you look great!!

Dionne, All my fill details are in my signature block below :mad: I had my first fill less than a month after my surgery on the 18 Dec. My surgery date was 22 Nov. Pretty much each time I have been for a fill I have a chat with my Dr about how much and how often I am eating. The last time I went, he put more in that is "normal" because I told him I was exercising and when he weighed me he said I was obviously commited to my band so he put in 1.5 mls rather than 1ml, which is what he normally does. Each time you go, the Dr will put in a little less, until you reach the fill amount that works for you. I'm going back next Wednesday for my 4th fill cos I have been a hungry hungry hippo this past 2 weeks! :hungry: I've been eating the most since I have been banded, which isn't really how its supposed to work!

Bronnie thats so great. Once you get past the first couple of days of optifast, the rest will be a breeze. I did it for 2 weeks and I will admit, I did cheat in the end part. I had a little bite of pizza a couple of days before surgery and I felt incredibly guilty. It didn't satisfy me in any way, so all it did was make me feel crappy for being "weak". If you do feel the desire to "cheat" remind yourself of why you are going through all of this and if you need encouragement and support we are all here (I wish I had you all when I was doing it!). You will probably loose a few kilos while on optifast (I lost 7 in 2 weeks) so it will be a great head start for you!!

Bronnie that is so excellent about your MRI results!!

Bronnie any chance you can book in for the sleep study now in anticpation and then cancel if you don't need it??? I'mnot sure how these things work though, so it might not be possible. So our dinner out was lovely. I had a yummy fettucini with bacon and sundried tomatoes and chicken. I brought 2/3 of it home with me of course, so we both get to take some for lunch tomorrow. Then we went round and saw my folks to show them our new car we picked up today. I had such a fantastic valentine's day....and its not over yet hehehehe

He sure will turn up Susannah!! Happy Valentines day to you! I'm just about to head out for dinner with my lovely beau. I got a wonderful gift and flowers. I was rather spoilt I think! (It made up for all those years I was alone and got nothing!).

I've not had problems with sushi at all. In fact it goes down a treat for me, I had some just this last saturday. The trick is small bites and lots of chewing. I think the smallest bite of anything will go down as long as you are taking the time to chew it (I'm talking half to a full a teaspoon small). However whe we go we have the sushi train cos I can usually only eat maybe 3 pieces of sushi and I am satisfied. I doubt you will be able to even have half of a hand roll Susannah!!

I very much like how the Australian Dr's are more about encouraging a balanced diet than this atkins/the zone/south beach-esque way of eating and not having any carbs. When we are eating so little, sure we need protien and veggies, but darn it, I can't go to the gym for an hour 6 days a week with out any carbs!!

Susannah, you will *probably* feel fuller. Although some people claim to have no restriction at all until after a few fills. I personally was only able to eat maybe 3-4 tablespoons in one sitting when I went onto mushies. Lite philly is also an option for mushies too. And mashed baked beans/tinned spagetti if thats your thing .Any of the chunky soups blended are also ok. Think about weetbix with plenty of milk (have less and less milk as you aproach the start of solids) for breakfast if you can handle something like that. Some people can't have anything resembling solid til mid morning (I am not one of them, I have a teensy bowl of museli every morning!).

Susannah, the port pain WILL dissipate over the next week or so, it will get to the point where you hardly realise its there (it probably doesn't feel that way now though!).

Here we go!!

Dionne, I've tried to find the post that I was talking about. It wasn't actually about food though, it was more about what to take to hospital with you so you can have a comfortable stay. This thread has some good food suggestions for all the post op stages. Or just look in the "food" section for similar posts, there are plenty of them http://www.lapbandtalk.com/lapband-food-stages-t3995.html I'll have a harder look for the hospital stuff I posted and repost it.

I wrote a list of stuff you will need in hospital earlier in this thread when Susannah asked (maybe a few pages back). As for food etc you will need after, your nutrionist will go over all of that when you see them tomorrow. My hot tips for after as far as recovery goes are comfy loose clothes, pain stop medicine (the day time one cos its gentler on your tummy) and a heat pack/pad (get them from the chemist). And walk walk walk as soon as you are comfortable doing so. The thread here in the pre op section is pretty good i thought. Most of what my consultant suggested was also in some one's posts here.

Bronnie I didn't have to see a physician, so I can't help you out with that unfortunatley. I think starting our own Aussie before and/or after thread is a great idea! I am SURE that you are not ugly Susannah! I hated photos of myself 3 months ago, but I'm coming around now that my face and body doesn't look like it belongs to the marshmallow (wo)man!! In fact, heck, I'm going to go start that thread now cos I had new after photos taken just days ago.

Hey Feebs, come on over the Melbourne chat thread. I'm in Canberra but the lovely Victorians have let me hijack their thread. We are all very friendly

Don't worry I stress about the stangest band related things too. After a while you learn to feel for when things are ok and when they're not. Its quite odd actually!

Susannah, your upper tummy/pouch will only stretch if you repeatedly over eat I've been told. The fact that it went through quicker probably just means the swelling has gone down more, thats a good thing, it means you are healing! I strongly doubt the stitches would have split either.

Those appointments will be a piece of cake! What did Dr Nottle say about Optifast??

WOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME Bronnie! You must feel even more excited now! How fantastic! Yay for you!

I guess we would. Man I would love to go to a boot camp for a month, I love that kind of stuff! I was just thinking the same thing!! Maybe she is out celebrating!!!

I think you should be right as long as you don't have to lift anything or bend lots or get up and down all that much. I really surprised myself in my first week back at work with how ok I felt. I can't beleive how much some of them lost last night in the weigh in!! They put my loss to shame!!

Thanks guys! Do you feel ok to go back to work Susannah? I know that for me, I was going stir crazy after 2 weeks off and was keen to go back to work and have contact with real life people (as much as I love Oprah and Dr Phil, they aren't very good conversationalists hehe). Just take it easy when you go back and you should be right, do you have a very strenuous job?

So a woman at my work was just talking to me about my gym, she goes there too, but during lunch (I go straight from work) and I mentioned to her that I had lost about 20 kilos. She said "oh really? I hadn't really noticed at all. You must carry your weight well". I feel really deflated now. 20 kilos is A LOT and I have lost 3 dress sizes too, but apparently I still look the same at 93 as I did at 115?? How does that work. Bah!

Waiting, waiting, waiting.... where are you Bronnie??