lawismylife

I don't know how "dead" her times could have been if she is down 70 lbs in 6 mos I had 2 major plateaus and always broke them with pure exercise - stepping it up for a major event like a walkathon or just tons of Zumba, with high Protein focus. I think exercise is key to losing, especially when you are closer to goal.

Sunshine - what specifically are you scared of?

I have to admit that I don't understand the people who say they feel getting a band means they are a failure. You can't get the band unless you have tried at a million diets. It not your fault that they havent worked... With our metabolism, with PCOS, you have to eat abnormally little food. Once you get the band, you see how little you are eating and realize you couldn't have lost all the weight without it. This is the best "forever" decision I could have ever made. I know I won't gain it back, either. It's just about impossible. And you don't have to announce it to anyone - it's not like they have to know. I happen to tell anyone and everyone about it to increase awareness.

I got banded Nov 2010, so I am 1.5 years out. Started at 250 lbs, 5'6". Now I am 184. I continued taking BC pills and 1500 mg metformin throughout. I have about 25 lbs to go. I actually JUST started a real exercise regimen as I was on a plateau. I am thrilled with my progress, particularly since before I had to starve myself to lose anything. I went from a pant size 22 to a 14 and feel like a million bucks! So much energy ! Good luck to you all!

I got banded November 2010. I was at 40 BMI, which is just over the cusp of qualifying for insurance purposes. Many people in my life said "oh you're not heavy enough to get surgery, you don't need that, you're just chubby." But I have always been "chubby" and being 250 lbs (even if you don't look it) is not healthy by any measure at 5"5". Now I am almost one year out, down 55 lbs (I weigh about 194 at home) and trust me I feel so much better and am more active. I look great. And for the first time in my life I am confident I will keep losing and not gain it all back. I lost 55 friggin pounds so far without being hungry. Without trying all that hard. Imagine that? The surgery in the scheme of things was a 6 week inconvenience for a lifetime of a better life. You do the math. Totally worth it. Plus, the surgery went off without a hitch and I only lost 4 days from work. Best decision I have made in a long time. You won't regret it. Good luck.

I have some 2x size t-shirts in size 20 that I no longer need and anyone is welcome to them. Not perfect condition but you can get away with it for a few months. I am in NJ. Message me if interested.

Wishing you good luck! I am also 30. Was banded 11/16, I am on metformin. I have lost 30 lbs so far and am thrilled with my progress. Peeling off 1 lb was torture for me before the band. I am so happy I did it!

Yup! The food is running right down to the large bottom part of the stomach.

I am 15 days out, and I will tell you what I eat: Egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, all made with Smart Beat fat free mayo, onion powder, garlic powder. One scoop per meal. Chopped liver. Fish fillets: salmon teriyaki, broiled fish, fish baked at 350 degrees for 10-15 min is usually great. Just olive oil, salt, pepper. Lemon is good too. pureed oatmeal. I am ok with just chewing it a lot in my mouth. Egg beaters or egg white omelettes with cheese, salsa, pureed vegetables, and combos of things. Chili and stews I have also had on occasion hash browns, the mushy part that is pureed.

I read in a lapband book that when they put the band on your stomach, it doesn't look clean like in the diagrams. You have fat collected around your stomach just like fat is wrapped around internally all your organs. It is too dangerous to remove the fat before they put the band on you. So, you might have a lot of fat around your stomach. When you lose weight, you'll lose weight internally too, and then later you might need a fill. Just my 2 cents.

I saw last week on Channel 2 News a segment on a doctor who hypnotizes people to believe that they have had lapband surgery so that they lose weight. He charges $1200 for 4 sessions! They highlighed two clients of his. One lost 20 lbs over like 6 months, and the other just tried it. And guess what, she lost 1 lb that week! If you want a laugh you can google it and see if it pops up. They built up "going under the knife" to such an extreme. And I was watching the segment, 7 days post op, thinking "these people have no idea what the heck this feels like!"

Just to give you some strength -- I have PCOS. I just got banded, but my understanding is that once you get your eggs to pop out, you should be able to get pregnant. I did IVF and got pregnant on the first cycle. Just needed the eggs to pop out Good luck!

I used to follow WW religiously. I just got banded and do not think that it is a good idea, personally. WW's philosophy is that you can have anything as long as you account for "points," or calories. It gives low points to low calorie volume foods to encourage you to eat more of those. With the band, I think you have to focus on eating the protein because your band won't accomodate very much volume. And you don't want to lose muscle mass. On the go, you have to make the lifestyle work for you, A container of greek yogurt won't go bad if you keep it in a lunchbag cooler in your car. Ditto for deli meats, tuna salad, chicken salad, anything is ok for 4 hours if there is a cool pack in it. I think going to a restaurant and ordering a scoop of tuna or chicken salad anywhere should not be a problem. Don't feel confined to menus. As they used to say in WW, no one plans to fail, they just fail to plan Good luck.

I am down about the same as you. At my doctor visit post-op, I lost 10 lbs, I am now 11 days post-op and I imagine if anything, I've lost another pound. 3500 calories is one pound, so you have to eat that much less per pound you lose. Even if you're eating only around 1000 calories a day, your deficit is probably only 1500 calories per day. You can't expect to lose much more than a pound or two a week, unless your caloric needs are very very high. I am glad that whatever I lose will be fat, not muscle. When you are in starvation mode, your body will feed off muscle for Protein. Moreover, I tell myself that as long as I am going down, not up, this is a victory. We'll all get there eventually. It's not a race. Yes, I am starting to get hungry. But I find that it is definitely taking me longer to get hungry than pre-op. I can go all morning on 1/4-1/2 c. cottage cheese, which certainly was impossible before.

I have a banded family, so we are all doing Thanksgiving together (MIL, FIL, DH, and me). I made turkey meatballs in cranberry sauce, pumpkin souffle and mashed sweet potatoes with pineapple puree. Even my two babies can have the puree! Works well. Happy T-day everyone!

Hi all! I am 3 days post-op and doing ok. I have an on-Q pain system which is a little annoying at this point, but I stopped having any pain since yesterday (if you want to know what this is, see www.askyoursurgeon.com). I am up and about and really feeling good that I got the surgery. I had the x-ray test with swallowing the barium, and it was really cool to see. The barium I had tasted like milk of magnesia mint flavor, so it really wasn't bad at all. I didn't realize that when I have liquid, there is no restriction at all so the liquid is flying right into the big stomach pouch and leaving my band and little pouch completely alone. I started shakes yesterday and am grateful to not be starving on the shakes like I was pre-op. However, my doc told me that if I get to be starving on the shakes I should call her because the purpose of this is not to torture myself. I am set to be on shakes for 2 weeks, but she would progress to mushies sooner if I feel I am hungry. To those who are working and starving, I suggest calling your doc too. My mother in law also got the surgery and her doc had her on puree 2 days post-op, so there is not likely any damage you can do. Most surgeons are just super careful. I also think they want us to take advantage of not being hungry and losing a lot of weight in the beginning to make us feel good about doing the surgery. Nothing like losing 20 or 30 lbs to give you a positive boost.

Hi Celeste! I got banded 11-15-10. I have always been a "big girl," despite being very active and eating consciously and healthy. I am 5'5" and was 160 when I started high school, and graduated at 200 lbs. I got my period at 17, but no one thought this was a problem. I tried many diets to no avail. Little did I know I had classic PCOS. For my wedding, when I was 20, I joined weight watchers for the first time (of which would be many, many times. I could have paid for the lapband myself with all the money they got from me!). I went down to 175 for my wedding, after dieting for over a year, and just got tired of feeling deprived and hungry. And I stopped losing weight. I resigned myself to being fat. Over the years, I went on and off weight watchers, going down to 180 and then going up again to 210. Over and over. I went on bc very young, so I didn't find out about the PCOS until I tried to get pregnant 8 years later. I did IVF, had twins, had a c-section. After all that, when my husband decided to get the lap band a year later, I was confident that I could go through the process too, and that I finally have some hope for being healthy for my kids. My mother is probably around 300 lbs, practically disabled, and I don't want that to be me. That's my story :blushing:

I was banded 11-16-10 and I also had a surprise hernia repair. My doc also sent me home with percocet pills and told me to snap them in half. I used a pill crusher to dissolve them in some crystal light and it wasn't too terrible to get down in a shot glass. I was in a lot of pain the day after surgery, but I think it was gas. After reading some posts here online, I took 2 gas-X pills last night that are really small, and woke up today a much better person! It turned out to be tremendous gas pain. I also have an On-Q pain system, so that might have finally kicked in too. I feel like I will be able to walk around today. Hang in there!

I have that insurance. You need 3 things to get clearance: 1) Psych letter 2) Nutritionist letter 3) Letter from primary physician "recommending" you get the band. Once I had all these things, it took less than 2 weeks to get clearance. Maybe even a week. Good luck!

I used Dr. Lon Geiser. I think he takes most insurance.

I have it but am not banded yet. Are you on BCPs? That totally controlled all my symptoms. Did you stop taking them for the surgery? That can screw with the hormones.

I am sorry that you are experiencing this terrible situation. There is a contraindication on the band that says that those who have a family member with a particular type of Lupus or those with Lupus are contraindicated. That is because you have a higher probability of rejecting the band. But there are still people with that type of Lupus that get banded. I saw a rheumatologist due to my concern that my sister has Lupus and I had an autoimmune disease when I was young (guillian barre syndrome). She advised me that there are no known links between getting the band and triggering an autoimmune disease. Plus, the extra weight is a definite risk for so many things, whereas the unknown of perhaps triggering something is just that, an unknown. If there were multiple instances of what happened to you, it would have emerged within the 10+ years people have been getting the band. That is the scientific thinking. Be well and best of luck to you. But don't blame yourself for getting the band and making you sick. There doesn't seem to be any proof that the band causes autoimmune diseases.

I am scheduled for surgery in November, but I am in the same boat. My sister has the Lupus mentioned in the contraindication. My surgeon said that it is a standard FDA warning on implants and there are no known instances of rejection, just that Lupus would tend to up the risk. She also said that many people with Lupus have the band itself. So I am not worried anymore. The risk of being morbidly obese far outweighs the slighly increased chance of rejection, in my doc and my opinion. Good luck.