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Hi, I'm post-menopausal and somewhat of a lightweight too. My surgery date BMI was 35.8. I have lost 10% of my body weight in the first month followiing surgery and I am on track to lose another 10% by the end of month 3. I'm happy with my weight loss. I have seen others losing a lot more, but I'm not sure of their BMI. And I've seen some people losing less. For me the surgery is a huge success. I already feel so much better and I'm thrilled to be in regular sizes and shrinking at a pretty good clip. Lynda

i just brought my pillow(theirs are extremely uncomfortable), my medication, and my pj's. you dont really need anything. i was there from like 9 or 10 pm till 4am. i brushed my teeth before i left and when i got home i showered.

Wow Mac that's great ... my whole life has been a diet - down 20, up 12, down 15, up 10 ... I would have done the pre-op diet longer but once I decided on Dr. Aceves, it was only weeks before my surgery.

Our "Team of Experts" here in Portsmouth, NH requires .... Initial group seminar. Fill in paper work. Meet with RN a few weeks later and she tells you to loose 10% of body weight. Diet ...Meet with RN again, go see Shrink one on one and then once a week for 5 weeks with a small group. Meet the nutritionist twice, go to physical therapy twice. THEN .... if you have met all the requirements you finally get to see the surgeon. Go for an upper GI testing, EKG, chest x-ray and tons of blood work (that is where I am). Then it gets insurance approval, meet with surgeon again and get surgery date. I bet in a few years this procedure will be so common that all these hoops you have to jump through will be cut in half ... or they will come up with a magic pill that does what the lap band does now. This is the second time doing this. Last time I was just not committed enough and didn't know what I was getting myself into with all these appointments. How can people with a full time job / family get all this done? It's like another part time job. This takes many months depending how long it takes to loose the weight and when you can fit all these appointments in. I started again in March 2009. Surgery will probably be sometime in July. I'm one of the "quick" ones cause I worked my ass off to loose weight and wasn't made to take the 5 week course again.

My paperwork doesn't go to the insurance company until I meet with the nutr. a few times and the psy. a few times, loose 10% of my weight and then they send it...boy what a drag:thumbdown:

Hello all, Its been 10 days since I have had my surgery. I am following their directions to a tee and exercising but my weight loss is very slow. How much should I be losing in the first two weeks and how many total calories am I supposed to be eating. Do you all see a dietician to guide you or just eat a set amount of calories? I need to know since I really want this to work!

I had my surgery on 10-30-08 and I am going to drive for the first time today.

Shelly...I am anxious to try the talipia. I will let you know. Planning on having it Tuesday night, my daughter in law loves it, son and his family will be over Tuesday night, I told her I would fix us that. Let me know when you get your date.....Good Luck to U also & ty. Weighted this morning, have lost 10 lbs since last Monday on my pre-op diet. I had my date set before my pre-op diet started. Its amazing how different every DR. is.

I'm nearly 4 months out, so still a newb, but I had the same concerns you did, so I thought I'd chime in on my experience thus far. I started back running at 6 weeks post-op. Around 2-2/12 months I was back to my pre-surgery lifting weight. At first I felt off...little dizzy, weak, just not 100%, or even 75%. However, with each week it got better and I listened to my body vs. pushing through. Around 10 weeks post-op I started to feel much better. I'm running farther and faster than I have in over a decade. I am trying to figure when/what to eat before an intense workout because I now get nauseated and heart burn easier.

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On the scale of 1 - 10 (1 being nothing and 10 being terrible) I would probably rate it a 7-8 in the hospital. I have low pain tolerance and didn't want the pain meds because it made me sick. However, once the found the right pain med to give me I was in heaven. I was able to walk around and was great. After day 2 I was more of a (5) until about the 5th day. Then I had to go back to school - I'm in Cosmetology school where I work on my feet 8 hours a day and was completely fine. I was probably a (2) but hardly felt it at all. Definitely the pain is temporary. We've all been there for sure. It gets better...even if it doesn't feel like it will. I remember asking, "Is this going to be forever?" but before I knew it, I woke up and was itching to get to the gym! You can do it!! There's no doubt that you can it! Do attend the support meetings, and even watching shows on TV like Extreme Makeover - Weight Loss Edition help. Find as much support you can, and don't forget that you're your own biggest fan. It didn't take a few weeks to put the weight on, so don't forget that it will take more than a few weeks to get the weight off. But I can promise you that the day you buy a smaller pair of jeans, you will never want to give up! Definitely hit me up if you ever feel nervous. That goes for anyone. I can be a great listener. I will listen to your complaints, and your excitements! Good luck to you! You'll all do great!

My surgery is on the 10 th too! How are you doing on the diet?

I'm scheduled on 10/28. Nervous and excited at the same time!

Hi all. I'm a 34-year-old mom of 2, dd is 10 and ds is 7. I was banded in August of 2006. Immediately after my port flipped and needed to be repaired. THat should have been my first clue I made the wrong choice! I managed to lose almost 100 pounds with the band in the first 2 years, but it was s-l-o-w. At the end of 2008, my band surgeon said I should get a consult with a plastic surgeon about my huge apron of skin. It was horrible, hung down past my girlie bits, made me look a lot heavier than I was, my skin was constantly tearing and it gave me rashes. So, in Feb of 09 I had a tummy tuck and breast lift. Holy crap what a difference! He took off 16 pounds of extra skin and the surgery took 11 hours. The recovery was horrible. Because of the band, I've had problems with medication working right and it took a bit before we found an oral pain killer that actually worked. I was off work for 6 weeks and the recovery was horriblle. I managed to mess up my knee the day after surgery so it was always going numb and giving out on me. No one knew why. Then I got a stomach virus and puking after a tummy tuck, with a lapband, is it's own special kind of hell. Just as i was starting to feel human again I got scarlet fever. Which I thought went out of style with hoop skirts and mutton chops! Evidentally not though. My pcp said because my system was so screwed up due to the surgery, a strep infection just went haywire. That took another 2 weeks to recover from. I'd finally gotten to a weight that, while it wasn't as low as I wanted, I was happy with my body. I looked good, felt normal for the first time in my life and liked the way I looked in the mirror. I no longer walked into a room and got that horrible feeling of "Oh no, I'm the fattest person here". I felt like people noticed me and not my weight. A couple months ago I started having restriction problems, bouncing between too loose or too tight, and waking up at night with horrible reflux and choking on my stomach contents. Yuck! Had an upper gi done last week after an unfill didn't help matters and surgeon says the band needs to come out. It is extrememly tight, which he said makes no sense because it's empty and I don't feel like I have any restriction (which is why I've gained some weight back ). So, now we start the process of getting insurance approval for the band removal and revision to the sleeve. He said he'll push for the sleeve instead of bypass because bypass does not appeal to me. I'm already deficient in B12 and vit D and take injections and supplements for that. I'm afraid of what would happen if I had the malabsorption issues to deal with too. If insurance (Anthem Blue Cross) wil only cover the removal but not the sleeve, I'm hoping it will be cheap enough for me to self-pay for the sleeve. And I really want to get this done soon! The idea of being on a liquid diet over the holidays is not at all appealing. I've been reading all your stories since finding out I might lose my band and have gotten so much help from them! Thanks for sharing your stories. :001_smile:

I had my gastric revision operation one the 1st of Jun 2015 and until now I lost almost 28 lb. my problem now start after almost two month from operation, I feel the my appetite is high and I want to eat every two to three hours and sometime less although I try to drink Water when I feel hunger but after one hour I feel hungry again. Also, I feel I can tolerate to eat like one sandwich contain ham and cheese within 10 min without pain or diarrhea. I can swallow meat, chicken and all the solid food and I was wondering within this short period and my small pouch I should vomit if I can eat those staff. I asked my surgeon and he said that it’s different from people who had the RNY for the first time from the people who did the revision in weigh losing, I can understand that but how about the ability of eating and the appetite toward eating. Actually I am an emotional eater so I am freak that my RNY will not success I have done enough with gastric endoscopy and I don’t want to try it again. So is anybody had a conversion? And how was the eating portion? How often they feel hungry? I hope somebody can answer my question and give me the support because really I am leaving in a nightmare.

I'm just on the 3rd week post op but I'll tell you about the change after the surgery. I have no longer hunger but I know I MUST eat for energy and the amount of food that I can eat is 2 tablespoons. I have sleeved in France so the restriction post-op for diet is a bit different, my doctor said I can eat anything I want but blended. The first two weeks it has to be only Fluid (but I can eat yogurt) then the 3rd week I can start eating pureed food like potato smashed. Oh, yes, but no candies no soda, all sweet stuff. Eat a little at a time (4 times a day) on the fix hour, I'm not hungry but I just eat on the meal time. Eat very small amount and slowly and the most important thing is at least 1 L of Water everyday 20 minutes before and after the meal. After the research I'd done on my own, like you, I asked him about Protein shake and he said, no need, no supplementary diet of any kind is necessary at the moment. He told me to eat only small amount of natural food. Seems like he needs me to get used to my new stomach first and learn that I can live on a very small amount of food Personally I try to eat as much as protein as possible like eggs, purred fish, Greek yogurt with purred fruits, cooked brocoli purred, mainly protein, fruits and vegetable. One time I tried Pasta purred with salmon and I felt sick, so no pasta at the moment. My doctor said I have 3 years post-op to learn to eat right to maintain the weight for life. I guess that at some point the hunger will return, I will be able to eat more than 2 spoons per meal but at least the experience of being obese for 20 years and receiving the second chance should remind me to pick the best choice of food and move my (hopefully smaller) ass to exercise to keep this gift for life. And I know I can do it because during the pre-op I tried the low carb diet to see if I can make it after the surgery (my surgeon never asked me to lose weight before the surgery) and it worked pretty well actually, I wasn't really too strict because I ate small amont of carb only for lunch or Breakfast but not for dinner and I lost 13 lbs in 2 months before the surgery between my first consultation with my surgeon and the date of operation. What's different is I've lost almost 19 lbs in 20 days post-op woo hoo!

Thank you all SO much for the replies. I too, have thought about for years...in those approx 10 years I have lost the weight on my own twice...I stayed "thin" for about 10 min each time!!! If I had done this sooner I probably wouldnt be in this condition. I'm SO ready this time......I want to savemy life!!!

I lost 16.4 pounds in the three months between my initial consultation with the surgeon and the start of my pre-op diet. I just tracked everything with the My Fitness Pal app. I still had some "food funerals" but tried to get started on better habits overall. That put me at a BMI of 39.9, but my insurance had already approved the surgery, and I did have some comorbidities. Then I lost another 10 pounds on the 2-week liquid pre-op diet, so my weight on the morning of surgery was 208.4. I feel like losing some beforehand helped kickstart my post-surgery loss, and it wasn't quite as jarring of a change as it would have been if I'd eaten like crazy up until the day I started the pre-op diet. I cut out caffeine (along with all the sugary creamer that I dump in my coffee) during that time, too. I also started regular therapy in the months before surgery to help deal with some of the issues underneath my overeating, and I continue it post-op.

@@jersey0601 I had no idea what to expect, but apparently my expectations were too high. I guess I just read a lot about people having a big loss immediately after surgery. I didn't have that and then i stalled after only 10 days. I'm just about 4 weeks out and this week I am seeing some movement on the scale after almost 3 weeks. It's frustrating- mostly because it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. And also reminiscent of all the dieting I did pre-sleeve that never produced any results. I'll keep moving forward following my nutritionists plan and tracking all my food. Hopefully it will pass! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thankfully day 10 was the last day and it stopped. Hopefully it won't happen again. Thanks

I too am feeling great! Including my 5 day pre-op, I am 16 lbs down in just 10 days :-) I feel so much better than I anticipated at this point in my recovery. During those first couple days, I thought wow, this is going to be a very long and miserable recovery, but something clicked in the last couple of days and I feel wonderful! I am so thankful for this tool and wish I could take everyone I love that has battled this evil thing called obesity, along with me on my journey, I just want to tell them all to please do it before another year of misery goes by, or worse even longer. I LOVE MY SLEEVE

Joyce13 I think we can make you an honorary Texan just since your sig. says "save a horse ride a cowboy"! You obviously have the right mindset! I hope you don't have pain either. My older sister had her GB removed back in the 70's and she has a 10" scar and a drain scar. So thankful for laparoscopy!

Hello All! AFter being on a rollercoaster all my life, I have finally decided to actually do SOMETHING about it! I am just starting my testing for the lapband and waiting for insurance approval. I was as high as 325 about 10 years ago and down to 200 about 4 years ago. Now I am back at 250 and can't seem to get any of it off. At 52 years old and 5'3" I think this is the tool I need to help me. Good Luck to Everyone and Keep me in your prayers too! Debbie

drmeow, I have to lose 10 pounds by a certain date to show them I can follow a regular eating plan after the surgery. I lost 6.5 pounds the first two weeks then gained back 5 the next two weeks. :::sigh::: I am also doing what you are doing - cutting out the grazing and giving up sweets. I am trying really hard to only eat three meals a day but I get really hungry in the late morning and in the evening and last night I went to bed at 7:30pm because I couldn't stand it. On the sweets my rule is "no sweet binge sneaks" so if I'm with people and they are sharing a dessert I will have a bite or two because it's not sneaking and it's not a binge. I'm thinking this is more difficult than just going cold turkey but I'm trying it for now. Today was a good day on the scale so I'm hopeful for the next two appointments that I will reach the 10 pound goal. Then I need my psychiatrist to be convinced that I'm ready and we can schedule the surgery. Fhew. It will be a year since I started this whole thing before those two things are done. The weight loss clinic mistakenly had me in the "no surgery" category for months before it was found out to be a mistake in their records so that really screwed me up. But maybe I needed that time after all. Doing well on the eating now and feeling good about it.

Hi Melissa! I am in Jacksonville too (also 5'6" - 35 years old) and I'm just finishing my insurance required 6 month requirement! I have 1 last visit with Dr.Cyves and then they are going to submit my info to Cigna and once approved I will FINALLY be banded! They are predicting March. I was 318.5 when I started the process, and I weighed last week and was at 303.5. They are only having me add 10 minutes of exercise a day and I have to eat under 30 carbs per day. I've done my Psych Eval, Nutritionist visit, and I also did my labs, EKG, and chest x-ray. My file is ready to submit and just needs Dr C to sign off on it. I've researced this for a few years, and am getting anxious and impatient. Thank God you only have to do 3 months. Who is doing your surgery? Have you been to the weightloss seminars? I went to Dr. Webb and Dr.Cyves. I chose Dr. Cyves because of his experience (nearly 800 bands) and that is the only WLS he does. He is also a Pediatric surgeon and before he moved to Jax he did surgery on babies while they were still in the womb. He has to have Amazing skills to have done that! Best of luck and pm me from time to time to let me know how things are going. If you happen to be using Dr. C he has monthly support group meetings the 1st Thursday of every month at 7:30 pm at his office on Beach Blvd. I go to them to learn more about the band and to hear 1st hand from the people that are losing the weigh with their band tool.