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Howdy, I live in TX I was banded on Monday in Dallas. Good luck to you. Are you going to be banded in London? Have you had to follow a pre-op diet? If so, how's it going? I lost 12 lbs during my 10 day pre-op diet. Keep me posted and again good luck.

I was 229 the day I had surgery on June 4th. On Saturday June 9th I was 235. I gained 6 pounds. I lost weight at the rate of 1 to 1-1/2 pounds every other day for the first few weeks. I have lost 23 pounds since June 4th or 29 if you count the fact that I gained 6 pounds in the hospital. My weight loss is slowing down a little bit now. I lost 60 pounds pre-surgery though at the rate of about 10 a month and in the 2 week pre-op I lost less than most people and that was 10 pounds and I didn't cheat and I had 3 shakes a day for 14 days and only had a few sugar-free popsicles and like 2 sugar-free jellos....if that. Since I dieted the entire pre-approval time I had already lost my water weight. Good luck to you on your surgery in a few days. Sending you my thoughts and prayers.

Hi LVMOM, I would definately try to get in to get a fluro so you can check the position of your band. I don't want to scare you but this is pretty serious and you need to make sure that you dont' have a slip. You have done outstanding with your WL since your banding but you shouldn't be having these reoccuring problems, espc since you had more fluid taken out of your band. I had similar problems about 2 mos ago and I thought I had a slip for sure. I had xrays done and my band was fine but very irritated and swollen, so my doc completely unfilled me for a month and gave me some Nexium to calm down my stomach. It sounds like you may have some reflux too possibly. Don't take no for an answer if they try to tell you that you are fine. Demand a fluro and then go from there. Personally, I would get a complete unfill to let your band and stomach rest and recooperate for a bit. It helped me immensely. Good luck to you. ~Liz~ 03/10/06 241/164/160 5'7''

Im only 5 days post op and not losing much im a smoker but haven't smoked since July 18 and im really craving one does anyone else smoke with the sleeve

My surgery was 1/14 and I am down to a size 18 from a 24. It feels great, but I am mostly out of clothes in my closet to wear so I went hunting for some deals on jeans. I have bought some things from the local thrift stores but one of the stores near me was having a 40% off one pair and get the second pair totally free. It brought the cost down to about $13 for a pair of jeans, which is only a few more bucks per pair than my local thrift stores. I went a little crazy and bought pants all the way down to a size 9/10. I have never been smaller than a 14. I was a 14 in high school. Looking at those tiny pants and trying to imagine wearing them is kind of impossible. For all of you that have gotten to goal - what size did you end up in? Did any of you start in a 24 and end up in a 9/10 or smaller? Is it possible for our bodies to change that much after RNY?

After the surgery, I developed a serious problem with constipation. I tried several things to resolve the problem including Probiotics, Metamucil, and laxatives; without success. The only thing that was effective was using glycerin suppositories. I just couldn’t accept inserting a suppository up my rectum every three days for the rest of my life as a viable solution. This was a serious problem. Then almost by accident I stumbled on a simple solution. I found that eating an apple or two each night before I went to bed corrected the problem. But it was important to also eat the skin of the apple. I have followed this regiment for the past 10 months and no problems. My mother who did not have surgery also suffers from this type of problem. I suggested she eat an apple each night before bed. But she says she can't because she has false teeth and the skin gets stuck. I was at my monthly bariatric surgery support group meeting yesterday and another person said they experienced the same problem because of her false teeth. She wanted to know if I had any solution. I thought about it and decided that perhaps one could blend the apple. I experimented today. I cut the core out of the apple and blended it with the skin to the consistency of apple sauce in my Ninja blender. I soon discovered that I needed to add a little liquid to make it blend properly - about a quarter or half cup of (no-sugar) apple juice. It seems like it might work. But since I still have my teeth, I am not able to perform a complete test. So if you suffer from constipation and if you have false teeth and are up to an experiment - try blending an apple a day with the skin (but not the core) and let me know (1) does this type of apple sauce get stuck in your teeth and (2) does it solve your constipation problem.

I could shower as soon as I got home, after 2 nights in hospital. You need to walk all the time. Try to have a friend stay with you if you can. Sent from my XT1635-01 using BariatricPal mobile app

urghhhhhhhhhhh!!! i cant even described how royally pissed off i am at my PCM. so i got to my appointment today (had to get up at 4:30 am to take hubby to work) get to his office wait thirty minutes just for him to give me ANOTHER piece of paper. but wait it gets better.....whats on this paper you ask?!?! MY TRICARE INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS!!!! something you think he would have given me when we first met a month ago. .....what was on this paper you ask?!?!?! i ahve to lose 10 pounds as a form of commitment to the lap band. i told my stupid doc that if i lost any weight i wouldnt qualify for the rest of my requirements...but did he listen?NO!!! so now i have to lose 10 pounds in like a week so that i can go back next week and get my referral. but thats not even the worst part!!!! were living overseas (hubbys in the airforce) and i have to be at least one year away from our DEROS date(date we go back to the states) to be eligable.we leave next may!!!!! so now i have to pray for a miracle and hope the hubby can extend our DEROS date so i can get the lap band. all this because my stupid doc couldnt give me a stupid freaking paper on my first visit!!! I JUST WANT TO CRY!!!

Great pics, beautiful grandbabies...you are too young to be a grandma!! I still have a 16 and 10 year old at home. BTW, you are doing fabulous with the weight loss! Cathy

Thanks to everyone that post about issues with fills. I have had some issues.... I am being told that I have a 10 cc band but I only NOW have .5cc in the band and at times I have the "stuck" feeling.... and I wonder all the time how that is possible with such a small amount of fluid in my band. I now know that I can not eat bread anymore...first time since I have been banded. :confused: and I still have nausea on and off every day and the meds are not helping. So I wonder if the nausea is something I will have to "Deal" with. Again Thank you for all the posts..... I know that I am not alone!

The pictures are great! I will try to post some soon. I'm glad to see some over 40 mom's with young children. I have a 12 yo and a 7 yr old that i gave birth to and a 24 and 20 yo that i acquired by marriage. My 20 yo has a 19 month old son who is livng with us! So I guess I have to stop saying I'm too young to be a grandmom since I am! :smile2:

I was cleared for anything at 5 weeks. Not everything set well the first time I tried it and my doctor said if that happend to try again later. So far the only thing I really don't eat well is oranges. My doctor says the no drinking is to not take up space you need for solid food so I would think that the soup broth is as nutritious as the solids so I do eat soups. I have had no problem losing the weight either. Only 19 lbs to goal! yay

Hi Everyone, Today has been a banner day because this morning I saw my Primary care doctor for the final time required by my insurance . Let me step back in time 6 months . Like so many others on this board I have a lifetime of being plus sized. I have many reasons over the years not the least of the is that I have a congenital disorder that requires me to live on steroids. This has always made weight loss difficult but not impossible. So over the last 2 decades i would go up and down more up then down. Then this strange thing happened called menopause and the ups kept happening and the downs got harder and harder . Hours in the gym would result in weight gains. I felt like as long as I was healthy and active then I would be okay not everyone in this world was meant to be thin. I have a great life so i was content with the state of this for a really long time . Then I Quit Smoking and changed medicine and the menopause at the same time and I gained a lot of weight very quickly. This tipped my scale so to speak . I Started having serious medical problems . i kept saying to myself I am only 4_. This will get better but it did not . Then 6 months my insurance changed and I had to get a new Dr. She did a physical and a full on battery of test to "see where I was" . 2 weeks later She called to tell me i was diabetic and needed to be on medication asap. My Grandfather, My Father and My partner of 12 years all died of complication to diabetes , I know that road. i hung up the phone cried for 10 minutes . Picked up the phone and made an appointment for a consult with a surgeon. i was not letting that disease control my life. I was ready or at least I thought I was. My Insurance company had a few things to say about that. They have had me jumping thru quite a few hoops. I have never seen my primary care doctor so much in my entire life!!! I have had go and talk to her about diet and exercises once a month for the last 6 months. The Funny thing is as far as the insurance company is concerned I have to go and get on a scale talk about diet but if I do not loss a pound that confirms for them that I "NEED" the surgery. Whereas My surgeon will not do the surgery unless i loss between 10-20 pounds. In the middle of all of this my original doctor Dr Jossert left the practice and I had to switch to his partner.Dr Cirangle. What made today a banner day is that the day i called I had no Idea what i weighted because my scale only went up to 330 and I was over that. The day I arrived at LapSF I weighed 327 pounds . Today I weighted 314 pounds . I lost the last 3 pounds over the weekend and because i did i got a Surgery date of Nov. 29 today. As long as the insurance approves everything that is my date. So that is my story to date... more to come i am sure

ok, so I had my surgery with Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver because my insurance would not pay for the surgery and I had to pay cash. I wanted someone with experience but not someone who was out to rob me blind. So... Dr. K was both and about $15K cheaper than anyone else I could find with his experience. One thing I found at my first fill was that he wasn't so good at after care. He didn't know how to tell me to know that I was filled correctly...so frustrated and water logged, I left with only 1.5 ccs in a 10cc band. That was 10/31/08. ON 11/07, I decided to call Fill Centers to find out what doctor they had available in Las Vegas for fills. They set me up with Dr Ricciardi a "Bariatric Physician", not to be confused with a "Bariatric Surgeon". I chose the annual plan with the promise that if I didn't like him that I could go to anyone else in the Fill Center network. Cool. Appt set for 11/20 at 9am. I was very impressed by his staff and by him. Turns out he is experienced and young and he trains other doctors across the country to be "aftercare" providers for bariatric surgery. How Cool! He listened, talked for about 30 minutes about what I've been trying and told me that I come to his office now for all aftercare. Awesome! So, he fills it 1.5 cc's and is amazed that I can chug a full water bottle with 3.0 ccs after only 8 weeks. I personally felt like he should put more but thought I should trust him and see how it goes. Next day all is well and I am eating around 1/4 - 1/2 cup depending on how much water I've had that day already. I think I need a little more so I'll set up an appt to go back in another week. Let's see how much I can lose this week without much restriction. I see many others who had surgery the same time as me are at 3.5 or 4.0 and have good restriction so I don't want to waste too much more time waiting for something to work... I'll give it til after Thanksgiving to see and then I'll make an appt. All in all, I was very pleased with my fill center experience. They gave me a lifestyle guide, access to recipes and other things on their website and called me for a follow up to see how everything went. I am pretty impressed.

I'm not sure if you were expecting anyone to not tell you the truth, but you've already answered your own question... the "truth" is different for different people. For me, I'd have been confortable sitting in class two or three days afterward, although would have been tired and not able to concentrate well. Probably at about a week it wouldn't have been a problem. My job is fairly physical and I went back 10 days later.

I wouldnt get another fill. Ive been there. I thought the tighter I was the more weight I would lose and that just wasnt the case. I had to end up getting an un-fill. I found I wasnt able to get enough calories in to substain my workouts let alone lose fat. Its been 10 months for me and I just hit 45 lbs lost. For many of us it is a VERY slow process. If you are one of those people you must just learn to accept that. The band does about 15% of the work. 70% is your diet and te other 15% is your exercise. 5 bariatric surgeons told me this in a seminar I went to before surgery. I didnt believe them. I really thought I could work out hard and lose weight quicker. NOT true. I lose maybe half of a pound a week and I do all the right things.

There is no definitive answer -- its individual -- I was sleeved on 5/20/10 (thursday) and went back to work (desk job) on the next tuesday. I felt like myself again in about 1 week Good Luck!

Bet you guys thought I abandoned you? NAH...I am a Realtor and let's just say...things have not been so fun for a while and I have been working so hard and concentrating on my business I have not had much time to do anything else. So, for now I will just give you a short update. I am steady at 155lbs. Anything less and I look sickly. My goal was 170lbs but my body settled at 155lbs so I am happy with that! I have lost a total of 125lbs. My year anniversary was May 21, 2010! I am a size 10 but I am being told some of my jeans look baggy so I plan to go try on some size 8's? REALLY...I think I will pass out if I get some of them to fit! HA I am wearing strapless dresses! Something I thought I'd never be able to do and even though I have a little flab. I don't care! I am at my sweet spot. I have 4cc's in my band. Anything more and I get sick real easy. I love my new body! I still have a hard time getting in exercise but I work hard at it. I still do what I am suppose to do to be successful. No soda, no junk, no slider foods. I have trouble with some foods. Lilith (my band) does not like chicken wings (baked or anything else) She had a bit of a time with some fish and my steaks have to be medium rare. I can eat almost anything else. So...that's it in a nutshell! I am hoping to get active on here again. PRAY that things turn around!!!!!!!! I need to sell some houses!:laugh: Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?:cool: Surgery Date: May 21, 2009 Starting Weight: 280lbs Dr. Michael Metz - St. Luke's Hospital Denver, CO:thumbup: Follow my progress thru photos: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/members/5...lbums3475

Ok... I altered this one a bit... I just pan cooked mychicken on low till tender- and for the veggies I just used a large size bag of frozen mixed veggies ( I let them thaw at room temp before adding) I actually think it would be great with a boiled chicken shredded. The next time I make it thats wht I'm gonna do. I;ve already made this about 3 times, but warning......... IT MAKES ALOT!! Chicken Pot Pie 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup flour 1 cup fat-free milk 2 cups chicken broth 1 lb chicken breast 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup chopped carrots 1 cup peas 1 medium potato, chopped 1/2 green Beans Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning 1 store bought Pie Crust First, cook your chicken. I cooked mine in a slow cooker for 6 hours on high. You could pan "fry", use left over chicken, or chicken from a can. Next, to make the gravy, melt butter in sauce pan and flour. Stir. Add milk. Continue stirring. Mixture will start to thicken. Add chicken broth and seasonings. Add vegetables and chicken. Let cook on medium heat while you prepare pie crust. Here's a Tip: As bandsters, we are always looking for ways to reduce calories. So with store bought pie crusts, I roll them out on a floured surface to make thinner. Then I cut it to the size I need. With this pot pie, I only used 2/3rds of the original pie crust. Hey, it saved me about 200 calories off my total dish. Anyhow, fill an oven safe dish with the chicken and vegetables. Then top with your pie crust. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Makes a ton! Somewhere between 8-10 bandster portions with about 200 calories per serving.

Anyone else out there totally afraid they won't loose their weight. I had band surgery 12/2/10 and one 5 cc fill 12/29/10. I don't feel any restriction and I have to be so care full that I measure all my food so I won't eat too much. I have lost 42 pounds since I started the whole process in September and I have to give away most of my clothes because they are just falling off me. I am so afraid. Any suggestions for me. Thanks for the help!!