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I'm 8 months out and when I was banded back in October, you could get on their website and get a free sample. Maybe TMI :-) Any how, I don't care for their products at all. Everyone has different taste preferences but it's a no for me. Best, Aimee

my body does that too!! i will stall for days/weeks then all of a sudden i will have a drop of 5-15 lbs over a couple of days (the 15 lb drop was fantastic lol) …. i also (tmi) notice that i go pee a lot more for a day or so before a stall ends

I have tried alot out there. The Ortho tricyclen made me a crazy woman. I tried Merena...made me crazy too. I could be sitting on the cough watching TV with my hubby and all of the sudden get pissed off for no reason. I mean teeth gritting, ears red, wanting to throw something pissed off. I also tried the diaphram, my hubby didn't like it cuz it would rub the head of his penis raw....sorry I know TMI, but its true. Plus it is a pain to put in and take out. I liked today's sponge. I used it for about a year after I decided it was the Ortho tricyclen making me crazy. Again it is a pain to put in and take out. My doc finally believed me when I told her the hormone birth control and others like it were gonna eventually make me kill somebody so she changed me to Ortho Novum which has the opposite hormone that tricyclen does....I have been on it for about 4 months now and it seems to be working out good for me. Every one is different though. The trick is finding what is best for you!

We tried about a week an a half out, it was too soon. The movement made the muscles in my stomach very sore. Tried again a few days later, but I had to keep my tummy from moving too much for about 2 weeks! I think everyone will be different but the muscle healing process should be similar. NOW THAT is TMI, but I hope it helps!

Hey Sally, Day 2 & 3 where the worst for me and that when the nasueau really kicked in !! They prescribed me something for the naseau that worked wonders but the gas there was nothing to do but walk and walk and walk !! honestly it took a full 9 days before I felt like my old gassless self !! :frown: But trust me once you get over that hump you feel fantastic !! I'm almost 3 weeks post op and feeling like a million bucks !! :tt1: It's all a bit strange how I have to work to really get in the calories cause once I take about 5 bites of whatever not hungry anymore..it's bizzare but awesome!! And about the farts..dont worry about it, my husband actually made it a game to see how many I could get out in an hour !! LMAO I know TMI !!! :w00t:

No but I'm ovulating sorry tmi

Sorry about the nature of this post, but need input. I was sleeved on 8/20. Two weeks later found out I have a clot between my stomach and liver that will take at least 3 months to dissolve. That aside, my recovery has gone well. I have even gotten back on track with daily bowel movements. The thing is, they are pretty dark, darker than I've ever seen before. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Consistency-wise, they're normal. Just an unusual dark greenish/black color. Anyone else seeing this? Appreciate any input you may have!

Not TMI for this group, we've all been or will be going through it. If you read my blog, you'll see I had urinary issues following surgery, then constipation for a week. I think it just takes a while for the internal systems to start functioning again, and it affects everyone differently.

So I'm 50. Ya the big 50! wooohooo... but that's not why I'm here today. Let's talk about menopause! In a nut shell it sucks even without all the major side effects I hear about. I've been pretty lucky in that regard. I thought I was over having my TOM because I haven't had one since May. Well it's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack So why am I posting about this here? Well, it effects my weight. I usually gain 2 to 3 lbs each month and then start the cycle of working off the weight again. It just didn't disappear after my TOM went away each month. Those 2 to 3 lbs would hold on and make me work them off. So each month I would work like a dog to get off 5 lbs only to gain back 2 to 3 every 4 weeks. Felt like the never ending race. So I was a tad bit excited when I skipped a month. Being banded hasn't prevented the 2 to 3 gain each month either but I'm not losing sight of my long term goal here. I will win this race! On a more positive note... A "unknowing" friend of mine mentioned my weight loss yesterday! Finally! Made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It's amazing how receiving a compliment makes you feel. It was nice. So today my goals are: 1. Control my cravings! Chocolate cookies are on the top of the list. 2. Be patient and persistent with myself. 3. Give as many compliments as I can to anyone and everyone I can. Share the joy. just sayin, j~

i hate the feeling of stuck food- like a crushing chest pain, shoulder pain, having to TMI gag yourself desperate to dislodge the offending asparagus(or whatever) finally so desperate you heimlich yourself and then if still unsucessful wait wait wait npo, spitting saliva all day long until at least saliva will stay down, staying nothing by mouth for 24hours and gradually starting clear liq again......please say it isnt so with the vsg I'm considering

I was feeling like that last week. So I went into work, and did an x-ray. (I'm a nurse) I had the biggest gas pocket in my stomach. It was huge. I now know that it can make you feel swallen. I had trouble swallowing, couldnt not burp, or fart... TMI.. and my muffin top did not even go down any. I have been taking lots of gas x and it has helped so much. Allison

When I got banded I went home with no gas pains. Now weeks later I'm feeling all kinds of pains and the gas x is slow to help. I'm passing gas (sorry tmi) and burping so I'm hesitant to call my Dr. Is this normal?

Today I got up and was getting ready to see the nuro doctor and walked by my mirror and was happy to see the person in that mirror eventhough I have a funny mirror. I was proud!!! I also notice that I have lessen the hair growth on my face. I am not seeing much hair lost on my head but in my private part it falls out in clumps. Sorry for the TMI. since I have had the weight lost I was able to wipe myself and really get clean. When I sneeze I don't pee a little any more. The last little change is I was able to put on this griddle that I use to use to lift my belly so that it would not hang. It makes me look prego just a bit but it helps my back from having so much pain. Oh my feet are not swollen any more. The little changes is what I live for. Any one else see the little changes?

Hi all, I'm on post op day 5, and the last couple of days I've been really hungry. This is rather troubling since I thought the surgery would take away my hunger, especially in the beginning. Or could this just be what I've heard people call "head hunger"? Will it get better when I move on to mushies? Also, (possibly TMI) I've been having some cramping and loose stools. Does anyone know if pepto bismol is alright in the all liquids phase? Thanks, you guys help me out so much.

No way not to tink it to death...from what I understand I go into the chat room a lot! and many of the people there complain about all the negative things...so I I havent been in as often. TMI---Too Much Information. I am scheduled for tomorrow...don't focus on the negative things focus on thpositive. Remember what got you to this point in the first place. Remember how when you go shopping you want to buy anything & everything you want & not be so limited in your choices. Also some people who have slippage is because they have made poor food choices & puke which causes slippage. Be totally committed mentally & physically and remember you have to not want the bad things to eat...the band can't stop you from eating them only you can. As far as not losing weight ask them what they are really eating...there was one lady in the chat roo complaining that she isn't losing but was consuming 2000 calories a day. Take a break from the forum & you will remember why you are doing this. On friday I had one of those moments but when I put on my outfit to go out & realized that I look like a linebacker...it brought right back to why I wanted to do this in the first place. I have a blog & I will be tracking my progress as I go. Maybe that will help you...Good Luck!

This will be a long one, I'm afraid. I was banded 04/20/2006 by Dr. Ariel Ortiz in TJ. Surgery went great. My second - and last - fill was on 07/11/2006 for a total fill of 2.4 cc in a 10 cm band. Starting losing weight and was doing just fine. In November I began having stiffness and swelling in my back due to diagnosed spinal arthritis and bone spurs. This made my band a little tighter. Near the end of December I experienced bloating and swelling due to perimenopausal bleeding that I had not seen in four years. You guessed it, my band felt even tighter. By the end of January I knew it was time for an unfill until I could get these issues resolved. I made an appointment locally for a fluoro and unfill. The night before I was scheduled to go in, I ate a piece of chicken. It immediately obstructed my band. I have never known such pain as this, and I've had natural childbirth and three kidney stones. The vomiting and retching were over the top. I was taken immediately to the ER. Of course, they had never heard of the band. All I could say was "Get a 2-inch needle, aspirate all fluid from the port!" I even told them to go look it up online. One of the sweet ER nurses did come in and ask me to not scream so loud as I was scaring a child down the hall! As if I could stop. The local lap band doc (who was not on call) came to my rescue and removed all the fluid from my band. There was a great sense of relief, but I still had a lot of pain. It had been mitigated somewhat by the 5 mg of morphine they gave me. They sent me home. Within an hour, I knew I was in bad trouble. The pain had just increased more, so back we went to the ER. At least I got a different nurse this time! Bloodwork was done, followed by CT scan. Just an elevated white count. They decided to admit me for an endoscopy the following morning. It was about 2 a.m. by this time. They kept me drugged with the 5 mg morphine every 45 minutes to an hour, and it barely kept me going. The next morning at 11 a.m. I went down for an endoscopy to be followed by a gastric graphing. After waking up from the endo, they said no more tests for you. You have to go to immediate surgery. I saw the pictures from the endo - pink, pink, black. I knew it was bad when I saw black! The scheduled my surgery for 5 p.m. but moved it up to 2 p.m. As I was being rushed in, I was told that my band had slipped catastrophically down the front of my stomach and my stomach was being deprived of oxygen from being strangled by the band. They were hoping to do a lap incision and remove the band and things would go back to normal. The surgeon took one look in the lap incision, took a picture of my stomach looking the same color as my liver (bad news!) and then removed the lap tool and opened me up all they way, from sternum to belly button. They removed the band, along with two/thirds of my stomach that had died over the last few hours. I woke up with a six-inch stapled incision, a two-inch stapled incision, two drains, a central line to my heart, an NG tube that went into what was left of my stomach, a Foley catheter and those lovely leg squeezers. I was unable to get out of bed for four days and didn't have solid food for over a week. IVs only. The NG tube was my "friend" for five days. I was given alternating doses of two different antibiotics every six hours to prevent peritonitis. I was on a morphine pump to administer 5 mg of morphine every hour on the hour. I used that pump for over seven days. Thank God the antibiotics worked! I was in the hospital 11 days and am very lucky to be here today. Now to answer a few questions I know some of you might have. My band had not slipped before this night, and I had no symptoms of a slip. I had no symptoms of anything. No pain, No acid reflux, no PB'g. I was able to eat and drink as I had before it started getting tighter, just much smaller amounts. The doctor said the initial surgery looked like a good surgery, so no problem there. I did all the things I was supposed to be doing, eating slow, chewing well, etc. The doctor who fixed me up said I should have no long-term effects from losing so much stomach, except for some weight loss. I will only be able to eat small amounts, about 4 oz., five to seven times a day. I've lost over 17 pounds since the surgery and am struggling not to lose more as I need to get in more calories to help my body heal faster. I'm dealing with low-grade queasiness all day, and the BMs will be faster until they get settled down. The doc was able to save my pyloris, so I won't have the "dumping" issues we've all heard about. Before you get too scared over my story, just remember that my surgeon said that this is a very rare occurence. This was the first time he's seen it happen this way. But you know what they say, "The statistics may be only 1%, but if you are that 1%, then your statistic just jumped to 100%. We all know when we decide to get the lap-band that complications can happen, so I felt it was necessary to share with this community my personal experience. I do not regret getting my lap-band last year. It just turned out that I was to be one of the "statistics" we all read about. Considering the seriousness of my situation, I'm so very grateful to be here to be able to share this with you. I've often wondered over these last few weeks as I recover if there was anything I could have done to prevent this from happening. The doc says probably not as I had no symptoms and was in the process of doing the right thing by getting a fluoro and an unfill. I know this post may contain TMI, and I apolopgize in advance for that. But I also know there are many, many of you on this board that want and need to hear my story. So here it is. Feel free to post any questions for me. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions I can.

I had very minimal pain. I felt as if I had done a ton of situps, of course, I don't really know what that feels like. But, it was not very bad at all. I had worked it up to be horrible! I had my surgery around 2:00pm. I was in my room by 5:30pm. I think I would have been there sooner, but they were out of rooms so they kept me in recovery longer. They gave me some pain meds in recovery through my IV. Once in my room, I asked a nurse when I would be getting up to walk around 8:00pm, and she said I will do that right now. I was scared of what turning over to get out of the bed would feel like, but honestly, it was not very bad at all. I had a pain pump, but it was hydromorphone. It is 10 times stronger than morphine. I was allowed to push it every 8 minutes for medicine, but I did not push it that often. I would go up to 30 minutes or an hour sometimes. I have diabetes and my sugar spiked once I was out of surgery. I was disappointed because I went into surgery thinking that i would be able to get rid of my medicines. They had to give me 2 shots of insulin while in the hospital that night. I went home the next night around 7:30pm.... with only a half of a blood pressure pill. I went in on 6 medicines. It has been amazing to me that my sugar has just leveled out. I did have to add prilosec to my medicines to protect the pouch from ulcers. In my mind, even if the weight doesn't come off I have had success with the surgery! I had a script for phenergan and hydrocodone when I left the hospital. I was walking only around the house for the first week besides a couple of shopping trips, because it was so humid outside and I was terrified of getting dehydrated. I carry a Water bottle with me everywhere I go and sip constantly. The liquid stage was not bad at all. You are really not hungry when you come home. My Mom was here and she was making all of my kids favorite things. There were cakes and Cookies, friends were bringing dinner for my family,but I didn't want any of it. I bought little 2 ounce shot cups and kept them beside me with Protein shake and water. I would alternate between the two the exact way that they told us when with the nutritionist. I also had chicken broth and lots of sugar free popsicles. You won't get in all of your protein or water in the beginning. It will happen eventually. Its only 2 weeks for liquids, and it is time consuming, but it goes by quickly. I began eating food at 2 weeks after my post op appointment. I started with a scrambled egg with a laughing cow cheese melted in. I was amazed when I could only eat half of it! There is a list of foods not to eat, but you can pretty much eat alot of different things to keep you from getting bored. I have thrown up twice. Once I ate 1 too many shrimp. I was terribly uncomfortable and in alot of pain for about 2hours and then I spit up some white frothy stuff a few times, and then all of the food. (sorry if it is TMI) The second time I think I didn't chew it completely and it was about an hour and a half before it finally came back up. I felt wonderful as soon as it was up. Throwing up isn't the same as before surgery because there is not much bile in your stomach. I am much more cautious now after doing it to not overeat. I look for things that have lots of protein. I am so sick of the shakes. I have tried many kinds. I don't like the powders much. I have found a cappucino one by nectar that I can tolerate in the mornings. It has 23 grams of protein. I would drink the shakes if they weren't so sweet. I think eventually I will go back to drinking them in the morning. I like GNC Lean Shake best. I also had a guy in my support group who never used the pain pump at the hospital and didn't fill his prescription of hydrocodone when he left. He also was never nauseous. I will be glad to share the things that have worked for me. Remember, that your tastes buds will most likely change after surgery, so don't buy too many of one item. Lots of websites will let you do sampler packs to find the Proteins that work for you. Enjoy your day! I plan on sleeping most of the day. I was in the hospital ER all night with my 19 year old. He was dehydrated and losing function in his kidneys. Thankful that I have him home now in one piece. It was a pretty scary night.

Wife and I had VSG ON 11/24. Yesterday was the 1st urge to used #2. Have been on colace and benefiber since Thur mourning. Yesterday afternoon made it to the bathroom with seconds to spare! Nothing but liquids but still feels like a rock stuck in there. Anyone else go through this? Any suggestions? Sorry if tmi just uncomfortable?

I had actually resized and submitted for you, but then saw that you had already resized, so deleted my resize in an edit, but didn't change my wording... lol TMI?

That is about how much I was going. It just slowed down this afternoon. It must be toxins. TMI alert, I've had an vaginal order for over a year that I would have to wear a poise to help with the odor. It was strong and me embarrassing. A few days after being on the liquid detox, i noticed the odor disappeared. Also, I no longer need to wear liners. Amazing what eliminating foods will do. I hope I continue to pee although it's in annoying. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I can't eat 98% of food. Like you said, 3 weeks ago some things were ok, now if I eat them they totally make me nauseaus or I don't like the taste. I have NO idea what's going on....pretty irritated. If I do find a food i like ok, within 90 minutes I'll have the runs (sorry-tmi) so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to maintain any semblance of nutrition

SO, I hope i do not offend anyone's sensibilities, but a few people I know and help with this journey, have asked about this and it kind of clicked for me, especially recently. Now since many many threads have talked about dealing with constipation etc, this is far from that. What I have noticed is that during a stall i will got 3 to 5 days without a BM. But when i am losing constantly, I have much more regular BM's Now obviously the joke " i took so big i poop i felt lighter" etc. seem to hold true to a degree. ( no i have never weighed before and after) But i most certainly do notice that sustained weight loss seems to coincide with being..regular , shall we say. So am I strange in this regard? ( just in this regard, I know I am strange overall, thank you) What have your experiences been?

Forgive me for this post, this might fall under the "TMI" context. Basically, I'm trying to figure out what is happening and if it's normal. Essentially, 2 weeks post-op, I'm having a lot of abdominal gas, gurgling, some pain until I pass the gas...Normally not too bad, but extremely painful today. My stool has also (a few times) been nothing but a foul-smelling gelatin like slime with some bright red splotches in them (Imagine the red thing stuck in green olives). Background: 2 weeks post op drinking 1 ounce every 7.5 minutes, which is twice the rate my doctor said, but when questioned about it, was told it would be fine. I have a tendency to forget even with my annoying phone app, so I really need to drink this often. per day: drinking 2 premier protein drinks (11oz) and about 20 ounces of liquid (Vitamin water zero or 5 calorie minute maid lemonade) plus some frozen sugar free pop sickles and sugar free Jello. Some days I drink maybe 8 ounces of chicken broth. Doc prescribed milk of magnesia for constipation No lactose intolerance/IBS/chron's/UC before surgery Normal bowel movements after surgery, then this started about 3 days ago I stopped using the milk of magnesia about 5 days ago because it tasted so bad, I had no BM's for 2 days, so I resumed and the first morning afterward had a completely normal BM, then the "slime/mucous" problem started. Ever since the surgery I've had strange abdominal sounds, gurgles, could feel stuff moving around, pockets of gas, etc...I figured this was normal because my lap band did the same thing. My theory is that the red stuff in the slime might be food coloring from the sugar free stuff, and possibly the laxative effects of the sugar free things. My 2 week post op is this Wednesday and I show no other problems (normal temp, etc) so I was going to wait until then to discuss...Except for today when I had extremely painful abdominal gas. It took about an hour to pass, and then I felt fine. So what am I doing wrong? I know I'm on the low side for protein and liquids, but I would expect that to make me more constipated? I've drank the protein drinks for years and they never bothered me before, but I do feel more crampy/bloaty when/after drinking it. Thanks for any thoughts and my apologies if this is a bit 'too much info'

Ok, I was sleeved on April 16th however, I'm having a problem with bowel movement. What is going on? I'm a bit scared I have a call into my Doctor. Help Please!!!!!

I just got the surgery. I'm feeling ok. Just some pain in my tummy and tenderness in the incision sites. Is it normal to miss chewing? I'm on day 6 and omg I need to chew. I can't take any more jello or ice pops or water or broth. I feel like I'm going nuts. Lol. Is this normal? And sorry if this is TMI but when should the first #2 happen? Lol.