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As did mine but as I mentioned my surgeon took them off at my one week visit that was not my decision but his as the one who did the surgery. I was also strictly instructed to not put any type of alcohol or peroxide on the skin as it breaks it down and does not promote healing. I was also swabbed for infection and it is not infection, it is not oozing nor has it ever, I have no fever, and it is not warm to the touch. My surgery was also over two weeks ago and this just started happening. And my PCP is the one I went to, did you read my original post before commenting or what?

My program has a strict NO ALCOHOL policy for 1 year post-op. I even had to sign a contract with my surgeon pre-op!

I am becoming increasingly annoyed by older people on this site. Though it is not the intention of some posters, many people come off very condescending in their responses. I am twenty three, my way of life is different than someone who is in their late thirties and forties. My relationship with things like alcohol is different. If someone posts that they just turned twenty one or are about to turn twenty one, I am not going to berate them because of their desire to be a normal twenty year old. I will let them know the complications and that certain things will not work with having surgery. Support. Not tell them they are an alcoholic and have a problem. My rant got a bit specific but is anyone else having these problems/frustrations?

I agree, I think it was pretty obvious from the start that she didn't see her obesity as her weakness and that she had any intention of changing. It seems like the surgeon just looks for an ability to lose weight, then he approves the surgery. Pretty sad, but without a will to change, she'll be like any other addict whether it's drugs, alcohol, or food, an early death. I think that's the only thing I don't like about the show, the lack of mental health clearance. I've never seen any of them jump through the hoops that we had to.

This was a big question for me pre-surgery as well. Not a big drinker but like to have a glass of wine when out with friends. I am 6 months out and can now drink anything easily, just not as much as I used to without feeling the effects (probably because I have less food in me!). I tried to have a "skinny cosmo" a few weeks out and one sip did me in - it tasted like raw alcohol and burned going down. 4 weeks out I tried a light white wine and was able to drink half a glass. Since then I have found that white or rose wine is the easiest thing to drink - and I can have a glass every night if I want to. I can also have margaritas and cosmos again but only one drink - two is too many. I don't feel deprived at all and really look forward to my glass of wine at night. Many on the site choose not to drink because it's not the best choice for calories - and I get that. For me, I am finding that it works in moderation and allows me to continue my social life just like before surgery - eating and drinking less of course - just like my skinny friends were doing all along!

Wow, Julie -- you are so brave! Way to go. And here's to Lidocaine. I use the Patches. Debbie, sorry for your losses -- good for you pulling the eating thing together. You are doing beautifully! We have blue sky and much longer days now -- so happy to have winter behind us. Yesterday I did my four mile walk at the lake for the first time in ages. Felt great! A lot going on in my life just now -- had to help a friend check into the hospital for depression and alcohol issues, trying to find the right facility for her. Occasionally my mind goes to the acquiring of food -- my old mode -- and I remind mysef I don't do that anymore. What a relief! When my husband was in the hospital for two and a half weeks a couple of years ago I self-medicated with bread and cheese, muffins, etc. Being in that environment again triggered those desires but my band is there -- sometimes I think it's on my brain. A reminder. Have a great day, all. I'm going to go manufacture some more endorphins now.

My one rule with alcohol is nothing fizzy. Which coming from someone who loves cocktails and champagne, but most importantly a great G&T - is hard. But since I had the surgery, I've managed to get rid of the carbonated drinks. I usually drink red wine or vodka with apple. Cranberry is out as I have had it so much now it makes me feel nautius (on one occasion I did nearly throw up - painful), not a fan of orange juice either. But my preference is for cocktails. I know I need to work on drinking a lot less myself and I am fine going out in social gatherings and not drinking at all, however I think you have to give yourself some "treats" and not put yourself down if you do drink. Everything in moderation (so boring) but I try and save drinking for the weekend as much as possible and never drink on my own in the house.

How long did you have to wait to drink alcohol post op? I'm not a big drinker at all, but am curious as to how long it will be before I can have a drink or two with the girls at happy hour. Thanks!

I have only been banded since mid January and do enjoy a small glass of wine with meals a few times a week. My weight continues to drop and overall I'm eating much less then I normally would have back before the surgery. The alcohol also does not impact me, they are liquids and go right through. At the end of the day it's about what goes in and how much you burn. In addition it's about satiety, so if you're eating less and can go the 4 (recommended) hours and loosing the 1-2lbs a week - you're golden (in my opinion) Also to note I read a book my surgeon had given me based on the Dr who was instrumental in the band procedure; his studies actually show that patients who enjoyed a small amount of wine throughout the week with dinner had favourable results.

I was really dreading not having Diet Coke after surgery. And 9 days out, while there are lots of things I miss and crave, bizarrely Diet Coke isn't one of them. I'm drinking Water and diet squash, and while water doesn't taste good to me at the moment, the squash does and I have no real desire for Diet Coke. However, I do know that I want to be able to live a normal life, and sometimes that might mean having a Diet Coke on an evening out. In particular, I don't want to give up alcohol completely (I'm not a heavy or even a regular drinker, but I do want to be able to have a drink with friends every so often, even if they are empty calories), so that might mean I occassionally want a wine spritzer or carbonated cider or gin and (carbonated) tonic. I hope that I will be able to tolerate these since I know they will not be regular features of my diet, and I had this sleeve so I could live normally and still enjoy things in moderation.

Hi kate... I know exactly what you're saying, I have read a lot into nutrition and I measure everything, I track it all on myfitnesspal, I have a fitbit, I use a heart rate monitor etc I think for me, I need to sit down with a nutritionist and work this out. I should probably also cut out the alcohol more so. For example today I have had: Breakfast: Blueberry fruyo yoghurt from fage Midmorning snack: 1 x wholegrain organic rice cake thin kallo with 1 tsp of whole earth organic nut butter Lunch: butternut squash roasted with apple, red grapes, onion and 150g of pork sausage Dinner: 90g steamed salmon with spinach Total, 780 cals, 58g protein 59g carb Yesterday I had: Breakfast: 1/2cup of eat natural gluten free vine cereal and 200ml alpro almond milk Mid morning snack: 1 x boiled egg and 2 x kallo rice cake thins Lunch: homemaid thai chicken skewer Afternoon snack: 10 carrot sticks and 2tbsp of humous Dinner: 90g steamed spinach, steamed rainbow veg ad 1tbsp of fresh pesto, 1 fruyo cherry yoghurt for dessert Total: 1,071 cals, 72 carb 91 protein These are pretty similar, my myfitnesspal is littlemissmo83. There are days I don't track, so maybe I need to be super diligent in the week to assess. How many cals do you aim for? My bmr is currently 1,556 cals at present. Thanks again for your inputs! I know it's boring, but stalls are so frustrating! Soundlogik, I would definitely book yourself in for a fill if you feel it's necessary. It does make a difference, for sure!

It does sound like you've tried other things and have been overweight a long time, so this may indeed be the right time for surgery. The only other thing I can recommend is to start seeing a therapist who specializes in eating disorders, to find out why you overeat. IMO if you don't do this, your chances of longterm recovery are lower. I always thought that I just liked the taste of food, esp sweets, more than other people, even as a child. I was always wanting more, even before I became overweight. It wasn't until my marriage started falling apart that I went looking for answers on the eating, b/c by then I knew there were emotional reasons that I ate. And I found, surprisingly to me, that those reasons went back to childhood. I've had to work hard on letting go of some of those emotions I buried deep inside, and find ways to express anger and disappointment without using food. Two years ago, surgery would not have been successful for me, I know, b/c I would have found another crutch, possibly alcohol. I've heard others become shopping addicts, using the excuse of needing new clothes at first, but later it's a new addiction. Geneen Roth has some books on Emotional Overeating that I found very helpful, too. Best of luck!

That depends on your overall history. How long have you been overweight, by how much, and what have you tried so far? If you've only been this heavy a few years, I would strongly encourage you to try other things first, or if your BMI is less than 40. OTOH, if you've been on multiple diets, have been significantly overweight since childhood, then this might be an excellent opportunity for you. No healthy eating plan, with or without WLS, is going to say going out drinking frequently is a good thing. Most healthy plans allow things like that once you reach goal, occasionally, but that's not what my college days were like LOL! You do say you're tired of wasting your life being unhealthy, but I believe you have no co-morbidities yet, right? So who says you are unhealthy? You may be very different from me, but when I was that age, it was all about looking good, not health. And while I'm not judging you at all for that, it's understandable, but it can definitely affect your commitment to something this huge. I really don't think I was emotionally mature enough then to really take on something lifelong. Maybe you could commit to trying 3-6 months of low carb, high Protein meals, without the very low calorie counts and portion sizes required by WLS, to see how committed you could be with this. If you do something like Atkins, you can also eat high fat and it keeps you full, while still losing weight due to the extremely low carbs. I was successful at that several years ago, but could not sustain it longer than 8 months in the end. So even I am worried about how I will do post-op, just counting on the hope of not wanting sweets and possible dumping. I've been overweight my entire life, and was getting close to 200's about three years ago (making me still 60-70 lbs overweight for my height/bone structure) with a BMI of 32-34 at that time. Im now 267 lbs putting my BMI at 40-41. I don't take offense easily so no worries there and I appreciate your advice. I tried montignac for a year about 5 years ago, atkins for about 6-8 months about 4 years ago, nutrisystem for 2-3 months 2 years ago (only a short time because 1 i couldn't afford 300 dollars a month for it, and 2 I gained 15 lbs the first month and another 10 lbs the second month despite following the plan to a T) Plus other methods that I had heard about from one source or another. But i've never been able to keep the weight off, and I thankfully don't lack conviction. But I want to be healthy. I don't care what others think of me, I care what I think of myself. I don't want to be skinny, I want to be able to walk around with my friends and not feel dizzy and winded like im going to pass out. I want to dance without feeling disgusting like I don't have a right to do so and without any of the above mentioned things. I have contemplated surgery for the last 2 years and finally decided to go for it when it occurred to me that I couldn't breathe when i bent down to tie my shoes, and when I realized that I weigh less than 100lbs less than my 47 y/o mom who is morbidly obese with sleep apnea and a slew of other things. It was a slap in the face that said if i didnt do something soon then i would be looking at my not so distant future. Like she was my reflection only id get it 20 years earlier, because her and I have very similar stats. Needless to say I cracked amd cried like a baby. She is 5'7" and weighs 360, i'm 5'6" and weigh 267. That is entirely too close for comfort, and I want to be better. P.S TO ALL: I'm not really in to alcohol, and didn't realize that a lot of people turn to alcohol to replace food after surgery. So if that could be cleared up that would be cool haha thank you

Anyone with information, please advise. I have two questions. 1.) For the most part, I can open gel caps and dump the powder in with Protein powder, but what about pills you can't dump out or find in a liquid? Like what if you are in an accident and you get sent home with pain meds? will a pill fill us up so we can't eat? 2.) Does medication effect us differently after surgery the way they say alcohol will? I take medication to sleep and now I wonder, am I allowed to swallow it and also will the dose I am used to seem crazy high?

My Dr requires a 14 day pre op.It calls for 2 meals of high quality, high protein,low carb,shakes mixed with water,not milk. 1 meal per day of 4oz broiled,baked or grilled chicken, turkey or fish with green Vegetables......lettuce,green beans,asparagus,cabbage ,cucumbers,zucchini,spinach and broccoli.No butter or sauces on vegetables, low carb salad dressing or salad sprinter for flavor. Allowed in limited amount diet soda, crystal lite,water, coffee no cream, tea,sugar free gelatin,fat free broths, and sugar free popsicles Avoid foods high in calories and carbohydrates,bread,beans,potatoes,corn,pasta,rice,desserts,reg soda and alcohol. Also begin taking a multivitamin once a day. This is what my Dr requires of me. To help shrink liver and got rid of fat around the area . Good luck hope this helped .

When I read the title of this thread I thought of myself and wondered if I was doing it wrong as I don't follow any "program." After reading all the posts I realize that I do! Protein/calories/fat/etc: I don't track any of it and think I would go nuts if I did. I had to do it pre-op and hated it. Made me feel like a "patient." However, I am aware of what I am eating. To me that is a real breakthrough. When I think about what I am eating I make much better choices. Protein first: Always No liquids with meals: Not a problem Exercise: Keep waiting to like it but don't yet... However, I do go to the gym at least twice a week and see a big difference! 64 oz water: I try but most days don't make it. Alcohol: I had my annual wine cooler during the Super Bowl and did fine!

I can't see why it would have made you feel any tighter. It is worth taking care though for several reasons. Empty calories Low food intake means it is like drinking on an empty stomach so it often has more effect Lowers inhibitions so we may eat more or carelessly Very high quantity of alcohol may cause vomiting which is to be avoided. I did have the occasional drink from about three or four months post-op and I am relaxed about it now. But at so far post-op, I really know how things work for me.

I didn't drink any alcohol for the first year. and than I allowed myself to drink my Christmas drink of bailey's and coffee. I would have been hesitate to drink to much with the fear of the nausea and perhaps vomiting that could have occurred. vomiting is a no no. we try hard not to do it. you can still go out with friends but do sip on one drink. you are only a few months from your surgery date.

Alcohol empty calories. I also was a major wino until about a month before surgery. Not worth starting again

@@bacon, I added an extra mile to my walking today. One down and five more to go for the week! My food was pretty good but I got yelled at by both of my daughters. After church we had lunch in a restaurant and I had a bowl of Soup and ate the chicken and hard boiled eggs out of a salad. Then I took the rest home because I'd had enough. So far, so good. Then my daughter and I shopped for her laptop and a few other items and then I came home with the overwhelming desire to fry up a dessert for everybody. I did, and had three or four of these tasty little things myself. Not a great choice but not the end of the world. Probably about 400 calories at the most. Then I had a kale salad. A few hours later I was hungry again and had another kale salad. Then I walked my extra mile for the day and here I am now. The yelling came long distance from my daughter in Madrid after I bragged about the delicious dessert I fried up. "Mom, why would you cook something like that after all the work and progress you've made? Nobody needs that stuff in the house." Then my older daughter chimed in (love group texting, don't you?) saying "Yeah, you shouldn't have made them. I didn't ask for them." So anyway, they are both right. I'm done eating the treats. They came out wonderful but I don't need them. I was proud of how they turned out and I had a few, but that kind of food will derail my weight loss. So I'm done. My younger daughter suggested that I research healthy recipes and make those kinds of foods when I get the urge to cook or bake. True. Anyway, my weight was up this morning when I woke up. It was very discouraging, especially since I had no alcohol this week and haven't gone to the movies to eat. However, the old body here is hanging on to the fat, and it's not going to let go until I up my exercise. So @@bacon's challenge came just in time. I'm going to push that extra mile each day. It's not that hard because I was a sedentary slug, so every extra bit helps. As for the 5k, I'm starting to believe it is doable. My knee pain was gone today like a miracle when the steroid shots kicked in finally. I walked the dog around the neighborhood and felt really good. My mini goal this week is to get back down to 195 by next Sunday. I'm going to walk an extra mile each day and stay away from alcohol and sweets and movie crapcorn. My daughter is in town until next weekend, and I'm taking her and her cousins out to Olive Garden Monday for dinner. I will have soup and salad and a meatball and NO breadsticks. I'm very happy to have this thread for daily check in. Thank you all. How did everyone do?

Hi all, I have a question about lapband and alcohol. I had a few too many drinks on Saturday night with some girlfriends. Since then I've had some stuck issues and vomited a bit. I am hoping this is all part of my learning curve and learning my new limits. Maybe big nights need to be a thing of the past? Has anyone else experienced this??

I drink soda every single day...diet cherry pepsi...mmmm, YUM. It doesn't bother my stomach at all. My doctor told me to lay off the soda and caffeine for the first two months and then if I could drink it if it didn't cause gas pain. There was no sleeve-related medical reason that I couldn't have it and while soda is bad for you, so are a lot of other things, most of which are not made any worse just because we only have 20% of a stomach. I figure I don't smoke, don't do drugs, rarely eat junk food, and rarely drink alcohol....if diet soda is my weakness, I'm pretty happy that's the one I have!

I've had a few cocktails here and there starting the second month after surgery. I know this is not recommended but I checked with my doctor and was told just to not over do it, and I didn't. The alcohol does affect me differently. One or two cocktails over the course of an entire evening is all I drink. My go to drink is vodka and Water (tap) then I add a flavor enhancer to it. There are tons on the market now and you can make yourself a great cocktail.. I also order it tall (twice the water same amount of vodka). This way I can track the calories and carbs without worrying about anything else in the drink. I don't drink often, maybe once a month or so, but I like to go out and have the occasional drink. I stopped drinking wine. I tried it several months ago and just couldn't take it. That makes me sad because I have wine racks in the basement with about 100 bottles of wine! Oh well, they will make excellent gifts!

Crown and Water is my first choice Riesling Chardonnay or white zin if they don't have Riesling Twisted Tea I've had hard cider and Mike's, but had to pour it over ice and let it set awhile. I had a rum and coke the other day, but the coke was VERY flat. Carbonation is the only thing I can't do. Alcohol doesn't affect me any differently postop. I barely get buzzed, so I usually don't drink that much anyways....the calories aren't worth the lack of effect. And I always feel a little dehydrated the next day.

Doesn't sound good! Drink Nesquick "No Sugar Added" Cocoa. It makes a hot cup of cocoa. Also try the Adkin's equivalent of M&M's. It uses sugar alcohol in place of refined sugar. Refined sugar is one of the reasons why I gained so much weight over the years and developed diabetes.