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My (ex) bf and I have dated for nearly 5 years; he lives with me. The last year of our relationship has been rocky anyway, but ever since I told him I had decided to have gastric he became even more standoffish and argumentative. Two weeks ago we had a huge blowout over something completely idiotic, he comes back to the house, and says he has been acting the way he has because he thinks that once I lose weight I am going to leave him and that's all he can think about. Mind you... I have not even had the surgery yet. He said I am going to lose weight, gain self-esteem, realize I am too good for him, and leave him. Well, guess what, pal... I don't need to lose ANY weight to realize I am too good for you. It's been a long time coming, but I think it's even sadder that he is using my choice to get healthier as a justification for being an a*s. The only thing this does is put me in a rough position as far as someone staying with me while I recover. My mom and stepdad are going to take "shifts" as long as they can, but they both work. And the ex is currently dwelling awkwardly in my basement, but will probably not give me a hand at all. It does make me sad because I had hoped he would be there at the hospital with me... but then all of this BS happens. *insert gigantic eye roll emoji here* I am okay, though. I need these next 12 months to focus on me and getting healthy and fit and not dealing with unnecessary dramatics and stress. I have always thrived when single and he actually had moved out of the house for a year and it was fantastic. I hate to say it, but I'm looking forward to this new chapter - of not just weight loss, but of being single and free!

How long did you wait before trying to conceive after getting banded? Did your doctor recommend a waiting time? My doctor suggested 12 - 18 mths. because the majority of the weight loss is in the first year. I was banded in October 08 and just planning for down the road. I do plan to wait until the end of the year to start trying. I'm still on the pill and taking other precautions as well. I’m not in a huge hurry and am committed to my band and weight loss and have no issues with waiting. My doctor does have experience with banders and does work with your ObGyn. I feel confidant about that. I gained 50 pounds with my 1st pregnancy and had gestational diabetes and pre- eclampsia. Even with that much weight gain, I delivered early w/ preemie @ barely 5 lbs. I just hope to bypass that much weight gain and all the symptoms that go along with it and still have a healthy mommy and baby!!! Have any of you preggers had any recommendations by your band docs to wait a certain amount of time before getting pregnant? Have you experienced any pressure on your band or port from the baby or baby weight gain? Thanks in advance for your advise and suggestions! :cursing:

@Cat225, I hate the "You have such a pretty face" saying!!! I imagine punching the person in the face as those words come tumbling out of their mouth. I have struggled with my weight since middle school and have done every diet out there. My Mom took to me to a weight loss clinic when I was 15 and the doctor told me to take the pills and drink coffee and not to eat. I am serious that is what he said. My weight has gone up and down and I am now at my biggest weight gain ever since having my 2nd child. I am now 36 and I feel that the Lap-Band is what is right for me and I am doing this for me and only me! I see so many wonderful posts here in this forum and can not wait to get my surgery!

Hello! I've been offline for awhile and wanted to touch base. Today, I went to a consultation with another Dr., didn't realize it would be such an ordeal to find someone willing to take on a patient that already had a band. I lost faith in my former doc and have have a number issues with my band. I'm scheduled to have it removed August 25, 2017, a little over 8 yrs after having it placed. I've suffered with chronic reflux, heartburn, weight gain (20 lbs) and throat pain for the past 2 years and have finally found someone that will listen. The plan... have the band and scar tissue removed in August, 6 months later go back and have bypass surgery. Yep, I'm scared of the unknown and excited at the same time to be pain free.

Hello Stimpy, welcome back! You are a success story, believe that! Trust me we all fall for the sugar demon from time to time. What sets us apart from others though is that we have a tiny tummy that will help keep us from over eating and gaining significant weight back. It makes it a lot easier to get back to being right and not stressing over 10 lbs weight gains, etc. Let the Cookies go for now. The Holidays are approaching and you don't want to be caught up in a downward spiral with all the sugary treats staring you in the face. You are strong and I KNOW you can do it. You have already lost so much, and you are sooo close to the finish line. Let this time be for getting there instead of the latter. NOW GO GET EM!

I haven't had a fillin way over a year... no major weight gain, but plateau city

I read a book (or finished reading it) on Nov 1st. It's 'How to stop eating bad sugar' by Allen Carr. Since I stopped I've kicked my sugar habit which was wreaking havoc in my life. Not huge weight gain, but there was a slide upwards. It was just the mental nastiness - the feeling of constantly losing a battle and it made me sick and I'd started getting really bad reactive hypoglycaemia. So since then: no sugar, potatoes, sweeteners, honey, syrups and no processed food made with sugar. I still eat a lot of fruit but mainly apples (loads of fibre) and tangerines. Bananas are a slight problem - I note they increase sweet cravings and give me muscle cramps, but I'm recently bereaved and so allowing myself to skate that one for now. Dried fruit is also a big no. I eat meat, fish, veggies (often oven roasted), small amounts of organic proper wholewheat bread - have only found one brand - Cranks- which doesn't have a load of other nonsense in. I snack on nuts and fruit as above. I've lost 6lbs of my slide up from my lowest, but I think I might be at what is a healthy weight for me. (Need to get back to the gym really). I don't log or do macros but I aim to eat whole food, lots of veg and fibrous fruit. It's working in that I've only had the reactive hypoglycaemia a couple of times since Nov 1st (I think it was banana that did it!) and the cravings are generally gone. The evening hunger is fixed by eating a big apple very slowly and I sometimes have a bed time snack of a little fruit and cheese, or nuts, but the urge to do that is passing slowly. I do occasionally use Stevia in my posh hot milk and pure cacao/ashwaganda type drinks, but I try also to not make it a regular thing. I suppose my point will be, that having taken these steps, the obsession, and the compulsion have faded and now I'm free to deal with all my other problems!!! Good luck to you - your exercise regime is awesome. I so want exercise to be my next addiction!!

Being on a med that causes weight gain is tough. I am on one that causes weight gain but have still managed to lose 64lbs in 3.5 months! woohoo! Good luck on your journey!

This is a great post for those of us who are just now reaching goal and have NOT had to deal with any weight gain. I was wondering how and if it would come back off easily. Thanks for the information and congrats on your success!!

AT 5+ years, I am still a work in progress. I still maintain at 55% EWL. I gained over 35 pounds in the last year+. Easy as pie. Literally. I can eat anything, and in large amounts if spread over time. I still do not drink with meals unless I have breakfast out which is not often. I reach for food when emotional or stressful situations come up. I know it... I watch it, I work on it. I mostly write down what I eat, and watch Protein, but those weeks that I don't, I gain. It is not easy to get off. Yes the sleeve still works. I eat less at any sitting... protein first really makes me feel full faster. I continue exercise, and recommitted again.... just finished the 5 day "pouch" test with a 5 pound loss and a lowering of the Carb addiction. One step at a time. The head has to be in the game, just like before weight loss surgery. The sleeve helps... it is a tool, just like they say, and has helped me to maintain at least 50 pound loss for 5 years. I had a weight gain at 2+ years and worked to get to goal after that... so I know I can do it. I think for me, this is something I need to watch and plan every day.... when I don't I gain. I am very happy I got the sleeve though.... VERY HAPPY. Kindle, so true! I didn't see that. @@feedyoureye - Is putting on the weight post-op much easier than it was pre-op? During the week I'm pretty structured but on the weekends I tend to be a little more relax. I normally eat whatever I want, but I still have been losing weight. I think it's because I walk an hour each day. I'm still in the pre-op stage but I was recently approved for the Bypass. I'm thinking of having the approval changed to the VSG because the RNY scares me.

This will be my first blog here, so I'll briefly introduce myself to the world of blog-readers, though it may be small. I'm 29 (until a week from tomorrow) and I had surgery on March 6, 2009. I have an Allergan 4cc band placed in Juarez, Mexico by Dr. Jose Rodriguez. Before I decided to have the surgery, I was at my heaviest ever. Shortly after losing 30 pounds or so on Atkins, I started re-gaining weight very quickly; roughly 70 pounds in just a few months following my parent's breakup. Nothing had ever affected me as profoundly as when my parents split up - not even my own divorce. Anyway, one day at 272 (my highest weight) I realized I had fat hands, which I had never had in all my 25+ years of being overweight They were so plump that they dimpled in at the knuckles. I snapped and realized I had a closet full of clothes that didn't fit anymore, and ankle pain every morning when my feet hit the floor. I dreaded that ankle pain every time the alarm clock woke me up. I truly believe I had (have) a food addiction. I would go to McDonald's with my kids, eat my meal (often with dessert) and wait for my kids to finish so I could glean what was left of their happy meals. A couple of nuggets, an extra order of fries. I would eat it all, and it didn't matter if the fries were cold. I once confided in my good friend that I had a food addiction. She thought I was joking and we laughed about it, but deep inside I knew it was true and that I had to do something. I did a quick search for food addiction on the internet and I found a video advertisement of a young lady who had lapband. I thought she was so beautiful, and her story was so much like my own - heavy all her life. There are some things about having had the surgery that I hate. But for the most part, I love that I made the decision to get the band. For example, I hate that I told so many people because I can't stand when someone says, "You can't eat that, can you?" UGH!! lol. "Watch me!" :biggrin: If you're reading this and thinking about having the surgery, consider who you tell. Some people love to tell everyone, and they have that screw-you attitude. I'm not quite as resilient. I wish I hadn't confided in as many people as I did. Another thing is - be ready for criticism. People will tell you you're taking the easy way out. (Lemme tell ya - this is anything BUT easy. The band will make you confront demons you never knew you had. It will force you to think about everything that you put in your mouth. It will cause - at times - physical pain like you've never experienced. It will sometimes scare the heck outta you). Others will say "shouldn't you have lost more weight by now?" or "is it healthy to lose weight that fast?" "why don't you just get that thing taken out?" "I couldn't live with that thing inside of me" all with a sly attitude about them, of course. I had one friend who said, "well, I'm not big enough to have lapband, I just need to lose about 50 pounds," while she was (is) morbidly obese. I think this was her way of telling me she wasn't near as fat as me. In my part of the country, we have a name for those kinds of people - haters. What I love: I LOVE that I've lost nearly 40 pounds and I'm back to feeling like me. I LOVE that soon I won't feel like myself anymore because I'll be an all-new-to-me thin person! I've never been thin, and at my least-fat, I was 198 pounds. (After some serious weight loss, I celebrated breaking 200 by gaining it all back. Go figure.) I LOVE that I always only order the kid-size meal when we go out, and I can't finish it. Now my kids eat my leftovers. :thumbup: I LOVE that my ankles don't hurt every morning, and my clothes are starting to fit again. I LOVE that all the fat clothes I had bought to accommodate my weight gain are now too big for me. And for the first time in my life, I know I won't be fat forever. There is light at the end of this tunnel. I used to say that I was just destined to be a big girl. I LOVE that I don't believe that anymore.

I admit I weigh myself compulsively too. Normally I am 2-3 lbs heavier at night. I use my weight each morning to monitor my progress. I only log weight lost if I maintain it for 3 days straight, the same with weight gain. Otherwise, I contribute any change to water weight.

The LA Times had an interesting article on weighing this morning. Thought I'd share it here for those who don't get the Times and see what you guys thought. Dieters, step on your scales <LI style="LIST-STYLE-POSITION: inside; LIST-STYLE-TYPE: square">Those who weigh themselves regularly have a better chance of losing extra pounds, a recent study finds. But not all experts agree. By Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writer Losing weight is hard — and you might say hardly studied. Only recently have scientists clinically shown that the widely used Atkins diet actually works, and they've yet to definitively weigh in on another diet-related question: Does regularly stepping on the scales help a dieter lose weight? Sure it does, say many weight loss experts. Weighing yourself is a clear way to monitor progress or catch (and nip in the bud) a slow, steady uptick in lardage. Not so fast, say others. The glacially slow nature of weight loss, plus those spiky daily fluctuations in body weight, might actually make dieters more apt to throw in the towel. ADVERTISEMENT Now, just in time for the waist-expanding holiday season, a new study has come down on the side of daily weigh-ins. Published in the December issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, it reports that dieters who weighed themselves regularly shed more pounds over a 24-month period than people who didn't regularly weigh themselves. Those who weighed themselves daily lost the most. To the authors, the implications are clear: Dieters should be encouraged to weigh themselves — and often. "We talk to people about monitoring calories daily, about monitoring their exercise daily…. if we're asking them to do those … on a daily basis, then why not add this other recommendation?" says Jennifer A. Linde, lead author of that study and an assistant professor at the school of public health at the University of Minnesota. Yet there's a chicken-egg caveat here that some critics point to and that even those who believe in the findings acknowledge. Sure, successful dieters may weigh themselves more. But the studies don't tell you what caused what — just that the two things correlate. It's fun to step on the scales when you're succeeding. When the numbers are nudging upward or stubbornly refusing to change … less so. "They're assuming that weighing yourself frequently leads you to lose weight. I think losing weight makes you weigh yourself more frequently, because — 'I'm losing weight, yes, yes, I'm down another pound,' " says Janet Polivy, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, who is not a fan of the bathroom scales. That confusion is why, to this day, you'll sometimes get roomfuls of PhDs and MDs sitting around discussing an issue you'd think 21st century science might have put to bed by now. A curious study from the 1960s points to the potential effect of frequent weighing. Eight overweight women in a small private college were enrolled in a weight loss plan, part of which consisted of coming in to be weighed four times a day. By study's end the women had lost an average of 40pounds each. The study was small; it lacked important controls. But it was intriguing. "People in that group lost more weight than any study since then in nearly 40 years," says Dr. Joseph A. Risser, director of clinical research for Lindora Medical Group, which runs the Lean for Life weight loss program. The scales couldn't possibly have registered real loss from one weigh-in to the next — but maybe, Risser muses, something else was going on, such as a reminder of the mission the dieter was on. His own studies of more than 600 clients show that those who were weighed five times weekly lost more weight (24 pounds) than those weighed twice weekly (19 pounds). The new study by Linde and colleagues tapped statistics from two populations. One was a group of 1,800 obese or overweight adults enrolled in a weight loss trial. Participants were asked at the study's start and at intervals thereafter how often they weighed themselves. After one year, monthly, weekly and daily weighers all lost weight on average, but those who weighed themselves daily lost the most — about 8 pounds. (Those who never weighed themselves gained weight.) The other data came from 1,226 adults in a weight gain prevention trial. At 12 months, those who weighed themselves daily had lost about 2 to 3 pounds. Those who weighed themselves less often, or not at all, actually gained weight.In both studies, significant differences were also seen at two years. People who weighed themselves also did other healthy things such as exercise more, but the self-weighing effect was statistically significant on its own, Linde says. James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, says the findings fit with a registry of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and (even more impressive) maintained that weight loss for a year or longer. A key thing those succeeders report, Hill says, is regular self-weighing — at least weekly, and often daily. (They also have an emergency plan of action for when the reading creeps above a crucial number of pounds.) Focusing on the long term Psychologist Patrick M. O'Neil, director of the weight management center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, says he's a strong proponent of daily weigh-ins, based on Hill's data and his own clinical experience — but that the practice should be paired with a weight chart that focuses on trends, not short-term, zigzag fluctuations. "It's sort of like tracking stock prices," he says. "You know they're going to vary day to day." Regular weighing is one thing. But every single day? After all, hormonal changes, Fluid intake, sweating, medications and salt intake cause day-to-day, hour-to-hour differences in body weight of up to several pounds. At Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, dieters weigh in each week with their personal consultants or at meetings. "We encourage them to take a break from daily weigh-ins because weight fluctuates," says Jenny Craig spokeswoman Gail Manginelli. "It can be demoralizing." Meanwhile, there are some specialists who think either daily or weekly scale-hopping may have downsides. Psychologists and psychiatrists who treat patients with eating disorders note that encouraging people to weigh themselves might exacerbate such pathologies. Other scale-doubters, such as psychologist Michelle Dionne of Ryerson University in Toronto, believe self-weighing can also be counterproductive in psychologically healthy folks who just want to shed some poundage. Among the studies she points to: ones in which students were brought into an experimental clinic and weighed — but on fixed scales that actually recorded their weights as heavier or lighter than they truly were. Students led to think they were 5 pounds heavier than they had thought scored significantly lower on psychological scales measuring mood, selfesteem and body satisfaction. In one of the studies, students were also provided with a tasty snack right after the weigh-in — and the ones who'd been bamboozled into thinking they were heavier than they were ate significantly more of that snack. "I would suggest there are some people who are going to receive really helpful feedback and reinforcement from self-weighing," Dionne says. "But there's another group of people, whom we call for lack of a better word 'vulnerable,' who … may feel worse about themselves, dislike their body to a greater degree and start engaging in behaviors that may lead to weight gain." Experts debate how students given false information in a lab relate to real-life dieters using scales to monitor their progress. But even proponents of weighing advocate restraint. "I don't think anyone in a responsible professional position has argued for weighing oneself more than once a day," says O'Neil. "We do not want to encourage people to turn this into a fetish." If you do weigh in With that caveat in mind, here are some tips from various specialists about the best way to weigh yourself if you choose to. • To minimize variation, always weigh at the same time of day, such as in the morning just after having used the bathroom. • If you are weighing yourself daily, understand that your weight will vary day to day. It's the trend that's important. You may find it useful to make a graph of your weight. • Put the scale on a flat, uncarpeted surface so the readings don't wobble. • Use a scale that is consistent, giving the same weight when you step on, then off, then on again. That's more important than the type of scale you buy. Use the same scale each time. • Don't get fixated on the scale. Monitor your body change in other ways, such as the fit of your clothes, a tape measure or how you physically feel. • To the best of your ability, try to gauge how the weighing makes you feel, and if it is reinforcing — or undermining — your efforts.

Yep! I have them too! Not from kids (don't have any), just weight gain. I can remember going to a slumber party right as I was hitting puberty & my big boobs appeared. I had these horrible red stretch marks all over my boobs & when we were changing into our night clothes everyone freaked out cause they thought someone had clawed me. Of course they were all flat-chested skinny minnies! It's funny now, but it made me so self concious then! I think the weirdest place i have stretch marks are in my ACs (the bend of my arms). Try explaining that when you have blood drawn!

Really great points BTB! You always have such great insight! I especially agree with not all calories are equal and our bodies respond differently to different fuels. And I also want to add, and maybe not all will agree, but if you notice a lot of the people struggling with weight gain, or gain weight easily are women. It is true and it is just plain crappy. It is harder for us to lose weight and easier for us to gain weight. And our hormones have a role as well. Not only as we age, but from month to month. Hormonal cravings are very real and not just a "sweet tooth", and bloating and Water retention are common in almost all of us. I can gain weight very easily, within a week if I do not watch what I am eating. That being said, could I always gain so easily. Probably, but I just never paid as close attention and just quit weighing in the past if I started gaining (I actually did not even own a scale for a long time). And like Puja said, it is too easy to gain weight, and it is very scary. But it is reality. And Puja, you are beautiful, you really need an after gallery at least!! Congratulations!

Losing weight and losing fat are two completely different things. It's nice to see the scale go down of course but usually quick weight gain or loss is simply the body ridding or absorbing fluids. It's nearly impossible to lose more than 1/2 lb of fat in one day unless you're a marathon runner or ride a century bike ride. Some types of food or sodium can cause the body to eliminate fluids or absorb fluids. Carbs and sodium can cause these wild weight fluctuations. If you're hyper-sensitive to seeing the scale jump around on a daily or weekly basis maybe you shouldn't look. But if you understand the reasons for these fluctuations and don't take them personally, weigh yourself daily like many of us do. I weigh morning and night. Just remember that you need to consume 3500 more calories than you burn to gain one lb/fat. Or, you need to burn 3500 calories more than you consume to lose one lb/fat. If you eat 1000 calories a day and burn 2000, you could be losing approximately 1/3 lb/fat a day. But, if it's your TOM or you consume a snickers bar or a bowl of cheerios or 2000mg of sodium, your body could retain 1-3 lbs of extra fluids. It's not fat weight but your scale can't tell the diff. Hope this wasn't too lengthy and helps?

I can totally relate to you. I'm 5'4" and weigh 243lbs. Everyone tells me that I'm not big enough to get such an extreme surgery done because my weight is proportioned evenly. They look at me and you can't weigh that much. One dummy even told me "remember what happened to Kanye's momma"...Seriously!? (completely different...I think she died while getting liposuction?) I have decided that after 3 c-sections, pregnancy weight gain on average of 45lbs., going from a size 12 to a 22 it was time for me to do something for me that will ensure I am here to spent time with my husband, children and future grandchildren. I applaud anyone who takes their life seriously and actively seeks to be healthier. You go Girl!!! I'm standing with you!

There is a point where many may: have more capacity to eat more food/stomach relaxes get their hunger back weight loss slows or stops start gaining weight reach goal and navigate maintenance are past the "honeymoon" usually past a year or more may be earlier find themselves in a new "stage" different from the beginning stages after WLS finding the old methods used to take off weight may or may not work are finding a way to stay the same weight after gaining or losing too much the issues are no usually longer about what Protein drink to buy, the three week stall, the funny taste of food, gas pain, eating in public, hair loss, insurance approval..... come to the conclusion that the process NEVER ends, it is a lifetime of learning and doing and sharing and counting and moving... and that is the new normal. Realizing what is meant by "the sleeve is a tool" and it is only part of the process, you can gain all your weight back if you don't start forming a new life and just resting from the work and eating "normally" after getting to goal will result in weight gain for many. These are some of the issues I see arising for "vets" and distinguishes them from "newbies"... which we all were once... You can't know how the sleeve and the rest of the body and mind will be until you experience it for yourself over time. 1-2-3-5 years later, things change. We don't know about 10 years because there just aren't many out there with current style sleeves to talk to. But some at 6 months are getting some of this experience, I think after a year or two you really see the Vet issues even clearer. Some don't come back here, so hopefully they are doing great, are living life and not gaining or losing too much.... the ones of us that are still here are experiencing the stuff listed above... some are having NO problems at all. I love my sleeve and my life, and at this time (2 1/2 years out) I am still not at goal, but very close and believe I will make it to goal pretty soon, and have some plans on how to maintain I think I can follow. Taking the long view has been very helpful for me....If I took the view that if I didn't lose all my weight by 6 months without pulling all my hair out or I was a failure if I didn't lose 30 pounds in the first month, then this experience would have been hell. I have some good support friends here that have been here for years... we chug along together, and check in often, share research, worries and challenges, and we will share the pleasure of accomplishment as well. I plan on staying in contact during maintenance when I get there. Maintenance may well be the most difficult part of this journey. Keeping the weight off is the trick. Someone here said it best... reaching goal at 3 years feels just as good at reaching goal at 6 months. Who cares as long as you get there!

I just completed my 3rd week today and I struggle to get my 400-500 calories a day. I work it ALL day and its a full time job between getting the calories AND fluid in. I too hit that 3 week slump, and I actually gained 2 pounds at my weekly weigh in. HOWEVER, despite the weight gain, I lost inches. I don't really dwell on the weight, but concentrate on the inches lost. I weigh myself weekly as part of my documentation, but inches are more important. Good luck to everyone!

I have 4 of them but they were all pre-sleeve! I have a butterfly (ink and a needle at age 14) on my bottom, tribal art in a diamond shape on my lower back (tramp stamp - got it WAY before it was called that and before it was "cool" to have it there) I have tribal art on the back of my neck/top of my back that has a Gemini symbol in the middle of it for my daughter and then I have a teddybear holding a heart on my breast. I am very surprised that none of them have been distorted from weight gain or loss! I do want more but I haven't decided on what or where yet!

I bought a Fitbit and I really like it. It estimates how many calories I'm burning each day, so I have a good idea of how many I should be eating. It has already helped. I'm back up to 109. That's only a pound, but it may mean I'm finding my healthy calorie allowance. Edited: that weight gain was just a digestive fluctuation, I guess. I'm down even lower than before. Now at 107.

Hi All, Mandy... Your daughter will be in my prayers... I hope the medication changes will help with the weight gain. She is very lucky to have such a loving and caring Mom. :eek: Dianne... So glad that Lucy has got her groove back! (((hugs))) Beanie... So glad you had a fun vacation and don't worry about the gain... that is what vacation is all about! Anne... Hope you had fun running errands and hope I follow through with the plan to workout... I feel like a big bump on a log! Kat... I bet you are going to be able to buy a sporty little t-shirt at the next rally... won't that be awesome??/!!! Patty... Hope you enjoyed your last day of freedom! You have cyber exercise buddies... right here. Eileen... Glad you are here... don't be askeered... we'll protect you from the evil hacker...even if LBT seemingly seems unconcerned. I make this assumption as there have been zero announcements about any of the ruckus. Cindy...LOL... one of these days you are going to forget to cover us up on your computer screen...lol I think the make-up thingy party would be fun... as long as I don't have to do it....hehehehehe. Allison... It sounds like you all had a great time with the party...so glad! I'm not much of a party gal... when my DD had her B-Day party with 8 young teenage girls I thought I would need a rubber room by the time they went home... OH THE DRAMA. (((hugs)))

OMG you are adorable and you've already done so much for yourself. I see you ran in the Susan G Komen in your area, that is AWESOME!!!! I'm running the 5k here in my area on May 7th... Firstly, welcome to VST Secondly, I am a revised lap band to sleeve person. I can tell you, regaining with the lap band is *extremely* easy once you figure it out. I could eat just as much as I ever could, thereby making my band pretty useless. I initially lost about 55 Lbs with the band, and gained it all back up to within pounds of where I started. That included with needing to go BACK on my HBP tmedications and severe joint pain (couldn't run anymore ) I decided enough was enough and I needed something PERMANENT AND REAL. Not something that I could just think that it's reversible so I chose not to take it as seriously. Besides I never ever found good restriction with it... like I was always chasing that dream that everyone else seemed to get. I felt like a total and complete failure, and thought it was me. It wasn't!!! I know this now because since I've been sleeved the weight is just melting off. I'm off ALL HBP medications and I CAN RUN AGAIN!!!!! :D I'm also the furthest from perfection, and yet I'm still losing really well. I know this will work for you. If you were able to make your band work so well, this is going to blow your mind. Can you imagine having perfect restriction every single day AND NEVER, NOT EVER NEEDING A BLASTED FILL???? Yeah it's as incredible as it sounds. I don't miss my band what so ever. I have it in my hat box at the top of my closet even. It's in a ziploc bag so at least its not collecting dust... lmao!! Once it was out, there was no need for it again. Believe me when I tell you, I now have a restored faith in the WLS world all due to my sleeve. I was skeptical even though I took over a year to finally take the plunge to revision. I wondered, well if I couldn't make my band work, what makes me think I can make this work? It's so easy though, it's working amazingly. Yes, it's not all the sleeve either, it is but a TOOL... but if you do what you're supposed to you are going to lose, and lose fast. I have total faith in it. I also have no more worries on whether I'll make goal. I'm more concerned I'll lose too much!!! Can you imagine??? I set my goal higher in case it takes me awhile to get used to maintenance mode, as I just don't think my body structure was meant to be on the thinner side. I'm also not worried I'll be able to hang on to my weight loss, because since the beginning of the newer smaller and thinner sleeve, the weight gain AND the making it to goal stats are pretty outstanding. Again, I'm no angel, but I'd say on any given month I'm at about a 95%. That alone will keep me losing and maintaining when I get there. Blessings to you, and keep in touch. We all love to support, and there are a lot of us revisioners just waiting to tell the GOOD NEWS!!

Hi all, I’m having a revision surgery done at the end of this month. I had the sleeve back in May 2016 and from that I have severe GERD/acid reflux as well as weight gain. Has anyone else had this revision done? Any thoughts...?