Search the Community

I'm 6 weeks post-op on Wed and am battling a 3 week stall (uuugh) but old jeans have started to fit again AND I can cross my legs once again! So while I am tired of not losing actual weight, I'll try to focus on the positives.

Since I travel for my work at least 4 days a week I am looking for a small blender or smoothy maker that will fit in the checked bag. Any one have any suggestions?

Hi my name is Joanne and I had the LAP-BAND® done on Feb 15 2010, I will go for my first filling next week. My surgeon is Jorge Rabasa. I have lost 10 pounds so far.:blushing:

Go get em girl! I am 55 and just was sleeved 3 1/2 weeks ago. It is going to good. You will be a whole NEW you. Best of luck.

For the first few weeks after surgery, your body is in a major heal mode. Some individuals have a hard time meeting their Protein and Fluid requirements in the beginning. But it should get better. Keep working at meeting your daily goals. Some people report that drinking Water can hurt. It is important to drink really slow. They reported that if they drank fast it hurt. So take small sips. Some people put ice chips in their mouth to counter the dryness. This condition gets better with time. One individual reported that it wasn't until the 8 week mark, that the condition went into remission.

Hello fellow sleevers. I am now three months out since all of my surgeries, both planned and emergency following my leak. When I was discharged from hospital at the end of October, the leak test had showed the leak had healed but I was always worried that something would happen and it would come back. I had my three month consult with my surgeon today and she said that given my overall improving health, fitness, weight loss etc that she is convinced the leak is totally healed and best of all, she has NEVER heard of someone getting another leak, particularly after three months. Which is the greatest!! It has given me such a confidence boost, and just what I needed!!! The thought of getting sick again and going back to hospital really bothered me. Now, I feel like I am going to be right and my Dr's confirmed it for me. I am just so damn happy! Oh, and I lost another two kilos this week. Now I am in the clear I can start exercising, so I am going to start heading to the gym soon! I hope it will help tone up and let the weight loss continue. Not that losing weight's been an issue so far, but after 40+kg (about 90 pounds so far), I figure it's going to slow down or even stop soon...just seems to be what other's experience. Thanks again to all of those who have supported me and who have sent kind messages on this blog. I really appreciate it!! Cheers, Lila

I had something as you described done in June. I have lost 81 pounds. I had a stomach stapling in 1980....I only lost 11 pounds. The staple line came lose and therefore I had two stomachs. The doctor said that was why I was unable to lose weight all of these years. The Dr told me he recommended a combination (some call it a modified DS). Because of my stomach problems they were unable to form a sleeve and just made a small pouch. I haven't had any problems except when I eat too fast or don't chew good enough. You will need lots of Protein and be on Vitamins for the rest of your life. So far my labs have been good......just my thyroid is like it is on a roller coaster....still trying to level it out. I feel I am a slow loser compared to others on this board.....but I am older and probably don't do as much exercising. Losing slow is ok.....they say you are more often to keep it off. I have gone down three...almost four sizes.

Post op diets vary significantly, it is always best to follow your surgeon's or dietian's guidelines. I had two weeks liquid then went onto pureed for a couple of weeks followed by a four weeks mnced/soft graduating to soft/normal in that four weeks. My dietician had on her list for pureed foods: high protein (low sugar) yoghurts, custard (I did this once only as I found it too sweet and triggered my sweet tooth), scrambled egg, cottage and ricotta cheese, sandwich style tuna (spreadable), blended soups and the like such as casseroles...but they had to be highly blended. Was also advised to supplement with protein drinks if needed.

I don't have my band yet, but I'm on my two week liquid diet, so I can empathize a little bit. The other night, my daughter texted me from Publix, "Mom! Publix has the 20 piece hot wings on sale for just $6.99!" I texted her back, "I just had to suck on a little tiny bite of pizza and you want to tease me with wings?"

After my EGD my surgeon said that I have this. He called in a perscription for me and scheduled an appointment to come in and speak with him in a few weeks. I was planning on having the sleeve but read that it could make it worse. Anyone out there get diagnosed with this? Sent from my SM-N920T using the BariatricPal App

You can try the Couch to 5k. It is also available as a mobile app. Many people here have used it with success. I have used myself in the past and liked the program. You can repeat weeks if you find it too difficult.

Thank you all for your time to read through my plight! I pretty much got the responses I expected, so a meet with my doctor is a must hopefully they can get me in for this week. The only problem with anti-depressants is that they start to take effect after 3-4 weeks of commencing the treatment, so it's a catch 22 I guess. Thank you again for your comments, I will try to keep you updated on my progress.

I'm 24 and ready for surgery in January. No set date yet and haven't started the 2 week liquid/protein diet yet but I'm mentally preparing myself for these big changes! If anyone can give me advice on how to keep my hunger down before and after surgery that'd be awesome! Idk what all the letters mean but at my heaviest I was 355 I am currently 322 and a healthy goal weight overall is for me to weigh 180! I want to be really toned not just slim. I've always been really active and have lost weight earlier this year doing Crossfit, even earned the nickname Cross-Whit But now when I just go walking my knees start to hurt and I'm just ready to lose weight and get rid of the weight for good. I'm mostly just typing my thoughts to connect to others and find out what's helping others lose the most weight the fastest! Haha Also it'd be nice to have support from others that have already experienced the surgery. I have always wanted to be smaller and healthier and have always tried to lose weight but living in Louisiana it's hard to stay away from all the good eating! Hahahah Most recent full body pic! December 2016 Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm following this thread to get the same info. I'm 27 and at 350 right now. I'm scheduled for January 18th, which means that I would start my liquid diet on January 4th. However, I work during the week so I think that I may actually start the liquid diet on New Years Eve. I've heard that the first 4 days are rough, so I want to start over a period where I have a 4 day weekend off from work, so that if I'm exhausted/cranky I can just be at home and go to bed. That way, when the 4th rolls around, I am passed the more difficult part. Plus, I would like to lose some extra weight prior to surgery! Let me know if you want to be accountability buddies, since we have a similar surgery date and starting weight! Also, I love that top in your picture. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

First and foremost congratulations on your decision to make your life better you are gorgeous! You are going to rock it no doubt. I am going to join crossfit in the upcoming weeks. I'm so intimidated to go in there and be the "fat girl" I don't want to be looked down on in there because I'll be so out of my element as is. Can you tell me what it's like? What to expect? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I had the exact same pain, mine went away after a couple of weeks. My friend who had her gallbladder removed had the same pain, it has something to do with the muscles there. It feels like you’ve done 1000 sit-ups

How many of us have been "on a diet" for most of our lives? Too many, in my opinion. Not just because it's bad for our health or because diets don't work. It's bad for our mental health too. It leads to something I call "Dieter's Mentality." If you have Dieter's Mentality, you need to cut it out because it's going to sabotage your success. This is true whether or not you have had Weight Loss Surgery, are on your pre-op diet or are doing it the traditional way through diet and exercise. Diet Mentality is evil and it puts you in a bad place! What is Diet Mentality? It has four major components: 1) Putting food into Good and Bad buckets First of all, food is not Bad or Good -- it's just food. Some food is a better choice than others, but even then it's really just all food. If you are getting in enough of the essential nutrients and you account for your calories each day, you are doing good no matter if you have a bite of dessert once in a while or not. All food is bad food if you eat too much of it or only eat one kind. It's just as unhealthy to eat nothing but Protein as it is to eat nothing but birthday cake. A healthy diet is balanced and can even include a certain amount of junk food as long as it's a small amount and it doesn't trigger you into bad behavior. 2) Judging your worth by what you eat Making bad food choices does not make you a bad person. Your self-worth shouldn't be tied up in what you eat. Good people make bad choices all the time. Instead of beating yourself up when you make a bad choice, hating yourself, seeing yourself as a failure and otherwise engaging in destructive behavior, just figure out how to make a better choice next time. It's not easy to be dispassionate about your own behavior, but telling yourself that you made a bad choice and next time you'll make a better one is a good start and much healthier than telling yourself you are a bad person and you'll never lose the weight and you hate yourself. 3) Judging your worth by how much you weigh/how much you've lost this week The scale is just part of the picture. If you get too tied up in the scale, you get a distorted view of the world. Weeks where you lose are good weeks even if someone close to you died. Weeks where you don't lose are bad weeks even if you got a big promotion at work and did everything "right" in terms of diet and exercise. One of the dangers of measuring everything by your weight on the scale is that you can convince yourself that making bad choices is okay because sometimes you can make bad choices and still lose/maintain. You can also convince yourself that making good choices is pointless because some weeks you make all good choices and the scale doesn't move. But clearly making more bad choices than good will lead to weight gain in the long run. Anything thinking that leads you to conclude otherwise is destructive thinking. 4) Waiting until you are thin(ner) to start living Stop waiting until you get to goal to start living or loving yourself. Love yourself now. Live your life now. It's easy to fall into "when I lose 25 pounds, I will start..." type of thinking. It's a fine line between thinking about how you will reward yourself when you meet certain goals and putting your life on hold until you meet certain goals. Many of us have had the experience of thinking we were so fat back when we were in HS or college or a young adult and not being happy. But then we got even fatter and we look at those pictures from back then and we realize that we were actually pretty hot. In fact, we'd give anything to be "that fat" right now. Why not love yourself now while you're living your life instead of waiting until 10 years later to tell yourself how good you had it back then? What happens when we stop "dieting"? One of the best things I ever did for myself was to decide I was never going to diet again. It really allowed me to examine my relationship with food and to start listening to my body and figuring out why I eat what I eat. That would never have happened when I was caught up in "Dieter's Mentality". One of the things I found is that my approach to food was that of a child. I wanted people to make me or bring me food because I associate being fed with being loved. So I got myself to a point where all my meals were either quick things that require no cooking or can be zapped in a microwave or are made by my husband -- who does all the cooking -- or were purchased. In other words, other people had complete control over what kind of food I ate and how it was prepared! I never saw anything wrong with this until I decided to grow up about food. I realized that by approaching food this way, I was giving up tons of control over what I ate. Someone else buys the groceries so it's not my fault that there aren't healthy Snacks in the house. It's not my fault that I had that ice cream cone -- there was nothing else to eat and I was HUNGRY. Once I saw this pattern, I vowed to change it and start being an adult about food. I now plan out what I'm going to eat before I go to work. If I'm going to work late, I bring extra food so I'm not eating out of the vending machine. I don't eat lunch at the Cafeteria every day so my food choices aren't limited to what they want to make for me. I have healthy snacks in my drawers at work so if I do end up working late without having planned ahead, I'm eating a Protein Bar instead of a Snickers bar. This change in attitude and behavior has made a big difference. Which is not to say I haven't got much farther to go ... I still don't cook and I still eat way too much prepared food (because I don't cook). But I'm much better than I used to be and it's great to feel like a grown up! You may relate to what I said about having a child's approach to food or you may not. Not everyone gets fat the same way or has the same issues to work through. But one thing I can guarantee is that once you throw off the shackles of Dieter's Mentality, you will have the brain cycles available to see your relationship with food more clearly. You will be on the road to having a healthy relationship with food.

My doctor requires the pre-op diet of Protein shakes/soups for 4 weeks prior to my surgery... The problem is my insurance will NOT cover the shakes, even if they were perscribes so therefore I have to pay $85 a week ( 4 weeks ) for the shakes... anybody else run into this problem???

My surgeon signed me up for his support group... Attendance is mandatory, May 11. After surgery on the 23rd of April the nurse hands me an envelope ... I'm thinking it was a bill so I didn't open it until the next day... I blame it on the "pain button". It says Your Cordially invited .. Etc. so Its been 16 days since surgery I've been contemplating on attending.. My head says I need to go but I'm scared.. Especially after only losing 1lb this week ( btw, I think it had a lot to do with my menstrual cycle, it's been on hiatus for two months) anyway I don't want to be judged or embarrassed or feel like a bigger failure and I know it sounds crazy... My sane brain is saying "girl this is what the support group is for" and my irrational brain is saying stay home, your progress is slow honey .., Any of you been to support groups after surgery? How did you feel once there? And we're you happy that you went? And did you feel any judgement. These reality shows have me spooked.. Especially the one where the dr yells at the lady for not losing what he expected. 5-6 lbs a week was my target and I don't want my surgeon to give me that disappointed look. Sorry I'm super sensitive right now PMS and no food for comfort.

I told my teaching colleagues and they have been so supportive!! I had my surgery two weeks before school got out and I only missed three days and two half days. Once you are walking after surgery, I didn't find it hard to go back to the classroom. I was tired at the end of the day, but it got easier and easier every day. I know it's hard to decide who to tell and how much to keep private. I made my decision because I don't want to live like I am doing something wrong. I had surgery to help a medical problem, and I'm proud that I made that decision for myself and my family. Being a teacher is different than working in an office...there is a bond that teachers form in a school that I consider most of my colleagues my second family. I hope you can find a solution that gives you the best shot at success!!

I'm having my surgery Sept. 9 so I'm in the thick of this "who to tell" 'what to tell". Very relevant for me. I've been vacillating for weeks about what to say. In the end I've chosen to be forward to be upfront with everyone except my 91 yo mother. She has some dementia issues and is having a very difficult time with fixating on my daughters health problems now (high risk pregnancy hospitalization). She has caused me so much stress with her multiple phone calls and questions that I just can't go down this road with her. I will tell her my weight loss is tied to my gall bladder surgery, she had her gall bladder out so she is accepting of that. The thing that really ticks me off about the entire thing is WHY do I have to ask myself these questions about who would be accepting and who would not. I'm so tired of my weight being the topic of conversation for people. I'm sure the haters will all whisper "she had to have surgery, she has no control"

I'm 3 weeks post op and ate some sjreded meat today (ok per my doctor). 10 minutes later I felt really horrible, and the pain stuck around for about 10 minutes. I also did a lot of spitting and felt nauseated. Then I retched a few times, and ultimately threw up some clear goo. Should I be worried that I damaged my stomach or sleeve? This seemed a lot worse than just sliming. Has this happened to anyone else?

I think it varies between doctors and probably the general health of the patient. If a patient only has smaller amount to lose, it seems, they aren't given as strict of a diet (or none). Some only do the liquid diet the day before. I have a two week limited and a liquid one for tomorrow.

Hi B-52 I was so happy with your story. I was banded in March lost 52 lbs in the 6 month pre opt program only lost 14 lbs sense surgery having a hard time maintain ing what I have lost. I go in for my 3rd fill next week 4 months post op. I was getting really discouraged because I feel like I have no restrictions. I have 5 cc in 10 cc band. I have 43 lbs to go to get to goal weight. Sent from my ALCATEL A564C using the BariatricPal App