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I am so happy this topic was brought up, thanks! I have a 10, 5, 4 and 1 yr. old so this has been very helpful!

I think you have to let him process it a bit. Be there for him, answer his questions, but give him some time. You've been thinking about this for some time & you know your struggles. For him, you are mom & he thinks you are great the way you are. He hasn't thought about it all like you live it every day. My kids are 8, 16, and 19 - The youngest one was concerned, but he did ok after a week or so of talking about it. The older ones were in-tune enough with me to know my family struggles (they lost their grandfather last year from obesity related issues) to know it was a good thing for me. I know it's not an easy answer, but he will be ok. Make sure he knows that someone will call him once surgery is over and give him a status. Then, you call as soon as you can so he can hear your voice. Best of wishes for a successful surgery and smooth recovery.

You will lose in width, but not length. I'm a size 10 and so are all the supermodels! ps - I'm a shoe-***** too.

I have been on this site for about a week. So, I am not new new, just new. Well I thought I would do an about me sort of thing-to introduce myself properly. Here goes. I am Joan. I live in a southern suburb of Chicago, Illinois. I am 32 years old, and I have three kids. I have a 1 year old baby girl, a 3 year old son, and a nine year old son. They are great, and I love being a mom to them. I am married to a neat guy, and have been for about 5 years. We have been friends since High School. I am a graduate student in Counseling, and am doing my internship now. About one year till I become a Therapist, treating individuals, couples, and families. Yea! I am getting my band on (hopefully) Thursday 2/10. The reason I am choosing this surgery is that like many of you...I have tried nearly everything else to no avail. I want to be able to live a more physically active life..and to be able to feel like I can go to the amusement park again and feel comfortable. My present weight is limiting my life, and I won't have that any more! So, that's me. Thanks, Joan

Thank you so much for the list and the words of encouragement! I'm about 10 hours away and due in the hospital in 8 hours.... I'm anxious but feel ready.

I was diagnosed with bipolar at the age of 26 or so. Have had 3 major manic episodes, 2 of which landed me in the hospital. Escaped the hospital by the skin of my teeth the third time. I've had my ups and downs since then. Been doing great for about 3 years now, stable on meds. I too had to meet with a psychiatrist before surgery and was completely honest. She talked a lot about addiction transfer (I have other addictions besides food). I was successful loosing all my excess weight in about 10 months. 30 pounds has crept back on. I plan to loose 20 of it, I got just a little to thin, or so people tell me. As long as I loose enough to get back into my jeans I'll be happy.

Do you have a DVR, if so, get into the habit of recording the shows you like and watch them in a little time delay. That way you can fast forward through the commercials. I absolutely love DVR for that one thing more than anything else. I may only wait 10-15 minutes into a show to start watching it, that usually makes is to I can get through without having to sit through the commercials.

You're healing and anything is normal and different to each of us. You were filled with gas to bloat your stomach prior to band. It disapates with time. Us ea heating pad on medium for 10 minutes on top of your belly. This helped me.

Hi everyone. I am 9 days post-op, had the band placed on 11/16/10. Overall doing fairly well meeting Protein requirements, but I think I have been drinking my Protein drinks too fast. I feel full and have really bad chest pains. I actually went to the ER a few days ago because I thought something was wrong. Several hours and multiple tests later to rule out blood clots, the Dr said it was probably gas. I have taken pain meds, used a heating pad and tried walking. Any other suggestions to relieve the pain? [

That completely depends on what foods your surgeon allows you to eat. 8 days post op I was allowed protein shakes, drinkable yogurt, and clear liquids. I had a protein shake for breakfast and dinner and strained clear soups for lunch. 10 days post op I was allowed to switch to strained cream soups. I really didn't bother with "snacks" because I wasn't hungry and because the sugar-free jello and popsicles I was allowed didn't have any calories, so why bother?

Since I had the surgery 10 wks ago, I never felt like I have been on a diet. I mean I have changed my eating habits completely, its just never felt like a diet. Maybe because I have only felt hungry once or twice. So just think of the pre op DIET as your last DIET.

So... my last visit with True Results to be insurance compliant was on Friday, 09/19. I was expecting them to fax overr my paper work that day. Turns out their medical director has to apporve it first before sending it out. Long story short, I call good ole True Results and they didn't fax my paper work until Tuesday, 09/23. My insurance company is saying they still haven't received it! A little annoyed yes I am! I just happen to work for my insurance company so I know they are not lying, I double checked. I want to have this surgery October 10th or 17th before department blackouts start. What is a blackout you ask? It's blocks of time during a companies busy season you cannot request time off. I also need to have friends and family come in from out of town to help me through recovery and they have blackout times starting in November as well. GOTTA LOVE THEM HOLIDAYS!!! I need to pray.

I had lab band surgery on 2/11/10, I feel really bad, I can' hold down any liquid everytime I drink water or tea, a big gulp of foam comes back up. I spoke to my surgeon twice and he says if I still can't keep anything down by tomorrow then I will have to go back to the hospital to have an IV and an uppr GI done. I really did not think this was going to be so bad, if I knew it was going to be this bad I would not have had the surgery, THIS IS HELL!!!!!!!! I wish I could just keep some water down.

Omg. I am low bmi 32.6. I am getting sleeved on jan 3. And I told everyone about my surgery. I don't care what they think I am doing this for myself. You either with me or not. No one is changing my mind. I am doing it with or without your blessings. I'm tired of dieting. I need a tool to assist me in my journey. I don't have any co morbidities but why wait until that happen??? I'm being proactive. And making the life changing decision now while I have that chance. I'm 38. I weigh 190 right now lost 10 pounds so far on pre op diet. I'm very excited to start this journey and hope to share my experience with everyone Oh by the way. I am going to Mexico and having my surgery with dr Jesus Ortiz. He was trained by dr Lopez and dr osuna. I went through a lighter me and Ronda She has been a wonderful coordinator and I am very grateful. To her and a lighter me.

So my patient coordinator emails me and says they received everything but they need a letter of clearance from my hematologist. They never told me to see a hematologist! I asked them if it was safe for me to have the sleeve because I have hemoglobin sc which is a type of sickle cell anemia and all they said was yes, the surgeon said its fine. Being the worry bug that I am, I decided to go see a hematologist anyway well because I needed to know more about what I have and to make sure I was good to go. So she emails me on Monday asking for a letter but my first appointment with the hematologist wasn't until Thursday. Yesterday. I'm thinking to myself...it's a good thing I took it on myself to see this guy because if I waited til they told me to see one, I would have to wait 7-10 days get a referral then another 1-2 weeks to make an appointment. Low and behold, the letter that my hemo sent on thursday wasn't sufficient and my insurance company needed a more detailed letter by today! Friday or my case would be closed! The hematologist's office was closed today.... And so is my freaking case. Unbelievable!

I have not been sleeved yet. My husband is actually going to be sleeved before me. He has told his mom and sister about both of us. I have told my 10 and 14 yr. old and my mom and one male friend from high school who is probably 600+ lbs. and he almost died last year from complications of his weight. He is 47 yrs old and is basically home bound. My husband said he called a few weeks ago and said that he is considering having gastric by pass. I don't want to have to cry over him again.

OK.....40lbs lost from surgery to first fill then I hear 50lbs:omg:......I was hoping to hear that I was doing fine....LOL!! I guess I am surprised that I can consume this much. I thought I would be more restricted but from what I am hearing in other posts that it is normal not to feel restriction yet and this isn't a time to lose but to heal. I guess I hear these BIG NUMBERS and think that maybe 10 pounds already isn't good enough. I will say that I have not exercised yet...just haven't been able to....still a bit sore. I am going to start today though! My eliptical is waiting in my livingroom calling my name!! I started a LIST of things that are going to begin today.....maybe I am too hard on myself...I just so badly want to succeed at this.....so badly! I also don't feel I am a very disciplined person when it comes to dieting and food. That how I got here to begin with. Can someone comment on the discipline and change of mindset??? Any suggestions or comments are welcomed. :confused:

I have only lost 10 pounds since my surgery 2 months ago. You are doing just great. My suggestion is that you measure yourself. I have lost more inches than pounds and I am sure you may be in the same boat. Look for non scale victories. Stick to the diet plan and everything will be fine. Good luck to you!

I am wondering if it is normal to not have much restriction before the first fill....I am only 10 days post op but can consume a lot more than I thought I would. I have lost 10 pounds already though! I am wondering if I am doing alright.....?????

Hi Guy,s Just got back from nearly 3 weeks of holidays. Hawaii, Los Angeles and Vegas it was fantastic. I ate like a pig and stuffed in as much as i could. When at dinner with friend i quietly went to the restrooms half time and had a purge then went back to the table and continued. No one was the wiser. When we returned home. (So glad to be home.) TOTAL WIEGHT GAINED , No, No , -0.5 of a kilo I couldnt believe the scales. I lost 1/2 a KG . Normally a holiday would be a gain of 5 or 10 kg. I,m a happy old soul. Mark.

You've lost 65 pounds!! You should be celebrating that! Stress and negativity will get you absolutely nowhere. You need to find things to Celebrate. Did you take your measurements? If not, start now. Even when I wasn't losing, I saw a decrease in inches. As to why you haven't moved to a smaller size, the larger sizes take a lot more pounds to lose out of. For example, when I started I was in a size 20/22 pant (and squeezing into them because I didn't want to buy anything larger!). Because I was squeezing into them, I didn't change to a smaller size until I had lost 40 pounds. Now, the sizes are much closer together. I can lose 10-15 pounds and move to a smaller size. I think if you accept from the start that you are going to have stalls and whooshes (times when the pounds fall off), you'll be a lot happier that you had the surgery. Are you seeing a therapist? I used food as a coping mechanism, as a pick-me-up when I was stressed. When I no longer had that as an option I started to feel anxious and a bit depressed. That coupled with the release of hormones that were stored in the fat that I was losing resulted in depression and anxiety. My therapist was able to help me find more healthy coping mechanisms. I was a slow loser and felt lucky if I lost 2 pounds in a week. I figured that I didn't gain it all at once, so I wasn't going to lose it quickly. I also have Hashimotos (thyroid autoimmune disorder), which affects my metabolic rate by about 10%. It also helps to look at the actual numbers for how you lose weight. I would guess at your weight that your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is about 1,800cal/day. If you are eating 600 calories, your deficit is 1,200 cal/day. Calculating that out for week would result in 8,400 cal deficit for the week. One pound equals 3,500 calories, so you would probably have around a 2.4 pound loss for the week. If the number is higher, that means you are losing Water weight. The first few weeks of the pre-op diet the majority of what you are losing is water. You can go for about 3 months eating 600 calories without it affecting your metabolic rate. After that you need to start increasing your calories. That happens pretty naturally with the surgery as after 3 months you can eat a bit more. I wouldn't factor in exercise unless you are really exceeding an hour threshold. For example, I ran 10K today, which burned around 1,200 calories. I may eat an extra 500 calories to compensate, but I probably won't see a huge loss from that. You also need to make sure you are getting enough Protein. My minimum requirement is 60g, but I try to hit 70-80. What happens if you don't eat enough protein is that your body will start using your lean muscle mass for fuel. That will result in fewer muscles. Muscles increase your metabolic rate, which is why you should make sure you get your protein for the day and why you should start some type of weight resistant training. That can be done at home using your body weight for resistance. For my program I have never counted calories. The only 3 things I ever concerned myself with were protein (60g+), water (60ou+), and exercise (60min). As long as I did those three things every day I had steady losses. Stalls are frustrating, but really nothing to stress about because we all have them and there's very little you can do to stop them. Lastly, here's a really good article on why we stall: http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html#.Uu0i3X-9KSN It should be mandatory reading for all WLS patients!

I'm 5 weeks out and haven't had any issues either. No nausea, no vomiting, no aversions to any foods, no slime, no dumping, nothing. I got in my Protein from day 2 and Water as well. I drink normally. I chew pretty well, but don't necessarily eat real slow, about 10 minutes to finish 2-3 oz of food. Never had an issue with eating too fast. I do stick to protein with a few veggies here and there, but not every day. I haven't eaten sugar, bread or other refined carbs, so I don't know about them. I have had spicy things and they're fine too. My only issue is that in 5 weeks I've only lost 16 lbs. SW was 229, but I had lost 61lbs in the 6 months prior to surgery with may, or may not have contributed to the slowness . I'm still holding out hope it picks up a bit, but all I can do it follow the plan and hope my body holds up it's part if the deal

So today is the first day of my 10 day liquid diet I'm ready for it then again I'm not ..working at FIVE GUYS BURGER&FRIES it's gonna be hard but i have to turn away from all that food I have my head on straight and I know what I NEED to do..... in 10days I'll be banded Wish me luck

When mine was so bad all I could tolerate was Popsicles which as you know has no nutrition whatsoever but that's all I could eat for about 8 to 10 weeks.....I'm good now 7 months post-op..stay strong you can do it and this will pass... Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App

It's hard not to cheat. Luckily the liquid phase I was good on. Mushies and onward have been harder. I had Meatloaf this weekend. Which isn't for another 10 days. Didn't overeat at all, but just had enough to make me happy, and knock me back on the track. I think thats the important thing to realize, we all have gone through a life altering surgery. We all used to be able to eat whatever we wanted, as much as we wanted, and whenever we wanted, I for one relished this, and revelled it like a King. Now, after being banded, this is no longer the case. We on a daily basis have to, not really struggle, but be mindful of everything we put into our mouths. The most amazing thing of all is that it works. But shoot, it's a hard process, and every once in a while you can start to make yourself a little nuts/crazy over it, and have to break the mold. It's not something any of us is proud about, but it does serve as a reminder to put us back on track. Cheating won't kill ya, but at the same time, it does defeat the purpose of the Tool we have all installed for use. So no, I don't think you destroyed yourself or your chance for happiness. But, you have to maintain on your path, and continue to follow the healing plan. Which is the hardest part of all. I'm guilty of having a Guilty pleasure here and there, but getting back on track helps. I go in for my first fill next Wed on 11/18, and I've come to the part where my swelling from Surgery has gone down, and I find myelf hungry. Its hard, and I have a long week ahead of me with my family having Turkey day this coming weekend. But I will do what I must and I will utilize my support team here and at home ALOT till my fill, and continue to do so afterwards. So yeah don't get too down on yourself, but use our support to help maintain your Healing Plan. We have all been in your shoes at one point or another, and are here to help support ya through the good and the rough times that will continue to come and go!