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I have a big decision I need to make and I hope you can give me some opinions. I have a great job that I love and I only work 10 months a year (education field). I love my boss and she gives me a lot of freedom and respects my input. I also run a summer school in July for my district. I start at 8am and I finish at 3:00 everyday. I make great money too. Sounds great right? I wentto school to get an advanced degree and certs and now an opportunity has come around to be a supervisor. I applied and it seems I am the front runner. I would work 12 months a year and work until 4:30 everyday. I am guessing I'll make about 14k more a year. It would be a great career move and an exciting, though very busy job and help me gain administrative expperience. But having 2 months off in the summer is hard to give up! My kids are older now so I don't have little ones at home anymore. What would you do? I have asked everyone and they all seem as stuck as I am. I will need to make a decision very soon! All input is appreciated!!!!

Hi everyone, I was banded 10/11/11. I just had my 2nd fill yesterday and have lost 35 lbs. I really messed up around Thanksgiving, ate too much of the wrong things. Then going out with co-workers at lunch just to get out of the office, and the first fill didn't last very long, and I was so hungry. I'm hoping this fill will last longer and will help me get back on track. I had bad news 11/2 - I was notified my job was being transferred overseas, but will still work through 12/30. After about a week, I stopped exercising and that mood lasted for about a month. Yesterday when I went in for my 2nd fill, I had only lost 3 lbs since the month before. At least it's in the right direction, but I know I can do better. So I just need to get back on track. I'm so glad I found this site! I think the journey will be much easier with support from other bandsters.

Hello all, I had my surgery on Dec.19, and somehow survived Christmas without cheating. I did however try some soft solids on thursday and friday, which didn't cause me any discomfort. New years eve I had real solids, ie. some chicken, shrimp. other than feeling really full, it went okay. So Sunday I had some more solids... 3-4oz of lamb, a few bites of greek salad, and some steamed vegetables. Everything that I've eaten I've made sure to chew like crazy. - Concern = about 12hrs after the meal, woke up with a major stomach ache, diarrhea, nausea. Stomach ache lasted about 12hrs, felt like there was a brick in my right side, which gradually got better as the Water I was sipping constantly flushed through me. It's now the next morning and I'm still having diarrhea, slight nausea....... Is this something I should be getting checked out? or can I attribute it to eating what my body was not ready for?

Ugh...I did this tonight. My best friend took me to dinner at Red Lobster & I ordered 8 garlic shrimp, had one of his crab legs & about an ounce of lobster. After watching them eat those yummy bisquits I was ready to eat. I only ate a couple of my shrimp & the other stuff & I felt the worst I've ever felt. Literally thought it was coming up at the table & it hurt, but only for about 10 minutes. After that I was fine. I am however having the hardest time getting enough water each day. Anyway, I feel your pain.

I am 4 months and 1 week out and it is hard to remember. I do know that my oldest son got married at 10 weeks and I know I felt normal then. We had to travel out of town, were busy all day long for about four days with family get togethers, pre-wedding errands, etc. The day of the wedding started around 7 am with hair and make up, ceremony, reception and we were the last ones to leave with the bride's parents at 1 a.m. I know I was very happy that day and felt great. So, I would say I was feeling back to normal some time before 10 weeks. Hope this helps!

Glad to hear the fill went well Doddie. I did get a call back from Nancy the Nurse and she said the heaviness I felt in my chest was normal and she wanted me to take very deep breaths and hold them for 10 seconds then blow out - do this 5 times per hour. She also said when I go on Full fluids - hip hip hurray - this will help it go away in about 2 days. I did this exercises (pretty easy - wish they were all like that- and I feel better already. I am going to my cottage Wednesday for about a week....for recuperation purposes only.......so I want to wish Susansilver, Cat, Jurema, Mr. Yoda, robgoblin and whoever else is going under on May 2nd and 4th all the very best for an easy ride. I wll see you on the other side. xo

Same here..... Banded Feb 10 and I have lost about 30 pounds and a cup size. I was a nice D and now a comfy C.... I miss my boobs. Anyone seen Nurseamy's before and after pics? I am definately getting mine done with my tuck.... she looks fantabulous!!!!!

LOL!! 10 lbs is amazing! I would suggest not to go overboard, but allow yourself a couple of treats, so you won't panic before the optifast.

My story is a pretty simple one that you have heard 1,000 times before. I am a 48yr old woman, who in the past, has tried all the diets out there... WW.. JC.. Form-u-3... LA Weightloss... and of course the fad diets you see in the paper or in the magazine Womens World... and NOTHING...NOTHING worked!!! Oh sure, I would lose 20/30 maybe even 40 pounds.. and a life event would happen.. death in the family, picnic for a birthday, vacation.. and BOOM... right back to square one.. oh sure I didnt eat it all back on overnight, and I would have that conversation with myself that would usually end in the food winning... UGHHHHH..., October 5, 2012 I decided to have the LapBand surgery, picked my surgeon, went for all the appointments and my surgery date was set for Jan 11, 2012 ... so... the 92 meals... I was not on any preop diet for my procedure... I weighed in at 262.2 initally, and then I ate... I ate .. and I ate... I got to the point where the food was running the show.. but knowing that I was going to be battling this after the surgery.. I continued to lose the fight against the food and I balooned up to 281.8 before the surgery... My doctor was very upset with me to say the least.. but in my mind it was like I was saying goodbye.. goodbye to the fast food.. goodbye to the prepackaged crap.. good bye to the late night dining... and to this date (7/10/12) It has all been gone. I am happy to report as of my last doc visit I have lost 69 pounds.. I could not be more pleased... I am at 5cc on the band that holds 12cc... my biggest battle now is eating slow enough or small enough bites... but I am working on it... Life is better now.. although I am still not too sure about the "new" me that is developing.. but that will come along.. I have more energy, however my knees are out of whack.. so that is the next thing to get fixed.. and when that is done.. watch out!! lol Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.. size 24 to a size 16 as of today... hope size 14 feels as good.... Huggggsssss!!! Cindy

Hi: Don't be discouraged. When you're ready to be a "good bandster" those few pounds will drop right off again. I went through an extra stressful year in 2009. I got laid off after 15 years and had plastic surgery and struggled for 9 months to find a new job. From the time I had plastic surgery in May through November I gained 20 pounds. I was grazing and eating the wrong things and eating small amounts way too often. When I got my head back into the game I was able to lose 10 pounds in one month. I got as low as 174 at my lowest, but am happy at 180 to 185. I got too many comments about "have you been ill" and "your face looks so drawn" that I decided that 174 was too low for me. Anyway, I'm between 185 to 189 now and am happy at this weight. I plan to put in extra exercise effort in March to lose five more pounds so that I can be at the 180-185 level for the spring and summer. So, chin up, and know that this will be a short-term thing. Cut yourself some slack and decide on which date you're going to start being strict about your food intake and try to get some extra exercise in. Then, go for it. Until then, relax! It's possible that you need a fill too. I don't know when you had your last fill, but it's possible you need a little bit more. I love my band and my new flat tummy! Sue

I had my gastric revision operation one the 1st of Jun 2015 and until now I lost almost 28 lb. my problem now start after almost two month from operation, I feel the my appetite is high and I want to eat every two to three hours and sometime less although I try to drink Water when I feel hunger but after one hour I feel hungry again. Also, I feel I can tolerate to eat like one sandwich contain ham and cheese within 10 min without pain or diarrhea. I can swallow meat, chicken and all the solid food and I was wondering within this short period and my small pouch I should vomit if I can eat those staff. I asked my surgeon and he said that it’s different from people who had the RNY for the first time from the people who did the revision in weigh losing, I can understand that but how about the ability of eating and the appetite toward eating. Actually I am an emotional eater so I am freak that my RNY will not success I have done enough with gastric endoscopy and I don’t want to try it again. So is anybody had a conversion? And how was the eating portion? How often they feel hungry? I hope somebody can answer my question and give me the support because really I am leaving in a nightmare.

The nausea stopped right around the 24 hr point. I tried to walk two laps everytime my vitals were checked but I was tired and slept most of the afternoon away. Sunday morning, Dr. Kelly came by and checked me out then Cecy took me around noon for my swallow test. That facility is very nice, though the roads are quite bumpy on the way there. Thank goodness I still have cushion on my backside lol. The drink is disgusting, like aspirin Water, but it goes quickly and I brought sugar free mints for afterwards. Dr. Kelly recorded the test and Omar emailed it to me. My tummy looks so widdle on the video. They also gave me xray to take home. It takes like 10 minutes total. Cecy took me to the grocery store to get some cold beverages and my meds. The grocery store had the most gorgeous mangoes I wish I could take home and was sooo clean and colorful. Once I got to the hotel, Omar and Dr. Kelly came up to go over my diet and Cecy made me some rice water. I'd never tried rice water, but it has a nice cinnamon flavor. Omar went to get the other two couples then came back to get me. I took a big gatorade and headed to the bull fight with another couple. It was $20 for premium seats and $1 for a cushion (concrete seats). The food they brought by looked delicious, dried meat, fruit platters, but I sipped my gatorade. It was very...authentic. Beautiful bulls and horses. We stayed a little over an hour. Omar picked us up and we all went shopping at Avenida Revolución. You have to haggle for prices, but I yard sale every weekend so this is totally up my alley. I spent $33 on 3 luchador masks and some maracas. We stopped at Caesar's Restaurant which is the birthplace of the Caesar salad. It is made tableside with ground anchovies, dijon mustard, oil?, garlic, worchesterchire sauce, egg yolk, pepper, parm cheese & croutons. It looked really good. We then went out to eat at a mexican restaurant that has the.best.chicken.broth.ever. I don't remember the name of the place but I've never had broth that good, full of cilantro goodness. I chewed a tiny bite of rice with it. It was my first meal since Thursday night (3 days). I sipped too fast as about 5 minutes after I finished eating I felt way over full. You know how when you eat like a jumbo cheeseburger and fries then feel ugh? I felt that way after drinking 1/2 a cup of pineapple juice and maybe 3/4 cup broth. I kinda couldn't believe it until it happened to me. We got back to the hotel around 9pm. I showered, changed my bandages, took my meds, went on the balcony to check out the city at night, then online way too late. I got up this morning around 5am and had a drinkable yogurt. Omar brought me some thin oatmeal Cecy made me around 8am. I'm sipping on it very slowly. I'm chilling in the room this morning watching HBO. I have no nausea or pain. I get a free broth and popsicle from the hotel daily so I'll be checking that out later today. So far I've had a great experience in Tj. You don't get this kind of personal service in the US. Good luck Reese! It was nice meeting you yesterday. I'm sure you'll do great! Thanks thinmymind, I had a lot of fun yesterday.

Surgery date 1/21/13 starting at 299 Cw at 185 my goal weight at 7 months 114 pound lost .. Now that I'm here and looking great I think imma go for another 10 pounds I really want to try 20 to be at normal bmi but I'm afraid imma be too small but I just wanna so to the new sleevers hold on you'll get there

My husband actually took off the day of surgery (Wednesday), Thursday and Friday. I was in the hospital until Thursday afternoon. So really he could've only taken Friday off. My son was unemployed and was in/out if he could find a side job. I was off the following week (bored to tears). Like KindaFamiliar I was up and moving and could've gone to work that Monday but I had already scheduled it off so I stayed home I walked a lot, drank Water and ate Protein. Against my hubby and sons protests I also moved stuff from our big storage shed into our house. We were having a modular home built and it was being completed while we lived in a 25' RV. We moved in 10 days after my surgery. I was toting plastics garbage bags of small items into the house and watching the contractors finish up. Had a pool - couldn't swim, wasn't allowed to mow the yard, dog would've dragged me if I walked him (didn't want to pull any internal stiches). I had to stay busy, I was blessed that I had an easy recovery

I love diet dr pepper in a can. If there is any one thing I could eat that would be it. I told my husband I felt like a drug addict lol. I havent had carbonation or caffeine in 10 weeks. Last Saturday I tried one sip of coke zero and it burned my tongue and tasted like dirt.

This might be a long one, so hold tight. But really, it will depend on how much energy I have to type. Here's my experience so far: I feel like crap. Everyone who ever told me they had surgery on Friday and were ready to go back to work by Monday are either crazy, on drugs, or a superhero. I can't imagine going back to work now. Or ever, really. LOL. I'll give a day by day account: Monday: got to the hospital about 1 1/2 hours early, but they took me back anyways and prepped me. I talked to about a million people and then finally they started to give me drugs. The last thing I remember is starting at the big lights in the operating room. I woke up (sort of) to people telling me to move from the gurney to my bed. I was not happy, I wasn't sore, but I was REEEEEALLY tired. The first few hours of waking up sucked. Then, at night, the gas pains were KILLER. I literally thought an alien baby was going to pop out of my abdomen. I hated it. I could only have Water and ice chips and every sip of water made my abdomen feel like it was expanding. Needless to say, I didn't drink much. Tuesday: I started feeling better and I was taken to x-ray so they could make me drink this stuff (not barium this time) and make sure nothing was leaking. The x-ray doctor kept telling me take big gulps. I just looked at her like "Um, are you aware of this procedure? I can not take big gulps." So I sipped as much as I could and then told them I couldn't anymore. I probably could have, but I was going to vomit. Speaking of, I couldn't keep down my pain meds. They gave me ativan, loritab, and something else through my IV. But then every time I gave myself a dose of morphine, I threw up. So out went the pain meds. Fun, right? Oh, gas pains tonight were so much worse than on Monday. I went from pain level 4 to 10 in about 20 minutes. I asked God to help and then begged my mother to shoot me. Not a good night. Wednesday: Again, woke up feeling better and was release from the hospital. The gas pains at night are the worst, but I hardly feel them during the day. So little by little, it WILL get better. But initially, it will be your own small circle of hell. At least, it was for me. Oh. I almost forgot. My blood pressure has been going up and up and up since Monday when I checked in. I'm normally in the normal 120/80 range, but it even got up to 166/98 at one point. So now, ironically, I'm on blood pressure meds. It's been hard getting my fluids in but I'm discovering today that it will be easier to keep track of stuff if I write it down. I'm supposed to be drinking 4-6oz every waking hour, but lately I've only been getting about 2oz. It probably doesn't help that I'm also sleeping most of the time. Whew. I gotta go rest now.

I was sleeved on 3/10. I sort of layes on my side in the hospital on night 2. The nurse pushed a pillow under my back. Last night was my first night home and I slept in my bed and started on my right side and middle of night switched to left side. It was sore at first to get in that position but once there it was great! I rolled up a blanket and put it under my belly.

Definitely take a PPI and drink lots of fluids. I think I was hungry too but I'm 10 days out and not hungry (except head hunger).

I had a Protein drink this morning and had to take a nap within 2 hours... Had another Protein Drink about an hour ago, and I could take another nap. What the heck? Has anyone else noticed this in the transition from clears to Protein drinks? (I'm 10 day's out). Thanks for your input, Susan

I have PCOS and I keep my carbs under 40. I was sleeved on 10/31/14 I've lost over 55 lbs

@Rocshae I'm July 27th in NY. How are you doing? Are you on the preop diet right now? I'm on day 10 of it. (Did you just hear my stomach growl? LOL)

You are inspiring. However, I am really having a problem wth the money involved. I called an office the other day and they said $17,000. I just became insured and realized my insurance does not cover this. The woman said for it to cover me at all, I would have to be another 10 pounds. But then, I looked up my insurance and I don't think they cover obesity surgery. I am really having a hard time with the cost of this. Is it worth it. That is a lot of money!!!!! I know feeling better is worth a lot. Lord knows I have spend a fortune on my health..............but....... I don't want to be a downer, but I am having such a hard time with it. Can someone tell me of more reasonable rates??? It is a 45 - 60 minute surgery. I am desperate. I would love to look back this time next year as 145 and size 10-12. They can not guarantee it. :girl_hug:

dont worry, all of us have been through it and you will too. It takes about 10 days until you start feeling like yourself again. Hang in there

I have conflicting thoughts on this. We had a neighbor (a renter) who played his stereo loud with the bass turned waaay up. To the point that I could feel it in my chest while I was taking a shower. We honestly couldn't hear our own music or TV. It didn't bother the other neighbors as much because of the placement of the houses. We tried talking to him, but it did no good. Finally, we called the police. They came first to our house, but of course it wasn't playing then. They made a visit to the neighbor to ask him to tone it down. He proceeded to turn it up EVEN MORE!! He told us he was punishing us because we called the police and they weren't going to make him stop. My DH had words with him, and the A**hole said he wouldn't turn it down until I came over and apologized to him in person. Our lives were so miserable that I did it. And he dressed me down for a good 10 minutes. I didn't see any improvement either. Then they moved away. Whew! Then a year later they MOVED BACK!!!:huggie: Talk about an adrenaline rush when we saw them again. We finally had no choice but to sell our house and move away. It was so sad. So, just be careful. It could get worse.

I am about 10 weeks out now and can eat just about anything I want in the 5-8oz range. I have never really had problems eating anything from the very first day either. I can eat 2 hard boiled eggs (chewed very good) in about 30 minutes. I made some chicken (fully cooked, frozen in a bag) with some cheese the other night and was able to eat about a cup of it and had about a half cup left over for lunch. I agree, the more you chew, the more you can eat on some things. I am a fast eater and have to watch myself alot. I cannot tolerate sweets with my sleeve and I absolutely have to wait 30 minutes before drinking after eating with my sleeve or I find that it comes right back up. This could be due to me having a pouch from the 17yr old band that was there. I love my little sleeve. It might seem like you are eating too much but really, if you track your intake/calories in MyFitnessPal, you will see how little you are still eating. I have also found that I am a sloooooow loser on the scale but I am dropping inches like crazy. If you think you are eating too much, get you a little bowl that is 4-6 oz and measure your food that way. That will really help you put into perspective how much you arent really eating! (Considering I used to eat a 10pc chicken mcnugget, large fries and large coke from McDonalds like my husband does!) Just remember to Keep Rockin' Your Sleeve!!!!