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I hit the 30lb mark today! Hurray!! I am still planning on getting another fill next week. I do not feel like I have found my sweet spot yet. I am at 4.5 cc. Surgery was December 4, 2008 2008 was a very eventful year for me. In Jan 08 I found a lump in my left breast. I had 2 surgeries, 4 months of chemo, lost ALL my hair. 6 weeks of radiation. Last chemo was 07/24/08. Last radiation was 10/15/08. Then I decided to lessen my chance for reoccurance of BC by losing weight. Lapband sugery 12/04/08.

3/15/10 Funky Chicken (In a funk, starting maintenance) 3/15/10 Porthole (answering questions about port placement) 3/16/10 Celebrities in WL Denial 3/17/10 Sugar Doll Award 3/18/10 Weekday Dish (What I'm eating) 3/19/20 Enquiring Minds Want to Know (Questions about restriction/need a fill?) 3/20/10 7 Fun Questions 3/20/10 Welcome Spring! 3/21/10 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (anyone need some pants?) All here: http://bandgroupiethesweetspot.blogspot.com/

This is the recipe for the cauliflower pizza I made on another thread. I have never had it with lasagna bake. http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/01/16/cauliflower-crust-hawaiian-pizza/

PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP!!! I lost 98 pounds in just about 9 months. There where times when I stop losing for a bit, but I kept at it, I am not one to give up. This was one of the best thing I have ever done I have a new life, down 10 dress sizes, from a size 24 to a size 14. Think about how long it took you to gain that weight, then also look at all your health issue, and how sad you feel right now. I think you owe to yourself to give it more time. You paid for this surgey out of your pocket and you had a great tool to work with. Remember this is only a tool like any tool we have to learn how to operate this tool properly. Nothing great happens over night it takes time. IT DOES WORK...... HANG IN THERE YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK. P.S STAY AWAY FROM THAT CAMERA FOR A WHILE.

Congrats - My favorite and staple was low fat ricotta cheese and tomato sauce microwaved. It taste's just like lasagna. I will still often have it for Breakfast now that I am on regular food. A good sorce of Protein without too many calories. Best of Luck!!!:thumbup: Banded 3/5/10 350lb Current 4/28/10 317lb (-33lb)

So my primary care physician is a very nice lady in her late 50's or early 60's. I have been going to her for many years and she's wonderfully kind and supportive about just about everything under the sun except my struggles with weight loss. For years she has given me bogus advice. Once she sent me to this super-crunchy-granola nutritionist friend of hers that made me answer a 10-page survey about my poop and pooping habits. Then tried to tell me I was 80 lbs overweight because my gut flora was all out of whack and all I needed was hundreds of dollars of her special-order supplements each month. Thanks but no thanks. Then my doctor recommended going to Curves. While I'm sure that is a fabulous suggestion for many sedentary fat people, I am and have been for several years a regular runner. Periodically I get involved in some other kind of activity too-- flag football league with coworkers, a couple months of boot camp, lifting weights at the gym, etc. In other words, her recommending that joining a gym is my solution came across as kind of insulting. I kinda have that angle covered. For years I have begged her to prescribe me medications to help me lose weight, to no avail. She is, for a standard-issue medical doctor, awful conservative when it comes to such things. She'd never agree, for example, to Xenical or Meridien or anything like that for me. I knew she'd never, ever countenance the thought of recommending a lap band for me either, but I went and got one in spite of that (in Mexico, on my own dime). She got really, really judgy when I went to see her in December for my regular "well woman" exam and told her about the lap band. I expected it but was still kind of hurt by it. In any case, I think it is time for me to move on and find a better doctor. One that will be a little more understanding than she is, and possibly one that will explore the possibility of some kind of appetite suppressant medication for me, at the very least. Any ideas of how to perform a search for someone like that? I live in Atlanta, so if there are any Atlanta-area folks that have a fantastic doctor they'd like to recommend, I'm all ears.

Your doctor should pull out 1 cc..the directions for the Realize Band say not to overfill it past 9cc or it could break.He should follow the directions, they are wirtten that way for a reason. This IS typical and it probably IS a RealizeBand problem. Do not listen to any advice from MacMadame - she is not a medical professional and has no idea what she is talking about - Go talk to your doctor and ask about having the band explanted and converting to a lapband AP or a different procedure. (Bypass,sleeve etc)Do Not take medical advice from anyone on this site. If your band is overflled you are probably either not responsive or the triangle shaped 1994 Realize Band is not working properly in you. I have 4.5 cc out of 10 in my Lapband AP and Im tight with great restriction.Theres no reason the band should be filled that much and you don't feel anything-Talk to your doctor-

I have found that we eat out 2-3 times a week . We both work, so as much as we try not to eat out it just happens. Now with no fast food type food, wow, the food bills are high. So I decided to tackle how to eat out for less today. Today I ordered a bunch of gift certs online for gifts only at restaurants who give you back 20% in a bonus gift card. They seem to only offer this special at Christmas time, and last year I did the same thing but didn't get enough and ran out by March and really missed that 20% discount card. I did it in an organized fashion figuring how many times during the next 12 mos we could eat at that restaurant. I did it for Pappas (usually seafood), Outback Steakhouse, and Carrabbas Italian. I couldn't order some restaurants bc they didn't have a special, shame on them (no Red Lobster, TX Land & Cattle, etc). But then sort of by accident I found a website called restaurant.com that had discounted gift certs for so many restaurants. A lot of them were independent ones that we go to anyway, and others were new. But I bought like $300 of gift certs that will give me like $750 of free food at these restaurants. I don't know if this works in every area, but the norm was to pay $10 for a $25 gift cert and agree to spend $35 on food. Or like at a steak rest get a $50 gift cert for like $20 and agree to spend $100, which we could do at a nice steak restaurant if we had the whole family. I actually spent $120 at my favorite Chinese Restaurant and got $300 of food credit. It says you can't use more than once a month, so heh, I bought one for each month. Felt like a safe bet considering we've been eating there since my oldest son was born. I could use suggestions too on how to order at restaurants so that the family food bill is not as much, and wonder if anyone has suggestions. Between the cost of groceries and restaurants I feel like we spend too much of our take home pay on food, and I want to cut it down. I've never been a coupon shopper in grocery stores, but if anyone knows a good and easy way to do this I'd like that too. Please share your ideas.

My surgery is scheduled for 10/28 just started my 2 week liver diet(liquid diet) today I was also just called today to set up my per-op testing by the hospital. If I was you I would be calling the surgeons off and asking some questions.

@@jenc427 Definitely! I know that it's going to suck for a couple of months at least. As much as I want to encourage you to move forward with surgery, you have to get to that place on your own. I was approved for surgery back in 2011, and I freaked out at the last minute. I hired a personal trainer who put me on a meal plan and workout regimen and I lost a lot of weight. I was ECSTATIC and thought I'd dodged a bullet by not having surgery. But I was still about 50 pounds overweight and putting my body through a LOT to get there. I ended up breaking 3 toes and had to stop the 10 hours of weekly workouts, and the weight came back on so fast Even when I tried to get back with the program, it wouldn't come off. So here I am, 5 years later, back where I started. My body is so incredibly achy. I tore a meniscus in my knee and had surgery but the recovery is slow and it still aches all the time. My bones and joints are sore from carrying all this weight around. Still, I am afraid of surgery, but I know that if I don't take drastic measures, I am not going to have much enjoyment in my life with the way I feel right now!

OHB, I think you have a conservative fill. I'm wondering also if I'm perhaps a tad underfilled. I ate two servings of oatmeal yesterday...easily. I wonder though if I did not wait long enough after taking my AM meds with Water and sipping a little decaff coffee. that can make the food move thru the pouch too fast, we are told. I was very cautious today. Waited 40 minutes after beverage. And I am eating veeeeery slooooowly to see if this helps. I did write my doc's office though and let them know I might be underfilled--because they allow us to return within 10 days for a free adjustment. If the second fill is scheduled in the near future, I could tolerate this, but if it is months away, I want to feel fuller ...sooner than that. In short, I doubt you have a leaking port. We need to make sure we eat exactly as instructed before fearing such complications. Best to All!

You will be just fine. I had my lap band surgery on Oct. 5th just one week and 4 days ago. I feel great and you will to. I was extremely nervous about the surgery. I just lost a family member in Sept. when he went in for surgery on his kidney, so I almost backed out. I would say, make sure you know everything you can about your surgeon. You will be fine and you will be glad you done it. I lost 10 pounds in the first 6 days after surgery. Not sure how much I've lost now. I don't even own a scale. Best of luck to you on your journey!!!

The reservoir on most bands is anywhere from 10 to 14 cc. The volume of your first fill is unlikely to be producing much effect. Most have to have at least 7 cc.

Whoa, the reservoir on my band is 4 cc. My first fill four weeks ago was 1.7 and I have decent restriction with that. My husband, on the other hand, got the VG band with a 10 cc reservoir, and with 4 cc he has almost no restiction. The bands themselves are 10 or 11 centimeters in length, which makes all these metric numbers confusing as they are sometimes referred to by their lengths.

Started this journey on May 5th wearing an 16/18 pant. I just left the store with a size 12 in hand. This is truly amazing as I cannot remember the last time I wore a size 12. This is a great day!!! Just had to share..... Size 10 here I come!

Awww, thanks! Girl, it has been a long road on my own. That 55ish lbs has taken 2 years on a ketogenic/LCHF "diet". I've fallen off many times. Part of the struggle has been trying to heal my metabolism due to years of taking Adderall. It destroyed my ability to keep my weight under control after I stopped taking it. This fall, my company was bought out by one of our partners and our insurance benefits changed. For the first time in my adult life, I have a job that will pay for bariatric so I jumped on that boat with a quickness! LOLOLOL The policy won't change until 01/01/19 so I won't know the particulars of the plan for a couple weeks like how many required nutrition visits, etc...but I'm just happy to finally have some hope. No matter how long it takes 💓

Had my sleeve done on 10/20. Week two of full liquids was torture as I also desperately wanted to chew something! I ended up having a little small curd cottage cheese that second week with no ill effects. Yesterday I graduated to puréed foods. I am so excited! Hang in there you can do this too! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

SleevePlicationTalk Newsletter Hey, Sleevers! Summer’s over and we’re into the beautiful days of early autumn. No matter where you live, we hope you’re getting a chance to get out and enjoy the weather! Any activity you do counts toward your weight loss, health and pleasure, so make an effort to get outside and get moving. Don’t forget to take your SleevePlicationTalk.com app with you so you can read the newsletter and keep up with the boards! Here’s what you’ll find in October’s newsletter. Member Spotlight: We’re still recruiting! Sleever Challenge: Lend a Hand! Having a Healthy Autumn: A Few Tips for Parents – and Other Busy SleevePlicationTalk.com Members! Weight Loss Surgery: Not the Easy Way Out! Can’t wait to get started? Neither can we! Enjoy the newsletter and please feel free to let us know what you think! Thanks for your support. Sincerely, Alex Brecher Founder SleevePlicationTalk.com Member Spotlight: Still Recruiting! If you want to be in the spotlight or you want to nominate someone else, let us know in the Spotlight Forum or send Alex a private message. We’re always looking for outstanding members to highlight! Sleever Challenge: Lend a Hand! We like to challenge you to try something new or unusual in each newsletter. The Sleever Challenge is a non-competitive way to push yourself a little further and experience something new while gaining confidence. Why do we ask you to post what you did? It helps motivate others and give them ideas for their challenges! This week’s challenge is pretty simple. Before the next newsletter, we’re just asking you to help someone. It can be any kind of help, from helping an elderly neighbor take the newspaper in to volunteering to give a motivational talk at your local weight loss surgery support group meeting to making dinner for your spouse even when it’s not your turn. This challenge does more than make someone else’s life easier. It makes you value yourself more when you see how powerful you can be just by being kind to others. Don’t forget to let us know how you helped someone! What did you do? How did it make you feel? Let us know how it goes in the Sleever Challenge forum! You can always check out any of the previous Newsletter Challenges and give us updates on those. You can always see the old challenges in the archived newsletters. You’ll see challenges on food, fitness and more! It’s never too late to try something new and exciting! Make It a Healthy Autumn: A Few Tips for Parents – and Other Busy SleevePlicationTalk.com Members! Okay, we know that the autumn is a busy time of year. If you’re a parent, your children are back in school and their activities are in full swing. You may be juggling work with your chauffeuring, catering and cleaning business – aka, taking care of your family! Most of us are pretty busy even if we’re not parents. It’s easy to use not having enough time as an excuse for getting off track with your weight loss. You might eat foods that you know you shouldn’t because you feel you just can’t squeeze in the time to prepare a healthy snack. We’ve all done it. You rush out the door in the morning and are busy all day. Some of these happen along the way. You are starving by lunchtime and grab a few truffles that make you nauseous. you dumping syndrome. You go by the vending machine for a soft drink that’ll make you feel sick within minutes. You realize at the end of the day that you haven’t stopped to drink for hours, and you have a headache and your stomach hurts. You know you should be eating lean Protein, but the closest thing you can find is pepperoni from the company’s pepperoni pizza – so to be polite, you eat the entire slice and it causes an obstruction. You start to depend on Protein shakes because those are the closest thing to a healthy meal that you can find at the company cafeteria. You don’t have to let a hectic schedule get in the way of your health! What can you do about it? Here are a few tips to make the most out of every day Prepare some of your meals and Snacks at the beginning of the week. Wash your fruits and vegetables so they’re easy to prepare when you need them. Cook some your Proteins - chicken breast, fish, seafood, lean beef and/or veggie burgers – and freeze them in single-serving baggies or containers. Cook up bigger batches, put them in single-serving containers and freeze them so you can defrost them when you’re ready to eat them. This is a great option for healthy side dishes, such as whole wheat Pasta, carrots or Beans. (You don’t have to make too much, since your single portions post-surgery are pretty small). Place snacks in single-serving bags if you buy a multi-serving package Plan your Breakfast the night before so you don’t have to think about it in the morning. Take the time to make a grocery list. It’ll save you time in the end. Using a list will keep you from forgetting foods and needing to go back to the store during the week. You’ll be faster in the store because you won’t get distracted. Sticking to a list will keep you from buying foods you shouldn’t. Buy ingredients for breakfast Buy snack foods Make sure you drink enough. Stash Water bottles in your car and at work and keep them filled. It’ll encourage you to drink throughout the day and you won’t have to take the time to run to the kitchen each time you need to drink. Stick a pitcher of water in the fridge so you see it several times a day. Keep healthy snacks at work so you never find yourself starving with nothing healthy to eat. Beef Jerky and canned tuna, chicken, beans, vegetables keep for months. Frozen foods to consider keeping around include grilled chicken and fish, veggie burgers and vegetables. Yogurt, low-fat cheese, cottage cheese and deli meats are high-protein snacks to keep in the fridge for a week or more. The more you plan, the better off you’ll be. You’ll save time and be more likely to eat well. And remember – you’re worth it! We suggest picking one or two strategies and working on them until you master them, then moving on to a new tip. Let us know how helpful the tips are! That’s a lot to chew on for this newsletter, so we’re going to end it here. There’s no end to the news, tips and conversations over at SleevePlicationTalk.com, so come on over via your computer, smartphone or Kindle! You can always check out the old newsletters, too, in the Newsletter Forum. Thanks for coming along in this newsletter and for being part of our fantastic community! We couldn’t do it without you. Have a great month and take care of yourself and each other, Alex. ==============================================================If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, you may unsubscribe by going to your Control Panel and clicking on the Newsletters tab, or clicking on the following link: {unsubscribe}

I had to catch myself yesterday. I actually picked up the Water as I was about to sit down and eat I did however spit it (water) out. I am only 10 days out so I'm learning. I am scared of hurting my tummy so I haven't been getting in half the potein. I am going to add two shakes back into my diet. My nut told me the other day that drinking and eating not only washes the food out quickly but it can also stretch the stomach. It will get better as some of the others has mention. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S using VST

I have heard that insurance will cover some skin removal procedures if there were medical complications due to the excess skin, but havent actually known anyone with first hand knowledge. Has anyone else see insurance cover it? HW 385 SW 359 Sleeved 10/5/16

"Not only that, but if I don't lose the required 5lbs EACH week of the diet, they will POSTPONE my surgery, putting me back on a regular diet, only to recommence the 3-week liquid diet at a later date." Want my first thoughts? This doctor is making an unfair demand. I would have a hard time trusting any doctor that threatened to cancel a surgery if I didn't lose 5 lbs each week for three weeks. I've been on every kind of diet imaginable (including fasting) and I have never lost 5 pounds a week for three consecutive weeks. You can control what you put in your mouth, but you cannot force your body or the scale to comply with a 5 pounds/week requirement. You are not a badly behaved child that your doctor is entitled to discipline by withholding surgery. You are a grown up woman seeking compassionate and appropriate treatment for the medical condition of obesity. I fully understand the need to shrink your liver--and it sounds like you do as well--but you can accomplish that goal while being treated with respect by your treatment team. This is not the time for someone with a medical degree to play control games. Just for comparison: My doctor has an excellent reputation and has performed over 3800 weight loss surgeries. He asked me to substitute liquid Protein drinks for 2 meals a day for the 10 day period between my pre-op appointment and my surgery. The nurses told me that if I had a hard time with the liquid meals, that I could add some protein. There just isn't the need for the kind of stress and pressure that this doctor is creating for you.

Oils this be coming from gas that still hasn't gotten out?

Hi everyone. My name is Stacy, I am 34 years old and I was just approved for surgery on November 5th. My date is January 2, 2019. This was my third time trying for surgery. The first time I weighed 427 lbs. I barely lost any weight during my 6 months doctor supervised visits so I was denied. Discouraged but determined to show them I could do it, I counted calories and excised and went from 427 down to 202 lbs. The irony was the "healthier" i became, the sicker I got. I dealt with continual heart issues giving me symptoms of heart attacks without the blockages... one attack happened while on the treadmill and landed me in the hospital for 2 weeks. I continued my diet and exercise until the final episode landed me in the hospital yet again and they finally found out/assumed my arteries were constricting from stress...which was probably from all the missed work... and they put me on medicine. My gallbladder decided to check out at this point... but not before going out with a bang--I was in the hospital another 2 weeks because my pancreas and liver were inflamed... after the gallbladder removal the weight loss got harder and the pounds started packing on. I was afraid to exercise and miss more work--so I started walking. Because I wasn't getting the rush I normally did from exercise my depression came back full force. I slept the day away any chance I got... I'd eat my calories one day, the next hardly touch food, and the following day, I'd eat garbage. My choices were terrible. Terrified that I would go back to my old weight I tried a second time for surgery--the entire process I battled depression and diets--trying to find what would work and give me the success calorie counting did. Instead I gained--at this point I was denied a 2nd time. My weight, 350 lbs. Something happened where I made the decision to buckle down... and from October of last year (when I was denied) until March of this year, I lost 15 lbs. I worked hard to see the scale move. It wasn't until April that I read about low carb--most of the foods I couldn't eat anyways because they made me sick--like bread and sugars--so I went for it. When my doctor saw my progress she said--whatever you're doing is working! Try one more time--I think you'd get it! I had no faith in being approved and I said if I was denied again, I'd stop...and take it as a sign. Since starting low carb I've lost an additional 58 lbs for a total of 73. I have my appointment with my dietitian on December 5th, pre-op appointment is December 12th and Upper GI is December 19th. This is also the same day I start my 2 week pre-op liver shrink diet. I do have some before and current pictures in my gallery and what I look like currently... I am having anxiety about it all... and a lot of people are saying I don't need it done... I look fine... I kinda wish I would have taken the route where I didn't say anything to anyone. Thanks for reading ❤️

Congrats! I was sleeved at 10:00 yesterday and others than incision soreness I am doing well. I had a narcotic thru my IV at 10pm last night but no heavy drugs since then - just liquid Tylenol. I want to stay off the heavy stuff so I can know what the pain will be like at home. I feel lucky today! It all went pretty good, and I don't feel horrible yet the next 4 days will still be a challenge. Good luck to you!

This Sunday I will be 12 days post op and plan on playing golf. My dr. has given me the go ahead, but I want to see what others on this board think. Thanks (17 lbs in 10 days).