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I've been off 10 days and I love that I have taken so much time off. It makes me only concentrate on recovery and proper eating. I was banded on Aug 6.

Thank you so much for posting. Your journey is exactly what i wanted and hoped to hear. You had real life struggles but after 10 years if i can say what you have i will be a success story just like you! Getting mine on 10/10. Please join us. We need stories like yours! Thanks sgain???Š

At a hotel now, got my surgery at about 10 this morning and I am SO sore right now. I can't find one comfortable position to sleep in and its driving me crazyy!! lol I lost 16 lbs on my pre-op diet, which I didn't expect at ALL. Can't wait until the soreness goes away so I can sleep and sit comfortably PAIN MEDS HERE I COME

I attended an information session, here in decatur, GA in 2006, my weight was 247 at 5'8". I was 100% sold on having LAP-BAND®®®®. I did extensive research (I am a Nurse Practitioner, by the way) and STILL was 100% FOR LAP-BAND®®®®. Unfortunately, I let my dad and husband talk me out of having it done. Fast forward to Jan 2008. By then I was up to 267, this is after going on yet another diet, my fasting blood sugar was 119, I was put on metformin. There was a information session on 05/14/2008, which I attended the MD was Scott Steinberg, who I love. Anyway he discussed the LAP-BAND®®®® and GBS. Again, I left thinking I am going to get the LAP-BAND®®®®, of course! So, I did more research and discovered that the cure for type II DM, is gastric bypass! What???? I then began doing more research and found that there is a 99% cure rate for type II DM with gastric bypass. That is when I started changing my mind. The things I did not like about gastric bypass, was the malabsorption issues and the potential for dumping syndrome (I will go back to that in a min.) Anyway, I told my dad, mom and hubby that I had to do this...for me! I have BCBS PPO and the office people were GREAT! They gave me a list of things I needed to submit and viola! After my psych clearance, I was given a date. 10/14/2008, the day before my 44th birthday. On the day of surgery, I weighed 275, I was sooo nervous and scared. Everything went well. My recovery was quite painless. I did have to stay overnight, not too bad. Then when I got home I began walking 3 miles per day. I checked my blood sugars, and found after week 1 I no longer needed the metformin. I am almost 1 year out and I weigh....(drumroll please) 185! I still have a way to go and a lot more to learn, but I am on my way for sure. Some caveats: Protein: use UNJURY.com. It is the best tasting protein shakes you can think of. I have a cup of chocolate soy milk (I don't like cow's milk) with a scoop of the vanilla unjury and I really feel like I am have a milk shake every morning Vitamins, calcium and vit. B: DO IT everyday, if you don't you will have NO energy. I get my vitamin B12 and bcomplex from biartricadvantage.com They have different flavors of the calcium mint, chocolate, etc. Yummy! Exercise: DO IT, I must admit, I am not the best at this. I do yoga every morning and evening. I was someone who could not imagine working out everyday, but I do, walk, it will speed up your weight loss! DUMPING: DON NOT DO THIS!! :cryin g:If you eat too many carbs, it will happen. You will feel as though you are having a heart attack. Of course, I had to challenge this by having a HUGE piece of cake. Well, i dumped. What is dumping??? Basically, your metabolism changes, so when you eat too many carbs, as you know your body produces and sends out massive amounts of insulin. Remember, if you have gastric bypass your body does not absorb all of that sugar. The small intestine is bypassed, so it goes straight to your gut. This is like taking 5000U of insulin, very scary and dangerous. My husband wanted to take me to the ER, and I refused I was too embarrassed, it did pass, but I really really will never do that again. I prayed to HIM to let me get through it! Thank God for Jesus, really.

I buy a lot of clothes online since the plus selection in many stores has three styles in 10 colors. Can't wait to walk into a store and have options!! High end, low end, even Target LOL

I was off 9 days, no problems. Desk job, 4 10 hr days.

Hi guys. I was sleeved on 21 december 2012. I started at 110.3kg and now i weigh 49kg. My dress size was a uk size 22/24 and now its a size 8/10. Keep going guys, you will get there. Just remember not to compare youself to others as we all are different and our bodies work at different rates.

I too had a lingering cough from bronchitis for months. Eventually, We thought it was maybe reflux related, but turns out it was due to the blood pressure meds my Dr put me on. All of a sudden one day, I remembered her telling me that 10% of people develop a cough. Once I started another BP medication, the cough stopped. Are you on BP meds? Sent from my XT1254 using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi there! I had my gastric sleeve procedure on 10/30. I lost 10 lbs before the procedure and 10 lbs following it (first 2-3 days). It's been over 5 weeks and I haven't lost a single pound. I don't exercise, get about 500-600 calories a day. Not enough Water though. But I've attempted fixing all that and still nothing. I'm hypothyroid and insulin resistant. Have you any words of advice for me? I'm going crazy here. The doctor's office wants me to wait until next week to "look over the diet". That is not going to help. I've been following the diet. Just hasn't worked.

I was a belly sleeper and I am just curious.... will I be able to sleep on my belly again? If so how long did it take others before they could again?? I am 10 days post op now and this side & back sleeping is driving me nuts. Not to mention I have had a gas bubble caught in my shoulder for 4 days so I can't sleep on my left side because it makes the pain unbearable. Just looking for some help here. Thanks Sent from my DROID Pro using LapBandTalk

Greetings. I had my sleeve surgery today. Was able to drink Water immediately and like a champ. But after I finished the little hospital bottle shots (about 10 oz), I began having pains in my stomach and I still do, even though I've slowed down on the water drinking. Are these pains from drinking too much water? Or are they simply the notorious gas pains? The pain is on the upper sides of my stomach. Hurts. Help.

Exactly my experience. Neither my surgeon nor my GP ever wanted to set a goal weigh--instead stressing the health benefits of losing even 10% of body weight and focusing on the "40-60% of excess body weight" idea. I lost easily to 135 and here I sit. My goal chose me. I had some vague idea of being happy at 165 (the lowest weight I maintained for a period of time as an adult) or even 155 (lowest adult weight ever).

Just had some Gardein plant based chicken with stir fry veggies & a little teriyaki sauce. Over 20 grams of protein less than 10 grams of carbs & around 200 calories. Delicious!!

The scale has not moved down in about one week. I am pissed. I am now on Stage 5 for life so maybe my body is adjusting to food. I took my measurements one month ago and again today. I have lost inches so that makes me feel good. I finally fit into my misses size jeans, 18!!!!!! I haven't seen that size in over 10 years. Enjoy your Columbus Day weekend everyone.

Beth, my insurance company required my psych evaluation, not my surgeon. It is not clear to me if your insurance company is the one who requires it. If they do, you then need to ask them what they are looking for. My insurance company wanted to know the following three criteria: 1) Am I an alcoholic? 2) Am I a drug abuser? 3) Do I have any psychological disorders? If the doctor is the only one that requires it, the only thing he/she wants to know is if you are aware of your decision and understand the ramifications and risks of the surgery. Although the fatality rate of the band is less than .01 to .02 percent, doctors still want to cover their backs. P.S. An added note: it is my understanding that there is a legal issue in most states of having a friend or acquaintance who is a shrink or psychologist doing your evaluation. One could say that he is writing the letter and knew you had issues and is doing you a favor.I know you want to save money, so the best place to find a psychologist that supports bariatric surgery is on the website for www.obesityhelp.com. THey have a list of bariatric friendly psychologists.

Glad to hear things went well. Your doc listened to you. It took me 7 months to convince my doc something was wrong. I wasn't staying restricted. I knew I had a leak but he wouldn't listen. Finally after getting very assertive he did the test, and sure enough, right in his face!! So the band is leaking and my port was fixed last June and it never healed right. So i still continue to have port site pain. I can't lift like a heavy load of laundry..so in 4 days i am having it removed and getting the sleeve. Would I do it again, YES! I understand complications are part of surgery but when you doc fails to listen to you that's not your fault. I gained all my weight back plus 10 pounds. Talk about sad...but like you said, you have to stay strong and pull yourself up and start again...found myself a new surgeon who i absolutely love and talked to patients who had him for a surgeon. Not one bad word..same hospital, different surgeon. how awkward was that. My body and I will decide who does that cutting!!! One time my surgeon didn't know how many CC's i had when I asked him. I walked out of there and slammed the door. This is not over with. When i am done with my surgery i am going to the hospital and having a chat with a rep. Patients have rights too and they need to know they have Chief of Surgery that is very difficult and is not doing his job. One time I told him I had yogurt for Breakfast and his next question was, what did you have for breakfast. OH MY GOSH!! HELLO!!! So thank god I can move on and have someone who will listen to me. So that's my story. Again, not bashing the band, just the doc!!! have a good day and keep up the good work. Renee

What is "anaerobic?" I've been using the elliprical for a year now. I complete 60 minutes plus a 5 minute cooldown. I set the settings according to my weight. I then set it on "random," and the level to 10. At the 5, 10, 15 minute intervals, I go in "reverse",and then back forward, and up the level. By the time I'm at 50 minutes, I am at level 20. I'm burning appoximately 770 calories. When I check my heart rate, I am anywhere between 160 - 168. I am 54 years old. Just wanted to know if I should try any other settings or routines.

I just wanna say I luv how this site is very positive and all the encouragement u have to offer us on our journey!! BUT I have done everything for the drs request for the past 2 months ive been struggling with loosing the 10% Ive lost 6 and i need to loose 5-6 more llbs before they will put the request in for insurance approval....so needless to say i feel stuck with trying to loose the lil few so I can get a DATE... thats all I want... just a date on the schedule....So Ive tried the liquids (protien shake) sf pops sf Jello tons of bottled Water and it doesnt seem to be working...I dont know if b/c i joined a gym and workout everyday and zumba 3 times a week if im just creating muscle instead of loosing ...I dont know any suggestions to help me loose 5 in like 2 weeks....I guess i have to see it on paper to change...i just really am excited to succeed with this tool and want it done ASAP!!!! Thanx for reading! =) KELLY

Hi Dee, I'm getting sleeved on 12/19 and I am a bit scared that it wont' work for me and I only say that because I've only had a problem with my weight in the last 12 years, but my body sticks. No matter what I've tried, how much I've worked out, etc...the scale refuses to move. I will lose inches before lbs. The most I've been able to lose in the last 12 years is 20 lbs., which took me 4 months to do, and I gained it back in the 4-5 months following. I have every confidence in the world that this will work for me over the long run, but am a little nervous that I will be a very slow loser (like 2 lbs. a week slow). But we will see; whatever I lose I know it'll be gone forever cause my body will stick at that weight. LOL

I have also heard that there can be a 5-10 lb regain once you get to goal, so you might want to give yourself a little wiggle room.

Well, at least they weren't a temptation for you this year. Those silly little eggs are addictive! I honestly don't think that I can say that I ever ate so much of anything that I didn't want to eat it anymore. Probably because I was like a bottomless pit. However, about 10 years ago I was out one night with friends drinking some kind of blue martini. I got SO sick. To this day just seeing a blue drink or even "blue" anything listed as an ingredient in a drink makes my stomach turn. 10 years!

I worked as an RN in a surgical ICU for years and we used to get all the open gastric bypass patients and I saw all the complications which were much more frequent years ago. After the laparoscopic method started becoming the standard, the complications dropped dramatically and I kind of started thinking about it. That was about 10 years ago and after my weight continued to rise, it was now time.

I don't even know if I can remember them all..these definately aren't in any specific order: Diet workshop (Several times) Nutrasystem Weight Watchers (several times) Jenny Craig (life time member...yea that helped UGH) Woman works (local place) New You (local place) Protein shake place (forget the name but drank their suppliments all protein based fruit juice type stuff. Local place) Herbal Life Atkins Susan Summers South Beach Slim Fast Dexatrim Metabolife High Index something or other (expensive pills didn't work) Gloria Stevens (gym and diet thing) 10 day diet (thats the one with the beets, tuna, vanilla ice cream BLECK) Cabbage soup diet banana, skim milk diet Richard Simmons deal-a-meal Fit for Life Hollywood diet (drink stuff for 3 days, the bathroom and me were best friends YUCK) Nutrionists diet from the hospital The just cut back carbs diet from my doc Hypnotism (yea get this...we were told while under anything in excess was garbage. So more than 1/2 a sandwich the other half was garbage. While under....he said..Pigs eat garbage, dogs eat garbage. Wellllll that didn't work for long either bar-oink!) Green Tea tablets I can bet I'll think of more after I click "post" lol

Hey Clair: We have the same band birthday. I was also banded on June 23rd. I've only lost 12 1/2 lbs, and 10 of that was in the first couple of weeks. I have had a fill, I got it on July 23rd, and honestly it has not helped much. My doc does not have the same "rules" as yours. Is it because of the pcos, or just his rule? My doc won't do a fill early. One a month and only 1-2 cc's at time. He said that doing too fast causes problems later. He wants me to "adjust" my lifestyle slowly, and bond with the band. Even if I have to diet, which I AM. I understand your frustration with the weight loss. I also waited FOREVER to have it done, and wanted to be like the others on this site who lost 20-30 lbs the first couple of months. I guess we are truly all different. Good luck. I hope it gets better for us as we get fills.

Plus over the years, the sizes have been getting bigger. I remember 38 years ago, I got down to 130 after the birth of my first child. I was thrilled to find an unusual size 11 pair of pants I could get into. Not I am 168 and easily fit into a relaxed size 10!! I know they are getting bigger because women will buy clothes if they think they are smaller!! Doesn't matter to me anymore but it is interesting..... Hugs!!