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I am as well side/stomach sleeper I was able to sleep on right side from day 4 and on the left one only since last night, but what I did. How I started: I take king size pillow and put it behind my back, so when I am laying on it so it like you are laying on the back but because of the pillow it is more like on the side. and yesterday I was able to put it on the side of my stomach and hug it., ( like I used to sleep with pregnancy pillow) so your stomach is laying on the pillow and you are on your side. Yesterday was the first night when I was able to sleep through the night for 5 hours. all previous nights I was sleeping for 3 hours and after need to walk for an hour and sleep again.

I am post surgery. 5 months out. Interesting to see different replies from different surgeons. I know there are many factors involved. Average at 2 years, or even 3 would still be awesome!

Hi everyone, Just wondering how everyone's journey is going. I was banded October 2016 and have lost 50 pounds in the first 8 months but since June I have gained 5 pounds and can't seem to get back on track. I went for a fill 2 weeks ago, and comparing what and how much I'm eating to others with the band, I still feel I can eat too much. I have gone for so many fills and my band is running out of room. Not sure what I should do from here on out. I have slacked on the exercising but can't seem to find the motivation. My goal would be to lose another 25 pounds to hit my target of 150lbs. Anyway u hope everyone else is seeing the progress and change they've hoped for. Have a great week. Also here's a before and after picture because I'm still proud of what I've accomplished so far

It has been a month today and for the last two weeks I wake up every morning with the aches and pains of a head cold. During the day it gets a little better but I keep a runny nose. I hear that others have runny nose as a sign that they have ate too much. But my nose runs all day before I eat. Has anyone else experience The Head Cold Syndrome ?

Weight loss isn't linear even with WLS. You probably aren't doing anything wrong, but hormones, sodium, fluid retention and a whole lot of other things can play with the scales. It's usually only temporary. Keep on doing what you are doing, if the gains continue beyond the current week you may want to make sure of your protein/calorie and water intake. Make sure you are weighing solid foods and measuring the liquids. You've done great so far keep it up!

Wow! That is a lot to lose in 10 weeks. I’m hoping to only weigh myself every fortnight, I’m worried I’ll obsess over that number! I have also set aside clothes to try 1 month post, starting small with a size smaller in bra and underwear, and an outfit that is tight and unflattering now.

My *** plan covers 100% for BMI 40+. For BMI under 40, a person needs to have 2 well documented comorbidities. All surgery patients have to go through Psych evaluation, 3 months (4 appointments) of supervised medical weight loss, an upper endoscopy, visit with dietician, 2-3 weeks of liquid diet (dependent on BMI) and anything else that may come up (I had to see a vascular specialist because I have blood clotting disorders). I have done everything through my surgeon’s office - so easy and they are really nice. I am 2.5 months in on the supervised medical weight loss and having my endoscopy and dietician visit next month. Should be good for surgery in Sept or Oct, depending on COVID and the schedule of my surgeon (they had over 3,000 surgeries to reschedule after the first outbreak of COVID). I will submit to be approved once I complete everything. Hope this helps!

Congrats! I added you as a friend on here. I am doing this horrible pre-op diet. I am on 2 weeks of opti-fast. I am on day 6. Geez! I have been doing pretty good... but its hard. I am def missing food too. :biggrin:

UPDATE: Should have posted last week: Well guys, I haven't posted in a while because I have just be out here living life to it's fullest. Grandkids, hunting, chasing the love of my life around(my dearest Lisa) and catching her every once in a while . . LOL, new temp job. . Yes, back in the working stiff arena getting some extra cash for all the hunting licenses I have to buy . . . Colorado Archery, Elk, Illinois Archer, Firearms, and Muzzleloader, Michigan Archery and Firearms/Muzzleloader, . . . etc. etc. . etc. . . see what I mean. I kinda like the work as it is challenging and pays pretty well. Back to the subject here . . . my WL has been going really well. . . down to 226(from a LB surgery high of 366) now and feeling pretty darned good and healthy. Exercise couldn't be better. As you probably already know I have become a fanatical Race/Walker with my buddy Jolly. We have now covered 392 miles since last August just prior to my LB to Sleeve conversion. We walked an 8K(5mi) event here in lansing 10 days after that surgery which was awesome. But, I am ready for another one. We have entered the half-marathon here in Lansing, MI. This is the inaugural event . . . Marathon(26 mi), Half-Marathon(13.1 mi), 5k, and 1k(kids race). You can find the details for this event at www.lansingmarathon.com . . Since I am going to be kicking off this race at about 9-9:15 am on Sunday April 22nd I thought you all just might like to watch the event from whereever you are. Well at least follow my progress on the computer. I have a GPS program that runs on my smartphone that tracks me and gives me my split times so I can keep up to a expected pace. If you are so inclined to peek in on my progress just follow this link: http://runkeeper.com...ndJolly/profile . . .. Then click on the Activities tab. Select the top activity and you should be able to follow my progress as I walk this route. You can point to the spots on the route to see my distance, pace, speed, etc. . . during the race. Hope you have a little fun with this. I will post pics from the pre-race, during the race, and after. . . This exercise is part of the reason that I have done so well after surgery. For any of you guys that are having trouble getting that exercise started. . . believe me it was difficult in the beginning. I just started with small walks and charted distance and times. Always either tried to go farther or faster and sometimes both. . . it hasn't stopped yet. Say a little prayer for me that I can suck it all up and finish this race. My cardio is awesome and my times on distances up to 8 miles are really good. Today I did an 8 mile walk with an average of 12:26 mi/mile. I am hoping to finish this race with about a 13 min/mi average. This would surely have me coming in under 3 hours. This is my best WOW moment . . . can you believe this 64 year old "former fat guy" is even going to try to finish this race. . . and now with such good times. I am feeling so good about this . . . Thank you Barix staff for everything you have done for me. And to all the folks here that give the great support to each other . . . "Hats off to you!!!". . keep up the good work and those that are just starting be sure to stick around and give aide and comfort to those just getting started down the line someday. That's all for now. See you on Sunday night when I post some new pics. UPDATE Last Sunday: Well guys . . this is the day . . . half-marathon starts at 9:30 am. I will be trying to update pics throughout the race from a new app on my Android phone so you can see the race route and what it looks like to me. Should take me about 2:50 hrs/mins to finish the race. That is my goal. About 13 min/mile. Check out the pics on my Facebook page . . . https://www.facebook.../#!/bob.scriver Couldn't have done this without Dr. Taylor and the Barix staff. . . . Thank you. Current Posting: Check out the FB page link above. . I FINISHED Lansing's 1st half-marathon. I have posted pics and Run keeper links to the race details. Pinch me. . I still can't believe it. My time was 2:50:06 for the 13.1 miles. . . My RunKeeper program calculated my average race time at 12:50 min/mile average. Not bad for a 64 year old former fat guy . . . LOL I have now lost a total of 140 lbs credited to both my surgeries(LB and VGS) along with a total of over 600 miles walking over the past 2.5 years.

Sooo yesterday (thursday) was my 2nd day back at work. I was about 30 minutes in and i felt nausious but I didn't want to ask to leave or anything because we were understaffed. about an hour and a half later i felt a bit flushed and a tad dizzy. My coworkers (who are all wonderful older ladies) forced me to sit down and gave me water etc. etc. and called my boss who told me I should go home. But I still felt like this big jerk. Has anyone experienced this? I think I was dehydrated? but I just don't know anymore. I'm trying to figure out my body again but its only been about 2 weeks now since surgery.

My surgery was Sept 28th so I'm almost at 2 weeks. My husband is driving me crazy because he thinks I should be healed enough to have sex. My surgeon told me that it's up to me of when I feel comfortable to start having sex again. I still hurt and on top of that I do NOT feel sexual at all. I'm so frustrated feeling like he's rushing things and I can feel how annoyed he's getting. He's starting to take his frustration out on me by stomping around and being a jerk. Why can't he understand that I just physically don't feel up to it?

Hmmm, this sounds familiar. Gonna get my levels checked next week!

First off, look at the success so far - you are 7 months out, and you've lost 63 lbs, or if you average it across 7 months, you've lost 9 lbs a month! You're making progress, and I'll bet if you look at the clothes you wear now vs. what you wore at 225, you have dropped a fair number of sizes, right? Now, you're in a stall. What's your diet like? Are you getting exercise, and what kind/how much? Still getting plenty of Water?

Wow. 100 pounds in 11 months. I hope I can do that. Although I think I will just be happy with 100 pounds period. OK well this just motivated me to get off of my behind shortly and go walking. I shoot for 5 days per week, but this week I am at only 4, so I will go get that 5th day. Thanks.

It took me about a week and a half before I could

For the most part all of the appointments were scheduled by my surgeons office. They have been great about setting everything up. I have 6 more weeks of supervised diet and then I can submit to insurance for approval.

Thank you so much! I found about people eating a cookie and ended up at the hospital for two weeks. My BP and pulse went sky high! I took a walk and had a nice cry now I am back to normal. I don’t think I’ll ever stray any time soon. My hospital and dietician didn’t arm me with a lot of information so I didn’t even know sugar could hurt your sleeve! I only thought it was a bad choice diet-wise.

i actually had the opposite problem, where i had my period for 3 weeks the first time i got it after surgery. i think it's because our bodies are still in shock and adjusting to all the changes going on. but i'm 3 months post op and everything is back to normal!

I had my first fill today! I'm so excited. I've been in banster hell since week 3 or so. Lost 23 in that time then gained 5 back. Hoping this will help this week. I was so surprised that he gave me 5cc! I was expecting a much smaller fill. I'm a little afraid of all the pb-ing and getting stuck stuff. Guess I will take it reallllllly slow!

Sheryl and Donali- I've been struggling with the same exact issues you two talk about. Since I got a good fill with great restriction, I have been eating three meals a day that are the perfect size. But then I lost my mind- somewhere in my brain, I figured if I were eating such small amounts at meals, that meant I could eat all the chocolate, candy, Cookies, chips, etc. that I desired. The worse part of it was that I kept thinking that the band isn't working every time I stepped on the scale and it hadn't moved. DARN BAND! I'd say... Then it hit me. DUH. Stop eating the crap! Especially at night! Easier said than done, when, like both of you, I have many, many years of habits to break. So, I'm trying to tackle one habit at a time...and as Dr. Phil says- you have to replace a bad habit with a good one...so- one of my worst snack times was around 3-4 in the afternoon. I'm going walking every day at that time now. If I'm not home, I won't eat. The second habit I'm trying to break is eating at night. I'm a night owl so I'm up until one or so...so I bought peanuts and pistachios in the shell and that's the only snack I can have. I find it takes me so long to open them and it's doing something with my hands, that it takes relatively few to satisfy my need to snack. I hope to phase out any eating after 9 in a few weeks, but this is a nice intermediary. I have so many more habits I need to break...but it's nice to feel like one or two of them are being replaced. The best part- the scale is moving again. Donali- I have the same need for a big bite in my mouth...I didn't realize it until you said something. And I've realized that it isn't just the taste of food that I crave...it's the big bite of it AND the swollow. Reprogramming the tongue to not push stuff back until I'm ready :-) is a challenge. Thanks to both of you for all of your insights. You just never know when something that is an issue for you will touch someone else, too. Thank you thank you! Megan

Wow. I do not work out an hour a day! I try to be active most days of the week. So that means walks during lunch break, or going to the gym after work. I am not on a real exercise plan or anything. I do strength training 2x a week. For eating ... I'm all over the board. I try to follow the basic rules - protein first, then veggies, then starch. I am making a lot of shredded meats in my slow cooker right now. Super convenient. I eat every few hours, unfortunately. I have a homemade smoothie for breakfast, a protein bar for snack, a frozen dinner for lunch, then some sort of protein/meat for supper.

Oh lord can I relate. All the people who were banded with me got restriction early and started losing. Me? I had to diet like all hell and exercise like a demon to lose half the weight they were losing. I felt like I'd never get to that 'elusive' green zone. Why was it so much harder for me??? But the funny thing is that the eating habits and exercising that I did helped me lose most of my weight before I even got to green zone. Once I did get there (8.5cc in a 10cc band) it became EASY. To lose the rest, to keep losing past goal, and then to maintain for 3 years because I had learnt the good lessons about how to eat and how to keep active. And on average, my 'slow' loss was actually about 10lbs a month on average. Less to start with and more as I got fitter and I felt the effects of the band with my later fills. I lost 70lbs in 7 months, but if you told me that in the beginning I wouldn't have thought it was possible. Yes it's different for different people but it doesn't mean it's a bad different. It's just different. Hang in there.

I was banded on Monday 8/16, I was instructed to maintain a clear liquid diet for 1 week. I don't think that I can do it. I'm not hungry and nor do I have an appetite, but I can't sit another day and drink this stuff for 2.5 hours 3 times a day. I'm thinking of moving on to full liquids (yogurt only) to get my protien in. I honestly don't think it should be a problem because some surgeons only require a liquid diet, they don't say "clear". Further more, all day yesterday, I drank 1 oz every 5 to 10 mins rather than every 15 mins just to cut down the time. I think the only way I'll get my protien in is to mix it in my yogurt. Let me know what you think.

I have started after 3 weeks but I guess I am very much deconditioned. Felt tired after 10 squats, could do 50 when I was 25ibs heavier.

Wow! Five weeks full liquids! That will be tough.