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Good afternoon, I went in at 6:45 yesterday for my surgery. I was back to my room at 11. Found out I was the only patient on the bariatric floor until 3 when I was moved to a private room on the surgical floor. Super nice corner room that had windows on both side to enjoy the mountain view. I was out of bed by that point and walking the halls. My blood sugars went up, but are coming down now and insulin was reduced to 3 units. No other meds. I am sore, but not overly so. My Dr said it went extremely well. They didn't do the upper GI x-ray today because of the snowstorm. He wasn't worried because I am drinking the three one ounce cups each hour. So I will have that on Tuesday for my post op. So glad its over. Now I get back on with the business of relearning and living life. See you on the other boards! Nell

At day 5 I was pretty miserable. At day 7 I tried to check my work emails and had to quit after 30 minutes - the brain fog was real! At two weeks I was ready to work again (desk job) but I needed breaks to clear my head. I'm a month out today and I'm back to mostly full speed now, although eating has it's challenges. You're only 5 days out from MAJOR surgery. Yes, you need a support system, but I had a great support system and I still needed two weeks to be able to work a desk job again. You'll get there!

I am banded and am 29 weeks pregnant. I am planning on giving birth naturally (no meds) and would really prefer to give birth at a birth center or at home rather than at the hospital. however, because I am banded, I don't know if this is feasible. My OB doesn't have any experience with bands, so he's not any help. I've emailed my band doctor, but I don't know if he will reply to me. What I'm wondering is if any of you who have had babies while banded have had any labor complications DUE TO THE BAND. I can't really imagine how the band might interfere with labor, but would like to know either way. If you read this and didn't have any band complications, and especially if you had a non-hospitalized birth, could you let me know that as well? Thanks

There is a handful of us getting sleeved this week. I'm tomorrow may 28th and all I can think about is the operation and recovery and living life afterwards.

I got a nifty polar hr watch and strap for my b-day and am having a blast with it to improve my run training. It is a high end model and I literally spent a few weeks researching the different hr watches on Amazon before going with it. It does not have gps nor does it count steps or monitor sleep patterns, but that is fine by me as I primarily wanted a hr monitor with "Swiss accuracy." Battery life is supposed to be 5 years. This one trumps my cheap 20 dollar polar watch I used previously. If you have experience with both running and use of a hr monitor for training running patterns, then I have some questions for you. Sorry- this post is going to exclude most folks. If you have the experience and knowledge, feel free to critique in any way. My goal is to improve my running vo2 efficiency through hr training. I just completed a run today of 30 minutes using the watch for the first time. I wanted to see what kind of feedback the watch would give me for a run where I challenged myself. Start hr: 65 (not quite resting) 5 minute warmup up to 6.0 mph: 125 After 5 minute dynamic stretch, hr still around 125 At 5 minutes, speed at 7.0: 135 At 10 minutes, speed at 8.0: 145 Every minute, alternate between 8.0 (149) and 10(155) Finish at 30 minutes: 155 Cool down 6.0 jog for 5 minutes: 135 Walk at 3.5-2.7 for 3 minutes: 105 Total distance is about 4 miles over 30 minutes. Felt fine afterwards and immediately did another 30 minutes of elliptical with hr at 145-150. Here is some HR info a web site calculated for me given sex=male, age=38, resting hr=55 and max hr=186. Resting Heart Rate: 55 Maximum Heart Rate: 186 Heart Rate Reserve(HRR): 131 Fat Burning: From 121 to 134 beats per minute Aerobic: From 134 to 147 beats per minute Steady State: From 147 to 160 beats per minute Anaerobic: From 160 to 173 beats per minute Maximal: From 173 to 186 beats per minute Questions: 1. According to the chart, my sprinting at 155 hr is in steady state range. Is this where it should be or should I go anaerobic? I feel somewhat pushed at 155, but not winded. I could definitely turn up intensity if I should be doing it. 2. I would like my short 1 minute rest intervals after 1 minute sprints to drop lower then 149. How can I get it lower, such as 145 or even 140. I do not feel hr at 149 is giving me enough rest before next sprint. 3. What do you think of my hr at other running speeds (e.g. 135 bpm at 7mph) is that good, ok, bad? I just do not know. 4. If target hr for cardio is about 140 for my age and sex, is this what I should be running at on average (given no sprinting)?According to my watch and running session today, hr=140 is about 7.2-7.5 mph for me. I guess I am looking for some analysis on how to improve vo2 efficiency in the HIIT segments of a running session and what I should be targeting when in various states of running.

I have stalled and things are going down hill. I am stressed no job, no income and no aide. I am not eating correctly anymore because the children eat first. This is becoming a cosmic joke now. I was hoping that losing weight would finally give me my life back, boy I was wrong. I am not not ashame to tell all that I am failing in life and weight lost too.

I just got approved by my insurance and now am waiting for a date to tell my work. I completely understand. I work in an environment that people are very nosy and judgmental and I have been telling them I am having a hiatal hernia surgery. It has worked so far. I am going to be out of work for 3 weeks, but my job is not that strenuous. I tell them I have ulcers too and that I will be on a doctor supervised diet after too so I have that covered. That being said, I do wish I could tell the truth and trust the people I work with to be understanding, but unfortunately I know that is not the case. Good Luck!!

I was losing weight prior to surgery. At one of my appointments my blood pressure was lower than normal. At the time I think I was 30 pounds down and working out 4-5xs a week. So my Dr. took me off the meds to be on the safe side, and told me to keep up the exercise/weight loss. That was 3-4 months ago and my blood pressure has stayed in the normal range without meds since then. I'm now 4 weeks post op

I'm only at ten weeks out, so I can't say for sure. However, some things that I used to love make me nauseated just to think about them now. I sat here one day at work last week with a box of doughnuts on my desk all day and never once was even tempted because the smell is just gross to me now. I used to LOVE doughnuts and in the past would have probably eaten 3 or 4 of them. I feel pretty much the same about any sweets now. Heck, I accidentally ate a regular greek yogurt last week with like 18 grams of sugar instead of the light ones with 7 grams and I thought I was going to die because I felt so sick afterwards.

Has anybody else had a dramatic change in their taste buds? Before the sleeve I loved pizza and mozzarella sticks and lots of other foods. Now 3 weeks after surgery I can't stand the smell of deep fried food. Cooking beef made me sick. And my son walked by with pizza and it turned my stomach. Does this ever calm down or is it going to be like this forever? Not that I am complaining because it helps me stay away from all the foods that helped get me to 279 pounds.

Sorry about the length of this one. The week is coming to an end and I think I may have found a ounce of hope hidden behind my heart. My grandkids have been very concerned with grandma and worried because I was crying alot. So last night my 4 year granddaughter came to me and said to me please don't cry anymore I will happy you find hope it will be okay. To tell you the truth she made me cry even more. Then she gets her brothers and tells them that I am crying because I lost my hope and the 5 year old tell her and the 6 year old that I didn't lose hope because she was in school yesterday. I started to laugh and the 6 year old tells them that they should come to my room and tell me that I could have some of their hope, and again I started to cry. So I step back away from the door and thought about what they were talking about and about an hour later while we sat to eat dinner they asked if they could give me something to make me feel better and I told them yes to my surprise they handed me a little bottle fill with glitter it had three colors. While everyone watch them the 6 year year old said, " Because you show us so much love and caring we want you to stop crying and give you some of our hope. My color is silver, I.O.'s color is gold and nena's color is purple." We love you grandma. There was not a dry eye at the table. My friend says to me I see you rubbed off on them. Because I have a few of those bottles too. With that I went to bed thinking about what to do, so I said in the morning I will stop the crying and take some actions. I email the neuro doctor and told him what happen and stated that we need to do something about my ICS in the brain so I could get the surgery. He called me and we spoke he stated that I was okay to have the surgery and why didn't I have the anesthiologist he requested to assisted the surgeon. He then called the doctor and told him that the ICS is in the brain and they don't do anything for it at this stage and please use the anesthiologist he recommened to assist because he is know the case and how to handle it. So I will be a May sleever. I will continue the high Protein diet because since monday I have not been able to really eat much.

I am 5 days post op and not full liquids yet. But I think you may need more protein, cottage cheese, liquid yogurt, egg custard, sf pudding. I am looking forward to trying these next week. Your diet was my 2 week pre-op and protein shakes are not settling well with me. I found a recipe for full liquids on this thread and it's cottage cheese and tomato sauce in a ramakin. Taste like lasagna, sounds good right now. Hang in there & keep me posted.

I had that pain on the rift side and it turned out to be gas. It went away after a while. I'm 5 weeks out.

I assure you, you are way more active than I am at 4 months just with your children and school! That's not a great thing but it is the truth right now. Probably the most important thing you can do, at this point is follow your food plan (meet your protein goals first...always), drink, drink, drink, take your supplements and LOG EVERYTHING. If you are preserving muscle and are not 100% sedentary, you'll have something to work with when things slow down and you are ready to tackle fitness. Just don't wait too long. If you do the key elements, even without a full fitness program, you will lose weight. you just can't let the others slip. I'm still losing daily and I can't do much of anything except sit and sleep from an unrelated, elective surgery I had 2.5 weeks ago. By the way, You really should be proud of yourself for taking this on with all of your other responsibilities. You're amazing!

I was a sugar and carb addict for thirty years. My surgery has freed me from that addiction. The dumping threat has kept me from easing back into it. Sugar and simple carbs have very little nutritional value and so are not nutritionally necessary. They are my trigger food so I choose to never eat them again. I know this to be my weakness and have made this my permanent lifestyle change. Complex carbs are good for you and recommended. After surgery you can't eat as much so we eat Protein first, then veggies, then if you can you eat a little complex carb. Most times I can barely get to the vegetables and never to the carbs. I'll occasionally make a meal or snack out of brown rice and quinoa salad, six bean salad, or hummus mixed w/tuna. I mix brown rice or refried Beans into my turkey chili. I use hummus chips or lentil chips for an occasional crunchy snack. I don't have cravings for sugar and simple carbs any more and it's very liberating. Food does not control my actions or thoughts any more. I don't plan my life around my next binge. I'm indifferent when other people eat those things in front of me. I did dump for the very first time a week ago (my surgery was 5/30/13). I had eaten some B&M baked beans w/o checking the sugar content (I assumed they were lower sugar like another brand I sometimes eat). It was a painful, miserable experience that kept me in the bathroom at work for an hour and left me weak and shaking for even longer. I checked the can afterwards and sure enough it had 13gr of sugar - much higher than I'm used to. I won't be getting lazy on my label reading again... Some people have found a way to incorporate a little sweet into their diets and make it work for them. Perhaps you will be able to also. Just be careful if you do. Don't let it open the floodgates to the eating habits that made you overweight to begin with. Best of luck to you! :-)

Hi Kami, I have PCOS as well. In my pre op diet I lost 29 lbs. since surgery (6/27/13) I have lost 20lbs. I was feeling a little down...even after I spoke to my surgeon because he didn't seem too thrilled with my weight loss either. He told me I was at the "low end." Anyway, I have since changed my attitude and I Celebrate EVERY success...even my non scale victories! You will be successful, even if it goes a little slower than other people. The point is...you are losing!!!! Celebrate that!! Since you know that you stall often just make sure you stay on track during those times. Also, find some fun things to do during those times in order to take your mind off of it....bowling, movies, long walks, etc. that stall will not last forever! So...about what I eat. I eat 5 small meals a day, all focused around Protein of course! Each meal is about 10-15 grams of protein. So, one day might be 1. Greek yogurt 2. Drumstick 3. Small Protein shake 4. Another piece of baked chicken 5. About 3/4 cup of chilli. The amounts are pretty small, even though it may seem like a lot of food. I can only take 3-5 bites of anything before I'm full. So, I only count each meal as 10-15 grams of protein. I also drink Water in between these meals. Sol, I hope this helps a little. I just want to encourage you...slow and steady WINS THE RACE!!! We can do this! :-)

Your weight loss is great, right now you need to be concentrating on healing. You've got another couple weeks before doing any heavy exercising. You should be averaging about 11/2-2 lbs a week. the band is a slow, steady way of weight loss. In a year or two we'll lose just about as much as other forms of WLS. There are people here that have lost 200lbs with the band, it just depends on our dedication and will power. You seem to have both.

I attended my pre-op class on Wednesday and received my psych. eval today. Dr. Sabapathy at Shawnee Mission Health is wonderful. He approved my surgery after completing my psych eval today with him. I did have several questions to answer on paper then visited with him. Now all I am supposed to have left is my 8 coaching visits with my United Healthcare coach. Anyone else ever done these coaching calls?

Hello everyone! I was banded on Aug 12th, I have lost 26 lbs.. very excited about that. I was feeling great the week after my surgery, I could not have felt better, well that did not last to long.. I know I am in need for a fill, just becuase of the hunger pains I get now but my doc will not do this for another 2 weeks.. anyway I am trying not to over eat so I am eating weight watchers meals.. I feel full after I eat them, but then about an hr later I am nausea.. can anyone tell me why this could be happening.. I litterily have to hold back a gag. I am willing to try any sugestions. Thanks Laura

I know how you feel, im stressed also. I didn't realize how hard it would be for me. I also have had 2 fills, but your lucky i have to wait 6 weeks for each fill. I have a 14 cc band and have 6.5 in. I still feel hungry every 2.5 hours. I go get another fill on the 25th. Hope the next one helps more.

question: My surgeon didn't give me any specific instructions (yet...)... for the diet for 2 weeks before surgery - but I plan on keeping cal. intake at 800 and low to no fat. What did your surgeon instruct for diet prior to surgery to shrink the liver the best? I'm schl'd for Nov 9th so 2 weeks before isn't until Friday and I'll be talking to him and the hosp coordinator, but I'm curious what diet the rest of you followed prior to surgery? Thanks so much

Where did you get that you should be down over 40 lbs at 5 weeks? It seems to me that you had unrealistic expectations from this surgery.

Hi there, I have my 18 mos check up with Bariatric this week. One thing as others such as James M. (he is a great resource) have said -- this is a pretty normal curve. I lost 100# in the same time but it was normal. My maintenance phase started while still overweight, but the loss I did have basically improved my health and life span projections by a huge amount (90% reduction on Type 2 Diabetes; 95% reduction in edema; greatly improved mobiity; stable neuropathy (surgery did not fix it, but kept it from getting any worse); now almost perfect blood fats. I agree with others about Protein. In retrospect, I ate too many carbs during the 6-12 month time. However, the other thing you mention is depression and adjustment. I had this in spades. After 50 years fat, I just could not adjust to this new body, it seemed very abnormal. I was depressed alot and although such good improved health, it took me until just recently for this new bod to seem ok... I am now starting to have a self image that is not hugely fat. For example, I would always avoid booths at restaurants. For the first time, the other day, when the wait staff asked Booth or Table, I said Booth! Also, I don't really mind the loose skin. I did grow a longer beard to cover the saggy neck a bit (sorry ladies that option is rarely available to you), but if it bothers you you can fix that eventually.

In this game there is no should as we all lose at different rates. I was initially depressed because it felt like the weight was coming off slow. Do you know for a fact that you're eating too much? Are you logging? I am in my 12th week and I am still on the plus side of 300. Keep your chin up. At least you have some idea of what you might be doing wrong. Go back to logging just for the purposes of data. :-)

Hi everyone, It's been a while since I've posted, largely because I've been pretty busy enjoying my new life. But Lately I've been a bit worried that I may be on the edge of losing too much weight! I just stepped on the scale and weighed in at 198. I peaked a few years ago at 380 and my surgery weight was 351 this past May, so eight months ago. That is over 150 pounds lost in eight months! I had been feeling pretty good with good energy. But I had some knee surgery (which I had previously written about in this forum) a couple weeks ago and am now in a pretty poor state of mind. I'm sure it is a combination of painkillers and general post-surgical lethargy and depression from sitting all day, but man do I feel weak. I feel like a bag of bones with a lot of gross saggy skin! Should I be concerned tht I've lost too much too fast? How do I slow this down? I still can't eat anything to speak of. For example today I had a single serve container of Greek yogurt with fresh blueberries for breakfast, a 16 oz. bowl of chicken soup for lunch and two squares of pizza for dinner. I had a snack of three triscuits and a slice of cheese. Most days I also have a protein shake but am out today. I literally can't eat more than this. Anyone else been here? Anyone have any suggestions on how to slow this train down? I can't get out to the dr. until I have this cast removed and am approved to drive, probably another three weeks or so.