I Want My Band Removed Now!!!!!

[yazmarrero85 0]

Hi there, can you please tell me how much you weigh and exactly why did you get the band inserted in the first place? What were your insentives for having the surgery? Were you co-erced into getting the band or was it your own decision? Also do you think you have had adequate time to adjust to your being banded or are you simply upset because you feel that you will not be able to eat real food like everyone else because if this is the case boy! you must really be addicted to your food, sorry I mean you no disrespect I am just simply trying to understand your frame of mind, my being a psychologist and all.

Well when i first started thinking about getting the band I weighed 180 lb. But because I didn't quilify I gained some and now i'm at 198 lb. I thought I did my research but I think I was only focused on the being ''skinny" part of it. I thank everyones comments and support. But I got in this mess for being LAZY :w00t:. Im over weight but I'm not obese. I still do want the band removed and start being so lazy and get off my a**. To everyone in this forum who have the band and are happy with it, I bow to you :thumbup:. But this is simply not for someone who is just being lazy.

[travelgirl 3]

Instead of having it taken out, you could leave it in, and just not have it filled. Most people experience very little to NO restriction until they've had a fill or 3 or 5. Then if you ever decide that it's time to start working your band, you can schedule a fill, and go from there. It can stay in as sort of an "insurance policy".

Meanwhile, get up off your butt, get exercising, and eating right, and for heaven's sake, go to the doctor and get your depression under control, and get on with your life!

[Angie4b1g 1]

Well when i first started thinking about getting the band I weighed 180 lb. But because I didn't quilify I gained some and now i'm at 198 lb. I thought I did my research but I think I was only focused on the being ''skinny" part of it. I thank everyones comments and support. But I got in this mess for being LAZY :w00t:. Im over weight but I'm not obese. I still do want the band removed and start being so lazy and get off my a**. To everyone in this forum who have the band and are happy with it, I bow to you :thumbup:. But this is simply not for someone who is just being lazy.

So only lazy people are obese?

[Angie4b1g 1]

And with a BMI of 38.7, you are most definitely in the "obese" category. I hope I misread the tone of that last post, but I got a "I'm not as fat as you all are so I don't need this" vibe from it.

My BMI is currently 34.8 and I'm definitely obese, fat, and anything else you want to call it. Also not that confident that I can be one of the whopping 2% of people who manage to lose the weight and keep it off through diet and exercise.

[Leather 0]

No~We didn t ALL hate our bands.I was scared to death something would happen and I d lose mine.I Loved it before I even had it.

Thanks for your contribution to this discussion... very helpful. :w00t: :thumbup:

[Apples2 19]

Thanks for your contribution to this discussion... very helpful. :thumbdown:

Yep, won't have my band for at least three months and love it already. Kind of like adopting a child. You prepare and just know it's one of the best things you will ever do and when the time comes, you are already in love

[MrsFlipFlops 2]

I'd give my right arm to be 180... or even in the 100's... or 200's for that matter.

I don't think she was saying lazy people are obese or really obese people are lazy. I think she's saying she didn't really try any alternatives before the surgery. And quite honestly, I agree. You should try every single alternative before having someone put you unconcious and cut into your body. Yaz, if it ain't for you it ain't for you. Don't feel bad for putting it in and don't feel bad for taking it out. If it wasn't the right thing for you and your weight loss, I'm sorry you had to go through the pain of surgery... especially twice. If I were you, which I'm not, I probably would give it some time to see how things go. But that's just cause I'm so scared of surgery, I'd hate to have to go under again! Good luck and don't pay attention to the people on this site who want to attack you.

WestCoastFatGuy- thank you for your post, I really appreciate it.

Heidi

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I'm going to copy/paste my blog from another forum (it doesn't fit on this forum). I think it might answer some of the thoughts going through your mind. It was actually an email response I wrote to someone else but much of it fits you to a "T".

on February 3, 2008 4:51 pm

People have been after me for a long time to add a profile. I didn't really journal my experiences during the weight loss phase, but I think I am going to write down information for newbies. I'm going to copy/paste/edit info I have written before in hopes that it will ease some fears and concerns we ALL have before and during weight loss. Much editing needs to be done on this so understand, this is a work in progress. I'm not done, there are typos, etc.

My first thought is for newbies that just had surgery. If you haven't reached the point of regretting the fact that you had surgery, just know you will. If you are a normal, typical, average WLS patient you will very likely go through a phase where you regret having the surgery. You ask yourself what the heck you just did to your body!

Just know, this is common. It WILL pass! Give yourself time. Most of us feel that way, it usually happens right after surgery and might last for a few months. But it will pass. Give it time.

The following is something I wrote to a person struggling with weight loss and are my own random thoughts:

There are a lot of head games that go with weight loss surgery. We are accustomed to large quantities of food, and the type of food that does not work well for weight loss. I was the fast food queen, ate it twice daily every single day. Burgers, onion rings, tons of diet soda, the works. I ate so much fast food that my band will pay for itself in fast food savings and soda savings in 1.5 years. Isn't that horrible? I'm talking $7800 for the cost of my band!

You know those reformed smokers? They smoked like a chimney for years and when they quit the rest of the world must quit? They suddenly claim to be "allergic" to smoke? They are rude, insulting, obnoxious, and believe they are doing a good thing? That's the way I am about fast food. I am a reformed fast food junkie. I don't think many had a diet as horrible as mine before banding. One can be obese and malnourished at the same time and that is probably a good way to explain my own pre-band eating habits. It was that bad.

I explain this so you know I fully understand food issues. BTDT a million times over.

Some people seem to struggle with white carbs such as bread and Pasta (me) and others seem to struggle with sugar and sweets. Those are the big ones. Some struggle with alcohol but I'm not sure that is primarily a WLS issue but more an alcohol issue that gets in the way of weight loss. Some claim to eat mostly veggies and they just don't know why they are obese. Is there a better example of denial than that? ;o)

Having WLS does take much of the joy out of eating. I don't think it matters which procedure you have, much of the joy is taken out of food. The non stop chewing, small quantities, food limitations, the works. In many ways I think that is a good thing. It's the joy of eating that got us fat. We can't imagine a time when we would ever prefer not to eat because it is unfathomable to comprehend that food might not be as fun someday. We can't comprehend that it might not fill a need somewhere. The need to inhale food - large quantities of food. We like the taste, the texture, the full feeling... we like it all. We eat until we experience extreme discomfort from eating so much yet we want to continue doing it. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Another obese person would understand this but a thin person would think we are crazy. I don't know, maybe we are crazy but you know what? It is what it is.

When you have any weight loss surgery (bypass, band, sleeve, whatever) it takes much of the joy out, what we are used to. We are used to inhaling anything we want. We are used to that chocolate cake calling our name and we have to wait until we can stuff another bite down before we can inhale that too. We are like a food vacuum cleaner, we suck it ALL up.

After surgery you realize you can't do that anymore and it's frustrating. You see and you want to eat it but you know there isn't a chance in the world it is going to go down. Think about it, when you were pre-surgery and dieting when you grew sick of the diet you could cheat. WLS doesn't permit you to cheat in the same way and with the same quantity of foods and it gets old in a hurry. This is the time to continue reminding yourself that this is a lifestyle change. This is it, we are here, living it, choices have been taken from us. We intentionally took our own choices away from ourselves because we couldn't achieve goals without it. Food choices, our choice in eating habits, it's gone. Never to return. That's one if the biggest head issues we have to deal with. There is no turning back.

I think it's kinda typical to start eating around the surgery during these times so you feel as though you have control over the procedure vs. the feeling that the surgical procedure has control over you. You have to get to a point that you accept it isn't a control issue but a tool that you need to lose weight. You can fight it, but it isn't going to work. But you know what? We try anyway. Then comes more frustration. I think this is the point that we need to give ourselves a reality check. We all have to accept that this is it, do it or don't. Most accept it and move on with weight loss and a small minority do not. My best friend is a prime example. She eats her 800 calories a day in good food and a whopping 3000 calories a day in chocolate.< /p>

If you are not losing weight I suspect you are going through a phase where you are sick of dealing with weight loss, you are sick of chewing chicken to a liquid, you are sick of it all and I think those phases are normal. Let's face it, it's a great deal more fun to maintain weight vs. losing weight. That's why I wanted it over with in a hurry and kept calories at 600 daily and busted my butt doing hard cardio daily. And no, Dr. Aceves did not approve of my caloric methods but I wanted the fat chapter closed once and for all. I was sick of a battle all the time of losing weight. I felt like I was fighting the world and in reality, I wasn't. I was fighting the lifestyle change. When I accepted that this is my new world, my new reality... I was able to move on and get it done.

Have you noticed that your world revolved around food a lot more pre-surgery than it does now? Now you have days where you put off consuming food because it is a chore. Did you ever put off consuming food pre-surgery? I don't think this is a bad thing. Pre-surgery we can't comprehend the thought that food will not rule our lives. Our world revolves around food. We eat Breakfast and while we are eating it we wonder what we'll have for lunch. When we eat lunch we think about what is in the freezer for dinner. When someone mentions the name of a restaurant we immediately have a vision of the menu and know full well what we will order and it will be the largest portion sizes on the menu in all likelihood.

Have you ever been asked to go to dinner with someone and you didn't want to eat your usual portions in front of others so you eat before you leave the house so you can pretend to eat small portions while dining in front of others? Ever go to a fast food restaurant and pretend you are ordering for more than one person? In reality, it's all for you. Food ruled our lives pre-surgery. Post-surgery we wonder what we should be doing with all the extra time where we are no longer consumed with food issues.

Not sure if any of that resonates with you, but I think bits and pieces might.

Wine... I think you'll find many experienced WLS folks say that if they drink alcohol it will stall weight loss a great deal. It shouldn't, the calories are incorporated in your daily count but it still stalls weight loss. At least it does for me. I don't drink much now that I'm at goal. It hits me too hard, too fast, and even with just one glass of wine I'm not at my best the next day. But that's me, not everyone is the same. But again, I think you'll find many experienced WLS folks saying alcohol stalls weight loss every single time. And let's be frank here, if you are in the weight loss mode you do not need or require a couple of glasses of wine a few times a week. We are only permitted limited calories daily. If you drink a couple of glasses of wine you either are going over in calories or you are not getting good foods in. Either way it simply isn't good.

Are you eating soft foods? liquid calories? Cottage cheese and creamed Soups? Congrats to you for getting Protein in, but it's the wrong kind of Protein for your surgery type. I know it is easier to get cream of chicken Soup down vs. solid chicken, but you know what? This is the game we signed up for. This is the lifestyle we paid a lot of money to obtain. So change from soft foods and liquid calories and get back on track. A half cup of roasted chicken is going to have fewer calories than the two cups of cream of chicken Soup you are consuming now.

Are you cooking your own chicken? Are you cooking it so long it is dry and hard to eat? Or is chicken just not workable with your band? Try going to the grocery store and buy a roasted chicken. Eat a small piece and see if it goes down better than what you make. If it does it might be that you are overcooking your chicken and it's simply too dry. Canned chicken soup has some of the most overcooked meat around and even cream of chicken has pieces of solids in it. If you can get that down, you can get roasted chicken down.

If you are eating the right foods and have appropriate restriction you really shouldn't need Snacks. That quickly become habit and if you snack too much you mess with your 800 calories (or whatever your doc suggests) daily that you are allowed. Then you don't get the appropriate quantity of food necessary for meals and you will be hungry sooner.

Ice cream... hello? Need I go further with that one? ;o)

How are your teeth? Are they in good condition? It's a serious question and quite important. One thing I don't think many realize is that if your teeth are not in super great condition you may not be able to chew the bandster/sleeve/bypass way. If your teeth need work, get it done.

Are you tracking calories? Many times it's easy to put off tracking calories if you are eating ice cream and wine. Seriously, we don't always want to know the number of calories we are consuming. Then we'd have to be honest with ourselves and that can easily be a hard pill to swallow. If someone is losing well and feeling good there is little reason to track protein and calories. But if weight loss stalls it's time to take a long hard look at what is going in our mouths. A few ways to do that are to run anything you are not absolutely positive of through:

Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com

It will give you a very complete food label for any food item or total recipe.

Then track that information on:

Calorie Counter, Diet Tracking, Food Journal, Nutrition Facts at The Daily Plate

or...

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

or...

Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople

See what is actually going in your mouth on a daily basis. Be honest, nobody will see it but you.

So cut out the wine, ice cream, and candy bars. Make this new lifestyle a habit you prefer and amazingly, that really does happen over time. Your tastes change and you prefer the good stuff. You look at ice cream and think that sounds so good. Today after almost 15 months of banding I think the SAME thing about a salad. Crazy... I know. But it does happen. Bump up your exercise. We have biological and emotional reasons for overeating, we have no excuse for not exercising. None.

Change the liquid calories and soft foods to solid Proteins. When the scale starts moving like crazy you will find all kinds MORE motivation. Buy new clothes that actually fit vs. hanging off your body. That is very motivating as well. You can do this, but you have to do your part. No more excuses. Accept this is your lifestyle and use it to your advantage.

Good luck!

[sharon2u 0]

I am not here to change your mind, however I can relate with your feelings for I have been there. I was so hungry in the beginning and I would get all slimed inside and have to spit and throw up but that is behind me now. I am no longer hungry and there are a lot of things that I wish I could have but I just try to let it all go. I have come som far in a little bit of time. I was banded in September 2007 and from diet and exercise I have lost over 80 pounds and well I could have never done this on my own. When I fel like I want to give up on myself I think of my new size 12-14 and soon I will be a size 12 When I want to give it all up I think back at weighing 279 pounds as per weighing in at 186 pounds and there for I cannot give up on myself. Neither should you nor anyone else. This my new buddy is one of the hardest things that you might ever do in life and in the end when it is over and you look back and say wow look at what I have done and be proud of yourself. Yes your hungry and yes you will miss all the things you used to eat but like me I chose to change my lifestyle and yes I miss eating in resturants and I still do I just eat off my husbands plate. A few little bites and I am done. I don't miss the soda, ice cream and as for Cookies I will have one or two. So comeone look at what you had to go through just to get the band approved and the surgery. Please don't give up on yourself.

Sharon

[gilliebean 1]

I went threw the same depression i mean i didn't want to take it out cause i was still alittle rational. Westcoast is my lapband buddy and i don't think i would be sane if it weren't for him. You really need to find a lapband buddy that gets you like him and i get each other. It helps alot. I was very upset that i couldn't eat what i wanted i called friends and would just cry cause i couldn't eat certain things. But i just keep telling myself i will beable to eat normal food again and sure enough almost two months later I can. I am still learning how to cope with my feelings cause i can't emotionaly eat. Which makes it harder to get threw the depression when you don't know how to deal with it. The things that have helped me is reading this board, talking to someone that understands me and to just keep talking. If you keep it bottled up it makes it worse. I talk to anyone who appears to be listening lol. It does get better. Your hormones are probably off to. I know mine are I have had my monthly three times since surgery, I am super B*tch, but I to know that it will all even out soon i just have to be patient. I hope this helps if not im sorry. You can Pm me when ever you like hopefully i can be your ear.

[yazmarrero85 0]

I'd give my right arm to be 180... or even in the 100's... or 200's for that matter.

I don't think she was saying lazy people are obese or really obese people are lazy. I think she's saying she didn't really try any alternatives before the surgery. And quite honestly, I agree. You should try every single alternative before having someone put you unconcious and cut into your body. Yaz, if it ain't for you it ain't for you. Don't feel bad for putting it in and don't feel bad for taking it out. If it wasn't the right thing for you and your weight loss, I'm sorry you had to go through the pain of surgery... especially twice. If I were you, which I'm not, I probably would give it some time to see how things go. But that's just cause I'm so scared of surgery, I'd hate to have to go under again! Good luck and don't pay attention to the people on this site who want to attack you.

WestCoastFatGuy- thank you for your post, I really appreciate it.

Heidi

WOW!! You don't know how much better that made me feel :thumbup:. Finally someone understands me!!! Your right i NEVER said that only lazy peolpe are obese..( some people can just be so Sensitive :thumbup:) What I said was that im in this situation because i was being lazy and thought that getting the band would be an easy way out. But know im just depressed and sad and still have not been able to stop crying ( even at work ) and the best thing for me is to have it removed. The problem is I dont know if the doctor will remove it so soon and that just makes me more depressed... i guess i'll just have to waite till tuesday :cursing:

[samsaa31 0]

I kinda know how you feel Yaz. I too cried. I remember doing the dishes and putting away the food I just cooked my kids and I was brawling uncontrollably. Its true I went to pieces because I could not eat the crescent hot dogs I made for the kids. I thought I made a mistake. It was not until I could start eating soft food that I felt better. I think the same thing will happen for you too. feel better soon.

[marathinner 1]

I'm so fascinated by this whole thread. Yaz...please keep us posted on your decision.

Oh yeah...GREAT POST WestCoastFatGuy..

[Lattedah 18]

WestCoastFatGuy... Wow. I think you're awesome. Thank you for sharing your wonderful words.

Yaz, good luck to you.

Sheri

[Shalee04 7]

We can all sympathize with you yazmarrero85, you and only you can make the decision to have it removed. But it does get better, if you can give it a few more weeks. I too had doubts after I was banded, I still had to cook for my family, my hubby is a 6 foot tall skinny dude who still needed to eat, and he doesn't eat anything diet. so I still cooked for him, and that was the hardest thing to do in the begining because I wanted to eat all that same food with him, But I also knew that I had to lose this weight for health reasons. and now almost 50 lighter I really dont think about food like I used to. There are days when I forget to eat, or I have to Make myself eat something becasue I am just no hungry. I no longer obsess over food. and the money I save from eating out goes towards new shoes, or I am saving up for a cute coach bag. and that will outlast any fast food I may have gotten in the past....

I wish you all the best in whatever decision you make, if you let the band help you with your weight loss, you will be able to eat most of your same foods as before, BUT you wont want to.. Have you gone to a support group out by you? there might be someone you can talk to/share stories with, a lapband buddy as Gilli says....

Good Luck,,,,