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I don't think people here ever give medical advice, but it is a place for people to share their personal experiences. Read enough posts and you begin to see common issues. Somebody asks a question, no matter what the issue, if I have experienced it I will tell of MY experiences. Not based upon what others have said, or what you-tube I have seen, etc. It is also a good support group. The first week post-op for me I just wanted to hear from other people who have gone, and going through the same thing. Also, I am not one of those who freak out and call my Dr. for every little pain, twinge, or whatever.

Most people are not stupid enough to think the information that is shared here replaces what a Doctor says. You can read on here all the time that people went to the ER and their experiences we can learn from that. There are people on here who are scared to go to the Doctor or some who are ashamed because they have gain some weight. Whats wrong with people talking about it. Encouraging them? Why does it bother you so much? Almost everyone one adds but do what your Doctor says somewhere in the thread. It is a discussion not a medical class 99.9% of the people know that. Cheri

Best gift you could give yourself! Congrats and good luck!

He may have missed the port OR you may have a leak. Next time have him take out the fluid and see what's in there. If you have insurance I would insist on a fluro fill-absolutely. Something just doesn'r seem right. Before you give up make sure you don't have a leak and if all in fine then you just need a ltlle more-you're almost there girl-don't give up yet-you CAN do this! I simply cannot overeat-can't do it withthe fill I have now or I will get sick. Sometimes I really want to eat a lot, but I can't. Good luck to you-I wish you the best! Be an advocate for your band!

me too. i work monday through friday 9-5 so i keep in open on my computer. as I am pre-surgery, i enjoy reading and knowing what i should expect after surgery from current bandsters. it is a great resource.

Nothing too exciting going on right now. I've ate like a pig the last couple of days thanks to the bank I work at having customer appreciation week. Cupcakes, candy, pretzels, doughnuts, pizza and muffins all around! Thankfully, I haven't gained (or lost) a single pound. I'm sure it will catch up to me though Next week will be a fresh start. I should be glad that preparing for this surgery has made me more aware of what I eat. Before, I would never even feel guilty about eating like I have the past two days. At least I can recognize the bad habits and learn from them! I'm contemplating starting my pre op diet early. I believe I'm only required to be on it for 10 days, but I may start a week earlier than that. Surgery is only 23 days away!! Sooo excited!!!

I don't mean to steal the thread, but wanted to say to Subie66 that your friends who are eating all carbs and not exercising are probably losing a lot of muscle, are not any healthier than when they started, and probably have that weight-loss-lose-skin "turkey neck". You look incredibly healthy. It's harder to do the right thing but it's always worth it. NatalieB, you need to do some tough love on yourself. I can eat what I want on any given day, but most of the time I choose not to. It's hard. The band was not designed to make you not eat the things that are bad for you. You have to decide to do the hard work because you want to be healthier, period. I almost died from an obesity related problem, so maybe I'm lucky that I actually got the wake up call and I get it, I know why I'm doing this. I have 2 kids and I don't want to die young. I still ate 2 cookies yesterday (and would have had chocolate if I could have found any in the house), but I also ate a lot of protein and exercised. About 6 months after surgery, I found myself putting almost as much food on my plate as the rest of my family. If it is on my plate, I am going to attempt to eat it. It took me a while to get back into the right mindset and start serving myself small portions again. I found that if I have a small portion on my plate, I will eat that and stop. You have to decide that you are worth the tremendous effort you have to put into making this change, and then do it!

Do you want it to work? If you do you have to stop now eating all that stuff. You have to know WE still want some of those things but you just have to say NO. It does not matter if you were filled to the top if you want to eat you will find a way. We all know how. The choice is yours. Put in the time and do it right and It will work. Heck if you just follow the diet and do not workout you will still lose maybe slowly, So many people would like the opportunuity to be in your shoes Banded. Sometime you have to mature and say I am gonna do it and then struggle through it and it does get easier. But your in control not the Band. If I was you I would be on the phone tomorrow finding myself a therapist that deals with eating disorders and find out whats going on? Something is you have to know that. Don't give up just ask for some help and then do it. Nothing wrong with seeing a therapist everybody could benefit from it. Then I would find me a support group meeting and go to every meeting. We need support from people who are going through what we are going through. You are no different from all of us, you want to lose weight or you would not have done this right? food is just food and living is living you have a fork in(sorry)the road which way are you going? You can do this. Are you married? Do you have kids? Do you have parents? Do you have loving friends? Somebody loves you and wants you to live. Do you want to live? The step in the right direction is what you took when you decided and went through the surgery Your weight is still pretty high, do you want to have a heart attack! Spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair? Do this for yourself go see that therapist and work out your problems just think you could be getting healthly on the outside while you are get healthly mentally. Please don't give up on yourself you already have the tool just start doing your part. So many people here can help you but you have to stop that kind of eating otherwise nobody can help you. Help yourself first. I have lost 84 lbs and it was not easy but easier with the band. I wanted to eat some things I shouldn't but you have to decide what rules your life Even if you could eat a whole chicken does not mean you have to, Stop Cheri

Yesterday marked 6 weeks since my surgery and I have to say that I think I'm doing pretty well. I haven't had any follow up appointments w/ my Dr. yet. We are going to do that at my 12 week mark. Overall I feel energized. The only time I felt really drained was up to a week right after surgery and this past week when I came down with a cold. My biggest problem is just learning how to SLOW down my eating. I have started to really focus on this and I feel much better when the food goes down. I can eat little bites of anything and I still say away from breads and most carbs for now. I do plan on adding those back in at some point, but for now I don't want to overdo my sleeve. I can say that my situation right now is very normal and maybe even text book. Now hopefully my Dr. appointment doesn't come up w/ an issue (crossing finger). So I was contemplating my life in the past 20 or so years in terms on my weight. I can remember going back as far as 3rd grade, i would look at the other girls' thighs when we sat Indian style (sorry "criss cross apple sauce") and thinking wow, my thighs are so much bigger. The women on my Dad's side of the family are all for the most part morbidly obese. To the point where they have very limited mobility. I grew up being terrified of turning out like that. So I always had my size at the forefront of my mind. I remember in the 7th grade I weighed in at 145 lbs. Now I nkow that's a very awkward stage for everybody. But I would wake up early in the morning before school and work out to Denise Austin or that guy w/ the thick black curly hair w/ the accent. I know I was most out of wack then and it took a year or two for that to even out. Highschool I think i was the most fit. I definitely didn't LOOK fat or obese, but I was a solid 175 lbs by the time i was a senior. Looking abck at all of my pictures, I surely didn't LOOK overweight. I just weighed a lot. I'm not sure why, but I guess i just had denser bones? Or maybe I really had more muscle than fat. I saw my prom picture and DAMN I looked good! So, why always the stigma of thinking I was too fat? The numbers on the scalse are misleading. By the time I was out of college I was at 215. I was still bigger than a lot of women my age and hieight. But again I didn't look obese and when I had Dr. check ups, the nurses always comented how surprised they were that I weighed in as much as I did. So, I finally decided not to worry about it, and in 8 years, I sky rocketed from 215 to 270. I looked at pictures and couldn't stand how fat I let myself become. Where was all that muscle? Am I really obese now? It came to realaity when the Dr's started telling me to lose weight and I have border line hypertension. I reverted back to that fear I had whne I was a little girl about not becoming like my female relatives on my Dad's side of the family. I finally realized I had a problem on my hands and tried through diet and exercise turn it all around. Nothing worked. My self esteem plumeted and my depression increased. Now here I am now living with a decision i made to surgically alter my body in hopes of returning to a normal weight. 175. I'm going to look hotter in my wedding dress than I did in my prom gown. Now I feel like I have a chance to back up and do all of the good things for my body I said I couldn't do because of my weight. I'm starting Yoga, Fitness boot camp, and am even going to take on my arch nemises....running. My body deserves for me to finally think highly of it and treat it with respect. Sorry for the rambiling, but the thoughts were just swimming in my head and I had to get them out Thanks for listening, fellow sleevers!

If you are having chest pain, leg pain, any kind of pain that is not normal to you, hot ports, feeling bad, having issues keeping food down, throwing up constantly, having acid reflux, anything that is not normal CALL YOUR DOCTORS. This is not the place for medical adivice or what could or could not be wrong with you. Just because someone might have the similar thing happen to them it may or may not be what is happening to youi. YOUR DOCTORS GET PAID TO BE ON CALL 24 HOURS SEVEN DAYS A WEEK TO TAKE THESE KIND OF CALLS. Call them, bug them, ask them what is wrong. It is no ones place here to give medical advice EVER.....