AquarianCrab

Since I wasn't smoking a lot (only 4-5 a day), my doctor told me not to worry about it. I've never heard of a hospital testing for smoking, and my sister who works in the lab at the hospital said it isn't done unless a doctor specifically asks for it - it's not a routine test for surgery. I smoked 2 cigarettes the morning of my surgery and another on the way home. Even the psych doc told me to handle one major life change at a time and that I would probably get through the surgery better if I quit later after I was healed.

I was home the same day as my surgery. I was sore for a few days, mostly with the pain from the gas they blow you up with. I was exhausted and weak - my preop diet was two protein shakes and a salad each day, then the day of surgery and the next day I could barely get anything down so I mostly sucked on sugar-free ice pops. I didn't get my energy back until I started on full liquids the third week after surgery. I'm glad I took 2 weeks off from work. I'd have never made it from an energy standpoint.

I have a Realize band, but never knew there was a forum for us. Perhaps we need to start posting something.

He is probably feeling the same insecurities himself. As much as they try to say the experience didn't change them, it always does. He is most likely just as worried that you may see him differently and find a few flaws as well. (FYI: I'm a military mom, and my son and his friends worried most about how well they would be able to perform after so many months of celibacy.)

I earned my master's degree at the ripe old age of 53, and with 290 lbs. on a 5'2" frame. Being the oldest in EVERY class was sometimes daunting, but as each class progressed, the younger students were more and more interested in my point of view. Now, about those desks.....every room had at least one desk with a separate chair, and most people were courteous enough to let the biggest person in the class (me) sit there. I definitely did not fit into the chairs with attached desks. I could squeeze into it, but immediately felt nauseated and painful and had to try to wedge myself out of it (after I had swollen some). Once, when there was no separate desk in the room, I went to the administration building to request one, and the disabilities office had one moved into the room for me. Now that I've lost almost 80 pounds, I've got this evil desire to drive to the college, walk into an empty classroom and just sit in one of those chairs to prove to myself I can now do it!

The fact that he didn't notice you when you were fat, but is gawking over you now, even though he's married, says volumes about his character. I'd have to just tell him straight out: "You didn't give me the time of day when I was fat, so I'm not giving you the time of day because I'm skinny and you're married".

Nope. I haven't even had a fill yet, but when I tried fries they got stuck. It was a terrible enough experience that I will never try them again.

My doctor recommended the Vita Fusion calcium chews and the Centrum chewables. I absolutely love the Vita Fusion - they do indeed taste like candy - but the centrum made my tongue burn. I bought the Vitaband from BE in the berry flavor and they're ok. A tad bit chalky, but they don't burn my tongue like the centrum does. I also bought the chocolate calcium chews and the berry fish oil chews and both are very yummy. I also take a sublingual B-12 in cherry flavor that I got from Puritan's Pride and that is delicious as well (I've been taking that one for a year before I even began my WLS journey). Anyway, since I liked the Vita Fusion I'm thinking of trying that multi for the next go-round.

Rachel412 is right. You will definitely not be able to hide it from him, nor from anyone else who happens to stop over the first few days after surgery. My husband was the only person that knew up until about a month before my surgery. I later asked him how he would have felt if I hadn't told him until that late date as well. He said he would have been livid if I hadn't trusted him to share it all from day one.

What wonderful stories! I'm also having a hard time disposing of my "fat" clothes. I dropped from a 28 to a 20, and have 6 trash bags of clothes sitting in a corner in my living room. I, too, have yo-yoed and it just got to be too expensive to keep buying different sizes, so I just kept rotating them. I also am now wearing clothes that I haven't worn since before I met my husband ten years ago. I was feeling a little strange at work the other day, wondering if anyone is noticing the "outdated" styles. I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one wearing ten year old clothes.

This is an interesting topic. My sons are grown adults now, and despite my best efforts, they still eat as they were inclined to eat from birth. Let me explain.... My older son loved veggies from the moment he tasted his first baby food. He never cared for sweets or salts. In 5th grade, when they had to bring a mid-morning snack (for some reason the 5th graders had the last lunch period, like 1:00 or so), my son requested raw broccoli with french dressing to dip it in, carrot and celery sticks with Peanut Butter, zucchini muffins, etc. His classmates were bringing chips and Cookies. He is very headstrong and independent, so it didn't bother him to be different. Funny thing happened, though. His teacher told me that his classmates had been asking him to trade Snacks and he refused. She noticed that one by one, the others started to bring in healthier snacks as well. Not all of them, mind you. At any rate, at 30 years old, he still snacks on raw veggies and never touches sugar. He just doesn't care for it, never did. He's rather sedentary, never was much of an athlete, and prefers reading over exercising, but maintains a healthy BMI. On to son #2, who has always been a junk food junkie. He would spit his baby veggies back at me and eat only his Cereal and maybe some fruit. Even at age 28, his idea of dinner is a chocolate cake (yes, A cake, as in the whole cake). Since he graduated high school and is no longer active in sports, he has grown considerably wider. Now well over 200 pounds I worry that he will end up with some of my health issues. Now, what did I do regarding meals when they were younger? Up through elementary school, as others have done, I had a one-bite rule. They had to taste it. If they didn't like it, they were done with it. I never forced them to eat any particular food, nor did I insist that they clean their plate. I always suspected that was my problem. I grew up on a farm, so wasting food was not allowed, and I became accustomed to eating large portions, hence my weight problems. I never told them they couldn't have any particular food, because for most kids, the forbidden fruit is always the sweetest, so they'll sneak it anyway when they're not home. Just ask my mom what kinds of treats son #2 asked for when they were with her and I wasn't there. While the boys were in elementary and middle schools I packed their lunches. I stayed away from artificial ingredients as much as possible, baking their dessert from scratch. I even snuck some veggies in the dessert (zucchini or carrots into cupcakes, for example). Our only indulgence was Friday pizza. When they entered high school they wanted to buy lunch. I knew I would have to leave them to their own devices one day, so I figured they needed the practice while they were still young enough to honestly answer the question "what did you eat for lunch today". Did they always make good choices? No. For example, both of my sons are lactose intolerant. Son #2 hates milk products so that was never a problem, but #1 loves milk, and despite knowing he would come home sick as a dog, would sometimes buy a couple of bagels with cream cheese and drink 5 cartons of milk for lunch. Remember, this is the one who loves veggies. So, no matter what foods we try to sway them towards, they will reach an age (usually about 7th or 8th grade) where they will do what they will. I am a teacher and my mom was a food service worker in a middle school. We would often talk about how we would see kids use their lunch money to buy 3 ice cream sandwiches instead of the actual lunch. Kids who got free lunches had to take theirs, but they'd walk right over to the trash can and dump their untouched tray, only to return to the lunch line to buy ice cream. Even at the high school level where I work, most students don't buy lunch. They buy chips and sugar-laden Fruit drinks from the vending machines. When the cat (mom) is away, the mice will indeed play. Oh, and yes, the staff tried to get the vending machines removed for years, and finally did one year, for about a month until parents inundated the board office with complaints. At any rate, my final conclusion is, it's part inborn, part learned. Both of my boys learned what was healthy food, but still prefer what they've always preferred before they could utter a coherent word. Hence, my efforts to lead them toward healthy eating were pretty much in vain.

There are hundreds of posts on this site about food stages, and you're going to find at least a dozen different progressions. Different doctors have different ways, and some give different food progressions to different patients based on what they feel the patient will do best with. My advice is to follow whatever plan your doctor gives you. Whatever the plan is, he's got his reasons for prescribing it to you. Denise

Upon waking on surgery day the first thing I said to my husband was "let's go before I change my mind". I don't remember anything after they started wheeling me off to the OR, so I suspect they gave me something in my IV. When I woke up, I was really groggy, but so uncomfortable on that stretcher that I forced myself to wake up enough to go home to my comfy bed. Once home, it was drink 2 oz., set alarm clock, sleep, drink 2 oz., set alarm clock, sleep, take pain meds, etc. for 2 days. The third day I moved out to the recliner in the living room and stopped taking the pain pills because I didn't need them. That's when I felt the gas pains. I cried all day, asking myself "what have I done". We were told that the move you move, the less gas you have (true) and by the end of a week I was pain free, but still not energetic. Every incision except the port (largest) was completely healed at the end of that week. The port incision was healed by the end of the second week, although felt tender for the first month. After that it was pretty smooth sailing and I haven't looked back. Asking a friend to stay with you is a good move. My adult son was laid off when I had my surgery, so he came over and played nursemaid and made dinner for my husband. It was a big help, especially the first few days. You'll need help getting up out of a chair or into or out of bed because if you use your gut muscles to do it, it hurts and you run the risk of tearing your stitches. At about the 5th day he took me to the grocery store just to get me to walk around and get me out of the house which really helped even though it did exhaust me. Sometimes he watched tv with me, or we talked, or I slept and he watched tv or used my computer, but I'm so glad he was here to help. It's especially dear to me now, because 6 weeks later he got another job halfway across the country and moved away. Denise

You didn't gain it in a month, so you're not going to lose it in a month. Lap-band is a slow process, and is the slowest of all the surgical procedures, but it is reversible which is why I chose it - something about destroying a perfectly good digestive system just doesn't sit right with me. I knew going into it that I had to give it at least a year. I have a cousin who opted for bypass, because she's impatient and wanted the fastest loss possible. When I went to the pre-surgery classes they warned us and said that if you want immediate results lap band is not for you. I have to keep reminding my mother about this. My cousin had her surgery years before I had mine, and my mom expects me to lose as fast as she did, but it's not going to happen, and nothing I can say will get my mom to understand that. So what if I go a couple of weeks without a loss, as long as I don't gain? There are other ways to measure my progress. Like the pair of non-elastic waist jeans that 3 weeks ago I could get on but were just short of being uncomfortably snug, which I can now slide down without unbuttoning.

The pre-op diet really helps. It kind of weans you off of the bad stuff, gradually reduces the amount you eat, and more importantly according to my surgeon, it shrinks your liver giving him/her more room to work while inserting your band, which means less stretching and squeezing and less pain. I would definitely not skip the pre-op diet. Denise

I was taken off of my Water pills the day of surgery. My surgeon said that because bandits usually have a tough time getting in enough water to stay hydrated there is a high risk of dehydration if taking diuretics and therefore he has a strict no diuretic rule. As for spices, I use garlic, onion, and Mrs. Dash (salt-free) for the most part, along with whatever herbs will complement the food. I love fresh garlic (I grow my own), but it sometimes gives me terrible gas pains.

I'm 3 months out, and it's been too easy, but my problem wasn't what I ate, it was how much. I hardly ever ate any sweets other than ice cream, but I could polish off a whole rack of ribs or a whole pizza myself if it tasted good. I gorged at all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets. Now, 2 ribs or 2 small slices of pizza and I'm full. I haven't had a fill yet, but I'm losing and have dropped from a size 28 to a size 20. I haven't had any problems really except for rice and I have to be careful about bread and pasta only because I love it and if I don't watch myself I'll go beyond my full signal. I think it's easy for me because it's a built-in portion control. No matter how good it tastes, I can only put down so much before I get sick, and since I absolutely hate to throw up (and fight it tooth and tongue) I'm pretty good about stopping way before I reach that point.

I've tried several others, but keep coming back to unjury, which is the one that was recommended by my surgeon. The chicken flavor isn't bad at all, it just isn't scalding hot if you make it as directed. You can make it hotter, but you'll change the texture of the Protein - little threads of protein that kind of remind me of the thin strands of eggs in egg drop soup. I've used the unflavored in oatmeal, mashed potatoes, and other mushies and honestly it didn't change the flavor of the food at all. The chocolate splendor is my favorite, and sometimes I kick it up with a dash of DaVinci sugarfree syrup (the English toffee in the chocolate shake is my favorite). Anyway, I have it every morning as my Breakfast since I've never been a morning eater. Now, I read a few recipes somewhere online that used an expresso protein powder called click, which comes in only two flavors. I bought the mocha and I don't care for it at all, so I'm mixing it with my Unjury so I don't waste my money. Denise

Is there something they could use in their workspace? A blender or smoothie maker to make Protein shakes perhaps, or an electric tea kettle if they drink a lot of tea, for example. I'm personally not a fan of a fruit "tray" because cut fruit spoils more quickly, but rather love fresh fruit baskets. The fruit keeps much longer and there is no temptation of that sugary dip that comes with the trays. Denise

I was banded Jan. 10th and still have nothing in my band. My surgeon refuses to do a fill until you are the same weight two visits in a row. He claims that as long as you are losing you don't need a fill.

Back in the 70s when I was in college, I was on the intercollegiate volleyball team and cheerleading squad, so I was exempted from the physical education requirement. I quit college, got married, had kids, got divorced, and then went back ten years later to finish my degree at a different college. They said I had to make up the Physical Education requirement. I was mortified! This was the 80s, big hair,.tight leggings, and there I was, a thirtysomething single mom with 2 babies and all of the fat that came with the pregnancies, trying to make it through a phys ed class full of svelte 18-20 year olds. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Although none were exactly happy to have me on their team, they were kind and civil and never made me feel like an outcast. Today there are many more older people in college - I just graduated with my master's degree at age 52 - and it's so much more common for there to be a large range of ages in every class. So I say don't sweat it (pun intended). Take your class with a smile on your face that makes them wonder just what you're thinking. Denise

Before the band, I could keep up with my sons and sometimes even outdo them in their belching contests. Now, it's just little blurps when I eat too fast or too much. (Raising boys is so much fun....)

We sure do. I had a really trying day at work yesterday, and was being really good all day. But when I got home I kept replaying the day in my head and lost it. As soon as my husband walked out the door to walk the dog, I snuck into his stash, stole a bag of M&Ms, then went into the bathroom, locked the door, and guzzled them down before he came back from the walk. Then the guilt hit me, and today I've been mad at myself - not for giving in to temptation, but for letting people at work get me so upset that I'd hurt myself (which is basically what I did) over stupid work crap. Then after work today, I stopped off at my mom's, and she went on and on about how my shirt was way too big and I need to get smaller clothes and I look so much healthier and all I could think about was sneaking those damned M&Ms last night.

I asked my surgeon about ice cream cake, because my birthday was a few weeks after surgery (soft food stage) and I have had ice cream cake on my birthday since I was old enough to tell my mom that's what I wanted. He said "if the only time you eat it is on your birthday once a year, enjoy - just don't overdo it".

I found them at the grocery store (Shop Rite).