AquarianCrab

I have obstructive sleep apnea so mine will only go away if I get surgery for it. I have a BiPAP machine, and had it for ten years before my band. It's been 2.5 years since my band and while I still require my BiPAP, I was leaking air from my mask. I went to a medical supply store that had sample masks you could try on, and once you narrow it down to 2 or 3 they connect you to a machine to check for leakage. Turns out not only did I need a smaller size mask after weight loss, I also needed a different style.

I'm about 2.5 years out. My fills are done in the hospital under fluro, but my surgeon always fills 1-2 cc. Then a few days later I'm back in his office for an unfill because I can't keep anything down. I haven't been back now for almost a year, and needless to say I'm at a standstill after regaining about 1/3 of my weight lost. I'm in the "call me if you need me" group now. I feel like I should go back for another fill, but I'd like him to do it more gradually. I guess what I'm trying to relate is that each surgeon is different.

I have a Breville and it's super easy. I usually make what I call a "sixer". It's 3 fruits and 3 veggies.

Some things I've learned:

1. broccoli will make your pee smell so awful you will not want anyone near you in a public restroom
   
2. parsley has great health benefits but too much of it will give you diarrhea
   
3. too much carrots will make your skin orange
   
4. if you're just juicing veggies, add an apple or it's way too bitter to drink
   
5. if you juice just veggies, the pulp is excellent to flavor Soups and stews
   
6. if you're diabetic, limit the mix of produce to only one piece of fruit because the juice is really concentrated with sugar
   
7. melons will overpower the flavor so you will taste them
   
8. clean your juicer immediately after using it or put it in a sink full of soapy Water or it will take you forever to clean it - especially the screen
   

My dad makes juice every morning. He is 80 years old and just finally quit umpiring baseball, but only because his vision is failing. He was able to run to first base just as fast as the high schoolers. He is in perfect health and swears to everyone that it's his morning juice that keeps him healthy. And it's not always fresh produce that he uses. He buys produce in bulk during the season, cleans and cuts it and freezes it for his juice.

"I read today to put spinach in bowl to cost with evoo then put on bakers paper in oven at 250 for like ten minutes check every few minutes. And they are crunchy like chips"

Works with kale as well.

I'm a year and a half out, and here's what I've learned. If you eat until you "feel" restriction you've eaten too much too quickly, and you will encounter a problem. Some people say to stop eating when you encounter a soft sign like burping or hiccupping. I've found that if either of those occur, it's too late and I need to find the nearest bathroom, fast. I stop BEFORE my band tells me it's too much.

My band does seem to be tighter in the morning. I can't do anything other than a Protein shake until 2 hrs after I've woken up. I also notice that all day at work I'm really busy and rarely feel hungry. If I don't eat lunch, I'm too ravenous at dinner and will tend to overdo it because the band seems looser in the evening. Also, since I'm not as busy in the evening, I tend to want to snack. Without realizing it, I can snack all evening if I'm not careful. The truth is, you can eat around your band. If you eat slowly enough, you can easily plow through an entire bag of potato chips! The trick is to eat slowly enough so you don't get stuck or puke, but fast enough so that you only eat a small portion to feel full without having to run to the bathroom. In time you will learn where that line is.

All I can say is "wow". I also need to start over. I was banded 1/10/11 and lost 90 lbs. Then came Christmas. I thought, ok, it's a holiday, a few Cookies won't hurt me. Well, those few Cookies reignited my sugar fire with a vengeance. I just haven't been able to go a day without sugar since. I've regained 20 lbs. My surgeon is not happy with me. I've been ok with the slow loss, especially since I went from taking 9 pills a day to only 2. No more diabetes. So, even with the 20 lb. gain, it's a success story. But now my clothes are getting tight, and I've given away everything larger. So I need to get back on track. Listening to all of you that have also gone through a gain is encouraging.

I, too, am having difficulty understanding my band. Some days I can eat 3 slices of pizza with no problems, and other days I puke after 3 bites. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what I can and can't tolerate. It's always different. Rice or bread is ok one day, not the next. It's gotten to where I hate to cook anything because I never know if it will go down or get stuck. That led to me eating smoothies for lunch so I wouldn't puke at work. They also fed the sugar monster within me.

Now I'm newly retired, so I have no reason to eat out and every reason to eat healthy. I also have the time to exercise (which, to me is a fate worse than death - I absolutely HATE it). So here's to me, for success in starting over. My self-imposed homework: Step One, re-read all of the information books that I got during my pre-surgery visits.

My present weight is 212 (down from 286). I will check back here often for more words of encouragement and post my weight again in one month.

Denise

My surgeon insists that you must be able to maintain goal weight for 1 year before he will even consider plastic surgery.

I've had problems for years, even before my surgery. My doctor told me to only wear 100% cotton undies - no nylon or spandex because they provide a perfect environment for infections to set in. I used to get some nasty infections in that area and under my "apron" and now wearing the cotton undies I rarely do. On those rare occasions (usually in the summer when I sweat a lot) my doc said to put Caldescene powder on it and it clears it right up. I threw all of my Spanx and nylon undies in the trash. Cotton only now for me.

I have no trouble taking my pills, but for the first month after surgery I had to take them one at a time. Now I take all 4 at once. My doc said no aspirin or any NSAIDS whatsoever because they cause band erosion.

I love popcorn, and will continue eating it until the bowl is empty. Therefore, I only eat it at the movie theater. Theater popcorn isn't the best nutritionally, but it's my favorite and I only go to the theater about twice a year, so it's a treat I don't eat often at all. I also eat ice cream, but only on my birthday (doctor approved - said if I only eat it once a year, it's fine).

I agree with Jachut. When I tried walking I was so out of breath and weak I had to call my husband to pick me up from down the street. So I tried walking again, but in the shallow end of our pool. It was much easier, less stress on my joints, and I didn't feel sick. If I got too hot, I just dunked myself under and kept going. Later I added some Water aerobic exercises, and now I'm up to swimming laps. The other day I was dogsitting and my granddog needed to go for a walk. I was so hesitant, but he needed to go. I did, and I was surprised at how well I did. For the first time ever, HE couldn't keep up with ME!

I read hundreds of reviews on Amazon about each of them, and I have also chosen to go with Fitbit for the same reasons others cited: cheaper initial cost, does more, uploads wirelessly, free access to data on website. The key to BodyBugg is, like Lady said, you have to use it right. That means that if you are sitting in a chair but moving your arms, it counts you as moving whereas since the fitbit clips onto your pocket, it doesn't. Others said that when the BB is used for sleep, if you're laying there awake and not moving, it records you as sleeping even though you're wide awake. None of the Fitbit users complained of that.

I returned to NJ from Colorado yesterday, and my band felt tight while in the air in both directions. It also seemed to be a bit tighter while there, which I attributed to the lower air pressure at the higher altitude.

I'd love to be there! I have two major problems in buying clothes. The first is my upper arms. I can fit in a size L tank top in the body, but the armholes are too small to accommodate the flab that still hangs there. The other is my belly. Pants that fit at my belly, are way too big in the butt and legs, but pants that fit my butt and legs are too small in the belly.

One other problem is work clothes. I can get the pants in the Misses section but need a top from the plus section (because of the sleeves) and often you can't get the same thing in both sections to make a match. The only company I have found so far that does, is Alfred Dunner, but only a few coordinate sets are in both size departments. Buying clothes right now is SO frustrating! I fear I'll never be able to fit into a misses size sleeve because the more I lose, the more it hangs. Since our pool opened Memorial Day weekend, I've been swimming and doing all kinds of Water exercises for an uninterrupted hour daily to try to whittle it down, but it just keeps on hanging. I swear sometimes that it's hanging lower and lower, although I could be imagining it since I'm so frustrated by it. The exercise is also trimming up my butt and legs, adding to the pants problem. And when will these side boobs go away? I look fine from the back when I'm braless, but if I put on a bra, I look great in front, but from the back you can't help but see the side boobs sticking up and over the bra. Yuck! The main thing keeping me going right now is that I feel better. The clothes thing just depresses me.

I'll be heading out across the country to visit my son next week. He moved out there two weeks after my surgery (January), and hasn't even seen a picture of me since then. He was very supportive of the surgery and is quite anxious to see my progress. I'm a little worried, though, that he may be expecting to see "less" of me than there is at present, and may be disappointed.

My nutritionist said to eat 1/2 cup Protein, 1/4 cup veggies, and 1/4 cup grains, in that order, 3 times daily. My surgeon says 2 oz. every 2 hours, which is ridiculously hard for working people. These two work together in the same practice, so go figure.

Where did you go to pharmacy school? I'm actually a P3 student at Mercer.

I would hesitate to say NEVER break or crush pills... it really depends on the formulation. I do agree that you should NEVER break controlled release, sustained release, enteric coated, etc but many pills for cardiovascular diseases have such a high first-pass metabolism anyhow so that breaking them and thereby increasing its surface area and increasing the dissolution will not have that great of an effect.

It all depends on how your pill is formulated. Your surgeon will not have near as much knowledge as your local pharmacist in this aspect... so don't take any of our word and go talk to your pharmacist.

However...when I spoke to my surgeon about this... he told me that swallowing pills shouldn't be a problem even when I do have plenty restriction. In case of polypharmacy, take your pills one at a time.

I went to PCP&S (now USP).

Perhaps I should have stated "NEVER break or crush pills without talking to your pharmacist first". The point I was trying to make was for people not to do this of their own accord, but to ask questions of the pharmacist first. At that point their pharmacist can advise them of what they can and can't do.

It is obvious that your doctor is making excuses because he just doesn't want to do it. Maybe because he's nearing retirement and is cutting back his practice? See a different bariatric surgeon fast for a second opinion and use that in your appeal. Then have that surgeon do the surgery.

That said, I will caution that this procedure is not something to be rushed. I had to go through ten months of meetings with nutritionists, support groups, psychologists, etc. as REQUIRED by my insurance BEFORE they would even make a decision on approval. The only people I know who got banded within 6 months of deciding to do so were self-pay. Everyone I know who was insurance paid didn't get their surgery until about a year after their initial consultation with their primary physician to get the referral to the surgeon.

Good luck.

Here's what I learned in pharmacy school:

Breaking or crushing pills will interfere with getting the correct amount of medicine in the correct amount of time. pills are designed and manufactured to dissolve at a particular rate. Some are made to dissolve in the stomach while others are designed to begin dissolving in the stomach but not to the point of releasing any medication until they get to the intestine. Breaking or crushing the pills makes them dissolve faster, meaning you will receive a higher dose initially and nothing later.

Bottom line: NEVER break or crush pills (unless you are given one with a cutting line and told to take only half - those are guaranteed to contain half the dose on each side). Instead, ask the pharmacist if there is a liquid formulation available. He can call your doctor to have the prescription changed to liquid form.

I didn't get a fill until 6 months out. My doc said as long as you are losing you don't need it.

Makes me wonder if the guy who made the inappropriate remarks has Aspergers.. If I understand the syndrom right.. It's a problem on the continuum with Austism, but they are highly, highly functional, but don't "get" the social interaction thing. If you think about it that way, it may make his behavior easier to understand.

That was my first reaction as well.

My doctor said if you eat until you feel restriction, you are stretching your pouch and making your band useless. He said to measure your portions (1/2 cup Protein, 1/4 cup veggies, 1/4 cup carb) and eat that and only that. Then 30 minutes later, drink a quart of Water. I had my surgery January 10th, and lost almost 50 pounds with an empty band. My doctor said as long as I am losing there is no need for a fill. He does fills only if the patient has gained or hasn't lost anything for a couple of months.

Also, keep in mind that this is a slow process. You're not supposed to be at your goal weight immediately. My doctor said losing more than 2 pounds per week is dangerous and unhealthy.

I normally take dinner leftovers for lunch. That said, when there are no leftovers, I have a Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice or Lean Pocket for lunch.

We have continued our Friday pizza tradition despite my band and I have no trouble at all. The only things to get stuck on me so far are pork chops.

If the band is placed correctly, at the top of the stomach, you will not be able to feel it because it will be behind your ribs.