Pammy S Lewis

i got my band on 3/15. my dr said everyone is different and stalls happen. didn't say much else. the nutritionist said to play around with my calories, which i've been doing but hasn't helped. i haven't had a fill yet and may not need one for a while because i have pretty good restriction. to eat 900 cal a day, i have to try. here's what i'm eating, if any old timers want to comment. i just added veggies, so i'm still working on adding those in. i need to eat Snacks or i get hungry. also, if i don't my calories are too low for the day. breakfast: 1 poached egg and 2 oz of black Beans snack: low carb yogurt, 80 cal lunch: 2 oz black beans and 3 oz chicken snack: baby bell cheese dinner: 3 oz chicken and veggies

i am 4 weeks post op and lost 13lbs on the liquid diet and once i started eating food 3 weeks ago i haven't lost anything. i have played around with my calories going from 700 to 1000 and still nothing. am walking every day, getting all my water, protein, carbs etc. i would understand if i stalled for a week or so but to stall for 3 weeks seems like a long time. am being patient with it, but am just confused. also, i don't feel like i need a fill because i have pretty good restriction with nothing in my band. also, if i get it filled, my calories would drop WAY down and push me into starvation mode, wouldn't it?

yeah, i agree. i strongly believe that american's excessive intake of refined carbs is one of the leading causes of obesity and a feeling of being addicted to food. how often does one crave and feel a loss of control over eating a chicken breast or a can of tuna? doesn't happen. excessive carb intake can absolutely lead to insulin resistance and is one of the reasons i ended up needing lap band surgery. if you gain control over your carb intake, i strongly believe that you will lose the feeling of being addicted to food. and that's a good book that elfiepoo recommends. also, i suffer from depression and took antidepressants for about 15 years and that's what made me gain a lot of weight. i felt though that my brain was trying to regulate serotonin by making me crave carbs.

yeah, i agree. i strongly believe that american's excessive intake of refined carbs is one of the leading causes of obesity and a feeling of being addicted to food. how often does one crave and feel a loss of control over eating a chicken breast or a can of tuna? doesn't happen. excessive carb intake can absolutely lead to insulin resistance and is one of the reasons i ended up needing lap band surgery. if you gain control over your carb intake, i strongly believe that you will lose the feeling of being addicted to food. and that's a good book that elfiepoo recommends.

i was banded on 3/15 and lost while on liquids and then stopped for an entire week when i started on soft foods. apparently it's totally normal and nothing to worry about. you need to give your body time to heal and focus on that. also, when you're slowly adding foods back into your diet, at first you are on very few calories per day and i think my body just went into starvation mode. once i worked my way up to about 1000 calories, i started losing again :-)

yeah, i have never heard it that the fda approved for 30 lbs overweight, i thought it was for bmi of 30 with 1 comorbidity. i was exactly 30 bmi when i got banded, but i was about 55 lbs overweight). everyone in my family is type 2 diabetic and i was headed there and couldn't lose weight because of taking antidepressants for a long time. otherwise, i would say that 55 lbs isn't worth paying $16k for (since insurance companies won't approve that low of a bmi). but it was worth it for me.

http://www.cnn.com/2...x.html?hpt=Sbin

show was good and informative. good job on presenting both sides of the new fda rules for people 50 lbs or more overweight (which i'm in that group). the person opposing the new fda rules was only a phd, not a medical dr. but yeah, the amt of food the banders showed they eat was ridiculously small. i don't think that's the amount most people eat.

for the 3rd time, i have read the book and i did atkins and other low carb diets for years. i am actually highly in favor of low carb diets for some people. they worked great for me! what i am not in favor of is people acting like they know everything and if anyone poses an alternate point of view, it's immediately shot down and the person is accused of being misinformed or not reading the book. you seem to be respected on these boards and i have a difficult time figuring out why that is because all i have seen in the few weeks i have been here is a know it all attitude and critical comments in numerous theads.

you need to call your doctor asap. if you have chills, you might have a fever which can be a sign of infection. call your dr and let them know. maybe they can get you in to see the dr soon.

wow, lots of surgeries tomorrow! good luck everyone, hope everything goes well and is comfortable for you

elfiepoo, you need to stop talking about atkins as if you are a dietician and you are speaking hard facts rather than opinions. because i can sit here all day long and cite opposing opinions. "People need to wake up to the reality," former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop writes, that the Atkins Diet is "unhealthy and can be dangerous." the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious scientific body in the United States, agrees with the AMA and the ADA in opposing the Atkins Diet. So does the American Cancer Society; and the American Heart Association; and the Cleveland Clinic; and Johns Hopkins; and the American Kidney Fund; and the American College of Sports Medicine; and the National Institutes of Health. In fact there does not seem to be a single major governmental or nonprofit medical, nutrition, or science-based organization in the world that supports the Atkins Diet. As a 2004 medical journal review concluded, the Atkins Diet "runs counter to all the current evidence-based dietary recommendations." follow your doctor's instructions, not some person on a discussion forum.

not sure why every one of your posts i see is incredibly negative. maybe i'm just seeing the wrong ones, not sure. i find dr. oz to be pretty balanced and fair. i am a tv producer and can instantly spot bs. the man is not going to do things on national tv that will cause him to get his medical license yanked. he has to be careful about the advice he gives. will check it out. thanks for posting the notice.

so, apparently when they put in the band, they "prime" it by injecting saline and then extracting it to make sure it works and isn't leaking. sometimes air can be left in it and that's what happened. it was WAY too tight and caused swelling and pain. they extracted the air and i stayed on liquids for 2 days and now the pain is finally gone :-) SO happy. really happy that i don't have to get additional surgery after all. without the air in it, i have really good restriction and probably won't need a fill for a long time too, so that's good. thanks for your notes. that was scary to be in such bad pain for weeks!! all good now though. down 13 lbs! :-)

yeah, i'm almost 3 weeks post op and have that too. i think it's gas.

thanks, i really hope so.

i was only 54 lbs overweight but had been carrying it for over a decade because of long term antidepressant use. i tried everything and was so sick of people not recognizing me and just feeling horrible about myself. when the fda recently gave the ok for lap band for people with a 30 bmi, i was so excited. i found the best doctor in my area felt good about the decision i was making. everyone in my family has type 2 diabetes and i knew i was headed there, so i felt like this was also preventative. my insurance wouldn't cover it, so i decided to pay the $16k to do it. my surgery was on 3/15 on an outpatient basis and i figured since they were doing it that way, that it wouldn't be a big deal. well, turns out that if people's insurance is paying, most people stay 1 night at the hospital. it was rough when i went home all alone. i started having pain in the center of my chest and was told that it was pain from the band and swelling and would go away. but 2 weeks in, the pain was still there and getting worse. at this time, my dr happened to be out of town for a week so i only had his nurse to consult. i finally went to the ER and they said that sometimes even when there's no fill when it's put in, there can be excess air. so they extracted air out of it and i immediately felt better. felt like everything was going to be ok and i was happy. but the next day, even with only being on liquids, the pain started again. my dr gets back to town tomorrow and i have a feeling he's going to want to do surgery, which i'm going to have to pay for out of pocket if that's the case. and if i have to get it removed, i will have spent $32k for weeks of pain. i don't feel very hopeful because i'm in a lot of pain and there's nothing in my band, so i don't see what he can do to help the situation without doing surgery again to either see what's wrong or take it out. when i started researching the band, i knew that there were a lot of people who had no problems at all and had a great experience with the band. i also knew that there were people who had issues with constant vomiting, erosion or slippage. i felt like it was kind of a crapshoot because you have no way to predict how your body will respond or what your experience will be. i felt like it was a risk i was willing to take in order to get my life back. in retrospect, i feel like i made the biggest mistake of my life. i have been in almost constant pain for weeks now and spent thousands of dollars. i am posting this so you can make an informed decision for yourself. you need to know the risks and the benefits and decide if it's worth the risk for you. i definitely don't recommend doing self pay unless you are extremely wealthy. if you have to scrimp and save or take out loans to do the initial surgery, be aware that you may have to have later surgeries. also, i don't think this surgery is for people who are merely 50 lbs overweight, as the risk, in my opinion, outweighs the benefits. if you are someone who has an extremely high bmi and has comorbidities, the risk may be worth taking for you. anyway, that's just my story so far. just wanted to share so people can know both sides of the coin.

update about my nightmare. i woke up yesterday after having some excess air taken out of my band to loosen it (there is no Fluid in it) the day before and finally felt normal for the first time in 2.5 weeks since the surgery. was so happy and thought everything was going to be fine and the chest pain was gone. i stayed on liquids yesterday and then mid day the chest pain started again and lasted the rest of the day and thru the night. so painful. had to take the codeine and tylenol that was given post op. my dr gets back tomorrow after being out of town for a week and i will see him tomorrow or tuesday. i just really, really hope he has a solution but i'm not feeling very hopeful. there is nothing in my band yet it's causing extreme pain (ER dr said it's not slipped, based on the cat scan). i'm just really afraid i'm going to have to get it removed. i'm self pay so i will have to go through surgery again and pay another $16k. $32k down the drain for weeks of pain. i feel like i made the worst decision of my life by doing this. i knew going in that some people do great and have no problems and that others experiences issues, so i felt like it was kind of a crapshoot and i just had to roll the dice. losing weight was worth the risk to me, but now i really wish i wouldn't have done it. very sad.

ugh, 4 hours in the ER. had a cat scan and band is in right place. my dr is out of town and the dr on call for him was in surgery all day so my dr's nurse came over. she said that even if the band is empty when put in they test it some air may have been left in it. so she stuck a huge needle in me (not a good time! not looking forward to fills!) and extracted a lot of air that was in the band and i immediately felt a ton better. i had chest pain like 80% of the time and felt like i had made a huge mistake by getting this surgery. feeling a lot better and back home :-)

no, no fill in band yet. still trying to get in to see one of the doctors who is filling in for mine while he's out of town. i'm just worried because i have intermittent pain in the middle of my chest about 80% of the time. and even when i don't have pain, i feel like i can feel something in side of me. that was one of my questions i asked because i didn't want to have the sensation of being able to feel that there was something inside of me. apparently no one else does, except me. and everyone else was feeling pretty good after about a week. but here i am 2 and a half weeks later and having pain and fatigue.

for me, it's been a little over 2 weeks and i would not be ready to return to work if i had a very physical job. can you tell them 2 weeks and to play it safe and then go back after 1 if you're feeling great? it's such an individual thing. but given that your job is physically tiring, i would say to take on the longer end than for someone who has a desk job.

i bought a pack of single serving containers of mott's blueberry applesauce (no sugar added) and pour it over cottage cheese and it's like dessert, except with protein! so yummy!! http://www.meijer.co...10927_A_400.jpg

do you have a point person at your dr's office you could talk to about your concerns? i only saw my surgeon once at my initial eval. had pre-surgery tests for heart, lungs, upper GI (i'm self pay so these were surgeon requirements not by an insurance co). did not have a post surgery barium test nor any support group info. so, besides the pre surgery tests, my experience has been similar. but if it makes you uncomfortable, definitely listen to your intuition and talk to someone at the office. or see if there's another good surgeon in your city that might have different procedures.

i feel the same way! and i'm self pay too. my friend keeps trying to get me to go to yoga and i'm scared to! i asked my dr and he said that once you are fully healed that most activites are totally fine to do. he said the only ones that should be avoided are ones with blunt force, like kickboxing or car accidents (ha! yeah, i'd like to avoid those anyway).

bumping because i'm in pain!! ahhhhh!!! i'm going to call my dr tomorrow. would appreciate comments from anyone if they had chest pain as long as 2 weeks after surgery though so i can sleep better tonight and not worry so much. thanks!