lizrbit

hehehehehhe....

i recently had to go back to liquids for two weeks because my band was too tight. Today i had permission from dr to start soups and soft foods and i started the day out okay but as of a few hours ago ive completely blown it. Im also on and off days. ill work out one day, be all on track with my food, feeling good and getting things done, then the next day i cant get off the couch. I thought it would pass and it hasnt. i see people who have had gastric bypass even and ten years later gained the weight back. ive even heard of stories of people whove had GP done and have been BANDED SINCE.... i wonder if ill ever not be fat. i wonder if some people are just supposed to be this way. I know for a fact that my dr will do a small unfil when i get there for th eappointment this month and i gotta tell you, im already gaining weight back. I gained FOUR LBS just today. with an unfill, i cant see how i can keep wieght off. its been this way since the beginning. i lose initially, then i slowly regain. EVERY MONTH. every single month.

lol..jk ive married twice so far. who knows how many times ill marry down the road?

::: niether. cause i hate them..

man...i hate when people say that stuff and i know exactly what you are talking about. I was sitting with a friend having coffee a few weeks ago who doesnt know im banded, and the wieght subject came up. this is a dear friend who i respect. I realized in that conversation that since the day i left to get on the plane to go out and get banded, id dropped seventy lbs. I still have a little under a hundred to go. I felt really great about that for two seconds when i saw his face and the look was disbelief. My friends didnt realize i was at the size i was. i didnt stay on it because im deeply afraid his opinion would crush me. we are doing fine. we might be slow, but we will get there.

lol derrick!!! okay..when will you pick me up? ill just grab my purse.

i hate people.

i struggle with this every single month. I get a fill, i drop ten lbs, then it slowly starts to come back two weeks later, and i not only keep track of my intake over at FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal but also work out! once i started working out at the gym, it DID help keep things managable but still...i dont know. currently im too tight, and on liquids. While i was on clears for a week i dropped four lbs. but gained a lb last night when i started pureeds and full liquids! i get frustrated with it sometimes. it seems like there are just people whos bodies fight the band or dont work as well with it as others seem to.

melissa! you look amazing! congratulations on your losses! if you dont see it now you will soon! that dress is gorgeous on you and you look so happy. kudos!

OH..and GUM... Dear Sweet fellow bandsters and prebandsters... if you have to do a liquid diet for any amount of time.... remember this, if you remember nothing else.. sugar free gum. it allows you to chew and taste something which takes some of the panic and hunger away and brings the game back into an "okay i can live with this a few more hours" place.

thank you so much MMT, it means a great deal to have read that. i feel very weak, and still hungry. still on clears. i keep falling asleep and lathargic. I get full liquids tuesday. i cant express how im looking forward to a cream soup. applesauce. sweet glorious applesauce. you know, when i fasted preop for the initial surgery, i was surprised. i had no idea people could live on clear liquids, or even full liquids for a week or more. im trying to recapture that suprise and im just not finding it much. Im really really crabby. ive been barking at husband and kids and trying to stay out of the way. i smell them cooking meals and it is almost too much to bear. mercifully without being asked, husband started taking kids out to grab fast food and eat outside. helps. if i have any surprise right now, it would have to be that i havent lost a chunk of weight from doing this. like three lbs, thats it. I would have thought id lost more in water but i think because of the TOM im retaining it instead. hopefully things will set right in a few days. I cant wait for Tuesday. I live in maine, and theres a place downtown that serves the BEST fish chowder (i know it doesnt SOUND good, but its remarkably good). I grew up in oklahoma so its still a magic and novel thing for me. Tuesday i think im going to go and have them strain off the potatoes and fish and just give me the cream and sherry broth from it. yum.

Lady J, I would TOTALLY call ANY other lap band surgeon and get a consultation before interacting with that man again at all. Its YOUR body. There are MANY other qualified drs. I would suggest your friends, who switched earlier in the year? regarding a slipped band, i dont know what common proceedure is. most ive read others is that when theyve had a slip they had to remove the band for a time to let the stomach retake its shape, but thats ONLY after a complete unfill. Id totally go to another dr. good luck. (btw..i fly from maine to houston each month because i LOVE my surgeon, and ive not regretted it a day even though im a slow loser too) Good Luck

what i love is when well meaning people come up to you and offer you 'tips on how to lose wieght' unsolicited when ive lost around 40 lbs with this already. i know ive got a long way to go still but ouch! i get a little jealous sometimes when i see how other people banded around the same time as me are doing. I know we are all different though and i am catching up slowly. joining the fitness club at the convention center did help greatly, and im at proper restriction if not too tight ..right now. its getting there. what bothers me is that i dont believe its permanent. Ive lost 100 lbs before. ive lost 80 lbs before a different way. ive lost 40 lbs before another way, etc.. and ive read personal testimony about people whove regained after gastric bypass surgery as well as lap band (not keeping up on their fills) and regaining. I myself have gained weight while banded before i got an adaquate fill. I gain each month a little after my band relaxes and i have to really stay on top of it to keep it kosher. i cant relax into a thinking of "this is permanent' for me, but i do know that i wouldnt have lost THIS much this time without drugs or some intervention. Im hopeful to lose the rest. i wish i could relax.

Im having troubles. This last fill i got, i think i am officially too tight. I JUST had proper restriction with the fill before (last month), and had initially dropped a good dose but then slowly started to gain back before i went in for this fill. Even with this fill, i came back and discovered id dropped another dose of weight, then was slowly regaining. this seems to be usual fair for me, as i live in maine and fly to Houston for fills from my surgeon. (my choice) so... this time im too tight and while i was fine the first week or two, now i cant hold solids at all. i wrote my surgeon, who always responds immediately, and he tells me i am to be on clear liquids for one solid week! then full liquids and purees for a week, then hopefully by the end of the two week period i'd have lost enough to relax the band a bit enough to slowly reintroduce softs then solids.... im on the clears now and it S U C K S. B A D. to make matters worse, i immediately started my TOM (a week and a half early this time, a full week earlier than last time) so im retaining all the salty broths im taking in. glorious. I'M SO HUNGRY. its been about three weeks since ive eaten anything good and held it down. Im making a mental list of foods im going to eat (even if its just a bite) after i get better. 1. PBnJ sandwich w/out crusts 2. BLT 3. Chicken enchiladas 4. lasagna 5. bbq brisket

really slow losers? anybody? im workin it, im doing it daily. i keep track of my food intake at FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal and since ive been rebanded May 24, ive lost TEN POUNDS and all of that just this last month. I have 7.5 in a 10cc AP band. Ive got restriction! im following recomended diets! maybe it just took me a while to get at good restriction? i dunno. i do know that this coming month, from now till late september, will be very telling for me. If i drop another ten, then i think its all in my head and ill be right on my way...if not...then im screwing up somewhere. ugh. frustrated. Seems like everyone else who got banded in may is dropping forty to fifty lbs already.

My insurance covered both bandings completely as well as most of my nutritionalist, and my doctors staff handled ALL the insurance issues and kept me posted. Best staff in the world. best surgeon too, in my humble opinion.... contact journeylite or dr st laurent at willowbrook methodist hospital. i first contacted them in January 2007, by feb 13 i was banded the first time. I had an extensive documented (over six months with a dr) weight loss attempt with medication which counted as the six months dr supervised diet, there was some jumping through hoops, had to get a psych eval, sleep study and ekg, but all in all it wasnt a big deal and i just paid copay on those. I had anthem bcbs, out of state, out of network referral from my PCP. GOOD LUCK! your going to love this.

concerned. i was rebanded may 24th 2007. I weighed 285 on that day. today is august 20, 2007. I weight 275. ive only lost ten lbs since rebanding...and thats been in this last month. I see most have lost thirty lbs or so, and im worried. i see my dr for another fill on aug 24. im excited but i dont know whats up. I belong to a gym, i work out, ive tracked what i eat on fitday.com daily. im frustrated. I even have pretty good restriction. im not sure whats up.

i live in a really small town in a very secluded area. We had one gym, and i joined, and i went three x a week, then it closed. and stayed closed. I recently joined a local inn and convention center. they have excellent facilities (better than the gym had), a pool, a sauna, and kick @ss locker room and showers. It only costs me 35 dollars a month. for everything. Its two miles from my house and my job is two miles in the other direction. My job and house are a little less than a mile, like some wierd triangle. there is a bike path that runs through town. When i wake up, i throw on my shorts and shoes, brush teeth n hair, grab my backpack, stuff my workclothes in it and go! When i get there, i usually just do thirty on the treadmill, fifteen on the recumbant bike, then piddle around till i decide to just say screw it and get the pass for the pool. then i float around in there till my skin turns pruny, hit the sauna, then hit the showers which are better than getting around at my house because i dont have to share it with three boys and a husband that thinks towels are SUPPOSEd to smell like gym socks. Then i get around at my leisure because theres usually no one else in there :Banane20:. i LOVE it...then i step outside and breathe deep while i look around at an amazing view of the northern maine woods and mosey into work. im diggin it. I dont go everyday even though i say i do. i usually take two days off a week to piddle around with the boys or watch tv, or sleep late instead.

jsrico!!! im like that! I am a 'supergainer'...i can gain ten lbs in a week without realizing if im not vigilant. But listen..the two lbs...I dont know how to say this delicately but...i had this happen to me last week, and it turns out id been....im just gonna say it..constipated ...and didnt realize it. Metimuscil!!!! It really helps. Once i got that out of the way, i found id not only gotten down to the wieght i was before but had lost two more lbs. that..and i upped my workout routine a bit. (thirty on the treadmill is a tried and true and i can do it even when i dont feel like doing the rest) I KNOW the frustration you feel. I am losing SO slowly, and im keeping track and exercising.

Ginger, My surgeon found my leak by my third fill, three months after my initial banding. at the time, i had no restriction and he could not pull out any of the fluid hed put in previously. id been keeping track of my intake via FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal and there was no way i should have been able to eat the amounts of foods id been eating. My surgeon has a 'trick' he uses sometimes where he fills you up all the way, so that you can feel what restriciton feels like, then back you down from there (he has you drink water quickly to see where your spot is)...and after three attempts, i still offered no restriction even after i was supposed to be all the way full. Most surgeons can also tell via flouriscope if you have a fill. If its a small fill around the port, which is more common, they can fix it with replacing your fill with omnipaque, a thicker liquid that is still saline based. its much more difficult to draw out though. my leak was in the top of my band, and i was my surgeons first one out of over four thousand surgeries.

agchick, isnt that strange? I worry that i wont get a fill this next visit (here in about 11 days). I fly down from northern maine to south texas. I have a great surgeon and nutritionalist ive kept in contact with, but one week i'll be loose and have to struggle with losing or maintaining wieght...then i start my TOM and bingo! im snug as it can get. My losing has been soooooo slooooowwww, and i EXCERCISE!!!

say this is tempting....to open the veil a bit... i have macular degeneration among a couple of other eye problems, have worn patches and glasses most of my life, yet spent 16 years across three universities to study oils. I own and operate an oil painting studio and gallery. I have other galleries that represent me across the nation and have done corporate commissions in the US and inside Canada as well. Ive got portfolios, websites, agents, publicity and the whole bit.... I dont know how long i can keep it up.

me too. this one took me completely by surprise. anyone else? for me the day i start is the worst, it relaxes soon after, but that first day or two is tough.

tam, i dunno. I really struggle with restriction. When i first had this last fill about three weeks ago, i was PERFECTLY restricted up until about a week ago...and something just happened where i could feel it relax. i still have some restriction. i just wonder if i can get back up there to where i was really restricted. I loved it. i ate a half a palm of protien each meal and was full. Now...not so much. i eat a palm and a half full and im "eh, stop now" and find myself looking for inbetween meal snacks. I would just talk to your dr about it, and see if you can get a flourascope (it will show if youre too tight) and just go with what your dr says. if it were me, to be very honest...id enjoy the restriction. But im one of those who will lose ten lbs the first two weeks after banding, then start to bounce back up EACH MONTH. this is the first ten lbs ive lost since being rebanded in MAY. TEN LBS. i recently increased my daily workout significantly ..(from 2 miles a day to four miles a day plus fitness center and pool. I found an executive hotel that has an awesome fitness center and they do monthly memberships. our town gym closed down a few months ago) Today was my first day on the different routine. holy cow. Good Luck!

i started out at 330, then 317 at consult, 307 at surgery, and 285 at rebanding May 24th. The last fill was the first GREAT fill, which brought restriction! i have 6.5cc's in a 10cc small AP band. Its very comfortable to have. But, this morning at wiegh in, i weight an all time low of 275. I ride about 4 miles each morning, walk half that each night, keep track of my food at fitday.com. I still fight. I bounce wieght back on...two days ago i woke up to 278, so i upped my excercise and started doing protien shakes in the mornings INSTEAD of trying to eat solids and just pb'ing them back up. I can wear the next size down (24 down to 22 on some things). I no longer have to ask for an extention on a plane...i walk easier, and move easier. I really want to lose this weight but its very slow for me. im hoping it will increase.