NWgirl

I purchased the Ninja pulse recently, and even though I have not tried it for its complete juicing component, it is suppposed to do the same thing. I like the Ninja because it's a blender, juicer, and dough mixer all in one.

My insurance required a center of excellence and would pay 80%. My cap on yearly out of pocket is $3000, so combined with all appointments this year I will only pay $3000 for healthcare. Actual surgery costs look like approx $800.

At 255 my dietician said a good amount of protein would be 75g. Now that I'm down to 235ish, I can have 70g. The point of eating enough protein is so your muscles are fed properly and that your lean body mass does not decrease drastically as you lose. If you don't eat enough protein, you will still lose weight, but a lot more will be from lean body mass vs fat mass, which you don't want.

I have read that some people start all over again- they get a complete unfill and start periodic fills like in the beginning.

I would ask the office you are trying to go through what their self pay cost is- this is usually about half the cost of what is billed to insurance. If they say the same price, consider finding a new surgeon.

I have heard it suggested when you get off track to go ahead and do the 5 day pouch test to get your head straight again.

I had a really hard time drinking all of the water for the first week or so. Sounds like you are on the right track

AVERAGE weight loss for a band patient is 40-60% of excess weight (depends on age). This includes the people who never followed through with the aftercare or who the band did not work for/they did not work with it. Some surgeries are better for different types of people- sleeve and gastric are kind of a one-stop shop, where you go for surgery and immediately feel the effect of surgery. Lapband is progressive restriction and requires constant maintenance. I like that the band is removable if problems arise and that I still keep my stomach/intestines. The band is usually slower weight loss, but the five year outlook shows that the band is comparable with other WLS in terms of weight lost. If the band doesn't work, then I can consider more drastic options. The only real concern for me about other WLS would be that after a couple years, the stomach may relax and stretch, causing weight gain due to eating more. There is nothing else to be done if this happens except consider banding. I guess this means you need to eat right mentally from the start, even though for the first couple years you could eat crap and lose weight anyways due to the malabsorptive nature of the procedure. You must decide what kind of aftercare you want and what types of pros/cons you are willing to accept. Best of luck.

Congrats and welcome! I found that the gas lasted for about 10 days after surgery (started about day 4 post-op). I also had a lot of burping, and after reading your post, realize I have not been crazily burping for the last few days woohoo!

I would also advocate staying on the post-op diet given to you by your surgeon. Make sure you are getting plenty of protein. When you eat normal foods, the stomach churns to get it through. For the first couple weeks, the stomach needs to be healing and churning may do harm.

I was hungry about 3 days after surgery. Not anything crazy and I filled up fast, but definitely had hunger.

I take an O-purity band specific multivitamin, a Kirkland sugar free calcium chew, biotin 5000, B12 sublingual, Coromega Omega squeeze, chewable iron supplement and a probiotic pearl. The B12, biotin, Omega squeeze, iron, and pearl are my doing (low iron and energy levels)- the surgeon only recommended the chew and a multivitamin (centrum chewables).

If you have a sedentary job, you should be fine going back soon. You may need to take some pain meds. I did not have any adverse affects with anasthesia and did have some port pains the first week, but they diminished each day. Worst was probably the gas pains, which showed up at day 4 or 5.

probiotic pearls are small enough to swallow. I have been taking those from the start. I have found the adult liquid tylenol at Walmart, once. The other two times I've tried to find it, they've been sold out. I know Walgreens and probably Rite Aid also sell a generic acetaminophen.

Full signal most likely...

Hi there! Nice to see a new face. It's normal to worry about the surgery, but it is really an in and out procedure.

I take biotin 5000mg. Make sure you are consuming enough protein, good calculation to determine the amount in grams you need is body weight x 0.3= grams of protein.

each person is on a different post-op diet, so it's important to follow your own Dr's instructions. I have read of people going back to normal foods after 1 week and others on liquids for 6 weeks. just for contrast with another of your replies, I was allowed full liquids immediately post op for two weeks (yogurt, strained/sieves soups, etc), the to mushies/purees for one weeks, then to soft foodsI will continue soft foods/purees for another week and then can continue to slowly introduce foods.

I did not have to go off of them either, although I did find out a few days after surgery that traditional birth control may not absorb properly after. My gynecologist said the birth control to be on after any WLS is the nuvaring or an IUD.

you aren't even a week post-op, so calm down. Many people say that they have the same what did I do feeling in the first couple weeks. Remember that you may or may not be able to eat certain foods, but more than likely it will be a few months down the line before it becomes reality. Make sure to get enough Protein in during this time, it will help with the hunger (good equation for the proper amount of protein is body weight x 0.3= grams of protein per day). You need good shakes for this. What are your Dr's instructions for returning to normal food?

my gas problems didn't start til 4 days post-op. Be prepared just in case.

I chose not to tell many people for that particular reason. No one else other than you knows the struggles you've had with your weight. I would ignore them if at all possible and let them see how happy you are as you lose weight. Also, remind them the band is meant to stay in forever- I personally have been on many diets and lost some weight, only to regain if back + some. With the band, you won't be doing that.

I contacted tech support because the same thing is happening to me. I am also unable to quote posts.

I have owned one for over a year and LOVE it. I track food on their site and do my weight and sleep tracker too there too. Unlike similar products (Bodybugg), the customer service for Fitbit is top rate- they always respond fairly quickly and do not hesitate to send out a new fitbit if something goes wrong with yours. there is no cost to just use the website after buying the fitbit (or before for that matter), but if you are a data person you can pay $50 a year for more in depth info. This extra service is not necessary to get the most out of your fitbit. on a side note, they are coming out with a WiFi scale soon that will auto upload your weight to the site so you don't have to manually log it. The scale will also measure lean vs fat mass and other cool things. This is on my must buy list.

I did not consciously lay on my stomach til about a week out, but my boyfriend told me when he came to bed a couple days after surgery and I was already asleep I was on my tummy. I felt completely fine sleeping on my left side (port is on right side) the day of surgery, which worked for me until I could sleep on my tummy. I Actually forced myself to sleep on my back the week prior to surgery because I did not know what would happen after surgery and wanted to be comfortable.