Alexandra

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--do not let yourself get too hungry while in the healing phase. If you're hungry, have something else to eat/drink! If you're only three days away from mushies, you're well into the thick soups and shakes realm. I'd stay away from egg salad as yet, but there are lots of options still out there for you. Don't worry about calories! As far as whether it's normal to feel so hungry, the answer is YES. You're eating next to nothing compared to what you were taking in pre-band, so of course your tummy is rumbling! Even with a fill (I assume you have the Vanguard band, in which 2.5 cc is a very small amount), your body is adjusting to a drastically lower calorie count and it would be a surprise if you weren't hungry. Every single new bandster goes through this exact same thing. You're normal, and while it's hard please remember that this phase is temporary. You're doing great!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

Because THIS time there is a physical barrier to eating too much! That is what the band offers that plain old willpower has never been able to provide. Every time I want to overeat or munch on something I don't need, I have my band to remind me to take it slow, which gives my time to put the food down.

Emmy, one of my favorite NSVs was discovering that I was finally ON the chart at my gym. The BMI chart helpfully goes up to 38, and when I started this process my BMI was 47. So it took a while, but when I saw one day that I was actually ON that chart I was dancing for days.

Congratulations on your first milestone, Rachel! There will be many more. :D

OK, so who has a CD burner? Let's make a list and get someone to burn the ultimate LBT workout disk!! Some are old favorites and others I've never even heard of. Just thinking about these songs has me bouncing in my seat. :D

Lisa, I can't take credit for bumping this but I'm sure glad it's there! It's a great reminder that we don't fall off the wagon with regard to managing this condition. It's not a short-term diet we can fail at. I hope your binging is over, sweetie! How's that office coming? Got the lock in the door yet?

Jasper, I promise you that nothing you have eaten will have damaged the band or compromised the healing process. I've heard stories of prolonged vomiting in the week after surgery that resulted in no damage or problems. But you really want to give your body the best care you can while it's healing. And as you said, it really is hard to train yourself to eat slowly. It's all the harder if you're hungry, which is why I caution everyone to NOT let yourself get hungry. I think of egg drop soup as a thick liquid, yes. It can go through a straw, can't it? Mostly? As you heal up you'll find that even when you're eating solid food it will feel almost perfectly normal, so don't be alarmed. You have no fill, no restriction from the band so it's not going to have much if any effect. You're probably not going to get any signals from your banded tummy until you get a fill. Some people do have restriction straight out of surgery that stays for a while, but most do not. So if you're eating normally after three or four weeks on soft foods, you're perfectly NORMAL.

Hi Jasper, You're doing fine, not to worry. Egg drop soup was one of my favorite thick liquids, since it's so high in Protein and kept me satisfied for a long time. One thing bears repeating. The liquid phase is not about weight loss, it's about healing. So don't worry about calories during this time! I found that it was much more important to NOT get too hungry during this time than to stick to some absurdly low number of calories. There's no point in trying to starve yourself now; it just makes this hard time all the harder. Go ahead and have snacks! Liptons Soup at Hand is a great thing to explore, and there are lots of mushy dips and spreads you can discover. Keep those munchies at bay while you're healing, and there will be much less chance that you'll lose control over at the tortilla chip bowl!

Donali, I LOVE your name. And I love the story behind it! Of course I've been pronouncing it wrong, so I'm really glad you cleared that up. I can relate to being classified as male on occasion. When I was in high school I went to a convention at Princeton University for March of Dimes volunteers. Upon arrival I discovered I had a male roommate! (And just for fun, his nametag said that his middle initial was NMI, as in "no middle initial.") Wow, did they screw that up!

If she has both coverages she may still not have to pay for much. Submit the claims to Medicare and let them pay what they will, and then submit them again to Mailhandlers. Whatever is covered by MH and not paid by Medicare should be paid in accordance with the MH policy. The fact that Medicare is primary just means that it gets the bills first.

Well, Bright, I'm glad to see someone enjoying the snow! We got another 6" or so on Sunday night, and another dusting last night. I don't mind it so much in February, though, since it warms up during the day and we can see that spring is on its way. Enjoy it, Niamh!! Send us pix of the snowman you build with your son. :D

Rachel, did your doctor not give you ANY post-op eating instructions? That's pretty shocking, if that's the case. Post-op diets vary quite a bit but I think everyone agrees that AT LEAST for the first three weeks you should NOT be eating solid food. As you say, it's not all about what you can tolerate, it's about letting your esophagus and stomach stay as still as possible during the healing phase. If you're feeling perfectly fine then I'd venture to guess that you have done no damage. But please, try to stick with mushy foods or thick liquids for the next week or so. This is the most important thing you can do for yourself and your band at this point.

So there I was, at the gym, at the end of a 35-minute workout on the elliptical, watching the minutes tick by and getting ready to be done. But then through my headphones I hear the one song absolutely guaranteed to get me crankin' up good: It's Raining Men, by The Weathergirls. I'm sure people thought I was a lunatic, because I was doing everything but singing my lungs out. So what song gets you going, no matter how drained you are?

Yay, lethalwoman!! Sounds like you had a great day. May there be many, many more! :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

Congratulations and welcome to bandland!! Did you have to fly after your surgery or did you drive home?

You're young, too, Tropicana, so you'll have a much easier time of it than many people. My BMI was 47 when I started and while I certainly have some extra skin it's not enough to call a surgeon about.

Isn't it a miracle how wonderful food tastes, Lauren? Congratulations on progressing to solids and I'm sure Dr. Bertha will approve. Are you coming to the meeting tomorrow night? Be sure to say hi to me--I love to connect faces to the names I see here, but don't get mad if we've met already and I don't remember. Mommy brain, for real.

Tropicana, any insurance carrier wants to determine that surgery is a step taken only after other things have been tried. At your weight you don't have the BMI to qualify without showing that you also have medical problems (co-morbidities) that will be improved by weight loss. Back pain might be one, but I don't know. You also must be very young and it will be even more important in that case to show your carrier a history of struggling with obesity and the various efforts that have been made to deal with it. Many carriers do want to see proof of at least one medically supervised attempt at weight loss. If you've never done that, NOW is the time to start. Go to your primary care doctor right now and say you want to finally get a handle on your weight. Get a diet and exercise plan, and set up a schedule to visit at least once a month for weigh-in. Six months later you'll have your record of an medically supervised attempt at weight loss. Of course, if you lose much weight doing this you'll be even less qualified for surgery. That may seem absurd and unfair but from the carrier's point of view they don't want to pay for surgery for people who are able to succeed without it. If you want a band, you may just have to pay for it yourself.

I moved this thread to the Support section so more people will see it. Banded, it sounds to me like something is still blocking your stoma. Time will take care of this as the item dissolves, or eventually it will come back up. Liquid will help, but you MUST take it very slowly. Good luck! This is an unpleasant bandster rite of passage, but the end result will be that the next time you eat a taco you'll probably be eating less of it. And that's the whole point, right?

Congratulations on being approved, Wade! Good luck with your surgery and please come back and let us know how you're doing. You're on your way!! :)

Mine doesn't bother me at all, and like Darcy says it feels like it's always been there. Today I had a physical and my PCP was very interested in it. She also remarked on how hard my scars were to see! Cool.

The observance of these cards is strictly voluntary on the part of the restaurant, as I'm sure you all know. I don't have one, wouldn't use one, and order off the children's menu all the time when my children are with me. When I'm with other adults, I get an appetizer or Soup, or share an entree with someone else. Personally, whipping out a card to show a waiter that I had weight-loss-surgery is the LAST thing I'd ever want to do. And there is no guarantee that it would work. AND, usually the stuff on the children's menu is deep-fried garbage.

I'm simple too. I've tried coming up with cool screen names for myself, but the only one that ever saw any use was Sanderling. But I'm a victim of Mommy-brain, and could never identify with a name other than my own. Suffice to say it's a good thing it's unusual enough, and hardly ever taken when I need to register somewhere.

Hi S, It is not normal to have Fluid in the band at the time of placement, no. Particularly with the Inamed 4cc band (which is what most people get), it would be highly unusual.