mednar

I hope everything goes well on Monday. Dr. Ponce was also my doctor for my plication in Dalton. Let us know how you're doing.

Prior to surgery, I hadn't tried to track my food intake or anything else since I gave a half-hearted effort on Weight Watchers a few years ago. I recently received an iPad and found an app that works well for me for tracking my daily calorie intake, Water consumption, exercise (estimated calories burned), and weight loss. It's really helped me keep up with my daily calorie consumption, Protein intake, and see how I'm doing through the day. I've found it easy to use. It has a database of a lot of foods and allows you to enter your own with nutrition information. They only drawback on the iPad is that I've found is that in order to enter data you need to be connected to the internet. It's called MyNetDiary and costs $10 from the app store. I'm not affiliated with the company in any way. I think you can use the website version of the tracker on a computer for free. Just thought I'd share. www.mynetdiary.com if you're interested.

Yeah. I only began reading posts on here around the time I had my surgery and remember your frustrations with stalls. They kinda made me wonder if I had made the right decision. But they also gave me a reality check about what to expect, and I was really glad to see you break through and start losing again. It's made my frustration with the slowdown from my first month more tolerable knowing it's probably to be expected.

Grats to you! Glad you met one of your goals and it made you feel better. At least one of us is losing at the moment. I've been stuck at the same weight for a little over a week after I increased my exercise. Makes no sense whatsoever. Keep at it.

I'm a little over a month out from my surgery day. I started out the week after surgery walking 15-20 min, went to 40 the next, and have been walking an hour each day this week. The actual walking part isn't much of an issue other than blisters on my feet. During the normal day this week though I've been exhausted. It's summer break for me as a teacher, so I can sleep if I'm tired, but this has been a pretty abrupt change from how I've felt the last two weeks. I know its still close to surgery date, my body is still adjusting etc. Has anyone else experienced this?

Don't let one bad day in the store get you down. Focus on the positive that you found two new shirts and that you can feel the difference in your old clothes. Surely it can't have been any easier before right? Plus, you'll have that money when you do find some new things you do like. The thing I'm looking forward to most is losing enough to never have to find another big and tall store or try to pick through the crappy selection that is the big and tall section in department stores. I despise shopping for clothes, and looking through the garbage that big and tall manufacturer's make doesn't make it easier. I'm not sure finding things will be any easier, but at least you have a whole lot more to pick from.

It's always encouraging to read your posts. I appreciate you sharing your information. Each time I get tired and think "I won't walk today. One day won't hurt." someone usually posts something on here that motivates me to get off my butt and do it anyway. One question for you. How did you set your final target weight? I'm a male, 5'7", and the highest weight on the charts for me to not be considered obese is 154. Which means I still have a little over 110 pounds to lose. Every time I see that chart in the doctor's office it seems so far off. Thanks for sharing.

That's great! That has to feel good.

Hi Anne - For me there was no physical pain except coming out of the anesthesia the day of the surgery. They gave me pain meds once I'd completely come out of the sedation, and that was pretty much it for me. I had liquid pain meds to take as needed. I was on Clear liquids for a week after the surgery with no pain. Then pudding/instant potatoes, etc for a week. No pain at all for me during that process. However, I had significant nausea for 3-4 days, regardless of an empty stomach or having had something to drink. That was with a nausea patch behind my ear, oral nausea meds, and this weird bracelet that mildly shocked the skin on my wrist every few seconds. I think it was to designed to "distract" you from the nausea or stimulate some nausea acupressure point or something. It might have helped a little, but I won't be buying stock in the company anytime soon. That was over in 3-4 days though and other than the slowly fading scars on my stomach, that was the extent of my discomfort (other than being careful not to lie on my stomach too soon). I'm also a teacher and am glad to have had the time to recover. Hope that helps to some degree.

Hi barbi. I had my gastric plication June 6, 2001 in Chattanooga, so we're close in terms of start date. I'm moving toward regular foods (eating "soft" foods now). If find the "soft" foods pretty unclear. Anything's "soft" if you chew it well enough. Chewing very well and slowly is where I find that I struggle at times at this point. If I don't eat slowly and chew very well I can eat too much before my brain/stomach realize I've eaten too much. I then end up with with a "backed up" feeling in my esophagus that might lead to a trip to vomit. It's only happened twice, but it's pretty uncomfortable. I'm trying to get in 30 minutes of exercise by walking outdoors each day, but living in southeast TN, that has to happen early or late in the day due to heat/humidity. The weather's been unusually rainy/stormy at those times of day this month, so I went yesterday and bought a recumbent bike (an inexpensive one). I figure if I can't walk due to weather, I can use it. My plan is to use it for at least 30 minutes each night to supplement my walking so I get an hour in each day. I'd be sitting on my fat butt reading or watching TV, both of which can be done on the bike. I too was worried about soft drinks and missing them. Not been an issue for me either. I gave up sugared soda about 2 years ago and lost nearly 20 lbs by drinking diet drinks. I just knew that I'd crave the diet drinks, but really haven't. I did have a weird issue yesterday with sugary drinks. I had a gift card in my wallet for Starbucks, and I used to love their iced Chai tea lattes. This was the first drink I've had since the pre-surgery diet with any real sugar content. I got the small one and as I drank it, I thought it was way too sweet. Almost disgusting. I went on to another store and within 15 minutes I was jittery, having cold sweats and was afraid I might be sick. Don't think I'll be having one of those again anytime soon. I haven't had any real issues with food cravings. For me, not being able to have a lot of the junk/fast food for several weeks seems to have made me crave them less. I'm definitely on dairy Protein burnout since I've had so much dairy/milky stuff lately. I've been trying to keep an electronic journal on my iPad to track what I eat each day, and I think I'm struggling to get in enough calories. I've seen people mention 1200 calories on here as a goal, and I'm lucky to be hit 800-1000 on a good day. The nutritionist at my physician's office didn't give me a calorie target. She gave me food group guidelines (always eat protein first, protein should be about 3 oz, then eat veggies etc). I'm going to take what I've been doing to the office and see if she can give me more concrete guidance about number of calories I should be consuming. I know it's possible to eat so far below your basal metabolic calorie requirement that it makes it more difficult to lose weight. I wonder if that's an issue with me. My food tracking app is suggesting that. I've lost about 10-12 lbs since June 11 when I began tracking weight/food daily depending on the day and the scale, but the scale has been stuck for me the last few days (which I also know typically happens about this time). I also have to make myself stay away from the scale. One day I think I was on it five or six times. I realized I could make myself even crazier and now limit myself one trip to the scale daily. I'd love to hear any generalizations you could make about your visit to psychologist turns up in terms of things that might be helpful. I've no idea if any of that rambling is helpful, but it's where I am at the moment. Hope something might be of use.

How do you guys make sure you're getting enough fiber in your diet? As a male who never had issues related to fiber intake before surgery, almost nothing I eat in it now has any significant fiber. I went and purchased some of the Metamucil type orange fiber drink this morning. Fixed a glass of it today and thought it was ok until I got to the bottom quarter of the glass and found a pile of orange glue at the bottom. I'm thinking that was $15 bucks wasted at this point.

Hi Donna. Several of the other board members here have had their plications longer than I at this point, so they may have more experience to share. I only had my plicatino done June 6, so I'm just 15 days out from surgery. The only complications have been nausea for the first couple of days after surgery and having to adjust my sleeping position because I can't lie on my side/stomach now. I definitely feel restriction when I eat and need to eat slowly. I have to be careful and eat slowly. I've had a time or two where my brain was not caught up with my stomach in realizing that I was full. I'd eat an extra bite or two and feel like I might lose my lunch, but that's something I'm trying to get used to. I'm finding that I get hungry every couple of hours which is different from before, but eat in small quantities when I am. I lost about 12 pounds prior to surgery on the liquid diet and have lost about 8 pounds in the two weeks since surgery. I started at 290.5 and was at 269.6 yesterday on the scale. I've been walking most days at least 20 minutes. I was really worried about giving up soda (was a diet Coke addict), but it's been over two weeks and really haven't missed them. I do struggle to get in enough Water each day. I was actually better about drinking water before! So far, I don't regret having it done, but it's early on for me.

I had my surgery on June 6. Will be two weeks this Monday.

In reading about the experiences of others who have posted on these forums, I wanted to share part of the data I researched in deciding to have my plication surgery. It's a big decision to have this surgery, and it took me nearly three months to make my decision to proceed. I had considered the Lap-Band and VSG two years ago, but I excluded both because the drawbacks to both were not acceptable to me. I became interested again in weight loss surgery after learning that a local bariatric physician was going to participate in a clinical trial here in the US to collect data about plication effectiveness. After reviewing the data about the study and reading the article about the study completed in Brazil, and having a long, frank discussion with my bariatric physician, I made the decision to go ahead with the surgery. I knew going into the procedure that there have not been studies done with significant numbers of patients (in the US or elsewhere), that long term data wasn't available, and that there was no guarantees because this is still considered an experimental procedure. The data from the Brazilian study appeared promising to me, and I felt comfortable with my physician. Brazilian study information: http://www.ncbi.nlm....2?dopt=Abstract It's not much information, but hopefully it might be of use to someone.

I had my plication done last Monday, June 6. Other that significant discomfort coming out of anesthesia and a bit of nausea the first couple of days, I've been pretty amazed at how little recovery time I've seemed to need. Based on my experiences so far, I'd like to hear what you others with the surgery have experienced in regards to my question below. 1. I slept in a recliner for the first two nights in a reclined seated position. I've since slept in my bed, but I definitely find that my stomach seems to dislike me sleeping on my side, and I can't lie on my stomach (not that I expected to be able to at this point). I've always been a side/stomach sleeper, so this change has made sleeping less easy. When I lie on my side, it feels like my stomach must be contracting or trying to move in some way. It's not painful, but it's definitely a strange sensation when I try to fall asleep. I really can't tolerate sleeping on my stomach at this point. I have a good supply of hyoscyamine (supposed to reduce contraction of the smooth muscles in the digestive tract) that the doctor prescribed for after the surgery, but I don't find that it seems to do all that much. Did anyone experience this? How long did it last? Was there anything you found helpful in preventing this? Thanks in advance.

Hi all. I'm having my plication done June 6. According to my doctor, the biggest side effect after surgery is nausea for the first several days after surgery. For that, he's going to have me wear an anti-nausea patch that fits behind my ear for three days afterwards. He says that other pain afterwards in none to minimal. Has that been your experience as well? Thanks in advance for your reply.