kyethra

Hello and welcome. Hey, 20 some pounds is good loss. My surgeon's partner think's I'm crazy because I had him do a partial unfill recently, but I honestly don't think that overnight weightloss or really rapid weightloss is that great. And I had that at the beginning. It freaked me out! And it was hard on my body, I lost my gall bladder from it. Now I'm losing the weight at a slower place and I feel much healthier, I have more energy, and I'm excited because I'm going to exercise soon and so forth. Hang it there! I know what you mean about wanting to buy smaller sizes. I was eyeing this sun dress in size 16-18 and I am just now starting to wear size 18s again I thought about it, but I decided not to. I figured I would wear it for a while and then I would feel sad when it got too big. And if I buy a size 16 or 14 now then I would just feel frustrated with myself for not fitting into it. Welcome to the site, I hope you find it helpful.

Every surgery comes with risks. I believe that gastric bypass comes with more risks and complications, but it might be that to me its just risks and complications I would find more unpleasant personally for various reasons. Read the studies for yourselves. Read critques of studies. Read accounts of people who aren't happy as well as those who are. One question to ask yourself though is will you gain weight without this? Can you loose weight without this? What will happen to your health without this? Would you regret having it if you did have some complications? Would you regret not having it if you developed comorbidities. Do research and choose wisely. I did have a complication, I lost my gallbladder from rapid initial weightloss. But I regret nothing. My health is improving.

For breakfast I had a big protein shake, 3 scoops of unjury and one and a half cups of 1% milk. I wasn't hungry at lunch. I had 20oz of light green tea with splenda. I had a big glass of water. For dinner we have some blackened salmon in the freezer that sounds really tempting (its blackened from spices) and I'm thinking peas or spinach will go nicely with that. If I had room for desert afterward (I highly doubt it) I would peel a pluot.

Wow, thats awesome Lori! I'm glad you guys had fun on vacation Denise and Tammy. Vacations are always nice. I'm feeling ready to start working out slowly. I had planned on walking the dog more to do that and I will do that, but its going to be short walks at night cause its hot here! I'm not a midwestern gal who enjoys humidity. Or freezing cold either. Someday I've got to move to a more temperate climate... So I need to just get my butt over to the gym. The gym is nice. Its a place that has air conditioning for one thing. And equipements and matts and stuff so I don't have to worry about where I'm going to work out and if I'm going to stumble over a drill in the process. It also a consistent workout which is good for my muscles-- they protest with days of spasms if I try to push too much on them all at once. And then I can take pilates again. I like pilates.

It depends on what you already have, how you have to dress for work, your social life, how hard you are on clothes, what your idea of a sufficient wardrobe is, etc. My husband has a lot more clothing than I do, for example. He always has. I think thats funny. Before he would say, maybe you should go shopping, You don't seem to have enough of X, and I would say, no, I don't need any more. I have plenty! I just bought a new outfit the other month or the month before that! I need to do laundry now that I'm out of clothes to wear. I mean, honestly, the man has so many jeans. A good ten pairs I would bet, at the top of my head. And that is just the jeans. I have five pairs of trousers, including jeans, a nice pair of black trousers, and some olive colored cargos. Its plenty. When they all actually fit I felt decadent that I had so much to choose from (plus I have three skirts as well). But then I've needed to dress professionally yet. I was an undergrad who worked as a babysitter. Than I worked from home. And now that I'm in grad school and still haven't found an Assistantship, nobody cares what my clothes look like. Granted, he is in the IT profession where jeans and a polo shirt is just fine, and nobody cares much where he works. But it depends. My goodwill shop doesn't have much nice clothes, especially in my sizes. Ebay has some good finds. There are some clothes swapping sites-- I'm always skeptical myself. There is always freecycle to try to get stuff and to give stuff away. Clearance and coupons. And just a couple outfits if you are loosing at a good clip. Saftey pins, fashion tape, a sewing machine, etc. can all help.

So I think I might have good restriction now, instead of being overly restricted (according to me anyway). Today for lunch I had half of a yoghurt. And then for supper I had about 5/8 of a slice of cheese pizza. And it went down with no problems, lots of chewing, a pause between bites like always. I felt satisfied and comfortably full after I was done eating today. Just like I was supposed to and I felt like I had eaten enough to justify having food I guess. Whereas before my partial unfill After a few bites I was in pain and discomfort! Plus I didn't feel satisfied, and I felt silly having cooked or even taken the food out if thats all I was going to eat, especially since it seemed to PB back up as often as not. So far so good. Tomorrow I'll try something a little more solid, but I am thinking this is a good level of restriction maybe. The doc tried to scare me and told me I would get hungry more often with an unfill. I said that I was a risk I was willing to take. If anything, I seem to be hungry less! Maybe because more stays down? And as a NSV I am now a tight size 18! I was washing some clothes today (since we got the new washer and dryer I've been doing a lot of backed up laundry) and I dried on the pair of old jeans I had just taken out of the tryer. They fit! But they felt snug. The 20s are still a better fit. So that is something exciting to look forward to, when they are no longer snug! Now I wonder when the 20s actually fit. I need to keep track of this stuff.

I know all about fatigue and tiredness and so forth. One thing that helps is protein. Get in tons of protein. Have a big ole protein shake for breakfast. Are you getting enough sleep? Some people also think ribose helps (people with CFS). They take it as a supplement. Make sure you are getting in good nutrition, veggies and fruit. And good sleep. Frequent breaks and things to recharge. Power naps-- no more than 30 mins! If I get really desperate Adderal helps, but it isn't my med of choice.

I prefer to think of myself as amazonian. As having presence. Unfortunately, these fast few years my flab has had far too much presence. There is also an irony too. While fat is out of shape and thin is also weak, larger people are supposed to be strong and vital. I don't look sick, but of course I've had health problems. Though lately I've noticed my coloring is improving and I'm not translucent anymore (Just very very pale, my usual coloring). I look at a picture of me fifty pounds ago (heavier that is) and I don't really see the difference between me then and me now. Sure I can tell I have lost a bit when I look in the mirror, but it doesn't seem like the amount I have. Who knows. I also worry I will be disapointed. When I think of weight loss I think about what I was like when I was at those weights before. When I was younger (because 24 is so very ancient) and healthier. Sometimes I worry that I will be disapointed because when I reach those weights I will not be that young again and I will not be that healthy again (but I might be as fit). Since I got sick and stuff when I was 20 I sort of feel like I went right from teenager hood to middleage or older. And I know I can never have those years back to relive differently and when I get to the weight I was then I won't feel like I did back then. But I do hope I can feel like I'm in my 20's before I leave them. And I hope that I am happy with my body when I reach goal (need for a lift or tuck here or there aside). I had to see my PCP today for an UTI. I'm going to try Fosfomyacin. The pharmacy is ordering it for me. Everything else for UTIs I am either allergic to or else its ineffective. If this doesn't do the trick for some reason then Its an IV antibiotic for me, but the doctor said that could be done in Oncology rather than making me go to hospital. The thing with hospitals is that you seem to leave with another infection or something, etc. Not fun. But Oncology, I could handle. My medic alert pendant came yesterday. So I have been wearing that and getting used to it. It mentions my band and the NG tube (avoid them) and my narcolepsy (cause sometimes it can cause me to act wierd and so forth) and asthma and just allergic to most antibiotics. Then they can call the number for my other conditions and to find out exactly which ones I'm allergic to. I figure this way the pendant should last for a while and I'll not need to buy a new one soon. I too have balance issues on bikes. Always have. I think I might try a recumbant sometime.

Right now I am insisting on project/area completion. Right now we are redoing our laundry room since we got a new washer and dryer. This involves remover the popcorn cieling, ripping up the linolium floor, tiling the floor, and painting it and putting in new shelving and organizing it. DH suggested just doing half of the room at first and then working on another project. I told him no way. I said we would never finish the laundry room if we did that. Its true too. So the laundry room will get done pretty soon actually, since it is small. We might get one of those storage pods. He has so much stuff! Since he can't seem to part with it (including trousers that don't fit that he hasn't worn in many years) I'm thinking storage is a good solution. We can put it all in there and if he decides he is feeling nostalgic, he can go visit it. Then with the newly freed space I would actually have room to put my stuff so I could finally unpack! (I'm pretty good about throwing things out though, DH has at least twice as many clothes as I do for example) And once I unpack I will have all my stuff in the house. Then I can work on organizing things. For some of the really tough rooms I plan on having professional help to organize them since I have spatial issues that make that hard for me. I feel bad admitting it, but sometimes (ok maybe more often than that) I really want one of those shock dog collars for DH. The kind where you press a button and it delivers a small electrical shocks. It teaches them not to do certain things. When I see him leaving dirty dishes on living room furniture, or dirty socks random places, etc, I would like to be able to press a little button and buzz! and then tell him No! Be a good DH and go put it where it belongs. Instead I'll have to reason with him... (Thats always one of my ongoing projects)

well I sort of do take them occasionally, so that is how I voted. But I don't really take diet pills. What I take are stimulants. Diet pills, however, tend to be stimulants. And stimulants do speed stuff up and decrease the appetite. Its the speeding up stuff (like my heart rate) that makes me not so very fond of them in general. But I do think the way some of them can help with the staying awake sometimes is nice (I'm narcoleptic) so there is that aspect. I guess people need to weight cost versus risk. If a pill or whatever is worth it, why not? Is the cure worse than the disease? Right now I am able to be awake without stimulants actually-- other narcolepsy meds are doing the trick for me, so I'm lucky.

When I finally get down to goal. Right now I don't want to have stuff that too expensive or that I like too much ( I would miss it!). I'm also actually hoping I could get on what not to wear or something like that when I reach goal. I kid you not, but I'm pretty darn clueless. This past year my big fashion goal had been to try and wear clothes that weren't stained or ripped and to remember to brush my hair before I left the house (and look in the mirror while I was at it to see if I had put my clothes on inside out or buttoned incorrectly, etc. I've had it happen to me repeatedly where I will be at a meeting or something, sitting around a table with people when I look down and notice all of a sudden that oops, not only is my shirt inside out, but the buttons are misaligned and that ketchup stain didn't quite come out in the wash. Of course I think thats pretty funny when it does happen-- one would think I'd notice these things or someone would point it out, right?). Then recently I've started to learn about makeup and how to do basic hair styles. I didn't learn how to file my nails until I was 19. I'm a late bloomer on this stuff I guess. How will I know what to buy! What to wear? Whats a wardrope staple? Ugh! I'm already not allowed to buy certain colors unless a friend or DH is with me to let me know if they clash with me (I'm a redhead). Its enough to make me want to keep on wearing jeans and pj bottoms and long skirts with whatever t shirt or, better yet, a 3/4 sleeve striped button down shirt with a v neck.

In addition to good nutrition, there are other things you can do for your hair as well. You can make sure you don't wash it more than necessary, like no more than 2-3 times a week. It might take your scalp a couple of weeks or so to adjust to the change, but it will. Do not use heat, no blow dryers, irons, curlers, etc. Use detangler and conditioner. Do NOT brush hair that is wet. Be nice to it. Only use a big comb on wet hair. When detangling hair start first with a wide tooth comb and start at the bottom, working the way up, then a small comb, then a brush. You can oil the ends if you need to. Jojoba oil and coconut oil and also olive oil work well on hair. Be nice to it. Braid it loosley at bed time. Deep moisturize once a fortnight or so. Sleep on satin pillowcases if you feel so inclined. Some like biotin for hair. I take a vitamin that helps hair and nails-- it has B and biotin in high levels. And of course, tons of that protein. Make a high protein shake part of your daily calorie plan! And take a calium with it to help prevent osteoporosis while you are at it (thats something I always have to remind myself to do, but I know its good for me).

It didn't hurt at all to me. But then I'm used to incredibly painful trigger point injections in my abdominal wall with large needles and I get six allergy shots, every week, etc. I'm well aquainted with needles. I've had one fill and one partial unfill so far. I've done two days of liquids after each. And why you start on food, just take it easy. Give a big pause between bites, that sort of thing.

You guys are doing awesome! As far as the whole ten pounds being one dress size, for whom is that actually true? I know its true for some people. I suspect its true for skinny people with small body frames. Those size 2s. I suspect its really more like a dress size tends to be x percent of ones body weight, like say 10%, depending on stuff. Since I have a big ole body frame, its takes more weight to make a difference in either direction for me, going up and down. I also suspect the thinner a person in, the bigger a difference those ten pounds makes, due to the whole percentage thing. The other day I asked my mom what size she wore. I know at her lowest weight she could squeeze into eights, but wasn't always comfy in them. Now she is a 10, sometimes 12. Since I am a few inches taller than her and have a larger frame (hands, feet, wrists, elbows, shoulders, etc), I suspect I will end up either a 12 or a 14. It would be nice to be a 12, but I might never get that small. I know most people wouldn't consider a 12 small, but I've really got big bones here! And my mom is skinny now! So wouldn't that be ironic? If I got all trim and lean and down to my ideal weight, healthy BMI, etc, and I was still plus size? Today when I took my size 20 jeans out of the dryer, they fit just perfectly, so I'm not sure how long it will be until I'm fitting into size 18s. But my size 22s seem really loose on me. I have to secure all my bottoms or else they fall off of me! Nice, but annoying.

Instead of going in for my six week post op check up after having my band put in, I instead had my gall bladder taken out the day before that was scheduled. A couple of weeks after I was banded I got what I originally thought was the stomach flu that just didn't go away. It was my gall bladder. My ultra sound was negative. The HIDA scan, thank goodness, had more enlightening results. Apparently my gallbladder was absolutely full of tiny little stones. The gallbladder can make you really sick. By the time mine came out if I tried to sit up for more than ten minutes I started to vomit up bile and boy, was I amazed at all the different colors it was. For more than a week before the surgery I put myself on clear liquids because it was all I could handle. At first zofran had helped, but not enough after a while. I lost a lot of weight during that period, at least. So even if it isn't like evereyone elses gall bladder, it could still be that.

Today I went and got a partial unfill. My surgeon's partner did it. He has the band himself. He tried to talk me out of my unfill, but I was insistent. I know a lot of people like a tight band and think that being full at 4 bites is just grand, but I am not one of them. I also don't like losing weight too fast. So I explained all that and that it was difficult to meet nutritional requirments, etc, when I couldn't eat more than 1 ounce. He said he never had a patient want an unfill that wasn't having severe overrestriction symptoms. So I shrugged and said I guessed I was the first. I guess I surprised him. But I know I am doing great weight loss wise. I already lost about 50 without any fill at all, and thats great and I know it is because everyone tells me it is. Plus its not as though I am on a deadline for weightloss or in a race. I would prefer to lose at a rate of 1-3 pounds a week, though I know there is no way to guarantee that. So I now I have 1cc instead of 1.6. I think that sounds more reasonable. I haven't tried to eat yet. I figured it was like a fill and that I should wait a day or two before I tried food and then take it easy. Plus, there is also the psychology of restriction and how that works for me. My DH actually got that pretty well and observed how I am with that on the drive home. When I am too tight I feel compelled to eat more so I do things that aren't so good like eat a lot of ice cream or break some of the rules, like waiting five minutes between bites, taking a sip, etc. Its like if I am determined to eat something, then I will. But if I am a little less restricted and have more of a choice about what to eat then I am more likely to make better choices because I am in control. And thats pretty much the truth. I like having the band as my tool. Its great. And I do need this tool very much. But I want to be the one in control, more or less. I don't want it to take over my life. Thats sort of what the eating and hunger did. I could never lose weight and there always seemed to be more of it and it was just bad for me and it kept affecting more and more of my life, but I wasn't in control. It was. I certainly hated that. Then I got the band and I was finally in control. Then it was too tight and it was in control. Sure I ate nothing, or close enough to that, but its that idea of something else being in control of my body and life. Seems to me that I am always fighting that. I'm fighting that with the narcolepsy everyday-- what medications work the best, and how to take them, when, etc. With my fibro, my allergies, my pain, etc. I really love it when I am the one behind the steering wheel. Maybe I have to stand on a box to reach, or something like that, fine. But at least its me doing the steering. Maybe I should explain that next time if they try and make me too tight... but I'm not sure I could explain it well enough and succintly enough. In other events... This weekend my DH and I went and visited my brother and mother. For my brother's recent birthday we took my bro and mother to see a musical at a dinner theater. He really enjoyed himself. Which is great, I thought he would. He is hard to get presents for. They had a buffet for dinner and there was nice soft stuff to eat. I hate a bit of catfish with dill sauce and some meatloaf and some soft veggies. I also had a martini and that went straight to my head! Next time I'll savethat sort of drink for after dinner. Ok I'm beat. Time for sleep here.

Taking a quick look, I would have to say 1) give the benefiber a few days to kick in and 2) try eating more veggies and fruit in place of carbs, like bread and potatoes. I know those carbs are tasty and its something I tend to do too! But protein first, then veggies, then carbs.

This is true. My DH and I have sex at least once or twice a week (of course I wish it was closer to 9 times a week), but we don't have sex more often because he is on meds and those affect him. Or because the anxiety and depression the meds don't care of affects him. I don't like it, but I get it. So we focus on quality rather than quantity. Lately my hormones have been changing due to weight loss. I take estrogen along with my birthcontrol and I lowered my estrogen dose. Due to that I'm been dry and not quite myself sexually, not as responsive. Its a bummer! I also feel sort of bad abou all my scars (I had my gall bladder out six weeks after the band was put in plus I had an allergic reaction to the adhesive from the badnages first time aroud so I have this scars from blisters). I think its important to talk about intimacy in relationships. What is each partner willing to have and willing to do? Whatabout holding the other parter while he or she masturbates? Cuddling and whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears and then you can finish up on your own? Sometimes just having him hold me is all I need-- just a random hug or kiss.

I think having her work with a nutritionist is a great idea. What about having her join the Y or Curves or something like that as well? Bandsters are supposed to exercise and I hear its easier when we start exercising before the surgery. As far as therapy goes, if she won't do it, she won't do it, but do mention to her that in order to get the band she would have to see one to make she was mature enough. Also work on doing little things that might help her self esteem. When I was that age I was about 20 or 30 pounds overweight (maybe 40) but I felt like I was 80 pounds overweight. Teen girls have a hard time seeing reality. Now I know yours is obese, but I'm saying that age distortion makes it that much worse. So yes, I'm for the surgery for teens-- I wish I had this done when I was a teen. But its also important to have a good sense of self esteem and self worth thats not related to weight. Self esteem can be hard to aquire, but its worth more than gold.

I went with medic alert and called them to discuss what to engrave on mine. My problem isn't people knowing stuff-- mine is running out of space to engrave issues on! We settled on the band and the NG stuff. And we are putting narcolepsy on there, and alergic to most antibiotics, and asthma. At first they weren't going to put the narcolepsy on the tag, but I thought it might be a good idea in case I collapsed because of it, and what with it being such a rare disorder and all. Then they can call the number to find out exactly what antibiotics I'm allergic to and how allergic I am and so forth, what meds I am on, other medical conditions and they have two emergency contacts for me and three of my docs listed in their info as well. I didn't get a bracelet because I only wear things on my right wrist and I like to wear a watch sometimes and I'm wierd about stuff like that, so I got a necklace instead. But they are pretty designs. Someone I know (who has cancer) told us about medic alert and how they have the number to call so you don't need to have ten tags.

When my mom lost a lot of weight, and then cut her hair short, she said some people asked her if she was sick, and if she needed anything, or asked her how she was. I think they were worried she might have had cancer or something. She thought people were being nosy, but from what people said (and a couple of people asked me about her), I think they were just honestly concerned. Maybe people who have had issues with body image and stuff like that for so long still have some of those issues and are going to take comments about weightloss more seriously than they might be meant. Also, it is unusual to lose this much weight. How many moribdly obese people do you know who go and drop 100 pounds? Or end up normal weight after years of being obese?

My blood pressure is high. Not very high, but high enough and sticking up there for a while that I got on lisinipril a few months before my surgery. It was about 140's over low 100s. Now that I have lost 50 pounds, my BP med dosage is cut in half! Its normal with the meds, unless I'm sick, and then it tends to go up. Doc says its quite likely that after I lose more I can get off the meds completely, but I have gotten on another medication since then for a different medical issue that is high sodium, so who knows (I naturally eat a low sodium diet and I've been watching it too since then, but...)

I take a vitamin thats especially formulated for skin, hair and nails. Or just for one for hair. Mine has all the basics, plus lots of the B vitamins and high levels of biotin as well. So its an all in one thing-- easier that way. But with mine I have to have somthing other than water to down it with because it tastes nasty! Or get a coated one, that would help too. Mine is just a large caplet. But it does help, I think. You also really need to get your protein in. For hair there are some other things you can do to help protect it. (I'm vain about my hair and trying to grow it longer). Avoid heat! Heat is bad unless its a heating cap for a hot oil treament. No blowdrying or curling irons or straighners etc. Cover with a hat or scarf if out in the sun. Wash it in water that is only warm and rinse it with water that is as cold as you can stand. Wash it less. Try washing it with conditioner only (you need to let the conditioner sit in there for about ten minutes and then rinse for a while). Oil the ends of your hair and other dry parts with jojoba oil or coconut oil. A tiny bit goes a long well and it helps with dryness. Sleep on satin pillowcases and with hair braided or wraped or help avoid tangles. Limit brushing hair. Use a detangling comb instead, starting at the bottom and working your way up. And of course, ask your doctor! It could be a sign of other issues in your body as well.

Ok so I called and made an apointment to get an unfill on Monday. Not a complete unfill, but some of this needs to come out. You know what I had for lunch today? Two saltines with some peanut butter on them. Thats all I could eat! I'm telling you, four bites. I know that I don't have a calorie minimum here but I don't like being this tight. I like being able to eat stuff. How else am I supposed to get in nutrition and good stuff? I just want good restriction, but not a ton. When I can't eat anything more than a couple of bites like this I feel cranky and deprived. This being too tight is not for me. DH says I'd probably loose a lot and then in a few weeks it would be looser, but I reminded him I don't like the pound a day weight loss (Yes I know I am crazy) and I am aiming for 1-3 pounds a week instead. Well, at least I can get protein shakes down!

You shouldn't have trouble drinking. You need to be able to get a liquids down especially if you exercise or if it is hot out, etc. And you do need to be able to get nutrition from food as well. You should not feel any restriction drinking Water.