Jim1967

I was going to wait on making a blog entry until next month as April 16 is my one year mark of my surgery. Today I stepped on the scale and I was 321. I had a sudden realization of how thing have changed in just a short month and a half. I'll explain shortly. Since I was banded in April of 2012 I always had this thought that weight would slide off seeing that I was so big and typically big people lose quicker. As time went on I realize that is not how it works and I begun to accept that. Even though I understood slow and gradual movements on the scale I never seemed quite pleased. Now before you scoff or judge me because yes I have lost a ton of weight in a short time it still didn't seem quite right. It seemed I would lose two pounds then the scale wouldn't budge sometimes for like 3 weeks. Sometimes even longer. I often times got really frustrated in the beginning but slowly I adjusted to it. So going back to today. Today I weighed in at 321 and when I got my last fill on Jan 29 I was 341. I have lost 20lbs since my January appointment. My food intake changed drastically as did my attitude. Eating a cup of food is more of a chore then ever as of late. I thought before this latest fill I was in the green zone but as I crept closer to January not so much. Now since this last .5cc I am actually there and for the first time I am seeing the weight move like I originally expected. I am hoping it keeps up for a little while but I know the more I lose the slower it will become. So take it from someone who is someday hoping to become an actual veteran bandster that the green zone can be very allusive but once you find it...WOW. Missy (Mis73) told me time and time again that .5, yes a just half of cc can make a whole world of difference. She wasn't kidding!! I hope the downward trend continues and I hope you're all losers....just like me. Have a wonderful healthy day and weekend! -Jim

Hi there and sorry to hear your having a bit of struggle. I have been a cpap user for 2 years now and the first year was before the band. My Surgeon didn't even have to discuss sleep studies with me because I was already on the cpap. Your score is not pretty at all but let me tell you mine was over 200!! My Doc and the one who did the analysis were so concerned they fast tracked my cpap order and got me one sooner than a lot of patients. I can tell you it took me a good month to get used to wearing a cpap and sleep was up and down for a while. Do you have humidifier on yours? I do believe most come with it now. Make sure that has distilled Water in it every time you plan to use it. That makes a whole lot of difference..I top mine of nightly before going to bed so I know it will not run dry in the middle of the night. I do not sleep well at all if it is empty. I cannot really comment on the weight loss side of it as I did have the cpap a year before I was banded. I can tell you my sleep is much more peaceful and when I wake up I feel refreshed and I most importantly I am not falling asleep at work or driving anymore. A lot of people look forward to losing weight so they can ditch the cpap. Well I can tell you I am the opposite. It will take another sleep study to convince me I don't need it anymore. I would say give it a full month and if no improvement then let your Doctor know and perhaps they should double check the machine settings to ensure you're getting the proper pressure. Oh and by the way I have not dreamt in years and I mean many years like I dream now. So I know I am finally getting into rem stages. Wish you the best. Please keep us updated. - Jim

Congratulations!!

We are all guilty of it at one point or another. I know tmf did not mean to offend or scare you off and I know he was trying to also help you get more attention to your issue. Please do not let this deter you from using a valuable support tool. Start a new thread and I promise you get all sorts of help and advice.

First off yes you may be more sensitive or perhaps more aware of food passing through. I know I can tell when some foods pass. When you say the first two bites hurt does it feel like it's stuck and will not go down? Is it all foods and is at any time of the day? Or certain foods? It sounds to me like perhaps those first couple of bites are either too big or you are not eating slow/chewing enough. Bite size should be about the equivalent of your pinky finger nail. When you say you are getting hungry 2-3 hours after eating are you sure it is pure physical hunger and not head hunger? Also with the band your belly may seem to be more vocal like stomach growls. This is perfectly normal and does not necessarily mean hunger. I am not a doctor but the last thing I would suggest is a fill until you figure out what is going on. I would bypass the nurse and talk with the Doctor and explain what is happening. I have to get out the door for work but I will check back in a bit.

Personally, I do not put a lot of stock in studies. By the way that article was published in 2006 and not only have surgical techniques have improved but so did patient education. There also have been newer and better revisions of the bands themselves put out by the manufacturer. Don't take this personal but this type of post is the kind that will bring out the Anti-bandsters causing defensive backlash by pro bandsters. I am sure that is not your intent at all but I have seen these type of threads go south time and time again.

This is a pretty good rule to go by. How big are the meals and how long can you go without getting hungry. For example I had Breakfast this morning at 8AM and I had a half cup of egg beater scrambled, mixed with a 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella and a half a slice of whole wheat toast followed up with a decaf coffee 40 minutes later. Here it is 2:10PM and I am not hungry at all but I know I better eat something or my protein/caloric intake will be way to low for the day. I would say if you cannot go a minimum of 4 hours without getting hungry then you need the fill and I would call the Doctor's office and ask for a physician call back and explain it to him. Best of Luck, Jim

I agree I would go on liquids or the very least a soothing protein shake that will slide down nicely..

Interesting I have never been told I should get one or discouraged from getting one. They give me their opinion and then let me decide what I feel is best getting one or not. They gave me 5cc for the very first time and from then on it is my decision after discussing. Every Doctor is different.

What she said. Plus I didn't want to give up ice cream forever. LOL

So before I climb onto my soapbox let me start by saying this is in no way directed at anyone in particular. It seems lately there has been an onslaught of folks either pissed off or discouraged and some even wish they didn't have the surgery because of lack of scale movement. I cannot recall how many posts I've read over the course of the week from someone 5 days to 20 days post op who are just downright frazzled over the fact that the scale has not moved. Again, this is not directed at anyone in particular and as I think back when I was first banded I kind of had that moment of frustration where the scale didn't move and I questioned whether or not I chose the right surgery. I was in the same place a lot of you might be now. I did a lot of research on this surgery for about year before finally going through with it. Out of all things I wish I was more prepared for was the actual weight loss. See I had this assumption that because I had the surgery I was going to begin pulling big numbers immediately. Because I had surgery I was going to see large drop in weight very fast. It never happened...and 11 months post op I can tell you it never has happened...or maybe it has. You see I am obsessed with the scale and have been since my preop days. So I will step on the scale far to often to be able to see big numbers. I finally made peace that this is the way its going to be and I am OK with that now. Everyone loses weight differently and what may work for me may not work for you. Our bodies are so different. So comparing yourself to someone else is not very realistic. If you are due to have surgery or just had surgery I suggest you do yourself a favor and avoid the scale. You will only torture yourself with it. First month post op is all about healing. Even though this may have been the easiest surgery you ever had there was still a substantial amount of trauma to your stomach and digestive system and it needs time to heal and for the swelling to reduce. Swelling alone with play havoc with scale enough to drive someone bonkers. Just do yourself a favor and leave it be. As for the pre and post op "diets" your Doctor prescribed. I really don't believe he provided those guidelines as a sense of torture. Liquids and mushies is all about letting your stomach heal for a few weeks before trying to eat solids. Remember you have a new version of your stomach now and it has to be treated like a newborns. Milk, baby food and then on to solids. I wish you all well and much success. Try not to be hard on yourself and do keep your expectations in check. Remember Rome was not built in a day. Band one day and skinny the next is for dreams only. It takes hard work and determination. Like my friend Carolinagirl always says, You have "want power" and you just have to used it. Being 488lbs I had a tough time deciding if the band was the right me. I was so worried because I had so much weight to lose. I spoke with my Surgeon and said he thought I would do well with the band but he was more than willing to do gastric if that's what I wanted. He was right about the band. I am not at goal yet but it is very reachable now and all doubt is out the window. Work with your band and become one with it and possibly good things will come. Cheers!!

I have 11cc Realize with 9.5cc fill

I started the process in October 2011 and had surgery on April 16, 2012. My insurance at the time Cigna required a 6 month mandatory supervised diet. I have heard Cigna dropped this requirement down a while back to 3 months.

Karen your expectations are a bit high. First month is generally all about healing and not weight loss. It seems that a lot of people seem to think because they just got out of surgery days ago weight is going to fall off. I went through a period of that. I didn't lose much weight at all the first month and when the weight loss did kick in it was slow and gradual. Please take a look at this thread I think you will find it helpful. Patience is a huge key in being successful. As the old expression says "Rome was not built in a day". http://www.lapbandta...d/#entry1956331

I agree with a lot of what is being said here. Most people know I have the band. Most people who know me know I have struggled with my weight going as far back as elementary school. I am a proud Bander and couldn't be more happy with the progress I have made. On the flip side out of all the people who know I had surgery only a small handful have actually took an interest in how it works, what I went through to have it done and what the recovery time was and how different my actual nutrition is. What I find is most people ask "how much weight have you lost?" For many it's all about the numbers especially the ones who have never had weight issues. I am sure people around me thought I took the easy way out but no one has ever said it to me directly or indirectly. Going to back to what Missy said earlier in the thread (paraphrasing here) : I was afraid of telling a lot of people in the beginning because I was worried about failure and being known as the fat guy who couldn't lose weight even with WLS. I felt like a lost cause then and I was in a bad place mentally because of my weight. I had lost a ton of weight and gained it all back and then some and I had a lot of anger/depression because of it Now I will tell almost anyone interested but again most just want to hear numbers. Only time I get really probed for information is when I go to a seminar at my surgeons center and act as an patient ambassador and give those who are taking the first baby steps what I hope is some very useful information. Going back to what tmf said and my earlier statement about losing a lot and gaining it back, I tried all the fad diets and the most successful one was Atkins. In 2003/04 I dropped 174lbs. I looked and felt great but it all crept back on plus another 95. In 10 years time I went from 393 to 219 back to 488. I feel this time it is different. I am not depriving myself of anything like I did with Atkins. Thanks to the band my cravings no longer exist. I do not snack between meals and the meals themselves are very small. Anyway, this got very long winded and if you read this far I say thanks and sorry for rambling on... Jim

Hi There and congratulations on your surgery. A noisy stomach is quite common for a banded person. Digestive system is a lot more different now. Gurgling, belly rumbles are quite normal and at times a stomach growl will have you second guess as to whether or not you are hungry. These things are all normal and is not typically a sign your food is coming back up. You will know if the food is coming back up as there could be some discomfort associated with it. For the second question all I can offer is practice, practice and more practice. I put my fork down between bites and distract myself with something else. Be careful though you don't want to be distracted as you eat or that could lead to a problem as well. We've been eating a certain way all our lives so this new training on how to eat has a learning curve. What type of diet are you supposed to be on? Are you supposed to be back on solids yet? Broccoli can be really tough going down so you have to cut it real small and chew the heck out of it. Good luck Jim

It is very easy for expectations to be high. There is an old school myth that if you have WLS the weight falls off. Sorry to say its not true and I also went through that moment when I was like "OK, I had the surgery why is the weight not falling off". It sounds like you are doing great. Losing with the band is slow but progressive. I keep a ticker and I go back and look at the tracker to see where I've been and where I'm going. I have given up on expecting big numbers all at once as I can see I am trending downward and for me that is the key. I am trending downward while living a happy and healthy lifestyle and not struggling with another 'diet'. I am guilty of stepping on the scale far to often as you can see below. At first it was because I was obsessed with losing the weight and then it just became more about accountability. Weight loss is slow at times but as long is the trend is downward I am happy. I am excited to hit goal and wish it were sooner rather than later. BUT if I sit through the whole journey wishing I were at goal then I'd miss some exciting times along the way because there are a lot of non scale victories. Far too many to list but the latest is my wedding ring not staying on my finger anymore. (my wife is not as thrilled about that)

Congratulations and good luck to you all!! April 16 will be my one year anniversary. I can tell you it is so worth it and I wish I had done it years ago.

My belly is still noisy even 10 months out but of course its still pretty big You get used it and you learn that it is not necessarily hunger growls.

i haven't had any issues yesterday or today from either my work machine or my home computer. I use mostly Firefox. What browser are you using? Try deleting temp files in IE or Firefox then restart the browser and try again. Are you having issues with any other sites?

I do that often times as well but then I worry about whether or not I am getting a good amount of calories in to keep weight loss going. At some point if you don't eat and start skipping meals it can also put you in a stall and eventually you start to lose muscle instead of fat..at least that's how I understand it.

Satiety throws me for a loop sometimes. For someone who has been a binge eater all their life it is a difficult concept at times. What I can say is I don’t crave food anymore and I can typically stop when I am satisfied but at times I wonder if I am eating too much or too little. I like to think I am eating just enough to be satisfied but then I have my days where I will actually skip a meal either because I am just not hungry or I get so involved with work that I just forget. Then I get into my own head whether or not I am sabotaging myself somehow. I also have had my moments where I think ‘crap, I should not have taken that last bite’. Twice last week and again today I had Breakfast at 6:30 and then ended up working through lunch to then realize it is now 4:30 and too late for lunch as dinner time is right around the corner… I guess I am just over-thinking it all…

Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder if I am doing this right....

Congratulations!! We refer to these as NSV or Non scale Victories. I think NSV are awesome and even better than the number changing on a scale. Perfect NSV is shrinking out of clothing. My latest was my wedding ring slipping off my finger and not staying on. My Wife wasn't as thrilled as I but we can adjust the ring as we go. But Laurie is certainly right there are so many ways to gauge success!! Congrats again, Jim

Exactly and this goes to back to what I was saying about eating on the fly. A lot of times I would be running late for work I would make a quick Breakfast and try gobbling it down.....big mistake. Now when I am running late I will just make a Protein shake because that slides down a lot easier. Plus I can take that on the go. I also tend to find myself tighter in the morning. Not sure if you have experienced anything like that or not. In the mornings my band feels tighter and I cannot eat as quick compared to say 2 in the afternoon.