faithmd

Hi Sarah, you might want to check out the Insurance forum here. Also, your policy may or may not have a weight loss surgery rider and the requirements may be different. The very best thing to do is get out your insurance cards and call each company and ask if they cover adjustable gastric banding, and what the requirements are. Take notes and have them snail mail you the copies of the requirements.

YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE !!! I'm sorry, this probably won't be warm and fuzzy, but do you realize now many people here haven't even lost that much three months out?? You are AMAZING and have done VERY well! I am guessing though you've read lots of threads here the ones that stick in your head are the people who have lost 70 or 100lbs, please realize those people are MONTHS or over a YEAR out from their band. Remember that the first month or so is for HEALING and your body is adjusting to this. You did a very low calorie diet for pre-op and now are adding back in foods and CALORIES, your body is healing and as such hangs onto every calorie it can to heal. In fact, many people GAIN weight before their first fill. Please also do not put all your eggs in the first fill basket. The majority of bandsters say it takes at least two, if not three or more fills to get to that "sweet spot." This band is only a tool, it is not magic, it will not erase the weight. It sounds like you are doing the right things. Did you put on the weight overnight? Why do we seem to think we are supposed to lose it overnight? Hang in there!

LOL!!!! That would have been interpreted so much better (snickering) :Banane56:

Nope, I did by using the term "test drive" in my response to BooBooKitty's post about being with her husband since she was 15. I guess saying "test drive" was somehow vague. I meant it in terms of seriously dating more than one or two people before you decide one person is "The One." It apparently came across somehow as suggesting that one bed several different partners. And I still don't think peanuts were tossed. I feel it was a healthy expression of opinions.

Matrix 5.0 is good (thank you WasaBB!) I also like the Carb Control SlimFast I enjoy whizzing a small can of baked Beans and a fat free hot dog with some tomato juice and some catsup and making a soup, it's quite good. Fage Greek Yogurt is AMAZING stuff.

I wish I could help, but I am struggling, too. Page down to the bottom of this thread and you'll find links to a few other Head Hunger threads. Maybe something there will help?

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ What losing said :welcomeB: One good place to start is the FAQ and reference Forum Another great thing that I did was anything I could think of that I wanted to know about, I searched. The search button is on the blue bar near the top of every page, click on it, then click Advanced Search. Then in the search box on the left side of the page, type whatever single term you want to know about, say band types. Then click on the pull down box below it and select Thread Titles Only, that will give you only the threads that are about any certain subject. Good luck!

Losing: Right back atcha, darlin'! And I'm just learning how this all goes, I'm trying. :high5::cheer2: :kiss2:

"Male Bandsters"?

How about under the Main Lap Band Support heading? I'm not a guy, so my vote proabaly shouldn't count...but I kind of like "The Men's Room" Or "Men's Support Forum"

That's awesome Karen, congrats and :welcomeB: to bandland!

A barium swallow was that chalky stuff you drank after you were banded and they took the pictures of it going through to make sure the band wasn't too tight and that there were no leaks in the stomach. Did you not get instructions that were printed out? Did you meet with a nutritionist? I cannot say if the mushy stage starts at two weeks for you or not. The after banding diet is different from doc to doc. I was not supposed to go on mushies until THREE weeks after banding, but the nutritionist said I could go at two, I chose to wait until closer to two and a half weeks. It's just like some docs who will fill you at four weeks post-op and some won't do it until six or eight weeks, they are all different.

I have not had a fill yet. I was a bit hungry at a week post-op but I knew I would be. I knew that this was not going to be easy but I can do anything if it's for a certain period of time. I figure it's a few weeks out of my life. Granted, if I could have controlled my eating before now, I wouldn't have been fat, but I keep telling myself to control it now. I have a band to protect. My band is not a magical thing, it is merely a tool to eventually help me eat less. I have done loads of research and there are many posts here that speak to the reality that it takes at least two, three, four or more fills until people get to a good level of restriction. I know it will take time, I just have to keep telling myself that I didn't get fat overnight, I won't lost it overnight. This is a journey, not a race and I'm competeing against no one but my own hunger. The difficulty is in telling that head hunger to go away and learning to eat when you are truly hungry (rumbly, almost painful tummy, etc). I ceratainly haven't mastered it yet, and probably never will. There will always be some degree of head hunger I'm fighting. Some docs are allowing their patients a FEW mushies earlier on. I haven't seen the studies about it, but if your doc and nutritionist say it's okay, then that's what we all tell each other to do, follow YOUR surgeon's advice. I continue to be cautious, and it's not for everyone, but I want the band to heal in place well, just because something goes down fine doesn't mean it isn't potentially setting us up for problems later. Scar tissue is what holds the band in place in the back side, as the stomach churns to digest solids it breaks that early forming scar tissue. That's been the accepted reason why docs have kept people on liquids for a couple of weeks to allow that to form. I think it's changing in part because of the improved surgical technique for securing the band, and the newer bands themselves, but I'm going to keep taking it easy.

I told my parents and my husband, it is no one else's business. I lost 44lbs pre-band so I figure I'll just keep telling folks that I have continued my lifestyle changes (it is NOT a diet!-that's what I tell myself).

Hi nume, I'm feeling better everyday. I'm just not quite used to what will apparently be my feeling for restriction: feeling like I've got a marble stuck below my Adam's Apple. I will post updated scar pics on the scar thread at some point. I took them yesterday but I can't find my camera cable and the card reader crapped out.

Julie, please don't tell this poster that she's fine to move to creamy soups and that she can have anything that can go through a straw unless you know her nutritionist and surgeon's food plan. If you do, I apologize. But she may still be on clear liquids for all we know. Granted she may be fine, but she really should be following her MD's plan to the best of her ability. Granted some surgeons are moving people forward a lot faster than they used to, but likely hers does not (considering she's supposed to be on liquids at two weeks out. You are feeling hungry because you haven't been filled yet, but I am sorry to say that you likely won't feel perfect "restriction" for a couple of fills yet. And restriction is hard to descrobe, what it may feel like to me or to Julie it may not feel like to you. You'll get there, it will just take time.

absolutely fascinating.

:welcomeB:

Here's a thread I started a while back, it's a poll about what people were closed with, I hope it helps: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/what-were-your-incisions-closed-31852/

Mmmmmm Chevre Cheese! I don't work with food so I don't know, but I do want to wish you luck with the cheese making. I LOVE goat cheese.

congrats to the pregnant bandsters! There are simply loads of pregnancy threads here. You just have to use the search feature, click on Advanced Seach and then search in Thread Titles Only for pregnant pregnancy baby etc... you'll find lots of GREAT info from folks here who have been through it. good luck to all of you!

I actually think it would be a great idea. So few men seem to post with regularity here, it might encourage more to become more active and support one another.

July - Labor Day 2007 Challenge Name.............................Starting….Current…...Goal….....To Go losingjusme........................293...........2 94............266...........29 juliegeraci...........................226......... ...226............206...........20 areellady.............................251.5....... ..247.5.........230...........17.5 punkeyb88..........................306............ .238............225...........13 Chris_NJ.............................326.......... ..322............290...........32 PaulaD................................222......... ...222............200...........22 MM.....................................248........ ....248............230...........18 sdakotaRN...........................255........... 255............230.........,..25 Babygrl1234.........................224........... 224............199............25 faithmd................................312........ ....311.3.........285............25.7 Jan421................................267......... ...267.............247...........20 Metalband...........................203........... ..201.............183...........20 tann............................223.........221. ........198........23 Banannie......................182..........181.... ......162.......19 Josette........................322..........322... .......299........23 chickatee......................217.........217.... ......199........18 beachgirl......................270..........220... .......155........65 Marlluvia.......................220..........220.. ........200.......20 Jennifur........................278..........222.. ........200.......22 KariK............................179..........179. ..........155.......24 MarCar..........................322.........291... .........271......20 Punkeyb88...........................238.............238............... 220........ 18 Jadrad7........................243..........243............220.......23 I put everyone in.

I don't think we were throwing peanuts. I wasn't mad at all, it was good healthy debate. I like to talk frankly and honestly with people, regardless of what their points are. I like to listen and perhaps glean something from them I wasn't able to understand before that. I appreciate all that Qvr said and appreciate her point of view. Just because we may not agree, doesn't me I don't respect and listen to her. lizrbit, I LOVE you! I think my cat is a nihilist.

JULY, 2007 CHALLENGE Name...............................Starting…....Current…......Goal…..........To Go losingjusme..(Christine).........293.............. 294... ..........276.................17 tann.............(Tammy)...........224............ . 221............212....................09 Josette.................................322....... .......322..............307.................15 RidinMyHDDream.(Carol).. .....267..............267..............256........ .........11 FaithMD............................... 312..............311.3..............299...............12.3 Elisabethsew..(Elisabeth).. ....275....... .......273 .............265..................8 Libra..(Angela)...................... 218...........;...216..............208............ . ....8 glindab..................................286...... ........286..............275.................11 Inner_me.....(Chris).............. ..295...............295.............280........... .......15 CFK, hang in there, you can make it. At least as you said, you haven't gained! I gained, or think I did. I was weighing myself at home that last couple of weeks and today was my first day back working out so it was my first post-op weight on the scale that I usually weigh on. I'll be I gained, though. I'm doing mushies now and have gone from 550-700 calories a day to 1000-1600 a day. Which is still less than the 2200 I was doing pre-op. I refuse to change my ticker, though!