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YAY!!!! Nice job!

You know you LOVE it.:thumbup:

The swelling you are experiencing is actually a blessing in disguise. This will help you avoid being in "bandster hell" as long as some. I had restriction just from having surgery. Unfortunately, this also may mean that your tummy is sensitive to being "messed with", so be careful with fills and you may want to take it slow. I am 20 months out and have only had 2 small fills. The last one was November '08.

I hope you are feeling better. Did you ever get to your doc? If so, what was his verdict on your band?

That is what happened to me! I have lost 95 lbs and my band size has dropped but the cup size went up. I started at a 44DDD and now I am a 40G. WTH?! I still have the same amount of breast tissue, it just doesn't look as good.:thumbup: The weird part is, I didn't suffer with very much shoulder pain prior to losing the weight and now I have neck, shoulder and muscle pain in the upper chest. I guess it is because my boobs don't have a big shelf of fat to sit on anymore. I plan on maybe pursuing a reduction, but I am afraid with insurance requirements they may take too much. I haven't been below a D cup since I was 15.

I definitely feel much younger. I don't hurt every single day when I wake up like I used to before being banded. Unfortunately, I look a little older...you know that fat we are losing DOES fill in the wrinkles a little.:thumbup:

TESTING IS OVER!!!!! Thankfully. Unfortunately, my 15 year old is very ill with a stomach virus...sitting on the toilet with a bowl... not good. At one point he was sleeping on the floor in the bathroom. After the sickness stopped, he started with body aches and a fever over 102. So, I left school early and brought him to the doc. He said it should just be a stomach virus, but could turn out to be the "flu". I have to watch him for the whole sore throat, chest pains stuff. Trey, you do seem to still be the king of the multiquote. I am extremely jealous. I am multiquote challenged.:thumbup: Congratulations on nearing your goal! Kat, I hope everything gets better with your son. I know it can't be easy. Ugh, just finished doing mine and my daughter's taxes. Why did I wait until now? I have NO CLUE. Jeez...I just suck right now. Oh, and I still have more goldfish at school. I am giving the students the rest of those little suckers tomorrow. No more crackers in the classroom! I am retaining water like a camel.

If you feel the need to throw up again, please call the doc and get him/her to call in a prescription. I can't believe you were sent home without one. I still keep my phenergan that was prescribed after surgery in my purse "just in case". I am a teacher, and as you know, we get exposed to EVERYTHING! I have only had to take it maybe twice in 2 years, but it saved me.

Yeah, it is pretty bad. Until they are through with the test, no reading a book, no working on grades, no computers and cell phones are locked in the car...it is awful. Luckily this is only one week out of the year.

Hello ladies, and Trey. Well, we are in the middle of standardized testing. I am testing just one child. He has individual testing, extra breaks, but NO test read aloud. This means I just sit there in the 8 x 8 ft room and look past him, at the ceiling, at the floor and whatever else I can, JUST not the test. We can't look at it at all. This has been the most boring week of my life, and there is still tomorrow. Oh, and I realized that in addition to reeses peanut butter eggs, pumpkins, trees and hearts being the work of Satan, I can now add goldfish to it. OMG, you can eat a crapload of those dang things and NEVER FEEL SATISFIED!!! Kat, keep an eye on that cough. You may need another round of antibiotics to get rid of all of the infections. I know it took me 2 rounds of zythromax to get rid of mine. Tracy, you have this whipped. You are headed in the right direction. Michelle, that dog was yours from the moment it walked in your house. Suz: you are the master...i am sooo jealous. Jenn? For alex's pics, I am going with the full shot for the invites, but I must have the head shot of her laughing (8x10, I guess). My sweet daughter is beautiful, but isn't very photogenic. Her smile normally looks fake in pics. Her real smile, is when she laughs and her nose is slightly squenched like in the headshot. Jeez, her being a senior is going to break me. :thumbup:

Take this next week to examine, in detail, what you are eating, when and how much. Being so tight that you choose only foods the "won't get stuck" may, in some ways, be worse than you band being so loose you can eat too much. Many times the foods that slide through are higher in calories and lower in nutritional value. It is also possible that you are consuming way too little. Please try journaling this next week to see what is going on. Make an appointment to see your band doc and bring this to him/her. You may need a small fill or even a small unfill if you are too tight. It is never too late to start back on this journey and use your band as it is intended. You will find that once you get your band "just right" you will be much happier with your food choices and you should begin losing weight again. This won't happen overnight, but you should be able to get there. Good luck.

Sashay and Jaxie, good look on your surgeries tomorrow! When you wake up in recovery, you will be on your way to a new you. Update tomorrow when you feel up to it.

It all depends on how tight you have your band. I keep mine a little on the loose side because I WANT to be able to eat foods that I love, and I do eat them; I just eat less of it. I have had IHOP pancakes, I just eat one instead of 3. Last night I had pizza. I ate 2 pieces from a 10 inch instead of 3 o4 4 pieces from a large. It is possible to eat the foods that you love, if your band isn't very tight.

Ok, I need help from friends. I JUST received the link to order my daughter's senior pics and they are not going to be cheap. We can't agree on what to order, especially for the wallets that go in the invitations. What would you choose? Tracy, it WILL get better. Keep taking care of yourself and the rest will take care of itself. Suzie: WTG on the weight loss! You are rockin and rollin....I SO need to get with the program. I didn't even go workout tonight...jeez, I suck. I also need a fill. I haven't had one since Nov '08!!! Kat: congrats on the upcoming great-great niece or nephew. That is exciting! Michelle: it certainly sounds like you have yourself a new dog!!!

I saw my oldest (stepdaughter) this weekend for the Strawberry Festival at my in-laws. She has fibro and had a bad episode last week. Her lyrica helps, but when it acts up, she has horrible swelling. Along with my daughter, my 3 granddaughters were there, and we had a blast. Pictures are below. Ladies, I realized when I got home and downloaded the pics, that I still have an aversion to the camera. I had every intention to take some progress photos, but it didn't happen. How long is it going to take for me to get over this? I mean, it is bad enough that I don't have a before pic. I am serious. I don't have one. The closest thing I have is a pic taken 1 month AFTER surgery when I had already lost 20 lbs. Jeez, I am pathetic. The pics below are of my kids and grandkids. In order: Josh, my 15 yr old 4 yr old Gracie and 6 yr old Alyssa 19 month old granddaughter Miley Alyssa my 18 yr old Alex Oh, and this was supposed to be a multi-post, but OBVIOUSLY I am unable to figure out how to do it.:thumbup: Charlene you amaze me with your tenacity on staying with the shakes. You are much stronger than me, I suck! I can't wait until school gets out so I can get a fill. It is time, since I haven't had one since Nov '08!!!

Believe me, teaching makes you gain weight also. School lunches are the worst and the stress really packs on the pounds. I LOVED protein shots post op. It was an easy way to get the protein in and was considered a clear liquid by my surgeon. I got mine from GNC. They are called New Whey 42g. Walmart sells some also, but they are only 26g or something like that. I just spent the extra and got the 42 ones that way I only had to drink one. They aren't the best tasting things, but they are easy to get down, since it is only 3 1/2 oz each. Good luck everyone with your surgeries.

Thanks, y'all. I LOVE strawberries. They were selling them for $10 a flat, so we bought 2!. I ate strawberries for dinner. My dh is going to start cleaning and bagging them tomorrow when he gets home. I asked him to save a few big, pretty ones to make chocolate covered strawberries for my dd to bring to school.

You have your gasoline right here, girl. You are making the first step by realizing and owning up to what happened. You WILL do this, because you already know you can, because you have been there before.

Ok, my family spent the last two days at my in-laws for the strawberry Festival. They live 2 blocks from the fairgrounds, so we don't have to fight for parking or use the port-a-potties!!! We boiled crawfish yesterday and had a big pastalaya today. It was pretty good. In addition to that, I bought a birthday cake and we celebrated my 4 yr old granddaughter's birthday. The pictures are of my kids and y 3 grandkids. Oh, and the clover "crowns" were made by my daughter's friend. The girls were dancing around in them. Even the 18 yr old was wearing one! In order: Josh, my 15 yr old 4 yr old Gracie and 6 yr old Alyssa 19 month old granddaughter Miley Alyssa my 18 yr old Alex We had a good time and I meant to take recent "during" photos, but we forgot....I still don't allow pictures to randomly be taken of me. I guess it is something I will have to get over. Old habits die hard.:confused:

OMG, I hope all of you get over being sick! It sounds like you all have the same crud...sorry. Well, I had a gallbladder attack Friday night that lasted 2 hours. I HATE that! Then all day yesterday I didn't feel great, but luckily, I was able to sleep "attack free" last night. I am hoping this is one of the random attacks I get. It happens about 4 times a year. If it becomes more regular, I will definitely return to the doctor and see about yanking this dang thing out. It is something I can tolerate every now and then, but definitely not even once a week. It is WAY too painful. We have standardized testing next week. I have to test one of my students individually. His test isn't read aloud, so I just have to sit there, I can't have a book, computer, phone or anything. I just sit, and sit, and sit. It is so boring. I get to do that all week long. Pray for me, I will need it.

I am also a teacher and I find the hardest part about being banded is lunch at school. I don't hide the fact that I am banded, but I don't have duty-free lunch so my lunch is with the students, short, and sometimes stressful. Therefore, I am stuck eating Soup. I usually make sure I have some Campbells vegetable beef Soup at hand in my cabinet at school. These are the "heat and drink" kind. I have recently began making a creamy black bean soup at home that is much more healthy for me and it also tastes a helluva lot better than the Campbells stuff. If you want the black bean recipe, just ask. Oh, and to new bandsters, I highly recommend my friend Amy's blog. She is funny, amazing and completely honest about her experience since being banded. It is also amazing that she has lost over 130 lbs in a little over a year. If you want a link to her blog, I have it posted below. I recommend going to the beginning and reading a little at a time until you get to the present. It is an easy read and you may learn a lot from her. It is also helpful that she is funny and highly entertaining. Once Upon A Time...In the Land of cheese and Sunkist

Tracy: congrats on the 3 lbs!!!! Michelle: yeah, you are looking at 6-8 weeks of no lifting and even laundry like towels are a no-no for a while, since wet towels are heavy and require that dang pulling to get them out of the washer. It is the weird stuff like that, that frustrated me, but please, no matter how silly it seems, follow the orders to a "T". My surgery was done both laproscopically and vaginally. It was not bad, but was more restrictive and painful than being banded. BUT, it was the best thing next to my band that I have ever done for myself. My migraine headaches immediately disappeared, not to mention LOVING not having Auntie Flo visit me monthly!!!! I was so glad to see her go.:smile2:

WTG Tracy! You are doing what you can do....controlling you. That is it. We can not control the actions of others, but we can control how we allow it to affect us. It took me a while to understand that. By taking care of yourself you are taking positive steps to feel better. Sooner or later you will learn why she left. Until then, don't fret about it. It just isn't worth it.

Once you get restriction, which can be fairly quick or take several fills, it should take you a lot less food to get satisfied/full. REALLY we are supposed to stop when we are satisfied. I normally do, but this evening, I went to the full, but not stuffed, stage. My hubby wanted to go to Cracker Barrel. When we go there I always just eat some of his food. He ordered the grilled fish with fried shrimp. I ate 1/2 biscuit (would eat 2-3 prior to banding:sad:), 1/2 of a grilled fish fillet, 1/4 c green Beans and 3/4 c mashed potatoes. That made me quite full. I really should've stopped without eating the potatoes at all :thumbup: but I really just wanted them. Keep in mind, that I don't have my band tight, and I don't want it that way. I like being able to eat regular foods without normally having problems. I even eat pizza, which is my favorite food!

You sound like you are doing a great job of getting prepared already. Ok, I don't think that erosions can be avoided, but I think the biggest cause of slippages is excessive vomiting/pbing. If you are too tight after a fill, get some taken out. If you begin to pb a lot, you can start a cycle of swelling, more pbing, more swelling, that just continues and can cause problems. Of course, true vomiting from being ill is hard to avoid, so try to keep a prescription on hand, in case it is needed, but you can avoid pbing from being too tight or eating incorrectly. After surgery, follow your preop diet perfectly. Once you begin mushies, measure out your portions and only take the amount you are supposed to eat to the table. Be conscious of what you are puting in your mouth and "chew" even the mushies. Buy some of the little 4 ounce and 6 ounce containers by Glad, Ziploc or Rubbermaid. They make eating the correct portion sizes easier. Portion out your food ahead of time so it is easy to grab your food on the go. sugar free pudding will be your friend. It is good to ease the sugar craving. I used the Protein shots after surgery during the clear liquid stage. It kept me from being starving and keeps the calorie content higher than just using Water and broth. It may have helped me to lose consistently through this stage. Ummm...I am sure there is more I will think of later, but I must get ready for work!