ev1988

I have done the shakes to get through plateaus. I just followed the pre-op diet that my doctor gave me which was two shakes a day and frozen dinner or something comparable. It equals out to being 70-80 grams of carbs, 70-90 grams of protein, and 800-1000 calories. I like to have a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and then a pretzel bread lean pocket and cottage cheese for dinner. I also drink about 50 ounces of water a day while doing it. I asked at one of my fill appointments about doing this, and they said as long as you don't do it for longer than 2 weeks it is fine. I did it for 10 days and lost another 8 pounds, and I have done it this week (not perfectly by any means) and lost another 4 since Monday. I only use it when I feel like my weight loss is stalled.

Sorry I am late to the party! I went through the Illinois Bariatric Center and LOVE it there. I had my surgery in February and still haven't regretted it one day! Everyone there is so sweet, and I look forward to going to my appointments to see the staff. I was very nervous about surgery after talking to someone that I work with, but the pain wasn't bad at all and I was up and moving around that same day!

Hey Everyone, So I went in yesterday for my first fill. I was banded on the 13th of February so I was definitely starting to feel hunger and I was excited to have my fill. I got to the Dr.'s office and I was nervous because of how much I hate needles. To my surprise, it was fairly painless but I have to admit it felt a little weird when she injected the 4 ccs of saline into the port. It was like I could feel the band tightening around my stomach. Anyway, so she had me drink the Water and I didn't really know exactly what I was supposed to feel like. At first I could hear the gurgling sound, but I also felt like I could feel the water sitting in my throat. I (stupidly) thought that feeling would go away so I didn't say anything. BIG MISTAKE. Please please please do not ever do that! Like I said, this whole post is probably common sense for everyone but at the time I just assumed it would go away and I would benefit from having the band tighter. In my mind a tighter band = more weight loss. So I leave and get out to the car and all of a sudden I start regurgitating the water. It started out that I was burping and a tiny bit would come up, but it progressed to me having mouth fulls at a time come up. By the time I got back to my office, I was drenched in sweat and felt MISERABLE. I went to the bathroom and the rest of the water came up. Thankfully I work with someone who has had the surgery, and she knew that I needed to go back to the Dr. She drove me back, and on the way there I was having back pains and pains like severe heartburn. I had to have 2 ccs out of 4 removed. As soon as they took it out, I felt 100% better! I couldn't believe how quickly my pains went away. I had some tea later that afternoon and some Soup for dinner that kept me full for hours! I just thought I would share my experience with everyone. I feel stupid that I allowed that to happen, but I figured if I could make someone else aware and this not happen to them that I would do my good deed for the day! Just remember tighter doesn't mean more weight loss. It apparently means misery!

Mine wasn't under fluoroscopy. She easily found my port and just did it after that. It was pretty painless and I didn't get the topical numbing before either.

Well I will say it was a weird feeling when it tightened but it wasn't pain, it was just a feeling of being squeezed. As far as the nurse who filled it, she did ask me if it felt like it was going down but I guess since I had never had one before I didn't know exactly what to expect. I can for sure say next time I will know!

I started taking the chewable vitamins after my surgery and hated the taste so I asked my surgeon's office if I could start doing the gummy vitamins. I was told that the reason you have to do the chewable kind is because the gummy vitamins do not contain iron or thiamin. Hope that helps!

Hello everyone, This is my first time posting on this forum, and I want to thank everyone for all of the information that is available here! This website is one of the things that has helped me make the choice to get Lap Band! My surgery is scheduled for February 13th, and today is the first day of my liquid diet. So far, so good. I have never had surgery before, and I have a pretty bad fear of needles...to the point where I could freak out right now just thinking about the fact that I will have to get an IV (which I have never experienced before). I have come to terms with the fills because I have spoken a lot with a co-worker who has assured me that fills are painless. I guess the fact that I have never experienced surgery before doesn't help with my anxiety about it. Any advice for the day of surgery or ways to deal with the anxiety that goes into this whole process? Ahhhhhhh....I cannot believe that this is actually happening. I am VERY much so looking forward to the life changing step I am about to take!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to give a quick update on how surgery went this past Monday. Everything went GREAT! I have had very little pain and even the IV wasn't that bad (though I will admit that I cried while they were doing it but that was completely expected!). Surgery was at 7:30 and I was leaving the hospital by 11:40 that morning. The nurses were very surprised at how well I got to the bathroom and was moving around, and I spent the rest of the day lounging on the couch. Yesterday was a little more painful, but it wasn't because of my incisions or anything like that it was mostly because of all the gas moving around in my abdomen and upper back/chest. Today I feel SO much better and have been moving around alot more. I took a shower and was able to remove my outter bandages, so things seem to be progressing very well! I appreciate all of the support on this thread, and I hope that everyone else has a great experience like I did! <a href="http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/wIirk1R/"> <img border="0" src="http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/t/wIirk1R/weight.png"></a>

Well I did it! I had my surgery at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning. Everything went great, and the nurses seemed very surprised with out easily I was able to move around afterwards. I was leaving the hospital by 11:40 that morning, so I must have been a quick one! I really didn't have much pain at all throughout the day, but yesterday I was starting to get the gas build-up in my chest which makes things uncomfortable. I would say that the sorest thing for me was my throat from the tube that they had there, but that was completely gone by yesterday afternoon. I just have to say if anyone is worried about the pain, it has to be different for each individual patient. Like I said, everything was fine for me and today I feel 100 times better than I did yesterday. I am so excited to start my journey and I hope everyone who has surgery coming up has the same awesome experience I did! Oh and this was my very first surgery as well, so I was expecting WAY worse! I had a pleasant surprise! <a href="http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/wIirk1R/"> <img border="0" src="http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/t/wIirk1R/weight.png"></a>

Thank you all so much for your imput on this! I went for my pre-op appointment yesterday and started crying just talking about the IV. The nurse said they might give me something for anxiety when I first get there that day so that I am more relaxed when it comes time for the anesthesia and insertion of the IV. She said we would deal with the fills later, so I know they are going to take care of me. This is day 3 of my liquid diet and I have lost 3.3 pounds, but I never realized how hungry I would be all the time! It's probably all mental I am guessing!