lifebegins2012

I went to The Hospital Group for my surgery. I had 4mls put in at the time of surgery( apparently just something my surgeon does). I went for my first fill 5weeks and 2 days after(5th May). Nurse checked and my 4mls had gone down to 3 1/2(she said it sometimes happens) and then she gave me 1ml. I am scheduled for another fill on 31st May but am coping well and losing ok so it will be small if at all I think:)

I think once we are on a restricted diet, the odours and look of normal food can't half leave us wanting!! We have to deal with the fact that others still get hungry, have normal/large portions. It doesn't mean we can't have a little inward sulk every now and then at 'missing out' lol. By going and having an early shower or busying ourselves with chores in another room while they are eating, we can do some mental reminding of the long term targets and the reasons why we have to get through these things. Wishing you the best of luck:)

Hi. I'm Chris.Banded 6wks 1 day ago at Bromsgrove. Congrats!! You're on your journey to the new you xx

I opted for calorie counting on my 2 week pre op diet. I did 1,000-1,200cals per day. On my final day my calories were spent on lovely food including chocolate. My final meal was a small macDonalds cheeseburger ( which took me over my cal limit a little bit). I lost 9lb in total but I did a huge amount of cleaning/exercising to help get me there

Many congrats!!! You must feel like celebrating every single day xx

I lost 9lb in the 2 weeks pre op and had lost 9 lb since up to last Sat. For the two weeks up to Sat I was really hungry on an evening and eating the equivient of an extra meal or two. The guilt was there all the time and I gained 3 lbs of the weight back on. I was down to only 1lb gain when i went for my fill. I had 4mls at time of surgery and that had reduced to 3.5mls when it was measured Sat. I have had 1ml more put in and was ok until Monday and can now eat big portions again. I'm fighting my 'need ' for food every evening but have 31st May in sight which is my next fill. My dietican had said early on to add potato to soups/pureed food if you are really hungry as the starch will help to fill you up. Good luck on your journey:)

My work trousers were too loose and I could take them down without undoing the button/zip and hook. I went to buy a smaller pair but they didnt fit so had to buy the same sized trousers again. When I measured the waistband on my old trousers tho, I had stretched it 3" as my stomach grew!! It could just be that you've done the same Simon. We tend to wear the same 'comfy' clothes day in and day out and the regular washing/wearing will mean the fibres loosen

Dads Eah?? I wnet for my first fill 2days ago. Dad came in the nurses room to watch ( mom wasn't keen). Dad decided to tell the nurse that I was 'born hungry'. He apparently had to feed me 15mins after being born. Why do parents feel the need to embarrass you? I should be used to him now ;0/

Congrats!! It's such a nice feeling isn't it? I had the same.. bought a pair of sale jeans that did not fit without expelling all air out my body(not breathing lol) and a huge 'muffin top' above the waistline( definately not a nice sight). I put them on around 2 weeks post op and they fit. I've worn them in now and the smaller muffin top is reducing as the weeks go on. So happy:) xx

I'm only 5 and a bit weeks post op and have made a couple of mistakes with chicken. I bought 2kgs minced and bagged them into flat palm-sized portions for the freezer. This way they are to hand and defosted/dry fried in minutes. I have eaten shop bough chcken with pata meals and have been a little sick so I need to pay attention to my band.. miced(ground) is good,small diced(but not minced) is not so good.. Also my first(and only) attempt at boiled egg so far resulted in the same sickness even though I chewed, chewed, chewed!!! My dietician said yesterday that I should try all food varieties now.. ALL. scarey as my handbook says certain things should be after 3months post op. Hope this next stage of trial and error isn't too bad!

At times mIne can sound like a right old thunderstorm brewing up

This is SOOO lovely to read. Thank you for sharing you wedding with us:)

Over the last two-three weeks my stomach has felt normal and gradually I stopped looking at my scars. Today I thought I'd take a look and WOW!!! All of my scars have really shrunk!!! I'm so pleased. I thought I wasn't bothered about how the scars look as I wasn't planning on wearing a bikini but this is like a bonus. I will moisturise daily to help prevent the build up of thick scar tissue( a tip I gained when I worked on a dermatology dept) and look forward to having a not-too-bad looking stomach

Mine too. I had poached salmon, mashed potato and mushy peas alot when I was on mushies

Glad all went well:) I get my first fill next Saturday so am very interested people's experiences x

Hi. My consultant had said that he might put some in when he fitted my band as he sometimes did. The following morning I was told he has 'primed' it with 4mls. I have a 10mls lapband and the dietician has booked my first 2 fills to happen in May(5th and 31st). She told me that restriction is normally achieved around 7mls. I am self pay and wonder if the prime is done to save on the amout of follow up appointments as I bought a package so fills/unfills are included in the price for the first 2 years:)

Hi. Once I'd booked my consult and op date I planned on only telling one of my sons(as he still lives at home) and one sister( who I was going to be relying on for a lift to the hospital). I got excited. I brought the dates forward and told my family and collegues at work one by one- about 14 altogether-even our lovely cleaning lady!! At work it was amusing as I swore people to secrecy and they only knew one or two other people were also sworn to secrecy so there was no gossiping. Now I've had surgery everyone has been supportive and ask how it's all going.They are curious. There are two people who haven't chatted much so I wondered if they see it as cutting corners to lose weight but I was really pleasantly suprised when one of the two ladies offerred me her size 14's as she's lost weight and is determined to stay at a size 12. She wears lovely clothes so this could be a treat (not that I'll be able to wear them for a while). I'm generally quite open and didn't want to lie to people but I haven't told friends who I only meet up with once in a while. I want the buzz from their reactions. This surgery has cost me thousands of pounds and a social life for the next year or so (while I pay it off). I plan on giving myself a pat on the back with every pound and inch lost. I need to be careful tho... 2 days ago I called to pick a friend up and her partner came out to the car. He asked how I was doing and almost instinctively I went to lift my blouse up to show him my scars. Oops!!! ;0)

I was lucky in a way as just as I was booking for a free consultation, they knocked £1,000 off and I researched for a credit card with a long interest free period ( I hate paying interest). I'd been considering it for years but didn't think I would be able to afford it then managed to get more hours at work so decided to use the etra wage on this. There were a couple of things like info early on and not speaking to a dietician until she rang 2weeks after surgery that were a bit of a bug bear. My bmi was 39 or almost 39 two weeks pre op and 35 point something on day of surgery. I'm looking at this as kind of like a mortgage and that I'm investing in myself for the future. I'm hoping the rest of my 40's are better than the whole of my 30's. I'm only 5'2" and top heavy so look quite dumpy. I've lost good amounts of weight short term in the past but just can't maintain the losses. People might say it's drastic but I've been a lifelong dieter who has lost her self confidence and wants it back!!

I told my family one by one and also work collegues. A couple of friends know too. I wasn't going to tell one of my sons or one sister as they can be very judgemental but ended up telling them too before surgery. I've only had a couple of comments like' why don't you just go on a diet.. go to weight watchers... i'll tell you how to lose weight...' etc. My dad just didn't get it. For over a decade I've been at least 4stone overweight and long to be 9 1/2 stone again. Before I changed to become a Practice nurse at a Gp surgery, I was a Staff Nurse in a hospital and worked on the bariactric clinics. I laid trays up ready for band fills and had limited knowledge on the surgery. It seems now that my knowledge was almost nil!

My aim is to be 9-9 1/2 stone by my surgery anniversary but also to have paid it all off by then too I joined a weightloss support group who meet every 3rd Monday and that has proved really useful too. My first meeting was a week before surgery and there is a good mixture of people who have had bypasses, sleeves and bands. One person has lost 3 1/2 stone since she had her band in January!!! They have a closed(secret) facebook page where only members can see your comments on there and they have given lots of tips for this and that. I've invested in a treadmill and cross trainer(2nd hand, love ebay) and am allowed to use them from this weekend. At the moment I am still obsessed with reading stuff and working out my food allowances etc. One tip I was given by my dietician is to add potato to your soups as the starch helps to get the full sensation.x

We have lost around the same in the same time Deanne:) Sal ,go to ticketfactory.com and select your pics then ove onto the page with statistics. once you click next, it moves onto a page which shows your ticker chart. Scroll down a bit and it has 2 or 3 different boxes. You need to copy the very first box. then... come back on this site, click on your name box at top and select ' my settings' then click on 'signature' on left side of page. If you dont have anything set up, you can just click on the page and then paste your ticker. you can type any comments underneath and then click save. Try that

My surgery was in Bromsgrove. I lost 9lb on 2 week pre op calorie counting and have lost another 9lb since. I was self pay and was only away from my hospital room( number 13 as it turned out) for one hour in total when I had the surgery. I had absolutely no pain or nausea but did have some shoulder discomfort in the early hours of the next morning. Chris