newlife4nekaylyn

Wow thank you so much!! Its people like you that make me what to keep up my hard work. I am so happy that you have chosen to do the lap band. It was really hard to me to even begain to think of me being in the 100's to and the thought of me not being able to do it was a scary one but once the weight starts to come off and you feel better and you start to have this drive to get out and do something then it makes it all seem easy. Just remember im always here if you need to talk to someone and ill try to help you out. and Remember everyone is different and everyone looses different. Best of luck to you i know you can do it!!

Thank you both! I was kinda scared that i would get some kind of hell for what i wrote but then again i didn't lie. I know you have to work and every day is a challenge that you your self have to met no one but you can do it and its not a magic trick its hard work. But i feel that it is all worth it! thank you both for the feed back and aew i will send you a message to explain my band to you. Good luck to you both!

I agree with you Donna and im not here to put anyone down i know that life with the band is hard. I know that i cant eat BBQ or stew meat or any kind of hard meat but I am the same i will not eat mushy food if i don't have to. mushy foods slip right through the band and you feel hungry again at least do. Its a learning thing and you have to learn how to do things all over again. If it hasn't worked in three years then yes i would be VERY pissed and want something different too. I cant blame you. I would find a new doctor and tell him your problems and see if he can help you out with the band and if not then i wish you the very best of luck with the sleeve.

One day while my husband and i where not married but a couple i went out to where he works for lunch, As we ate our lunch we got to talking about this guy that he didn't like and i had just seen. I ask what his name was he said Robbie i said oh like my name lol he said yes. We where talking and the conversation came up that he had had lap band surgery about two years ago. I said well how much did he weigh before? My husband said he weights more now then he did when he started. I could tell i had a puzzled look on my face and i said but my real mother had gastric bypass and she lost about 200lbs. He said yeah well he said lap band doesn't work. That right there was my first conversation about lap band and the first time that i had even herd of it I thought well that will be something that i never ever do and just forgot about it. Until i considered the surgery for myself after i found a doctor that would do it and it not cost an arm, leg, and liver then i got to thinking about that very conversation. I was a little worried so i got online and looked it up. I stubbed on a video on YouTube about lap band and i saw that people did really really good with it. I was confused and wanted to know why in the world this guy had only gained weight. So who better to ask then the doctor himself right. Well my appointment came around and i had so many question and thoughts and was pretty much scared crapless why i still don't know but i did ask if this going to work because there is a guy and he said it doesn't work and he gained lots of weight back. The doctor and the dietitian both said you have to make it work. It is nothing but a tool and you can cheat it but really your only cheating yourself. I said so is there a way that i can know that i wouldn't end up bigger then when i started? They said yes you do what your supposed to and don't try to cheat your band and make sure that you have fills like your supposed to. I said really that's it. The dietitian said its a tool its there to help you loose the weight, if you are not serious about it and you continue to do what your doing now then NO it will not work and it will be no ones fault but your own.So i left that day with a new look on life and a new feeling about life i thought well i can do this and i want to, I want to be the person that i feel like i am on the inside! But the thought was still in my head if this guy gained so much weight back what did he do wrong. So i asked my husband who later came back and told me, He had one fill, drank sodas, ate whatever he wanted and more. That was all i had to hear was that the band didnt fail him he failed the band. And **** happens i know but i still cant for the life of me understand why someone would pay so much money to have this done and not do what they know they are supposed to do? Its not even that hard to stick to really. Its protein really you just have to make sure that your getting lots of protein and not lots of crap. Yeah im sure it will not kill you to eat bread but the first time it gets stuck i promise you probably will not be eating bread again. Grease the first time you get heart burn real bad and throw it up you probably will try and stay away from it right? I know i do. Sugar well they make all kinds of sugar for people now that cant have real sugar its not hard to just stop buying and sub it for the fake sugar. Sodas I can see being a problem. I don't miss the taste and i really don't miss buying them the only thing i really miss are the bubbles. I know it sounds really crazy but that's really all that i miss about them. I haven't had a soda since august. Candy wasn't hard for me to give up i don't like it any ways. Chocolate well you can find it in sugar free and most of it now is pretty good. I will eat dark chocolate but i don't like to much of the rest. Cookies i will be the first to tell you i went through a cookie faze but again it in moderation i didn't just sit down and eat a whole box of cookies just about two or three a day and i didn't gain anything. Ice cream again i am going through that faze right now and still in moderation. I remember when i could sit down and eat a whole pint of Ben and Jerry's by myself now it takes me weeks and weeks to get through one and still i don't weigh any more. The band isn't there to be a BIG DIET your whole life its there as a tool so you can learn to control your portions and control what you eat and to know that most the time its not that your hungry but your board and that's what people tend to do when they are board is eat. Why i don't really know it just seems to be the thing to do. That's why i am going to say this if you dont work with your band it will NOT work with you. It didn't take you one night to gain all the weight and its not going to take one night to loose all the weight. Hell it might even take longer then a year but if you are doing what your supposed to be doing to work with the band then there shouldn't be a problem! Now don't get me wrong there are ways the band can fail and i have read about it and watched it on YouTube but most of them where fixable unless the person didn't want them fixed or couldn't have them fixed. I have herd about a hole in the band where it leaks the water and wont fill that is the bands fault not yours. Also your band can slip and they will tell you that and from all the ones that i have herd about its because of the person not listening when they say very clearly DO NOT EAT HARD FOOD. Don't eat to soon and don't do anything that they tell you not to do there are reasons they are telling you this. Its not to piss you off and its not to hurt you its because they want you to have success with the band. Now what you cant always help its when you have a tummy bug and are throwing up to hard your band can slip and i have read that you cant even keep down liquid and there is horrible pain in your lower back and chest. I hope i don't ever have that! But really the band can only work if you work with your band. If you don't want to work with the band then don't worry about the surgery because you probably shouldn't get it. Im not trying to be mean im just saying i am so sick of people saying the band doesn't work. I think its a bitterness that it didn't work for someone and they are pissed and they don't want anyone else to get the band because for them it didn't work. I can sit here an honestly say all the bad things that i have been through have been MY OWN DAMN FAULT. And i will say that so far every time except for the tummy bug there just wasn't anything any one could do for me. It wasn't really anyone's fault. I could blame everyone but at the end of it all i am the only one that is putting things in my mouth. No one else does it for me. So don't let anyone put you down if you want lap band and think its the best thing for you then you get it and make everyone else eat their harsh mean words! Because i know without a doubt that you all can do it and everyone can make it work for them. There will be bumps, bruises, scratches, cuts, stops, slips, tears, pain, sweat, emotions, and maybe even some heart aches along the way but you have to remember your starting a new life. And with new things comes other new things. And im sure you can always find a friend on here who will understand what your dealing with and can find a way to help you to deal, and heal from whatever it is. And never let others get you down. Because once you see the new you, you will smile and know that it was all worth it and it really wasn't so bad it was really kind of fun. And once you see the 100's mark even if its 199 you will feel joy and just feel like you can rule the world and maybe even cry with happiness. Always remember this you didn't get fat over night so don't think you will get skinny over night. It takes work and more work and time.

Never let the negative get you down usually if someone fails its not the bands fault it is there own. I was planing on writeing about that later lol. Any ways you keep your your happy thoughts and remember if you need any help along the way im only a message away!

Thank you!

Awesome story! my mom had to force me into a size 16 she brought them over to my house and pretty much said put them on or else! So i walked out of my size 20 and slipped in to the size 16 then i missed the size 14 once i bought them a week later they where way to big and then it went from a 13 12 11 real fast. I love the story i would have done the same thing lol. Also i cant through away or give away a pair of my 20's or a pair of my old shorts i have to keep looking at them to make sure they are still loose.

It took me five months to see that i had lost weight. It took my mom forcing me to into a size 16 from a 20 (because i was scared they wouldn't fit). And sometimes i don't see that i have changed at all. When i look in the mirror sometimes i still see the old me, the me that was over weight to the point of i didn't look like i had a neck. I don't recognize the person looking back at me sometimes. Although lots of people have said to me "you have lost so much weight! How did you do it?" The first time i realized that i really wasn't the fat girl any more was really two weeks ago when i took a pic with my daughter for the first time since i had surgery. Granted i cant fit in any of my old clothes but i do still try to wear them sometimes. I cant wear the pants clearly since i am in a size 11 now but i do still try to wear my old shirts size XXX L when really i can fit in a size XL and its loose. So why do i feel like i haven't lost anything? The mirror is my worst enemy. I have no full length mirrors in my house all my mirrors are boob up mirrors. I did that because i didnt want to see anything below that before and i really had no reason to as long as my shoes matched. I know that i have lost weight, but when i saw that it was like wow! I kinda feel like i have cheated myself like i just woke up one morning and the weight that i see in the mirror was gone. I saw the scales but i guess in my mind i just didn't want to believe it. I really hope that i am not the only one that is feeling this way. I want to be able to see what everyone else sees but im not sure that i can ever see that. I love wearing jeans that i can buy from jcp or the buckle or where ever i want and i love to be able to go in to any store and buy any shirt or under wear or bra that i want but i just want to see it for myself! Any ways im not saying that i am not happy that i am getting health im just saying why can i not see it? Please someone tell me that you are having the same problem, that its not just me and im not just crazy,

Thank you karla your awesome!

Your right and i don't have to explain myself if i don't want to like i have said before all the people that love me know the truth and that is all that matters and it is hard to give up all the foods that i used to love. But when i look at new and old pics that makes it worth it to me. I haven't changed the person that i am on the inside just who i am on the outside. some people just cant deal with that and i live in a very small town. There for if they don't know exactly what is going on they have to make up something or there is not gossip. And it sucks but im a better person then that.

I will tell any one any time about my band now but i dont think that i should have to explain my self to everyone all the time. I look good and although sometimes i still see the "big" girl in the mirror i know that i have lost lots of weight and i look nothing like a crack head lol. Its just hard sometimes to say hey im doing this to see my kids kids and to have my own children someday im doing this for me and to make a better life for me. I am happy and healthy and everything that happened to me because of all the weight i put on myself is gone i am really healthy for the first time in about six or seven years and im happy with that. I want to think all of yall for the support that yall have given me and ill try to write more tomorrow. thank you all for the kind words and for being so wonderful!

On my journey the one thing that i can say is that its not my fault that i am loosing weight and your not! I have worked hard to be where i am right now and what have you done? Nothing but put me down! Ok let me explain please i have known lots of people like this, Before when i was big there where people that would talk to me but we were not friends. Now the same people think that its ok to pretend like i dont exist or they will talk bad about me say things like so and so's mom (and point at me) is on drugs and thats why she has lost so much weight. I have even had one parent that wouldnt let her child come and sit with us because of that little remark made by her daughter. Some people are just that dumb and we will just have to learn to deal with dumb people. I try just let it go because me and all the people that matter are happy for me but sometimes it just gets to me and i just want to show them my scars and say no i had WLS dumb A#$ but i dont i just let it go and worry about it later. well again im makeing this short i just wnanted to get that off my chest! have a wonderful day!

I have the same problem and right now its getting bad too. I have an iron problem also that worries me, pulse my last blood test i was low on b1 so i have to take a ton of that and when i remember to take it, it seems to help my energy levels i take b12 to lol when i remember try that it might help if your not already taking it. also it could help to talk to your doctor about this he might have something better to tell you. I hope you find something and when you do let me know!!

Ok im going to make this short and sweet because i had a four hour drive today and then a big basketball game that was a real nail bitter so i am a little sleepy. Any ways i kinda want to talk about sweets tonight. Ok now even though i have done really good with my lap band I still sometimes eat sweets. I still eat cookies and ice cream and very rarely do i ever eat candy but sometimes. I don't really like candy all that much. Any ways i have lost a total of 80 something pounds since i have been banded and i have eaten cookies and ice cream since the fourth month of my surgery. And guess what i am still loosing. i dont take it to any kind of an ext ream like i don't just eat and eat and eat. I control the amounts that i eat but i dont think that just because we have had lap band that we should just eat healthy food i do feel like its ok every so often that we can eat something like cookies or ice cream. Idk maybe i am wrong but i have told my doctor about my sweets eating and the nurse said that she has gone through the same kind of things. I know that we are not supposed to eat anything like that but i am still loosing so i dont see a probably. Ok now that i am off that little subject i also want to talk about loose skin real fast. Its driving me crazy!! I feel like i should look better but this loose skin is getting in my way. Dont get me wrong i dont have as much as some but i still have it and its still there and they tell me well you are 25 and it should go away. But will it ever go away??? OK like my legs everything is pretty much bone now but my inner thighs are gross nasty with loose skin! and its not going away no matter what i do and im not saying that you know i want it to go away so that i can wear the shorty shorts but i do have to watch what kind of shorts i get because of it. And sorry to say this but sometimes it gets in the way my special time with my husband and i just knowtist this like last week it has gotten really bad! and my arms they are getting bad too and it really doesn't matter what i do they are still like that. maybe someone can give me a little help on what to do about this any thing but surgery. Ok so that is pretty much all that i have to talk about tonight! Good night all.

You have most of my same goals lol. Good luck i know that you can do it and i cut up my lane bryant credit card the second month after surgery. and i bought my first pair of girls shorts my third month good luck!!

Thank you everyone and i am really happy to know that i am not the only one that has gone through this stuff!

Dont worry to much i think we all go through the same things. There are someday where i think man i am just hungry but then have to ask myself is it truly hunger or is it just what i have been used to for all these years of maybe im bored and food is always there. Try a little snack like a protein bar or drinking something my doctor told me sometimes its not that we are hungry but really thirsty and our body's get confused. And loosing the weight is the best part i never thought i could do it but i have. Good luck and i wish you the very best!

Well its a new day and that means new obstetrical, I have found since me and lap band became friends that i have new things to deal with everyday. What are you talking about you might ask well here we go lol. Before banding i would wake up in the mornings slowly get out of bed and want to cry as soon as my feet hit the floor. my feet hurt and my back was in a big amount of pain. Then i would go to the bathroom, Then strait to the kitchen for a soda and the remote. not to menchen i would wake up at eleven if i didnt have to take kids to school. any ways after my soda i would head to the fridge for my breakfast which was usually leftovers from the night before and since i would wake up at like 11 or 12 i didnt see the point in trying breakfast. so i would eat ten times to much and then it was lay around and watch tv, play on the computer, or maybe wash a load or two of clothes. I didnt have energy to do anything any more. And my clothes where always jeans when cold and an XXXL t-shirt and if it was hot or warm basketball shorts and an XXXL t-shirt. I mean dont get me wrong i had very beautiful clothes but i was to big to wear them. So that was my before life all that right there i didnt like to go or do anything! I was a total couch potato! Now this is pretty much what i face every morning i will wake up uncurl myself (i usually wake up with my knees in my chest) then i will get up out of bed stretch no pain. journey to my bathroom do my stuff, go to the kitchen start my coffee, feed my dogs play with them a while, get my coffee and get on the computer and usually this is all before i wake up the kids to go to school or like a day like today where it is spring break all before nine o'clock. any ways i drink my coffee and get on the computer and check my email, and i run a business from home called Pomeranian's place. after all my computer stuff is done and all the coffee is gone i start off with maybe a protein shake because its so hard to eat in the mornings or i just mix protein and fiber with the coffee that i am drinking. Then i start off my day with cleaning (sometimes lol) and running earns like food shopping and just everyday life stuff. I usually always try to eat by 12 in less i am working at my other job which i got in October, then i will eat at one because i dont get off until 12:30 most days. After my lunch time meal is done i will do some more cleaning or play with the dogs, then maybe go and get the kids from school or when they dont have school i will work in the garden i am planting or mow the yard i find that i love to be outside now. And i am just waiting and counting down days until summer when i can go swimming anytime that i want. And clothes well for one i had to by all new clothes and i find myself bying things that i really love and no t-shirts my sizes now are pants size 11-10 and shirts xl to large. but i can buy girls shorts and look good in them again nothing skanky im to old for that lol. well i dont think i am to old i am 25 but with three kids i don't want to embarrass them. My point is is that after lap band i feel better i feel the need to get out and go. instead of trying to find the closest parking spot at a mall or store i find one that is farther away i mean yeah i dont want to loose the car one and two sometimes i just want to get home after a long day at the mall. Thats another things shopping before i hated malls and i hated food shopping. I hated malls because most stores just dont make things for big women. And food shopping because that is when people are the meanest. When they see one big girl with a basket full of food they tend to sometimes say "and she wonders why she is so fat" any one else ever hear that? It will make you cry and just leave but what they dont think about is i have four other people at home besides me. Let me clear something up i knew i was fat and i knew i had a problem but until someone is in the same place that you are they will never understand what your going through. As for malls now i love it no one looks at me crazy when i pick up a little shirt and no one says anything about do u really thing that you can wear that? No its really not like that for me. Here is a good story it was in january when i had just hit the 100's i needed new clothes and so i went shopping at a mall. What i didnt realize was that i had no clue what i was supposed to wear. I knew the size 14s i had on where way to big for me now and the XXL shirt i had on was also way to big. I went in to a store called the buckle. I was greated by a girl and a guy, they asked me what are you looking for i said i dont know. so the guy must have seen that i was almost ready to burst into tears and he came over and said what can i help you find what kinds of clothes do u like i said well i really dont know. He said what do you mean you dont know. I said well you dont understand before now all i have been wearing is basketball shorts and t-shirts. he smiled and said why i told him because before now i weighed about 300lbs he smiled and said no you didnt, i said um yeah i did and now that i can wear things in this store i dont even know where to start. He said well how much do you weigh now i said 198. he stoped and said holly crap! but he brought me all kinds of things to try on and worked with me untill i found a pair of jeans that fit perfect. He asked what size i was wearing right now i said a 14 he said no you my friend are in a size 11-12! Thanks to that guy i can now go into a store and know exactly what im looking for and what to buy although my size has dropped again i still know where i am supposed to be. I know many people have had to feel like this sometime in there lives right. It is just so awesome to know that when i tell people how big i was they are like no way your so little now. Ill admit after that i went a little extream with the weight loss. And this right here is why they will not fill my band i lost to much weight to fast and with out really seeing it i was in trouble. I haven't been filled since January. I wasnt eating like i was supposed to and no i wasn't eating crap i was eating maybe once a day. and my band gets tighter and tighter when i don't eat. again i dont know why this happens it just seems to happen. I would eat one slice of lunch meat for lunch and again for dinner. I wasn't hungry and if i thought i might be i would drink something. Well my husband started trying to make me eat and thats when the throwing up started and im still fighting with it but im also eating right again and im trying very hard to do what i know i am supposed to do. And the treat of going to the hospital makes me want to stay on track. What i was doing wasn't right but i got carried away with all the weight that i was loosing and weighing myself everyday wasn't helping. And my scale was way off and that wasn't helping either when i thought that i weighted 198 or like a month and what i really was weighting was 189 well that's a big difference. I am back on track now and i gained a little weight back but it wasn't bad i didnt crumple and die but im slowly loosing weight again and the way that i am supposed to so im happy and i only weight myself once a month and when the doctor does it for me. And that takes a lot of pressure off my shoulder. So even if you slip a little make sure you have someone to catch you and throw you back in place because everyone needs someone while dealing with change. And im not going to stop im am just going to do it smarter. And at the end of the day i know i am better then one year ago. and that to me is well worth it.

Well thank you I know that sometimes its not easy for me lol i dont have anyone to talk to about the lap band because none of my family or friends have had this done so sometimes they dont understand really what im going through. So thank you and good luck with your band!

Well thank you so much i am happy that yall enjoyed this i am just happy to find other people going through the same thing as me it really helps and i love to help others.

I went through kinda the same thing and had to stop. They told me if you eat to soon that the band may slip and that is the last thing that you want. And i know that it is so hard not to eat right after but you can fight off the hunger and most of the time its really a head thing and bad habits coming up again. Just drink something when you feel hungry drink a protein shake with milk that helped me or pudding or some jello. But you can not eat there is really a reason they tell you this and i had to be taken back to the doctor to hear it and i got that i didnt want to be back with slipping. Trust me you dont want to hurt yourself and there is a reason we all got this surgery. If you ever need any help you can message me and i will try to help you. Good luck and remember its ok to have a protein shake every time you feel hungry!!

i had my first fill in October I had the same kind of fill i think where they use a live feed and they use the needles and all that good stuff i have been filled four times and since January they will not fill it until i start eating right again. And i dont mean like eating what im supposed to i mean eating. My problem is right now that i dont eat as much as i should be i would say that my band is to tight but i really dont feel like it is. I know when i need a fill again now because i get hungry more now then i did before. can you not find a doctor here in the us that can just do the fills? Can you do that? i really dont know i was going to go to mexico to but found dr stowers in Decatur Texas and he was cheaper then mexico.

I was so nervous about going under. Im a big baby when it comes to pain. I was put under before when i was real little and didnt remember most of that. When i had to go in i had to tell the anesthesioligst everything about me he was really nice i was more scared about what it was going to be like when i woke up. To be honest they should have been more worried about what i was going to be like when i woke up. When i thought i woke up i was calm and just sore and had a pain on my side. But what i didnt know was that when i really woke up they said that i started fighting with them and i even ripped open the stitches on my side. I dont remember any of that but its like you go in the room and wake up in another one. Pules they have some drugs they can give you to make you so happy they could pretty much do anything to you lol. Its nothing to worry about but i cried and cried when i got to the hospital that day so i understand what you mean.

Ok i know that i already posted a blog earlier but i cant help but to remember things that i want to talk about and didn't. Life with lap band isn't perfect and it wasn't meant to be its a tool just like a computer or a calculator is its there for help. It isnt there to just take the fat away while you do nothing its not an easy fix, now the reason i say this is because i can not count the number of time i have been told well isnt that cheating? And this is my answer "NO you dont understand i have a leave of control that wasn't there before. I have this tool to help me to not make bad choices and sometimes i do and then i realize by my own hard hardheadedness that maybe i shouldn't have done that. But again its nothing more then a tool". Then another question i have been ask is Why couldn't you have just done this on your own? This would be my Favorite question. And here is what i usually say " have you ever been on a diet and got stuck at one number and at the end of the day you just felt like it wasn't worth it any more? Well it was like that for me and i would give up or maybe you went on a diet but at the same time wanted a big plate of food and you just said screw it and ate whatever you wanted any ways and then gained weight and the whole thing just didn't seem to work for you? that is why i did it because i need control and i need a way that wont let me cheat and i need to feel like i can do something about the way that i look." Here is what the people who love you and care about you need to understand its all about you with lap band now i dont mean go and forget about others but you have to make your weight loss something that is yours. Something that you can control and something that is for you because if you dont want to do it then you wont. It has to be for you and yes there are other reasons mine was i wanted to go to a water park with my family and wear a swim suit nothing skanky just wear one again. i told my self that if i could get down to the 100s by Christmas we were going to great wolf lodge (its an indoor water park). I know i was banded in September and didnt give my self much time but for Christmas i was at that water park and i was in a swimming suit. Again nothing skanky and i wore shorts and a shirt but the good thing was that i didnt really have to and i damn sure didnt have to wear boys swim trunks and i didnt have to wear about ten undershirts. I was in a women swimming suit and i wasnt scared of well maybe i shouldnt wear this im too fat. i was 210lbs and that to me was so much better then 280. I have done things now that i would have never been able to do before. If i had never have done this for myself and done it for someone else i don't think that i would have stuck with it. I think it would have been like everything else that i had done before to try and get the weight off and yes before it was for someone else and it wasn't ever really for me. Some question will really get to you and might even make you think well should i really have done this? When i had this done i didn't want to let anyone know what i did i was scared that they would think i was cheating and that i had failed. But i realized that not to many people really think that not to many people are really that fast to judge you. However i have found some that are. See when you start to loose a lot of weight people what to know how, how you did it and what you are doing. And again at first these where not easy question to answer i mean how are you supposed to tell people that you have had weight loss surgery. For a while i thought well maybe i have cheated myself maybe i could have done this on my own and i didn't really need the lap band. But the truth was always there i needed some help i needed it and so i posted on Facebook what i did and just sat and waited. I waited to see what people would think of me now that they had the chance to ask me and find out what i had really done. and it turns out most of the feed back that i got wasn't bad it was mostly all good, and then there is the question here it is " was your husband going to leave you because you where so fat?" No my husband loved me for me not for what i looked like i mean he says that i am more fun now but he has always loved me. I get a look sometimes when i tell people that i have had lap band like ummm you did what? and sometimes its a pitty look like oh that poor girl she must have weighted 500lbs. But with time it gets easier to deal with all the questions all the bad look and you end up just smiling and knowing that you did what was right for you. And do be surprised when people act like you didn't know you were fat. LOL this is one of the questions i hate the most. " well what made you decide you were fat?" Im always like wtf! Do you really think that i didnt know i was fat? I looked im a mirror every day of my life. In fact i didnt decide i was fat i decided to get help for myself, because i wasn't doing a very good job on my own. Here is something else that i have learned people treat you different even some of your friends will treat you different. I mean people are nice but sometimes when someone sees you like a cable guy or something they will be nice but that's pretty much it. Example i had a cable guy come to my house to install internet for after my surgery. He was nice answered all my questions and did his job and left. two months ago i had to call them back because of some outside issues and the way i was treated was completely different he had a conversation with me and told me all kinds of things but when i was bigger he wouldn't say more then a few words to me at a time. People in stores treat you different to my husband thought i was joking until i told him to come in a store with me. One that him and i had been in when i was bigger and i had to ask for help and i had to get my own stuff they did very very little. But as soon as i walked in all of a sudden i had three people ask me what they could get for me and what size i needed. My husband has never questioned that again. When your big sometimes its hard for us to take up for our selves sometimes its like well whats the point? And i cant speek for any one else but i was like that for a long time after the surgery i didnt see the difference and i thought well if someone was to call me fat all i could do is cry and go home like i always do. Untill two weeks ago i didnt realize that i did look different that i wasnt really "fat" any more. but i was standing up to people who i would have never stood up to before, i got to a point where i wasn't going to let any one say anything about the way that i looked what my children where eating or anything and for the first time i stood up for my step son and it felt really good to do that for my child. That was another turning point were i thought wow i can do this and i didnt loose it i wasn't told to sit down and shut up and i wasn't called fat. LIfe after lap band isnt always fun and its not easy but i would say its more then worth it. And sometimes its crazy frustrating i mean who doesn't want a big burger from time to time or a big soda or just alot of crap all at once. But when you realize that you have the control and the will not to it all seems worth it. when your daughter comes up to you and throws her arms around you and says WOW MOM i can fit my arms around you like twice, then its all worth it. When you can do things with your husband that before just were not possible then its worth it. When you see a man from your past that put you down and told you, you where ugly and fat and couldn't been seen with you, and he says to you wow your so pretty and you can just sit and smile and tell him thank you or tell him he can go to hell which ever then you know that it was all worth it.

Ok so im going to tell about the six months i have been banded. My band is one of the more difficult ones. Its always suborn and it will not listen when part of my stomach says its hungry my lap band will say NO. And no matter what i try to eat it will not let me. And hates french fry's!!!! Oh i will for never again make this mistake. now excuse me but this is kinda gross but im kinda sure it happens to other but again if you don't like gross then you probably shouldn't read any more or at least skip a few lines. Ok we all know that some foods will expand in the stomach. We all know that they even tell us before and after right. Well this is what i wasn't told lol that its possible for french fry's to kinda do the same. see i havent had a fill since december. ill explain that more later too. back to my story my family and i were at a basketball tourniment and we needed a quick meal before the next game what where better to eat then Mc Donalds lol yeah i know what your thinking DUMB. But trust me when i say this its not easy to tell your child no to a place like that when you dont eat there ever and they really want a happy meal. Sometimes you have to find ways to make things like that work for you. So i got chicken nuggets because they are easiest to eat and ff. i ate the french fry's first and was going back and forth to the bathroom. i thought it was over and dumb me ate another french fry and two chicken nuggets and it started again but the chicken didnt come up just the ff. And sorry to say this but the ff had been expanded i know again gross but i had no clue they would do that. But here is another fact about my band if i bake ff i can eat them no problem but if they are fried i cant. Sometimes its hard to learn all the ends and outs of your band I am still learning and still making mistakes but it only takes once! OK OK it usually only takes once lol. pancakes, bread, white rice are a BIG no and there are lots of things that i just cant eat. I cant eat just chicken grilled, boil, or fried. Dont get me wrong i still eat chicken but its not like a chunk of chicken. I have tryed every kind of way to make it and it just will not go down. There are even some lunch meats that i cant eat like ham it will not go down. And forget about drinking anything with a meal or for about twenty mins after a meal. When my husband and i go out to eat he orders and i pick from his plate. He doesn't mind but if i know i am going out to eat i have to take a snack with me something small or i cant eat anything. Life since lap band is different and im not saying that its bad i love my lap band but sometimes its just hard. I spent a whole night up with a tmmy bug in December. This is what they dont tell you i guess because they dont think about it, Tummy Bugs suck you cant really throw up what happened to me was that I ate dinner but not alot, I laid down about three hours later and it felt like something was stuck my shoulder started to hurt and then my side like my side was going to just explode. I know if you drink something hot it will help what ever is stuck to go down well that didnt help and i would try to throw up but nothing would come up it took me untill the next morning to realize that i was sick and only because i got a fever. But i would try to throw up and all that would come up was this white bubbly stuff or water. It took forever for the gas to finally go away so that i could even sleep. And i have had other things like this happen like heart burn ICK! one night i throw up grease! just plain grease because i ate the wrong kind of hamburger meat. never again will i do that! And the feeling is always the same your stomach feels like it might explode at any time. And there was a while were i didnt go to the bathroom and realized a week later and in a big pain that hey i need to go to the bathroom! Crazy little things like that will drive you CRAZY! but i have figured out that i have to go to the bathroom and if not its my own fault and i cant eat grease and again tummy bugs are the worst so far. Im pretty sure my band will surprise me again but if i can help it i will. But again and just like i have told my dr most of the pain i have had has been my own fault. I wouldn't have it taken out because i like and i like feeling like i am in control of my life even if i need a little tool to help me along the way. any ways i have to get to work ill post a little more later but if i dont get to work soon well we all knows what happens then lol.