Jackie's girl

Thats great, whats your goal? How much weight was it you wanted to lose?

I am doing good, hit a plateau for awhile, but trying not to focus on that and just being healthly since that is the long term goal. I have lost 60 pounds and Im looking to lose another 35 or so.

Hey Everyone, Now that it has been more than 6 months for us, how is everyone doing....weight loss since surgery etc. How are we mentally doing?

I have gotten stuck once thinking I had no restriction after surgery. I just had my first fill, but this happened before that. I don't plan on it happening again, it hurts like crazy, but it does pass. I have no prob Em as long as I take small bites and chew chew chew!

I got mine today and it hurt because my port moves and turns, so it took 6 sticks to get it in the right place. Of course when that needle is in your flesh instead of the port it hurts like crazy. Hope my port does not flip because they had hard time accessing it.

I had my first fill today, I have 3cc in my band now. It took 5 sticks to get it right. My port is a "mover" as my nurse called it. I already knew that because when I lay down it turns on its side. I can feel and see the side of it actually poking out. as long as it does not flip! But it was hard to get it to lay flat to access it. The sticks hurt me, but some may have a better pain tolerance...but no regrets, it is worth it. Now, 2 days of liquids, 2 days pureed, 2 days soft and then regular food. So anxious to see how restricted I feel because I did not have much restriction before but could feel certain foods were not my friend, like lasagna and bread...no way. So I have lost about 16 pounds since my pre op visit which was on May 7th and 48 pounds total since February when I started losing before surgery. I know my body fluctuated during the 6 week healing phase which is officailly over today...yay!!! i can pick up my babies again which I have not been able to do. Well I did cheat a little. I think I lost a little, then gained, then lost again. So hopefully everyone else is still doing well.

I am going through that. I go to the store and bypass the things I knw I can't have, but there are so many things that are not healthy that I could eat...cheesecake, candy etc, stuff I never ate before. There will always be temptations

I'm glad to hear this. I have not had my cycle since the week before my surgery, so it is about 2 weeks late. As far as I'm concerned, it can stay away. Glad to hear it is normal to be thrown off.

Did not eat that until 4 weeks on the soft stage.

Talk to your doctor. I had cheese,it is on my list. I am six weeks out now, so it does not matter, but I had melted cheese from 2 weeks. Remember, your doctor is in charge, you will find a lot of different opinions and differences in what doctors require.

Cheese was on my mushy list, if it is melted it is not a solid. Every doctors different, so follow your doctors orders. This is just a healing phase. I had cheese from my first day of mashies, which was always melted in something and soft. I have had no problems with it.

I tried very runny retried beans on my first mushy day. Have me such bad gas pains, I won't touch them now.

Has anyone ever had their port flip before going in for your first fill. I can clearly feel my port under my skin and it is always in a different position. Sometimes it is sitting on its side, I can actually see it poking up out of my skin. When I stand it is turned flat. Sometimes it feels like it moving around under my skin. I can tell because it is sitting in different places near my incision, sometimes in the middle and other times more to the left or right. Could this mean it is flipped? How do you know? I go to the doctor next week, so of course I will find out, just curious if this has happened to anyone.

Mine feels likeit is sitting on its side instead of flat. I can feel a thin hard ridge especially when I lay down and it feels like the side of it rather than the flat surface of the front. I am anxious for my first fill in 2 weeks.

I was banded on 5/14 and have lost 42 pounds, 10 since surgery.

Im going through that right now, just transitioned to soft foods today. I know it is easy to say dont concentrate on losing weight, but it is really true. I lost 10 pounds within the liquid phase, but I also was only able to consume about 500 calories a day. You cant really get excited about that because now that Im on mushies i know I have put that back on. I am eating things I never would as part of a regular diet of solid food. The soup is full of sodium and things like potatoes and eggs i normally avoid. I am also overconsuming calories because this mushy crap does not fill me up and my band is pretty open so I don't have good restriction yet. It will get better on solid food. Before surgery I lost 40 pounds eating anywhere from 1000-1200 calories, but i was eating healthy hearty food. Since we cant do that right now, Im not focusing on losing for the entire 6 weeks of the healing phase. It has been hard, but 2 weeks left. I am also not exercising really yet and that makes a difference for me. So be patient and just try to eat good. Like my nurse said to me, you have the rest of the time to lose weight, there really is no rush. As long as you are following your doctors orders, it will come off eventually. Weight gain is not uncommon and we do know it can come off again.

So I am having trouble with great hunger too. I never had this problem before surgery and I am doing the same calorie count...1200. I think part of the problem is even though the food is protein rich, that does not help me to stay full, maybe some others feel full from protein alone. All protein is not created equal to me. A protein shake with 25 grams of protein does not keep me full like a nice spinach salad with some chicken on it would...same protein count. So for me eating more protien does not help. I am getting in my 60-70 grams of protien and I am still hungry. I am 3 weeks post op and what I started doing today was eating something small every hour or so, or honestly everytime I get hungry I eat, which s about that often. For instance at 7 am, I had a protien shake, by 9 I was eating a piece of cheese, by 10 I had ricotta and mushed apples, at lunch which was at 11:30 I had tomato soup and melted cheese, and in about 30 minutes Im having some mushed strawberries. These were all very small portions and I have only consumed about 500 calories so far today and 40 grams of protien so far. The rest of the day, I will be having mushy veggies, yogurt, jello, oatmeal. Well within my calorie count and plenty of protien. Eating more often is helping me. it sounds like a lot of food, but everything is really small portions, 1/4 to 1 cup at a time. Spreading out like that is really helping me! Good luck and do what works for you. Hunger is not a good feeling to me!

1 week later for me and very painful the first time. Took Colace for a few days before it worked. No more issues after that.

I am 3 weeks post op and can drink more freely, but still not too fast.

During my 2 weeks of liquids post op, my nurse told me not consume less than 800 calories. I had trouble doing 600, but 2 weeks is not a lot of time. I am not even counting the weight loss during that time becasue now I'm back to 1200 calories which is what I did pre op. I have to say I don't agree with your doctor, but that is for me. I have been losing weight for 20 years and you get to know what works for you. I don't not lose weight if I under consume, but that is just me. For some people it obviously works, but less food does not equal weightloss for me. It is about making healthy food choices and finding what works for you. Like I know many people who lose weight without exercising, but not me. I guess you have to learn what works for you, but if I did 800 calories over the long run, that would not be good for me.

When mine stared falling off, I removed them when they were hanging off. I had to go cvs and buy the strips because two of my incisions were not healed up. One had not even started to heal properly, the skin was still pink and open. I still have them on my big incision and, have replaced them several times because mine got filthy and start peeling.

You do feel some right after surgery but mostly due to swelling.