quadmommy

Lost 160# since my band to sleeve revision

I'm new here and live over on the Kitsap Penisula in Bremerton. Yeah, I'm a navy wife. LOL!!
I just had the Lapband Removal and Sleeve Revision, and an Incision Hernia Repair on 3-19-13 at Madigan Army Medical Center. I "was" scheduled with Dr Sebesta, but he had to go out of town. Dr Hague stepped in and did my surgery.
Feeling fine a week out and just want to say hello!!

So last night was a (hopefully successful) experiment. I focused on limiting caffeine during the day and eating properly, plus I got in some decent aerobic exercise (~2 mile fast walk). When I came home from work, I had a very protein-heavy supper, and no food after ~8:30 pm.
Then, at bed time I drugged myself to sleep; although this isn't healthy or sustainable, I had suspected that I might be a little hypoglycemic at night, but not enough to be really dangerous (just judging from the symptoms), and that what was really hurting me was the lost sleep. In fact, all day yesterday I had odd shooting pains that (in retrospect) I recognize as the effects of sleep deprivation.
And the result was the first good night of sleep in a week or so -- I slept straight through from about 10:00pm to 6:00am, without getting up once. I'm going to repeat the process today, going from the theory that as long as I'm doing all the things (eat right, exercise, limit caffeine) that I know are good for me, and as long as none of my symptoms are truly dangerous, it's more important for me to get a good night's sleep than it is to wake up and fret about mild nocturnal hypoglycemia.
It's strange how much like a scientist you have to be, if you want to lead a healthy life -- you have to perform all these little experiments, and monitor the results, then adjust your behavior based upon the outcome!

I had my lap band done Oct 2010 and lost 80lbs. I was so happy with the weight loss but was disappointed when it stopped and came back. I felt like a failure, and to ashamed to see about other options. But after finally talking with family and friends they convinced me to and see about my options. I'm so happy I did, I found out that I wasn't alone. That there are a lot of people getting the revision. So here I am 6days post-op. Getting better and stronger everyday, and already done 12 lbs.

The last 2 weeks the scale as been my best friend. It just has been going down the last two weeks. I felt like it wasn't budging 2 weeks ago. On Friday it will be 8 weeks since my surgery. I have lost 45 lbs so far! I am assuming that is about normal. I hope I continue to lose like this the next few weeks!

I know I sound like a broken record - but nearly everyone stalls at 2-3 weeks out and this link explains why.
http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html
Keep up the faith, it takes awhile but one day you realize that you have really lost some weight!!!!!

My "3 week stall" actually occurred at week 5. It was 13 days long. My weight loss pattern between month 1 and month six was basically lose for 2 weeks, stall for 2 weeks, repeat. It was frustrating at first, but got used to it after a while.
Let me start with a little personal history. A lot of my weight dropped month 1 and 2, with mostly walking. Month 3-5 dropped about 1/2 rate with mostly ellyptical. Month 5-7 dropped a little faster with mostly running. Now trying to improve fitness and gain back some lean muscle with cross fit, incline running and yoga as well as supplements.
One suggestion to limit stalls is to eat more good carbs, lots of Protein (120+ and plenty of Water (100+ oz) during weight loss period. I did eat a lot of quality Protein and drank a lot of Water, but did not eat good carbs until recently and really leaned out in upper body, mostly due to hard running. There are some supplements I have learned about recently that might help preserve lean muscle such as BCAA (amino acids) and catalyst so your exercise does not eat all your lean muscle during loss.

Personally I lose between 1-2lbs on average a week, randomly I will have an awesome week where I lose 5lbs and randomly I will have a week where I losed .5lbs... Losing and average of 1-2lbs a week consistantly is awesome! My dr and NUT told me as long as I am consistantly losing weight not to get upset at the numbers 1-2;bs a weeks is healthy! Think about it 2lbs a week adds up to 104lbs in a year! And I am sure you will see weeks with bigger losses and weeks with smaller losses as well!
Good Luck!

Hi,
There is an whole sub- forum here called
"Band to sleeve revisions " there is a lot of info there.
Good luck to you!

Mike Susan and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago... On the vets forum and she posted some more about it on another thread... Of course the reasons of resetting your metabolism for US right now is weight loss but I think the theory is the same
This is what Susan said on the other thread let me know what you think....
BY SUSAN;
I am four years out. For the first year, I lived on 800 calories a day. Then, I maxed out at around 1200 a day. For the past eight months, I have been battling with gaining and losing the same three pounds. I was so sick of it. I had no energy and generally just didn't feel too great. My fiancé is a nutritionist and a personal trainer. For two years he has been preaching to me that eating so few calories for the the first few months of the weight loss phase was one thing, but that it wasn't healthy to maintain that few calories long term. He kept insisting I needed to eat more in order to lose weight. Like another poster said, he told me I wasn't losing weight anymore because my metabolism was so incredibly messed up. My body had gotten used to the fact that I was starving it, so my metabolism slowed way down to compensate for it and my body started storing fat.
About six weeks ago I decided to give his method a try. We figured out my base TTDE based on my age, weight, height and activity level. Just for my body to do nothing but lie in bed all day and do nothing but breath, I would need to eat a baseline of 1950 calories a day! So, we moved forward to "reset" my metabolism. I now eat about every two hours. I don't eat junk, I eat high Protein, healthy foods. The first few weeks, I gained between one and two pounds per week. I was in panic mode. I was terrified of eating this way, I just knew I was going to end up fat again. But, I promised him I would try it his way and would give it eight weeks. He warned me that I would probably gain weight at first, he said my body was going to take all those extra calories and hold onto them, because it isn't used to my actually fueling it like I should. But he promised if I stuck with it, I would get past the gain stage, and my metabolism would pick up again. Well, I finally stopped gaining and was maintaining. Next, he dropped me to 1750 calories a day, and if I exercise, I would eat those calories back. Guess what, it is working! I am now back to losing one to two pounds a week again and couldn't be happier. I have more energy and feel better than I have in two years.
So, I do believe we need to keep our bodies fueled. I have done a lot of research on this in the past few weeks, along with finally listening to my own personal nutritionist/fiancé. I have a healthy Breakfast, then a couple hours later I will have a Protein Bar. I eat a healthy lunch. In the afternoon I snack on fruits, cheese, Protein Bars, nuts, beef Jerky, whatever strikes my fancy. I have a healthy dinner and, usually a snack about two hours before bedtime. My body has responded well to fueling it every few hours and I am a believer now. Just wish I would have listened to him two years ago!

Yes! I had my metabolism checked (its was called BMR, or CaloriePoint at lifetime fitness) as well and my trainer says NEVER go below 1800! It works!

I made it my goal to not ruin my metabolism-- at the advisement of an awesome personal trainer. I eat about 2000 cals a day in maintenance now. I have for an entire year. If I creep up, I cut back a bit. I got my cals up to 1200 as soon as I could post-op in an attempt to not tank my metabolism. I lost most of my weight at the 1500 calorie point. I still made goal at 8.5 months post op! I think I am able to eat a hefty 2K per day now cause I work out and stay active and cause I didn't stay below 1200 cals a day for long. My friend that had gastric bypass ate 600 cals a day for almost year so now when she started eating a measly 1000-1200 a day now she has regained 50 pounds.
Thats why I love my sleeve. I can maintain my weight now at a reasonable calorie count!!!!

If you talked to the on call doctor, then I think you'll be fine until you can get in tomorrow for a same day appointment.
I would suggest that you take it easy today. Take some Tylenol to help with the pain and fever. Drink plenty of fluids.
If anything changes before tomorrow, like your fever goes up and the pain level goes up, call that on call doctor again.

Wow you are right at that window of being most likely out of danger for a leak... Right about six weeks??
Would call the advice nurse at your doctor..
And run those symptoms by her/him
I know I had a stomach bug last week and my stomach was churning and cramping. It's a temperamental little thing these days!

Hopefully it will get better for you.
You have to put everything into perspective, this is a choice we make to be healthier, Thank god we can make that choice, in the bigger scheme of things (unless you have had serious complications from the surgery) this is easy. Imagine the people who are gravely ill who don't have choices, who are in constant pain and struggle every day just to survive. Yes, you are uncomfortable, but thankfully this too will pass.
Every day, I thank god that I was able to have this surgery so I can be healthy.

Tigerbelle - I wish you the best of luck for a healthy and safe outcome with your situation.
When my family and I went to the information seminar is when I got my wake up call - when our surgeon outlined the statistics of mortality, of success of losing most or all of your excess weight, and then keeping it off over the long term if your BMI is over 40 (which is tiny, think it was between 1 and 3%).
A lot of folks say they wish they had done it sooner - I suppose I could say that too, I might not have gotten as big and my skin might not have gotten as stretched. But honestly, it came it the right time - for both my husband and myself who also had the surgery.
Things are certainly not easy - but I will take this kind of hard over the hard of obesity, or in my case super-morbid obesity - where people in society have no problems expressing their disdain, or in some cases disgust for you due to your struggle with weight. I hold multiple degrees, am a college professor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and consider myself to be both kind and hopefully a tiny bit Enlightened - yet I was often reduced to tears by adults on the street calling me a fat pig, or the giggling and mean stares.
I have been using this experience as an opportunity to learn as much as I can about how I got this way in the first place - I've done all the therapy - years of it. I've lost all the weight - a few times in fact. This time it feels different, that I finally have a toehold that I can get ahead of this beast of an addiction - which I believe is fueled by the processed food industry and the metrics of how our society operates these days (more sedentary in a nutshell). It just adds to the dilema.
Occasionally I read comments from folks here about how they could have lost it without the surgery - usually because the loses are not large or fast enough. I suppose this may be true, but I know for myself that no matter how much I lost on any diet or program be it Duke, Optifast, countless Weight Watchers memberships, Atkins, South Beach etc, etc. that my regains were right around the corner - and painfully rapid.
Now, with the tool of my sleeve I feel like I finally have some power over this.
I often think of this quote - I think it is from Robert Quinn that "we have only two choices - deep change or slow death."
Wishing you insight and clarity with your decision - I know it is not an easy one.

A good approach to hitting some good Protein counts after surgery is to drink 1-2 ounces an hour while you are awake. You can do this with a shot glass or just measure it as you drink from a blender cup. Alternating between sweet ( protein shake) and savory ( protein soup) is also a good way to not get burned out on drinking the same shake all the time in liquids phase. I know it is hard at the beginning. It was for me too, especially during the first week when it was painful to even swallow. Try this approach to eating on the hour and it will really help you out when you need to eat every 2-3 hours during solids. Hope it gets better for you.

I know!!! You would have thought she would have been asking if it was ok to eat her pets!!!

I'm so sorry. I know exactly how it feels to wake up and find out you have not been sleeved. I was to be sleeved on Nov. 6 and also have my gallbladder taken out. I woke to tubes down my throat, hooked up to heart monitors and the news that they could not finish my surgery. My heart rate spiked half way through surgery and they decided since they did not know the cause they should stop. I was so disappointed, but i understood. Thankfully it was nothing serious and I could be sleeved a month later. I decided to stay on my pre-op diet to get in the best shape possible for surgery. What motivated me was knowing there was an end point. A date to work toward and knowing that the "diet" was not going to last forever. I took the time to fully embrace the changes I was going to make and start on an exercise program. It is not fun to go through surgery twice, and I won't lie, it was a tough not to fall into bad emotional eating habits in the meantime. But I stayed committed. You can too! Please reach out if you need motivation or encouragement or just need to vent.
You can do this!

Well, I am a mom to eleven year old all boy quadruplets. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I start my weight loss from first day of preop 2/18/13. Total as of today. 25 pounds.

Sleeved 12/14/12 lost 35lbs. Slow loser, but I'm ok with it as long as I'm healthy

I was sleeved 12/12/2011 by Dr Landerholm at Puget Sound Surgical.
I lost 150# and hit my goal weight in Feb of this year.
Biggest problem I have had is so many people not recognizing me.

I was sleeved 8/14/12
Down 130 pounds so far!