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Hey everyone. I'm kinda just here. It's been one week since I started regular food, and all I can say is that I've been pretty naughty. I haven't reverted back to any old lifestyle choices (like fast food twice a day, every day), but man, it sure is hard to cut carbs down to only 30g a day. I'm still working on that. I think my swelling is officially gone, because I don't have anymore restriction. I can pretty much eat regular portions now, but I still have to chew, chew, chew or I'll give myself a stomach ache, and that just plain sucks. If I take too big of a bite, I also have trouble breathing afterward. It's teaching me to eat slower and chew more, which is a big turnaround from all the inhaling of my food I did before, lol. My first fill is schedule for July 19th. I can't wait to see how that goes.

My tear day was day 3. I agree with everyone that we all have one of those days. Now that I'm on day 17, I feel fantastic, so it DEFINITELY gets better. Sent from my Evo.

I got the OK to actually start real food instead of mushies. They recommended soft foods for a couple of days, though, so I can work my way up. I ate some salmon and steamed carrots today, and it was delicious. I made sure to chew everything really well, too. I am definitely eating less than I did before surgery. I'm not sure if it's because of residual swelling, or I'm actually getting restriction from the placement of the band, but I could only eat about a quarter of my salmon and about four baby carrots. Yeah, four weeks ago, I would've ate the entire plate, and a dessert. No kidding. My dietician also convinced me to join her team for a marathon in November. I'm kinda excited for it. I'm going to train for the walking/jogging team, so now I have a goal to reach.

I suppose my first goal would be to get down to 230 by September. I'm hoping that's reasonable enough. Today I get to start mushy food. I have never, ever been so excited to start eating refried beans in my entire life. Also, I have never, EVER been so constipated in my entire life.

Today is my day 10, and I'm completely ready to go back to work. I go back on Wednesday. Also, good luck with your surgery. I hope all goes well. So, nothing new to report, guys. I'm still starving, and I'm still frustrated about it, but eh... I can't really do much about it. I e-mailed my doctor about starting mushies and some other questions, but he hasn't got back to me yet. I hope he's not on vacay yet. So, I have a question. Have any of you started exercising yet? Even if it's just a walking routine. I'm still dreading walking. I went up some stairs on Friday (it wasn't even a lot), and I almost died. My quads were killing me and my knees felt like they were going to give out by the top step. Then, going down the stairs, my knees were wobbly. Can you say severely out of shape? I guess my real question is, how did you get yourself up and moving? I'm terrified of working out because, well, it hurts.

The shoulder pain is due to the trapped gas from surgery. I still don't know why it only travels up to the left shoulder, but honestly, I never had too much of an issue with that. Just a slight aching, like I slept wrong the night before, for one or two days. People not being able to swallow after surgery happens for a number of reasons. I know there's a condition some patients have where the esophagus forgets how to swallow or something like that... (someone back me up here...) I'd like to think I had a really smooth recovery period. I was banded on the 15th, so today is what, day 9 for me? I swear to you I'm at nearly 100%. My gas pain went away after two days, so I stopped my pain meds after two days. My appetite returned after 4 days (that's not necessarily a good thing since I'm starving all the time now). The rest of the week, I just had to deal with some soreness around my port area from standing up/sitting down. The worst part was getting out of bed because of the stinging sensation from bending my torso, but even that's gone away now. Honestly, I could have went back to work on Thursday and been totally fine. I really do agree with all the other Bandsters out there who say that walking, walking, walking after surgery is the key to a speedy recovery. And water. I had trouble getting all my water down due to the swelling in my tummy making me full so fast, but that goes away too. Now, on a different note, who here is comfortable talking about BMs? Because I had my first one today, and I thought I was going to die.

I am back from the dead! (Actually, I was just had a lazy today yesterday, and super busy day today ) So, as for the soups, I bought some tomato soup. The fuller liquids help...but not really. My hunger has taken on a vicious cycle. I'll eat some soup/pudding/Jell-o, get full off of a little bit (half a can of soup or 1 pudding cup/Jello-cup), and then two hours later, Armageddon is occurring in my stomach again and it's just grumbling to be fed. I hate this. I hate having to eat every two hours, and I hate that I can only eat soup. Pretty much, pudding and Jell-o don't go down well in my tummy ( and I have no idea why), chicken broth goes through me like Water, and if I ever have to see another SF popsicle again, I will kill someone with said popsicle. I think I'm just frustrated. I've never been restricted on what I can and cannot eat. At least during the pre-op diet, I had the ability to sneak some chips in if I wanted. Now, if I did that, I could potentially harm myself and my band, which would be no bueno. Is anyone else as frustrated? Do any of you guys have the same crazy hunger cycle as me? I wouldn't be too upset if I could start some mushies, because I know I'll stay fuller, longer. But I know if I ask my doc, he'll say no. *sigh*

I have humongous thighs. I have never been able to wear shorts that didn't reach my knees. Ever. I can't wear a bathing suit either because of the chafing. Last summer, I wore trunks that were too thin out to a waterpark, and came home with a horrible burn between my thighs from all the chafing. Quite frankly, it sucks. The things is, I see girls with thighs my size, sometime even bigger, that can wear short and walk around in them like no problem. Am I the only one who chafes like that? Or is there some miracle to prevent the chafing that I don't know about?

I really, really want mushy food. I ate some potato Soup today. It went down fine, no nausea or discomfort whatsoever. I need to know what some good full liquids are, because I'm starving, and I'm tired of SF popsicles.

Congratulations!!

Hello everyone. This is my first blog entry here on LapBandTalk. This forum has actually helped me out tremendously since I made my decision to pursue surgery. I love everyone here! Well, I had surgery on June 15th, so I'm on Day 5 postop. My appetite is back, and man oh man, I miss real food. I'm supposed to be on clear liquids, but I'm probably gonna bump it up to full liquids here soon because my tummy can't handle all the grumbling anymore. I tried my first "full" liquid today. Honestly, it was more of a mushie, so I feel a little guilty. I had some potato soup. Yup, full of carbs, but my stomach was killing me and I had a headache out of this world. Yup, yup, no excuses... I haven't thrown up or anything, and I actually got hungry again a couple of hours later. That seems to be my pattern right now. Eat a little, get super crazy hunger, eat a little more, super crazy hungry again. Yeah, this is getting old real quick. I had a big ol' unsweet tea that I put some Splenda it to sweeten it up with and I was sipping on that before my demon cat Vivi spilled it all over my carpet. Guys, I tell you, I can't wait to get back to work so I can separate myself from this little girl. She likes to pounce on my tummy and play with her toys directly on top of me. I love her death, but jeez, I can only take so much. I have another blog at BlogSpot that I update more often. I could really use more followers, especially if you haven't had surgery yet. I'm not a seasoned Bandster yet, but I want to track my progress and give hope/advice/grueling details about my recovery and weight loss journey. Drop by My Lap Band Adventure to cheer me on. Once again, I love this place, and all of you guys.

I had my surgery on Friday, about two days before my period was due. I still haven't started, and haven't had my usual warning signs either (mild cramps). I'm just waiting for the throwdown, though, since I have no clue when it will start up again.

Did everyone get an incentive spirometer? Because I didn't. :/ Sent from my Evo.