wafa125

Oh by the wAy, I was so nervous prior to the fill, but it was a piece of cake, no pain at all

The realized band take more to fill and reach restriction while the Lapband takes less fills less time to get restriction! My Dr told me just yesterday that the Lapband is better (allergen)

Oh don't be nervous at all!!! I was so nervous and I was surprised afterwards how easy it was. Good luck to you too, I'll be watching ur updated as well!

Oh by the wAy, I was so nervous prior to the fill, but it was a piece of cake, no pain at all

While you were busy judging others you left your closet open and your skeletons fell out.

Is fat really the worst thing
a human can be?
Is fat worse than vindictive, jealous, shallow,
vain, boring, evil, or cruel?
Not to me.
-J.K. Rowling

Wow! I'm coming into this a bit late, but I have not been so compelled to post on this board in quite some time. The OP came across as very condescending.
I'm very happy for you that you are succeeding in your journey and that you've found a method to make your weight loss work for you.
HOWEVER - you cannot claim to know everything about everyone and their lives. Is there a 'right' and 'wrong' way to lose weight? I think that we should all be encouraging one another, instead of discounting the efforts that people are making.
I know I certainly don't have an hour per day to exercise. I fit it in when I can, and I make sure that I get at least a few minutes of intense exercise a day. But an hour? Are you kidding me?
I work. Full time. Plus overtime.
I am a graduate student. Time and a half.
I volunteer. 5 hours per week.
I tutor fellow students. Twice a week, one hour each time.
I raise two children. On. My. Own.
Let's not forget the whole cooking/cleaning/driving kids to activities, etc...
Tell me, Ms. I-know-your-life-better-than-you-do, when, exactly, I am supposed to fit in an hour of exercise a day? I'm a bit offended by the first post, I won't lie. I fit in what I can. I have a fitbit, and I'm excited when I get in over 3 miles on a workday. I do approximately 20 fights of stairs a day. But you think that I need to deprive myself of another hour of sleep so that I can meet your idea of what is an acceptable amount of exercise? I only sleep 5 to 6 hours each night as it is.
No one is arguing that it's bad to exercise - on the contrary, most of us know that we should get more in. But at what expense? If the step that I'm able to take now is to no longer binge at night when I'm studying, and eating smaller portion sizes, shouldn't that be encouraged, rather than me being slapped in the face with, "you're not doing enough."??? Who do you think you are to pass judgment on other people?
I call BS! I do MORE than enough, and I guarantee I do more in a single day than many people do in a week. I would love to see the look on your face after only living ONE WEEK in my life. Oh, that's right, you'd probably be face ground on the sidewalk before you even got into the office on Thursday.

Im so excited and thankful I meet with surgeon and advocate its a go surgery on the 29th yay thank you god!
I also got weighted and lost 16pounds so greatful and gonna continue to push on! Good luck everyone!

I was banded on 5/21. I did a 10 day "liquid" diet prior, but actually it allowed fruit and cottage cheese, so I didn't suffer too much.
Between my 10 day prior diet and the week after, I lost 16lbs. It seems like I've leveled out, but I'm struggling with a lot of mental battles.
For context, I lost 25 lbs before surgery on my own across 4 months. I needed to know I could do it and I made a lot of small lifestyle changes. The dietician visits helped more than I expected to show me what I was doing wrong (I was mostlyl on track, but my portion sizes were out of control.) Visiting with the counselor for the psych eval helped a lot too. I plan to keep visiting her to help me reprogram my internal "voices" and messages that I choose to believe. My intent for the band was to help me to slow down my eating, to be a reinforcement to help me continue to take off more weight and to help me keep it off.
I am finding that post surgery I am struggling with a lot of mental battles and being aware of that is half the battle. It seems that before surgery everything was my choice. Now I have a ton of restrictions on me and it "feels" like I have no choice. I'm a little rebellious and struggle with being told I can't do something. I find myself struggling with desires and cravings that I didn't have for over 6 months prior to surgery. I'm trying to figure out where all of this is coming from. I will overcome it, but it's just frustrating right now. It doesn't help that I feel like I could use a fill RIGHT NOW and I have two more weeks to go.
From the day I first had my consult with my doctor I am down 40 lbs (started at 230lbs at 5'1"). I was on a pattern of gaining 30lbs every 10 years. It was creeping up and I was going to be at 300 by the time I was 50. I am glad to have this forum. It helps so much to find others feeling or experiencing similar questions or frustrations. It's just nice to know I'm not alone in what I'm dealing with. There doesn't seem to be a normal experience...everyone is unique in how they heal, how they adjust, and how long it takes. And that is very freeing to know.
I do need to get plugged in to a support group, just to talk to others in person who are also going through "stuff". Sometimes it just helps to hear others' problems or struggles. They bring my own into perspective.
Regarding the surgery, I've had a lot of surgeries on my knees, feet, ankle, carpal tunnel, etc...so surgery wasn't a big deal to me. The anesthesiologist is my favorite doctor (next to my lapband doc). It took an hour to hour and a half. I had 5 incisions on my stomach, 4 that were maybe 1/4 inch, those are the laproscopic incisions and one that was 2 inches about mid mass. It would have all been healed by about the 10 day mark if I hadn't had an allergic reaction to the adhesive. They put tape over each wound. The portion of skin covered by tape reacted and looked as if I had poison ivy. So the 2nd week of healing I was "overcoming" the itching from THAT.
I didn't need any pain killers. I went home and slept the day of surgery. The day after (that would be Day 2) I felt like I had done 1300 situps and could barely roll out of bed. I had to have help getting up. Day 3, I could roll out of bed, but when my skin shifted and moved my wounds, it kind of hurt, but just the area around the wounds. By Day 4, I could roll out of bed fine and by Day 5, I felt fairly normal. Internally, I can kind of feel where the port is if I rub around. You can't feel where the band is. The first two weeks, my insides were sore/tender... I kept thinking it's not normal to feel my guts. They were just sore and if I moved wrong, it would be tender. But now over 3 weeks out, I'm back to normal. No tenderness. My scars itch some, but I'm dealing.
It did take a good 2 1/2 weeks for the swelling in my stomach to go down.
I really expected to have the restricted-I-can-hardly-get-500calories-a-day-down-feeling my friends had. But I don't. So I can't wait for my first fill. I loved the weight loss prior to and right after surgery - it's major incentive to get down to my goal weight. If I feel this good at 190 lbs, then I'm going to feel AWESOME in another 30lbs and another 30 after that, I I don't think I'm going to be one of those that drops tons fast like so many I've heard do. I expect it will be around 1-2 lbs a week of weight loss. But that's ok. The longer it takes, the longer it will stay off. I just want consistency and to keep it off. I'm not going down this road again. Fat is not who I am. I refuse to keep filling that role. (Pun intended )
Two friends who I speak of, a husband and wife, it has taken her 2 years to lose 120 lbs, but for a long time was wasn't taking in the minimum required calories so I think her body has fought her on the weight loss, although there is nothing wrong with her timeline. I think she wants to lose another 20-30 lbs. Her husband reached his goal weight of 130 lbs lost afer surgery within 11 months.
Ladies, men typically lose weight faster. FYI. Don't bother being jealous. We're just different.
For those researching this, I wish you luck in your search. It is a lifetime commitment and a major lifestyle change. But don't do it because you want the band to do it for you. It is not a "crutch" as many like to call it. It is a reinforcement mechanism that you CAN ignore and bypass by stretching out your "new stomach"... Many do fail because they aren't committed. Know your weaknesses and don't rationalize. You have to want it and to want to do the changes required to get it done and keep it "done". And most of all, being overweight is symptom and not just of a lack of discipline, there are internal messages or voices that you likely listen to that you need to address, deal with and reprogram if you're going to make lasting change. People do what they do because they rationalize or justify it.
And I think I just pep-talked myself into a better place. LOL! Hey take care and feel free to drop me a line if you have questions or comments!!!
Here's to being a skinny fat person on my way to being a healthy, fit and balanced slimmer person. I'm unzipping this fat suit and letting my inner skinny OUT!
PS: I forgot to mention the gas. Meaning they pump you full of air in the surgery and that air or gas has to escape slowly over time. I had pretty bad shoulder/trapezius area pain the first week or so. Laying flat made it stop, sitting up made it worse. Also some back/rib pain. It was gone by the 2nd week. I've known others who dealt with it for over 3 weeks. You just have to move and work it out. It's "normal".
PSS: and the burping... It was worse the 1st 2wks. Now I find it's associated with what I eat or what my body position is. I find a few burps will slip out if I lean over... I think they're escaping via the body angle... LOL!

3 days only away from my surgery. I will be banded on the 15th of June!