parisshel

Just got back from having my third fill. I have all my fills done under Fluoro, and I'm thankful for that. I knew I needed a fill (my last was done on August 28, 2013) as I was getting hungry way too fast after eating. It really brought back memories of how my life was pre-band. I was starting to search for food, I was thinking way too longingly about certain foods, and (most importantly) I was starting to slip into a dieter's mindset. By this I mean I was looking at sugary foods and saying to myself that I could not trust myself with just one little bite, as I knew it would lead to overeating that food. When my band is properly adjusted, I don't have that dieter's mindset and I can, indeed, stop at one little bite. I'm SO glad I get my fills under Fluoro, because I would not have been able to see what I got to see this morning: the radiologist had me drink the contrast solution BEFORE the fill, so he could see how my band was acting at my current fill level. And we both saw that I'd lost so much fat (and weight) that I had no restriction left whatsoever. The barium just flowed through the band without backing up into my pouch...right into my stomach as if I had no band. Yay for weight loss and yay for being able to adjust the lapband! No wonder I'd been feeling like a pre-bandster! (So glad I am this tuned into my body!!!) I thought I'd only get 1 cc but (again, thanks to Fluoro) as the radiologist filled to 6 ccs, the xray showed I still had no restriction. So he pushed in some more saline, and gave me a total of 7 ccs, but (again, thanks to Fluoro) that gave me too much restriction, so he pulled out 0.5 ccs. My takeaway is this: Listen to your band and your body. I am always reluctant to get a fill. I'm very squeamish and I prefer to keep my band on the loose side to avoid stuck episodes. But with my weight loss, the band had become way too loose and my body was screaming for an adjustment. There was no need to keep on with my Dieter's mentality when I had/have this wonderful life-enhancing tool right there, and that tool was ready to be re-set to help me continue on to my goals. And, as many have said on this forum, Fluoro really is very important to get an accurate picture of what the band is doing (or not doing). If you can opt for a Fluoro-fill, don't hesitate. It's like getting a custom-tailored outfit vs buying off the rack.

This site was and is very important to me. Initially (preband) it was a good source of information, along with my surgeon. I remember one of the most important posts I read prior to being banded was written by a nurse who described in great detail a "typical" lapband operation, from entering the hospital through post-op release. She adressed why we are given support stockings, how they would put us to sleep, what that experience is like, etc etc. It really helped me feel more at ease in terms of the surgery, because I like to know what to expect. As I progress from pre-op to post-op to I guess one could call me a pre-veteran at this point (10 months post op), I target what I'm going to read and where I'm going to wander about in this site. Obviously the pre-op rubric is of little interest to me at this point, so I don't go there, but I don't rule out popping in from time to time to hold a nervous pre-ops' hand, electronically- speaking. I get great information from those who have walked this path before me and I focus on their posts. I also hope that one day, when I'm an "after", I will provide a pre-op with the kind of inspiration and sound advice that I got from the veterans. I do not have a real-life support system (info/support groups are not part of the culture I live in and are not provided by my surgeon/hospital) so I seek that motivation and support here. I check in here everyday and trust me, when my motivation is waning, this forum and the vets are my kick in the butt to keep going. I see what can be done when information is paired with compliance. I am grateful to those of you who share respectfully and intelligently, with your humor, real-life knowledge and gentleness. I'm grateful for those that do not leave, and continue to help me along this essential, transformative path. Without you, I would have been so very much on my own.

CG- I also hate Will Ferrell so I'm with your "old man" on that one. The movie I watch every year at this time is "Holiday" with JUDE LAW FTW (and Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Kate Winslet). Oh, I just love the story and the setting: England and LA. One year, both my kids and my sister gave me the DVD...because everybody knows how much I love this movie. Plus, Will Ferrell isn't in it.

I had a three-night stay in the hospital. In addition to the normal stuff, the most helpful items for me were: -A printout of my reasons for doing this surgery. I used this to meditate on the night prior to the operation. -A really good book (I read "Swamplandia!" and it was great). I needed something I could doze off and on to. You'll be sleeping off the anesthetic after the surgery -Moisturizer and chapstick...hospital air is really dry -Slippers. -Loose sweatpants. You won't want anything tight touching your incision areas.

It is entirely normal that bands get adjusted. You'll see veteran bandsters here and in the blogosphere getting adjustments over the years...nothing odd about that.

Love this thread....I'm "liking" all of your posts, everybody! For me: I love not being "on" or "off" a diet. I love my small portions of delicious food. I love not using "diet" foods or "fake" foods to replace real, tasty food. I love not counting the hours until I can eat again. I love not stressing out about parties/restaurants/invitations for dinner and wondering if I will be able to find something to eat that is "on program." I love crossing my legs over and over again. This is probably bad for circulation, but I just love sitting down, crossing my legs and hooking one leg behind the other...makes me feel like a thin person! I love how small my stomach has gotten and how I now have a lap. I love that my GP took me off statins (which I'd been on for two years) because hello, cholesterol is now normal! I love being able to browse in normal-size clothing stores and not feel like the salesgirl is rolling her eyes thinking "why is she bothering?" I love how much more self-care I do: my hair, my makeup, my outfits, my skincare regime, my massages. It all makes me feel good and like I'm taking care of myself because I'm worth taking care of. I love that my BF gave me Christmas-themed lingerie and can't keep his hands off of me. I love all my activity: elliptical, long and fast walks, long bike rides, aquagym. In fact, I love it so much, I sustained a stress-fracture in my foot due to too much sport! (I don't love that pain so much, but I love bragging about how this came about.) I love being free from feeling hungry and feeling deprived. Most of all: I love how fierce I've become. I'm so glad I did this.

That seems high. Does the NHS pick up any of that?

You've had great success, and I'm sure it is due to your day in day out committment. Congratulations on your bandiversary! You look wonderful.

Well done! Your transformation is a statement of dedication and consistent effort. You look (and sound) wonderfully happy!

Oh, I'm unsurprised that people treat others differently based on weight, etc. So I'm not angry with them. I'm sure I'm no saint in that regard, either...but one thing I know is that I'll never forgot what it feels like/felt like to be way too large for society. (Let me note that I live in a culture where there are few overweight people and have always felt like an outlier here in Paris. It is not the same when I travel back to the USA where being overweight is not such an aberrant condition. Here in Paris, life as an overweight woman is extremely unpleasant and people will make openly-rude remarks to me...well, less so now.) What makes me sad is that I will never recover the time I could have had moving through life in a more-physically pleasant looking exterior...so much of my personality has been formed based on how the world reacted to me. I sense I developed certain personality traits to deflect or even pre-empt how others were going to treat me. I know that sometimes I was kind of unpleasant and mean from the start when dealing with strangers, because I knew that they were going to treat me badly based on my looks. Or, alternately, I was too sweet and unimposing because I felt I had no right ask for or expect a certain level or service... I lost a lot of my true voice to my fatness. As a previous poster writes, I'm recovering, or rather discovering now my true essence.

My biggest change is the fierceness that has revealed itself as my weight drops off. I'm not living so fearful anymore. I'm now doing things that really were out of my comfort zone nine months ago...and each new experience builds even more self-confidence. I love this unexpected benefit to weight loss. Also, people are seriously much nicer to me now than before. It's interesting to experience this. Favors are done, people go the extra mile in terms of service...whereas before I was dissed immediately.

Try moister foods to see if these will go down without sticking. I'm at the same fill level and I know that if I eat things which are too dry, with my very small bites they just don't have the mass they need to go down. Prior to the band, I never noticed this of course...my bites had so much volume that gravity kicked in and they swooshed down without a second thought! Sometimes I need a little sip of Water to get down the too-small bite of too-dry food (and that's ok). But to avoid this, I stick to moist foods like fish or chicken in a sauce. I cannot do shrimp at all...the texture does not allow me to get it to a small-enough size to go down. So no more shrimp for me!

It's true that some WLS surgeons will recommend a different form of WLS for those will a lot of weight to lose. I seem to remember that historically, the lapband was the WLS tool most recommended to those whose weight problems hadn't put them into the Death Fat zone (yet), say, someone with under 100 pounds to lose. This may have been based on the statistics that with Gastric Bypass or the Sleeve (or RnY, etc) the weight drops off at a faster rate during the first year, as compared with the Lapband. (However, a heavier person will drop weight faster in any case since they are burning more calories at the outset due to body mass.) Do not be dismayed by these impressive results; look at longterm loss rates---everybody evens out when viewed in the longterm. (Everyone who complies, that is.) Your health professionals may have been citing statistics, which have little bearing on how you will do as an individual. As previous posters have said, you are in the driver's seat, whatever WLS you choose. Look around this forum and you will see many many participants who have lost and kept off >100 pounds.

Stick with my lapband directives from my surgeon and nutritionist. For me that means high Protein followed by veg, fruit, dairy. Stay away from anything that brings on unhealthy eating which, for me, includes sweets and carbs. Staying away from white carbs is easy due to my band (I don't eat bread, Pasta, rice, couscous, potatoes, etc). And if I keep my protein high, staying away from the chocolate and sweets is easier (I wouldn't say it's "easy" but it is "easier") because I don't crave them when taking in high protein.

Anyone else read the sane and sensical blog "Weighty Matters"? penned by Dr. Freedhoff? This recent blog post struck a chord with me: So here are some truths. People are not walking math formulas whereby if they have 3,500 more or less calories than they burn they'll gain or lose a pound. 3,500 calories of one food or type of food will likely have a different impact on health, hunger, thermic effect, and weight than 3,500 calories of another food or type of food. Different people have different caloric efficiencies whereby they are seemingly able to extract more calories from food or reserves than others and lose weight with more difficulty (and gain with greater ease). And yet here's the only truth that matters. From a weight management perspective, the currency of weight is calories. While exchange rates undoubtedly do vary between foods and between individuals, you'll always need your own personal deficit to lose, and surplus to gain. All other discussion, while certainly academically interesting, given there are no other alternate measures available to track, or tests to determine individual responses to different calorie sources, serves to foment confusion. If weight's your concern, more important than anything else is finding a life that you enjoy that contains fewer calories than before. Getting stuck in the minutia of what type of calories may lead to an every so slightly faster or greater loss, rather than truly crafting a life that's enjoyable (and hence sustainable), might help in the short run, but will almost certainly defeat you in the long. I really love this because it describes what I've found with my lapband, and what eluded me with traditional dieting methods. "Finding a life your enjoy that contains fewer calories than before" was only possible through my lapband. Trust me, I did NOT enjoy my traditional dieting days, filled with hunger, longing to eat, and trying to game my calories by substituting wholesome foods so I could work in that slice (or two, or three) of cake.

I probably wouldn't get a fill if I were in your situation. If you are already experiencing PBing and slimming, even a slight fill might increase the likelihood that you will move towards slider foods, without even being conscious of this, due to the negative feedback loop you are experiencing.

I love this post. I especially relate to the idea of being mindful...mindful in a positive way. Dieting without the lapband, I was mindful, but in a frustrated and deprived way...mindful of how hungry I was and how much I hated giving up this or that. The lapband has given me so much peace around how I eat.

If longterm failure were truly a factor in weight loss method decision-making, Weight Watchers would have gone belly-up years ago.

All my fills are paid for by French National Health--which means I have paid for it with my taxes--and done in a radiologist's office with fluoroscope. But I do see what the office bills the National Health agency, and it is 315 euros. I have to supply the barium, however, and that is out of pocket--about 10 euros/bottle.

What a great success you've been. Thank you for telling your story, with all the reality included. Congratulations for entering onederland; what a wonderful Christmas gift!

Pants are my nightmare. I'm down to two pair that kind of fit; one I had saved from my "thinner" days, and one I just picked up for cheap at H and M. I find Talbot's trousers and jeans to fit pear shapes pretty well. They make different cuts, and I think the one I like is "Heritage", which sits at the waist. ("Signature" sits below the waist and is not at all flattering for me). If you can hit Talbot's at a sale, the prices aren't too bad.

You deserve to crow about this! Congratulations on working that lapband so successfully. You have earned yourself the best Christmas present ever...feeling strong, healthy and positive!

I was afraid of apples for several months post-op. But I cut them up very small and added them to my endive and bleu cheese little salad. SO GOOD! I'm glad I overcame my fear. That said, I would never ever just chomp into an apple and try to swallow that. Yikes.

Look at you! Amazing how quickly a year goes, right? And now...you've put into place good health, mobility and a positive outlook, along with lapband success! Great to see your wonderful results.

On Tuesday I saw my GP for my every-three-months review of my bloodwork. My cholesterol numbers have been ideal for the past three months...so no more need for statins! Yay! "Just another benefit to your weight loss," she said. I was especially pleased as I had just read an article in the NYT's "Health" section about the link between statins and diabetes. Thanking my lapband once again for helping me do something that I could not have done on my own.