lisacaron

@@maygoddess I had to read through all the posts from the last year as I must have missed your initial post. When I was first banded and just getting to that green zone or so I thought I had some issues with medication from a car accident I was in and had the same circumstances and my "pouch" was dilated. Basically the area above the band not the esophagus was hanging over the band which meant it had expanded to hold the extra food/drink in it while things slowly went through the stoma of the band. To remedy this situation the Dr.'s called for complete unfill of my band for 3 months or more. Yeah so I was VERY careful during that time as I didn't want to gain back any of the weight I had lost and was/am still pretty far from my goal weight. I gained all of 10 pounds during that time mostly by eating nothing drinking shakes and going to the gym constantly. As the fills started again...well starting with 5cc's wasn't doing diddly. By the time I was feeling that green zone again it was months and months later and it was pretty darn hard to keep up that diet of liquids and exercise, your body just can't survive on that intake and output and I got sick often through out. My surgeon retired and I was on the hunt for new one..... Of course the new Dr. was unimpressed with my weight loss to date but you know I never really got to even experience what being banded was! However I also think that more research needs to be done before patients choose their own WLS. When Dr.'s tell you that things like pressure from travel or changes in temperature or having a cold or flu don't affect your band just tells me they have NO understanding of it at all. Heck the barometric pressure affects me every single day! Today the dew point in the air is so high that breathing is difficult for me because I have COPD, and it's not a weight related issue it's a my father smoked too dam much and it affected my lungs since I was a child issue. The air quality is bad, the barometric pressure is high and I have a headache, I'm tired, dizzy and all because my oxygen saturation is low...so if all that is affected by the "air" and atmosphere of course my band is affected in a similar way. Sometimes I can eat a spicy food or too much lactose or take a medication I take every day and it will irritate my stomach and cause the stoma to swell and close up tighter. It's not rocket science, it's common sense. The same goes for a cold or flu where you produce an excess amount of mucus that plugs up the stoma and irritates it to boot causing it to be blocked or swollen chicken is not going to make it through when our own body fluids don't. I am 2 years out from band surgery, and honestly feel like I am still just learning what it's like to be banded and how to work with my band. The numbers on the scale finally started moving again though slowly, and I don't sweat it as life has too much going on to sweat that stuff. I make it to the gym most of the time, and I have lost in inches and toned nicely though there are days when I'm just too pooped and I'm sure medical conditions don't help it...but I am 100% healthier than I was and I will keep working it. I have a 5k coming up in Aug. so I'm back to the gym to get some training in...and hopefully we can get that weight off both of us!!!

@@deeberry I'm sorry your having a rough time of it. The first thing I would do is make an appointment with the Dr. If your too tight that is defeating the purpose. The more irritated your belly gets from throwing up the more inflamed it makes the stoma around the band and the tighter the opening of the stoma can be making it more and more uncomfortable. In the meantime go back to liquids to give the stoma a rest and maybe ease some of the swelling as well as to reboost your weight loss. When I get into that spiral that is what I do. I take it back to basics. If I am swollen and it can happen sometimes just from certain foods I eat if they are too spicy or if I am sensitive to them, or even medications that I take. It can even happen as a result of a cold or allergies where I have excess (nasty) stuff in my throat and my band is tighter. I give it a rest and just revert to a shake now and then and once I feel that it is relaxed and not irritated I will resume eating solid foods. If you think you don't need to be unfilled and just need a rest, then try doing liquids for a few days. If your still having trouble with the yogurt after a couple of days of liquids then you need a small unfill. I know it can be devastating when your not able to move around like you did before. I broke my foot a few years ago and I had to be totally off of it and I was in cast and then a boot for nearly 4 months. The plus part of that was while I was on crutches I was getting so much exercise having to lift and haul my body weight around I actually LOST weight, but that was long before WLS. As you can get to moving around more start to incorporate that into your daily activities even if it's just a few extra steps or a couple of parking spots from your usual spot etc. every step counts!! Let us know how your doing...and don't give up hope!!! We can reset our minds and our bodies any time we choose to, and make a fresh start. So let this be your new start...and here we go!!!

@cuchas @linseeka I just answered a post on a similar topic just now and my advice to you, as was given to me from my breast specialist is to avoid the "sag" get and wear a good supportive bra. If you are working out you need a good sports bra to support those babies. Depending on the workout you need one that is more supportive than not. Not supporting them makes them prone to having tears in the soft Fiber and muscle that breast tissue is made up of. If you are extra busty because of excess weight you are going to deflate a bit...but you won't sag. I lost weight in my upper clavicle area and can now see my collar bone but my breast size and shape has remained the same. My bra size went from a 42DD to a 38DD at my thinnest as a teenager I was a 36DD so you can see the size of the breast hasn't changed as much as my body circumference has. As for the piercings...they sell the plastic retainers that you can place for surgery and for any tests like MRI or X-ray etc. If your piercings have closed and you think you might have a breast augmentation in the future I would hold off re-piercing until then. If not put them back in and Rock on with your bad self!

@@capricec if your extra large on top because of weight gain, yeah your gonna deflate a bit. If your breast tissue is your breast tissue then not so much. I have also gone from a 42DD to a 38DD but the breast tissue is pretty much the same, not much of a deflate in them other than that paunch that I had above them at the clavicle line. I can now see my collar bone One really good tip that I was given as I started my pre-op, post op and even today I still put this into practice. Support!!! Get it and use it. If you are at the gym you want a really good supportive sports bra to hold those babies in place. The more they hang the more you rip the muscle and Fiber that keep them up and they will sag. So when I am at the gym I make sure to have a great sports bra on, and when I am home working around the house I will have a good supportive bra, sports or other wise on. This was a tip from my breast specialist, even before I started considering WLS, just for breast health in general.

Growing up I didn't have a taste for many things. In fact I didn't like chocolate, it looked messy and kind of like well...you can imagine when it melted so I was anti-chocolate. If you asked me if I wanted a Hershey kiss vs a carrot stick I took the carrot stick. My Grandmother, was Hershey kiss fanatic she had them all the time all over the place and it was a turn off to me because they were always stale or melted. So as a kid I was pretty skinny. Mom cooked all our meals and we ate lunch in school which was as about as nutritious as the pyramid of health could be I would mostly drink the chocolate milk and maybe eat the pizza. I wasn't big on the cereal for breakfast either and we always had things that were no sugar like puff rice, Cheerios or shredded wheat. So most mornings I would "make believe" eating breakfast and float a few bites in milk till they were soggy. (yeah Mom caught on when the box lasted for months but cereal bowls were in the sink every day. Hey was young and deception was not my forte!!) Weekends when Dad would cook up some runny gross eggs, or worse scramble them and slather them with butter and ketchup (barf) he would have me sitting there all day to finish that plate of eggs. I would not touch them with a 10 foot pole. (sorry Sam I am, would have had a better chance with green eggs and ham!) Thank God we had a dog and it would only take a couple hours to get her to eat that whole plate! (yes the dog was over weight, I"m sorry Baby!!) dinner would always be some kind of meat potato and greens. Most of the time I would eat the greens and the potato and the meat would be a fight. I wasn't into the meatloaf or hamburger. Veal cutlets gave me a headache and meatballs...well nope they were just as bad as hamburger I don't care how much sauce they had on them. My family, and friends families, (the big Italian kind) all tried to fatten me up over the years. I ate pretty healthy until I discovered sweets, and the bakery. Yeah that was my downfall...and there it went. ALL chocolate wasn't Nanny's Hershey kisses and it was delicious!! Bakery items...even bread!! Oh my...how yummy that could be!! You could keep the Oreo's and chips ahoy give me a crumb bun or piece of cheese cake. As I got older and I was able to buy what "I" wanted to eat....well....so much for healthy picky eating. I can't blame my parents, I didn't like their food very much, it was all MY own doing. I found the bakery and I found the chips and once I stopped being that fast action always moving running dancing and jumping teenager and became an adult that could eat what she wanted, when and where....and started taking care of her own family and not herself so much...well that is when I was no longer skinny.

So I have a couple of opinions on WLS in general. I personally have the band and that was my choice. My opinion about WLS is that there is too much "choice" and often it's put all on the patient that no matter how much research they do is still not a medical expert. There isn't enough understanding, testing or exploration done by the Dr.'s to recommend the best choice for the patient when it comes to WLS. For just about every other surgery, there is a gambit of testing pertaining to the surgery itself to identify and justify the best surgery required. For example if I am having pain in my knee, I might see an orthopedist who recommends surgery but what type of surgery is needed? Should it be a full replacement? Should it be a partial? Do I need simply some cleaning around the joint for scar tissue? They take into account many things perform various tests like range of motion, MRI, CT scans etc. before they decide on the type of surgery. I feel that this analysis is missing when it comes to WLS. Today I can tell you in all confidence that I know more about WLS and the different types of WLS than my Primary Dr. does as well as my cardiologist and many other Dr.'s I know. With more education not just on what's working but why it's working on certain patients vs other patients I believe we could and would all be that much more successful.

I want to throw a parade my friend!!! You are one amazing lady and it shows on your face!!! I agree with you that it's not all about the numbers on the scale. I'd love to see my numbers dip, but you know what I feel better than I have in years and I am back to being active and doing all the things that I used to do and enjoy. Hubby too and I can't be more grateful for that!! It wasn't so long ago that the Dr. was calling 911 from his office to have me rushed to the ER for heart failure, so I am extremely grateful for good health!!! Buying Ken a bike for his birthday, now that is something I thought I would never see him be able to do!!!

@@CeeTee13 your going to find lots of caring people here who are going through or have been through many of the trials and tribulations you are finding yourself going through. This is a great place to come for support and to just share your concerns and vent your feelings. That said, I'm glad you went to see the Dr. how are you doing today? Did the Dr. share any insights with you? The band was a good choice if your thinking about planing a family in the near future, I can tell you a very close friend of mine has had 2 gorgeous little ones since she's been banded Any type of WLS is a bit of an emotional roller coaster as we are changing everything about ourselves, the beauty of the band I think is that as you work toward getting fills and finding that sweet spot/green zone you have the time to master all the little nuances of eating and making choices of what to eat. The early stages of being banded can be challenging but this is the time to study and learn all those subtle changes that are required as you start getting fills. Practice eating in portion size, chew chew chewing before swallowing. Getting in that Water and not drinking with eating. Noticing where your hunger comes from..is it head hunger, boredom or is it real hunger and a need for fuel? Starting up an exercise program, slow and steady. Just getting out to walk for a bit is a great way to start. As for the port area...yeah mine took forever to heal and not be sensitive. I'm short and short waist-ed so I have hardly any torso to begin with, and the port just sits right where all my pants sit, the side of my desk at work hits and even my seat belt in the car! So it took me a good while before that area was feeling normal again and even today every now and again I bump that sucker or turn the wrong way and it always lets me know hey I'm here!!! BUT I look at is as a reminder of what I am doing for myself and a wake up call to take it a little slower and treat myself a little kinder in my race through the day. Keep in touch with us and let us know what the Dr. had to say...and how your doing!

What a great idea Liz! I think I might just break my bike out of the shed and give it a go this weekend. I haven't ridden a bike in a long time, and I used to love to ride all over the city when I was...dare I say it "younger". Have a great weekend!!! Share some pictures of your tour through Central Park!

Feeling your pain....it always happens to me at the worst times that I get sick and it never fails. I can get through so much and then just as I feel "ok" and can catch by breath. BAM I get sick. Feel better, keep resting and I hope you get well soon!

@@JustWatchMe divorce is an ugly monster sometimes. I'm sorry that your going through all this drama and that the other person has to keep being such a p**ck. I hope you enjoy the 5k. Put your ear buds on and just walk and enjoy the scenery and don't think about a darn thing other than getting to that finish line. That was how I made it through my first one. I didn't care about the time, just the fact that I was able to complete the dam thing was more than enough for me. I am going to do it again this year, and again who cares about the time it's just about doing it and crossing that finish line it's an empowering feeling. People can get you down and let you down and sometimes it's all you can do to keep your chin above Water I know I'm sure everyone here has been there more times than we care to think about. We are human after all This weekend here in NY is supposed to be soppy and wet. I'm starting to feel like I should grow some duck/goose feathers!! The air quality over the last few days has been driving my COPD insane. The high humidity makes it hard for me to breathe and so I'm exhausted more often than not from not getting enough oxygen I think. I did manage to take the hubby fishing on Father's day in the rain!!! Eventually the day cleared up and it got horribly hot and humid so I was glad we went out early and were back in the AC by then.

@@uurbz Your thinking is neither right nor wrong. Anyone who has had WLS is going to be able to eat any food they want to eat. Some surgeries are going to restrict the amount of food that they can consume in a sitting, and some surgeries depending on the food will "rush" that food through their system and eliminate it and they may develop an intolerance for the food. WLS regardless of the modality, is a tool. Your 100% right about that. It's a life time and life changing tool but just like any tool you have to use it and using it takes a bit of work in the application. Congratulations on being banded and taking the first step. Everywhere you go and for everything you put in your mouth remember that your tool is there to help you reach your goals. Eating fried chicken and potatoes high carb foods are not going to help you reach your goals. So your Dr. is right, stay away from them, make smart substitutions for them. This tool is all about helping you make a healthy life style change with your relationship to food. It's a process, and you will get it and before you know it your band and you will be the best of friends Here are some links I have found helpful in understanding the band. Eight Golden Rules of Lapband: http://www.bariatric...dr-paul-obrien/ The Lapband is not about Restriction: http://drsimpson.net...estriction.html

The "green" zone is subjective to everyone. My husband is doing great at 4 in a 10cc and I am up to 6.5 in a 10 cc. The trick is that just because you can eat doesn't mean you should eat. (trust me I fight with this one also) I have days where I don't want to eat anything and I can run most of the day on a Protein bar and then I have days where I am eating 3 meals and looking for something else and it's hunger not just wanting to snack. (of course I have those days also) For me I find that on the day I have a work out at the gym I am not very hungry, and then the next day I am ravenous. I try to keep it to high protein foods to help replenish and heal the muscles I am working out, but I notice that those days I am more hungry than not and my band is accommodating. When my band is not accommodating toward eating is usually the days when I am the least hungry. Of course my mind still tells me I need to eat because I need to eat....but my band will tell me ah..no you don't.

@@verna2197 I agree with @@parisshel please do not wait. It is not par for the course to start slimming and vomiting out of no where especially in your sleep.

@@buzzly36 Your in the right place to ask lots of questions and get lots of answers as well as lots and lots of opinions. As with any surgery there are those that have complications and those that have bad experiences. You will also find many people who have had no complications and amazing experiences. It is a daunting process thinking about surgery and if it's right for you. I know when I was first deciding on what to do, even at more than 100 pounds over weight, I still didn't think I needed to be SO drastic as to have surgery. I thought I could do this myself with some discipline a good diet plan and resolve. I dropped about 40 pounds and then picked it up again months later with about 20 more to spare. I have lost and gained weight so many times I finally resolved that I needed the intervention that having weight loss surgery would give me. I have been banded for 2+ years. I have not yet met my "goal" weight and I am one who has had a few medical complications along the way, but I will tell you this. I do not regret the surgery, nor am I disappointed in the surgery. I work at it every day, and the results are there. I am not looking to shed weight over night, and I enjoy socializing and eating foods with friends and family as well. I make modifications to those foods, and there are some things that I can not eat, but I also find that I don't really want to eat them so it's nothing I miss. It is a life style change and if your not ready for it, the learning curve can be larger. I love being banded because it fits my life style. I am able to modify as I have needed for medical reasons along the way and I would not have been able to do that with any of the other surgeries. My husband is also banded and that was the best choice for him for similar reasons. We are both very active and losing weight consistently, and more to the point have not gained back ANY of the weight we have lost as was always my failure in the past. So my best advice to you is do your research. Look into all the surgeries, meet with Dr.'s and surgeons. Go to the free seminars and then with the help of your Dr. and medical team decide what is best for you.

@@B_heezy12 I'm sorry to hear about all the troubles you have experienced, but I wouldn't take anything off the table when thinking about a revision. The best advice is to find a surgeon that you trust and have a nice long conversation with them about what your experiencing, and how you feel. Ask them their advice, don't let them make you feel like you HAVE to revise to another surgery but get the information so you can make an informed decision for yourself. Either way if you decide to take the band out, keep the band, revise or no the best person to talk to is a surgeon you are totally comfortable with. See if you can make an appointment not just for an exam or a fill but a comprehensive consultation and evaluation appointment. Make a list of all the side affects that you have experienced, add in the pro's and con's about being banded and keeping the band or losing it. How you feel about revision, and any questions you might want to ask about anything and bring that all with you to the appointment. I wish you all the best!!! Let us know how your doing!!

I think that often we find ourselves embarrassed by our size, and we don't want anyone to notice us or point out how big we are or how we look. We know how we look we know we are large and we don't need or want anyone to notice us so we try to make ourselves small. Then we have surgery...and we begin to get smaller literally...and at the same time out in the real world we seem to get larger and people who we thought did not notice us before are not only noticing us but making comments about us and be they positive or negative we might feel just as embarrassed. After all WLS still has that stigma to it that Obesity does right? Aren't we all taking the "easy" way out of our fat suit by having WLS?! No we aren't and as time goes on we understand that there is nothing "easy" about our journey. Hopefully through the process we begin to respect ourselves for our efforts, and we being to respect the self that was obese, and the self that endured testing, pre-op diets and surgery and the self that is on the road to and/or recovering from obesity every single day. We begin to lift our head higher and higher and as we lift our heads our eyes are finally able to meet the eyes of others with confidence because we know who we are and we love ourselves for who we are no matter what numbers on the scale no matter what size our clothes or the shape of our body we become larger than life filled with gratitude and appreciation for ourselves so we lift our heads and say Thank you. Thank you not for noticing my weight loss, but for noticing "me" and acknowledging my journey and that of countless others.

Hi Matt (@uurbz) don't worry. Sometimes EKG leads can be..mis-leading pardon the pun. However any discrepancy in the reading is always cause for concern when a surgery is pending. I have some irregularities with my heart rate and my EKG often comes up with something that raises a red flag depending on who is doing the reading. As part of my approval for surgery I had to have a cardiologist do a work up and approve. Try not to worry, sometimes the simplest thing like being dehydrated or having an elecrolyte imbalance can cause an irregular reading on an EKG. Let us know how things go after you see the Dr.

I have to say I echo what @@gowalking said. Surgery should be the last option unless your really in major discomfort. i know how large boobs can feel when they are weighing you down and finding a bra that fits comfortably and does the job is a daunting task especially while you are in the process of losing weight! I have had to change my bra size 3 times already, and those suckers can be expensive!! My cup size has not changed very much but my body circumference has thank goodness they come with three levels of closure so they at least last through a few dress size changes. When I am at the gym or doing any kind of impact sport, or even working at home doing yard/house work I always wear a sports bra for support. I find that having the correct garments are really important to how you look in your clothes and ultimately out of them.

Thank you for sharing that was a good read, I'm sure so many of us can identify with in one way or another.

@@srahjean I notice that you posted similar stories in a couple of different forums. Your bound to get many many replies. Let me start by saying that you are doing great!! You are making the changes that you need to make to get yourself back on track. As for the Dr. keep pressing and get yourself in there. Work is work...I know I am a very busy Project Manager working on many things at once...but "I" have to come first. That means my health and well being are paramount to my success in anything. So stop what ever you are doing now and get yourself that Dr. appointment, that is one step UP and closer to being where you want to be. Keep doing what you are doing, and try not to get discouraged. You have done this, and you will do this you know what what to do. Your a smart person and you have the tools to be successful!! Now it's time to work them, carve in a little time to work out. Even if you have to take some briefs with you to the gym and read them on the treadmill or the bike. if we don't make the time for ourselves we suffer and in the long run we are not the only ones who suffer. Eventually it will catch up to us and our work will suffer our friends and family will suffer because we are not there for them or we are not able to perform at our optimal level. Feel better...chin up....fingers dialing (make your appointment) and feet walking...deep breath...and your one your way!

You should be getting closer to 70-90 grams a day. Speak to your nutritionist to get an accurate number for your weight, height and age. You can also look it up online but your Protein intake is too low. http://www.proteinsmart.kashi.com/?&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=how%20much%20protein%20intake%20daily&utm_content=protein+calculator&utm_campaign=Consideration-Protein-Calculator&mkwid=kT5cxbKf&gclid=CM_fiMbbmcYCFZGLaQodEI8AGw#/calculator Protein is not stored in the body so you need to put it in every single day. There are some protein shots that have up to 20 mg of whey protein in them and they are about 3-5 oz that you can drink just like a shot to get the protein in if you are not able to through food. My advice though would be to reach out to the nutritionist at your Dr. office and/or the Dr. to get a good understanding of what amount of protein you need.

@@☠carolinagirl☠ Your doing amazing my friend!!! I wish that I could say I felt that restriction right out the gate with my plication and band surgery but I didn't and it took me forever to find that green zone and then lose it again because of a dilated pouch. I started all over again with my fills but you know it kind of took the wind out of my sails...but I learned so much about myself and my relationship to food and my stress and emotional eating habits along the way. Things like ice cream for me @@B-52 I wish I could say were not an issue and I get full fast...but NOPE I can eat that all day long and never feel full!! I don't do carbonation at all because it makes me feel like I swallowed a balloon and I don't like beer at all so that's a big help It is true that if I forget about food or eating for the most part I am not hungry...but I notice that the higher my output is during the day/week the hungrier I am on certain days and my need for Protein is that much higher and I guess I can understand that as muscle is looking for some extra protein to repair itself and build.

@girli565 @tamga Congratulations to you both!!!! One day at a time, and walk walk walk. It will help with the extra gas and you'll be feeling better in no time. Just take it slow and steady now is all about healing and following Dr.'s orders. Come back often and let us know how your doing!!