lisacaron

Hi Nina, You are 100% normal! Most people have fears before any major operation, and before any major change in their lives. That is what this surgery will be for you if you choose to go forward with it. Lapband or any other Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) requires 100% commitment from you. It's not an easy fix, it is a tool to help you better guide yourself into a healthy weight and more importantly to a healthy life style. There are some who are unfortunate and experience complications from surgery at no fault of their own. This can happen with any surgery, for any number of reasons. It is the risk we take when we need to have any surgical procedure. That said there are also some that do not comply with their doctors orders and do not follow the protocols as outlined for them by their healthcare and surgical teams and there for fail and create further complications that did not necessarily have to happen. Often these are the very people you will hear from and who will post comments about how this surgery failed them. Keep an open mind when you read comments as you never can tell where someone is coming from. My best advice to you is to go back to your bariatric surgeon or surgical group and have a one to one talk with them about your concerns. They will be able to tell you what their success rate is of compliant patients who have done well with the band and/or other WLS as well as the rate of complications they have seen in their patients who had complications and what type of complications they had. If you are confidant in your Dr. and you feel that you are ready to make this life change and be 100% compliant with your surgery and your Dr nothing anyone has to say especially if they have not had surgery will enough to cause you any irrational fear. I wish you all the best, as you get closer to your date.

Cheryl you are on point here. When you are going through something the last thing you might be doing is thinking about your weight loss or your band. It can and it does happen. We are human and not infallible, but we are able to learn something from everything we do. I think that is more what Gowalking is trying to encourage here, for us to have a place that's safe to share our bit of hell with another and maybe to confess to those who can understand us without judgement when we have transgressed against ourselves. No one wants to have to learn lessons the hard way, but sometimes that is the only way we learn. I have learned this very poignant lesson not only by making mistakes myself but also by watching my very own hearts (my children) fall and fail and struggle as they become men, not just in the number of their years. While knowing that it is my duty as their mother and someone who loves them unconditionally to let them. No matter how much it might tear my heart apart. To love them is to let them grow...let them learn...let them go...and let them live their lives.

Your expressing yourself very well Nicki. Baby stepping it is what I do too when I'm not quite sure where I want to go. I don't want to stop moving all together, so instead I'll take those more cautious smaller baby steps and keep it moving. I am very happy to have my band, it helps me to better understand things in relation to food about myself that I may have been told before but just didn't understand how it applied to me as well as I do today.

I totally agree with you! I have been having a very stressful couple of weeks....I'm a very lucky gal in many aspects of life and then there are somethings that can just send you spiraling and are out of your control. If you knew me well you would know that some (like my kids) like to call me a control freak. This is not exactly the case, though I do like a certain order and organization to my life. It helps me to deal with the catastrophes that life throws my way all too often. That said this weekend, I learned something about myself that has truly amazed me. I have been plugging along since I was banded, following the rules, getting my fills, going to the gym as often as I can. Encouraging those around me who are banded and even those who are not to eat better make better choices, to try and move more and keep motivated. (former cheerleader yeah that's me!) Problem is that I am very good, too good with my poker face. My private world can be rocking and hanging off the edge of cliff and I will still be doing what needs doing. Professional problem solver yup that's me, and so my inbox is never empty and my desk always has someone at it and my phone always rings and there is always a problem that needs solving. I love it, it is who I am....but sometimes it gets to me. Sometimes I am sad...and I want to withdraw and hide. I used to hide with some Snacks and eat them to soothe my pain. I found out this weekend that this no longer works for me, but I didn't know until I tried it. All this time since being banded I have not fallen into my "emotional" eating like that. Where I took the goodies and hid myself away to medicate my feelings. This Monday I did just that and you know...it made me sick to my stomach. Not from guilt but literally sick to my stomach! It didn't do what it used to do for me...and now I felt even worse and wanted to throw up. It was my husband who intervened my pity party and calmly said to me, why don't you hit the treadmill and walk it out. I was pissed off at him in that moment, I felt like he was judging me for falling apart. The rock who is so strong for everyone else...there she is in the bottom of a Cheetos bag. but...no he wasn't mocking me or judging me, he was trying to help me and he was right. I felt better after walking it out, putting on some headphones listening to some relaxing music and just walking till I felt calmer and more at peace with myself again. I'm still dealing with the affects of this latest catastrophe and there is always lots and lots of work to do...in the paying world and in all other area's of my life, and today I can tell you from experience that I know it's not food that's going to help me decompress any longer. I need to move, and moving through it is what is helping me...and hey it's helping my body and my health too!

Hi Joy, as B-52 stated it could be a umbilical hernia. If it's bothering you then you should defiantly ask your surgeon to take a look. They are fairly easy to fix and it will help you feel better. Over the years I have had several abdominal surgeries that went through the belly button and created a weakness there and it was easy for the surgeon to fix when he did my hyster surgery and now it's not so sensitive.

So Usrr I am just curious...are you self pay or insurance covered for surgery?

You probably have not messed anything up, but stick to your Dr.'s orders. In the mush phase food should be blended and really soft. Things like lettuce can often cause hangups in the stoma for some, so wait on that until your doc tells you it's OK to start eating it again. I was very hungry right after surgery and it was hard to stay on point with the post-op diet but you want to heal and you want your insides to have the chance to heal. Eating things that are solid too soon even though they pass through and you don't feel that they "hurt" you make the esophagus, stomach and intestines work harder then they should be right now while the focus is on healing. There are many good yummy foods that you can mush up and enjoy for now, one of my favorites and still a winner when I have a fill is to get a chilli from Wendy's or make my own Turkey chilli is even better, but I will throw that in the blender for a few seconds and it's like a thick pasty soup. It's so filling and delicious. You could even do that with the Taco salad your hubby made for you, minus the stringy lettuce

Perhaps that is where your port is located? When I was healing it sort of felt like a knot to me it took a while for that feeling to go away, but if you are worried and it doesn't feel right give your surgeon's office a call.

This is true, many surgeons do follow these phases as mine did. However not all doctors do. If your doctor has not placed ay restrictions on you and you are still worried about it, and even if he has and you are worried your best course of action is to give your surgeon's office a call and see what they have to say. If you are that hungry and having that much difficulty they may want to see you sooner then Feb. It never hurts to reach out to your doctor for clarification. They are there for you, and if you have a nutritionist it wouldn't hurt to have a consultation with them as well. Best of luck to you as you move forward on your journey!

Do you have a history of gout? Has your nutritionist told you what the amount of Protein you should be consuming daily should be? I was not getting enough when I was first banded and needed to increase my amount. I usually take in 60-80 grams a day and now feel so much better. If you are on liquids only, you can be having Protein shakes, and Soups to off set that. I usually do liquids for one or two days after a fill, and I will stick to the protein shakes and vary the flavors. I make sure that I am always having something so I'm not feeling deprived or hungry. I will have my Water in between even in the form of decaf, coffee or tea. I'll make some blended smoothies with kale and ginger etc. you can also buy Naked juices if you watch the sugar and carb content. As I move forward I will move to mush foods, and that will include soft Protein Bars, blended chilli, eggs if you can tolerate them, bits of soft cheese, pulled chicken and soft flaky fish. More solid forms of fish, chicken, beef or pork when I am ready to move back to solid foods. I eat the vegetable sparingly to ensure I get the protein in first. I chew chew chew, and rest between bites. For me vegies have to be cooked or they don't digest. You can do it!! I have faith in you!!

Did your doctor put you on any kind of restricted diet after surgery?

Head hunger is really the worst! Those old bad habits are pretty bad too! I have to say...Super Bowl I was a good gal! I didn't eat badly had a few bites of pigs in the blanket and I was all set. There was no need for picking on junk I was so good...then it snowed me in yesterday. No work, in PJ's all day...feeling depressed about a whole bunch of stuff that's been going on in my life and had nothing to do but sit and think about it all. I got myself so miserable I found the Cheetos in the closet and started munching! I was disappointed in myself for giving into a moment of weakness. I could have had a healthy snack, but I didn't want to get up and make anything I just wanted to wallow! So I did. I didn't feel better, and as I really got into the bag...I felt sick. I didn't let that stop me though I ate till I got so sick of them that if I see another Cheeto I might have to yak. Just thinking about it now makes me sick! Serves me right! I am not beating myself up about it, I did it and paid for it, and I'm moving on from it. Since being banded I have not fallen back to that extent before, and this served to prove to me that my life has changed and what once worked for me no longer does no matter how "comfortable" I thought it might be, it wasn't at all!! I felt better after I walked for 30 minutes then I did eating the junk, and that proved to me that my old habits are better left in the past, they were not healthy for me and though I might feel down, no amount of food will make that better. A few endorphins from exercise though helped a whole hell of a lot, so I think that's where I am going to put my focus from now on. I invited my son's friends over yesterday in the snow after they were out shoveling and gave them all the rest of the Superbowl junk and called it a day!

Crying....sniffle....this is so sad!!! Just hearing predictions for more snow is depressing me!

Hi Sherry, If your husband is not going to support your journey you are going to have to make a difficult choice here! That is to eat the chocolate and sweets or not! We can't control other people, the only thing we can control is our reactions to circumstances. If you find yourself in the situation where your husband brings home sweets try to limit your exposure to them. Hide them away, or bury them in the yard. Flush them down the toilet or give them to some kids on your block. Start having parties where the kids come over and eat all the sweets, and then when your husband says "hey I'm not trying to feed the neighborhood" you can tell him to stop bringing home the sweets and you'll stop feeding it to the neighborhood. Sometimes we have to be strong for ourselves, and make a those difficult choices. Maybe next time choose to have a chocolate Protein shake or maybe a Protein Bar or something equally as yummy that will keep you on track. If your hungry between meals you may need a fill to help you feel NOT hungry between meals. Give your doc and your nutritionist a call and see if they can help you get things working in your favor again.

Hahahaha!!! That's a good one

I am a slow loser too Having a few medical issues to ice the cake never helps. I agree with Sandy that 1500 cal. might be a little high. The highest both my husband and I were told was 1200. If you can try to cut back on your intake a bit by making some food substitutions if possible. Exercise is good, keep doing that!! When your faced with all the hormonal issues you have going on that can stem weight loss, trust me I know from personal experience!! As of my last fill I find myself finally in that Greenzone where I am not looking for food, and most times don't even think about needing to eat. I am at 7.5 in a 10cc band but the volume to reach that zone is different for everyone. Some never need a fill, and others like me it's taken quite a bit to get there. Keep chugging away cause your numbers are going in the right direction and they are not going back!!!

Let me first say that I am sorry to hear about your Dad. Losing a parent is never easy. You are in the right place for support, so welcome! There are many here who are different phases of their journey, they are wonderful supportive and inspiring people. My advice to you, is what I rely on when I hit bumps in the road. I take it back to basics. If you have not checked in with your Dr. for a while make an appointment with them and check in on the status of your band and fill level. If you need an adjustment get one. Do the 5 day pouch test, you can find it online by searching. It's basically going back to the pre-op/post-op liquid Protein phase. I will do a few days of liquids then mushy then solids making sure I am working my band mechanics the whole time. It helps me re-set my mind and body to get back on the bandwagon again. Stress is a very real thing and it affects us all in different ways, you have been through a lot in your personal and professional life over the last few months. So give your self some TLC and congrats on making it through nursing school!

For me when I had my band placed and plication surgery it did nothing to stem my hunger. 4 days after surgery I was starving and had to have my husband stop watching TV with commercials as I thought I could smell the pizza and hot wings through the TV and we were on liquids only! My husband on the other hand, had NO desire for food. Not to look at it or think about it. His appetite before surgery was enormous compared to mine and here we were post op and the opposite was true. As we have progressed through our journey I have had a few more fills then he has needed and our weight loss has been pretty much the same rate of loss. As of this last fill I believe I am "finally" in the green zone, though I am filled to nearly 7.5 in a 10CC band. I say that I believe I am in the green zone now finally because as of this fill I no longer have that feeling of "hunger". There are times when I simply do not have the need or want to eat. I did not have that before I would always have a "need" to want to eat about 2 hours after having my last bite of something. Now when I eat I am satisfied on a small portion and I can walk away, again something that till now I did not have. There are days when I am "very" hungry and my body tells me that it's hungry and needs fuel, not my brain. In this I mean that I will start to feel weak or have a headache and I know that I have not given my body what it needs to function as it should. The signs are very subtle, I'm not starving myself when I can I make sure to eat those 3 meals a day to get the nutrition and Protein in. Today is a great example...I was not "hungry" for lunch. I didn't want to get up and go get it and eat it. As I sat here working my head started to pulse and a headache was brewing. So I got up and went to the cafe, got a cup of turkey and black bean chilli and now I feel great! My body was needing something, and to sit and not feed it would be to suffer the consequences of what could become a very real migraine in a matter of minutes. So I listen to all the signals my body puts out, and when it comes to eating I give it the best most nutritious choice I can make and keep the portion under control. To me that's what living in the Green Zone feels like....

Congrats! Beautiful!!!

Sometimes when I gulp too fast or swallow something hot too fast I get that feeling and it's hard to burp out that stuck air. Standing up or walking around usually helps me.

That was one big mistake I made from the beginning I never took my measurements and wish I had. I know that I am losing inches even when the scale doesn't move as my clothes start to fall off

What mrsto said is correct give your doc a call. Seems like things are not going down all the way and/or coming back up. I love the hairball reference though!

Ah...yes I have those days too though it's not necessarily from medication but from stress. Here is a funny story...well a couple of them at my husbands expense poor guy! First is a related Vicodine story. Hubby has really bad hips (needs to have them replaced) so the doctor gave him Vicodine for pain, his oral surgeon also gave him Tylenol with codine for pain (aka Vicodine) for tooth extraction. Each bottle had a different medication name, so hubby having just had oral surgery took the meds the doctors had given him. (both were low dose thank God!) After about 10 minutes of talking to me he started sounding like an Indian at a Pow-Wow...A heya heya heya hey...he repeated on a loop in a chanting manor while bopping up and down on the bed. I couldn't help myself I started laughing my face off so he started laughing and we were both crying from laughing in a few minutes. (I called the doc to be sure he would be OK and the doc said yes just let him sleep it off and don't do that again.) He never did that again but we often laugh about it. Second story: When Hubby came out of surgery after getting his band he was screaming and yelling that they cut off his leg. The nurses and doctor came rushing into the waiting room to find me because no matter how much they tried to reassure him that both his legs were still there he would not stop yelling at them for cutting off his leg! I had just had band surgery 3 days prior so they didn't want me to be in the recovery room until he was "stable", but they had no choice as he would not listen to anyone. He calmed down after I got there, as I pulled the sheet back and asked him what do you see, and he said "my feet". I said so that proves that both your legs are right where they should be, and no one cut your leg off and took it away. Medication can make us all a little loopy sometimes. I'm happy to say we are both doing great and I have not seen the One Legged Indian since surgery

PT if that happened to me I would be in BIG trouble with this darn weather we have been having on the East Coast this winter!! It is true my band is a bit tighter when I am in the cold, I am still able to get liquids down though and I'm grateful for that. In this icy weather I will have something warm to drink before my meal so that my stoma is relaxed and receptive. I would probably be in a panic if I could not swallow liquids. If your in the icy weather area's and you are having this same issue, I would totally consider a tiny (.2-.5) unfill until the weather warms up. Sometimes no matter where you go inside or out, that chill gets to ya. I know my bones were hurting those days when it was 6 degree's. There were some mornings I woke up to 1 degree temps...OMG I just gave myself the chills thinking about it

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Perhaps when you go in you might consider speaking with your surgeon about revision to another type of WLS surgery. There are certain compliance's with all surgeries that we have to take responsibility for, and we all need to work in compliance with the surgical procedure the surgeon and our health care team. I'm not saying that this is your fault. What I am saying is that it may be time for you to examine all the events and see where things may have failed for you and be honest about it with yourself this way no matter what the reasons where when you move forward you will be a bit more aware of where those area's are and perhaps be better able to navigate your way past them. I hope that everything works out well for you.