The Icy One

I remember those days! From June through October last year I thought I'd go crazy! with a capital K! Seriously. My insurance company drove me nuts. Do this, do that, Don't lose any weight, but don't worry about gaining any. Then, literally ten days before the end of my hoop jump process they changed the rules on me and I had to crash off at least five pounds or start the entire process all over again. I made it, just by the skin of my teeth! Then there was the five week nail biter wait for my approval and letter. But it is all worth it. I promise! Because I have my band, it is the best. tool. ever. It is working for me and I am so happy that I went through all of that nonsense. Hang in there. You'll get there. It feels like forever, right now. But before you know it, you'll be looking back on it all and be so happy that you did it and you will be encouraging someone writing a post like this.

Hey Lauren, that is so great. I say, rock your band to your own best advantage. It is your tool, make it work for you! If your band is getting it done for you as it was installed then it is perfect for you.

Congratulations on beginning your journey and just remember, your health is the best investment you can make. You are definitely worth every. single. penny! Good luck, going forward. Your date is coming up, fast. You'll be a bandster before you know it.

Bread. Rich, yeasty, artisan bread. I love, love, love bread. I can eat me some bread. Which is one reason why I am sitting here, posting with a Lap Band around my stomach! LOL My husband brought home a beautiful loaf, the other day for himself and our son to nom on and I stood in the kitchen and just inhaled the scent. Oh. My. Gosh! It smelled so good! My band is so sweetly balanced at this point that I can eat pretty much what I please, within reason. I enjoy rice, Pasta, tender, moist meats of my choice, most veggies all well chewed. I am avoiding bread because I know that it can cause difficulties and it is a huge trigger food for me. I also haven't tried roast beef or grilled steak. I haven't had a stuck episode, since I have been banded. I know that it will probably happen, at one point or another but I am putting it off as long as I can!

Do it your way. Tell whomever you want. Get your support from the people who will truly have your back and let everyone else just bask in the glory of your transformation.

Wow. Some people's kids.

I am so sorry that you are going through all of this and facing more surgery and removal of your band on top of it. In the end, tho you need to do what is right for your health and well being, that has to be your first priority. I hope that removal of your band and a solid treatment plan gets you on the road to recovery and you feel much better, soon. As for you weight, the last forty can be conquered with help and support of your mom and friends. Don't give up. You can do it.

Hi Angi, I was also banded in November. I have lost 36 pounds so far. Not stellar, by my own standards but I am not complaining. I have a 10 cc band that was primed with 5 cc and have had one adjustment and received 1/2 cc for a total of 5 1/2 cc. I feel as if I am very close to my sweet spot. Right on the bubble. Some days I think I need a tiny push more, others, I think I don't need any more... I don't know, at this point! LOL Anyway. For me, I don't feel "restriction" I feel balanced, satiety for hours after eating, I get satisfied on about 3/4 c. of food, stop eating and that is it for me for at least four hours forward. I eat a couple of times a day. Rarely three. I am just not interested in "three squares". My band doesn't hurt me, it doesn't fight with me, I don't fight with it. I don't get stuck, I don't PB, slime or feel pain. I can eat the foods I choose to eat with reasonable exceptions. I choose to exclude soft, doughy breads, steak and pork chops and so forth from my diet for obvious reasons. I also avoid celery, woody stemmed veggies and so on. Other than that, nothing I want is off the table. I eat Pasta, rice, popcorn (as a treat) I just had clam chowder for lunch. The clams went down just fine with plenty of chewing. I was a famous volume eater before my band. I could put away huge quantities of food in huge bites, in record time. Plug me in and call me Hoover. I could suck it down like a vacuum. Empty my stomach and go back for more. Yep. Epic eater. That was me. My band has freed me from that nonsense. It hasn't "cured" my head hunger but it has given me the physical stop that helps me remember not to push past the point I must not exceed. And I just don't do it. It's bloody marvelous! I am free of food jail. I am not obsessed. I forget about it until I get so hangry that I have to stop and feed myself my little bandster meal then I get on with my day. I love my Little Silicone Friend. I have named her Draca. She is my dragon. My guardian, my power center. My companion in this battle. I couldn't do this without her.

Aww. Vent away. If anyone gets how you are feeling, we do! LOL The liquids phases sucks so much! But they are crucial to our healing. We need to ingest the soft, gentle, mild liquid, then mushy food for a month to let our stomach heal and our band settle firmly into place so that it is ready to rock it's job for the long term. Hang in there. I know that the post op diet feels as if it will last for forever. But trust me, when it is over, you will look back on it and it will be but a flash.

Starfish, it's good to see you posting, again! I'm so glad that everything is going along your way and you have your surgery date and all is set to go at last. Yay! I'm so happy for you and I hope that we see more of you around here, again.

Welcome Valerie. Getting my band was one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself. As the fabulous and famous Ms. Bandista says, it has freed me from food Jail, a place I have been incarcerated for far, far too long. I am finally in control, not the food and dayumn! Girl, it feels so good. Good luck with your surgery and your journey. Enjoy your run up to your surgery, read, learn, prepare, this time will go fast and before you know it, you will be banded and your new life will begin.

Never let anyone push you into any surgical procedure of any kind. Whatever op you choose, make sure you do it because you know that it is absolutely right for you. I chose the Lap Band for several reasons: Procedure: Fast and lower impact on my bod. No cutting and removal or rerouting of my internal organs. Adjustable: Mama is a control freak who likes things just so. Yep. Knowing that I can customize my band to my exacting specifications was a big draw for me. Revisable: Should there be a difficulty in future, it is pretty fixable. Should it fail, it is removable. Reversable: Let's face it. Sh*t happens. If, God forbid I get sick or injured to the point that my band is in the way of my treatment and or healing, it can easily be removed, my stomach will return to normal and I can get on with whatever I have to get on with. A sleeve or bypass would not have given me that option. I love my band, it is helping me, it is working for me and I am happy that I got it. But in the end, you need to think through all of your options very carefully, decide what will work best for YOU. For your body, your health concearns, lifestyle, what you are willing to work with and so forth then go forward, secure on the knowledge that you are acting in your own best interests. Good luck, no matter what surgery you choose. It is all about regaining your life and health!

Yes, you give up a lot but you gain so much more! And what's a fizzy drink in the face of improved health, pretty clothes and dumping medications and Co morbidities? Besides, some bandsters do drink bubbly stuff... Everyone is different. Personally, I content myself with water and yummy flat beverages but if bubbles are where it's at for you, after you have had your band for a while, you can try working them back into your life.

My insides do goofy stuff since I have been banded. Funny little hiccups, weird burps, strange rumblings and bumblings... I figure that as long as it doesn't hurt and I'm not hurling blood or some strange substance, it's all good. LOL

I also had a hiatal hernia repair. I went in for my first aftercare on December 19th and was in green and didn't need any adjustment but was allowed to transition to full solid foods. Yay! I had my next aftercare scheduled for January 16th. I stayed green until about the 10th or so. Then all of a sudden, I hit my yellow zone in about 2.6 second. flat. I went to bed in my green zone, I woke up the next morning and ate. my. house. down. Wut???? LOL Crazy. I let myself be a little crazy just for fun that day then I had to crack down. I had to keep reminding myself that I had a Lap Band! I didn't know that I had 5cc of fluid! I was chowing down on Pasta rice, popcorn... It was kind of nuts. After my first adjustment on the 16th, I only received 1/2 cc but it seems to have just about put me back where I need to be. I feel as if I may only need one tiny adjustment to put me at my perfect sweet spot. I don't want to be tight. I just want to be balanced. Anyway, I'm jabbering. I live in Prescott, Arizona. My practice is True Results in Scottsdale, Arizona.

5 1/2 cc. I have lost... 36 pounds. I was banded on November 21. Slow start. I expect things to pick up when the weather warms up a bit more.

It depends on the patient's anatomy. I am a female, 5' 7" tall and I weighed 369 on the morning of my surgery. My surgeon installed a 10 cc AP Lap Band and primed it with a 5 cc fill.

Leepers, that is some fill technique, fo shizz. . I guess different docs and NPs have slightly different ways of doing it. My first was on the 16th. We started out on the table with a pillow under my back, the crunch and so on but my port was being a snot and my NP couldn't find it and I had to have my adjustment under fluoroscopy. I have a 10 cc AP Lap Band that already had 5 cc in it at the time of my surgery. So my NP just gave me 1/2 cc. I feel as if I am pretty close to my green zone sweet spot happy place. One or two small adjustments and I will be there.

I like the same Protein powder now, post op that I used pre op. I still mix it with unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze. Still tastes the same, to me.

You are an inspiration and a delight. Congratulations on all of your success so far and in the future!

I was nomming on popcorn just fine before my first adjustment. At that time, I was at five cc. I am now at 5 1/2, haven't tried, since there isn't any popcorn around. But I will, someday, soon. I can't resist popcorn, for long. Just take it slow, one puff at a time, chew well and see how it goes.

Oh, HELL NO! If I ask my doctor a question about my healthcare, I expect an immediate and honest answer. My body, my right to know, my right to to be fully informed before I consent to any course of action and treatment. I have a 10 cc AP Lap Band. It was filled with 5 cc of saline at time of surgery. My first adjustment added an additional 1/2 cc for a total of 5 1/2 cc. Angi, you have every right to know precisely how much saline is in your band. That is a crucial piece of information that you need to know. It is your body, your band. If your doctor won't tell you, take control, grab your chart and read it. You can, you know. I've done it. Shocked the hell out of the doctor who thought that the sweet faced blonde girl in his exam room would just sit there and swallow his line of condescending BS. LOL Be an advocate for yourself. If you don't do it, who will?

Mushies. I was so excited to get on them. After my surgery, I was on Clear Liquids for the first 48, then full liquids for four days then on to mushies. Then about a week in, I was over them. And had two more weeks to go. LOL I had to get creative but even so, I ended up eating a lot of the same stuff, just thinking, meh, feed myself and get it over with. I ate mashed up potato with buttery spray, salt and pepper and a six minute egg. Cream of wheat and scrambled egg. A lot of Protein shakes. Chili. Refried Beans and cheese. Tuna and cottage cheese. I am now off of cottage cheese. LOL Grits and cheese and egg, either six minute or scrambled. Tomato soup and cheese, Cream of mushroom soup, run through my Ninja. Mushies are stupid.

Good old post op gas. I got lucky after my lap band surgery, my surgeon did a really good job getting the gas out. I had almost no discomfort from gas. I had left shoulder discomfort but that was thinks to the hiatal hernia repair I had done. I lived on a heating pad for a couple of weeks, thanks to that. Nearly cooked my shoulder because I over did it. I had surgery in March of last year and I wasn't so lucky in the gas department. The gas pains were pretty uncomfortable. A couple of things that helped me were walking, windmilling my arms, and bending at the waist, side to side, then back to front, then round and round. I did it as much as I could, as often as possible, as vigorously as I could, without hurting myself to move that stubborn gas out. I had one big bubble that settled in under my rib cage on my right side and just freaking sat there for a couple of weeks. I couldn't dislodge it, for the life of me. Deep breaths, coughing, sneezing, yikes! Boy, was it a relief when I finally managed to get that damned gas bubble to disperse! Don't give up. Be persistent, you'll get rid of the pesky stuff, eventually. It's still early days, you are still healing and you will feel much better, soon.

My first adjustment was the the 16th and had to be done under fluoro because they couldn't find my port. I had five cc in my ten cc band at the time of surgery and had 1/2 cc added during my adjustment. I think that I am very close to my sweet spot. I am pretty happy, now, and I think that one or two small tweaks and I'll be at my perfect balance.