SandyM

How are you doing this evening?

Guess I'll watch for adverse signs, but in the meantime, coffee is the one thing I don't think I'll give up.

As for the difference between head hunger and real hunger, ask yourself if a carrot will satisfy the hunger, if it won't, its probably not real hunger. But, make sure you have some carrots around

I agree. No time like the present.

How long are you staying satisfied. You should be able to stay satisfied for 3 to 4 hours. It's not going to help head hunger, that's psychological and you'll have to deal with that separately. As for the feeling in your chest, could be too big a bite, not chewing well or eating too fast and not allowing your pouch to empty properly before putting more in.

Lisac, I agree with every word. The band is very subjective, but sometimes people look for the green zone to be something more commanding than it is able to be and pass right over it to the red zone. Problem is when they hit the red zone and lose wt like crazy they don't want to back out of it for fear of stalling. All kinds of problems like reflux, dilation, vomiting with slippage are possibilities. We all have to find our own sweet spot. Mine is green close to the yellow end. I can eat just about anything, but I'm restricted to amount. This also has drawbacks as grazing isn't restricted and neither is head hunger. This makes me have to practice a lot of self control.

I'm actually lighter than my husband and loving it

coffee. Um.....as much of it as I can get

When my surgeon puts the needle in, its painful but for only a second then its done. Kind of the degree of a bee sting. As for how effective the first fill is is really individual. Most require more than one though. I believe I've had 4 and think I'm in need of a booster.

4 with hernia repair and plication. They do whatever they need to have camera and tools.

Not bad at all. Just a technicality.

Way to work it!

Yay! Way to go!

Yep, I didn't look at your surgery date. Hot showers it is. Be careful not to get the Water too hot, that tends to drop the blood pressure and then you have a bigger problem.

Sounds like a nice hot bath would be in order here. Good job.

So why are you waiting till November 24?

Are you already a pro wrestler? I mean, I guess you could wrestle, you'd have to take in a lot of calories to wrestle and it may be hard to take in this many calories after the sleeve. My son does jujitsu and he says when he's training or fighting, he has trouble keeping weight on. A friend of his started training with him and went from very overweight to buff in 4 months.

I guess make that at least 2. I haven't changed my coffee habits a bit since prior to surgery. On my clear liqud days, I didn't have any, but that was it. I haven't noticed that it bothers me at all and my surgeon never mentioned it, so I just took it as ok.

Lol, my surgeon uses a carrot. He says ask yourself if a carrot will satisfy you and if it won't its head hunger not hunger. So, the other night, I was lying in bed and I was feeling hungry. I asked myself if a carrot would satisfy that hunger and the answer surprisingly was "yes". Problem is I had no carrots and the rest of the night, I found myself waking up craving carrots. I even dreamed I was sitting in the garden pulling carrots out of the ground and eating them. I woke up with a bad taste in my mouth, and sorta gritty llike dirt. I don't think I got up and ate anything, I think it was my imagination. I hope it was my imagination.

In the beginning carbonation will gas you up. I've had one soda since surgery a year and a half ago and did fine with it. I drank it very slowly. Enjoyed it, but didn't love it. I'm pretty much over them and so glad, as it was an expensive habit. My surgeon told me he didn't mind diet soda if I could tolerate them, and I can, but no longer care about them.

Most of your symptoms sound like dehydration. Could be you have a simple stomach bug. Definitely get lots of fluids in. I'd contact my surgeon just in case, but don't forget the fluids.

that happened to me too, I had a lot of nice dress clothes that I had grown out of. I kept thinking while I was losing that eventually they would fit, when I finally tried them on I was so excited, then they turned out to be too big. Window missed. But like they say, when a window closes, a door opens. Yay! Gotta love them doors.

The day of surgry, you'll probably do good to get any liquids down at all and will have to struggle with that. Day 2, you'll feel better, and liquids will sound a little bit better, but probably not a whole lot. Stock up on Gatorade, apple juice, grape, popsickles, broth. You'll still likely have a lot of swelling and shouldn't really notice a lot of hunger. It really won't be as hard as you think, but very important that you stick with your surgeons orders if you don't want complications.

I agree that there is a honeymoon phase here. Its like prepping for the wedding. We plan plan plan and shut out anyone who tells us the groom or bride isn't perfect and that things won't be perfect after the wedding. Anybody whose been married as long as I have, 35 years, knows that it takes a lot of work to be married. I admit I was given only the bright picture from my WLS team. My only support group was from a coworker who had had the surgery 8 or 9 months earlier and was in the honeymoon phase herself. I didn't find this site until after surgery. I'm sort of glad I didn't. I see a whole lot of positive here, but I also see a whole lot of whining. I might have backed out. What a pity that would have been. What I was not told: The weight gain was never about food really, maintenance would not be about food and Long term reality wouldn't be about food. Yes, food definitely plays an important role in all of this, but it's not the biggest issue. We all eat excessively, too fast or whatever, for other reasons.Until we deal with that, we still have a problem. Maybe not even an eating problem. I have not sought counseling, but I spend aot of time analyzing why I eat and I know for sure it's not hunger. I did the Protein shake diet for 2 days this week and experienced real hunger for the first time in a year and a half. I found that this hunger was very easy to satisfy with another Protein Shake. The feeling that I've always called hunger cannot be satisfied with food, as hard as I try. My surgeon says in his blog if you find yourself hungry, ask yourself if a carrot will satisfy that hunger. If not, it's not really hunger. I tried this the other day and it actually does work. Ok, so I'm rambling now, so I'll just finish by saying, The wedding won't change the groom/bride. The WLS isn't going to change your relationship with food. You have to do that yourself. The WLS is a tool and a very helpful one. If somebody handed you a wrench and told you to take out a bolt, you'd still have to do the work. Its certainly easier with a wrench. So figure it out. If you can afford counseling, great. If not, your on your own. You can still do it. But do some research and see if you can figure out why you use food to deal with every day issues. I never could figure out drug addicts and why they used drugs as a crutch. But, I've used food the same way. I still do find myself doing this, but at least I know I'm doing it and that makes it easier to not do it. I said easier....not easy.

Name: SandyM. Age: 55 Location: Arkansas Date of Surgery: May 10, 2013 Current Weight: 142 Weight loss since surgry: 82 Goal For November: 140 (I know its small, but Havent been there in 20 years and it's hard to commit to a loss at all when I'm pretty content where I am:) Favorite thing about Thanksgiving: Family getting together plus it's time to prepare for Christmas Weight goal for November: 140 lbs