terrydumont46

Being heavy can also cause a low sat. level. practice breathing deeply. Inflating your lungs. it will help you for post op.

That's right on your waist isn't it? if it becomes a problem I understand the replacement of the port is very minor surgery. so don't worry.

Did she say this while she was reading labs or after she put the little clip thing on your finger?
If it was the latter of the two, she likely meant your O2 Saturation level, which is the level they determine by putting that little clip thing on your finger. It measures the hemoglobin in your blood which helps determine how saturated your blood is with oxygen. Ideally you want a reading around 98-99. If she just said your reading was low and didn't freak out about it, you were probably above 95. If you had to walk a ways to get to the office visit, if you were out of breath, if you have low Iron, if you were wearing nail polish...all of these things can throw off the reading.
Next time she says something you don't understand- ask her. It's her job to speak in a language you understand so you don't have to be worried about your health. In this situation though, you don't need to worry- if it was really that low she wouldn't have let you go home.

just weigh on the one at home. don't pay attention to the doctor's scales. my doctor told me to weigh naked on Saturday morning. and that is it.

If anyone would have told me two years ago that these legs belonged to me, I wouldn't have believed it. First of all, they are small enough to cross...second, there are heels on those feet, and lastly, check out those fishnet stockings..lol!
It's a far cry from the pants I wore every day because my body looked awful in a dress, the wide shoes I had to wear because my feet were so swollen, and the flats I could only wear because my hips and knees were way too painful to even think of wearing any kind of heel.
Ok, back to work...

you did a good job. try and push the liquids a little more. we do get dehydrated fast and this can cause nausea and general not feeling well. popsicles are great during your first couple of days. but it sounds like you are on top of things. good luck and wishing you a speedy recovery.

No but this pisses me off. For a 300# man that is a starvation diet (pre WLS) bet your doc couldn't do it either.

Terry, I'm sorry to read that you had complications and the band is no longer useful. I don't have an opinion on revision but I just wanted you to know that I always appreciated your posts and support for the bandster cohort here.

It's so funny how one food is tolerated by one person and another couldn't eat it if offered a million bucks. I can't eat deli meats. I have tried as a quick Protein lunch and it makes me slime so bad. but I can eat all pasta's and rice and bread without a problem.(DARN)! I do stay away from them because of my diabetes. I also really shouldn't have beef in my diet unless its in chili or something like that. I can eat lamb without problem. It just amazes me how different we all are when it comes to food.

What did/do you do to keep up the encouragement. I keep a dry erase marker in my bathroom... and when i found a good saying.... I wrote it on my mirror.... This way i saw it when i woke up and before i go to bed...
I wrote things like: You are beautiful. Yesterday is over, Today is a new day, make it count......

Being a old pro at this and the fact I waited so long to get a unfill caused me to have problems. it is normal to feel tight but not normal to have pain in your chest. that is usually indicating that the Fluid or food is backing up into your esophagus and that your esophagus is spasming I think you are doing the right thing siding with caution.

Please bear in mind that I am a very happy and very successful bandit now 9 years post-op. I do not regret my band, would do it all over again and if I ever have to have it removed, I would hope to have a replacement.
When I was banded in 2006, it was a miracle surgery. And for some people, who accept that they will still have to work hard, it is just that. It was and still is for me. But over the years it has become clear that serious complications necessitating further surgery are much more common than originally thought, some of these are avoidable by careful eating and by not keeping the band tight; unfortunately others are beyond our control.
We used to be warned about band slips, leaks and about ( very rare) erosion into the stomach tissue but it turns out that a build up of scar tissue round the band (causing it to tighten) is quite common. It can be very difficult to get the right level of restriction and some people are tempted to keep it tight enough to physically limit food, in fact it was once thought this was how it should be. But this causes food to back up into the oesophagus and that risks problems such as oesophageal dysmotility which may be irreversible. It can also damage the vagus nerve.
Quite a number of doctors have stopped implanting bands as they found the removal rate was unacceptably high and it was too easy not to lose enough weight. Revision from band to sleeve is nit uncommon!
We still need lots of will power. The band makes it easier by dimming hunger, but it does nothing for head hunger and, contrary to popular opinion, it does not and should not physically stop us eating. If it does it is too tight!
Having said all that, I love my band, I know many successful long term bandits in real life. My own experience has been good and so has that of almost all those I actually know and have met.

Ask him why he can't grow just one more inch.

In length and girth.

If anyone says wls is the easy way out they should try it and find out that it takes just as much work as not having it done. we still diet, exercise and worry about every bite we put in our mouths. I would be well over 300 lbs right now by doing weight watchers or jenny craig. my wt was going up even with diet. my diabetes was out of control even with a zero carb diet. I don't know what went down but the harder I dieted the more I gained. easy way out , no way!!!!!

If anyone says wls is the easy way out they should try it and find out that it takes just as much work as not having it done. we still diet, exercise and worry about every bite we put in our mouths. I would be well over 300 lbs right now by doing weight watchers or jenny craig. my wt was going up even with diet. my diabetes was out of control even with a zero carb diet. I don't know what went down but the harder I dieted the more I gained. easy way out , no way!!!!!

If anyone says wls is the easy way out they should try it and find out that it takes just as much work as not having it done. we still diet, exercise and worry about every bite we put in our mouths. I would be well over 300 lbs right now by doing weight watchers or jenny craig. my wt was going up even with diet. my diabetes was out of control even with a zero carb diet. I don't know what went down but the harder I dieted the more I gained. easy way out , no way!!!!!

If you didn't have fears I would be worried for you. it is normal to have fear. you are undertaking a big change in your life starting with surgery. but as I read your letter you are doing it for all the right reasons. the more you educate yourself the more sure you will become. continue reading all you can about the surgery you have chosen. wishing you luck on this adventure.

If you didn't have fears I would be worried for you. it is normal to have fear. you are undertaking a big change in your life starting with surgery. but as I read your letter you are doing it for all the right reasons. the more you educate yourself the more sure you will become. continue reading all you can about the surgery you have chosen. wishing you luck on this adventure.

Congratulations! WLS is so empowering, too -- choosing ourselves and our healthy futures is so liberating. Yippee!

I really relate to this. It's also why I am 100% clueless in setting a goal weight. The smallest I have ever been as an adult was during a bout with Atkins when I was in college--and even then, I was still 45+ lbs over a healthy BMI. I'm only 5'2", but I don't know what 150 lbs looks like, or 140, 130, 120, 110... I have no idea what I'm shooting for... I just hope I know it when I see it.
Best of luck to you.

I thought that getting WLS was going to be hard. Turns out, it was pretty easy. I had great insurance and got approval and had surgery six months after starting my process.
I thought losing the first 100 pounds was going to be hard. Turns out, with my LapBand, it was pretty easy. My body cooperated with my band and when I ate right, the weight came off.
I thought leaving my emotionally abusive husband was going to be hard. Turns out, once I took control of my food and my body and got out of my food coma, leaving him was pretty easy. Logistically tricky, but with reliance on friends and family and a good lawyer, leaving was only temporarily difficult.
I thought the divorce process would be hard. Turns out, it is stressful and emotional, but the actual tasks put in front of me, although tedious and time consuming, are just tasks. I am blessed with a good job and resources that many women don't have. The slowness of it is harder than the tasks in front of me.
I thought walking for exercise was going to be hard. Turns out, it is the one exercise I love and have not grown tired of. I can walk for miles with ease.
I thought asking for help was going to be hard. Turns out, like exercising a muscle, the more I do it, the easier it gets.
I thought being kind to myself was going to be easy. I was wrong.
Oh, was I wrong.
Oh, I've learned it's okay and necessary to treat myself to little things, like a manicure, or a foot massage, or a movie. But then there's the other things.
And I can't help wondering if these other things have a lot to do with why I overeat and stayed obese for so long.
Like saying no to people. I say no. But then I go into "shoulda woulda coulda" and feel guilty about it.
Like reaching for comfort food or wine once in awhile. And then I start the tape in my head that says I'm bad, I'm lazy, I'm never going to get to my goal weight because I don't deserve to.
Like going out with friends and holding my head up high because I feel pretty for the first time in years. And when a musician in a band notices and makes a sweet comment about the "beautiful women in the room tonight" and points directly at me, I find the next opportunity to gather my things and call it an early evening, because to flirt would be bad, and I don't deserve that kind of attention.
Like getting a strong lawyer who is fighting for my financial rights and future, but crying at night because this divorce would go so much faster if I just didn't fight for the college money for my girls or maintenance for myself; because if I wanted out so bad, shouldn't I just cut my losses and end this?
Like not losing any weight for the last six months even though I have fifty left to goal, and telling myself it will never happen because I've never followed through on a goal weight before and what makes me think this time is any different?
Like standing up to my mom's criticisms in person, but in private wondering if she is right about me -- that I'm making a big mistake doing this or that or the other thing, and remembering how judged I felt my whole childhood and adolescence and wondering if she was right about me all along?
This is what is hard. Calling bulls!# on these thoughts and patterns and habits.
My higher self knows it. But it's so DAMN HARD to stop the negative thought cycle, that shi##y committee in my head.
Attitude is everything. I just turned 54 over the weekend and birthdays make me reflective. I have what may prove to be my best year ever ahead of me. God willing, I may see divorce papers signed in 2015. Maybe. I'm 100 pounds lighter than I was a year ago and healthier than I have been in decades. I may be moving into a new home by the end of the year. There is every reason to be hopeful.
So why does my sick brain still gravitate toward self blame and misery? Why, why don't I believe I deserve happiness?
I may never know why.
I'm a practical person. I believe in results. So what I'm planning to do about this is purely practical. It may or may not have any basis in psychology, but it seems reasonable to me.
I plan to abort those thoughts the second I sense them in my head. Literally catch myself and interrupt it with the opposite thought.
I do deserve joy. I do choose healthy food and I will meet my weight loss goal. That person that said I was beautiful was telling the truth. I choose to believe my older daughter who just told me I am strong and a role model. I believe my younger daughter who just told me I've always got her back. I am deserving of financial security and what is rightfully mine. I am deserving of a slim body and to feel pretty. Accepting attention is not shameful. I make good decisions. I take care of my loved ones and I am a good mother. I am smart and strong and pretty and nobody's fool. I am precious in God's eyes and I will live my best life.
This is the hard part. This is the only hard part. The head is always the hardest part to change.

I am bipolar. I have type b where I lean towards depression. I am on 5 different medications for my disease. I have a healthy relationship with my psychiatrist and he was one of my support persons prior and during wls. none of my medications were changed. I have some real lows and we were about to change one of them but I pulled out of it without tweaking my med's. yes you may have a harder time losing wt. but being overweight and doing nothing about it I think, would cause me to be more depressed and out of control. wls is having control of that aspect of your life. it will make you feel better. but don't expect wls to correct your bipolar. or your med's you are on. I wish I could take those medications out of my life but I know I never will be able to. you have to be very compliant with the lap band. if you don't think you can you need to go to another surgery. I have the band but might be revising. I had the band fail, my doctors both pcp and surgeon fail which caused depression so I have failed too. it is very very depressing. I cry when I talk with my husband about what is going on with me. but now I am looking forward to talking with my surgeon and the possibility of revision to a malasorbtion type of surgery. I wish you luck. as long as you put in the work the band is terrific.

I am bipolar. I have type b where I lean towards depression. I am on 5 different medications for my disease. I have a healthy relationship with my psychiatrist and he was one of my support persons prior and during wls. none of my medications were changed. I have some real lows and we were about to change one of them but I pulled out of it without tweaking my med's. yes you may have a harder time losing wt. but being overweight and doing nothing about it I think, would cause me to be more depressed and out of control. wls is having control of that aspect of your life. it will make you feel better. but don't expect wls to correct your bipolar. or your med's you are on. I wish I could take those medications out of my life but I know I never will be able to. you have to be very compliant with the lap band. if you don't think you can you need to go to another surgery. I have the band but might be revising. I had the band fail, my doctors both pcp and surgeon fail which caused depression so I have failed too. it is very very depressing. I cry when I talk with my husband about what is going on with me. but now I am looking forward to talking with my surgeon and the possibility of revision to a malasorbtion type of surgery. I wish you luck. as long as you put in the work the band is terrific.

I am bipolar. I have type b where I lean towards depression. I am on 5 different medications for my disease. I have a healthy relationship with my psychiatrist and he was one of my support persons prior and during wls. none of my medications were changed. I have some real lows and we were about to change one of them but I pulled out of it without tweaking my med's. yes you may have a harder time losing wt. but being overweight and doing nothing about it I think, would cause me to be more depressed and out of control. wls is having control of that aspect of your life. it will make you feel better. but don't expect wls to correct your bipolar. or your med's you are on. I wish I could take those medications out of my life but I know I never will be able to. you have to be very compliant with the lap band. if you don't think you can you need to go to another surgery. I have the band but might be revising. I had the band fail, my doctors both pcp and surgeon fail which caused depression so I have failed too. it is very very depressing. I cry when I talk with my husband about what is going on with me. but now I am looking forward to talking with my surgeon and the possibility of revision to a malasorbtion type of surgery. I wish you luck. as long as you put in the work the band is terrific.

even though I have had some complications I would do it all over again. weighing less is just magical.