kacee

Don't let your family dictate your life to you. You will definitely live to regret that BIGTIME if you do. General anesthetic? Uh, I cannot count the number of times I have had that....no problems....zero....nada. People who automatically equate that with permanent disability or a death sentence are uneducated at best. It's not like you are going to some back alley doctor for this. You pick a highly experienced surgeon who has done preferably hundreds if not thousands of these procedures. You put yourself in capable professional hands. Thank your family for their concern and let them know you have made a decision for yourself, would appreciate their suppot if they can give it. If not, you are sorry they cannot support you and you will continue on by yourself in this endeavor. If they continue to berate you for this you need to request that if they cannot be supportive of your decision then you need to be around positive people at this time and you would prefer that they not harp on the negative about this, and then shut the conversation down. Period. It's the old "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." If you are serious in your decision, it is your right. You are an adult. It is YOUR body. Do not hand your power over to someone else to dictate your actions.

For every one complication/failure post you'll see out here, there are probably 10 successes. We tend to magnify the failures in our heads though. Though I did not hit my "sweet spot" until 3.5 months after surgery I was still losing consistently all that time. It just got a little easier when the full restriction set in (once you learn how to work with i!). People always find it easy to whine and moan about stuff, but I agree...most of those folks, if asked if they would do it again, would say yes.

I personally did not involve my pcp when I did it. She wasn't even that knowledgable about the band. I followed up with her to get my BP meds adjusted about a month later.

Yes, that is indicative of being too filled. I trust you have had a fill since your surgery. This can happen down the road after a fill. The fill seems just fine and then a couple of weeks or a month later all of a sudden nothing goes down. Coughin at night and acid reflux is also a good sign of that. Sounds like you need a slight unfill. Call your doctor and get in tomorrow.

Swallowing air. We're put together a little differently now. But I would imagine you are still getting rid of the air pumped into you during surgery. I was actively farting for about 2 months. It lessens over time, but you will still find that you have more gas than you did before surgery. That's been the case for me anyway.

Why can't you get banded now? I don't understand what having the CPAP machine has to do with surgery. I got mine about a week before surgery, wore it for a few days, and then quit after surgery and have never used it again. Gertting a second opinion on a sleep test is probably useless. It's not really an arbitrary thing....you are hooked up to electrodes and there is a cut off point. I was mild to moderate with some severe points. They still put me on the machine. I think I would ask him why getting the CPAP hlts surgery. There is no "testing" I am aware of after the sleep test. All they do is fit you for the machine and send you home. That's it. Once you are tested, you are tested.

It's ALL you...with the incentive from your band. There are ways to work AROUND the band so if you try to put it on the band alone, you will find that there is little success (in other words, if you are a chocoholic or a pizza freak you CAN find a way to take in this stuff and BEAT the band).This is behavioral retraining at it's finest.....but only if you WORK at it.

I would be suspect of the doctor. Basically he is saying to you...."Oops, apparently I put the port too deep so now I can't do anhything for you until you do it all on your own." I think I would start kicking up a big fuss, myself.

Why did the doctor consider "shoulder pain" abnormal? If you read the posts of post-ops, you'll find probably 80+% of us were in dire distress with shoulder pain for at least a week or more. Shoulder, under the shoulder blade, up the neck, in the back....

If you are passing gas and burping that is the BEST thing you can do. The more that goes out, the less pain of trapped gas you will have to endure. I think my gas finally pretty much went away at 30 days. Kinda comes with the territory though.l Unavoidable.

Are you doing plenty of protein drinks? Don't worry about being hungry. You will be for quite a while until you get restriction. Just keep drinking.

That sounds very odd. If they are paying for the lapband, they would pay for the procedure or they would not pay at all I'd think. I've never heard of insurance paying for a piece of the procedure. I would get with your insurance company and have them itemize what it is they will pay...the surgical fee, the hospital fee, the anesthesiologist fee, meds, tests...... get them to be specific.

Justin, this is TEMPORARY!!!!! You will probably be able to eat fruitcake and most anything else...just in smaller quantities. This is not a DIET. This is a way of life. 30 days of liquids and mushies is not a lot to ask. You can do it. If you are hungry....drink something that has protein in it to help with the hunger. Don't "starve" yourself. Get creative. When you get to mushies you can eat anything that has baby food consistency. There's a lot out there. And if you are dying for the taste of something.....go GET some strained baby food in whatever it is you want. Don't LOOK at it...just EAT it. This is about healing, not losing, right now. Just keep the consistency of what you are putting in your mouth within your doctor's restrictions and you will be fine. If you are not going this alone, enlist a friend or family member to sit down and brainstorm for things you can eat. You'll be surprised what you might come up with!

heating pad

Sliming: when food gets stuck and the stomach releases mucus to pass the food but when the food is stuck it backs up like a stopped up toilet....up your throat and into your mouth and you wind up with a mouth full of saliva that must be spit out. PB: "Productive Burp" (kindof a stupid name). This is like puking but what comes out comes out in the same condition it went into your mouth....without stomach acids or juices...just chewed up food or beverage. When things get stuck and don't go down the chute like they should, sometimes the easiest thing is to hang your head over a toilet and let it come out. Generally not accompanied by stomach contractions like a real vomit, and much of the time will kindof roll out of your mouth. This is a by-product of: NOT CHEWING WELL, TAKING LARGER BITES THAN YOU SHOULD.

When people start asking about your weight loss, and how you did it....simply tell them "portion control" and leave it at that, until you are ready to tell them about the band. Personally, I looked at it this way. I told EVERYONE and go zero negative response from family and friends...and frankly if I HAD gotten negative response I would have looked them dead in the eye and said, "It's my decision, my body and my life....it's the decision that was right for me." period. You might tell your family after you have lost a substantial amount. You never know who you can influence... I've had two friends who I NEVER would have in a million years thought would have done this who have talked to me and then decided to do the band themselves. It's hard to be too negative to someone when you are looking at a success story. If they say something like "You took the easy way out." you can say "Well, the operative word here is that I GOT out....that's what counts."

You are eating SOLIDS at this time? Is that on your program? Most people go 30 days before solids. It is a given that you will be eating more than you'd like to before your fills, but first of all, what the heck are you doing with a cheeseburger????? I mean, come ON! This isn't a magic potion and it does take some effort on your part.

Call your doctor. Could be any number of things....scarring adhesions come to mind first. Those can be real buggers if you are prone to them. I'd call the doctor or go to see him if it seem s particularly dibilitating.

No problem...and probably good for you too. Make sure your pee is a light clear color of yellow-gold. If it starts to get dark or smelly you are dehydrated and need to step up your liquids substantially. Peeing is good.

When I get thin, I'll just have to come to terms with the fact that somebody is rejecting me for ME, or possibly for reasons that have nothing to do with me at all. That is going to be the hardest thing of all for me. My fat has been my protection. It is how I have kept myself from relating to people in this world. It's how I kept myself from taking risks. Couldn't have said it better myself! Fat is a protective layering for us. A wall to keep people out and for us to hide behind, and an "excuse" for what befalls us. As those bricks of the wall are being stripped away we have to cowboy up and peek out at the world, put on our big girl (and big boy) underpants and step out into the light. What we also have to be mindful of as "the walking wounded" is that we have as much right to be here on this earth as anyone else. Never give anyone else power over you. Never give your power away. That means accepting that we are not perfect and people will not treat us always the way we want to be treated. That's not what we want but that's okay. That's life. We've got to learn to love ourselves FIRST. Using whatever self-affirmation we need to get that ball rolling. I have as much right to be here as you, or him or her. I'm okay....you're okay. If you don't feel that way....well....your loss.

Three things work.... 1. Log everything you put in your mouth on a program like FitDay or SparkPeople....and do it EVERYDAY. You'd be shocked at how quickly those calories can zoom up when you are not watching. You become hypersensitive to what you eat and tend to think more about what goes in your mouth. 2. Weigh every day. You get sensistized to it. Don't weigh every day expecting the scales to drop...just weight to get a correlation between what you are intaking as food and how your body reacts to it. The scales will fluctuate every day, a little up, a little down, but over the long haul, if you adjust your intake and watch it you'll be able to figure out how your body works, and even though you may not feel like a lot if happening, when you go back and look at the last 30-60 days, you should be able to see a change. But rather than going along and seeing the same thing day after day, adjust your intake and see how your body responds. 3. Set MINI-GOALS you can attain. Not 5-10-15 pounds by thus and so....maybe only 1...or maybe 2. Leave it at that...and then MAKE that mini-goal. It will give you many small successes. That equals incentive.

Hey Justin...any questions just fire em off. You got a lot of past experience folks milling around out here on the forum!

Your doctor won't probably tell you...but EXPECT a voracious hunger to descend on you anywhere from a few days to a week or so after surgery. You will feel really hungry. Don't freak. Don't worry. Feed that hunger with your liquids...and keep it at bay with proteins. Don't worry about losing weight right after surgery. Your band won't work correctly until you have adequate restriction....having the band and having restriction do not necessarily go hand in hand initially. The main thing is keep strictly to your doctor's orders of what and what not to ingest. You have the rest of your life to eat...4 weeks of liquids and mushies is NOTHING. Don't fight the process....expect it, embrace it and flow with it.

Swelling, pressure, discomfort....all part of the process. I had huge pressure and discomfort in my chest for the first week or so....kindof like someone pushing their knuckle into my breastbone. It's your body telling you to take it S-L-O-W. Even drinking can irritate the swolen tissues. Tiny sips and often. Chew Gas-X. A heting pad helped me too. This too shall pass.

Three things work for me.... 1. Log every single thing you put in your mouth, every day, in one of the computer programs like SparkPeople or FitDay. This is probably the single most important thing you can do. I never believed WW when they touted that, but I have been converted!!!! It ABSOLUTELY does work. It makes you hypersensitive to what you eat. If you do not log, you would be SHOCKED at how fast those calories can zoom past 1,000 and you still think you haven't done anything....can't stress it enough. 2. Weigh every day, same time, in the buff, preferably when you first get up in the morning....and log it. This gives you perfect correlation between the food you are eating and what is going on with your body. Don't weigh to expect the pounds to fly off....it is a science experiment to see what your body tolerates, when it kicks in to lose, and when it sits or gains. You experiment with your intake and how your body reacts. Pretty soon you will get a feel for how your body operates. 3. Set MINI-GOALS. Not huge goals....tiny goals. Like losing a pound in 1 week....something that can be accomplished, Baby steps. As you attain those goals, you will find yourself getting "greedy" for more success...and you will PUSH yourself to do better. Alway keep your goals attainable so you will have success. The biggest deterant for us is discouragement.