KristiP

Im having my band out 25 Sept. I either never had enough/any restriction and could eat eat eat plus never feel full or had too much restriction where everything got stuck and I would vomit leaving me still hungry all the time. The bit of weight I lst I gained back 80% of when I got frustrated and discovered how eat around all that. I also have the most dreadful pain in the mddle of my abdomen I'd I sleep on my right side (but not the left where my port is....which baffles me). The maintenance of fills/unfits is a nuisance. The port sticks out too much and looks like I have somw weird growth you can see through clothes. I didn't want the band, but got talked into it. Have regretted being such a pushover since about 6 months out. I won't get my sleeve until min 10 weeks after band is, which annoys me, but 10 weeks was the best quote I got from consulting 3 surgeons. I just pray I don't balloon up between surgeries.

Kgirl (I'm a Kgirl too, only I now live in Australia ) and I know those pops and bangs you mean. They are super embarrassing.....because everyone knows what they are, and who made them. Especially if you're me and your the only fat girl in your wing. Actually........I'm probably the fattest person in the building. There are 500 of us. And I have an intense fear of steps on campers and motor homes. To the point that I refuse to climb them. Period. Which means I only see what I can see from peaking in the door. Being fat has pretty ruined my life, but like you I'm changing that. Good luck!

While I have not had any co plications per se with the lap band, I have not been successful with it. I'm sorry but I don't count losing less tha. 20kgs, gaining back nearly half and maintaining at that for 3.5 years a success story. To be fair, I knew from the word go it wasn't what I should be doing--I originally went in asking for a RNY, but was talked into the band. Big mistake on my part, huge! Should have stood my ground. Now here I am 4 years out from the band and still morbidly obese. I no longer want a RNY, and am revising to a sleeve (which to be honest is the second procedure in a 3 stage DS surgery......hoping I will not have to follow through with the DS next year). When I hear of anyone looking into the lap band, I offer them my experience and tell them to look at all the options carefully before making a decision. For some the band will be a god send, but from what I'm reading, it's usually a nightmare. :-)

For me it's being able to wear tops in the summer and not have to keep pulling the fabric out of a crease where I've got a roll. TMI, I know, but it's the reason I wear too big tops, which is more comfortable but sloppy looking. Can't win for losing! And I would like to be able to tuck my shirts into my pants or jeans and wear a belt just for show. :-D

Yes, I am always there too,anxious and on pins and needles. Even though I've never been unable to fasten my seatbelt and I don't hang over into the other seat, I know it's only a matter of time before I get "Southwested" at the airport. I have had the unfortunate experience of having a seat mate ask the flight attendant if he could move seats (didn't want to sit next to a fat woman) and then sit with his contempt rising off him like steam when told no he could not (flight was FULL). I saw the look of disgust on his face when he saw me approaching that row of seats and then his reluctance at getting up to allow me to get to my seat by the window just confirmed it. I spent 4 hours squashing myself against the plane wall, holding my elbows in tightly making sure i didn't 'get any of my fat on him' and pointedly refusing refreshments.......thinking if I made it obvious I was trying not to inconvenience him that he'd at least stop all that hostile sighing...... which was a waste of time because he was just infuriated the whole time anyway. I'm sick of being fat and being hated for it! I won't miss it at all.

Yep. People I general are pretty good, but like apples there are always those few bad ones that wreck the whole lot. Like I said, I refuse to engage with them. Nothing I'd say back would do anything but aggravate the situation. Still hurts though. Oh, and you are so spot on about that whole picture thing. I am so anti-picture that I'd run my own mother over with a car to get away from a camera, unless I'm the one taking pics! Gnotobiotic really, cause I love my mama! But I use that to express the lengths I go to avoid snaps). I actually desperately desire to be in pictures BUT I so hate the way I look in them that I just don't. It's morphed into a paranoia now. And it's only because of my weight and size. I think I am otherwise not horrible looking if not somewhat attractive. One day! One day I will be able to join others in pictures! :-)

I know. I was minding my own business and having lunch - a salad, without anything "good/tasty" in it (no cheese, bacon, croutons, nuts etc) and no dressing either. Just some grilled chicken. 2 men (guessing mid-late 20s) sat down across from me and every time I took a bite one would make pig noises and the other would laugh his head off. It went on for several minutes, until I finally just abandoned my salad and left. No point in saying anything, it would just inflame the situation. I've learned not to start fights I won't win, no matter how right I am simply because you cannot reason with a moron. Well, ultimately I WILL win, because I will not always be this size, BUT, I likely will never see those guys or people who have stared, whispered and given me filthy looks again to say HA! Plus I believe in karma, so it's out of hands now. Oh and good luck to you as well!

Yeah, I'm thinking that too......that it's going to be HUGE and the impression I have of my surgeon is he's the type who likes to take something like that and make a meal out of it--figuratively, not literally! Pun intended though! :-D I'm sure my stomach I general will be larger than a "normal" persons, and I am also sure that my pouch above the band is going to be stretched out because after I got frustrated and gave up I started drinking diet Pepsi again. A mistake I will NOT be making with the sleeve; it was the point I worked out how to eat around the band.

I'd have been running up and down the street in my underwear, holding the pants above my head screaming, "they won't stay up! They won't stay up!". Hahaha Congratulations on the NSV!

oh wow..........here is one I can paricipate in, even though I'm a pre-sleeve! I will not miss the following: desperately searching for the largest size of the one thing I found that I liked in the fat department being relegated to brown, black and navy, or clothes in some god awful floral print, horizontal stripes and tops/dresses festooned with ribbons, bows, sequins, big plastic jewels, glitter, sreen printed kittens and butterflies, crinkle fabric/ruching, and belts on plus size pants that do not fit plus size women. (I meean what the hell is that about? Putting a size 14 belt on size 26 pants? I seem to find this ALL THE TIME!) having my shopping trolley dissected and commented on having food servers automatically assume that I want dessert or the largest serve they offer having people (usually high school or college kids, but recently fully grown adult men) make farm animal noises at me when I dare to eat in public being too self conscious to go out and actually enjoy myself being afraid to sit on aluminium folding lawn chairs or plastic patio chairs for fear they will break being unable to find a nice bra in my size and being forced to settle for something that even Aunt Agnes finds unappealing being unable to find matching bra and panty sets in my size having to buy pants to fit my waist which means they bag horribly in the ass and legs getting stared at in clothing shops and boutiques that clearly do not cater to fat women.......even if I'm just looking for jewelry and accessories in the first place being too afraid to go to a public pool.......just to put my feet in........even in peddle pushers and a 3/4 top because people stare, whisper, point or just out right make fun i could go on and on, but there is only so much band width to go around.

You look great! Awesome work!

I don't know if this is true or not, but when I first had my lap band in, it was a good 6-8 weeks before I could stand the taste of pretty much anything. My GP said it was the anesthesia, that it really does a number on your taste buds and sinuses and nasal passages? Anyway whatever caused it, once it went away, it WENT AWAY, and I sort of rebounded. Like, everything tasted 400 times better than I remembered. Of course you sound like you're much further out than 6-8 weeks, so perhaps it's your digestive system sending a secret message to your brain to make everything just smell and taste yuck, so it can heal and get "right" before being put back in the game. Don't know, but I hope it gets better for you! :-)

I don't want the stomach they take out--have seen stomachs, and they really aren't my thing!--BUT, I do want the lap band they're taking out of me! Hahaha. I'm serious! I want that band and port! The way I look at it, it's not tissue, I paid a LOT of money for the stupid thing, and every single person I know that's had gall stones and kidney stones removed have their stones in jars (or wisdom teeth!) which to me are a bio-substance if not a tissue. They all seem to think everyone wants to see and admire them. (I do think they're kind of neat...in a gross sort of way! Hahaha) so why shouldn't mynband get the same? Hahaha My band--whom I named Agnetha, btw, because she's Swedish --will hopefully reside on my bedside table in her own jar as a reminder for me to pursue what I want and not go with what someone else thinks I should settle for. Because that's how I wound up with her--I settled for the band instead of the RNY I was asking for. And here I am going in for a revision, so how well did me settling for something I wasn't looking for work out? :-)

Ooh I have never heard about the correlation between ghrelin and coping with stress/anxiety. If that's the case, if removing ghrelin from my body will cause coping problems, then I am sunk. Because I have an increasingly harder time coping with stress! On the other hand, I really think it's more to do with the stress in my life increasing a an alarming rate than me unable to cope......so maybe the flip side is that ghrelin isn't doing it's job in large amounts! I think each person will have a different reaction and experience and just because Wiki says you'll be unable to cope doesn't mean it's true. It's a risk I'm willing to take, but of course everyone will have a different perspective. :-)

Wow, that a beyond fantastic loss! Especially with pcos! If you don't mind my asking, are you a virgin sleever? I will be a band to sleeve conversion, and from what I'm reading I am expecting losses that are no quicker than methods like Weight Watchers (which I can do, but eventually run out of steam with it.....). Wanted fast loss is something I'm going to have to get past because it probably won't pan out that way. What's the old saying....wish in one hand s*** in the other and see which one fills up faster? Hahaha Good luck on TTC and I wish you a healthy happy pregnancy!