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!

I'm 5'7" too, and also with a heavier/more solid frame (always "knew" this but the guy doing the DEXA scan confirmed that for me a couple of years ago). My surgeon has set me the, IMO, very unrealistic goal of....drum roll.....59.2kg/130lbs. While that is a lovely number, I am sorry, it's not even remotely realistic for me. Even 150-160 would be pushing it, I think. So I've just nodded in agreement, and made a mental note to myself that MY goal, for now, is 81.5kg/180lbs, and when I get there I will see how I feel and reassess. Even though 180 is still in the overweight range, according to the BMI Charts which take into account absolutely NOTHING but your height and weight. Which makes the BMi scale good for nothing more than a basic guideline, and of no real use in the real world. I mean, what's he going to do if I don't reach his goal for me? Ground me? Put me in detention? Retrieve the discarded portion of my stomach and the weight I have (at that time) lost and put them all back in? lol. I refuse to set myself up for failure or disappointment based on a fairly arbitrary number. There would have been a time that I would have grabbed onto that number he gave and then beat the he** out of myself when I didn't get there, but I'm older and wiser now.....thank God! :-)

I am scared to set my goal below the lowest I can specifically recall being: 180lbs. I remember being that wright (summer between 9th and 10th grade, having starved and bulimia'd myself down to that from about 198). I still felt like the most enormous creature in earth at the time, but when I look at the few pictures of me from that summer, I look, IMO, quite normal. Maybe a tiny bit pudgy. My doctor suggested I would probably get down to around 130lbs........I'm sorry I can't see it. I cannot even recall when I might have weight that.....it must have 5th/6th grade or something! So I'm afraid if I set my sights too low, and don't get there I will feel like a failure. My way of combatting that is too start with a higher goal and adjust as/if necessary when I reach it.

Oh, yeah, I get that too! Here are some real, and recent excerpts from my life: I have my one per day can of caffeine free Pepsi Light with lunch, I get the whole lecture about how soft drinks are the devil and the root of all evil and how I'm just killing myself with that s***, that it causes osteoporosis, and don't I know that the sweeteners are basically a type of neurotoxin blah blah blah...." Ok first......it's my body and I'll wreck it if I want to (for the record I do not think one soft drink a day is wrecking anything) and second IT'S A BIG FAT FLAMING SACK OF NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! I also am a huge fan of this: I am having a salad for lunch with nothing but salad veggies (no cheese, bacon bits, croutons, nuts, seeds....) in it and decide to use my carefully measured 2 tbsp of salad dressing, which earns me the lecture from the resident self appointed health food patrol "Now see....that's where you're dieting all wrong. You've taken a nice healthy lunch and just wrecked by drowning it in that garbage blah blah blah.....". Alright first......it's MY lunch, not yours. Second, I think 2 tbsp of salad dressing over a gigantic bowl of lettuce and salad veggies hardly constitutes DROWNING of anything. Third, my dressing is balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, not the puree of a Mars Bar. Fourth and finally, you just assume that because I'm fat that my eating a salad is indicative of me being on a diet and thus I am wrecking the whole thing.......so you need to provide unsolicited advice and commentary by sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong and was not invited? Oh how I wish these people would take the lead of the others who don't acknowledge my fat existence and just ignore me. But no! they want to save me from myself.....but only if I do it THEIR way. It is this kind of history that makes me resist sharing my journey with them. But everyone is different and I applaud those who tell people without a blink of the eye.

I really hate the auto correct on iPad! Please excuse this things that make no sense......no idea how the IRS got mentioned! Hahaha

I don't want anyone to know, because I don't feel like dealing with the endless garage of bull**** I will have deal with over being too lazy to do it " the hard way", "taking the easy way out", "cheating and taking credit where IRS not deserved"..... You name it I will hear it. I work with a lot of people who are just snobs in general, but a lot of them are super health snobs/elitists. If you're not making dieting and hitting the gym a second full time job then you're just a big fat lazy slob and not worth the time of even saying good morning to. there are a lot who will not acknowledge my 'good morning'......but will acknowledge my thinner co-workers. Sad, but true. My husband knows (obviously), my mom knows, my sister knows, I suppose my sisters husband knows (I'm alright with that, he's a really good guy) but that's it. I don't want my dad to know because he already doesn't think much of me (no, really......it has been said, in so many words!). I absolutely under no circumstances want my in laws or husbands family to know. I would never, ever hear the end of it. I would never be able to eat or drink a crumb without being interrogated about whether or not I'm 'allowed to have it', I would always have to recap how I'm 'going', and endure constant criticisms of how I 'should be much thinner by now, surely'. Because that's how it was with the band.......until I didn't turn into a stick insect over night (because that's the ultimate health marker in this family.......if you're not anorexic looking then you are fat fat fat and going to die in about 3 minutes.) So, I'm not ashamed, but I just don't feel like dealing with all the a**holes in the world any more than I already have to! :-D I plan on telling people that ask that I'm having lady surgery. It's technically not a lie.....I'm a lady.....I'm having surgery. End of story.

Hi Squeaky, I'm new here too and in a very similar boat. Also had band in 2008, lost similar, gained back similar, and now just DONE with it (the band). So I'm, obviously, going in for revision. I'm on the fence now between having just the sleeve, and having the Duodenal Switch. I would like to think that I'll do well with the just the sleeve, but........I thought I'd do well with just the band too. I have found a surgeon, apparently the ONLY one in Melbourne who does the DS. He's agreed to do it, as the final stage of a 3 stage op. First stage being removal of the band, second stage getting the sleeve 10 weeks later (although I'm going to see if he won't agree to do it at 8 weeks), and then stage 3 a year out from the sleeve he'll do the DS, if it needs to be done. He doesn't think it will. I am not so confident myself. The more I read on here, the better I feel about having just the sleeve but.........I just remember how I started out really well with the band, and started having endless stuckage problems, sliming, vomiting, (the scale wasn't moving, at all)........ultimately I too figured out how to eat around it to avoid those painful and often embarrassing problems. I'm just afraid that the weight is not going to come off at a pace that I'm going to be happy with. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to lose 10 lbs a week or anything, and i am aware that there will be some weeks that I don't lose at all. But I know that I am unable to deal with that scale not budging for weeks at a time, especially if I AM busting my a**. that's where I'm worried........because when I'm putting in 300% effort and getting nothing in return (on the scale and shrinking I mean....I know there are health benefits that one doesn't see), I get angry and frustrated. I suppose that is classified as impatience? I think expecting to drop a couple of lbs a week, as an average, is fairly realistic. Note I say as an average, so I know that some weeks it will be more or less. But I've been on the 10 week stall, and by the end, I was so angry! It didn't help that my doctors were telling me it was ME, when I knew it wasn't, and my husband suddenly became the food police and I wasn't even eating naughty stuff yet........talk about throwing in the towel! Anyway, sorry to ramble. I just wanted you to know you're not alone, up there on the fence! Cheers. :-)

I'm not telling anyone I don't HAVE to tell. For one, it's nobody else's business. Two, I dont feel like getting unsolicited and incorrect "advice". Three, I don't want it to be implied that I'm weak, that I'm cheating, that I'm lazy. I already has enough negative self talk in my head to deal with....I don't need anyone adding to it. And four, I don't want the unreasonable expectations that people may put on me. Because most people wont know anything about it and in their minds WLS = getting skinny almost overnight. Not everyone will lose 80% of their excess weight in a year. Were all different. My own expectations are enough to deal with. My husband of course knows. My sister knows; she's in the same boat as me with the band. It goes without saying that shell tell my mom who will be fine. My sister knows not to tell my dad (patents long time divorced). He will not be a supporter. And that's it. I only tell people I trust implicitly and those who know me know that breaking my confidence once means you never get a second chance to do it! Plus I all but write you out of my life. I don't ask for much from people just honesty and trustworthiness. But, it is a very personal decision, and I think it's great if people feel alright with others knowing.it doesn't invalidate how I feel about it.

I think right now, you need to be a little selfish and just worry about YOU. Don't worry about what he's thinking and feeling when he throws out reaction seeking behavior. Hes lost his side kick in a way. Youre no longer dong things that support his lifestyle choices and it makes hm feel ....well, i dont know what it makes him feel, but it sounds to me like there might be some co-dependancy issues there? Bottomline is, we all have to own our choices. I'm lucky I've got a really supportive spouse. Even if he doesn't quite agree with the method or route, if I feel that's the best way for me to go, he backs me up. We have our moments of course, who doesn't? Lol. But, I know that ultimately he's got my back. I wish you peace of mind, success and the ability to let him climb onto your wagon, as someone else pit it. Cheers!

Hey petite! Always good to see another yank around! Lol. What part of the States do you hail from? Im a Kentucky girl myself. I miss home a lot, family and friends the most, and cold Christmas's! Im very slowly getting used to hot Christmas, but it just feels so unnatural to me. Im in the Christmas spirit NOW! It will be gone, melted away, by December! Lol Have you met many other American expats? I've met very few, but a LOT of Canadians. They get super upset when people refer to them as Americans! Lol. I find it amusing; I'm not bothered in the least when people refer to me as Canadian. Sometimes I don't even bother to correct them. Depends on the situation. **shrugs** I would certainly appreciate if you would let me know about Adam Skidmore being able to do the band removal and sleeve in one go. For one, it will save me from having to undergo a second surgery; general anesthesia has it's own considerable risks, as does the surgery itself. second I wouldn't have to take another round of time off from work.....with the economy the way it is, no job is safe. No point in giving them redundancy ammo! And last but not least, I'd like to just get on with it. The sooner I can become a sleever, the sooner I can start working the sleeve! I'd like to be out of the soft and mushy before Christmas, only so the family doesn't ask a lot of questions. They don't know, and I don't want them to know. yet. If ever. My in laws are vehemently against any weight loss aid outside of calories in, calories out the traditional way. My issues have never made any sense to them, despite explaining it a 1000 times. To them it's just a matter of mind over matter, just press on, pain is good for you it lets you know you're alive!, pull up your socks......... all that jazz. They have made many a meal out of my lap band escapades, believe me! I haven't quite worked out how to PM on here.....still finding all the bits and pieces. I will soon as i work it out. Cheers!

Hi VJSlim, Thanks for your kind words! Yes I was lucky that I've not had any slips or erosion (nne known anyway...) but I have had one heck of a time with stuckage, for lack of a better word, and that is painful enough. My husband thought I was exaggerating about things getting stuck or just not going through. until the night I was having a 1/4 Greek yoghurt (stevia powder to knock the sour a little though). I was eating with a baby spoon (the one my mom fed me with, it's metal, and not even as big as the end of my thumb), and 4 spoons in, I was up and running to the bathroom. Hes hot on my heels saying, 'there is no way that tiny amount is a problem! I have to see this.....'. To this day he regrets that because i proceeded to gag and retch for about 10 minutes until what resembled a jellyfish came up. The look on his face! Looking back it's hilarious, but at the time I wanted to just die, of embarassment and also because I was so sick of going through it. And that was a couple week after my first fill. I had 5, or maybe 6 more fills after that, unbelievably! So that is one part I'm looking forward to with the sleeve, how different the restriction feels. I've been reading lots of posts on here and the more I read the better I feel about getting the sleeve. Less doubts and reservations about it now. Cheers!