NurseGrace

Just understand that what happened to me happens to less than 5 percent of band patients, and something could happen with those kind of odds with this surgery as well. No surgery is without its risks. With the lapband you are trading efficacy in the interest of safety and non-commitment.

I just meant that unless the band did damage to your stomach your going to be alright. There are other implications of course, but nothing like trying to reverse an RNY and things like that.

Just remember the selection bias here. No one here is going to have much good to say about their bands because we are here because we had issues with our bands. Mine was fine until things went south, and I am able to recognize that what happened to me doesnt happen to everyone.

be careful, Bariatric Eating is a known scammer. Shes has left dozens of people out of large sums of money while never shipping product.

Sometimes people need to unleash a little, I get that. These types of post often leave me asking myself what they are looking for though, and I think that is a question that should be asked before anyone posts anything. "What am I looking for". If the answer is "nothing, I just want to rant" or "just looking for support" I think you should put your energy into something else.

I would never shop at A&F because at 24 years old, I don't feel that it is very age appropriate and have been aware of this quote and many like it for some time. Who REALLY needs to be aware of things like this are preteens and teenagers. I think that even thin teenagers can understand that these are despicable statements. Even that being said, I understand that all brands have an image that they try to maintain, but for the love of god, keep these types of statements behind clothed doors, out of respect for the rest of the population. I like the look of MANY brands that do not cut for my size currently. One is J. Crew. I love the aesthetic of J. Crew, but they are exclusionary in terms of sizes, and I get it. Their look doesn't translate well to plus size anyway. I think the largest size they carry is a 12 or a 10 and its a SMALL 12/10 too. I don't hate them for it though. Has something like this been said at their brand too? Maybe, in fact, probably... but they had to class to keep it under wraps, which I can appreciate. Just don't mock me to my face, please.

I like the idea but one may consider that we shouldn't be lingering over our food for very long. I have been advised to eat for no longer than 30 minutes and anything longer than that becomes grazing type behavior with the first bites already exiting the stomach making room for more. Thats just my opinion and my instructions though, and it is a neat device.

Are we the same person? The past few weeks have been rough for me. I was burning out of this forum about 2 months ago and my aggression as starting to show and so I took a break. The thing is - this forum is so good for me in terms of keeping me focused, I just need to find that balance so I'm not tearing out my hair and unleashing hellfire, and then not being totally MIA as well. While I was away I slowly backslid a little bit. Not to any crazy extent because at 106 days post op, I'm still extremely limited, but I can say that I wasn't giving it my all either. I'm glad you decided to real it in. Sometimes this is why I cringe when people say "throw out the scale" because some of us, especially food addicts, need that wake up call that the numbers on the scale provide. I don't know about you but I don't necessarily notice 5 or 7 pounds in my clothes, but that's enough to make my jaw drop to the floor if I see it on the scale. I started tracking food on MyFitnessPal again, that seems to be helping more than anything. I didn't gain any weight but I only lost 7 this previous month and I feel like at this stage in the game I should have easily doubled that.

I drink it with no problem at all but I believe in following your doctors orders for at least 6 months. The real problem comes in when you start adding things to your coffee that have calories. I have to watch that carefully. I can easily have 200 of my 800 calories per day come from coffee additives if I'm not careful.

Normal.

The band is an extremely attractive choice for a lot of people. This forum is bias because we all made the obvious choice that we did, but I can tell you from experience that before I had this surgery I had the band. Mostly because I was talked into it by my surgeon at the time, but also because of the relative safety of the operation You can reverse a lapband and be no worse for wear when its all said and done. We CANNOT get our stomachs back.

I would like to echo your sentiment. It's such a tired cliche I'm sick of listening too for people who need reassurance that what they are doing is OK. I'm also sick of "its not the easy way out" - bullshit. I'm not saying its "easy" but its certainly easier than following these types of diet restrictions without surgery. It's patronizing, and frankly, most of us are adults and should be over this type of thing. As for stomach and bowel cancer - I'm not sure that what you said is completely accurate, some parts of the bowel can be removed without taking from the stomach but it is true that if you require extensive grafting you would be SOL.

Do you know for a fact that you actually have a dilated pouch?

Speaking from personal experience, because I have had the band... You cannot judge peoples WLS of choice. I'm sure he had his reasons. I picked the lap band for several really good reasons. It didn't work out for me, and I don't really encourage people to get it, but I do understand the appeal.

I sent you a personal message as well but my best advice at this point is to keep on keeping on. I don't agree with throwing out your scale because personally I see too many people backsliding with they are not having the accountability of weighing in on some kind of regular basis. Different strokes for different folks though, I understand we are all different but that just concerns me when people talk about doing that when they are already not getting results. Most likely you are experiencing a normal stall. Don't let this depression grip you.

If you MUST tan, cover your scars with bandaids, as long as you do that I don't think it will really matter how long you wait so long as you can get up and down from the bed by yourself. For me, that was probably about a week post op.

Yes, these past few months have been filled with frump, which isn't who I am, but its difficult because I would rather save my money and buy some nicer pieces that are going to last with me a few sizes down then buy throw away things from walmart. I have used a few things from there to get me through but I much prefer a lean closet with GOOD stuff. I can buy the Brooks Brother shirts I mentioned and they will be very close to the body, but as I size down they will translate well loser looking, and they are nice enough they can stand up to a good tailoring too if I want them taken in.

So, at just over 50 pounds lost (I've been having a bit of a stall this past week or so) its finally time to replace some of the clothing I have been getting rid of. I'm a bit of a minimalist and tend to be on the formal side of things so I do not require a different outfit for every day of the month or even the week but I AM down to ONE functional pair of jeans, maybe 4 tops, and two sets of scrubs for my job, and one lab coat. I think just about everyone knows this but it is ideal to get rid of things the moment you notice they are getting too large. Thats what I have been doing but I am running into the problem of not having quite enough to wear now. AND NOW I FINALLY COME TO MY POINT It's so nice to have some choices in apparel that don't completely circle around just what will fit me. I'm still an 18 and rather large on top because I have always been.... well... endowed... but its not the issue that was before. I can finally shop at my beloved Brooks Brothers. Their classic button downs are to die for, they fit like a dream, they don't gap at the bust and at less than 100 dollars a shirt most people can afford that. Old Navy also does a classic button down that usually holds up pretty well too although your not getting the same quality. I still haven't decided what to do about bottoms. Pencil skirts are my usual go to but I am growing bored of them. Anyways, fun times. Farewell, Lane Giant.

Oh honey, if you are going to have a waffle PLEASE don't go for those frozen monstrosities. lol Sorry, I'm a waffle snob, I love them. Here is the thing, if it was time to eat and you went for a waffle or part of one, I wouldn't beat you up for it, its not ideal and its not Protein but I can think of worse things to have, but at least make one yourself, you can add some nuts to it and some Protein powder or something before you cook it and you'd be a lot better off nutritionally. Also, in my opinion a good waffle doesn't need a thing on it.

But as a side note, I catch the most amount of negativity from fat people. It's been my experience that the people who never had the struggle are the least judgmental but thats just me.

Bah, this type of thing is hard, and how to deal with it really depends on how comfortable you are with confrontation. If someone I knew personally were making comments like that to my husband I would probably say something about it to them. Not some kind of ghetto showdown, but something along the lines of "I know you deal with complications every day and I'm sure you have seen some terrible things but when you tell my husband fill in the blank it disturbs me for fill in the blank with your personal reasons and I would prefer you separate me, my husband, and your perception of whatever probables I may or may not have from your work life because what you are saying is troubling to me"

I dont know, at only a few pounds below goal I'm not sure thats "I cant stop losing" territory

Yikes, what does your surgeon have to say about that?

It's important to be informed of all possibilities but you need to remember that is not the typical result, and is FAR from common....

I was pretty well read on this surgery but I didn't really expect this. It's not a problem at this point, just an observation I thought I would share.