vinesqueen

Right, Brenda, have you been to your regular doctor about this? If you have been even modestly following the banded lifestyle, and getting less than 1,500 calories you should be seeing some weight loss. I fully understand your frustration. I lost nothing. I mean nothing for the longest time. I might lose one pound a month. And that was a big maybe. So I went to my doctor, and another doctor, and another one, rejecting a diagnosis of "metabolic X syndrome" I found the real cause of my non-weight loss: Cushing's. Now, I'm not saying that you have Cushing's. But I am saying that you need to get to your regular doctor and find out why you are not losing weight.

Excellent progress Delia. I rthink that in the long run, it is only you who count. No one else has to or gets to live in your body. I think that if you have lost enough inches to be in a size 14 loose, then WOOT! Congrats Debbie06, you are a Rabbit, not a Turtle! I understand yur concern about being too filled and not feel properly restricted. One thing to keep in mind that it isn't about restriction; it is about losing weight. At 76 pounds gone in 5 months that's pretty spectaucular. I know that a lot of bansters feel that they should be so restriced that they should only be able to measure their meals by tablespoons as opposed to cups. (or half cups, you know where I"m going. ) I know that sometimes we get a whapred sense of what a true portion size is. Partly because many of us used to eat the portions that restaurants serve (sometimes as many as 4 serings in one meal! ) and think that is normal, then switch to a bandster tinsy serving, and think that's a normal serving. Please try to not worry so much Debbie, ok? Those are some great NSVs Fedixon! I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell everyone else, track those NSVs! I think everyone needs to track their NSVs, but I think it is even more important for Turtles to track.

Reader's Digest has a Cushing's story this issue. Misdiagnosed http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=29413&pageIndex=0

I can't for the life of me think why this would be "bad." You had no pain, so no problem.

Hi Sis, where in WA are you?

I think Lushings is where you drink too much... Metformin is a powerful medication, and he was right to not just prescibe it. I was prescirbed it by one doc, and I only gained weight on it. 1-2 pounds a week gain. So I quit. Oh no, no no no, not skipping meals! Of course, one of the women on my Cushing's board had a doctor tell her that she needed to go on a zero calorie diet. He told her that she would have a difficult time the first couple of week or so, but then she would get used to not eating. That should could go for months without eating. Lisa, check out the links in my signature. I know we have a few Cushies in AU so you might be able to find someone there you can talk to. Cushing's is rarely diagnoised.

Hi Lisa, man, I think I would have kicked him at the "at least you aren't gaining." I HATE that. Ok, since you haven't lost anything with your band, it's time to start looking at other possible causes. Have you had a full work-up? Have you been to see an endocrinologist? It isn't normal or reasonable to not lose weight while folowing the bandster lifestyle About 8 or 9 months into my band, and not losing, I started to demand answers. Discovered that I have a brain tumor that is preventing me from losing weight. The tumor is on my pituitary gland and has caused me to have Cushing's. Please do not let it go. Start demanding answers. I firmly believe that all Turtles should start demanding answers if we are not losing weight with the band. DEMAND answers. If one doc can't help, then it is time to move on to the next one. Keep going until you get some action. Cheers and Courage!

No, you don't want to take a bath yet. You only think you want one. You need to make sure that your are completely healed before you imerse yourself in water. That means no baths, no swimming, no deep-sea scuba diving until you are completely healed. Typically 6 weeks. You do NOT want yucky germs getting inside your body.

((((hugs)))) You need to back off the food now. You've only been banded a couple of weeks, and you should only now be eating soft foods, at the most. Please dig out that copy of your doctor's meal plan AND STICK TO IT. You could be putting your band and health at risk by eating too soon. The reason we are put on the liquids is so that our stomach does almost no processing, no churning or turning while the sutures heal. Trust me, you are not going to starve in the next couple of weeks. The reason you "gained" weight went you went back to solid foods after being on liquids is that you have put solids back into your colon. This doesn't mean you've added 10 pound of fat to your butt, but you have replaced the matter in your colon. I think just about every baby bandster freaks out when they go back onto solid foods. I know that even though I knew I woudl see the scale move in the "wrong" direction when I went on solid foods I freaked out. It's as normal as we get. And as for the difference between a filled band and an unfilled one? Well the band is not designed to work if it isn't filled. You will probably be able to eat everything you could before your banding with an unfilled band. Again, it is DESIGNED this way. In case you have to have the fill removed, or for when you reach goal and feel that you don't need a fill to help you maintain.

Hi Campers! (hi Crystal!) Ok, I'm heading back down to OHSU in Portland tomorrow early morning. I have to be there at 8 am, so we have to get a very early start. I just wanted to give all y'all a quick heads up. I had a mid-line placed on Friday (it was pretty cool learning to draw my own blood) I'll be doing blood draws every 4 hours, I'll be meeting with the neuro-surgeon Tuesday, and I still don't know if I'll be having the CSS Wed or not. Because I hit a High on Thursday, they had to scramble to fit me in and get me tested while I'm still High. Keep your fingers crossed for me that my High stays all week. Hopefully this means that I'll be in for brain surgery really soon! Yes! Hopefully this means that Pitunia will be given her walking papers and that unwanted B*tch will be history! So, here's hoping I'll be like the majority of other Cushies, I'll have the tumor out and then drop 40-90 pounds in a matter of months! Anyway, I'll be gone for a week, so there won't be any update in my journal while I'm gone. bu-bye!

When i started this, I thought it would be a trivial matter to get diagnosed, and then treated. Oh, if only it had been that simple. It's been a real struggle. Doctors who feel that they know best, doctors who won't test because Cushing's is too rare, doctors who won't test because they have a stick firmly wedged up their butt. It's so hard to read about seeming everyone else's successes, to know that until I get this tumor out of my head I will never have any success losing weight. I go away from LBT, and yet I am drawn back. Perhaps it is because I keep hoping that I too will once day have success, that one day I will be a size 14, not a 24. I wear the same clothes I wore before I was banded. But at least I know I have answers. I must hold onto the thought that I will have success. But it is harder still for me to know that other people are not seeking answers. That they are content to accept the band as yet another failed gimic. That they are not willing to push against the resistance that doctors put up. Is anyone else fighting!? Or am I alone in this? Fight Turtles! Fight!

I've had three of these episodes now, where I'm a freaker/tweaker for 2-4 hours, but it seems longer. I just need to know that someone else experiences something similar to this, to know that I'm not alone. I become frantic, frenetic, like every molicule in my body is vibrating at double what it should be. Can't think, can't make a coherent sentence, can only shake and pace and move and tweak. The first time I was a little euphoric, but the last two times I felt out of control in a bad way. I don't doubt that If Iwas in public when this happens that I'll be arrested for public intoxication use of meth, or speed or crack. And not in a good way either. This goes way beyond being "normally" Cushie energetic. There is no way I can get anything done, it's all I can do to not start screaming or yelling. I spent over an hour walking in a circle in my kitchen. I'd get dizzy, so I'd switch and walk the other way. I ended up leaving the house and walked around my block twice, at a speed-walker pace, crying all the while, tears streaming down my face. I'm sure the neighbors were alarmed at my erratic behaviour. *I* was alarmed. When I"m in the teeth of one of these episodes I cannot hold a rational conversation. I can't even follow a simple one, not really. I repeat myself. I'll say the same thing two or three times, usually the end of the sentence I'm trying to say. I also get TERRIBLY thursty, and end up drinking a couple quarts of water in one go. Last week when this happened, I was in the middle of my 32 hour blood draw, and ended up with an ACTH of 59 and 60. Chris at least got to see how bad I was, at my very worst. I called Chris, not sure how I managed to punch the buttons since my hands were shaking so bad. She told me to start yet another UFC, do a salivary, and get a blood draw at the end of the UFC. I dont' want to test anymore! I wanted it to STOP! I don't want to have another one of those episodes EVER. But all Chris could do was tell me to test. Of course, I wouldn't have ever thought to test while I was in the middle of that. Even though it's happened three times now, it would have never occured to me to test. When I had regained my brain, after I stopped tweaking, I told my son that he was going to have to make me a drink. He was going to have to feed me rum until I stopped tweaking. I know that alcohol and Cortisol "eat" each other. I just feel like I cannot go through another one of those episodes. I just cannot face it. I know it is a danger signal to think in "black and white" concepts, but I'm just so terrified of those episodes. But what also frightens me is the thought of the crash that is bound to follow, either this afternoon or tomorrow. Where I'll lose conciousness, where I'll have "extreme weakness" with the crushing pain of the headaches and the back pain will burn my very soul.

My original plan was to reward myself with new music, one new (or used) CD for every pound. *sigh* But since I can't lose weight, sort of pointless.

they wouldn't send me home with a precription for the dex, so I'm still in the "test" phase. I can only hope they got the numbers that I need. Yesterday I had another one of those frantic freaker/tweeker episodes. Heh, I'm sure I'd be arrested for being intoxicated in public! I ended up walking in a circle in my kitchen for over an hour... When my brain started to work again, I taught my spud boy how to make a drink for me. He's not wild about giving me booze, but alcohol and cortisol "eat" each other, so I can only hope that one or more stiff drinks will bring me out of it. I'm so tired of this. I went to bed lastnight at about 3 am, was wired until about 4:30, up again at 6am and then at 8 am again. I am pretty sure this UFC will be really high, but I don't "need" any more high UFCs.... And I'm rambling again.

they wouldn't send me home with a precription for the dex, so I'm still in the "test" phase. I can only hope they got the numbers that I need. Yesterday I had another one of those frantic freaker/tweeker episodes. Heh, I'm sure I'd be arrested for being intoxicated in public! I ended up walking in a circle in my kitchen for over an hour... When my brain started to work again, I taught my spud boy how to make a drink for me. He's not wild about giving me booze, but alcohol and cortisol "eat" each other, so I can only hope that one or more stiff drinks will bring me out of it. I'm so tired of this. I went to bed lastnight at about 3 am, was wired until about 4:30, up again at 6am and then at 8 am again. I am pretty sure this UFC will be really high, but I don't "need" any more high UFCs.... And I'm rambling again.

they wouldn't send me home with a precription for the dex, so I'm still in the "test" phase. I can only hope they got the numbers that I need. Yesterday I had another one of those frantic freaker/tweeker episodes. Heh, I'm sure I'd be arrested for being intoxicated in public! I ended up walking in a circle in my kitchen for over an hour... When my brain started to work again, I taught my spud boy how to make a drink for me. He's not wild about giving me booze, but alcohol and cortisol "eat" each other, so I can only hope that one or more stiff drinks will bring me out of it. I'm so tired of this. I went to bed lastnight at about 3 am, was wired until about 4:30, up again at 6am and then at 8 am again. I am pretty sure this UFC will be really high, but I don't "need" any more high UFCs.... And I'm rambling again.

Carol if you cannot eat now, then you DO NOT need another fill. No, no, no. It sounds like you are too tight now. Your loss so far is quite good. Have you noticed your inches decreasing? It's just as important to track your inches as it is to track what the scale says. Many people lose, then compact, then lose, then compact, over and over.

gummiebear, hun, if you are not able to tollerate solid protiens then you prolly shouldn't have a fill yet. You are probbably still swollen from surgery. It happens to some folks.

Yay! New Avatar!

they have no idea what makes people fat. None at all. Last year it was Leptin. It isn't even as easy as calories in vs calories out. They dont' even know why or how the band works. They think they know, but they are not 100% sure of why it works.

Hey Terri, just wanted to let you know that I'm thinking about you. Hope your GB comes out nice and clean! Get that GB out before it can affect your band baby! So, you said you felt like you'd walked 100 miles... Does this mean that you are walking? (yes? Yes!)

chicken is difficult for some folks. Try another hard protien, and see if that works for you. If you are filled, and you can't do chicken, some folks think that might be a sign you are too tight. Of course, there is the whole mater of "food lube" sauces and such that make chicken and the hard protiens slide down easier.

When i started this, I thought it would be a trivial matter to get diagnosed, and then treated. Oh, if only it had been that simple. It's been a real struggle. Doctors who feel that they know best, doctors who won't test because Cushing's is too rare, doctors who won't test because they have a stick firmly wedged up their butt. It's so hard to read about seeming everyone else's successes, to know that until I get this tumor out of my head I will never have any success losing weight. I go away from LBT, and yet I am drawn back. Perhaps it is because I keep hoping that I too will once day have success, that one day I will be a size 14, not a 24. I wear the same clothes I wore before I was banded. But at least I know I have answers. I must hold onto the thought that I will have success. But it is harder still for me to know that other people are not seeking answers. That they are content to accept the band as yet another failed gimic. That they are not willing to push against the resistance that doctors put up. Is anyone else fighting!? Or am I alone in this? Fight Turtles! Fight!

once again, I think it's time to bump this thread. When i started this, I thought it would be a trivial matter to get diagnosed, and then treated. Oh, if only it had been that simple. It's been a real struggle. Doctors who feel that they know best, doctors who won't test because Cushing's is too rare, doctors who won't test because they have a stick firmly wedged up their butt. It's so hard to read about seeming everyone else's successes, to know that until I get this tumor out of my head I will never have any success losing weight. I go away from LBT, and yet I am drawn back. Perhaps it is because I keep hoping that I too will once day have success, that one day I will be a size 14, not a 24. I wear the same clothes I wore before I was banded. But at least I know I have answers. I must hold onto the thought that I will have success. But it is harder still for me to know that other people are not seeking answers. That they are content to accept the band as yet another failed gimic. That they are not willing to push against the resistance that doctors put up. Is anyone else fighting!? Or am I alone in this? Fight Turtles! Fight!

TURTLE POWER!!!! We are slow losers. But we need to demand answers. I've been thinking about this for the last forever. Or at least it feels like forever. Why are we so different, why doesn't the weight fall off of us like it does our rabbit sisters and brothers? So, I decided that instead of ranting and raving about not losing weight, crying to the folks that can't help with the underlying problem, I decided that I would start crying to medical doctors, not to therapists. I went to my PCP and demanded answers. He couldn't help me, other than putting me on thyroid meds, which as it turns out I needed. But he couldn't help beyond that, and I haven't seen much activity scale wise from the increased thyroid function. He said I should find a endocrinologist, and good luck. Not much help there, but I have a sneeking suspicion that he was baffled, well, basically because he told me "I'm baffled." So I went to another doctor demanded answers. He couldn't do anything, but he did refer me to an internist. She's wonderful, she doesnt downplay my problems, or my concerns. She doesn't blame me for being fat, she doesn't view all my problems through that if-you-lose-weight-your-problems-will-go-away lense. And who here hasn't had all their medical problems blamed on their weight? I think that might be why we, as turtles, haven't demanded answers, demanded that they figure out why we can't lose wight on 1200 calories, or 1000 calories or even less. We think that if we just follow the bandster rules and guidlines like good bandsters, that if we do, the weight will fall off of us. I mean, this works for everyone else, why doesn't it work for us? Because I think there has to be something else going on with us. Medically speaking, there has to be something that is keeping us from losing weight. If all the literature says that women will lose 1 to 2 pounds a week eating 1200 calories a day, if all the banding literature says that we should expect to lose 1-2 pounds a week, if we follow the rules. Well, we are following the rules. We are eating within the stated guidelines, or if we are too tight we eat less, we excersize, we drink Water, we attend support groups (LBT if nothing else); we do all these things and in most cases see a 1 to 2 pound loss a month. So, how long do we beat ourselves up? Why shouldn't we get discouraged and stop trying because, just like every other wild hair-brained scheme to lose weight, this one doesn't work either. Someone said that their doc said that if the thyroid med didn't work that we couldn't blame the medication, which I took to be one more example of blaiming the fat person. The implied message that I took away was if it doesn't work, it's your fault, again. Well I say rubbish. It may be that the thyroid medication isn't the answer, but there has to be an answer somewhere. So, if you are a true turtle, or even a winded wabbit, call your doctor and demand answers. Don't take no for an answer, don't take, "if you just lost weight" for an answer. If your surgeon's office can't help, talk to your PCP. If she can't help, demand a referal. Cry, weap, threaten a break down if you must, but demand those answers. Don't let them shuffle you off to see a therapist as the only course of treatment either. I think we owe that much to ourselves. We owe that to ourselves, our families and loved ones. We even owe it to the other turtles who come after us. But mostly, we owe this to ourselves.