Cascavel

Awesome job! I've lost the same as you to this point (with the same slow down at 170 pounds). The big difference is that I'm now where you started -- hopefully I can duplicate your success from this point on! I just had my third fill and it's definitely helping.

Welcome, Kylie! Yes it may be a long road, but it's the right road and one you'll never have to travel again. We can do it!!!

Hi all, Not only did I start with 200+ pounds to lose, but I started with 300+ pounds to lose. Yikes! :cool: Even when I meet that goal my BMI will still place me just shy of being Morbidly Obese, but still Obese. Maybe when I reach my goal I'll re-evalute from there. Although I've had good success so far I still get down on myself when I don't follow the Bandster rules so well. I've hit a couple plateaus, but thankfully am moving downwards again. I haven't started exercising regularly yet -- hopefully soon. Anyone else in the same boat as me? I'd love to hear of your success and achievements as well... Cascavel

Hooray! I'm down 100 pounds as of this morning... :clap2:

Tomorrow is the three month mark since the start of my pre-op diet, and I've lost about 95 pounds so far. Before you get too excited you should realize that I still want to lose about the same as a lot of your starting weights! :omg: I haven't had a fill yet since my progress has been steady and I haven't really been hungry (I have seen my doctor, though, and they agreed no fill for now). I still get full on 3/4 cup or so of food. The only thing that has given me problems so far is fresh veggies -- don't think I chewed them well enough. The only thing I've given up 100% is carbonated beverages, though I try to limit my sweets to 1 or 2 special occasions a week. I can already feel a big difference in that it's easier to move around and such, and I've lost 2 pants sizes, but I still don't see it in the mirror all that much. The Band works if you do your part!

Days 6-7 were the worst pains (woke me up at night) but by the end of 2 weeks the gas was gone...:clap2:

...but this is what my surgeon told me. He said that the liquid children's ibruprofen is fine, as are the gel caps. He said to never take an ibruprofen in pill form as it can sit in the small pouch and cause big problems. I guess talk to your doctor and see what he/she has to say...

I wasn't hungry at all -- I only had about 1/2 cup of water total the day of surgery...

Congratulations on being banded! :clap2: My gas pain wasn't bad until day 6 and 7 -- those were the worst, but then it was gone. Gas-X strips helped a lot...

I bought a bottle of the Benefiber chewables... Benefiber

The steri-strips didn't leave any residue but my port incision bled a little the night of surgery so they slapped a big gauze pad over it with lots of tape. It's been almost 3 weeks since surgery and the tape marks are still there. I was able to get the tape marks off my arm where the IV was by scrubbing HARD with a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol on it. My port area is still just sore enough that I haven't been brave enough to do the same around there. Anyone know of anything that works w/o vigorous rubbing? Cascavel

Hi all -- I just got back from my 2-week post-op appointment with Dr. Hansen. Things are going great. I did ask him about the Motrin thing and he said that liquid Motrin and Gelcaps are just fine to take -- it's the solid pills that need to be avoided. Now I'm not a doctor (nor do I even play one on TV) and your doctor may say differently, but I wanted to post what he said to follow-up on earlier posts in this thread... Cascavel

It's certainly interesting to see the wide variance in the prescribed stages. Dr Hansen's stages are: Days 1-5 Clear Liquids Days 6-7 Full Liquids Days 8-14 Anything thin and/or pureed enough to drink through a straw Days 15-35 Soft foods (calls this the 'Healing Diet') Day 36+ Normal foods Just hit day 15 today. I think I'll Celebrate with a scrambled egg... :hungry: Paul

I was expecting a somewhat longer surgery due to my size, but Dr. Hansen said that thanks to pre-op diet liver shrinkage it went smoothly and I was only under for 60 minutes. Cascavel

I had mentioned to him during my pre-op visit that I took Advil occasionally. He said that would be ok eventually as long as I took the Liqui-gels. I figured that since Motrin and Advil were essentially the same thing it would be ok, but I'll defintely ask him again next week. My wife said the only liquid pain medicine she could find at the store was the Children's Motrin -- maybe I'll have her look a little harder...