thechatrooper

I was prescribed Vicodin/Hydrocodone 7.5 a few months ago for migranes I was getting. Is it still safe to take? I didn't see it on either list... What will those medications do to your band?

I'm 8 days post op- I've been doing really good with the "full" liquids diet. I don't think I've been going over about 600 calories a day, at the very most. The strange thing is, I haven't lost any weight since Saturday (5 days). Why is this??? It's really frustrating me. On top of that, I've been feeling sooo run down- all I've been doing is resting and sleeping. It's so bad that I can hardly keep my eyes open. Today I fell asleep at 1PM and didn't wake up until 10pm (I had gotten a full night's sleep the night before) Why am I not losing any weight, and What can I do to have more energy??

Yesterday I was really, really low energy. Sunday I'm allowed to have pureed foods, but I cheated a bit yesterday and had about five bites of super pureed mashed potatoes. Afterwards, I felt soooooo much better, and today I woke up feeling good. Even though it was a few days early, it really helped me a great deal. AND as a bonus, I lost 2 lbs overnight. It was really an odd sensation, having food in my stomach for the first time since having the band.

LOL... My Dr said the exact opposite- he made me kinda freaked out. Oh well... I like your Drs advice better =)

I'm sorry to post this here, I know it is completely unrelated, but I really need some advice. I'm not quite sure if I want to bring this up to my friends, but I really need some advice. In every normal long-term relationship, I'm sure the topic of the couple's "future" comes up at least once or twice. I've been with my boyfriend for a few years, and we've never, ever discussed getting married, moving in together, etc. which kind of strikes me as odd. I feel nervous bringing these things up, because I don't want him to feel funny. My boyfriend will soon be turning 23. He still lives with his parents, but the home he lives in was paid for in part by him and his older brother. The mortgage payment is split three ways (between my boyfriend Sergio, his parents, and his brother). Today he was telling me about some major repairs that needed to be made on his house. The man who looked at the house said it would be cheaper for them to tear their home down and build a new one rather than pay for all of the repairs. Sergio commented that they were thinking of building TWO ranch style homes on that property, both with full basements. He said that his parents would live in the top of one, his older brother & his family would live in the top of the other, and then Sergio and his younger brother would each live in their own basement, and he commented that each basement would have enough room for their families, when they had them. He also commented that he would need to make sure his brothers would be living there VERY long term before they decided to build the homes. This made me kind of wonder-- just HOW LONG is Sergio planning on living with his parents? Later in the night, I brought up the topic of moving out with him and getting married, and I commented that I didnt think it would be happening any time soon. He asked why I said that, and I said I felt that think he wouldn't be leaving his family anytime soon. Sergio said "Well, whenever we get married, you're going to come live here with us" WTF!?!? I had no clue how to respond to that... so I kind of let out a gasp/laugh/!?!? He got really upset and he said, "What, you think that's a joke?" He was serious! I explained in the nicest way possible that my ideal marriage wouldn't consist of living with my husband's mother, father, three brothers, and their families. I told him that normally, when people get married, they look forward to starting their OWN family. He got really insulted, and told me that maybe I should go live my life the way I want with someone else. He also said "Well I guess you have no interest in getting to know my family so you must not be the right person for me" So obviously it has come out into the open that we have very different ideas on how marriages/relationships/life works. I am not going to school and spending $66,000 out of my own pocket to get a Bachelors degree just so I can be a housewife and live with my husbands entire family. This makes me wonder... is it worth it to stay with someone, now that I know that we may not have much of a future together? I am not willing to compromise on this, and obviously neither is he. Trouble is, I love him. Do I stay with him knowing we have very different ideas on how we are going to spend our future? Or do I break up with someone that I love, care about, get along well with? This just baffles me, I think it's great that he's really close to his family... but it almost makes me wonder why he's so against being out on his own, especially since he's already financially independent (he makes good money for his age and is paying 1/3 of all the bills in his home). How do I respond to this?

I don't know if this is really appropriate for the full liquids stage, but this recipie has helped me A LOT when I've been starving (I make the full recipie, but then split it in 3rds and freeze the rest for another day) 1/4 cup skim milk 1 cup fat free / sugar free ice cream 2 tablespoons peanut butter mix all & Blend well !! This makes up only about 3/4 of a glass, which I split in 3rds. I know it's probably not the BEST choice, but I've found that the peanut butter in it really makes me feel full and very satisfied, and I find myself not even finishing the full 1/3 cup serving... usually just a few sips does the trick!! It's not something I've had every day, but when I'm feel like nothing is satisfying me, it helps.

This is SUCH a dumb question... I know what a PB is & what happens when you get one, but what does it stand for? Just curious =)

I was told that I'd be fine right away, but I was in a lot of pain for at least the first 3 days. It's strange, because usually I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. I needed help getting in and out of bed up until a few days ago (I got banded on 4/27) but I guess everybody is different!

Hello! I'm not really looking to get married anytime within the next few years, not till I'm older than 25 at least. I know I still have a lot ahead of me and a lot more that I want to do on my own. I just don't want to "waste time" with someone who isn't going to be a part of my future, when I could be missing the opportunity to meet someone better. It's good to hear other's outlook on this, I thought what he said was weird, but since my extended family isn't that close and I'm an only child, I thought maybe my outlook on family might be different than the norm. I know he loves me and really cares for me, and he's always been really kind, patient, and loving with me, but I'm starting to think he's just not right for me. I had never considered "cultural differences" as an issue before at all, but I guess it does come into play at some point, and that sucks. I think needs someone to be a lot more like him culturally, and I can't change who I am. Thank you all for the awesome advice on my off-topic prob, I appreciate it =) <3 Lisa

Hey everyone! I've been having horrible gas bubbles in my stomach after surgery (4/27) that I can't burp up. Last night, I started throwing up, but nothing came out, and it almost seemed as if I was throwing up gas. The air in my stomach is constantly making me feel sick and I'm scared that I'll keep throwing up. Is there any gas medicine that will take care of this that is safe to take a few days after surgery?? Thanks, Lisa

I just got banded yesterday (4-27) and I'm in horrible, horrible pain. The Dr prescribed Liquid Tylenol w Codein, but it isn't doing ANYTHING for me. I've already finished the entire bottle in a little over 24 hours. My mom has spoken to several nurses and one of the Drs, requesting a different prescription, and they keep on brushing it off telling me that I need to walk more (I've been walking for hours bc it hurts too much to lay down) and take deep breaths. I haven't been able to sleep since yesterday morning because of the pain- I wake up every 1-2 hours in horrible pain and sit there until I'm able to take more. A friend of mine who got the surgery done was prescribed Lortab and had several refills available. Does anyone have any advice on what I need to do for my Dr to take me seriously???

I haven't heard of the Vegas bash... what/when is it?? I can't go on "full" liquids until Wednesday =(

This whole thing is still baffling the hell out of me... LOL. Maybe the painkillers from my surgery are fogging my ability to reason things out, but I'm extremely confused by him now. I think I'm going to stick this out until I'm fully recovered from surgery (I don't think I should put myself through any emotional trauma right after surgery) and see how I feel. The more I think about this situation though, I just want to laugh... I'm picturing myself living in this little commune of people, being his weird white girlfriend trapped, sitting silently in the basement, not being able to communicate with anyone because I can't even speak the same language as them. Maybe it's best for me to be single anyhow. I've just begun a new phase of my life (I just turned 22 and just got banded, within a few days of each other!) and to be honest, I've never, EVER been single. My first relationship started when I was 14 and lasted until I was 20. This one began a few months after. I should take some time away from the serious relationships and have some fun, be young while I can, and do the things I've always wanted to do. I guess it goes back to my body image. I've always felt that as long as I had someone who was good to me and loved me as I was, I should stick with them, even if I wasn't completely happy. Now that I'm working on that issue, I should also work on finding my true soul mate.

Hey alatina! We should be buddies since we were banded the same day! I was going through the saaammme thing today... now that the pain is subsiding, I'm feeling hungry as hell... esp since I was on a 10 day liquid diet before surgery. I'm scared I'm going to mess up and eat something and really hurt my stomach-- after surgery I actually had several nightmares where I ate before I was supposed and my stomach began bleeding like crazy and all my incisions burst open... lol. To make it worse, I'm D Y I N G for a cigarette. Try drinking the broth from chicken noodle Soup, it's better than normal broth. That helped me a little and had more seasoning to it. Decaff tea also seemed to fill me up a bit! I'm just wishing I could even drink milk at this point....But I still have several more days to go =( Good luck with everything! Feel free to email me if you ever want to talk, since we'll be going through the same stages at the same time! <3 Lisa

Hey! Today was a lot better... I finally was able to get some sleep with my new meds (before today, I had only gotten a few hours of sleep since Tuesday), so I spent the whole day sleeping. The lortab is actually upsetting my stomach a bit, and I started throwing up this morning. I've realized that I need to split my dosage in half and drink some tea before, during, and after sipping the lortab. But, all in all, I'm feeling a lot better! =) Thanks for all the advice! =) <3 Lisa

I called and talked to the nurse for the 4th time and she paged him again... I guess after hearing from my mom and I so many times they finally took me seriously. He just called in a script... I'm not sure what it is though (he never told me) so I guess we'll see. I wasn't expecting to be in so much pain- I've been having gas pain, plus pain around my port and muscle pain from the center to left side of my stomach. I've developed a cough, so that's really hurting my muscles even worse. I'm hoping whatever he prescribed me works better. It just seemed so odd that he was so against my getting a different prescription... you'd think he'd rather have me take smaller doses of a stronger medication than over-dose on the stuff he gave me (I've had to take it every 2 hours so far- I'm only supposed to take it every 4-6 hours) A friend of mine who got the surgery last year said she was prescribed a huge bottle of Lortab with 4 additional refills. Thank you all for the suggestions... the heating pad sounds like a good idea! I'll post an update later... Good luck to everyone who is still healing! <3 Lisa

PS... I'm wondering what everyone else was prescribed? I've spoken to several people who thought it was very odd that I wasn't given Lortab in the first place.

Pardon my language... but I'm bummed.... Tomorrow I start my 10 day pre-op diet.... So today was my last day to enjoy food. My boyfriend took the day off of work, and we planned a trip to Navy Pier and a few musuems, and we planned to go to a fancy restaurant for dinner. This morning, I woke up.... AND I WAS SICK AS HELL!!!!!!! I CAN'T taste anything. =( =( =( I feel soooo run down. We had to skip out on all of our plans and just see a movie and get dinner (which I couldn't taste or enjoy since my nose is so stuffed and my tonsils are so swollen =( Soooo... that was how my "last meal" went. I'm bummed. The next few days are going to be super-super-super rough. I'm moving out of my house & onto my own for the first time, and my moving day is this Monday. I'm sick as hell, I can't smoke, can't eat, and I'll be moving all of my stuff. Oh, and on top of it all, it's "that time of the month". Yay. On top of all that, I'm going through all these horrible guilty emotions about moving out and leaving my parents (I'm an only child) and I'm having bad anxiety about that AND the surgery. !!!!!SOMEBODY PRAY FOR ME!!!!!!

I'm on my 2nd day of the liquid diet.... I need to vent. I don't know if I can handle all this at once emotionally. The two people who are my new room mates (two male friends of mine who are gay) are getting on my nerves. I don't know if it's because I'm cranky from not eating... but I feel like a wreck. I just wish I could go back home in crawl into bed. I don't have the energy to unpack, and I don't have the energy to deal with people, especially them right now. They know I'm on this liquid diet, and they keep on going on and on about how starving they are. There are things that bother me that I never noticed before, like how superficial they can be. They feel the need to criticize everyone who passes us on the street. I really just want to hit them. I'm not too far away from home (I just moved downtown and my home is in the suburbs... about 30 minutes away) but I feel like I'm a million miles away. I don't feel like I'm emotionally ready to handle all of this at once.

I'm APRIL 27TH!!! (2 days after my 22nd bday!) Did anyone have to do that test where they shove a LONG tube thru your nose and down into your esophogas? I think it was called the Esophogeal mamotry or something? THAT WAS SOOOO HORRIBLE!!! I start my pre-op diet on the 13th... wish me luck!

Ooooh!! I've never tried lemon but i LOOOOVVVEE the cherry ones. yum.yum.

Ewe.. lol okay, so I was on my way to the kitchen to get some lunch... now I'm not so sure. I hope that everyone was pregnant and just getting strange cravings when they ate these things??? lol ...I'll have to print this out, so that the next time someone says I'm weird for dipping my french fries in honey, I can prove that it COULD be worse... LOL

I was speaking with a friend who recently got banded, and she commented to me "Oscar (her boyfriend) acts sooo different towards me now! Just wait and see, your boyfriend will be all over you now... and he'll also get really possesive!" As much as I try to fight it, I can't help but be insecure. I've been with my boyfriend for several years, but when our relationship began, I was much smaller. Plus, we're both in our 20's... so I guess I feel unattractive compared to other females my age. I would almost feel upset if my boyfriend treated me differently after surgery & acted "more attracted" than before. I suppose it's a really good thing to increase attraction, but I guess it's just a product of one of those nagging insecurities deep down inside that many women get from being overweight for most of their lives. It makes me wonder if our relationship will drastically change after I begin losing weight. What has everyone experienced with this? Have your relationships changed? Has anyone felt this way about their relationships after surgery? Has anyone experienced posessiveness or jealousy from their partner?

As I get closer and closer to my consultation and surgery date, I’m really starting to have all of these mixed emotions that I didn’t think I would be having. I started off feeling so happy about my decision. I was so elated that everything worked out- that my parents and friends approved of my decision, that I managed to come up with the finances to get this done, and that I found a close doctor that did it for a semi-affordable price. Suddenly, yesterday I started having mixed feelings. Maybe it’s because I’ve been sitting at home for the past week with nothing to do except think about the decision I’ve made. I started feeling so anxious and sad. What if I get this done and I’m miserable? What if I get seriously depressed afterwards because I can’t comfort eat? I started to worry so much, that I got a panic attack that wouldn’t go away. About an hour later, I saw that the MTV show “I Want A Famous Face” was on, and I immediately began watching. The episode was on a girl who wanted to look like Carmen Electra. This girl was gorgeous… she had a great body, a beautiful face, and nice hair. Most girls would love to look like her. This girl’s self-image was so screwed- she kept on saying how her goal in life was to look like Carmen Electra to make the guy she is seeing happy. She also said that her ultimate goal was to eventually get on the cover of Maxim magazine. She mentioned that her last boyfriend always told her she was fat and ugly. Obviously, his words stuck with her. She then went on to talk about the relationship she had with this new guy- she stated that he wasn’t really her boyfriend, just someone she dated a lot. She emphasized that her goal was, by getting implants, to make him want to be her boyfriend. She went on her consultation with a plastic surgeon, and asked to have size D implants, her nose redone, lip injections, and lipo. When she mentioned getting the breast implants, the guy she’s dating just started smiling like crazy. In almost every scene they showed this girl in, she was crying hysterically… you could tell that she really didn’t want to get the surgery done… you could tell she just felt like she needed to fix herself to get her boyfriend’s approval. Anytime she asked his opinion, all he could imply was how much better she would be after her implants… he never once re-enforced the fact that he already found her attractive… instead, he gave the impression that she needed to be fixed. The night before her surgery, they showed her laying in bed with the guy she was dating, crying. She said to the guy she was dating, “So what happens after I get implants..?” (Implying that once she got implants, he would be her boyfriend because she was suddenly “better” and “more desirable” as a girlfriend). He just got this nasty smirk on his face and said, “We’ll see what happens.” After the surgery, the girl just looked miserable and sad, and the guy never once asked how she was feeling, never acted caring, just went on and on about her breasts. He even made comments insinuating that since she’s gotten implants, he’s been reconsidering her as a girlfriend more. This show made me think about the way society makes females my age feel. I don’t know about EVERY girl my age, but most females I know feel the need to be “fixed” in some way- they need implants, lipo, etc. just to feel better about themselves. It’s just so screwed the way girls feel these days, and it’s something that no man would ever understand. And deep down inside, no girl wants to feel that way. No girl wants to have plastic surgery to fix herself… we want to feel beautiful the way we are. Deep down inside, I think that most females in their late teens-20's nowadays feel this way. Our boyfriends ogle at these perfect women, and we feel like we need to be like them to feel okay with ourselves. They think they're not harming anything, as long as they're coming back to us and telling us they love us. But it still hurts us inside. We feel like in order to have our boyfriends, society, whoever- accept us, we need to be fixed, altered, perfected, etc. We’re made to feel that if we’re fixed and perfect, we’ll be loved so much more, we’ll be found so much more attractive, society will accept us, and we’ll be successful. If you’ve ever seen an episode of “I Want A Famous Face”, then you know what I’m talking about. And the goals of all these girls are insane- they all want to have plastic surgery so that they can hopefully one day make it into the pages of “Playboy”, “Maxim”, or whatever other magazine that features skanky, half-naked, airbrushed girls. With my surgery coming up faster and faster, I’m beginning to notice more things that I’ll need fixed after I lose weight- my breasts might get smaller, saggier, whatever, so I’ll feel the need to get implants. I might need a tummy tuck, a body lift, whatever. And it scares me. I don’t want to feel like that girl. I don’t want to feel like I need to be perfected. I just want to feel beautiful being me- a healthier, natural me. I want to feel like I’m the most beautiful person my boyfriend has ever seen. I don’t want to feel “faulty”. I don’t want to feel inadequate. I don’t want to feel like I’m somewhere in the rankings way below some stripper he saw months ago in a club or some hoe in Maxim or Playboy, or some celebrity made of plastic. I want to be happy with myself. I want to be loved for the person God made me, not for who I am after I'm fixed. I guess that the closer I get to surgery, more of my insecurities are coming out. These are insecurities I have left over from childhood, when I felt hideous, ugly, and beyond hope. It never even occurred to me that I was even slightly attractive until after High School. It's funny considering the fact that during HS I had done some plus-sized modeling, and had even won a modeling contest for a Chicago radio station. I've had many offers to do modeling, but I've always felt too fat and ugly to even go through with it. I felt like they'd laugh if I showed up as their "model". It's crazy how, no matter how many people tell you you're beautiful, you can still feel ugly. I guess I’m just scared. Scared about what emotions this surgery will bring up, scared that I’ll never feel happy deep down inside no matter how beautiful & healthy my body becomes, and scared that I’m making the wrong decision. Don’t get me wrong, I’m doing this surgery because I’ve tried diet after diet after diet since I’ve been 9 or so. And yes, I’ve lost weight, but I gain it right back. I want to be happier, healthier, etc. Those were my initial goals when pursuing this surgery. I want to be able to run up stairs without gasping for air. I want to feel like I’m 21, not 51. I want to feel confident enough to enjoy myself at clubs, at the beach, walking down the street. I want to live longer. I’m just scared that I’m also doing this because I feel like I need to be fixed, just like that girl on TV. ...I'm sorry this was so long... I just needed to share this, and I thought this would be a good place to do so since I'm sure we're all going through similar emotions.

Hey everyone! I'm due to be banded in about three weeks, and one of my biggest concerns is the fact that I might be left with a lot of excess skin after weight loss. I know two people personally who have gotten the surgery, and both were young (21 and 28) and they were left with LOTS of extra skin and both had to get body lifts, plus one got a breast lift and another got implants. I'm 21, 5'6 and 250lbs. Will I be stuck with lots of extra skin as well? I'd really like to avoid having to get plastic surgery... I hate the thought of it. I'm planning on buying an elipticall machine for my house, but I don't know if that will be enough. What kind of excersizes are good to help tone up before excess skin becomes a problem? (I'm an hourglass shape, so my weight is carried pretty evenly, but is mainly in my upper arms, chest, abdomen below my belly button, and upper thighs.) Has anyone tried to use skin firming cream religiously after surgery? If so, did it work? Is there anything, anything, anything I can do to prevent my breasts from becoming saggy?? Has anyone tried seeing a dermotologist for advice? I'm thinking of doing this. Thanks for any help anyone can give! Lisa