girlygirlz

I am a week out from surgery and still have awful left shoulder pain. I feel like most of my gas is gone and I don't think it is gas. I did some research and there are several theories out there about the shoulder pain. Some believe that it is caused by the band puting preasure on the diaphram. This makes sense to me because when I take a deep breath the pain gets worse. This also might explain why it hurts during exercise. If you still have pain since October I would definitely talk to your Doctor. I see mine next week and he better have something helpful. I will have this band out before I have to put up with chronic pain!!! I was not in any pain before this and I just don't think the band is worth permanent pain. I am willing to try to do this on my own if I have to!:angry

Hi Pam, thanks for the info. I hope my pain goes away by two weeks. It sounds like you and I are pretty close in size. I am 5'5" and am a size 18w but I hope to be a size 16w after all the bloating goes down. We should get together after the Holidays. It would be great to meet in person.

I think I first really thought about it when the owner of my mechanic shop who weighed almost 400 pounds weighed less than me after gastric bypass surgery. He now weighs 177 pounds! He is a completely different person now! Another thing that drove me crazy was when my stomach got so big that I was always pulling up my pants because they would settle under the belly and the only tops I could wear were tunic style to cover my belly! Oh and having people give me dirty looks when I sat next to them on an air plane (thank god I never had to get a seat belt extender!)

Well it has been almost five days and I had hoped to feel better by now. I am extremely bloated and have awful shoulder pain. Did any of you go through this? My husband thinks I should call Western Bariatric but from what I have seen the shoulder pain is fairly common. The scary thing is that it can last a lot longer than a few days though.:faint:

I hope your gas pain goes away soon. I was banded on Monday and still have it. I also had a very large hernia repaired so I wonder if that makes it worse? Good luck to everyone and I look forward to exercise challenges in January.

I hope your gas pain goes away soon. I was banded on Monday and still have it. I also had a very large hernia repaired so I wonder if that makes it worse? Good luck to everyone and I look forward to exercise challenges in January.

<p>Lucky you two! I was banded on Monday and have the horrible shoulder pain I have heard about. My incisions are not bad but my shoulder is killing me! I have been trying to move around alot to get the gas out of my body but it seems to just be lodged in my left shoulder. I am not hungry though and can't wait until all the bloating is gone to see how my weight is doing. I lost 13 pounds pre-op and am hoping for a few more. I can't wait to feel well enough to start exercising!</p>

Yes I found after the first three to four days that I really did not care about food much. I even found it hard to drink all of my shakes! I have felt this way before on diets (although not in years!) I used to be a great dietier but a lousy maintainer lol! I must admit that on my two week pre-op I went off the protein shakes a couple of times when I went out to eat but I always chose low cal super healthy stuff like a salad of baby greens with a plain grilled chicken breast and lite dressing on the side. I lost 13 pounds in two weeks so my substitutions obviously didn't hurt. Good luck to you and I hope hunger doesn't come charging back into our lives!

I think some of the terminology people are using is confusing. Protein shakes are not clear liquid. Clear liquids are broth, water, tea, sugar free popcicles and stuff like that. My Doctor said clear liquids for two days and then pourable food such as protein shakes or non-fat milk for the rest of the week. At week two I can have very soft food such as yogurt, very thin mashed potatoes, blended soups with no lumps, very thin hot cereal and of course protein shakes. At week four I can start with foods blended in food processor into fine chunks and go from there to see what I can tollerate. I will get my first fill 5-6 weeks after surgery. My Doctor is part of Western Barriatric group in Reno and they specialize in Bariatric surgery. They are a Barriatric Center of Excellence so they are very thorough.

Ok I am one day post op. I am having killer shoulder pain but other than that doing ok. It's funny I am hungrier now than I was on the two week liquid diet. I actually got to that dieter's high that I had not felt in years. My dieters high is when I am not particulary interested in food and have tons of energy and willpower. During this phase I asked myself if I even needed the band. But I know that does not last and that is when I will need the band! But I am down 14 pounds and am determined to keep going. I look forward to succeeding on the journey! Can't wait to start exercising.:whoo:

I have been on my pre-op diet for a week and mine is very strict (2 weeks of protein shakes and plain veggies only!) I did pretty good and only cheated by having a mixed baby green salad with a small grilled chicken breast and a teaspoon of dressing on Saturday - I skipped a protein shake to compensate and I figure my meal had the same calories and was just as nutricious! But today I went to Costco!!! I had one meatball and one crab cake sample before I had to run out of there. I did pass up the food court with the thousand calorie chicken bakes and polish dogs though! So my advice to you all is to stay out of Costco or at least stay away from the food sample ladies!

I said thin or slightly overweight. I have been married for 23 years and my hubby and I were both thin and fit when we met (our friends used to call us Ken and Barbie!) I have never been attracted to overweight men even though I know it would not be fair for me to judge if I were dating since I am big myself. Luckily my husband has stayed pretty thin (he recently lost about thirty pounds and now is 6 foot 1 with a 34 inch waist! I know my husband still loves me fat but I know that he would not be attracted to a fat woman he didn't know. I have to agree with the woman on Oprah that there seems to be something creepy about these guys who like to date only fat girls. I think its great that a guy would fall for a big girl (like if he met her at work or something) but it just seems strange that guys would cruise fat clubs just looking for fat girls. But I have to admit to some prejudice against fat people. I was thin most of my life and I always thought there was no way a man could find me attractive if I was fat. I am afraid that is how a lot of thin women think.

Five pounds is not that bad especially if you had fun! Just stick to your program and it will come off soon!

I am December 17! Banding in Reno by Dr. Sasse at Wester Barriatric. I hope someone will add me to the list. I need to get the glitter banner on my profile some how. I am sooo clueless when it comes to the computer I usually have my DH do everything for me but I don't want to ask him to help me. Maybe I'll get my 14 year old daughter to help.

OK I am glad to hear that others can't quite stick to the pre-pre-op diet. I start my pre-op two week liquid diet on December second so I decided to do a low-cal diet for a week before to ease into the starvation thing. I have only fell off the wagon a couple of times but am getting nervous about staying on the liquid diet with parties and such. I was thinking today of inviting a friend over for dinner for her birthday this month and even bought a great bottle of wine before I remembered oh yeah I can't eat anything (or drink!!!!:faint:). I am seriously beginning to wonder how this will effect our social life since I love to cook and most family get-togethers are at our house. Also - I want to punch my obnoxious brother-inlaw. His daughter (my niece) just had the band done in October and every time he sees me he says things like enjoy that pizza because you won't be eating that again or you know you can't drink beer because it is carbonated. I think after I lose my weight and get in shape I will challenge him to a race or something I am sure I could take him since the only heavy lifting he does is a twelve pack of Coors!

Hi Pam, sounds like you had fun on the cruise. You are smart not to weigh yourself too soon after getting home. I don't have much on my profile (or whatever you call it) because I am pretty clueless when it comes to the internet. I don't know how to upload pictures and I tried to do a ticker once and couldn't figure it out. I have three kids ages 14, 12 and 5 and have been married for 23 years. I have been fighting my weight all my life but was never really overweight until after my first pregnancy (I just thought I was fat- I am 5'5" and my top weight was 150 and a size ten but I wanted to be 120 and a size 5!) I was forever dieting to get to the skinny stage and could not accept that my body is happier with a little cushion. I gained about 70 pounds with my first pregnancy and thought oh well I will just diet afterwards. I got within 10 pounds of pre-pregnacy weight and then got pregnant again! After second pregnancy I went to a diet Doctor and got down to about 160 on medifast but with my goal in sight I just quit! The last few years I have not been able to stay on any diet at all! I just think part of me rebelled from all the years of dieting and My subconscious said forget it it won't work! I think part of getting the band for me is that it gives me hope that there is something out there that will really work. The rest of my family are fit and thin. The kids are all into sports and burn off the calories. I do worry about my 14 year old though because she has a lot of bad eating habbits that she is able to get away with now because she is young and athletic. Hopefully she will stay active. I currently weigh 215 and have an official goal of 135 but 150 would be great!:whoo:

Thanks Pam for all the good advice. I will definitely find out what band size Dr. Sasse is using at my pre-op appointment. I know from the site that it can take a while to hit your "Sweet Spot" so hopefully another fill can get you there. I really haven't made any changes yet other than occasionally practicing chewing. I think I will try a semi-liquid diet after Thanksgiving to get me ready for the 2 week diet that I start on the 3rd of December. Do you still go to support meetings? I went to one (required) at St. Mary's but I here the ones at South Meadows are better. I am looking forward to being on the bandwagon!:whoo:

Pam. Thanks for your candor in discussing your struggle with the weight loss. I am going to be banded on th 17th of December by Dr. Sasse and I find that I learn so much from the site - good and bad! I hope that the eating disorder group can help you. I saw a therapist for over a year and got some insight into why I eat (although I didn't stop!) Posts like yours are a good reminder that this is not easy! I hope it will remind me that I need to work hard and follow the rules. I do find that exercise has been a key to weight loss for me in the past. But I think you have to remind yourself that the weight is still lower than when you were banded and you have stopped that upward spiral. Hang in there:)

Yes I am December 17! Yippee and Oh my God! I have to do a two week liqid diet so I figure Thanksgiving will be my "last supper" I am getting excited and scared.

Julie you are our inspiration! I finally got my band date it's December 17. I never liked running so I have set a different goal than a marathon but maybe just as challenging - My husband wants me to climb half dome in Yosemete with him. If you can lose 200 plus pounds and run marathons I know I can do this! Congratulations!!

Sounds like you are doing great! My date is 12/17 so I figure I will start my liquid diet after Thanksgiving. I am hoping that I feel ok by Christmas especially since my husband told his parents that he could cook Christmas dinner at our house (but what I want to know is who is going to clean the house before everyone comes over?) Congtratulations again.:clap2:

Thanks uniqueone for the tip. I found the site and ordered some stuff so hopefully it will work better than the stuff I got at petco.

Welcome and congrats! I still don't know if I am the 3rd or 17th since I have not heard back from the Doctors but I am starting to believe this is finally going to happen!!

I am also Dec. 17th - I sure hope it is not too close to Christmas but I figure it's a sure way to keep from pigging out!:hungry:

Hi Unique this is off topic but I noticed you do a lot of rescue work. I have a very sweet lab who we adopted almost two years ago from Reno Animal Control when he was 11 months old. He was totally housebroken and we had no problems. A couple of months ago we boarded him at a doggy day care place for three days. Since then he has been peeing in the house! I try to take him out regularly but he is sneaky. I have used all the urine odor stuff but he still pees in the same 3 or 4 spots. Any suggestions?