JustWatchMe

I'm 4 weeks post-op and still on liquids only. Lately I've noticed that I can feel "something" when I wake up in the morning even before I drink my Protein shake. It's right where I'm guessing my band is. Not pain or anything, but kind of like restriction, even on an empty stomach. It might have something to do with a chest cold I've been slooooowly getting over for the last two weeks (post nasal drip? Ugh) but I'm not sure. I also took myself off Prevacid a week ago because I no longer take the NSAIDs that I used to live on for arthritis pre-band, and the NSAIDs were why I needed Prevacid. This may sound dumb, but when you sleep all night, does your band move down a little? All day long I expect that gravity holds the stomach in the right spot for the band, but what about when you're prone for 7 hours? I've read how people have tightness in the morning. Why does that happen? Thank you all for any feedback. I feel like I'm living with a little alien inside me, and just want to learn more about it and treat my little E.T. with T.L.C. Two more weeks until solid food, then four days later will be my first fill. Woo hoo!

My first visit home from freshman year in college was Thanksgiving, and I had gained about 20 pounds. My grandfather greeted me with, "Well, I guess they're not starving you." When I was 28, I lost a great deal of weight, and when l was about a size 14 and exercising faithfully, I went out for a walk wearing shorts. Some guys sitting on a porch across the street whistled. I ignored them, and one loudly called out, "Fat a$$!". That hit hard, because I had started to feel normal and it just cut me to my core. My paternal grandmother, whom I visited twice a year, greeted me judgmentally every time during my preteen and teen years with, "Do you have a boyfriend yet?" It always made me feel ashamed. My husband told me the night before I was banded that it was "the quick fix". My mother and father were both fat when I was a kid, and "fat" was a common insult in our household. I don't remember one specific thing they said, but occasionally it was used as a weapon. My mother used the term "bimbo" to mean "fat", so until I was an adult I thought that is what "bimbo" meant. The high school registration person who weighed each freshman yelled the weight across the field house to another person. "150!" It was more than any other girl in line, of course, and devastated me. The nicest thing someone said to me was my late aunt who saw me every holiday season. The year I had lost over a hundred pounds and the other relatives were oohing and aahing over how "good I looked", she came up to me in the kitchen and said, "You're beautiful, and you have always been beautiful." That heartfelt lovely sentiment stuck with me.

Wow. Just.... Wow!!! Thanks for posting this. And congratulations!

Just the boost you needed right now. Way to go!

Thanks for your honesty. Your posts have helped me a lot.

Others have recently recommended switching up your routine. If you exercise at a certain time of day, temporarily change the time, or the type of exercise. Or switch your meals around a bit, staying within the guidelines. I tend to get into food and exercise ruts. It's actually my way of staying on track, because when things are too interesting, I may overindulge. But I see how my "bored" body could land in a plateau due to the same old, same old, every day. Like HealthyNewMe, my past habit was to give up at the first stall or gain. No more. I'm learning so much about how the body works from this forum. Thanks for the great article.

Very inspiring!

How many butts have you collected? Is it a drag having to dust them every week?

Cccv, thanks for the update and good luck tomorrow. I'm sure you're right on track, and surgery will be here before you know it. I'm in week 5 of a total of 7 weeks of liquids, one preop and 6 post-op. It's getting OLD, but I was doing fine with my boring Soups until yesterday. My husband brought home turkey chili, with pieces of turkey meat, and I thought, hey, it's close to a Soup, so I'll just chew it real well. Guess what. Not a liquid. I had two cups of it and followed it with a big glass of milk a half hour later, and it just SAT right under my breastbone forever. Okay, not forever, maybe 45 minutes. But I felt like crap the rest of the night and woke up today still feeling "off". Mind you, I have no fill yet. I figured what must have happened is a bunch of factors. I'm still not eating slowly enough. I have to learn to slow this down big time, but with soups, it hasn't mattered so far. Well, those pieces of turkey, even well-chewed, are not liquid. They need time to pass through the pouch. I didn't give it time. And I ate double what I should have. My goal for the next two weeks is to treat my creamy soups (no more chili) like a real meal, and slow it down, and wait between spoonfuls. It was the first time I could really tell I had a band. And if that's what happened with no fill, I'd better learn to respect the rules of band eating before I go on solids, and then four days later, get my first fill. This is sure a learning process.

Congratulations!

I agree with Bandista. Knowing ahead of time will help you gather supplies when you have the energy for it. Good luck and keep us posted!

Lapper, stop kicking yourself. Each day has its challenges. You've come amazingly far already, and it's a process. We're human. Thank God. We're gonna do this!

Gowalking, WAY! TO! GO!

2muchfun, I have to laugh at your "chicken friend steak". Don't fix the spelling. It's perfect as it is. B-)

Here's something nobody on the planet knows, except now, you thousands of BP posters... LOL... I began my WLS process in September 2013 and gave up tv eating in October. That was about the only change I made back then, waiting for the medical and psychological clearances before my case was submitted to insurance. Then came Thanksgiving. I always make the turkey for the extended family, and I do it the night before. Every year when I carve the turkey, I make sure nobody's around, and I eat all the crispy skin off the turkey. It's my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. As I did it this past Thanksgiving, I was actually crying. I knew it was the last time I would do it, and I was so sad. For some reason, even before I saw this thread, I thought of that turkey again today and got sad again. Maybe because Easter is coming up and I'm still going to be on liquids then. And still on liquids for my birthday next week too. I was having myself a little pity party this morning. But you know what? I didn't cave in to it. I was banded 3-1/2 weeks ago and have been totally compliant with my food protocol and my exercise. I've lost 36 pounds between pre- and post-op dieting. It sucks sometimes, but the payoff is incredible. I have energy, I exercise each day, I'm not moody and headachey, my feet don't swell, I've gone off three different medications already with two left to go, and I'm becoming a former overeater one day at a time. In September I had NO idea it would be so much work being successful at WLS. But I keep reminding myself that, unlike every other diet I've done in my 52 years, this one will get easier once I have my first band fill, and I won't be suffering through deprivation like I always did before. I have no regrets, and every day I get more excited about my future. Good luck. This will change you.

I have switched to liquid acetaminophen for my arthritis. I order it from my pharmacist. I was getting tired of crushing my blood pressure pill and cholesterol pill, and opening my Prevacid capsule. This week it dawned on me that I don't need the Prevacid any more, so I stopped taking it. I then attempted to chew the other two. They taste yucky, but if I chew them along with my Flintstones chewable vitamins, it masks the taste. I was banded March 13. Hope this helps.

kayzoog, loved reading your blog. Congratulations on your success!

Thanks for this post. I'm going to Italy in 5-1/2 weeks. My big wish is that I will be able to fly without the seatbelt extender, and keep up with all the walking on our tours. I will also see my oldest daughter that day for the first time since the beginning of January, when she left for a semester abroad. I miss her so much and Skype is great, but it's still been very hard. My younger daughter helped me during my surgery week and then went back to college. I'll see her over Easter. They are two of my four rocks of support, and I want to make them proud of me. My NSVs so far: Wearing blouses I haven't worn in a year. Walking 36 minutes on the treadmill at 3mph, adding a minute each day. Off NSAIDS. Off Prevacid. Off one blood pressure medicine (of two). Shoes are getting looser. Feet and legs are not swelling anymore. No back pain. Waking up energized instead of sluggish. Feeling in control of what I put in my mouth - priceless!

I never in a million years would have thought that exercise in my fifties would be anything but drudgery for me, but my walking on a treadmill every day and adding a minute each day is getting me motivated. I won't lie, the first few times were really hard since I am so sedentary, and I absolutely can't do it in the morning... but every day when I get home from work I walk my treadmill and it is like a little challenge each day that I feel so good about. I have 4 days to go before I reach two miles per day, and that feels great. Who knows, maybe some day I'll do a 5k. (One can dream...) Good luck!

My surgery team also stressed this, and specifically my surgeon, in a humorous way. He said I would need a new addiction now. I can shop, I can buy shoes, I can gamble, but I can't overeat. The psychologist was more serious, and said I needed to figure out what can give me joy. food has always given me joy, and now I'll need to figure out something else, or I'll go back to overeating. I lost a lot of weight many years ago (not WLS) and dropped from 305 to 156 over two years. As I went down in size, I attended 12-step meetings several days a week, jogged on a track for three miles twice a week, and shopped for clothes every other minute. While also working full time and going to night school. I was single then, and had to fill the hours with activity or else I knew I would eat. The new skinny me met my husband at my high school reunion and we married a year later. I gained eleven pounds on my honeymoon, thirty with each of my two daughters, and it's been up from there ever since. I stopped all my healthy habits and dropped OA because he thought it was brainwashing, and I was too insecure to fight for myself. I did the "acceptable" Weight Watchers dozens of times since then, all ending in failure. At 302 pounds, I began to research WLS, and I am currently 3-1/2 weeks post-banding and have dropped 36 pounds since February. Boy, this got long. LOL What I actually wanted to say was that during my shopping frenzy as a thinning person, I racked up some hefty credit card bills. One day my BFF and I were in Nordstrom's just passing through. We were dressed in sweats and weren't shopping there, just walking through. I saw a gorgeous evening gown and ran over to it. I'm talking beaded, floor length, stunning. The kind of dress that could only be worn to the Academy Awards. It was a size 10. We fawned over it and a saleslady came over and asked if I wanted to try it on. My friend and I busted out laughing, and said no thanks. She said, go ahead. Just try it on. I'll get you some pumps too. Well, I tried on that gorgeous dress and the shoes, and it fit. I stood there and my BFF and I just couldn't believe it. I felt like a movie star. That saleslady knew we were just walking by, but she gave me a gift I will never forget. For the first time in my life, I felt beautiful. Not thinner, not better than before, but beautiful. That dress was several thousand dollars. It went back on the mannequin, and a few weeks later was gone from the display. I learned two things that day. I was beautiful. And I didn't have to spend a penny to try something on. Afterwards, I modified my spending addiction into a trying-on addiction. I'd go to stores, try on some blouses and pants, and put them back. Once every couple of weeks I would purchase something affordable, instead of purchasing everything. I am an addict, and I've given up overeating. I have no doubt my compulsive personality will seek out something new. I'm not in my twenties anymore, so the things I seek will be different. I expect I'll learn a lot about myself this time. I hope some of this helps somebody. It was eye-opening for me to write it.

"I have committed to take care of my body and soul as nobody would do it for me. " This hit home for me. Thank you for posting!

Great news! You're on your way!

I hope you feel better soon. Good luck and keep us posted.

My NUT said soups and yogurt and broths and jello and pudding and protein shakes are okay for full liquids. My surgeon told me to stick to 800 calories a day and cut out the protein shakes. I'm compromising the two and have basically had one creamy soup and two shakes per day and buttermilk at night. I'm hungry but doing okay. Staying under 800 calories. April 24th I transition to regular food. That was the term they both used. I can't wait. I also found out from the NUT that this surgeon's protocol is to maximize post-op weight loss and get me a jump start before starting to eat again. It's doing that but boy, is it a long haul.

Nope, I've got my band but on the six-week full liquids protocol. Then regular food, then a fill four days later. What to chew, what to chew...