Leena

Well I don't know if it's good or bad. But I also have the small band. At the time of surgery I was 5'5" and 333 pounds, so by no means small. I can tell you that I felt a lot of restriction even without the fill , due to swelling. And then have only needed a few fills so far.

I'm at 2cc in my 4cc band, since the beginning of december. I think this is a wonderful spot for me. I could be more restricted, but I'm loosing well and like this level. Only time will tell when/if I need another fill.

I haven't regretted it yet. But to me the band is like dealing with your DH or SO, you love it 99.9% of the time and there's that .1% of the time that you're hating it. I figure I can deal with it. I just don't like pbing (which I've been good at avoiding lately) and some wierd side effects of running due to the band (can't swallow my spit when I run, but we're talking about at speeds of 5 MPH.

I take all of my too big clothes to the local good will. I have never bought anything there and probably won't. It's one of those smelly stores and the back sorting area is just nasty. I always wash everything before donating it, but I can tell that some people don't. I have four loads of laundry to fold that'll be going to goodwill. Where I used to live there was a great kids consignment shop called milk money. It was amazingly nice and clean inside. I've bought my sons a few things from there that were practically new. Consignment shops are another option instead of retail.

I would say cut your calories down. I tend to loose well when I'm at 600-800 calories a day, with working out-cardio 45 min to 1 hour a day. I've also never been able to eat 1.5 cups of chili, for me this would mean I'd need a fill. Also eating 4-5 oz of chicken on top of 1.5 cups of veggies would make me explode. And I'm not really tight now either. When was your last fill?

Congrats Losing. I wasn't able to part with my scale yet. I'm working on it though. This morning I hopped on it and didn't even wait for my weight to register (digital scale) and got back off. I figure I need to take some baby steps. Just curious about your tummy tuck. Are you planning to have one now and one later? I saw a plastic surgeon a month ago and asked about a TT now, for my big deflating belly flop/apron and he said if he did one now he'd have to do one later too. So I'm curious about yours since we're close to the same weight now. Georgia I love the animation. I swear if I owned a gun I would have shot quite a few scales by now. Wheet, how is it that everything you say makes complete sense.

I'm a horrible scale dancer and it has become a problem for me. I'm so emotionally invested in the number. I'm a sclae addict, with a love hate relationship with it. Plateaus are really depressing for me and I have actually destoryed (as in thrown and smashed to pieces) quite a few scales in my life. Hello, my name is Leena and I'm a scale addict. Losing I totally feel your moods with the scale. I have them too. I'm considering letting DH be in charge of the scales, yes all 3 of them. Maybe he could lock them in his office at work and only bring them home every 2 weeks. Or maybe he could record my weight daily for me so I don't have to look at the number. I HATE SCALES!

Here's another scale article: Scale, Scale, on the Floor. Who's the lightest... Posted Saturday December 22, 2007 at 02:01 PM EST in Weight Loss Solutions Do you have a dysfunctional relationship with your scale? Maybe you are asking too much of it. All it can tell you is how much you weigh - the total off all the stuff that is you. Your eyes, hair, skin, teeth, organs, muscle, bone, fat, toenails, etc. Yet, many people treat the scale as if can decide if you are a good person, if you are a good parent, friend, or partner. Sometimes we even look to the scale to determine our disposition for the entire day. Are we asking too much of the scale to have it make value judgments on our self-worth as a valid member of the human race? Uh, yes. Consider the following example: I have $100. You don't know if I have a one-hundred dollar bill, 100 one-dollar bills, or 10,000 pennies. In the same fashion, the scale only tells you the sum of the parts. It doesn't give you a break down of how much each part contributes to the total. The scale measures the total of your body weight. It doesn't tell you if you're a good or bad person, a decent wife, mother, or friend. It's a cold, lifeless, measuring tool that determines nothing about the quality and value of your life. The only power it has is the power that each of us gives it. Jonathan Ross, National Body Challenge Fitness Expert Award-Winning Fitness Expert Jonathan Ross

It is more socially acceptable for a man to be overweight. My little brother was visiting a few weekends ago, going clothes shopping for his first corporate job since DH gets discounts he came out here. Anyway he's gotten bigger, beer belly guy syndrome. So he was trying to figure out what size of pants to buy. It turned out he's about a 40, squeezing into a 38 when he lets the "gut" out. When I was measuring him it turned out that my waist measurement was an inch smaller than his at 39 inches. Apparently my family thought that was impossible, because I'm just huge. And my little brother isn't. So it is more acceptable for a guy to be bigger. My mom just told him his weight would go down some once he stopped hitting the bars with friends everynight and quit his job as a bartender and started his new corporate one. A few hours later she commented to me how I should be working out a bit more, LOL! Oh and my brother has women lined up to date him. I'd never be sooo lucky.

As for being a picky eater, there is bound to be something you like in the mushie/ puree stage. My favorite then was ground turkey pureed with applesauce. I know odd, but I liked it. I also had a lot of plain applesauce with protien powder. I bought a babyfood grinder and was able to eat just about anything I felt like grinding up. Right now it sounds like you're more of an emotional eater or social eater. The band isn't going to correct those issues, but will limit the amount of food you can eat when you eat for those reasons. As far as hunger. I wasn't "hungry" until a few days before my first fill, but eating a small meal satied the hunger. That was the last time I was actually hungry. Now I have to remind myself that it's time to eat something. As for the work issues, I'd just say you were on a portion controlled diet and working out. Technically after the initial liquid, mushie and soft stage you can eat regualr food again, just limited quanitites and some foods people can't tolerate. Personally I can't eat bread, rice or Pasta. These were the foods that made me fat in the first place and now they make me really sick, ie stuck or pbing. So I just stay away from them. And at 5 months post-op I have realized I actually like the sauces and dips for them more than I liked the actual food. Hope this helps.

Early on post-op I felt my port a lot as I was healing. Now 5 months post-op tomorrow and I can carry around my kids easily, even my 7 yr old son who happens to be 50 pounds. The other day I gave a friend of mine a piggy back ride and she happens to weigh 140 pounds. No problems with my port to report. There is no unstraining process. I've "pulled my port" before, just means that you move too quickly in the beginning and feel a tug in your port area. As long as you don't tear open your stitches you should be fine. The pain goes away fairly quickly.

I'm assuming you're very young if your mother "feels like a failure" due to your weight. You might want to ask her why she feels this way. I would say get support where you need to get it from. I had wonderful support from one of my friends and I've had a few friends pretty much disown me because of it. I've had the "easy way out" comments, plastic surgery ones, pretty much everything under the sun. Just be ready for some off the wall comments and unsupportive things. I think one of the blessings from this surgery was to see who my real friends really are.

I like the low fat string cheese; I think it's the cheese head brand. 60 calories, 2g of fat and 8g of protien. And they're pretty filling for a snack.

I was on toporal XR for high bloodpressure and heart arythmia, metformin for insulin resistance and lovenox (injections) as a bloodthinner. My surgeon approved them all, actually prescribed the lovenox. Currently I'm on 0 meds. All I take is my calcuim supplement and multi-Vitamin now.

Your dr can prescribe anti-nausea meds. I had them post-op and my dr prescribed enough for me to keep them in stock. They disolve in your mouth and really work. There is a bit of a stomach bug going around. 2 of my 3 kids just came down with it. It seems that 10% of the kids in their school were sent home with it last friday. Call your dr and have them prescribe something.

You can be even rougher than before, trust me, after loosing my first 100 pounds I can now take on all 3 of my sons in a wrestling match and win by power, not because of mere weight (sitting on them, LOL). Yes I'm still a tom-boy at my age. In the beginning you are going to have to watch your port area. But last week one of my sons hit it and I could really feel it. It doesn't hurt too much, just feels really wierd. And it takes a while for the general soreness to go away post-op. In the next few months I'm starting Tang Soo Do and should be fine. I'm not looking forward to being kicked in the port though.

I would stick to your doctor's orders, o0bviously he/she has a reason for them. That being said you can puree meats. I bought a babyfood grinder and used it post-op to get in protien. You can also add protien powder to a lot of things: applesauce, mashed potato, pretty much anything. I'm 5 months post-op and still can not eat steak. The initial post-op diet is for healing.

For being pre-op you're completely normal. Now if post-op you can down a 12 inch subway sub you're going to need to see your doctor immediately for a fill. My pre-op diet was 2 slimfast shakes a day, plus one meal of what-ever I wanted (YUMMY) and I did manage to loose 17 pounds pre-op that way. I have to say that my hunger is really gone. It took a the first month to 2 to get rid of stupid head hunger. But now, nearly 5 month post-op I have to literally remind myself to eat. I realized last week I literally forgot to eat, well I did eat 1200 calories, but that was in the whole week. No wonder I was so sick by friday night. I find it helpful to write down what I'm going to eat in the morning to plan for the whole day. Otherwise I find it difficult to remember to eat. Yeah this coming from a woman who knew how to use the fast food drive through and where everyone was located in a 10 mile radius. And hiding food wrappers in the car was an old habbit of mine.

There's an Indian restuarant we used to eat at once a week for the last nearly 4 years. A month post-op I went back and ordered 1 dosa. I only ate 1/4 of it with a little bit of the soup. Usually I eat a whole dosa, whole soup and some appetizers. Anyway the chef came out personally to see what was wrong. About 10 minutes later he came out again with a new dosa. I ended up taking that one plus the left over one home. A week later we went back and I made a special trip into the kitchen to let the chef know that his cooking was amazing and I just had stomach surgery and couldn't eat a whole lot so I'd be taking atleast half of my food home. Other places do seem to look at me like I'm crazy.

I think I need to start taking one. Actually I know I do. What kind of fiber supplements does everyone take? I know we're not supposed to take metamucil because it expands and thickens and can strech the pouch. So what do you take?

Thanks so much. I'm going to try miralax as my ds takes it and it's worked well for him. His is prescription, and I didn't realize it was OTC now. So I'll be buying my own supply if it works. Has anyone used benefiber?

If it's on your list then try it. But I suggest making it really watery.

I was told not to lift my 3 yr old for the first 3 weeks. He's small and 25 pounds, but wasn't allowed to lift him into his carseat and we have a large SUV. So the little guy had to climb in and out.

Hang in there. Have you tried Boco Burgers? They're a very healthy alternative to hamburgers and even turkeyburgers. I eliminated all red meat from my meals. I can't tolerate bread either, so one Boco burger has 90 calories and 14g of protien along with some Fiber too. The whole big salad isn't bad, as long as you're using a low calorie fat free dressing. I eat salad every day and trust me it's a big big salad. I feel I need the fiber to "clean out my system". My surgeon told me that lettuce sort of liquifies as you chew it and easily slides right on threw the pouch.

My battle started when I was 10, my first diet, the cabbage Soup diet, followed by the grapefruit diet, slim fast, dexitrim, WW, hypnotism and then cycling back through all of them. By the time I was 12 I reached my adult height of 5'5" and wieghed 120 pounds, while all of my peers were in the 80-90 pound range. Now that I think about it at 120 I was really skinny, a size 4/5. But being teased and harassed about being "fat" didn't help and I managed to gain 30 pounds by the time I was 13, so 150 is not too thin when your friends are all thin, or by this point just other kids in school. I couldn't run a mile in gym class and had to walk. My parents made me participate in school sports so I chose basketball-6th and 7th grade, volleyball 7th grade, 9th-11th was swimming and 9th-12th was tennis. I had to have special ordered swimsuits for swimteam and a size 16 tennis skirt special ordered. The quality of my jr high school and high school life just sucked. And of course my weight increased well well past 150, the whole way up to 350 by the time I was 30. Unfortunately I stopped growing taller when I was 12. If I had the option of lapband when I was a teenager I would have done it. I think 13 is a good age for a girl, if she's done growing. As a teenager I wasn't a junk food junkie, just a carb addict (bread, Pasta, rice, etc). Probably the reason the lapband works so well for me now.