Kristin1031

I was banded on Nov 9th and have lost 29 pounds since surgery, I am feeling wonderful and no hunger no need for a fill YET!!

Debbie 19 pounds in a month is AWESOME!!! you are doing just fine, don't think for one minute that your weight loss to date is not great!! You are ahead of the game, average for lap band is 1-2 pounds a week. Look at your numbers girl friend!! I only eat 3 ounces at each meal and I am not hungry, I have had no fill I know I am not the norm here from what I read, but I do consider myself very very lucky. Good Luck with your continued success.

Congratulations Dave!! WOW what a major accomplishment. I hope to be there with you soon!! It is so awesome to see you doing so well and enjoying your life again!! I bet the sex is GREAT isn't it???? LOL Hugz,

Congratulations!! on your mini goal victory!! I am in Peoria and recently banded Nov 9th. Nice to talk to people who are least in the same state as me....LOL We actually have a wonderful support group here locally, but I love lapbandtalk it has been a huge help while I was researching my surgery and since I have had the procedure. It is always nice to compare notes with others going through what you are. So far no complaints here......I am doing great and no hunger and no fills YET!! Merry Christmas to all of you Illinois Bandsters!!

Hope everything went well and you are home recouping!!! Happy Holidays to one and all from Peoria!!

I am in Illinois the middle of the state. It is always helpful to speak to people who have walked the road before you I agree!! I follow the program to the letter. I don't drink with my meals and I stop 30 minutes before a meal and I wait 30 minutes after a meal before I drink. I think this is crucial to letting the food stay in my pouch the longest, helps with hunger. Also eating lots of Protein also helps me with hunger. I always eat my protein first then vegtable and if any room, some fruit. I have two Protein shakes a day one in midmorning and one in mid afternoon. I am not hungry and have not had a fill. I work out 4 times a week at a local gym that I joined in late August. I believe you have to excersize for the band to work its magic. I think it is key to the whole process. The band is a tool we must contribute our part on the success or unsuccess of how it helps us. I am so thankful I have had this surgery and I look forward to continued progression with my new best friend. Feel free to ask any questions you might have I would be happy to help if I can. Good Luck in the Banding journey and your consult with your Dr. on the 19th.

I live in Peoria and had my surgery with Dr. Debord on Nov 9th. I am feeling great and am thrilled with my decision to do this band thing for life! I wanted to have my surgery at a Center for Excellence because I knew that I would be getting the best care available. There are many things that can go wrong with this procedure. It is not as easy to perform as it sounds. Choosing a surgeon is a very important step and I researched the PSG for many many months before I decided that I wanted them to perform it. Waiting is probably the hardest part, but it was also the most rewarding and informational time for me. I began reading and going to support group meetings and this helped me to solidify the choice that I made to go ahead in my mind. I began meeting and speaking to others who had gone before me and I saw huge success stories and I knew that I too could be a huge success. I am doing great through the holidays and not even craving much of the junk that is all around. I am eating healthier than I ever have before in my life. I feel awesome and will soon hit the 30 pounds off mark. WOW!! hard to believe that I had maintained my highest weight of my life for nearly 16 months without a downward move of the scale until my new best friend the BAND was placed, and now nearly 30 pounds in less than 2 months. I feel liberated from food HELL!! Good luck to those of you moving forward with your decisions to be banded. It is the best gift anyone could ever have given to me. My insurance paid 100% of my surgery except for my outpatient co-payment $200 and the $495 fee that the surgeons require for entrance into the bariatric program thru OSF Medical Center. It is the best $495 I have ever spent with lifetime support group membership and nurses,nutritionist and pharmacists and excersise specialtists whenever we need to talk to them available to us. I cannot imagine doing this without that support of those professionals who only want to see us succeed. Happy New Year Everyone!!:clap2::whoo:

Bandpal that is AWESOME!! I love it!! Happy Holidays to you!! What a wonderful tribute to all of us who have been given this wonderful gift THAT definately KEEPS ON GIVING!!!! Hugz,

The pain should subside within a week to 10 days. But I still have pain with my port off and on and I am 6 weeks out. When I workout or am on my feet for a long time it pulls. Remember that the port was secured to your muscle this takes a long time to heal into place and as you begin losing the weight change can also pull on it. It is nothing that some liquid tylenol or a heating pad does not help though. Hope this helps and keep your head up you will feel better soon.

I was told no bath until 3 weeks after surgery. It is not good to soak while the sites are healing......I would check with you DR they should of given you these instructions when you left the hospital. Infection can happen if tub bath taken to soon!

To all the November Bandsters!! Hope this brings all the good cheer and wishes you could imagine this Holiday season!! To YOU and your families. I am thrilled to be a bandster this holiday. For the first time I can remember I am not looking forward to stuffing myself full like a Christmas Turkey....LOL I have eaten a couple of Christams Cookies and that is the extent of my indulgence. I am eating my sensible meals and food is not an issue for me.....it truly is just for sustinence now. Not for pleasure anymore and I am thrilled by that. I have admitted to myself that I am a food addict and that I need to always remember this for the rest of my life. This has helped me turn away to temptations.:clap2: With all of that said I am not depriving me of anything. If I want to have a taste then I do. But that is as far as it goes. I feel so blessed this year by my banding and my new life that I have been afforded. I know this will be a forever process and I am not looking for overnight success either I am being realistic that it will take time to get to my final goal.....so I set mini goals.....in 10 pound incriments and that has seemed to work for me. MERRY CHRISTMAS to each and every one of you!! :kiss

I had GERD as well before surgery and was on medication for it Aciphex once a day. And I must say that I have had no GERD symptoms what so ever since my banding. I also stopped my Aciphex last week. So we shall see how I do. I think that my eating quality foods has helped as well as my surgeon told me beofre I was banded tha alot of the time the band itself being in place corrects the reflux problem. I am thrilled by that also fell wonderful and am having no issues with eating at all, I have only been stuck once and I will do whatever it takes not to have that happen again. I am following my dieticians instructions to the letter, and I can eat whatever I want as long as it is cut up real small and I chew it very well. I am eating lots and lots of Protein. Some vegtibles and a little bit of fruit. 3 ounces per meal, with 2 protein shakes per day. Hope this helps,

I was really worried about the not drinking with meals before my surgery. In fact it was one of the top 3 things that worried me most about this whole procedure. I have always been a 2 to 3 glass of something while eating......kinda girl.....LOL I have to admit everyone who talked to me before my surgery who had already been banded was RIGHT!! I do not even miss it. I know in my head that I have no room for liquid in the pouch with my food, and so I have resigned myself to that and now 6 weeks out I honestly can say I do not miss it. I am still struggling to get in all of my liquid though, and that is my hardest challenge I do believe. I get very thirsty and points through out the day. I know this should only get better. I still have no hunger and am satisfied on three ounces of food 3 times a day with no snacking in between meals. I have 2 Protein shakes a day on mid morning and one mid afternoon. That is it and I am definately losing and have not seen the scale move upwards not even once. I am back to working out and feel great. Although my port is sore from the working out. I hope that gets better....LOL

I was told that I would never be able to take Ibuprofen or Apsirin again because of the tiny stomach we have now it can eat right through it. I get migraines and the only thing that ever releaved them non perscription wise was Apsirin 3 of them. I have since been put on Imitrex in case I get a bad migraine. I will not be able to take Ibuprofen again and I am resigned to that fact. My band is worth it as well as my tiny pouch!

Cagstorm you are so funny!! Congrats on your tremendous achievement to date....Guys always lose faster than us broads...LOL It is nice to see everyone so upbeat and positive how things are changing for them. Makes another reason that I love this board and our November group so much!!

Hi Solla: Be patient, and remember 1-2 pounds is what to expect with banding. Sure some people will lose more than this and some will lose less, but this is truly the average and it is a good healthy weight loss. We all need to remember that we did not get this heavy over night. And the weight will not come off like that either. I was told prior to my surgery by my surgeon that if I wanted immediate results that bypass would give that to me where Lap Band would be a slow but steady process. Your skin has time to recover with slow and steady. Therefore allowing it to not be so saggy. Just stick to the program and eating only healthy choices and excersie regularly and you will be a huge success I am certain of it. For me it is the long term that is my goal and I set mini goals for myself. Like hitting the next 10 marker. I am 4 pouns away from my second goal after surgery the 30# marker. Then it is not so overwhelming. When I look at it that way it makes the final goal more real for me. Remember you are retraining years and years of overeating and of making the wrong food choices and this takes time not only to achieve but also for our bodies to catch up. We are retraining our metabolisms as well. Your body will get the message and know it is not starving. I would recommend using something like FITDAY.com to log all of what goes into your mouth each and everyday. This will help you to eat between 1000 and 1200 calories a day which is what my nutritionist said the goal should be. I have trouble getting that much but I am losing very nicely I feel. Always eat your Protein first at every meal as well. YOU CAN DO THIS and YOU WILL succeed! Hugz,

Congrats Tish you are now on the road to the new YOU with your new best friend!!!!! We are all here for you if you need ? answered or just need to vent. Welcome to the otherside of bandster life.:whoo:

Hi I am having the same success as you seem to be. I am 5 weeks out and I have lost 26 pounds and I was told by my surgeon at my 4 week checkup that I too did not need a fill. Since I am losing great and am not hungry. He told me that some of his band patients have gone the first year without needing a fill. Some have enough restriction with just the band itself. I am very happy with my progress. I think we are very lucky!!

Hi Linda: I am back at swimming and my Water aerobics classes. I have to say I love this because it is so easy to do in the water. I feel like I get a great workout without all the sweat....LOL I know after a month of this I will be even more of a new woman, because this has always given me tons of energy. Hugz,

I am officially back into swimming and It feel s good to be back in the Water I have to admit. I weighed last night at the club because they have a scale very similar to my surgeons office and it has always weighed me accurately to theirs. I had lost and additional 2 pounds. I am so happy with the results of my surgery to date. It is nice to know that finally a decision I made about weight loss is going to pay off.....LOL I agree with a poster I read here last week this is POUNDS that will never come back. I will not let it come back, because I Will never again eat the way I once did, not ever. I will not let myself or anyone else convince me that this one time won't matter. In other words the saboteurs that are alsways telling you this once just have it cause it won't hurt. NOPE not me, I am a changed woman and I love the new Me..!!

I still go back to what I learned in all of my education classes and that is you must measure your portions and stick to them. This I believe is the hardest part for us overeaters to realize and to get our arms around. I used to eat platefuls of food in one sitting and I mean platefuls. Since my surgery I am not eating more than 3 ounces in one sitting. I do this three times a day. It does not matter what the food is, no more than 3 ounces. I use small bowls and baby spoons....YES baby spoons. This helps when learning the portion size. Also helps in keeping from taking too big of bites and getting stuck. I have only been stuck once so far and I do not want that pain ever again. I have never had a PB and I chew and chew til I masticate the food I am eating. Also always eat your Protein first. This is HUGE most of my meal is protein with some vegtable. I have not really started eating alot of fruit yet. I have it occasionally but not every meal. I also allow sometimes at dinner or lunch a bite of dessert. I am having huge success with this format I am using. I have lost an amazing amount of weight and I feel satsified and am not hungry. I have had no real hunger since being banded. My surgeon told me last week that some people don't need fills the 1st year out.....he has seen this......I am just following the program and so far I am thrilled with my results. Portions are key and eating slow and steady and never never never drink with meals or 30 minutes before or 30 minutes after. This is what works for me!

Holly: That sounds yummy and I think I will definately have to try some....hehehehe I thought this thread would be a great thing.....I was surprised no one wanted to share recipes..LOL THanks for sharing though.......

I am down 24 pounds since surgery!! I feel great and still have no hunger and no fill......I am in Heaven!! :whoo: Congrats to all us LOSERS!!!!!

Steph; Thanks, the Buffet went fine, I stuck to my program and only had my three ounces, and I even ate a baby spoonful of peach cobbler..... It was so nice to see everyone else piling the food on and going back for seconds and thirds and I was not one bit uncomfortable and I was satisfied even. I ate green Beans and a small piece of chicken breast with florentine sauce and a small spoonful of twice baked potatoe. It is wonderful about your success as well and I am sure you can tell when you look at you. Remember they told me that it would be awhile before my body image would change when I look in the mirror. I know I do not have my pregnant looking belly anymore and that makes me ecstatic. Longhorn: Congrats on the 16 pounds and don't you think for one minute that is not wonderful.....it is!! We all are doing wonderfully and if you go try to pick up the pounds that we have lost....it is a massive amount of weight in a very short time. They told me ideally 1 -2 pounds a week and I am over 3.5 average pounds lost per week. I do not want to lose it too fast. I love this Thread and all of our successes!!:whoo: Yippee Ladies we are on our way!!:clap2::clap2:

Bravo! on throwing away the tender....LOL I just got back from our Medical Group Christmas Party.....we are a huge group and this was only 4 one region.....about 500 people....were there. Massive amounts of food. I had worried about this for over two weeks.....but it was a breeze. I walked to the buffet line and I took a teaspoon with me. I took a teaspoon of lettuce salad.....a teaspoon of green Beans and then another....hehehehe they looked to good. I took a half of chicken breast and I took one peach out of the peach cobbler. It was wonderfully delicious the food melted in my mouth. I sat and watched as my fellow coworkers plates were mounded up beyond belief and some went back for seconds and thirds........heheheh I just sat back and enjoyed my three ounces and smiled. It was not bad as I had anticpated and I did not even feel temptation to eat more. Thank you BAND...I love you!!