Fanny Adams

I haven't seen Mederma in the pharmacy here, but I've only been using the Bio-oil for 2 days and already I'm noticing results, so I'm fairly happy with it. Bio-oil is also specifically formulated to treat scars and stretch marks, and makes many of the same claims as Mederma. My surgeon says it is not really the product that makes all the difference but the process of massaging it in. Mimi, I has silocone implants as those were recommended by the surgeon. The initial result after surgery was for VERY high perky breasts, but most of that was because the incision line underneath was so swollen and hard, it acted like a built-in underwire. The effect was actually very "fake" looking, as the shape was conical. Now that the swelling has almost gone, the shape is much better - more natural and breast-like, although a teensy bit lower than I was expecting. Still, I'm an E to F cup so I can't really expect completely sagless boobs. These puppies are HEAVY!! The implants alone were 440 ml each which is about 14 fl oz in your language. I'm not sure if they are the same weight per volume as Water though. In metric, 100 ml of water weighs exactly 100 grams, so 440ml would be 440 grams = 1lb, but I don't know if silicone is the same (i.e. it could well be heavier for the same volume). Either way - I'm figuring each boob (flesh and implant combined) weighs in at a couple of kilos - 5lb!

Hi very.rara I was banded in Perth by Dr Stephen Watson in December 2007. I have to say that it was, hands-down, the best thing that I have ever done for myself and I have not regretted it for an instant. I think I can safely count myself as one of the "success stories" , as I am now just 5 weeks post-op from having plastic surgery to repair all the damage that I did to my body by carrying so much excess weight for so long, and I feel FANTASTIC! With regard to your questions: What can I really expect from the surgery? If you've ever had surgery before, you can expect that this will be an easy one in comparison. If you've not had surgery, it is hard to know what you are up for and some people have been surprised by the fact that cutting through skin and muscle will actually hurt somewhat and take some time to heal. I've had a lot of surgeries over the years and the band was one of the easiest but it IS still surgery and you don't get over it completely overnight. how long were you in for? Hospitals are not my fav place in the world. I was the first patient in the theatre in the morning and consequently was allowed to go home that evening - if I had been scheduled for later in the day, I would have had to stay overnight. As like many I hate vomiting, so at all lengths I want to avoid it, what foods would you advice I stay away from? You should get an eating plan from your surgeon but here are some pointers in general: Immediately after surgery and for the next 4-6 weeks, you will be on a special "recovery" plan. The time periods differ from surgeon to surgeon but they all have the same basic pattern. Mine was: Days 1 to 4, Clear liquids (clear Soups, jelly, juice, teas such as peppermint or ginger ), Days 5-14 thick liquids (creamed soups, yogurts, milk/fruit smoothies, etc), Days 15-21 very soft foods, called "mushies" in this forum (scrambled eggs, chunky soups, really soft casseroles, tuna with mayo - fat free of course!, etc), Days 22+ gradually work back to normal solid foods, focussing on lean meats, vegetables and fruits and avoiding processed white carbohydrates such as white bread and Pasta. You'll find a lot of advice about food here but there does seem to be a real split between what our Australian doctors advise and what most of our US counterparts are told. The US seems to have an obsession with Protein and Protein drinks and with avoiding carbs at all costs. I don't subscribe to that opinion at all and truly believe that protein drinks are one of the worst choices you can make after you've finished with the healing process and not much of a choice during it - there are so many better tasting options out there!! You'll find that as you heal (probably about 2 weeks post-op), you'll start to feel hungry again and feel that you can eat anything, especially if you chew it enough. DON'T DO IT! You won't have "restriction" at this stage, so it might be easy but it can be damaging long term. The soft diet isn't because eating will be hard at this point, it is mostly to stop your stomach from having to churn to digest the food, which can prevent the stitches holding the band in place from healing properly and can lead to slippage much later down the track. The best advice I can give to avoid vomiting (after the healing phase) is to chew every single bite slowly and thoroughly and to stop and listen to your body in between each bite. It takes time to change the eating habits of a lifetime but it can be done. If your band isn't too tight, you should be able to eat just about anything you want if chewed slowly and thoroughly but you should find that you can only eat between a half and a whole cup of food at a time. Try to eat solids rather than "slider foods" like chocolates and icecreams, so that your band has something to work on. The whole point of the band is that it holds solid food up at the top of your stomach, triggering the Vegus nerve and fooling your body into thinking that you are full. If you drink your calories or eat foods with no fibre/substance to them, they will slide straight past the band and you won't get the "full" feeling. I think I've been pretty successful with the band - over 2 years now, down over 50 kg and feeling fabulous. If you want to ask any other questions, feel free to send me a private message or post the questions in this thread. Good luck!

I know just how you feel. Sometimes it takes all the self-control I have not to run up to strangers at the shops and start babbling about the band!! I have to remind myself over and over how humiliated I would have felt if some "slim" woman had done that to me when I was at my biggest. As it is, I take every opportunity I can to tell people about my journey (LOL - no "keeping it private" thing here!!) and to tell them to tell anyone they know to look into it...

I think most of us feared that when we first contemplated having the band, but I believe that it is the best tool out there to help us achieve safe, slow and permanent weight loss. Yes, there are ways to work around the band and cheat but given a sensible approach and persistance, it does work. For me personally, the biggest difference between the old yo-yo dieting and using the band was that the band gave me the edge over hunger control. In all the diets I have been on in the past, I constantly battled feeling hungry and inevitably gave in to the "demons" raging within - and the minute I gave in once, I gave up completely and promptly stuffed my face till I put it all back on. The band doesn't do the work for you - it just controls the demons enough that you can make sensible food choices and stick to the plan without waking up in the middle of the night thinking "oh my god, I'm STARVING!!" Good luck with it! If you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Oh dear - just realised I haven't posted in my own thread for a while, though I have been following Alli's and Kate's, etc. So...time for an update, eh? I'm healing up very well for the most part. Flew back to site on Monday night and just about finished up my second day at work now (Wed afternoon). Saw the surgeon's nurse on Monday before I flew out and got the all clear to stop taping up the incisions - thank goodness for that!! I had been cheating and had stopped taping up the boobs a couple of days earlier, as they seemed well healed and the itching from the tape was driving me mad! The rest of the itching is really easing off now that I don't have to have that glue all over me. There are a couple of things that I'm not completely happy with, but the nurse assures me that it will all settle down in time. The LBL incision has popped open in a couple of places across the front and looks red and nasty. I thought it was a bad infection but the nurse says it is very minor and not to worry about it - apply Betadine at night and let it dry out in the day and apparently it will close over again and still shouldn't scar badly. I'm not so sure about the last part - it looks like those spots will be quick thick icky lines Also, the line above my mons is quite puckered, like a drawstring, and I'm not sure that will settle out fully - hope it will! I've started scar massage with Bio-Oil, which I was told not to do until now (i.e. not until the incision had healed over). My nipples are doing great but the line under the boob is still quite red. Also, now that the swelling has just about gone from under there, the boobs don't stand up nearly as high and perky as before and DAMN but these implants are HEAVY! I wear bras with underwires constantly (yes, I know it's probably too early for that) because if I don't, I can practically feel the skin stretching and boobs sagging under the weight. Still, the shape is much more natural now and much less Barbie-doll plastic looking. I can't get over how hard and flat my tummy and hips are. I knew I had been doing some hard work on my abs prior to the surgery but I had never been able to see/feel the results. Now that the swelling has almost gone, I feel so buff and taut!! YAY!! The hard work pays off at last - can't wait to be allowed to get back to that! All in all, I think the most spectacular result has been the effect on my bum. It's so smooth and round and compact. I'm getting so vain about it now - every time I pass a mirror, I have to turn around and look and think "Is that REALLY me??"

LOL! My partner, Chris, says he's never known anyone who can survive on as little sleep as I do. I work away on the mines and am always up by 4:45am when at work, so if I make 5:30am at home, that's a real sleep in. I'm usually in bed by 10pm but will be up again between 12 and 1 for a half hour and then again at around 3am. I never used to be a morning person but my whole body clock changed when I started mine work and I am now bouncing off the walls with energy between 5 and 9am (and usually ready for a nap again at 9:30, LOL!). My energy levels have tripled also, since I lost the weight - in fact, that's probably been the best NSV of them all.

I hope the Magnesium helps soon, you sound like you're in a bad way. I've been having some incredibly frustrating itching going on too. Where the LBL incision goes over my hip bones, I get a horrible itching deep inside, like ants crawling over the bone and no amount of rubbing or pressing on the outsides seems to get to the itch. My boobs are also driving me mad with itching! I've tried lots of different creams, including several that I swore by in the past (e.g. pawpaw cream) but the only one that has given me any relief has been a steroid cream - Dermaid 1% hydrocortisone. It doesn't fix the problem entirely but does dull it down more than anything else I've used. With the restless sleep, that's my normal pattern anyway. I rarely sleep for more than 3 hours at a time normally, so not much has changed since the op. I usually get up every 2-3 hours throughout the night, go to the loo, play on the computer for half an hour and then go back to bed. Still, as my mother (and Hans Christian Andersen) would say: We must suffer to be beautiful! LOL!

I really hope the Magnesium helps. I have suffered from night cramps in my legs and feet and restless legs for years and years and only discovered Magnesium a couple of years back. It has really helped! I don't take them every night (although I probably should) but whenever I wake up with that horrible urge to lie on the bed and do "bicycle pumps" with my legs till they hurt, I take one and the feeling goes within about 20 mins. I found that was hitting me a LOT more during this recovery time and I have been taking the tablets most nights since the op and it has really helped.

Happy New Year to you, too, Kate and Mimilou! And to everyone who reads my thread. Mine was a great night, hope yours was/is too!!

Kate, if you're having problems with restless legs at night, get some Magnesium tablets and take one every night before bed. If you forget and wake up with the problem, take one on the spot. I find I get relief within about 20 minutes, when this happens to me. I have a lot of trouble with restless legs at night and Magnesium really helps! PS: I know just how you feel about the supersensitive and itchy boobs!

The skin of my boobs is hypersensitive all over, right up to the incision line around the nipple but it is absolutely numb inside that line It's weird - they are so sensitive outside the nipple area that it is painful and they feel every stitch in the seams of the compression garments or bras, but cross the incision and nuthin... de nada...zilch. I really hope the sensation comes back!

I lost a shoe size (8 down to 7 AUS sizes) and also, now I can wear high heels all night long. Previously, even 5 minutes in heels would have the soles of my feet feeling bruised and painful; 15 minutes and I'd have been unable to walk. I've fallen in love with shoes all over again :thumbup:

You know what? I read this thread first and all the way through, wherever you were making comments like "this has been MY experience, don't judge me, everyone does it differently" and so on, I was nodding my head and thinking "fair enough, each to their own...". I had a few moments of disquiet when I read comments from people who were pre-op or newly banded and were taking your example as a positive one that they would like to emulate, but still I thought "oh well, it's good for people to know that there is more than one way to skin a cat". THEN I read your other thread, in which you discuss your medical problems. THAT was when the disquiet turned to alarm and I thought it only fair that others who might be swayed by your "positive" experiences with a tight band should be given fair warning about your less than positive experiences. As for the rich man and the plastic surgery... *shrugs* I'm exactly 21 days post-op from my plastic surgery, which I paid for out of my own hard-earned money. You see, instead of setting my sights on nabbing a rich man, I set my sights on becoming a rich woman by my own efforts, making me now a WEALTHY, HOT, THIN, SEXY and NO-LONGER-SINGLE BANDSTER. PS: Dunno where you got all that stuff about "superficial" and "thin-obsessed" but neither I nor Jachut said it - I think that's your own thoughts being projected on us.

PS: You know, if you're going to tout the joys of living with a tight band and how it has been the secret to your success, in such a way that newbies would seriously consider following your advice, don't you think you owe it to them to tell the the full picture of how life has been for you? I was amused to find this in a thread started by you: "So, I started having constipation pretty much right after surgery. Surgeon said to take a suppository every day if I needed. So, guess what happened? I became dependant. Throughout the course of that and as the weight loss progressed it got worse. It got to the point where now I had to do the warm Water enemas. I started seeking care from a colorectal doc about a year ago. I had the MRI defecografy, a CT scan and a colonoscopy. MRI showed weak pelvic floor, CT scan showed nothing and colonoscopy showed nothing. I was diagnosed with IBS with constipation. So, in addition to having IBS, I can't even get the stuff out of me due to these muscle issues. I have to take 3 Dulcolax oral pills every night, one Colase morning and night, and all that does is put me in a state of constant anxiety. My docs have me on pain meds which I try not to take since they cause further constipation. I have been given every prescription medication there is including Amitiza, but it didn't work. My life revolves around the pain, and bloating, and stress of knowing when I go out or have something social to do that I'm going to feel like crap, so I spend the hours before trying to get relief by getting it out of me. I'm to the point now where even creamed spinach is my demise." Anyone reading this thread and considering following Steph's choices might want to consider the full picture, eh? Life with a correctly managed band is NOT meant to cause these problems.

LOL! Of all the things I might "judge" you for, this is the one that's most likely to get me on my soap box!! Who needs a man to get what you want in life? Did our mother's burn their bras for nothing? ARGH!

Yay Kate! Enjoy your baths and have a very Merry Christmas!

Well it's 11pm on Christmas Eve for me and I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, as I probably won't be online tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Well it's 11pm on Christmas Eve for me and I just wanted to wish all our thread posters a very Merry Christmas, as I probably won't be online tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

You look fabulous!! The boobs are simply gorgeous and the rest is great too! Odd again, the differences in surgeon's approach. I had 3 of my 4 drains out on Day 2 and the 4th one out on Day 3, but have had all the incisions covered with surgical tape and have been told to keep that on for six weeks*, so I haven't really seen the incision line yet. I'd be a bit weirded out by seeing the drains and the incisions, but I guess you do what you have to do when told by the experts, eh? Looking good, girlie! * I have to change the tape weekly but can shower with it on and the doc's nurse has changed it the last two times as part of the service. I have to do it myself for the next 4 weeks though, so I guess I'll see them soon

I'm constantly amazed at how well I'm recovering from this. I was fairly confident that I was very healthy going into it and I've had a lot of surgeries before and bounced back well, so I was hoping it would be a relatively easy ride but it's been better than my most optimistic expectations. I still have a thick 6 inch "belt" of stiff soreness around my waist and my boobs are swollen and tender, but it's nothing that is stopping me from going about life. I do get tired and have to take a rest every 3-4 hours but apart from that, I'm feeling fighting fit! I'm horny as hell too and last night tried out one of my favourite sexy nighties, which I was able to wear without a bra underneath for the first time - it looked fabulous (and covered the tape/bandages nicely)! Had to be a lot more gentle than is usual for us in sex, but it was wonderful all the same PS: The boobs are currently almost an F with swelling but should settle to a full E cup. I can actually fit into all of the new bras I bought in the few months pre-op, only now they fit snugly, instead of me having to roll up the sagging sacks of skin and tuck them in.

I wonder why things are so different for me. I had my drains out on the 2nd day and my doc has said "take it easy for the next couple of weeks" but none of those strict restrictions.

When you get close to the sweet spot, even 0.5cc can make a huge difference. Try moving to increments of 0.25cc - if you're right at the edge, that can make all the difference. For me now, 0.5cc is a big risky fill and I wouldn't contemplate a whole 1cc - up or down 0.25cc seems to work.

The corset sounds like a good idea while you're still healing from the operation. Once it's all healed up though, you're good to go! My partner and I play pretty rough too and it's not even in our thoughts that the band might be a problem now. However, the healing period is essential - ports can flip and stitching can get torn if you push the envelope too soon. Whatever it was that you did to partially flip your port last time, hold off on that for at least another month, eh? Lots of other games to play that won't affect the port *nudge nudge wink wink*

Hi there everyone :thumbup: I'm two weeks post op and doing great. If anyone wants to see the photos, they're in a private album on my profile - PM me if you want to be on my contacts list :ohmy: Warning: They are pretty graphic and not very modest or very flattering *blush*. I was after the "brutally honest" look in these pics, not sexy poses/lighting... In the mean time, this is the clothed result, from my Mother's 70th birthday party on Saturday night (12 days post op).

I am a complete and utter convert to 100% Organic Coconut Oil (health food shops anywhere). It hands-down beats any artificial lube out there! It comes in a jar, is solid at room temperature but melts at body temperature, never gets sticky and is always the perfect slipperiness without overdoing it. It even smells and tastes great! :thumbup: