Fanny Adams

If you've been losing fairly quickly at the start of this journey, you may find that itself is the culprit. Oestragen is stored in fat cells and weight loss releases it into your blood stream, which can make you feel PMSy and cranky. I didn't get much of this effect but then again, I don't get very PMSish either, but many women on this site have reported the phenomena. Apparently, it should ease up after a couple of months. It might not be the reason but if you're prone to PMS anyway, it might well be a factor in amongst all the other stresses that we have as we start the journey. Maybe some Evening Primrose Oil might help?

I partied hard at my Mother's 70th birthday bash last night and wowed all the relatives with the new look. I can't get over how fit and well I feel only 12 days out from surgery. So here are the results of all this pain and money - I think it was worth it!!

Whoo hoo, Stevee!! You're going great, mate! Remember - the name of the game is "not hungry" and if you've got enough restriction to give you just that little edge of self-control that you can stick to the plan, you're doing well! This time round, you're going to make it all the way, I can feel it! :biggrin:

Stitches?? You had stitches on the outside where you can see them and they had to pull them out? Wow. Mine was all done with internal stitching, then glue and tape for the outside. Maybe that's why my doc pulls the tape so tight that it blisters and tears the outer skin - the idea being that all the pulling pressure is on the skin, not on the join. So are there little dots left where the stitches went in? I've had several operations but haven't had visible stitches for the last couple. In every one where there were stitches, the scar was left with a row of dots down either side from the stitches.

I was told to have all the Fluid removed before my PS and so were most of the people I know that have done it. I scheduled my unfill for 1 week prior to the surgery, as that was the closest date I could get, and I'll be getting filled again on Monday (2 weeks post-op). I was told that the reason for unfilling is that you get internal swelling with any kind of operation, which would make the band uncomfortably tight afterwards and also, many people have a nauseous reaction to the anaesthetic and painkillers, so they don't want the band tight if you're going to be throwing up - puts strain on all the band stitching and might cause a slip long term. That advice made sense to me, especially as I know I always throw up after anaesthetic, so I was happy to do it. In a way, it's been nice to have a little holiday from the strict regime of the band, but I have been eating way more than usual and I'm really looking forward to having the band filled again.

Feeling ever so much better today! The swelling seems to have peaked (still there but not quite as hard and uncomfortable as yesterday), I'm almost able to fully straighten my back when walking so that's a huge relief on the muscles, and I was able to lie on my sides in bed last night for the first time, which was WONDERFUL! I hate sleeping on my back but haven't been able to manage any other position until now. I'm off the heavy pain meds (Endone/oxycodone) but still taking asprin, panadol and codeine interchangeably. I uppped the dosage on the laxatives to 3 pills, 3 times a day (eek!) but it finally seems to be working and the "situation" has eased (not completely resolved but much better!) Onward and upwards from here!! YEHAH!

Ladies who have lost 30-50lb or more, if you haven't yet gone shopping and tried on new sizes, let me urge you to do it now! At least, buy yourself a new outfit that FITS for Xmas. You'll be amazed at how different you look once you get into clothes that fit well. We all make that mistake of hanging on to chothes that get baggier and baggier, long past their use by date, because we have head issues seeing ourselves as really being slimmer. Go buy the clothes and prove it to yourself! If you're dead broke and can't afford new clothes, go shopping at the second hand store, but get something that fits! The ego boost is a brilliant motivator!

WHEW!!! Yes, that would be a right pita at this stage, wouldn't it?

I only just noticed it yesterday and won't see the doctor before Friday. I'll ask him, of course, was just wondering what the experience of other's was like.

I've had the dressing changed and am generally very pleased with everything but have now noticed that my boobs are quite uneven :thumbup:. One nipple is a good inch higher than the other. I don't know if this is due to uneven swelling and it will all settle down eventually, or if this is just how it's going to be. I've added some boob pics today for those of you who have access. Has anyone else had this issue with their boob jobs? Was it temporary or permanent?

I cannot emphasise this enough! The idea of the band is NOT to get so tight that you can't eat solid foods. You will get into a miserable cycle with this, as liquids don't stay in the pouch long enough to satisfy your hunger long term, and your stomach is too sensitive from all the PBing episodes to cope with solids. You NEED to have the band loose enough to tolerate solid foods chewed thoroughly and slowly. Treat yourself gently after a fill and ease your way back to solids always - in early fills you won't "need" this but you never know which will be the fill that takes you up to the edge and you have to be careful approaching it every time! Treat yourself even more gently after a PB episode. Even if you think you feel fine later and are hungry again, don't go back to solids that day - have a nice thick creamy soup if you are hungry but stick to liquids! Your stomach needs the rest. Try the solids again the next day - carefully! And if you can't get back to solids within 3-4 days of a fill, have some taken out! Half of what was put in is usually sufficient, provided you haven't tried to force the solids for days and had lots of PBing episodes. Doing the latter will usually force a complete unfill before the swelling goes down. Yes, yes and YES!

Hi Shalee, They took 3 of the 4 drains out on the day after the op, with the 4th one coming out the next day. I have an incision that runs 360 degrees around my torso and another that runs up the centre of my belly from pubes to breast bone. The boobs were done with an anchor cut (around the nipples, vertical line down and half circle underneath each boob) that runs a little extra into the armpit to minimise the armpit boobs.

So it's been a week today since the op and I'm going into the doctor's office to have the dressing changed and get fitted for my compression garment (doing it the old-fashioned way here :willy_nilly:). What advice can you experienced ladies offer me? What can I expect over the next week? I've been swelling up more and more every day and currently feel like a balloon about to pop. How long will that go on? It should peak soon, shouldn't it? How long before I can stand up straight? My back is killing me with this hunched over position.

You just had your first episode of getting stuck. It's something you want to avoid at all costs, especially so early in the healing process, so here is my advice: Once you have gotten stuck and/or thrown up on any given day, hold off from eating or drinking anything for a couple of hours, then switch to liquids for the rest of the day. Your stomach swells whenever you get stuck/PB, so it will be more sensitive immediately afterwards and you run the risk of getting stuck/PBing again and again if you continue to try to push more solid foods. In the mushie stage, even a chunk of soft chicken in chicken soup needs to be thoroughly chewed until it is liquid in your mouth. You should probably not risk chunky style Soups at this stage but run them through a blender first, so they are thick mush, not liquid and chunks. Over the next week you can gradually make the transition from mush to soft casseroles, etc, but be sure to really chew every bite and take a couple of seconds rest between each one. Good luck and remember to chew, chew, CHEW!!

Hi mrgrta, I had implants with the boob lift and I'm so glad I made that choice. I was originally a DD-E cup before I got fat and ballooned up to a G-H cup. When I lost the weight, I was back to an E cup but (as you can see from the before pics), it was an "E Long" LOL! I had to roll them up to tuck them into the bra! If I had just gone with the lift, I would have been down to a small C and I haven't been that size since I was 12, so I just couldn't fit that in with my self-identity. The implants have filled me back to an E cup - I may even still fit all my fancy new bras, it's just that they don't flop down to my waist when I take the bra off :thumbup: I'm thrilled with the results for my thighs, bum and mons too. That's all part of the torso lift - there's been no work specifically on them but everything has been pulled up tight. I think the results are wonderful. At the moment, my waist is still really swollen, so I don't have a good sense yet of what shape I'll be (hoping that I'll have a bit more curve in the waistline than I do right now) but overall, I'm stoked in everything my doc has done - he's a genius!

I've uploaded some pictures to a Private Album, so I think you need to be on my Contact list to view them. PM me if you want to look. I warn you though, they're not pretty!! My back is a real mess - the surgeon believes in pulling the dressings so tight that they tear the skin and create a whole bunch of abrasions :rolleyes2:. Apparently this holds the scar itself so flat that it doesn't pucker up and go lumpy and he says it is a small price to pay for the long term benefit. I'm prepared to pay the price but the nurses at the hospital were shocked and took a bunch of photos - it looks pretty nasty back there with Patches of skin ripped off and oozing :w00t:. Oh well, they are surface wounds and they'll heal cleanly and if they mean the scars will look better long term, I can put up with it... Don't focus on those - check out the before and after of my boobs! They were so revolting before - drooping down almost to my belly button UGH! And they're all perky and full now :w00t: YAY! I love my boobs!

Well I'm home now and settling in to bed. My honey is running around organising things for me and I have all the mod cons within reach. He's being a bit odd though, and I don't know if it is just that I am being overly sensitive and emotional because of the operation or if he is covering up his fears and concerns by being gruff. It's starting to upset me a little though :rolleyes2: Some examples: He asked if my phone was within reach and I said "no, it's still in my handbag". So he found my handbag and put it at the foot of the bed. When I asked if he could please move it up to where I could reach it, I get the eyeroll look and the distinct impression that I'm being "demanding". It's his step-father's 80th birthday today and the family is having lunch out at a restaurant, so he needed to get me home from the hospital and settled in time to go to the lunch. I'm all settled in, there's plenty of time so he's not running late, when he came to me to ask "So have you thought about what you want to do for lunch while I'm out?" Well no I haven't... I have only just gotten home, I don't know what's available and I'm now all nicely settled in bed and I would have thought that YOU would have thought about this for me at some stage during the past week! I know I would have had it planned and organised had the roles been reversed. (I only said the "No, I haven't" bit out loud.) So he made me some cheese and crackers and a cup of coffee, which was lovely and he didn't seem to mind making them, but seemed resentful that I hadn't gotten it sorted out before. It's weird... he is flipping from being sweet and lovely and looking after me, to really giving the impression that I'm an inconvenience. Do you think this is just me being silly?

It can be odd what gets stuck but eggs are pretty common, as is dry chicken. Cereal is a grain and you may have trouble with a lot of grains. It's not the chewing texture so much with them, but that they glug together afterwards in your stomach and turn into glue which plugs up the stoma (think of making glue when you were a kid, with flour and water). With grains, the finer the grain is milled, the more likely it is to turn into glue and cause problems (i.e. white breads more than wholegrains, rice bubbles more than muesli). Good choices for Breakfast that are less likely to give trouble are yogurts, jellies, baked Beans, soft poached eggs rather than scrambled, boiled or fried, really lean bacon (I love the deli shortcut of bacon), mushrooms (the ones canned in butter are actually REALLY low in calories and fat - the butter is a misnomer). Porridge is an iffy one - I can handle it more easily than processed cereals but it can still give me troubles if I'm tight.

Would love to have helped but I'm in WA and I got banded 2 years ago, so too soon for your needs. Good luck with it though.

My surgeon says (and I agree) that any time you feel like pushing the plate away, do it. Never force yourself to finish something just because you think you should. You can always put stuff in the fridge and come back to it later, if you have a real problem with throwing food away, but that's a habit we need to break too, in the long run. I have found it SO hard to learn to throw food away. I was raised to "clean my plate" and save all leftovers in the fridge and make sure nothing was ever wasted. I've had to really work hard at changing that mindset and throwing food into the bin, so that I don't eat it an hour later when I don't really want it but am not so full that I can't eat it... I would feel so guilty about it, too, but I'm gradually learning to put less on my plate so that I don't have the leftovers any more.

Hi Kate, I'm glad to hear you're doing well too. We were done on the same day and I'm loving my new boobs too - I keep wanting to show them to people, LOL!!! My dad (who is 70) strangely did NOT want to see them, heheheh :rolleyes2: I did manage to restrain myself and spare him but my daughter copped the eyeful whether she wanted to or not!

Allie, you sound so happy and so excited!! I'm thrilled that things are working out so well for you and hope to be as happy with my new bod too. Thanks for all the support in my thread!

Wow Skinnyjeans! I can't believe you went home the day after surgery and have done all your recovery on your own. And back at work after only 2 weeks - WOW! I had my operation on Monday and I'm going home tomorrow (Saturday) and was feeling all good because I felt I could cope after only 5 days, not the full 7 days that I was allowed. I can't imagine having gone home on Tuesday!! I've also been worried about going back to work on Jan 11th, after a 5 week break, thinking that was pushing things a little and maybe I should have taken 6 weeks. I'll be telling myself how lucky I am and not to be such a wuss now! Hope everything continues to go well for you.

I think Ivy Rose has hit it on the head. When we go up in sizes, we put it off until we absolutely have to, wearing our clothes stretched way too tight because we don't want to admit to the size change. So dropping clothes sizes generally means dropping at least a size in fat, so that you actually fit into the number on the label before you can drop enough weight to go down to the next number and have it fit when new (i.e. unstretched). I know I had a mix of 22, 24 and 26 clothes in my closet when I started this journey and on occasion would still try to squeeze into a beloved shirt in an 18 or 20.