Fanny Adams

Hi Peek and welcome to the club :eek: Most of us had to do a pre-op diet, though not all - it depends upon the surgeon and on your own BMI. Generally, the higher the BMI, the more chance of a fatty/enlarged liver and therefore more likely a pre-op diet will be required. Some surgeons just prescribe them for everyone, regardless of BMI. Best to do just what your doctor says... Of all the pre-ops, a liquid Meal Replacement like Optifast is the most common, especially in Australia. Those of us who have had to do it have found that it really does help to jumpstart the weight loss, although sticking to it for 2 weeks is damned hard!! If it were me, I wouldn't go to that extreme until you had to do it - Optifast gets really old very quickly, and you will almost certainly be asked to stick to a liquid diet (although not necessarily Optifast) for at least 2 weeks post-op too, so a month on liquids is a tough haul. If you are confident you can tough it out for that long, go for it, but you may find it hard going and it could make you lose dedication before you've even begun. You know best how you react to diets, so it's up to you but something to think about anyway... Perhaps you should just try to eat sensibly and not gain, while you are waiting for the countdown to begin? I had fully intended to do that but found myself going the mini "Last Supper" route while I was still getting surgeon appointments and dates together. Then, when I finally got to see the surgeon, he scheduled the op for only 2 weeks later and I had to go on the Optifast starting immediately. I really mourned not having a chance for one last full-on blow out for a little while but came to my senses fairly quickly.

Awww *BIG HUGS* First of all, take a big deep breath and relax! You are NOT failing!! The band is NOT failing you!! This is absolutely bog-standard normal for most people in their first few weeks. I WISH all lap-band literature came with a big warning that said "CAUTION: You may plateau and even regain weight in the first few weeks after the operation!! Do not panic, this is normal and does not mean you are failing!" Just to put it in a bit of perspective for you, I did a search for how many people have reported this exact same problem in the last few weeks: I think I gained weight 7 days post-op I gained 1.5 on mushies! How to eat mushies and still lose These are just some of the many posts made - you are not alone. *HUGS AGAIN* Just hang in there and it will start to happen for you...

From one Susan to another, hang in there mate! I know how you feel, both about high school being only yesterday and about not following the rules. I'm still working on my initial fills (had one last month, due for another soon), and I've found I'm getting really sloppy on sticking to the band rules because I have no restriction yet. Maybe you want to try doing a pseudo pre-op diet to kick start you back into weight loss mode? Then follow that up with going back to basics on bandster eating - cutting your food up really small, chewing really well, waiting between bites, no Water with food, etc. I have found that, because I don't get any problems with eating larger bites, I am eating my meals more and more quickly and paying less attention to what I'm doing, and I am kicking myself for it, as my meals are getting larger and my weight loss is stalling. However, I also found that even when I was "just practising" in the weeks before my pre-op diet, that following the bandster rules really made a difference for me. Giving my body time to feel the food going down really helped in controlling hunger and made me feel full much sooner than when I chowed down at my usual fast pace. All I need to do now is take my own advice, eh? Anyway, *hugs* and good luck to you in getting back on the wagon! Cheers! Fanny (irl Sue/Susan)

I think Dr Watson relies on his patients to be sensible and listen to their bodies a lot more than other surgeons that I've heard of. For me, all the time frames he gave were very loose and came with the proviso "depending upon how you tolerate it". For example, he said clears for 2-4 days, full liquids for 7-14 days, mushies for 7-14 days, then back to normal food. Given those ranges, the shortest time back to normal food would be 16 days, the longest 32 days...quite a range. From what others have said, most other surgeons tend to be a lot more strict with their times. PS: Welcome to the club! Congrats!!

My surgeon said the same - by far and away the main cause of slippage is severe vomiting, so I'd say the answer is NO you don't! We can't help worrying at times, I know, but if you're not getting stuck and not vomiting, I'd say your chances of slippage are very very small. Just relax and try not to borrow trouble, eh?

That's a funny post, Derrick but it works both ways. Sure, those hot girls were just using the "nice guys" for emotional support and had no intention of ever dating them. Sadly, in my hey day (back in the Dark Ages), I was one of those and I have lived to regret it. However, on the other hand, all those "nice guys" weren't mooning after Miss Plain or Miss Shy or Miss Plump, sitting in the corner, now were they? If the "nice guys" are going to fall all over themselves being an emotional support crutch for the local hottie, is it really all the girl's fault for taking advantage of his willingness to be a doormat?

From what I've heard, you'll need to take things easy for a couple of weeks to a month after the surgery but after that you're fine. You might want to look for some similar threads in The Mens Room or the Exercise forums. The people in there would know better than I, coz weight lifting is not really my thing!

Not only can it happen but it happens to most of us! I think it is a combination of regaining Water after the IV fluids have flushed us out in the op, having a higher than normal sodium intake when on the liquids (I for one ate mostly canned Soups and upped the salt intake, trying to get extra flavour), our bodies going into shock mode after the operation, and normal plateauing that occurs 3-5 weeks after starting the pre-op diet. All of these factors together mean that just about everyone (that I have read in here anyway) experiences this disheartening problem. Take heart in that it usually only lasts a week or two at most, then as you start to get back onto normal foods, your weight will start to come down again, although expect it to drop at a much slower rate than in the first weeks of the pre/post-op phase. I think a lot of that initial loss is not actually fat, but just losing water, as is the regain. It is the slower loss that happens afterwards that is the real fat melting away. You may find that you stall altogether or only lose at about 1lb per week, until you start to get good restriction with your fills. Hang in there and know that you are not alone!

Welcome aboard rhardy and ackmaui! Good luck in your journeys!

You mean there's hope that Tim Tams don't have to disappear entirely from my cupboard? It really is possible to stop at only 4 or 5? I've always been an all or nothing person on those - if the packet got opened, it got eaten, no two ways about it. I haven't dared even think about them for the future. I don't think I'll risk buying them till I am feeling more restriction, because right now I could just go a whole packet of Tim Tams - with at least half being Tim Tam Bombs!!

I work on a mine site and am required to wear the uniforms supplied. The trousers are very heavy duty denim, with no give in the material and no elastic in the waistband. The waistline sits exactly on top of my port, which is situated dead centre, a few inches above my belly button. Because I've lost a little weight, when I stand up, the trousers are falling off me, but when I sit down, they are still quite tight, especially at the waistline. They dig into me quite a lot during the day and I often have to undo the top button or shift the waist band to sit above or below my port. I have noticed at the end of the day, I often have faint blue bruising beneath the incision scar and occasionally feel sharp little tugs inside, as though it was pulling on stitches. I am now 7 weeks post op, and before I returned to work (at 4 weeks post op), all my port pain had gone completely. Now it bothers me, not a huge amount, but enough to be aware of it constantly. I am worried that this constant pressure will cause the stitches holding the port in place to tear, eventually leading to my port flipping or moving. I mentioned this to my doctor at my last visit, which was for my first fill, after a 1 week shift back on site. He didn't seem worried at all, put it down to continuing post-op recovery, and pretty much dismissed my questions. However, given that I am now so far post-op and the problem still hasn't gone away, should I be bringing it up with him again, or am I getting worried over nothing? Does anyone know if it is this kind of pressure that leads to ports flipping? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can work around this problem? At the moment, my pants are way too loose when I stand up, so if I got a bigger size they would literally fall off. I can forsee the problem still occurring as I go down in sizes too, as it is an inherent problem with the cut and material they use. PS: I'm kind of worried that it might have started to flip already. Once, when I stood up in an awkward way, I felt it pulling inside quite a lot. When I pressed on the port location from the outside, it felt like I was feeling the edge of the port, as though it had turned sideways. I very gently massaged the area until it went down again and that hasn't happened since, but it scared me quite a lot!

Good luck with your journey!

Has anyone done a poll to find out if there's a correlation between being able to burp and getting stuck/PB'ing? I'd guess that those of us who are able to burp easily will experience less of the stuck/PB thing but it may be the opposite is true, or that they are completely unrelated. Personally, I burp after just about every meal and feel anything from a little to a lot of discomfort until I do, but have never really understood what people mean by "stuck" and never had a PB. From the descriptions of getting stuck that I've read, it sounds to me a lot like a burp that doesn't want to come up. Is anyone familiar with both sensations and can describe the differences?

Wow that IS a rough week! Sorry to hear that, Cherry, and my best wishes for your son's speedy recovery!! Hang in there, mate, and don't worry, I'm sure we'll have more than one get together, so you can come join us at a later date...

Hi to all those who said they would be in for a Perth Bandsters Get Together. Sorry I didn't contact you all when I was home from site last time, but time just kinda got away from me... I'm hoping this poll will help us to reach a decision on how, when and where our little soiree will occur... Pick as many options as you are happy to do (ie all available dates, all acceptable options). The one(s) with the most votes wins.

Glad to hear your doc is doing the right thing by you and that you are recovering from the infection! Good luck with everything in the future!

PS: Just noticed that you have lost 17lb! That's great going! Don't discount that as nothing just because others have lost more in the same time. I've only lost 23lb myself and almost all of that was in the first 15 days. Still, I know this is going to work for me in the long run and it will work for you too! Chin up, mate!

It WILL get better when you get more fills - have faith and believe in yourself! In the meantime, the only thing I can suggest is to make sure that the meals that you eat are full of Protein and bulky. Avoid carbohydrates at all costs!! I've really noticed that eating carbs is a guaranteed sure-fire way for me to be starving hungry again within an hour. You mentioned that you were snacking all night - most snack type foods are high in carbs and this could be why you are feeling so hungry. From what I can tell, it takes about 2-3 days of cutting out carbs to really notice the difference but once you do, that hunger daemon is much easier to tame. Unfortunately, it only takes one "cheat" with carbs to break the cycle. If I start my day with toast, I can guarantee I'll be hungry all day, but if I go for eggs, I don't have the problem. A typical day's meal for me: Breakfast: Scrambled egg (1 egg, 1 slice FF cheese crumbled in, 1tbsp FF milk, shake of chicken herbs & salt) Lunch: 2 oz lean ham, chopped into chunks, 1 raw tomato chopped, 2" cucumber chopped, 1/2 tbsp FF salad dressing - toss all in a bowl & enjoy! Dinner: 2 oz any lean meat, 1 cup steamed veges If I'm hungry between meals, I have a Protein Drink or Optifast shake. Here's a link to the Atkins meal plan: Atkins - Two-Week Induction meal plan I know we've all tried similar diets in the past and you may have tried Atkins before, but now you have the secret weapon of the band to help you to stick to it. The Atkins meal plan is a lot more than we are meant to eat on the band, but while you're still waiting for restriction, you may find that you can eat it all quite easily. If you have to eat more than what is on their plan, make sure you snack with protein, not carbs. I know that isn't easy because so many snack foods are high carbs but maybe try something like having some beef Jerky strips around that you can chew on for those gotta-munch-something-NOW moments? Good luck!

Greetings Renaissance Man! You will be amazed when you come back to Perth - the place sure has changed a lot in the last 40 years!

Hey Rastis! You are a South of the River girl? I should have expected that, given you're using Doc Watson in Murdoch. I grew up in Ardross and the 777 on the corner of Canning Hwy & Riseley Street was my local chemist for years! I now live in South Lake, which is a lot further south but still counts as a SoR Girl :party:

One of my aunts won the "Slimmer of the Year" for Australia for WW, many years back and has worked until recently as an "ambassador" or some such thing for them. She did have phenomonal success with it, dropping from what must have been 350lb+ (at a guess) to under 150lb. She did manage to keep it off for a few years, but has been slowly putting it back on over the last half dozen years or so. Since she quit working for them, I think the weight is coming back faster. I've never tried Weight Watchers - tried Jenny Craig, Lite-N-Easy and a gazillion diets, but I was never into that whole "group therapy" scene and there was no way on earth I was going to get on a scale in front of a bunch of others and have them ridicule me if I didn't lose that week! At least with Jenny Craig, the weigh-ins were in private with your consultant. Lite-N-Easy (one of the home delivery systems in Aus) worked best for me, as it meant absolutely no effort involved on my part. However, it didn't stick well as a long term plan and I slowly regained the 20kg I had lost. Still, it took me only 4mths to lose that and 4 years to regain it... But this time round, it's going to be gone for GOOD!!!

You mean you had every teenaged boy's dream to have a sister who could get you backstage at the beauty pageants and you missed the opportunity?? :thumbup: LOL!!

I posted this in another thread on "Who did you tell?" in the general discussion forum, but it is relevant here: I understand why people would want to keep it private. I've told many people and have had the "cheater" comment a few times but mostly it has been very positive feedback. I just feel that we have some obligation to break down those negative images out there and educate people on the fact that it is NOT cheating and is NOT an easy way out...

I've always called them Tim Tam Bombs and yes, they are an essential for the evening. I sent a friend in the US a box of Tim Tams and a tin of Milo, complete with instructions for making the Bombs, for Christmas :tt1: Only problem was the postage cost three times as much as the goodies!!

Hey Jachut, she shouldn't forget the lamingtons either to go with the pav, although nothing beats good pavlova with oodles of fresh cream and strawberries!! (or kiwifruit or mandarin segments or peach slices...any soft fruit really.) Some great wine labels to look for: Jacob's Creek Jane Brook Leeuwin Estate Cape Mentelle Goundry Evans & Tate Houghtons This site might give you some ideas: West Australia Wines