SpecialK

I had my third fill last week to get to 8.5 cc's in my 14 cc band and I'm at a total of 48 lbs in 4 months. I'm thrilled.

Patty - so excited for you - what time is surgery if you know yet? Lyn and I will be there at the docs office for Fills the day you're having surgery. I'll say a prayer for you but I'm sure you'll do fine as Doc Price did good for me and lots of others!

Well Lyn, I think what you are getting to is the first pangs of bandster he** but get to Mushies and see how you do once you can chomp your teeth into something. I can tell you that Niki, myself and others were ready to chew a leg off by the time we got to our first fill, then it was better for awhile, then some hunger until 2nd fill, etc. BTW - I'll be in the office Sept 2 getting what might be my 4th fill-- what time will you be there?

I flew just 3 days after a fill and had no problems at all. No problems getting through security, no problems in the air or afterward. I would recommend taking along a good size water bottle, empty, and then fill it from the airport drinking fountain once you are past security. They won't let you have unopened bottles of water past the security checkpoint. Bring whatever snacks you'd like, I took a couple protein bars and a cheese stick and I was fine. On my 3 hour layover, I was able to find food options I could eat to get by. Have a great vacation...I'm already ready to go again!

Slimfast has a protein snack bar that is chocolate and peanut butter crunch and is 120 calories - tastes like a Buttefinger candy bar to me!

Okay folks I would say this fill still hasn't taken me to my ultimate sweet spot because I was still able to eat 3 oz of steak, half a potato and maybe less than 1/2 of my salad at lunch then 6 hours later finished the other 3 oz of my steak and the other half of the potato. Eating very slowly and being very full with the 1/2 of the meal but still surprised I could eat that much before getting my signal to stop. I did have a little NSV over this though... my Mom and I were out eating together and she is always the last one done eating and it was so funny to see her eat a dinner roll, polish off her salad, and eat most of her 10 oz ribeye steak and sweet potato when I ate what is listed before this. In the past, I would have had the bigger steak and been finished way ahead of her. I ordered the smallest size steak (6 oz) and was surprised to see I could only eat half of that.

I'm doing the happy dance for you!!! :thumbup::tt1::tt1:

I find it very inspiring that we are so HONEST with each others of our failures as well as Celebrate our successes. Keep Shrinking all you Shamrocks! I'm down a couple already from fill #3 this week and its keeping me motivated that much more to get more exercise. I'm getting ready to head out for a walk while its cooler this a.m. I had a funny thing happen -- decided to start wearing my pedometer on my waistband of my slacks and shorts again to see how many steps I"m getting in. Then I went to the ladies restroom pulled down the drawers, went to pull them back up, and of course as some of you may have, the toilet automatically begins flushing as soon as you get up or start to step away and the pedometer flips off my waist band right into the flushing toilet... it flushed right down but the Water kept swirling and swirling and I was thinking oh no! its going to block the toilet up and I'm going to have to tell the building services group what happened.. embarassment deluxe... but fortunately it went down and stayed down and seemed okay. So, pedometer #2 is ready for service today but I'll be more careful ...hee hee (Just for Fenton and guys... see how lucky you are not having to pull down pants most of the time in the bathroom!)

Lady QT -- Congratulations on a wonderful accomplishment in your life to get healthy... and being able to shop in whatever stores you want is a great bonus! Keep moving and you'll get those last pounds off. Lyn -- how is the last days of pureed going? I'm back up to some real food again today after going soft and mushie foods yesterday fine. So far I don't see alot of difference in restriction but I'm not eating full food yet and I'm eating very small bites and chewing very well just to be sure so we'll see and I think it takes a week or so for me to really see how a fill is going to settle in.

Are the silicone strips in the same area of CVS as like band-aids?

Sorry to hear you got your internet wings at work clipped but it happens and I happen to be in a job role in IT Security and compliance to company policies and things where I get exposed to being the group to have to do the monitoring of internet use. It turns out that it is really sad how many employers have had to purchase and implement expensive blocking and filtering software to keep employees and contractors from abusing their internet privileges on all kinds of sites. There are companies that have all sports, entertainment, games, and miscellaneous sites all blocked to keep productivity up. The ugly part of the things I see are the ones who still try to surf pornography while on the job - we have a posted zero tolerance policy that people can be and have been fired for their first offense. My own company blocks all access to every personal email site, anything that has been categorized as racist, hate, bomb making, and various things that I would have never believed we would have to block in order for employees to use the right discretion but they just don't do it. Its men, women, younger and older, married, single, gay and straight, etc. that abuse things at work. We can see what sites someone visited, how many times they hit the site, per day, per month, what category the site is considered, how many minutes went by from the time you hit one website until you moved to another, what files were downloaded, etc. Bottom line, the internet resources of the company are theirs to monitor at all times. So, for now, I'd take this slap on the hands as something of a learning experience, and wait to see what it takes to earn your internet privileges at work back again. Sorry for the tough love here but if you boss could see all your hours on the internet were for this website or others that he/she knew were not work related, he was within the company rights to do what he did.

Absolutely look for another doctor. You will have a long term relationship with your bariatric surgeon and his office and this was an unacceptable and inappropriate manner with how he treated you. Good luck!

As my signature shows I had surgery March 17 and I just had my 3rd fill yesterday July 22 to take me up to 8.5 cc's total in an AP-L 14 cc band. I'm on my second day of liquids so I can't tell much on restriction but fluids, jello and SF pudding all go down easy enough. We'll see how it goes with some cottage cheese tonight and then start full foods tomorrow.

I had my 3rd fill today and its liquids day for me. He took me up to 8.5 cc's in my 14 cc band. I've had no problems with liquids at all so I'm very encouraged. I treated myself to a chocolate Peanut Butter Protein shake for my dinner - using my PB2 in with the chocolate Protein powder and it was yummy. BNL -- I had a goof up this week too - thought ordering the Johnsonville brats appetizer would be a good protein lunch when a big group all went out on Tuesday and it was tasty - it turned out to be 2.5 brats sliced lengthwise, and I didn't realize they'd be batter dipped and deep fried. I ate 1.5 and was full and then ate the rest as a snack later in the afternoon. When I looked up the calories for 2.5 brats it was like 600 calories and I didn't even look at the fat grams at that point. So, here's to my fill #3 and more self control!!!

I so remember how ready I was for something to chew on. One thing I tried was I took a small Wendy's chili and pureed it in my blender and it was so good - go the taste of the meat in my mouth and it really satisfied. Hang in there! I'm on liquids today and tomorrow so I'll be your partner for these few days, then mushies, then back up to food but we'll see how I did since I got a good fill amount today.

Hi bandsters! I can tell you I definitely like having an 8:30 am fill appt as the first patient of the day -- in and out in a breeze today with Dr. Miller. He has me up to a total of 8.5 cc's in my band as of today. Holding down fluids okay so far. He said "see you back in 6 weeks, no guarantee I'll give you another fill but we'll see how you are doing." ...and I got an appointment for Sept 2 before I left the office! I'm excited... For those who want a fill appt and can't get in for a long time to see Dr. Choban, consider checking to see him. He hit my port in seconds and it was totally painless.

I have a 14 cc band and I have 6 cc's as of my 2nd fill and I'm heading in for my 3rd fill this Thursday. I'm at 4 months post op. I have some restriction but not enough because I still can eat a bigger portion than I should be able to. The only thing I've had a significant feeling of stuck on was chicken when I tried to push it and eat more out at a restaurant beyond when I had that full pressure feeling come on. If you go that one more bite, then you can feel it.

I recently found this graphic of the AP band and port. Hope this helps. I have an AP-Large and my doctors switched to the AP once it was offered feeling it was better than the VG.

Thanks for all the thoughts you all have shared about being too tight so I'll say that to my doctor that I want to lose weight but I don't want to be only able to drink liquids if he give me too much. I'm going to make it my goal to eat in smaller portions at a time to see if I can make myself get the idea into my head better that a small portion is enough mentally and physically.

BNL -- I had to think about what you meant about calling Fenton "Charlie"... then it struck me that we are the "Angels"... that is too cool! Need some feedback from you all on what I should ask for as a fill on my 3rd fill coming up this week. I'm at 6 cc's in my 14 cc band and I have some restriction, but not enough. I am trying to stay very diligently at about 1000-1200 calories plus exercise but there are days when I blow it and I've got 1400 calories in before I can blink an eye. I still can eat a good portion size, much more than the 1/2 cup servings some of you talk about. When I try to eat just a 1/2 cup I'm really hungry within maybe 2-3 hours. I'd like to be able to eat a small portion like 1/2 to 1 cup of food and stay satisfied for several hours almost to the point of having to remind myself to eat my next meal with Protein in it. Noon yesterday I had 2 boiled eggs and salad with some dressing as lunch. I pick out the egg yolk to save those cholesterol grams and calories and eat mainly the white portion. I got 'full' feeling pressure by the time I had those 2 egg whites and didn't seem to have room for the salad so I saved it. By 3pm I was searching for something to eat and I discovered my salad still sitting there so I was able to eat that and feel satisfied again at least to finish working until 4:30pm. Got home and thought gee, I think I'll take a quick nap before I get up and do some other things. Fell rock solid asleep and didn't wake up until Midnight! I was hungry! Ate about 1 cup of FF cottage cheese and about 6 turkey bacon slices. Back to bed at 2 am and woke up at 7 am -- so I slept like 12 hours! I'm thinking if I don't get enough calories in my energy level is just blah and I want the sleep to compensate. Sorry for the long post but I'm still trying to decide if I should ask for an 'aggressive' fill or just ask to keep incrementally going up by 1 cc at a time or so. I definitely don't want them to put in 3 cc and have the problems that were posted about to unfill, not keep fluids down. I can't imagine surviving on 2000 calories in several days combined. I'd be sleeping alot!

I was trying to find some pictures to share with someone and I finally found this one embedded in a Powerpoint that some doctor had given at a conference. Its the best view I've seen of the Allergan band and port.

Patty -- congratulations! Dr. Price did my surgery on March 17 and I've had a very smooth ride. Post surgery he gave me the option to have either Dr. Miller or Dr. Choban be my follow up dr for fills and check ups and I chose Dr. Miller and that's going well so far. Best wishes. September 2 will be here before you know it!

As far as I know this date should be good for me. I'm doing Water aerobics now so if anyone has a smaller good 1 piece swim suit in a 24 or 26 that would be a help at the end of the summer. The 28 I bought for the start of this summer is already starting to be loose especially in the butt! Yippee! I know I'll need a swim suit throughout Sept-December for the fall water aerobics class in the next smaller sizes. Thanks.

WOW! Congratulations for hanging in there for such a long time to pursue what you knew was best for you! Hope you are doing well.

Debbie, Greg and Sue -- good to hear from all of you! I'm on a mini plateau I guess again at 42 lbs and I have a fill appt with Dr. Miller next Thursday on the 24th so I'll be interested to see how much he puts in. There are times I feel restriction and other times not. This will be my 3rd fill. I do notice that I'm more restricted right after exercising but within maybe an hour, then I'm ready to eat! I think I'm going to eat more than I can -- still need a "head adjustment" to think how much food to put on the plate. Its hard to believe tomorrow will already be July 17th - 4 months since 3 of us were banded on March 17th! Time is flying by. I'd love to have my 1 year bandiversary and be down 100 lbs! ...I can dream can't I!!