SpecialK

I'm sorry but I have to ask you if you didn't know up front that this was a lifetime commitment to have a lapband and that meant getting the medical care post-op that you need. I have heard there are fill centers that charge a one-time $500 new patient fee if you went somewhere else, and then about $100 or so per fill. I have also heard that if you've previously been filled to a certain degree, that they will be more aggressive in getting you filled back up to your sweet spot. So it probably wouldn't take as many fill appointments to get back to where you are being successful maintaining your weight with your lapband. Second - I would ask you to consider your new baby since you said you were doing this after a pregnancy -- do you really want to risk an infection that could be life threatening and not live to raise and see your child in the future or be able to enjoy life without medical complications in the future? Okay, I couldn't let this one go without adding to the group of replies that said - Please - no more self fills and wait to get a fill until you can afford it.

Sue & Niki - yep I'm about the same place as the two of you. Able to be pretty good with just a coffee and 60 calorie Dannon yogurt or 1 pkt of Weight Control Oatmeal *(about 170 calories) until about 10:30 and then I do pretty well with a low calorie lunch and then hunger builds during the day. I have to really keep an eye on things but I'm hovering around 1000 calories a day now. Not losing much but I feel it in my clothes so I'm happy. I'm also looking forward to my 2nd fill on June 10th -- I'm envious that Niki got hers faster than me... I want a full report on how its helping.

At the mall get together, I was asked to share with the group what I have on my MedicID bracelet that I wear now. It says: Adj.Gastric Lap Band w/ Abdominal Port No NG w/o Scope I got my bracelet from Laurens Hope - and they sell lots of different styles, something as simple as a leather braided in black/brown for men or pretty sparkly ones with different decorative trims, beads. One warning --I measured and ordered a bracelet too large for my wrist and sent it back to get adjusted and had to pay the postage and a $6 revision fee so measure carefully. I ended up getting a little tighter than I thought I needed and its fine. The decorative part is on the top of my wrist/arm and the MedicID tag is under my wrist where most people have no idea I'm wearing one. I was told that emergency personnel know to check for ID bracelets and necklaces for medical tags so I don't think it would be overlooked if an emergency came up even though its decorative. There are lots of websites out there that sell even nicer and more expensive 14K gold, etc. but this one is my style. http://www.laurenshope.com/category.aspx?id=1

Congratulations NDWife! Hopefully you're a May-flower!

Juli--I do hope we see you at the get together at the mall so we can help chase away those blah's -- yep, we all have ups and downs -- sometimes the downs seem longer than others. I am even seeing little ups and downs in the 7-8 weeks I've been going through this post surgery now. A friend told me to line up two 12 lb. bowling balls and put them in a big sack (heavy duty) and put that on my back and carry it around for 24 hours to remember what it was like 24+ lbs ago ! Good mental image to kick me in gear and make me thankful. You inspire those of us who haven't made it to the 1 year mark yet. Hang in there!

I will have a Mothers Day balloon for marking our meeting spot in front of Great Indoors in the Polaris Mall food court.

Hi NDWife -- Yep it is an adjustment to be sure but hang in there and remember to just try it each night a little more. I found that the first week I had my own machine at home, I'd try to keep it on for at least 2 hours while laying down, then work up to 4 hours or half way thru the night before I took it off my face and gave up, and then to get to where I would wake up to the alarm going off and I had made it through the whole night. I do still know I have it on my face when I start trying to go to sleep and I do still have to deal with the hose when I turn over but I was really surprised at how fast I adjusted to the idea of having to keep my mouth closed so that the air coming into the mask could do its job. Hope that helps. Just don't give up because they say a good percentage of people do. It was enough for me to know that the oxygen being deprived from my brain could be a cumulative effect on both my lung capacity, heart, and brain - clear mental state later in life to know that I better accept that this was something I needed to do to be healthy. My friend who went on a cruise with me said the hum of the machine didn't bother her once she got used to it and I have friends who say their spouse likewise is very supportive and accepting of the hum of the machine at home.

I'll bring the balloon for our group get together and see you all Saturday. I can use the encouragement in person too..love the website encouragement but nothing better than seeing ya all live!

Hi Cincy! I'm in the Columbus area but be sure to check under the USA Local Support Groups - Ohio forum thread and I'm sure you'll find some other Cincy lapbanders that would be glad to give you info! Good luck on the journey--I don't regret my decision one bit!

Yes, I have been looking forward to the day to be able to wash that biggest size of dress, top and pants I had pre-surgery and put them into a donate box! Getting everything all neat and clean to donate. Might even try to see about consigning to a Plus-size store for some smaller clothes to swap! NSV!!!:thumbup::thumbup:

:thumbup::biggrin: 891 Calories total today, low fat, high Protein. I'm doing the Shrinking Shamrocks dance (jig) once again. So to all my friends who stub their toe once in a while, get back up on that horse the next day!

Never heard of that -- anything that would save calories and fat grams sounds worth a try. Thanks.

May Bandsters -- yes I too love your month's logo of Shrinko de Mayo! almost as much as our Shrinking Shamrocks for March! Congratulations on your May band surgery date! It will be here before you know it.

Exercise post surgery - yep, siimilar to Greg and I was out walking at least 30 minutes pretty quickly after that. On April 1 I decided to kick it in gear and go and get my money's worth out of the gym membership I pay for at work ($8 a month -- what a benefit) and I go down and use the treadmills, exercise bike for at least 30-40 minutes. I am trying to either go outside and walk around downtown Columbus on my lunch hour for at least 30-40 minutes or if the weather is crappy, go to the gym and do the treadmill/exercise bike. I'm trying to work up from 3-4 times a week - some weeks I'm a little better than others. Right now, I'm doing a huge amount of physical yard work and that counts as exercise in my book on the weekends. I have to say with me having knee surgery April 17, I'm just starting physical therapy this week and have to do that for the next 6 weeks, so I'm hoping to keep getting stronger and increase activity as I can. So, yes, start walking as soon as you can!

I would try to find a way to tell my boss for the future that I am watching what I eat and would appreciate it if they could consider non-food rewards for good performance or incentives -- gift card to a movie - or healthy snack rewards - apples, veggie tray, etc. As for the co-worker that is tempting you, hang in there. She will be so envious when you're thin and loving life and she is still wrapped up in a potato chip bag! The best defense is a good offense!

Okay friends... I thought dry roasted almonds or a small amount of nuts would be an okay snack and it is in terms of being able to eat it but I have to tell you I must need someone like Fenton to stand guard over me with his stick and unsnapped holster whenever I step near nuts! My trigger food is Peanut Butter and I crave that taste but its just not worth the calorie hit I see when I have to put it on my daily calorie counter. I did find these little pre-packaged containers of Jif-to-go with a single serving size of peanut butter and I am trying that instead of having a whole jar open -- which is an unfortunate invitation in my mind to work to the bottom of the jar. Nuts!! I know better but I'm trying so hard to unlearn old eating behaviors. I guess with a business dinner of overeating and smacking my hands for getting into the nuts, I needed to 'come clean' and say I'm going to try really hard today to stick to 800-1000 calories and to stay off the scale for a few days and not punish myself looking at the numbers go up temporarily from these couple days of food insanity. Not big portions of foods but just nibbling here, there and before you know it, the calories pack on. It really makes me so aware of how many calories I really may have been eating on a regular basis before I started using an online calorie tracker about a year or so ago. Okay off to work and a clean start to a new day!

Nice to hear from you Ladyroz. Wonderful progress on your weight loss. I've stubbed my toe a couple times this week so I just need to take heart from those who are in it for the long haul with me. Thanks to all of you!

Welll tonight was the first time I had to go out with a group for a business dinner and they had picked Buca di Peppo's Italian in the Arena District - which I love the food -- and they serve huge giant portions family style. Everyone overeats so I knew this wasn't going to be easy to get through. Everyone started off with Chianti wine and I ordered Lemonade! I just felt funny not ordering something to drink but then I drank alot of it right before the meal part came which is a rule breaker (#1). Then we had a salad course and two pizzas to share among 11 of us - I had 1 piece of pizza and ate mostly the pepperoni off the top and just a little bit of crust and it was so good. I haven't tasted pizza since pre-surgery diet before March 3rd--2 months without pizza. Then two huge family servings of spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parmesan to share among 11 of us. I ate as small amount of salad as I could to save room for the meal and picked off a piece of meatball (they are softball sized meatballs!!) and about a 2"x3" piece of the chicken and some spaghetti. I was eating small bits of the meatball and chicken very slowly, trying to remember to chew, chew while talking business and laughing...something I haven't had to do since surgery to talk and eat at the same time and not forget to swallow a big bite of something. About 2/3 of the way thru, I got that pressure feeling warning me to stop. I finished about 2 more little bites of chicken and left all the spaghetti noodles go. I added up my calorie total for today and its over the top... lunch and snacks for business meetings too earlier --very disappointed that I ate so much but I tried to make the best choices I could each step of the way. In the past, I would have left that restaurant like so many others as very overstuffed--as in "roll me to the car". As we walked to our cars, I realized I felt full and satisfied but not stuffed and no pressure sensation so I must have stopped at an okay point. I am really surprised I could eat this much just a week after my first fill but I wonder if I was drinking the lemonade with my meal helping to push the food along--rule breaker #2. Next time, hopefully the business dinner will be somewhere that I order my own meal and don't feel group pressure to eat.

Most of us that were at the First Fill party...hee hee... on April 29 were each alone when we came and we just sat and talked in the waiting room until it was our turn to go in. Before you know it, its over. So, my opinion is I'd go alone...I went back to work after doing this on my lunch hour with nobody at work the wiser of what I'd been up to over lunch. No pain, no reason not to go to work.

If Dr. Price's nurse Judy was there with him in the office, he pretty much tells her to put you in for the fill appointment with Dr. Choban and if you don't hear in a week, I would call and leave Judy a message that you are waiting on confirmation of your first fill with fluroscopy and give her the date (a Tuesday) that you're hoping it will be (6 weeks out from your surgery date is the minimum they will do one).

I'd say if you have your Insurance approval now, that anything you lose before surgery is a bonus. If you don't have your insurance approval, I think I'd purposely try to stay around the 35 BMI since that is the requirement a bunch of insurance companies have. I didn't have that problem due to a high BMI ...would like to be at 35 someday soon!

Niki, I would just trust my feeling of fullness or for me last night at dinner it was a sense of pressure when I was eating a salad at O'Charley's that is a favorite - a huge bowl of lettuce with chicken tender pieces, some walnuts, few crumbles of blue cheese and dried cranberries. Normally, pre-band I could easily have eaten most of that big salad. Last night, Not! I couldn't even finish about half the chicken on the top - was eating that before the lettuce and picking pieces of nut and cheese to mix in flavors. I easily took 2/3 of that salad home and I'm going to give it a try as dinner tonight. After a certain amount of chicken, which I was taking small bites (not tiny really) and chewing well before swallowing, it was going down fine, just started to slowly feel pressure - I guess that was my stomach pouch sending me a signal of fullness. I stopped at that point and allowed what I ate to settle and I was fine the rest of the night on hunger then. P.S. It is so hard passing up the rolls at O'Charley's but I have done that twice....

They give you two hospital gowns - one you can snap/tie in front as a robe on top of the one snapped/tied in the back. I just made sure the back was tied up good and walked without the 2nd hospital gown as a robe. You are right, getting an arm in a robe with the IV in your hand/arm would complicate things. P.S. You can slip your undies back on shortly after surgery once you get up to your hospital room and/or first time you get up to go to the bathroom so that your backside is covered up for the strolling the halls :-)

For Fenton and the whole Shrinking Shamrocks gang -- keep up the good work and Smile! :frown:

This first fill on Tuesday is already paying off for me so I'm a happy camper now, able to stay closer to 800 calories a day now without hunger as opposed to being very hungry at 1200-1400 calories right before my fill when I was at the 6 weeks post surgery point -- so for those in bandster hell...hang in there it will get better. I'm already scheduled for my 2nd fill on June 10th ...I am betting I will need it at that point but we'll have to see. Fenton - that's fantastic that your exercising and getting moving has helped you. Congrats. I'll post a quick cartoon here in another post to give you a laugh!