SpecialK

Yes welcome! Hope you'll come join us over on the March 2008 Bandsters MASTER thread where all of us banded in March are sharing our progress since we're going through the same stages at the same time.

I have a cup of coffee in the morning but I put sugar free creamer or skim milk in it and so far no problems. I do find that I slowly drink my coffee and then wait and have my breakfast shake or whatever protein I am having so that I don't use coffee to wash out what nourishment I'm taking in.

It is so nice to see the bandsters moving along at about 10 lbs lost a month - Heather banded at late December and here it is about 4 months and she's at 45 lbs down! WOW! Same with OHJuli is about 1 year exactly out and I think her last ticker had her down 110 lbs in a year! And DebbieK's ticker is showing her down 80 lbs and I think her banding was late September. I'm so glad I chose LB over the RNY because I think the results of those who are committed to it are showing they can be great! Keep up the good work everyone. I'm inspired by ya!

Niki - I find that putting the Unflavored Protein powder from Unjury in things helps boost the protein in regular foods (soup for me for now) without changing the taste.

Hi all. I'm about 11 days now post-op from my banding and I can't wait to eat some mushies on Monday! I miss chewing. Actually I came to this thread because I'm still feeling like the biggest bandster amongst my group of March bandsters and local to Ohio but I'm sure I'll get losing more soon. I was weighing almost every day after I first came home from the hospital and then I was warned maybe not to do that because I could get discouraged if I had a gain or didn't lose so I'm trying to hold out until Monday to weigh myself again. For now, I'm thrilled with what I have lost.

Hi to the Shamrocks bringing up the end of the March Parade on March 31ST !!!! Congratulations on your upcoming band date! Take care. Post soon to let us know how you're doing this weekend and as soon as you're home from the hospital.

The packaged creamy potato and cheddar broccoli soup mix (like Mrs Grass or Bear Creek) are good and they do come out thicker with some chunks in it so I just added it into the blender with some extra skim milk to thin it down and chop the chunks into bits. Tasted good to me.

I make 1 serving of cream of wheat which is 3 Tbs of the dry mix cooked and then I thin it down with skim milk and add Splenda brown sugar blend to give it a nice sweet taste and then to boost the Protein of it, I added 1 scoop of unjury unflavored protein. Made a nice breakfast other than drinking a shake.

I am adding extra skim milk, or chicken broth or beef broth to soups that I puree in the blender to get them nice and liquid so they are real thin.

Thanks Greg for the links. I'm definitely ready for the mushies stage come Monday.. I miss chewing I think. I've been using my blender to liquidify just about any soup using extra chicken broth or beef broth. I've made real runny cream of wheat using milk and Splenda brown sugar blend to give me something with substance for a breakfast. I'll look into these.

Dr. Price told me that Dr. Choban was who would actually be doing my fills! Interesting to see how this goes.

Ladyroz - Congratulations on the 45 lbs. That is Fantastic! All -- I'll try to find out the details of the April 7th fashion show at Polaris being sponsored by Mt. Carmel's Bariatric group and post when I have it.

Yesterday was my first day back to work and it was a piece of cake since I work at a computer most of the day. No pain at all here for me. I feel blessed for that. Something I haven't seen anyone post on is that my doctor has me on Coumadin for a month post op and a acid reflux medicine Protonix for about that long too. How about others? And finally for FENTON-- the saying still goes -- boys and their toys! a blender with all the gadgets!! Congrats!

MRODR - Good luck today on your band date! Let us know soon how its going!

Thinner Me -- yep I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good things for you too!

NDWife - yes Dr. Price did ask me if I didn't want to consider GB since the weight loss would be faster and I said No, I really think the lapband is best for me and I'm willing to take a little longer in order to have the less drastic procedure. He said, now you'll have to work with the band as a tool and I said, Yep, I understand, and he said, well great - I'll do your band. Sounds like you know what you're after. BNLisa - Yes, the last few days are crazy! I agree with GrowingPanes - get out and do something to work off the energy and distract your mind. It will be here and a week past and you'll be back at work like me by the time you blink your eyes twice! LOL

For our new folks who are considering coming, the value I immediately found from meeting the gang was I had been to one of my hospital's monthly support group meetings and it was predominantly RNY or GB patients and while I sat and chatted with a couple people around me each time, I didn't make the connection I have to our group. Plus for the newbies, we decided to have the meeting in a public place so it wasn't threatening to anyone to come to the mall food court area that they could come and go as they wanted to.

Just an idea but on the back of your health insurance card should be a customer service or information number you can call and you can specifically ask if they cover adjustable gastric band surgery and if so, what are the requirements to qualify. My insurance was Aetna and the phone representative let me know if my company's plan covered it, and then directed me to the web site page on the details of what the insurance requirements were. So, I always try to advise people to first find out if insurance covers it by talking directly to your own insurance company. I've seen a couple cases where folks went to the seminar at one weight loss center, fell in love with that program and were well into planning to have their surgery there, and then found that the only bariatric center of excellence on their plan wasn't the one they had been working with and they had to start over with the bariatric surgeon that was In-Network for them.

Okay, I'm really not that bad of a caffeine person (I'm not a Starbucks junkie) but I really enjoy a good big cup of coffee in the morning so when I went without coffee or any caffeine from Sunday until going to the hospital last Monday, I was laying in pre-op with a big headache and the nurse said, yep, lots of folks get that caffeine withdrawal headache when they have afternoon surgery and haven't had coffee or whatever. Then after surgery, they only gave me decaff tea to drink and the next morning decaff coffee to drink on Tuesday. The first thing I wanted at home was a small cup of 'real' coffee with sugarfree creamer in it.

I think it took me about 30+ minutes to eat it, and it was getting cold and getting thicker by the end making it less appetizing. I can definitely see that putting things on that candle warming plate that was suggested to me in advance to keep it warm to eat it is a good idea. I hate to admit it but I must have been wolfing my food down before it had a chance to get cold in the past!

I don't know much about the going to Mexico for surgery part but there is a Central Ohio lapband member who was looking for a Columbus area fill doctor because she had her banding in Detroit and didn't want to keep driving back up there. A doctor from Cincinnati has an office here as well in Columbus and he is willing to do fills on other patients and he has a base price for the inital consult and then a price per fill. Synchrony Health :: Home

Good Rebound on the liquids attitude Greg! I was a math major in college also...I do the same logical thinking, analyze things to death, so just trusting my band and the whole process is a learning experience. I'm heading back to work Wednesday at 8am so hope all is going well for you all.

Nice job Tyanna! at 60 POUNDS ..NOT JUST "LOST" BUT GONE FOREVER.

The best thing I took was Chloraseptic Spray for my sore throat!! I took a book and a little electronic game and things but really didn't use them. I could have been fine with just my tooth brush, toothpaste, hairbrush, deodorant. I had an IV hooked up and things that made not wanting to put a robe on a hassle so I didn't put one on, just made sure the back was tied up good on the hospital gown and wore the slipper socks with treads they issue to you when you go in. Can't believe its already 1 week since I was banded!! P.S. Splurged on a pedicure today and took off the green nail polish on my toes! and that poor nail technician about had a heart attack when she saw that green polish!!! I have a weird sense of humor at times...

I'm one week post op now and doing great. I decided to take Monday and Tuesday of this week off still to rest and only have a three day work week from Weds-Friday to ease back into working. I'm trying to keep some variety in my full liquids so that I don't become bored with the same chocolate Protein shake over and over. I tried thinned down cream of wheat last night for my dinner with 1 scoop of vanilla Protein powder and a couple teaspoons of Splenda brown sugar blend. I kept thinning it down with skim milk to both cool it down and thin it until I had a pretty running consistency. It tasted pretty good and the protein powder in it made it count for more nutritional value than just eating the cream of wheat alone. Now for confession time, the serving size on the box was to make it using 3 Tb of the dry mix. I thought, heck I can eat more than that...so I made 2 servings.... mistake -- 1 serving really was filling and I will now be exercising a little more restraint and make 1 serving and if I'm still hungry, make a second. I really was pushing it to finish the 2 servings. So I'm still obviously dealing with mentally thinking I can eat more than I need. No problems eating this because it was very thin consistency but that isn't the point.