funky_monkey800

I just had my 4th fill and I feel great. I have not felt very hungry at all these past few days. Leading up to this fill, I could go about 4 hours between meals but I could still eat larger amounts than what I knew I should be doing. My doc's office was happy since I had lost 8 pounds since the last fill, but I knew I wanted another fill. I have high hopes that this could put me at my sweet spot. I am 6 cc's in my 10 cc band.

Hi there and congraduations on getting your surgery! You, too, Lolo....
My surgeon described a goal of being satisfied with a tennis-ball sized portion (his lingo) for 4-5 hours. I am some one who needed several fills to get there.....in retrospect the time it took was good as I had to adjust my eating habits. I was such a shoveler, etc. Sounds to me Ike you are doing beautifully!

@@Angelant76 congrats on your surgery and current weight loss! I don't know that I was confused about whether or not I needed a fill, but I definitely wanted them!
I just had my 4th fill and and I *think* I might be at green. Knock on wood! My fill process has been interesting, for lack of a better word. My first fill was scheduled 4 weeks post-op, and each subsequent fill every 4 weeks. I lost about 8 pounds in a couple of weeks but then nothing. I lost very slowly after that, up until this past month, another 8 pounds. The tech doing my fill was happy with that progress and asked why I thought I wasn't at green yet. My response was basically what you stated. I can pretty much go a few to several hours between meals, but I could still eat larger quantities than what I knew I was supposed to. I also don't eat as slow or chew as much as I know I should. I explained that my band hadn't stopped me. her response was that they didn't want me to have stuck episodes, which I totally get because I don't either, but at the same time, i do want to know my band is working. I am now at a total of 6 cc's in a 10 cc band. These past few days I have had to make myself eat, much like those first few days post-op. I am not hungry and that is an awesome feeling! I am not yet back on regular food so I will see how or if that changes anything, but like I said, my appetite is currently suppressed.
I guess my thoughts are to be patient with the process and follow your doc's orders as much as possible. Every one is on their own journey. I felt like I was losing too slowly, like I would be the person the band wouldn't work for, etc. but now I have lost almost 30 pounds and the weight is starting to come off faster.
Good luck! :-)

@@funky_monkey800, yes! I agree with you totally. I am so not ready for something like p90x. My brother in law swears by crossfit as well, but I feel like I need to lose some weight before I can handle something with higher intensity.
We got flurries today and I am so not having it. I don't need 4 seasons - I would be happy with 65-75 year round!!

Howdy ya'll! Newbie here! And this forum thing is new to me, too, so I hope I'm doing this right. Anyhoo, super excited, apprehensive and looking forward to my DORB (Date Of ReBirth)! I'm kinda lookin at it that way since I'll be re-learning how to eat, plan and think about food. One step in front of the other, right? Tired of failing. This, to me, is a last resort tool I will use to get healthy for me and my family. Hoping exercise will be easier when I'm down a few pounds, too. The message boards are a tad overwhelming to me....so much to soak in. But I wanted to say "Hey!". Have a great day, fellow banders! ????

I got my third fill on Tuesday and as soon as I took the sip of Water, I could FEEL it! Restriction - glorious restriction! I had not felt that before unless I ate something starchy/bread. After fill, was not hungry the rest of the day. Yesterday, ate a small amount for Breakfast, not hungry until dinner and then very satisfied with a small amount. This morning, the scale finally MOVED down - 5 lbs from where I was the previous weigh (and i admit that's been several weeks as feeling down that I was so hungry after all of the surgery costs and discomfort, etc).
Now I feel I am IN THE GAME and I am so excited to know THIS is what it is supposed to feel like! I don't feel hungry! I feel full after a few small bites of Protein dense food. I am not ravenous and dreaming about junk food anymore. I AM HAPPY!!!!!
I wanted to share this with the rest of the community. I haven't been posting - I felt like I might be one of the folks for which this tool just doesn't change the underlying, overwhelming appetite issues I have had all of my life. But it IS changing that and I feel so hopeful - it's been so long since I've felt this way.
:-)))))))))))
Mary

Love this thread!
Ok so I have two...last week at my appt my doc said that if I was to walk into his office today I would "no longer be a candidate for WLS, and I should be proud of my self"'
And this a.m.....my favorite "old" pair of silver jeans fit!! 34x32...still need to work on the muffin top tho.....but I didn't have to lay down or jump up and down for them to fit!
I am a jean hoarder...you know the type who always says "someday I will wear these again"...lol

Love this thread!
Ok so I have two...last week at my appt my doc said that if I was to walk into his office today I would "no longer be a candidate for WLS, and I should be proud of my self"'
And this a.m.....my favorite "old" pair of silver jeans fit!! 34x32...still need to work on the muffin top tho.....but I didn't have to lay down or jump up and down for them to fit!
I am a jean hoarder...you know the type who always says "someday I will wear these again"...lol

If i crave it, i allow myself a little bit. Thats what got me all messed up in thw first place...i would say no sweets, no candy ect...then i would totally binge. Now i take a small piece and let it just melt in my mouth...really taste it and enjoy it. Once i try the one bite i notice the little bit i had was enough to satisfy my craving.

Everyone thinks it's easy.....WLS is not a switch. We don't go from fat to skinny over night....it requires a tremendous amount of work and dedication...
And all of you are amazing for taking that step! We all know it isn't easy!

@@Pinkygirl, what an ordeal you are going through!!
Keep your head up and keep us posted! Good luck!

I am sure there are people who truly need these types of meds...now take this as you will, but this is my view on them for depression...not bipolar disorder/mania....which for a true "bipolar" label is a hugely different diagnosis than mild to moderate depression.
Because you have a bad day or a tough pitch at work then come home to also manage everything at home does not make you depressed.
Feelings are normal. You are happy, sad, excited, nervous, giggly, upset, you want to scream, laugh out loud.....those are normal everyday feelings that we as humans have. They are NORMAL reactions to living in a chaotic world. Are you unhappy at work or at home? If so...make a change. We are not trees, we can move....
To me, walking around in a fog was not the right approach. Changing my views and ways of thinking was....I'm just saying if people want to truly be happy...look for it in life, and the TRUE blessings around you. not a pill.
pills aren't a cure all. The simply cover the underlying issue.
For those of you that these have worked for, I hope they have indeed helped you....and I commend you for being able to come forth and say they have helped. There is no judgement from me. I was on them for years. Maybe I am the minority here, but they made my life worse.....I didn't care about anyone or anything, even myself. I could have cared less if I lived or died....so did it make me any happier? Was I no longer depressed because I didn't give a sh*t anymore?
I thought this was an interesting short read that just came out
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140225122429.htm
http://chriskresser.com/the-dark-side-of-antidepressants

@@Bandista @@mae7365 @@Dolores33778 @@Rogofulm
@@funky_monkey800 @@JamieLogical @@mae7365
@@KathyLynn160 you too!!

you guys are all too smart
you said exactly what i was gonna say!!!!

hmmmmm then i guess i'm smart too

for me....i'm so happy about my new weight loss/life

I chose not to have plastics

happy to be thin with some loose skin
then be heavy
after all
i am cute as a button

no complaints here

just plenty of smiles
people wonder what i'm up to

good luck with surgery

kathy

At the very least, I would have an "unexpected" trip out of town for a couple of weeks to give myself time to think it through, and follow my original band instructions to the letter! If you are not in a danger zone, take the time you need to work through all your options. Just me, but I'm not one to make snap decisions. I "listen" to that voice, it's proved to be right way too many times. Good luck!

I would ask him to share the results of the scans with you and get copies of them, call another office and see if you can get a second opinion from another Dr. we are still talking about major surgery so a second opinion is not uncalled for. If there needs to be a revision then you will know without a doubt.
Let us know how your doing and what happens!!

Love it. Nice quote and oh so true!

I saw this quote tonight and love it!!!! It should remind all of us that no matter how slow, fast, hard or easy our success is if you never give up you can't be beat. Just keep on keepin on and theres no way anything can beat you; not a person, not your situation, not the number on the scale!

Since a lot of us on the east coast are getting snow I found this recipe for snow cream
I hope you all enjoy

This is an interesting topic. I'm lucky that everyone in my life has been supportive of my surgery. But I have read so many stories here of patients who are not so lucky.
It's kind of hilarious to me that society pretty much across the board shuns "the easy way out" -- when the irony is that everywhere you look those same people are looking for the easy way out or the short-cut! Just look at all the dangerous drivers out there, speeding and weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds without turn signals, putting everyone around them in danger. And that's only one example. We all want a short cut to something, but nobody will necessarily admit it.
It think it comes down to societal taboos. It's desirable to say "I earned this" or "I worked hard for this." Or "I crawled through the rubble and came out on top." We don't want to hear, "I hitched a ride on the express train to the top, cause it seemed easier and I just didn't have a lot of time."
Unfortunately, WLS is not seen as 'crawling through the rubble.' It's seen as the 'express train.' And let's be honest, in many ways it is. You lose weight more rapidly, and more steadily than you would with any diet and exercise plan that doesn't require being sequestered by an invasive camera crew and being forced to exercise for 7 hours a day and yelled at by trained professionals and forced to wear revealing workout clothes you'd never in a million years wear on national television, until you get kicked off the show for not being good enough.
But really, what is the alternative for most of us? Early death, countless (often deadly) medical problems, aches and pains, having to pay more medical expenses than our skinny counterparts, having to pay more for clothes, having to deal with the fact that you might not get that job that you're qualified for ten times over because someone skinnier than you applied and the hiring committee is unknowingly biased against overweight people, not getting to live your life fully or spend quality time with family because you can't keep up, can't ride the rides, etc. etc. etc.
But those "don't take the easy way out" people will say that we deserve all of this. These are our just Desserts, pardon the expression. And really? I think that's what it comes down to. The attitude is: You got yourself this heavy, you should have to suffer the humiliation and the struggle that comes with it and you're never going to "learn your lesson" if you have surgery to "fix" your weight problem.
I am not saying if you straight up ask someone who "disapproves" of WLS that they would admit to this attitude or even recognize it in themselves. They would have 400 other (unresearched) reasons why they disapprove. But I think that either way, this is the underlying reason for the disapproval. Despite the fact that after years or decades of struggle, this "easy way out" is the only thing that's gonna save our lives.

My perception is that people think fat people are already lazy, and surgery is a way to allow them to avoid having to do the "hard work" of traditional diet and exercise and thus it is wrong because we are a bunch of cheaters. After all, if everyone just had their stomach cut out, no one would be able to eat too much and everyone could be thin, right? I will be honest, sometimes I do feel like a cheater for having had the surgery because I know I am now thin because I cannot physically eat enough to be fat. I watch some friends struggle with weight loss and I can understand how they would think I took the easy way out since I essentially eliminated the option of pigging out. I have told my three best friends about surgery and no one else, largely because I am 100% sure that the vast majority of people I am around would have zero value for my weight loss if they knew I only got here because of surgery.
That being said, my three best friends have also seen how sick food makes me, how I can't ever really enjoy a meal out because half the food in the world makes me heave, how my hair is falling out in clumps, how I cried when someone pointed my hair out to me, how many plastic surgery procedures I've gone through to look normal, how I used to run when I was fat and my feet would swell up so badly I could barely walk, how I tried and tried dieting and I would lose weight and then gain it all back, and how despite the fact that yes, I cut out 80% of my stomach as a last resort, it has in no way been an easy process. They saw how miserable I was when I was heavy, how hard I worked to be thin, how many times I would sob in my closet because no matter what I tried on I looked horrible, how I would peel at my gross loose skin (or at times my fat) and think no man would ever want to see me naked, and how I just knew the entire world was laughing at me and I completely avoided leaving my house as much as possible.
Therefore, yes, people who are not close to someone who has had surgery or who is obese, think this is the easy way out and I understand that. I forgive them for their ignorance, because there are many things in life that i am unequally uneducated and judgemental about and other people forgive me for my stupid comments. I also don't put myself into positions where anyone who is not close to me gets to impart their opinions on my surgery decision. My feeling is that if they haven't seen the suffering before and during my weight loss process, they don't have the perspective to really judge my choice, and I am relieving them of their obligatory need to give me their uninformed and often hurtful, if not intentionally so, opinion.
Everyone has the right to an opinion, however my opinion is that, I do not give a crap what they think if they have not walked the proverbial mile in my shoes.

I think people see obesity as a sign of weakness in people, or lack of self control.
Obese people in general are looked down upon, people prefer to look and communicate with thinner more attractive people. This is not my opinion, rather proven facts. The general non obese public think simple terms "Just stop eating so much, or eating poorly and that will solve your problems.... Get on a treadmill instead.... For the love of all that is good."
So I think the reason people feel it's a bad decision is because they don't understand what we go through, our physical needs, our chemical make up, or addictions. We ALL have our bad habits.... Some drink too much, smoke too much, work too much, exercise too much, watch porn, or other forms of sexual addictions, some do illegal drugs, some are just sloths....
Pick your poison !
I am thankful there is a tool we can choose to help us with our addictions, to achieve a healthier lifestyle, reduce health risks by 95% , reduce 5yr mortality and lead a healthier life! This tool allows us TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
It is drastic but it is proven to reverse the following:
Type II Diabetes, hypertension, Migraines, GERD, Urinary incontinence, cardiovascular disease, asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, depression, degenerative joint disease, fatty liver, metabolic syndrome, gout and much much more! This is a risky surgery BUT look at the health risks you have if you continue to get bigger and bigger!
Easy by no means!!!!!! It's a very risky and tough decision! I personally cannot continue to live in this shell, getting bigger and bigger... Or losing and gaining back. I believe the sleeve will force me to behave better initially to get me to a healthy weight and lifestyle... As well as learn to have a proper Portion Control that will fill me up faster with less food. I am determined to get healthier to be able to play with Grandkids and maybe someday I can actually be able to run again. Right now I can barely walk!!!

I wish I could quit you delicious, salty, crunchy, Lays Potato Chips....*long sigh

My weight was mainly in my belly -- Mrs. Winnie-the-Pooh. I'm happy that my skin is not saggy. Exercising/toning really helps but also skin elasticity is, I believe, genetic. Good luck with your process -- exciting times! Choosing yourself and your healthy future is an amazing thing.

Age is also a factor. The younger you are, the more elasticity in in your skin and that betters your chances of your skin shrinking as you loose weight. I'm 5'4, 58 yrs old and I've lost 48 lbs. I'm please with how well my skin as shrunk as the weight has come off. The only place I have a lot of excess skin in in my upper arms. But I've heard plastic surgery in your arms causes a large scar that you end up wanting to hide anyway...........

I too am 5'5" with a starting weight of 238 lbs so pretty close to yours.
I lost 100 lbs and although I do have some sagging skin, I don't think it's noticeable. I lost slowly (took 2 years) so I think that helped my skin react better.