Jachut

This is a really odd situation - its actually WAY easier here than in the US to get non necessities performed and covered, our health system is very different and as long as a doctor says he considers something worth doing (other than cosmetic surgery), its going to have a Medicare item number attached and if you have private health insurance, your insurer is not going to make you jump through hoops to get approved, doctor will do it, its approved end of story. I dont want to stir the pot but there really is a possibility that this is bogus. Because our system just does not work this way! Going to Thailand for major surgery is not really a wise thing to do, and this horror story appears again and again with cosmetic surgeries also - but Australian doctors do not refuse people in need just because they went to Thailand. Anyway you cut it though, tubing and a port sticking out through your skin IS a medical necessity, if not an emergency. This has to be fixed. If the band itself is healthy, its a simply procedure, although patching you up might be more complicated. Its very bizarre to encounter a doctor who would not treat you - you need to find someone else. I cant believe any GP you visited would not be absolutely horrified and refer you on to another bariatric surgeon right away. And our surgeons do not generally engage in the morally questionable practice of refusing to help people because someone else did the original surgery. This is a medically necessary revision surgery and you should be able to get it done - I would even seek legal advice on this. It is your right and our system operates in such a way that this should be fixed, pronto, no questions asked. You cant go about your life with an open abdomen. If you simply presented to any Emergency dept this would probably be fixed. You might not get to keep the band, but it would be fixed. Sorry, but you need to just accept it. Your band is not going to function as it should whether you risk your health for it or not.

Oh, you poor thing. My husband got chicken pox as an adult and he was REALLY sick, I've never seen him like that. It was utterly miserable. And here I was moaning and whinging because I had typhoid and hep vaccs on monday to go to Thailand and my arm hurts and I feel a bit yucky!

If you buy yogurt without any gelatine or thickeners in it - ie. the pot set type of stuff that develops that whey on top when it sits in the fridge, you can actually drain in a sieve lined with a chux cloth or similar for 8 to 10 hours. All the whey drains out and leaves very very thick yogurt. You can make great dips out of that - a little curry powder and sweet chilli sauce, lime and cilantro, french onion soup etc. Very yummy and healthy!

Well, I dont consider bread, rice or Pasta things I "shouldnt eat"! So yes, I eat those things regularly. Well, I hate bread to be honest, but rice and gluten free pasta are on my menu regularly. Do i eat chocolate, cake, Cookies, alcohol - hell yeah! Which is probably why I maintain now instead of losing. I dont eat a LOT of them, but I do eat them. I am at goal weight and have been for a fair few years now. I ate way less of those things whilst losing. But I always ate carbs - never ever did a low carb diet and I lost weight easily. So whilst some people do need to low carb it, eating occasional rice or pasta is unlikely to affect weight loss too much.

I like it plain and tart, but I also add vanilla, a little sugar, nuts and seeds, fruit, cocoa powder and sugar, whatever takes my fancy - favourite and the moment is a little sugar, coconut essence and coconut, mmmmmmm. I make my own with an Easiyo yogurt maker. Our brands are different here, so I have my faves, pot set ones are the best. We've just had Chobani introduced in one of our supermarkets and it tastes very sweet and different to what we have been getting in Australia to me! A lot more artificial and tampered with.

It depends a lot on what I'm eating. I remain very aware of portion sizes because for me, to feel happy and satisfied, I need to eat things I enjoy - which are often heavier and higher in calories and fat than lettuce and grilled chicken! I make my own toasted muesli (granola) for Breakfast, and to eat a whole cup of that would be one very heavy, high calorie meal - I eat about 1/3 of a cup of it, with a big spoon of yogurt and splash of milk. But for lunch today I've got some home made gnocchi and a walnut spinach pesto - I've got about 1/2 of a cup which I will put on a bowl of spinach leaves. so I'll maybe have 3/4 of a cup in total. Other things, like Soup, I measure out a full cup. For dinner, I dont even try to measure weights or half a cup of meat. I just use a bread and butter plate and dont overfill it. Its usually a pretty small meal.

Im ashamed to say my only vomiting experience in seven years - even through chemotherapy - was alcohol related a few monthsagp. Retching but mothing came up. Then i fell aslep, lol.

Oh wow, id be rich if i had a dollar for everytime someone said that to me. Yet ive just stayed ith my sis in Sydney doing the City to Surf and watched everyone i did the race with have a pre race Pasta binge and post race pub lunch. I nibbled, that's all. To stay normal weight i cannot eat like a normal person. End of story. We need our bands and Im surprised you cnt find empathy in a bariatric surgon! I hope you find. Solution.

I went though a very fast radiation induced menopause nd my appetite - in particular my cravings for sugar absolutely skyrocketed. It took HRT and testostetone therapy yo get it back under control.

If i dont eat breakfast (i get up at 5.30 and run 6kms), its after 1pm before i get a break to eat, so i really have to. Truth is anyway, im hungry willing and able to eat. If i eat at recess time (11), then i dont want lunch, but then im hungry after school at four and way prone to the lure of biscuits and coffee. The whole cycle just gets out of whack if i dont get the right sort of calories in for breakfast. I think we're all different.

If I get a spray tan, it pools in my collar bones. I also cant shave under my arms because the hollow is so deep I can fit my fist in it!

All protein shakes do that to me, which is why i avoid them

I am now - after bowel cancer, chemo and radiation i have a lot of figestive woes. The dietitian i was sent to by my colorectal surgeon put me on a low fodmap diet which eliminates gluten because it eliminates wheat, rye and barley, lactose and a lot of fruits, especially garlic and onions, I feel much better and yes., my stomach is so flat now as to be concave. But i havent lost weight, but ive been at goal for years The thing is, if ypu didnt eat a lot of carbs before, you cant start suddenly start pigging out on gluten free stuff, its still white carby rubbish. I eat brown rice, occasional buckwheat Pasta and oats, and stuff like granola that ive made from allowed i gredients. I didnt needto replace bread, cereaml etc as i never ate it and i very occadisonally will have a gluten free cookie or something, but not as a daily food. Its no magic weight loss bullet, but going wheat free has been extremely easy for me, just stopped eating crap like muffins! Garlic and onion free is really hard though!

gorgeous!

Of course its OK!! Maybe a *bit* less than 50lb overweight would be healthier, just overweight rather than obese? But nobody really needs to be super lean and ripped for health reasons.

Yogurt is my almost daily breafast, about half a cups worth it some berries or banana. A tablespoon of LSA and some walnuts, and its a very nutritious meal - and definitely gets me through. Adding crap empty calories like syrup or splenda though, not so much. I would be hungry quickly if i ate that. Thick homemade soup is another staple i make them full of chickn, vegies, brow rice. Theres no way that is an inadequate meal. Again, quality counts. Canned soup is rubbish, again just empty calories.

Puddin, if you've only got 20lb to worry about after having been pregnant, had a baby and coping with a special needs child, yo'uve done pretty OK - most of my weight came with each of my kids - not the pregnancies but the sitting round breastfeeding and eating and being stuck at home for months - at times I was gaining 2lb per week! Before babies I was only a bit "solid".

Oh god, yesterday! I teach in Upper Beaconsfield and its freaking FREEZING up there! My car said 2 degrees in the morning! We had an all day Indonesian incursion and I had to suffer it out on the oval (bikes) in the stadium and in this thing we call the "igloo" - a tin shed basically. I was ready to quit my job! I freeze me a$& off up there.

Long time no see Puddin, glad you are well! My band has "changed" too. Like you, I'm at a good weight - I got very thin when I was sick a while back and have regained that weight, but I didnt want to quite regain it ALL, and I'd like to lose about 8lb but I just cant get that help from my band anymore. If i fill more I get too tight. My band is working very well to maintain weight but its not a lot of help for me to lose. I think that's in the perception though - when you're heavier, you lose weight so easily. When you're already a healthy weight, you really do need to cut down to miniscule portions to lose 20lb and the band was never meant to help you literally starve yourself. I think I eat quite large portions and I always get the munchies between meals, its a constant battle and a constant rebounding on and off the wagon for me to keep away from the carby snacky foods. But when I really LISTEN I am satisfied physically on a cup or so of food and not hungry till nearly the next meal time. That doesnt stop me wanting to eat! I think the problem is with the band, although my body has adjusted to be a stable 145lb or so and I no longer lose, in truth, the 1400 calories or so a day I eat is not enough to sustain a 145lb 5ft 10 woman who works on her feet all day and runs most days. So my body is always saying feeeeeeeed me, even though I dont feel the physical hunger I might without the band. Does that make sense? I actually do better when I allow myself to eat more substantial, Protein filled meals. I have developed this obsessive horror of a meal over 300 calories and if I add the fat and protein to bump my lunch up to say 500, I do get through till dinner very easily. And it doesnt add up to eating more than 3 300 calorie meals and a whole lot of nibbling, picking and "not quite" Snacks. But for some reason I really struggle to allow myself to do this. Obesity is not a disease you really recover from, you can only manage it. You dont reach a finish line with the band, its a life long task and I find it helps me to recognise that and realise I will always be adjusting and readjusting my behaviour. And part of that is just accepting that the band "feels" different some years out. I only have to look at what everyone else eats to remind myself it is doing something.

I've been threatened with the same - overeating doesnt necessarily mean stuffing your face till your bursting, does it? Its just not measuring. I think mine's fixed itself with a slight unfill, I dont have any symptoms now. My dilation was very very minor , but I was warned to be aware of it or else an unfill would be on the cards. I've gone back to measuring out my food and eating a bit more often - seven years out I'm still learning and working to stay on track. bummer about the metabolism, still I think many of us would have the same problem. How many people do you know who are rather fat without appearing to eat an incredible amount?

I've never been a tracker and lost weight successfully without it, but that's easier if you have plenty to lose and have a reasonably healthy metabolism. I always knew "roughly" what I ate (what lifelong dieter doesnt). That was enough. However, long story short, got sick, had other surgeries, got really really thin while unfilled, had trouble getting restriction back, got healthier, regained weight. I've put back a few kilos more than I really wanted to and now that I'm already thin, I really MUST log or that 300 calories or so that make all the difference creep in unnoticed. But my tips - consistency is the real key. Doesnt matter what you do or dont do as long as you keep at it day after day, week after week, month after month. Make it doable and something you can continue rather than an all or nothing approach that will continue to have you falling off the wagon and having to get back on. Slow and steady wins this race! Same with exercise. I dont feel any compulsion to kill myself with Insanity (not that its not a great program). I like running. I dont care what the experts say about strength training or cardio or whatever, its what I like, so its what I do and I'm consistent, five or six days a week for the last almost seven years. Pays off big time. Plus I think running is THE most effective fat burner out there, despite what all the "experts" say.

Carrot sticks with natural almond butter

I agree - we have different brands here in Australia but I always buy lactose free milk and yogurt rather than soy yogurt or any of the other "milks". I quite like flavoured soy milk occasionally, and I love a dash of soy milk in strong black coffee, I will also opt for a soy cappucino or latte if I fancy frothy coffee (which is not often). But I like cows milk best. Did you know though, you can add drops (Lactaid here) to dairy products, refrigerate for 24 hours and all the lactose will have been broken down by the enzymes and will now be effectively "lactose free". I do this for things like cream cheese or condensed milk that I need to use in recipes. Thats all thats been done to lactose free milk or yogurt - they are REAL dairy, jsut with an enzyme added to predigest the lactose. So they dont taste any different at all.

I havent had breast cancer, but was diagnosed with rectal cancer two years ago. My band was unfilled for surgeries ut in hindsight even that wasnt necessary. I had fill in during radiation and chemotherapy pre surgery and coped absolutely fine - at that stage I was fit and strong and coped without nausea - then I unfilled for the bowel resection (because my colorectal surgeon told me to) - and remained unfilled during the heavier duty chemo post surgery - I had nausea but easily controlled with Zofran. I began refilling about half way through my 20 rounds of chemo. Afterwards I had awful trouble trying to get the same restriction, my band has never been quite the same but it IS functional and OK. the main problem I've had was I had to take Iron tablets for four months and they burned a little each time I swallowed one - it turned out they caused an ulcer in my pouch. I had dreadful heartburn for months, but a few rounds of nexium has cured it - so if you have to take anything like that take it WITH nexium to protect your stomach. The main issue is going to be if you have to have radiation therapy to he area - they are brilliant with calculating how to target only the affected tissue, but there is collateral damage - for example I can now when I need to go to the toilet (thankfully I am continent), but dont get the urge or push to empty, I have to trigger it with a small enema - nerve damage to the area from radiation. I also cannot digets fructose, wheat, lactose properly anymore and am on a restricted low fodmap diet - again damage to the gut lining from radiation and chemotherapy. My overies were fried - hot flushes and menopause begain two days after the very first radiation treatment. So it is not inconceivable that there may be damage to your band and stomach being close in behind your breast. But that's not a certainty and what can you do anyway? Just try to relax and pray that it all comes back negative anyway.

Well, I'm having terrible trouble now, but I had rectal cancer and lost my rectum well after banding - so the problems i have now are due to that. However, once i got banded, I dropped from a daily kinda person to once every second day - you put less in and you get less out, simple as that. But I never had "trouble" in terms of constipation, I just produced less.