Jachut

My youngest was 3 when I got banded. That is well and truly old enough to understand that you cant lift for a while and that you are sore. I had surgery on a Friday and of course had my DH home during the weekend. Then I was lucky that my parents are nearby so Doug took her to them on his way to work on the Monday Tuesday. I explained to my daughter I couldnt pick her up but I was easily able to kneel or bend down and let her climb onto me. I wasnt so sore that she couldnt snuggle next to me or sit on my lap. It just wasnt a problem. And I only had my parents look after her for the simple luxury of having a nap during the days whilst the anaesthetic wore off, it really wasnt a big surgery and I coudl have coped without that. I was back to full speed within three or four days anyway.

This is ridiculous - ONE fill? I've read about many US doctors who do fills by fluoro doing this for each of many fills, but the trouble is that just becuase the fluoro shows that Fluid is passing through, it makes no allowance for later swelling and extreme tightness - as in restriction appeared just right when the fill was done but by the time you get home you cant even swallow your own saliva. This risk of this is huge using this method. You might get great restriction in one go, some people dont swell and this works for them. But as pointed out above, as you lose the fat around your stomach and as fluid naturally is lost from the band over a long time, you ARE going to need another fill in future. Sneaking up on restriction is the only way to go. Small fills at a time AS you need them, trying to get it all in one go is not the way the band is designed to be used and I wouldnt go to a doctor who was trying to say that it is acceptable practice.

Well, I will say that after the way you questioned a certain someone the other day in that rather offensive post about "bedding hotties", there's a decent, moral guy inside there and as a parent, I'd be VERY proud of a man as young as 25 being able to think that way. You're also amazingly eloquent and I am always surprised to be reminded of your age becuase you have the air of a much older and more experienced man. Those are things to be proud of. I cant help with your specific problems, but always remember that everyone has good points too. Nobody is a "failure". Just like it doesnt matter if you're fat or not, it also doesnt matter if you're a doctor or not, its what's inside that counts. Still, I really hope that there's ways to sort things out and fulfill your ambitions. But I wouldnt call you a failureand if you were my son (thankfully, I'm not QUITE old enough!) I'd be very proud of you.

That IS a low carb diet, even if its a bit more carbs than you were told to have. Just use the next 11 days to do what you're doing without the juice and you'll be good to go.

This is interesting, because it IS hard to see how its band related, but I've been having issues all year and I'm almost five years out. I'm having a colonoscopy in a few weeks to check things out. I have constant low grade diarrhoea meaning, not copious like when you're ill but an urge to go that is really just a wet fart, sorry for that lovely description. A bit of bleeding and every day after lunch, huge bloating and gassiness. The surgeon thinks its "inflammation". I notice diet affects it. I can manage it with an excellent diet - high fibre, every day I eat prunes and some pumpkin seeds and lots of vegetables, if I slip and go back into sugary foods and too carby a diet, I'm awful to live with because the gas is absolutely foul. I'm not a lot of help, but I would say at 5 weeks out, I'd still be thinking its just a matter of adjusting. You've had a markedly altered diet over the past few weeks and are moving onto solid foods, its going to affect your system.

I just dont get how you can call it a sweet spot if you cant eat anything! You're too tight and you will no doubt end up eating lots of those unhealthy slider foods. YOu should be able to eat solid food and if you cant, you need an unfill. But make sure you're eating right - slowly and chewing well.

You have to be careful not to blow things out of proportion. Many more people die from childbirth every year than from lapband surgery and virtually none of us stop and even consider the dangers of childbirth at all. If you dont lose weight, the odds of you dying of a complication of obesity are extremely high.

If advil here is the same as there, its ibuprofen, which is a NSAID. They are not recommended with the band and truthfully, they're horrible for unbanded people too. They're a stomach irritant and can actually be pretty dangerous when taken regularly. Like anything, sometimes the type or intensity of pain warrants it though and my doc said that if you REALLY need an anti inflammatory short term, then its probably OK. However, on occasions I've taken one on an empty stomach, the pain and burning was truly awful, always always always take it with a lot of liquid to wash it through your pouch as quickly as possible or it will feel like its eating through your stomach lining. food helps, but then if you need it to act fast, this is obviously going to markedly slow absorption.

Never more than one poke, and no numbing either. It truly doesnt hurt at ALL.

I dont find that at all. If I dont include some complex carbs in my day (not necessarily every meal) I am looking for something, nibbling, feeling peckish and eventually have a big sugary carb binge. A half a slice of wholegrain toast with a morning egg, some crackers with lunchtime Soup or some potato or brown rice with dinner and that sugar drive is controlled for me. Cut it out and go low carb and even though the cravings go after a few days I feel shite, have no energy to run etc. I can make it up with a lot of dairy or whatever, it doesnt have to be grains, but grain foods like really good quality stoneground bread doesnt contain the fat that dairy does, so i think a balance of both is better. For me, its about low GI really, not low carb. chips, Cookies and a lot of fruit are high GI foods that give you the spike in blood sugar than the crash. But have low GI carbs with Protein and you still have a slowly digesting meal that keeps you full and keeps the blood sugar stable and favours a fat burning environment in yoiur body.

I take kids Vitamins, not because I cant swallow big pills but I absolutely HATE doing it. I take chewable kids (I just have 3), three adult fish oil burstlets and 2 Iron melts, nothing to swallow! I cant eat a lot of fruit and truth be told, I've never ever like fruit much, I can be somehwere lovely like Bali and not even fancy the tropical fruit on offer. But I can eat things like raw cucumber and really enjoy it, so every day for morning tea at work, I have my baggie of raw cucumber, snow peas, sugar snap peas, raw mushrooms, red capsicum - well not all of those at once, but combinations thereof. I cant get raw carrot down unless its grated. If you can find vegies you can tolerate like this, its a good idea to have some every day. Do you have problems with vegies cooked into things like casseroles? My bolognaise sauce is always at least as much grated vegies as it is meat. All the tricks I use to get vegies into my kids work on me too, lol.

I just had a fill on Friday after 16 months. when she tested I'd lost 0.1cc (4cc band) and she just topped me back up to where I was. I have not noticed any increased restriction in that I get stuck or anything, just I'm satisfied easier, and not getting as hungry.

I wasnt hungry at your stage either, I had a good 12 weeks where I just didnt care about food and it was GREAT, I lost heaps of weight. I didnt worry about Protein at all, we're not really told to here, but if you're worried, then I guess shakes are the go, hungry or not. As to eating when not hungry long term, in principle I agree with this BUT - big but - I find I dont feel physical hunger as in stomach rumbling and empty but I've learned to recognise by body sending strong signals that it is hungry and needs nourishment. For example, yesterday I called in a the supermarket after work. I'd had an egg and some prunes for Breakfast, some cut up raw vegies at morning tea time, tuna on four crackers for lunch. It was maybe 400, 500 calories. I was buying Snacks for the kids and something for dinner and I actually grabbed a packet of chocolate biscuits, knowing I'd rip into them in the car before I even got home. I just had that insatiable I want sugar feeling. I stopped, took a deep breath, told myself to recognize that it was time for something nourishing to eat, and gave myself permission to eat when I got home (I have trouble stopping eating in between meals, 3 meals works for me but I cant take in enough at each meal to get me through). I'm glad to say I put the biscuits back and had some Peanut Butter on wholegrain crackers at home, with a cup of coffee and that insane sugar craving did go away. So once banded, you might not get the empty stomach hunger signal but you have to learn that your body still needs healthy fuel and it will tell you so, but maybe not in the way you expect. and I really do believe that much as 3 meals and no snacks is really a very good and easy way to keep calories down, with good restriciton, you're very unlikely to be able to eat enough to get you though five, six or seven hours which is how far apart lunch and dinner can be for me.

You know, much as I'm not a dieter, there's a really good point in this. I remember back when I used to start a diet every Monday, the only thing that ever really worked for me over the short to medium term was Lite n Easy, which is a home delivered meal program here. I loved getting up in the morning, seeing a weight that made me feel in control on the scale and KNOWING that if I ate what was provided to me and nothing else, then the next week another pound or two would be gone. It was formulaic, dependable and to be truthful, although I've lost my weight through eating less of what I want and not dieting, I would really love if Lite n Easy bought out a lower calorie/smaller quantity program because I definitely WOULD be on it to lose that fantasy 10lb that I just cant be arsed getting working on (although I'd lose well on the 1200 calories I just cant pay $125 a week for food that its just too much for me, too much bread and too much fruit that I end up throwing away, along with a good half of each dinner) But could you do somehting like that? That assurance that calories, everything is in control and that all you have to do is follow the instruction, like Betsy says, that can be extremely motivating. It might be what it takes to get you on track again. I know how you feel, even at goal and maintaining for a good couple of years, I do feel at times like I need a shake up and to just get focussed again and I could REALLY lose some more weight. Oh and yes, another fill when you can get it will only help.

It can sort of happen randomly, you can get tight for sooooo many reasons, like humidity. Are you sure you're getting regularly tighter and tighter with weight loss or does it just appear its the weightloss and you've just tightened up a bit for some unknown reason?

That's the way to look at it - just include a Protein source at every meal and snack and dont sweat the small stuff. You need enough protein but really, if you get 40 grams one day and 80 the next, it does even out. We can argue till the cows come home about whether high protein low carb diets are better for weight loss too, but I think most people who have WLS really WILL find their diet much lower carb. Even with a band and more capacity than a sleever, I simply cant fit in a lot of bread, Cereal etc or I wont be eating enough protein and vegies.

Good luck! The trouble with the 4cc band (which I have, working perfectly) is that there IS a lot of slippage with it. But its fantastic for finding quick restriction and not needing constant fills. The newer larger capacity bands dont slip as often but they're often really really difficult to adjust well. I wouldnt remove my band just because, it has and IS serving me very very well. But I sure want to be ready to move and know exactly what I'm doing if and when that day comes. I've often wondered about the weight loss thing though with a revision surgery, I'd look like a walking skeleton if I dropped much weight in a revision surgery!

For a zillion reasons. Doctors are just people, they have their own beliefs, beliefs which you may or may not agree with. Things like starvation mode, low carb theories etc, just like the general public some doctors believe some things, some others. Our lapband docs are primarily surgeons dont fortet, their speciality is doing what they do inside you, not in the science of human nutrition. Doctors will have a track record of how they've gotten good results and might like to stick with that. Some doctors are in this for altruistic reasons, some are in it becuase bariatric surgery is a money spinner. Some of them are useless at understanding what an obese person goes through and think weight loss is as simple as "I tell you what to eat, you eat it, you lose weight" and others know its a complex mental and emotional process. I would probably believe a doctor who told me I needed a surgery, but on a lot of issues I take what my doctor says into account (not just my lapband doctor) and weigh it against my own beliefs and opinions before I take it on board. Many many times for example I've elected NOT to take the medication my doctor recommens, becuase I prefer to let my body fight an infection if its just a flu, bronchitis, ear infection etc. I never used the amounts of cortisone cream the doctor recommended for both my baby boys who suffered eczema because it is MY personal belief that you shouldnt use that stuff just because a patch of eczema is unsightly, I would only use it when its painful and risking becoming infected. My doctor never agreed with me on that! I found my own way with calorie levels and diet and that sort of stuff becuase its my life, I have to live it and lets face it, you know if what you're doing is working or not based on your weight loss.

I apologise edub, it wasnt meant to be personal or insulting, merely making the oberservation that based only on this thread, I *could* form enough of an opinion to make all sorts of assumptions about who you are. That has nothing to do with your weight because I cant see you! No doubt, you *could* do the same about me. For the record, I really do attempt to suspend assumption here, becuase you can easily misread what people or meaning or the tone in which they're saying it. Surely you can see that in real life also what you say and do matters as much as how you look?.

I began to lose weight quickly and dramatically immediately following surgery and this went on for months. However, I didnt have to do a preop diet soI hadnt already exhausted the "easy 10" kgs that most people can lose in the first few months of a diet. And I have a 4cc band. In my experience based on observations here, these bands may have higher incidences of slippage hence the arrival of newer designs, but they are WAY superior in terms of finding good restriction immediately. I never crept up on a sweet spot, I had it from the word go in that every level of restriction was perfect for me at the time and I lost weight very very steadily.

Wow, you really do want an argument, dont you? I think quite a few people have said weight is not a huge issue. I have to admit, that's rubbed me the wrong way too. I have to be honest, I've formed an opinion over the last few days based on several posts, and I'm starting to assume that you've had some sort of negative experiences in the past that you attribute to your weight. That might be absolutely wrong. But can you see that, since I've never laid eyes on you, that my reaction to you is based on behaviour not appearance? Its the same in real life. An excellent point was made above, that you're really talking about "scoring". Having met me DH at 16 and having been happily with him for 27 or so years now, I can honestly say I have never been out and tried to score. And I dont think a lot of women really have that mentality to be honest. Yes, we go out and hope to meet someone but I think you're imposing what really is a standard male viewpoint (and not all males, not at all) onto women. I dont view men in that way, as a prospective sexual conquest and nothing more. I'm not wired that way. Were I out looking ot meet someone, I would be looking for at least a relationship, if not a long term one. So for me, and I believe for a majority of females, personality and other traits come into it way more than looks. If I can let my shallow side show for a moment, I'd have to say that apparent wealth attracts me more than a body type. I grew up in a household with a professional white collar father, my DH works in the same field, most of the males in my family come from that genre. So I tend to find men attractive that appear to fit that mould. I'd not to be immediately attracted to a forklift driver dressed in overalls. But could I overcome that once I met him? You bet!

I lost well on about 1500 a day and now maintain pretty effortlessly on 1800 to 2000.

I wouldnt really call myself an emotional eater. There's no "void" that I'm trying to fill, for example. So I'm not an emotional eater in that sense. But - I was (and still am really) addicted to sugar as a means of soothing stress. It doesnt have to be bad stress, my worst habit, the one that escalated my weight problem from overweight to obesity was dealing with the insane busy-ness of being a mother of young toddlers by half an hour on the couch with a coffee and a packet of biscuits whilst they were asleep. I could FEEL that sugar hit my bloodstream and I would calm down. I wasnt upset, angry or tense, just needed to relax and have a bit of time out. I dont overeat ANY other food other than sugary sweet ones, although as I got fatter and more disgusted with myself, I began to do that "what the hell" thing and started shoving in Mcdonalds and things like that just because I could. It was starting to escalate. Before that stage, with everything else, I never did eat past feeling satisfied (although what it took to feel satisfied was a fairly large amount of food). I was always a bit plump, with a BMI in the high 20's and forever trying to lose weight. But the drop in exercise and increase in sugar that occurred once I started having babies tipped me into obesity and not having been obese for my entire life, my tolerance for it was low. I thought I was the fattest person who ever lived, found my body and my lifestyle rather disgusting and was being banded once my BMI hit an all time high of 35. But consequently I havent found it hard to lose weight with a band. I was sporty and easily rekindled that and as long as I keep away from sugar, the rest of my eating is fairly stable and healthy.

zucchini and leek soup take 2 large washed leeks, slice them up finely, and grate the zucchinis (about 3 is right). In a heavy based pan, heat a little olive oil, and fry up some chopped bacon, add the leeks and fry until soft, then add the zucchinis, stir it all around a little. Then add about half a cup to a cup of Water and pop on the lid and turn down the heat. You want to sweat the mix for about 15, 20 minutes, till it sort of all steams and softens up. Then you add stock (broth), just to cover the ingredients - I usually make it with boiling water and Vegeta vegetable stock - its usually a bit under a litre (sorry, I think litres, sorry). Simmer for half an hour or so, blend it all smooth and stir in about a cup of cream (or evaporated milk if you want to keep fat/calories down). Season to taste too. This is a really really yummy soup.

zucchini and leek Soup take 2 large washed leeks, slice them up finely, and grate the zucchinis (about 3 is right). In a heavy based pan, heat a little olive oil, and fry up some chopped bacon, add the leeks and fry until soft, then add the zucchinis, stir it all around a little. Then add about half a cup to a cup of Water and pop on the lid and turn down the heat. You want to sweat the mix for about 15, 20 minutes, till it sort of all steams and softens up. Then you add stock (broth), just to cover the ingredients - I usually make it with boiling water and Vegeta vegetable stock - its usually a bit under a litre (sorry, I think litres, sorry). Simmer for half an hour or so, blend it all smooth and stir in about a cup of cream (or evaporated milk if you want to keep fat/calories down). Season to taste too. This is a really really yummy soup.