Paige Dukes

237.

238! Surpassed my goal with another week to go. Didn't think I would make it.

As of 2/1, 240 lbs. After that frustrating stall looks like I might make the goal I set!

243.5. Back in the game!

247

No change, but I'm not getting discouraged!

I'm in!

Starting weight: 249

Goal weight: 239

You poor thing, what a horrible horrible experience. I am very glad that I haven't had an episode as bad as that and hopefully I never will.

I often wonder how the vomiting thing works when it isn't just regurgitation, like if I were to get a tummy bug and the only option is out??

Glad you have learned from it and are feeling better about it now.

Take care and best wishes to you for Christmas.

Best Wishes to you, too! And I imagine vomiting from a stomach bug would be similar to my experience, depending on how much food was in the stomach.

You poor thing! Sure hope you're feeling better and lesson learned. And may I just say that you're an excellent writer - really made that whole thing vivid in my head.

I definitely learned a major lesson that night. I have never been so thankful as when the pain immediately went away after. I just thank god my band didn't slip.

@@Paige Dukes you are 100% right about making good choices in food during the holidays. Those rich fatty foods are no longer on our program and our bodies rebel against them, which is probably the cause of your gastric upset since the food had already passed through the band your body was not able to digest and metabolize the food. It was trying to expel it and your right with the band that makes it VERY difficult to do. Sometimes we are lucky and it will open up the other end and expel it that way which is NOT any more fun...but it saves the pressure on the band. I have had this happen to me before, and learned my lesson when it comes to eating those awesome foods. I can take a taste but no more or pay the price.

You are very luck you did not have an issue with your band from this episode. My advice is to go on liquids for a day or so to give the stoma and stomach a chance to heal from the ordeal.

Just this weekend I myself had a band issue caused from flue and medication that my body did not like. Taking the antibiotic that the Dr. prescribed for a sinus infection caused my stoma to swell nearly shut where I could not even swallow my own saliva, causing horrible acid reflux day and not to the point of not being able to even swallow Water. Thank goodness just a simple unfill of some Fluid has been enough to help settle things down and I am on liquids for the rest of the day and will probably do the same tomorrow and then move to mushy and soft foods to give my insides a chance to heal and for the swelling to reduce.

Knowing our bodies and our bands are the best way to help us navigate through this new way of life we are living and even when we think we know it all....there is something new to learn

Hope you are feeling better today!!

I am much better today, though I still don't feel quite right. I have definitely learned that I can no longer tolerate the foods I ate at the party. And I definitely count myself lucky that I didn't cause permanent damage. Next time I want to eat anything similar I am going to think back to how I felt that night.

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share a horrible experience I had this past weekend while attending a holiday get together with family. This is a pretty long post so I apologize in advance for any long winded-ness.

I was banded back in July of this year. So far, I have had no complications and few, if any, side effects. I have had one fill and so far have lost 73 pounds. I have been very pleased with my experience and results and I do not want anyone to think that the following story is meant as a deterrent to those considering the lap-band, or gastric surgery in general. I am sharing this as a way to provide a perspective from a first hand experience with band abuse/misuse.

A little background:

I have struggled with binge eating disorder since childhood. A lot, if not the majority of people on this forum, can relate to this. I was diagnosed at a young age with major depressive disorder, and I believe that the eating disorders that have plagued me my whole life are a direct result. During a major episode I would purposefully and mindfully eat until experiencing severe abdominal pain. Looking back I can recognize this as an act of self harm. These episodes ultimately led to stomach stretching and weight gain.

I struggled with weight my whole life, and after hitting my highest weight of 325 and my blood pressure reaching stroke level, I decided enough was enough. I took a long, hard look at how I was living my life and did extensive research on how I could turn things around. I knew my track record with weight loss (up and down, on and on), and after reading and talking to a few doctors, I decided bariatric surgery was for me. The rest is history.

I have done very well sticking to the prescribed diet. I recognize real hunger cues, head hunger, and signals that I am full or satiated. I only keep good, nutritious food in the house and when I eat out I preplan my meals. I track my calories and macros and micros. My Water intake is on point. I work out hard 3x a week. I made the lifestyle change happen and have stayed on track. That is, until this weekend.

My husband and I traveled to his parents' home for an early Christmas celebration as I have to work during the holiday weekend coming up. Extended family were in attendance, presents were exchanged, and of course, there was a plethora of food. All of it fabulously rich and fatty. Some absolutely swimming in cream or oil. Every single item smelling and tasting delicious.

As the evening wore on my guard dropped more and more. A bite here, a nibble there, and before I knew it I was painfully full. By the end of the festivities I was miserable, my stomach feeling stretched taut like a balloon. Feeling guilty and sluggish, I retired to the sofa after helping with the clean up. Sitting bolt upright, I concentrated on relaxing and allowing the food to travel through the band and into the lower part of my stomach. After some time, I felt enough relief to shower and retire to bed with my husband. I chocked it up to poor planning and bad decision making and resolved to learn from the experience and get back on track in the morning.

Around 2:00 AM I began experiencing the absolute worst abdominal pain I had felt in my entire life. I can only describe it as someone reaching inside of me and trying to squeeze and rip out my stomach while I was alive and conscious. All of it was located in my stomach. I was not experiencing intestinal cramps or discomfort. I did have some mild nausea but nothing that indicated to me right then that I may need to vomit. I chewed some Tums. After the powder hit my stomach I immediately felt the urge to vomit.

The problem with vomiting with the band is, if the food has already moved past the stoma created by the band, then it is near impossible to actually produce any vomitous. Each time I wretched small amounts of mucus or saliva were produced, but little more. I tried drinking small sips of Water, only to have it come right back up. The pain only became worse and worse. I became pretty scared at this point. My husband kept asking if I needed him to take me to the ER. I held off, thinking "if I can just wait it out, maybe it will go away." I also knew with the symptoms I was presenting any small town hospital would just pop me with some phenergan, maybe give me a GI cocktail, and send me home with a huge bill. My husband was concerned my band my have slipped, which was a major possibility at this point.

My father-in-law heard me wretching and came out to check on me. The pain in my abdomen was so severe that I was unable to even sit down. He offered me a phenergan tablet and a lortab. I took both, hoping maybe I could hold them both down long enough to get some pain relief and to stop dry heaving. (I know, I know, never take anyone's medication but your own. But I had scripts for both of these things at home).

Suddenly, after 5 more minutes of suffering, I felt it coming. I can only liken it to the pulling back of the shores of an ocean before the tsunami. You just knew something bad was coming. I knew right then sh*t was about to get REAL.

I ran to the bathroom, and almost immediately everything came up. I finally, FINALLY vomited, but it was not the cathartic experience vomiting normally is. The narrow opening of the band creates a high pressure area, and it takes a ridiculous amount of force to get partially digested food from the lower part of the stomach back into the pouch and then up and out of the esophagus and mouth. I'm trying to NOT be completely disgusting, but it was very much like when you place a thumb over the end of a water hose.

With the force of a thousand suns, out cam every rich, fatty, and greasy piece of food I had eaten earlier in the evening. The pain was magnified 10 fold for the duration and I felt like my head was going to explode. I have never in my life had my abdominal muscles work in such a fashion. But finally, mercifully, after everything came up, the pain and nausea were immediately gone. Afterwards I went to bed and slept like the dead.

Being so thankful that I was no longer in such searing pain I didn't notice the aftereffects of my episode. I have petechiae covering my cheeks, nose, temples, and forehead. It is so severe it looks from a distance like a bad sunburn. I have included two photos of this.

The hard lesson I learned from this is that I can never, EVER become comfortable or complacent now that I have been banded. Just one night of poor decisions can cause serious damage. I know that I am very lucky that I didn't have a band slip. I don't ever want to experience that kind of pain again. My stomach can no longer handle the kinds of foods I used to eat all the time.

Be careful this holiday season, my friends. Do your best to stay on track while enjoying time with family this year. I discovered on my own that it is all too easy to fall into the over-eating trap again, and I paid for it.

Thanks so much, guys!

I'm due to see surgeon anyway, so I'll bring it up when I go. I feel better knowing there are others doing well in the over 100 grams range, though.

This may have already been answered in the past but I am having a hard time finding a previous thread related to my question.

Is it possible to get too much Protein? I am using myfitnesspal and I seem to be staying between 120 and 160 grams of protein daily. This is sometimes over 50% more than the suggested intake. The vast majority of the food I eat is loaded with protein. Lots of lean fish, beef, etc. I also supplement an Atkins Protein shake for one meal and eat a Quest bar once a day when I am at work to help give me energy and sustain me during my shift on the unit. The upside is I am definitely feeling much less hungry between meals now and have more energy. Most articles I have found on the subject are from sites that aren't fact checked or reputable medical journals. The only medical study I could find was not based on long term effects, however it did show that in obese subjects short term excess protein intake caused hyperfiltration and increased kidney size. However, there was not found to be any detrimental change in function and the previously mentioned changes were attributed to normal kidney function and adaptation to the diet.

Can anyone tell me if they have had any effects from a diet this high in protein? Should I be concerned about cutting back? It feels so counter-intuitive because the general idea is that more protein=good.

I had a poor experience at the hospital with the day shift nurse the day after surgery. First thing, she didn't do an assessment on me. Another thing, she frequently "forgot" it was time for my scheduled pain and nausea meds. My IV fluids became inconvenient for her so she saline locked my IV. Every time she pushed my meds she didn't do it over the required period of time and it always felt like a a fire cracker going off in the vein (probably a small clot or sheath being dislodged at the end of the cannula). And coming back to not being assessed, my husband had to leave at one point to tend to our pets, so I was left alone for a bit. I had had my catheter removed during surgery, so I was being ambulated to urinate. I called for assistance and no one responded. I couldn't get up on my own. I felt helpless and horrible. finally 45 minutes later the nurse walked in with my (late) pain medication. I told her I had to pee and she looked at me like I was dumb and said "but you have a catheter in". I told her that was news to me. It made me question what she documented in her nurses notes if she assumed I still had a catheter in. I also was not ambulated or given an incentive spirometer or shown how to brace my incisions when I coughed. I was lucky I am a nurse and already knew to do these things. I had an excellent surgeon and surgery team but a crappy hospital to have surgery in. To add insult to injury they keep sending me bills for outrageous amounts (the first one was 75,000 dollars). They said "oh, just ignore the bills, we have to send them but you don't owe anything", but now I have a creditor calling me saying I owe. I will never go to this hospital again.

Everything else has been aces, I just hate that my hospital experience was so bad.

Some things I am thankful for:

that I can now walk up a flight of stairs without feeling like I am going to die.

that my blood pressure is now under control.

that my friends and family are so supportive and understanding about this whole journey.

that my husband is as caring and loving as he is.

that I have a career that allows me to focus a good bit of my attention on my health and this continued weight loss.

that I no longer dread shopping for clothes.

that my skin is finally healthy and glowing, not dull and broken out.

that I no longer have aching joints or muscles after a night of work or a trip out.

that my life is no longer ruled by an obsession with food.

that my surgeon is as nice and involved as he is.

that I can finally truly enjoy food and not treat it like a drug.

And most of all, that I made the decision to have this surgery, because before then I was slowly dying. Now I am living, and living well. I am only about a third of the way to goal but, my god, a difference nearly 50 pounds makes.

I've definitely noticed a change in my tastes for the better. Since my calories are so restricted I've decided only the best quality foods will suffice. I think I have cooked from scratch more in the past couple of months than I have in my entire life. I have noticed a major increase in my energy level as a result.

I was very "out" from the get go about the fact that I was having surgery and I have had almost 99% support from everyone who knows. However, I had a "friend" who, after I began telling people I was having/had had surgery, posted on Facebook that she had lost 10 pounds and was so proud of herself for "not doing it the easy way". I knew it was a jab at me that originated out of her own envy, so I just shrugged it off. Well, she recently stopped by my house for a visit and her face when she saw me said everything. Not only did I notice she had gained those 10 pounds back and then some, but it was obvious she was shocked at the amount of weight I had lost myself. The jealousy was palpable. She had a lot of questions about the surgery that night. The best revenge against catty people like that is to just do you and be the best you you can be, because people who worry too much about you ain't worrying enough about themselves and it always ends up biting them in the ass.

I haven't had a fill yet, but I have noticed that if I eat bread that it kind of feels like it is balled up at the base of my esophagus. I avoid bread now because of this. Same thing happened the first time I tried rice post-op, too. Everyone has problems with different things. I was told by my nutritionist that it is going to be tentative trial and error to figure out what you can or cannot tolerate.

I have recently just gone nutty over simple lemon Water. I cut up about a half of a lemon and throw it in a full water bottle and leave over night. I just love the bitter twang it gets. I have Water retention issues and lemons are a natural mild diuretic and, maybe it's all in my head, but it seems like it works well with the prescription diuretic I take. I've been considering getting some mint leaves and throwing them in there, too.

I know this is a huge no-no for the band, but when I am having what I believe is head hunger I chew some heavily flavored mint gum. I mean I really get to smacking on it, lol, which is why I don't do it unless I am at home. The act of chewing it semi-satisfies the hunger craving and the strong mint flavor deters me from eating anything else because I know it will taste bad after the gum. I imagine once I have my first fill I will stop the gum habit to be safe.

If I am sticking strictly to the rules I suck on tic-tacs, which do the same thing as the gum in terms of the mint flavor. It at least helps a little bit.

At this stage in the game for you exercising almost everyday is too much. When we start exercise regimens it is important to add gradually: 2-3 days/week max for those of us who have gone from a mostly inactive lifestyle to an active one. Also, for those of us who are carrying a considerable amount of excess weight, certain exercises can be too taxing or even dangerous for our changing bodies. I would say allow yourself time to heal then stick to a walking schedule a few times a week, then slowly add other light impact exercises and increase your endurance and strength incrementally. I would definitely suggest talking to your doctor about what he or she may suggest for a safe starting workout plan. Explain to them the symptoms you are having/ had had after the type and amount of activity you were doing.

I am a RN. I have seen too many debilitating joint injuries that have resulted from a seemingly simple or safe activity. Be safe! We all care about you and want you to succeed without doing any damage to yourself.

I set small goals to help keep me motivated along the journey. Things like fitting into clothing that didn't before, decreasing my sodium intake, eating clean, fitting into smaller booths at restaurants, being able to walk farther or increase activity level incrementally. I am currently at 40 pounds lost and my next goal is 50. I set a time goal for the next 10 pounds to come off before Halloween as my husband and I are taking a trip. Hopefully it will be 50+ by then, but I won't beat myself up if it's not.

Overall goal weight for me is 170. I picked this weight because the last time I was active and healthy I weighed a little over 180 and looked and felt great. I was a gym rat and actually enjoyed running and lifting and many other activities. I look back and can't believe how far I have let myself go.

Anyway, I think small goals are important because they help keep you focused.

I saw this difference in the income brackets in my own family. My father came from a higher income family and no one in his family was overweight, while my mother came from a lower income family and there is a lot of obesity and obesity related comorbidities on that side. Not only were the quality in foods varied from both sides, the difference in my maternal and paternal grandmother's cooking styles were like night and day. My maternal grandmother tended to fry almost everything and portion sizes were unreal. Also family events were centered around grandma and her kitchen, the main event being when the meal was served. My paternal grandmother, however, was very health conscious and cooked with fresher, more wholesome ingredients and measured her portions carefully. Her only real food vice was baked goods, but that was only because she loved baking. She never bought processed foods, fast food, or premade confections. Also there wasn't much of a "food culture" associated with that side of the family. We treated meals at her house more like fuel for the rest of the day because she always had activities for us. The only time I was ever a healthy weight was when I lived with her for 2 years after my mother died.

While it may not be true for everyone, the stereotype about poverty and obesity rang true in my family.

My whole life is one big NSV. My most recent one was this trip to London I took. Three years ago I never thought I'd get there and it's a place I've wanted to visit since I was a young woman. Everything about it was a NSV from biking through the royal parks to walking all over the city.

NSVs can also be very small and/or intimate such as a throwaway comment I got from a nurse at a recent check up. She put the exam table down so my legs wouldn't dangle. I'm a short lady..always have been but as a heavy short lady, no one said what the nurse said as she put the table lower. She laughed and said, let me lower this..you really are an itty-bitty thing, aren't you?' Itty-bitty. Never though I hear anyone describe me that way but these day, yes...I'm kinda itty-bitty.

That is so great! One thing I have avoided myself for a long time is long distance travel because I feared my weight would make it difficult. I don't think I am QUITE there yet to make plans as big as these, but now I have added something to my list of "to-dos".