kbinaz

Hello, I am new here. I am scheduled for revision from Lapband to RNY on November 4th also. Nervous and excited. I went to my pre-op class yesterday and it calmed me down a lot!! Lots of good information. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all I learned but I remember feeling the same way before the band surgery and it worked out fine. I'd love to keep in touch with all of you during the process! Was glad I hear I don't have to o a pre-op liquid diet. That was making me more nervous than anything!

Haven't been on this forum for about two months, and am glad to be back! I have currently lost 54 pounds. (started at 233, am currently 179) Even more exciting was that my personal trainer redid my body composition test. My body fat percentage went from 47% (OMG It's hard to even write that - darn near half fat!!!) to....drumroll...26%!!!!! Yeah!!! My trainer says I should try to get to about 21%. Not too far to go! It also showed that I gained 20 pounds of muscle! So it's basically like I have lost 73 pounds- because muscle weighs more than fat. Working out has really made a difference for me (even though I hate it with everything that is in me!) I am very firm and have little sagging. I'm enjoying reading all the posts of other October '07 bandsters! Keep up the good work, ladies!

Yeah for you! That sounds like an awful experience! I can't imagine PB'ing just with your own spit - yuk~

Happy Birthday! I feel exactly the same way you do ~ My surgery date is when I was really born!

I needed 5 fills to get the restriction I needed. Once I got that restriction I could only eat small amounts of food, and started losing weight. Remember that this is normal for the lap band. It can take a while to get it working right. You are doing just fine and I promise you, if you are diligent about getting the fills you need, you will start losing soon!

It concerns me that you can't eat until that late in the day. That is what doesn't sound normal to me. Are you feeling okay? Are you losing weight? I don't know how you could be getting enough nutrients in to be healthy if you can't eat until 7 pm. and only after drinking a hot drink.

You should never get a fill if you are losing weight steadily. My point in my post was that if you need one to lose weight, you should get one! It would be just plain silly to get a fill if you didn't need one.

Just after surgery and before any fills I could eat just about as much as I could have before surgery. It wasn't until my 5th fill that I had enough restriction to limit my intake. Now I am lucky if I can eat a cup of food, it varies from day to day and really from hour to hour. Remember, the band isn't really the band until it is giving you restriction. It was designed to be filled. I have heard the analogy that it is like tires. If you don't put air in your tires, you can't drive with them. If you don't fill your band, you aren't really getting the benefit of it.

I have the same problem - I get really loose just before my period, then once my period hits I get really tight, so it kind of makes up for it! There are certain times of day and certain times of the month that our tightness varies, this is a normal part of being banded. It is kind of frustrating, because it makes it hard to know what to eat! But it is totally normal.

Jorge, you are NOT a failure! Go get your fill!!! The band is designed to work when filled enough to give you restriction. If you haven't even had a fill you are basically struggling with exactly the same issues as you were before you had the band. You can't expect weight loss success if the band isn't even doing it's job!! I promise you, if you get the right level of restriction you will have a much easier time controlling what you put in your mouth. It isn't going to miraculously just happen, you are going to need to cooperate, but it will be waaaaay easier. GET AS MANY FILLS AS YOU NEED TO GET THE RESTRICTION YOU NEED. Don't be afraid to go to your doctor for your fill. They will work with you. Get on track ASAP - don't waste another day feeling like a failure. Get on the stick and fix this!!! If you ever need to talk you can send me a private message and I will answer. I live in Chandler, so we are kind of neighbors! Feel free to send a message if you need to vent. I am happy to available for a pep talk any time. Where did you have your surgery??? I used Scottsdale Bariatric with Dr. Robin Blackstone.

OOPS! Sorry, I posted above and just reread your post and realized I messed up. I was thinking your surgery was in '08! Now your post makes more sense...You, like me, are also a kind of slow loser. Sorry I made it sound like you weren't!!! Like I said in my post, where would you be if you hadn't had surgery? That is what really keeps me going. I just know that without the band I would have gained weight. The other thing I am relieved about is that I don't have to constantly worry about gaining weight back. I may be losing slowly, but I also don't get on the scale and have huge gains, either. There are a lot of "slow losers" out here - and to be honest with you I think we are more the norm than the fast losers! Don't forget there are a lot of factors in play - age, size, body type - lets celebrate our successes and not worry so much about how long it is taking us. (I am talking to myself when I say that too, because I have as much trouble being impatient as anyone!) I have been overweight for 30 years. I can't expect instant results in fixing it!