weightisover

I wear a PatchMD Multi Plus and had my bloodwork done and saw my doc last week and they said ALL my numbers were great and they were impressed at how well the patch works. I love the patch!!

I'm right with you on not getting your protein in. I'm 4 weeks post op and I'm stuggling big time. I'm lucky if I get 40 gms of protein a day and as for water, I'm only getting about 32 oz a day. I usually start my day with a premier protein drink which I only can drink 2/3 of one. I then start sipping my water about 40 minutes later but I'm still full from the shake so I dont' get much water in. I usually have lunch about 4 hours later and then I'm full for the rest of the day. I have to force some yogurt or cottage cheese down but that still doesn't bring my protein intake up much. I'm getting frustrated and hoping I'll be able to eat more at some point. Oh, also strugging with the b-vitamins. They sour my stomach. ARGH!!!

Yes, I'm one week post op and have had this horrific breath since starting my pre-op diet. I drink Premier Shakes as well and can hardly live with my own breath. I hope it goes away once I start eating real food again. I carry a listerine breath spray with me and that does help somewhat.

Thanks chrisredjeep! I am so impatient. I want this done now!!! This next three months will drag until I have the surgery done.

Glad to see there are other Grannies out there having or had the sleeve. I'm 64 and will be having the sleeve in June. I keep asking myself if I'm too old to be doing this. I wish I had started this process 10 yrs ago. I feel I've missed a good part of my life because of my weight. I now want to be thin and healthy so I can sit on the floor with my granddaughter. I know if I did sit down I'd never be able to get back up. Time to make changes and enjoy the grandkids!!!

It seems like most lapbanders are having problems with eating bread. How about tortillas? Do they seem to cause the same problem as bread? I'd like to make some pizzas using tortillas and am worried that they could cause problems. Thanks for any advice!

I personally think that the hair loss is more related to the actual trauma of the surgery. I've had quite a few surgeries over the years including 2 total knee replacements and have to say that I've lost some hair with each of the them and that they seem to come a few months after the actual surgery. I had my lalpband in may and have been again having hair loss. I wouldn't worry about it. It comes back. Just hang in there!!

I just finished my 3rd week of full liquids and have one week to go but have noticed I'm not feeling as satisfied as I was the first couple of weeks. I'm eating the same foods but am really hungry. Is this normal? I am getting between 800 and 900 calories in per day. I don't want to get any more calories in because I'm afraid my weight loss will stop. Any advice?

I am going through the exact same thing. I had my second fill about 8 weeks ago and can eat a good amount of food without feeling full yet, certain foods get stuck. I'm going for my third fill on wednesday. Right now I have a total of 3.5 cc's in my 10 cc band. Hopefully one of these fills will really kick in. My weight has been the same for a few weeks now and I expected it to keep going down.

#%@#@!$ %:cursing:...... Today I had a long awaited lunch date with a friend of that I haven't seen since march. She was aware of my surgery and I was anxious to show her my 50 lb weight loss. She was very happy to see my weight loss and we were seated and ordered our lunch. Everything was going fine UNTIL I took my first bite. I has spent a decent amount of time thinking over the menu but opted for the roast beef manhattan which is one of the best things you can order at an Amish restaurant. I don't know what I was thinking because immediately after the first bite, I knew it was stuck. I sat and waited figuring it would work it's way down like most things stuck. NOT!! :eek: I told her I was having a little discomfort and was explaining to her what goes on with food being stuck. Thank heavens she has a strong stomach and nothing bothers her. I excused myself to the ladies room but to no avail. It wasn't ready to do it's thing. I then told her I needed to leave the restaurant and go to my car. At this point the poor girl was shoving her food in her mouth as fast as she could. I can't say as I blame her...it was tasty. I then headed to my car and just in time. :crying: Fortunately I had a towel in my car (something I will make sure I always have). After repeated bouts of sliming, I headed home. What a drive home it was.....again, that towel was great to have. I would say the whole episode lasted about an hour but it was awful. I have learned my lesson and will not try pot roast type meats again.:thumbdown: Too stringy and hard to go down. Oh, I did call her to apologize and we have set another lunch date for next week.

After going through this fiasco today, and reading all the responses, I think a couple things caused my problem. One, it was noon and I had not had one thing to drink or eat yet for the day (tsk tsk) and therefore my band was still tight. Carla mentioned in her response that it's happened to her when she hadn't eaten for 4 hours. Also, I think the weather may also have played a part. I'm in west central fla and even though hurricane ike is south of us, we still are feeling some weather from it. I'm wondering if the lower barometer may have made my band tighter. It's felt tight all day. For whatever reason, I will still be extra careful with meats for awhile. I did have a few bites of chicken tonight with no problems. As for the person who asked what sliming was. The only way for me to describe it is that your body produces copious amounts of saliva to help the food go down and if the food doesn't go down, you keep producing it and it has nowhere to go so it comes up. I've done it before but today was a whole new experience. I had huge amounts of it and the best way to describe it is that it reminds me of egg whites that have been slightly whipped. Really gross and really slimey. Sorry to be graphic but I'm sure everyone on this board at one time will have an episode to some degree. I'm glad I had known ahead of time what to expect or it would have scared the dickens out of me.

After much dread, I had my first fill today and it was nothing....simple...painless... For some reason I built this up in my head as something to dread. 20 yrs ago I had an amnio from heck. After many attempted tries, my ob/gyn could not get the needle through the placenta. She had to reschedule me for another day to again attempt it. It was not a pleasant experience therefore I didn't reschedule. I would not have aborted my child anyway so saw no sense in trying again...I digress... Sooo, when my doc was preparing the needle, I didn't look at it. He wiped me with some alchohol and said 'quick pinch" and stuck the needle in. I thought he was numbing me. NOT! He was filling me. It took all of 20 seconds and voila' it was done. What a waste of energy worrying about nothing. I'm on full liquids the rest of the day. Ahh, what a relief!:thumbup:

I had a rectocele repair done about 15 yrs ago and the recovery on that was fairly easy. Five years later I had a hysterectomy with a bladder repair and that was harder. The hyst itself would have been fairly routine but having the bladder repair along with it made the recovery harder. The pain from the bladder part was very intense for me. Who knows, maybe I wasn't taking enough pain med's but I've had many surgeries and found that bladder repair to be the most painful (even over my two knee replacements). Unfortunately, the bladder is again prolapsed some. Don't let any of this scare you because I've heard many people have a much easier time and I may not be the norm. Good Luck!

I haven't had my first fill yet and am getting a little nervous. I'm not thrilled with the idea of a horse size needle going into my belly. I've had many surgeries including 2 knee replacements but I'm freaking out more about having my first fill than any of those. Just wondering what the average number of jabs is before the doctors find the port. Also, does it hurt much? I'm a big old baby here. :Angel_anim:

Oh Baby, I've never met a meatball I didn't like. I think the best meal in the whole world is a meatball sandwich with melted mozzarella cheese on top....See what you've done!! Now I won't rest until I have one. All kidding aside, I make mine with 97/3% ground beef so that help somewhat. I also bake mine for about 20 minutes before adding them to the sauce to get rid of any excess oil. Use a little jarred sauce, add a little romano cheese and you're good to go. If I'm really low on Protein and in a hurry, I'll pop some morningstar farms (or boca, I forget the brand) of meatballs in the microwave and they make a good quick meal and believe it or not, they do taste like real meatballs but much higher in protein. YUM!

Is it possible you could be allergic to one of the ingredients in whatever protein supplement you are using? If you are using a few different kinds, you might want to limit yourself to one particular kind for a few days and sort of weed out which one could be causing problems. I know that was a concern of mine since I have many food allergies. Fortunately, I did ok but there are a few protein bars I ate pre surgery that made my mouth itch so I stopped eating them right away. Good luck with finding the culprit!!

I'm just 5 weeks with the band but I've been thinking of calling Jenny Craig and seeing if I can buy their food without actually participating in the plan. I am a lifetime member so wouldn't need to re sign with them. I just want to buy some of their foods, not all. Most of their meals have good protein counts for minimal calories and fat. They are nice to keep on hand in the freezer when you can't decide what to make yet need something high in protein.

I hate to bring this up on a public forum but I'm sure I'm not the first or last lapbander to deal with this problem. Ok, here goes....hmmm.....hard stools....ok, I've said it. I'm 5 weeks post op and have been going every 3 days or so but the past two days I sort of "stuck" if you know what I mean. Can we say...rock hard?? Now what do I do? I've been taking 2 stool softners every night and still have the problem. What's a girl to do? Anybody else have this problem and if so, how did you get things moving without being painful? Thanks for any help....

Thanks everybody for your quick responses. Tomorrow I'm heading to the store for some Miralax and glycerin suppositories. After I posted I took some Milk of Magnesia and it quickly did the trick. I certainly don't want to go through this again. Oh, while at the store I'm also getting Preperations H. Oweeeey Oweeeey!!!

I had a good mushie dinner tonight. I made mashed potatoes and threw in 2 chick-fil-a nuggets and blended it in my magic bullet. It tasted like thanksgiving (ok, maybe not exactly like it but it was good)

I had my very first mushy meal a few minutes ago and I'm wondering if it was more than it should have been. I had 1/2 cup of egg salad and one of those cottage cheese doubles w/peaches. I'm guessing that was about 1/2 cup as well. I was hungry after the egg salad and by the time I was done with the cottage cheese, I felt more satisfied. I could have eaten a little more but decided not to push it. I'm wondering if this was a huge amount to eat 4 weeks out. I haven't had a fill yet so probably don't have much restriction. My head is playing games with me and I'm feeling guilty as if I ate too much (the way I felt before the surgery). Any thoughts?? :confused2:

I was wondering if cooking in a pressure cooker tenderizes meats enough that they go down easier. I'm still on full liquids (three weeks down, 1 to go) and am thinking the pressure cooker might be a good way to go. I bought the cooker a couple months back and have yet to open the box. Anybody use one and do you find it really makes meats tender? I'm so ready for real foods!!:smile2:

Now I just need to figure out how to use it without blowing myself up!

I was just wondering what kinds of things ya'll order from Starbucks. Pre surgery (2 weeks ago) I was having a daily iced nonfat grande mocha. I won't be having those anymore and most likely won't be visiting Starbucks much but if and when I do, what are some good ideas that's ok for us lapbanders. I only like iced drinks. Any suggestions??

I was banded on may 19th and have been on the liquid diet. I've drink two protein shakes a day and for lunch have cream of wheat and dinner I have a cup of cream of something soup. I usually have one sugar-free pudding as a snack. I'm really lacking energy and have a hard time doing anything. Is this normal for the liquid diet and will this energy come back when I can start eating again. (in 12 more days). I've lost about 20 lbs so far since starting the liquid diet. The past 3 days I've stalled in my weight loss but I'm guessing my body is leveling out now. Help, I need some energy.:cursing: