Wheetsin

Sorry guys, I sort of had my cathartic experience with my intial post and then let it lay. Update - my parents have submitted their paperwork and are waiting on insurance approval. I have not yet talked with them about my feelings, I do not feel it to be an appropriate time or circumstance. But I have encouraged them to do something in the meantime (which they aren't doing). Something meaning - don't give up. I'm tired of them saying "Well we tried so-and-so's diet but we just didn't lose weight on it." Well have you tried kicking the fads and doing something revolutionary like plain and simple cutting your calories? A lot of you guys know this, but I'm huge on owning your actions, taking ownership, and being willing to admit fault. We all do it, but catching yourself and correcting it (what I strive for), and sticking your head in the sand - uh uh. And I'm big on the idea that you pretty much hand over your right to bitch about something if you aren't also trying to effect some change about it. And that's where my parents are. They're eyebrow deep in denial and as much as they're asking me questions and eager to learn about banded life, they're not "there" yet. Even the questions they're asking me show that (Can you still eat ice cream? Did you lose without exercising? Can you eat XYZ?) I never asked if I could still vaccuum banded because I didn't give a shit, so I know these are things in the front of their minds, so I'm doing what I can to help ease their (eventually, supposedly, hopefully) transition. I have tried to encourage them to start adopting parts of the bandster lifestyle now, before they have to go cold turkey (assuming insurance approval). Things like foregoing the soda, which other than coffee is all my father drinks; chewing (we had dinner the other night and I "challenged" them to take the same bite size as me, and now swallow until I did); making better choices when ordering or cooking; trying to help them see where the trucklod of fat & calories & carbs is residing in their "healthy" meal. This too shall pass.

Here are my thoughts, in no particular order: - Women have a higher chance of being obese than men, hence statistics. - Women have a higher chance of self consciousness about their weight, hence more probability to seek solutions. - Women have a harder time losing weight than men, hence more likely to seek assistance. - Women are more likely to need "support" than men (at least admittedly), hence more women on forums, hence a skewed percentage of females banded. I could go on. I can't say any of the above are absolutely true, but it makes sense to me.

Cognitive distortions. Same reason we justify waiting until Monday to start the diet. E.g. one that a banded friend of mine is dealing with when she thinks of her upcoming cruise - "I hope I don't lose weight between now and then or I won't have any clothes to wear. I need cute things to wear, so I better work at staying this same weight." When is that a good idea??? Stupid crap I think - "This is all I'm going to lose, thanks everyone for all the help."

Yeah, I am. Well, I CAN drink, but sometimes I have to wait for it to clear, or deal with a bit of pain if I drink too much/quickly. But usually by 11 or so liquids are fine. That's just how my resitriction is.

Hi mmh498, I'm not from St. Joseph but I have family there and usually visit at least once a month. Too bad the hospital system there isn't yet in favor of bariatrics.

Quoting myself so I don't have to retype:

The band has a sort of empty balloon lining its inner circumference. This is attached to some tubing, in turn attached to a port. A needle is used to peentrate the (self-healing) port and inject saline, which travels through the tubing and into the balloon, filling it, which tightens the esophagus. When my surgeon does fills it takes a total of maybe 2 mins and goes like this: Lay down, surgeon pushes around until he finds the port. Location is marked, surgeon gets the syringe (already filled with saline). Needle is poked through the skin into the port, saline is injected, port is pulled out, area is wiped down and a band-aid is applied. Then we're given a glass of Water to drink, to ensure we aren't too tight. It's quick, doesn't hurt, and you leave with a tiny needle mark and a band-aid.

OP is/was a spammer. I let this thread be since there was discussion around it. He or she has come back with similar, single word "humble" handles and posted the same topic with links to that site and others, all of which I've taken down.

The band is above your stomach, so you probably won't feel anything stomach unless it's a referred pain or something. My surgeon is fairly aggressive with his fills. With smaller bands he does .5 - 1 cc at a time, depending on which fill it is, what weightloss has been, etc. For larger bands I believe he starts at 2 - 3 cc, but that's just what I've been told by peers with the larger band. 2cc sounds like you're getting fills fairly aggressively. Some surgeons only do 1cc (large abnd) or .5cc (smaller bands) at a time. Some let you come back for another fill at your discretion, and some make you wait a certain length of time. The best way to describe restriction (for me), that isn't yet to the point of being painful, is kind of like having a burp sitting in you that won't come up. A sort of "pressure" that lets you know something's there.

Also, are you sure they said 1 cm referring to the opening of the band itself, and not the opening of the band + your esophageal tissues?

What you're describing sounds kind of impossible. What size band did surgeon install? The cms refers to the inner diameter, and there aren't any 1 cm bands (unless I've just passed into a new dimension!) Are you sure you didn't get a fill (maybe you received one immediately post-op?)

I'm going to paste an old post of mine, just because I'm lazy and don't want to re-type: There's really nothing you can do for it, so save your money. Body trauma, including surgery, and anesthesia are known catalysts for hair loss. Like everything hair, it's a cycle, and it too will change.

Just fine for me, as does all other seafood I've tried to swallow. Gave up the chewier meats just becaus they're not worth the effort of gooifying.

Abbreviations and What They Mean Stickied in our FAQ forum. You might benefit from spending some time there. You can find additional information by searching for "sliming". Many results.

I tried to blend chicken and it made me gag. Not a band gag, but just a "omfg that's nasty" gag. My favorite mushies were: Refriend Beans, black or pinto, preferrably of a spicy & fat free variety. I may or may not have added sour cream, cheese, hot sauce, and chili verde. Hummus Edamame puree with garlic and butter Cottage cheese Really wet meat (chicken, tuna, etc.) salads And probably a few others I've forgotten.

I'll skip the long scientific explanation this time but when you eat crap food, there's an actual response within the body that makes you crave more of it. So detox is definitely in order. It's hard, just like any detox, but as custom, it does get easier after a few days of getting the crap out of your system and allowing your system to get back to an equilibrium. I have to disagree with that. I can a) eat too much ice cream :glare: not lose and c) be hungry while also d) be too tight to get solids down. I can also a) eat too much, :eek: not lose and c) be hungry while d) just be really good at eating around the band, despite being tight. Just two examples, but in either of those, a fill is the last thing I need. I would recommend a checklist closer to this. If you are: a. Exercising/eating to ensure that your caloric consumption is greater than your caloric intake... b. Feeling more actual hunger now than you were before (assuming you've been through a fill or so)... c. Requiring larger portions to satisfy you now than you were before... d. Able to pass foods you weren't previously able to pass... e. Not feeling restriction when you eat (it does have a pretty distinct feeling)... f. Needing to eat between meals to stay satsifed, whereas before you did not... g. Etc. then you probably need a fill. But there's no way you can just throw 3 criteria out there and say matter of factly that if you meet these, you need a fill, period. Just can't happen any more than you can say "if you can eat more than an ounce you need a fill" -- we all just vary too much if what we're able to do.

I'm not sure why surgeons push the bypass. I am really beginning to think it's a matter of THEIR success and not ours. A sort of bragging rights. And money. It doesn't make sense to me. My surgeon said that for someone in his family, he would recommend the band over bypass. But when I accompanied a friend to his info seminar just a few months ago, bypass seemed to be pushed in favor of the band. I can't see how long-term RnY is better. I just can't. I know too many RnYers in my life who are now having a miserable time trying to quit gaining weight after an initial 12 - 18 months of losing. I know many who eat more, and more frequently, than I could ever dream of with my band. Of the longer-term RNYers I personally know, none of them look "healthy" to me. That's hard to describe. Their coloring is off, they look sallow, even when they're still fat. And they are having their own regrets. A good friend of mine who is about 5 years out from RnY and has gone from a 28 to a 10 still regrets her choice and can only say, "I wish I'd known about the band..." And I should say that she (the one who's a 10) is the only one close to her goal weight. There are situations for which I would advocate the bypass, but they're few and far between. I just don't see how it's a good thing. But that's why I'm here, and not at gastricbypasstalk.com I guess.

Why did you need esophageal manometry? Did you have known issues or complications prior to surgery?

I don't know what "the extra pillow thing" is, but I was able to side sleep by supporting my stomach with a pillow. Then again, my port is more centered than on the side. Your surgeon's advice is good. The port is sewn into your body, and you need to give the sutures & area time to heal. sleeping on the side of the port & putting more pressure on it could complicate the healing process. If you're losing sleep, I'd say don't worry about it too much. Rest. If you're not working, use a recliner or prop on a couch and rest during the day. Sleep won't win the race, but resting (e.g. not exerting physically) will be so important.

Just keep in mind that the psych's job isn't to turn you down, it's to help you find alternate ways to cope that will not hinder your success with the band. I don't know personally a single person who has been truly turned down, but I do know some who required additional visits as the psych felt they needed more work on managing their behaviors. Say what's the truth. Even if it slows you down a bit, it really will be SO worth it. It will help you. Right now you're in the "right now!" mode, but an extra visit or two, while it may delay your surgery, will be priceless if it helps. You may not see it looking at it from the outside, but there's a loooooot of head stuff with the band, more than I anticipated (I say that as a bandster with a MS in psychology). Now having said that, I didn't have to do any formal tests. I went in and we talked. He asked me about my history of obesity, asked me to identify my stressors... and then because we have an interest in the same field (human performance) we chatted on performance theory. :tongue2: He told me I was behavioral eater, which I already knew, and told me to develop a program of behavioral change for myself (normally he does this for patients, I would imagine, but since I already knew what it was and how to do it I did my own). I required 3 total visits.

My surgery was in March and it was cold & snowy out, but I only had to be outside from door to valet, a total of about 30 seconds. :drool: The dress I had wasn't a sundress, it was a heavy knit with elbow legnth sleeves. Anyway - sound like I'm trying to talk you into it... I'm not. Umm... I didn't really mind any of my tests. I just had to do the standard pre-op ones.

I'm not sure I get the source of your frustration, so if this doesn't help, let me know. Any good you buy other than fresh produce & some meats has nutritional information on it, right? (I think, anyway) Including serving amount, calories, carbohydrates, fat, etc. The produce information can be easily found online. So just add up whatever you're putting into your meal. E.g. you're making a stirfry. Your bag of stirfry veggies says 1/2C is a serving. The values are listed per serving, so you know the calroies in your veggies. Same with sauce & meat. Or if you cook the whole thing, just add up the total calories, and estimte (fairly) how much of it you're taking. So if you make a big wok of stirfry and you know the total calories in it is 1000, and you take 1/5 of it, you know you have roughly 200 calories. There is a stickied list of food values in the Food forum that may help. Also see this post (linking rather than retyping): http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f15/protein-carbs-fat-43231/#post594400 You can also plug all your foods into an online calculator (e.g. fitday) but I personally prefer to just do the math. I can add it up in my head as I go a lot faster than I can get online, pull up the site, search for foods or enter values, etc. Though I do love fitday's long-term weightloss grid.

I was released the same day I had surgery, slept most of it & throught he night, and showered the next morning at home. I was told (common sense) not to wash around the incisions, just to let the water run over them, and also to pat them dry.

Yeah but comissaries & exchanges are the enlisted person's version of Wal-Mart. :tongue2:

A stall between weeks 3 - 5 on any weightloss regimine should be expected. It's part of the body saying, "Woah -- wtf?" (insert lots of stuff about what your body is actualyl doing here) It will adjust, and weightloss will resume. Also keep in mind that no change on the scale does not mean no change in the amount of fat you have. Why are you only eating 250 calories almost 3 weeks out? (just curious) Is that your surgeon's plan, or is that just all you can eat?