Brinabrina77

Hello Everyone: I was banded in February 2008. This makes me 4 years post op. (I still can't believe it!) I think that I am doing pretty well. I am down more than 100lbs and have maintianed that. I still have about 30lbs that I am working on losing. How are the rest of the 2008(and earlier) bandsters doing? I know that when we all initially were banded, we reported to this forum/website like it was our parole officer. Now that we have been banded for a while, I am seeing less and less of those who have been banded for a year or greater. This site is still an excellent and frequently used resource for me. Hearing from you guys keeps me going. So here is my roll call to see how the 2008 and earlier bansters are doing? Share your up, downs, advice given, or lessons learned.

Hello everyone: At my highest weight I wore a 26/28 in clothes, and a 9.5w -10w (sometimes 11 for the width) shoe. Now I am a 16/18 an I almost fell out when I realized I now wear a 8.5 shoe. People told me that you feet shrink once you lose weight. Of course I did not believe them. I am noping that my hard-headedness will shrink also.

Helllo anna2259 and to Bagnato Bandsters in General : The only support that i routinely get is at the group meetings held at the bariatric institute. I can only go to those if they are held on friday or Saturday becasue of my job. The number of CCs given varies on where you are with the band. You dont want to be over or under filled. My very frist fill was 2.0 CCs. After that, i think that used increments of 1.0 cc. Then I went down to 0.5 CCs. Now I only get fills in increments of 0.10 CCs. But that a a good way to do it, as you get closer to finding your ideal fill level you will need less and less fluid. Right now, honestly if I get anything larger than 0.1 cc at a time I get too tight...and being too tight is a MISERABLE place to be. I personally like the fill rate. My fills are generally spaced 4-6 weeks a part and that really works for me too. Let me know if you find anyone who wants to become band buddies or form some kind of support system.

Hello Georgia Girl: Yes, definitely. We should be motivation partners. I need all the motivation that I can get. I know how it is with the steroids. I am an asthmatic and an allergy sufferer. So anytime I have a flare-up of either, I get some kind of steroids. I am normally only on them for a week or so, and I already experience changes in my eating and Fluid consumption. You need a big superwoman "S" on your chest for being on them for months. You will get back on track...you *are* already getting back on track. I can't wait to see your progress. Keep posting. I will do the same.

Hi Georgia Girl!! Woman, I have not heard from you in ages. I am so happy to see you post on this board. I always wonder what happened to some of the original Bagnato Bandits. Gaining and losing is all a of our journey. That was something that was difficult for me to accept. Now, I don't use it as an excuse, but it saves me from unnecessarily beating up on myself. I will reach a goal for myself and do the blonde cheerleader dance of joy (and everyone knows that I am neither blonde nor cheerleader). Then its like my body knows when I hit a goal. One of my first goals was to get under 200lbs. I made it without realizing it until an OTC appointment. I saw 198 lbs on the scale. Then it was like as soon as my body realized I'd reached a goal, it started craving EVERYTHING that I was not supposed to have. So then I gained back 5-10 lbs until I was over 200lbs. Then I lost weight until I was I was under 200lbs again. Then I move forward and get back on track. And that is how this has gone for me. I go through phases like that from time to time. Not often, but from time to time. It is frustrating as all hell and great outdoors, but if i had this weight loss thing down perfectly,I would not have gotten banded. *****However, my worst day being banded is still better than my best day being not banded!***** At least witht he band, I can still see the bandwagon when I occasionally fall of of it and gain a few pounds (my average is 5lbs or so). I just have to hop my heard-headed butt back on. Without the band, The bandwagon was in the next *town* and completely out of site (and I was 30-40lbs heavier) before I realized that I needed to get back on track. Overall, I think I am doing okay. Not perfect, but when I look back at it all, i am shocked...in a good way. With your low carbing and running...you wil be back where you want to be in no time!!! Keep us posted and help us stay motivated. You are still an inspiration to me.

Hello emsbugbug: Congratuations on your success!!! I try to make as many of the meetings as I can, but my problem is that I work a very odd schedule. It limits me to attending only those meeting that happen on Fridays and Saturdays...and I live within 2 miles of Dr. B's office. I am hoping that this board will really pick back up. I will try to remember to ask the nurses to throw littel reminders at the meetings about this site so that we can get more Bandits here. Again, Congrats on your success. You will be there before you know it. You keep in touch too!

Hello? :: taps her mic:: Is this thing on? Is anyone out there? This is my official APB (All Points Bulletin) for all of my fellow Bandits. This thread used to be very active and I loved coming here. It helped me through a ton of my moments and gave me more encouragement than you know. This also used to be a great thread to offer one another encouragement, kicks in the butt (when needed), and to share our successes as well as those frustrating plateus and bumps in the roads that we all have had at some point. Pre-Ops...Newbies..our seasoned Bandits...*Everyone*... has something that they contribute to this thread that may help a fellow bandster. So if you have got a second to spare, just stop in and say hi and tell everyone how things are going. Post some pics, too. Show your face. Show your progress. Share recipes. Meet friends. Share those NSV and other highlights!! Oh yeah...*tell a friend about this site and the Bagnato Bandits section.* I think that we have forgotten to mention this site at some of the group meeting. So spread the word!! I look forward to hearing from everyone. Wishing you great success on your weightloss/healthly lifestyle journey and in all that you do. --Brina

Hello Bandits: I have not posted on this forum in forever, but things are going well for me. I've thrown my share of the classic :argue: "You are *not* the boss of me and I *will*eat (fill in the blank with what I know my band says I can't have)" tantrums with my band. My band just saucily responds, "Oh, I *am* the boss of you. And if your hard-headed butt wants (fill in the blank) that badly, you can have it. Matter of fact, you can have it TWICE...once going down and then again coming back up." Sigh. Some people just can't out grow being hard headed. In spite of the occasional battle of wills, I am still loosing. I was banded in February 2008, by Dr. Bagnato. At that time I was 325 lbs and in a 26/28. I am now 204lbs and in a 16/18. If I could just get out of the holiday drama and get back on track with my exercise, I might even see one-der land some time in the next month or two. But I am working on that.. I hope to meet some of you at the Christmas party today. If you see me come and say hello!! To the Bandits (old and new) Happy Holidays and Great success. :welldoneclap:

Me! :: Does the Price is Right contestant bounce-squeal:: The thing is that I seriously just realized I was able to respond to this post. I was so focused on the fact that I have about 40lbs to got to meet my tentative goal, that it escaped me that I've lost abouot 105lb. That shows that even after two years of being banded, I'm focused on how overweight I still am instead of how much weight I've managed to lose. But I'm slooowly, getting out of my forever-fattie mindset. Although, I've lost a lot of weight this is all surreal to me. I started at a size 26/28. I am now in a size 18. Each time I pull on a pair of jeans, I still get this moment of brief panic that they will reach my hips and won't go any higher. But they do..every time. And I want to bounce up and down...okay I DO bounce up and down...everytime they fit... ...Not to mention, I hear the "Eye of the Tiger" in my head. Sometimes. okay..most times. I remember my little weight loss ticker being at -15lbs...while it seemed like everyone in the known universe had lost over 80 lbs. I thought I'd never be able to reply to this post. But here I am, 105 lbs down. Unbelievable. If I, Miss World's Slowest Loser, can accomplish this much, anyone can. Thank you guys for every single bit of inspiration that you have provided on this site. Congrats to everyone on their scale and NSVs. For all of you thinking you will never post here...you will.

Laurenmcarter, You post just sent my hurdling at light speed back to the week before my surgery. We both had the same worries and everything. A coworker dropped me off the day of the surgery. I felt like a kindergartener being dropped off at school for the first day. I stood outside of the entrance to the hospital with the whole weepy-eyed trembly lip thingy going on. I sucked it up, went in, and did well until they put the IV in and I started with the Emmy winning tear flow. Dr. Baganto happened to be passing by and patted me on the knee and told me it would be okay. Of course, him being so sweet only made me cry more. I tell everyone that the reason they put the IV in was becasue of all of the fluid loss I suffered from crying. I am in the medical field (veterinarian). I have done surgeries, but never had one performed on me. So in addition to being nervous, every worse case scenario is running through my head in living technicolor while I am laying on the table. Then they gave me some happy drugs and yup...no more worries for the crying big girl. The last thing I remember was the anesthesia tech putting a mask over my face and tell me to breathe normally. Next thing you know I was in my recovery room. Did I have any pain? Not really. Dr. B gave me this big amber bottle of liquid pain meds. I did not use even half of that bottle. I used a little here and there, and that was at a reduced dose becasue it made me sleepy. I got that discomfort in my abdomen and shoulder from the gas that they use to fill up your abdomen you will hear about but that was it. I occasionally got these extremely mild pinches of discomfort near my belly button when i would lay a certain way...then I foudn out I had a stitch there. The rest is history. You will be fine. You'll start dropping pounds before you know it.

Hello Everyone: I'm checking in for the week. Things are okay. I fell off the exercise wagon due to a bad combination of being consumed by work and being too tired to do anythign but sleep after being too consumed by work. I hate that cycle. However, Leslie Sansone and I will be back at it this coming week. I actually left the house this weeking and attended this amazingly fun class about Gourds. I had no clue that gourd making was such a big thing until I attended the class. I know I'll be going back. I went to that class with no sleep. And I am not exaggerating. At 6 pm Friday i realized I had been up 24 hours with no sleep. Seriously. But in that time, i made a discovery. When i am up and doing something I like to do, I dont get hungry. Before I went to the class i got a large popcorn chicken, tater tots, and a large cranberry slush from Sonics. Yes, terrible choices, but it was quick, I dont do that often, and I was starved. It took me about 8 hours to eat the popcorn chicken. Not because they got stuck or anything, i was just so into gourding and laughing with the fun people I was with that I was not really into eating. When I did get a littel hungry, I'd eat 2-3 pieces then go back to gourding, and repeat. When I got home, I threw out the tater tots because I had not touched them, put the remainign half of the drink the fridge. I wandered around the house for a lil bit, took a shower then went to bed. Friday, i had nothing to do. I sat around the house and ate crap. Then I realized there were a few more things I wanted to do to my gourd. I worked on that for about an hour. I looked up and realized that I had actually put my food to the side while I was working on the gourd. Summary of self discovery: Not only am I an emotional eater (which I knew), I am also a boredom eater. My goal is to now find things that I like to do. I know that is part of the reason i have been so depressed lately. I have been here for 3 years and I practically don't know anyone. Id ont have any close friends here, no husband, no boyfriend, no family....nothing. So all I do is work, sleep, sit around the house and eat, and wallow in the misery of being bored and lonely. If I was not banded i know I would have gained 30-40 lbs in these last three years. If I had not been exercising (which I just started doing in NOV after being banded for 1 year), I would have plateaued out and stop losing weight. That was my check in. How is everyone else doing? Any interesting insights to share?

Hello everyone: I had my surgery in February 2008 with Dr. Bagnato. I am just a few pounds short of reaching my first goal of losing 100lbs. I'm a slow loser, but I'm still losing. And for that, I can't complain. I am looking for any good humored, good natured lap band buddies in the area. I'm doing alright with my band, but I just don't have much of a support system. I would love to meet some people who understand what I we are going through. I know about the Support Meetings held at the bariatric center, but due to my job I end up not being able to attend many of those. :thumbup: I used to go to the Bagnato Bandit boards alot, and you have no idea how motivating that board was. Sadly, it just kinda fizzled out and peopel stopped posting. So if you are interested, let me know.