SanDiegoPhotog

Well, I am NOT waiting 3 years, personally. I'm not getting any younger! LOL!

I was just wondering if anyone didn't wait until they were at their goal weight before having a tummy tuck. I've wanted one for as long as I can remember and I'm getting VERY impatient.

I don't know about your particular issues, but everything that I've read is that you really should be done having babies before you have abdominal plastic surgery. Now, most of the research I've been doing is on a straight tummy tuck . . . so your procedures may be different. I've also read that while you CAN get pregnant after a TT, you run the risk of ruining the TT -- as such, it is money down the drain. Most of the research I've found concludes that there is no risk to the baby on a post-TT pregnancy, but there is conflicting "opinion" on that matter. There is a board out there where I've done a lot of reading and it's specifically for post-plastic surgery pregnancies. I bet if you googled it, it'd come up. I'm not planning on getting pregnant again, and I am planning on having a tummy tuck just as soon as I can afford it. Like, yesterday would have been great had I had the money! LOL! But I wanted to do the research on the offchance that I did become pregnant again. I don't take the pill, so we've had a couple of scares. (I already have 3 kids under the age of 5 . . . I don't really want more). I would talk to your band surgeon, your primary care doctor, and get some opinions from plastic surgeons, too. Good luck! And congratulations on your weight loss thus far!

I am so sorry to hear about what you are going through, too. But it sounds like you have the right attitude. Best wishes to you!

oh wow . . . a whole LBL? Are you happy with the results?

What's an Anchor TT?

Well, let's see since only 7% of diets ever work WHAT percentage of lap-band patients keep their weight off???? Your doctor has no clue what he or she is talking about. Now, if he had said that "based on your history" he felt that YOU might gain your weight back (like, if he knows something about you and your history and lifestyle that we don't . . . like you aren't willing to change what you eat, etc.), THEN I might give him some credit or at least cut him some slack. But if you were me, I would give your doctor some CORRECT information and statistics and then quickly find another doctor. Maybe he just knows someone who gained their weight back. Who knows? I didn't tell my PCP what I was doing. He tried to put me on MediFast again. I wanted to tell him that HE could eat that crap if he wanted to . . . but I refrained. :confused: The lapband is working out FABULOUSLY for me. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

I haven't had any carbonation in one year. I gave it up 4 months before I got the band so I could see how I would do. Honestly, I seriously, seriously do NOT miss the stuff. I had a tiny sip of Diet Coke once and the taste was sickening. I've completely lost my appetite for it. blech! As far as alcohol goes, though, I'm not a very big drinker. The occasional cocktail on date night (we're talking once a month) or the occasional cocktail on special occasions. I do kind of miss being able to drink the carbonated foofy drinks (like those bacardi things in a bottle), but not enough to really care. I now drink the occasional margarita on the rocks or a glass of wine, but the last couple of glasses of wine I had made me feel icky and nauseated within about 3 sips, so I don't even drink wine anymore.

Anna, First of all, how big is your band? 5 ccs in a 10cc band is not a lot of restriction. I'm assuming you have a 10cc band. Secondly, did your doctor put you on any sort of guidelines for your intake? The band is going to help you with portion control so you won't have to rely on your own will power, but it will take willpower to do a couple of things: stick to the program your doctor wants you on, AND follow the band rules. Are you following the band rules? My doctor says I can't drink until 30 minutes after I eat. This is an easy rule for me to follow because liquid has the opposite effect on me. It doesn't seem to make my food pass through my band any faster, in fact it seems to completely stop me up. I burp and gag and feel disgusting if I have any liquids before or after a meal. And NOW I know that if I need to take any medicines, I had better do it BEFORE I eat. LOL! I don't know what sort of program your surgeon has you on, but mine recommends that at least 50% of my meal, if not more, come from Protein. He wants me to limit my carbs. The baked potato and the vegetables and the cranberry juice seem like way too many carbs. I have a rule that I ONLY drink juice if I'm sick -- and even then, I drink light cranberry juice. Juice is like drinking pure sugar. Just switch to Water or crystal light. I drink iced tea with sweet n low -- my reward for not having diet coke in an entire year! yay! If you just ate the meat and the vegetable without the potato or the juice, you'd be losing weight. And when you get to proper restriction, your band will tell you (quite quickly) when to stop eating. You say that you are desperate. I was desperate, too. That's why I made the decision to start and stick with a program even before I got to proper restriction. It REALLY made a difference for me mentally. The weight loss started quickly and continued to fall off of me from the day I started my pre-op diet. But it was MY decision to not wait until I got restriction. Like I said, I was desperate. Does your surgeon offer any nutrition classes or any suggestions with what to eat to help you lose weight? You should probably look into something like that. It can't hurt. Best wishes!

This question is for people who are already banded. Do you ever have a craving for something and eat it and then feel icky afterwards so you never want it again? It's weird. It can be something healthy for me or something not quite as healthy for me, but I find I really don't like a lot of foods anymore and my list of stuff that I'll actually eat is getting smaller and smaller. Is this normal? It's not like I'm too tight or anything. I think I have good restriction or maybe indeed a little loose. It's just that a lot of foods are like "ewww" to me. Bizarre.

haha! Sometimes I DO feel pregnant with the way my body responds to food and the smells of food. But alas, I am not. Thank heavens! 3 is enough for me!

Puddin, NurseAmy, and shinyhappy, I've been following your progress for so long now. You all are an inspiration to me and you ladies are looking FABULOUS. I'm at about 75 pounds lost now, so I thought I'd post an updated pic. (I don't normally wear hats like that, LOL, but I was going to a baby shower where a hat was required. Don't ask!)

Everything that Jachut says is so spot on. Sometimes I feel like your posts are reading my mind! :redface:

Sometimes I've had to wait, sometimes they've seen me right away. Usually when I've had to wait there is a really good reason (like emergencies and stuff like that). But the staff are always pleasant and helpful. There is just no excuse for rudeness, IMO (which is part of why I left UCSD and went with Dr. Bhoyrul). Turns out, I was STILL able to get my surgery faster with Dr. Bhoyrul than UCSD even though I thought it was going to set me back. It was a good decision all the way around. Good luck to you. That really sucks on the wait times. :thumbup:

Did any of you have major struggles getting motivated to lose that last XX amount of pounds??? I've lost over 70 pounds and I look and feel great. But I need to lose 40 more. I don't know if I'm just feeling sluggish after the holidays or what . . .but working out is seeming like more of a chore than fun like it was before. I suspect that I need a fill, but I'm scared to death of an overfill. I don't know. Just, will someone please kick me in the arse or motivate me or something??? LOL! I want to lose these last 40 pounds. Ugh.

Brandy, I just read your blog and I think I might try that 5-day pouch test. I'm thinking I'll start it on Wednesday because I'm out of town Tuesday and I don't want it to be weird.

It's too soon to tell, because I had a big drop between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I think I'm just a slow loser now. Sucks!

Wow . . . I have lost the same amount of weight as you and I am feeling EXACTLY the same way. I can't get motivated. I'm tired even though I'm getting enough sleep. My body just feels lethargic and sluggish. Interesting.

When I was going through pre-op, I wasn't even sure I was going to tell my mom. I had basically only told my aunt and my sister and my husband. But I'm glad I told her and I'm glad I told my other family members. The people that know are under STRICT rules to not tell anyone and that if someone they know is discussing dieting with them and they feel this is someone who would benefit from the surgery, they can tell them that they know someone who had it done and could that person contact them. Then I will be contacting them on MY OWN TERMS -- which was important to me. I don't like to be taken off guard by questions I don't want to answer. I don't want to talk about it in front of large groups of people. I don't want to talk about it on holidays. It kind of stems from my own social anxiety and from the fact that I had twins. When I was pregnant with them, every holiday and every get-together was one question about my twin pregnancy after another. I was so sick of it after 9 months I thought I was going to lose my mind. I don't want family get-togethers to turn into one big lap-band discussion the way my twin pregnancy did. Ugh. That being said, I tell acquaintances and busybodies that I workout constantly (true) and really watch what I eat (also true). I also tell them that I am finally done being pregnant, trying to get pregnant, having twins, and nursing twins, so my hormones have finally returned to normal. This seems to satisfy the people who are more skeptical and don't believe me when I tell them diet and exercise. HOWEVER, I have encountered one person who asked me my "secret" to weightloss, and I feel she and her husband might be candidates for the surgery. I was honest with her and told her, and I would do it again if I met someone else who might benefit from it. I didn't say I thought she was a candidate -- I wasn't rude or anything -- I just told my story and answered her questions. I hope someday I will be able to help someone who is struggling.

I'm in! Name...........Start Lbs........Current..........Goal.....To Go LilMissDiva........253...............253..............244...........9 SanDiegoPhotog ..263..............191...............179..........12

I use thedailyplate.com. I love it.

If I eat too much or eat too fast, I feel like I'm having a heart attack -- excruciating pain right in my chest. Well, I've never had a heart attack before, so I'm assuming it feels like excruciating chest pain. It sounds like you may just be trying to eat too much. Congrats on your weight loss, though! That's awesome!

I will admit I had ONE moment of hell. True hell. I had been on post-op liquids for a VERY long time (my doctor is very conservative in the healing phases of the band), and I still wasn't able to lift my babies who were about 17 months old at the time. I was missing them (I held them on the couch, but I couldn't carry them around like before), and I was SO freaking sick of liquids. But after recovery? GOD I LOVE MY BAND! Not a SINGLE moment of hell. Not EVER. I don't miss stuffing my face with food. I don't miss the 71 pounds I've lost. I don't miss being the biggest person in the room. And I LOVE my new jeans much more than I love food. I also love that I've never felt deprived of anything -- I eat what I want. Well, I kind of miss chicken -- that doesn't go down so easily. But, if I lather it in enough marinara sauce, it goes down okay. But yeah, I had some candy at Halloween. I lost 3 pounds. I ate pie at Thanksgiving. I lost 2 pounds. The weight is falling off of me like mad and getting my band was the BEST thing I ever did for myself. I will admit, though, I was never one to eat a whole pizza. I did, however, have a massive carb addiction and was a "grazer." I felt hungry ALL the time. Now, I have to remind myself to eat. If it wasn't for my husband, my poor kids would probably starve because I forget that "normal" people are hungrier than I am! haha! No hell here. Plenty of energy, too. I am so very, very sorry that some people have hell with the band, though. That SUCKS. :biggrin:

I LOVE my lapband, too. I haven't been working out as much as I was because of the busy-ness of the holiday season -- but my band has kept my eating in check and I've lost a few pounds over the past couple of weeks. Amazing!

Hi All! I am happy today because it is my 6-month bandiversary and a few days ago I made it to ONEderland!!!!!!! Sorry about my crooked toes! Anyways, I have lost 65 pounds (14 were pre-op diet) and dropped over 10 points on my BMI. I finally weigh less -- and quite a bit less now -- than my husband. For the most part, I shop at normal clothing stores, but I can still wear the red "1s" at LB and some 14s at LB. Soon, though, very soon, I will be done with LB for FOREVER! I exercise a lot. I eat small portions. I've only PB'd once -- I was running late and thought I could eat fast. Woops! Never make that mistake again. Overall, it's been going VERY well and I'm soooooooo happy that I got my band! Thanks for listening and for cheering me on and for answering all the crazy questions I've had in the past months leading up to my band and after I got it. This has been great! Thank you.