ait

some people can eat it with no problem and others have difficulty with the rice and/or seaweed. i personally have been able to eat it, just chew really well and moisten with lots of soy sauce. i do find that sometimes the fish (usually i have salmon or tuna) has unchewable pieces so i just spit those out.

I didn't take anything once I left the hospital

wow. i am in utter shock. that is miraculous! way to go!!!!

I also can only eat dark chicken, when I try white meat I can feel it hanging out above my stomach not moving, and then it makes an appearance. It just is too dry I think. What's wierd is that there isn't always consistency - I tried dark chicken multiple times since PBing it last week and it stayed down just fine. Wierd.

Hello all. I am trying to figure out how to handle tracking calories when I PB. Last night I had some dark meat chicken that came right back up (it even tasted the same coming up as it did going down) and I don't know if I'm supposed to count that as calories eaten or not. For now I did count the calories but I want it to be right b/c I'm trying to analyze my weight loss pattern with the food intake. What do you guys do?

if you can eat that much with no PB then i think you should wait it out. i gurgle the first couple days after a fill and then it subsides.

Like what most of the other people have written it depends on the PB. If it's a bad one then I stick to liquids for a day or so but if it doesn't involve any heaving and if I still feel hungry I'll eat something "easy". I really follow what my stomach wants, and find that if I'm hungry it means my stomach isn't swollen.

I also have the 10cc Lap Band. My surgeon lets you choose but I could not get a feel for what the differences/benefits were so I asked him which one he defaults to and went with that. Like Cathy, I used a very experienced surgeon and decided to just go with what he defaults to. I've had no problems with it so far.

Ohhhhh you'll know what it is when it happens. Sliming generally happens (to me anyway) when I didn't chew something enough or when something is not agreeing and wants to come back up (aka vomiting). You produce a lot of saliva that comes up through your mouth and sometimes even your nose. Also, you can produce a lot of excess mucus (aka slime) that you just spit out, I find that the heavy mucus happens when vomiting is going to also.

That sounds perfect, thanks everyone. I've been trying to use MSN's site but it's not really usable from my blackberry and I'm not in front of my computer all the time so it hasn't been that successful. I'm going to try the daily plate now. Thanks!

I went back and forth a lot on this b/c my surgeon also leaves the choice up to the patient. I finally decided to just go with his default choice b/c I really could not get a good read on what the differences and cons/pros to each were. He defaulted to the Lap Band so that's what I have.

My port is about an inch to the right of my belly button, it's a low profile port and from what I understand it's the lowest they can put it. I asked my surgeon to give me a low profile port b/c when you lose your weight it has less chance of sticking out. It doesn't bother me when I wear a tight waist band, and I haven't had any issues with finding it to get filled either. My surgeon said he puts the port whenever he can, but it depends on how much belly fat a person has.

Don't worry - it sounds like you are healing from surgery and don't have any fill yet. I had no restriction until my second fill (and I'm hoping I stay restricted). Before my first fill and after surgery I was able to eat normal sized portions - when I went out to eat with friends I could eat the same amount of food as everyone else. You'll get restriction when you start getting filled. For now you just need to focus on recovering from surgery.

I think today is your surgery - hope it goes well. I had my period during my surgery and it was no big deal. I told the nurse and she gave me an industrial size pad (no tampons while under anasthesia) and the whole thing went fine.

How did you lose so much so fast? That is astounding! Any tips for someone at the beginning of this (I'm 7 weeks post surgery?)

I had my first fill four weeks after surgery of 5cc in a 10cc band. I had small restriction for the first few days but then was back to feeling barely any restriction, so I went back for another fill a couple weeks later. The doc added 1cc but I couldn't even keep saliva down, so I went back the next day to take liquid out. He took out 1.2cc so my stomach calmed down, but then I was back to no restriction. I went back a week later for a fill and he put back 1cc (which left me at 5.8 cc's) and I was ok for a few hours and then started vomiting saliva again. Went back to the doc the next day (which was yesterday) and he took out .5 cc so now I'm 5.3 cc approximately. I can keep down liquids (coffee, tea, water, protein shakes) but haven't tried anything heavier. It's wierd that a tenth of a cc can make such a difference.

EbonyRose I feel your pain! I live in NY where it's illegal to talk on a cell phone without a headset. The other day I got a fill and was too tight so was vomiting saliva every ten minutes. I was driving and was stopped at a light and leaned over to vomit into my cup, and two seconds later a cop pulls me over. He's like I pulled you over because it seems you were talking on a cell phone. I said absolutely not, I don't feel well and was throwing up into a cup, and I picked up the cup and kind of held it near the window. He got a look of utter disgust on his face and fled back to his car and drove away. It was hilarious!

I did have a meal the night before. I'm an accountant and had surgery during tax season, and worked a 15 hour day the day before surgery. I definitely ate at work the night before. I'm not telling you to do that, but it didn't cause me any problems.

When you become an expert at throwing up into a cup while driving. Love this thread!

20 pounds is great! I was supposed to be on a liquid diet two weeks pre-surgery but couldn't get through it and cheated ALOT, and my surgery was completely fine. You will be fine tomorrow, don't worry. Good luck!

I actually asked the psychologist who did my evaluation if he has ever stopped someone from getting the band, and he said he hasn't and won't. He said that he wouldn't want it on his conscience that he stopped someone who wants this surgery from getting it, and that he will tell the surgeon that someone may not be a star pupil but he won't ever write something to stop anyone from qualifying.

I get nauseous when I have an unfill, and I keep having a gag reflex where I want to throw up even though I don't have to. Maybe you also get nauseous when you have an unfill? I've had two in the last week (one was this morning) and I'm still pretty nauseous.

I have a 10 cc band and my first fill was five cc's. Second was 1 cc but I had thrown up recently before the fill (the nurse said I could have a fill anyway - BIG mistake) and couldn't swallow my own spit after. Next day I had 1.25cc removed, and today (6 days later) I had 1cc put back in. So now I'm at 5.75cc and pray that this will be a good restriction level. With 5 cc in my band I had almost no restriction, and could eat everything in pretty large quantities.

Can you fast losers tell me what you're eating to see such great results? I am 7 weeks post-op and am still not sure what you all mean when you say "eat by the rules". Can you give me some direction? I want to be a fast loser!!!

You'll feel totally fine, the only thing you'll need to do is prepare the kind of food you'll be allowed to eat. You'll prob be transitioning to mushies around then and will have to be creative about portable filling mushy foods. Have fun!