auntlucy

Orange, I'll certainly pray for you too. Are you exercising regularly. If not, you might want to add some walking. If you are exercising, you might try switching up your exercise routine by trying a new form of exercise for a while. You have done great so far and are already a great success story! While you have more to lose, you should be proud of yourself.

I tried to anticipate some of the emotions before I had my surgery, and then I decided in advance how I would deal with them. Of course, there have been a few things that I didn't anticipate, but for the most part, my pre-planning has helped. I would encourage you to find a good counselor (perhaps the person who did/does your psych eval) that you can talk with if you need to after your surgery.

I lost 2 more pounds this week! So, just a few more to go to be in the 2's! It's funny, b/c Tess's post was a great idea and it really has helped me stay focused this week. Thanks again for the great post Tess!

Allison, I feel for you! Hang in there and try to work through this with your friend. He obviously cares about your well-being and isn't sure how to help you. If he's someone who can't seem to keep his big insensitive mouth shut, maybe the two of you could come up with a code word for when he feels he just can't keep his comments to himself. At least that way he would get it out and no one else would know what he's talking about. Plus, if you told him that, he might realize how ludicrous it is that y'all were having to come up with a code word. :frown:

Jilian, I really like the New whey Protein bullets. I mix them with crystal light, and it's basically just like drinking crystal lite. You can also just take a shot of it without adding it to anything (it's sort of the consistency of Jello before it sets). I think the 3 oz size has 42 oz of protein and around 180 calories. That could be a great way to get extra protein in. I would make up a big glass and sip on it throughout the morning. Good luck!

That is so great that you and your cousing are both getting banded. You will both have built in support! My best advice for you is to enter into it with the right frame of mind. In other words, do this for your health. After the surgery, don't focus on how much you are losing. Instead, focus on doing the right things to let your body heal. Once your body has healed, turn your focus to changing your eating behaviors to go along with your new healthy lifestyle. You will likely have periods when you don't feel like the scale is moving as rapidly as you think it should. Try not to get frustrated and remember that your body is going through a lot of changes. Just keep doing what you are supposed to do and wait it out. Before you know it, the scale will start moving again. Good luck to you and your cousin both! This has been a great move for me, and I'm so happy I made the decision. :frown:

I hardly ever burped before surgery, but I also found that I burped a lot for the few weeks after surgery. The good news is that (in my experience) it went away over time. I did find that after my first fill I burped more, but again, that subsided. If your experience is like mine, it should get better!

Way to go Tess! That's great! The scale hasn't moved much for me this week, but I know that sometimes it's like that, so I'm not discouraged by it!

Welcome Waynette! Wow...there are quite a few of us in McKinney! Please let me know if there is any way I can support you as you start your journey.

I was off work for 1 week. I work in an office and am in a lot of meetings all day. But, the point is that I don't have a physically strenuous job. While I was fine to go back, I did get tired very quickly. I encourage you to force yourself to get up and walk quite a bit during your recovery--even if you don't feel like it (of course don't overdo it and let your body heal). It should help you when you go back to work.

You can do it! I didn't think i was going to make it through the post-op liquid phase, and now when I look back on it, I forget how long it really was! You will be through it before you know it!:biggrin2:

Congrats Rhonda! I'm excited for you! It's been a great move for me, and I'm having a lot of success. It's slowly changing my life. Who is your surgeon? Let me know if you need any support! We McKinney girls need to stick together!

Are you getting enough protein? You might want to check with a nutritionist as well.

Fenton, you are right! Tess and I are strangers but are somehow on this journey together. She may just be my lapand BFF before long!

I know what you mean kizzie! I am really reclaiming my life, and my band is just one of my tools helping me. I've been doing pilates and gyrotonics for the last 2 years, and it's really hard for me to get there after work since the studio hours are not good with my schedule. I just bought my own studio-quality pilates equipment. It was definitely a dream come true, and I know it will help me reach my goals. Good luck with your surgery plans. You might want to talk with the doctor about whether or not you will be able to return to work on Monday after a Friday surgery. I don't think I could have done it, but we are all different. I took a full week off, and I actually needed it.

I'm trying to get some work done at home, and I can't seem to pull myself away from this site! :incazzato: I think I'm addicted!

I have found that my tastes are changing! I was talking to a friend who was on his way to pick up pizza for his family a few weeks ago. In the past I would have thought, "ooohhh pizza! maybe I'll have that for dinner." But now I thought, "oooohhh! I think my body would reject that. It doesn't even sound good. I think I have some great salmon in the refrigerator that I can cook!" Just go into this with the right frame of mind (doing it for your health)! I do still crave ice cream, but I haven't had any since my surgery. It's my trigger food, and I'm nervous about trying it again!

It's up to you to set the boundaries that you need to be successful. You might need to have some one-on-one conversations with them. It sounds like they are try to help. So in each conversation, I would say, "I know you are trying to help me and I really appreciate that! I can definitely feel the support. Do you mind if I share with you some ways that you could help me be successful?" Then, assuming they say they will be glad to help you any way they can, tell them what you need. Describe for them what it looks like. Be honest about your feelings. You justifiably have some frustration over it, so try to get that frustration out prior to these conversations. If you have one or two people at work who are really good friends that you can talk to, you might want to talk it out with them first and role play it. I told only the people at work that I felt like needed to know (primarily b/c we are close and b/c we have a lot of lunch meetings--I thought it would be obvious). When it became noticeable that I was losing weight, a few of them kept saying, "how many pounds so far?" I finally let them know that I appreciated their concern, but that it was a very private matter to me and I'd prefer to not talk about the pounds...plus, I didn't want that to become my main focus. Instead, I talk openly to them about my non-scale victories (example: fitting into that old pair of jeans). I know it's hard. I'm rooting for you as you work to set the boundaries that you need to be successful. You can do it!

mrshobo, I'm sorry you have had troubles with it. Do they think they will be able to try again? I can't imagine how you are feeling.

Try to have patience! Your body is still healing and it has been through some trauma with the surgery. My surgeon doesn't do fills before 2 months after surgery (I know they are all different), but it seems like if you were just banded late May that it may be a little soon. Your plateau once you started eating a few more calories with the mushies is normal. I definitely had that and actually gained a little weight. But, I focused on what my doctor said to focus on...letting by body heal properly by following his instructions. I didn't obsess with the fact that I had gained a few and that I wasn't seeing the scale move back downward for a little while. But, as my body adjusted, I then started losing it again. Now, I'm not quite 3 months after surgery, and I've lost 45 pounds! I like the advice my doctor gave. After surgery, your focus should be on letting your body heal. Once your body is healed, then your focus should shift to learning to eat the right way. What he didn't tell me but that I have learned is that when I followed his advice, the weight will come off! Iknow you want the instant gratification, but if there was a magic cure for our obesity, we would have already taken it.

Felicia, I'm glad to hear that he responded well. I respect your openness about it all. My choice was different...I have told very few people, and that's been right for me.

I would consult with your doctor. If you call their office, I'm sure they'd give you some guidance on the right number of calories for you. The number of calories you should be eating is highly dependent on several factors--your height, weight, whether male or female, how much you exercise, etc. So, it's going to be hard to gauge from here since you won't know that info about the people posting. As for me, I get anywhere from 800 to 1200 calories a day. (I try to stay around 1000.)

I also found out through this that I'm alergic to the adhesive. Wow...that part was almost worse than the surgery. I got big blistering sores from it.

My surgeon told me to let soapy water run over the incision sites and then rinse in the same way, but not to scrub them. The redness sounds normal to me as I also had that. My surgeon told me I could use fingernail polish remover to get the adhesive off, but he warned me not to get it in the incisions as it would hurt a lot. Since I don't like pain, I waited and got it off gradually every time I bathed. Of course, you should always contact your doctor if you are concerned. Don't be shy about that...that's what they are there for! Happy healing!

You should try to get in touch with your doctor ASAP if you have a hole there and have that much oozing. I'm not trying to scare you, but it's definitely better to be safe than sorry.