Melody2006

I was banded in December for a number of reasons, one being that I have been putting up with PTC for years, managing it with meds. Of course those of us who are overweight typically hear that if you lose the weight, it might go into remission. But like I said, I have many other reasons for wanting to lose the weight. Currently my PTC is being managed with Diamox Sequals (1000 mg morning, 1500 mg night) and Topamox (2x day), I would love to reduce the amount of medication I am on if ever possible.

I was wondering if there are any bandsters out there who have successfully managed their PTC with weight loss? I personally think PTC is something that is not understood, but if my journey can include this perk, it would be great.

Thanks,

eko

I have PTC disease but I have a vp brain shunt to manage my ptc symptoms. It was great to loose all the weight, sure. But since my shunt was non-programmable it stripped all the Fluid off my brain and caused me to have ANOTHER brain shunt replacement. Well, least now I have a programmable shunt. So the weight loss made a huge difference in my spinal Fluid levels. So much so it cost me another brain surgery. So yes, you will need less meds. Count on it as the weight drops off.

I was banded July 15, 2008. I got down to my goal weight of 135, but loosing all the weight set off my brain shunt and caused me to have to have a brain shunt revision on July 4, 2010. I gained 20 pounds back from eating ice cream and crap after my brain surgery this year because I was in stress and pitty mode. I was doing it for about 3 months solid and I saw the weight creep on pretty fast and it freaked me out.

Now yesterday a person that got banded the same day as I did and by the same doctor had to have emergency surgery to have her lap band removed. This is the 2nd person I know directly I've seen this happen to. It just ate into the wall of her stomach. She thinks maybe it was from letting her band be too tight from fills for too long.

I went back to the dietitian and explained that I was at goal, but gained 20 back and I need to get back to goal. He said that this far out your body has adjusted to eating 900-1200 calories a day so no dieting in the world is going to get the weight off now. I need to exercise it off in addition to diet and that he see's the re-bound effect like this quite often. Now what if I had a slip or had to have my band removed. No way could I eat 900 calories a day on my own. If I'm struggling now with the band, what if I lost the band?

I'm having port revision surgery on Dec. 8th because my port is flipped sideways and has been for about 6 months now and looks like a babys fist sticking out of my gut near my waist band. They are giving me a low profile port. I'm nervous because I've seen everyone around me that I know personally who's had lapband either have a port revision, a removal from erosion, or lost only 30 pounds or less after a year or a year plus.

Everyone says be grateful I came this far and quit being hung up on the numbers and forget about getting back to 135. I'm just in panic mode thinking if I loose this band, I'm back to being fat for sure because I'm struggling now.

Sam's club sells a huge container for a good price. Best deal on it I've ever found.

I did BOTH the seasonal and the H1N1 vaccine. I received the nasal mist H1N1. I had absolutely NO side effects. I did the seasonal early October, and the H1N1 2 weeks ago.

I work in a hospital in the PEDS department.

So far I'm down 113 pounds. My ultimate goal is 135. I did get down to 138, but then started blowing off good eating habits and food journaling so I shot back up to 147. I had to get back in control. I question if my ultimate goal weight is too low with my left over skin, but I was 138, so I know for me that's only an excuse. I'm not that flabby.

I food journaled every bite and sip on livestrong.com (it's free) and I say that helped me the MOST. I didn't exercise past always keeping a pedometer on me 24/7 and walking 10,000 steps a day or more. I have some loose skin, but not much at all. I ate 1,200 - 1,500 calories a day. 1,400 being my goal calories for the day. I keep playing around with these last few pounds and I have to kick it into high gear before the end of this year so I can see goal 2009! I really didn't have any real plateaus until now, but now is because I got lazy and had to many "off" days. My own fault. I know food journaling is a pain, but it did the job and on livestrong.com it's easy, FREE and convenient and I'm wearing size 8's because of it !!

I love those things. A week ago I was at a chinese dinner and on the way out I handed a spoonful to a friend. I didn't have any but I was so tempted. Now I feel guilty for encouraging the friend to have some.

If I was in your situation I'd go with the sleeve over gastric.

Over 110 pounds and I only have 3 ccs in a 10cc band. I had to diet and food journal.

$595 for your first fill?!? Heck no. Call that place listed above and get yourself a $95 fill even if you have to drive a ways to get that price.

I have a 10cc band. It was left empty when placed. I've had 3 fills at 1cc each. I have 3ccs total and I'm about at goal weight. I can't do breads well so I know I have restriction. I would not tolerate another fill. I feel I have enough restriction. 3ccs in a 10cc band and food journaling (thedailyplate.com) has gotten me to goal.

I've been doing the daily plate for almost a year now and it's just second nature. So quick and easy. I think I would have been a failure (lost only 20-30 pounds at most and cry about it constantly here) with out it. I'm not saying I never take a day off from doing it, but I do it 97% of the time.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one going threw some of these issues. I'm so close to my self made goal weight (140 is correct for my height, I just wanted to give myself 5 pounds leeway so I could always be a correct BMI).

Now that I'm so close to goal I find myself looking in the mirror and I don't recognize myself. I see a picture of me someone has taken, I don't recognize myself. I now realize how much I look like my mother. I stare and stare at myself in mirrors. Even in full length mirrors in the store. It's so odd.

I have very few clothes (all medium sized basic summer tops for now and hand me down jeans) because I won't go try on clothes because I still have that mindset where when I was fat I hated trying on clothes. When my mom pushes me to try stuff on in stores I flat out refuse. I can't get past it for some reason. When I'm in the store I still find myself cruising threw the plus sized section because that's what I was so used to for so long. I feel sort of out of place now. I'm not sure if I'm punishing myself for not loosing these last few pounds, or my weight loss just happened so fast I'm still in shock. Anyone else going threw this phase?

Another The Daily Plate on LIVESTRONG.COM - Calorie Counter, Weight Loss, food Calorie Counter, Nutrition Facts | LIVESTRONG.COM user here. I'm Melody23 there if anyone wants to add me. I'm a gold member there (I find it very worth the cost) but I used it as a free member for a long time before I went gold, and I think sticking to using it has kept me on track and got me to goal.

July 15th was the 1 year mark for me. I'm so close to goal. 140 was the normal BMI range for my height of 5'3. I thought if I got down to 135, that would give me 5 pounds to play around with. So I'm right about at goal. :thumbup:

I wear scrubs to my hospital job so during my major loss period I just started saftey pinning my pants and wearing Tshirts under the scrub tops. It got so bad I had 3 saftey pins in the waist band of all my pants and one co-worker joked she was going to take a collection up for new scrubs for me.

I guess I was just too scared to buy a bunch of new stuff. I still don't have much and keep telling myself I won't buy all new till I reach goal. 3 more pounds to goal. I did buy all new bras (TJ Maxx and Marshalls) and all new panties. I had to. I lost so much in that area. And replacing ALL your stuff is expensive.

If you have a TJ Maxx or a Marshalls in your area I highly suggest going there. Also Burlington Coat Factory and JC Penny Outlet. I'm lucky to have all 4 not that far from me. I'd be broke if I didn't. :thumbup:

When I was a teen my step mom really pushed douching on us. She was against us using tampons, but insisted we douche. Must just be her generation. When I turned 18 and got out on my own, no more douching and I use tampons. The horror of it all! Needless to say I'm std free and I have had less than 5 yeast infections my entire life. Only when I had to use high doses of antibiotics do I ever get one. Eat yogurt and fruit, avoid douching. Trust me.

I was on Diamox sequels that didn't work, and Topamax. Both did not work for me. I was a complete mess. I'm talking full out excruciating tears daily. I just could not function.

I'm now with in 4 pounds of a normal BMI for my height of 5'3. I still get normal headaches off and on even now that I have a VP shunt. Let me tell you I don't feel that weight loss is the key to this disease. I just don't. I don't feel like loosing all this weight has helped my PTC disease one bit. It's helped my health over all, but not my PTC disease that my shunt keeps in remission. And I fear the day my VP shunt fails again. Deep inside I know it will. I feel I'm facing a life time of revisions like the above poster.

When my shunt is working I'm symptom free, I'm a normal person. When it's not working all my symptoms come back full force. I'm in constant headache hell and I'm throwing up everything due to the extreme head pressure. I'm convinced when and if my shunt fails again, loosing this 123 pounds I've lost won't make a bit of difference in symptoms compared to being 123 pounds heavier when my vp shunt failed. The shunt gave me my life back. Get a VP shunt. It's hell when you first have it placed (you go bald, they cut all your muscles inside to thread the tube down your spine and that healing up feels horrible), but you'll get your life back. And revisions aren't anything like the 1st initial placement.

I have psuedo tumor cerebri disease. I was unable to get control with medication and had to have a VP shunt done. I have been symptom free since my shunt. I did have it stop working once and got very sick and had to have a replacement.

After my replacement, I had lapband done and I'm now 5 pounds to goal. I doubt I would be symptom free and in remission as I am now if I didn't have a VP shunt even with being the correct BMI. I'm curious to hear anyone elses storys that have PTC disease.

I have found that I do have to diet - or make healthy choices for me to lose weight

I have to calorie count. I log every single bite that passes my lips in an online food journal. I believe it's the single key to my success and why I have not had any plateaus and have lost the weight.

I wish I could eat with out thinking, but that's what got me fat in the first place. That, and I couldn't stop after a small amount. I know feeling full won't stop me either. The minute I could get more of the "bad" foods down, I'd go back for more. So why even have it in the house?

I'm not perfect, and I've had several "bad" days in the last 10 months being banded. But I've always left the house to have those and I never brought it home with me. I refuse to let myself live like that ever again. Don't need garbage in my house, and no one else in it NEEDS it either!

I've lost 109 pounds so far and I don't feel I need a Tummy Tuck. I have 13 pounds to go and the only thing I do notice is my upper arms are flabby. I should be doing weights on them and I think that would help. I was just complaining to my mom the other day and she said when you get it on in bed it all lays down flat and guys don't notice. I laughed and felt better.

Unless you have the cash, or really have issues with your body AFTER you get to your goal weight, I say forget the surgery.

I have 13 pounds left to loose and I'm going through all of this. I'm afraid of being my goal weight on one hand. And now I feel like everyone is watching and looking at me now, before I was invisible. I have more self esteem as a person now. So many changes and learning lessons for me through this journey.

I'd like to hear some updates to previous posters of this thread who were going though self struggles. This is an old thread. Do things get better later on?

This was a great read and I agree completely. We are products of our environment and the company we keep. I think this applys to our eating habits as well.

I don't understand the mind set of forgiving someone who wants to keep you down.

It's called low self esteem. And you know a dominant spouse knows how to manipulate their partner if they know they have low self esteem. I've recently learned the hard way with weight loss you don't just gain love for yourself and self esteem. Many (not all) that loose the weight just stay with mentally abusive spouses. Guess someone that was really overweight and took a blow to their self esteem will easily let themselves and their needs take a back seat to do whats easy and what others think is "right" despite how they feel inside. It took them this long to loose the weight, how long is it gonna take them to stand up for themselves and stick to it? :scared2: Just one more blow to the healthy lifestyle for the low self esteem spouse.

Why do we tend to do for others and put ourselves at the back of the line? Not any more - I AM DOING THIS FOR ME!

The sooner you decide to stand up for yourself, the sooner you'll be at goal. Every time you don't it's one small step (of many, many more) backwards for you. If you don't stand up this time, you won't the next time it happens again. And it will happen again because you let it happen the first time. Also if you don't, your not making a lifestyle change for yourself and not letting others realize this is a lifestyle change for you that you will be sticking to and they need to respect that. You set the future for letting it repeat and it will be a constant battle and steps back for you. Being ambiguous is how we got fat in the first place. None of us want to go back to that. Whats so hard or wrong about saying, that/this no longer works for me. If you don't respect yourself, others won't respect you, and your just shooting yourself in the foot. You'd be surprised how quickly people get over it. This is a real powerful thread all of us need to read.

food journal every bite that goes in your mouth. It's a pain, but it's hard facts you have to look at and then you know whats holding you back. Calorie Counter, Diet Tracking, Food Journal, Nutrition Facts at The Daily Plate

It's free and simple to use and it's been my biggest key to

success.

:crying: