JulieNYC

I resisted morning exercise for YEARS. I thought I was just one of those people who couldn't work out in the morning and that the world had it wrong when they said to get in your workout in the morning to feel the best and make sure it happened. Every time I'd try, I hit the snooze and made myself miserable trying to get up. Then when exercise really became a part of my daily life, I just had to move it to the mornings to get it done. Now it's habit and I look forward to it. I sleep better, I have better energy in the day. It's "me time" before my day starts and I wouldn't trade it.

Yes, I'm staying with my dad again for the recovery. At least for 2 weeks. I hope to go home before Thanksgiving, but if it's after, that's ok too. Yes, I'll post the "befores" -- maybe not until I have afters to share as well -- the befores are depressing to me right now. Once I have the afters it won't seem so depressing.

Betty, I'm so sorry you're having such a tough spell. The medical issue with your daughter sounds so scary and I'm glad it's under control. Wow. Just what you needed, huh? Maybe you DO have a leak. You know? I mean this much fluctuation in restriction level just isn't normal. I'll be interested to hear what your tech says. Guess I won't hear until I wake up from my PS, since they're on the same day!

Wow. You know, I read the title of this thread and I thought, I'm going to go find one of my old posts and link to it instead of retyping the same thing again, which is that if you suspect you're overfilled, you're overfilled, plain and simple. Shows what I know, because I actually think you're the first one I've seen whom I don't think is overfilled! Sounds like anxiety. 4 cc's in a 10cc band is almost like nothing. It takes 3-4 cc's to hold the VG in place -- in a neutral position. I have a VG and I had 4 cc's put in in surgery. My first fill took me to 6 cc's. Anyway, give yourself some time. If the anxiety doesn't subside, don't discount there being something else physical going on, but it doesn't sound, from your description, to be that you're overfilled. I can't believe I'm saying that! Good luck and take care,

I'm with Ghost in that losing weight and managing the rest of the things going on in your life are on a balance. Bandsters can lose 100% of their excess weight. I'm at 97% and I plan to get to 100% and stay there. But I have several things going for me that are out of the norm: (1) I live alone and can completely control my food environment at home (no cooking for spouses, etc.), (2) I'm young and healthy so I've become a distance runner, and (3) my father is a plastic surgeon, so I can have the excess skin removed that will take me to goal. Don't settle for 40-60% if you don't want to. But likewise, the price for getting from, say 85% to 100% may not be worth the life sacrifice for some people -- maybe even most people. And that's ok. Life is a balance. Coming from 350+ or from any weight that merits banding, weighing, say, 155 when some table says you should weigh 136 (as an example for a woman my age who is 5'2) is an extreme success. Find your balance.

I'd bet the farm on you needing a fill. Finding the right fill level is the key to making the band work (whether too much or too little fill). Other than being busy (as we all are), do you think there may be other reasons why you waited a year to get a fill? There may be issues there that you want to think about and see if they're getting in the way of your future success. And 55 lbs is great. Congratulations!

Yeah. Losing, where'd you get a picture of my arm! Actually, my arm is worse. Seriously. I'm going to take some "befores" tonight. Now that surgery is NEXT WEEK. Oh my goodness -- I'm so ready to have this behind me....

I did my last pre-marathon race today. It was a 5 miler that I ran in 45 minutes. That's 9 minute miles even. WOOHOO! It was so incredible. This was the marathon week "kickoff" and the race ran the last 5 miles of the marathon course, including ending at the actual finish line where they have all the bleachers set up, etc. It was SO AMAZING. I can't wait for next week. Yall have to watch the recap on TV, OK? I'll post details. Hugs,

Marys, You have no idea how happy I am to see your post! I'm so glad for you and you know LBT is always here to help. The new job sounds great too! All the best, Julie

So, the marathon taper (i.e. when you quit running so much in the 2 weeks before the race to store your energy) is really hard! All I want to do is run! My ankle is appreciating the break though, so that's good. Other than that, no news. 10 days to the marathon.

I was really worried about that pre-TT and it wasn't an issue. I was worried because I'd just started running about 2 months pre-TT and I spent such a long time working up to being able to run 3 miles that I just couldn't fathom having to start from scratch again. I remember getting on the treadmill at week 6 and saying "I'm just going to run 30 seconds" like at the beginning of the training. I ran the 30 seconds, then kept going for about 5 miles. It was awesome! So, no, my cardio definitely stayed with me during the recovery. My trainer said I lost a little strength, but that it only took about 2 sessions to get me back to my old weights. I couldn't tell a difference, certainly not for long. In short, my exercise routine was dramatically improved by my PS, not hurt.

Exactly, exactly, exactly! Quit eating the SECOND you think you CAN (i.e. satisfied not stuffed) -- don't wait until you're overfull, be it at 15 min or 30 min. It took me months to get that straight. You'll feel so much better once you can master that.

After the TT, I took 3 weeks completely off -- no exercise at all. Then I did 3 weeks of LIGHT walking. At week 6 I was released to run and strength train again. I'm very worried about this for the next surgery because I'm likely doing #2 and #3 exactly 6 weeks apart, which likely means 12 weeks of almost no exercise. I signed up for a 1/2 marathon in late April to make sure I get back into it this spring....

I think there's probably an ethical wall for referral bonuses between patients and doctors. I've never thought about that before, but for lawyers there is.... I bet we can come up with some other lapband related ideas to pay for PS, new clothes, etc....

I've got a seatbelt extender (for a plane) that needs a good home. Whomever PMs me first with their address, it's yours. I'll even throw in (US domestic) postage because I "borrowed" it from the airline and that'll be my penance!

You cause me pain, Jackie! (wink) It's not a "few weeks yet" -- it's 2 weeks 1 day and 12 hours! Hahaha. I could put that in minutes for you, if you'd like! (Excited, anyone? Uhm, yeah, maybe just a little!)

Well, I thought it was time to leave the old TT thread and start a separate one for my lateral thigh lift and brachioplasty that are coming up on November 8th. I figured months and years down the road, it'll be easier for someone considering the different procedures to find info if the threads are appropriately titled, so I'll have a thread for this surgery, and then probably another for the medial thighs and mons lift that I have planned for December 20th (assuming all goes well with the recovery from the November 8th surgeries). As backgound for anyone who hasn't followed my first round of PS, I had an extended TT and breast lift on March 28, 2007, approximately 11 months after my band was placed. I am 5'2 (when I stand very very tall!) and I started at 358 lbs. I was at 199 when I had the first PS, which was somewhat controversial because obviously 199 isn't goal for someone who is 5'2. I went ahead with it because my pannus was so large and completely in my way in terms of exercise and the timing coincided with a job change, which gave me the time off I needed. Plus, I'm in the fortunate position of having a father who is a plastic surgeon, so cost wasn't too much of a concern (it's not free, but it's close) if and when I needed a revision (which, BTW, I do need). Lateral Thighs OK, so November 8th. The lateral thigh lift is the last MAJOR surgery I'll likely have from my morbid obesity. It's a very big surgery, particularly for me because I have an extreme amount of excess skin on my legs and bottom. Basically, they will re-open my TT scar on the sides and continue it around until it nearly makes a circle, as if I was wearing a belt. Then they pull up the outer thigh and butt. I'm expected to lose about 5-7 lbs in skin. It's not expected that I'll need any lipo in conjunction because I'm supposedly quite thin, but for the skin (or so they tell me). Supposedly there will be some improvement to the inner (medial) thighs as well, but they do think it's a near certainty that I'll want a separate operation for that, even though the scar is bad and many people would rather live with the excess skin. Mine is extreme enough that they think the scar will be outweighed by the improvement. Medials will likely be December 20th, along with a mons lift. Brachioplasty (arm lift) As for the brachioplasty (arm lift), I've been working out my arms for 2 years with a trainer my muscles are really great (if I say so myself!). I toyed with not having the arms done. Like the medial thighs, the scar is really bad if you're not a candidate for having them done through the arm pit (my hang is all the way to the elbow, so I'm not a candidate). Once again, my Dad said that the scar is bad, but that my extra skin is bad enough to justify it. If my Dad weren't the PS, I don't know if I would be having the arms done. I trust him completely when he says it will be worth it. I guess it's that I know the extra skin is bad, it's just that the legs are SO SO bad that I don't question them for a moment. the arms, well, I usually wear sleeves and they just don't bother me as much. Anyway, I'm doing it. As it can be done in conjunction with the lateral thighs, there's not much more surgical risk, so that's the plan. I will post pictures along the journey, including before shots. 16 days in counting. I expect this will take me from being a size 6P to a size 2P (on bottom) -- something I truly can't fathom as I still see a heavy girl when I look in the mirror. I don't know if my top (4P) will change a size or not. Probably not. My rib cage is large for my frame and I don't find myself not buying things because they're too small in the arms -- they're more likely to not zip up the side, etc. So there we have it. This forum was such a major source of support during my first round of PS. I look forward to sharing this journey with you as well. To be continued....

I'm so, so sorry. That's just a bummer plain and simple. Hang in there. Your body is fabulous just as it is and you'll enjoy it just as it is until you can get rescheduled.

Thanks guys. I'm doing better today! Marathon in one week and six days -- WOOHOO! Then surgery practically HOURS after that (96 hours, but still). Things are looking UP in my life, man problems or not. I do appreciate the support. It came at a great time and I thank you.

I tripled it when I did it and that really helped (meaning, I did each "day" three times before moving to the next step). It made me feel like I was doing something but I was losing enough weight so that I didn't hurt myself by the time I was actually running the longer segments. Get released to exercise, then go at your own pace. Never run 2 days in a row and don't run through pain. Cardio stress is fine, some discomfort WHILE running can be expected at first, but if you have pain after running, back it off until your body can handle it. The goal is to be able to run for years and years to help combat this weight we all struggle with. Running is a MAJOR tool, if you can make use of it! (I'm running the NYC marathon on November 4th -- one week and six days from now. I started with the couch to 5K plan in January of this year, so it really, really can work!)

Like the others, even though I was a high BMI patient, I wanted a tool that would be adjustable FOREVER, not just another method for quick weight loss (I'd had successes losing before through Nutrisystem and Optifast and I was looking to head off the regain). I also wanted to let my body absorb foods naturally unless I couldn't be successful, in which case I'd still consider bypass if that ever proves to be the case. Hopefully I'll never know. As for PS, PS's will tell you that losing slow or fast won't affect your skin issues in the long run. If you lose slowly, your skin has time to shrink WHILE you're shrinking, so you may look a little better during the process. But if you lose quickly, your skin will still contract just as much, it's just that it might be a little saggier during the loss phase. In other words, 2 years out, both the ones who lost quickly and the ones who lost slowly will come out the same (assuming a healthy loss in both instances). Don't worry about PS at this stage. I need a lot of it, have had some of it, and loose skin at its worse is still better than carrying 200+ extra lbs, as I was. Thigh lift on Nov. 8 -- can't wait!

Pat, Congratulations. That's just awesome!

I only have to live with them for SIXTEEN more days. WOOOOOHOOOO! Tracy, you made my day. My BF broke up with me on Friday and now all I care about is obessing about getting this damned surgery behind me. Gives me something to obsess about other than him, which is helpful. Gotta tell you all though, this stage is not a bed of roses. I'm having pretty radical emotional swings with food. On the one hand, I've been told to not lose more weight prior to the surgery and I want to be a compliant patient. On the other hand, I still feel fat and it feels good (emotionally) to eat very little. I'm hoping the surgery will let me see the thin person that I am. If not, I'm going to work very hard to not trade one eating disorder (compulsive overeating) for another (struggling to force myself to eat enough to maintain).

Dawn, CONGRATULATIONS on the -200 milestone. That's so amazing. I hope you can see that anything else is just gravy. Don't you remember at the start of this journey how long of a road -200 seemed? I remember thinking "why bother" that's such a long road. Our bands are a great thing. Boo, I don't think it's a stress fracture. I broke the ankle in 4th grade, reinjured it when I was about 26, and it's just one of those problem areas for me. I've been running on it and it doesn't get any worse. I can get it totally pain free with ice and advil. It's going to be FINE for the marathon -- I'm sure of it. On a personal front, I had gotten reasonably serious with a great guy (I'd only mentioned in in passing because I'm so new to this) and he called things off kind of out of the blue last Friday. So, this is my first post-band breakup. And my first breakup in like 15 years. So I'm struggling with sadness and, worst of all, with food. I'm having bad food issues -- swinging between wanting to binge and wanting to eat literally nothing. Either end of the spectrum seems to patch the emotional holes. Weird how that's the case. I'm working on it. I recognize it has little to do with him and everything to do with how I cope with life stress.

Ankle still bad. Taking advil and icing it. Not going to un until Sunday, if then. Worried.