flowers

As I said above, Im pretty sure it also has to do with how much you weight. Some posters have BMI well above 50, and if they dont do a presurgery diet, their liver may be too fatty. One poster had to be opened and closed back up because her liver was too fatty. The purpose of the presurgery diet is to shrink your fatty liver. Also, one nurse posted that if your liver is fatty its more slippery and harder to move out of the way to get to your stomach. Restless Monkey, is the ID of the poster who had to be closed up because her liver was too fatty to perform the surgery. Most of us are borderline severly obese, so it may or may not be required to be safe. Some doctors just want you to get a head start. It does vary, but some have to shrink their livers first.

I have all my fills under fluro .... then you know if you are too tight or not enough. Unfortunately my fill doctor wouldnt fill tight like some do. Iv had 1.8, 1.8, .5 and .4, almost not worth going in for, cant tell the difference. I have a 10 cc band. I think Iv had appetite pills that helped me more with appetite supression than the lapband. I am kinda dissapointed, but determined.

I had no pre opt diet. I have heard it depends on how heavy you are. If you are heavier, then there is more need to shrink the liver they think, so if you have a BMI say over 40 then you have to go on it? My surgeon Im sure is different than others.

I didnt have a preopt diet, but I still managed to lose 9 lbs just cutting back. Dont panic you will still be able to eat your old foods, just supposed to try and eat less. Some say their lapband helps more than others, mine doesnt stop me from eating. Iv even been on 3 cruises. Im surprised you have your surgery already scheduled before you have approval from your insurance?? Isnt that unusual?

My Dad has trouble making himself eat enough and got a feeding tube removed recently. Mostly my conversations with my mom consist of what she was able to get my Dad to eat that day. I guess just because I changed, I dont expect everyone else to change their behavior. My parents want me to lose the weight, but are more concerned with themselves. just how it is, why fight it. You see commercials on tv about food, you just have to adjust.

If you lost 34 lbs since your surgery March 31st, I dont get why you feel like you are failing your band. You are supposed to be in recovery. Im surprised they would give you a fill already. My doctor made me wait to schedule after 5 weeks had passed. I also sure wasnt down a much as you are. Maybe your expectations are too high for losing? You might or might not have resistance after the first fill. You might have had swelling after your surgery is why they had to unfill you. My surgeon also wouldnt prefill me, but that may be due to having a realize band. Iv had 4 fills for 1.8 cc, 1.8 cc, .5 cc and .4 cc, way too conservative, so I feel like I still dont really feel enough resistance. The band was a bit of a dissapointment for me, but Im losing, no matter what, even if its a lot harder than I expected.

I dont think there is a basic plan. My fill doctor told me my portions are too big when she looked at my band and stomach under fluor, said to cut back a little on portions so my stomach goes down in size. Eat small portions. Dont drink before or right after or during your meal are rules some follow, but I never did it right. I still drink when Im thirsty.

I do low gi, like I did when I had started nutrisystem. I was used to doing like that and lost better on that than WW because Im sugar sensitive. Southbeach is another low gi type diet.

there is a thread on miralax down on the general threads. A lot of us are taking it. Not dangerous like laxatives, which can make the colon bleed and cause diverculitis (sp). Fiber didnt work for me either. I bought every kind of fiber on the market. Found miralax, and its a wonder drug!!! expensive, used to be prescription until less than 2 years ago, so no generic for it yet.

I stalled out for 5 weeks when I upped my walking to 7 - 10 miles a day. I cut back on my walking to a couple of miles a day on average and suddenly dropped 4 lbs overnight. My last two fills were .5 cc and .4 CC, so Im not surprised 1.0 cc was too tight of a fill for you. My doctor uses fluro and barium swallow to prevent being too tight. Sounds to me like your fill doctor isnt doing them with fluro and waching the barium go down if they filled you too tight. How much are you exercising?? You may be building muscle and burning so many calories your body is conserving them. Lots of exercise usually slows down the scale because muscle weighs more than fat.

jet, buy some miralax, wonderfull stuff to keep you regular without harming you like laxatives. used to be prescription only. costco has it cheap. Its doubtfull you are at your sweet spot, but you could still have some swelling after surgery. Very very few hit their sweet spot in one fill. My doctor wouldnt even come close. I just had my 4th fill to tighten me up. On average from the theads here it taks about 3 fills to hit your sweet spot, so dont expect to his it the first fill. ... and then as you continue to lose you will need fills along the way to stay at your sweet spot. I expect to need another fill after I lose about another 25 lbs.

Mine was clear liquids for 3 days (not Protein shakes) and then mushys until the end of week 4. I was on mushys forever I was so tired of mushys, wanted a taco and Snacks so bad by then. I didnt have a pre opt diet either, but did low fat high protein and lost 9 lbs before I started my time time below. So, Im really down 9 lbs extra in addition to what it shows I lost. I had a fill last Saturday and my fill doctor handed me the cup of Water to drink after the barium fill and said to cut back to not having more than this as a portion, that my pouch was a little extended. My pouch was the same size now as my band, which is bigger than she likes, cut back and shrink my pouch back. If you allow your pouch to get too big then you can have problems with the band slipping up around the stomach. She said it wasnt bad, just warned me to cut back. You really shouldnt ever have more than 1/2 to 1 cup at a time of anything ..... forever. Have that much and if you are hungry later, have more, but dont have a larger portion than that or your pouch will stretch. I just got the talking to and my pouch and band examined on fluro Saturday. Only got a .4 cc fill, hardly worth the $200, but its good to touch base with the doctor when the weight is coming off slower.

I had gas steady for a month before it went away, but no I didnt think I had done the wrong thing. I knew it would eventually work its way out of my system. I get the gas back when I drink Protein shakes even now. I have them today. I had a fill yesterday and had to go on liquids yesterday. I took 2 things for gas today, its up in my chest.... still.

Wasa, I saw elsewhere that you challenged that this was true. I also know getting into a argument with you is counterproductive. I know what works for me. I said above its ok to lower calories once in a while. I used to do it for a weekend and works fine, but long term the weight loss stalled out. Even your post elsewhere said you did it off and on, not every day, or I misread how you did the 600 calories. Glad your sleeve is working for you and you found the answer for you. My answer is more calories overall. Sure as I said above you can cut for a couple of days, but then go back to about 1200 calories, not cut day after day. Because you claim it doesnt hurt to lower calories, the only proof you have is yourself, the same as the proof I have bottom line. Please lets not have one of your infamous arguments here where you go after one person. This isnt my first diet either. We both know what works for our own selves with the amount of exercise we are getting. Just for the record I was the biggest loser on a nutrisystem site for at least 3 months. I lost more lbs a month than much larger men and women. I must be doing something right too when I put the effort into losing. right now Im kinda burnt out on losing, just want to eventually get to goal.

I try to stay around 1200. I think I needed more than that when I was walking 7 to 10 miles a day, my weight loss slowed down. Sparks said I was burning about 750 calories a day walking, and it wasnt enough calories I presume. I cut back on the walking to speed up the loss for now. I go back to the longer walking closer to goal to gain muscles.

Iv lost 2 lbs a week a lot of weeks, and then didnt lose anything for about 5 weeks, so it comes and goes. I expected to be almost to 150 lbs by now, and Im barely under 160, 158 or 159 now. I was banded July 9th.

I had to lose about 55 lbs both this time and when I did nutrisystem before anyone said, hey have you lost weight? Maybe you carry the weight so well people dont notice that you lost 35 lbs. It will be subtle in your face and most people cant tell inches until its really obvious. I think they only noticed when I changed clothes and wasnt wearing the old clothes they were used to seeing me in rather than that it was obvious I had lost. Just tell yourself you are doing this for you, because you cant depend on folks to support you except for the online community here who gets it.

Lowering your calories that low will lower your metabolism long term and slow down your weight loss. Most people in the survey here I read were eating about 1200 calories a day and exercising. Less than 1000 calories is undersirable long term imo. Dont lower them that far other than once in a while if you must. I dont think I lost 9 lbs my first month after surgery and you lost 9 lbs in the first two weeks and are discouraged?? You need to get past that so when you go onto regular foods and dont lose that fast you arent going to get even more discouraged and quit trying. I went into a stall for 5 weeks before I lost. If that happens to you, you dont want to just give up and not eat right, because at some point everyone has points where the weight loss slows up they have to get thru.

Hello to another July butterfly. I hate the whole fill thing. Im totally grossed out when the doctor points our my insides and how they look and usually come so close to fainting, its a close call if I can get my head down fast enough to keep from fainting. I do that at the sight of needles too, cant stop the reaction. My mom said of all people, she thinks I wouldnt be the one to get a lapband where I need to get fills.

I dont think you feel the actual ulcer. I think you feel the effects of the ulcer, the acid and heartburn causes pain.

I flew into El Paso TX where I was meet by a driver who took me into Juarez. We only went thru the good sections of town, where there was a 6 lane highway and I didnt spend the extra night in the hotel, just was ready to come home and a young guy and his mom were coming home so I called and paid to change my flight to come home the next day. I paid $6,500, hotel was included. I never felt unsafe. I pay $200 for each fill but Im driving to Tyler TX from Dallas, which is quite a ways, but I get fluro and barium swallow with each fill so get that reassurance that everything is looking good. I had the choice of bands and seem to have chosen a 10 cc Realize band, even though I cant say it was a informed decision, some say you feel less restriction who post here with a Realize band, I dont know as unless you have had them both how could you possibly compare? My fills have been smaller than others here, 1.8 cc, 1.8 cc and .5 cc, so Im betting the one I get next Sat will also be tiny. I dont seem to be able to handle as much as some others here without being too tight. Everyone is very different thats why one size fill doesnt fit everyone. Dont know if age has anything to do with my losing slow either, Im 58 years old, so menopause has slowed down my metabolism. Had my surgery July 9th, last year. I will add that I lost 9 lbs the couple of weeks pre surgery, so I started at 242 lbs the end of last June.

Mostly I cant feel it, unless I do a lot of twisting in bed when I can't sleep. I can feel it with my hand when I touch the area, its a little poofed out.

I didnt have insurance, so was self pay. I went to Mexico and had it done, no wait, just do it. I decided my life was worth more than the cost of the surgery. Im going in for my 4th fill next Saturday. The cost is what it is, if you are not covered, then you have to decide if its worth it. I personally wouldnt choose the type of surgery based on if insurance covered it or not. I wouldnt have a different kind of surgery just because its covered. My body is important to me as is my health. I am a little nervous when folks post they decided the kind of WLS based on insurance coverage and what they perceive as "long term costs".

Im stuck at 164 - 165 going into 5 weeks now, stuck stuck stuck, no matter what I eat or how much I walk. I want to get to 125 lbs, Im almost 5 7, but small boned. I still look fat, so Im not happy at this weight and dont feel good about how I look, so Ill keep pushing.

Your smiley when it gets translatted to email says you are "glaring". OK, let me say this another way, when I call, they say as a favor to other U.S. doctors, such and such fill doctor will do fills for other U.S. doctors, because they are U.S. doctors. The U.S. doctors stick together. My mistake, I see this isnt the thread I started on trying to find a fill doctor in the Dallas area for $200 or less, there apparantly are none that will fill you if you were banded in Mexico. I too go to Tyler to see Dr. Stephanie. (and I live in Dallas). The U.S. doctors do say they stick together and are trying to exclude anyone who was banded in Mexico, its a fact. It makes a difference where your surgery was performed. I was just saying I think it would save some people some calling around if when someone posts a price, they say where they were banded, if they dont know who the price applies to. Thanks for your input.