flowers

Make sure you go back for your last fill and tell them it needs to be more aggressive, since it still isnt up to where they told you the fills were. You should have a lot of resistance by now after getting fills for one year. I would not be happy with losing so little in a year. I too have free fills for a year, but they tack on $100 fluoro charge, so its not really worth the cost to travel back to where I got banded, so Im going to be paying cash for each fill. Im just planning on sucking it up and paying.

I walked my mile last night. Im kinda afraid to push it too hard. I want to get back to walking in the morning and at night. Right now my disolving stiches havent dissolved so the waist of my pants rubs against the stiches and Im afraid of harming the stiches by too much activity yet. I asked if the stiches would come out by themselves, now I wish Id asked how long it takes for them to come out. I could email them, but guess Ill give it another week first. Im a self pay and no insurance to cover anything.

I went to Dr. Naketa in Juarez, its right across the border and you fly into El Paso. I think you need to decide which gateway city is the most conveinent and which price and doctor you like and weigh all the factors. Im in Texas, so El Paso was my choice. You can also go thru Larado, but I had heard too many bad things about that city and drugs and the hospital was a couple of hours over the border, so I refused to consider that gateway city. tons of good choices.

lol Im not sure I would describe the dress as anything but a balloon to cover me, its a size 24. But I cant go into the dining room on the ship and have lobster unless I get into a nice dress and dont want to buy yet another dress to wear one time. Right now seeing 235 lbs looks good and Im trying not to get upset about how much further I have to go in 2 months to not have my boobs bursting thru the top of the dress hahahhahahahahha

I came out of surgery asking when is dinner served. Been hungier than usual ever since, but Im losing. will power.

Im sustible to anything with sugar, so Im doing low gi (which is what the southbeach diet is based on). I am still on mushys, but I lost 9 pre opt and down 4 in the last week and will go back on low gi totally when I can eat what I want. Weightwatchers for me isnt as good.

Most say it takes approx 3 fills to hit your sweet spot, because they dont want to do the fills too aggressively, so after your first fill, you probably will have some resistance, but not as much as you need. I just got attacked elsewhere for having two SF popsicles and some V8, etc. ??!! At least I didnt eat something worse. I got lectured about not grazing and snacking and that I need to check my attitude. Easy to say after you are already at your sweetspot. ....from another in bandster heck.

Hi all, Im only planning on walking around the block here, approx 1.5 miles, I did maybe a mile last night, getting back to it. I didnt want to walk at all, but made myself get out and do it. Id been grazing all night and thought I needed some exercise. (SF stuff, but still nothing wrong with my appetite at this point). Yep, we can all give each other a kick in the butt.

I know Im insulin resistance and any sugars over react in my body. They have proven you can have up to a 300% insulin surge compared to a normal person but I get doubters too, everyone says Im just overeating. I too wasnt but at most 10 lbs overweight thru my 30s, and hit menopause. Saying having the surgery now is your last resort, is probably not true, I wanted it earlier and then finally sprang for it myself and am self pay. My BMI was in the 38s, about where yours is.

Im in Richardson, not far from you'all. There are some scheduled dinners and stuff from lapbanders in the DFW area. Im not banded long enough to be mentoring anyone, but wanted to say hellow from another Dallas person.

You and I are band buddies it seems, I was banded a week ago too. I am not rushing it. I am walking, but not as far as before my surgery and only in the last two days. I came home pretty tired. This month is for recuperation from surgery and Im taking it that way. I finally dropped 2 more lbs. last night, so Im down 4 lbs to your 6 lbs, so you are ahead of me there too.

I was told the number of incisions depends on how many the doctor needs to see everything, more if you weigh more. I never was told it was even possible to have a open incision all the way down. Iv been upset that my main incision is 3 inches long when I was lead to expect it would be about 1 inch. You dont look like you weigh all that much from your BMI, so I have to say Id have been surprised and upset in your case. I still feel like Im recoving, draggy, cant breath deep, ribs bruised etc.

The lapband has only been approved in the US for about 5 years, so you are going to have a hard time finding a lot of US citizens with a band for the last 5 to 10 years. Do you speak Spanish?? Maybe find a Mexican board, or a board aimed at Europeans if you need to speak with longer term banders. PS I have been banded now, maybe if you have a specific question I can answer? Or someone else can.

My Dad just wanted to let me know that I needed to do more exercising, that walking wasnt enough or I would have flabby skin (which I will anyway) if I lose a lot of weight. My parents havent a clue how to be supportive. If I needed to find an actual person who is really supportive, Id be hard pressed.

Am I reading this right, you were banded last Sunday and upset about only being down 10 lbs. I was banded the 9th, and finally last night dropped to being down 4 lbs. What's wrong with me? :frown: I have no restriction and have felt since I woke up from surgery I could eat anything.

Hi, China Doll, another Texan here. Im banded and down a few pounds, about 11 lbs since I submitted my application for surgery, self pay so its all out of my pocket. Hey, I cant wait to be where you started, in regular sizes so I can shop in real stores instead of online. I walked last night, but making excuses tonight, tomorrow!!! Trying to get back to my late night walking schedule in the Texas heat. PS, I decided no excuses tonight, so I went out and walked one more block further south than I did last night. Iv had one of those days where I could eat my hand. Made chicken salad from some rotisseire chicken, a can of Protein shake, then 2 popsicles, then a virgin V8 bloody mary, still hungry, more chicken, all that since 4 pm. So I made myself walk. How are you doing on your journey?

My parents are very skinny and have trouble making themselves eat. So you can imagine their answer was just to diet and use will power. I went ahead with it. I think all you can do is show them with results. Sometimes people will sabatoge your efforts. For whatever reason they dont want you to be the person you can be with the band. You just have to turn a deaf ear. I know I would have been hurt to have a friend post a thread about me, Iv been hurt more than several times by things that happened online and now learned not to share personal things.

Im in at 237, lets be honest. I guess Im counting down to Onederland, (once again, been there more than a year ago). Here we go again, I know I can do it. I need to be 200 - 220 lbs to get into a cruise dress Sept 7 - 14th for formal night.

The surgeons have more experience. Lapband has been legal in other countries for much longer than the U.S. Care, I was one of three with 2 doctors and 5 nurses and a nutrionalist. The General Manager came over to shake my hand when I checked in. Instead of a nurse monitoring me, I had a real doctor, hard to find in US hospitals. Price and convenient for me. I live in TX, so it was only a few miles over the border. Ill bet 99% banded in Mexico will tell you they were treated like a Princess and pampered. I was on a IV for 24 hours, here in the US you recover for an hour and are sent home to take care of yourself.

I was on a IV for 24 hours when I was in Mexico, so I actually gained 3 lbs. Protein will build muscle which in turn will burn the fat on your body. I know when I did Nutrisystem they actually added Protein powder to 99% of their food, thats why their food works so well. They add soy bean protein powder. You almost have to get used to the slight taste as its in your dinner, your evening brownie etc. You need between 60 - 80 grams of protein a day once you are able to get there on this diet. I know Im not there, and not hardly losing because of it. Maybe it would be better to say Protein will give you more energy?

wow, Im surprised. Its hard to know how you stack up against others. I had clear liquids for 3 days and my doctor said I could try mushy foods and see how I tolerated them. I snuck one small teaspoon of unsweetened applesauce the end of 2 days post op and it tasted divine. I came out of surgery asking when is dinner. (I was in a hospital). Im 5 days post op and eating mushy food, tried 1/2 packet of oatmeal tonight. Had the beans from a taco platter for lunch, had to give the rest of the platter to my family. Melted some laughing cow cheese into the beans because its super soft anyway. I do need to work on getting enough protein in now though. Im forcing down a can of protein Boost tonight. Drinking water with protein, but still not getting enough. Also not losing weight yet. I think a lot of this is to help you lose some weight fast. I could eat pretty much anything from day 1 if they would let me, but know I cant. I havent tried any meat yet though. I wonder why you had trouble tolerating mushy food? Maybe from so long on liquids?

You say THE protein shake as if it must be a particular one? Im just using Boost that I had originally bought for my Dad, I had 2 six packs of the protein shakes. They dont seem as bad as I anticipated, but I have a slew of SF flavored syrups. I added raspberry and carmel to vanilla yesterday and today Im adding chocolate and carmel. I also have chocolate protein powder, but might as well try and drink up the protein Boost so it doesnt go to waste. Im not getting very many of them down very fast to be honest. I need to start forcing myself to get more protein down.

Are you sure you didnt misunderstand? Many (not me) are placed on a liquid diet, not a "clear liquid" diet. I did clear liquids the day before and 3 days afterwards.

The Protein builds muscle which in turn will lose the weight. I am seriously not getting in all my protein and still only down about 1 lb since surgery because of it, but I am just now on mushy foods and its hard to eat enough at first to get in your protein. I lose weight faster,as do all people, with higher protein intact. The more muscle you build with the protein the more fat you will burn. Im newly banded, but have lost weight before, and can tell you protein works to take off those lbs. As far as how fast you lose, everyone is different. I came home from surgery up 3 lbs from where I started. I went to Mexico and it could be the liquids from the IV or just swelling they said. At least Im finally down a tad. Iv been looking at a lot of tickers and looks like many can shed 100 lbs pretty easily in 10 months or less if they work their band.

I dont think you will be able to smoke afterwards without being in danger of band slippage. Im still at the sore stage and coughed twice and boy does it hurt. You dont notice a little cough now, but you will when your stomach is so sore. Coughing can also cause slippage after you are banded. I too choose to be banded in Mexico, for the price, even though as the other poster says there are places in the US for less than $10K, like Dallas at TLCEdge and in Colorado. I was nervous, but my parents were nervous wrecks about me going to Mexico.