2muchfun

Go to top of page under your screen name on the right. Click on the down arrow and select "my patient profile" from the menu. Edit your profile but it looks like it's not working right now. They had some technical problems yesterday and this may be under maintenance right now. tm

Hi Amy, I'm curious. Are you a self pay or will your government run healthcare system pay for your surgery? It would be difficult to for us Americans to have any insurance pay for this unless the co-morbids were extreme. My BMI was around 37 and here most docs won't do the surgery if it's under 35. Although, I find it hard to believe any doctor would turn away $10,000 on a technicality like that? Look forward to you posting your progress, complaints, advice and concerns. tmf

I don't want to rain on your parade but we can all lose or gain a few lbs a day just by our food choices, medications or other bodily functions. I was at 188 4 days ago. I'm now up to 192 and it's all because I chose to eat too much fruit and consumed a lot of sodium. So my body is holding back Fluid or, it was shedding a lot of fluid just 4-5 days ago. Don't look at the scale as a day to day win or loss. Maybe look at it weekly or monthly? You can consume 2000 calories a day and if you exercise and have a fairly active lifestyle you may burn 2500 calories a day. You burn 500 more than you took in. It takes 3500 calories burned to lose 1 lb. So at the end of the week you will have lost 1 lb. But that one pound could be elusive if you ate too many carbs or too much sodium and your body is retaining Water. See what I mean? tmf

"Ask for your limitations and they are yours" Richard Bach-Illusions. What you're are going through now has very little to do with post op success. You're comparing apples and oranges. 5 lbs in a little more than a week? That's huge. But again, one month post op you'll be eating solid foods. Once you find your green zone you won't feel that hunger or frustration. But you really should evaluate if you are ready for this? If you're ready to throw in the towel after 8 days of a little sacrifice, you may not be ready for the band. There can be times during your journey that you may not lose weight for a month or two. And you will have to avoid certain types of foods to succeed. Do you want to be thinner? How badly do you want it? That's a question only you can answer? tmf

Ahh, ya big baby. It's no worse than a skeeter bite! tmf

Apparently you haven't been reading this forum for long? You are following the same path most of us have followed for years. I know, I followed the same path as you except I wasn't ready to throw in the towel at 60 days. You've lost 12 lbs in 60 days. You probably won't have this much success from here on out. I don't know what you are eating, how much you excercise or if you are in the green zone? Calories in vs calories burned will be your new challenge. I lost 12 lbs the first 10 days and nothing for the next 3.5 months. Then, fill #3 helped me find a little restriction. Also a very good nutritionist pointed out where I was going wrong with my food choices. I've lost 25 lbs since late March. You will follow a different path than me or anyone else but you need to find some patience. It can be frustrating I know but it will come in time. Only expect to lose 4-6 lbs per month from here on out. And, expect to see week if not month long plateaus along the way. Some people don't experience this but they are far and few between. Good luck! tmf

I am.

You don't own a scale? I always find it interesting to hear how other doctors work with patients. My doctor didn't want to see me for 6 weeks post op. That was fine with me(1 hr drive through crazy traffic) but I can understand the anxiety of patients wanting affirmation that they are progressing. ^5 to you. tmf

You haven't filled in your profile so we can only assume you're post op? I eat 5 times a day. 3 normal band meals and two snack meals. I think it's different for everyone. I read where many people eat a meal and aren't hungry for 4-5 hours. Lucky them. That's not me. I get hungry every 2.5-3 hours except after dinner. I'm losing and I'm sure I could lose more if I avoided the snacks(healthy ones) but dieting equals discomfort for me and I don't plan on being uncomfortable for the next year. That's what destroyed my prior attempts at losing weight. tmf

Marci, I see you've lost so much weight. I sincerely hope this plan works for you. I looked at your before and after. I don't think I've ever seen such a transformation? I mean really, it's really amazing!! I hope I get even half the results you did. But I'm not wearing the skirt tmf

My band has a mind of it's own. Soon you'll see what I mean. I can eat chicken, salmon and even steak but there are days that my band says, "uh, no, not today pal" and I'm at the sink or toilet sliming my guts out. BTW-You'll lose any modesty you once had over table manners once you find yourself "stuck". Our journeys are similar, only I didn't know what you seem to know at this stage. Took me 4 months to get it. tmf

Not a lot of bandsters out tonight? Can't help you from personal experience and I hope I never get to find out. If you can eat whatever you want, it could be any number of things other than a slippage. Since you are new to this you are probably in "Bandster Hell". They usually don't put much saline in your band at first. You do get a lot of restriction from the trauma of surgery. The swelling in the band area behaves much like you are in the green zone but most bandsters aren't. This usually goes away 2-4 weeks after surgery. You suddenly can be extremely hungry and food just doesn't make it go away. I had this but for me I got enough restriction from the band that it kept me from overeating. But I could eat anything I wanted and nothing got stuck till fill #3. Hope this helps? tmf

I can't add much to this. I never had the big cravings after surgery but I was extremely hungry for 4 months of "bandster hell". I wanted everything I ate pre op and I mostly did eat those foods. But, the band did give me enough restriction or, I was mentally banded enough to eat less and not gain. For some reason I now crave vegetables and salads. Fortunately my band likes those foods too and they're filling to boot. Good luck, it sounds like you've got this band thing down much more than most. tmf

I like his technique. I had to endure 6 fills and 3 months of not losing. The only thing that would concern me is I think the docs like to sneak up on restriction because they're afraid filling too fast could cause some irritation in our band area which would result in some inflammation. But if I had to do it again, I'd do it your way. tmf

We had a taco salad over the weekend similar to Hummingbirds. I have a salad about 5 days a week. I prefer a mixture of spinach and various lettuce types. I can eat cucumbers, radishes, carrots, tomatoes and broccoli. I can add chicken to it like we did last night but salmon seems to be a problem. tmf

Make a commitment to know as much as you can before surgery. I took 2 years to get to that point and I don't regret it. It's been a good 10 years since I've wore some of my old clothes and it's a great feeling. 10 for you is definitely possible. tmf

You can edit/correct your own post if you click on the edit button next to the quote button. tmf

My doctor has only one employee and she's real sweet and books me whenever I want. Now, the doctor I had originally signed on with is a different story. There were dozens of horror stories on their LBT topic before this site cleaned out all the old threads. I called and emailed them several times to schedule my closing as I had passed all the insurance requirements. No one called me back for 6 weeks and by then I told them I had found another doctor. She sounded giddy that she didn't have to work with me. So, yes, many doctors office staff are not great communicators. tmf

Yvonne, I don't think it says you should eat more? It just gives you examples of what to expect. You only eat 600 calories a day? Your body will slow it's metabolism down to nada if you keep that up. But if it works for you I can understand why you would continue? For me that would be too much discomfort. Band or no band I'd be hungry(no, starving) all the time. I wouldn't have enough energy to exercise let alone move. tmf

I was like you in the beginning. I thought I'd be losing 10-15 lbs a month. Then I did the math. First, if you have a lot of weight to lose, you can lose 50. 60, even 70 lbs the first 3 months if you follow the rules. Most of us only lose 10-25 lbs the first few months. And the weight we lose in the first month is mostly Water. Here's the math: One pound equals 3500 calories burned! Our bodies need about 2000 calories a day to maintain the weight we now enjoy. If you can pump up your exercise routine, that figure could go up 200-600 more calories per day. If you consume 1500 calories a day and burn 2000 you will burn 500 more than you consumed. 500 X a 7 day week= 3500 calories burned or you just lost 1 lb. Burn an extra 500 calories per day through exercise and there's another 1 lb. It's not an exact science and so many things can affect your weight such as sodium intake, medications, menstrual cycles, high carb intake and so on. These can cause you to retain water and it's not hard to retain 2-4 lbs of extra water. So, it's easy to plateau(I do have a great plateau buster program). Here's a great link to a calorie calculator which will tell you how many calories you need per day to lose weight. http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/calguide.htm tmf

Let's talk about your fear of the band? Is it the band, or are you afraid to let go of your food security blanket? I know I was. I was petrified that I'd never get to eat all the food I loved that made me feel good. Only now I feel so much better and I can still eat those foods within reason. I can't speak for everyone, and I've read my share of stories here where people are angry at their bands. But most of us love our bands and love the life we now lead. I've got a ways to go but I'm now in territory I haven't seen in 10 years. It is soooo good to be here. tmf

So, I read that our pouches will only hold 3 tablespoons of food comfortably. Any more than that and you will feel discomfort. I also read that it takes about 1 minute for one bite to pass through the band into our lower stomach. If you hurry and eat fast, you're going to plug up the dam and be in a world of hurt until you can pass all that food you shoveled down your piehole. The pouch will only hold 3 tablespoons and if you hurry and eat a 6 oz slab of salmon, you've overloaded the pouch and you will pay for it. There's also studies that show how food gently pushing against the top of our pouch combined with the pulsations as the stomach massages food through the band, will eventually send a signal to our brain that we've eaten enough and we're now satisfied. That's why we eat slow. Unfortunately for most of us, pre surgery, those signals were slow or weak to the brain. tmf

Soccerblue, I think you mean .3 cc's and .4 or .5. 3 cc's is huge. Our bands only hold up to 14 cc's. In fact, there's a effort now to have the term "CC" removed and replaced with MM's. Too many doctors scribble 3 cc's and the nurse or pharmacist reads it as 300. The physician's bad handrwriting can make the cc look like 00. Dennis Quaid's twins almost died due to such an error. tmf

I just had a dove dark chocolate melt away in my mouth only 5 minutes ago. It's my daily treat. tmf

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