2muchfun

"Have any good ideas" Large or Medium sized shirts? Sitting in an airplane and not crowding the people on each side of you? Being able to trim toenails without grunting? Being able to walk down stairs without joint pain? Less snoring and no apnea? Being able to look down and see my toes(and other appendages ) Getting checked out by the opposite sex? These are my new addictions. tmf

Click on my ticker and then create a sign in and pw. Follow the instructions. It gets a little confusing when it comes to pasting the code into your profile but keep trying. If you have myfitnesspal. click on the one below yours tmf

My advice is to go over to the right hand side and click on the topic "one year bandivarsary". Read her post. It's very illuminating. Or click here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/topic/149019-one-year-baniversary/ My advice: Only have a fill if you aren't satisfied after a cup of food or you're getting extremely hungry between meals. You are doing so much better than most of us and you are just in a plateau. Plateaus can last up to 2 months and it's no biggy. Mine lasted 4 months till I got the fill that helped me to feel satisfied. 86 lbs lost is incredible and very rare. tmf

Nervous about what? I think I was mostly nervous(afraid in my case) about how much I was going to miss taco bell, Coldstone, pizza, or even my own mexican food which is very good. My deep love of food made me fearful of how much I was going to miss it. I was never really afraid of the surgery or the process. I knew that would be a distant memory a few months after the surgery. The thought that I couldn't indulge myself with the foods I really loved scared me. But, now I'm 6 months out and TaDa! I can eat those things if I want but I don't have to eat too much. And I'm good with that. Sorry to vent all over your thread but my advice is to think about all the wonderful things you'll be doing as a thin person. Don't worry, be happy! tmf

You win the best post of the day!!! I love these kind of posts. So inspirational! tmf

Sorry dmt but this is going to be a short thread. No one will know how to motivate you but you or someone close to you. I think if I'm ever in your shoes I will think about my wife, my kids, my grandkids and most of all me and the quality of life I want and desparately seek. I want to be there for my loved ones and don't want to be some slug laying in a bed waiting on someone to take care of me. It's a slippery slope back to being a fatty and none of us want to be there again. The further away from that slope we are the more likely we will be successful in finding our goal/dream. tmf

Well then, If you follow the rules and find your sweet spot, you can expect 4-6 lbs lost per month. Some of us find our sweet spot immediately after surgery but most probably need 2-6 fills to get to that sweet spot. Some many more. When you learn how to use the band you will find that very small quantities of food satiates you. You will stay satiated longer. Everyone is different with the types of food that we can eat. You will see the word stuck many times here on the forum. For some of us it's breads, chicken, beef, even eggs. There comes a point where you must take smaller bites, chew much more, filter out the foods that stick easily and eat much slower. Some people never miss pizza, cheeseburgers etc. I do. I don't pine over the loss but eating the same food day after day can become boring and I have to put more effort in creating other dishes than taste good and are compatible with my band. Hope this helps and best of luck on your journey. tmf

I would go to your insurance website and see if that's true? I know it once was this way but I think most carriers do not require this any more. Doctors want this so that your liver shrinks so that it's easier to move it out of the way during surgery. You should have gone through a nutrition program that would outline how to lose the weight and what method your doctor prefers? No? Most doctors want you to be on a low carb diet like south beach or atkins to shrink that liver. Go here for a patient manual. There is some advice on pre-op diets. http://www.peachtreebariatrics.com/docs/Gastric-Band-Patient-Manual.pdf tmf

Jess, FYI- Band size and amount of saline in it is not a factor at all in restriction, satiety, green zones etc. Some people never need a fill and get by with just the initial fill which can be nothing. And others require many fills, up to 13 for one member here. The reason is, everyone's stomach lining has a different density and each of us have more or less fat surrounding the stomach. Each of our stomachs are shaped differently and the size of the band and how much it's filled could also be affected by this shape and how wide it is at the point the doctor places the band. Obviously the closer it is to the esophogeal sphincter the thinner the stomach will be vs. moving distally south of the sphincter where the stomach widens greatly. I reached my sweet spot at fill #6. I don't know how many CCs are in my 14 CC band and neither does my doctor(I asked him and he doesn't keep track of it). tmf

Odd that you didn't learn the answers to your questions before you had surgery? No, weight won't just fall off! No, you won't always feel full and satisfied. Yes, you will have to work hard to make this work. And yes you will always be on a strict diet if you want this to work. The band is a tool and you are too new to the band to understand how it's going to make losing weight much easier. But it's scary how little you understand at this point? You weren't given food rules? Again, odd? Are you sure they didn't give you rules but you weren't paying attention? Don't mean to be cruel but it's hard to believe you didn't have to go through some kind of pre op classes outlining what you should expect and a visit to a nutrition class or two? tmf

Oh, I do know. I've thought about having .25 CCs removed since I can't eat a lot of food(except for slider foods). If you're afraid you're not getting enough nutrition, you might want to slip in some healthy slider food or get a small unfill? tmf

If you look over to the right of this page there's a magazine article that condones sipping liquids while you eat. I don't see any harm in a few sips. Gulps of milk work but that would only result in a "The king is alive" episode and no one wants that. I've been doing a little sipping and I find it's not affecting my satiety and in fact may aid it. You just have to experiment to see if it's right for you? I love hot food too and I do sip. tmf

Sounds like it could be. It's different for all of us. Are you saying that 800 calories a day is all your band will allow through or all your head wants you to eat? tmf

That's a great point emonie. My wife the healthcare professional and lapband skeptic, has lost 10 lbs since I entered the green zone. She's a believer now so that's a great point that we can influence others with our good eating habits. tmf

Sorry but you struck a nerve. I also got the "try my diet" BS, like, the cabbage diet(ugh, I hate cabbage), or the organic acai crap fruit smoothy , or the prepackaged food diets(like I can live like this forever), and the P90X diet where you spend hours a week fatiguing your body with exercises that would kill most people. Or, "I just walk 3 miles everyday and I never gain weight"( good for you, it aint gonna work for me). And my favorite "eat from the pyramid group of foods and exercise mildly every day"(Duh!) tmf

All my best friends gave me similar advice. "Just do what I do", as if my situation and genetics are just like theirs. People who are thin or can lose weight easily don't understand so don't seek their advice unless you want negative responses. Even my wife questioned my decision for two years before surgery. Now she's a believer, but before, no. And she's a healthcare professional. HAHA, the shrink I had to go to for BCBS approval told me I didn't need surgery and that her good friend had WLS and lost a ton of weight but put it all back on. The shrink wanted me to go on this P90X BS and come back to her office 3 times a week at $190 a visit. Kiss my what? tmf

Most every bandster has this happen. Minor cases are when you are too tight or, eat too fast, don't chew enough, large bites of food, beef, dry chicken etc. You'll feel pressure in your pouch and may PB(productive burp), or slime, or spit up or vomit mildly. It usually passes in 5-20 minutes. It can be painfull but mostly it's nauseating and very uncomfortable. tmf

Shutup!! 16 lbs is incredible. I would have loved to lose 16 lbs the first month. I only lost 12 lbs the first 4 months. I'm beyond that now. But I have to tell you that you are probably average. But, you probably will never lose like this again as from here on out it should only be 4-8 lbs per month so do a happy dance! tmf

Don't worry, be happy! Our bodies can hold a lot of extra fluids. Depends on how much sodium and carbs we consume. For example: My wife accepted a dinner invite to a cooking school where we were taught how to cook our own culinary delight. There were 12 people in this class and we prepared a salad(lots of olive oil in the vinagrette), baked halibut(smothered in butter, salt, spices) and then we made donuts, glazed with a blackberry jam we made. Of course there was the obligatory anti-pasto with garlic bread, smoked salmon, cream cheese etc. Lots of salt, oils, wine and sugar galore. I caved. First time I've eaten like this since the holidays. I gained 3.5 lbs overnight. That was Sunday night and on Monday I was 3.5 lbs heavier. This morning, I'm back to where I was Sunday morning. So, the point is, food, meds, stress, can all manipulate our body mechanics and metabolism. 1.5 lbs in 5 days is nothing. You probably ate something with a high salt content. It will pass. Don't sweat the small setbacks and as time goes by you'll lose that weight. tmf

No picture. Maybe in 20 more lbs. tmf

Need a lot more information Famous1? How much are you losing? When were you banded? Are you in a plateau and how long? What are you eating? How much exercise? You seem to have lost a lot of weight so far? How did you do that? tmf

Don't believe everything you read. I read something like this today and to me it was hearsay. One person does not make an epedimic and a reason to worry. tmf

I have no idea where this "Complications" thread is but that's just silly. There are complications to anything. Walking across the street, riding a bike, mowing your lawn. There are risks all around us and obese people are at a much higher risk to "complications" and even death. I seriously doubt that in the last decade anyone has been killed by a band. People have died from other risk factors. tmf

Go to youtube and search lapband fills. Lots of videos of folks having fills. It's no big deal.

I've been hanging around here for years and thought I knew it all but after surgery, I found I didn't know squat. This forum should be a requirement for all bandsters. It's certainly answered and validated so many of my questions and concerns. Welcome and I look forward to your participation. tmf