willowcat

I am 6 months post op with my Lap Band and have just figured out it is my Zoloft causing horrible burning pain in my pouch. I tried a liquid form of the Zoloft but still had the burning. I appreciate these posts. I thought it was just me. If anyone has any other suggestions, I am open to them. Zoloft is definitely one acidic pill.

Dentrick, I now take my Zoloft with a smoothie every morning. I use 1 cup of milk, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1 Tbs of rice Protein powder, 1/2 a banana, and a little sweetener. It all goes into my Magic Bullet blender. I take my Zoloft in the little blue 50 mg form (since I'm on the highest dose possible at 200 mg per day, I end up taking 8 pills total). The little size gets the pills passed my stoma, and the creaminess and coldness of the smoothly seem to buffer the burning of the pills once they get in my real stomach. I tried the liquid Zoloft--only ONCE--NEVER again! OMG! I would rather be fat and depressed than ever take the liquid! It was unbelievably awful! This June will be my fourth year having the band. I've been taking my Zoloft in 50 mg sized pills with the smoothie I described for about a year now--finally feel like I've solved my Zoloft problem. Best of luck to you!

My last fill was November 2012. I have 7 cc in 10 cc band. I still do not think i have ever reached my "sweet spot/green zone". I have always struggled with not chewing well enough and taking small bites. I still eat to fast and do not chew enough. I will feel the food almost instantly stop at my band' date=' then if I sit up real straight, take as deep breath, and move around a little, I feel it pass through. Does that mean I need a fill? I do have problems getting things down in the mornings. pills can get stuck sometimes. I do not throw up. I just hurts until a can wiggle enough to get it to pass. I instantly feel when it goes through the band. Do others have that feeling? I do have an appointment next week but I do not want to get too tight. My portions are back up to way over a cup of food. I ate almost a whole cheeseburger last night with the bun. I know a cheeseburger is bad. I'm trying to get myself back on track. I've had the band for over 2 years and still have 35-40 lbs. to lose. Any suggestions? Do others experience this?[/quote']

I do sometimes feel the food pass through. But, be careful! Yes, it seems sort of unusual that you can eat a cheeseburger with bun (not at sweet spot?). But if pills are getting stuck--how big are these pills?!--then you don't want to go too much tighter. If you're still eating big bites, getting a fill won't help you; you'll just end up getting stuck. Being too tight (for the size of bites you take and swallow) is awful. You'll find that pretty soon you can't eat anything but slider foods and after awhile your body starts yelling that it needs some NUTRITION--but anything healthy gives you problems--so you start feeling worse and worse.

Love the leg-crossing!

I am a person struggling to become aware of my unique body's needs and to treat my self and my body with loving kindness.

I can sometimes feel food or liquid passing through the band and I feel horrible pain when I am stuck or blocked.

A night spent beating yourself up is no good. Three Cookies don't deserve that much power. What's done is done. What if you allow yourself three cookies and sat down with them and savored them? Just saying...

If you've been approved already and you're two weeks away from surgery, they will be glad to see you've lost weight--that can only help with the surgery--plus you've got a head start on your weight loss! Good for you!

Fifteen years ago I purposefully had my only tattoo put on the top of my foot because that was the only place I figured wouldn't be affected by weight gain or weight loss--and it wasn't (but it WAS so painful to have it done there!). Good luck.

Have you been doing any ab exercises recently? Those can make the muscles around the port hurt more than the muscles on the non-port side. Just a thought. I've had no problems with my port hurting (except when I do crunches), but others may have more experience with port complications than I do. Good luck.

I started at the same weight' date=' and was banded almost 4 weeks ago. I don't have a lot of experience yet, but I just wanted to say that I know I'm going to have loose skin. But all I really want out of this is to look good WITH clothes on. If my shrinkles become a big self-esteem issue, I'll deal with that when it happens. For now, I just want to be healthy and walk out the door looking and feeling my best. That's the goal, anyway.[/quote']

"Shrinkles"--LOVE it!

Crossing my legs

Fitting in economy seats on planes (plus not having to ask for a seatbelt extension)

Not sweating profusely from moderate activity

Wearing shoes without orthotics (I had to because of all the weight my poor feet had to carry)

Sitting in any chair I want to without having to gauge whether or not I am going to fit (chairs with arms were the worst!)

Eating in public without feeling like people are thinking "No wonder you're fat."

Pain-free knees

Wearing clothes picked for aesthetics rather than for camouflage

No more sleep apnea

No more insulin resistance and fear of diabetes

Feeling normal

Some of these I'd forgotten about. Wow! I don't ever want to go back! That was horrible! Thanks for the opportunity to be oh-so GRATEFUL for where I am now!

I slept on my side with a pillow propping up my belly on the couch. The extra support from the back of the couch helped a lot.

My first six months or so, I used to have intense pain between my shoulder blades when I got hungry. My surgeon said it was unusual but not unheard of. I guess that there can be some scar tissue near the band (?!). It went away eventually. Now all I feel are plain old hunger pangs. Also, last time I had a fill, I could feel a little pressure in about the same place--my surgeon said that the nerves near my band came from that part of my spine. Bodies are funny things. Do talk to your surgeon/doctor about it though. Everybody's body is different and it's always better to be safe than sorry. Good luck.

I also had a two week liquids pre-op diet. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I was shrinking my liver so that my doctor had an easier time banding me...I kept telling myself that I could do anything for ten days...one day at a time. Hang in there.

My nurse advised me to request an oncology nurse to do the unfill since they work with ports all day long.

Good to know! Thanks!

Sorry, I can't help. I've never had one. I guess I would look at the calories, the carbs, and the Protein to help me decide if I thought they were a useful part of my journey. Good luck.

XXX to a Small! Wow! That's life-altering! Good for you! You look great (down right yummy!)

Thanks All for the Support!! Hugs to all of you! The Big Clothing Goes in the Donation Bin!! Its Settled!!!

I donated everything on my way down. I also tried to buy cheap on my way down--thrift stores, consignment stores, garage sales--because at the rate I was going, I wasn't going to be wearing them for long anyway. We have a plus-sized consignment store here in town. If you had expensive clothes,it might be easier to part with them if you thought you could recoup some of your money by selling them through consignment. Personally, I hated my fat-camouflaging clothes and was happy to say good-bye to them! I think it's good psychic karma to say "Out with the old! In with the new!"

~hugs~ from me also....keep pushing every doctor you can for answers.....

Yes--keep pushing until they find the reason. Call on the males in your life to support you and be there for you now--your pain and sickness is not a "female problem" at this point.

Plain coffee is considered a calorie-free drink. My surgeon said the reason he wanted me to be coffee-free during my two-week pre-op diet was so that I wouldn't be having coffee withdrawal during surgery. Made sense to me. After surgery, he said coffee was fine. Of course that doesn't mean you can have a Starbucks carmel cafe latte full cream with whipped cream on top (or the like)! Those yummy yummies are yummy for a reason--LOTS of calories! I have one large cup with a bit of skim milk every morning--virtually calorie-free.

Girl!! 57 pounds in 4 months is nothing to complain about!! I lost slow in the beginning too. I would have to constantly tell myself....look where you would be at this moment had you not had the surgery' date=' and that would always make me feel better. I just checked my book and at 4 months I was down 33.5 pounds. You are ahead of the game from where I was at!!!![/quote']

57/4=14.25lbs a month. 14,25/4=3.25lbs a week. That's a healthy weight loss. Slow and steady as she goes...hang in there...

Anita Renfroe has a YouTube video called "All the Wrinkled Ladies"--favorite line: "Don't be mad when you see your skin don't fit. Can't hide it so you gotta make peace with it.". Love!

The gristle in the ground beef seems to give me problems. Also, I don't seem to actually chew it up as much as I thought I did--since it comes back up pretty much the same as before I "chewed" it. Have given up on ground beef.

I was told by my doctor that I need to cleanse my colon and that will help kick start the weight loss and overAll help out' date=' does anyone know of a good, effective cleansing product out, there are so many. I see 48 he cleanse and other but what actually works ?[/quote']

What did your doctor recommend? Sounds like an odd thing for a regular doctor to say--"colon cleansing" usually falls into the realm of alternative health practioners. If that was his suggestion, then he should have told you what to use.

Kaiser Permanente--sleep study, psych eval, morbidly obese (BMI in 40s), two comorbidities (pre-diabetic, sleep apnea), PCP referral--took about four months for approval and had to pay 50% of the cost of surgery myself. Good luck!