swishbc

The Pinole location is RIGHT off the freeway, you can see it when driving on 80. I'd love to go to that location for visits, it's closer and in a much better neighborhood!

YAY! I LOVE LOVE LOVE changing my ticker. Congratulations on melting away, isn't it fun? :thumbup:

Tina, I know Nicole got 3cc's too, I think Riley got less...I can't remember. Thursday the 30th would work fine for me, I need to find a sitter too. Natomas would be a great location since there's tons of stuff there (restaurants AND shopping) and Mimi's sounds yum!

OMG that's so cool! Looks like we're only about 4 years apart so the love of 80's music makes sense, lol. Erasure is my all time fave, I've seen them in concert I think about 6 or 7 times and I've met Andy Bell twice! I've got a pic of me and him and my sister all linking arms, and I got his autograph signed on the song list that he had taped onto the stage in front of him during the concert so he'd know what song was next. I also have a half drank bottle of water that he had on stage from one of the concerts!!! Pretty awesome! I'm glad you liked the videos! Thanks for the compliments too, I'm finally able to see the difference in my face thanks to those videos. It's so hard to notice it when you see yourself every day. Clothes are tangible so you KNOW your body is changing, but you really have to see pics/video of your face to see anything different. Dr. Baggs didn't tell you how much he put in at surgery? He told me he put in 3 ccs and that at my first fill if I've lost enough weight and he's got enough room around my stomach he'll put in 2cc's more...we'll see. You should email him and ask! I've gone between 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 cup for meals too depending on how hungry I was and how runny the food was. If I was having cream soup that was runny I'd have up to 1/2 cup so I'd get more full, but with applesauce, pudding, and stuff like that I'd only need 1/4 or 1/3 to be "full". Just listen to your tummy and stop when you're not hungry anymore. I'm SURE you'll be back under 220 soon, there's no way you're eating enough calories to gain 2 lbs...that's impossible! It's gotta be water retention I'm thinking...

Tina, if you were a tight 20 and now you're a loose 20 I'd count that as a size down! For me, I noticed about I lost about 15 lbs to be down the first size and 20 lbs for the other 2 sizes I've gotten down so far. I bet you'll start to notice it really quick now. That's really weird and crappy that you're up 2 lbs! What's up with that? Maybe it is the potatoes...but don't do all liquids or you're gonna have NOTHING for energy. Maybe just have yogurt or applesauce or pudding today instead and drink lots of water. It's probably just water retention. Are you supposed to start your period anytime soon? I also can't wait to exercise again! I just wanna get on the recumbent bike or treadmill and go for an hour, but I know I shouldn't and I know it'll be uncomfortable and that I wouldn't have the energy for it either...so I'll wait. :thumbup: I slept on my tummy last night for a little bit and it felt so good. I also laid on my port side and that felt fine, I'm so glad to have all my sleeping positions available to me again!

I take the Caramel Viativ chews also!

Are you making your hot chocolate with the water or milk? I'm using milk so i can get a few calories and also some protein and calcium. The Diet Coke has been SO hard for me too, all my sisters and my mom drink it all the time. Tonight I picked up dinner at Taco Bell for Bri and Sophie and got him a soda and I wanted to take a sip SO bad!!! But I didn't. It's always been so automatic for me to drive thru once a day and get a soda and lots of times it was the thing I looked forward to most when out and about...I'll have to find something else to replace that, ideally something that's NOT food. That's freaky about the bread! You and Nicole are brave with the bread. As much as I want some, I'm too freaked! I did find myself today ALMOST pop 2 cheezits into my mouth, I picked them up and almost put them in and then thought "OH WAIT! Crap! I can't eat this!" but they were in a baggie in the front of the car for Sophie's snack. We really have to pay attention to what we're doing now, don't we?

OMG I hear ya on the food savings! It's nice though, I'm not gonna complain and neither is my hubby. I loved the potato soup too! I even went and bought yummy clam chowder and then blended it so there weren't any chunks in it and it seemed so much better than plain old cream of chicken or cream of broccoli, etc... I only had yogurt for breakfast and only had pudding about 3 times. I liked the warmer stuff as well. I've been really liking hot cocoa too. :rolleyes2: I use ff milk and it's only 100 cals for 8 oz and it keeps me full for a while, gives me some protein and added calcium and it feels like a TREAT! It's taken place of my Diet Coke that I used to have every day.

Don't forget your calcium too, little missy! lol

Did Liz give you an earlier appt or just leave it the same? I asked Liz what Vitamins were the best to get and then just bought those. So I have Flinstones COMPLETE (they have Iron in them), and I bought Viactiv (in the purple box) for my Calcium. Viactive has milk chocolate and also caramel...I bought caramel and they're pretty good. 5 days til you get a surgery date! YAY!!!!!

Don't know if you guys are into this, but I have a channel on Youtube documenting my Lapband journey. If you wanna check it out, my link is: YouTube - swish's Channel I'm not good at writing in journals, so I thought this would be the next best thing...and it'll also show the differences in my body during this time.

I'm still a little swollen too, Tina. I can tell because it's on the left side and not the right...I'm crooked! May 1st sounds good to me to meet up, I put it on my calendar. I'll still be on mushies and so will Tina, so somewhere that has mashed potatoes or Soup would be great if we meet for lunch. I'm having the weirdest thing the last few days where I'm NOT hungry at all. The only hunger I've had in all this was the first couple days on full liquids, but the last few days I have to make myself eat. I don't know if I'm just bored with the food or what, but I have no feelings of hunger AND I'm on my period! Usually I'd be foraging for food all day and night!!! I guess I shouldn't complain though, at least I'm not starving! Hope you're all having a great day...I LOVE MY BAND TOO!

Tina--I was having awful gas pains still on Easter Sunday and that was the night that I bought the Gas-X strips that melt on your tongue. 15 minutes after taking it I had the hugest burp and I haven't had ANY gas ever since!!! I'd definitely recommend getting those and taking them today. You can take them pretty often too. I wonder why someone mentioned Benefiber for gas...it's a fiber supplement to help you poo easier...lol. I'm glad the incision is looking okay, I was starting to really worry. Should you have a bandaid on the incision? It might be better to let it get some air so it'll form a nice good scab and not stay too moist. None of my mine have ever been covered with anything but the glue. I'm still losing pretty steadily about 1/2- 1 lb a day and I'm 16 days out. I'm shocked, but super happy about that. I know the rapid weight loss won't last too long like RNY people but I'm gonna take what I can get! I got advanced to pureed food yesterday and even though it's gonna be some nasty crap to eat I know I'll have more energy since I'll have more options for getting protein in. Have a great day everyone!

Candy is next! Less than 2 weeks...WOOHOO! It's gonna be so neat when we're all post-op. We'll have to start a Richmond thread on the post-op forum sometime in May or June!

Tina, where the heck are you?! I'm starting to worry about that incision...I hope everything is okay and you didn't end up having to go to Richmond. Please update us soon!

303? You're doing great! You just might be under 300 in the next week or so, SO COOL! You dont' have to bring your journal, she'll just ask what kind of foods you've eaten and what exercise you've been doing. It's kindof a fun appt. :smile: I'm doing GREAT!!! Feeling pretty normal, only have what feels like a tiny side ache now and again. It's so nice to feel like ME again! And every day the scale goes down just like magic. I LOVE it!

Wow Reggie, good for you! Being our own advocate is so important, I'm proud of you! There's really not much to prepare for this appt, just be under goal and make sure you have your test completed from your binder! Is your weight current--305.6? You've got another week to get a little more of a buffer so you're not sweating it on the day of your appt, that'll be a relief! I was really close to goal weight too and was kinda nervous but everything was fine.

Oh and yeah, Robin is calling me tomorrow and I'm sure she'll advance me to mushies. I'm excited cuz it means I'm just THAT much closer to being on soft foods in a couple weeks! I can't wait to be "normal" again! :crying:

Tina, the incision that's next to my port is a little lump too but the nurse and Dr. Baggs said it's just from the glue and after the glue comes off it'll get flat. (They said it'll look like a little scar in about 2 months). How do you know there's puss under the lump? Can you see it? Pus usually is not a good thing, right? I'm just glad you're going in tomorrow to get checked out. You'll feel better after you have it looked at I'm sure. BTW--I asked Dr. Baggs if I could put a heating pad on my tummy and he said yes, BUT only for 1/2 an hour at a time and NO LONGER. Just an FYI that he gave me. So, since you've had a bandage on there and have been showering is the bandage all wet?

Tina, I didn't have any bandages covering my incisions, just glue on all 5 of them! Why did they cover yours up? It doesn't look bad, just longer than the rest...I hope everything is okay with it tomorrow. You might want to make another appt with your PCP for 2-3 weeks out like Liz told us to do. It's a long enough wait for them to see the incisions and make sure they're healing well and to check on your weight and blood pressure.

I'll totally be there on Saturday and am really looking forward to it! Tina I hope you can come too, I'm dying to see you! I lost 8 lbs from surgery Monday to last Monday (1 week) and the weight loss has slowed down some since then and I lost 4.5 last week, still not too shabby! It's weird though, I thought I'd keep losing at a pretty pace for the first few weeks since we're barely eating any calories, but I guess our bodies can also go into a defense or hibernation mode when it thinks we're not going to nourish it. I've read so many posts on this board where people lose NOTHING or even gain in the first month before getting a fill, so I'm gonna be happy with ANY loss! Also, I just started my period yesterday so maybe I'll drop a little bit more after that's done and I'm not retaining any Water. Tina, it's funny you mentioned feeling the water trickle past the band...I feel it too! It's the weirdest thing and the only time I ever "feel" my band. I LOVE my band too! How are you doing getting all your water in for the day? I'm doing pretty good and am consistently getting about 50-70 oz but MAN!!! I'm LITERALLY drinking all day long unless it's time to eat and then of course I don't, but...It's kinda tough when you can't just chug a 16.9 oz bottle in a minute or two! LOL Hope to see you all on Saturday!

Crazy news about your surgery Tina, no wonder you had such a hard time! I hope everything is okay with your incisions, keep us posted tomorrow after you get them looked at. You're doing great! How are you feeling today? My one week was the first day that I felt semi-normal and was a HUGE turning point for me. I just felt better and better every day after that!

Holy crap Riley! You're freaking melting!!! I guess that fill did the trick to get you back up to speed. That's incredible, you're down almost 30 lbs in 2 months! I hope my weight loss is that quick. I had my 2 week appt today and everything went great. I'm down 12.5 lbs since surgery and my blood pressure was only 110/67, lower than my doc has EVER seen in my chart! I was glad about that. My incisions are healing great and she said I had good color in my cheeks for being only 2 weeks out. We talked about weight loss goals and she said she's love to see me at 210 for my first goal, only 35 lbs away. Then for my ultimate goal she said she's be happy with me anywhere from 155-175. She has me, my mom, and my 4 sisters for her patients so she knows our bodies and said that since we all weigh more than we look (3 of my sisters are 160, 170 and 200 but wear 8, 10 and 12's, they look smaller than they weigh) that she thinks I'll look great at that range and that 144 (my BMI target weight) I would look too skinny...imagine that!?!?! So, that's good news to me, just means I don't have to lose as much but will still look awesome. So, my original ticker will stay the same with a goal of 175. Then when I get there I'll probably change it to 155 and try to get down to that...we'll see. I can't even imagine being under 200 right now! Anyway, that was my day. I'm feeling great, my only "pain" just feels how a sideache feels but in the front left part of my stomach (under my left boob). I haven't had to take Tylenol for 3 days now, I think I'm done with it. OH! ALSO--totally girly TMI, but I started my period yesterday at 32 days (I've ALWAYS been a 32 day girl before gaining weight) and that's the first time I've been on time in YEARS. Every month since starting to lose weight in November my periods have gotten closer together--50 days, 45, 40, 36, and NOW I'm getting back to normal! I've never been so excited to start a period, lol. Have a great day everyone!

That sounds about how I felt. My worst days were 2,3 and 4 and on day 5 I finally started to feel better. Just try to rest alot and take lots of LITTLE walks (5-10 minutes at a slow pace). It WILL get better, I promise! On day 7 I felt almost normal with my pain being maybe a 1 or 2 and was only taking Tylenol. You just had major surgery! You'll feel better soon though, I promise.

Thanks LingLing!