justduckie

Some background first..... I had my first fill last Thursday. I was on liquids for 2 days -- did good on that -- and then gingerly started to eat normal. Well, as close to normal as you can. :rolleyes Today I made me a yogurt smoothie for Breakfast and thought I would make me a small ham sandwich for lunch with some salad. A lunch I have had in the last couple of weeks with no problems. So I took a small bite of the sandwich -- bread and all -- and oh boy! :help: It hurt so bad!!!! I even chewed it for a long time.:guess I sat there for a bit, trying to figure out where I went wrong. I drank all my Water first, it was a small sandwich, good protien in the ham......ah ha! It had to be the bread. So after the horrible feeling went away, I tried just a small piece of the ham, no bread (hey! I was still hungry! ) and everything went down ok. So I finished my ham slice -- still ok but I made sure I chewed, chewed, chewed! Slowly at about half of my small salad -- still everything ok, but I was so full!:speechles But at least I didn't feel like someone was running a bottle brush up and down my esophagus and wanting to throw up. So it had to be the bread. I guess it's true that things really change after your first fill. I haven't had any problems with any food since surgery, but now......I really have to watch what I eat.

Me too, me too! Oh, gosh, I thought I was the only one that couldn't hardly tolerate chicken. I thought there was something wrong with me. I found out you have to cut it againt the grain and chew, chew, chew. The drs. want you to eat healthy, but there isn't much left without eating chicken. :cry Thank goodness I like fish.

Oh, I know that one! Right after my first fill on Thursday, I made me some soup but I was still hungry right after. My DH had made some chicken, so I thought, "oh, a small bite of chicken won't hurt!" Oh, was I wrong.......My DH kept telling me, don't do it! But I did and boy did I pay for it. I just keep telling myself, chew, chew, chew!!!! Today was a much better day -- cream of wheat for Breakfast, chicken salad for lunch (chew, chew, chew!) and a brat for dinner. I'm surprised that salad doesn't bother me at all. That's a good thing because I heard that lettuce doesn't agree with alot of people.

:eek: :Banane13: Went for my first fill today and the surgeon did it "under flouro". You know, I really didn't know what that meant. The surgeon took me down to radiology and they mixed me a "nice" barium drink.:speechles Then they had me stand on this table thingy that tilted me back and swung a camera in front of my tummy. Then the surgeon and his nurse practitioner felt for my port, got the camera tuned in and asked me if I was ready. Ready for what? So they swab me up with betodine, push on my tummy a few more times and go, "here we go! 1 - 2 - 3...." and stick me with the needle. The NP did it. It was the first time she had done one under flouro. She found it on the first try but did't go deep enough. The surgeon was like, "here, push till you feel the pop." And he pushed till he felt the pop. :Banane03: It never hurt. Then he put in 1 cc and then I got to drink the wonderful barium cocktail. :rolleyes Then a cup of Water. Then some more barium, then some more water. He decided to go with another .5 cc, so now I have a first fill of 1.5 cc's. Somewhere during this process, I looked down at my tummy. Talk about getting light headed!!!!!:faint: Seeing a syringe sticking out of your tummy, sank all the way up to the plastic part........that can take some getting used to.:omg: But still....it did not hurt!:clap2: During this whole process, they were taking pictures. Once they were done and the surgeon goes, "Ok, it's coming out......." POP! I felt that one. It was quite a weird feeling. :paranoid So now I have a fill. And definitely have restriction. At least for now. I have my next fill on July 18th. But it will not be done under flouro. That one will just be done in the clinic. If nothing else, this whole process has been a learning experience!:nervous

Thanks Kim! My son told me to do the same thing. I have some potasium pills, I've started taking them a couple of days ago and haven't had any cramps except in my hands -- weird place to have them! But I get my first fill today and won't be able to take any for a couple of days, so maybe I'll try mushed up bananas. I take liquid Centrum. It taste bad, but it's easier to take than pills. Someone asked about exercise......Ohhhh Baby! Do I exercise. I did a 60 minute aerobic/weight lifting tape and today I am sore. But I feel my arms and tummy starting to tighten up. :clap2: They make you do these killer crunches. In every position you can imagine.:omg: By the end, my muscles are just jelly. But it's good and really, by the time I leave the gym, I'm feeling pretty good. And it forces me to drink Water. Lots of it. Lots and lots of it. :eek: Ladies, have a great day!

Hello Everyone! It's good to see that everyone is doing well. I have my first fill on Thursday and I'm ready for it. There are very few foods that I can't eat.....unfortunately, one seems to be chicken. Even small little bites make me feel like something is stuck. And scraping all the way down my esophogus. Red meat? No problem. Fish. Wonderful! Pork.....ok, but not great. So it seems like fish is going to be my main protien as I don't want to push it with the red meat. Also, even after almost 5 weeks, coming off nightshifts are a bear and I just have no energy to exercise. I do great on my days off -- I only work 14 days a month because of a 12 hour, rotating shift schedule even though my days are more like 14 hours with an hour commute each way. I'm hoping it's just because I'm still "recovering" or maybe it's the reduced calorie intake.....I don't know, but I'm sure tired after work. Also, does any one else get cramps? I woke up there other night with the most painful leg cramps. I don't ever remember having leg cramps that bad. Maybe I need to add potasium to my Vitamins. Everyone, keep up the good work!

Well, I go to a gym called Pace Fitness for Women (similar to Curves). They have a whole wall full of exercise tapes and a lady that helps me pick the right tape for me. They have the resistance bands, weighted balls, hand weights, medicine balls and the big therapy balls. I also have a few dvds at home by Leslie Sansone. She's great! Some of her tapes are just walking, some use weights, some use the resistance bands like you have. If you want something for use at home, I recommend any of Leslie's tapes. You can get them anywhere from Walmart to Ebay. Sometimes I've seen them on EBay for 3 or 4 bucks. If you just want to do some exercises with your resistance band (and it's just as good as weights, that's why so many PTers use them for therapy) go to http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/2572.html for some really basic exercises. The girl is using tubing, but as long as your band is long enough you can do the same things. There are a lot of sites that sell workout tapes for the bands/tubing, it just depends on what you want to spend. I hope I've given you some ideas. I really enjoy my exercising and I think it's made all the difference in the world with my inch loss. Everyone keeps telling me, too, if I keep it up, I shouldn't have as much lose skin when I reach my goal as I would if I just sat around and did nothing, so that's a motivation to keep moving. Have a great day and let me know how things are going!:biggrin1:

Caffeine is a diuretic. So it effects how much water you drink and it's effects. That is why my dietician said no caffeine. But since I work such long hours, there is no way I'm dumping my caffeine. I just drink more water and it doesn't seem to effect me one way or another.

I was banded May 1st, so I want to share my month with everyone. After a pretty uneventful surgery, I went home the next day. The second day home I started walking for a half hour each day and stuck to clear liquids for a week. I was never hungry for that week. Second week -- full liquids. Still no hunger. My incisions healed fine except for the one directly under my left breast........underwires and incisions don't do well with each other. ......I ended up keep a band aid on that one longer than all the rest. 3rd week -- I was back at work and I was suppose to be full liquids but I started on mushies because I WAS HUNGRY!!!!:hungry: and I didn't want to cheat by eating something bad. I found that staying busy kept the hunger at bay, so it was more head hunger than actually needing to eat. I had bumped my walking up so I was doing between 1.5 and 2 miles in 30 minutes. 4th week and I have transistioned from mushies to some regular food. I ate my first salad yesterday (with chicken -- ate the chicken first then the greens:) ) I am finding out that most foods don't both me as long as I don't inhale them. :speechles My hardest challenge has been to not drink while I'm eating. I still find myself sipping my water in the middle of a meal. While it doesn't bother me now, I know after my first fill, it will. Speaking of water, I drink and drink and drink! More than 64 oz every day. :biggrin1: Exercise this week is up to an hour of either fast walking or doing an aerobic/weight tape. Those tapes kick my butt! But I finished the one I started today, so that was good. I've also been working in my yard a lot, lots of bending and stooping, pulling weeds, mowing, cleaning......this past weekend I averaged 5 hours each day out in the yard. So where has this gotten me? Down 24 lbs since surgery, 30 lbs over all. And more importantly, I've lost 18.5 inches over my total body and dropped my BMI from 47 to 40. :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: I feel stronger and have so much more energy! And people are starting to notice. I'm not sure if that's good or not. If you would like to see the difference, click on my blog (link in siggy) I posted some pictures. Now......I would like to hear some of the other early May bandsters stories!!!!!! Edited to add -- Drew's Lou, thanks for the description of your first fill. My first fill is next Thursday. It's good to hear from someone who has already been thru it. :biggrin1:

4 weeks post op -24 lbs.

Mine cost $17,500. $4000 - surgeon $13,500 - hospital This includes one year of full after-care (any and all fills). I thought the hospital was a bit high, then I got the bill. If my insurance had paid for it, the hospital would have been almost $25,000!!!!! What a racket! Luckily for me, since I was a self-pay, I got a special deal. I also have access to a dietician for the first year and my surgeon is on 24 hour call so if I have a problem I talk to her and not an answering service. She also would like me to have checkups for the rest of my life.

Today it was rather cool and I still have tons of yard work to do, so I pulled out a long sleeve t-shirt. 2XL -- Says "Sturgis 2005" -- I think it has a skull and biker designs on it.......if you've ever been to Sturgis for Bike Week, you'd know what I'm talking about. I originally bought this shirt at a men's 2XL because my hips were so big that the bottom of the shirt would ride up. And if I bought it any smaller, then the shirt would be so tight and uncomfortable and just look terrible. :faint: So we went to the dump and then the store and as I was walking toward the entrance of the store, I realized the shirt hung past my hips, over my butt and basically looked like a dress! I stopped dead in the middle of the parking lot and told my husband, "look! Look at my shirt!" and he kind of looked at me like I was crazy. I said, "no, LOOK at how my shirt fits! It's the first time I've ever worn this shirt when it just HUNG on me!" Then I wiggle my butt and danced to the entrance of the store. :clap2: I'm sure the other customers thought I was crazy, but I didn't care. :heh: It's a small NSV, but I'll take anything I can! :biggrin1: Also, if I have to pull my pants up one more time......... :grouphug:

Well, it's almost 2 years later than the first post, but I'm from Wyoming too! Our state looks a little sad as far as posters goes......

I'm a May 1st bandster and yes, I am HUNGRY!!!! But I'm fighting it and as long as I stay busy, I do ok. I really don't feel any type of restriction, I can pretty much eat anything I want, but I get full a lot faster. I've only had one time when I really "felt" the band and that was because I ate too fast. My loss is going great, up around 25 lbs. and I exercise just about every day. Water is good! And I know I've lost lots of inches. I will know for sure this week when I get measured at the gym. My first fill will be June 8th......I hope.:grouphug:

Well, I learned an important lesson that I've heard discribed by many other bandsters last night. I've been working nightshifts and they haven't been the best shifts......just lots of little problems that make the nights long and add to that I am tired. Wait....make that EXHAUSTED!!!!! So last night was no different. I've been planning all my meals, making sure I get my protien and last night I brought some chicken in gravy. Little bitty pieces of chicken in a nice sauce. Should be good for me and easy to eat, right? Well, I decide I'm going to eat up at dispatch, get in there and start heating up my lunch, sit there and tell Kimmie what a rotten night it's been, grab my lunch out of the microwave and start shoveling....yes, shoveling....my food in because I'm not even thinking. It's how I've always eaten when I'm stressed out. And then it hits.......the monster from Alien is trying to burst out of my chest, right under my sternum. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!!!!!!!!:omg: Oh, my lord, I didn't know that eating could be so incredibly painful! Kimmie kept asking me if I was alright and I kept telling her no, but it would pass.....at least I was hoping it would pass. Finally after about 10 min. the monster decided it couldn't get out and it settle down to a dull throb that really is still there now. I was just happy I didn't throw up because I felt like I could of. But I don't throw up. It takes a WHOLE lot to make me throw up.:guess I KNOW better than to eat that fast! I feel so stupid! It's one of the BASICS of eating after becoming a bandster. So I'm back to eating broth and protien drinks till my chest feels better. I'm sure I made it swell up with my stupidity. I guess you live and learn.:cry

We were banded on the same day and YES! I feel so much smaller.:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: I've lost 20 lbs. as of today and my clothes are looser, my bras actually fit right and don't dig in and my favorite undies don't roll down under my belly anymore. I'm amazed at how much I've lost. I don't know if it is the actual poundage (is that word?) or the inches I've lost from walking vigerously every day. Or maybe a combo of the two. Hang in there, HH, I'm sure you will start seeing a difference soon.

Since yesterday was Mother's Day, my husband made me something special........a sweet potatoe, baked, then smooshed up really well with "I Can't Believe That's Not Butter" sprayed on it. YUMMY!!!!!!! Since today's been 2 weeks post-op, I'm going to the gym to weigh in. Someone was asking about exercising and how soon you should start......I started 2 days post op. Very slowly, but I was moving. My doc says to wait 3 weeks before lifting weights, but other than that, if it doesn't hurt, do it. Good luck to anyone that is being banded today!

Hello, everyone! My computer was acting up and I finally got it fixed. I was amazed that there are now TWENTY SIX pages for us May bandsters.:nanahump: :Banane41: :Banane41: I went back to work yesterday. Besides being a bit more tired than usual (I work 12 hours shifts.....who wouldn't be tired???:notagree ) I feel pretty good. I work in a pretty rough environment, I was afraid that my incisions might hurt, but I was feeling ok. Even after taking a ride with my superintendent, who doesn't know how to drive slow, especially over bumps. I'm finding it very very hard to eat only 3 meals a day. My dietician told me to eat four when working, so I've been having an extra protien drink in the evening before I go home. It really helped today, I wasn't starving when I got home. I get up at 3 am, get to work a bit before 5 am to get my crew lined up. I eat around 6:30 when I get a bit of a lull, then try to eat every four hours. :hungry: I can sure tell when the four hours are up. Of course, eating Soup and protien drinks isn't really eating!:Banane30: My crew is very interested with what I'm allowed to eat.....it's kind of funny, a lot of them really get freaked out with the protien drinks. By the time I get home at 8 pm, it's definitely time to go to bed. And that's where I am right now.....ready to go to bed. Congrats to everyone that was banded in the last few days and good luck to any Monday bandsters. And Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there in Band Land!:biggrin1:

OK, another question......how many of you are doing at least 30 min. of exercise a day/ every day? I had to sign a contract with my doc that said I would. And I have!:clap2: And are you finding it hard to get your 64 oz. of water in a day? I do pretty well with that. I've decided to keep my liquid as just water.....I don't add anything. I've heard Crystal Light makes you hungry (the Equal/Nutrisweet stimulates hunger), so I've been trying to stay away from flavored water except as a treat.

Thanks for your answers! I appreciate it. Trip2bme, I know the feeling. I do a whole lot better when I make sure I stick with my liquids.....even if it's roast, purreed in my Bullet with some Water. Linda -- Thanks for the reasons, my doc never really said why....just do it! As for yorgurt smoothies, this is how I make mine. I take Yoplait light vanilla, some kind of protien powder (choc., van, strawberry) one scoop, and 4 oz (1/2 cup) of skim milk -- blend well. Not too sweet! Yummy!

Hello May Bandsters! I have a question. Who was allowed to eat normal food soon after surgery and who like me is suppose to stay on liquids the first month? I'm suppose to stay on liquids, but I've found that I can mush soft food up and eat that too with no problems. Nothing bad, still keeping my protein up around 60+ grams. But I've tried things like mush veggies and chopped up chicken and roast. No more than 4 oz. of any of it. I just need to CHEW something!

It's the coolest little blender. Great for blending up protien drinks and purreying (sp?) stuff. Here's a link to one on ebay..... http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-21-piece-Magic-Bullet-Blender-Juicer-As-Seen-on-TV_W0QQitemZ4460568696QQcategoryZ20673QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Mines a knock off, I got it for $22 at a local closeout store, but man do I love it! I heard about them on the bariatriceating.com forum. I can see how I could really get attached to it.:biggrin1:

Since I'm on the "blended soup" phase......my hubby made chicken in the crockpot today. I measured out 4 oz, added some Water and spices, put in in my magic bullet and whallah! cream of chicken soup. And it made me feel like I was eating with the family. And it tasted so good :hungry: like I was really eating meat. That with a half cup of tomato soup and a SF popsicle for desert -----very satisfying.:clap2:

Whew! I'm glad you asked this. I had the runs for the first week and was starting to worry. But now (1 week post-op) I'm back to normal.

Just tell him you are having surgery and your insurance won't cover it. It's none of his business what you are having done, just that's it's medically related.