ibelieve

Hi Everyone, it has been since band was put in, June 2009. My experience has been a bit of a mild ordeal discomforts wise, TY to those who taught me about keeping a cup with lid handy... but I am finally on track. As you can see from my ticker below, I can see the progress to my goal, FINALLY. That looks great. My trick, I did an elimination diet in Fall 2010 and by Christmas re-adding things, I found I was extremely gluten intolerant!!! So, since from Winter 2010, the more gluten I removed from hidden things, the more reactive to it I became... Since last summer, I started my healing with the homemade soups for restoring health, greek yogurt *Fage only for the most part*. The soups... Beef Borscht soup with greek yogurt, handmade with fresh organic ingredients, and handmade chicken breast soup, organic ingredients... I will post the recipes on my profile. I was so sick from diabetes in August and September 2011, due to unnatural sugar craves caused by medications... I got to where I could not even keep yogurt down!!! and my very worried sister-in-law from Moscow insisted on feeding me the aforementioned soups. Things got better in October, some backslide over holiday, not much, I did not make Thanksgiving and Christmas, family and I have decided not to be so excessive, we toss so much food, or I get miserably ill from a bite or two... so, simple times and simple meals resulted in much improved Holiday experience. Believe it or not I eat some bacon (crispy fatty) and two easy over eggs (hardly any whites, or else...) most weekdays for breakfast. It does not always work out, but I found the fat and protein gets me through the day. I hardly eat soup now, but I do control appetite strictly, I use my band to do this, to eat very little. I also will have some Mexican or Thai sometimes, but I stick to the very restricted intake, completely gluten free. I believe that the fats in the egg yolk and bacon, seem to do the trick for my personal biochemistry. My August 2011 A1C was almost 11. In October, it was 6.1 Needless to say, my carbs are very very very restricted, I do not eat any breads or anything but occasional tortilla chips. My personality has changed from quite aspy and bipolar, to merely hyperactive. A big change started after the surgery, and during my pre-op Psychiatric evaluation, the M.D. I met with told me that the carb restrictions due to the band being incompatible with breads and such, might help my moods. The greatest changes were since Gluten free. Not only do I not have persistent diarrhea since 22 years of age, but I have a rather normal personality, and not extremely reactive to sounds, tastes, smells, and people like before. I am sure my system is damaged from the years of wheat and oats, and now they put wheat in everything, I cannot eat anything from packages. I can drink soda again, but it causes a bloat. I do not eat much sugar substitute, and a little sugar is ok, but not recommended by me to myself.

So nice to see you last week NotATeech! You looked marvelous, no matter what you are thinking of your weight. So I think you are getting good nutrition, so maybe the Doctor thought as much too. I think they look at us post surgeries as much for our getting our nutritional needs met, and then the hard part, diet and restriction. I dropped an F bomb when I was weighed in. But they were more interested in getting me on track and back in there regularly, so no one gave me a hard time. <3 ibelieve <3

I am wondering if a sleeve is in my future. I have not been on here for quite some time, and I need to try and get on track. I take Prednisone and other meds that make weight loss difficult. I live with this surreal thing inside of me, that makes me sick if I eat the wrong thing, even mostly innocuous things unrelated to problem weight-guilty food. Just for the crime of being hungry and needing to eat something more than pablum. You did great with your band. That is saying alot for your candidacy to convert to sleeve. I wanted a sleeve out of the Gate, but it was not part of the repertoire in the states in 2009 and everyone was going to Mexico for theirs on their own dime then. Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Hello everyone. I still believe. I am hoping to get on track. I have not done anything like - oh, gain weight to above pre-surgery, but it fluctuates between almost 40 lbs down and almost to Surgery, largely due to medications that I cannot do without, primarily Prednisone for life-threatening asthma this time of year for the past 3 years. Dr R is not a hand-holder, as Paige put it in the past, and I can deal with that, knowing this going in. He is churning out these bands and bypasses to help people, for whom there are no options. Due to medications, and having Polycystic Ovaries, all along I have wondered if or when I should convert to sleeve. I see Dr R this month, for a fill, since it is obviously needed. ps - I need to start going to Support Group again soon. Very Soon.

Jay, I've not met you yet, but I hope you will not give up on you. I too was eating slider foods (as they are called apparently) to slow down my weight loss, due to my age, and suddenly find as the weight fell off, my age began to show. Slowing it up initially actually helped my skin elasticity. I have been told a bounce mini-trampoline can help the skin shape up, along with the joints. So I might get one for that reason alone if no other. If you need to look inward, take a look at any reason why you would not want to lose. I found I am no longer invisible to the living world, of which I was not a part for around one decade of my life. Being in the light, where people take note of you, can be very uncomfortable, to say the least. I am trying to find the joy in it. I am fortunate to be around so many warm and loving friends, and their physical presence, hugging and kissing me, and loving me for the individual I am, has been healing for me, and they are only being normal loving people. I rejected normal and loving for so many years and retreated into myself. So that I would not have to explain what I was doing to myself, by giving up and letting my appetite control me. Are you seeing a counselor? Are you comfortable with that route? I have to say that 7 year of it, lead me to where I am now, to the point I could, with healthy mind and hopeful heart, reach out to get the band my PCP really wanted for me since 2003. and which I rejected all of these years. I was afraid to die on the table, when I was really afraid to let go of a living death and a prison. Take Care Jay, and anyone else ready to give up. And you might want to consider, if the band is not working, after a reasonable time, then a bypass, or sleeve, could be the way to a new life.:thumbup:

:thumbdown: Hi everyone. I wanted to stop by and share, since there are probably newbies, as well as experienced bandsters who can use some encouragement in their Journey. My last fill, in mid-September, found my sweet spot. The first weeks were pretty rough, and I was sick once, or twice, a week. I absolutely cannot eat any leftovers. Phyllis (Faulkner dietitian) told me this is because refrigeration dries the food out. While I have avoided everything bandsters say are troublesome, since I absolutely do not want to lose my band by eating all wrong, there were adjustments to be made. So, once I got a handle on what to avoid, and found the amount of food I could eat, and not overdo it, the weight just started to fly off. When I walk down the street, fat cells are dropping off me onto the sidewalk!!! :thumbup: I have 7+ cc now in 14 cc Allergan, and since surgery, on June 4th, I have dropped from 278 to 252. Much of it in the past 6 weeks! So 3 fills got me to this point and I am working it. People are noticing. Men are noticing me again, mainly they are looking twice when they see my face. I have had to start telling my girlfriends, as they want to know my secret. Initially I tell them how I have not had carbs (Pasta Bread etc) since May - and they wonder how I have the willpower, a they do not, and I cannot hold back, and I let them know I have some help. Everyone knows an obese person or two who could benefit from our stories. I hope all goes well for all of you, and me too, as we continue on our journey to normalcy!!!:thumbup:

wow TinyWishes, sorry you are struggling still... and I know what you mean, I am wondering if I should cancel the next fill appt. since I am quite restricted at this time, or if I should work it some more. I am thinking I should delay it until I need, better a little under filled, cuz a little overfill would mean some or even all unfilled and start again. But then I think, if I get even more restriction, and figure out diet to work it, will I still have a dietitian based on the BWH issue with keeping their dietitians around. I really hope they get that one under control ASAP. Raise their pay, whatever, keep the dietitians there, and available for us.

Boston Lady, it does not feel so good the first days... so use the pump and get through it. Was it not fun excellent and exciting to wake up with a band in???!!!???

Good Luck Boston Lady!

Hi Everyone, I hope those going into, or coming out of their surgery and recovery phases, are all doing well, and those continuing on in their journey are all healthy and happy still. I had my 3rd fill last Tuesday morning, and wow, I got restriction. wow. It is good, I figured it out when it did not go well on Friday at lunch after I let myself get too hungry, on an already bad tense day. (***GROSSNESS ALERT*** It really is PB and Slime! Their is no stomach acid, just a lot of gunk from the mucous membranes whose job it is to start the food on it's way into the stomach. So, well well chewed food and saliva). Anyhow, wow. yuck. I think the food, and maybe eating too fast. too much. ? It was mindless eating, thoughts a million miles from what I was doing, eating, so warning, do not take your mind off safe healthy band-aware eating, just sayin' ya know, I share so people can know. phew. yuck, sorry :frown: I have dropped 9 lbs since Tuesday ~ so on Dr R scale, that is 5. :biggrin: 1. now am learning that if I eat too little, it is better than figuring out too late I ate too much. It is not taking much at all. Does that stop so you need another fill? (I am going to milk this one, I need results ~ now).

LOL HeidiB... That's a tough crowd you got there :thumbup:

I was pretty much busted by a friend at a social event... I could not eat the lobstah, and most of the rest. I had just been filled the week before so very restricted and having issues until the swelling went down. She said "oh, those food restrictions... that sounds JUST like the stomach surgery my daughter wanted me to have" WHA??? I played it off like a cosmetic surgery pro... "never heard of such a thing, I have ulcers..." yup, I now know that I can, and will, like a pro, where necessary! This is not the sort of lifestyle change and medical procedure that can go unnoticed. The weight loss, following a mysterious short hospitalization is fairly obvious to even the most casual observer. After a freakout over wrinkles on the neck, jawline and face popping out, I have decided to just do it, let it happen, and then let the cosmetic practitioners do their magic after all is said and done. And I plan to lie with my pants on fire about it if anyone asks

Well, apparently I freaked out over some rapid weight loss, and resultant crinkly skin features... following surgery, and I am guilty as heck - as I have been deliberately loading high calorie low density "foods" into my twice filled banded stomach. First step is acknowledging this is what I am doing. Next step is getting back on the bandwagon and riding this to its necessary conclusion. With each fill the restriction is increasing, to the point I am not sure I can actually find a meat I can consume. It is 99.9% chicken drenched/doused/prepared with liquidy "gravy" stuff. I finally got over my fear of veggies, and I now eat carrots, broccoli, and squash, cooked/steamed to very soft texture. I did quit eating oatmeal at Breakfast (or any time) and am sticking with carb free eggs in the morning. I have not been eating chicken salad, or tuna, or potato salad. I do eat some fish, but only when I can get the freshest catch of the day... I am not going to say what I was able to consume to the conclusion of all else, and take in enough calories to stop losing, but believe me when I say, it is an evil kind of food that shows up around Christmas and is found in abundance in Resort/Vacation towns and regions. I am off it now, FWIW So, did anyone else out there freak out like this when they saw the wrinkly neck and chin, and crinkly eyes and mouth area? Does this go away? How do we get these areas to be more elastic, or does this require cosmetic procedures? Here I though I was aging extremely well, when it was fat deposits plumping things up all along. The good news though, is I am actually still shrinking, and am down to a 1X just about - I have a few pounds to go before I can pull it off, but I have the clothes waiting. I cannot wear any of the pre-surgery clothes, they hang like sacks and the pants fall off. As far as I can tell though, the plastic surgeon can suck all this fat out of my bum and fill in the wrinkles, cuz I am not going down without a fight!!!