Momotrips

I thought that my thyroid was screwed up after surgery because I was cold ALL the time. I think I'm back to normal now. I never even thought about the anesthesia. I don't recall that happening any other time I have had anesthesia. Weird.

Thanks, Jessica. I'm a very good dieter (fat lot of good that's done me in the past) - I can set my mind pretty well. It's the hunger and sticking with it indefinitely that gets me in the end. I've lost loads of weight lots of times. I'm hoping my band helps me put an end to the yo-yo and get all the way down to where I want to be. By the way, Jessica, we are "neck and neck" in the weight loss - 14 pounds. However, you will be entering "onderland" very soon and I'm jealous! I did have to purchase a new pair of jeans and got to go back to another smaller pair in my closet. Woo hoo! Keep it up!

Hey all, went to the doctor yesterday and he released me to mushy/soft foods. I'm almost 6 weeks out. I won't get a fill until Dec 28th (Merry Christmas to me!). That will be 10 weeks post op. My doctor is very conservative about fills. Where's KStar? When is your first fill scheduled? I gained a few pounds over the holiday because we went to the inlaws that don't know about my surgery. I did pretty well and stuck to the plan most of the time, but there and at my family's for Thanksgiving, I did munch on pretzels to keep my mind off of the other verboten stuff. I increased my water intake to counteract the sodium. My niece made me some home made butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner. So sweet of her and delicious! My family all knows about my surgery, so they were very supportive. As of this morning, I am back to my pre-holiday weight. Yay! Back on track. I had tuna salad yesterday after my doctor's appointment and it was heaven! I went to the store and stocked up on mushies and soft foods. I can't wait to cook some fish for dinner. That sounds fabulous. Keep up the good work, everyone. We can do it together!

Bah! Sorry KStar. He's a stickler, our doc. Get that reflux under control - amazingly I haven't had reflux since banding. Amazing. I was doing so great before this week. Slow, but steady - was down to 218 from 232 before our trip to the inlaws (they don't know about my surgery). I was able to stick with my grits (fave) for breakfast and was able to bring soup for lunch. MIL always has sandwich stuff and salads, dips and crackers for lunches, so I just brought soup and had a couple of spoons of crab salad and salmon dip, because they had protein (and she insisted). I successfully fended off her attempts to feed me pie. I was not as successful at avoiding the white chocolate pretzels, however. Sigh. I was able to get soup at most restaurants, although they were higher in calories than Campbell's, I'm sure. We did go to a pizza restaurant and I did have to eat a small slice of pizza. I ate tiny bites and CHEWED. I ate about 3/4 - not the spongy outer crust, just the thin bottom. I also had a couple of bites of cinnamon pizza and a dab of pasta salad. All of this could have fit on a small plate. I was so full. Amazing. I didn't get in all of my water, so I'll have to go back to liquids and drown myself today to prepare for tomorrow. I'm back up to 222. I know 2 will come off by hydrating myself - I'm feeling swollen and thirsty. I see the doctor on Tuesday and want to be back down to 218, or at least 220. I still have to do mushies. Bummer. I really hope he'll give me a fill at first opportunity - I'm feeling more hungry since having a taste of "real" food. Gotta jump back on the horse...

Gawd, me too! Banded on 10/20 and lost 11 pounds. I am on full liquids around 800 cals./day and I DON'T cheat. I wish it were faster, but it's 11 pounds less than before, so can't complain.

Moon Goddess, hot tubs should be okay, but only after you're completely healed to prevent infection. Ask you doctor when they think it's okay to soak.

KStar - I find that Maalox (plus or ultra multi-symptom - cherry flavor) left in the fridge is the best cure for most heartburn, indigestion, gas, etc. I usually take Rx Aciphex, but haven't since surgery. It worked for my bloating on Saturday, too. Try it. Sorry you're having that problem. I have found if I sit slumped too long I get kind of an achy bloaty feeling, too, right where I imagine the band is. Also, I get that feeling if I try to drink water lying in bed - I have to sit up. I can only imagine what it feels like when something gets stuck!

Le2sha, that burning feeling is healing around the port and other "punctures", I think. I've had that. One day, 7 days out, it flet like it was crawling around inside of me. I guess it was settling in and growing scar tissue or something. Weird. Each day things seem a little more "normal". I still have some bruising around two of my incisions, though. KStar, I have not had any heartburn yet, but I am still doing full liquids. I did make tortilla soup and had some killer bloating, though. I don't know if it was because is was richer than most of the stuff I've been eating or if it was simply the beans. I took a couple of GasX and a swig of Maalox and it got better much to my husband's dismay - if you get my drift. Heh. I took my husband to the Four Seasons Hotel for an "overnighter" for his birthday and we ate at Zula (fabulous, fine dining - a favorite). Well, he ate - crab cakes and lobster and I nibbled a little fois gras and crab soup and a couple of bites of the most melt-in-your-mouth lobster from his plate. I also had about 1/4 glass of wine and I didn't get drunk, but I felt polluted. I won't be drinking again. The rich food made me a little rumbly in my tumbly, too. I pretty much had fasted yesterday, though, I had water and a 90 calorie EAS shake, so I won't beat myself up over it. This morning we had a massage - ahhhh. I suggest this to EVERYONE. Get someone to watch your kids, check into a luxury hotel with 400+ threadcount sheets, go out to a fine restaurant and finally, get a massage. It is expensive, but it should be done about once a year - you don't realize how stressful and boring your routine gets until you do something like this. We actually haven't done this in about 5 years. I didn't even ask my husband about it I just booked it and told him we were going. He loved it. I loved it. Save your pennies and get away. You'll find that it's worth every penny.

I had the juice from tortilla soup on liquid stage and I have had some thicker tortilla soup with veggies, etc. blended up on full liquid stage. When you get to mushies you can have mushed up beans & cheese. Just the little taste of Mexican was satisfying with the soups. I'm looking forward to mushies so that I can try the beans...I'm 19 days out.

Jacqui, the older you get, the more things seem to go all wonky with the period and the hormones. I have a heart arrhythmia that almost only bothers me right around my period. I keep telling my cardiologist and he says it's possible, because hormones affect everything, but he's never heard of that. Every other women that has PVC's that I've ever spoken to says that theirs only happen around their period or are worse then. My IBS sometimes becomes constipation at TOM - that's SO not my problem the rest of the month. However, IBS is funny, some have constipation, some urgency. Crista94, my husband cannot eat olive oil. It literally runs right through him every single time. It makes him instantly sick. He doesn't really have any other symptoms of IBS on a regular basis. This just developed in the last several years, too. Maybe that's what's happened to you, you just happened to develop this sensitivity around the same time you were banded. I'd go to your GP and ask about it. Perhaps visit a gastroenterologist. There are treatments if it is really bothersome. Otherwise, I'd just say you're lucky that your body is rejecting bad foods!

Sonia, I had the same thing - there appeared to be glue on the outer incisions, but apparently he used real stitches inside and two or three of them had the tail of the stitch sticking out. One was right where my bra would rub and each time it hit that stitch it felt like I was getting stabbed by a needle! I trimmed as much as I could from it and put a tiny bandaid on it. Weird. I keep wondering if I'll ever be able to wear a bra without it bothering me again! My surgeon puts his ports in an odd spot - under the left breast ON the rib cage, like a pacemaker. The tubing runs down the ribs to underneath. Sometimes when I bend over you can feel the tubing moving on the ribs - creepy! It must be a low-profile port, though, because it doesn't stick out much at all, however, it is still a weird bump. Luckily I have large boobs so it won't show!

I'll go with the gallbladder theory - did your doctor remove your gallbladder during surgery? Did you have it removed at any time? PCS (post cholestectomy syndrome) happens after having your gallbladder removed in more than 40% of patients. It can happen immediately after removal or even months or years after. Most doctor's will only tell you about 15-20% of people experience PCS, but with practical information from patients, and asking patients months and years after their gallbladders were removed, a lot of doctors will tell you it is more like 40% if not more. It is a dumping syndrome - you can also have a type of dumping from IBS. Lucky me, I have both. My gastroenterologist gave me Librax to help combat it - it has a small amount of anti-anxiety medication in it, because anxiety is a big trigger. Funny thing is though, he also gave me Glucophage to help me clear my liver and try to lose weight. I told him that his humor was not lost on me! I will take my Glucophage at night, but if I am going to be somewhere out and about, I will NOT take it in the morning. No telling where you'll be when you just GOTTA go. The weird thing is you can feel it. Somehow, everything is liquified and all of a sudden just shoots through your intestines - you can feel it moving through back and forth. Very weird. So, you don't have a shortened intestines like in an RNY, but your body makes short work of whats there.

According to all of my doctors' staff, UHC is the best insurance with which to work and easiest from which to collect. Yes, there are many different policies, but WLS being covered or not is usually a stipulation of the employer, not UHC. I believe a company's policy is cheaper if they don't allow it. (Same with infertility - I got lucky on that one too. My former company changed the policy the MOMENT I gave birth! Hee!). I had no problems at all. I contacted all of my doctors and had them send my records to my surgeon, the surgeon's staff packaged it in the way UHC requests and off it went. My only snag came in that it floated around the UHC office longer than I would have liked. UHC was willing to let me get the surgery with just a phone call from my surgeon's office, but they preferred to get the official approval by letter. My surgeon loves to work with UHC - he has you pay the estimated difference up front and then they deal with UHC for the rest. Simple. I paid $600 out of pocket and may or may not get some of that back. Haven't gotten the hospital or anesthesiology bill yet, though. You never know with that stuff. I had a 39 BMI and co-morbidities. They ask for proof of a doctor assisted diet, but apparently it isn't really required. Especially since I checked off 95% of the list of recognized diets on the questionnaire for my surgeon! It was easier just to mark out the ones I hadn't tried! Good luck. Call UHC and ask them what your policy covers. I called one day just out of curiosity (and being sick and tired of being fat) and they said yes that I was covered! It all started from there.

Eww, those low carb Slim Fast's are nasty! So are the Nouriche smoothies. Yuck. I prefer the Slim Fast low carb, extra creamy or the EAS Carbvantage which has 100 less calories than the Slim Fast. I LOVE the Jell-o sugar free puddings for a sweet treat, they have the best flavors - Dulce de Leche and Mint Chocolate Fudge are my faves. Sorry about dropping your soup, Sonia. Bummer.