ParrotheadCathy

Relax, after my EKG I was told I had to do the stress test thing. I wasn't thrilled but what do you say? I have no achilles tendon in my right leg and can't wear a shoe with a back in it, so no athletic shoes so they did the stress test with an injection. No big deal at all. They'll probably do an echo cardiogram with the stress test which involves a radioactive isotope being injected and "photographed" a couple of times. Don't worry about it, I doubt they'll postpone your surgery for any reason.

No, you haven't stretched your pouch. Post-op swelling is just going away. That offered some restriction but as that goes away and you progress through mushy foods to "real food", you'll be in bandster hell....no restriction, able to eat pretty much anything and everything, and hungry. It's very trying but you'll be fine.

Resin, by then you should be able to eat pretty much anything. You'll just need to be conscious about getting in all your protein and not eating the abundance of junk and slider food available in a place like Disney. You can usually get semi-decent stuff (I've even gotten salads at Disney and Sea World before); they won't be fantastic but they'll pass. In a pinch, get a burger and throw away the bread (i've done that a couple of times too). Your first fill will be a relief from bandster hell but will certainly not put you at your sweep spot, so you'll have to make good choices and not go crazy. I went on an 8 day cruise just a few days after my first fill. I survived. Sometimes, there was a lot of temptation (24 hour pizza, ice cream and cookies in the afternoon, etc.) but I managed to steer clear 99% of the time. You should do just fine!

Maybe somewhere in between 0.0 and 0.25 is what you need. I know that even a small amount can make a big difference. Go back and specifically ask to have .1 removed and see if that makes a difference. You can't go on being sick all the time! Good LucK!

When was your last fill? For that matter, when did you last see your doctor/NP? Go. They want you to succeed, too! Exercise is so important but not everybody can manage a trip to the gym. It's impossible for me because of my commute time. When you don't get home until almost 7:00 and have to cook dinner for your family, you just don't get back out to the gym. I walk -- everyday, at lunch, for 30 minutes. On the weekends, I get up earlier than everybody else and I go walk before the responsibilities of the day catch up with me. Now, for the arthritis issue, google "chair exercise". You will find a wealth of things you can do sitting down. They aren't load bearing and can help. I have a friend who is waiting for knee surgery; she had to lose 20 pounds to meet the requirements of her hospital in order to be banded. She found the chair exercises and added to diet, she succeeded. Good luck!

Swelling depends on the individual. Mine went away pretty quickly, but some people take weeks. I was able to start adding "real" food after one week of mushies and within two weeks was eating normally. How about yogurt, SF pudding, cottage cheese, runny mashed potatoes, SF popsicles? Spice up your foods? Well, huevos rancheros (eggs with salsa and cheese), go easy on the salsa and use the runny stuff rather than the chunky. Put a little cinnamon in your applesauce. Add some of that runny salsa to your refried beans. If you like spinach, cook a box of frozen spinach, puree it in the blender and add salt, pepper and a little lemon juice and top your fish with it. Hope that helps.

I've heard quite a few people say they traveled within a week of surgery. The hard part was, as others have already noted, sticking with the liquid post-op diet. If you think you can handle the temptations, then you should be fine.

broth in a can or box isn't fit to eat as far as I'm concerned. Make your own! For chicken, put a chicken in a big pot, cover with Water, add a little salt and pepper. Then add a bay leaf, some chopped celery, some carrots and a little bit of onion. Simmer until the chicken is falling off the bones. Strain everything out from the broth. What you end up with is stock, which has a lot of flavor and which you'll enjoy a lot more than chicken broth from a can or box. As for beef, buy a roast (cheap cut is fine). Again, cover it with water, add salt, pepper, some potatos, carrots, minced garlic or garlic powder -- and simmer it until the meat is falling apart. Strain everything off and you have beef stock. Once you move up to mushies, you can puree a can of tomatoes and add to the beef broth and that's like a really good soup. I was on Clear Liquids for 2 days, then liquids for 8 more, then mushies. After 7 days of mushies, I could start adding "regular" food and by 14 days of that, I was fully on regular food. sugar free popsicles are a great treat. Once I was past clear liquid, I could have SF yogurt, SF pudding, skim milk...

I agree with MissBS .... white rice is something that a lot of people just can't tolerate. I'm sure it's the cream of rice cereal instead.

K20 protein waters, sugar free popsicles, apple juice, white grape juice. The multivitamin should be fine. But where the heck is the protein in this? Nothing you mentioned sustains your body's need for protein.

What triggered the "dry heaves"? If it's a virus, and you experience more vomiting, you should probably call the doctor just as a precaution. If actually you had a PB, then you are fine, I'm sure.

I was never given a specific limit. I don't really consume any processed sugars (10 years as a Type II Diabetic cured me of that) consistently. As for other sugars of any kind, I eat some fresh fruit each day, an occasional drink, artifical sweetners at will and as a treat once a month I eat a little bit of the monthly birthday cake at work.

You didn't say what your pre-op diet consists of and, believe me, pre-op diets varay quite a bit from one doctor to the next. Most involve at least a couple of protein shakes a day. Some are all liquid. The headache may have just been a reaction to the sudden change in your diet. I would have taken some Tylenol and made a BIG effort to keep drinking fluids. By the time you got to that shower, you were dehydrated and that's what caused you to feel so badly. Talk to your doctor or nurse practitioner about what you can do differently, and about what would have made a difference. Good luck!

I think a treadmill is pretty darned boring, so that's probably part of the yawning, :laugh:. Try walking outside. Have a dog? A child? Then you have an even better excuse to walk outside. You don't have to start big. Walk a mile. Build up. If you don't like walking the streets in your neighborhood (no sidewalks, afraid of getting run over), go to the nearest school. Most of them have a 1/4 outdoor track. And I'll bet you will start to recognize faces there after a couple of visits. You might be able to hook up with another walker or two to have walking buddies, which will make it more fun, someone to talk to.

Ditto in Georgia and add Publix to the list. Rather than run all over looking for it, why don't you call a couple of the larger grocery stores within a confortable drive and ask if they have it. You may just need to go beyond the inventory of a typical "stop and shop" to find it. Good luck!

PB = productive burp. Usually happens when you eat too big a bite or don't chew your food well enough (or both). It gets stuck in your esophagus and feels like a rock, worst "stuck" feeling you'll ever experience. Then you start producing a lot of saliva (to ease it coming back up) and you will regurgitate the food. It's not vomiting because the food never makes it to your stomach so it doesn't have any stomach acid mixed in. It's just the bite that got stuck. I read a post once where the man thought he'd had projectile vomiting because the bite does come back up with some force. But the other difference between a PB and vomiting is that it ends with the bite coming back. You will likely continue to "slime" (lots of saliva) for a little while (for me it was about 20 minutes), but afterwards, all is well.

Dry meats and fish. I've posted this before, BUT there is an easy way to never have dry protein! Take a square of foil, place the beef, chicken or fish in the middle. Then here are the variations: CHICKEN -- put a couple of tablespoons of chicken broth (I keep the box of chicken broth in my fridge for this purpose). Season. Add broccoli, carrots, squash. BEEF -- Put some worcestershire sauce, a bit of water, seasoning, a couple of slices of potato, a bit of onion, a few carrots. FISH -- put a little butter-flavored spray and some lemon or lime juice. Season. FOR ALL -- close up the foil package, place on a baking sheet and bake at 375. When it's done, remove to a plate, throw away the foil and the mess and wipe off the baking sheet. I don't put anything in with fish because I don't like my veggies to taste like fish. If you're cooking pork tenderloin (very lean), put a little chicken broth in the baking dish with the meat and it will come out moist too! Grilling and broiling make proteins too dry as it cooks a lot of the moisture out. Try my idea and see if it works for you!

As you've felt no restriction until now, could it be that you are taking bigger bites or not chewing as much as you should? I find I do that myself. Bites should be no bigger than a quarter and I was told to chew each bite to the consistency of applesauce. If really paying attention to that, you find that you still have problems, then call your doctor's office and go in. Sometimes, a tiny unfill (like .2cc) can make all the difference in the world, so if that is what they suggest doing, ask for a small unfill at first and see how it works. I assume you're having no problems with liquid since you didn't say that. When I was too tight, I couldn't even drink.

For many years, I have periodically had bouts of bad leg and foot cramps. My doc used to give me quinine tablets and that fixed it right up. But the FDA has banned the manufacture and sale of quinine tablets in the US (it can interact with other drugs and cause terrible problems and even death). My doctor directed me to the soda aisle of the grocery store. Buy TONIC WATER. In the morning, I get up and pour a glass and let it go flat while I shower, dress, do my makeup, etc. Then I put a package of crystal lite in it, add ice and drink it. About 2 weeks is enough to bring an end to those pesky cramps. I use a supplement called Berocca Performance (made by Bayer Australia, so I buy it on Ebay). I put that in the tonic water when I pour it, and I add a "serving" of Benefiber for good measure. This works well for me all around.... vitamins, extra fiber that I'm sure I need, and a little quinine for the cramps.

Well, the juice to ceviche is a citrus brine mixture and I can see where it could cause diahrrea for sure. Dumping syndrome is worse. A friend who had gastric bypass describe it to me when I asked her, back when I was considering GB surgery for myself. She said that sweets are a likely trigger for dumping and what happened to her was she ate a piece of birthday cake (with all that gooey butter cream frosting) and in a very little while had to rush to the bathroom and literally everything in her digestive tract came out. Undigested food, partially digested food, stuff in her colon, everything. She gave a more graphic description but let me just say "gross". Lower left side of your belly area? Not much there to hurt (appendix, gallbladder, etc are on the right side), so I'll ask, "how long since you were banded?" I'm nearly 3 months out and I still have periodic tenderness around my port area. Could that be the pain? Could it be ovulation pain? A lot of women are never aware of when they ovulate and then one month, they feel it. The source of the pain is something you do need to discuss with your doctor. Good luck!

I agree with Josephine. You've gotten it off your chest in a place where others do understand your feelings. I would head back here to Atlanta, see your surgeon and see what he says. I have read where others have had band slippage and their doctors have put them on a "full liquid" (you'll remember the cream soups, yogurt, cottage cheese, juices, milk, protein shakes, etc.) for a period of time and in most of those cases, their bands have slipped back to where they belong. For me, I would want a good discussion on what made the band slip in the first place so that if I inadvertently did something that made it slip, I could avoid it in the future. But the main thing here is to see your doctor as soon as possible and find out what he recommends. And, please, let us all know what he says and how you're feeling. Here's hoping you tell us you're feeling MUCH BETTER.

You have typical pre-surgery jitters. We can all say "relax", and "you'll be fine" but you're still going to be a bit nervous. But when it's all over, I have no doubt in my mind you'll ask yourself why you were so upset! What if you can't eat like you did before? Hello! That's why you're scheduled for surgery tomorrow. Change is part of the deal. You'll be able to eat almost anything you want but not in the quantities of the past....and somethings are best left in the past. Like giant bowls of ice cream, fried stuff, white bread, etc. No, you won't be able to use food to bury a bad day, hurt feelings, loneliness or whatever other emotion has been driving you to the kitchen but is that bad?? Can you handle being thinner? The best news here is that you don't wake up from surgery instantly thin. It is a change that takes place over time. You lose, say 20-30 pounds and you realize that your knees don't hurt when you climb the stairs, or that you don't get winded walking a block. And you think "well, this is pretty okay!" And you lose some more and suddenly you're not shopping in the plus size stores and a whole world of more stylish clothes that look nice on you are out there for the choosing. And you think "Wow! This is great!" And along the way, people will start complimenting you and you realize you aren't questioning those compliments, but are taking them for what they are...recognition of the results of your hard work. And one day you realize that you ARE thin and that you love being thinner, healthier, more attractive...... So go outside, take a walk, go to the movies today. Do a few things to keep you from sitting in the house worrying. And tomorrow is the beginning of something new and wonderful.

It can't hurt to give the appeal process a shot. You're 15 pounds heavier. Your back is causing you problems. Have you been to an orthopedist? If not, go. After the evaluation ask if he/she thinks weight loss would help and if so, would he/she consider writing a letter to support your appeal process. And have a physical. With 15 more pounds, you might have other problems that are undiagnosed, like HBP and high cholesterol or even Type II Diabetes. Just cover all the bases. Some insurance requires a BMI of 40 or higher by itself or 35 and at least 2 co-morbities. So see if the 15 pounds and a year made a difference in anything. And follow up on the back problems.

The truth of it is that almost any prescription drug has side effects. And if a drug has had serious side effects in just a small percentage of people, they are required by law to advise you of it .... just like informed consent before your had your band surgery. Watch the ads for the medicines used to treat rhumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, for example. Makes the drugs sound scary as all get out but I have 3 friends with RA and 1 with fibromyalgia and they all get relief from those supposedly scary drugs with no side effects. Try it. If you don't like how you feel, then tell the doc you don't want to take it anymore. Nothing wrong with a test drive!

You don't have to do a protein powder to lose 15 pounds in a month. Just do South Beach Phase I and you'll drop at least that much. I couldn't stick to South Beach Phase I for an extended time but for the time it would take to lose 15 pounds, that's a piece of cake. It's pretty much a low carb high protein diet, but you eat food and don't discount the value of chewing your food rather than drinking it. You'll have to do all liquid post-op and that's going to seem like FOREVER when you're doing it so try to take it a little easier on yourself for now.